Alan Moore - Read Terrible Books - Storytelling - BBC Maestro
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 เม.ย. 2022
- Alan Moore believes every aspiring writer should read terrible books. Watch and find out why this is an integral part of developing your own style as a writer.
This lesson is taken from Alan Moore’s BBC Maestro online storytelling course, in which he shares incredible insights on the craft of fiction writing.
🎥 Stream the full course here: bbcm.co/amyt
🤳 Stay connected with BBC Maestro
Twitter: / bbcmaestro
Facebook: / bbcmaestro
Instagram: / bbcmaestro
TikTok: / bbcmaestro
BBC Maestro | Let The Greatest Be Your Teacher
bbcm.co/yt
"Jesus Christ, I could write this shit."
Words to live by.
@@Gamer12051 is it
That's how people felt about The Ramones as well.
Wroite
I know. This Jesus guy sucks. Why do people read the Bible?
@@jonpirovsky Northampton. Be poloite.
It is literally "learning from your mistakes" but without the mistakes being yours.
Beautiful, mate.
Yaaas
"Only a fool learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others." - Otto von Bismarck
True|!!!
As they say: Average people learn from their own experience, smart people learn from the experiences of others... Dumb people think they know it all already.
A teacher from college once told me, "If you can't think of a good idea, take a bad one and make it good"
My teacher always said to me you can't polish a turd but that's my job. Something tells me you went to a nicer school than I did.
@@chucknutly3290 that one made me laugh 🤣
@@armin3749 I might start a business where I dry and varnish turds and buff them up to a near mirror finish. That's either genius or insane but it just might work.
@@armin3749 You might not be able to polish a turd but if you dry it out first you sure can lacquer one.
@@armin3749 I could polish a turd if it had been fossilized. That's technically still a turd, it's called coprolite. I could sell polished coprolite. As you can probably imagine I wasn't the easiest student to teach.
That's how Alice Munro started. She was running a bookstore and said, "I can do better than this." A few decades later, Nobel Prize.
... Otto, Nobel Prize.
@@georgemartyn5268 Ah Rosie I love this boy
Step one: read terrible books
Step two:
Step three: Nobel Prize
It's my motivation too
@@CrypticCocktails As easy as that 👍
This goes with all art. From movies to music.
Yeh, in that sense The Room is one of the most inspiring films out there
This is why I'm no longer mad at the shitty Watchmen adaption that made rorschach a good guy
That's actually a really good point
Just take a listen yo Bad Bunny AND J Balvin, mfs ain't got no talent at all AND they're international superstars
There are days when the best music inspires me to try achieving greatness of some kind.
Other days, that greatness seems way out of reach and rather horrible songs inspire me to just do stuff cause I can't possibly do worse than them. :D
This ancient wizard is inspiring. You're a legend, Mr.Moore.
I thought he was Santa Claus
@@ioannislelou6437 Well Santa has magic powers as well, so he can be both.
He’s a Hack
@Central Intelligence Agency in what sense?
@Central Intelligence Agency There is very little that is low key about his delusions xD But that doesn't make him a hack, he has unquestionably written some of the most popular and well received graphic novels ever.
This is legitimately some of the only genuinely good writing advice I’ve ever heard and I’ve taken a full b.a in creative writing.
Same here! Couldn't have said it better myself.
for those interested: the only other truly useful pieces of writing advice i've ever heard was "What the fuck else are you going to do?" and "Do small things beautifully."
@Fröztbit Nütsakk The only two goals writers have.
@@Garbageman28 I don't get the first one
@@jorgealbertoapoloacosta6159 As I understand it - if you can answer the question with anything other than "writing" - then don't worry. You're gonna be fine.
If you can only write, you better get writing then lmao.
Too much in writing there is an insistence to read good works for the sake of exposure. Moore makes a great point here that often we become notion thieves of the very thing we are consuming instead of truly participating in the creative act of writing and finding our own voice. It's easy to read good prose and say "Yes, I'm like that!" It is more liberating to consume bad media and define what we don't want to be like. Beautifully said.
It’s useful to read bad books, perhaps, to discover what not to do, although I doubt it. To do so for an ego boost seems petty and suggests a lack of self confidence.
But that's exactly why you SHOULD do it, because it can only boost your confidence as a writer!
Moore is right on this. I can say there were instances where reading bad writing led to something g even better. 1)Sense and sensibility by Jane Austen. Austen did not like the goethic romance stories of her day-withering heights. So she created sense and sensibility to counter those themes she didnt like. 2)the internet reviewer linkara. He reviews bad comics, discussed why they are bad and has made very funny videos about them-he gets you to think. 3)saga by brian Vaughn. Vaughn once said that he got tired of this generation’s habit of complaining about the Star Wars prequels. He (combined with his new fatherhood） decided that he would write a Star Wars-inspired comic series. He not only has surpassed the prequels but also the sequels because he did things Star Wars could never do.
@@bradhorowitz2765 did you invoke The Lightbringer?
@@bradhorowitz2765 Are you sure you don't mean Northanger Abbey, rather than Sense and Sensibility?
Faulkner gave the same advice (ish):
"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."
Flannery O'Connor once said " Friends don't let friends read Ayn Rand". I disagree, but with a proviso ---- don't read bad books of a sociopolitical nature alone or in a vacuum, read them to or with friends so that together you can function like a shared immune system, so you can all laugh at the terrible cliches and hold the barf bag out to whomever might feel the need to vomit during the sadomasochistic passages!
@@goodun2974 dude you are about to get so many screwball libertarians screaming into your feed now
Another helpful advice is to simply live life. A lot of people know how to write, but only few people have interesting things to say. An interesting story can compensate the lack of writing skill, but no amount of skill can emulate the wisdom a life full of experiences will give you.
@@zzxp1 Hey, nice pfp
Food labels, TV remote instructions, AGBs.
I remember being inspired by a really bad post-apocalyptic short film that I watched in class for screenwriting. I decided to write my own post-apocalypic screenplay for another project in that class, specifically avoiding everything in the terrible one, and got an A. So all in all, good advice.
Yeah, it's an iterative process. Spielberg once said ''It takes a generation of readers to create a generation of writers''.
You know someone thinks what you did sucks. Comes with the territory.
I've never actually seen Alan Moore before, now I'm convinced he's the archmage
I've seen him in real life. I don't believe in things like auras, but he has one! He's like a gentle giant who you can feel is a magician.
The first description I ever read of him was "possibly the reincarnation of Rasputin"
The best writer in my college creative writing course was a kid who didn't read damn near anything except bad fanfiction or the occasional book that caught his fancy. He never participated in discussions or showed much interests in the fallating of famous works he just listed to what other people had to say in workshop and carefully edited and revised his ideas.
👀👀
and that kid was Albert Einstein
I bought this course. It is so good. I've learned SO much and it really is a master class in writing, how do stop being egotistical, and is full of amazing recommendations and insight. It's helped me stop meddling in my own head and get on with it. I love the short lessons. I love his voice. Truly a work of production, direction, and editing. Highly recommended.
Thanks for this great feedback! We're so pleased you're enjoying the course. Would you be happy for us to share your comments? If you'd prefer to remain anonymous, that's fine.
@@BBCMaestro could i please urge you to consider extending offerings outside of the UK? the same with BBC player. Cheers!
@@mothratemporalradio517 I’m not sure about Maestro, but the iPlayer will never be available out with the UK as it’s paid for by the UK Television Licence.
@@BBCMaestro Do you offer gift subscriptions? I would love to gift the course to someone in exchange for using my feedback.
BBC should allow people worldwide to subscribe to their services by paying 🤦🏻♂️
How idiotic that they don’t!
So nice to see Alan mellowing out these days (even if it is only a little 😂)
At last I found the English translation for añejar !!!
He's always been mellow. He only seems cranky in headlines because dipshit web journos won't stop asking him the same 5 questions about Watchmen, superheroes, and every other sore spot of his professional career.
Alan Moore is such a legendary writer. So much so that DC gave self contained stories of his a sequel (i.e., Watchmen and Batman Killing Joke).
*finishes reading DC's Death Metal*
*gives thumb's up* Done and done, Mr. Moore.
I am a shit writer, but this has been so helpful in my life. I would argue that you cannot understand why a good book works until you have seen those same techniques fail.
If you're a shit writer now, read and think about other things you've thought were shitty and how to avoid them!
Alan Moore needs a podcast
Ok I'll read a few Dan Brown books
You mean E. L. James?
Dan Brown books are very formulaic, but the first exposure to it is usually pleasant.
@@Kromgar I picked up The Da Vinci Code back in the day and wanted it to disintegrate before the first chapter was even over.
"... and he looked in the box. His brow furrowed." CHAPTER [next].
@@Kaoruishere literally me a a few weeks ago
Funny, as an aspiring writer, I was actually thinking about using bad books to improve my skills myself. After all, if you can figure out what you hate about a bad book and how you'd fix it, you're surely at least one step above the author of that terrible book. And if they could get published, surely you can too.
You can't "fix" a bad book. This is a paradox I've come up against time and again because it's like the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle: any change worth making to a story will have a butterfly effect that makes the end result indistinguishable from what you started with -- and not just in terms of written quality -- such that the two become incomparable. I.E you might as well have started from scratch with about as much input as any ordinary source of inspiration. The closer you get to "certainty" I.E fixing the problem, the more pronounced this divergence will become. Even if you resist changing things as much as possible, you'll hardly be able to resist improving upon your own improvements midstream. So there's really nothing to do but start anew every time.
We too readily think of writing as something mechanical and rigidly under our control and not something spontaneous and organic. The worst Orwellian newspeak verbal diarrhea you'll ever see will come from someone who thinks revising every sentence fifty times in an anal-retentive fashion will allow him to perfect his word.
Alan Moore is so good at writing that he must feel this way about things he reads ALL the time!
No joke, this man's work changed the way I look at comics and fiction in general. He's an absolute master of transporting the reader somewhere else and forgetting they exist in this world.
This is actually really useful advice for movies too. It helps contextualize good and great films because if that's all you're watching you forget and don't learn what makes them great compared to bad movies.
"Read not only good books, but read terrible books as well."
Amen, Alan Moore. Amen. And this applies to FAR more than just books, too. And actually, even terrible things can have amazing moments. It's all a matter of having a personal opinion, not the opinion of the general public.
Any artist in any form owes it to themselves to explore the shit as much as they explore the masterpieces.
How can you stop yourself from doing something poorly if you don't even know what it looks like?
On top of that, understanding your own taste is essential to being able to create something you like.
Always be critical of writers whose work you love. “Boy, they wrote a dud this time,” or “This is why this book fails” or “There are some really weak parts here” will put you closer to your favorite writers than “OMG, I’m such a fan!”
But of course you need to know WHY you like their work as well. Put it into words. Don’t simply “identify” with an author. Tell us what they did right.
Yes, it’s a process, and critiquing published authors is very helpful. However, I’ve noticed that a rather large percentage of aspiring authors have inflated perceptions of their own quality, based largely upon nitpicking minor flaws in works they could never hope to have composed themselves.
@@reginaldforthright805 What does that have to do with ego? If they see something they don’t like and take it as a lesson to avoid or address, then that’s all that matters. If a fantasy writer has issues with particular things in Tolkien, those complaints are valid even if said writer will never create anything as “Great” and set in marble as the Lord of the Rings. It’s not nitpicking to criticize many of Winston Churchill’s policies or attitudes just because he was a “great” man the likes of which no one will ever compare me to. “Greatness” shouldn’t come into the discussion at all.
@@wellesradio sure criticism is good, but many inexperienced authors jump to the conclusion “I can do better than this shit,” based on the identification of some minor flaw, which is, of course, a risable thing to do.
@@reginaldforthright805 Nothing wrong with that.
@@reginaldforthright805 What’s more it’s not always a matter of “I can do better than this.” Sometimes it’s simply, “I need to address this issue I have with this particular work.” And we can’t fault young writers for doing so simply because they will never write something as big and capital G Great as LOTR. Heck, many of them know they’re not as knowledgeable or experienced as Tolkien, yet they still feel that they can carve out a niche that they felt Tolkien missed. Like Frodo, they climb that mountain because they have to, not because they’re the biggest and best at it. Writing isn’t a dick measuring contest. Even if you won’t write “the best” or sell the most, if you have something to say that you feel needs to be said, say it. Fanboys and girls will accuse you of nitpicking, but they’ll say that about any valid criticism that is in their view “technically true but unimportant.”
Their first line of argument is “well, I’d like to see you try” as if artists and art critics should not the two separate things. Then when one does try, they are accused of “thinking themselves superior”.
I swear to god, this dude is immortal. Feels like he's been around forever.
He’s going to outlive all of us.
Alan Moore is the UK's unsung genius. Simply fantastic author, and a wise man to boot.
How is the most popular comic writer unsung?
@@videogamesworld01 Alan is very far from the household name that his creative genius deserves. How many people selected at random would know who he was (compared to say J K Rowling). How often do you hear him mentioned in mainstream media, see him appear on cultural programming, encounter him outside of the narrow world of his purview. What proportion of people who have encountered the products of his prodigious imagination (or spin-off's thereof) actually know who's work it is they are experiencing? Thus I use the words "unsung genius". He should, like say Stephen Hawking (to whose genius his, is in its own way, is comparable) be a household name and feted by our society. A gemstone in otherwise (culturally) pretty low-grade company.
this is the writing technique my brother has had for years. Crazy to see Alan Moore saying it
Works as a fan too. Helps you appreciate the good stuff more.
He isn’t wrong. I read “I’m not Starfire”, and I had more confidence in my writing.
You people are still talking about that book? It’s been almost a year, grow up and get over it.
@@directorforplastic7929 why act offended at just a neutral statement? What new interesting and exciting thing did you facilitate by criticising such comment?
@@bdi_vd3677 What new, interesting, and exciting thing did OP facilitate by making such a comment in the first place? Furthermore, what new, interesting, and exciting thing did you facilitate by responding to his criticism of OP's comment?
Hell, what new, interesting, and exciting thing am I facilitating by responding to your response?
@@itsaUSBline Sorry to interrupt your existential crisis, but I was slightly amused by Masamune's comment. Not every internet comment needs to be Pulitzer worthy.
@@itsaUSBline it's pretty funny. I am not starfire is delightfully shit.
A real wizard of scripts, all his works have incredible strength and insight!Thanks for the Watchmen at least a masterpiece!
This is the exact thing I think about with music also. I’ve learned so much about how to sing, song-write, find guitar tones and generally perform from “terrible,” musicians. More so than “great ones.” And not only do you learn to avoid making certain mistakes, but I also find that artists who aren’t very self-aware or skilled also manage to break rules in really interesting ways that could actually create something unique if used the right way. This is fantastic advice.
I felt like that when I watched the new trilogy of Star Wars.
"I could write it better!"
Then I realized that absolutely any one could do it better.
Maybe. Modern Star Wars suffers from corporate oversight. The Mandalorian was the one good SW product and now it’s become a launching pad for other mediocre shows and tie in’s. The new movies will always suffer from merchandise inserts, fan pandering and wallowing in nostalgia to put anything of substance in. I don’t know if any writer can convince a bunch of Disney suits otherwise.
Going by the scrips that people posted online, maybe not _anyone_ haha
Firstly what's good is subjective.
Secondly, the writers don't just have to appease some small group of nerds. They have to make something with mainstream appeal. Something parents want to show their little kids. Something to sell toys with. Something that looks good in a cinema.
You really think the authors couldn't have done it more interestingly? They could, but they have other stuff to accomplish.
@@MrCmon113 Interesting! You just explained how bad the writing of the trilogy is, and you gave the reasons for it.
The only thing that you said that doesn't make sense is "good is subjective".
We are talking about good writing, and there is nothing subjective about that. A few concepts are unchangeable. If you ignore them, the writing will be like a monkey playing drums.
And they did it with Star Wars. They literally pissed on the hero's journey from begin to end.
If the writing was pleasing for some people with ideological agenda, it doesn't make it good. There is nothing subjective about that.
@Oswald Cobblepot nice bait lol
Brilliant point. There's absolutely inspiration in seeing a concept not live up to its potential and thinking how something similar could be more interesting
I love Alan Moore. He is such a master of his craft. Legitimately one of the greatest authors of the 20th century.
A very genuine, helpful, and well thought through piece of advice. He would've become a great teacher. Also, really love his voice.
thanks Alan; that's great advice. You're my hero
What a wonderful piece of advice for aspiring writers.
It's such a pleasure to listen to him. Such eloquence and careful choice of words
Thank you, Mr. Moore. Duly noted. *rushes off to the library* Alan Moore said I could!!!
According to the book on how ‘Watchmen’ was written, Alan Moore writes his drafts sitting comfortably in bed, dreaming the proceedings into existence. Sounds like a good method to me.
Me encanta como pronuncia las palabras el sr Alan Moore, habla tan bien inglés y se entiende perfectamente lo que dice.
Thank you so much, Alan Moore, I appreciate the small word of advice!
Thank you sir. That really helps to lift some of my self doubt.
He's so right. So many times I've gone "It's literally impossible to tell such a good story using worse words".
I think comic book fans who have made it to or past college will have to live with this feeling often.
Fun Fact: This man is also a professional wizard
This wizard is a straight up inspiration. Good man
This is an amazing take! I wish I had thought like this earlier!🤘👏
YES
As a filmmaker, I always say: watch bad movies and analyze them. It's not hard to say what you like and why. Much harder is to understand why you don't like smth, and how could you to avoid it
This is such a good advice.
Mr. Moore, you inspire me and this is both hilarious and great advice. 👍 Happiness be with you today.
I find this video very inspiring. This is something that can be taught in not only books/novels but in all forms of art: movies, songs, paintings, video games ect.
He single handed my justified why I love stupid/bad literature. I know all their flaws, I know why they’re clunky and don’t work well, but it also helps me pick out the gems. And while I do love good stuff, sometimes the earnestness of a bad piece of media speaks more to me than pretension. And yes, you have the soothing knowledge that you can do better than the worst. 😂
As a comic book fan, I can think of numerous terrible books to teach me what not to do. Rob Liefeld's Youngblood comics are a masterclass in botched artwork, storytelling, plotting, character development, character design, etc.
I've never been able to make it past the first issue.
You've found an extraordinary example of a comic book which will make you a better artist just by not looking at it.
lol yeah, Liefeld books are appalling, like that Cap run where literally everything is wrong, from page composition to anatomy to...everything. and he hired Alan for a time
@@JohnLutherable Rob taught the world how to draw while driving, so I still love him.
This is very good advice, not just for books, but for any medium out there.
A very eloquent speaker. He finishes his thoughts.
Yeah, the good stuff will make you feel inadequate and the crap stuff will push you further because you'll think "Some bastard wrote this. I can do better than THIS."
"Oh, really? You liked how I made your favorite superhero a heroin-addicted jazz critic who's not radioactive?"
I don't read the Ballon text, i just look a The drawings.
I wonder if he'll sign my Watchmen Babies DVD...
You see WOT those bloody corporations do? They take your ideas and they suck them. Suck them like leeches until they've gotten every last drop of marrow from your bones!
I love this episode.
What a lovely man. Bless 🙏
I applied this to my craft, helped me improve so solid advice
Completely agree. I've been really enjoying working through the Overlord series of light novels for this reason. On a technical writing level, at least early on, they're both poorly written *and* poorly translated but the net result is that it's this endless scroll of sentences my brain would never allow me to write animated by the author's sincere and driven focus on their characters and story. It's so much more enriching than if it were two letter grades better.
I couldn't agree more, mostly because it's the EXACT reason I decided I wanted to be a writer.
This is some of the absolute best advice I’ve ever heard
Thx for everything, E.L. James
It sort of reinforces the idea that success in writing depends more on persistence than talent - after all, the bad book you're reading was published, even if you are still aren't. What many people want, however, is to be a wealthy/popular/celebrated author without really putting in the work, actual quality be damned - many would gladly be the next Harold Robbins or Dan Brown in a heartbeat.
One of my writing professors in college said something similar: that while you're in the process of writing something reading too many good books (or reading too much in general) can accidentally drown out your "voice", something along the lines of what Alan is saying re: starting to emulate what you're reading instead of writing from scratch...
props to the sound guys.
Amazing perspective
in retrospective, I pick stories apart habitually, but this is still a good point because it's rare that I go out of my way to find a bad book.
Picking apart bad fanfiction is almost taking the idea too far in the other direction because it isn't published by definition and hasn't passed any of the filters involved.
I think the real core of this isn't so much self esteem and analysis, but rather that if you only read good books, you're spoiling yourself because you never realize just how good you've got it until you come across an author who's cocked it up.
This raises another point: there are so many filters and heuristics to publishing by now that it often takes ten years of work for a writer to get their debut, and even then their writing looks exactly the same as everyone else's.
With this in mind, outsider work often carries untapped potential. so if you do go digging for bad amateur works published over the internet, you may actually stumble across something intensely original.
Glad to know 1 of my favorite writers also enjoys learning from schlock & crazy socks.
Bad art can be as entertaining as any of the best forms of media. Look up Neil Breen
Thank you Alan!
Seriously I love this. Thanks.
I tried reading Brandon Sanderson, but it was impossible
He's crap at dialogue, humour and just characters in general but I'll say he's a brilliant writer when it comes to world building and when it comes to concluding his books, he's one of the best in the game right now.
Ok, don't read every terrible book you find, only those that you can's tolerate.
For you*
I haven't read him but I'm very suspicious of your comment. I heard how terrible Stephen King was for decades until I finally read one of his books. He's great at character and his stories have a freewheeling aspect that make them gripping. They are easy reads without any moral substance but they are still thrilling. How could he have been so maligned? Brandon Sanderson is incredibly popular and has a loyal fanbase. He has to have some great merit.
ps. I've read a whole pile of King's books now. For a 'bad' writer he can get addictive!
This is great advice for any creator. You'll know what to avoid.
I love this man.
Great advice, which you could apply to pretty much any walk of life. E.g. as a trainee school teacher, I was advised to observe lessons of inexperienced colleagues, and figure out where they were going wrong. I learnt loads.
This applies to everything that can be learned, experienced, practiced and so on. Successful people will just say: "Just do it, have faith in your own thing and you'll succeed." Which is true for them because they made it. But when you examine those who "failed", they can tell you where it went wrong and probably why it went wrong, so you can avoid doing the same.
After watching this I realized that all of the books I have ever managed to complete, not publish yet but those that I actually sat down and finished, I only even started writing out of spite after reading several bad books and thinking, "I can do better than this. In fact I'm going to."
This helped for my music!
Omg I have been doing this for years so glad to hear it is officially helpful haha
This advice shows why Alan Moore is a genius writer. He thinks outside the box.
Alan Moore out here justifying my guilty hobby of reading infamously terrible fanfiction.
Some people genuinely like that stuff and that's okay, too. It's just that their outspoken interest of that stuff would probably only exist in a microcosm rather than being shouted from the rooftops. Then again, there's a lot of shit out there that is terrible but also mainstream, and obscure stuff that is really damn good. That said I would not read "Waluigi's Taco Stand" for leisure.
I think this piece of advice can be extended to other pieces of media too. Even if your only goal is to write novels, analysis of what makes for bad writing in a tv series or a video game (coupled with analyzing that media’s design challenges and what goals the piece was trying to accomplish) is extremely helpful. Not only will you understand what you want to write more, but you’ll also better understand the freedoms and limitations of working on a novel, a tv series, or whatever it is you want to create compared to other media.
For sure taking a lot of tips for writing for my journey to become a author.
Edgar Rice Burroughs thought this same thing when he read stories in magazines. He was like, " I can write better than this." Thus, Tarzan was born.
This is absolutely true. I discovered that there was a difference between first and second person poetic language by reading World War Z and seeing how the writer messed that up completely
Thank you sir 🙏
yeah , he's right , it's better to know what not to do than what to copy.
The reason I started writing was because I read Twilight as a kid and thought "wait... I could write better" and nowadays I'm well into my independent writing career in comics, podcasts, etc. Spite is one of the greatest motivators 🙈
In once had to transcribe part of a romance novel by a bestselling author. It read like something by a 10 year old child. Everything from the grammar to the basic story-telling elements was inept. It was simultaneously depressing and inspiring in equal measure.
Fifty Shades or Twilight?
@@raid004 Nowhere near that level of quality. It was rambling nonsense without any clear plot at all.
@@ShootMeMovieReviews what was the book's name, out of curiosity?
@@vboi5697 No idea. I did send my friend a quote from it to illustrate how nonsensical it was, and I found it just now in my email history:
First character: "Why are you scowling while you're holding onto me? I mean you've got the moves, but they seem to be rote for you if you can focus on anything else but me on moving your feet around as you are."
Second character: "I quickly pushed thoughts with my father and work and anything else out of my mind, squeezed Sally's hips, and then do a little twirl."
Its meaning is ambiguous (that second sentence...), the tense changes without warning, and it's impossible to care what's happening.
That was very helpful. Thanks Alan!
Happy birthday Master!
I just read a book that had a great premise but had a random out of place scene at the beginning that made me go: "this is the murderer isn't he"
If this post is anything to go by, your writing is in deep trouble.
@@thebaneofyourexistence.3377 Is this a comment on his punctuation?
@@squidlytv not at all.
@@thebaneofyourexistence.3377 Then what about his comment implies his writing is in deep trouble.
@@squidlytv if you don’t know, I can’t help you. Read the damn thing and find out.
This may be the most important advice a writer could hear! Too many get stuck trying to emulate classics and failing, but what is good always comes from within: the author's personal voice. It needs no help other than to know how not to screw up in presenting it to others. And it's a double gift, as reading a classic can leave you dispirited, as you will never equal that author at being them, but to be reminded that many, many awful writers gain success is uplifting, as it shows how low the bar is and how to gain notice and how not to be terrible doing it!
John Irving taught me this...I've learned so much from his terribleness. And I've been inspired so much by his success.
i love this man
As a writer, I generally read good books for inspiration and bad books for motivation.
This way of thinking has actually worked to inspire me, mainly with how I’d do the story.
I do it a lot with bad animated movies and comics. 😂
Really great advice Mr.Moore
What an awesome voice! Reminds me of Peter Mayhew