Wow, finishing a 90,000+ word book at 13-14 is impressive, even if it’s bad or you’re not proud of it. I think it shows that you were extremely committed, even at such a young age. I haven’t even been able to finish a manuscript yet. 😅
@@ShaelinWrites If it make you feel any better about the quality, 99.9% of books written by 13-14 year olds are probably terrible. The important part was that you finished and kept going.
Yeah, exactly. My first serious attempt at writing a book was at eighteen and it only had 12.000 words. That's not much for a double murder mysterie... so 90.000 words at 13 is insane!
You know what's crazy to me - you FINISHED all these books. Like you got to "the end" on almost all of them! Why are people giving you crap for shelving them?! You freakin wrote full manuscripts! I've only finished like three out of a million! You go, girl!!!
I wrote my first "novel" when I was fourteen and "I think the only thing I'm proud of is that it exists" is pretty much my feeling about it, too. It was a hot mess, every time I didn't know what happened to one set of characters I'd just throw another set into the mix, and I spent the last two chapters tying up all of the story threads in a ridiculously contrived ending. Also I wrote it by hand. Because it was 1988-9
I’ve written half of a book, I write it on and off. My novel is called “The Grimoire of Esther George” it follows Esther, an orphaned girl and her fresh out of college cousin which move to Maine. She finds out the town is basically a refugee camp for mythical creatures, part of a handful of similar cities which the government made to protect humanity from the unknown. Esther and her new friend (gf at the end) Olivia, a loner and a triblood outcast have to stop a cult trying to awaken an Lovecraftian monster off the coast of the town with the help of the sirens who are not effected by the towns anti magic dome. Their plan is to kill off all of humanity. I do shelve that every once and a while to work on other things. I currently have a few short stories going including one for the Writer of the Future contest, “Betelgeuse 761” about a deaf 20 year old who ferries convicts across the galaxy. The only piece I’ve actually FINISHED was a one act play which I’ll be directing this July through August called “that shrinking feeling.” Basically Rick and Morty x Honey I Shrunk the Kids
At first I was sad about my own writer's journey, but then I realised that I can easily set reasonable, achievable goals of COMPLETING my books and then 5 years from now, I can do my own 'Writer's Journey" video or blog post also. Now i'm not sad.
Holy moly, I also wrote my first book when I was 13/14, and can you guess what it was called? ..... Sølvfuglen! Which literally translates to Silver Bird! x'DD (70k words, fantasy about a boy who wakes up in another world and meets a girl who tells him he needs to find a silver bird in order to get home.)
I’ve been writing since elementary school, but I finished my first novel when I was 14. It was 115k words and aggressively decent. Now I’m in the process of taking its good elements and turning it into a book with various nuances and social commentaries that I want to communicate. I’m proud of the book that I’m writing now, but just as happy that the books I wrote (and abandoned) previously exist because they got me where I am today
Not gonna lie, I'm low-key in love with... actually forget that I'm high-key in love with the cover for Someone will save you! It's very simple yet so beautiful, it's the type of cover that would make me place the book on the shelf sideways so that you can see the cover when walking by 😍
Hi Shaelin, not only are you continuously inspiring me to write, if not for you I probably would not have doven into short stories... and now I love them! Today I found the courage to submit my first short story to a literary magazine !! Thank you for existing and sharing your true and honest development as a writer
Hello. I'm 14 and currently outlining a novel, and I have to say that this video was really inspiring. I know that I probably won't like it when I get older, but I am very excited to start drafting and finish it. I've written other things in the past, but never know how to keep going with them lol, but I know this one will be different. (The one I started before this one was about 90 pages and I stopped because I had no idea what would happen next) Thank you for inspiring me to keep doing this.
Now, it would be really stupid to compound that issue by making your first book part one of a potentially five book high fantasy series. But I wouldn't do such a thing.
I also wrote one of those "stranding on an island"-books when I was thirteen. I never finished it, but the MC was on a cruiser which then sunk. On the island, she meets this hot guy who was also on the ship and rescued 2 little kids, an 8-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother. The MC has a mental blank of some sort, she doesn't remember anything that happend on the ship, but she conveniently has her diary on hand so she can just read it. But she's somehow afraid of it so she reads it in pieces. There is something wrong with the guy, I think they had an affair but she forgot and he doesn't tell her, but I'm not sure anymore. And the first thing she thinks about (after finding freshwater and shelter) is her hair. So she just diys a deep conditioner😂
"The only thing I'm proud of in this book is just that it exists." YES. I haven't laughed so hard in a while. Also, completely unrelated, but I recently read Crush by Richard Siken because you talked about it on your channel and I really liked it. :)
I’m writing a dystopian/fantasy novella Called, The Shadow Spirit I love it but this book is sooooo hard to write because I 👏don’t 👏want 👏to 👏mess👏 it 👏up
I agree with @goodtimez so hard. First drafts can be crappy. Mine sure are. But you shouldn't worry about perfection. That's a writer's biggest enemy and can bring you to scrap the story, thinking "i can never writer this" Don't compare your first draft to an edited, published novel, because the latter is _done_ and yours has just begun. Draft 2 is for making it better, and D3 to start working toward "perfection" don't be afraid of feedback and critique and keep working. You'll get there! :heart:
I want to read the definition of impossible, please publish or self publish it 😍 Edit: I am a designer, I can help you with the cover for free if you want
I remember when you shelved The Dragon Tear and for some reason your platform went completely chaotic? I think a part of the reason it was so difficult to shelve for you was probably that you had so many outside people pushing you to write it but idk. I've been here for... A while. Your platform has been my writing solace and how I discovered the Tumblr writing community. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.
Lol the first book I wrote I too thought would be published, and had plans for sequels. I was 11-13. The next novel was when I was 13, my first time doing NaNo, it was a fanfiction that I abandoned RIGHT before the ending. Next novel I started at 15, then scrapped and restarted a few times until I finally finished drafting it at 18 (last year). Right now I'm on the second half of the fourth, and have plans for the fifth. I've started MANY others in between, but these are all of the ones that I've finished drafting, or just about finished drafted.
I don’t even write fiction much anymore, I’m transitioning toward writing and producing songs, and doing tech work for film & theatre, yet I still find this channel enjoyable to watch :)
Love your perspective on teaching. Your enthusiasm is inoculating me against discouragement. Exponential accomplishment is real. The earlier one gets immersed in a learning goal, the farther they get on the scale of accomplishment over the course of a lifetime. Your early attempt at writing gave you a hunger to learn that is absent in most college students. Your intellect opened up to absorb the light of inspiration and yielded the sweet nectar of knowledge. I’m thrilled to benefit from your ability to make learning your craft so available to others. You are destined for a great future and I thank you for allowing me to become better at telling my story.
Man we're the same age and I've also been writing this whole time but I've never finished anything in my life (I think the longest thing I've ever completed was a 9k fanfic and then my dissertation essay), this is amazing
while i haven't been writing for nearly as long, i feel i've made around the same progress (i hope lol) my first book i wrote back in 2017 thinking i was going to publish it but then after going through it a second time i realized "i need to get better before i try anything with this" and i still do as it's a much more complicated story than i an write even now. with this in mind i set out to write 4 more books i wrote 2 sci-fi's one surreal fantasy thriller and a lighthearted friendship story (not sure how to categorize it) and just now after going through all of these upwards of 6 times each and finalizing the surreal fantasy do i feel confident enough to publish my work (the fantasy being the first one)
Some of these issues tend to be ones many authors go through. If it's all good, I'm trying to see how I could make the lives of authors easier, so I just want to pose two simple questions to all the authors here: 1.) What are the two biggest problems you're dealing with as an author? 2.) What's your biggest wish, regarding your career? Thank you! Keep up the good work, Shaelin. Proud of you :)
the "the only thing im proud of in this book is that it exists" is such a mood omg. that's exactly the way I feel about my first (and only finished lol) book (a nanowrimo novel, which I wrote when I was twelve...). honestly I forget it exists most of the time lmao
Thanks for sharing these thoughts and stories! In addition to being good motivators for writing, your videos are also just kind of relaxing and great to listen to while drawing or doing chores. I can only play so many unsolved murder case videos before I need a break.
Chain Reaction sounds awesome. It's a shame about the problems with the Science aspect, and there are no easy answers to that. But Gemma sounds like a character so many of us would love to read about. Great video. 😃💝
It is too bad! It would be really ideal to write it as a TV and be able to collaborate with other writers who might have more of a science background (and have a science consultant!) but if I do decide to write it as a novel I'll have to just find a way to make it work haha. Gemma is one of my all time favourite characters I've created so I want to find a way to make it work just for her!
This is the most relatable thing and exactly what I needed to kick myself back into gear and get my novels sorted so thank you. My journey so far sounds very similar to yours and I hope I get to read something of yours someday, a lot of projects sound really interesting.
Shaelin in I am 10 and currently writing a novel and my class say it really good so basically it’s about this girl whose parents die and she seems to have strange powers but that’s all I can say 😊 Edit: I am still 10 and I finished the book 📖 🎉
Ur journey is so inspiring!! Most of my works have been fanfic,poetry,short stories but after watching this I actually have motivation to turn one of my short stories into a possible novel cuz I have a vision for it just never really saw the point in taking it there
The text of my latest fiction children’s & adults story that is loved by both. ~ ELOISE, EDNA & THE CHICKEN COOP “based on a story as told by Rev Howard Thurman” ~~ There was once a Black woman named Eloise who when her grandmother passed away, inherited a parcel of land in the suburbs of Compton California at a time when there was strong racial prejudice against woman of color-especially those Black woman who owned property in predominately white neighborhoods. It happened there lived adjacent to Eloise’s land a white woman named Edna who did not like the fact that this Black woman owned land next to hers. Eloise would try to be friendly because she believed Jesus when He said “Love Thy Neighbor” and to Eloise that meant even if your neighbor was unfriendly. But whenever Eloise saw Edna, Edna would turn her back in disdain. In fact, ever since her husband died a decade ago, Edna became arrogant and mean to almost everyone in the neighborhood. But to Eloise, she was so hateful and full of animosity that one night when all the lights in Eloise home were off Edna went to her own backyard where she kept and maintained her chicken coop and gathered up all the manure and dumped it on Eloise land and upon her tomatoes and her greens and everything she was growing, in an attempt to destroy it. And when Eloise realized there was all this manure, she decided to rake and mix it in with the soil and use it as fertilizer. Almost every night Edna would dump the manure from her chicken coop litter and Eloise would get up the next morning and turn it over and mix it. This went on for quite some time until one morning Eloise noticed there was no manure in her yard. And no manure for the next 5 or 6 days. And Eloise realized she hadn’t seen Edna in over a week. Then one of Eloise neighbors informed her that she heard Edna had fallen ill. But because Edna was so mean and unfriendly , no one came to see her when she was sick. But when Eloise heard about Edna’s condition she picked the best flowers from her garden, walked to Edna’s house , knocked on her front door and heard this frail voice and when Edna opened the door she was in complete shock that this Black Woman who she had been so cruel to, would be the only neighbor to come and bring flowers. Edna was so deeply moved by Eloise kindness. Then Eloise handed the flowers to Edna who said, “These are the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen! Where’d you get them?” Eloise said, “You helped me make them, because when you were dumping in my yard, I decided to plant some roses and use your manure as fertilizer.“ This act of kindness opened the floodgate of Edna’s heart that had been closed for so long. “When I’m feeling better,” said Edna, “I would love to have you over for tea.” “Thank you, “ Edna replied , assuring her she would come. And then added “ I will pray for your speedy recovery every night” And with those words Eloise departed. It’s amazing what can blossom from manure. There are some who allow the manure and life’s tribulations to fall on them and do nothing. But then there are others-like Eloise -who just “turn the other cheek” when abused or in this case “turn over the soil” to make something new like those bevy of beautiful red roses that opened a white woman’s heart. -Al Fogel
my biggest issue with writing is not being able to stick to a writing project for a long time, and by a long time i mean literally just over a month i can’t stick to anything lmao
but the question is when you gonna publish dragon tear? *existentialcrisis* lol i love your channel. but its funny the drama that can happen over nothing. i dont care what you do with your books, and even if you published works you hated, i dont think anyone would hate them. theyd still be interesting. looking forward to your first published novel. thats gonna be a great moment.
I agree, but I must add that just having written something at 13, no matter how bad, is impressive enough. Don't feel bad, kids: Nobody but a genius produces something of high quality before they're 30.
I know many writers in their early twenties who write incredible work of very high quality, but I agree that just writing anything at 13 is impressive!
A year back, I was planning a novel that involved a lot of time travel, with particular emphasis placed on 1920s-30s Germany and Hitler's rise to power, with some alternate timeline shit thrown in. This would coincide with the beginning of my time at sixth form, where I had planned to take A Level History, one of the units in the course being German history. It was an opportunity to use studying as research for the novel. But then the school didn't run the course. I'm yet to pick that project back up. On the plus side, my world building now includes a lot more focus on evolution and genetics that it otherwise would.
Omg! I was also obsessed with getting stranded on an island when I was younger 😂 Me and 2 of my friends made a group story on Quotev in middle school where we would alternate writing chapters and it was just like the 3 of us and all of our friends on an island
I've been attempting to write books since I was 13 (I'm 26 now) and have never finished a book. The most I've ever done was like 140-something pages (I didn't know to measure book length in word count so I don't remember the word count. I used size 12 font though, so not terrible large.)
I lik your book writing experience, so nice struggling so much for the first time book writing process, and one of the most important thing is that you have written many books than me that's the surprise for me. SO Thanks and just for now I am going to see the book exhibition in the city if possible I will make the video about it and you can see in my photo album. But before I wanted to write copy from the book which is important for me to know in my next book written update and preparing about it.
Ok I’m writing a book right now and to be honest I know when I’m older I’m probably going to hate it but when I get older I want to be an author so I decided i would at least try.
What you said at 19:41 is honestly how I felt about The Finest Trick. I was so relieved when I finally just said "You know what? I'm done." I haven't touched the book since and I don't fucking plan to xD
And honestly like you said earlier in the video, when you're at a certain age your interests change rapidly. I spent about a year on that book and that's a LOT for a 13 year old.
LITERALLY THIS multiple times a project has just started to feel like a burden and it's like...why am I writing this it'll never be good if I don't even enjoy it ?? Sometimes you gotta nope on out
12:18 I absolutely love love love love love science and I really understand it and I get an A+ in science every single year no matter what year of science, whether I’m doing chemistry, grade 12, grade 11, it doesn’t matter. Because of Covid, I am an on hand learner, online didn’t do so well for me and I flunked all of my classes all of my junior year. I went from being a straight a student to an F student in literally a matter of days. i’m going to be a super senior but I’m really incredibly happy that I am able to go back to school. There’s a lot of things that I want to be but I think that my niche is science even though people make fun of me for it. I really really really really wanna join NASA I really love love love space it is just so interesting I would be excited to go to my job every single day I would be trying my hardest not because I have to be because I want too.
I'd like to but I don't really have plans for when tbh! I've stopped planning out and scheduling my future projects and kind of just write what I'm interested in whenever it's time to start a new project.
What happened with "Blue"? I don't remember if that was the name of the book, but it involved a message in a bottle I think. I don't know, I was intrigued by it as I was with Dragon Tear.
I never actually wrote a draft of it, which is why I didn't talk about it in this video! It's one of those maybe books, where someday I might write it but it's not in my near-future plans :D
@@ShaelinWrites Thanks for responding! I remember falling in love with your idea of it and with the character. I know that if you decide so, you can write an awesome story with that concept. I hope I could read some of your work someday😉
Good job! I'm starting to get 4s and 5s on my work, but I can't sell it. I'd get like 2s and 3s if I published traditionally. I don't publish traditionally because I'm not strong enough to even bother. Just seeing improvement is a good thing. It seems to inspire you. I will say my first book was my worst. It shows subversion and a simple way of explaining cause and effect, not good, not on an adult level.
I'm really curious how/when you came to revise the novels that made it past the first draft. It sounds like the first novel you heavily revised was I'm Fine, but please correct me if I'm wrong! I feel like revision is something writers are told is really important, but that we're seldom taught how to do. I was an English/creative writing major in college, and while I loved my program, most of the emphasis was on creating new work rather than revising the old (which is something I never understood and which desperately needs to change!). Now I'm trying to revise the first draft of a book and I feel totally lost! Haha! So I guess my question is: when/how did you learn to revise your books? Did you gain the most insight from revising short stories in workshop classes, or do you think you also learned as much from revising novel-length works? Also! how much of your initial revision process for novels is straight-up re-writing, as opposed to changing/moving around scenes? Apologies if you've answered these questions before! This video just brought up a lot of things I've always been curious about. Thanks for doing what you do and making such informative, relatable content!
Very helpful video! I am a teenager and I've been wondering how to start writing a novel. This video has given me a lot to think about. I'm curious why you haven't written a male protagonist though (I don't know about Dragon Tears).
I actually have written several male protagonists! The Dragon Tear had several male narrators, Chain Reaction actually had two POVs, and the other narrator was male (I cut out the part where I talk about him because this video was SO long haha), and about half of the main characters in my short story collection are men.
I can definitely connect to my female leads on a more personal level, but I enjoy writing male characters quite a lot actually! I wouldn't say I find it to be too difficult imo.
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"I think the only thing I'm proud of in this book is just like that it exists" this is so relatable I'm crying
It's how I feel about most of my books lol
Exactly
Wow, finishing a 90,000+ word book at 13-14 is impressive, even if it’s bad or you’re not proud of it. I think it shows that you were extremely committed, even at such a young age. I haven’t even been able to finish a manuscript yet. 😅
That's why I can say I'm proud of the fact I did it but not exactly the quality lol. Good luck finishing one of your projects!!
ShaelinWrites Thank you!
Same. I have so many stories I started writing but never finished ages 9-18ish
@@ShaelinWrites If it make you feel any better about the quality, 99.9% of books written by 13-14 year olds are probably terrible. The important part was that you finished and kept going.
Yeah, exactly. My first serious attempt at writing a book was at eighteen and it only had 12.000 words. That's not much for a double murder mysterie... so 90.000 words at 13 is insane!
“I’m proud it exists.”
Literally how I feel about my novel 🙃
You know what's crazy to me - you FINISHED all these books. Like you got to "the end" on almost all of them! Why are people giving you crap for shelving them?! You freakin wrote full manuscripts! I've only finished like three out of a million! You go, girl!!!
Damn girl get it! 10 books holy crap
Haha thank youuu!
I wrote my first "novel" when I was fourteen and "I think the only thing I'm proud of is that it exists" is pretty much my feeling about it, too. It was a hot mess, every time I didn't know what happened to one set of characters I'd just throw another set into the mix, and I spent the last two chapters tying up all of the story threads in a ridiculously contrived ending.
Also I wrote it by hand. Because it was 1988-9
I admire people who hand write their novels ^^ great job!
This video made me suddenly realize for how long I've been watching you. And how drastically my own style has changed, too.
Like, wow.
I’ve written half of a book, I write it on and off. My novel is called “The Grimoire of Esther George” it follows Esther, an orphaned girl and her fresh out of college cousin which move to Maine. She finds out the town is basically a refugee camp for mythical creatures, part of a handful of similar cities which the government made to protect humanity from the unknown. Esther and her new friend (gf at the end) Olivia, a loner and a triblood outcast have to stop a cult trying to awaken an Lovecraftian monster off the coast of the town with the help of the sirens who are not effected by the towns anti magic dome. Their plan is to kill off all of humanity. I do shelve that every once and a while to work on other things. I currently have a few short stories going including one for the Writer of the Future contest, “Betelgeuse 761” about a deaf 20 year old who ferries convicts across the galaxy.
The only piece I’ve actually FINISHED was a one act play which I’ll be directing this July through August called “that shrinking feeling.” Basically Rick and Morty x Honey I Shrunk the Kids
Gnome Queen that actually sounds sick, and I never compliment people, usually the opposite. But you should write that. Seriously.
@@qwerty8382 why do you criticize people more than compliment? That's kinda salty.
At first I was sad about my own writer's journey, but then I realised that I can easily set reasonable, achievable goals of COMPLETING my books and then 5 years from now, I can do my own 'Writer's Journey" video or blog post also.
Now i'm not sad.
Holy moly, I also wrote my first book when I was 13/14, and can you guess what it was called? ..... Sølvfuglen! Which literally translates to Silver Bird! x'DD (70k words, fantasy about a boy who wakes up in another world and meets a girl who tells him he needs to find a silver bird in order to get home.)
omg that's incredible!! Fellow Silver Bird writer hello!!
I’ve been writing since elementary school, but I finished my first novel when I was 14. It was 115k words and aggressively decent. Now I’m in the process of taking its good elements and turning it into a book with various nuances and social commentaries that I want to communicate. I’m proud of the book that I’m writing now, but just as happy that the books I wrote (and abandoned) previously exist because they got me where I am today
Not gonna lie, I'm low-key in love with... actually forget that I'm high-key in love with the cover for Someone will save you! It's very simple yet so beautiful, it's the type of cover that would make me place the book on the shelf sideways so that you can see the cover when walking by 😍
Hi Shaelin,
not only are you continuously inspiring me to write,
if not for you I probably would not have doven into short stories... and now I love them!
Today I found the courage to submit my first short story to a literary magazine !!
Thank you for existing and sharing your true and honest development as a writer
I love hearing about Honey vinegar. It sounds like exactly the type of thing I'd want to read.
Hello. I'm 14 and currently outlining a novel, and I have to say that this video was really inspiring. I know that I probably won't like it when I get older, but I am very excited to start drafting and finish it. I've written other things in the past, but never know how to keep going with them lol, but I know this one will be different. (The one I started before this one was about 90 pages and I stopped because I had no idea what would happen next) Thank you for inspiring me to keep doing this.
Good luck to you! Very exciting! Bravo!!!
I love your writing journey and your voice energy.😍
never wrote a novel, my “book” is getting so complex that i just feel like i need TIME to actually start. exam season just making my brain: work.
Now, it would be really stupid to compound that issue by making your first book part one of a potentially five book high fantasy series.
But I wouldn't do such a thing.
I would watch the hell outta Chain Reaction if it was a tv show! It's my favorite of all your novels that you've talked about.
I wish I had the means to make it a show so much!!
I also wrote one of those "stranding on an island"-books when I was thirteen. I never finished it, but the MC was on a cruiser which then sunk. On the island, she meets this hot guy who was also on the ship and rescued 2 little kids, an 8-year-old girl and her 4-year-old brother.
The MC has a mental blank of some sort, she doesn't remember anything that happend on the ship, but she conveniently has her diary on hand so she can just read it. But she's somehow afraid of it so she reads it in pieces.
There is something wrong with the guy, I think they had an affair but she forgot and he doesn't tell her, but I'm not sure anymore.
And the first thing she thinks about (after finding freshwater and shelter) is her hair. So she just diys a deep conditioner😂
Lol
"The only thing I'm proud of in this book is just that it exists." YES. I haven't laughed so hard in a while.
Also, completely unrelated, but I recently read Crush by Richard Siken because you talked about it on your channel and I really liked it. :)
I'm so jealous of your ability to actually finish projects. I always end up giving up halfway through (except on the latest one, thankfully)!
I’m writing a dystopian/fantasy novella
Called,
The Shadow Spirit
I love it but this book is sooooo hard to write because I 👏don’t 👏want 👏to 👏mess👏 it 👏up
You got this!!
I agree with @goodtimez so hard. First drafts can be crappy. Mine sure are.
But you shouldn't worry about perfection. That's a writer's biggest enemy and can bring you to scrap the story, thinking "i can never writer this"
Don't compare your first draft to an edited, published novel, because the latter is _done_ and yours has just begun.
Draft 2 is for making it better, and D3 to start working toward "perfection" don't be afraid of feedback and critique and keep working. You'll get there! :heart:
Like how the hell do you expect me not to desperately want to read your books when they sound so interesting??? T-T
Shaelin, will you ever do another Write With Me video? I've always found those to be entertaining and motivating.
I want to read the definition of impossible, please publish or self publish it 😍
Edit: I am a designer, I can help you with the cover for free if you want
"Then we have... The Dragon Tear. This fucking book..." that made me laugh so hard
Your self reflection is so real and relatable. Thanks for sharing!
I remember when you shelved The Dragon Tear and for some reason your platform went completely chaotic? I think a part of the reason it was so difficult to shelve for you was probably that you had so many outside people pushing you to write it but idk. I've been here for... A while. Your platform has been my writing solace and how I discovered the Tumblr writing community. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.
This was so nostalgic! Loved hearing about the novels that you vlogged and did writing updates about. You should read some snippets. Storytime haha
Lol the first book I wrote I too thought would be published, and had plans for sequels. I was 11-13.
The next novel was when I was 13, my first time doing NaNo, it was a fanfiction that I abandoned RIGHT before the ending.
Next novel I started at 15, then scrapped and restarted a few times until I finally finished drafting it at 18 (last year).
Right now I'm on the second half of the fourth, and have plans for the fifth.
I've started MANY others in between, but these are all of the ones that I've finished drafting, or just about finished drafted.
Someone will save you, great cover!
Shaelin: "This...danger...zone"
Me: "*Highway to the danger zoneeeeeee*"
All About My Novel: Season Finale
this was the final boss
I'm not writing a book I'm trying to make a comic and this channel still helps
I don’t even write fiction much anymore, I’m transitioning toward writing and producing songs, and doing tech work for film & theatre, yet I still find this channel enjoyable to watch :)
I desperately *need* to read Someone Will Save You! Honestly can’t wait until you’re finished it and, hopefully, published!
You’ve written so much, and you’re so young. Very impressive 🖊👍
Great to see your writing growth, Shae though I've heard some of them from your previous videos.
Keep writing. Keep growing.
Honestly so hyped for this
I love this. Thank you. You are amazing to finish so many novels, even if they are shelved. I shelve so many without finishing. Inspirational ♡
This was so interesting to listen to. Makes me feel very behind lol
oh my god i’m so glad i’m not alone, i also had a weird preoccupation with the being stranded on an island plot around age 13/14
Love your perspective on teaching. Your enthusiasm is inoculating me against discouragement. Exponential accomplishment is real. The earlier one gets immersed in a learning goal, the farther they get on the scale of accomplishment over the course of a lifetime. Your early attempt at writing gave you a hunger to learn that is absent in most college students. Your intellect opened up to absorb the light of inspiration and yielded the sweet nectar of knowledge. I’m thrilled to benefit from your ability to make learning your craft so available to others. You are destined for a great future and I thank you for allowing me to become better at telling my story.
Ok please publish 'The Definition Of Impossible' because I need that book in my life...
So lovely how you self-reflect on your
Mistakes and growth
Man we're the same age and I've also been writing this whole time but I've never finished anything in my life (I think the longest thing I've ever completed was a 9k fanfic and then my dissertation essay), this is amazing
"i took abt one summer to write this book"
~me thinking of how i was planning to write a book for 5yrs......~
I started my first book in 2010 too, finished it in 2012 (written in the dutch language), about 235.000 words
Shitting hell
I am truly so excited for Honey Vinegar and Pareidolia!💙
Thank you!! I'm pretty excited about them myself :D
while i haven't been writing for nearly as long, i feel i've made around the same progress (i hope lol)
my first book i wrote back in 2017 thinking i was going to publish it but then after going through it a second time i realized "i need to get better before i try anything with this" and i still do as it's a much more complicated story than i an write even now.
with this in mind i set out to write 4 more books i wrote 2 sci-fi's one surreal fantasy thriller and a lighthearted friendship story (not sure how to categorize it) and just now after going through all of these upwards of 6 times each and finalizing the surreal fantasy do i feel confident enough to publish my work (the fantasy being the first one)
I have always wondered why you have never self-published your novels. I think you explained it perfectly in this video. :)
This is amazing Shaelin. Sometimes you have to shelve projects. Why haven't I ever heard of any of your novels? I think they would be reay good?
You do yourself down. 90,000 words at 14 is excellent! May you continue to improve.
Winter Run sounds like such an awesome premise. Don't quit that one.
Some of these issues tend to be ones many authors go through. If it's all good, I'm trying to see how I could make the lives of authors easier, so I just want to pose two simple questions to all the authors here:
1.) What are the two biggest problems you're dealing with as an author?
2.) What's your biggest wish, regarding your career?
Thank you! Keep up the good work, Shaelin. Proud of you :)
This was released 2 years ago but TH-cam says it was released one year ago (at the time in writing this comment)
Everything I've heard about Honey Vinegar so far sounds amazing!!
the "the only thing im proud of in this book is that it exists" is such a mood omg. that's exactly the way I feel about my first (and only finished lol) book (a nanowrimo novel, which I wrote when I was twelve...). honestly I forget it exists most of the time lmao
Thanks for sharing these thoughts and stories! In addition to being good motivators for writing, your videos are also just kind of relaxing and great to listen to while drawing or doing chores. I can only play so many unsolved murder case videos before I need a break.
Chain Reaction sounds awesome. It's a shame about the problems with the Science aspect, and there are no easy answers to that. But Gemma sounds like a character so many of us would love to read about. Great video. 😃💝
It is too bad! It would be really ideal to write it as a TV and be able to collaborate with other writers who might have more of a science background (and have a science consultant!) but if I do decide to write it as a novel I'll have to just find a way to make it work haha. Gemma is one of my all time favourite characters I've created so I want to find a way to make it work just for her!
This is the most relatable thing and exactly what I needed to kick myself back into gear and get my novels sorted so thank you. My journey so far sounds very similar to yours and I hope I get to read something of yours someday, a lot of projects sound really interesting.
Shaelin in I am 10 and currently writing a novel and my class say it really good so basically it’s about this girl whose parents die and she seems to have strange powers but that’s all I can say 😊
Edit: I am still 10 and I finished the book 📖 🎉
Ooo how many words iima?
Ur journey is so inspiring!! Most of my works have been fanfic,poetry,short stories but after watching this I actually have motivation to turn one of my short stories into a possible novel cuz I have a vision for it just never really saw the point in taking it there
That's honestly awesome! The fact that you have books even out there.
The whole video i was thinking that you should try writing short stories! Glad you have an anthology in the works!
This tapestry has a pretty engaging journey.
The text of my latest fiction children’s & adults story that is loved by both.
~
ELOISE, EDNA & THE CHICKEN COOP
“based on a story as told by Rev Howard Thurman”
~~
There was once a Black woman named Eloise who when her grandmother passed away, inherited a parcel of land in the suburbs of Compton California at a time when there was strong racial prejudice against woman of color-especially those Black woman who owned property in predominately white neighborhoods.
It happened there lived adjacent to Eloise’s land a white woman named Edna who did not like the fact that this Black woman owned land next to hers.
Eloise would try to be friendly because she believed Jesus when He said “Love Thy Neighbor” and to Eloise that meant even if your neighbor was unfriendly.
But whenever Eloise saw Edna, Edna would turn her back in disdain. In fact, ever since her husband died a decade ago, Edna became arrogant and mean to almost everyone in the neighborhood.
But to Eloise, she was so hateful and full of animosity that one night when all the lights in Eloise home were off Edna went to her own backyard where she kept and maintained her chicken coop and gathered up all the manure and dumped it on Eloise land and upon her tomatoes and her greens and everything she was growing, in an attempt to destroy it.
And when Eloise realized there was all this manure, she decided to rake and mix it in with the soil and use it as fertilizer.
Almost every night Edna would dump the manure from her chicken coop litter and Eloise would get up the next morning and turn it over and mix it.
This went on for quite some time until one morning Eloise noticed there was no manure in her yard. And no manure for the next 5 or 6 days.
And Eloise realized she hadn’t seen Edna in over a week.
Then one of Eloise neighbors informed her that she heard Edna had fallen ill. But because Edna was so mean and unfriendly , no one came to see her when she was sick.
But when Eloise heard about Edna’s condition she picked the best flowers from her garden, walked to Edna’s house , knocked on her front door and heard this frail voice and when Edna opened the door she was in complete shock that this Black Woman who she had been so cruel to, would be the only neighbor to come and bring flowers.
Edna was so deeply moved by Eloise kindness.
Then Eloise handed the flowers to Edna who said,
“These are the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen! Where’d you get them?”
Eloise said, “You helped me make them, because when you were dumping in my yard, I decided to plant some roses and use your manure as fertilizer.“
This act of kindness opened the floodgate of Edna’s heart that had been closed for so long.
“When I’m feeling better,” said Edna, “I would love to have you over for tea.”
“Thank you, “ Edna replied , assuring her she would come. And then added “ I will pray for your speedy recovery every night”
And with those words Eloise departed.
It’s amazing what can blossom from manure.
There are some who allow the manure and life’s tribulations to fall on them and do nothing.
But then there are others-like Eloise -who just “turn the other cheek” when abused or in this case “turn over the soil” to make something new like those bevy of beautiful red roses that opened a white woman’s heart.
-Al Fogel
my biggest issue with writing is not being able to stick to a writing project for a long time, and by a long time i mean literally just over a month i can’t stick to anything lmao
I actually quite like your ideas for the Winter trio! I always enjoy videos where you talk about your own work.
Honestly I liked the idea two but it was the execution where I faltered haha
4:53
Shaelin: it sucks it was horrible
Me; that sound dope I would read tf out of that
I love these videos ..I'm on my third book and I can't wait to have huge collection of my own books one day.
but the question is when you gonna publish dragon tear?
*existentialcrisis*
lol i love your channel. but its funny the drama that can happen over nothing. i dont care what you do with your books, and even if you published works you hated, i dont think anyone would hate them. theyd still be interesting. looking forward to your first published novel. thats gonna be a great moment.
literally I had a full on crisis just reading that first sentence *life flashes before eyes*
I agree, but I must add that just having written something at 13, no matter how bad, is impressive enough.
Don't feel bad, kids: Nobody but a genius produces something of high quality before they're 30.
I know many writers in their early twenties who write incredible work of very high quality, but I agree that just writing anything at 13 is impressive!
Just discovered your channel.
Great stuff. Learning and relating to quite a few bits.
A year back, I was planning a novel that involved a lot of time travel, with particular emphasis placed on 1920s-30s Germany and Hitler's rise to power, with some alternate timeline shit thrown in. This would coincide with the beginning of my time at sixth form, where I had planned to take A Level History, one of the units in the course being German history. It was an opportunity to use studying as research for the novel.
But then the school didn't run the course. I'm yet to pick that project back up. On the plus side, my world building now includes a lot more focus on evolution and genetics that it otherwise would.
Omg! I was also obsessed with getting stranded on an island when I was younger 😂 Me and 2 of my friends made a group story on Quotev in middle school where we would alternate writing chapters and it was just like the 3 of us and all of our friends on an island
I've been attempting to write books since I was 13 (I'm 26 now) and have never finished a book. The most I've ever done was like 140-something pages (I didn't know to measure book length in word count so I don't remember the word count. I used size 12 font though, so not terrible large.)
I write all my books by hand on paper so I don't know how many words it hasss.
I lik your book writing experience, so nice struggling so much for the first time book writing process, and one of the most important thing is that you have written many books than me that's the surprise for me. SO Thanks and just for now I am going to see the book exhibition in the city if possible I will make the video about it and you can see in my photo album.
But before I wanted to write copy from the book which is important for me to know in my next book written update and preparing about it.
Ok I’m writing a book right now and to be honest I know when I’m older I’m probably going to hate it but when I get older I want to be an author so I decided i would at least try.
I'm just so ready for honey vinegar, I can't waiiit
What you said at 19:41 is honestly how I felt about The Finest Trick. I was so relieved when I finally just said "You know what? I'm done." I haven't touched the book since and I don't fucking plan to xD
And honestly like you said earlier in the video, when you're at a certain age your interests change rapidly. I spent about a year on that book and that's a LOT for a 13 year old.
LITERALLY THIS multiple times a project has just started to feel like a burden and it's like...why am I writing this it'll never be good if I don't even enjoy it ?? Sometimes you gotta nope on out
12:18 I absolutely love love love love love science and I really understand it and I get an A+ in science every single year no matter what year of science, whether I’m doing chemistry, grade 12, grade 11, it doesn’t matter. Because of Covid, I am an on hand learner, online didn’t do so well for me and I flunked all of my classes all of my junior year. I went from being a straight a student to an F student in literally a matter of days. i’m going to be a super senior but I’m really incredibly happy that I am able to go back to school. There’s a lot of things that I want to be but I think that my niche is science even though people make fun of me for it. I really really really really wanna join NASA I really love love love space it is just so interesting I would be excited to go to my job every single day I would be trying my hardest not because I have to be because I want too.
The Definition of Impossible sounds so good honestly :)
Are you planning on writing Rainstorm or Blue?
I'd like to but I don't really have plans for when tbh! I've stopped planning out and scheduling my future projects and kind of just write what I'm interested in whenever it's time to start a new project.
Winter run sounds like it could be a really fun video game though
What happened with "Blue"? I don't remember if that was the name of the book, but it involved a message in a bottle I think. I don't know, I was intrigued by it as I was with Dragon Tear.
I never actually wrote a draft of it, which is why I didn't talk about it in this video! It's one of those maybe books, where someday I might write it but it's not in my near-future plans :D
@@ShaelinWrites Thanks for responding! I remember falling in love with your idea of it and with the character. I know that if you decide so, you can write an awesome story with that concept. I hope I could read some of your work someday😉
im a writer and i just stoped writing because of school and now i have so many ideas and i turns to be nothing because i have no idea how to start
Did your website get taken down for some reason? When I try to go to it, it pretty much says that the website no longer exists.
When I suggested you story was similar to The Running Man, I hadn't yet known HOW similar. Just add in that it's on a tv show, and there it is.
Good job! I'm starting to get 4s and 5s on my work, but I can't sell it. I'd get like 2s and 3s if I published traditionally. I don't publish traditionally because I'm not strong enough to even bother. Just seeing improvement is a good thing. It seems to inspire you. I will say my first book was my worst. It shows subversion and a simple way of explaining cause and effect, not good, not on an adult level.
I still can’t wrap my head around writing an entire novel in 23 days... How?
Tbh I have no idea howwww I did that either
Been long time since I watched you videos. Very nice.
Loved this video 💖 hope to read something from you someday
For some reason, I keep misreading the title as "every book i've never written". Would be cool too, tho
love this!!
I love your covers!
A huge inspiration. Thank you!
I'm really curious how/when you came to revise the novels that made it past the first draft. It sounds like the first novel you heavily revised was I'm Fine, but please correct me if I'm wrong! I feel like revision is something writers are told is really important, but that we're seldom taught how to do. I was an English/creative writing major in college, and while I loved my program, most of the emphasis was on creating new work rather than revising the old (which is something I never understood and which desperately needs to change!). Now I'm trying to revise the first draft of a book and I feel totally lost! Haha! So I guess my question is: when/how did you learn to revise your books? Did you gain the most insight from revising short stories in workshop classes, or do you think you also learned as much from revising novel-length works? Also! how much of your initial revision process for novels is straight-up re-writing, as opposed to changing/moving around scenes? Apologies if you've answered these questions before! This video just brought up a lot of things I've always been curious about. Thanks for doing what you do and making such informative, relatable content!
Very helpful video! I am a teenager and I've been wondering how to start writing a novel. This video has given me a lot to think about. I'm curious why you haven't written a male protagonist though (I don't know about Dragon Tears).
I actually have written several male protagonists! The Dragon Tear had several male narrators, Chain Reaction actually had two POVs, and the other narrator was male (I cut out the part where I talk about him because this video was SO long haha), and about half of the main characters in my short story collection are men.
@@ShaelinWrites That's good to know. Is it harder writing characters of a different gender than yourself?
I can definitely connect to my female leads on a more personal level, but I enjoy writing male characters quite a lot actually! I wouldn't say I find it to be too difficult imo.
@@ShaelinWrites Thanks!
I am writing a horror and suspense story that is called Jacy on this app called Auctor.