5 Lessons That Will Forever Change the Way You Write
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
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Writing is a wonderful, but sometimes draining creative pursuit. It's easy to get caught up in the negative aspects of writing - including self-doubt, rejection, and fear of not being good enough for publication. But the truth is that there is room in the literary world for everyone who is ready to commit to the craft of writing. Here are some writing lessons that will change the way you approach your craft forever.
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GREAT BOOKS ABOUT WRITING/PUBLISHING:
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer / amzn.to/3VE8dtt
Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody / amzn.to/3Vyk2Bn
Before and After the Book Deal by Courtney Maum / amzn.to/3Z4at03
SOME OF MY FAVORITE BOOKS:
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones / amzn.to/3vvWItt
Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips / amzn.to/3CFz4Pt
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid / amzn.to/3CjFFi5
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MORE WRITING AND PUBLISHING ADVICE:
Destructive Writer Habits that Are Holding You Back: • Destructive Writer Hab...
Are You a Good Writer? 5 Signs You’ve Got the Chops: • Are You a Good Writer?...
5 WRITING LESSONS THAT WILL CHANGE YOU AS AN AUTHOR:
01:08 - There’s More to Writing Than Words on the Page
02:27 - Your Draft Is a Canvas
04:14 - You Aren’t Writing for Everyone
05:29 - Perfection Isn’t the Goal
06:48 - You Are Good Enough
ABOUT ME:
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with nearly a decade of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey-whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
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Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I may earn a commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. - Jak na to + styl
Progress, not perfection... thank you for the reminder.
Terrific video, Alyssa. One writing lesson you’ve shared I find helpful is to adopt a therapy dog. The other is how not to compare our work in progress to the finished novels we love. I don’t get caught up in trying to write a better book, especially without the level of help other authors have, but focus on how I can stand apart with a book that’s different.
Yes whether it’s in the shower or on the way to work, all of the thinking we do about our story is “writing”
So recognizable! When I'm going to bed, hardly able to keep my eyes open and my brains go like: Oh, but NOW we have THE BEST IDEA for your story!
Excellent tips as usual! Also love the final affirmations, you ARE good enough, and As long as you write, you're a writer. I know I'm not the only one who needed to hear that! Thank you. :D
So glad you found it helpful! Thanks for commenting :)
I'll toss in that I've found that exercise can help with the writing process - either a leisurely walk or moderately hard cardio, but without anything in my ears . It's just me, my story problem and pushing myself down the road. Conversly, when I do sit down to write, I do listent to music and try to match the mood of my music to the mood of the scene I'm working on. I'm an old guy, but I find classical is great.
I love these tips - thanks for sharing!
I do the same. A long walk with a little classical music let's me get into the headspace of seeing a scene.
Whenever you sees the mentor there are always time for us whenever you look at it always going there but stay there sometimes
Thank you for saying that not writing everyday doesn't take away from the storytelling process and your enjoyment. It's so true & valid.
Mistakes are what editing & revisions are for.
My WIP evolved from a picture book when I was six to short stories as a teen to a full novel today. It evolved over time.
Stories aren't completely set in stone. So that's important too.
Your list is not what I was expecting from the videos title, but I loved what you’ve shared here. So much positivity and honesty in all your videos.
So glad you enjoyed it - thanks for commenting!
One of the most important reminders for new writers is your first draft will be messy but it will get better if you keep rewriting.
I tried to use the "Sanderson Method" for writing my story. Spending nearly a year worldbuilding. Total waste of energy. The worldbuilding has many elements that carried over into the novel, but the character studies I did, that took less than a month wound up being so much more valuable to me. However, I will say that the worldbuilding led me to write a chapter on the history of the world, but I put it just after the first arc of the story, once all the characters had been introduced and the reader knew some of their strengths and weaknesses. Like you said, we all have to find what works for each of us. For new writers that is going to mean trying a bunch of "theory" until you find what clicks for you. Thank you for keeping up with your channel. You continue to inspire and encourage me to continue, and now I'm nearly complete with the first draft.
Thanks for the encouragement. I strive for incremental improvement and steady, daily progress.
Best peptalk EVER! Thank you Alyssa :-)
You're so welcome!
+1 to all this.
This is the single best collection of writing advice I've seen. There's a lot of unhelpful advice out there; a lot of chasing daily word counts or target audiences. This collection of advice is inspiring, wise and feels absolutely true.
I'm so glad this resonated with you! Thank you for the kind comment!
I don't understand how she can be so spot-on and insightful at such a young age. Brilliant.
Because she's a professional who worked in the top end of the business. The learning curb must be very steep in the Big 5, but you would also be getting mentored by the very best in the business on the editing side, and working with the best in the business on the writer side. Plus... we don't know how she is do we? And it's not the sort of question to ask a lady ;-)
She's young and she's very smart. This is very clear. I don't know (or care) whether she’s a "lady."
Thank you for wonderful advice and encouragement. You saying "You are good enough to be a writer" really resonates with me. That imposter syndrome was really a thing for me in the beginning, until I began talking about my ideas with a few fellow authors and now I feel I am good enough, my story and world are good enough to write and bring to someone else :) Like a writing friend of mine often says to her audience: you will become someone's favourite author. I think that fits nicely with what you are saying.
Thank you again for a wonderful video!
So glad this resonated with you! I love the mantra that "you will become someone's favorite author." Thanks for sharing!
I've been writing for just about 6 months now, it has been a great experience, about 80k words in. However, I've found that many tend to ask fellow writers for tips or feedback and are absolutely crushed as many amateur writers try and implement either their own wants or unnecessary(or misunderstood rules).
I don't personally have any fears about my writing, and I don't get writer's block, but I see a lot of people suffering and even stopping entirely because of harsh criticism. Do you think it's better for most just to write, and then seek professional advice or constantly try and find beta readers to improve as you go?
I understand it's somewhat subjective.
Thank you for this video, Alyssa. I needed it today. Your channel really is a treasure 🩷
Thank you so much! I'm glad this one resonated with you!
This was really useful. I was doing all of the things you listed, in the wrong way. So I mase myself take an afternoon to appreciate all the writing I am doing that is not putting words to the page. A few hours later my MC's voice came to me when I wasn't even thinking about them. Result.
Thank you, I needed to hear these.
I've been reading stuff in my writing genre to get inspiration, but I just end up comparing myself, and not feeling like what I wrote is good enough.
I'm doing this solo, and I didn't study writing in college, so I feel unprepared sometimes.
The way I deal with it is; I'm not writing those stories (they already exist), I'm writing my story, and I need to see what my readers think of it beforeknowing what I need to improve on.
Goods tips there. What I try now is get the first few chapters beta read. If anything is wrong, I only have to make small changes. Unlike having the whole book written, something isn't adding up at the beginning and you have to make big changes through the whole book.
Definitely needed this video. Thanks 🙏
This was so encouraging, thank you!!
Thank you for your videos! Helping me a lot! Appreciate it!!
Glad you like them!
As my publisher says "perfect is the enemy of finished."
This was surprisingly motivating, thank you!
You're so welcome! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Good video❤❤❤❤
Now that I think about it, learning to write is really just developing a string of coping mechanisms.
Using brain dumps to manage overwhelm so I can focus and get into writing. Learning to deal with scene transitions because brain can't handle logistics when it's in writing mode. Setting guard rails around writing time so we don't jump down the etymology rabbit hole, or start thinking about baking chocolate muffins when writer brain has zapped our will power. I mean, it's hard enough to resist chocolate muffins even when we can employ our will power.
As usual you are very helpful. I have been writing for almost 15 years now and have never had any problems writing, my stories flow smoothly. My question- have you had any one express friendship with your agent! My literary agent is so helpful we almost talk every day and he pushes my main story until we almost secured my story to a Hollywood Producer! I feel we will remain friends because I have several more stories unpublished in my systems related which he refers to as a trilogy! What do you think!
I'm watching this instead of working on my nanowrimo project :/
Hey, it's good to take breaks! And writing is about more than just the words on the page, right? :) Good luck with your NaNoWriMo project!
Such great reminders. Just what I needed to hear this morning! I'm a huge fan of your channel and a faithful subscriber. I most resonated with the idea that writing is so much more than stringing words together on a page. Writing is as much in the pondering, the musing, the exploration of ideas that come from thoughtfully consuming the artistic expression of other writers. I get so much inspiration watching a good movie or reading a new book. Inspiration is constant for the writer willing to be baptized fully in the art of story telling in all its forms. Such a good reminder!!
Thanks for this excellent video, Alyssa. I have a question- if your 1st person protagonist is secretly the antagonist, which is revealed at the rug pull moment, is the reader likely to feel cheated? I mean that the reader doesn’t consider this most unreliable of character viewpoints is not looked upon as a twist. Thank you. Clive.
That sounds pretty interesting. Now, I'm not Alyssa but I'd say it can definitely be done well. One example I've recently come upon was a Manhwa called "My deepest Secret". It had a similar twist going on and from the reviews it didn't sound like readers felt cheated. I guess it's a matter of execution though.
@@Starcore600 Thank you for the comment. I agree it’s in the execution. I must check out that web toon you mentioned 😊
Thanks for the encouragement! I recently started querying and it sure is tough. This may sound like a dumb question. Where does memoir fit into the querying structure? Many agents require a pitch, blurb, synopsis and sample pages for fiction. For nonfiction, they ask for a proposal, list of chapters, motivation for why you are qualified to write this book, etc. I get it that applies to self-help books, but surely memoir doesn't fit into this second category? Please can you enlighten me!
Hi there - great question! I touch on this in another Q&A video: czcams.com/video/A2LoqvqTLNg/video.htmlsi=9M2EQfNAAUB-Ta3a&t=359 Hope that helps!
@@AlyssaMatesic Thanks Alyssa!
My problem is imposter syndrome, or I guess perfectionism. I think my book is so good, it actually is enjoyable reading it back like wow. Then I get doubts when I see a part that is ... not bad but... personal, a little abstract, maybe not structured like a standard book and a bit too creative... and the doubt sets in.
So..Amazon's old time radio shows are A.I. generaded now...just horrible to listen to...
Great advice that I needed to hear! Thank you for your videos. The canvas comparison is helpful. Coming from a visual background into writing, and being visually oriented, it helps my brain to organize my writing so that I do not get bogged down in the details. Also, Scrivener’s visual features make the “canvas” easier to visualize imo
May I ask for a video of omniscient povs with examples? It really helped me so much with the other videos you did before, which I really appreciate them! Thank you for always showing us how to fix writing mistakes with examples as it helps us to understand and see it better 🙏🏼🩵