How to Improve Your Writing!
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What I learned recently: draw inspiration from the story that made you want to read/watch it twice! Pay attention to what hooked you in the first time, and what parts you loved analyzing the second time.
I also find the opposite to be a good thing. If you read/watch a story and you didn't like it, think about why. What were the issues, how could they be fixed. That often leads to amazing ideas and also to a feeling for what doesn't work in a story
Aha, the other side of the coin!
It's so hard to write the "Grand Idea" on paper without feeling disappointed.
Great inside the head, shitty over the paper. :(
So then make it great on paper. I was having similar problem, but you just have to go back and reinforce your weak points. Go back and rework the plot, add subplots, change your characters' motivation, or add characters that make the story dynamic. Just Because the first thing you put down isn't gold doesn't mean you can't make it a good story.
Artsingitup Thankyou so much. That was motivational esp because I have low self esteem issues. But I am very passionate about writing. And I will make sure to improve it. Goodluck to you too!!
InkPen no problem. Thanks!
I was feeling the way she did. And loved your advice too. Thanks for sharing it.
Artsingitup my husband and I talk about the "good idea blues". I've learnt to love that feeling because it means greatness might be right around the corner. I guarantee every rockstar and Genius doctor looked like a naked mess the day they were born... ideas, especially artistic ones are kind of the same :)
Stoked to see you about to publish (especially self-publish). I'm going through the first manuscript I intend to publish. Just started sharing it. Hoping to have it out by February '18.
Antoine Bandele Good luck!
awesome!
Hey I've seen your vs videos, I didn't know you were an aspiring writer although now that I think about it you did actually write out how the scenarios would play out unlike most vs accounts. Good luck with your manuscript man!
The Lohr Saga, thanks dude!
What happened?
i'm a spanish native speaker, and i decided to try writing a novel in english... It was super hard at the beginning, vocabulary wise specially, but a thing that helped me a lot was reading in english... i haven't read a lot in english (like, novels... i do read blogs and other stuff in english), but every little thing i read in english it helps me a LOT to improve.
Chiky Scares You Yeah reading really helps. I've experienced it. Sometimes it does feels like no, you're plagiarising some content because when you write after you have read a book or something, you know or not you're actually inspired by it somehow and that's gonna flourish somewhere.
You should write a book about how to write! You explain things simply and you've got plenty of tips. I would totally buy it! It would be so different from other writing books!
It's funny, I grew up reading like an obsessed person but now as an adult, I don't read very much anymore.
Boredfan Gerrude. You could of gotten reading fatigue. Maybe try a different genre if you want to continue
You could be right. I'll try that, thanks.
Boredfan Gerrude same for me. I've read like 4 books in the last like 4 or 5 years lol.
Watching writing advice instead of writing. *Cue Jerry sienfeld theme song.*
Great advice Vivien! If you want to get better at anything, you have to practice and the most important part of practicing is to discover your weaknesses and your mistakes and learn from them. Specific to writing, practice can make your ability to imagine, create, describe, edit, and type more organic and intuitive, so that your stream of consciousness gets into the zone and writing is no longer work.
For warm-ups, I use the same tool you can find in the movie Finding Forrester. You take a sample sentence and you continue the thought. I write as fast as I can for 10 minutes, and then I usually delete it all.
For me, writer's block is the same thing as when you say the same word repeatedly until you can't remember what it means. Anonymous, anonymous, anonymous... This usually means that neurons in your brain have used all of their neurotransmitters and are basically winded and need a break. To combat writer's block, I go for a short walk or do push-ups to get the heart pumping a bit and then come back.
The phrase I have taken to heart when actually writing is "Fix it in post" - no matter how rough my draft is I can fix it. You can't fix a blank page until you put something on the page
I like equations too! So if [reading fiction] +[reading non-fiction] +[writing] =[improvement], then [improvement] -[reading fiction] -[reading non-fiction] =[writing]! Eureka! I've cracked the secret!
Do you have any suggestion on books that could help or have helped you? I could definitely use help on subplots.
Would you please make a video about how you come up with plot devices and whatnot for your story, so the story actually has meaning/ direction? Thank you in advance!
Thank you!
I read through the eyes of a writer. I'll read through paragraphs and try to dissect sentences to see if I'm in love with a certain passage or to see if I thought the author could have written something differently to impact more punch.
a tip for everyone anyone can be a member of the national library for free and have access to public domain books in pdf for its a great research tool
good to see you back!
Michael Hauge and John Truby. Can't beat those two for learning structure....it's just good bones.
Reading critically is my favorite
True words!
My problem is laziness and motivation doesn't work for me. Never the less, I sort of have a first chapter which probably should be a prologue I suppose.
It's like any skill, you have to actually do it in order to improve. When I first started playing guitar, I had a horrible ear for it and my fingers were big, clumsy stumps. After twelve years of playing, I still have a horrible ear for it and my fingers are still clumsy. But less so! Small victories.
Few tips of my own for beginners like me:
1- writing sucks (accept it and deal with it)- i mean u will be faced with numerous roadblocks like "burnt out", "writers block", "sucky sucky content" ... stuff like that. Just accept it and calm down. It sucks for you bt ppl will like it. (*^o^*)
2- nobody is flash (and I mean it is a super slow process) - \(￣< ￣)> slow but steady is the winning formula.
3- take breaks from your story(this works for me): helps me to become my own critic.
Thank you sincerely for the tips. I'm at the stage of building the chapters into my first draught. The road ahead is still long and I can't express how awesome it is of you to produce these videos.😎
The biggest worry I have is my timing to market myself as a writer. Right now I'm planning a Kickstarter campaign on November 30 the year of my writing of this comment. I feel I'm shooting myself in the foot being so open here because; in order to get my work out as an indie, like yourself, I cannot raise the monetary requirements to meet what it is going to cost? Plus I don't have a network of people for which can tell me anything about my works. My debut novel is a few years off still in my planned timeline I'm working with to get it to market. Am I worrying too much about marketing myself and at the same time funding the proofing ect via crowdfunding?
This was helpful👍
Loved the Book “On Writing” by Stephen King!
I suspect that I'm reasonably unique, as I'm writing my debut novel but I have barely read any books (prose) whatsoever. Instead, I have a long background as a lyricist, and I have probably watched a lot more movies and series than most people.
when will the subtitles come ? its not like i dont follow you, but subtitles help me better.
In the SMU Writer's Path program, they have had us focus on Christopher Vogler's book The Writer's Journey, based on Joseph Campbell's Heroes Journey. It is not meant to write with a formula, but rather to ensure that all the proper elements of a story are included in your work. I highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to take their fiction writing up several levels. Without the 12 elements of story, you don't have one. It's that simple. Ordinary world, Call to action. Refusal. Meeting with the Mentor. Crossing the Threshold. Tests, Allies and Enemies. Approaching the Innermost Cave. Supreme Ordeal. Reward. Road Back. Resurrection. Return with the Elixir. Look at the essence of any successful story and they will have these 12 components every single time. The one exception may be TLOTR. You won't find any other historical or modern successful movie or book that doesn't have these elements. And to make your writing better, you need them, too. --Donny, the grammaticartist
You said I should try using writing prompts, if I want to save my biggest and best idea for later. Do you know how I could get my hands on some that someone else has created specifically for this, or will I need to make these myself? BTW, thank you so much for doing what you do, this content has DEFINITELY helped me in planning my first novel. Tho I liked your old style of video over this one. IDK. It has a kind of charm to it.
The Dark Troodon Tumblr has great options for writing prompts of all types. A fav of mine is themoderntypewriter I believe that is the screen name.
There's a section in write or die specifically for creating random prompts
Watch a movie called Finding Forrester.
Try www.seventhsanctum.com for prompts :)
Do you have any practical tips for improving my writing? Specifically grammar and punctuation for writing fiction. You see I'm not a native English speaker, so I often do things by 'feel' rather than knowledge of proper sentence structure and such. Yet I still want to write in English because I read and write almost exclusively in that language (Terms like passive voice or stuff like that is more difficult to recognise for someone like me)
English handbook and study guide ( it has a yellow-red cover). It starts from the basics (clauses/punctuation) and goes on to give definitions of all techniques (metaphors, irony...). My teacher would tell us (native english speakers) to go read that if we didn't know what terminology or rules she quoted. It is also designed to teach young children so it's easy to understand. After that there are a ton of theory books on developing characters, plot... Mixture of reading and diligent practice should make you wholly fluent and flexible. My teacher would call writing a "craft" in which one can improve and learn.
I read some of your book. I found that you used those words ending in "ed" that you suggested not to use...? Maybe I misunderstood your "29 words" video?
Great video as always!!! Unfortunately I don't have any tips to provide but I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to find my writing voice, this is my first dive into writing and I feel like my first few chapters sound like a knock off version of Robert Jordan as I am currently reading the Wheel of Time books. Please let me know if anyone has experienced something similar or if there is a way I can strengthen my own voice, Thanks!
Hi, Tyler! I have a suggestion. I don't know if you're writing in the first or third person, but am going to presume you're planning to write in the third. After a handful of years writing, I recently devised a method that I haven't seen proposed before. Since too much of my own voice has been coming through in my writing, which tends to be overly formal (never ending sentences in prepositions sounds uptight, yet that is me), I tried dictating scenes in the first person, transcribing them in the first person, and then editing them into the third.
Just for an example, I just grabbed my phone and blurted something out, and then transcribed:
"I ran my hand through my hair, and cringed at the grit. Why the hell had I agreed to spend a week in this godforsaken hellhole of a desert? I don't know if any man could really be worth such punishing heat, but at least the sight of his shirtless chest was a nice treat."
And then I edited that to third person:
"She ran her hand through her hair, and cringed at the grit. Why the hell had she agreed to spent a week in that godforsaken hellhole of a desert? She don't know if any man could really be worth such punishing heat, but at least the sight of his shirtless chest was a nice treat."
So rather than *my* voice, this is the voice of a character I've been working on for a novel three or so out from the one I'm currently finishing. Now I have something to work with, and since I spoke it aloud first, it sounds correct to the ear. This is just something I've been starting to do, and it's actually making my writing go a lot faster.
If you've done and video on it, apologies. But, can you do one on research? When is enough, enough? I have an idea about a particular occupation, yet I know nothing about it, and I don't think there's much material written about it, I can barely define what the job title is, except as soon as I say what the aim of that job is, everyone knows it. Point, how do you research something that has little to nothing on it? Cheers.
Any thoughts on CreateSpace?
Hi Vivien! Great content as always, thank you. Question? How do I start the Beta process?
Find a bunch of money and start paying people. I kid! I kid. Well, slightly. Finding betas is very difficult unless you already have a large following. What genre do you write? Are you willing to beta in return for someone? My suggestion is to try to find someone who needs a beta as well, and to go through a chapter or so per night. If you're interested, I'm currently looking for some betas for my newest book, and I'm willing to beta in return.
A little easy reading is a lot of hard work.
Would you advise to take a writing course at a community college? What would you suggest other than reading?
Is reading TV tropes a bad idea
0:35 plug :D
why no captions on your videos :(
Great suggestion! I'll look into adding them for you!
i never read a single novel in my life.
i'm starting now just to know how to write a good novel.
Did you lose your old mic? The audio quality seems worse from a year ago?
Getting a mic boom stand soon--same camera but different setup decreased my audio quality >.< Also, make sure your video quality is on 1080. Mine automatically loads my videos (but no one else's) in 480 and it's horrible!
Why don't you have more views and comments!!
Can I buy you a mic. Echo :/
The Lawyer's copy rights and content writing services the following link for the
You finally said havn't already instead of already haven't. Phew. That's a weight off my chest.
...or torrent books...
I am about to publish my first book in September 1 2021. "Nicholas270: Saint and Santa" and I have found this site valuable. Another VERY good source "Abbie Emmons".
we're all just assholes talking to a camera.
Feminist Myths
What if our lives are just some movie specific to us
Need sound baffling in your room. You have way too much reverb.
she is too beautiful for me to listen to her anything saying but only look at her
But I don't like to read
SotraEngine4 then you definitely can't be a writer.
Great tips! btw, Are you a christian?
Christopher Rasmussen does it matter
Of course. We want the best for our fellow humans. Have you surrendered to Jesus?
Christopher Rasmussen i do like fantasy books but not that much
Allright:) have a good one though
Are you atheist? We want the best for our fellow humans. Have you surrendered to common sense and science?
Thank You!