I'm doing the exact same thing!! I've been working on a book for two years. I'm working on Draft 4 this summer, then I'm hoping to send it to beta readers in the fall (fingers crossed). I've written fifty pages in eleven days, it's been absolutely crazy. I'm so determined to be DONE with the book by the end of the year lol. Also my book playlist is actually just Taylor Swift...
Fifty pages in eleven days? That’s amazing! ☺️👏🏻 Feel free to reach out when you’re done with draft 4. If I have time between clients, I’d love to beta read your book. And I don’t think I’ve ever had a writing playlist that didn’t have Taylor Swift in it. Which song has been your favorite to write to lately? ☺️
Great video. Everything you mentioned I've been doing without thought since I started writing in five years ago. All but the motivation. I get so engrossed in my manuscripts I have to pull them away. Dreams are the only way I get ideas.
@@VirtualBooklore 4 published. 2 finished just need to hit publish. 12 in a special series I've written are in final stages. I wanted to change things up. The series wouldn't be fair released individually, hence all at once. The other two are a strategy to see if quick releasing helps. Gonna take a holiday on a beach somewhere after this and sip cocktails lol.
Writing my first book. Its a hopefully cute historic romance and its the first time I've got this far with writing (I have some other ideas I've dabbled with but I guess I let the inner critic stop me..for some reason I've been able to finally side step it at every stage this time). I would like to finish the first draft by August if I can, but the gods love to laugh at my plans so we'll see how we go 😅 I have the beginnings of an idea for another book brewing in my head too so it'd be nice ti start planning that once the first draft of my WIP is done.
That’s so exciting! 🤗 Sometimes you have to come up with or even drafting a few book ideas before you get THE idea that you’re excited about enough to sit at the computer/in front of a notebook for hours and write. So happy for you that your story came to you! Keep us updated on how writing is going 😉📖
Yes Tokio Hotel!!! Their vibes were immaculate 🤌 good luck with finishing the novel! This inspired me to set my "finish date" (for the first draft) also in August. 💕
Yesss, girl! I'm also on a mission to finish my book by the end of August! Deadlines can be suuuper important for writers haha Good luck to you in this endeavor, we've both got this! 😁
I'm working on a New Adult dual pov fantasy novel about a prince and a princess going to look for a legendary artifact that is said can grant any wish made with it. They are lying to each other saying they're looking for it to stop the decaying of their land, but in reality, they're only doing it for themselves. For now, until that decision affects them.
I love the adventure aspect + the fact that they’re deceiving each other. The drama! And writing a dual POV must be so much fun because the reader ends up knowing what the characters are up to as the characters slowly figure it out. Definitely a book I would read! ☺️
HI!! Super glad to come across your video...I am also working on a manuscript/full draft of my first book--non fiction and about self-health!! I have a lot to learn about writing discipline but Ive recently defined the small steps for progress and have an accountability club to keep be going!
Hi Emile 👋 Congratulations on finding a book idea that you’re passionate about and for finding a community that helps you keep yourself accountable. That’s amazing! How far along into the writing process are you? ☺️ I’ve been writing my book for years and I’m still learning new things about the art of storytelling every day. That’s honestly half the fun of being writer ✍️
@@VirtualBooklore It's a little embarrassing but I am still at the early research stages to study similar themes and what has been said/mentioned/explored about the topic...so that I can later create a unique thesis to guide my writing. Usually once I have a great and original idea, it serves as the main motor to plan out all the rest of headings, outline and content.
Wow! I finally encountered someone else who knows Tokio Hotel! I also found them in my teens! I'm working on a story whose idea came to me in a dream, lol. I've never plotted before, and am trying it for the first time. So far it's taking me forever to get it all laid out. I guess it'll get better with practice. All the other stories I started with no plan, got stuck eventually, and I never finished them after yeaarrrs! Three months sounds like a good amount of time if you know where you want it to go. :)
I don’t come across many people who know the band in real life, but I definitely do online ✌🏻☺️ Have you tried writing out an outline? That usually helps me. I also recently read a writing guide that teaches you how to write a book starting from the middle of the story (it sounded kind of strange to me when I first heard the concept, but it actually makes a lot of sense). Maybe I should test it out and do a video on it, in case it helps you or anyone else with the brainstorming/drafting process 🤔
@@VirtualBooklore Glad to know someone else who liked them :) I'm trying outlining now, and I've read about the snowflake method, and save the cat (recent reads). So it's coming along! I just need to start writing, and that should help work out some issues I'm having. Writing from the middle sounds really interesting! Worth a try, for sure!
Love these suggestions. I've been using the playlist thing to get me back into my story too. I'm 2/3 through the second draft and it's been a slog. The music definitely helped. I'm on the third book of my YA Contemporary Fantasy series right now.
Music is such a great way to immerse yourself in a scene/the story you're writing. By the way, I see that your Moose Cove Coven series is set in Maine. I love Maine! I will definitely have to check out your books and see if you mention any of the towns I've visited :)
Stumbled upon your video and subscribed after watching because I have a similar goal for the next few months! 😊 Wishing you all the luck to make your deadline! 💪
I'm so happy to have you here, Stephanie 😃 I'm filming a new writing vlog this week and I can't wait to hear about your progress/writing wins in the comments!
Love this video. So much good information. I don’t want to be annoying but I think the sound might be a bit over exposed on some levels as the “s” sounds peek a lot ☺️❤ Mabye check for this is the future. (Or it might just be me..)
So happy that it was helpful! ☺️ And thank you for the letting me know about the sound. I was using iPhone audio, but next time I’ll use a mic instead. Hopefully that will solve the problem ☺️
It's a blessing and a curse. I will be entering the "curse" phase in a few weeks when I have to figure out how to cut 50,000 + words from my novel (which is pretty much a novel in and of itself) 😅
Hi! New sub here 😄🙋🏼♀️ Your book sounds interesting and I know I am gonna binge watch all your videos 😂 Ah I loved Tokio Hotel too when I was younger and had a huge crush on Tom 😅🩷 Love from Finland 🇫🇮
Welcome 🤗 I’ve never been to Finland (unless you count my layovers at an airport in Helsinki ✈️) but I’d love to visit and explore the country soon! Love Tokio Hotel 💓 I was always going between Tom and Bill and could never decide which twin I liked more 😅 Hope you enjoy my content. I’m editing a new video this weekend, so stay tuned :)
I've been working on a book for 4 years now but I never got the first draft completed (tbf a lot of things were going on in my life). It's a sci-fi (technically?) but it doesn't have the typical elements of that genre, but it is set in a very scientific setting and has a lot of scientist characters so...😂 I could only take part in Nanowrimo 2020, and I still can't work on it consistently. The more time that passes when I don't work on it, the more anxious I become to write something down. I tend to spend lota if time in the meta, and not the actual narrative, and guilt myself for not having finished it in the past few years. I could have gone through so many drafts, a finished, polished novel. Time doesn't wait for anyone, does it?
As someone who has been working on a novel in spurts with pretty significant breaks in-between, I can totally relate! I think it's important to remember though that every bit of brainstorming you do and every bit you write down, whether it's a line of dialogue, an opening paragraph, or some bullet points detailing what a chapter will be about, matters. Every one of those things is a small step toward a bigger goal. Time sure flies, but I think that it's never too late to gather all of those ideas and chapters you've written and complete a draft. All the best! 😃
I picked up scrivener to keep myself organized, but not having a phone app makes me frustrated. I have a couple word docs I'm using for notes and outlines and reference photos, but honestly that's frustrating too. I thought about using Notion or maybe Milanote, i want something that will sync between devices, any suggestions?
I’ve tried Scrivener in the past. I know that it works for a lot of people, but personally, it was too “busy” for me and I couldn’t focus while using it. I have heard a lot of great things about Notion. I have plans to try it out myself, specially for organizing my writing. I’d be happy to make a video on my experience if you’d like ☺️ Other than that, I’ve been relying on the most basic tools like Excel spreadsheets, Dropbox, and the trusty Notes app on my phone.
@@VirtualBooklore I have a free computer program called fantasia archive that's meant to be used for fantasy world building, but it's even busier than scrivner so I haven't used it much... I feel silly in a way, like I'm expecting a computer program to read my mind. 😆 But once I get to the halfway point, there's so many notes on world building, minor characters, locations, and scenes, plus variations of scenes that I changed to fit a new plot thread. It starts to feel overwhelming. If you do try out Notion, I'd love a video on the way you use it.
@@VirtualBooklore Awesome! Let me know what you think. (I also binged S3 P2 on release day - it was my reward for finishing the draft of the chapter I was working on).
Hi! I'm a new writer and trying to get into it, I want to publish a book of a story I wanted to tell for a long time. Wish me luck, and good luck to you as well. Let's create stories together.
Hi! It’d be easier to give you advice if I saw the manuscript, but generally, I would say that if there is a major cliffhanger or a significant shift at the midpoint of the book, it would make sense to break it into two books. As long as both books feel like complete stories with conflict, rising tension, resolution, and character growth, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Hope that helps! ☺️
Is a duology/trilogy an idea? Is that a possible thing for a debut author? If you can cut down a lot, sure, but honestly, to me that doesn't always work, because you put down those words in the first place for a reason. I personally am not a fan of deleting a whole lot, because you might delete the small secenes and conversations that add just this realness and depth to it that would be a shame if it were gone.
It’s best to query one book at a time, especially as a debut author. But you’re so right about the importance of not stripping the story down too much. I have some strategies in terms of cutting down the word count that I’ll share in a future video. I’ll probably also end up moving a few plot lines over to book 2 (plan to start working on book 2 as soon as I send book 1 out to agents for consideration) ☺️
I'd recommend getting a new microphone, the vocals in this video were really sharp and it was hard to listen to this, but your voice and commentary on the video were beautiful otherwise.
Hi! Thank you for the feedback. I learned my lesson - don’t rely on iPhone audio. Will do my best to keep improving the quality of my content as time goes on 😊
Hi! 👋 I’m sure people have used programs like ChatGPT to write books. Personally, I don’t because there is no personal achievement in having a computer write a book for you.
@@VirtualBooklore Yes , they used chatgpt to write book then sell it on amazon , but all respect to you , where l can find or buy the books you wrote ? Can l find digital version of the books you wrote such as pdf ? All respect to you ♥️ Thank you very much for your kind answer ♥️
Do you have a * work-in-progress * ? Let’s hear more about it so we can all support each other in the comments 💓📖 ieva xx
Yup ❤
I'm doing the exact same thing!! I've been working on a book for two years. I'm working on Draft 4 this summer, then I'm hoping to send it to beta readers in the fall (fingers crossed). I've written fifty pages in eleven days, it's been absolutely crazy. I'm so determined to be DONE with the book by the end of the year lol. Also my book playlist is actually just Taylor Swift...
Fifty pages in eleven days? That’s amazing! ☺️👏🏻 Feel free to reach out when you’re done with draft 4. If I have time between clients, I’d love to beta read your book.
And I don’t think I’ve ever had a writing playlist that didn’t have Taylor Swift in it. Which song has been your favorite to write to lately? ☺️
thats amazing!
Great video. Everything you mentioned I've been doing without thought since I started writing in five years ago. All but the motivation. I get so engrossed in my manuscripts I have to pull them away. Dreams are the only way I get ideas.
So glad you enjoyed the video ☺️ How many manuscripts have you completed?
@@VirtualBooklore 4 published. 2 finished just need to hit publish. 12 in a special series I've written are in final stages. I wanted to change things up. The series wouldn't be fair released individually, hence all at once. The other two are a strategy to see if quick releasing helps. Gonna take a holiday on a beach somewhere after this and sip cocktails lol.
Writing my first book. Its a hopefully cute historic romance and its the first time I've got this far with writing (I have some other ideas I've dabbled with but I guess I let the inner critic stop me..for some reason I've been able to finally side step it at every stage this time). I would like to finish the first draft by August if I can, but the gods love to laugh at my plans so we'll see how we go 😅 I have the beginnings of an idea for another book brewing in my head too so it'd be nice ti start planning that once the first draft of my WIP is done.
That’s so exciting! 🤗 Sometimes you have to come up with or even drafting a few book ideas before you get THE idea that you’re excited about enough to sit at the computer/in front of a notebook for hours and write. So happy for you that your story came to you! Keep us updated on how writing is going 😉📖
Yes Tokio Hotel!!! Their vibes were immaculate 🤌 good luck with finishing the novel! This inspired me to set my "finish date" (for the first draft) also in August. 💕
That’s amazing, I’m so excited for you! 🤗 What kind of novel are you working on?
Tokio Hotel have so many good songs. Pure nostalgia ☺️ 🎶
Yesss, girl! I'm also on a mission to finish my book by the end of August! Deadlines can be suuuper important for writers haha
Good luck to you in this endeavor, we've both got this! 😁
Thank you so much! Best of luck to you too 💓
I am finishing my young adult fantasy manuscript in this time frame too!
That’s amazing, Catherine! ☺️ Fantasy is such a fun genre to write.
I spent 6 months outlining my novel. In now 70,000 words in, I can’t wait to be finished 🥲
I'm working on a New Adult dual pov fantasy novel about a prince and a princess going to look for a legendary artifact that is said can grant any wish made with it. They are lying to each other saying they're looking for it to stop the decaying of their land, but in reality, they're only doing it for themselves. For now, until that decision affects them.
I love the adventure aspect + the fact that they’re deceiving each other. The drama! And writing a dual POV must be so much fun because the reader ends up knowing what the characters are up to as the characters slowly figure it out. Definitely a book I would read! ☺️
HI!! Super glad to come across your video...I am also working on a manuscript/full draft of my first book--non fiction and about self-health!! I have a lot to learn about writing discipline but Ive recently defined the small steps for progress and have an accountability club to keep be going!
Hi Emile 👋 Congratulations on finding a book idea that you’re passionate about and for finding a community that helps you keep yourself accountable. That’s amazing! How far along into the writing process are you? ☺️
I’ve been writing my book for years and I’m still learning new things about the art of storytelling every day. That’s honestly half the fun of being writer ✍️
@@VirtualBooklore It's a little embarrassing but I am still at the early research stages to study similar themes and what has been said/mentioned/explored about the topic...so that I can later create a unique thesis to guide my writing. Usually once I have a great and original idea, it serves as the main motor to plan out all the rest of headings, outline and content.
Love hearing that you completed your first draft during Nano! I'm getting ready to participate in July's Nano challenge!
NaNoWriMo is so much ! Best of luck if you do decide to participate in July 🤗
Wow! I finally encountered someone else who knows Tokio Hotel! I also found them in my teens!
I'm working on a story whose idea came to me in a dream, lol. I've never plotted before, and am trying it for the first time. So far it's taking me forever to get it all laid out. I guess it'll get better with practice. All the other stories I started with no plan, got stuck eventually, and I never finished them after yeaarrrs!
Three months sounds like a good amount of time if you know where you want it to go. :)
I don’t come across many people who know the band in real life, but I definitely do online ✌🏻☺️
Have you tried writing out an outline? That usually helps me.
I also recently read a writing guide that teaches you how to write a book starting from the middle of the story (it sounded kind of strange to me when I first heard the concept, but it actually makes a lot of sense). Maybe I should test it out and do a video on it, in case it helps you or anyone else with the brainstorming/drafting process 🤔
@@VirtualBooklore Glad to know someone else who liked them :)
I'm trying outlining now, and I've read about the snowflake method, and save the cat (recent reads). So it's coming along! I just need to start writing, and that should help work out some issues I'm having.
Writing from the middle sounds really interesting! Worth a try, for sure!
Love these suggestions. I've been using the playlist thing to get me back into my story too. I'm 2/3 through the second draft and it's been a slog. The music definitely helped. I'm on the third book of my YA Contemporary Fantasy series right now.
Music is such a great way to immerse yourself in a scene/the story you're writing.
By the way, I see that your Moose Cove Coven series is set in Maine. I love Maine! I will definitely have to check out your books and see if you mention any of the towns I've visited :)
Stumbled upon your video and subscribed after watching because I have a similar goal for the next few months! 😊 Wishing you all the luck to make your deadline! 💪
I'm so happy to have you here, Stephanie 😃 I'm filming a new writing vlog this week and I can't wait to hear about your progress/writing wins in the comments!
@@VirtualBooklore I can't wait to watch it! 😊
Love this video. So much good information.
I don’t want to be annoying but I think the sound might be a bit over exposed on some levels as the “s” sounds peek a lot ☺️❤ Mabye check for this is the future.
(Or it might just be me..)
So happy that it was helpful! ☺️
And thank you for the letting me know about the sound. I was using iPhone audio, but next time I’ll use a mic instead. Hopefully that will solve the problem ☺️
Gurl you are an overwriter as underwriter I am so impressed 🤣🤣🤣🤣
It's a blessing and a curse. I will be entering the "curse" phase in a few weeks when I have to figure out how to cut 50,000 + words from my novel (which is pretty much a novel in and of itself) 😅
Hi! New sub here 😄🙋🏼♀️ Your book sounds interesting and I know I am gonna binge watch all your videos 😂 Ah I loved Tokio Hotel too when I was younger and had a huge crush on Tom 😅🩷 Love from Finland 🇫🇮
Welcome 🤗 I’ve never been to Finland (unless you count my layovers at an airport in Helsinki ✈️) but I’d love to visit and explore the country soon!
Love Tokio Hotel 💓 I was always going between Tom and Bill and could never decide which twin I liked more 😅
Hope you enjoy my content. I’m editing a new video this weekend, so stay tuned :)
Very happy to have discovered your channel. Subbed.
Hi! Glad to have you here. And I just subbed back 😊
Good luck with your book.
Thank you! ☺️
Subscribed because we have the same goal this summer :)
I’m so happy to see so many writers doing their thing this summer! ☀️✍️ How is writing going?
I've been working on a book for 4 years now but I never got the first draft completed (tbf a lot of things were going on in my life). It's a sci-fi (technically?) but it doesn't have the typical elements of that genre, but it is set in a very scientific setting and has a lot of scientist characters so...😂 I could only take part in Nanowrimo 2020, and I still can't work on it consistently. The more time that passes when I don't work on it, the more anxious I become to write something down. I tend to spend lota if time in the meta, and not the actual narrative, and guilt myself for not having finished it in the past few years. I could have gone through so many drafts, a finished, polished novel. Time doesn't wait for anyone, does it?
As someone who has been working on a novel in spurts with pretty significant breaks in-between, I can totally relate! I think it's important to remember though that every bit of brainstorming you do and every bit you write down, whether it's a line of dialogue, an opening paragraph, or some bullet points detailing what a chapter will be about, matters. Every one of those things is a small step toward a bigger goal. Time sure flies, but I think that it's never too late to gather all of those ideas and chapters you've written and complete a draft. All the best! 😃
I picked up scrivener to keep myself organized, but not having a phone app makes me frustrated.
I have a couple word docs I'm using for notes and outlines and reference photos, but honestly that's frustrating too. I thought about using Notion or maybe Milanote, i want something that will sync between devices, any suggestions?
I’ve tried Scrivener in the past. I know that it works for a lot of people, but personally, it was too “busy” for me and I couldn’t focus while using it. I have heard a lot of great things about Notion. I have plans to try it out myself, specially for organizing my writing. I’d be happy to make a video on my experience if you’d like ☺️
Other than that, I’ve been relying on the most basic tools like Excel spreadsheets, Dropbox, and the trusty Notes app on my phone.
@@VirtualBooklore I have a free computer program called fantasia archive that's meant to be used for fantasy world building, but it's even busier than scrivner so I haven't used it much...
I feel silly in a way, like I'm expecting a computer program to read my mind. 😆
But once I get to the halfway point, there's so many notes on world building, minor characters, locations, and scenes, plus variations of scenes that I changed to fit a new plot thread. It starts to feel overwhelming.
If you do try out Notion, I'd love a video on the way you use it.
Please tell me you've watched Lockwood & Co! It's in your genre and adapted from the first two books of a book series.
I haven’t-yet! But now that I binged Bridgerton s3 p2 I need a new show to watch, so I’ll definitely check it out this weekend. Thank you! 🤗
@@VirtualBooklore Awesome! Let me know what you think. (I also binged S3 P2 on release day - it was my reward for finishing the draft of the chapter I was working on).
Hi! I'm a new writer and trying to get into it, I want to publish a book of a story I wanted to tell for a long time. Wish me luck, and good luck to you as well. Let's create stories together.
I’m so excited for you! The world always needs new stories ☺️ Happy writing, and thank you for taking the time to watch my video 🫶
Would you consider turning the 140,000 words into a duo-logy?
Hi! It’d be easier to give you advice if I saw the manuscript, but generally, I would say that if there is a major cliffhanger or a significant shift at the midpoint of the book, it would make sense to break it into two books. As long as both books feel like complete stories with conflict, rising tension, resolution, and character growth, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Hope that helps! ☺️
Is a duology/trilogy an idea? Is that a possible thing for a debut author? If you can cut down a lot, sure, but honestly, to me that doesn't always work, because you put down those words in the first place for a reason. I personally am not a fan of deleting a whole lot, because you might delete the small secenes and conversations that add just this realness and depth to it that would be a shame if it were gone.
It’s best to query one book at a time, especially as a debut author. But you’re so right about the importance of not stripping the story down too much. I have some strategies in terms of cutting down the word count that I’ll share in a future video. I’ll probably also end up moving a few plot lines over to book 2 (plan to start working on book 2 as soon as I send book 1 out to agents for consideration) ☺️
I'd recommend getting a new microphone, the vocals in this video were really sharp and it was hard to listen to this, but your voice and commentary on the video were beautiful otherwise.
Hi! Thank you for the feedback. I learned my lesson - don’t rely on iPhone audio. Will do my best to keep improving the quality of my content as time goes on 😊
Why l write book in 3 months ? Chatgpt can write book about any topic in days
Hi! 👋 I’m sure people have used programs like ChatGPT to write books. Personally, I don’t because there is no personal achievement in having a computer write a book for you.
@@VirtualBooklore Yes , they used chatgpt to write book then sell it on amazon , but all respect to you , where l can find or buy the books you wrote ? Can l find digital version of the books you wrote such as pdf ? All respect to you ♥️ Thank you very much for your kind answer ♥️