"KILL YOUR DARLINGS" | a Project ☠️☠️ Draft 5 writing vlog | trying to hit industry standard wc
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- Опубліковано 23 вер 2023
- Y'alllllllll, I'm chiseling away at this story! The goal is 100,000 words in Project ☠️☠️ to keep it within "industry standard." And since last draft I was waaaaaaay above that, it's time to learn how to kill my darlings.
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Do you have a podcast or craft book or interview with an author on revision that you really enjoyed or taught you a lot? (I'll have a lot of time on the road! Bahaha.)
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If it makes you feel better, when the book reaches its 10th anniversary, you can release the full complete version as a celebration gift 😂😅 so you're only kxlling them for now 😭
😂😂 I do love that idea!!
The timing of this video couldn’t be better. I cut my book from 140k to 120k and came to the realization I have to kill one more of my darlings to get it down more.He’s been there since the beginning and I love him but during beta reads and critique, no one EVER mentions him, so that tells me he’s the one to go.
Ooooh, that’s a great interpretation of the feedback!! Sending you all the good luck on killing if your darling. We got this!
I always worry that the darling that I need to kill is the story concept itself 😭🤣 Just gotta run with it, perfectionism be damned! So glad you are feeling a bit better about the industry standardization of it! You've got this!
Ahahaha, I totally know what you mean. I've had that with stories before too! Like "is this just not working because of X or Y or because it CAN'T work or because *I* can't make it work??" The struggles of a writer!! Totally agree with pushing through to the end and ignoring our inner critic. It's amazing what we can actually see once the draft is DONE done.
And thank youuuu!
(Is it weird that as a Brit, I loved seeing the kettle in action?) Killing your darlings is the worst thing! So many beloved scenes or pieces of dialogue gone, for the greater good of the novel. It gets easier.
Thank you for this!!! I’ve been hoping for it to get easier, and you’re totally right, it is, just slowly bahaha.
And definitely enjoying more of a ~tea season~ now bahaha.
Girl, I'm going to have to have a 10k day every day between now and the end of our retreat to finish this damn book. I am however, very excited to get my hot little hands on project death so I can spend some more time with Tuovi!
Killing your darlings is so hard! Especially when you're proud of it, but it has no purpose or it doesn't work in the story. I let myself write all the tangents I want in my zero draft knowing I'll delete them later and it's so sad. Could always be bonus content for after publishing though.
I'm glad to see it's not just me that hesitates for several minutes if not hours or longer before deleting words from the manuscript draft.
To this day, the biggest surprise while revising, is how much of there it is. I always think "this is the time it's perfect from the get-go", but inevitably I always end up changing the story in some fundamental way. And it always ends up better in the end. But, oh, is it still painful to do 😅
Your vlogs always inspire me! Thank you for that.
Aww I’m so glad!! 💜💜
I’m such an underwriter. This is really impressive! So glad to see you tackle Draft 5.1 of Project Death. I do know that killing your darlings can be difficult, though!
I really enjoyed this vlog. I find it fascinating. I’m the opposite where I’m aging in subplots and things, stretching out the word count in my 6th draft of my middle grade horror. Got some agent feedback I’m employing, so fingers crossed. I’m really liking this new version.
AHHH I LOVE THAT LAURA! So glad you received helpful feedback and that you're loving the new version you're creating. It's funny how many changes are still possible, even deeper into the number of drafts we've written.
Good job! ✨
What a crazy concept!!! I love my darlings T___T
Oooo I’m going to become one of those people on the internet who give unsolicited advice and I kinda hate myself for it. But every time I see your desk set up it makes my eye twitch. Especially because I know you’ve been having problems with your wrist and migraines. You need to switch around your screens and change the position of stuff on your desk 🙈
I just reached the halfway point of my WIP...and I'm at the word count goal for the whole novel. 🤦 This video gave me hope for future drafts! 😂 Thanks for shsharing.
I had that happen to me as well, goal was 40,000 cuz I was rewriting a novella from year's ago, and that had been 35,000. I thought 40,000 was a reasonable goal to reach for. The draft ended up being 75,000
3:00 Nice shot of your breakfast/workspace!
I don't kill them. I just rehome them in a file on the desktop. They get used in other places in the book.
Bahaha, I'll have to start using "rehome" too!
I'm writing a story about heroes who transform into magical knights. My original idea was to start with a pair of twins who gain their powers together and have three more knights join the group for their own reasons. But then I thought "do I need five?" I do want at least three knights... maybe I'll introduce a third knight halfway through and make a "season 2" where two more knights join.
If you get any good recs, please let us know! Revision is the hardest part for me!
I totally will!
Revision and self-editing for publication by James Scott Bell.
I love Bell's numerous writing books.
We all write in boundaries. So that sounds like the problem here. A first book deal is usually limited to only about 365 pages. There are 4 quadrants in evert story. That's about 91 pages for act 1, and act 3, double that for act 2. Each quadrant has about 6 chapters in it and so forth. So, each chapter has an average of about 15 pages etc., but many are longer others shorter depending on importance to the story, same with scene lengths, that is a best way to start planning to avoid over writing etc... There is only so many pages to work in between these boundaries.
Hey! Try Refuse to be done by Matt Bell for some revision advice! :)
you look so gorgeous with makeup on
Aww thanks, I was feeling a little mascara!
I have been scared to even try to write my first novel. I wish you all the luck in the world. Would love to read the book when its done.
Ooooh, please don't be scared! I know that's easier to request than put into action, but the world wants your story. The more novels, the better. :) Are you worried about it not coming out as perfect as you imagine it in your head? Or do you know if there's a particular thing sort of driving that fear??
@@KateCavanaugh I am worried that my story will be too long.
Did you get your keyboard from Amazon? I've been wanting one like that
I have trouble making my stories lengthy enough. I can't imagine ever having to kill any darlings, because there aren't enough to kill, lol. Can any of you relate to this struggle?
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The podcast “How Do Write” hosted by Rachael Herron. Episode 108 is about revision.
Jessica Brody has a nice revision course on her writing mastery platform, only $15 a month and you can unsubscribe at any time
I noticed lots of running around here and there, without actually advancing the plot or developing the characters. Even when I thought I wasn't doing that, I was.
Yeah, I've heard people say that a scene should always be serving two goals, whether that's advancing the plot, developing the characters, expanding the world, increasing tension, etc. Always pick two. Maybe that would be a good thing for me to check in each scene with my story too!
0:34 You mean decrease?
Actually increase! The last draft (4) concluded at ~80K words and I wanted to get it up to 100K. But my dumb self didn’t realize that fixing the stressy messiness of it all would naturally increase the word count, so when I set out in Draft 5 with an interpretation to increase the words, I went WAY overboard.
So for 5.1, I’m definitely DECREASING now bahaha.
i saw this on your livestream with Jess but the video is gone and I can't stop being upset by it - the phrase "delulu" is extremely ableist and rude to people with psychosis and other such disorders and when you left that comment on screen for multiple minutes it made me really uncomfortable and made me feel extremely unsafe and unwelcome as a disabled person in your community. "Delulu" makes fun of delusions, makes fun of psychosis, makes fun of hallucinations, which are all a big deal for people who have these disorders and to accept and laugh at that joke just... really really rubbed me the wrong way. I doubt you knew any of this. It's a fucking TikTok phrase, after all. But I just. I had to say something. For myself.