First of all, I loved this video, and I'm now subscribed. I recently started writing as a form of a productive escape from reality. I took literature in college and failed the creative writing and poetry not once but twice, lol. But from what I've been told, I've got a talent for it now that I have the "want" to write. I have been dumbfounded on where to start with a story so I improvised of what I know and made my own method which I recognized as "the guy who color codes his sock drawer" as you say. As I've always been analytical, and this is perhaps why I struggled with creative writing in college. Again, it's worth noting that you make great content from what I've seen so far, and it has already been exponentially useful! Thank you, brother.
@@powerthroughfocus Appreciate the support, thank you 🙂I currently do not have a Discord, no, but I am thinking about ways to increase community building opportunities. Lots of things to do though, so for now it still is limited to the videos, the posts on the channel's community wall and my newsletter. But we'll get there somehow eventually 🙂
You don't need tones of exposition at the beginning, sometimes maybe just a little is all you need if any at all, I really like the Wizard's intro at the opening of the movie Conan the Barbarian "Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!" That gives you information to find your footing as well as wets the appetite with intrigued.
These are really kind words to say - thank you. Just trying to keep learning myself (which every video forces me to do) and share whatever I can to have more people be able to tell their stories 🙂
Excellent video! I do my writing at the kitchen table with my morning coffee and on my phone in between chores and chasing offspring since I have no desk. It works though. As you say, build the habit, show up and you will finish your manuscript. :)
Great advice. My penmanship has always been very sloppy, I find it difficult to sign anything because it's always a different looking scribble. But thank you, I'm not afraid anymore of sending my manuscript to editors. They are pros and are used to reading messy handwriting all the time, I can't be so nervous about it
Great work on this video! I find it very straightforward and while everything is stuff that a lot of other people said already and nothing new in that regard. It's very easy to understand and process in the most digestible way and so on. That alone makes this video worth watching ^^. For context: I am a novice writer and the last key point brought up on self doubt is something I definitely struggle with. I lack confidence in myself and always doubt my own ability to tell a true geninue story. But after hearing you mention the whole idea of making a folder for everytime somebody says something nice or positive about your work. It made sense and was a piece of information that I actually haven't heard. Look forward to more of you're videos!!!
This is my 8th or 10th video I have watched from your channel. How are you not more popular with millions of subscribers?! Your analytical breakdown of character and world building is incredibly amazing. What books have you written? Because I want to buy them!
Thank you for the kind words. While I have written since I was a teenager, I have not published anything yet publicly. Traditional publishing has never been a goal for me, which doesn't mean I want to condemn it in general. For anyone who takes that route and it works, great. I just disliked certain aspects of it. I've always written my stories for the sake of writing not publishing. With self-publishing gaining popularity and accessibility though, and me now pursuing my creative projects full-time, I will publish a novel of mine next year for the first time. Still a bit to go until then though 🙂
I picture 'Toklien Temptation' as Tolkien literally showing up at your workspace in nothing more than some red lingerie and a feather boa as he whispers sweet nothings into your ear.
Thx Tinkerer for making the process more human and more borken down. You as well as the other Writers on YT are hidden jemstones that guide the "will-be-authors" to their goals. The advice of not overdoing the worldbuilding or at least 5min wrting each day, to make it a habit, makes sense and gives me joy to tackle it. Happy writing and see you on your next one.
I just *loooove* when people say "write every day" but don't actually clarify what they are calling writing. Are you considering working on character information/design as "writing?" Are you considering working outline or plot points as writing? coming up with setting or world-building details as writing? OOORRRRR.... Do you mean prose writing/drafting? To me there's a distinct difference between getting all the building blocks together, and doing the drafting. And nobody ever seems to like lay out a distinction. Just "write every day." I can't do that, if you mean "draft every day." I need enough... clay... gathered up to start making my sculpture (story). Ideally with some shapes and pieces already in mind. So what is "writing" in this case? What do you *actually* mean?
Considering the varied advice I tend to give, including weirder writing exercises like covered in my recent video, 'writing' for me is putting down words in any form. Outlining certainly counts, but ideally it is about regular actual prose. This doesn't have to be for the actual story though. Character interviews, character journal entries, re-writing a scene from a different POV to increase your own understanding, ... anything really. To me, the important part is to train the creative muscle to be active and productive on a regular schedule. Over time, this will naturally lead to better and more progress on the actual story as well. Unless you get lost in worldbuilders disease or other pitfalls - but that's a different story :)
Probably just actually writing your story, without the “world-building” aspect. Like write a chapter of your story, a prologue. Even if it sucks. Even if you get nowhere and have to rewrite it or place it somewhere else later on. It doesn’t matter if you create an entire universe if you can’t actually write it down. The more you write the better you get. Maybe balance worldbuilding and character building with actual writing. You can always change the writing and even the world building as your writing develops. Hope that helps.
I suggest you also search for ADHD/neurodiverse writing advices. Don't force yourself to writing, or put on guilt for not doing so. The more advices you would have in stock - the greater chances to found one that work for you. For me only body doubling is working 😢 but it is hard to do.
Building a writing habit is so hard. As a single mom, my life is a constant barrage of responsibilities and distractions. Planning ahead for anything is a nightmare. I've tried writing during those moments in between my responsibilities, but frankly, it's not for me. When I'm not "in the zone," my writing is so terrible, I immediately want to throw it out. I can't get into my characters heads and really figure out how they would act in the current scene, so I can't even do that thing you described where I outline the dialogue and events. What I've ended up doing is, once every week or two, I'll try to carve out a period at least five hours long in which I can write. I'm not always able to get that time, but when I do, my writing starts to flow faster and come out much better quality.
Love hearing your determination despite the struggles to write as consistent as you would like. That clearly shows your passion for writing in general 🙂 I actually do want to make a video about writing habits, ways to get things done in smaller pockets of free time etc. I'll try to fit that in before Christmas and who knows, maybe - if you get to check it out - there might be some ideas in there that can help you get a little bit more done 🙂
I ve written 2 walls of text in your comment section, showing a style of story I want to write but whenever I want to write everything falls flat. It’s like I need to listen to an idea and crafting it directly. Besides what story’s did you write and were can I find them? I d like to give them a read/an ear.
I appreciate the interest in my own work, but I actually haven't published anything yet. Traditional publishing was never something I even aspired for a variety of reasons but I do plan to self-publish a first novel of mine next year.
I struggle with the setting of my writing. Which is odd because I’m originally an artist, and i should be able to think of a setting, but i just get stuck, and it feels unimaginative. I can’t get a feel for where the characters are in the story. So now i use magazines, google images, and ai to give me ‘physical’ visualisation of the area the characters are occupying by a descriptive promt, and in doing that i’ve sort of alleviated a lot of energy wasted on trying to visualise the setting, and can now focus more on other things. I do this with music too, it just has to be the right music at the right pace, too fast and the love scene turns into an action scene.
I'm obviously not happy to hear that you are struggling with something, but I love to hear how you are looking for ways to spark your imagination and get through that "block". Always great to see people persevere :)
Since you’re from Germany, do you still write your books in English? Because that’s what I’m doing right now, if only for the fact that my characters talking to each other in English makes more sense in an international sci-fi setting.
I started out writing in German as a teenager but eventually began to write everything in English since it became a part of my daily life anyway (both professional and in my spare time). Also, I do prefer the nuances of English over German, especially in storytelling :)
@@TheTaleTinkerer Thanks for your response! It’s similar for me - the fantasy story I used to work on I began in German, then shifted to English for my current sci-fi WIP; if I ever go back to the fantasy story, I’m probably going to rewrite it in English, since the German version is essentially still Dungeons & Dragons fan fiction. 😂 Plus, the fantasy story’s theme emerged from the story over time, so now it has a bunch of loose ends that are about somewhat different themes. The sci-fi story began with the theme, so it’s much more streamlined, and I made progress on it much faster. In short, if I go back to fantasy one day, I have at least three reasons for a complete rewrite - the most important one being the opportunity to write it in a “top-down” manner, starting with the theme, since this is working quite well for the sci-fi WIP. And while I’m at it, just like with the sci-fi story, might as well write the whole fantasy story in English, too.
The newsletter doesn't seem to work, "Sorry, but we couldn't connect to the MailPoet server. Please refresh the web page and try again." Refresh doesn't help.
I just tried again, and everything worked fine. Also saw other people sign up during the last 24h. Might have been a temporary hiccup on your end or their servers as I cannot find any issues right now. Sorry for the inconveniences.
Let me quickly copy a reply I wrote to someone else just recently: "While I have written since I was a teenager, I have not published anything yet publicly. Traditional publishing has never been a goal for me, which doesn't mean I want to condemn it in general. For anyone who takes that route and it works, great. I just disliked certain aspects of it. I've always written my stories for the sake of writing not publishing. With self-publishing gaining popularity and accessibility though, and me now pursuing my creative projects full-time, I will publish a novel of mine next year for the first time. Still a bit to go until then though 🙂"
I have plenty of time to write, I just don't have a house that has power for more than a few hours a day. Its been 2 weeks and I still don't know what is causing it. Untill that gets fixed I have to prioritize what gets powered and my gaming laptop does not make that list.
Thank you. I just hope I live long enough to fix it. Theres a racsim riot happening where I live tonight so its hard to stay postive with all this death and destruction happening all over the UK.
I think the idea of writing a journal entry for one of my characters is interesting, but personally I have a rule that I do not know what any of my characters think, it's a rule that helps me personally tremendously
@@minedantaken1684 It requires me to work harder, It requires me to get inside of my characters heads from an outside observers standpoint, And I think it helps me keep my text "alive" In that I don't understand literally every part of it, if that makes any sense
@@treadmillgaming5963 I'm not sure if it does, but it certainly is something to consider as an extra layer. You know what the character seems like from the outside and then You can peel back the layers untill You hit the core
Find even more storytelling and fantasy writing advice in this playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLDpOcpMPZP3D-KapKbtwA5mjPlEon9rad.html
subscribed
First of all, I loved this video, and I'm now subscribed. I recently started writing as a form of a productive escape from reality. I took literature in college and failed the creative writing and poetry not once but twice, lol. But from what I've been told, I've got a talent for it now that I have the "want" to write. I have been dumbfounded on where to start with a story so I improvised of what I know and made my own method which I recognized as "the guy who color codes his sock drawer" as you say. As I've always been analytical, and this is perhaps why I struggled with creative writing in college. Again, it's worth noting that you make great content from what I've seen so far, and it has already been exponentially useful! Thank you, brother.
Your passion is contagious. I really appreciate your wisdom. Do you have a discord? I’d join, even if you are an alliance supporter.. 😊
@@powerthroughfocus Appreciate the support, thank you 🙂I currently do not have a Discord, no, but I am thinking about ways to increase community building opportunities.
Lots of things to do though, so for now it still is limited to the videos, the posts on the channel's community wall and my newsletter.
But we'll get there somehow eventually 🙂
You don't need tones of exposition at the beginning, sometimes maybe just a little is all you need if any at all, I really like the Wizard's intro at the opening of the movie Conan the Barbarian "Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, Conan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Aquilonia upon a troubled brow. It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!" That gives you information to find your footing as well as wets the appetite with intrigued.
Omg that PH tip so good! Definitely using that for my next story
I can see you as a modern day gold standard story telling teacher. Keep the good work.
These are really kind words to say - thank you. Just trying to keep learning myself (which every video forces me to do) and share whatever I can to have more people be able to tell their stories 🙂
“Celebrate the act of creation, not the quality of each word” great advice! The entire video is extremely helpful. Thank you!!
I'm glad to hear there was something useful for you in the video :-)
Excellent video! I do my writing at the kitchen table with my morning coffee and on my phone in between chores and chasing offspring since I have no desk. It works though. As you say, build the habit, show up and you will finish your manuscript. :)
Great advice as always. I’m well underway to building my own world. listening to your videos while I’m brainstorming helps.
Great advice. My penmanship has always been very sloppy, I find it difficult to sign anything because it's always a different looking scribble. But thank you, I'm not afraid anymore of sending my manuscript to editors. They are pros and are used to reading messy handwriting all the time, I can't be so nervous about it
Great work on this video!
I find it very straightforward and while everything is stuff that a lot of other people said already and nothing new in that regard. It's very easy to understand and process in the most digestible way and so on. That alone makes this video worth watching ^^.
For context: I am a novice writer and the last key point brought up on self doubt is something I definitely struggle with. I lack confidence in myself and always doubt my own ability to tell a true geninue story. But after hearing you mention the whole idea of making a folder for everytime somebody says something nice or positive about your work. It made sense and was a piece of information that I actually haven't heard.
Look forward to more of you're videos!!!
Extremely well put together and informative video. Thanks.
Thank you for the positive feedback - glad to hear the video was helpful for you 🙂
Very inspirational, just got the idea for my opening while watching this. Very thankful
Great video. One of your best. Really appreciated the overall breakdown and keeping to the key points. Informative without being repetitive.
This is my 8th or 10th video I have watched from your channel. How are you not more popular with millions of subscribers?! Your analytical breakdown of character and world building is incredibly amazing. What books have you written? Because I want to buy them!
Thank you for the kind words. While I have written since I was a teenager, I have not published anything yet publicly.
Traditional publishing has never been a goal for me, which doesn't mean I want to condemn it in general. For anyone who takes that route and it works, great. I just disliked certain aspects of it.
I've always written my stories for the sake of writing not publishing. With self-publishing gaining popularity and accessibility though, and me now pursuing my creative projects full-time, I will publish a novel of mine next year for the first time. Still a bit to go until then though 🙂
@@TheTaleTinkerer Amazing!!! Please let us know when you do!! I’ll be the first in line to buy it!
@@TheLonelynoname Thank you for those supportive words 🙂
Very grounded and sensible. Thanks.
Great advice. Inspired me to grab my pen
Great video. I’m off to write!
Great video! Very practical.
I picture 'Toklien Temptation' as Tolkien literally showing up at your workspace in nothing more than some red lingerie and a feather boa as he whispers sweet nothings into your ear.
Pardon my language, but HOLY SHIT, THANK YOU.
Thx Tinkerer for making the process more human and more borken down. You as well as the other Writers on YT are hidden jemstones that guide the "will-be-authors" to their goals.
The advice of not overdoing the worldbuilding or at least 5min wrting each day, to make it a habit, makes sense and gives me joy to tackle it. Happy writing and see you on your next one.
I just *loooove* when people say "write every day" but don't actually clarify what they are calling writing. Are you considering working on character information/design as "writing?" Are you considering working outline or plot points as writing? coming up with setting or world-building details as writing? OOORRRRR.... Do you mean prose writing/drafting?
To me there's a distinct difference between getting all the building blocks together, and doing the drafting. And nobody ever seems to like lay out a distinction. Just "write every day." I can't do that, if you mean "draft every day." I need enough... clay... gathered up to start making my sculpture (story). Ideally with some shapes and pieces already in mind.
So what is "writing" in this case? What do you *actually* mean?
Considering the varied advice I tend to give, including weirder writing exercises like covered in my recent video, 'writing' for me is putting down words in any form. Outlining certainly counts, but ideally it is about regular actual prose. This doesn't have to be for the actual story though. Character interviews, character journal entries, re-writing a scene from a different POV to increase your own understanding, ... anything really.
To me, the important part is to train the creative muscle to be active and productive on a regular schedule. Over time, this will naturally lead to better and more progress on the actual story as well. Unless you get lost in worldbuilders disease or other pitfalls - but that's a different story :)
Probably just actually writing your story, without the “world-building” aspect. Like write a chapter of your story, a prologue. Even if it sucks. Even if you get nowhere and have to rewrite it or place it somewhere else later on. It doesn’t matter if you create an entire universe if you can’t actually write it down. The more you write the better you get. Maybe balance worldbuilding and character building with actual writing. You can always change the writing and even the world building as your writing develops. Hope that helps.
I suggest you also search for ADHD/neurodiverse writing advices. Don't force yourself to writing, or put on guilt for not doing so. The more advices you would have in stock - the greater chances to found one that work for you.
For me only body doubling is working 😢 but it is hard to do.
Building a writing habit is so hard. As a single mom, my life is a constant barrage of responsibilities and distractions. Planning ahead for anything is a nightmare. I've tried writing during those moments in between my responsibilities, but frankly, it's not for me. When I'm not "in the zone," my writing is so terrible, I immediately want to throw it out. I can't get into my characters heads and really figure out how they would act in the current scene, so I can't even do that thing you described where I outline the dialogue and events. What I've ended up doing is, once every week or two, I'll try to carve out a period at least five hours long in which I can write. I'm not always able to get that time, but when I do, my writing starts to flow faster and come out much better quality.
Love hearing your determination despite the struggles to write as consistent as you would like. That clearly shows your passion for writing in general 🙂
I actually do want to make a video about writing habits, ways to get things done in smaller pockets of free time etc. I'll try to fit that in before Christmas and who knows, maybe - if you get to check it out - there might be some ideas in there that can help you get a little bit more done 🙂
Can I have a writing buddy in a similar time zone to Queensland, Australia?
I ve written 2 walls of text in your comment section, showing a style of story I want to write but whenever I want to write everything falls flat. It’s like I need to listen to an idea and crafting it directly.
Besides what story’s did you write and were can I find them? I d like to give them a read/an ear.
I appreciate the interest in my own work, but I actually haven't published anything yet. Traditional publishing was never something I even aspired for a variety of reasons but I do plan to self-publish a first novel of mine next year.
I struggle with the setting of my writing. Which is odd because I’m originally an artist, and i should be able to think of a setting, but i just get stuck, and it feels unimaginative.
I can’t get a feel for where the characters are in the story.
So now i use magazines, google images, and ai to give me ‘physical’ visualisation of the area the characters are occupying by a descriptive promt, and in doing that i’ve sort of alleviated a lot of energy wasted on trying to visualise the setting, and can now focus more on other things.
I do this with music too, it just has to be the right music at the right pace, too fast and the love scene turns into an action scene.
I'm obviously not happy to hear that you are struggling with something, but I love to hear how you are looking for ways to spark your imagination and get through that "block". Always great to see people persevere :)
Since you’re from Germany, do you still write your books in English? Because that’s what I’m doing right now, if only for the fact that my characters talking to each other in English makes more sense in an international sci-fi setting.
I started out writing in German as a teenager but eventually began to write everything in English since it became a part of my daily life anyway (both professional and in my spare time). Also, I do prefer the nuances of English over German, especially in storytelling :)
@@TheTaleTinkerer Thanks for your response! It’s similar for me - the fantasy story I used to work on I began in German, then shifted to English for my current sci-fi WIP; if I ever go back to the fantasy story, I’m probably going to rewrite it in English, since the German version is essentially still Dungeons & Dragons fan fiction. 😂
Plus, the fantasy story’s theme emerged from the story over time, so now it has a bunch of loose ends that are about somewhat different themes. The sci-fi story began with the theme, so it’s much more streamlined, and I made progress on it much faster. In short, if I go back to fantasy one day, I have at least three reasons for a complete rewrite - the most important one being the opportunity to write it in a “top-down” manner, starting with the theme, since this is working quite well for the sci-fi WIP. And while I’m at it, just like with the sci-fi story, might as well write the whole fantasy story in English, too.
Same here, but I'm French😂
The newsletter doesn't seem to work, "Sorry, but we couldn't connect to the MailPoet server. Please refresh the web page and try again." Refresh doesn't help.
I just tried again, and everything worked fine. Also saw other people sign up during the last 24h. Might have been a temporary hiccup on your end or their servers as I cannot find any issues right now. Sorry for the inconveniences.
What is your author name
Let me quickly copy a reply I wrote to someone else just recently:
"While I have written since I was a teenager, I have not published anything yet publicly.
Traditional publishing has never been a goal for me, which doesn't mean I want to condemn it in general. For anyone who takes that route and it works, great. I just disliked certain aspects of it.
I've always written my stories for the sake of writing not publishing. With self-publishing gaining popularity and accessibility though, and me now pursuing my creative projects full-time, I will publish a novel of mine next year for the first time. Still a bit to go until then though 🙂"
I have plenty of time to write, I just don't have a house that has power for more than a few hours a day. Its been 2 weeks and I still don't know what is causing it. Untill that gets fixed I have to prioritize what gets powered and my gaming laptop does not make that list.
Oh sorry to hear that. I hope your issues are resolved soon and you can get back to writing and gaming :)
Thank you. I just hope I live long enough to fix it. Theres a racsim riot happening where I live tonight so its hard to stay postive with all this death and destruction happening all over the UK.
Have you ever thought of writing dien your notes or plotting by hand? That's what I am going sometimes when I have no internet connsction?
Sweet advice my dude
I think the idea of writing a journal entry for one of my characters is interesting, but personally I have a rule that I do not know what any of my characters think, it's a rule that helps me personally tremendously
How in the world does that help You?
@@minedantaken1684 It requires me to work harder, It requires me to get inside of my characters heads from an outside observers standpoint, And I think it helps me keep my text "alive" In that I don't understand literally every part of it, if that makes any sense
@@treadmillgaming5963 I'm not sure if it does, but it certainly is something to consider as an extra layer. You know what the character seems like from the outside and then You can peel back the layers untill You hit the core