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"Chunking" is working great for me. Writing a scene, completing a chapter, or collecting ideas for the next things I want to add. And action creates motivation is a proven concept which also is a great technique!
Im working on writing my first fantasy book, and I'm collecting videos to write tips. Your channel has become a large percent of them. Thanks for the great advice!
As a wiseman once said "It doesn't matter how slowly you go, as long you don't stop..." 1000 words a day is a great accomplishment, but also very achievable. in just over 3 months, you've written 100,000 words. A novel-length piece.
I am a high level musician as well as a writer, and I find many of the motivation tips for writing are similar to practice tips my teacher has been giving me for years. If you tell yourself you must do three hours piano practice today, that feels like a huge thing you will never get done. But if you sit down and think, "I am just going to work on this little bit," then you generally get hooked and achieve your big goal without realising it. Also, definitely want a dictation video! I love your channel and ideas :)
I love your writing tips videos, they've been a huge help. I'm just writing a story for myself, not planning on publishing or anything, but I still want to make it something I feel happy with. One question I have is how do you and others deal with reading your own text at the start? I've really struggled with this for a while, it doesn't sound that bad when I write it down, but when I read it I just want to throw up on the page. How do you overcome that feeling?
I'm a published composer and arranger who dabbles in novel writing. I can tell you firsthand knowing I have colleagues who are regularly writing arranging and publishing their work motivates me beyond just about anything else.
What’s helped for me is setting a daily minimum word count and using a spreadsheet to record the total words and number of hours spent. The problem I see is a lot of folks just see a mountain they need to climb. The mountain being your draft and getting dissuaded. When you need to break down that task. Climb it one step at a time. In other words, see tangible, realistic goals and be consistent. Also, do not go overboard. If you’re tired or can only hit the minimum, that’s fine. Writing I’ve found is a marathon and not a sprint. Yes having a hard deadline does matter for keeping you focused. But pacing yourself matters a lot. I know for me, I got over my writing slump by just taking things in stride and having pomodoro sessions where I have a minimum daily word count.
I am struggling to come up with a magic system for my gothic horror-esque dark fantasy novel. I thought about just borrowing the idea of Bloodbending from Avatar The Last Airbender, but fleshing it out into a full system.
@KW-de9sc In a sense, yes. However, I have questioned if my novel actually needs a magic system at all, since the plot does not revolve around it, and is more about the protagonist's internal journey, being a negative character arc. Later on in the book, one of my protagonist's defining features is her giant katana-esque sword. I feel like her welding magic too would be redundant if she primarily uses a weapon for combat.
@@projectptah8935 How is it a cliché? I think it's ok to borrow stuff, especially from the best. I don't know how to write complex magic systems. I normally read contemporary romance novels most of the time.
@ Because blood is too associated with vampires and dracula, which have become synonymous with gothic horror. But gothic horror was more about the dead and the supernatural in general, and so, bloodbending is, in my eyes, somewhat superficial for a gothic horror. Only my own opinion, though.
Even better, give the person or place a ridiculous placeholder name which you can more easily replace than searching for brackets. I like to give them names like "Gurkenscheibe" (cucumber slice) or "Brummbär" (grumpy bear). Easy to find, even easier to replace. If I decide Gurkenscheibe to be named Dave, Gurkenscheibe becomes Dave, and Gurkenscheibe's becomes Dave's.
I firmly believe that if you need 200,000 words to tell your story, it can be simplified. Most of those words are padding. I'm in the minority in that opinion, but it's the core story that matters not how dense the novel. Sure it looks impressive, but I'd rather read/write a 50,000 word fantasy that moves with purpose. My attention span is short and most fantasy novels are too intimidating or over-stay their welcome. Just imo. We need more Vonnegut-sized books than GRRMartin-sized. They're easier to finish.
@@QueenAleenaFan Isn't 80-100,000 words adequate enough for most novels, including science fiction and fantasy. We are not all Brandon Sandersons lol. Especially for newbie writers, writing giant tomes isn't generally advisable, and is off-putting to most publishers. As a reader with ADHD, I genuinely struggle to focus when reading, which is why I have never touched The Stormlight Archive books, since they look terrifyingly massive in size. I could never get through just one of those books.
@unicorntomboy9736 80-100,000 is adequate enough for most novels, but it mostly depends on what genre the novel you're writing is in. Stormlight archive books are big because they're epic fantasy, which means the draw of these novels isn't always just about condensing the plot into a very fast pace, it's also about having interconnecting narratives in a world that has to be explained and brought to life. Not every novel needs to be over 500 pages but some just can't be under 500 pages and that's okay. Readers would always read what they want to read.
Zeigariik effect is somewhat questionable, since studies failed to reproduce the same results, and well, repeatability is a core pillar of science. Thus I would say if you think it does anything then you just have fallen for conformation bias. Sure, that might be good enough for you, it is not or me. Accountability is something that simply doesn't work for me, since I struggle with chronic depression, and that means I just have to accept that there are days, weeks, or even full months at a time i which I won't be able to write anything. And having then any pressure would make it only worse. Also, I find that word count or words per hour are not really indicators for how much is actually done, since if that is full of filler words or pointless exposition that should be vanish into the iceberg, then it is just a vainglory number that people pursue there.
I'm curious if you use "Speechify" for read out-loud or something similar? I'm surprised you use the Robot voice of the word, when there is lifelike ai you can use. Big fan of all your tips, thank you.
what if you don't use a computer to write? i personally write entire books by hand in a series of notebooks i write to get sway from my computer most of the time and this has so much computer based stuff i also know people who use a type writer anf ignore their computer entirely to write
The first one doesn't work for me. One day I started writing and found I ended in the middle of the sentence from the previous day and had no idea what I wanted to write.
Don't dictate when you drive. That's distracted driving and illegal in many jurisdictions. If you do anything but drive, you can't respond to the traffic. You're an accident waiting to happen.
I agree. We shouldn't think characters as humans, but what makes them part of a human. No one wants to read a *fantasy* novel if all the characters behaves like any of us would do in a situation. By i mean part of human is the nature. The face of Kindness, anger, and sadness. Gestures of said emotions like a deep conversation is what allows us to Connect, not raw feelings. Just think of any anime 'i got reincarnated' titles out there. The side characters can be said to show human emotions, but lack the gesture of it, or just too 1 dimensional feelings. (lol)
"Characters with emotions" as opposed to... characters without? Robots and Tranquils? The latter can be interesting in worldbuilding but otherwise, what do you even mean? :'P Feels redundant.
@@visnoga5054 @visnoga5054 ah yes, my phrasing is bound to be understood, I'm sorry. I mean, there must be something unique about characters that you write with human emotions. (I don't know how to phrase it.) As humans what would we do if we were happy to another? We would congratulate them, no? I appreciate the way that a writer would do to ensure that a character would do something as a human would act. Yet it is much more fresh if the character were suddenly to be given a reaction what anyone wouldn't even think to do. To say, a loyal side kick of the mc to be suddenly jealous. It still posses human emotions even if losing its feeling of 'what a human would do'. "to be human without being one" I can't say for sure, but adding humanity to a fictional character is both hard to explain and do. You can't add it too much or else it will just make it that a 'human' is traversing through the pages, not the 'character'. Personally, I read fiction books to see 'characters' in a set stage of ones imagination, not 'humans' I'm sorry if I butchered up. Im sure this too will lead into misunderstandings. But please do correct me if an misunderstanding comes into conflict. As a writer nothing would done me more happiness than receiving critiques. (ye)
Join the community where fantasy writers get weekly accountability, peer feedback, and Jed Herne’s direct support - so that you can write a better book and have more fun along the way: bit.ly/join-fantasy-guild
Usually your video titles are super negative like "Top Tropes to NEVER Use in Your Fantasy Novel". This is a nice change of pace.
Agreed
Placeholders are such a lifesaver
"Chunking" is working great for me. Writing a scene, completing a chapter, or collecting ideas for the next things I want to add.
And action creates motivation is a proven concept which also is a great technique!
You are my absolute favorite fantasy youtuber keep up the great work Jed!
Im working on writing my first fantasy book, and I'm collecting videos to write tips. Your channel has become a large percent of them. Thanks for the great advice!
Great video, these were invaluable. Looking forward to incorporating them!
As a wiseman once said "It doesn't matter how slowly you go, as long you don't stop..."
1000 words a day is a great accomplishment, but also very achievable. in just over 3 months, you've written 100,000 words. A novel-length piece.
I am a high level musician as well as a writer, and I find many of the motivation tips for writing are similar to practice tips my teacher has been giving me for years.
If you tell yourself you must do three hours piano practice today, that feels like a huge thing you will never get done. But if you sit down and think, "I am just going to work on this little bit," then you generally get hooked and achieve your big goal without realising it.
Also, definitely want a dictation video! I love your channel and ideas :)
This is something I’ve heard many times from people I know.
Some really great advice! Would love a vid on your dictating process, and programs that you use.
Thanks for the videos, as trying to learn to write for my game as I am bad at it.
Summary:
1 = Zeigarnik Effect
2 = Placeholder Titles
3 = Change Font (editing)
4 = Accountability (send weekly progress to a friend)
5 = Dictation (Speech to Text)
6 = Divide your story. Record daily progress. Contribute everyday.
7 = Write for 5 minutes. NOW!!!
8 = Brief yourself
9 = Use Read Aloud while editing.
10 = Write what you think about. (Obsession)
Thank you for your service, kind sir
This video is so valuable
I love your writing tips videos, they've been a huge help. I'm just writing a story for myself, not planning on publishing or anything, but I still want to make it something I feel happy with.
One question I have is how do you and others deal with reading your own text at the start? I've really struggled with this for a while, it doesn't sound that bad when I write it down, but when I read it I just want to throw up on the page. How do you overcome that feeling?
Normally I enjoy coming up with names for characters first…then I decide what will happen to them based on their names 😆
Ooohhh, Dictation video? Yes please! With suggested programs, if possible 😁
I agree, that would be an awesome video!
“A hardest thing is sit down and start”
Never truer words were spoken!
TK is a good place holder, and doesn't occur much in our language. Good video.
I'm a published composer and arranger who dabbles in novel writing. I can tell you firsthand knowing I have colleagues who are regularly writing arranging and publishing their work motivates me beyond just about anything else.
2 am upload hell yeah
What’s helped for me is setting a daily minimum word count and using a spreadsheet to record the total words and number of hours spent. The problem I see is a lot of folks just see a mountain they need to climb. The mountain being your draft and getting dissuaded. When you need to break down that task. Climb it one step at a time. In other words, see tangible, realistic goals and be consistent.
Also, do not go overboard. If you’re tired or can only hit the minimum, that’s fine. Writing I’ve found is a marathon and not a sprint. Yes having a hard deadline does matter for keeping you focused. But pacing yourself matters a lot.
I know for me, I got over my writing slump by just taking things in stride and having pomodoro sessions where I have a minimum daily word count.
Dang. Never been this early before.
I am struggling to come up with a magic system for my gothic horror-esque dark fantasy novel. I thought about just borrowing the idea of Bloodbending from Avatar The Last Airbender, but fleshing it out into a full system.
So essentially, Blood magic?
too cliche. make something necromantic.
@KW-de9sc In a sense, yes. However, I have questioned if my novel actually needs a magic system at all, since the plot does not revolve around it, and is more about the protagonist's internal journey, being a negative character arc. Later on in the book, one of my protagonist's defining features is her giant katana-esque sword. I feel like her welding magic too would be redundant if she primarily uses a weapon for combat.
@@projectptah8935 How is it a cliché? I think it's ok to borrow stuff, especially from the best.
I don't know how to write complex magic systems. I normally read contemporary romance novels most of the time.
@ Because blood is too associated with vampires and dracula, which have become synonymous with gothic horror. But gothic horror was more about the dead and the supernatural in general, and so, bloodbending is, in my eyes, somewhat superficial for a gothic horror.
Only my own opinion, though.
Hey jed, congrats for your Jobi! You have fans in Brazil, so I think you should translate your books to portugueses!
@@joaopaaraujop i wish he could translate his books into french
A video on your dictation process would be great!
Even better, give the person or place a ridiculous placeholder name which you can more easily replace than searching for brackets. I like to give them names like "Gurkenscheibe" (cucumber slice) or "Brummbär" (grumpy bear). Easy to find, even easier to replace. If I decide Gurkenscheibe to be named Dave, Gurkenscheibe becomes Dave, and Gurkenscheibe's becomes Dave's.
Yay! I got featured haha!
I firmly believe that if you need 200,000 words to tell your story, it can be simplified. Most of those words are padding. I'm in the minority in that opinion, but it's the core story that matters not how dense the novel. Sure it looks impressive, but I'd rather read/write a 50,000 word fantasy that moves with purpose. My attention span is short and most fantasy novels are too intimidating or over-stay their welcome. Just imo. We need more Vonnegut-sized books than GRRMartin-sized. They're easier to finish.
A story covering multiple generations may feel stuffed into a two inch corset at 50000 words
@@QueenAleenaFan Isn't 80-100,000 words adequate enough for most novels, including science fiction and fantasy. We are not all Brandon Sandersons lol. Especially for newbie writers, writing giant tomes isn't generally advisable, and is off-putting to most publishers.
As a reader with ADHD, I genuinely struggle to focus when reading, which is why I have never touched The Stormlight Archive books, since they look terrifyingly massive in size. I could never get through just one of those books.
@@QueenAleenaFan I've written a 110k novel that happened over a weekend. Story time does not correlate to story length.
@unicorntomboy9736 80-100,000 is adequate enough for most novels, but it mostly depends on what genre the novel you're writing is in. Stormlight archive books are big because they're epic fantasy, which means the draw of these novels isn't always just about condensing the plot into a very fast pace, it's also about having interconnecting narratives in a world that has to be explained and brought to life. Not every novel needs to be over 500 pages but some just can't be under 500 pages and that's okay. Readers would always read what they want to read.
@@unicorntomboy9736 I do not disagree with you. Newbies should start with short stories and work up, but not everyone here is utterly new
I use placeholder names [eenie], [meenie], [minie], and [moo].
Oh, thirty minutes ago?? Yes please!
Zeigariik effect is somewhat questionable, since studies failed to reproduce the same results, and well, repeatability is a core pillar of science. Thus I would say if you think it does anything then you just have fallen for conformation bias. Sure, that might be good enough for you, it is not or me.
Accountability is something that simply doesn't work for me, since I struggle with chronic depression, and that means I just have to accept that there are days, weeks, or even full months at a time i which I won't be able to write anything. And having then any pressure would make it only worse. Also, I find that word count or words per hour are not really indicators for how much is actually done, since if that is full of filler words or pointless exposition that should be vanish into the iceberg, then it is just a vainglory number that people pursue there.
I'm curious if you use "Speechify" for read out-loud or something similar? I'm surprised you use the Robot voice of the word, when there is lifelike ai you can use. Big fan of all your tips, thank you.
You could also use your 'dead time' to think...
Variation of cheat code #3 (more for grammar than revising): read it in reverse
The prblem with me is that my MC's name is a placeholder(I have an in-workd reason)
I just try to perfect all my character and location names in the outlining process.
Very bold to think I only waste time in 20-30 minute incriments.
what if you don't use a computer to write? i personally write entire books by hand in a series of notebooks i write to get sway from my computer most of the time and this has so much computer based stuff i also know people who use a type writer anf ignore their computer entirely to write
The first one doesn't work for me. One day I started writing and found I ended in the middle of the sentence from the previous day and had no idea what I wanted to write.
I watch these videos a lot, I like them but... I can't with the thumbnails 😭
He's always making that face.
ikr lol.
Don't dictate when you drive. That's distracted driving and illegal in many jurisdictions. If you do anything but drive, you can't respond to the traffic. You're an accident waiting to happen.
I think characters with emotions make them good in a story😢 👇🏻who's with me
Thats very generic
I agree.
We shouldn't think characters as humans, but what makes them part of a human.
No one wants to read a *fantasy* novel if all the characters behaves like any of us would do in a situation.
By i mean part of human is the nature.
The face of Kindness, anger, and sadness.
Gestures of said emotions like a deep conversation is what allows us to Connect, not raw feelings.
Just think of any anime 'i got reincarnated' titles out there.
The side characters can be said to show human emotions, but lack the gesture of it, or just too 1 dimensional feelings. (lol)
@@tales6237you are 👍🏻, are you writing any story😊
"Characters with emotions" as opposed to... characters without? Robots and Tranquils? The latter can be interesting in worldbuilding but otherwise, what do you even mean? :'P Feels redundant.
@@visnoga5054 @visnoga5054 ah yes, my phrasing is bound to be understood, I'm sorry.
I mean, there must be something unique about characters that you write with human emotions.
(I don't know how to phrase it.)
As humans what would we do if we were happy to another?
We would congratulate them, no?
I appreciate the way that a writer would do to ensure that a character would do something as a human would act.
Yet it is much more fresh if the character were suddenly to be given a reaction what anyone wouldn't even think to do.
To say, a loyal side kick of the mc to be suddenly jealous. It still posses human emotions even if losing its feeling of 'what a human would do'.
"to be human without being one"
I can't say for sure, but adding humanity to a fictional character is both hard to explain and do.
You can't add it too much or else it will just make it that a 'human' is traversing through the pages, not the 'character'.
Personally, I read fiction books to see 'characters' in a set stage of ones imagination, not 'humans'
I'm sorry if I butchered up.
Im sure this too will lead into misunderstandings.
But please do correct me if an misunderstanding comes into conflict.
As a writer nothing would done me more happiness than receiving critiques.
(ye)