Please make more videos like these. I'm currently working on my novel, and I'm getting tips from a lot of people. You mostly, however. It's really helping.
I don't know if anyone has ever told you this LD, but you have such a sleek, digestible, palatable way of conveying information. Every video you do there is no guessing work on what you meant by something.
The interesting way of using inflections in his voice I think helps a lot too. It is very unique, and every sentence is spoken in such a way that it never sounds monotone/boring or excited/tiring to listen to. Right in the middle.
The "that is not a story" really needs to be drilled into most writer's heads. A cool character, a magic system, a detailed world and all of its politics, or even your cool races in your world is a setting. It's what the story takes place in. Too many authors think they can just wing the story with cool concepts and settings. And if you need to explain your entire world at the beginning to make your world work, you need to rewrite the story. Star wars is a great example (original New Hope). We don't know what the conflict is, who is the bad guys or good guys, and we don't need to at the beginning. Anything happening "over that hill" to the story is unneeded. and no one cares. Just start the story and explain as you go in natural dialogue. (no secondary characters that are there to just explain stuff.)
You are kind of right, but you do not take into account many factors. Firstly, no one would have read some stories if it were not for the setting. "War and Peace" without the setting of the Napoleonic Wars, is a simple love story. As well as "Dune" without a setting, this is another space opera about the chosen one. Secondly - Mortal Engines, for example, has a pretty idiotic plot and setting, but the details in the environment and description have been noted even by those who are skeptical of other aspects. Thirdly, some stories would not be possible without the setting. It's rare, but it happens. At first I wanted to give Fallout and some other media as an example, but there many plot points can be transferred to another work in a different genre. Of course, you can say that "If the story is story focused, then it doesn't need too much lore." But in reality - the reader or viewer may still have questions in the process, and probably these questions will not receive answers. For example, Last of us 2 does not explain why pampered lesbians survive on their own in a harsh apocalypse and where the local government has gone. Normies will not have such questions, but those who are familiar with at least some quality media and in the genre of the "post-apocalypse" will definitely be asked what the author did not answer or does not want to answer. From this comes the fourth point - comparisons. People will compare you to other media and will ask the same questions and criteria as they would with other media. A friend of mine writes dark fantasy and is constantly compared to Berserk or The Witcher, even though he hasn't read or played those media. And finally - New Hope came out almost half a century ago. Since then, media has changed and people have changed. This film, though good, cannot remain the gold standard for ages. Now people are not surprised by the display of an oriental bazaar in a science fiction setting, which confirms the so-so success of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. This is because old viewers have already seen such scenes, and new viewers will not appreciate them.
P.S. I have been editing the work of a friend for several years who "Wrote the story first, and then start doing everything else." As a result, the skeleton of story turned out to be practically without flesh, so it's hard to believe in it. The characters just move from one plotpoint to another, so a friend asked me to fix it. Of course, I don't blame LD, because my friend was following this method even before the advice video came out. But LD advises something similar to other people, so I'm skeptical, because I saw the result in practice.
P.P.S. I mean - without a well-developed setting, the reader and the viewer will more often have questions from the category of "Why is the story resolved in this way?" or "Why can't the story be resolved in another way?". For example, "why can't the Resistance call on allies like they did in The Rise of Skywalker?" I'm exaggerating a little, but I hope you get the point.
@@ahoramazda6864 I think more of my point is a good story can work in any setting. Are you telling me war and peace could only take place in that time. You start with story.bwhat do you wanna say. Lord of the rings is a story that has a great setting, not a great setting with a story. And just because a story is old means nothing. Good stories from hundreds, or even thousands of years ago, hold up because of the story. The setting can be changed, reworked, even make completely up again if the story is solid. Too many people get too deep in the weeds of setting and don't understand most audience don't care.
@@ahoramazda6864 blw, if you are editing a friends work for a couple of years to fix plot points and you are blaming the setting I think that's the least of the problems. The structure has to be wrong and the story is done poorly (not an attack on your friend or his story, please don't take it as such.) Your story still has to have a setting, but it's just not as important as most think it is.
Regarding the quote from Patrick Rothfuss, here we all are trying to create other people, while SJWs creed is "I can't relate to these people because they don't look like me, or have sex like me, or vote like me!" Just something that popped into my head.
It's ironic, because LD's core audience is not too different from SJW's. They share the views of SJWs, just not as radical. But opinions and methods on key issues are not divided - to impose diversity in order to impose diversity, the violation of any canons or authenticity for the sake of the theoretical possibility of applying to a larger audience, and so on. Therefore, such ridicule from the category "Oh, those SJWs" sounds so hypocritical and pretentious.
@@ahoramazda6864 you're probably going to be shocked an amazed to discover that many of us in the audience aren't left-leaning or pro(re)gressive. When LD rails about post-modernism in art, he's complaining about the left. The token inclusivity, the lazy writing, the poor character development, the lack of plot and the idea that deconstruction is original...all the things he's posted vids on and mocked, these are the hallmarks of marxist art. It's why the left can't meme.
@@hersirhakarl2109, >you're probably going to be shocked an amazed to discover that many of us in the audience aren't left-leaning or pro(re)gressive. Something tells me that obsessing with tomboys, learning gender stadis and justifying blackwashing are pretty leftist things. > When LD rails about post-modernism in art But post-modernism in art is a pretty good thing. I will try to explain with an example. In the classic work, the character is nicknamed "The Butcher" because he owns a butcher's shop. In modernist work like Fallout 2 (video game), Dexter (book, TV series) "The Butcher" is a nickname for a killer or dangerous person. In a post-modern work, "The Butcher" would be an ironic nickname for a vegetarian. All because in classical works, stories are practically no different from fairy tales. They always start with "A long time ago in a kingdom/galaxy far away" and end with a happy ending. Of course, this is not always accurate in all cases, but I'm exaggerating a bit. Modernism tried to update classical works, but this effect was weak and felt only in comparison with classical works. Post-modernism added what the old works lacked - unexpected twists and ironies. The Disney trilogy is basically a classic story - the naive heroine doesn't change and gets a happy ending just because. The fact that the new trilogy tries to deconstruct the old one is done to look better and mask the lack of innovation. Post-modernism has nothing to do with it.
Id love to see more of these. One of my biggest struggles as an aspiring writer is actually finding the motivation to write. I have alot of ideas and stories id love to flesh out but i never find the desire to actually put pen to paper or finger to keyboard in my free time i always end up doing more mind numbing hobbys like video games or watching youtube so to summarize my question: "what would you suggest to motivate someone that often neglects writing despite their desire to write? "
I've always found the best way to motivate is to just start. Start writing or typing. Don't think too much about it and only have the very simplest idea about what it is you're writing. Before you know it you'll have at least a couple of paragraphs down. They don't have to be perfect, that's what proof reading and 2nd/3rd/4th/etc drafts is for. Once you get those paragraphs down you can choose to go back and edit as necessary or to plow forward.
you dont need motivation. motivation will come and go, worrying about chasing that finite resource will only lead you down a hole. become disiplined and write a little paragraph every day. make it a requirement before you play games. writing will just become a habit and that is a more reliable source of production then chasing a motivation
200 shitty words a day. Just write 200 crappy words a day (they don't need to make sense, just write what goes through your mind) and soon, you might unclog your writer's block.
This was an extremely valuable little vid on what's important in a story. One thing I'd like to add is that the value of world building is still there, but the reader is only able to see it after they invest in the characters and plot. So it's absolutely worth building an intricate world. Just don't think that this makes up for lack of a compelling story.
First of all, yes. I would like to see more videos like this. For me, the motivation to even start is what I lack when I get home from work. I have to unwind after my days teaching, or the stress will get to me.
Is this the first time since The Last Jedi that you haven’t talked about it? Kidding aside, I would love to see more of these videos. I’ll definitely take this advice to heart.
7:49 - You put down order instead of odor. Although now I can't stop imagining an ogre courier traveling the countryside to deliver the most sour of food orders to unsuspecting peasants. And if I may add my own two cents into this, a good piece of advice to pair with "starting as close to the end as possible" is "have an actual ending in mind before you start". Too often in fanfiction, writers often start off a story with a solid idea but then get bored and either stop in the middle of the story or go off the rails with their characters constantly going on endless side quests instead of continuing the main plot. Having a defined ending point (no need to get too detailed with it. Bob marrying Jones in four months will work) can help focus the plot and keep it from becoming a tangled briar patch of plots and subplots that never end. A concrete ending point also helped motivate me when I was writing my novel of a fanfic for five years because I knew how close I was to getting it done with each completed chapter. This is advice that I rarely, if ever, hear from anyone and wish more people would bring up.
Well, mine didn't get answered, but I still get valuable insight. Question 4 isn't necessarily a problem with me, as I have multiple ideas for separate stories on the regular. An easy fix for me is that I tend to juggle different projects. For instance, one of the stories I have an idea of was actually from a dream I had a week or two ago. In order to keep things fresh and not stale, I work on my more established main story for a while and then go to my other ideas to not get bogged down in monotony. Still an enjoyable video tho!! 💯🔥
@@dunkyking6310 I'm trying to be a comic artists, so I had to drop my first story that I have worked on for 10 years because I can't draw armor like Halo and Metroid. I instead focused on ones that have been fleshed out in my head, isn't to difficult to plan( begining middle and end) and are easy for me to draw as a beginner. I have 3 solid projects so far in my head, but i have come up with several ideas that i either haven't started or had to drop because they were to dumb or just wasn't fleshed out enough. but hey, its great to know that we have the ability to create a decent story from an idea in your head several times over, it means you have creative potential!
@@KingTai64 adaptability is good, and surprisingly, sci-fi armor has never really been a problem for me as it's simply drawing a human body and then adding armor to it. Now, I could add a little more detail to my own armors, but I have the form down pat. It does help to shift gears and work on other possibilities tho
@@dunkyking6310 I've seen the Artwork for Metroid zero mission and Fusion, the powersuit isn't to difficult to draw but I don't know. I maybe just making things more difficult than it really is on my end.
As someone who has WAY too many ideas all the time, sometimes it helps to just write down the outline of a story, the mechanisms of a magic system, or even just a random scene you like to imagine. Just writing it down and putting it aside is like taking a weight off of your shoulders! And, if a while later you are constructing a story and NEED something real quick -- like you are asked to off the top of your head write a backstory for someone else's character or create a magic system for a friend's script -- you can just drive into your old notes and find one right away!
I've found a great beginning also needs an ending, and everything between is the journey. You may think that certain things NEED to happen, and that's true, but you need to also allow your characters to get there naturally... I also feel like you also have to realize when the thing you want just wouldn't happen without forcing the point, so it should be dropped. or at least given consideration
I'd love to see another video like this, maybe covering how to make a competent main character without making them hyper competent and making them boring
Your advice on Question 2: how to handle information overload really hit home for me. I know It speaks directly to my problem because it hurts to hear it. It's a weird experience to appreciate something that gives you growing pains, but I suppose it's key for a better writer's journey. Thank you.
“Every sentence must do one of two things - reveal character or advance the action.” Or it could establish setting, which is arguably just as important as the plot. That’s where long descriptive paragraphs can be used.
One good trick to write vivid imagery is to remember "show, don't tell" and avoid the use of adverbs (the ones ending with -ly are to be avoided at any cost) , the passive voice ("Was, has been," etc.), and the words "that" and "there": "There were creatures slowly moving in the shadows, away from view, hiding in the forest that was being swallowed by darkness on every corner" is a good enough sentence. But I find more elegant something like: "Unseen creatures creeped in the shadows, hiding in the darkness swallowing every corner of the forest." First sentence tells us what there is, but second sentence tells us what is going on. "There were many questions asked" is telling. "The men asked many questions" is showing, and so on. Anyways, It's an observation, not a rule. Sentences with heavy use of passive voice and adverbs were good enough for George R. R. Martin and J. K. Rowling, and no one can say with a straight face that they are amateurs.
When I got started working on my comic, I took the time to really analyze the things that got me writing in the first place. I read/watched opening episodes/chapters until I got an idea on what each scene is for and what it accomplishes. For example, Dr. Stone where everything is designed to either set up the conflict with the petrification/technological reset, show the individual personalities of Senku and Taiju, or express their friendship with each other. It's a real treat gaining a new appreciation for good writing when you know what you're looking for.
Would love to see more videos like this, especially tackling larger problems like how to write convincing dialogue, or work on character development. Btw, thanks particularly for the advice on looking for the conflict, I've noticed myself that often I find my most complex ideas I can't get stories out of. I have written successful stories out of less complex ideas, which is absolutely fine, but it would be nice to find something to hang some of my more abstruse concepts on, especially since I've primarily written short fiction up to now. I admit though, my biggest problem at the moment is simple motivation, since it's really hard to actually work on anything when it seems publication is literally impossible for anyone who doesn't toe the sjw line or just parrot the usual: Sexism is bad, racism is bad, message. Btw, not that sexism and racism aren't! bad, but I'd personally like to write actual stories, not just overblown slogans.
#2 is so awesome 😍. I handle info overload naturally just by visioning the "effort reward" after finishing projects at nights to DECREASE the thought of "overload" . I get info overload just by checking my fun emails or micro blogs. Once they are completed my overload is defeated 😍😍😍
I would adore more videos like this! As a writer myself, this kind of information is very valuable! Thank you for putting this together! All of your videos are so full of good, quality information about writing and story. Please keep them up! Also, I got my copy of Dr. Alpha Miracle Child in the mail, and I loved it! Such a good story, and the art was fantastic! Totally worth backing!
English was my favourite subject back in school because it allowed us to write our own small stories. I'm recently getting back into writing and by watching these videos of yours I've been getting many different ideas and pointers on how to proceed. I hope you continue to make these kinda videos. Entertaining and valuable!
I love this format! Numbers 2 and 3 are what I've been struggling the most and this absolutely helps. I'll take what I can lol I can tell my story is full of mistakes but my first priority is to write all of it and finish it. Polishing can come later but I need to keep going, even if I absolutely hate it lol Thank you so much and I look forward to more of these if you're gonna make them
yes, please more videos like this. one thing I would like to hear you touch upon would be the Pacing of a story, and if one should try to keep the pace the same throughout or dynamic depending upon the circumstances. (and how one should go about getting the pace intended)
Please do more of this. In a previous video when you proposed a way of changing Rey's character, where making the choice to give over BB8 or not, a conflict of her desire to leave the planet vs abandon the droid like her parents had her, was very smart and flowed very naturally. I'd love if you could go more into setting up character conflict in meaningful ways.
Been following you for a while now, and love your art of storycraft videos. Whether you're breaking down a comic's story structure, comparing modern stories to more classic stories, or doing more simple breakdowns like this. You have a gift for simplifying complex topics into more palatable pieces. Thank you, and keep up the work.
My main issue with writing stories isn't usually that I don't have the idea. Most of the time I know the general storyboard of what I want in my head. My issue is actually getting those details on paper in a proper story format. Basically all the fluff that turns a few fleshed out key scenes held together by the skeleton of connective details into a cohesive strand of story.
This is a great video! I agree with a lot of people in the comments that you should do more videos like this one. It gives you a lot of insight on how to construct a story.
I might be exactly one year late to this video, but it's honestly appreciated that you create such great tips, guides, and discussions on writing. I've published online works mostly as a hobby, but this year I really want to try and publish an actual novel. Seeing your videos over the years has been of great help and encouragement. So keep up the great work!
Themes! While I agree with Comicsgate’s core belief that “themes do not equal good story,” I was reading Araki Hirohiko’s “Manga in Theory and Practice” and noticed that he included Themes under Character, Story, and Setting, with Themes being important, but the least important of the four. How could I implement my Conservative Themes while also having good characters, story, and setting to own the Liberal Anti-Comicsgate crowd?
first thing is , I think you have a mistake in the framing of the question. implement conservative themes, it sounds like the themes are coming from outside the story which is pretty similar to the error of the "liberal anti comics gate crowd " being message before story. since you reference "manga in theory and practice" lets start there with one of the other takeaways from the book , without characters there is no story, even static characters that have lasted for decades , well they lasted that long so there has to be something. if you really want to "own " them( personally I think a mindset change is needed.) with themes start with character building as the seeds of possible themes to explore. also remember themes are mostly questions and not answers whilst yes you should answer them a good story won't preach. a great story I feel , will invite the reader to ask more questions thus creating a deeper immersion. this just some thoughts from a rando
While your idea I feel may come from a place of perceived justice and a wish to strike back against your opposition with proof to the contrary I feel that it is very easy to instead of making a good story with said conservative themes, simply to make a story which is mostly if not entirely a vehicle to carry across the agenda without much substance other than that, fueled by spite rather than good craftsmanship and discipline. My personal philosophy regarding writing and theming is one of serendipity, start with a seed of your idea, building up the basics of character, theming, and ideas to explore, and attempt to explore them in an interesting and fulfilling way, branching out and maybe even picking up ideas which didn't occur to you at the time but would help. In a way don't start with "How can I express X message while also having good _", instead start with "How can I have good characters, story, and setting while *then* organically interweaving the message that I wish to convey?". The former I'd argue is how you get shows like High Guardian Spice, so laser focused on their agenda to the expense of everything else due to the lack of craftsmanship of those involved. This is however just the thoughts of some rando online.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 couldn't have expressed it better. although the serendipity philosophy whilst great and used by myself as well , can lead to problems in a less tight story or never wanting to stop writing. In line with Sanderson's description of a discovery writer. but then again what are second and third drafts for? some rando
I like Comicsgate, but I disagree with "themes do not equal good story". People often seem to conflate it with political and on-the-nose Leftist moralistic messages, but a bad approach to theme doesn't make it unimportant. I advise Tyler Mowery's videos here on YT about conflict and theme. He explains how the core of a story is really about the *philosophical conflict* first, then character, then plot, and how Philosophical Conflict _becomes_ theme. For example, if you want conservative themes to stand at the core of your story, you must think about how they create conflict for your characters first. You have to incorporate related values and beliefs in characters on one end and opposite values and beliefs in characters on the other. The protag can sit anywhere on this line and progress towards one or the other during the story. You'd have to be careful in considering the opposite. You can't create a Punching Bag character that's just there to represent the evil Liberal and how they are wrong in everything. A better tactic is to make both viewpoints as strong as possible and focus on the merits of the protag's opposite viewpoint to really make them contend with it both externally and internally. That said, in your case you may be inflating the importance of your conservative themes and wish to "own" the Liberal Anti-Comicsgate crowd. Perhaps you should ask yourself whether you want to create and entertain or just jab at your political opposite. Personally, I believe politics in fiction can work fine IF it's used to explore ideas and deeper human motivations, anything else runs the risk of becoming propaganda...
@@EvelineDaw so if I’m understanding correctly, in simple terms you basically have to “marry” your themes with your other elements and be focused on creating a well crafted story over a revenge piece.
This was a very informative video! Thanks so much. One thing I would love for you to make a video on is dialogue, not how to write it but when to write it. I find myself writing pages and pages of dialogue for two characters and it doesn't really advance the plot in any way. Often, it builds relationships between the characters, but besides that, it doesn't serve much purpose except being entertaining. It's also very painful to cut out witty dialogue that you had a lot of fun writing.
I watched this video, and I found it very fascinating as any video from this channel. I like to take my time to spend it wisely watching this type of video even though I am not a writer.
English and writing were always my weakest subjects in school, but I love your videos. You present all of these concepts in such an intriguing and digestable way. I wish you had been one of my teachers.
Great tips here. I feel like the hardest questions out of these is how to start a story and how to find conflict. This kind of video seems great for brainstorming video ideas based on which questions gain traction and engagement in the comments section, or which parts are rewatched the most. You can take the questions that get the most attention and make a longer video just about that topic. Feels like there's so much to learn about creating conflict between characters, especially when you want to have multiple "main characters." On the topic of multiple main characters, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Japanese light novel series "A Sister's All You Need" as that story feels like everyone in the 20+ character cast is a main character of their own story in the universe that we're watching, and we see the parts where those people interact with each other.
Nice video, its very informative. I used to write fanfics before, its my therapy for my asperger's. I have so much vivid imaginations that I had troubled sleeping, due to anxiety of me not writing it down. Me writing a story acts as my conduit to release that pent-up anxiety. Either hope for more videos like this from you sir!
Great video, I would love to see more of this! Lately I’ve been procrastinating to start one page comic. I will definitely come back to this video for writing help.
You know id just like to say, ive been aspiring to be a writer for years now- its the only thing i want to do in life but no matter what i write when i read it over, everything feels bland. No matter how great the tales form in my head, when i actually put pen to paper everything falls away and i just cant grasp the ideas i had anymore. But this- all of your videos even, have helped me to become a better writer and understand where I’ve went wrong with my narratives, and with the way i structure my stories. It is painfully hard to find quick and digestible information like this in a world where hardworking people have little time for their passions and for that, i am grateful beyond reason.
If you have a bunch of little ideas that can't build a story, try seeing if you can connect them and make a story out of it. My dream project (I have other stories I want to tell first, partly to hone my skills) is made up of ideas that didn't go anywhere on there own but when combined started forming a universe in my head. That's when it became my dream project instead of just one of many story ideas.
Here's a question (if you come back to read more questions): how does one find the motivation to begin writing? I have tons of ideas to put down to paper, but I only ever written a few works so far. My biggest problem is rewriting scenes, so often, I just let the story simmer in my mind as I work out all the wrinkles, though I know that's not a good idea, since I might forget important details.
Since you gave us such wonderful tips, I should retribute your kindness with a tip of my own, Literature Devil: 200 shitty words a day. Just writing 200 crappy words a day (they don't need to make sense, just write what goes through your mind) is the solution to, probably, unclog your writer's block.
I'm not sure the exact way to explain this question, so hopefully it's a tangible one you can answer. A lot of the time when I'm making stories I tend to come up with a decent structure of A and B and C, basically key scenes that progress the story or characters, yet I often struggle with figuring out how to bridge together those scenes. Heck, even within a shorter section, like just within Scene A, I don't have it all there flowing together. For example, the start of the story is the main character being brought into jail with key scenes setting up intrigue about the setting and a major antagonist. But then after that scene is finished and he is finally in his cell, how do I get the story to the next moment naturally? The next important story scene is the antagonist coercing the main character into joining his fight club by threatening his new jail cell friend. I don't want to bog the story down too much by having an extended stay in the jail from the reader's perspective, yet I need to organically introduce the cell mate and their budding friendship. Can I simply have 1 scene of them getting acquainted and then imply over a few months they are now friends? Or is that too little? If their friendship isn't a major part of the overall story, but simply this section (before the MC escapes prison), then is it ok to skip past some of the details? Also naming characters is hard, what are some ways that can help? At this point I'm just making up names that sound neat but might not be very good. Like Bob O'Bannon, Darryl Dubois, Tururu Roca or something of the sort (as the story is a bit like a superhero style setting, I'm going with idea of the names starting with the same letter, like Peter Parker, but that's as far as I've gotten). Should the names make sense to the character, or is it ok as long as they are memorable enough? How do you come up with names that make sense to the characters?
Maybe an idea to explore for another video like this; or perhaps a dangerous one: How do you create a story in an already existing and established universe? Could be sequel, prequel, side story, unrelated story just happens in the same universe, whatever - just has to be related in some way to whatever story it connects with without being some huge crossover between two different properties.
Thanks for answering my question it really helped me sit down and look over my ideas and see if any of them got a good conflict to focus the story on. I have never been good at making conflicts, but now I know where to practise ^_^
I kind of like to begin a story with some think that suprices the reader. One story started with. "The bugg out bag sits packed in the corner. I must allways keep the Mobile loaded." after that you can start writing about the character and what is around him. It might be a good idea to build the dark cloud. when you do that.
@Literature Devil Not a question but advice that might help some people hit their daily word counts. When you have your outlines and you want to get down to writing, copy-paste some lorem ipsum samples into an empty text file. Insert scene breaks as desired, hit the Insert key, and start typing. This is good for people who are 'afraid of the empty page,' as they say. People who tend to look for flaws in their writing and have trouble letting go. The reason this works is because the page isn't empty, and overwriting instead of just writing hits your inner editor skills more than the creative writer ones. The word count stops being a hill to climb (number that has to go up) and instead becomes a downhill experience (number going down). It's especially effective when combined with colour, marking what has been 'edited' and what hasn't. Splitting it up into 500 to 750 word increments makes hitting 1k to 2k goals way more feasible. Another upside to this method is that it gives a rough guideline on how long a scene will be, which can help stop you from letting it drag on. It's been working well for me so far, but obviously that doesn't mean it's a catch-all solution. Just tossing that out there for general consideration.
One of the reasons why I believe video games are one of the greatest mediums of all time is because you can overdevelop the setting of the story to death's door and back, AND include all of it in the final finished product, and it STILL doesn't have to feel overdeveloped because you can let the audience take the initiative to ask about it themselves.
Thanks, I sort of get what I'm trying to do. I have to keep reminding myself to slow down a little. My first draft of my first book isn't even done yet and I keep jumping ahead to the end of the story in my imagination.
LD made it two whole minutes before gushing over Neil Gaiman. Proud of you, buddy. How about tackling how, when, and WHY to incorporate a plot-twist in the your story next time? There’s so much modern media that tries to implement these and they near-universally fail.
Tolkien's stories gained an audience due to the context of the time - it was unique at the time. But they keep an audience because the themes that drive the conflict are compelling. I love the world he created, but in hindsight he shows it in a less effective way than more recent writers who also have interesting worlds. Writing your world-building like Tolkien now is unlikely to attract a large audience now; writing your themes and conflict like Tolkien might.
Great video LD! I like this series of answering questions because it gives me some things to consider myself. I especially like the question about lore and the reader's interest; that really helps, since I'm currently trying to figure out the power structure for my stories & universe. I know people wouldn't want a lecture (myself included), so I'm thinking of trying to iron out the power system 1st, then writing and editing the stories to stick to that system, so to speak. Some people I've spoken to have told me it sounds almost like making a video game: you make a fun gameplay engine, then write a story that uses this fun gameplay. If I had a question to ask, I guess it could be: "If one was planning to write many stories around a central power structure or lore, should I write the lore and powers 1st to keep the stories on track? or focus on the stories 1st and iron out the lore later?" Regardless, keep up the good work LD, and I hope to see more videos like this in future!
Tus consejos son muy buenos, he recomendado tus videos a muchos amigos aspirantes a escritores. Yo también soy un escritor, con algunos libros publicados (solo en español), así que pasar por tu canal siempre es refrescante de alguna manera. Muchas gracias por tus aportaciones al mundo de la literatura, espero que sigas creando contenido durante más tiempo. Saludos.
Please make more videos like this. These are great bite sized pieces. Like having a fun sized piece of candy vs the full candy bar that is your deep dives into one question. Both have their roles. Although I could see the comment section voicing on question in particular to have a deep dive on.
You're good at this. One thing that's helped me avoid info-dumping is writing from the perspectives of characters who wouldn't know the info-dump information, although I worry I've gone too much the other way with a character who doesn't even speak the same language as anyone else and an orphaned slave-child from a disgraced family who people would sooner spit and throw rocks at than speak to.
Small, easily digested bits. Rapid fire, yet organized for a little cohesion. My conclusion: A brisk yet satisfying meal for the mind. Well done. (Though somebody during the premiere did notice the ogre had a sour 'order' instead of 'odor'... checked during my replay. Yup, there's a wee typo.)
This video has been useful. It makes me want to go back to episode 2 of my series that I'm working on because I was stuck at a certain part of the script.
I started to write a fantasy series a few months ago. But the worldbuilding was nearly at zero. When I should add a race or a magical system, I add some, which fits into the story. But this story has another thing, which can be worried. A lack of story.The story is about a tournament in an arena. One against one other to the death. But other from the fighters, the winners of the fights (a too the bets), are completely random. The way, I'm trying to tackle this problem is: give every fighter growth. So it isn't very important, who wins. It doesn't damage the story. But the reader doesn't know, who will win, just by reading the first chapters.
4. What tp do when you have multiple ideas? Ideas are worthless without good implementation, which takes time, so it's best to write them down and save them for later when you have time and energy.
One question I almost never seen brought up is: What if you have (what seems to be) two or more conflicts in one story? Does all the same advice apply? Anyway, I'm all for more of these! I love your long videos but these are definitely more digestable and easier to "get".
Yes, please. We all struggle with writing, regardless of our skillset. And modern day fragmentation of focus time certainly makes literary endeavours -or their aspirations- far harder than they were 10-odd years ago. Please, break down Alan Moore's (&co.) classic stories. Expand upon Will Eisner and Kirby, and why not Dave Sim. Cross over and deconstruct Tezuka, Otomo, Inoue, and why not Kurumada. You have The Voice. You know you can. Don't let us down.
Please make more videos like these. I'm currently working on my novel, and I'm getting tips from a lot of people. You mostly, however. It's really helping.
Absolutely!
Good luck. I self published my first novel in January of this year. It's quite a feeling, even if you don't sell much.
You'd better update this comment thread so I can read your book
@@sindarpeacheyeisacommie8688 send the link to your book
I don't know if anyone has ever told you this LD, but you have such a sleek, digestible, palatable way of conveying information. Every video you do there is no guessing work on what you meant by something.
The interesting way of using inflections in his voice I think helps a lot too. It is very unique, and every sentence is spoken in such a way that it never sounds monotone/boring or excited/tiring to listen to. Right in the middle.
Thanks! Very much appreciated!
The "that is not a story" really needs to be drilled into most writer's heads. A cool character, a magic system, a detailed world and all of its politics, or even your cool races in your world is a setting. It's what the story takes place in. Too many authors think they can just wing the story with cool concepts and settings. And if you need to explain your entire world at the beginning to make your world work, you need to rewrite the story. Star wars is a great example (original New Hope). We don't know what the conflict is, who is the bad guys or good guys, and we don't need to at the beginning. Anything happening "over that hill" to the story is unneeded. and no one cares. Just start the story and explain as you go in natural dialogue. (no secondary characters that are there to just explain stuff.)
You are kind of right, but you do not take into account many factors.
Firstly, no one would have read some stories if it were not for the setting. "War and Peace" without the setting of the Napoleonic Wars, is a simple love story. As well as "Dune" without a setting, this is another space opera about the chosen one.
Secondly - Mortal Engines, for example, has a pretty idiotic plot and setting, but the details in the environment and description have been noted even by those who are skeptical of other aspects.
Thirdly, some stories would not be possible without the setting. It's rare, but it happens. At first I wanted to give Fallout and some other media as an example, but there many plot points can be transferred to another work in a different genre.
Of course, you can say that "If the story is story focused, then it doesn't need too much lore." But in reality - the reader or viewer may still have questions in the process, and probably these questions will not receive answers.
For example, Last of us 2 does not explain why pampered lesbians survive on their own in a harsh apocalypse and where the local government has gone.
Normies will not have such questions, but those who are familiar with at least some quality media and in the genre of the "post-apocalypse" will definitely be asked what the author did not answer or does not want to answer.
From this comes the fourth point - comparisons. People will compare you to other media and will ask the same questions and criteria as they would with other media. A friend of mine writes dark fantasy and is constantly compared to Berserk or The Witcher, even though he hasn't read or played those media.
And finally - New Hope came out almost half a century ago. Since then, media has changed and people have changed. This film, though good, cannot remain the gold standard for ages. Now people are not surprised by the display of an oriental bazaar in a science fiction setting, which confirms the so-so success of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
This is because old viewers have already seen such scenes, and new viewers will not appreciate them.
P.S. I have been editing the work of a friend for several years who "Wrote the story first, and then start doing everything else." As a result, the skeleton of story turned out to be practically without flesh, so it's hard to believe in it. The characters just move from one plotpoint to another, so a friend asked me to fix it.
Of course, I don't blame LD, because my friend was following this method even before the advice video came out. But LD advises something similar to other people, so I'm skeptical, because I saw the result in practice.
P.P.S. I mean - without a well-developed setting, the reader and the viewer will more often have questions from the category of "Why is the story resolved in this way?" or "Why can't the story be resolved in another way?". For example, "why can't the Resistance call on allies like they did in The Rise of Skywalker?" I'm exaggerating a little, but I hope you get the point.
@@ahoramazda6864 I think more of my point is a good story can work in any setting. Are you telling me war and peace could only take place in that time. You start with story.bwhat do you wanna say. Lord of the rings is a story that has a great setting, not a great setting with a story. And just because a story is old means nothing. Good stories from hundreds, or even thousands of years ago, hold up because of the story. The setting can be changed, reworked, even make completely up again if the story is solid. Too many people get too deep in the weeds of setting and don't understand most audience don't care.
@@ahoramazda6864 blw, if you are editing a friends work for a couple of years to fix plot points and you are blaming the setting I think that's the least of the problems. The structure has to be wrong and the story is done poorly (not an attack on your friend or his story, please don't take it as such.) Your story still has to have a setting, but it's just not as important as most think it is.
Regarding the quote from Patrick Rothfuss, here we all are trying to create other people, while SJWs creed is "I can't relate to these people because they don't look like me, or have sex like me, or vote like me!"
Just something that popped into my head.
It's ironic, because LD's core audience is not too different from SJW's. They share the views of SJWs, just not as radical.
But opinions and methods on key issues are not divided - to impose diversity in order to impose diversity, the violation of any canons or authenticity for the sake of the theoretical possibility of applying to a larger audience, and so on.
Therefore, such ridicule from the category "Oh, those SJWs" sounds so hypocritical and pretentious.
@@ahoramazda6864 you're probably going to be shocked an amazed to discover that many of us in the audience aren't left-leaning or pro(re)gressive. When LD rails about post-modernism in art, he's complaining about the left. The token inclusivity, the lazy writing, the poor character development, the lack of plot and the idea that deconstruction is original...all the things he's posted vids on and mocked, these are the hallmarks of marxist art. It's why the left can't meme.
@@hersirhakarl2109 Well said.
@@ahoramazda6864 Yeah, don't throw defense for SJWs. They're terrible, terrible people.
@@hersirhakarl2109, >you're probably going to be shocked an amazed to discover that many of us in the audience aren't left-leaning or pro(re)gressive.
Something tells me that obsessing with tomboys, learning gender stadis and justifying blackwashing are pretty leftist things.
> When LD rails about post-modernism in art
But post-modernism in art is a pretty good thing. I will try to explain with an example. In the classic work, the character is nicknamed "The Butcher" because he owns a butcher's shop. In modernist work like Fallout 2 (video game), Dexter (book, TV series) "The Butcher" is a nickname for a killer or dangerous person. In a post-modern work, "The Butcher" would be an ironic nickname for a vegetarian.
All because in classical works, stories are practically no different from fairy tales. They always start with "A long time ago in a kingdom/galaxy far away" and end with a happy ending. Of course, this is not always accurate in all cases, but I'm exaggerating a bit. Modernism tried to update classical works, but this effect was weak and felt only in comparison with classical works. Post-modernism added what the old works lacked - unexpected twists and ironies.
The Disney trilogy is basically a classic story - the naive heroine doesn't change and gets a happy ending just because. The fact that the new trilogy tries to deconstruct the old one is done to look better and mask the lack of innovation. Post-modernism has nothing to do with it.
Id love to see more of these. One of my biggest struggles as an aspiring writer is actually finding the motivation to write. I have alot of ideas and stories id love to flesh out but i never find the desire to actually put pen to paper or finger to keyboard in my free time i always end up doing more mind numbing hobbys like video games or watching youtube so to summarize my question: "what would you suggest to motivate someone that often neglects writing despite their desire to write? "
I've always found the best way to motivate is to just start. Start writing or typing. Don't think too much about it and only have the very simplest idea about what it is you're writing. Before you know it you'll have at least a couple of paragraphs down. They don't have to be perfect, that's what proof reading and 2nd/3rd/4th/etc drafts is for. Once you get those paragraphs down you can choose to go back and edit as necessary or to plow forward.
you dont need motivation. motivation will come and go, worrying about chasing that finite resource will only lead you down a hole. become disiplined and write a little paragraph every day. make it a requirement before you play games. writing will just become a habit and that is a more reliable source of production then chasing a motivation
200 shitty words a day. Just write 200 crappy words a day (they don't need to make sense, just write what goes through your mind) and soon, you might unclog your writer's block.
Joven C is right. It's unintuitive, but true. You don't need motivation. Thinking that you do is what's holding you back from beginning.
I'm going to leave this comment here:
Great videos man. You and a few others have always been one of the best UA-camrs to get some writing advice.
That's awesome! I'm glad you're enjoying the videos!
This was an extremely valuable little vid on what's important in a story.
One thing I'd like to add is that the value of world building is still there, but the reader is only able to see it after they invest in the characters and plot.
So it's absolutely worth building an intricate world. Just don't think that this makes up for lack of a compelling story.
This gave me a lot more confidence to practice and sharpen my writing skills! I definitely would like to see more!
Nice!
First of all, yes. I would like to see more videos like this.
For me, the motivation to even start is what I lack when I get home from work. I have to unwind after my days teaching, or the stress will get to me.
Is this the first time since The Last Jedi that you haven’t talked about it?
Kidding aside, I would love to see more of these videos. I’ll definitely take this advice to heart.
Lol! Probably. And I'm glad you enjoyed the video! I'll see about making more.
To be fair the majority of Disney Star Wars is a primer on what not to do, especially when writing narratives in preexisting IPs.
7:49 - You put down order instead of odor. Although now I can't stop imagining an ogre courier traveling the countryside to deliver the most sour of food orders to unsuspecting peasants.
And if I may add my own two cents into this, a good piece of advice to pair with "starting as close to the end as possible" is "have an actual ending in mind before you start". Too often in fanfiction, writers often start off a story with a solid idea but then get bored and either stop in the middle of the story or go off the rails with their characters constantly going on endless side quests instead of continuing the main plot. Having a defined ending point (no need to get too detailed with it. Bob marrying Jones in four months will work) can help focus the plot and keep it from becoming a tangled briar patch of plots and subplots that never end. A concrete ending point also helped motivate me when I was writing my novel of a fanfic for five years because I knew how close I was to getting it done with each completed chapter. This is advice that I rarely, if ever, hear from anyone and wish more people would bring up.
Well, mine didn't get answered, but I still get valuable insight.
Question 4 isn't necessarily a problem with me, as I have multiple ideas for separate stories on the regular.
An easy fix for me is that I tend to juggle different projects. For instance, one of the stories I have an idea of was actually from a dream I had a week or two ago. In order to keep things fresh and not stale, I work on my more established main story for a while and then go to my other ideas to not get bogged down in monotony.
Still an enjoyable video tho!! 💯🔥
Maybe I'll be able to answer yours in the next one
@@LiteratureDevil that makes me feel a lot better lol. Thanks!!
@@dunkyking6310 I'm trying to be a comic artists, so I had to drop my first story that I have worked on for 10 years because I can't draw armor like Halo and Metroid. I instead focused on ones that have been fleshed out in my head, isn't to difficult to plan( begining middle and end) and are easy for me to draw as a beginner. I have 3 solid projects so far in my head, but i have come up with several ideas that i either haven't started or had to drop because they were to dumb or just wasn't fleshed out enough.
but hey, its great to know that we have the ability to create a decent story from an idea in your head several times over, it means you have creative potential!
@@KingTai64 adaptability is good, and surprisingly, sci-fi armor has never really been a problem for me as it's simply drawing a human body and then adding armor to it. Now, I could add a little more detail to my own armors, but I have the form down pat. It does help to shift gears and work on other possibilities tho
@@dunkyking6310 I've seen the Artwork for Metroid zero mission and Fusion, the powersuit isn't to difficult to draw but I don't know. I maybe just making things more difficult than it really is on my end.
As someone who has WAY too many ideas all the time, sometimes it helps to just write down the outline of a story, the mechanisms of a magic system, or even just a random scene you like to imagine. Just writing it down and putting it aside is like taking a weight off of your shoulders! And, if a while later you are constructing a story and NEED something real quick -- like you are asked to off the top of your head write a backstory for someone else's character or create a magic system for a friend's script -- you can just drive into your old notes and find one right away!
I've found a great beginning also needs an ending, and everything between is the journey. You may think that certain things NEED to happen, and that's true, but you need to also allow your characters to get there naturally... I also feel like you also have to realize when the thing you want just wouldn't happen without forcing the point, so it should be dropped. or at least given consideration
More of this, brother!
I'd love to see another video like this, maybe covering how to make a competent main character without making them hyper competent and making them boring
I’m down for more of these. I’m not a writer, but I always like to learn new things like this
Your advice on Question 2: how to handle information overload really hit home for me. I know It speaks directly to my problem because it hurts to hear it. It's a weird experience to appreciate something that gives you growing pains, but I suppose it's key for a better writer's journey. Thank you.
As someone currently trying to write a story these sorts of videos help a lot. So I'd love to see more
“Every sentence must do one of two things - reveal character or advance the action.”
Or it could establish setting, which is arguably just as important as the plot. That’s where long descriptive paragraphs can be used.
I like to think the setting is a character.
"Take something (world details or bits of lore no one cares about) and turn that into drama, make it a scene, something the readers will care about."
One good trick to write vivid imagery is to remember "show, don't tell" and avoid the use of adverbs (the ones ending with -ly are to be avoided at any cost) , the passive voice ("Was, has been," etc.), and the words "that" and "there":
"There were creatures slowly moving in the shadows, away from view, hiding in the forest that was being swallowed by darkness on every corner" is a good enough sentence. But I find more elegant something like:
"Unseen creatures creeped in the shadows, hiding in the darkness swallowing every corner of the forest."
First sentence tells us what there is, but second sentence tells us what is going on.
"There were many questions asked" is telling. "The men asked many questions" is showing, and so on.
Anyways, It's an observation, not a rule. Sentences with heavy use of passive voice and adverbs were good enough for George R. R. Martin and J. K. Rowling, and no one can say with a straight face that they are amateurs.
When I got started working on my comic, I took the time to really analyze the things that got me writing in the first place. I read/watched opening episodes/chapters until I got an idea on what each scene is for and what it accomplishes. For example, Dr. Stone where everything is designed to either set up the conflict with the petrification/technological reset, show the individual personalities of Senku and Taiju, or express their friendship with each other. It's a real treat gaining a new appreciation for good writing when you know what you're looking for.
This was rather enjoyable and informative. I look forward to more.
Would love to see more videos like this, especially tackling larger problems like how to write convincing dialogue, or work on character development.
Btw, thanks particularly for the advice on looking for the conflict, I've noticed myself that often I find my most complex ideas I can't get stories out of.
I have written successful stories out of less complex ideas, which is absolutely fine, but it would be nice to find something to hang some of my more abstruse concepts on, especially since I've primarily written short fiction up to now.
I admit though, my biggest problem at the moment is simple motivation, since it's really hard to actually work on anything when it seems publication is literally impossible for anyone who doesn't toe the sjw line or just parrot the usual:
Sexism is bad, racism is bad, message.
Btw, not that sexism and racism aren't! bad, but I'd personally like to write actual stories, not just overblown slogans.
None of these I had questioned myself, but every answer was really useful!
More videos like this, please.
#2 is so awesome 😍. I handle info overload naturally just by visioning the "effort reward" after finishing projects at nights to DECREASE the thought of "overload" . I get info overload just by checking my fun emails or micro blogs. Once they are completed my overload is defeated 😍😍😍
more of these please. Seeing answers to "user posed questions" is great and highly appreciated
I would adore more videos like this! As a writer myself, this kind of information is very valuable! Thank you for putting this together! All of your videos are so full of good, quality information about writing and story. Please keep them up!
Also, I got my copy of Dr. Alpha Miracle Child in the mail, and I loved it! Such a good story, and the art was fantastic! Totally worth backing!
Very glad to hear it! Thanks for the support and I hope you enjoy!
English was my favourite subject back in school because it allowed us to write our own small stories.
I'm recently getting back into writing and by watching these videos of yours I've been getting many different ideas and pointers on how to proceed. I hope you continue to make these kinda videos. Entertaining and valuable!
I love this format! Numbers 2 and 3 are what I've been struggling the most and this absolutely helps. I'll take what I can lol
I can tell my story is full of mistakes but my first priority is to write all of it and finish it. Polishing can come later but I need to keep going, even if I absolutely hate it lol
Thank you so much and I look forward to more of these if you're gonna make them
yes, please more videos like this.
one thing I would like to hear you touch upon would be the Pacing of a story, and if one should try to keep the pace the same throughout or dynamic depending upon the circumstances. (and how one should go about getting the pace intended)
Please do more of this. In a previous video when you proposed a way of changing Rey's character, where making the choice to give over BB8 or not, a conflict of her desire to leave the planet vs abandon the droid like her parents had her, was very smart and flowed very naturally. I'd love if you could go more into setting up character conflict in meaningful ways.
Seriously, how are you so good at advices, no writer ever properly given an advice so helpful unlike yours.
Been following you for a while now, and love your art of storycraft videos.
Whether you're breaking down a comic's story structure, comparing modern stories to more classic stories, or doing more simple breakdowns like this. You have a gift for simplifying complex topics into more palatable pieces. Thank you, and keep up the work.
My main issue with writing stories isn't usually that I don't have the idea. Most of the time I know the general storyboard of what I want in my head. My issue is actually getting those details on paper in a proper story format. Basically all the fluff that turns a few fleshed out key scenes held together by the skeleton of connective details into a cohesive strand of story.
Thank you so much for this. If you're taking questions from YT, my biggest concern is learning how to properly pace a novel's plot.
This is a great video! I agree with a lot of people in the comments that you should do more videos like this one. It gives you a lot of insight on how to construct a story.
I would love to see more videos like this. I have plenty of questions myself as a beginner writer.
Great stuff Litdev! Also enjoy hearing your input on writing and better methods for flushing out worlds and stories!
I might be exactly one year late to this video, but it's honestly appreciated that you create such great tips, guides, and discussions on writing. I've published online works mostly as a hobby, but this year I really want to try and publish an actual novel. Seeing your videos over the years has been of great help and encouragement. So keep up the great work!
Themes! While I agree with Comicsgate’s core belief that “themes do not equal good story,” I was reading Araki Hirohiko’s “Manga in Theory and Practice” and noticed that he included Themes under Character, Story, and Setting, with Themes being important, but the least important of the four. How could I implement my Conservative Themes while also having good characters, story, and setting to own the Liberal Anti-Comicsgate crowd?
first thing is , I think you have a mistake in the framing of the question. implement conservative themes, it sounds like the themes are coming from outside the story which is pretty similar to the error of the "liberal anti comics gate crowd " being message before story. since you reference "manga in theory and practice" lets start there with one of the other takeaways from the book , without characters there is no story, even static characters that have lasted for decades , well they lasted that long so there has to be something.
if you really want to "own " them( personally I think a mindset change is needed.) with themes start with character building as the seeds of possible themes to explore. also remember themes are mostly questions and not answers whilst yes you should answer them a good story won't preach. a great story I feel , will invite the reader to ask more questions thus creating a deeper immersion.
this just some thoughts from a rando
While your idea I feel may come from a place of perceived justice and a wish to strike back against your opposition with proof to the contrary I feel that it is very easy to instead of making a good story with said conservative themes, simply to make a story which is mostly if not entirely a vehicle to carry across the agenda without much substance other than that, fueled by spite rather than good craftsmanship and discipline.
My personal philosophy regarding writing and theming is one of serendipity, start with a seed of your idea, building up the basics of character, theming, and ideas to explore, and attempt to explore them in an interesting and fulfilling way, branching out and maybe even picking up ideas which didn't occur to you at the time but would help. In a way don't start with "How can I express X message while also having good _", instead start with "How can I have good characters, story, and setting while *then* organically interweaving the message that I wish to convey?".
The former I'd argue is how you get shows like High Guardian Spice, so laser focused on their agenda to the expense of everything else due to the lack of craftsmanship of those involved.
This is however just the thoughts of some rando online.
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 couldn't have expressed it better. although the serendipity philosophy whilst great and used by myself as well , can lead to problems in a less tight story or never wanting to stop writing.
In line with Sanderson's description of a discovery writer.
but then again what are second and third drafts for?
some rando
I like Comicsgate, but I disagree with "themes do not equal good story". People often seem to conflate it with political and on-the-nose Leftist moralistic messages, but a bad approach to theme doesn't make it unimportant. I advise Tyler Mowery's videos here on YT about conflict and theme. He explains how the core of a story is really about the *philosophical conflict* first, then character, then plot, and how Philosophical Conflict _becomes_ theme.
For example, if you want conservative themes to stand at the core of your story, you must think about how they create conflict for your characters first. You have to incorporate related values and beliefs in characters on one end and opposite values and beliefs in characters on the other. The protag can sit anywhere on this line and progress towards one or the other during the story. You'd have to be careful in considering the opposite. You can't create a Punching Bag character that's just there to represent the evil Liberal and how they are wrong in everything. A better tactic is to make both viewpoints as strong as possible and focus on the merits of the protag's opposite viewpoint to really make them contend with it both externally and internally.
That said, in your case you may be inflating the importance of your conservative themes and wish to "own" the Liberal Anti-Comicsgate crowd. Perhaps you should ask yourself whether you want to create and entertain or just jab at your political opposite. Personally, I believe politics in fiction can work fine IF it's used to explore ideas and deeper human motivations, anything else runs the risk of becoming propaganda...
@@EvelineDaw so if I’m understanding correctly, in simple terms you basically have to “marry” your themes with your other elements and be focused on creating a well crafted story over a revenge piece.
Definitely make more of these videos. Super useful as always!
This was a very informative video! Thanks so much. One thing I would love for you to make a video on is dialogue, not how to write it but when to write it. I find myself writing pages and pages of dialogue for two characters and it doesn't really advance the plot in any way. Often, it builds relationships between the characters, but besides that, it doesn't serve much purpose except being entertaining. It's also very painful to cut out witty dialogue that you had a lot of fun writing.
Definitely want to see more of these videos. I dont know what to ask myself , but questions you answered here were still very helpful.
This video was really informative and easy to understand. Would love to see more of this.
I watched this video, and I found it very fascinating as any video from this channel. I like to take my time to spend it wisely watching this type of video even though I am not a writer.
English and writing were always my weakest subjects in school, but I love your videos. You present all of these concepts in such an intriguing and digestable way. I wish you had been one of my teachers.
Very much appreciated!
Please make more videos like this. They're really helpful!!!!
Great tips here. I feel like the hardest questions out of these is how to start a story and how to find conflict.
This kind of video seems great for brainstorming video ideas based on which questions gain traction and engagement in the comments section, or which parts are rewatched the most. You can take the questions that get the most attention and make a longer video just about that topic. Feels like there's so much to learn about creating conflict between characters, especially when you want to have multiple "main characters."
On the topic of multiple main characters, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the Japanese light novel series "A Sister's All You Need" as that story feels like everyone in the 20+ character cast is a main character of their own story in the universe that we're watching, and we see the parts where those people interact with each other.
Nice video, its very informative. I used to write fanfics before, its my therapy for my asperger's. I have so much vivid imaginations that I had troubled sleeping, due to anxiety of me not writing it down. Me writing a story acts as my conduit to release that pent-up anxiety. Either hope for more videos like this from you sir!
Great video, I would love to see more of this! Lately I’ve been procrastinating to start one page comic. I will definitely come back to this video for writing help.
Just found your channel. Love everything you do. I think this is an amazing idea and hope you keep up the Q&A episodes.
More please. Maybe you could cover issues specific to screenwriting.
You know id just like to say, ive been aspiring to be a writer for years now- its the only thing i want to do in life but no matter what i write when i read it over, everything feels bland. No matter how great the tales form in my head, when i actually put pen to paper everything falls away and i just cant grasp the ideas i had anymore. But this- all of your videos even, have helped me to become a better writer and understand where I’ve went wrong with my narratives, and with the way i structure my stories.
It is painfully hard to find quick and digestible information like this in a world where hardworking people have little time for their passions and for that, i am grateful beyond reason.
Thanks for the guidelines! They make a lot of sense!
This was very enlightening, far more than any of the other writing coaches on UA-cam. 👍👍
Hey! That's high praise. Very much appreciated!
If you have a bunch of little ideas that can't build a story, try seeing if you can connect them and make a story out of it. My dream project (I have other stories I want to tell first, partly to hone my skills) is made up of ideas that didn't go anywhere on there own but when combined started forming a universe in my head. That's when it became my dream project instead of just one of many story ideas.
This was an extremely helpful video! Please make more.
please make more videos like this!! as much as i love to rewatch this i know there are more tips to know about writing! love your stuff dude!
Very informative. Would like more of these writing tip videos.
Please consider making more vids like this where you give us tips and tricks to make our writing more better and stories more compelling!!! 😁
I'm down for more like this!
I would not mind having more videos like this. I am an aspiring writer with too many ideas, and videos like this help me focus.
More like this, please.
Here's a question (if you come back to read more questions): how does one find the motivation to begin writing? I have tons of ideas to put down to paper, but I only ever written a few works so far. My biggest problem is rewriting scenes, so often, I just let the story simmer in my mind as I work out all the wrinkles, though I know that's not a good idea, since I might forget important details.
The video laid out some thoughtful advice, but I would like to see more videos that could dive a little deeper into the answers if possible.
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Lots of good advice. Love these types of videos.
Since you gave us such wonderful tips, I should retribute your kindness with a tip of my own, Literature Devil: 200 shitty words a day. Just writing 200 crappy words a day (they don't need to make sense, just write what goes through your mind) is the solution to, probably, unclog your writer's block.
This was helpful, thank you! I hope you do some more in the future.
I'm not sure the exact way to explain this question, so hopefully it's a tangible one you can answer. A lot of the time when I'm making stories I tend to come up with a decent structure of A and B and C, basically key scenes that progress the story or characters, yet I often struggle with figuring out how to bridge together those scenes. Heck, even within a shorter section, like just within Scene A, I don't have it all there flowing together. For example, the start of the story is the main character being brought into jail with key scenes setting up intrigue about the setting and a major antagonist. But then after that scene is finished and he is finally in his cell, how do I get the story to the next moment naturally? The next important story scene is the antagonist coercing the main character into joining his fight club by threatening his new jail cell friend. I don't want to bog the story down too much by having an extended stay in the jail from the reader's perspective, yet I need to organically introduce the cell mate and their budding friendship. Can I simply have 1 scene of them getting acquainted and then imply over a few months they are now friends? Or is that too little? If their friendship isn't a major part of the overall story, but simply this section (before the MC escapes prison), then is it ok to skip past some of the details?
Also naming characters is hard, what are some ways that can help? At this point I'm just making up names that sound neat but might not be very good. Like Bob O'Bannon, Darryl Dubois, Tururu Roca or something of the sort (as the story is a bit like a superhero style setting, I'm going with idea of the names starting with the same letter, like Peter Parker, but that's as far as I've gotten). Should the names make sense to the character, or is it ok as long as they are memorable enough? How do you come up with names that make sense to the characters?
DEFINITELY want to see more of these videos!
I love these lectures you always have a captivating way of teaching so to speak
Maybe an idea to explore for another video like this; or perhaps a dangerous one:
How do you create a story in an already existing and established universe?
Could be sequel, prequel, side story, unrelated story just happens in the same universe, whatever - just has to be related in some way to whatever story it connects with without being some huge crossover between two different properties.
I hope you do more of these.
Great video just as always. I love the wizard of Oz analysis using Vonnegut.
Thanks for answering my question it really helped me sit down and look over my ideas and see if any of them got a good conflict to focus the story on. I have never been good at making conflicts, but now I know where to practise ^_^
I kind of like to begin a story with some think that suprices the reader. One story started with. "The bugg out bag sits packed in the corner. I must allways keep the Mobile loaded." after that you can start writing about the character and what is around him. It might be a good idea to build the dark cloud. when you do that.
@Literature Devil Not a question but advice that might help some people hit their daily word counts.
When you have your outlines and you want to get down to writing, copy-paste some lorem ipsum samples into an empty text file. Insert scene breaks as desired, hit the Insert key, and start typing.
This is good for people who are 'afraid of the empty page,' as they say. People who tend to look for flaws in their writing and have trouble letting go. The reason this works is because the page isn't empty, and overwriting instead of just writing hits your inner editor skills more than the creative writer ones. The word count stops being a hill to climb (number that has to go up) and instead becomes a downhill experience (number going down). It's especially effective when combined with colour, marking what has been 'edited' and what hasn't. Splitting it up into 500 to 750 word increments makes hitting 1k to 2k goals way more feasible. Another upside to this method is that it gives a rough guideline on how long a scene will be, which can help stop you from letting it drag on. It's been working well for me so far, but obviously that doesn't mean it's a catch-all solution. Just tossing that out there for general consideration.
I will watch more videos like this. I love your work
One of the reasons why I believe video games are one of the greatest mediums of all time is because you can overdevelop the setting of the story to death's door and back, AND include all of it in the final finished product, and it STILL doesn't have to feel overdeveloped because you can let the audience take the initiative to ask about it themselves.
Thanks, I sort of get what I'm trying to do. I have to keep reminding myself to slow down a little. My first draft of my first book isn't even done yet and I keep jumping ahead to the end of the story in my imagination.
LD made it two whole minutes before gushing over Neil Gaiman. Proud of you, buddy.
How about tackling how, when, and WHY to incorporate a plot-twist in the your story next time? There’s so much modern media that tries to implement these and they near-universally fail.
Lol! Also, very interesting idea.
I love how Tolkien breaks virtually all of these rules. Let me tell you about hobbits for 100 pages…
Knowing what the rules are is a necessity for which ones you choose to break and which ones you keep using.
You gotta learn the rules like a pro to break the rules like an artist
Tolkien's stories gained an audience due to the context of the time - it was unique at the time. But they keep an audience because the themes that drive the conflict are compelling. I love the world he created, but in hindsight he shows it in a less effective way than more recent writers who also have interesting worlds.
Writing your world-building like Tolkien now is unlikely to attract a large audience now; writing your themes and conflict like Tolkien might.
He only breaks the first two.
Robert Jordan in the first 150 pages: Am I a joke to you?
Great video LD! I like this series of answering questions because it gives me some things to consider myself. I especially like the question about lore and the reader's interest; that really helps, since I'm currently trying to figure out the power structure for my stories & universe. I know people wouldn't want a lecture (myself included), so I'm thinking of trying to iron out the power system 1st, then writing and editing the stories to stick to that system, so to speak.
Some people I've spoken to have told me it sounds almost like making a video game: you make a fun gameplay engine, then write a story that uses this fun gameplay.
If I had a question to ask, I guess it could be: "If one was planning to write many stories around a central power structure or lore, should I write the lore and powers 1st to keep the stories on track? or focus on the stories 1st and iron out the lore later?"
Regardless, keep up the good work LD, and I hope to see more videos like this in future!
Tus consejos son muy buenos, he recomendado tus videos a muchos amigos aspirantes a escritores. Yo también soy un escritor, con algunos libros publicados (solo en español), así que pasar por tu canal siempre es refrescante de alguna manera. Muchas gracias por tus aportaciones al mundo de la literatura, espero que sigas creando contenido durante más tiempo. Saludos.
Please make more videos like this. These are great bite sized pieces. Like having a fun sized piece of candy vs the full candy bar that is your deep dives into one question. Both have their roles. Although I could see the comment section voicing on question in particular to have a deep dive on.
You're good at this. One thing that's helped me avoid info-dumping is writing from the perspectives of characters who wouldn't know the info-dump information, although I worry I've gone too much the other way with a character who doesn't even speak the same language as anyone else and an orphaned slave-child from a disgraced family who people would sooner spit and throw rocks at than speak to.
Yeah I think I would dig a series of videos like this
Small, easily digested bits. Rapid fire, yet organized for a little cohesion. My conclusion: A brisk yet satisfying meal for the mind. Well done.
(Though somebody during the premiere did notice the ogre had a sour 'order' instead of 'odor'... checked during my replay. Yup, there's a wee typo.)
Good questions. Good answers. Good Job! I would like to see more of this :)
I’d love to see more videos like this!
Great takes! More of this, please!
This video has been useful. It makes me want to go back to episode 2 of my series that I'm working on because I was stuck at a certain part of the script.
you are one my favorites in youtube, great content.
I started to write a fantasy series a few months ago. But the worldbuilding was nearly at zero. When I should add a race or a magical system, I add some, which fits into the story.
But this story has another thing, which can be worried. A lack of story.The story is about a tournament in an arena. One against one other to the death. But other from the fighters, the winners of the fights (a too the bets), are completely random. The way, I'm trying to tackle this problem is: give every fighter growth. So it isn't very important, who wins. It doesn't damage the story. But the reader doesn't know, who will win, just by reading the first chapters.
4. What tp do when you have multiple ideas?
Ideas are worthless without good implementation, which takes time, so it's best to write them down and save them for later when you have time and energy.
One question I almost never seen brought up is: What if you have (what seems to be) two or more conflicts in one story? Does all the same advice apply?
Anyway, I'm all for more of these! I love your long videos but these are definitely more digestable and easier to "get".
Yes, please.
We all struggle with writing, regardless of our skillset.
And modern day fragmentation of focus time
certainly makes literary endeavours -or their aspirations-
far harder than they were 10-odd years ago.
Please, break down Alan Moore's (&co.) classic stories.
Expand upon Will Eisner and Kirby, and why not Dave Sim.
Cross over and deconstruct Tezuka, Otomo, Inoue, and why not Kurumada.
You have The Voice.
You know you can.
Don't let us down.
I would be quite interested in as many of these videos as you find suitable!