Great video! You gave me confidence to trust my own process. I'm at the very beginning of my writing journey. First project, still trying to figure out my voice, my style, my schedule, my strengths and weaknesses... all while I just wanna dive right into this world in my mind. Usually I'm insecure about not having the whole story figured out before writing, but you showed me I've already "outlined" a bunch of things that might be enough to take me somewhere. I have my characters, my antagonists, my conflict and a strong vibe and setting. I'll see how far I'm able to get from here. If it doesn't work out, I can always take a step back and try again. It's always just a draft until it isn't.
I'm mostly a pantser who tries to plot and then just dive right in when i barely know how to swim 😅 Usually my characters help my story in some way, mostly my current stories are older stories i started 10+ years ago that i liked the concept of and reworked them into plots i enjoy a lot more, but because those primitive stories never got finished, I get stuck at the end because i never thought of how the book should end. Your tip on figure out the ending first is a huge help!
Hello. I think I am a pantser who is retroplotting as he is writing. I use something like your Method#5 you spoke about, but after there is some material about this people. I use custom made questions (relevant to the story) for my characters to know their opinion about stuff. There is no "what character need to be", they are just people. As realistic as it gets. I don't care about "core conflict" - I don't need conflict to make an interesting story. There are different ways of making story interesting. That is not to say I am avoiding conflict in my writing, I just don't believe it is essential. My current project won't have a chart time/tension, although it will have 4 acts, but I wouldn't call them "beginning", "middle" and "end". I would rather call them Here, Far, Farther and The Farthest. I am not sure how I feel about the word "farther", I think in school it was "further", but google says that whatever. I don't lose motivation to finish, but still this video was quite fun even if I disagree with some things. ps. this comments are quite awkward, because I tell people that I am a writer, I sometimes write about some experimental writing and yet my english is not perfect, so I put disclaimer that I am a writer in different language than english and I am just leeching advices from english part of internet
Thank you for your videos and channel. I appreciate all the advice and tips. Im starting to write and have been stuck with how to go about it. An outline is great for keeping the scenes rolling forwards to get to the end that Ive outlined.
MCs are full of surprises. Lately I made Mr Perfect who is so unreliable POV that he is fully commited to do some things "just in a moment" and he just wait for situation to resolve itself.
@@theq6797 haha yeah, I as a writer consider myself as "the camera man" someone just following thr characters and see what they do. I start wroting with barely any knowledge about the MC (basically just name and how they look like), and everything else just shows up when it does. Only problem for that is that the books get giant...
This is exactly what I needed. Thank you. You're absolutely right that writing a mystery without any outlining is hard. Claire, now, if I'd known it before actually starting my book, I wouldn't be so overwhelmed and trapped in the story as I am now. Greetings from Ukraine. Btw, I'm either a methodological pantser or an intuitive plotter. How can I figure out who I am?
Thank you so much for this video. It’s the one for me. Just one other question: the main character in my book is living with severe depression, so honestly: he doesn’t WANT anything. (Apart from maybe dying…) How can I create a want for him that still ticks all the boxes of a S.M.A.R.T. Goal? Creating something of a „ticking clock“ is really hard I think…. Help would be so so so appreciated! Thank you
Hi! I’m so glad you liked the video. Hm .. what is your story about? What actually happens in it? Is the book only about him and his depression, or is it about a man with depression who also has his home invaded by aliens and who [wants] to survive the alien attack? Knowing more about your story would help me give a better answer to your question
I will put my 3 cents here. Creativity should be free for ticking any boxes. If you struggle to write such character maybe write about his past - maybe he is dying and just remembers his life, how happy he was and how depression started. Like in song Molchat Doma - Sudno: Window, bedside table and the bed Not cozy at all - hard to live But cozy to die or in Craig Gray - Fade Away: One day she'll have the courage, To do what she wants to do, End the life of misery, And for once be happy. And in the end you decide if this suicidal character will be rescued, because of his previous actions, despite his previous actions or maybe he will just die. Funny thing with suicide - the more people talk about it the more it feels like a norm for certain individuals, the less people talk about it the less likely is to help certain individuals don't give up on misery, I mean happiness, of life. Sorry for black humour, some say it is norm to my people.
@@MrRosebeing it depends what kind of writer you are! Outlining really helps me and I can’t write a book without outlining it first (a fully fleshed out detailed outline), but some people hate detailed outlines so a method like this would work better.
@@WritewithClaireFraise I've always been a short story writer and a bad poet, so you could probably accuse me of being facetious. I am not a person that could spend months or even years outlining a book and then write the book, only for the book not to sell. At the moment my strength seems to be in writing UA-cam comments. There is no one best way to write a book in my opinion, but good luck with all of yours. I wish you health, wealth and happiness throughout your writing career.
Good exercises to go through before writing a detailed outline, too.
Great video! You gave me confidence to trust my own process. I'm at the very beginning of my writing journey. First project, still trying to figure out my voice, my style, my schedule, my strengths and weaknesses... all while I just wanna dive right into this world in my mind. Usually I'm insecure about not having the whole story figured out before writing, but you showed me I've already "outlined" a bunch of things that might be enough to take me somewhere. I have my characters, my antagonists, my conflict and a strong vibe and setting. I'll see how far I'm able to get from here. If it doesn't work out, I can always take a step back and try again. It's always just a draft until it isn't.
I'm mostly a pantser who tries to plot and then just dive right in when i barely know how to swim 😅
Usually my characters help my story in some way, mostly my current stories are older stories i started 10+ years ago that i liked the concept of and reworked them into plots i enjoy a lot more, but because those primitive stories never got finished, I get stuck at the end because i never thought of how the book should end. Your tip on figure out the ending first is a huge help!
Hello.
I think I am a pantser who is retroplotting as he is writing. I use something like your Method#5 you spoke about, but after there is some material about this people. I use custom made questions (relevant to the story) for my characters to know their opinion about stuff.
There is no "what character need to be", they are just people. As realistic as it gets.
I don't care about "core conflict" - I don't need conflict to make an interesting story. There are different ways of making story interesting. That is not to say I am avoiding conflict in my writing, I just don't believe it is essential.
My current project won't have a chart time/tension, although it will have 4 acts, but I wouldn't call them "beginning", "middle" and "end". I would rather call them Here, Far, Farther and The Farthest. I am not sure how I feel about the word "farther", I think in school it was "further", but google says that whatever.
I don't lose motivation to finish, but still this video was quite fun even if I disagree with some things.
ps. this comments are quite awkward, because I tell people that I am a writer, I sometimes write about some experimental writing and yet my english is not perfect, so I put disclaimer that I am a writer in different language than english and I am just leeching advices from english part of internet
Thank you for your videos and channel. I appreciate all the advice and tips. Im starting to write and have been stuck with how to go about it. An outline is great for keeping the scenes rolling forwards to get to the end that Ive outlined.
meanwhile, me while writing:
here's my MC. Now, let's see what she does....
MCs are full of surprises.
Lately I made Mr Perfect who is so unreliable POV that he is fully commited to do some things "just in a moment" and he just wait for situation to resolve itself.
@@theq6797 haha yeah, I as a writer consider myself as "the camera man" someone just following thr characters and see what they do. I start wroting with barely any knowledge about the MC (basically just name and how they look like), and everything else just shows up when it does. Only problem for that is that the books get giant...
@@xChikyx Cut it to have a publishable word count.
@@theq6797 easier said than done lol
first novel is over 350K, sequel is currently around 280K
This is exactly what I needed.
Thank you.
You're absolutely right that writing a mystery without any outlining is hard. Claire, now, if I'd known it before actually starting my book, I wouldn't be so overwhelmed and trapped in the story as I am now.
Greetings from Ukraine.
Btw, I'm either a methodological pantser or an intuitive plotter. How can I figure out who I am?
Seriously?? You didn't have to call me out like that in the beginning though 😆
But a great video and thank you for making this!
04:00 "You and the [handsome] cowboy figure out how to save your grandfather's farm..."
I sense a strong identification with the female protagonist 🧐😋
Thank you so much for this video. It’s the one for me.
Just one other question: the main character in my book is living with severe depression, so honestly: he doesn’t WANT anything. (Apart from maybe dying…)
How can I create a want for him that still ticks all the boxes of a S.M.A.R.T. Goal? Creating something of a „ticking clock“ is really hard I think….
Help would be so so so appreciated!
Thank you
Hi! I’m so glad you liked the video. Hm .. what is your story about? What actually happens in it? Is the book only about him and his depression, or is it about a man with depression who also has his home invaded by aliens and who [wants] to survive the alien attack? Knowing more about your story would help me give a better answer to your question
I will put my 3 cents here. Creativity should be free for ticking any boxes. If you struggle to write such character maybe write about his past - maybe he is dying and just remembers his life, how happy he was and how depression started. Like in song Molchat Doma - Sudno: Window, bedside table and the bed Not cozy at all - hard to live But cozy to die or in Craig Gray - Fade Away: One day she'll have the courage, To do what she wants to do, End the life of misery, And for once be happy.
And in the end you decide if this suicidal character will be rescued, because of his previous actions, despite his previous actions or maybe he will just die.
Funny thing with suicide - the more people talk about it the more it feels like a norm for certain individuals, the less people talk about it the less likely is to help certain individuals don't give up on misery, I mean happiness, of life. Sorry for black humour, some say it is norm to my people.
Start writing it. If it isn't working for you then start plotting it. Am I about right?
@@MrRosebeing it depends what kind of writer you are! Outlining really helps me and I can’t write a book without outlining it first (a fully fleshed out detailed outline), but some people hate detailed outlines so a method like this would work better.
@@WritewithClaireFraise I've always been a short story writer and a bad poet, so you could probably accuse me of being facetious.
I am not a person that could spend months or even years outlining a book and then write the book, only for the book not to sell.
At the moment my strength seems to be in writing UA-cam comments.
There is no one best way to write a book in my opinion, but good luck with all of yours.
I wish you health, wealth and happiness throughout your writing career.