If you want to fast-track this process, just write a new book (first draft) so you’re not thinking about the first one. This not only makes it easier to endure the waiting but it actually makes you “forget” about the details of the first one faster. When I’m done with the first draft of one book I move on to the next one and once I finish that I can immediately go back and read my first one again somewhat fresh even if it only took me a month or two to draft the second book.
@@enfant00x So far I have created another first draft and seven new books with a couple chapters and/or prologues, while waiting to go back to my first draft
I have waited for literal YEARS to watch your revision/editing videos, all because I had never finished a first draft! 106k words and almost four years later, I can finally say I made it!!!
My problem is I only have 10 chapters and writing for about 1 month. I just don’t know how I will even get to 20,000 words. Believe me I’ve said a lot about my sister’s suicide. And you have 106k words! I don’t know whether to be impressed or depressed 😂
This came at the perfect time!!! I just finished my first draft, and I'm so overwhelmed now because I've never actually edited an entire story before.💛
PERFECT timing!!! I literally just finished my first draft and have no idea where to begin edits (because it SORELY needs it lol) Now that I've got two novels and two novellas under my belt (written, not published), I can really see how much outlining helps me in the long run. It helps a lot to have things sorted out beforehand, because no matter what I do, I will ALWAYS end up adding a brand-new very important plot element out of the blue towards the end of the book, one that changes the whole course of the series (if it's a series). These random additions really complete the story, every single time---so I've come to expect that by the time I'm done writing, a lot of things will be different from when I started (entire characters and systems appear and disappear halfway through XD, it's a mess until it's edited). Also, for me, I can't actually figure out the theme of my book until I'm done with it. Because at the end, I can exactly see the whole picture, and I can see the correlation between the theme my characters are leaning towards and the truth that I realize is the one I want to "shout from the rooftops." Then, I sort of edit the theme into my characters and the events that happen in the story.
Same, I can't find the theme until the end or near the end of writing it. And I also just throw in random things here and there that aren't outlined. It makes it much more fun to write in my opinion.
aww thanks! Update, I turned that first draft into my book The Time Warden, which came out in March!! Proof that all of this work we're putting in really does pay off
Your process is soo similar to mine. One thing I do differently is instead of hiring one proofreader, I hold a contest for who can find the most mistakes in my manuscript and whoever finds the most wins a fun prize. Saves on my budget and lots of people are very motivated to find all of the mistakes! :)
Thank you for such a simple tip as printing out the manuscript to edit the old-fashioned way on paper. That's all it took to unleash my editing energy. I didn't realize I was feeling trapped by my own laptop.
As someone who's still sticking with fanfictions for the moment, I'm actually gonna need advice on this for some longer stories. (Still trying to motivate myself to rewrite and edit the 10k project I did back around October...) Also, quick question. What highlighters do you use? The ones I use keep making the ink smear... meaning I just went to using pencils to mark up the paper.
@@KidsNetworkCrafts Thanks! My dad said it'd probably smear no matter what I use, given it was printer ink, but I also wondered if the ones I was using were cheap... And if their pastel, that'll mean their prettier... so even if they don't work as I'd like...
Love the tips! Thank you! For me, however, I prefer to put my 1st draft away for only a few days. I've found if I leave it for a few months then I'm in the thick of another project and it's hard to pick it back up/give it the attention it needs and deserves.
Abbie Emmons my QUEEN... your videos have been so enlightening and are pretty much the only thing that is getting me through my final year script project at uni. I'll probably be watching you and supporting you forever.
I am now in the process of rewriting what 20-something years old me saw as a novel, but was essentially just a slightly polished first draft. I found the 15 years inbetween to have been extremely helpful in detaching myself from the original version and spot many weaknesses in plot and characters that I was unable to see back then.
This was literally gold. I wrote my first draft two years ago and I thought that it's was really something I am confident about so, now I have started revising it after I saw your video. Your way of explaining things is awesome :-)
Hi! Before this first draft, I had written a story before, back when I was 14. It was a 48k first draft. After I finished, I spent one month away from it, tried to hop back in, and... bam. I could barely edit. First of all, I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't reread any of it. I kept mixing line editing with plot and structure. And I realized, my plot and structure wasn't very strong. I've kind of scrapped that story for the time being. This story is new. I started writing it on March 31st and finished on April 8th, with 57.3k. words. Yes, I was grinding all spring break with some days being 6-7 hours of writing... straight. But now I have my first draft! It's been around a month and a week since then and I'm ready to hop back into editing. This time, I actually have a plan. An editing process.
I came here to tell you thank you! I have just (ten minutes ago) finished my first draft of my first book and needed an Abbie video to celebrate 🎉 I am ecstatic with joy, cuz its been a few years coming. Thanks for all the great content that have helped so many of us (so many in the comments) come to this point!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Congrats everyone!!!
my problem is finding a beta reader, one who will judge the flow, character interaction, etc. They hack at grammar "including dialogue slang into proper English
Hi Abby, You've long been my go-to writing video source. I'm working through a university course on creative writing and I'm at 88% of the course completion stage. I've been asked to produce a 1000-word story of which I have written out the first draft. Unfortunately, I am unable to put it away in the ring binder as the deadline is a day away. Is there a video on knocking out a 1000-word story really fast?
I'm actually on the 4th draft at the moment, but it still feels like a first draft because it's meant to be the first in a mystery series and the overall story has changed so much and so many times that each draft is basically a new book 😂
TLDW you need a LOT of money. Professional editors cost $$$ so do professional proofreaders. So both are going to you into the thousands of dollars. If you are like me and don’t have thousands to just throw around. You’re gonna have to put in a lot of extra work. But, plus side, if you can stick it out, it will make a better writer.
Abbie, I just read your book 100 Days of Sunlight, and can I just say how much I love this book. I love it so much. I love the characters and Tessa and omg I love Weston. I think my favorite side character is Rudy. You really know how to make such lovable characters. Agghhh I loved it so much. I don’t usually read outside of school but on the rare occasion that I do, it’s got to be a great book, and this is what happened with 100 Days of Sunlight (came home with less than half of it done, finished it by the end of the night). I know you probably don’t want to read this whole thing about me ranting about your book, but thank you so much for creating this! You really are an amazing author!! 🥰❤️❤️
Thank you for this!! 😄 I’m currently doing a huge rewrite/overhaul of my book (it sorely needed it 😂), and it’s honestly so much fun to see it become the things I’ve always wanted it to be 🤩 Thank you for your amazing videos, they’re helping me so much!!!
Thanks for this! I've finished my first draft of my first novel, and am ready to start revising, so this helps a lot! Also, I use the "don't decorate while you're still building" metaphor with my writing students. Love it!
After the first draft I review each chapter one at a time to make sure everything works scene wise. Then I use my computers voice to listen to each page and make additional changes. Then I use prowritingaid. Peer edits. Paid editor. Then my mom beta reader lol.
Still in the process of writing my first draft. I’m already seeing several holes in the plot, where 1+1=2.5. It’s not quite right. The overall impact this has on the story is minimal, but will alter character arcs over the course of the novel, similar to a snowball and avalanche. Would you recommend forgetting about it and moving the story forward, or freeze where I’m at and start making the necessary changes?
Thank you for being honest but kind. I don't believe there's any reason to totally trash people when trying to help them write their novel as the last person did in her video. This was extremely helpful.
The best thing I did to get me in a different headspace was have my non-reader, blue collar husband read my first draft and he was one of the best editors I ever had. He was the complete opposite of my target audience so he looked at it in an objective way I never could.
Thank you for the helpful videos. I’ve been writing since i was 15 and it’s funny I unknowingly knew some of it. Outlining has helped me cement ideas and create news ones. It’s hard for me to write more then a few hundred words a day due to the fact I work full time in a hospital. But something is better then nothing.
That sounds incredibly helpful. But: What do I do in the meantime? 🤣 In those 3-4 months (!) when I have to put it aside and dont look at it? Writing a new book? I wrote my first draft (212 word document pages) in 2,5 months. And I KNOW that I have to give it a good editing before I can publish it. But this first book is meant to be the beginning of a series. So... what do I do in the meantime? Starting volume two without even knowing if I can rely on things that happened in volume one, since I dont know if I have to drop these things? Its hard to let your creativity run wild and free if you have to put breaks on it. I usually write a chapter and go through editing right after I wrote it: Grammar, mistakes etc. But that doesnt erase all the flaws, since Im always too close to it. That sucks. It really does. I wish I could erase my memory every time I read through a chapter and look at it with a clear and fresh mind.
I have written 2 manuscripts (series) and I have queried within a 2yr span and I have gotten rejections of course. I'm in the "leave it for 3mths" stage and will be revisiting over the Christmas holidays.
dude this was SO helpful. Not gonna lie tho I'm in chapter 10 of my first book in a duology (and ever) and I realized half way through that I'm going to have to write five more chapters to the beginning to give my character move background and well roundedness instead of just offing her parents in the first chapter lol so my revision process gonna need to be First draft, part of second, edit, second, etc
Mine is very similar...except I have a professional structural edit before permanent line editing. That saves me from wasting time on things that could get cut out.
☝️🤓I love this. Big thank you for teaching make beautiful and super good RUclips channel. Big inspiration and motivation for me. Thank you for you. 🙏💚🍀🌳🌍☀️
@AskAbbie I’m in need of this question answered!! So I’ve had so much trouble trying to figure out how I could add in internal conflict but like… italicizing my characters thoughts, and I’m also writing my novel in third person. So therefore, should I continue to write in third person, and use the italics in first person or third person? I really don’t know what to do, because I reallyy want to add in internal conflict, but I’m not sure how to do it. I have my MC’s misbelief, fear and desire, but I just can’t get this internal conflict under control. Thank you so so so much, your a life saver!!
During the time you step away do you send your manuscript to Beta Readers or do you start your editing your process before you send it to Beta Readers?
What do you do during the decompression time? Do you start another project? What's you suggestion? I finished a manuscript and only had the will to give it like a five day rest before I started editing. MISTAKE. I got so overwhelmed it made me almost quit writing. I started a new project which has been awesome and I know I'll need a break before editing it so I guess I'll try going back to the first document. Honestly, I haven't a clue. Editing terrifies me to my very soul.
Hi Abbie what do you think about using Chat GPT only for edits. For example put a paragraph into the chat and tell it to edit the grammar and recommend changes to make the scene stand out more?
I write short stories, usually averaging about 7-9k words when finished. My first draft takes me about an hour and a half if I just sit down and do it because I'm a pantser, and it's about 1.5k ish. My decompression time is about month. I feel like it's a lot of time especially for something so short, but it keeps me from burning out. I then edit the very horrible first draft, add a ton, take away of ton and I have a second draft. Then the wait between draft 2 and 3 is probably like a week or two and the third draft takes about two hours to edit because it's mostly done and all I have to do is basic grammar, spelling and punctuation. Then boom, I have an 8k short story that will never see the light of day.
I don't know if you ever reply to comments as I'm sure you're ridiculously busy all the time, but on the off chance I'd like to ask for your insight on something. I just wrote a short story (a little over 50 pages) that is heavily inspired by a difficult time in my own life where people had wronged me, but I fictionalized and exaggerated a lot of it so it's of course much different than the real life events. I'd like to have close friends read the manuscript and give their input, and all these friends know about the real life events and would easily be able to tell where my inspirations come from, and because of that since there are some graphic descriptions in the story, I'm afraid they will be uncomfortable reading it and might assume some of the fictionalized parts are more close to reality or might think I'm projecting a lot of deeply repressed stuff when it was details I added to make the story more entertaining. To make this more clear, the story ends up going towards a horror direction in the last act. And while obviously the characters in the story are inspired by the people in real life, I wrote them to have completely different personalities and changed their motives and all that jazz. Am I being too afraid to let people I'm close to proofread or edit my story? How do you get your story edited and proofread by a new set of eyes if you don't have any available or willing friends to read it? I will say, one of the people who had wronged me in the real life events I took inspiration from has since reached out to me and we've been making amends for a while and I told her about the story and she really wants to read it and when I gave her disclaimers that many things I had fictionalized and some graphic or explicit stuff is in there for a reason to enhance certain themes, she told me she trusted the writing process and knew that I wouldn't put things in for "sh**s and giggles" and that she knew that writing stories of this nature is a good cathartic tool for the author. So I guess if one of the people that inspired the story is okay with it, maybe I'm just being too paranoid or self conscious about it? I don't know if you have ever written stories that were at least partially based on events from your own life, but if you have I'd love to hear how you dealt with it.
Coming in on this late because I just finished the first draft of this year's NaNoWriMo project. I noticed in the video that you seemed to have a color coding system in place for your revising and line editing processes. Do you use a specific color coding system, or do you just do what seems to work for the specific project you're working on?
Finally rewatching this after completing my first draft at 130k words. It took 1.5 years writing it alongside another novel. This is bound to help so much, thank you Abbie. ❤
its hard to feel proud of this when my first draft is super messy & isn't giving me that exciting feeling like how when i write my other stories--and ive wanted to get this idea out and published my whole life. im kinda disappointed how messy the first draft is, i just don't know what needs to change!! ahhhhh
Hii, I don't know if this is the right video to ask on, but I'm struggling a bit with building a character 😅 I got the "internal conflict = desire vs fear" and I was working on that, but then realized that her desire is sort of caused by her fear...? Like she wants to find someone and have a strong bond with them (short explanation, it's a fantasy species I made up and they have an unusual "if you don't have bonds with people you're as good as dead" philosophy and the character grew up hearing that this is what she has to do and she accepts it) but her fear is ending up alone and no one caring about her. How do I build an internal conflict off of that? Should I try to rephrase/reconsider her desire? Thank you in advance
Me: *Excited to revise and get the mistakes out* Also me: *Hears that I have to wait at least three to four months before revising* Also also me: Don't worry, I'll come back in three to four months :') *pretending to not be hurt*
I don't trust anyone enough to read my book so I don't know what to do. I'm writing a romance novel and I have close to no confidence in my writing and in my plot ideas. I have always loved writing and one of my bigest dream is to publish a book but I want strangers to read it not my parents or other family memebers and I have friends that could be willing to read and give me feedback on my book.
I don’t know how to leave well enough alone so that a first draft can just be a first draft. Does this take practice? To allow yourself to accept the messiness of the first draft, just for the sake of getting the story down?
Do people often comment their thoughts on a book chapter on "Wattpad" ? Because, I would really appreciate if people did it. It would help me give an idea if I'm writing has potential or not.
I actually already revised my first draft. It resulted in cutting like 1/3 of the content, that as it turned out, didn't match with a theme of my book and made the goal of my hero look absurd, because there was an "elephant in the room" way easier solution he could go for, but I didn't notice that before. But don't worry I filled it back in with actually good content using proper 3 act story structure.
Ugh, I am in the middle of revision purgatory rewriting stuff I wrote over ten years ago. So, I've had lots of decompression time! Starting to feel like I just should have started something new. Maybe I'll try printing it out. There is something magical about seeing it all in print.
hello abbie please can you do a video on your outlining process from when you get your first idea to when you finnish the book thank you i really want to be able to write a really a really good standard .
Can we just appreciate that these videos are FREE
Free with decent audio,I can definitely appreciate that.
YES I’m so glad I found this channel
YES! I appreciate Abby SO much!
abbie: set it aside for 3-4...
me: days
abbie:... months
Fr 💀
If you want to fast-track this process, just write a new book (first draft) so you’re not thinking about the first one. This not only makes it easier to endure the waiting but it actually makes you “forget” about the details of the first one faster. When I’m done with the first draft of one book I move on to the next one and once I finish that I can immediately go back and read my first one again somewhat fresh even if it only took me a month or two to draft the second book.
@@enfant00x So far I have created another first draft and seven new books with a couple chapters and/or prologues, while waiting to go back to my first draft
cant. gotta get it finished within that amount of [days]
She actually said 3-6 months once! 😂
I have waited for literal YEARS to watch your revision/editing videos, all because I had never finished a first draft! 106k words and almost four years later, I can finally say I made it!!!
oh my gosh!! congratulations that is amazing!!!!
My problem is I only have 10 chapters and writing for about 1 month. I just don’t know how I will even get to 20,000 words. Believe me I’ve said a lot about my sister’s suicide. And you have 106k words! I don’t know whether to be impressed or depressed 😂
This came at the perfect time!!! I just finished my first draft, and I'm so overwhelmed now because I've never actually edited an entire story before.💛
@@KidsNetworkCrafts Thank you!
hi im trying to write a murder mystery novel and was woundering what size of page should i write in
@Dance Girl Congratulations!
@Mare Black 😀
Same here! My first finished book after years of procrastination. Congrats 👏🏻
I just finish writing my first ever first draft and your videos help me a lot while I was writing it! this is amazing! thank you so much!
Congratulations!!! 🥳🥳
@@moderndayphilosopher4356 Thank you!! :))
Same!! I have no idea what I’m doing 😅
PERFECT timing!!! I literally just finished my first draft and have no idea where to begin edits (because it SORELY needs it lol)
Now that I've got two novels and two novellas under my belt (written, not published), I can really see how much outlining helps me in the long run. It helps a lot to have things sorted out beforehand, because no matter what I do, I will ALWAYS end up adding a brand-new very important plot element out of the blue towards the end of the book, one that changes the whole course of the series (if it's a series). These random additions really complete the story, every single time---so I've come to expect that by the time I'm done writing, a lot of things will be different from when I started (entire characters and systems appear and disappear halfway through XD, it's a mess until it's edited).
Also, for me, I can't actually figure out the theme of my book until I'm done with it. Because at the end, I can exactly see the whole picture, and I can see the correlation between the theme my characters are leaning towards and the truth that I realize is the one I want to "shout from the rooftops." Then, I sort of edit the theme into my characters and the events that happen in the story.
So true!
Same, I can't find the theme until the end or near the end of writing it. And I also just throw in random things here and there that aren't outlined. It makes it much more fun to write in my opinion.
This comment taught me more and gave me more comfort than anything ever has omg (writing vise)
aww thanks! Update, I turned that first draft into my book The Time Warden, which came out in March!! Proof that all of this work we're putting in really does pay off
Your process is soo similar to mine. One thing I do differently is instead of hiring one proofreader, I hold a contest for who can find the most mistakes in my manuscript and whoever finds the most wins a fun prize. Saves on my budget and lots of people are very motivated to find all of the mistakes! :)
Smart! I’m definitely doing this
Woah. Thank you for this idea.
I finished my first draft over the weekend, 75,000 words later! This video is every well timed, thank you
Thank you for such a simple tip as printing out the manuscript to edit the old-fashioned way on paper. That's all it took to unleash my editing energy. I didn't realize I was feeling trapped by my own laptop.
As someone who's still sticking with fanfictions for the moment, I'm actually gonna need advice on this for some longer stories. (Still trying to motivate myself to rewrite and edit the 10k project I did back around October...)
Also, quick question. What highlighters do you use? The ones I use keep making the ink smear... meaning I just went to using pencils to mark up the paper.
@@KidsNetworkCrafts Thanks!
My dad said it'd probably smear no matter what I use, given it was printer ink, but I also wondered if the ones I was using were cheap...
And if their pastel, that'll mean their prettier... so even if they don't work as I'd like...
Love the tips! Thank you! For me, however, I prefer to put my 1st draft away for only a few days. I've found if I leave it for a few months then I'm in the thick of another project and it's hard to pick it back up/give it the attention it needs and deserves.
First book? I’m still on chapter five
Abbie Emmons my QUEEN... your videos have been so enlightening and are pretty much the only thing that is getting me through my final year script project at uni. I'll probably be watching you and supporting you forever.
I am now in the process of rewriting what 20-something years old me saw as a novel, but was essentially just a slightly polished first draft. I found the 15 years inbetween to have been extremely helpful in detaching myself from the original version and spot many weaknesses in plot and characters that I was unable to see back then.
This was literally gold. I wrote my first draft two years ago and I thought that it's was really something I am confident about so, now I have started revising it after I saw your video.
Your way of explaining things is awesome :-)
Ahh so perfect! I literally just finished some developmental editing on the my first draft of my book. Abbie I’m convinced you can read our minds😌
Hi! Before this first draft, I had written a story before, back when I was 14. It was a 48k first draft. After I finished, I spent one month away from it, tried to hop back in, and... bam. I could barely edit. First of all, I had no clue what I was doing. I didn't reread any of it. I kept mixing line editing with plot and structure. And I realized, my plot and structure wasn't very strong. I've kind of scrapped that story for the time being.
This story is new. I started writing it on March 31st and finished on April 8th, with 57.3k. words. Yes, I was grinding all spring break with some days being 6-7 hours of writing... straight. But now I have my first draft! It's been around a month and a week since then and I'm ready to hop back into editing.
This time, I actually have a plan. An editing process.
I came here to tell you thank you! I have just (ten minutes ago) finished my first draft of my first book and needed an Abbie video to celebrate 🎉 I am ecstatic with joy, cuz its been a few years coming. Thanks for all the great content that have helped so many of us (so many in the comments) come to this point!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Congrats everyone!!!
Hi Madam Your are so beautiful Your are so sweet ☺☺☺😍😍😍 My Name is Farhan Hussain
my problem is finding a beta reader, one who will judge the flow, character interaction, etc. They hack at grammar "including dialogue slang into proper English
Does anyone have any colour coding methods when editing your first draft?
Hi Abby, You've long been my go-to writing video source. I'm working through a university course on creative writing and I'm at 88% of the course completion stage. I've been asked to produce a 1000-word story of which I have written out the first draft. Unfortunately, I am unable to put it away in the ring binder as the deadline is a day away. Is there a video on knocking out a 1000-word story really fast?
You look like Daphne from Bridgerton in that Blouse!!
I'm actually on the 4th draft at the moment, but it still feels like a first draft because it's meant to be the first in a mystery series and the overall story has changed so much and so many times that each draft is basically a new book 😂
TLDW you need a LOT of money. Professional editors cost $$$ so do professional proofreaders. So both are going to you into the thousands of dollars.
If you are like me and don’t have thousands to just throw around. You’re gonna have to put in a lot of extra work. But, plus side, if you can stick it out, it will make a better writer.
My project has been in the works for 3 years. Its good to finally be here and not "working on 1st draft"
Me: starting revisions before finishing the first draft 😅
Abbie, I just read your book 100 Days of Sunlight, and can I just say how much I love this book. I love it so much. I love the characters and Tessa and omg I love Weston. I think my favorite side character is Rudy. You really know how to make such lovable characters. Agghhh I loved it so much. I don’t usually read outside of school but on the rare occasion that I do, it’s got to be a great book, and this is what happened with 100 Days of Sunlight (came home with less than half of it done, finished it by the end of the night). I know you probably don’t want to read this whole thing about me ranting about your book, but thank you so much for creating this! You really are an amazing author!! 🥰❤️❤️
Abbie I wrote it🤭✨🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🥂🫂 0:52
Thank you for this!! 😄 I’m currently doing a huge rewrite/overhaul of my book (it sorely needed it 😂), and it’s honestly so much fun to see it become the things I’ve always wanted it to be 🤩 Thank you for your amazing videos, they’re helping me so much!!!
FYI. I can basically quote your entire intro now. I’m sure I can’t be the only one. Thanks for another great video on a very needed topic!
Step 1: Write an outline because you pants without an outline.
After 1 and half year of writing just yesterday completed my first draft. ☺☺
Thanks for this! I've finished my first draft of my first novel, and am ready to start revising, so this helps a lot! Also, I use the "don't decorate while you're still building" metaphor with my writing students. Love it!
I just started editing the first draft of my first novel so this came at the perfect time 💕
you have no idea how how much this is going to help me. Thank you Abbie♥️
After the first draft I review each chapter one at a time to make sure everything works scene wise. Then I use my computers voice to listen to each page and make additional changes. Then I use prowritingaid. Peer edits. Paid editor. Then my mom beta reader lol.
Your outfit and hair are giving me Cinderella vibes! I love it!!!
you're here not even completing the first draft to revise it
Still in the process of writing my first draft. I’m already seeing several holes in the plot, where 1+1=2.5. It’s not quite right. The overall impact this has on the story is minimal, but will alter character arcs over the course of the novel, similar to a snowball and avalanche. Would you recommend forgetting about it and moving the story forward, or freeze where I’m at and start making the necessary changes?
Thank you for being honest but kind. I don't believe there's any reason to totally trash people when trying to help them write their novel as the last person did in her video. This was extremely helpful.
I'm almost finished with my rough draft so this was perfect timing!
I've got to let it sit.... Okay maybe not perfect timing 😂
Excellent!
The best thing I did to get me in a different headspace was have my non-reader, blue collar husband read my first draft and he was one of the best editors I ever had. He was the complete opposite of my target audience so he looked at it in an objective way I never could.
Thank you for the helpful videos. I’ve been writing since i was 15 and it’s funny I unknowingly knew some of it.
Outlining has helped me cement ideas and create news ones. It’s hard for me to write more then a few hundred words a day due to the fact I work full time in a hospital. But something is better then nothing.
Thank you abbie. I am furiously writing my first novel to make it past 2 chapters into a journal. Hoping to not lose hope or steam on this project
Thank goodness! I've been trying to find a video like this for ages! Thank you Abbie!
Hi Abbie.
Decompressing? Cool. I already have a draft that I left for. Like. 2. Years.
I finished my first draft. Ever thought I would get this far. 90000 words. Thank u abbie. Your videos help so much
I think I’ve given enough decompression time. 8 years.
I discovered a trick. I used the read back feature in Words and hidden errors in my writing popped out in the review.
This has absolutely changed my life!!!
That sounds incredibly helpful.
But: What do I do in the meantime? 🤣 In those 3-4 months (!) when I have to put it aside and dont look at it?
Writing a new book?
I wrote my first draft (212 word document pages) in 2,5 months. And I KNOW that I have to give it a good editing before I can publish it.
But this first book is meant to be the beginning of a series. So... what do I do in the meantime? Starting volume two without even knowing if I can rely on things that happened in volume one, since I dont know if I have to drop these things?
Its hard to let your creativity run wild and free if you have to put breaks on it.
I usually write a chapter and go through editing right after I wrote it: Grammar, mistakes etc. But that doesnt erase all the flaws, since Im always too close to it. That sucks. It really does. I wish I could erase my memory every time I read through a chapter and look at it with a clear and fresh mind.
Does anyone know what was going on with the picture frame in the background?
I have my story idea minus the beginning. Any tips? I’m writing backward. 😂
I have written 2 manuscripts (series) and I have queried within a 2yr span and I have gotten rejections of course. I'm in the "leave it for 3mths" stage and will be revisiting over the Christmas holidays.
Before watching this-relevant-video, I used erasable pen and asked How can I make this better.
dude this was SO helpful. Not gonna lie tho I'm in chapter 10 of my first book in a duology (and ever) and I realized half way through that I'm going to have to write five more chapters to the beginning to give my character move background and well roundedness instead of just offing her parents in the first chapter lol so my revision process gonna need to be First draft, part of second, edit, second, etc
Mine is very similar...except I have a professional structural edit before permanent line editing. That saves me from wasting time on things that could get cut out.
I just couldn't resist from commenting after reading the header. Oooops, 1 sec, need a Kleenex.
Hi there! I absolutely love your channel! I was just wondering how to translate your videos into a screenwriting format?
☝️🤓I love this.
Big thank you for teaching make beautiful and super good RUclips channel.
Big inspiration and motivation for me.
Thank you for you.
🙏💚🍀🌳🌍☀️
@AskAbbie I’m in need of this question answered!!
So I’ve had so much trouble trying to figure out how I could add in internal conflict but like… italicizing my characters thoughts, and I’m also writing my novel in third person. So therefore, should I continue to write in third person, and use the italics in first person or third person? I really don’t know what to do, because I reallyy want to add in internal conflict, but I’m not sure how to do it. I have my MC’s misbelief, fear and desire, but I just can’t get this internal conflict under control. Thank you so so so much, your a life saver!!
During the time you step away do you send your manuscript to Beta Readers or do you start your editing your process before you send it to Beta Readers?
You kinda look like Nancy from stranger things
What do you do during the decompression time? Do you start another project? What's you suggestion? I finished a manuscript and only had the will to give it like a five day rest before I started editing. MISTAKE. I got so overwhelmed it made me almost quit writing. I started a new project which has been awesome and I know I'll need a break before editing it so I guess I'll try going back to the first document. Honestly, I haven't a clue. Editing terrifies me to my very soul.
Hi Abbie what do you think about using Chat GPT only for edits. For example put a paragraph into the chat and tell it to edit the grammar and recommend changes to make the scene stand out more?
I can't seem to get past the outlining process. Ever. And then I lose interest. 🤷♀️ It kinda makes me sad.
Me who doesn't write drafts but writes random scenes without fixed order: This is fine :)
Does anyone know if reverse outlining before letting the draft sit be helpful?
I write short stories, usually averaging about 7-9k words when finished. My first draft takes me about an hour and a half if I just sit down and do it because I'm a pantser, and it's about 1.5k ish.
My decompression time is about month. I feel like it's a lot of time especially for something so short, but it keeps me from burning out. I then edit the very horrible first draft, add a ton, take away of ton and I have a second draft. Then the wait between draft 2 and 3 is probably like a week or two and the third draft takes about two hours to edit because it's mostly done and all I have to do is basic grammar, spelling and punctuation.
Then boom, I have an 8k short story that will never see the light of day.
I don't know if you ever reply to comments as I'm sure you're ridiculously busy all the time, but on the off chance I'd like to ask for your insight on something. I just wrote a short story (a little over 50 pages) that is heavily inspired by a difficult time in my own life where people had wronged me, but I fictionalized and exaggerated a lot of it so it's of course much different than the real life events. I'd like to have close friends read the manuscript and give their input, and all these friends know about the real life events and would easily be able to tell where my inspirations come from, and because of that since there are some graphic descriptions in the story, I'm afraid they will be uncomfortable reading it and might assume some of the fictionalized parts are more close to reality or might think I'm projecting a lot of deeply repressed stuff when it was details I added to make the story more entertaining. To make this more clear, the story ends up going towards a horror direction in the last act. And while obviously the characters in the story are inspired by the people in real life, I wrote them to have completely different personalities and changed their motives and all that jazz. Am I being too afraid to let people I'm close to proofread or edit my story? How do you get your story edited and proofread by a new set of eyes if you don't have any available or willing friends to read it?
I will say, one of the people who had wronged me in the real life events I took inspiration from has since reached out to me and we've been making amends for a while and I told her about the story and she really wants to read it and when I gave her disclaimers that many things I had fictionalized and some graphic or explicit stuff is in there for a reason to enhance certain themes, she told me she trusted the writing process and knew that I wouldn't put things in for "sh**s and giggles" and that she knew that writing stories of this nature is a good cathartic tool for the author. So I guess if one of the people that inspired the story is okay with it, maybe I'm just being too paranoid or self conscious about it? I don't know if you have ever written stories that were at least partially based on events from your own life, but if you have I'd love to hear how you dealt with it.
I have a question about writing and Abbie has a video about it. Awesome.
Coming in on this late because I just finished the first draft of this year's NaNoWriMo project. I noticed in the video that you seemed to have a color coding system in place for your revising and line editing processes. Do you use a specific color coding system, or do you just do what seems to work for the specific project you're working on?
Finally rewatching this after completing my first draft at 130k words. It took 1.5 years writing it alongside another novel. This is bound to help so much, thank you Abbie. ❤
its hard to feel proud of this when my first draft is super messy & isn't giving me that exciting feeling like how when i write my other stories--and ive wanted to get this idea out and published my whole life. im kinda disappointed how messy the first draft is, i just don't know what needs to change!! ahhhhh
Hii, I don't know if this is the right video to ask on, but I'm struggling a bit with building a character 😅 I got the "internal conflict = desire vs fear" and I was working on that, but then realized that her desire is sort of caused by her fear...? Like she wants to find someone and have a strong bond with them (short explanation, it's a fantasy species I made up and they have an unusual "if you don't have bonds with people you're as good as dead" philosophy and the character grew up hearing that this is what she has to do and she accepts it) but her fear is ending up alone and no one caring about her. How do I build an internal conflict off of that? Should I try to rephrase/reconsider her desire? Thank you in advance
Me: *Excited to revise and get the mistakes out*
Also me: *Hears that I have to wait at least three to four months before revising*
Also also me: Don't worry, I'll come back in three to four months :') *pretending to not be hurt*
very useful video. btw you look like a disney princess!! :))
Where is your shirt and necklace from? It is soooo cute!!!
I don't trust anyone enough to read my book so I don't know what to do. I'm writing a romance novel and I have close to no confidence in my writing and in my plot ideas. I have always loved writing and one of my bigest dream is to publish a book but I want strangers to read it not my parents or other family memebers and I have friends that could be willing to read and give me feedback on my book.
I command everyone to access information about whether a baby born to me and tsugumi will be better than I.
Just realised you look like the actress that plays Nancy in Stranger Things! Another super helpful video once again!
Im soo bad, I keep editing before finishing my first draft XD
i can't even make myself right the first chapter or even page of the first draft that's how critical of myself i am i wish i have help
I don't know it it's an issue, but the videos that Abbie says she'll link in the corner don't really appear? Am I the only one here with this problem?
I don’t know how to leave well enough alone so that a first draft can just be a first draft. Does this take practice? To allow yourself to accept the messiness of the first draft, just for the sake of getting the story down?
ONE author who gives no nonsense advice abt the dreaded first edit!
I'm about to start my first draft and it's going slow, but I'm getting there. 😅
You look like a modern Cinderella in that outfit So pretty 💙
I hope to traditionally publish, even if that doesn't seem to be the thing to do anymore.
Do people often comment their thoughts on a book chapter on "Wattpad" ? Because, I would really appreciate if people did it. It would help me give an idea if I'm writing has potential or not.
Well it's been 4 years of decompression time, so I guess I'm ready. :)
Im planning to edit the most three tomes and get a proof reader to check grammar and spelling. im already looking for beta readers
Super helpful video 👏 also you look like Cinderella 💕
I actually already revised my first draft. It resulted in cutting like 1/3 of the content, that as it turned out, didn't match with a theme of my book and made the goal of my hero look absurd, because there was an "elephant in the room" way easier solution he could go for, but I didn't notice that before. But don't worry I filled it back in with actually good content using proper 3 act story structure.
Ugh, I am in the middle of revision purgatory rewriting stuff I wrote over ten years ago. So, I've had lots of decompression time! Starting to feel like I just should have started something new. Maybe I'll try printing it out. There is something magical about seeing it all in print.
What's a good reason for my main character to turn evil?
I need to fix that chapter I wrote at 5am, it's a mess of my half asleep brain. 😂
hello abbie please can you do a video on your outlining process from when you get your first idea to when you finnish the book thank you i really want to be able to write a really a really good standard .