✨TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Intro 0:51 - Anxiety & writing 2:49 - Word counts are detrimental 4:10 - What I'm currently working on 6:17 - Inciting incident issues 7:03 - Writing is a muscle 7:57 - My plan of attack 8:29 - How did writing go?
@@rachelwritesbooksNOT. AT. ALL. That’s all my vlogs are too 😂 I *love* chatty vlogs. It’s so much fun to listen to processes and the nitty gritty aspects of a person’s story.
@@therealannataylor LOL omgg I figured it couldn't have been ahh I'm happy you like that style! Kind of unintentional on this vlog bc I'd had more footage it just didn't make sense to include (but I noticed I talk a LOT so a lot of them are turning into sitting and talking at the camera HAHA). I'll have to check our your videos too, I love this style of vlogs too! :))))
I love this chatty style vlog! Very impressed with what you accomplished and that you can write 10K chapters! Wow! I’m so invested in SEVENTH VIRTUE and SUNLESS GROUND. I need them! 😭 Congratulations on 10 years of writing with your Fostered characters. I haven’t written much since finishing the 3rd draft of my PhD dissertation novel (also an Adult contemporary fantasy) in August (which is public and you can find if you Google me, haha 🫣). But I did revise a horror pilot I’d written in April and submitted it to some TV writing fellowships in November/December. Also, adapting that pilot into a YA horror novel and wrote the first two chapters of that in December. Haven’t worked on it since, so I feel you. Goals for 2024 include revising ALL THINGS WEIRD AND WONDERFUL (which is my dissertation novel) and getting it ready to query later this year (terrifying tbh!) and finish drafting my YA horror novel. 🥰
Sending a happy cheers 🥂 to feeling the swing of writing, and for feeling like you've grown stronger. I was in a similar boat as you towards the end of the year, taking a longer break from writing after having been consistent for some time. The first short story after that break knocked the wind out of me--especially during the haze of last-minute edits and revisions that hadn't come to me until the very end xD But as I'm working on second short story of the year, I feel significantly less rusty and it seems the writing muscle has fallen back to its good habits after a fright! I've also started to transition away from glancing at my word count too often while I'm writing. It's a little easier through Google Docs because I have to consciously click on a few things to see it, and especially so when I'm writing on my phone.
Your brain works like mine when it comes to randomly forgetting how to do something we've been doing for years. I've been writing for over 15 years and sometimes I'm just so confused by how to use words lol
Hi! I saw you put up a new video and was immediately like hECK YEAh!! I am working on my project called Project Prose, following a substance abusing twenty something writer named Eddie and his love Catherine as they split and reunite and split while Eddie works on the Great American Novel of his dreams. I am very emotionally invested in these two and I've been writing since 2am. It's now after noon and I am so tired 😂😂😭😭
Lolol I was so happy when I saw the notification and while I watched I literally had THE big reveal to end my book which is every serial writer struggle : "I'll just write another book." Which means that instead of having 40k left to write I only have 20k end my book 2 will be 100k just like the first one which is sooo perfect!! I'm sure that because of your good vibes lol, a rachel's video a day keeps the writer's block away
go rachel go! i’m still working on whatever short stories strike my fancy (totally not because i have a novella to revise and two novels to complete the first drafts of)
Yee not checking word count sounds like a good plan, given where you're at! Ease back into it. I've got my Save The Cat doc open, I realized I never updated it after my last big move-around of plot points. I think there's just enough 'stuff' in there to make a first draft happen, I just wish I had more substance in the second half! I can discovery write to a point, but I'd like to have something solid to aim for, y'know?
It's def been helping (re: word count)! Yesss, I love Save the Cat, tbh it's the most intuitive plotting structure (and more straightforward than other methods I've tried). Best wishes with it! :)
I've recently joined a workshop for writing and it has made it so much harder for me to write. Knowing that three people will read what I write every month is scary to me. I'm also thinking more about word counts because we have a maximum word count for workshop. I'm more aware of how many words I write, and I don't know if I like it
I feel that, this really impacted me when I was in school (and did a lot of writing workshops), so you're not alone! This even happens to me now (even if I know no one is going to read the work!), so what I've done is just sort of constantly remind myself that it's okay for things to be imperfect and for the first draft to be whatever it turns out to be... But I think most people I was in workshop with really struggled with this too!
✨TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Intro
0:51 - Anxiety & writing
2:49 - Word counts are detrimental
4:10 - What I'm currently working on
6:17 - Inciting incident issues
7:03 - Writing is a muscle
7:57 - My plan of attack
8:29 - How did writing go?
I love that your “writing vlogs” are just you talking at the camera for ten minutes 😂
is this supposed to be a dig 😭
@@rachelwritesbooksNOT. AT. ALL. That’s all my vlogs are too 😂 I *love* chatty vlogs. It’s so much fun to listen to processes and the nitty gritty aspects of a person’s story.
@@therealannataylor LOL omgg I figured it couldn't have been ahh I'm happy you like that style! Kind of unintentional on this vlog bc I'd had more footage it just didn't make sense to include (but I noticed I talk a LOT so a lot of them are turning into sitting and talking at the camera HAHA). I'll have to check our your videos too, I love this style of vlogs too! :))))
I love this chatty style vlog! Very impressed with what you accomplished and that you can write 10K chapters! Wow! I’m so invested in SEVENTH VIRTUE and SUNLESS GROUND. I need them! 😭 Congratulations on 10 years of writing with your Fostered characters.
I haven’t written much since finishing the 3rd draft of my PhD dissertation novel (also an Adult contemporary fantasy) in August (which is public and you can find if you Google me, haha 🫣). But I did revise a horror pilot I’d written in April and submitted it to some TV writing fellowships in November/December. Also, adapting that pilot into a YA horror novel and wrote the first two chapters of that in December. Haven’t worked on it since, so I feel you.
Goals for 2024 include revising ALL THINGS WEIRD AND WONDERFUL (which is my dissertation novel) and getting it ready to query later this year (terrifying tbh!) and finish drafting my YA horror novel. 🥰
Sending a happy cheers 🥂 to feeling the swing of writing, and for feeling like you've grown stronger. I was in a similar boat as you towards the end of the year, taking a longer break from writing after having been consistent for some time. The first short story after that break knocked the wind out of me--especially during the haze of last-minute edits and revisions that hadn't come to me until the very end xD
But as I'm working on second short story of the year, I feel significantly less rusty and it seems the writing muscle has fallen back to its good habits after a fright! I've also started to transition away from glancing at my word count too often while I'm writing. It's a little easier through Google Docs because I have to consciously click on a few things to see it, and especially so when I'm writing on my phone.
These consistent writing vlogs!!! Yess!!
YAYYY coming back from writing after an extended break is always so hard !! 10 years of consistent writing is so impressive 💛🥺
hehe yeah it's been a journey but definitely getting easier now! and tyyy!!!
Your brain works like mine when it comes to randomly forgetting how to do something we've been doing for years. I've been writing for over 15 years and sometimes I'm just so confused by how to use words lol
Same here, the words aren't wording sometimes lol, although for me it might also have something to do with skill regression.
Hi! I saw you put up a new video and was immediately like hECK YEAh!! I am working on my project called Project Prose, following a substance abusing twenty something writer named Eddie and his love Catherine as they split and reunite and split while Eddie works on the Great American Novel of his dreams. I am very emotionally invested in these two and I've been writing since 2am. It's now after noon and I am so tired 😂😂😭😭
ooooh, I always find stories that follow writers super interesting! Also omggg you had such a long writing session, that's so cool!
I'm working on my novel WIP and well I had a short story finished yesterday called The Dead Seekers. So that is a win-win for me.
Lolol I was so happy when I saw the notification and while I watched I literally had THE big reveal to end my book which is every serial writer struggle : "I'll just write another book." Which means that instead of having 40k left to write I only have 20k end my book 2 will be 100k just like the first one which is sooo perfect!! I'm sure that because of your good vibes lol, a rachel's video a day keeps the writer's block away
YAYYY for big reveals! Also, literally meeeee, I love writing series LOL
go rachel go! i’m still working on whatever short stories strike my fancy (totally not because i have a novella to revise and two novels to complete the first drafts of)
tysmmm!!! I feel that, I need to get back into short fiction haha, I think that'll be my goal for Feb! Good luck! :)
Yee not checking word count sounds like a good plan, given where you're at! Ease back into it.
I've got my Save The Cat doc open, I realized I never updated it after my last big move-around of plot points. I think there's just enough 'stuff' in there to make a first draft happen, I just wish I had more substance in the second half! I can discovery write to a point, but I'd like to have something solid to aim for, y'know?
It's def been helping (re: word count)! Yesss, I love Save the Cat, tbh it's the most intuitive plotting structure (and more straightforward than other methods I've tried). Best wishes with it! :)
I've recently joined a workshop for writing and it has made it so much harder for me to write. Knowing that three people will read what I write every month is scary to me. I'm also thinking more about word counts because we have a maximum word count for workshop. I'm more aware of how many words I write, and I don't know if I like it
I feel that, this really impacted me when I was in school (and did a lot of writing workshops), so you're not alone! This even happens to me now (even if I know no one is going to read the work!), so what I've done is just sort of constantly remind myself that it's okay for things to be imperfect and for the first draft to be whatever it turns out to be... But I think most people I was in workshop with really struggled with this too!