I think the most beneficial thing about reading books to be a better writer (for me) is looking at how your favorite books are structured, how the chapters flow and the pacing of it all. Because you can be a phenomenal writer and have great prose and everything else, but if the pacing is off, if the chapters don’t make sense or have any kind of logic to them, it can really take readers out of it. That’s the most important thing I’ve taken away from it, so far anyway.
When it comes to trying to remove the author from the book, I shared a similar thought on TikTok that was basically saying that yes there will be triggering stuff in a book, but that doesn’t mean the author put it in there to upset you, and it’s a dick move to assume the author has never experienced what they’ve written about. And I had the audacity to state that people are responsible for their own triggers, and that if I put a warning in the beginning of the book, and you still read it, even though your triggers are there, you are to blame.
I think the only universal advice is read and write more, mostly things that you like, sometimes things that you don't for the varied experience. Everything else outside of that and grammar rules is situational. When I started writing, and even up until recently, I'd hunt for all kind of advice believing it could help as well, but in the end I learned that nothing beats experience. Most of the stuff flying around is regurgitated, formulaic bs, but when you haven't really read a lot (or a lot in a specific genre), you can't tell that at first. And when people start talking about tropes and archetypes as if they are some golden rule that need to be followed (or not), I check out.
I’ve struggled I feel like the writing community feels like cliques. And I feel like I stepped back a decade to highschool. 😂 and I just kinda have started falling away from it. Leaving groups not ever because I care about different opinions, likes or preferences. But rather because if you disagree you get attacked. And so many times as I like every other human am learning and growing all the time and I’ve had people like go far back into chat and be like well you said this here and now a year later your saying this! And I’ll be like hey I’ve changed my mind and here is why. lol I’ve gotten banned and blocked for changing my mind. Though I try to tell people hey this is what I think/feel take it with a grain of salt. I mean should I not ever change my mind?😅
You always have such unique takes. Great video. As for writing advice, I think all of it should be taken with a grain of salt because everyone’s writing process is different for each and every book.
I never understand how anyone can write a first draft and just be like "My magnum opus is complete!" Personally, I'm writing 5 drafts minimum and even that doesn't feel like enough sometimes
Overall: Here’s my thoughts. Writing is an art, and all art has one Basic in Common-Composition. A successful painting works when no single element can be removed without the whole falling apart. The medium it’s made from (Oils, watercolor, inks, graphite, even pixels) will have rules inherent in it, too. Without a good composition/design to begin with, none of the rest matters. Writing is the same. Writing for movies or TV has different compositional needs than a novel or a comic book. And as in any art, once you know the rules they can be broken. Breaking them and having a well crafted story at the end is what matters. When I read a good story, and I’m interested in learning from it, I dissect it. If I can take a chapter out and the rest of the story makes no sense, then I’ve got one to dig into. (This works with any kind of story, even epic fantasy-where you’d swear half the damn book can be cut out. 😀) Read enough well crafted stories, and the bad ones stand out like neon. The Kicker? Learning the ‘boring’ stuff isn’t optional. Practice is mandatory. Study is mandatory. So is feedback, without this effort, you’ve got a lot of words, but it doesn’t go anywhere. Might as well dump scrabble tiles in a box and call ‘Story by IKEA.’ 😆
I look at all writing advice through a YMMV lens. Typically, the advice given will work for some people, but not for others. Edit: Also, sometimes a particular piece of writing advice will work for one story, but not for another.
So real. Im so tired of reading through forums and pages just to see people regurgitating the same awful advice over and over. I once read someone saying that every sentence in the book should be less than 11 words and less than 7 if possible like 🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️
Yeah!! I like watching writing advice videos (and I actually include videos reviewing books/tv/movies as "writing advice" videos) but I only take them as suggestions to help get me thinking about what's good and what's not good, not gospel.
15:21 The differences between literary and commercial fiction that I’ve run into the most, had to do with people who preferred one over the other. In college there was this weird divide between people who read commercial fiction and those who studied and wanted to write literary fiction. I remember being chewed out more than once comparing Stephen King and John Steinbeck. In studying other writers, I’ve been drawn to those who set up their entire story in tiny bits in the first chapter. My favorite happens to be the first chapter of the Shining by Stephen King. Even if you know the entire story, that one chapter foreshadows everything by showing you WHY it’s all going to go wrong. I can spot this in many different writers, in different genres….as far as I can see it’s something that develops naturally over time. There is no magic formula, just people’s best efforts. I’m convinced there are so many different writing craft books because one size doesn’t fit all. As writers, loving the art is the foundation we all build from. That said, being buried under the sandcastles of tiktok is not for me. 😃
There's many ways to skin a cat. But you do need a cat. The thing to keep in mind with any of these writing "rules" is, that they are not top down "thou shalt do" rules. They are common denominators of what worked well for stories. So it helps to look at a lot of these rules, look at how they work in popular stories and understand what it is that makes them work and formulate your own ruleset from that understanding. What i will never understand is the "oh, I'm too creative to learn rules" kinds of people. I mean on the one hand, sure, I get it, you want to get to creating, and that's cool. But if you start to become more serious, I can't see not wanting to learn these sorts of things. Like story structure, for example. There's tons of structure systems out there, but when you boil them down, they are more or less all the same, wrapped in wording that helped the author that coined the system. So do the same, but don't say you don't need structure. I would even go so far as to say it can be really helpful to follow a rule by the letter, to see what it does to your writing and see if it helps or not, then adjust. Will that first attempt be good? Probably not. But we're working with clay here, we're not carving anything in stone.
Been listening for a little bit now, and I'm still not sure how Ian's an idiot. :P She tends to prove the very opposite in every video. Extremely perceptive, highly articulate, always has more interesting things to say.
There are too many writers who aren't readers. They just view writing at the easiest medium to share their story and don't actually understand how to write a compelling story.
The advice landscape is terrible. You get such a warped view of what is "acceptable" or even required/banned if you start with Internet advice before you actually start writing. With the writers I help, I just stress that they understand why they are doing what they are doing in their story and be able to explain it. That will help you dismiss 95% of the bad advice online.
when it comes to strangers, i typically lean more on analysis than pure advice. analysis requires a deeper look into how something does or doesn't work and showing exactly why. advice is just a google search away, often with a very general presentation of its merits.
I also dislike this blurring of the lone between storytelling quality vs writing quality. I feel like these things are separate enough categories that you should be able to ask for criticism of one without getting it for the other.
The one piece of advice that is actually worth taking is to challenge consensus. In all art,l there are advices (speaking in purely technical aspects, now) that everyone accept, but nobody bothers asking why. That everybody parrots, presenting it as their own, honest to god, opinion. Reading a lot does not make you a better writer, for example. Everyone says it does, but it's superficial advice that incentives a superficial approach to engage with the text. You have to read deeply and repeatedly. You're like mortician, autopsy is part of you job.
"You want to write great music like Mozart, but Mozart just wanted to create great music."- Someone I don't remember.
I think the most beneficial thing about reading books to be a better writer (for me) is looking at how your favorite books are structured, how the chapters flow and the pacing of it all. Because you can be a phenomenal writer and have great prose and everything else, but if the pacing is off, if the chapters don’t make sense or have any kind of logic to them, it can really take readers out of it. That’s the most important thing I’ve taken away from it, so far anyway.
When it comes to trying to remove the author from the book, I shared a similar thought on TikTok that was basically saying that yes there will be triggering stuff in a book, but that doesn’t mean the author put it in there to upset you, and it’s a dick move to assume the author has never experienced what they’ve written about. And I had the audacity to state that people are responsible for their own triggers, and that if I put a warning in the beginning of the book, and you still read it, even though your triggers are there, you are to blame.
I think the only universal advice is read and write more, mostly things that you like, sometimes things that you don't for the varied experience. Everything else outside of that and grammar rules is situational.
When I started writing, and even up until recently, I'd hunt for all kind of advice believing it could help as well, but in the end I learned that nothing beats experience. Most of the stuff flying around is regurgitated, formulaic bs, but when you haven't really read a lot (or a lot in a specific genre), you can't tell that at first. And when people start talking about tropes and archetypes as if they are some golden rule that need to be followed (or not), I check out.
1:13 “…as if watching exercise videos will burn off the calories.” 😆😆😆
21:50 I still am salty that I was forced to read Virginia Woolf in college.
I’ve struggled I feel like the writing community feels like cliques. And I feel like I stepped back a decade to highschool. 😂 and I just kinda have started falling away from it. Leaving groups not ever because I care about different opinions, likes or preferences. But rather because if you disagree you get attacked. And so many times as I like every other human am learning and growing all the time and I’ve had people like go far back into chat and be like well you said this here and now a year later your saying this! And I’ll be like hey I’ve changed my mind and here is why. lol I’ve gotten banned and blocked for changing my mind. Though I try to tell people hey this is what I think/feel take it with a grain of salt. I mean should I not ever change my mind?😅
You always have such unique takes. Great video.
As for writing advice, I think all of it should be taken with a grain of salt because everyone’s writing process is different for each and every book.
Exactly. There are no rules and no formula
I never understand how anyone can write a first draft and just be like "My magnum opus is complete!"
Personally, I'm writing 5 drafts minimum and even that doesn't feel like enough sometimes
Overall: Here’s my thoughts.
Writing is an art, and all art has one Basic in Common-Composition.
A successful painting works when no single element can be removed without the whole falling apart. The medium it’s made from (Oils, watercolor, inks, graphite, even pixels) will have rules inherent in it, too. Without a good composition/design to begin with, none of the rest matters.
Writing is the same. Writing for movies or TV has different compositional needs than a novel or a comic book. And as in any art, once you know the rules they can be broken. Breaking them and having a well crafted story at the end is what matters.
When I read a good story, and I’m interested in learning from it, I dissect it. If I can take a chapter out and the rest of the story makes no sense, then I’ve got one to dig into. (This works with any kind of story, even epic fantasy-where you’d swear half the damn book can be cut out. 😀) Read enough well crafted stories, and the bad ones stand out like neon.
The Kicker? Learning the ‘boring’ stuff isn’t optional. Practice is mandatory. Study is mandatory. So is feedback, without this effort, you’ve got a lot of words, but it doesn’t go anywhere.
Might as well dump scrabble tiles in a box and call ‘Story by IKEA.’ 😆
I look at all writing advice through a YMMV lens. Typically, the advice given will work for some people, but not for others.
Edit: Also, sometimes a particular piece of writing advice will work for one story, but not for another.
So real. Im so tired of reading through forums and pages just to see people regurgitating the same awful advice over and over. I once read someone saying that every sentence in the book should be less than 11 words and less than 7 if possible like 🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️
Yeah!! I like watching writing advice videos (and I actually include videos reviewing books/tv/movies as "writing advice" videos) but I only take them as suggestions to help get me thinking about what's good and what's not good, not gospel.
15:21 The differences between literary and commercial fiction that I’ve run into the most, had to do with people who preferred one over the other. In college there was this weird divide between people who read commercial fiction and those who studied and wanted to write literary fiction. I remember being chewed out more than once comparing Stephen King and John Steinbeck.
In studying other writers, I’ve been drawn to those who set up their entire story in tiny bits in the first chapter. My favorite happens to be the first chapter of the Shining by Stephen King. Even if you know the entire story, that one chapter foreshadows everything by showing you WHY it’s all going to go wrong.
I can spot this in many different writers, in different genres….as far as I can see it’s something that develops naturally over time. There is no magic formula, just people’s best efforts. I’m convinced there are so many different writing craft books because one size doesn’t fit all.
As writers, loving the art is the foundation we all build from.
That said, being buried under the sandcastles of tiktok is not for me. 😃
There's many ways to skin a cat. But you do need a cat.
The thing to keep in mind with any of these writing "rules" is, that they are not top down "thou shalt do" rules. They are common denominators of what worked well for stories. So it helps to look at a lot of these rules, look at how they work in popular stories and understand what it is that makes them work and formulate your own ruleset from that understanding.
What i will never understand is the "oh, I'm too creative to learn rules" kinds of people. I mean on the one hand, sure, I get it, you want to get to creating, and that's cool. But if you start to become more serious, I can't see not wanting to learn these sorts of things. Like story structure, for example. There's tons of structure systems out there, but when you boil them down, they are more or less all the same, wrapped in wording that helped the author that coined the system. So do the same, but don't say you don't need structure.
I would even go so far as to say it can be really helpful to follow a rule by the letter, to see what it does to your writing and see if it helps or not, then adjust. Will that first attempt be good? Probably not. But we're working with clay here, we're not carving anything in stone.
I'm glad you've started calling porn what it is. Too many people use these soft terms for it when it is just porn.
Been listening for a little bit now, and I'm still not sure how Ian's an idiot. :P She tends to prove the very opposite in every video. Extremely perceptive, highly articulate, always has more interesting things to say.
I hate most "writing advice".
Learn by reading! You don't learn to cook by only looking at recipes
And learn writing by writing, you're not going to know your own voice if you don't try to write something
I still like reading writing advice anyway. I just lets me see the forest instead of just the trees.
Ian was so real there
There are too many writers who aren't readers. They just view writing at the easiest medium to share their story and don't actually understand how to write a compelling story.
writing advice fucking wrecked me when i got into writing. So much noise.
The advice landscape is terrible. You get such a warped view of what is "acceptable" or even required/banned if you start with Internet advice before you actually start writing. With the writers I help, I just stress that they understand why they are doing what they are doing in their story and be able to explain it. That will help you dismiss 95% of the bad advice online.
when it comes to strangers, i typically lean more on analysis than pure advice. analysis requires a deeper look into how something does or doesn't work and showing exactly why. advice is just a google search away, often with a very general presentation of its merits.
Only thing I ask for advice is best way to start, like for someone that never really wrote a story and is a total newb.
I also dislike this blurring of the lone between storytelling quality vs writing quality. I feel like these things are separate enough categories that you should be able to ask for criticism of one without getting it for the other.
Hi Ian KirkpattieCake!
The one piece of advice that is actually worth taking is to challenge consensus.
In all art,l there are advices (speaking in purely technical aspects, now) that everyone accept, but nobody bothers asking why. That everybody parrots, presenting it as their own, honest to god, opinion.
Reading a lot does not make you a better writer, for example. Everyone says it does, but it's superficial advice that incentives a superficial approach to engage with the text.
You have to read deeply and repeatedly. You're like mortician, autopsy is part of you job.
Writing advice is garbage. There is no good writing advice. I would know. Also, some editors are idiots and shouldn't be editors. There. I said it.