I'm not sure if this is quite right because it seems so random, but I heard OK車検証、運転免許証 which means "Okay, vehicle inspection certificate, drivers license". Are these lyrics from a song? I'm so curious. Thank you for the video! I've been struggling to find a pace I'm comfortable writing at.
Quality vs. quantity is something I ALWAYS find myself debating with. Writing fast gets my sh** done but the quality is...I don't wanna talk about it haha.
Last time I did NaNo was two or three years ago and I failed. Tried it again this year. Came up with an awesome story. But the word count just sucked the fun right out of it. Needless to say I failed again. Not doing NaNo again. Well, not the writing at least. Will use NaNo for brainstorming instead, because I brainstormed that idea I had for this year during October and it was the most fun I've had with the writing process in quite a while. Also, I read a comment somewhere (think nano forums) of someone saying they could easily write 5k words in one sitting Oo I can do like 2k throughout the day.
What works for one person may not work for another person. Besides, you can write well written 2000 words or very poor 5000 words. Quality vs quantity. Don't compare yourself to others. It's all about pushing your own limits not someone else's limits. If your limit is 2000 push it to 2200 and see if you can get that extra 200 words in.
On my first day of NaNoWriMo, it took me 2 hours to write 400 words. Needless to say, I quit NaNo after a couple weeks, thoroughly frustrated and disappointed in myself. But your video helped me realize that my inner goblin was in control. This time around, I'm going to get through the whole draft as fast as I can, leaving no room for editing or self-criticism. Thanks so much for the words of wisdom and inspiration!
You just delivered the fact that I've been denying. "The little goblin that slaps your wrist the second it sees a sentence it doesn't like." It is so true and this is exactly my problem. I want to say thank you for this as it helps me detect why I spend hours trying to perfect that one chapter -.- . Anyway thank you so much. I hope you have a great holidays!
Love this video! I'm one of those people that will write and not even think about editing and revising until the first draft is done. It's a lot of work, but I have so much fun just letting words spill out the first time around. I generally don't think about how I'm doing when I see other people making progress and just cheer them on. As I always say, progress is progress, no matter how much or how little!
Courtney Killian same here. I throw it all on Paper and then go through editing and revision. I enjoy writing even though I have to rewrite constantly lol I was at 96000 then down to 72000 up to 85000 and now I’m at 79000. Slowly but surely I’ll get somewhere lol its ok though. I’m doing it for fun and I like the “what if this happens instead”
My struggle is I can't type as fast as I think. I will get too far ahead in my thoughts and everything gets jumbled up in the words. I think I am going to try the voice to text.
I am stuck at chapter 2 for almost 3 months... Cause self doubt (i am writing in english. Grammar mistakes are inevitable ) and additionally, no time. Currently working on chapter 2 . Constantly editing and searching for things to make things more beautiful and clear. The ideas are almost killing me. I am squeezing in my already full study time schedule. Afraid that I can't do well in my exams if these things keeps scratching in my head. Oh god!
Thank you for another awesome video! This is something I have been struggling with lately, so thanks for the talk! And I’m loving your new course so far!!!! Keep up the awesome work!
50 000 words in 30 days = 5000 words in 3 days = 1667 words in one. I just did a word document for two essays I wrote today, and I also wrote some under youtubes which is not yet valorised as posts and updated some posts involving dialogue on quora, but the two essays are 2373 words. I am as to writing pace more seasoned than NaNoWriMo, just I am more essayist than novelist ...
I write slowly. I line edit at least 3 times, and maybe more if I'm not happy (which is often the case). I am a fanatic when it comes to using active voice only, just to give the reader as much clarity as possible. I also make sure I use words that a 12 year old is comfortable with. In other words, keep it simple. Most readers are not professors of English and won't thank you one bit if they have to research the meaning of every word they don't understand.
Thank you. It often takes me an hour to get even get 100 words on a page. And even that can be a struggle at times. I also probably do more editing as I go then I should, but sometimes the process just takes time. But that makes it so much sweeter when you actually get in the zone and you pump out a solid 600 words in an hour and a half. We all have our own pace, and the point is to write something good rather than worry about how fast we get there. And comparing ourselves to others is often the death of creativity
In this case, extensive outlining helps a lot. I spent an entire month writing a book and then I reached to the end realising it was bad beyond control. So I'll need to revise my outlines till so that I don't waste my time writing chunks that won't be salvageable.
I think my novels are more cohesive tonally when I fast draft. But that’s probably more to do with whether or not I have an outline. If I have an outline, I can draft a lot faster.
That was a big struggle for me, trying to decide if I should write slower or faster. Through a lot of experimentation and help from others, I found this neat little writing style, writing sprints. In a nutshell, writing sprints are just time here, you sit down to write, with no distractions, no editing, just writing, racing the timer. I highly recommend Chris Fox's book "How to write 5000 words in an hour" for full detail. Now I do not write 5000 words an hour, I can only get that in a day, for one I write in 25-minute segments where I get at least 800 words done in that 25 minutes. This is a pure quantity over quality strategy but I find that is far superior to the far slower paced quality writing. Now I enjoy writing quality words but here's the problem, perfectionism, this is a huge problem for me when I go that quality route and Id like to tell you all the improvements that the quantity strategy has done for me and how it finally got me to finish a novel. I'm sure this is a big problem for many, perfectionism, I'm sure many of you suffer from this, as do I. I don't consider my self a perfectionist, in fact, I'm the type to half-ass a lot of things unless I'm passionate about it and well I'm passionate about writing and then perfectionism kicks in. I went a long time where I sat down to write but I felt what I write was never near good enough and trashed what little manuscript I had. I knew things would get better with editing but that perfectionism prevented me from pushing onward and so I had two years where I never got past 20000 words. Now I learn about writing sprints and that all changed, not only am I making progress but I increased my daily word count from 1000 to 2000 then 3000 and where I'm at now 5000. Iv completed three books, right now I'm stockpiling for when I get out of high school to publish and this leads me to my next point. First I want to address something that you might be saying, "if you don't look to edit when your writing then your manuscript must be incoherent." and yes, well at least what I write that week, you see I write on weekdays and spend my weekends editing, spelling errors, poor sentences and sometimes adding sections that I skipped or remodeling other sections to flow better, now it may not be to a great level just yet but I edit it again when I've got it done and of course you've got your professional edit. I'm not trying to put anyone down by saying this or "flex" I'm just showing you what that kind of mindset has gotten me, and still in high school, if I can, you can. I get a 100000-word manuscript done in four weeks, and a lot of the time in three, depends on if I write a lot on the weekends after editing. It takes me a few weeks to edit, so 2-2 1/2 months on average for the whole edited, ready to be profetionaly edited manuscript. Now writing quality words is welll and good but I say save it for the editing and get it done which now brings me to the second point. Speed and consistency are key (no joke to a certain Irish person intended) now this is mitigated a bit in traditional publishing because publishing houses publish at a lower rate but still having many books on the back burner is great. Where this counts in the most is self publishing, it is imperative that if your going for self-publishing to publish new books constantly, I'm not saying to the point were they aren't edited or the cover isn't good, I'm saying get a new book out every couple of months, in fact have a multitude of books written so if your revenue is starting to decline you can publish another book to stimulate that loss into a gain (See Chris Fox's video of his plans in 2019) Being able to publish constantly, with good marketing will almost guarantee your a success though as I mentioned don't publish so often that your books to seriously start to lose quality. Id like to end it with this, you can always make you look better, it doesn't matter if you have that quality writing from the start or not, you can always find something to improve, that is the biggest detriment to you, focus on getting that book done first before you nitpick about how you really like this scene but the descriptions or dialogue were drab in some places, that's what editing is for. And with that, I bid you all a farewell and happy writing, and you'd better get that book done, they don't write themselves.
Hey, very interesting comment; but I still have some questions that I'd like to ask. I have written two novels just for practice and they obviously werent all that great (btw: I am german). I am really struggling with perfectionism in every possible way (content, syntax, words, and so on - I have to say that you have a lot more possibilities in german to write in unique ways because of the syntax). However, my questions are: 1. Before you start to write have you planned every scene? In detail? I have a huge project in mind but at the moment its too much to plan and so I dont make progress (at all). I cant write a sentence if I just have a brief idea of the scene. Do have advice for me? 2. What kind of novels do you write? Are they just stories or do you have complex themes that you write about?
@@leonardohapp8362 I don't usually plan things out in great detail, usually what I do is plot down the inciting incident, the first doorway, the midpoint, the second doorway, the third doorway, and climax. I plot down certain scenes if I feel its necessary but for the most part that's how I write, I've tried writing things down in every detailed outline but I found that perfectionism kicks in and I hardly get anything done so I switched to a different approach. With the planning style, I have now, just planning out major events in the story I have a solid outline to go by, I know what beats I need to hit and where I will end up but whatever happens in between A to B is completely up to me. I usually have a vague idea of where I want my characters to head in that portion but as long as I hit that story beat it doesn't matter and I find it works very well and gives room for creativity. One last thing before I answer your second question, lets say you do have a detailed outline, I've found that you will most likely deviate from it eventually, perhaps only slightly but I will most likely take a new route, whether that be because you thought of a great character or antagonist you want to add or an event you want to change or add. I'll use one of my series I want to write as an example, you see I had this antagonist that I thought was great and I know him in for a while as well as two other characters. Now this may just be me but once I come up with something I tend to leave it in there without looking at it with a crucial eye for a long time and one day I got up one morning and was drinking a cup of coffee then suddenly realized that that antagonist doesn't really work well with my story and I should take him out. And I realized the other two characters were really useless and I often forgot about them in the scenes and I made two, more important and flushed out characters take their place in the narrative. My point is you'll find something you don't like or will want to change in your outline so be wary of that. Though really you can only find your own preferred way through experience. The kind of stories I like to write, ignoring genera I love character-driven stories and that what I write. I don't believe anything someone writes is just a story, it has complex themes on their own, if only to the person that wrote it. in my stories I focus on my characters and the struggles that they go through and the change they go through as a result, that is something I think we can all relate to, I've gone through foster care, witnessed my mother attempt suicide, having an extreme rift in my family to name a few things and I have changed because of that, I've felt I've changed for the better. In my books my characters are simply trying to find their way and being changed by what has happened along the way, for better or worse, perhaps its not the most complex theme in the world but I feel its something everyone can relate to, but everyone's story is complex in their own right. I hope I answered those questions well enough, happy writing and try not to worry too much, you'll find your own preferred way of doing things if you keep at it, just try and experiment with new ways of doing outlining, writing and so on and if your looking for a great way to make a decent outline, I recommend Dan Harmons story circle, sure has helped me a lot.
Thanks for the video. I don't know if it's good or bad but I don't write some particular words number each day, I write for like 30 minutes, and it works some times I write like a page, sometimes less, if I focus more on enhancing what I have written earlier. Oh, and Merry Christmas, your videos are really great.
I once made the mistake of writing a novel so quickly (a day) that the entire draft was unusable. Not a single word or concept that could be kept. Technically I wrote 50,000 words, but since I couldn't use any of them.... did I really write any words at all? I've also been that writer stuck on chapter 4! I think I had a fairly good balance this NaNo between speed and quality, but it's always something to work on. Happy Holidays! :)
I think as the individual that I am, I find it easier to write words that I can be proud of, versus just churning it out. Probably why I've never been able to accomplish 50K during Nanowrimo haha. Usually I just try to disconnect to avoid comparisons, since it's so easy nowadays to compare yourself to others thanks to the Internet. Bleh. Anyway, good video and happy holidays Vivien!
I am not a fast writer by any means. I have tried. Me and NaNoWriMo don't gel well. I am a writer that values quality. Then I feel better about what I've written.
@@joslyncarter4813 I guess I am slow. I have 21354 words at the second week of Nanowrimo, but I am exhausted. I thought to give Nano another try, but I am ready to quit and go at a more gentler pace. This writing fast is not my speed.
@@kaylajames9334 I had to learn to get down the words and stop comparing my progress with other writers' so I could stop *guilting* myself, which is why I only bother with word counts occassionally. Every writer has a process that works for them.
@@kaylajames9334 Well...🤔 I suppose the best way to describe my pace is measuring how much narrative progress I've made on a project. I hope that makes sense.
Happy Holidays to you Vivien, Steven, Keira, Rocky and the new one to come. I'm wishing you all the happiest of holidays and I hope Santa brings everything good your way. As for writing, my issue is finding healthy habits in terms of the bane of my existence, interruptions both external and internal. That's the one thing I'm going to work on in the New Year. Thanks again for your help Vivien.
Yeah, NaNo is great *most* of the time, but it can put a lot of writers in a negative mindset. Just try not to compare yourself to others! You're writing a book which is a huge accomplishment--it doesn't matter how long it takes you! 💜
@@VivienReis Or was... I haven't touched it since November 4th. I've been in a bad mental space, but I'm working on getting better. I'm hoping that if I start doing writing vlogs, I'll actually be productive lol
I think I definitely need to experiment with my speed to figure out my style. As of this moment, drafting and revisions are one speed-slow. :p Ooo I like the idea of pushing myself to see what my glass ceiling is. Thanks for this!
the little writing goblin has definitely stopped me from writing fast 😂. i've compromised with myself - only when i've finished a writing session am i allowed to edit if i really need to. otherwise every other sentence will be edited to death. really *quality* video, vivien!!
I feel like it depends a lot on the type of writer and writing style of each one and on the stage of wrting you're in- for me, writing the first draft is all about quantity in the fastest time and revison is about making all the shitty writing from the first draft quality material:D
When I first started to write last year it was quite fun, but then I got stuck. No matter how many times I tried to come back to my story, I keep changing the outline and get stuck at other points. Now I'm really frustrated and I don't enjoy writing as I used to.
Love all of this Vivian. It's hard to give form to the inner editor, but that is a part of our process more people need to be aware will step into make themselves known. The best I have found in illuminating the inner editor has been Dr. Betty Edwards in Drawing on the Artist within. I feel you & she are addressing a workable resolution to the inner editor (left-brain) & creative drafter (right-brain) balance by finding a coupling (torquing) dance where one takes the lead & the other sees when it is time to rest & stay out of the process. Now if only we can find that preverbal highway driving scenario in our drawing process to trigger a submissive inner editor. Happy Holidays Vivian, Gratitude for another year of thoughtful content!!!
I dislike that NANO WRIMO still only does November. Are there other websites that offer to keep track of word count and provide other stuff like writing prompts graphs, showing the amount of work? I need that. Writers deserve more writer material. Who agrees? Any suggestions?
Recently, I made the mistake of watching a video listing things you should supposedly remove from your writing (like adverbs), and it's definitely hurt my process, made me second-guess and hesitate when I didn't use to.
Focus on removing things in the editing process. First drafts are where you should allow yourself to get away with things if that helps your creative flow!
@@VivienReis I know; that's what I'm saying. That video woke up my goblin after I had managed to put him to sleep for so long. So don't watch/read editing advice while writing a first draft, kids! ^^
Hello Vivien! I’ve never commented on any of your videos before, but I’ve been here for a while. I did NaNoWriMo this year for the first time with a few of my classmates (I’m in middle school xP). I did it! And actually finished the fastest, in 19 days. Though of course that means my manuscript needs some help. I’ve noticed in editing that my action scenes aren’t very good. To me they always feel plain and I can’t seem to change the “voice” I write it. The writing style between my action scenes and regular scenes have the same speed. I really need to fix this because I do a lot of fantasy war based novels. Do you have any ideas on how I can fix this? Thanks!
If your writing fantasy war novels you should use a lot of description during action scenes. If you write with music use scary or fast music. Don't use words like said, use screamed in pain, blood soaked... It smelled... Most of all put emotion in your book.
![NOSFERATU - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters December 25](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nulvWqYUM8k/mqdefault.jpg)
always compare yourself to yourself. You never know the whole story of someone else.
I'm not sure if this is quite right because it seems so random, but I heard OK車検証、運転免許証 which means "Okay, vehicle inspection certificate, drivers license". Are these lyrics from a song? I'm so curious.
Thank you for the video! I've been struggling to find a pace I'm comfortable writing at.
It's from a car insurance commercial 😂
@@VivienReis Ooh, that makes sense! You are ready to buy car insurance in Japan haha
I only scrolled through the comments to find one that explained the beginning of the video :D
Quality vs. quantity is something I ALWAYS find myself debating with. Writing fast gets my sh** done but the quality is...I don't wanna talk about it haha.
but u can still slowly rewrite it later using the base that u have.
Last time I did NaNo was two or three years ago and I failed. Tried it again this year. Came up with an awesome story. But the word count just sucked the fun right out of it. Needless to say I failed again. Not doing NaNo again. Well, not the writing at least. Will use NaNo for brainstorming instead, because I brainstormed that idea I had for this year during October and it was the most fun I've had with the writing process in quite a while.
Also, I read a comment somewhere (think nano forums) of someone saying they could easily write 5k words in one sitting Oo I can do like 2k throughout the day.
What works for one person may not work for another person. Besides, you can write well written 2000 words or very poor 5000 words. Quality vs quantity. Don't compare yourself to others. It's all about pushing your own limits not someone else's limits. If your limit is 2000 push it to 2200 and see if you can get that extra 200 words in.
On my first day of NaNoWriMo, it took me 2 hours to write 400 words. Needless to say, I quit NaNo after a couple weeks, thoroughly frustrated and disappointed in myself. But your video helped me realize that my inner goblin was in control. This time around, I'm going to get through the whole draft as fast as I can, leaving no room for editing or self-criticism. Thanks so much for the words of wisdom and inspiration!
You just delivered the fact that I've been denying. "The little goblin that slaps your wrist the second it sees a sentence it doesn't like." It is so true and this is exactly my problem. I want to say thank you for this as it helps me detect why I spend hours trying to perfect that one chapter -.- . Anyway thank you so much. I hope you have a great holidays!
Love this video! I'm one of those people that will write and not even think about editing and revising until the first draft is done. It's a lot of work, but I have so much fun just letting words spill out the first time around. I generally don't think about how I'm doing when I see other people making progress and just cheer them on. As I always say, progress is progress, no matter how much or how little!
Courtney Killian same here. I throw it all on Paper and then go through editing and revision. I enjoy writing even though I have to rewrite constantly lol I was at 96000 then down to 72000 up to 85000 and now I’m at 79000. Slowly but surely I’ll get somewhere lol its ok though. I’m doing it for fun and I like the “what if this happens instead”
My struggle is I can't type as fast as I think. I will get too far ahead in my thoughts and everything gets jumbled up in the words. I think I am going to try the voice to text.
I am stuck at chapter 2 for almost 3 months...
Cause self doubt (i am writing in english. Grammar mistakes are inevitable ) and additionally, no time. Currently working on chapter 2 . Constantly editing and searching for things to make things more beautiful and clear. The ideas are almost killing me. I am squeezing in my already full study time schedule. Afraid that I can't do well in my exams if these things keeps scratching in my head.
Oh god!
Thank you for another awesome video! This is something I have been struggling with lately, so thanks for the talk! And I’m loving your new course so far!!!! Keep up the awesome work!
Writing Sprints always help me, I feel like my best work comes out that way
Same! It could go on for a few weeks, but afterwards I get writer's block. It's weird.
50 000 words in 30 days
= 5000 words in 3 days
= 1667 words in one.
I just did a word document for two essays I wrote today, and I also wrote some under youtubes which is not yet valorised as posts and updated some posts involving dialogue on quora, but the two essays are 2373 words.
I am as to writing pace more seasoned than NaNoWriMo, just I am more essayist than novelist ...
I write slowly. I line edit at least 3 times, and maybe more if I'm not happy (which is often the case). I am a fanatic when it comes to using active voice only, just to give the reader as much clarity as possible. I also make sure I use words that a 12 year old is comfortable with. In other words, keep it simple. Most readers are not professors of English and won't thank you one bit if they have to research the meaning of every word they don't understand.
Thank you. It often takes me an hour to get even get 100 words on a page. And even that can be a struggle at times. I also probably do more editing as I go then I should, but sometimes the process just takes time. But that makes it so much sweeter when you actually get in the zone and you pump out a solid 600 words in an hour and a half.
We all have our own pace, and the point is to write something good rather than worry about how fast we get there. And comparing ourselves to others is often the death of creativity
In this case, extensive outlining helps a lot. I spent an entire month writing a book and then I reached to the end realising it was bad beyond control.
So I'll need to revise my outlines till so that I don't waste my time writing chunks that won't be salvageable.
Thank you for this ❤️ really really needed it.
Hey I'm going on six months stuck on chapter 7. How can push myself it's a but hard for me and when do you know when to stop editing
I think my novels are more cohesive tonally when I fast draft. But that’s probably more to do with whether or not I have an outline. If I have an outline, I can draft a lot faster.
That was a big struggle for me, trying to decide if I should write slower or faster. Through a lot of experimentation and help from others, I found this neat little writing style, writing sprints. In a nutshell, writing sprints are just time here, you sit down to write, with no distractions, no editing, just writing, racing the timer. I highly recommend Chris Fox's book "How to write 5000 words in an hour" for full detail. Now I do not write 5000 words an hour, I can only get that in a day, for one I write in 25-minute segments where I get at least 800 words done in that 25 minutes. This is a pure quantity over quality strategy but I find that is far superior to the far slower paced quality writing. Now I enjoy writing quality words but here's the problem, perfectionism, this is a huge problem for me when I go that quality route and Id like to tell you all the improvements that the quantity strategy has done for me and how it finally got me to finish a novel.
I'm sure this is a big problem for many, perfectionism, I'm sure many of you suffer from this, as do I. I don't consider my self a perfectionist, in fact, I'm the type to half-ass a lot of things unless I'm passionate about it and well I'm passionate about writing and then perfectionism kicks in. I went a long time where I sat down to write but I felt what I write was never near good enough and trashed what little manuscript I had. I knew things would get better with editing but that perfectionism prevented me from pushing onward and so I had two years where I never got past 20000 words. Now I learn about writing sprints and that all changed, not only am I making progress but I increased my daily word count from 1000 to 2000 then 3000 and where I'm at now 5000. Iv completed three books, right now I'm stockpiling for when I get out of high school to publish and this leads me to my next point.
First I want to address something that you might be saying, "if you don't look to edit when your writing then your manuscript must be incoherent." and yes, well at least what I write that week, you see I write on weekdays and spend my weekends editing, spelling errors, poor sentences and sometimes adding sections that I skipped or remodeling other sections to flow better, now it may not be to a great level just yet but I edit it again when I've got it done and of course you've got your professional edit. I'm not trying to put anyone down by saying this or "flex" I'm just showing you what that kind of mindset has gotten me, and still in high school, if I can, you can. I get a 100000-word manuscript done in four weeks, and a lot of the time in three, depends on if I write a lot on the weekends after editing. It takes me a few weeks to edit, so 2-2 1/2 months on average for the whole edited, ready to be profetionaly edited manuscript. Now writing quality words is welll and good but I say save it for the editing and get it done which now brings me to the second point.
Speed and consistency are key (no joke to a certain Irish person intended) now this is mitigated a bit in traditional publishing because publishing houses publish at a lower rate but still having many books on the back burner is great. Where this counts in the most is self publishing, it is imperative that if your going for self-publishing to publish new books constantly, I'm not saying to the point were they aren't edited or the cover isn't good, I'm saying get a new book out every couple of months, in fact have a multitude of books written so if your revenue is starting to decline you can publish another book to stimulate that loss into a gain (See Chris Fox's video of his plans in 2019) Being able to publish constantly, with good marketing will almost guarantee your a success though as I mentioned don't publish so often that your books to seriously start to lose quality.
Id like to end it with this, you can always make you look better, it doesn't matter if you have that quality writing from the start or not, you can always find something to improve, that is the biggest detriment to you, focus on getting that book done first before you nitpick about how you really like this scene but the descriptions or dialogue were drab in some places, that's what editing is for.
And with that, I bid you all a farewell and happy writing, and you'd better get that book done, they don't write themselves.
Hey, very interesting comment; but I still have some questions that I'd like to ask. I have written two novels just for practice and they obviously werent all that great (btw: I am german). I am really struggling with perfectionism in every possible way (content, syntax, words, and so on - I have to say that you have a lot more possibilities in german to write in unique ways because of the syntax).
However, my questions are:
1. Before you start to write have you planned every scene? In detail?
I have a huge project in mind but at the moment its too much to plan and so I dont make progress (at all). I cant write a sentence if I just have a brief idea of the scene. Do have advice for me?
2. What kind of novels do you write? Are they just stories or do you have complex themes that you write about?
@@leonardohapp8362 I don't usually plan things out in great detail, usually what I do is plot down the inciting incident, the first doorway, the midpoint, the second doorway, the third doorway, and climax. I plot down certain scenes if I feel its necessary but for the most part that's how I write, I've tried writing things down in every detailed outline but I found that perfectionism kicks in and I hardly get anything done so I switched to a different approach. With the planning style, I have now, just planning out major events in the story I have a solid outline to go by, I know what beats I need to hit and where I will end up but whatever happens in between A to B is completely up to me. I usually have a vague idea of where I want my characters to head in that portion but as long as I hit that story beat it doesn't matter and I find it works very well and gives room for creativity.
One last thing before I answer your second question, lets say you do have a detailed outline, I've found that you will most likely deviate from it eventually, perhaps only slightly but I will most likely take a new route, whether that be because you thought of a great character or antagonist you want to add or an event you want to change or add. I'll use one of my series I want to write as an example, you see I had this antagonist that I thought was great and I know him in for a while as well as two other characters. Now this may just be me but once I come up with something I tend to leave it in there without looking at it with a crucial eye for a long time and one day I got up one morning and was drinking a cup of coffee then suddenly realized that that antagonist doesn't really work well with my story and I should take him out. And I realized the other two characters were really useless and I often forgot about them in the scenes and I made two, more important and flushed out characters take their place in the narrative. My point is you'll find something you don't like or will want to change in your outline so be wary of that. Though really you can only find your own preferred way through experience.
The kind of stories I like to write, ignoring genera I love character-driven stories and that what I write. I don't believe anything someone writes is just a story, it has complex themes on their own, if only to the person that wrote it. in my stories I focus on my characters and the struggles that they go through and the change they go through as a result, that is something I think we can all relate to, I've gone through foster care, witnessed my mother attempt suicide, having an extreme rift in my family to name a few things and I have changed because of that, I've felt I've changed for the better. In my books my characters are simply trying to find their way and being changed by what has happened along the way, for better or worse, perhaps its not the most complex theme in the world but I feel its something everyone can relate to, but everyone's story is complex in their own right.
I hope I answered those questions well enough, happy writing and try not to worry too much, you'll find your own preferred way of doing things if you keep at it, just try and experiment with new ways of doing outlining, writing and so on and if your looking for a great way to make a decent outline, I recommend Dan Harmons story circle, sure has helped me a lot.
Your process sounds like the best of both worlds.
Can you do a video on the best ways to write point of view changes?
I received your novela can’t wait to read it after I finish reading a book I’m reading now
😄😄 I hope you love it!!
I hope so too the cover looks nice too. I wish you can read my books too
Thanks for the video. I don't know if it's good or bad but I don't write some particular words number each day, I write for like 30 minutes, and it works some times I write like a page, sometimes less, if I focus more on enhancing what I have written earlier. Oh, and Merry Christmas, your videos are really great.
Amazing advice!
Shakensho means registration paper, and untenmenkyosho means driver’s license.
It was for a car insurance commercial 😂
Love you and Ellen Brock.Interesting video.
Thank you so much!
I once made the mistake of writing a novel so quickly (a day) that the entire draft was unusable. Not a single word or concept that could be kept. Technically I wrote 50,000 words, but since I couldn't use any of them.... did I really write any words at all? I've also been that writer stuck on chapter 4! I think I had a fairly good balance this NaNo between speed and quality, but it's always something to work on.
Happy Holidays! :)
Happy holidays Vivien. :)
I think as the individual that I am, I find it easier to write words that I can be proud of, versus just churning it out. Probably why I've never been able to accomplish 50K during Nanowrimo haha. Usually I just try to disconnect to avoid comparisons, since it's so easy nowadays to compare yourself to others thanks to the Internet. Bleh. Anyway, good video and happy holidays Vivien!
I am not a fast writer by any means. I have tried. Me and NaNoWriMo don't gel well. I am a writer that values quality. Then I feel better about what I've written.
@@joslyncarter4813 I guess I am slow. I have 21354 words at the second week of Nanowrimo, but I am exhausted. I thought to give Nano another try, but I am ready to quit and go at a more gentler pace. This writing fast is not my speed.
@@kaylajames9334 I had to learn to get down the words and stop comparing my progress with other writers' so I could stop *guilting* myself, which is why I only bother with word counts occassionally. Every writer has a process that works for them.
@@joslyncarter4813 what pace do you have?
@@kaylajames9334 Well...🤔
I suppose the best way to describe my pace is measuring how much narrative progress I've made on a project. I hope that makes sense.
Happy Holidays to you Vivien, Steven, Keira, Rocky and the new one to come. I'm wishing you all the happiest of holidays and I hope Santa brings everything good your way. As for writing, my issue is finding healthy habits in terms of the bane of my existence, interruptions both external and internal. That's the one thing I'm going to work on in the New Year. Thanks again for your help Vivien.
I'm not certain if I should regret not trying NaNo, again. Kinda considering CampNaNo. Great vid, as always. Thanks. :D Happy holidays!!
Hie i have been following you for a while i need advice on the management of time especially the time for writing..
South Africa.
I did crap this year... I just can't write that fast, and seeing myself fall behind every day is so discouraging.
Yeah, NaNo is great *most* of the time, but it can put a lot of writers in a negative mindset. Just try not to compare yourself to others! You're writing a book which is a huge accomplishment--it doesn't matter how long it takes you! 💜
@@VivienReis Or was... I haven't touched it since November 4th. I've been in a bad mental space, but I'm working on getting better. I'm hoping that if I start doing writing vlogs, I'll actually be productive lol
I think I definitely need to experiment with my speed to figure out my style. As of this moment, drafting and revisions are one speed-slow. :p
Ooo I like the idea of pushing myself to see what my glass ceiling is.
Thanks for this!
the little writing goblin has definitely stopped me from writing fast 😂. i've compromised with myself - only when i've finished a writing session am i allowed to edit if i really need to. otherwise every other sentence will be edited to death. really *quality* video, vivien!!
Vivien Reis I just really enjoy always your video so much
I feel like it depends a lot on the type of writer and writing style of each one and on the stage of wrting you're in- for me, writing the first draft is all about quantity in the fastest time and revison is about making all the shitty writing from the first draft quality material:D
I gave this a like for the goblin muscle 😂😂
The fact that 500 words an hour is the example of 'slower' writing... Uh oh
Aw, don't feel judged by my example! 500 was just the first number that popped in my head 💜💜
Not if your staring at the page and correcting every sentece. Oh I have Microsoftt
When I first started to write last year it was quite fun, but then I got stuck. No matter how many times I tried to come back to my story, I keep changing the outline and get stuck at other points. Now I'm really frustrated and I don't enjoy writing as I used to.
Happy holidays!
You as well!!
Thanks for the video. Merry Christmas when it comes, V!
"Just Totally Fact" is going to be my new saying.
Love all of this Vivian. It's hard to give form to the inner editor, but that is a part of our process more people need to be aware will step into make themselves known. The best I have found in illuminating the inner editor has been Dr. Betty Edwards in Drawing on the Artist within. I feel you & she are addressing a workable resolution to the inner editor (left-brain) & creative drafter (right-brain) balance by finding a coupling (torquing) dance where one takes the lead & the other sees when it is time to rest & stay out of the process. Now if only we can find that preverbal highway driving scenario in our drawing process to trigger a submissive inner editor.
Happy Holidays Vivian, Gratitude for another year of thoughtful content!!!
Thanks Vivien 😃 love your channel.
I dislike that NANO WRIMO still only does November. Are there other websites that offer to keep track of word count and provide other stuff like writing prompts graphs, showing the amount of work? I need that. Writers deserve more writer material. Who agrees? Any suggestions?
On NaNo's website, they have a separate Goal Tracker you can use any time of year. They also do Camp NaNo in April and July 😊
You can do the monthly Twitter challenge. 500 words a day.
Recently, I made the mistake of watching a video listing things you should supposedly remove from your writing (like adverbs), and it's definitely hurt my process, made me second-guess and hesitate when I didn't use to.
Focus on removing things in the editing process. First drafts are where you should allow yourself to get away with things if that helps your creative flow!
@@VivienReis I know; that's what I'm saying. That video woke up my goblin after I had managed to put him to sleep for so long. So don't watch/read editing advice while writing a first draft, kids! ^^
I always say and i will akways say quality over quantity
Great tips, Vivien!
Hello Vivien! I’ve never commented on any of your videos before, but I’ve been here for a while.
I did NaNoWriMo this year for the first time with a few of my classmates (I’m in middle school xP). I did it! And actually finished the fastest, in 19 days. Though of course that means my manuscript needs some help.
I’ve noticed in editing that my action scenes aren’t very good. To me they always feel plain and I can’t seem to change the “voice” I write it. The writing style between my action scenes and regular scenes have the same speed. I really need to fix this because I do a lot of fantasy war based novels. Do you have any ideas on how I can fix this? Thanks!
If your writing fantasy war novels you should use a lot of description during action scenes. If you write with music use scary or fast music. Don't use words like said, use screamed in pain, blood soaked... It smelled... Most of all put emotion in your book.