Thank you for always pushing this solid no nonsense advice. I’ve been in that endless editing phase for my first book(my biggest passion project) since I finished the first draft in 2021. I’m gonna take your advice and start something new and come back to it in 2026. Thanks for the videos, and can’t wait for King Leper to come out, I already know it’s gonna be great.
The constant plugging of Eternal Dream Christmas was Starship Troopers propaganda level of hilarious. "This is the Divine Strand: would you like to know more?"
Thanks David, I’ve internalized your storycraft videos, especially on setting, characters, plot. I always use your advice whenever I’m asked about it. - Setting where the story takes place -Characters have to be naturally derived from their setting (unless bizarro) -Plot is your character acting (or refusing to act) out their goals or desires Ever since I heard this, I’ve never come across a setting, or character or plot that just doesn’t work. I don’t know maybe that’s just me.
Putting the manuscript away for a year and starting a new project is spot on. Doing so, will get rid of that rush writers get from writing "in the moment." While this feeling is good to keep one going, it often does not return expected results upon third/forth reading. You cannot read your own book in the process of writing it :D
All great pieces of advice. For me, this is my first book and what I’m doing is keeping a spreadsheet of the daily word counts and how many minutes I’ve written. I use the Pomodoro technique. When I’m able to tangibly see my progress it creates a positive feedback loop for me to keep going. I learned this from programming and doing projects where I can see results, immediately or visually like front end work. Your point on perfection is spot on. That’s what I just struggled until I just pretended to lock my inner critic inside a box. Once I did that; it got easier. Finally, physically reading is something I am doing more of. I’m currently going through the Coldfire trilogy and also I picked up your water of awakening book. My goal is to keep reading, taking notes and also learn the rules of spelling and grammar. Something I also do is when I’m alone; I read aloud, slowly and carefully. That causes me to slow down and pay attention to the prose and the meaning of each sentence. Because your brain can self correct/ fill in the gaps.
I'm guilty of listening to audiobooks instead of reading, and while they have inspired me I agree that actual text is better for learning to write. I might get my "million words of suck" out on a publicly available fanfiction or something else like that.
Curious to see what people think: does nonfiction count for the 'million words of suck'? 16:50 I've also noticed that reading has gained a new and very enjoyable dimension as an author where sometimes I have to take the time to digest or appreciate some element of the story's skill (or to try and see 'how would I fix...' some issue). Interesting to hear you say 'two revisions only.' I am on the third of my current work and planning to do one more (though that fourth will be more a 'sweep through, tighten up a few scenes, check your grammar, tighten up some sentences, check that you didn't accidentally introduce a plot hole in D3). Though the second draft was a massive overhaul (by design) where I re-jiggered significant plot and character elements from the first draft.
After the major overhaul of the second draft, I would take a short break from the MS, come back to it with fresh eyes and reread cover to cover to make sure I didn’t create any problems with the redraft. Then I’d run through the Hemmingway App then Grammarly to clean up grammar and spelling issues and maximize readability.
I'm not throwing out hard rules, but generally if you are doing multiple re-writes or serious revisions there is some problem and you are wishing the story to be something else. Chances are it won't make the story better - just different.
Yeah I'm struggling with the consistent work thing. I was doing great in November then something came up and threw me off my Rythm and now it's been weeks since I was able to get back on it. The thing you said about the monetary system I take a slight disagreement with. I think those monetary systems, more so in sci fi than fantasy, are actually important, you just don't need to tell the audience. The way I have been operating so far has been I work out all the details in my head how a society works, then I just have the characters be themselves and behave according to those rules. With just the odd sentence here or there to add additional context. I think people like to ponder these things, they just don't want the flow of the story to be jarred by a lengthy description of how money works. Let people who care about that piece it together themselves. This is how I've been trying to operate at least.
6:39 Ah, but if Lucas cut out everything that didn't advance the plot in _Star_ _Wars_ , the film would've been under 40 minutes long. (There were official 8mm edit of _Star_ _Wars_ & _Empire_ , which cut the films down significantly to fit everything on two reels.)
Laughed out loud at №9. Instead of writing the sequel for my first book, which I completed and then re-edited a couple of years ago at this point, I've been considering another revision to clean up a few things and fix several little problems. Great set of tips altogether though. Writing consistently is the real big one, in my opinion... assuming you've got reading covered, of course.
I'm definitely guilty of trying to show off my worldbuilding through massive info-dumps that take up several paragraphs; but really serve no purpose to the immediate story. This is especially bad if you do it in a comic book and end up with more text than art on a page.
@Barada73 I know for me what helped was that I outlined my first book and built aspects of the world that serviced the plot. So I knew how the climax of my book would end and my goal was to build the pieces that made sense to make it make sense. As a reward; I could build stuff that wasn’t apart of the book. Also, I’d say if you world build; tie it to the plot. Fellowship did this wonderfully with Moria and Mithril. The latter made sense with Frodo’s vest which is paid off well.
@barada73, really all you have to do with an info dump is make it fun and interesting to read, like good non-fiction writing. Rather than dryly stating factual information, make it more anecdotal, frame it within demonstrative examples or hypotheticals, and get the reader excited about the possibilities and implications so that their own imagination can run wild with the ideas you're presenting. Especially if you're writing for a male audience, doing this will capture their interest and keep them reading. Point is, info dumping is fine when it's done well. Everybody says never do it only because the vast majority of writers aren't good enough to pull it off.
If you want good examples read Sanderson, though at times I find the ways he contrives to explain his "magic systems" to be annoying or boring. Those are generally plot critical, though.
@Barada73 I once referred this same issue to Stu on a stream, but related to a novel which had _a lot_ of monologues that I wanted to adapt into a graphic novel. All he said to me was "well, comics are a graphic medium" so I figured to turn the monologues into full page very detailed images that told the story in the monologue. Hope this helps.
I never understood how people who are not voracious readers even get the idea to become writers. It's not even elitism or anything like that; I just find it genuily strange.
Time gets short when you are doing two jobs (writing always starts as a hobby/side project), it's more exciting to work on your own ideas rather than get into the work of others, and (unfortunately) many people associate being an author with having status-they write to impress people at parties (doesn't work).
@@DVSPress I guess I just have little in common with these sorts of people. To me, writing has always been work; reading and studying other peoples book has been the joy. The status thing occured to me as welll after I wrote the comment, but I'm equally puzzled by the persistence of this idea into our "post literate" age as I am of the original conundrum. I guess part of that is also people thinking creative writing is easy because you don't have to learn an entire new skillset in order to just get started as you have to with music, visual arts, etc.
@@DVSPress If anything, if you tell people you write books, they’re afraid you’ll try to sell them a book. Once in a blue moon, someone will ask about the books, but most could not care less.
oh wow two minutes in. and yeah: I am not consistent enough, but I can tell you one thing. The "one million words" is a very optimistic estimate. I would think I wasted 2 mil already, and honestly I still see my writing as bad. Well not bad, but could be improved massively. 3) luckily not a dime spent yet, no finished product, at least none that i could even imagine making me a buck back, so dodged that bullet, 4) ouch. yeah that's how you come to 2 million words of garbage. If I deleted all the garbage out, it probably would be the aforementioned million. (probably not quite as egregious but in my only real "serious" project I ended with 50K words in 7 chapters or what should have been way less than seven chapters. so yeah, reading the word count of those seven chapters alone hurt like hell. Not only do i need to restructure them to smaller chunks, that actually work as chapters. I need to blow half the details to hell. Which is too bad because I have a lot of nice cultural details, that I either need to scrap or use differently than I have) And man right on the money. Did I have any reason to make a base 20 systems except for not keeping the descrepancy in buying power between a gold coin and a copper coin to be believable in base 10? No, did I have any reason to even think that far? also no. Any reason to give them names? Neither. Still, I guess copper donkeys, silver doves and gold dragons are at least a touch more 'personal' than just coins. And hey, at least the gold dragons are somewhat important. (They always show the faces of Emperor or Empress, and well one empress fucked up a little bit, let's put it this way. Paying with a coin with her face on it, can either be a big fauxpax or almost a John-Wick-style marker in certain parts of society). So In theory I should just kick out the smaller denominations, or keep one mention of them for those readers that like world building details. 5) yeah you said it, the market is not even a consideration yet. I'm not good enough to deliver a good product yet, so who cares if classical fantasy is dead. not me for another year or two 6) wohoo I dodged one! 7) wow dodged two. well got grazed. A bit of polish is nice, and honestly what I dislike about my writing style, is well style. and that also is where the bloat is. But I'd think I don't think too much about every sentence. Typically I type it as it jumps to my mind. It just needs a ton of reworking later. HP is a good other example. it's really simple style but it still hit. 8) dodged that one at least. As I said, I like a certain amount of style, simply because it's more fun to read for me. But sure; It has to have a purpose. What am I writing for if I don't even care about telling a story, but also, what do I think up a story for if I just slop it on the plate like some noodles with vomit-looking cheese sauce? 9) Ouch, but yeah. I will have to put my shit to the side for quite a while. I'm just massacring my baby right now. 10) That needs to be said? That would be like trying to learn a sport without ever having watched it even! I said in jest this is gonna be a 10/10 before watchin. 7/10 still ouch
After the second draft, you aren’t making the book better, you are making it into a different book. If you keep going, you’ll just ruin the manuscript with a million changes.
Thank you for always pushing this solid no nonsense advice. I’ve been in that endless editing phase for my first book(my biggest passion project) since I finished the first draft in 2021. I’m gonna take your advice and start something new and come back to it in 2026. Thanks for the videos, and can’t wait for King Leper to come out, I already know it’s gonna be great.
The constant plugging of Eternal Dream Christmas was Starship Troopers propaganda level of hilarious. "This is the Divine Strand: would you like to know more?"
Thanks David, I’ve internalized your storycraft videos, especially on setting, characters, plot. I always use your advice whenever I’m asked about it.
- Setting where the story takes place
-Characters have to be naturally derived from their setting (unless bizarro)
-Plot is your character acting (or refusing to act) out their goals or desires
Ever since I heard this, I’ve never come across a setting, or character or plot that just doesn’t work. I don’t know maybe that’s just me.
Putting the manuscript away for a year and starting a new project is spot on. Doing so, will get rid of that rush writers get from writing "in the moment." While this feeling is good to keep one going, it often does not return expected results upon third/forth reading. You cannot read your own book in the process of writing it :D
All great pieces of advice. For me, this is my first book and what I’m doing is keeping a spreadsheet of the daily word counts and how many minutes I’ve written. I use the Pomodoro technique. When I’m able to tangibly see my progress it creates a positive feedback loop for me to keep going.
I learned this from programming and doing projects where I can see results, immediately or visually like front end work.
Your point on perfection is spot on. That’s what I just struggled until I just pretended to lock my inner critic inside a box. Once I did that; it got easier.
Finally, physically reading is something I am doing more of. I’m currently going through the Coldfire trilogy and also I picked up your water of awakening book. My goal is to keep reading, taking notes and also learn the rules of spelling and grammar.
Something I also do is when I’m alone; I read aloud, slowly and carefully. That causes me to slow down and pay attention to the prose and the meaning of each sentence. Because your brain can self correct/ fill in the gaps.
Thanks for the video!
I'm guilty of listening to audiobooks instead of reading, and while they have inspired me I agree that actual text is better for learning to write.
I might get my "million words of suck" out on a publicly available fanfiction or something else like that.
Curious to see what people think: does nonfiction count for the 'million words of suck'?
16:50 I've also noticed that reading has gained a new and very enjoyable dimension as an author where sometimes I have to take the time to digest or appreciate some element of the story's skill (or to try and see 'how would I fix...' some issue).
Interesting to hear you say 'two revisions only.' I am on the third of my current work and planning to do one more (though that fourth will be more a 'sweep through, tighten up a few scenes, check your grammar, tighten up some sentences, check that you didn't accidentally introduce a plot hole in D3). Though the second draft was a massive overhaul (by design) where I re-jiggered significant plot and character elements from the first draft.
After the major overhaul of the second draft, I would take a short break from the MS, come back to it with fresh eyes and reread cover to cover to make sure I didn’t create any problems with the redraft. Then I’d run through the Hemmingway App then Grammarly to clean up grammar and spelling issues and maximize readability.
I'm not throwing out hard rules, but generally if you are doing multiple re-writes or serious revisions there is some problem and you are wishing the story to be something else. Chances are it won't make the story better - just different.
@@DVSPress I'll take the analysis into account.
absolutely, especially if you focus on clarity and conciseness
@@aesthetic.revolt Awesome, because I have written hideous amounts of nonfiction.
Yeah I'm struggling with the consistent work thing. I was doing great in November then something came up and threw me off my Rythm and now it's been weeks since I was able to get back on it.
The thing you said about the monetary system I take a slight disagreement with. I think those monetary systems, more so in sci fi than fantasy, are actually important, you just don't need to tell the audience. The way I have been operating so far has been I work out all the details in my head how a society works, then I just have the characters be themselves and behave according to those rules. With just the odd sentence here or there to add additional context. I think people like to ponder these things, they just don't want the flow of the story to be jarred by a lengthy description of how money works. Let people who care about that piece it together themselves.
This is how I've been trying to operate at least.
Part of what I call active vs. passive exposition.
Really good stuff.
6:39 Ah, but if Lucas cut out everything that didn't advance the plot in _Star_ _Wars_ , the film would've been under 40 minutes long. (There were official 8mm edit of _Star_ _Wars_ & _Empire_ , which cut the films down significantly to fit everything on two reels.)
Muramasa is the only book I have read from you so far. Great book.
Thank you!
Bigger than your head? SOLD!
And my head is pretty big.
@DVSPress LOL. Literally just ordered it.
The price per pound is pretty good
Laughed out loud at №9. Instead of writing the sequel for my first book, which I completed and then re-edited a couple of years ago at this point, I've been considering another revision to clean up a few things and fix several little problems. Great set of tips altogether though. Writing consistently is the real big one, in my opinion... assuming you've got reading covered, of course.
Comment edited :p
My issue was not plotting well enough. Ended up becoming a bit of a mess by the end.
Same
Sometimes it's like that, or you find that you haven't planned as well as you thought.
for me, plotting is 99% of the work
I'm definitely guilty of trying to show off my worldbuilding through massive info-dumps that take up several paragraphs; but really serve no purpose to the immediate story. This is especially bad if you do it in a comic book and end up with more text than art on a page.
@Barada73 I know for me what helped was that I outlined my first book and built aspects of the world that serviced the plot. So I knew how the climax of my book would end and my goal was to build the pieces that made sense to make it make sense. As a reward; I could build stuff that wasn’t apart of the book.
Also, I’d say if you world build; tie it to the plot. Fellowship did this wonderfully with Moria and Mithril. The latter made sense with Frodo’s vest which is paid off well.
@barada73, really all you have to do with an info dump is make it fun and interesting to read, like good non-fiction writing. Rather than dryly stating factual information, make it more anecdotal, frame it within demonstrative examples or hypotheticals, and get the reader excited about the possibilities and implications so that their own imagination can run wild with the ideas you're presenting. Especially if you're writing for a male audience, doing this will capture their interest and keep them reading.
Point is, info dumping is fine when it's done well. Everybody says never do it only because the vast majority of writers aren't good enough to pull it off.
If you want good examples read Sanderson, though at times I find the ways he contrives to explain his "magic systems" to be annoying or boring. Those are generally plot critical, though.
Great example @@Avarn388
@Barada73 I once referred this same issue to Stu on a stream, but related to a novel which had _a lot_ of monologues that I wanted to adapt into a graphic novel. All he said to me was "well, comics are a graphic medium" so I figured to turn the monologues into full page very detailed images that told the story in the monologue. Hope this helps.
I never understood how people who are not voracious readers even get the idea to become writers. It's not even elitism or anything like that; I just find it genuily strange.
Time gets short when you are doing two jobs (writing always starts as a hobby/side project), it's more exciting to work on your own ideas rather than get into the work of others, and (unfortunately) many people associate being an author with having status-they write to impress people at parties (doesn't work).
@@DVSPress I guess I just have little in common with these sorts of people. To me, writing has always been work; reading and studying other peoples book has been the joy.
The status thing occured to me as welll after I wrote the comment, but I'm equally puzzled by the persistence of this idea into our "post literate" age as I am of the original conundrum.
I guess part of that is also people thinking creative writing is easy because you don't have to learn an entire new skillset in order to just get started as you have to with music, visual arts, etc.
@@DVSPress If anything, if you tell people you write books, they’re afraid you’ll try to sell them a book. Once in a blue moon, someone will ask about the books, but most could not care less.
inspiration from other mediums
oh wow two minutes in. and yeah: I am not consistent enough, but I can tell you one thing. The "one million words" is a very optimistic estimate. I would think I wasted 2 mil already, and honestly I still see my writing as bad. Well not bad, but could be improved massively.
3) luckily not a dime spent yet, no finished product, at least none that i could even imagine making me a buck back, so dodged that bullet,
4) ouch. yeah that's how you come to 2 million words of garbage. If I deleted all the garbage out, it probably would be the aforementioned million. (probably not quite as egregious but in my only real "serious" project I ended with 50K words in 7 chapters or what should have been way less than seven chapters. so yeah, reading the word count of those seven chapters alone hurt like hell. Not only do i need to restructure them to smaller chunks, that actually work as chapters. I need to blow half the details to hell. Which is too bad because I have a lot of nice cultural details, that I either need to scrap or use differently than I have) And man right on the money. Did I have any reason to make a base 20 systems except for not keeping the descrepancy in buying power between a gold coin and a copper coin to be believable in base 10? No, did I have any reason to even think that far? also no. Any reason to give them names? Neither. Still, I guess copper donkeys, silver doves and gold dragons are at least a touch more 'personal' than just coins. And hey, at least the gold dragons are somewhat important. (They always show the faces of Emperor or Empress, and well one empress fucked up a little bit, let's put it this way. Paying with a coin with her face on it, can either be a big fauxpax or almost a John-Wick-style marker in certain parts of society). So In theory I should just kick out the smaller denominations, or keep one mention of them for those readers that like world building details.
5) yeah you said it, the market is not even a consideration yet. I'm not good enough to deliver a good product yet, so who cares if classical fantasy is dead. not me for another year or two
6) wohoo I dodged one!
7) wow dodged two. well got grazed. A bit of polish is nice, and honestly what I dislike about my writing style, is well style. and that also is where the bloat is. But I'd think I don't think too much about every sentence. Typically I type it as it jumps to my mind. It just needs a ton of reworking later. HP is a good other example. it's really simple style but it still hit.
8) dodged that one at least. As I said, I like a certain amount of style, simply because it's more fun to read for me. But sure; It has to have a purpose. What am I writing for if I don't even care about telling a story, but also, what do I think up a story for if I just slop it on the plate like some noodles with vomit-looking cheese sauce?
9) Ouch, but yeah. I will have to put my shit to the side for quite a while. I'm just massacring my baby right now.
10) That needs to be said? That would be like trying to learn a sport without ever having watched it even!
I said in jest this is gonna be a 10/10 before watchin. 7/10 still ouch
Do you have books that similiar to a Conan setting or kull the conqeror?
After the second draft, you aren’t making the book better, you are making it into a different book. If you keep going, you’ll just ruin the manuscript with a million changes.
I can stop watching right at number one :) Writing is my hobby. I do it when I've got time.