I just wanted to reach out and say that I have finally started working on a book (during this quarantine time) that I had originally started writing years ago but "was too busy" to work on, thanks to randomly stumbling upon your videos. Thank you for making this page. You are very helpful, and I will also check out your books on Amazon. Which of the books that you have written is your favorite?
Hello! I just found your channel and I'm loving it so far! Your topics and the way you explain are really good and I can understand easily! I'm not a native English speaker, and I also have asperger, so process informations can be hard to me sometimes, but your way works so well to me! Also, do you know if your books are being translated to Portuguese (Brazil)? I read the sinopses, and I'm really interested to read, but I can't affort to buy it with dollars, it's too expensive for me!
Thank you very much, and thank you for watching! Right now, I do not have any plans to translate my books into Portuguese, but I will let everyone know if that changes.
I have a question: Does relaxation help with creativity? I’ve noticed several times where I’m in a more laid-back mode that’s when I write better. Ideas flow a lot easier, I remember details without pushing myself and I enjoying myself more. Does having a more laid-back attitude help with story flow or is that just on occasion?
Yes, it’s always better to be relaxed when you’re writing rather than stressed. I’ve found that stress can be helpful in certain situations (like meeting a deadline for an editor), but in the long run, it’s unhealthy. I like to do brief meditation before I write in the mornings, drink hot tea, and run my essential oil diffuser. I also write when everyone In my house is asleep (5AM or so). Works great.
Always best to be both relaxed but exited when writing, imo. It keeps the creativity pump running. If you get too stressed, the pump usually shuts down.
I can't concentrate when I'm stressed. Yoga and meditation helps. Also if I feel like I should be doing something else and I've set aside an hour, I have to remind myself that anything else can wait, this hour is for writing, so focus
Great insights. Just an FYI: Audio level was quite low, and might want to reset camera depth of field, as the titles of your books on the shelf were out of focus just enough to make them hard to make out.
@@Nigerian373 , I had to shove my phone volume to max to obtain a decent level. Not dissing the video, it's just that after listening to this my podcasts blared, and I had to turn the volume down. Just letting Michael know I had a sound concern he might want to look into. Love these videos.
My children love to watch Korean cartoons. One has dark characters that continuously mock friendship and work alone. They just do because their "bad" characters. I took as an inspiration and decided that my antagonist would be close to people and kind of cool. Still, she does bad choices and hurts people. Her reasoning is understandable, though.
Fantastic video, Michael! I found it very insightful, actually. I have a question about the villain aspect. I'm writing a Man vs Self story, in which there is no clear external villain, and the character is undergoing a transformation in order to reach his goals/needs. Do you have any tips on a story like this? I'm already basically following the rest of the advice in the video, but I still worry that my character's growth won't feel 100% earned.
I'm in a similar situation, if I understand what you mean correctly. Here's my take on it. I try to make sure the reader recognizes the 'villain' part of the self early on in the story so that the reader is able to recognize the struggle between the mc and that side of them that is harmful. I personally am doing this in my story by having the conflict show in the first few chapters, and have the other characters and the environment challenge that view the character has over and over again. I have the character encounter problems because of that flaw of theirs, but without it getting defeated, because after all, it has a reason to be there in the character's mind or actions in the first place. The thing is, the character will deny that the flaw is a flaw for most of the story - my character, for instance, thinks that she is meant to be a portal scientist for most of the story - only to realize by the end of the book that she chose portal science because it allows her to go scout other worlds, and what she really wants is adventure. This contradiction is subtly shown during the first few chapters of the book, where she seems more focused on exploring than completing her mission. In her mind, this makes sense, because "all jobs have a fun part and a part that is less fun", and because she thinks that she doesn't have an alternative, when in fact she does. In the case of a character that has a flaw such as, let's say, they are not nice, or are too isolated. The flaw is "part of their" identity - or so they think. So every time being not nice bites them in the butt, or every time they feel lonely, they'll just think "ah, but I can't change that, it's just who I am, and besides I'm okay with the consequences", and the purpose of the story is to challenge that belief so that they change it by the end of the book. I'd recommend the book "Save the Cat! Writes a Novel". It gives directions about how to construct a plot based on character development/arcs, in a way, so for stories that don't have outer villains it might be particularly appropriate. I don't know if it'll help you as much as it helped me, but it's up to you anyway. Hope this helped
Not very much. On a sliding scale, I would develop your hero the most, followed by a supporting main character, followed by a minor character. They should get the least development in my opinion.
@@akmass9761 apparently you don't need a spellchecker either... wait. You do. *grammar If you ever want to sell your writing, you do need to do as much of the "heavy lifting" as you can yourself. Publishers will just let you rot in a slushpile somewhere if you don't do due diligence. Besides, if you want to make it easier on yourself you can get the Hemingway Editor that will help with grammar, or Grammarly or ProWritingAid. Those will help you with grammar things and with most spelling errors. There are several things you can do about that kind of problem, one of which is to read as much and as widely as you can, particularly outside of your intended genre. That will expose you to the correct usage of grammar and spelling if you stick to books that aren't self-published. Not that those are bad, but more errors are likely to creep into those than into books released by traditional publishers. Another one is to have beta readers help you catch those mistakes. And tell you where things aren't clear to them or are downright confusing or that they just don't get something in a particular passage, etc.
5:35 No! If your story has a villain, he is the most important character of the story. The reason being, is the villain dictates the plot and pace, and most importantly, dictates who's the bad guy (which should be the hero); not because he has a vendetta against the hero, but the bum-rash keeps popping up when he's tryin to get his jig on. A "true" bad guy, either has no need, or lacks the brains, to monologue. A good bad guy, thinks he's doing good; and for all intents and purposes, he may WELL be doing good, but if the dominant culture says that poetry on Fridays is evil, and he can't bear to go a day without reciting lovey-dovey's... We could very well debate over who the villain of "Footloose" is. ruclips.net/video/P4narQca4Oc/видео.html
I am captivated by the purple bricks behind you....
Me too!
I just discovered this channel a few days back. I must say it's becoming one of my favorites.
Welcome aboard!
@@AuthorLevelUp you had me at I believe you have Steven King level quality! lol I’m sucker for positivity and hope.
I just wanted to reach out and say that I have finally started working on a book (during this quarantine time) that I had originally started writing years ago but "was too busy" to work on, thanks to randomly stumbling upon your videos. Thank you for making this page. You are very helpful, and I will also check out your books on Amazon. Which of the books that you have written is your favorite?
I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but your set is lookin super nice and professional!
Thank you!
Hello! I just found your channel and I'm loving it so far! Your topics and the way you explain are really good and I can understand easily! I'm not a native English speaker, and I also have asperger, so process informations can be hard to me sometimes, but your way works so well to me!
Also, do you know if your books are being translated to Portuguese (Brazil)? I read the sinopses, and I'm really interested to read, but I can't affort to buy it with dollars, it's too expensive for me!
Thank you very much, and thank you for watching! Right now, I do not have any plans to translate my books into Portuguese, but I will let everyone know if that changes.
@@AuthorLevelUp I see. So I will wait until this day (or perhaps I get the money sooner)! Thank you for your hard work! 😊
I bought your book and I didn’t know that it was yours, I feel a bit closer to the channel now and I appreciate the insight in your book
9:40 Lol this reminded me of an instance of a character being curious about their environment that I wrote in that one chapter and I'm grinning now X3
Love this, dude. Thanks!
Great points, thank you!
Useful information about setting as well. My main character hates his at the beginning so I'll go back and see if I need to edit that
I have a question: Does relaxation help with creativity? I’ve noticed several times where I’m in a more laid-back mode that’s when I write better. Ideas flow a lot easier, I remember details without pushing myself and I enjoying myself more. Does having a more laid-back attitude help with story flow or is that just on occasion?
Yes, it’s always better to be relaxed when you’re writing rather than stressed. I’ve found that stress can be helpful in certain situations (like meeting a deadline for an editor), but in the long run, it’s unhealthy. I like to do brief meditation before I write in the mornings, drink hot tea, and run my essential oil diffuser. I also write when everyone In my house is asleep (5AM or so). Works great.
Always best to be both relaxed but exited when writing, imo. It keeps the creativity pump running. If you get too stressed, the pump usually shuts down.
I can't concentrate when I'm stressed. Yoga and meditation helps. Also if I feel like I should be doing something else and I've set aside an hour, I have to remind myself that anything else can wait, this hour is for writing, so focus
Great insights.
Just an FYI: Audio level was quite low, and might want to reset camera depth of field, as the titles of your books on the shelf were out of focus just enough to make them hard to make out.
I thought the audio was fine!
@@Nigerian373 , I had to shove my phone volume to max to obtain a decent level. Not dissing the video, it's just that after listening to this my podcasts blared, and I had to turn the volume down.
Just letting Michael know I had a sound concern he might want to look into.
Love these videos.
@@writerspark Michael's 2015 video's were much crisper. I agree, audio is worse than before, please take note, Michael.
My children love to watch Korean cartoons. One has dark characters that continuously mock friendship and work alone. They just do because their "bad" characters.
I took as an inspiration and decided that my antagonist would be close to people and kind of cool. Still, she does bad choices and hurts people. Her reasoning is understandable, though.
Fantastic video, Michael! I found it very insightful, actually. I have a question about the villain aspect. I'm writing a Man vs Self story, in which there is no clear external villain, and the character is undergoing a transformation in order to reach his goals/needs. Do you have any tips on a story like this? I'm already basically following the rest of the advice in the video, but I still worry that my character's growth won't feel 100% earned.
What will your book be called it sounds interestin
I'm in a similar situation, if I understand what you mean correctly. Here's my take on it.
I try to make sure the reader recognizes the 'villain' part of the self early on in the story so that the reader is able to recognize the struggle between the mc and that side of them that is harmful. I personally am doing this in my story by having the conflict show in the first few chapters, and have the other characters and the environment challenge that view the character has over and over again. I have the character encounter problems because of that flaw of theirs, but without it getting defeated, because after all, it has a reason to be there in the character's mind or actions in the first place.
The thing is, the character will deny that the flaw is a flaw for most of the story - my character, for instance, thinks that she is meant to be a portal scientist for most of the story - only to realize by the end of the book that she chose portal science because it allows her to go scout other worlds, and what she really wants is adventure. This contradiction is subtly shown during the first few chapters of the book, where she seems more focused on exploring than completing her mission. In her mind, this makes sense, because "all jobs have a fun part and a part that is less fun", and because she thinks that she doesn't have an alternative, when in fact she does.
In the case of a character that has a flaw such as, let's say, they are not nice, or are too isolated. The flaw is "part of their" identity - or so they think. So every time being not nice bites them in the butt, or every time they feel lonely, they'll just think "ah, but I can't change that, it's just who I am, and besides I'm okay with the consequences", and the purpose of the story is to challenge that belief so that they change it by the end of the book.
I'd recommend the book "Save the Cat! Writes a Novel". It gives directions about how to construct a plot based on character development/arcs, in a way, so for stories that don't have outer villains it might be particularly appropriate. I don't know if it'll help you as much as it helped me, but it's up to you anyway.
Hope this helped
Great!
Love this channel
How far should you develop minor characters ? Like a waitress or waiter?
Not very much. On a sliding scale, I would develop your hero the most, followed by a supporting main character, followed by a minor character. They should get the least development in my opinion.
I got a question should authors worry about mistakes from grammar and stuff like that or just leave it to the editor?
My advice is to do the best you can before handing your work off. It’ll save you money.
@@AuthorLevelUp ok thank you
I don't need no good gramer.
@@akmass9761 ok
@@akmass9761 apparently you don't need a spellchecker either... wait. You do. *grammar
If you ever want to sell your writing, you do need to do as much of the "heavy lifting" as you can yourself. Publishers will just let you rot in a slushpile somewhere if you don't do due diligence. Besides, if you want to make it easier on yourself you can get the Hemingway Editor that will help with grammar, or Grammarly or ProWritingAid. Those will help you with grammar things and with most spelling errors. There are several things you can do about that kind of problem, one of which is to read as much and as widely as you can, particularly outside of your intended genre. That will expose you to the correct usage of grammar and spelling if you stick to books that aren't self-published. Not that those are bad, but more errors are likely to creep into those than into books released by traditional publishers.
Another one is to have beta readers help you catch those mistakes. And tell you where things aren't clear to them or are downright confusing or that they just don't get something in a particular passage, etc.
Good stuff.
5:35
No! If your story has a villain, he is the most important character of the story. The reason being, is the villain dictates the plot and pace, and most importantly, dictates who's the bad guy (which should be the hero); not because he has a vendetta against the hero, but the bum-rash keeps popping up when he's tryin to get his jig on.
A "true" bad guy, either has no need, or lacks the brains, to monologue. A good bad guy, thinks he's doing good; and for all intents and purposes, he may WELL be doing good, but if the dominant culture says that poetry on Fridays is evil, and he can't bear to go a day without reciting lovey-dovey's...
We could very well debate over who the villain of "Footloose" is.
ruclips.net/video/P4narQca4Oc/видео.html
Good point about the villain dictating the pace of the story
A guide
I was REALLY WAITING for you to say TRAUMA, but the point never came.
Trauma is great/terrible motivation.