Not even done with the video, but I had to pause and say thank you! Thank you for saying "edit as you go." Once I gave up the advice to "just write no matter what and don't look back until your done," my writing improved. I'm more efficient this way. I always look over and do minor edits to what I wrote in the previous session. I see mistakes and inconsistencies, and it gets my head back in the game. I'm happy now. I was miserable before. I'm glad to see I'm not alone.
0:30 Treasure your mysteries. 1:30 You're a novelist, use your time machine. 2:37 Edit as you go. 3:37 Arrive late. Leave early. Deliver your homework late. 5:33 Make your character care. 6:45 Avoid big blocks of "God's Eye" style description. 8:01 Great characterization is more about specifics than universals.
Thank you. I am much more likely to watch, subscribe, and seek out videos if the author serves the audience instead of just labeling each section as "Tip 1," and "Tip 2." You added value. Well done.
I absolutely edit what I wrote the day before. I've heard and read so much advice to the contrary but just getting on with it and not reviewing what I've already written simply doesn't work for me. I'm pleased to see it approved of in this video.
One hundred percent. Edit, as you go, make sense as appose to keeping moving, not knowing where you are. It keeps your focus in front of the story instead of behind.
I know it's an old vid but great info here. Underrated channel. I've always heard the advice to avoid editing as you draft but my mind doesn't work that way. I always start each writing session but rereading my last chapter and touching it up.
Great tips however I find if i edit before writing i cant stop and it interrupts my sub conscious from writing in a free flow state! So now i just make a note of the narrative edits in a notebook and carry on writing from where i left off. I will make all the edits in my 2nd draft
This is good stuff. Nicely done. But I do have 1 insanely actionable video tip you can use right now: don't have a blindingly bright light right between you and the camera, else the viewers might feel like they're being interrogated by the KGB.
You have great videos. Thanks! Question: When querying with a true story told in third person privileged style(about a missionary with AIDS) should I describe it as biography or narrative non fiction?
You mentioned in another video how not to start your novel with a character waking up. What if your protagonist is a drug addict and a drunk, and having him awaken late in the day after an all night bender, missing the inciting incident, and him wondering what the hell happened fuels the initial story? Granted, my novel is replete with pivotal turning points and moments to incite the action further, but I can't start it anywhere else without unveiling major plot twists.
Maybe make the wake-up stand out in a way. He is woken up by someone in front of his building, or a bird comes into his bathroom while he is lying on the floor.
how do you (or do you at all) filter descriptions and voice of character if the story is written in third person omniscient? I think the story is told through the narrator's voice, not the character's, so how do we (or should we) write with a character's voice and descriptions? my narrator is not in the story, and sometimes addresses the reader directly and often chimes in with his own commentary, and so those parts are all very much in his voice. I suppose through dialogue and thoughts of character's, parts can be in their voice. Please advise.
