It's all fun and games until your characters start doing whatever they want and ruin all your ideas (that's cool though, they usually have better ones)
Or, in case of certain epic fantasy -penta- -hexa- heptalogy it derails you completely and you have to face the fact it's been over 20 years, you're not excited about what you're writing, and there are all the commitments you made to your fans... tough spot to be in
I think that just means that you haven't fully grasped the characters you've created, and completely planned out the story you want 🤔 Because, unless don't you completely know your characters and how they'll flow with your outlined story, it'll seem like they have a mind of their own. It's best to, yeah, as Mr. RU-vidr said, fall in love with your characters (know them completely) before writing what you want, or else all your plans for the book's plot could end up as scraps.
This has to be some sort of joke. Your characters only "do" what you dictate. They don't have free will. They don't exist. Do I really have to spell this out???
Call The Book “Forever An Absolutely Remarkable Thing”. Not just because I’m actually quite proud of it, but it would give you that ‘FAART’ acronym you wanted so much.
You have a break up and what could have been the worst day on earth turns into the best day because turns out your most favourite book ever will most definitely have a sequel! Love you, Hank
Fabulous! As a writer, I could totally empathize with a lot of this. I've always written the exciting scenes first, and sometimes, my characters leave me tearing my hair out over decisions they make that I didn't plan. Being such a young writer is a struggle, because I look at my writing from even just a year ago, and I know they characters don't sound as real as the ones I write now. That's a fascinating sign of growth, but incredibly frustrating sometimes.
Read your book in 24 hours, looking forward to the sequel. Writing that sequel seems hard. Like the first one was using Sci Fi to explore fame. But for the sequel do you continue on with that framing or do you use that universe to explain some other idea?! I have no idea what you are going to do and I am so excited.
Really good advice ! As an amateur writer, I agree with virtually all your points, from experience alone. Writing non-linearly, for instance, is actually helpful. About the only downside to it is keeping track where it will come in later, depending on whether you're doing chronological or non-chronological storytelling. I'd suggest anyone writing new chapters or just scenes or extended vignettes for their story always accompany these with brief notes (written in italics). When you don't know how to complete a whole chapter, etc., you can always go back, read what you wrote, then read the notes you left behind, and try to follow your earlier thoughts and ideas from there. I love how you stress that "getting to know" your characters before you start plotting en masse is very important. Very well said. I always feel more confident elaborating a story when I have a handle on the fictional individuals I'm writing about. And that can take a while to gestate, as you try to mentally sketch these people, what their life stories up until then might be, their temperaments, personalities, beliefs... Neglecting characters isn't good for stories, unless you want a shallow story, even in an immersive setting or narrative.
Recently listened to both AART and TATWD and I love how much of the Green brothers I see in these novels. It is clear that they have not just come up with a good story and gone with it. I am super impressed with how they have brought their insight, expertise, and experience into these novels not only to entertain but to inform and express truth. TATWD has truly opened my eyes to what it might be like for someone living with chronic anxiety. Thank you brothers Green.
the plotting retcon thing is SO SO REAL. also YES TO falling in love with your characters!! also... OMG I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL. (my review video for an absolutely remarkable thing is coming next week!)
Great, punchy advice. I 100% agree about the non-linear writing I think having a skeletal overview of what'll happen by the end is important but the "moments" come to you, I suppose. I would contest the "write 1000 words a week" comment though - I think as long as you're keeping something alive in your mind to do with the story then it's fine. I'm a teacher so I have to write primarily with 6-week chunks.
I know I'm astronomically late to this video but so many of the things you touch on are EXACTLY what I have been doing and you explain a better way so logically. THANK YOU
Hank, thank you so much for this advice. Its a great comfort to know a lot of the difficulties I'm having are normal and don't mean my story is a flop. I always thought I must be a bad wtiter because I didn't have all the details of the characters and the world to fill in my story as I began writing. But knowing its okay to start at bare bones, to go back and change things as you write, to work things out and decide things and come up with ideas as you go, and then going back and adding them. Well, it makes me feel a lot less alone. Its kinda scary when you hear all this advice about "your characters needs to have all these things, your plot needs to have all these" etc, when you're just starting your story and can't possibly incorporate all that into your writing when you're just starting to write the story.
Just found this! I'm in a really similar situation. For my first book (Unkillable Joe) I had no real process and I pantsed the whole thing. I got extremely lucky in that it's doing well, but for my second, I'm outlining, weighing character motivations, setting up the climax and all that... It feels like I'm having to educate myself all over again. Our current process if really similar but for me, a writing schedule is like a gym schedule. It should be there but super flexible. So you can try to get there by a certain time, but as long as you make it that day, you did your job. Or connect the two? By connecting writing to something I do a lot (like exercise) I get to think about what I'm about to write for an hour before, which really helps get me motivated. My two beans anyway... Excellent vid btw! It was refreshing to hear someone cover the exact situation I was JUST dealing with (albeit this is an older video) Subbed. :)
Funny thing, you got me through my science degree and now I’m writing people’s stories of health on my phd AND producing books. Busy times but I’m loving the writing process. Thanks for these tips.
Critique Partners are good at taking care of that "i know i have to fix this but not now" thing. They'll catch things you won't and the comment they leave is kinda like a bookmark. I usually get to those fixes by the third revision/draft cus the first is pretty much nonlinear writing, second I try to put things in order and third I get to fixing.
Just wanted to slam the comment doors open and give you a huge thank you. These are actual concepts I've been dwelling on. I'd ruminate or fixate over topics like these, aaaand work would never come of it. (Especially drifting away from your work) Thank you sir, wholeheartedly, and with cherries on top.
Unsurprisingly I had an ad for a language learning app just before the video started. I really do think that the ads chosen by the Algorithm is based on what's said in the video, one of the words he used in the beginning of the video was "languages". The Algorithm is a mystery.
Re-entering this space of youtube and feeling an overwhelming sense of peace and comfort. Thanks Hank! Also, I really needed this advice, so thanks for that too
I'm writing a script for a short play and the part of the video that talks about getting a certain amount of writing in per week caused alarm bells to go off in my mind because I haven't written anything in about 2 weeks now. Thanks for keeping me on my toes Hank.
Bueno aquí va un comentario en español ggg pero quería decir que como escritora principiante es muy inspirador ver este video y escuchar a Hank muy emocionado. Me hace sentir motivada a seguir escribiendo, dejar mis inseguridades un poquito y acabar esa historia que estoy escribiendo. Es bonito tener una comunidad así 💖💖🥰 A todos los que se sienten abrumados al ver su historia no acabada, esta bien. Tú puedes, sigue intentándolo 💗💕✨
The kind of juggling involved in writing non-linearly can produce more than just visible errors that you can easily detect and rewrite: it takes you out of the natural flow of the narrative, allowing It to be disrupted in subtle ways. A great writer once said that he didn't write with a computer precisely for this reason. I do write with a computer and I do write non-linearly, but sometimes I think that the book I'm writing can't possibly be the same book (and might in fact be a worse book) because of it.
I suck at writing, even though I have a passion for it. I will write reams and reams of pages till I finish my thought, then I'll put it down and leave it for awhile. Later when I pick it up, I'll reread it and notice many blunders and work to fix them. Then I will put it down for a bit, then take it up. This again shows me that I haven't made any headway in my writing and I get discouraged; after that, I quit.
Well I am no writer like you but I did write couple of novels and some short stories and I just realised what I do. I basically keep on writing non-stop. Like I could spend days in a row not coming out of my room just for the bathroom or if I'm about to faint starving. Only way that works for me or else I won't write anything!
Omg, I’m writing a short story right now where the first half of every chapter is in the present and the second half is flashbacks. I wrote the first bit easy then got stuck on the first flashback and hated everything I did. Then I just realized I could just write all the bits sent in the present in one go then use my knowledge of the present to better inform the flashbacks and it’s suddenly working again! 👍 (You would think I would know this already... but no. 😂)
I tried to do NaNoWriMo in 2016. I had the title, and the idealet (not fully fleshed, just a "Hey, what if..." type scenario), and thought since I have been a reader most of my life that I could write something. I used to write short stories all the time, how much harder could it be to write a novella or novel? Yeah, okay. It still has a title. And it has a whopping 1,130 words. And I'm not even happy with them because I'm completely stuck. I wish I could beam my idea into the brains of some of my favorite authors and have one of them run with it for a very small kickback. LOL Ah well. In the meantime, I am eagerly awaiting the Beautifully Remarkable bundle from DFTBA. Thank you for having an option to purchase that isn't just the river!
You are absolutely correct. If you don't take some time to write...like you said...1000 words a month...you will lose the story and stop thinking about it and then, yes, months can pass without you writing. All in all, good advice.
love the vid, hank! we know you’re working very hard, so please don’t feel the need to worry about updating us all the time on the sequel. take your time, we’ll be here :)
As someone who has been writing for 9 years, this is still all great advice and I agree with most of it. I personally still like to write linearly, but may develop end scenes early, just not actually write them.
I can deffinatly agree with the book leave my mind if I'm not on it. I easily could write a book in less two weeks, but I constantly burn myself and lose focus and forget what I was doing. End up writing like 10 thousand words and deleting it all because it doesn't make much sense. But as of recently I stated getting into a routine and last week I wrote about 30,000 words (extra. I went back and rewrote several chapters.)
Storytelling is the best thing in writing a novel. You can let your brain loose and talk about all the themes and topics you want in a grammatical matter. I love writing and reading! Actually this year I'm actually getting into reading and writing. Reading others people work will help you gather more ideas. I love watching movies, shows, and anime lol. I'm writing a novel at the moment and I love how it's going to end because it's a very shocking and dramatic moment.
He should write a soccer novel! I wouldn't read it because it's not my thing at all, in fact none of his books are my cup of tea, but he loves soccer and seems really inspired by it lately.
Related to "You've gotta fall in love with your characters." I had a plot all figured out but my characters were so unfamiliar to me and I couldn't move forward until I could talk about them to somebody as my own friends. As corny as that may sound.
Thinking it’s time to read “An Absolutely Remarkable Thing” again. I wonder if my book group, populated by female elderly retired college professors, would enjoy it? I’m easily the youngest by twenty years... lol!
I think Thing No.6 is why I can never get invested in David Cage's characters. All characters are puppets, by their very nature, but good writing obscures the puppet strings, and makes it appear like they're moving on their own. What you don't want is for a character's motivation to feel like 'Because that's what the writer wanted them to do.'
Thanks, useful video. Writing is very personal, and much of what you say is true. Still, other people are very different. So, all your point might not applie.
I’ve been writing my story so long, try as I may, I cannot help but to go back. Then I find things I forgot I wrote. Some of the time, I change things and others make me smile. Ahhh the sheer bliss of the peri menopausal brain fog. Could you (or anyone) help me stop rereading and editing my work, please!? I know that I shouldn’t, at the time I cannot stop. 🤦🏽♀️
I write random scenes all the time. Most of the time it because I'm stuck at where I am in the book right now, so I just right in a random scene that develops my characters.
per "controlling the characters"- i like Roger Zelazny's comment that sometimes the wrong character shows up; motivations and tone are wrong for the plot, so he fired them, (set aside for a more appropriate venue/fiction) and put in someone else...
I want a Hank Green written graphic novel from Image or one of the other indie studios. Also rather than a John Green soccer novel a John Green soccer manga. I don't really read manga, but am aware that sports manga is a thing, and I would love to see how John would approach that.
@@vlogbrothers I saw you bring this idea up on twitter and I'm so happy you like this. As I said, I'm not really into manga, but know enough about comics to know that sports manga exists, and John exploring the tropes of that genre could be amazing.
Some quotes from the video im taking away from this and thought i would share: “I couldn’t really get deep into the book until I cared about the characters really deeply. I had to love them like friends in order to have the motivation to finish writing their story.” “Writing schedules are not a thing that I have. Sometimes I'm really busy, sometimes I'm not, sometimes I'm sick but if I do not write at least 1000 words a week the story leaves my brain I no longer think about it in the shower or when I'm taking a walk and starting up again is a whole process… and I might not write again for months.” “Not all writing is writing. Thinking, staring, researching, stressing, reading other peoples books, reading your own book again, reading stuff you have already written all of that stuff is writing” “If you are super focused on word count then you will have more words, if you are more focused on story you will have more story” “Characters have to be in control. If I’m controlling them then they are not real aren’t real and they aren’t gonna feel real” Putting these in my writing journal thank you!
Ah man. I definitely have to write linearly. Anytime I’ve tried to write nonlinearly it’s gone terribly. I just end up with a messsss. But I plot by building off of what I’ve already written so I can’t skip anything.
I wish I had planned before I started, and I don't care how much you enjoy hand writing, it takes FOREVER to write it up onto a computer so you can edit it. I know, I know, fountain pens are pretty. But it's a long book, and it's a pain to write out
Oof yes, I feel you on the regular writing thing. I've killed so many stories that way. Also, I have a bad habit of writing the fun scene, and then getting so bored writing the bits in between that I quit. I'm not...a good writer.
"Fall in love with your characters." I don't disagree, but that is literally just "pantsing" AKA discovery writing. I, too, am deathly afraid of discovery writing my way into a rewrite of the last few years of my life!
What other people take away from this video: How to write What I take away from this video: The knowledge that there are people in other countries sharing my struggle of not being able to have aesthetic piles of books on your bookshelf because the writing on the spine is upside down when you put it down right side up, but if you turn it, the top of your pile looks like crap because it's the back of the book. That's why all the piles I have are of English books (they don't have this problem) and all my German books are put onto the shelf standing. This is a very real problem. (Also, when you have English and German (or another language that does this) books right next to each other and the titles on the spines aren't written in the same direction asdkhflskd i hate it so much) cf. 0:02 the German book (slightly darker blue) in between the English and Dutch version
let the characters control themselves? Yet again, an apt analogy for bowling. To the lane the bowler does create the throw, but there is muted certainty beyond that. From creation to finality; the throw to the pins, while created by the bowler, the situation is literally out of their hands.
I've always hated going back and looking at my old work, especially once it's out there and I know I can't change it any more. Does that make writing a sequel that much harder?
"Not all writing is writing. Thinking, staring, researching, stressing, reading other people's books, reading your own book again, reading stuff that you've already written--all of that stuff is writing." This is so validating! Thank you so much for saying this!
It's funny that one Green brother has described his books as about "plot being interrupted by character" and the other says he started with plot and needed more character :)
@@Psy0psAgent Even more unnecessary than Titanic 2. And this was already so unnecessary that it didn't happen. I feel the Highlander should have learned from that.
