How to push through (and become a real writer) 

This is good for motivation. 97 percent of writers quit before they finish their books. I believe it. Social media has kind of killed our thinking of new ways to motivate ourselves. We just have to quit meaningless, boring social media and finish our novels, novellas, short stories, journals, and writings. We need to love the journey more than destination.

"How many of you have multiple first acts of novels?" *raises hand*

I’m 60,000 words into my novel right now, and it’s the farthest I’ve ever gotten in finishing any novel since I started writing. Now, just turning 30, I felt a huge surge of momentum when I realized I was at the halfway mark. At this point, I can’t envision a future where I don’t finish it.

came here for writing advice left with a completely new way to look at my life. unbelievable

I got stuck in the boring middle, felt that chafing between what I wanted and the reality. It was a mental health journey to approach it from a more realistic way, and this year I've really focused on "the process is the goal" and it's helped me tremendously. I'm just focused on writing short stories, and show up every day, even if I don't get a lot done. But the more I do that, the more I seem to get done in a day. Your video reassured me that I'm finally on the right path.

"The boring middle is where you actually find out if you're a writer"! :) I always thought the idea was to avoid the "boring middle." That can prove quite challenging. I learned in my writing journey that I don't work well with detailed plotting. I'm not sure I'm a "write by the seat of one's pants" kind of writer, but I suspect I'm closer to that end of the writing methodology spectrum. I have a general idea of the events and where I'm going, but not being a strict plotter has allowed me to improvise and find solutions/ideas as I go. For me, the further you get in the book, the stronger your perspective becomes about where the novel should go and how it should end. Some of my endings have surprised me. One of my most enjoyable moments is when I'm pleasantly surprised by an unexpected event or character. I'm not addressing several of your thoughts here, Alan - just what resonates with me in this pre-coffee moment in the morning. :) Thanks for your thoughts, brother.

Thank you for this. I started writing my new novel in February 2024, and it was exactly in the middle of the second act where I went down to a slog…i subconsciously made it hard, and MAN! It took all of me to push through. KEEEEEEEEEEP WRITING!!!

This video felt quite motivating. I usually do not get to share my writing journey, specially cause none of my friends write, but heck I'll do it right here and right now. In 2019 I found myself devouring dozens of YT videos on the craft of storytelling, and I remembered I had written a handful of chapters on a fantasy book just for the sake of it when I was in highschool, around 2014 or so. When I finished my engineering career and Covid struck, I dug up those chapters (hadn't forgotten ghe characters' names, nor the general idea) and just did a rewrite on them. And then I got stuck. I reached the end of act 1 and had no idea what to do next. But I didn't want to give up because I had enjoyed the writing sooo much. So I read books on writing, a couple of the most popular ones. I plotted quite nicely act 1, really losely act 2 and quite nicely act 3 and got back to it in August 2021. I haven't stopped since then, and I've had to adapt. I've been at a 9 to 5 since 2020 too, but throughout 2021 and 2022 I tried to write daily after work. Of course there were some days I was just so beat, and others I did something else like watching a movie or so, but I always reminded me inspiration was ot enough, and that I needed to just get to it, despite the challenges of it all. I pushed through the boring middle and on dec 31st, 2022, I finished my first draft with 340,000 words. And then I kept going. I went back to the drawing board, tried to structure better the boring middle, flesh out the worldbuilding and the characters and the plot itself, and in May 2023 I started draft 2. Then my work schedule changed, but I adapted and now I write 3 hours each day before work, from 6 am to 9 am. I'm about to reach the 60% mark and have trimmed down 40,000 words. And I'm still going. My father tells me I should've began with a shorter book, something easier until I refined my craft and then I could write the story I wanted. But I couldn't disagree more, because THIS is the story I crave to tell. It was there since 2014 and is still here 10 years later. Of course there've been moments when I've been tempted to search a new story, to feel again that dopamine of excitement and wonder and plot the next great story, but it doesn't last long, cause this is the story I love. I love it so much that I'm almost through the boring middle for a second time, and hey, I think it's no longer thaaat boring as it was 1 year ago. Naturally, I doubt myself at least twice per week. I cannot help but think I'm an engineer in a 9 to 5 with no contacts in the writing medium, no friends to exchange anecdotes, not a single work published to my name, not even on Wattapad. And yet I keep pushing, cause at least I believe in the story I have to tell. I believe in its potential to connect with people, and I want to see it through. So yeah. After reaching the 60% mark of my second draft of my first novel ever, I do think I'm a writer and I can say it proudly. And just you wait until 2050 when it's finally published! :P

What an insightful video! And to see so many people opening up in the comments is very heartwarming. For so long I've been struggling with following through with a novel, and it's exactly like you said; every time I start a different story, I'll go through the beginning with ease and enthusiasm, but then it feels like the magic dies, and suddenly I've given up entirely on it, and then a new idea will come around and the same thing will happen again. I'm nineteen years old, I'm currently taking time off before trying for college, and I have so much time in my hands and still I find myself shying away from this true passion of mine, the one thing that's always stuck with me ever since I first learned how to use my imagination. It's so frustrating! I'm so tired of having all these ideas in the palm of my hand, but being unable to execute them for... what? Pure lack of discipline? Laziness? Hearing what you have to say on the matter has been very helpful, so thank you so much for sharing!

Having written - that is, completed - some books I find that each of them has, kind of, "written itself". The suggestion of Plotting Ahead would make my working method impossible and so I never ever will do that. Where you say a writer has to sit down and write every day ... I wonder why one should have to sit to be able to write? Putting one word after another, for me, is merely a side-effect of the process of writing, which involves so much more than words. Yes, I am a writer and a fulltime one too. I write when I see a dying tree on one of my walks, I write when I hear dialogs in the subway or seeing that crippled man crossing the street. I am a writer when I chose to lit a cigarette, I am an author while preparing dinner. Life itself is the inspiration and the motivation. I just cannot live NOT writing then? True - absolutely true. What I am getting at that, it is no problem if you do not create chains of words for a given time: you are still a writer when you are a true writer. Just TRUST your identity, getting the words connected on the screen or on paper will inevetibly happen.

So this video resonates with me. I did a lot of research at the beginning of the infatutaion stage. I wrote out the outlines for 8 chapters. I thought learning by doing would be a good way to push forward. I think Stephen King's On Writing confused me a lot as he doesn't believe in plotting. However, he has been writing for such a long time, he probably does all the plotting in his head. I put off writing to take up hobbies like pencil sketching; career postive moves like a 9 month course in management and reading a several books on project management. I currently have more time on my hands and want to start writing again. I have dusted off my folder with all my notes and have started to arrange them and chew them over. I hate feeling so guilty though. The resistance is awful. Anyway, As David Scoggins said ' I have to embrace the suck' (the 2nd Act). Good video. Very helpful

What an awesome video. You really nailed it when you said that there isn't any new writing advice being written about. I audibly laughed at a few things you said, especially "if i write 7k words a day, ill be done in a week" which is something I say to myself constantly. Its strange because I love writing more than life itself but the biggest issue I have is reckoning with the fact that genre-fiction has poisoned the minds of most readers these days, along with short form video content, so writing in my usual style, which is Tolstoyan/Proustian but with extra long, dense, philosophically verbose, psychedelic/psychological prose full of allusions, abstract imagery, lengthy character interludes where I go for thousands and thousands of words in a character's mind during a scene...it almost feels Sisyphian writing it because although I do it regardless of what others think, its like I know NOBODY wants to read it nor will I get any money or be able to live off of it. In fact, my work is so long it physically cannot be printed because the first part of the first novel borders 1M words. I work on my stuff every single day, I average 3-5k words a day but despite my love for the art, that is not just infatuation but actually a prolonged infatuation given how much I love the art, it's disheartening knowing nobody will ever read it

Thank you for this video! So many important truths. :) I'd love to hear more about your plotting process, maybe even see a small sample of it "in the moment".

I’m happy to have discovered your channel and its useful content at this early stage in your career here. Just commenting to support the algorithm, aaannnnd… SUBSCRIBED!

I am trying this rapid pulp writing thing on Amazon where you shoot for a novel a month. After about 4 months I’m just about finished with the first. There does seem to be some advantage to writing like this. Yeah, you have to sacrifice quality. You just can’t write anything brilliant this way. But if you aim for a short 60k word novel, you can get it to the point where you’re writing a novel a month. You learn a lot just blitzing thought stories this way. A friend of mine did this and ended up with something like 20 novels in 2 years and they weren’t horrible. He made some cash on Amazon and more importantly his writing really improved. There’s something to be said for just having a lot of finished novels. It boosts your confidence and you internalize a lot of the fundamentals that take a long time to master. I would suggest to anyone who wants to be a writer to give this a shot. Take a year and try and write as many pulp novels as you can, provided you actually enjoy some type of pulp. Write as fast as you possibly can, letting go of caring about quality, focus on capturing the details and showing over telling.

You should post a link to your books so we can buy and read them. Thank you for the video.

Thanks for this video, new subscriber! I'm currently halfway through my book and this is the first book attempt I've actually plotted out in advance. I am learning so much by committing to this process. This was really motivational to keep me going!

I have a slightly different problem. I finished my novel last August and just managed to make myself start reading it again. And its an up hill battle to even want to look at it. Ive spent years on it, worked on all hours of the night on it, cried over it, and now im mad at myself for not having motivation to even open it.

I would love more videos about the process please! Great stuff!

This was great. Have you considered recording these as podcasts? I'd certainly love to have these to listen to on my commute. Look forward to future videos from you, man!

fantastic video! The thing that worked best for me so far is to prepare all the scenes ahead without much detail, just places, people and main events.

Great video 🎉

thanks!

less is less more is more fewer in the same space have more space great writing is about what you say and how well - good writing is about what you say a great writer says less than a good writer, more

My question to writers is how can you make the old feel new and exciting? I've been working on the same novel on and off for two years now. What has kept me sticking it out, and now finally finishing my rough draft, is switching things up. I have four different locations around my home that I like to write. That alone goes a long way into keeping boredom from seeping in. One of those places is outdoors, which I highly recommend if possible. I also have a list of songs that are all instrumental for writing. Each one conveys a different type of mood. Depending on the scene I'm working on I can easily choose a song to match. Also something as simple as changing up the lighting can go a long way. I feel very differently when I'm sitting in a bright sunny room, versus when I'm sitting in a dim room with candles and mood lighting. Also it helps I think if you think of your book as rather a series of scenes versus this one big hunk that you have to tackle. And if you're writing is starting to feel boring, ask yourself why? What could you throw in the mix that would suddenly make it more exciting? It could be anything from a car accident to a sudden storm to a revelation by one of the characters. And last but not least, doing writing sprints with other people has been really helpful. You can usually find writing sprints on RU-vid. Or of course you can buddy up with someone you know. Hope this helps. Great video. New subscriber here ✅

Wise words, and I would follow your advice if I needed it. I've been a pure discovery writer since 2012 and to my great surprise I've never experienced writer's block. It just comes and comes, and I must force myself to abandon the keyboard when there's only five hours left before it's time to wake up and go to work. I've actually finished two novellas in five days, so I know it can be done. Right now I'm working on translations from English to Swedish, and it's a boring push through job, but as you say, it's what writers do. Is "Dream of the Serpent" a good one to start with? It caught my eye, because I use a snake biting it's own tail in all my books.

Okay, so I've been writing on a daily or near-daily basis since 2001. But I was writing in a collaborative space, with one or more other writers all working together to create stories via text-based roleplaying in chats, forums, and games. Much like D&D. Except more freeform, less rules. I'm not really doing that these days. I'm more on a solo journey or strictly co-authoring journey. I/we actually have stuff that we're in the revision and editing stage now, a well as other projects that are on a first draft in act 1. But they all have momentum. And we chip away at them every day. The thing we're revising started off in a completely different format, a completely different style, and without a plan, at the beginning. It was being done as a game, rather than a story/novel. Since then we've fleshed out Act 1 more, as well as Act 2, and cleaned up some of the meanderings. Realized we didn't even have a proper act 3, so that's been fixed. The subplots are now more solid, along with character arcs. The re-write should go fast, now that we have a solid blueprint. The closer we get to doing that the more excitement I feel as this has been a slog, cleaning up the worst mess I've made. (I take responsibility for the mess.) Being willing to push through the slog, do the work when it's not fun, but keeping in mind how important it is is one of the marks of a writer. As well as getting thick enough skin to handle feedback with grace, evaluate it honestly, and adjsut and grow accordingly. Excellent video.

novel...tea...

Started 100s, finished 3. So I am currently 3%

Yes please I am interested in writing craft advice too if you're up for it

I have great ideas. but i realized that...i kinda find writing itself boring. Its not so much that its hard. Its more that im "the ideas person" You can come to me and say "I need ideas for X" and i could probably give some kind of idea. When i do write... i obses over details and i CAN write characters. But... I cant world-build for the life of me. I try the world/map generators and I just space out. Idk what to do tbh. Everyone I talk to find my ideas and even my writing interesting. I wrote around 30 original characters. All kinda open ended backstories since they were for roleplaying. I then stopped making new ones because my brain just could not make any more of them for some reason. I got stuck thinking of 2 characters i liked and kept on repeating the same type of characters over and over again. Currently... I am strugling with making a fantasy world with inspiration from eveeything fantasy related. There arent any humans Theres steampunk snails An original egg creature. Dragons Goblins (MC ) And the Hero as I like to call em who is the only human and the guy just wants to go home to his family that need him. But i got no map outside of 1 forest and a rocky gold mine. Sooooo im basically just full of these ideas yet it all feels so empty. --- My dad wrote a book. And weirdly its for women. To me its boring kinda. And I see the flaws in it. And its clearly amateurish with little revisions. He himself said he kinda rushed the end part due to getting bored and publishers wanting it in time. its his 1st book ever at age 60 And... on one hand i am jealous on the other i think i could write a better book. My sister read the book and she didnt praise it that much. But... when i explained a whole concept for a book i would like to write she was so invested. I wrote a bunch of 1st chapters for it but weirdly even from the start I had most of the plot sort of figured out...except the saggy middle...i never got trough it.... So I kinda dropped it. This new fantasy book with the Goblin MC its essentially "If the mc was a conqueror/ manipulator/ does it for fun and challenge." And it stems from me being bored of the same exact Isekai manga/anime over and over again lol

damn good topic

Have a look at Julia Cameron's book, the Artist's Way

"Hundreds of unfinished first drafts" Why am I being personally attacked like this? 😂 I am... gonna disagree a little on a couple of points. 1. I don't think unfinished drafts are useless! Those are still words and practice of your art, and something you, the writer, can still go back to, either to analyse your own writing or to recycle ideas (or even pick them up again! It does happen sometimes!) 2. I don't think you need to write *every day*. It's great if you can and it's something I am currently working on myself, but I think there's more than one way to skin a cat, y'know? Some people do better if they have fewer, but longer writing sessions. To put it another way - a habit practiced once a week is still a habit, imo. Like doing laundry or vacuuming or mowing the lawn. And to put it another way - we don't expect people to do their jobs every day. People get days off because we need that time to rest and recuperate. (Though I would also argue that taking a day off actively writing to do activities which help replenish the well of inspiration does count as writing. Personally, I know nothing kills me drive to write faster than always doing it and not making time to read or go to museums or anything else that helps me connect to inspiration.)