Having anxiety and catastrophic thinking as a newbie writer means it’s hard to gauge how much tension there is in a particular scene or story and every moment has to feel like life or death and every villain is plotting to destroy the world aaaaaaaa.
The biggest change for me is realizing that there is a middle ground between plotting extremely detailed outlines and going into a story completely blind. Now I include my zero drafting process with my planning and it has helped me plotting so much!
Lol I'm discovering this now too, always thought that I could only either be a pantser or a plotter/outliner; I know plansters existed but finding that sweet spot was self-discovery 😊
This is huge, It has made such a difference for me too! I wouldn't have made it through my first book if I had outlined, but I also wouldn't be where I am if I hadn't started outlining.
Me too. I realize I work better with structure, but If I add too much detail i dont want to write anymore. Ive learn to reach a middle ground when the plot is the flexible enough I can change it as I write.
Leveling up as a writing is a LOT like leveling up as a human being! It’s so awesome to be able to experience another authors journey as I experience my own. The best change I’ve had as a writer is how much better my instinct has become! I love the feeling of landing on the perfect word, or line, or plot twist, and being able to trust my gut that it’s the right one.
Just write, and keep writing, and no matter what you will get better. The biggest thing I’ve learned, especially as a young writer, is that I don’t always have to write with the mindset of ‘this is going to be published someday.’ Just write to let you mind escape to another world! Im 14, I’m worked on my 3rd book now and I’m finally learning that I’m allowed to have fun with it😂
I’ve found that with every book I’ve learned new tools for productivity. Working on 11th novel- still learning and growing. Thanks for the great channel!
Alexa, you are *far* from egotistical and rambling so please keep these kind of videos coming! Your experiences are so helpful and inspiring and I love getting your take on what works for discovery writers. Thank you and I can't wait to hear more about your journey. xo
Love this! I’m working on my 4th novel in about 8 years and thinking about my process and my capabilities. I don’t have an agent (yet!) but it’s encouraging to see how other writers I enjoys have developed. I too am a little bit of a planner and little bit of a discovery writer - I love the rush of an idea coming thru me when I’m in the flow state. But now I plan the big beats so I always know what I’m writing towards. It has been so fun and keeps me in delight with writing.
I enjoy watching your journey as I reflect on mine. I'm still a hobbyist since I'm giving myself space and limited structure to recover from a years-long burnout. But I've had so many realizations of why some WIPs don't work and leveling up how I brainstorm and develop the initial ideas.
My changes are 1) I know now that I can do it. I will finish the book! 2) I now have an idea what writing and the process of writing really is. I used to just wing it. 3) I can tackel scenes that are hard for me to write. And can't even tell them apart later on. Thank you Alexa for keep doing your insights. Love them
Speaking as a roadtripper, for all the detail I put into my itineraries, my first encounter with a new town or landmark always involves discovery. I never imagined them correctly and their reality is always an interesting surprise.
My biggest change is going from a discovery writer to an outliner. Little writer me really wanted to discovery write, seeing it as the 'pure' way to write a book. So, I'd force myself to do that. Quite frankly, I never finished a book, and, whenever I did, I wasn't happy with them. Then, somewhere along the way, I decided to give outlining a try, though I previously believed it to be the inorganic way to write. I have never been more wrong in my life. For me and my proccess, outlining is essential. With it, I'm much happier with my finished projects, and they're just overall more satisfying as a whole. Of course, discovery writers still have a place in the author climate, and that process obviously works better for some people, but I found out it doesn't for me, and I've never been happier that I made the switch.
I Love following your writing journey ! I appreciate you sharing stories about your reward / addiction of the past, as I am currently a writer who likes to mix my literature with elixir, but it's definitely gotten to the point where it's hindering my abilities and performance. Your story has helped me see that all the more ! Thank you so much ! I'm really excited for your new book !
I had to level up just to finish a novel. I have a lot of respect for people who can pants a novel because I couldn’t get through one until I made a detailed outline of the entire book before drafting.
I’m a fairly new subscriber but wanted to thank you for all the work you put into this channel. I love watching your videos in the background while I do housework during naps, I find it helps motivate me to keep building my writing habit once my two under two are in bed. I’m still a new writer but determined to finish writing my novel this year, and I can revise when my babies are a bit older and I get more sleep.
This is giving me the feels. Alexa: Here's a thing I started at a low level that I work at. Me: I thought I was the only person with that same issue. There's hope!
I so appreciate this level of reflection and the idea of what things constitute leveling up (even knowing how personal that is). As always, thanks for your candor and your insights, Alexa!
I love listening to your thought process and absorbing your advice. The biggest change for me was not needing my partner to read every chapter I put it out for validation. I struggle from serious imposter syndrome. Even though I have ranked in writing competitions and had some success with my animated stories on RU-vid, because I struggle to find an agent for my book, I don't feel good enough. If you could do a video over how to pep talk yourself to overcome imposter syndrome it would so greatly appreciated. ❤
I HAVE to edit as I go because if I don't, that's how I lose interest and end up not finishing. I've finished four manuscripts so I know it works for me. The thing is, the first draft is often sooo bad that if I go back and re-read it, I get discouraged at how bad it is. What I do is I have one day where I just vomit the ideas on the page and the next day I go over and start fixing the prose right away and I do that for a few days in a row (while also adding new content every day) before to leave it and move on. This way, when I re-read it, it's actually good and I get so excited and motivated to continue! I also write notes to myself of bigger things that I know I will have to fix and make a list so that when I'm done the "first" draft, I can go and fix those right away before to re-read the whole thing and get it ready for first readers. I've just finished a manuscript that took me 4 months to write and like you said, I wrote daily and really forced myself to push through in some harder parts but now it's in the hands of my first beta readers and I'm really proud of the result =)
I’m a memoir writer. My first Memoir was published by a small press in the UK. They did not edit well and I wasn’t leveled up at that time. That book is now out of print and I’m working on another with a completely different theme.’mm I improved by joining a critique group, a smaller one but with all kinds of passionate writers with different skills. They have helped me become better. On the subject of narrative versus dialogue, I think there should be a combination. Blocks of text with little white space is not respectful to the reader. Too much dialogue messes with the flow and pace of the work. Glad I found you through Mara’s channel. I started my own channel on my 70th birthday, so it’s never too late to be creative and to improve. Aloha
Love the new video, and the positive vibe I am getting from it. Even though I have been working on my first book for so long, in the beginning of last year, I only started to understand that my whole book needs to change and other magical wonders to add into the story. And so far, I am happy how my book is turning out, until my laptop totally died completely. All in all, I will continue to work on my book by paper - until I saved up money and by a new laptop. Right now, busy procrastinating on names for 4 new characters - not humans but beasts.
Yes!! I definitely relate to seeing a lot of these type of changes over time. I think the biggest one for me is not working quite so much in fear of losing momentum/motivation on a project and then never coming back to it. While writing is never easy, in writing a ton it does get mentally easier over time, and now I can feel more confident that I can leave a project and do something else, and still be able to jump back into it later. Consequently, many of the rules I set for myself about creative work in the past (ie, the fear that if I don't push through and force myself to do this particular thing right now, I'll never feel like coming back to it), I discovered later I could relax and that didn't necessarily mean it was going to be the death nail of the project.
Understanding the function of narrative and character voice has revolutionised my writing process. Don't worry about sound egotistical, this was super interesting to hear how you feel you've grown and changed!
For me my change was knowing that I could take a break and come back to a project because I know I will finish it. Before, it was always up to me to shelve something but once I pushed forward with book one where I had taken a break, now I know that I can keep going and taking a break doesn't mean the book is shelved. I just get back into it.
I agree with your point that different genres can demand different plotting/planning styles because, as someone who has genre hopped and written a mystery/thriller, it is really difficult to do that type of story without any structure (I'm sure people can, but it's hard) but other stories you don't need to necessarily plan the ending because there isn't a big reveal at the end
Revising while drafting IS definitely procrastination, as I'm learning the hard way! I guess the temptation to get distracted by revising also comes with confidence. with more experience, I imagine you can trust yourself more as a writer to just let the story flow without constantly going back
Alexa, you’re so real and fresh and even your ramblings are so funny and honest. I’m a “baby” historical fiction (1st novel) writer. You’ve inspired me and thanks.
Idk if you already have a video on this but if not I would love to see a video all about your scrivener set up and how it changed the writing game for you. I did a trail run of scrivener but dont think I used it long enough to know if I love it so now I'm debating if i should buy it or not
The first book I wrote for publication had too may adverbs. I looked through the text with a tool that helped me remove them. It took hours! I haven't had that problem since. Now, I'm removing filler words occasionally, and watching 'showing' words. Though I believe you when you say showing and telling is a balance. I've always felt that way. Oh, and I'm a Discover Writer too, and go first word to final publication in Word, in fact. I'm 13 books in and it hasn't failed me yet. :)
My biggest problem was the writing when I felt inspired mode. I finally broke it almost a year ago, and since then I have written three books. What I can do now that I couldn't when I started writing full length novels when I was 12 is actually finish something. I am still an amateur. I still have a long ways to go before querying (I think) but I know I am getting better.
I'm still working on my first book. But I already see minor improvements in my writing when I compare my current writing to something I wrote last year. My old writing felt stiff like I was reading the Bible. 😬😂
My biggest weaknesses are white room and filter. I feel like I go too hard on the POV and everything is filtered through the POV character. I’ve always said I’ve never had anxiety but the older I get, I realize that I do have anxiety but not on a high level. I think most people have at least some anxiety so maybe a good choice to follow anxious characters haha!
I'm still writing my first book currently. I've completely trashed it about four times since I started lol. The biggest thing I had to try and get away from was essay style writing. I keep wanting to wrap these big beautiful paragraphs together. Instead, I am trying to write shorter paragraphs. Which usually consists of just a couple of lines to ease the flow of reading it.
I have always edited as I go. I'm currently writing my 5th book, and I still edit as I go. Still give myself rewards for finishing writing goals. I think it's just a personal preference.
as a fandom writer, i being trying to write a first person story about a character (a singer in real life) that is so laidback and chill that drives me nuts lol I relate to his best friend (the overdramatic perfeccionist) a lot more...
Huge question: pushing through. I get that you just need to put words on the page, and editing is one of my favorite things. but everytime I've tried to push through when I'm "stuck" or had no idea or plan of how to get from one place to another, but I push myself to just write something, I look back and it's not just it's all in need to editing, it's just all wrong.... Do you have any video or experience with having a whole story wireframe, but then literally have empty brain when it comes to connecting two events? Or like deepening your infant ideas so that you logically know the story? What is your process with stuff like this? It's probably perfectionism and just a HARD block in that vein. I go away or write a different part, but it sometimes all turns out unmoving fluff that's probably gonna get cut anyway and it's in no way closer to getting to the next event? thanks >_<
Do you have any advice on what order to work on your projects in? I’m working on my first book which is a standalone and I’m prepared for it to be genuinely terrible, but afterwards idk which story to work on bc I have so many ideas
I realized that I was trying to write a villain character that was just the opposite of me, and that's about as far as I could get from my perspective.
You say you transitioned from journalism: do you still go back and forth between the two and if so how do you compartmentalizations? I don’t plan to leave my tech writing job, but have the same challenges you battled in fiction.
Alexa is a self-professed slower drafter. Some advice she’s offered before is to get into your writing zone and chip away at it everyday, as consistency is key!
Watching a lot of your older videos. The worst question I was ever asked was, after telling a friend's wife I was working on a book, "You should write a Harry Potter book!" Um.... someone already did that.. Can you talk about how to find CPs?
I wonder... if writing fan fiction (established characters and world) I'd like a writing tricycle, and then retelling (established plot, character archetypes) is like training wheels and then moving fully into original fiction is like riding a two wheeler.
I’m not Alexa (duh), but speaking as someone who also prefers revising, I like the process of shaping the prose and tweaking things until it feels good to me, while drafting (as rewarding as it can be) can sometimes be a long process of self doubt and headaches. Just a personal take!
I also can stay away of shity sentences and paragraphs and think a bit more to fin the right word that goes there, also speaking of scenes; I mean back then I just wrote cacophonies and sentences that were complex or long, I was f*cking Jane Austen....!
