You got the snizzles little lady? So do I. I got the snizzles, too!
(The sound of a pen scratching.) LOGO.
Hellooo everybody! Today I'm dishing out some tough love, cause it's the only love
I know how to give! I've been mingling with the writing
community lately, and I've seen some really toxic opinions floatin’ around.
I'm talking about COMPLETELY false impressions based on the writing
industry. Ones that could TOTALLY derail your
progress. I think we need to talk about this. I'm
here to correct some of you folks so you have a MUCH
more realistic expectation of what you're getting yourself
into. It might be painful. It might be ugly.
But I'm doing it out of love! Straight from my cold, black heart.
Before I hand you your asses, a huge thank you to Skillshare
for sponsoring today's video! Skillshare is my absolute FAVORITE online learning
platform because it's specifically geared towards
creators. They've got thousands of classes in a wide variety including
creative writing, business, graphic design, music, and so on.
I myself have two marketing classes for writers available on Skillshare.
One is all about how to build an author platform, the other is a step-by-step
guide to planning a book release. And I may or
may not have a third class on the way! Skillshare is great because they have
classes for creators at all levels! Whether you're a novice or a
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classes are divided into teeny tiny modules so they're super easy
to fit into your schedule! Skillshare has a special deal just for
you guys, stick around until the end of this video for details!
If you want to learn more about the writing and publishing process, be sure
to subscribe to my channel and ring that bell
down below, that way you know as soon as I post a new video! I post content on
Wednesdays, as well as bonus content on Mondays! And don't forget my dark
fantasy novel The Savior's Sister is currently available for presale
in hardback, paperback, and ebook! PLUS everyone who pre-orders a copy of TSS is
welcome to enter my presale giveaway! I am handing out over
thirty-five (35) awesome prizes! All the information is listed below,
get on it! Now it's time for some tough love. I am correcting
ten (10) toxic opinions about the writing industry
so you don't screw up your own journey! Number One (1):
You are NOT the exception! It's called the “exception to the rule” because there
IS a rule. You may think you're the next Stephen
King, but Stephen King has been Stephen King for decades...and
no one has dethroned him yet! The average fantasy novel is 90,000 to 120,000
words with wiggle room on the high and low end,
but you will be the exception to the rule with a novel that's a whopping
600,000 words! Can you think of a single 600,000
word novel that made it big within the last century? (Crickets)
Neither can I. I'm not saying this to shit on your dreams - I think it's
important to trust your gut, but it's also important to be able to
differentiate between your gut and your ego. Your gut tells you you can
do the incredible feat of writing a novel.
Your ego tells you you're the single writer out of millions who will become a
billionaire. Ego also tells you to release a
dictionary of a novel, and everyone will buy it! Take a breather,
think things over logically, and humble yourself. Number Two (2): No one
owes you anything. Readers are not gonna buy your book just
because you're new, and damn it, you deserve the support! Do
you REALLY? Why should strangers spend their
hard-earned cash on a writer they know absolutely nothing about?
We all want readers to buy our books in droves, but when that doesn't happen,
it's not the reader's fault. It's yours! Or possibly your publisher, but mostly
yours. Maybe you messed up the marketing, or hell, didn’t market at all!
Maybe your book cover looks like a page from a kid's coloring book.
Maybe your book isn't good. There's a million reasons why your book may not
sell, but “readers don't appreciate my genius”
will never be one of them. You are NOT entitled to an audience nor
are you entitled to sales. You HAVE to work for them. Number Three (3):
No one's gonna do it for you. Even if you're traditionally published,
the odds are you're gonna have to do a lot of the work by yourself.
We love the idea of shipping the workload off to someone else!
Let them handle all the boring stuff! The truth is success in this industry
is based off of the actions YOU take and the strategies
YOU implement. And guess what? If you want someone to do the heavy lifting for you,
it's gonna cost ya. A lot of writers don't have that kind of money lying
around, and if they do it's because they've
already done a lot of the hard work and earned the exposure in sales. Number
Four (4): Style is NOT an excuse. All writers have
a particular style, and sometimes it allows you to break
grammar rules here and there. It DOESN’T allow you to throw
grammar, syntax, and punctuation out the window, and take a massive shit on your
manuscript! Back in my critiquing days, I once read a
single sentence that was a six-line paragraph. When I
pointed out the run-on monstrosity, the writer got defensive, claiming it was
his ‘style.’ You might want to rethink your style,
then, cause it's a nightmare to read. You don't get to exhaust your readers
and claim that it's because your style is
different and edgy. I mean, you can, but don't expect any good reviews.
Style and readability can and should coexist
in your novel. Number Five (5): Overnight success doesn't exist.
We hear about overnight success stories all the time. Writers we've never heard
of who are suddenly number one New York Times Best Sellers.
All of us aspire toward this growth because it seems so
easy. The truth is there is NOTHING overnight about overnight success.
We may be hearing about them for the first time, but we did not see the years
they put into this book, and possibly multiple other books before
then. We have no idea the struggles and rejection and exhaustion they've
endured. I'm not saying this so you have sympathy
for overnight successes. I'm saying this so you have realistic
expectations for your own journey. Understand that if you want to be an
overnight success, it's not gonna take one night.
It'll take years. Number Six (6): You are NOT too good for the nine-to-five.
Years ago, a friend of mine bragged to me that he had never worked a nine-to-five
in his entire life. He always had friends in high places to
give him creative gigs. He never had to work a normal job being
a cashier or a waiter like everyone else. And he was
immensely proud of this because those jobs were SO beneath him.
In other words, he was an asshole and we're not friends anymore.
If you've never had to work an unfulfilling corporate job,
that's fantastic! You are INCREDIBLY lucky. But this is not an achievement,
it's fortunate circumstances. As shitty as it sounds,
most creatives go through the nine-to-five grind
before they're able to make their creativity a full-time career.
I know people who spent five to twenty years
working a shit job before they were able to make writing
their sole source of income. Please do not assume this is a step you get to
automatically skip. And if by some circumstance you're able
to do so, recognize how fortunate you are and be
GRATEFUL for it, because it is definitely a gift! Number
Seven (7): You don't have to do shit. You don't have
to write every single day. You don't have to do what the famous
authors do. You don't have to take my writing advice,
or anyone else's writing advice. There is no one way to be a writer, and there is
no one way to be successful. The only thing you HAVE to do as a
writer is WRITE. That's it. Stop holding yourself to other
people's standards when they don't fit for you.
Number Eight (8): You are NOT too smart to learn. This is an issue I mostly see
among amateur writers, which is mind-blowing
because amateur writers know the least about writing.
The reason it's a less common mindset among seasoned writers
is because we've messed up a million times. We've experienced the shame and
humiliation that teaches you that you don't know
everything. No matter where you are in your writing journey, it behooves you to
understand one hard truth: you have A LOT to learn. No matter how
intelligent, well-versed, or educated you are, this
fact will never change. Why? Because reader expectations ALWAYS
change. Writing rules ALWAYS change. Publishing industry standards ALWAYS
change. If you want to last in this industry, you
should be on the constant pursuit of education.
I may or may not know about a platform that can help with this,
but the name escapes me...
Number Nine (9): You're gonna get rejected. A lot of people assume
rejection only comes with the query process, which means self-published
authors get a break from it, right? WRONG! Agents and publishing houses
aren't the only ones telling writers to fuck off.
You may ask people to beta read for you, and they may reject you.
You may offer to hire an editor, and they may reject you.
You may hit up potential ARC reviewers, and they may reject you.
It's going to happen, and it's gonna happen more than once. You can't throw a
fit every time it happens. And Number Ten (10): You
don't have to be perfect. This is not my way of telling you, “Don't
hire an editor, publish your first draft with a
hand-drawn cover and call it a day!” But it IS my way of telling you to maybe
ease off the self-loathing and imposter syndrome.
There isn't a single perfect writer in existence, nor is there a perfect book.
You may think a book is perfect, but check the reviews. I doubt the opinion’s
unanimous. If there isn't a single perfect writer
in the history of this industry, why are you holding yourself to such
impossible standards? You WILL make mistakes and it WILL be
embarrassing. Dust yourself off and chalk it up as a
learning experience. If the rest of the industry has to be
flawed, you get to be flawed right along with us. Welcome to the club!
We're weird, and terrible. So that's all I got for you
today! Thanks so much to Skillshare for sponsoring today's video! Whether you're
a newbie or a seasoned pro, if you want to brush up on your skills,
or you want to expand your creativity, Skillshare is the place for you! I cannot
recommend them enough! The platform is super affordable!
An annual subscription is less than ten bucks (<$10.00) a month. However,
right now, you can get two months of Skillshare Premium for FREE
by clicking the link below! That's two months of access to
thousands of creative classes, including MY classes!
So click the link below! I also have a new class coming out...
I'm not exactly sure when, but it's coming! And you could possibly take it
for free! Don't forget to subscribe to my channel!
I post new videos on Wednesdays with bonus content on Mondays! And if you want
to be alerted as SOON as I upload, ring that bell! The Savior’s
Sister is available for pre-order in ebook, paperback,
and hardback! I'm also hosting a massive, huge, ENORMOUS presale giveaway! Everyone
who enters will receive a five (5) chapter teaser of TSS, plus I'm handing out over
thirty-five (35) prizes, as well as grand prizes! I've got
the information in the description below, so do yourself a favor and check it out!
And be sure to follow me on social media! I'm on Instagram,
Tumblr, Facebook - and of course, you can Tweet me @JennaMoreci!
Bye! (Male Voice) You've read Tobias's story. Now, it's time for Leila’s! The Savior’s
Sister, coming soon...