(LOGO)
Hellooo, everybody! I'm back from my hiatus. And I don’t know, I feel like
something's a bit different, but I just can't put my finger on it. It'll come to me. We're getting
right into it with some good old fashioned writing advice. Namely the best writing advice I have ever
personally read, received, or developed over the years. I'm handing my wisdom down to you. Before
we get started, I gotta give my love to Skillshare who has generously sponsored this video,
because we just can't quit each other. Skillshare is an online learning community specifically for
creators with over 20,000 courses available in business, creative writing, publishing,
design—all kinds of stuff. My personal favorite courses available are the marketing classes. They
have so many courses all about how to market a small business, because like it or not, writing
is a business. I myself have a marketing class on Skillshare all about how to grow and develop
your author platform. You should definitely check it out. And I may or may not be coming out with
another class on Skillshare very soon, and it may or may not be all about the book release process.
Keep your eyes peeled. Premium membership gets you unlimited access to all of Skillshare classes,
and their membership rate is super cheap. And annual membership is less than ten bucks a month.
Stick around until the end of this video because I've got some extra special Skillshare goodies
just for you, because I'm that kind of lady. First I am hitting you with the absolute best
writing advice in my humble opinion. Number One (1): Habit is far more reliable than inspiration.
Everyone talks about feeling inspired to write, which is nice, but it's also fleeting. The key to
getting words on the page is to make it a habit, create a writing schedule and stick to it. This
is far more useful than inspiration will ever be, in a million years. If you only write when you're
feeling inspired, congratulations you'll get one book done by the time you're on your deathbed, and
it'll probably suck. Instead, train yourself to make writing a normal part of your daily routine.
Do it until missing a day of writing feels abnormal or wrong. People who talk about waiting
for the words to come to them, or being overtaken by their muse are full of shit. The authors who
actually make writing a full time career did it by making their work a habit. Number Two (2): Always
assume your reader is smart. When you write for a stupid audience, you create a stupid book. I'm
sure you can think of a few. Writers often feel the need to explain every concept in their book,
because they're afraid that readers won't get it. Two characters share glances across the room,
they blush at the sight of one another, they fumble over their words, but the writer still
feels the need to say they were deeply attracted to one another. You don't say! Doing this insults
your readers' intelligence, which will make them wonder if they're too smart for your book. That's
not to say you should ignore feedback. If multiple betas tell you that a concept doesn't make sense,
fix it. But you don't need to explain every single detail, let readers figure out shifts based on the
context and descriptions. That's kind of the whole point of reading. And despite all the showing and
dialogue, a couple of readers might not get something. “Wait a second, these two people
who are constantly flirting like each other? But you never said so!” This minority of people are
idiots, and there's already a ton of books out there written just for them. Number Three (3): If
you're not sure what to do next, break your character's legs. A lot of writers struggle with
advancing the plot, especially if they hit the middle of the book. And the solution is simple:
anytime you're not sure where to go, complicate shit. Whatever the problem is, make it worse. It
could be something like a curveball or a plot twist. It could be a death or injury. It could
be something as simple as an upcoming test or a work deadline. Every plot includes some kind of
difficulty that the main character is trying to navigate. So if you make this difficulty worse,
this will fuel the plot, and make it much more compelling. Number Four (4): No one remembers
a trend chaser. Trend chasing is very common because it provides a safety net. You already
know this book has a chance of selling, because the audience is explicitly clear. The thing is,
people always remember the writers who start the trend, they don't remember the chasers.
That's fine if you're writing just to make a quick buck, though I'd argue that you chose the wrong
business for that. But if you wanna make writing a sustainable career, people need to remember your
name. On top of that, once a concept becomes on trend half the time it's too late. It takes
years to write a quality novel, and by the time you're finished, that trend will be long over. So
stop worrying about what's selling at the moment. Most of the big guys didn't write their concepts
because they were trendy. They made them trendy. Number Five (5): Just because you know everything
doesn't mean the reader needs to know everything. You created a vast world, complicated characters,
dark backstories, morals and themes and symbolism. Now you gotta hold back and make sure you don't
barf it all out on your manuscript. That world you created, the reader doesn't need to know every
single detail. Unless the imports and exports are directly tied into your plot, no one gives
a fuck I assure you. I'm sure your supporting character had a very heartbreaking childhood,
but unless it's tied into the storyline, we don't need him to recount it in a soliloquy. Your job as
the creator is to know everything, and also to know when those details are relevant. If
they're not, can it. Number Six (6): You're gonna be embarrassed at some point, so you might as well
get over it. Writing a book is humiliating. There are going to be moments where you want to crawl
into a hole and die. If you plan on surviving this career, you really need to accept this now. “But
Jennaaa, what if I get bad reviews?” You will get bad reviews, everyone does. If Stephen King
isn't immune, why should you be? “But Jennaaa, my mom is going to read this.” Do you think my
mom doesn't read my shit? Someone gets their dick sucked in The Savior's Champion. Look, I hate to
break it to you, but you chose one embarrassing ass career. Which leaves you with two options:
either you can write nothing and live your life forever worrying about what people think of you,
or you can take that tail out from between your legs, write your book and face the music when
it comes. Number Seven (7): The reader should never finish a chapter with all their questions
answered. There is only one chapter of your book where the reader should finish it and
maybe possibly have all their questions answered. And that's the last chapter….if it's a standalone.
When a reader has no more questions, they have no more incentive to keep reading. So for every
question you answer, make sure one or two more questions are created. Say your chapter answered
the question ‘What happened to the protagonist’s mother? She's dead! Now the questions are how did
she die? Was it murder or suicide? And if it was murder, who killed her? Keeping your reader in the
dark is the easiest way to keep them turning the pages. Number Eight (8): Making aesthetic boards,
talking to other writers, and daydreaming about your characters is not writing and never
will be. Nine times out of ten, unless you're writing, editing or outlining you're not being
productive. Everything else is just an excuse. “But Jennaaa, aesthetic boards help me visualize
the scene.” You know what else would help you visualize the scene? Writing it. “But Jennaaa,
alternate universe fics helped me get to know my characters.” You know what else would help
you get to know your characters? Writing them. Of course there are going to be times when you
need to research content for your story, or the publishing industry. But overall,
stop lying to yourself. Finding face claims won't boost your word count or get your book published,
and you know it. Number Nine (9): Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, life is hard. This
isn't writing advice per se but it applies to the industry seamlessly. “I wanna become one of
the greats, but it seems so overwhelming.” First of all, if all you want to do is become one of
the greats, you'll probably never be great. Just saying. Second, that's a hell of a lot of pressure
to put on yourself when you haven't written a damn word. Instead of aspiring to become famous,
aspire to write 20,000 words this month. Instead of aspiring to sell hundreds of thousands of
copies, why don't you aspire to sell 1,000 copies? Did you know the average traditionally
published debut novel sells 3,000 copies in its lifetime. Might need to readjust your goals there
just a tiny bit. If you break your goal down into parts, not only will you feel good about yourself,
more often throughout the process, but you will have much better odds of achieving your end game.
And Number Ten (10): Write what you want to read. People like to say write what you wanna write.
Sometimes that's good advice, other times not so much. A better option is to write what you wanna
read, which for a lot of people is what they want to write. But some people only wanna write sex
scenes, or they only wanna write fight scenes. Nonstop severing of limbs does not a story make.
Writing what you wanna read is a great idea for a variety of reasons. One, you already know the book
doesn't exist yet. If it did, you wouldn't have to write it in order to read it. Two,
you already know there's an audience for the book, because you want to read it. “But Jennaaa,
what if no one wants to read what I wanna read?” I have a sneaking suspicion you're not as unique
as you think you are. And three, you will be much more passionate about the story if it's something
you genuinely want to read. It'll be way easier to get through even the most grueling parts if you
care about the project. So that's all I got for you. This is the best writing advice that I have
personally heard, do with it as you please. Take it to heart to improve upon your craft or ignore
it. What do I care? A huge thank you to Skillshare for being so supportive of my channel, and for
always dishing out the quality content. And on top of that Skillshare is giving you guys a two month
trial of Skillshare premium for FREE! That’s $0, nothing, nada, zip, no money! Two months,
that don't cost a dime. All you gotta do is click on the link in the description, cash in on your
free trial. Take a few classes, take my class! This offer is only available for a limited time,
only the first 500 people who click the link will get in on it. So do it now. Don't forget
to subscribe to my channel. I post new videos on Wednesdays and if you wanna be alerted as SOON
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The Savior's Champion is available in ebook and hardback all over the place. You can get it at
Amazon, you can get it at the Book Depository, Barnes & Noble—whatever. I got a bunch of links
listed below. Get yourself a copy and join Tobias on his epic adventure. And be sure to follow me on
social media. I'm on Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, and of course you can tweet me @JennaMoreci! Bye!