# How to Write Your First Fantasy Novel in 2025 (Full Guide)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0uui_RGFkA

[00:00] in this video I'm going to share with you my full step-by-step guide to help you write your fantasy novel over the next 12 months.
[00:04] I've published four fantasy books along with an interactive fiction novel and I've helped many other writers finish their own fantasy novels as well.
[00:10] like Arwin who kept tearing apart everything he'd written and starting over.
[00:15] but after going through one of my classes got the breakthroughs he needed to finish his first draft.
[00:19] or Josiah who went from writing 9,000 words in 2 years to writing a full 140,000 word epic during the first 6 months he worked with me.
[00:26] so this video is going to be very in-depth.
[00:28] it's aiming to compress the most critical things I've learned in the past 12 years as a fantasy writer in which time I've written about 1.2 million words.
[00:36] so I highly suggest taking notes as we go through this because if you want to write a great fantasy novel you need to understand all four of these steps we're going to cover today.
[00:45] and the first step is to pick the right idea.
[00:47] okay so right now you're probably in one of these three positions.
[00:51] you either have no idea what to write.
[00:53] you maybe have a lot of ideas to pick from or perhaps you already have one story idea that you are already working on.
[00:57] maybe you're outlining it maybe you're in the process of writing at the moment.
[00:59] we want to get
[01:01] you to this stage by the end of this first step.
[01:04] so this first step is all about picking the right story idea to pursue.
[01:05] because the problem is if you pick the wrong story idea it can turn your project into a bit of a nightmare.
[01:07] and I see a lot of new writers make some very critical mistakes when it comes to choosing the first idea for them to turn into a novel.
[01:11] so let's say you're in this first position to begin with.
[01:13] I don't know what to WR.
[01:15] the main question I would be asking yourself in this situation is well what are your favorite stories.
[01:17] what are the stories out there that have inspired you the most that you love to talk about with your friends that you just can't stop dreaming about.
[01:19] those often contain the clues for narrative ideas that would make sense for you to explore in your own writing.
[01:22] and once you've identified some of your favorite stories here I want you to figure out what do they have in comment.
[01:23] what do you like about them.
[01:25] what do you maybe wish they did differently.
[01:26] what if you combine these different ideas here.
[01:28] so what happens if you merge some of your influences together.
[01:29] so to give you an example I'm going to show you how I sort of went about this process when I started writing my first book.
[01:31] for my quick origin story here I started writing my first novel when I was 14.
[02:03] basically came to school after one of the holiday breaks and one of my friends had written a short story over the break.
[02:08] I thought that was such a cool idea and I'd always loved reading.
[02:10] I'd always been so fascinated by stories so I basically went back home that day sat down and started writing.
[02:17] and exactly 360 days later and I knew this because I actually had the date written down in a journal somewhere I had finished the first draft of the Aon Academy which was basically this sort of middle-grade urban fantasy I guess super story about a young boy Wayne Holton who discovers that he has the power to control his density and he is recruited to go off to this secretive superhero school and basically charged with protecting the city that that school was in.
[02:41] and there were four really big influences I had that inspired me to write this story.
[02:43] the first one as you probably going to guess here is Harry Potter.
[02:45] I grew up loving this series.
[02:47] I think I first read it when I was seven and I just Lov the whole kind of school story setup of this and how interesting it was to sort of merge a character's progression along side their experience at a school.
[03:00] the second big influence I had was Percy Jackson and the Lightning
[03:04] Thief and this again was very similar to Harry Potter in the sense of it's a young boy who discovers he has these mysterious powers and finds out that the world is so much larger and so much more interesting than he initially thought it was.
[03:16] And then the next big influence I had was the early 2000s movie Sky High.
[03:21] I just loved this whole concept of it's basically about this son of two really famous superheroes who doesn't have any powers but he's still shipped off to this superhero school that sort of floats in the sky.
[03:30] And I just found the concept of this school for superheroes just so fascinating.
[03:34] I remember there was a point in my life where literally like every night before I went to sleep I would just be imagining waking up the next day walking outside my house and getting into the flying school bus that that took the students after Sky High.
[03:45] And I would kind of imagine what my day would look like up there.
[03:49] And then the final big influence was a little known 2012 movie you might have heard of it before called The Avengers.
[03:53] And you know these days I think some of the Marvel movies have lost a bit of their Shine for me but back then I remember saw this at the perfect time in my life.
[04:01] I would have been about 14 when this came out and just the concept of having all these
[04:05] different superheroes you know there's like six or seven superheroes in one movie how crazy is that.
[04:09] it was so mind-blowing to me at the time and so all four of these big influences were really kicking around in my head at the time and the tropes that I particularly loved about these stories.
[04:17] and by the way a Trope is simply just an element of story.
[04:21] you might have heard people say that tropes bad that's something I strongly disagree with.
[04:25] every story is going to have tropes in it of course if you execute a Trope Paul then it becomes a cliche but a Trope is simply just an element or a unit of story.
[04:32] The tropes that I loved in these particular stories were this idea of a young boy discovering he had special powers.
[04:38] this knowledge that a fantasy world sort of exists alongside of ours.
[04:40] this found family Trope you know in the case of something like Percy Jackson or Harry Potter.
[04:47] the main character is someone who doesn't really come from like a complete family at the start of the story but they discover all these friends and these new connections and mentors and they kind of form a family over the course of the narrative.
[04:58] this progression from main character being a bit of an outcast or a bit of a misfit to finding a way to sort of be loved and to find
[05:06] his community the whole idea of a school story in particular the concept of taking all the typical classes you would have at a high school for example and coming up with a magical version of those classes or you know a superhero version of those classes was really really fun to me and that resulted in the Aon Academy.
[05:23] and because this book was just expression of all the different story ideas and tropes and character concepts and sort of worldbuilding setups that I was interested in at time it was so fun to write and I remember the first year I spent drafting this story was just such a incredibly joyous and freeing experience that really forged my love for writing.
[05:40] now as much fun as I did have writing this story there was actually a very critical mistake I made which hampered it massively and I'll get to that later in this video because I think it's a very important one to know as early as possible.
[05:51] now to give another example of this sort of you know brainstorming out the different tropes that you really like in a story I did the exact same thing for the Thunder Heist this book here my ocean Punk fantasy Heist novel about a pirate who is trying to steal a device that channels electricity from lightning sit in this world where people.
[06:07] live in these floating city ships on a monster infested sea and this book was published in 2020 for memory now when I was starting this book in my initial sort of planning stages you can see here I was basically brainstorming what are all the different tropes and you know story ideas that excite me the most right now
[06:24] so if you are in the phase right now where you don't really know what to be writing about with your story this is the exercise I would suggest you start with just brainstorm out what are all the tropes and story ideas that interest me
[06:34] don't worry about how they're all going to fit together because you won't always be able to make everything merge but often times the things that inspire you the things that you love watching on the screen or reading another books those are going to give you the clues for what kind of story to explore and so once you've gone through this process you're probably going to jump to our second stage here which is where you have a lot of different story ideas to pick from and you're trying to figure out which one you actually start writing the first thing you should doing in this stage again if you haven't done this already is that Trope brainstorm so you know looking at what you actually like about each individual idea and the next thing to be thinking about here is to run the
[07:08] shower test so whatever you think about in the shower is to me the the biggest sign of the number one thing that is sort of top of your mind.
[07:15] if you find that you have four or five different story ideas but every time you go into the shower it's just one idea that keeps bubbling up into your mind that's probably going to be the best one to pursue.
[07:24] and that kind of brings me to my next point you want to be looking at the idea you're the most obsessive about.
[07:29] because the single biggest hack I can give to you to help you be a more productive prolific and joyous writer is to be writing about a story that you are just so utterly obsessed with.
[07:41] when you are obsessed with a story that you're telling questions of motivation or discipline or habits or anything like that they kind of just get thrown out the window because you are just so eager to explore this story that every waking moment you're thinking about it.
[07:55] and whenever you get a chance to sit down and write it will just flow from you with so much ease.
[08:00] of course that level of ease is not always available with every single project you take on but the best way to get to that stage is to really be picking a story idea that you are just utterly en raptured by.
[08:08] so if
[08:10] you're sitting there right now and you have maybe three or four ideas in your mind.
[08:12] there's probably one idea that you know you are more obsessed with than the others and that is the one that you should be pursuing because particularly at this stage of your writing career you know if you've not finished a full fantasy novel before do not worry about how publishable or how marketable your idea is and that because your only goal at this stage of the process is to fall in love with the craft of writing.
[08:34] because the harsh truth is that most writers are going to need multiple novels before they are ready to publish something I certainly did.
[08:40] youve probably heard all the stories from other authors out there who talk about how many years they toiled away in obscurity before they were good enough to actually get something published and rather than letting that crush your spirits I actually think that is a tremendously liberating idea.
[08:53] I mean just imagine if someone told you right now hey in one week's time you're going to have to perform a piano piece in front of a hall of 10,000 people and you've never practiced piano before that would be kind of crippling right.
[09:07] like you probably try to flee the country or fake your own death or something crazy like
[09:11] that but if on the other hand you just picked up piano and you started playing for a few minutes every day and a couple of months into that after you know learning your scales and practicing a few songs you love and just experimenting with a few things you invited a couple of close friends over and they got to you know witness you work on a song that you composed and and then from there you could progress to maybe performing at some you know charity event or something and there's a few hundred people in the crowd and then you could kind of progress up to that big Hall that is actually a much more pleasant way to develop a creative craft right to not put so much pressure on yourself to be exposing your art to the whole world at once and now of course I know what you're probably thinking there are exceptions to this there are some authors out there who they write their first book and it's good enough and it gets published if that is the case for you then take it as a happy coincidence and you know more power to you but my key Point here is that you really really really should not worry about what will sell when you're writing your first book because learning how to write a book that is marketable and publishable and will get a lot of readers is a
[10:11] completely independent skill from just getting good at the craft of writing.
[10:16] There is obviously some relation between between them but you really want to get good at the craft of writing first and develop your own enjoyment for writing first.
[10:23] Because if you just go down the pathway of figuring out what will you know sell or be marketable and that's the thing you do first you're probably going to end up just trapping yourself into a really unenjoyable job writing stories you actually have no passion or connection to.
[10:37] So really really really focus on an idea that you are going to be passionate about here and don't worry too much about how it's going to be received.
[10:41] And just to give you a bit of I guess encouragement or to show you how my own journey has progressed with this.
[10:47] This right here is a table of the major story projects I've worked on across the past 12 years now.
[10:54] So you can see at the top starting from my first attempt at the Aon Academy in 2013 all the way down to the bottom which is the current project I'm working on now, Sorrow of the Sun, the sequel to Kingdom of Dragons.
[11:04] And you can see there a lot of the early projects I wrote were never published or you know never really like paid off if you're just looking at the outcome based.
[11:12] sense of that word but they paid off in a much more important sense.
[11:14] they gave me my understanding of The Craft.
[11:16] they taught me how to love the process of writing a story and they showed me many mistakes that I was unable to avoid in future books in some projects as well.
[11:23] something like masks of Steel for example that book didn't quite work the way it was but I took many of those ideas and I recycled those into Kingdom of Dragons in a much better format.
[11:36] so the fact is you're going to need to do a ton of writing to get good and rather than letting this be something that crushes you actually take this as a very liberating Prospect instead.
[11:43] it means you can do a lot of experimentation and you can really find your voice and I should say for myself as well like even though I've got this channel where I talk about writing advice and everything I'm still very much a beginner and there's still so many areas for improvement that I have here.
[11:56] so you know I'm certainly not talking to you from a position of like I figured it out because no one figures out writing and that is part of the fun of The Craft.
[12:03] so this brings us to a very important discussion about selecting the right scope for your first novel.
[12:06] I would say that again you really want to be focusing on writing the book that you
[12:12] are the most passionate about at this stage of the process but I would really strongly consider if it is an option for you trying to write a book just using one point of view character and ideally doing it just as a standalone book.
[12:25] The reason for this is that every extra point of view character you add to your story it massively increases the complexity of what you're trying to accomplish.
[12:31] You know one of my early books that I wrote for example Across the Broken Stars it's one point of view character and it's a standalone book and that actually makes it a lot more approachable compared to something like Kingdom of Dragons here which has two main point of view characters but a few others thrown in there as well.
[12:48] And you know it's the first book in a Trilogy and as you can see here it's kind of a fat book it's like 700 pages long I think it's exactly twice the length of Across the Broken Stars.
[12:55] I probably would have been very dis encouraged if I tried to write Kingdom of Dragons as my first book.
[13:02] I needed to go through a few other books like you know the Thunder Heist like Across the Broken Stars like Fires of the Dead even in order to develop the capacity to write something that was longer and a bit more complex and so.
[13:14] that's the other piece of advice I would have here is if there is a way to do this as a sort of shortish book that's really going to help you as well.
[13:21] the first thing I actually published firers of the Dead is a noela it's like 20,000 words long you can see here it's pretty thin.
[13:27] most people get through it in a couple couple of hours reading and actually having something a bit shorter and a bit more self-contained like that was a very good entry point to teach me a lot more about the craft of writing.
[13:39] and now of course there is absolutely nothing wrong with writing a long book writing a book with lots of point of view characters or writing a series but it is about stacking the game or rigging the game in your favor when you're starting out.
[13:50] your goal here is simply to fall in love with the process of writing and to develop your understanding of The Craft and it's probably going to be a bit easier to do that in a simpler format if that is the right story idea for you to be pursuing.
[14:02] the next key thing to understand here when it comes to sort of picking your idea is that a lot of authors sometimes come to me and they're very concerned about whether their ideas are original or not and my perspective is that originality is a complete myth.
[14:14] I like to say that when
[14:16] people call something original nine times out of 10 they just don't know the references or original sources involved.
[14:21] and the plot twist here is that I actually didn't say that I copied it from Jonathan letham right but you would have thought it was original if you didn't know who Jonathan letham was.
[14:28] the thing is all creative work Builds on what came before we're kind of part of this amazing creative lineage of humanity that goes all the way back through to you know homo talking about The Iliad and the Odyssey and all the way back to the story of gilgames like that's your lineage you get to build upon thousands of years of stories that have been told before.
[14:46] but the thing that is original about your story is that you are going to have your own unique influences and your own unique style and no one else is going to have that combination of style and influences that you do.
[14:58] that is where the freshness will come into your idea a thought exercise you can do here to actually prove this is if you just give you know 10 different writers the same prompt and you tell them something simple like okay write a scene where you know a dragon attacks a city for example there's going to be 10 different versions of that.
[15:16] attack and many of them will feel you know completely fresh and different from the other ones out there.
[15:20] that is because everyone is coming into the writing process with their own influences and that is going to create unique styles from writer to writer.
[15:28] so the last kind of words I want to say on ideas here before we move into the next phase of the writing process is that for a lot of newer authors they think that the idea is everything.
[15:37] I've lost track of the number of times someone has sent me an email and said hey Jed you know I've got this amazing story idea and I'll let you write it.
[15:46] I'll let you edit it I'll let you publish it I'll let you Market it and you can get 50% of the profits from that and I just have to laugh whenever I get this kind of thing because sure there's there is a value to really good story ideas and there's probably plenty of times someone's pitched you a story and they've had a really cool one-sentence description for it and you've lent in and you've wanted to know more but the idea is certainly not the most important thing by any means here.
[16:10] the most important thing and this is the mindset that Pro authors have is that your execution is all that matters.
[16:13] you can take a kind of simple or even Bland
[16:19] idea and if you perform your writing in the best way possible you can take that simple idea and craft the most amazing mind-blowing story from it okay so now you've picked the the idea that you want to develop into your novel but we're really just starting here and I would argue that this next step of figuring out how to outline your novel effectively is the most important one to master as a new writer because it's going to save you from making the huge mistake I made when I was writing my first novel the Aon Academy so you may have heard of this concept before of Discovery writers versus planners or outliners and the thing is everyone kind of naturally Falls somewhere onto the Spectrum here the discovery writer is someone who typically just begins to type words into their document and they kind of explore and figure figure out the story as they go along whereas the planner is someone who takes a bit of time to structure and organize things before they actually kick off the writing process now when I first started writing the a Academy I was very much just a discovery writer in fact I didn't even really know anything better I just thought that's how you started a story you started typing in a Word document and then at some undetermined period of time later you would hopefully be done
[17:19] and so as a result you know I spent about 360 days to write the first draft of that story.
[17:23] I read through the whole thing realized that there were a ton of structural issues like the fact that my main antagonist didn't even appear until the third last chapter and there were a bunch of other arcs that sort of began but stopped halfway through for no reason or things that were just never paid off later on in the story and in short it was a bit of a mess.
[17:42] it was really fun to write and I certainly don't regret writing it at all but it was definitely a mess.
[17:46] I spent the next couple of years you know editing and rewriting that story.
[17:50] I rewrote it from scratch a couple of times but in the end I realized that there were just some core structural issues that had really infected the story and were preventing it from ever kind of reaching the stage where it would be good enough to actually publish.
[18:03] my skill at the time wasn't enough to overcome those issues.
[18:08] maybe if I went back to it now I would know a way to fix it but back then I didn't really know how to solve this so I made the tough decision to move on to writing my second novel and this time I was really determined to learn from my
[18:20] mistakes so when I started writing this next book I planned it out a lot.
[18:24] I kind of you know did an outline I structured it beforehand and I started writing and exactly 60 days later I had finished the first draft of across the broken Stars.
[18:33] which spoilers is you know obviously published now has had some really amazing reviews and you know I started writing this book in 2017.
[18:41] I don't think got published until about 2020 or so so it took a little while to actually kind of still get it to the point where it was good enough and I wrote a few other little bits and pieces between.
[18:50] I actually published fires of the Dead Before across the broken Stars so technically this is my first you know published book but this was you know my first published length novel and what that really taught me is that writing doesn't just have to be this really spontaneous fly by the seat of your pants thing.
[19:06] it can actually be something where there is a degree of planning beforehand that saves you from making some big cock-ups as you go through the writing process.
[19:13] Now I know that some writers can be a bit skeptical about outlining and they're worried that it's going to take all the the magic or the joy away from the process but there's
[19:21] actually a really good analogy here.
[19:23] which I think is well worth thinking about.
[19:24] it comes from WR useful books by Rob Fitzpatrick which is actually a guide to writing non-fiction books but this advice here applies so well to writing fiction to that I just want to read it out for you quickly.
[19:34] imagine a friend who is designing and building a new house for their family but instead of gathering feedback on the early designs from the people who will be living there they just start piling up the bricks.
[19:43] months later they're finally proud of the work in progress and they reveal it to the rest of their family who gently suggests that it might be nice to have another bedroom or perhaps for the whole thing to be placed slightly higher up the hill.
[19:56] the well-intentioned Builder says hm great suggestions and begins tearing down and rearranging everything.
[20:00] it takes ages.
[20:03] after a couple of iterations they're out of time and they're out of energy so they call it good enough.
[20:06] they say well I wish I could have done a little bit more but honestly building a house is just such hard work.
[20:13] every little adjustment takes months.
[20:15] as absurd as it sounds that's exactly what most authors do with books they write in secret piling up a
[20:21] manuscripts worth of beautiful words and
[20:23] only then figuring out whether people
[20:25] want it and it works but by that point
[20:27] even small changes of become
[20:29] unnecessarily complex and costly leading
[20:31] to wasted time extra rewrites and a
[20:33] final product that falls far short of
[20:35] its full potential so obviously he's
[20:37] talking here about non-fiction books and
[20:39] it's a little different when you're
[20:40] writing fiction but generally speaking I
[20:42] think that advice holds well to whether
[20:44] you are a discovery writer or a planner
[20:47] you are discovering in both stages of
[20:48] the process it's just that with a
[20:50] discovery writer they might take a year
[20:52] to discover their story as they go
[20:54] through the process of writing that
[20:55] first draft whereas with the planner
[20:57] they can actually Discover It much
[20:59] faster in the span of a few weeks of
[21:01] planning out all these different
[21:02] variations for their story so in my mind
[21:04] an outline should be something that
[21:05] helps you know what to write so that
[21:07] you're not feeling lost when you show up
[21:09] to work each day it should help you
[21:10] write it in the best way possible to
[21:12] make sure all the character arcs and the
[21:14] structure is all working cohesively
[21:15] together and most importantly it should
[21:17] make you feel excited and motivated to
[21:20] write it a lot of writers are hesitant
[21:22] about outlining because they're afraid
[21:24] it will strip The Joy from the process
[21:26] and there are some outlining approaches
[21:28] that I think
[21:29] might do that I think the approach that
[21:31] I have kind of developed for myself and
[21:32] that I have taught to other writers
[21:34] who've gone through my fantasy outlining
[21:35] boot camp is something that actually
[21:37] makes you a lot more excited and a lot
[21:39] more just Juiced up and motivated to
[21:41] actually start writing the thing the
[21:42] fundamental reason why outlining is so
[21:44] powerful is that it helps you speed up
[21:46] this write and edit feedback loop so if
[21:49] you just spend you know a year writing
[21:50] your first draft then maybe you get some
[21:52] other people to look at it or you look
[21:53] through it yourself and you create
[21:54] editing notes your feedback loop for
[21:56] that story is like a year long and a
[21:58] year-long feedback bloop is kind of hard
[22:01] to improve with if on the other hand you
[22:03] outline you can outline a story over a
[22:05] couple of days you can look at what
[22:07] you've created and you can already
[22:09] probably see the strengths in it the
[22:11] weaknesses in it the things that maybe
[22:13] just don't quite make sense and you're
[22:14] able to adjust that and construct
[22:16] another outline you are shortening your
[22:18] feedback loop from the span of a year to
[22:20] the span of a few days or maybe even a
[22:22] few hours if you get good enough at the
[22:24] outlining process just imagine how much
[22:26] quicker that is going to improve you as
[22:27] a writer the other thing that I really
[22:29] love about an outline as well is that it
[22:31] lets you test lots of different
[22:32] variations for your story so let's
[22:34] imagine you know you've got your kind of
[22:35] initial story idea here it's this dot at
[22:37] the top of our page you can then test
[22:39] out four different directions of what
[22:41] that story might look like you test One
[22:43] Direction where the characters go off
[22:44] this way you test another Direction
[22:46] Where The MENTOR is actually the
[22:48] antagonist in Disguise you maybe test
[22:50] another Direction where there is a
[22:51] romance between these two characters
[22:53] then maybe you test another Direction
[22:54] where you know everyone dies at the end
[22:56] of your story you're able to then kind
[22:58] of continue with these different
[22:59] directions maybe some of them lead to
[23:01] dead ends and they're not interesting to
[23:02] explore maybe you figure out how to
[23:04] combine some ideas from two of these
[23:06] different permutations and you
[23:08] eventually end up with something that
[23:10] takes the best elements from all the
[23:12] different possibilities that your story
[23:13] could be that is just so much harder to
[23:16] achieve if you just go straight into the
[23:18] writing process and you are going full
[23:19] Discovery writer mode because if you get
[23:21] halfway through and you realize I would
[23:23] have really loved to have tested this
[23:25] other direction for the story it's very
[23:27] hard to Garner enough motivation to go
[23:29] back to the start and write that all
[23:30] again if you do it in the confines of
[23:32] your outline instead it is actually very
[23:34] liberating because you are able to
[23:35] quickly assess all these different
[23:37] angles that you could explore in your
[23:38] narrative so in terms of the actual
[23:39] outlining method I like to use I use
[23:41] something called The Hourglass outlining
[23:43] method now I actually run a 7-e fantasy
[23:45] outlining boot camp where I basically
[23:47] take small groups of writers through the
[23:49] process of outlining and planning their
[23:50] stories I've done four cohorts of this
[23:52] in the past with about 33 35 writers in
[23:55] total and so I have actually taught this
[23:56] method to a lot of writers and many of
[23:58] them have actually gone on to finish the
[24:00] first drafts of the books that we have
[24:01] outlined together in this program so the
[24:03] three big stages of The Hourglass
[24:04] outlining method is to First explore the
[24:06] suburb of your story the second step is
[24:08] to find your story's core and the third
[24:10] step is to put it all together so let's
[24:12] start with the exploring the suburb
[24:13] phase of the process the first thing
[24:15] you'll be wanting to do with this stage
[24:16] is just a big brain dump basically you
[24:18] know write down all your ideas for
[24:20] interesting characters in this story
[24:21] cool scenes that you could come up with
[24:23] maybe unique World building details
[24:25] creative magic systems if that's
[24:26] appropriate to your story The emot you
[24:28] want readers to feel basically just
[24:30] anything that you're thinking about this
[24:32] story already get it all down on the
[24:34] page I personally like to use a big kind
[24:36] of physical notebook for this I find
[24:38] it's just the best for my creativity but
[24:40] you can really do this in whatever
[24:41] format you want one thing to be really
[24:43] focusing on in this particular stage of
[24:45] the process is the triangle of story so
[24:48] any story is really comprised of
[24:49] character plot and setting as the three
[24:51] big elements with theme created through
[24:53] the intersection of those different
[24:55] things I kind of Define theme in a very
[24:57] specific way I'll get to that later in
[24:58] this video but what you want to be
[25:00] looking at as you're going through this
[25:01] brain dumping process is identifying
[25:04] which areas of your story you are
[25:05] weakest in you are probably going to be
[25:07] really strong in one of these points of
[25:09] the triangle maybe you have a very
[25:10] clearly defined idea for your world so
[25:12] your setting is actually you know quite
[25:14] High here but maybe you don't really
[25:16] know too much about the characters that
[25:18] inhabit that world so as you're going
[25:19] through the brain dumping process you
[25:21] really want to be thinking about how can
[25:23] I beef up that aspect of my story and
[25:25] how can I consciously spend more time to
[25:27] develop our interesting characters for
[25:29] this book now once you've gone through
[25:31] this brain dumping process your story is
[25:33] going to look a little bit like this
[25:34] you've got all these different ideas
[25:35] some of them might connect together in
[25:37] meaningful ways but there's probably a
[25:39] real lack of cohesion at the moment that
[25:41] is totally okay like this part of the
[25:42] outlanding process it's about looseness
[25:44] it's about spontaneity it's about just
[25:46] experimenting with all these different
[25:47] ideas of what the story could be however
[25:50] in order to actually write the thing you
[25:51] need to figure out a way to condense
[25:53] down this sort of nebulous very
[25:55] expansive gas of your ideas into a solid
[25:59] you want to find the core of your story
[26:01] so that brings us to The Next Step here
[26:03] finding your story's core there's two
[26:05] big elements here that once you crack
[26:07] them will help you really create a good
[26:09] sense of cohesiveness to your narrative
[26:11] the first one is to develop your premise
[26:13] and the second one is to refine your
[26:15] theme so let's talk about the difference
[26:16] between premise and theme to begin with
[26:18] the premise is the external what your
[26:20] story is about I like to think of it as
[26:22] a one- sentence description of your
[26:24] story and it's probably the reason why
[26:25] readers are actually coming into your
[26:27] story in the first place the theme on
[26:29] the other hand is the sort of more
[26:30] internal what the story actually means
[26:33] aspect and it's why the story will
[26:35] actually stay with your readers and have
[26:37] a degree of emotional resonance to it so
[26:39] let's begin with how you develop a great
[26:41] premise the premise is a one- sentence
[26:43] summary of your story and it should
[26:44] ideally convey your main character the
[26:46] core conflict they face the plot and the
[26:49] stakes that are involved in the story to
[26:51] give you an example here we've got ninth
[26:52] house by Lee bardugo the premise for
[26:54] that story I would say is a woman who
[26:56] can see the dead seeks Justice for for
[26:58] an unsolved murder By unraveling the
[27:00] Twisted games of Yale's secret magical
[27:02] societies bit of a fun fact here I
[27:04] actually Ed this book as an example in
[27:05] my fantasy outlining boot camp and in
[27:07] cohort 4 I actually had a student who
[27:09] had just graduated from Yale so it was
[27:11] very ironic to be using a story that's
[27:13] set at Yale secret magical societies and
[27:16] using it as an example to a student who
[27:18] had just graduated from Yale so that was
[27:19] a lot of fun another example of a
[27:21] premise here is The Hobbit so we've got
[27:23] a comfort loving Hobbit reluctantly
[27:25] agrees to help a wizard and a group of
[27:26] dwarves steal treasure from a dragon so
[27:29] you can see there our main characters
[27:30] you can see what the plot is and you can
[27:32] also kind of see a bit about the world
[27:34] and what's at stake here as well now
[27:35] here's how I Define the premise for my
[27:37] own Epic Fantasy novel Kingdom of
[27:38] Dragons a spy infiltrates a dragon rider
[27:41] Academy to destroy it from within but a
[27:43] forbidden romance will force him to
[27:44] choose between his loyalty and his heart
[27:47] another interesting thing about the
[27:48] premise here is that it's probably going
[27:49] to evolve as you deepen your
[27:51] understanding of the story the premise I
[27:53] originally had for Kingdom of Dragons
[27:54] was a bit different for this but it was
[27:56] only recently as I was going through the
[27:57] process of getting Kingdom of Dragons
[27:59] uploaded to Amazon getting the ebook up
[28:01] there as well because originally we did
[28:03] this book as a sort of Kickstarter
[28:04] project all the kickstarter backers now
[28:06] have their book so it is now available
[28:08] in ebook form on Amazon for everybody
[28:10] and I think the paperback and the
[28:12] hardback should be up there as well in
[28:13] the next few days so you can go check it
[28:15] out if you would like to read this but
[28:17] the premise actually was refined a lot
[28:19] for me in recent weeks really as I was
[28:22] going through this process of updating
[28:23] the blurb for the book and everything I
[28:25] realized that this was a more elegant
[28:26] way to describe it than what I was using
[28:28] before and it just goes to show that
[28:30] like the premise and your theme these
[28:32] are things that are not set in stone but
[28:34] as you keep progressing as a writer you
[28:35] will find ways to better articulate them
[28:38] something that's really important to
[28:39] keep in mind here is that you will never
[28:41] you will never never never capture 100%
[28:43] of your story with your premise it's
[28:45] just a one- sentence description and you
[28:47] know this premise here is missing out on
[28:49] a lot of key elements from Kingdom of
[28:50] Dragons but that's okay the goal here
[28:53] again is just to find the core of your
[28:55] story and the core is going to be you
[28:57] know the most condensed tight version of
[29:00] how you can describe that narrative to
[29:02] someone else out there so when it
[29:03] actually comes to the specifics of
[29:04] building a premise here you want to be
[29:05] thinking about what does my main
[29:07] character want what are the stakes here
[29:09] so you know why should we care that the
[29:11] main character wants this thing what's
[29:12] going to happen if they don't achieve
[29:13] this thing you may want to include the
[29:15] setting if it's a particularly
[29:16] interesting one in your story and
[29:18] ideally you want to keep it as concise
[29:20] as possible you're going to be needing
[29:22] to do a lot of refinement and testing as
[29:24] well we have pretty much a whole week in
[29:26] the fantasy outlining boot camp where we
[29:28] basically just looking at our premises
[29:29] and you know I give a lot of feedback to
[29:31] the other writers out there as well just
[29:32] to help them Whittle it down and refine
[29:34] it and even you know weeks later in the
[29:36] program I still find people going
[29:38] through the process of evolving and
[29:39] improving their premise so ideally
[29:41] you're going to want to try to get
[29:43] feedback from other people at this stage
[29:44] of the process you know whether that's
[29:46] from family and friends whether it's
[29:47] from other writers it's very good to
[29:49] just road test this against other people
[29:51] and to see what elements they find
[29:53] themselves particularly intrigued by and
[29:55] maybe what things feel a little bit
[29:56] confusing as well the second key element
[29:58] of finding your story's core is to
[30:00] develop your theme so a lot of people
[30:02] Define theme as these very vague
[30:04] one-word ideas like love or greed or
[30:06] power that's probably the way you were
[30:08] taught when you went through high school
[30:09] English or something and to me that's
[30:11] subject matter it's not actually that
[30:13] useful as a guide for writing a story I
[30:16] like to think about theme and this comes
[30:17] from John tr's the anatomy of story
[30:19] which is a really great writing advice
[30:20] book I like to Define theme as a moral
[30:22] argument about how to live which is
[30:24] explored in different ways through your
[30:25] plot your characters your world and all
[30:28] other elements of your story the key
[30:29] idea here is it's definitely not about
[30:31] cramming your particular moral beliefs
[30:33] down the reader's throat instead it's
[30:35] about exploring a complex question that
[30:37] you find really fascinating and maybe
[30:39] it's a question that doesn't have an
[30:40] easy answer there are three big
[30:41] categories of theme Here the first
[30:43] category is a theme that is easy to
[30:45] agree with but hard to actually live out
[30:47] the second category is the I can see all
[30:49] sides where you could actually argue the
[30:51] theme from a lot of different
[30:52] perspectives and the third category is
[30:54] the devil's advocate which argues
[30:56] something which is counter to what most
[30:58] people would want to be the case let me
[31:00] give you some examples to show this in
[31:02] action first of all we've got hogfather
[31:04] by Terry pratchet so the premise for
[31:05] this story is when the hoga which is
[31:08] this sort of satirical fantasy world's
[31:10] version of Santa goes missing on the eve
[31:13] of hogs watch DEATH fills in to preserve
[31:16] belief so you've got the personification
[31:17] of death basically pretending to be
[31:19] Santa Claus for a night so I want you to
[31:21] have a thing right now what could be the
[31:23] theme for this story maybe you're
[31:24] familiar with this book maybe you're not
[31:26] let's have a look at one of the key
[31:27] scenes from from this book and this
[31:28] avoids any spoilers it's just discussion
[31:30] between characters and see if you can
[31:32] figure out what the theme is going to be
[31:34] based on this passage I'm sharing with
[31:36] you and for a bit of context here this
[31:37] scene is a discussion between Susan who
[31:39] is a human character and death so the
[31:42] personification of death who was sort of
[31:43] filling in as Santa Claus for the night
[31:45] all right said Susan I'm not stupid
[31:48] you're saying humans need fantasies to
[31:50] make life bearable really as if it was
[31:53] some kind of pink pill this is death
[31:54] speaking by the way he uses all capital
[31:56] letters no humans need fantasy to be
[31:59] human to be the place where the falling
[32:01] angel meets the rising ape tooth fairies
[32:04] hog fathers little yes as practice you
[32:07] have to start out learning to believe
[32:09] the little lies so we can believe the
[32:11] big ones yes Justice Mercy Duty that
[32:15] sort of thing they're not the same at
[32:17] all you think so then take the universe
[32:20] and grind it down to the finest powder
[32:22] and SE it through the finest seeve and
[32:24] then show me one atom of Justice one
[32:27] molecule of mercy and yet death waved a
[32:30] hand and yet you act as if there is some
[32:33] ideal order in the world as if there is
[32:35] some some rightness in the universe by
[32:38] which it may be judged yes but people
[32:41] have got to believe that or what's the
[32:43] point my point exactly so looking from
[32:46] this passage here which I think is just
[32:48] a beautiful piece of writing and a
[32:49] beautiful piece of philosophy in general
[32:51] I would say that the theme Here is that
[32:53] humans need to believe in myths and
[32:55] stories even if they are lies to
[32:56] maintain our morality and This falls
[32:58] into Category 3 of The Devil's Advocate
[33:01] it's probably something that is a little
[33:02] uncomfortable to really accept but the
[33:04] story is all about exploring different
[33:06] characters and how they react or respond
[33:09] to this particular thematic idea let's
[33:11] go through another example so I would
[33:13] say the premise for the first Harry
[33:14] Potter book is when orphan boy Harry
[33:16] Potter learns that he's a wizard he's
[33:18] thrust into a magical school where he
[33:19] uncovers a plot to return the world's
[33:21] most dangerous wizard to power what
[33:23] would you say the theme of Harry Potter
[33:25] is here I'll give you a moment to think
[33:27] about it maybe if you're watching this
[33:28] video with your notes pause it and write
[33:30] down your answer and I would actually
[33:32] say the theme for this is that true
[33:34] bravery comes from being willing to
[33:35] sacrifice your life to protect the ones
[33:38] you love this sounds maybe a little bit
[33:40] basic and that's why I would say it
[33:42] falls into the category of category one
[33:44] which is easy to say hard to live and
[33:46] the key thing here is that even though a
[33:48] theme might feel basic or you know it
[33:50] falls into this category of like it's a
[33:52] bit of a tri saying or it's something
[33:53] that everyone already knows it doesn't
[33:56] lessen its emotional impact on the
[33:58] reader because reading about Harry's you
[34:00] know sacrifices he makes throughout the
[34:02] story or the sacrifices of other
[34:03] characters whether they're you know
[34:05] serious black or or dumbledor or anyone
[34:07] else out there just because it's
[34:09] exploring this kind of commonly accepted
[34:11] idea doesn't mean it's as common for
[34:13] people to actually live it out and
[34:14] that's where a lot of the power and
[34:15] emotion comes through in this particular
[34:17] story let's take a look at another
[34:19] example theme here we've got misbourne
[34:21] the final Empire by Brandon Sanderson
[34:23] and our premise for this story is Vin a
[34:25] street urchin with magical abilities is
[34:27] recruited to overthrow an invincible
[34:28] Lord ruler by the charismatic kelia who
[34:31] leads a band of rebels in a heist to
[34:32] undermine his dark Empire honestly I
[34:35] think I probably could improve that
[34:36] premise it's a little bit long but I
[34:38] couldn't really figure out a way to
[34:39] condense it down any further the theme I
[34:41] would actually say for this story is
[34:42] that crime and deception are required to
[34:45] overthrow a corrupt system and I put
[34:47] this in category two of I can see all
[34:50] sides the reason why I put it in
[34:51] Category 2 here is because this is sort
[34:54] of the exact same justification that
[34:55] terrorists might use to convit
[34:56] atrocities right the idea that there's a
[34:58] corrupt system and they need to
[34:59] overthrow it but it is very appropriate
[35:01] for this kind of story and a lot of
[35:04] heist novels or you know crime novels
[35:06] that sort of thing will often deal with
[35:08] a similar variation on this theme now to
[35:10] give you an idea of how I've used theme
[35:11] in my own writing this is the premise
[35:13] for across the broken Stars right here
[35:15] so the premise for this story is that
[35:17] desperate for Redemption a wingless
[35:19] cowardly middle-aged angel must help a
[35:21] young fugitive the only other surviving
[35:23] Angel evade a ruthless Inquisitor in a
[35:25] quest for a mythical Safe Haven so it's
[35:28] set in this world where people live on
[35:30] these discs that float in Space the
[35:32] discs are kind of encased in these force
[35:34] fields that keep gravity and air inside
[35:36] them and the Angels were sort of like
[35:37] the equivalent of knights or Messengers
[35:39] almost to would fly between these
[35:40] different discs the space in this story
[35:42] is a little bit different to the space
[35:44] in our real world so you can sort of fly
[35:46] and move through it in a different way
[35:48] um but basically the main character was
[35:50] one of these angels then this conquering
[35:52] Nation rose up and they basically
[35:54] colonized these discs the main character
[35:57] LED from a battle in a very cowardly way
[35:59] and has basically been living in hiding
[36:01] ever since then and then he has this
[36:04] this young girl Alina who comes along
[36:06] who reveals that she is a surviving
[36:07] Angel and she wants his help to take her
[36:10] to a place where Angels might still
[36:12] exist so the theme for this story here
[36:15] is that Redemption is possible by
[36:16] sacrificing yourself for an ideology
[36:19] that is bigger than you and this was
[36:21] something that came to me incredibly
[36:23] early in the writing process and it just
[36:25] gave such a sense of cohesion to the
[36:27] story because now I knew exactly what my
[36:29] main character's Arc was going to be
[36:30] about it was all about Leon's journey of
[36:32] redemption through the metaphor of the
[36:35] physical Quest he was going on with
[36:37] Alena to try to find this mythical Safe
[36:39] Haven that may or may not exist in terms
[36:41] of the category This falls into I would
[36:43] again put this into the category of I
[36:45] can see all sides because once more this
[36:47] is sort of the idea that you know a
[36:49] terrorist might use to justify doing
[36:51] something horrible right they sacrificed
[36:52] themselves for an ideology that's bigger
[36:54] than them but in the case of this story
[36:56] I think it led to a really meaningful
[36:58] emotional payoff and the ending of
[36:59] across the broken stars is one of my
[37:01] favorites that I've ever written and
[37:03] it's something I've had a lot of readers
[37:04] email me about as well so if you haven't
[37:06] already read this book go ahead and
[37:07] check it out I think it's coming up to
[37:09] its 5year anniversary since it was
[37:10] published next month which is really
[37:12] exciting so you want to be thinking
[37:13] about theme as a really useful guide for
[37:15] you as you go through the outlining
[37:17] process and through the writing process
[37:19] it's something that you can figure out
[37:20] how to relate to the different character
[37:22] arcs in your story often times you will
[37:24] find that your main character and your
[37:25] antagonist might grapple with the same
[37:27] theme but possibly from different sides
[37:30] and usually a well-designed antagonist
[37:32] is going to have the opposite
[37:34] interpretation of the theme to what your
[37:36] main character has and so they're not
[37:37] just struggling in like a physical sense
[37:39] but they're struggling in like a kind of
[37:41] moral sense as well whenever you're
[37:43] uncertain about your writing just have a
[37:45] look at your theme because there's
[37:46] probably some clues that you can use
[37:48] there to figure out how to move the
[37:49] story forward ask yourself questions
[37:51] like how can I explore this theme deeper
[37:54] what's another angle on this theme as
[37:55] well so you know as I was going through
[37:57] the process of writing across the broken
[37:58] Stars I knew how my main character Leon
[38:00] would relate to this theme how he would
[38:02] go on this sort of redemption as the
[38:04] story progressed but there were a lot of
[38:06] other minor characters as well like you
[38:07] know resistance fighters who were
[38:09] fighting back against the colonists they
[38:11] had their own interpretations on the
[38:12] theme that were you know slightly
[38:14] different to how Leon saw things or
[38:16] maybe even created conflict because he
[38:17] saw it in a different way to how they
[38:19] did and of course Leon's own
[38:21] relationship to the theme progresses and
[38:23] changes as The Story Goes On you also
[38:25] want to be thinking about making every
[38:26] side of your theme as strong as possible
[38:29] you don't want a straw man which is the
[38:30] idea of basically coming up with a weak
[38:33] version of your opponent's argument so
[38:34] that you can easily defeat them to make
[38:36] yourself look smart you don't want to do
[38:38] that you want to do the opposite you
[38:39] want to do like instead of straw Manning
[38:41] I guess like steel Manning or something
[38:42] instead right you want to try to make
[38:44] sure that every angle of your theme if
[38:45] you're exploring it from lots of
[38:46] different perspectives feels equally
[38:49] well thought out and equally compelling
[38:50] just to give a few more notes Here on
[38:52] theme as well is that it it's probably
[38:54] going to come to you at different points
[38:55] in the process from book to book you
[38:56] know it might be something that is
[38:58] actually the initial spark for your
[38:59] story again in the case of across the
[39:01] broken Stars I think the theme came to
[39:03] me on the very first day that I sat down
[39:05] to outline the story um you know I was
[39:07] basically architecture student over in
[39:08] London at the time and I remember coming
[39:10] back to my flat in Kingston upon temps
[39:12] and I sat down with this idea for a
[39:14] story and just started writing and
[39:17] probably like 2 hours later I'd filled
[39:19] you know like 20 pages in this notebook
[39:20] and the theme was in there from a very
[39:22] early stage in fact let me grab the
[39:24] notebook for you quickly now so this is
[39:26] actually the notebook right here that
[39:27] the original concepts for across the
[39:29] broken stars were put down in but it
[39:31] hasn't been that way for every project
[39:32] I've done there have been some stories
[39:33] where the theme has come to me a bit
[39:35] later in the outlining process sometimes
[39:37] even when I'm writing the first draft or
[39:38] maybe even as late as the third or
[39:40] fourth draft with some books it is good
[39:42] however particularly for your first
[39:44] novel to practice finding it as early as
[39:46] you can so once you've got your premise
[39:48] and your theme the last kind of element
[39:50] of figuring out the core of your story
[39:52] is to create your one-page guiding
[39:54] principles document so this is something
[39:56] that I like to create whenever I'm going
[39:57] through the outlining process and it
[39:59] basically takes the key sort of
[40:02] fundamentals of my story and it puts
[40:03] them down on to one page so you can see
[40:05] here this is the guiding principle sheet
[40:06] I created for across the broken stars
[40:09] back then it was called angels in the
[40:10] stars the title changed the first
[40:12] element that you want to include here is
[40:13] your one- sentence premise on this
[40:15] particular guiding principle sheet I
[40:16] just called that my log line you also
[40:18] want to put down your theme your main
[40:20] character arcs that they're going to go
[40:21] through a high level synopsis of your
[40:24] story which is a synopsis is literally
[40:26] like a start to finish descript
[40:27] description of what happens it's not a
[40:28] blurb it is a spoiler field basically
[40:32] overview of what is happening in the
[40:33] story again just to keep you on track so
[40:35] that you know what's happening and you
[40:37] can put down any other important notes
[40:38] as well you can see here I sort of
[40:40] mentioned the designing principle of the
[40:42] story which is this idea of using the
[40:44] physical quest of Leon and Alina seeking
[40:46] this mythical Safe Haven that may or may
[40:48] not exist using that physical Quest as a
[40:51] metaphor for Leon's own Redemption and
[40:53] you'll see here I've got some character
[40:54] Arc stuff put down as well I'm going to
[40:56] go over how to construct character arcs
[40:58] in much more detail a little later on in
[40:59] this video so now that you have figured
[41:01] out the core of your story it's time to
[41:03] expand back out from that and to develop
[41:05] the rest of your book so this kind of
[41:06] brings me to the third phase of The
[41:07] Hourglass outlining method which is the
[41:09] putting it all together phase I probably
[41:11] need a more elegant name for it but this
[41:13] just feels accurate right now so this is
[41:15] where you look at developing your
[41:17] characters in some more detail looking
[41:19] at the plot and structure of your story
[41:20] figuring out your world building fixing
[41:22] the gaps and basically filling in
[41:24] anything that's missing and essentially
[41:26] getting yourself ready to start writing
[41:28] so let's begin by talking about what
[41:29] actually makes for a good character in
[41:31] my mind a great character is someone
[41:33] who's very deeply connected with the
[41:34] triangle of your story that is they feel
[41:37] very cohesively joined with your plot
[41:39] with your world building with your theme
[41:41] in a way where it would kind of be
[41:43] impossible to take them out of the story
[41:45] because they're just so deeply
[41:46] interwoven with all the other facets
[41:48] that you're exploring ideally there's
[41:50] someone who has a very distinctive voice
[41:52] and sense of perspective or you know a
[41:54] unique way of viewing the world we care
[41:56] about them doesn't mean you necessarily
[41:58] need to like them but you need to care
[41:59] about following them around and you need
[42:00] to feel a degree of emotional investment
[42:03] in their decisions and in the things
[42:05] that happen to them ideally you want
[42:06] them to be kind of unique as well in the
[42:08] decisions they're making the choices
[42:10] they're making the story perhaps the
[42:11] motivations that are empowering them as
[42:13] well and you want them to be rational in
[42:15] the sense that they are acting in
[42:17] character ideally not someone who is
[42:19] just changing who they are you know from
[42:21] scene to scene it's also worthwhile
[42:23] thinking about the actual Dynamics and
[42:25] the relationships between characters as
[42:26] well
[42:27] that is sometimes overlooked and
[42:29] sometimes we just develop characters in
[42:30] isolation you don't want to do that you
[42:32] want to be thinking about how the
[42:33] characters relate to the other people in
[42:34] the story as well and then as a story
[42:37] progresses it's usually quite satisfying
[42:39] to see a character change and evolve
[42:41] most great stories when you boil it down
[42:43] to the basics are about a person wanting
[42:45] something struggling to get it and then
[42:47] being forced to change as a result and
[42:49] that process of you know goal struggle
[42:53] change that is the fundamental driving
[42:56] principle behind
[42:57] how we live our lives as well the more
[42:59] interesting you can make each of these
[43:01] three elements the goal your character
[43:03] has the conflict they face in resistance
[43:05] to that and their own progression and
[43:07] development and evolution the more
[43:09] interesting your story will become so
[43:11] there's five core elements I like to be
[43:12] thinking about when it comes to
[43:13] structuring my character arcs the first
[43:15] one is a character's ghost this is a
[43:17] sort of past event a typically traumatic
[43:19] event that had a major impact on your
[43:21] character's perception of how the world
[43:23] operates as a result of that ghost your
[43:25] character has formed a lie and a
[43:27] mistruth about the nature of the world
[43:29] or about them themselves or their own
[43:31] values or how they relate to other
[43:33] people and this lie has resulted in your
[43:35] character forming a want which is you
[43:37] know a goal that they think if they
[43:39] achieve it is going to bring them a
[43:40] sense of Peace you know fulfillment
[43:42] happiness Etc in reality your character
[43:45] needs something different from this and
[43:47] while your character might chase their
[43:49] want what they actually require is their
[43:51] need this leads to your character's
[43:53] truth so the truth is an antidote to the
[43:55] lie that helps the character progress
[43:57] and shift from their want to their need
[44:00] now by using these five core elements
[44:02] you can create one of the three types of
[44:04] character arcs the first Arc is a
[44:06] positive Arc where a character you know
[44:08] starts off with some kind of flaws they
[44:10] go on a experience they go on a journey
[44:12] and it helps them overcome those flaws
[44:14] and become a better person the next type
[44:16] of Arc is a negative Arc where a
[44:18] character is maybe actually pretty good
[44:19] at the start but as the story continues
[44:22] their sort of moral foundations become
[44:23] eroded and they end up in a worse place
[44:25] than they were at the beginning then the
[44:27] Last Arc is a flat Arc so in a flat Arc
[44:30] the focus is less on how your character
[44:32] changes because your character is
[44:33] probably going to be pretty similar at
[44:34] the start of the story to how they are
[44:36] at the end instead the focus is on how
[44:38] they interact with the world around them
[44:41] and how they interact with other
[44:43] characters who are maybe going through
[44:44] their own positive or negative arcs
[44:46] around them so when it comes to
[44:47] structuring a positive Arc your
[44:49] character is going to begin by initially
[44:50] fully believing the lie as a result of
[44:52] the ghost's influence on their life this
[44:55] means they're ignorant of the truth at
[44:56] the start of the story and so they're
[44:58] probably pursuing their want this
[44:59] external thing that they think will
[45:01] bring them what they require in fact as
[45:03] the story progresses they will begin to
[45:05] understand that the LIE is actually
[45:07] hurting them they're going to start
[45:09] testing the truth flirting with the
[45:10] truth as I kind of like to think about
[45:12] it but the truth is challenged it's not
[45:13] so easy to change who they are this
[45:16] means they're tempted to return to the
[45:18] lie and in the climax they will face
[45:20] this pivotal decision about will they
[45:22] pick the truth or will they pick the lie
[45:25] and because it is a positive Arc they
[45:27] pick the truth they achieve their need
[45:29] they maybe reject their want and they
[45:31] reject the lie as well so let's actually
[45:33] give an example of a positive Arc here
[45:34] I'm going to be using Percy Jackson from
[45:36] Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by
[45:37] Rick Ryden as an example here if you're
[45:39] paying attention you'll notice I
[45:40] mentioned that earlier in the video as
[45:42] one of my initial Inspirations for
[45:44] getting into writing in the first place
[45:46] the arc he goes through here is one of
[45:48] beginning the story as a bit of a misfit
[45:50] to gaining acceptance and then achieving
[45:52] this sort of heroic status at the end of
[45:54] the story at the beginning he is the
[45:57] this Misfit kid who grows up you know in
[45:59] New York he doesn't really know his
[46:01] father he's sort of being kicked out of
[46:03] a lot of schools for bad behavior and
[46:05] he's currently at this kind of school
[46:06] where they basically send a bunch of
[46:08] troubled kids the LIE he tells himself
[46:11] at the beginning of the story is that
[46:12] I'm this powerless kid who can't do
[46:14] anything well you know I'm a bit of a
[46:15] failure here and so the want he has at
[46:17] the start of the story is you know I
[46:18] just want to be normal I want to fit in
[46:19] with other people I don't want to let my
[46:21] single mom down because she's already
[46:22] got a hard enough life as it is as the
[46:25] story progresses though and if if you're
[46:27] not familiar with the plot of Percy
[46:28] Jackson and the Lightning Thief it's
[46:30] basically about this kid discovering
[46:31] that he is in fact the son of a God and
[46:34] that the Greek gods are alive and
[46:36] kicking and they still influence the
[46:38] world he needs to accept his true
[46:40] identity as a demigod and find the
[46:42] courage to act for himself not as a porn
[46:45] of circumstance not as a porn of the
[46:46] Gods around him so the truth he needs to
[46:49] come to accept by the end of the story
[46:50] is that by embracing my courage I can be
[46:52] a true hero and I can lead others to
[46:54] achieve greatness we're actually be
[46:57] returning to Percy Jackson a little bit
[46:58] later on in this video as I break down
[47:00] the plot structure and how that
[47:01] interacts with his character Arc as well
[47:03] so keep an eye out for that later in
[47:05] this video now when it comes to
[47:06] structuring a negative character Arc the
[47:09] character is going to begin the story by
[47:10] fully believing the truth and they
[47:12] already have their need so you would
[47:14] think great this person's sort it they
[47:15] don't need to worry about anything but
[47:17] it's not quite that easy what happens is
[47:19] the LIE is introduced into their life
[47:22] and they become tempted by this thing
[47:24] there's a seductive nature to the lie
[47:25] here the character begins to chase their
[47:28] want they ignore the need they already
[47:29] have and the LIE begins to overtake this
[47:32] truth the climax offers them one last
[47:35] pivotal chance to reject the lie and
[47:38] return to the truth but unfortunately
[47:40] the want is too tempting the LIE is too
[47:43] strong they fully embrace the lie and
[47:45] they reject the truth an example of this
[47:47] is co Shivers in best served cold by Joe
[47:49] abomi which is this kind of like Revenge
[47:52] fantasy version of Kill Bill is the best
[47:54] way to describe it co Shivers is one of
[47:56] two major point of view characters in
[47:58] this story and he goes through this Arc
[48:00] of naivity to courage to love to despair
[48:02] to anger it's quite a complex arc when
[48:04] you actually break it down his ghost
[48:06] here is that he comes into the story as
[48:08] someone who had this very violent past
[48:09] as a warrior in the North and the truth
[48:12] he has is that he can build a new
[48:15] peaceful life if he stops using violence
[48:17] to find purpose at the start of the
[48:18] story he basically has immigrated to
[48:20] this new country of steria and he hopes
[48:23] to put his violent past behind him by
[48:25] you know just becoming like a guy down
[48:27] here and not being a warrior anymore his
[48:29] need is to let go of his anger and his
[48:31] ego and move on from his violent past
[48:34] and again at the start of the story you
[48:35] know he's on track for this he's
[48:36] arriving in steria he's excited for this
[48:39] new beginning but as he goes through
[48:41] steria you know he starts getting
[48:42] disrespected by people there he finds he
[48:45] doesn't have the same kind of fearsome
[48:46] reputation he did when he was a warrior
[48:48] in the north and he gets sick of this he
[48:50] gets sick of being you know abused and
[48:53] robbed and derided and that sort of
[48:55] thing and so he begins to want to regain
[48:58] his respect and to regain his power and
[49:01] also to develop a sense of affection
[49:02] from monzo Mado who is the the main
[49:04] character of this story who basically is
[49:06] this really influential mercenary who
[49:08] gets a bit too influential and is almost
[49:11] assassinated by Juke Oro so she sets off
[49:14] in this quest for Revenge to kill ooso
[49:16] and the other people that were involved
[49:18] in the conspiracy against her and
[49:19] shivers basically gets recruited to help
[49:21] her into that for him he sees it as a
[49:23] way to regain his purpose the LIE he
[49:26] gets at the end end of the story is
[49:28] really perfectly encapsulated in this
[49:30] dialogue he has with Monza in the climax
[49:32] where he says reckon I've learned just
[49:34] to stick in the place I'm at just to be
[49:36] the man I am what's that Monza asks a
[49:39] killer he says so then the last type of
[49:41] Arc you can write is a flat Arc so with
[49:43] a flat Arc your character Begins the
[49:44] story by fully believing the truth and
[49:46] they already probably have their need
[49:48] well sorted however the world believes
[49:51] the lie so they believe the opposite to
[49:53] what the character does as a result
[49:55] there's conflict and the world is going
[49:56] to to reinforce the LIE which results in
[49:58] your character's truth being challenged
[50:00] of course because this is a flat Arc and
[50:02] your character's progression and change
[50:03] is not really the me your focus here
[50:05] they remain steadfast they are still
[50:07] sticking to the truth this leads to two
[50:09] options for the climax option one is
[50:11] that the truth triumphs your main
[50:13] character manages to basically persuade
[50:15] the world to adopt their same truth the
[50:17] second option is that the LIE is too
[50:19] strong for the truth the truth is
[50:20] vanquished and your character is
[50:22] defeated perfect example of this is Ned
[50:24] Stark from A Game of Thrones he has this
[50:26] Arc of honor conviction to death you
[50:28] know spoilers for the first book here
[50:30] but I think you probably know what
[50:31] happens anyway his ghost is his loyalty
[50:34] to King Robert Baratheon you know
[50:35] they're good friends King Robert
[50:37] barathan is obviously the ruler of
[50:38] Westeros and they work together to
[50:40] overthrow the previous King but that
[50:42] ghost is going to come back to haunt Ned
[50:43] here the truth Ned has is that we must
[50:46] do what is right no matter what the cost
[50:48] and his need at the start of the story
[50:50] is to remain true to his Oaths however
[50:53] the lie that the world presents to him
[50:54] is that sometimes our Oaths should
[50:56] actually bended for the greater good and
[50:57] you have many other characters who
[50:59] literally say this to him in the story
[51:01] and the want that is kind of presented
[51:04] to him to tempt him is to stop Westeros
[51:06] from falling back into war now of course
[51:08] cuz this is a flat Arc Ned stays
[51:10] unwaveringly committed to his truth and
[51:13] his need he remains true to his Oaths
[51:15] even though he probably should have bent
[51:18] those Oaths and you know done a bit of
[51:20] stuff that would have gone against them
[51:21] in order to prevent westos from falling
[51:23] back into war but because he is unable
[51:25] to change because his Arc is flat he is
[51:28] executed at the end of the story he
[51:30] basically gets outplayed by other people
[51:32] who are willing to bend their Oaths for
[51:34] what they perceive to be the greater
[51:35] good okay so the next thing to talk
[51:37] about and to understand is story
[51:38] structure in my mind structure or a plot
[51:41] and your character's Arc or the journey
[51:44] that your character goes on need to be
[51:46] considered in unison the best stories
[51:48] are the ones where you can't really
[51:49] separate between character and plot
[51:51] instead there is a sense of cohesion
[51:53] between them so that is the whole aim of
[51:55] npoint story structure which is a
[51:57] approach I've developed over the years
[51:59] I've been writing as a way to sort of
[52:01] seamlessly merge together the external
[52:03] Journey a character goes on with the
[52:05] internal transformation they experience
[52:07] over the course of the story as well so
[52:09] we're going to go through each of these
[52:10] nine points here and I'm also going to
[52:11] show you how these nine points are used
[52:13] to structure Percy Jackson and the
[52:15] Lightning Thief which is a very well
[52:17] structured story so that you can
[52:19] understand the actual principles and
[52:21] deeper purposes behind each of these
[52:23] structural points so just as a quick
[52:24] refresher on what this story is about
[52:26] Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
[52:27] follows a young 12-year-old boy who
[52:29] discovers he is the demigod son of
[52:31] Poseidon and that the Greek gods are
[52:33] alive and kicking in our modern world
[52:35] this first book in the series focuses on
[52:37] Percy and his friends Annabeth and
[52:39] Grover as they Quest Across America in
[52:42] an attempt to retrieve Zeus's stolen
[52:45] lightning bolt from Hades who they
[52:46] believe has taken this bolt in order to
[52:48] instigate a war between the gods one
[52:51] thing that's important to note right
[52:52] from the start is that you'll see here
[52:53] I've got these rough percentage markers
[52:55] at the top you don't always need to be
[52:57] hitting the exact structural moment at
[52:59] the exact percentage mark that is just
[53:01] unrealistic in many cases however you
[53:04] will typically find that a lot of the
[53:06] points I'm going to discuss here will
[53:08] fall around these benchmarks but it's
[53:10] more about just moving through all of
[53:12] these nine points in order and using it
[53:14] as a rough guideline a rough scaffold
[53:17] that helps you build a structure when
[53:19] you're creating a house no one is
[53:21] building the scaffold for the sake of
[53:22] building the scaffold they're using the
[53:24] scaffold as a way to actually construct
[53:26] that second story as a way to fix the
[53:28] roof or to get the tiles up there that
[53:30] is the same approach you want to have so
[53:32] the first point is the hook so the hook
[53:34] is where you introduce your main
[53:35] character and especially their flaws
[53:38] desires key traits you know personality
[53:40] perspective all of that sort of stuff
[53:41] that makes them feel unique in a
[53:43] compelling way you ideally want to show
[53:45] a somewhat characteristic moment here a
[53:48] moment that immediately explains to the
[53:49] reader what makes this person different
[53:51] what makes them special what makes them
[53:53] interesting to follow in the rest of the
[53:55] story so in in the case of Percy Jackson
[53:57] our opening Hook is we meet Percy who is
[53:59] a troubled 12-year-old kid he has 80hd
[54:02] and dyslexia and he feels like a huge
[54:04] Outsider he only really has one other
[54:06] friend this guy called Grover who also
[54:09] seems a bit like an outsider a bit of a
[54:10] misfit as well and on a school trip to a
[54:13] museum his teacher turns into a harpy
[54:15] and attacks him Percy manages to defeat
[54:19] this sort of evil school teacher but
[54:21] then he is left wondering if it even
[54:23] happened at all because you basically
[54:24] have all the other people at his school
[54:27] asking him like why are you talking
[54:28] about M dods we don't have a m dods
[54:30] we've got this other teacher name
[54:32] instead the only person who seems a
[54:34] little sus here is his friend Grover who
[54:37] seems to hesitate when he repeats the
[54:39] same lie so this brings us to the
[54:41] inciting incident this is where the
[54:43] Ordinary World of your character's lives
[54:45] is disrupted by a key event that sets
[54:47] the story in motion so in the case of
[54:49] Percy Jackson while camping on a trip
[54:51] with his mother Percy's friend Grover
[54:54] appears and Grover basically says he's
[54:56] being chased by this monster called The
[54:57] Minotaur so this you know horned big
[55:00] bull combined with a man from Greek
[55:02] mythology and Percy's mother basically
[55:05] realizes that she needs to drive him to
[55:07] this place called Camp Half Blood where
[55:09] apparently he will be safe there and at
[55:10] this point Percy is starting to realize
[55:12] that things aren't all normal in his
[55:14] life and there may be some secrets about
[55:17] his upbringing or about his birth that
[55:19] his mother has not told him however
[55:21] before they are able to arrive at this
[55:23] Camp the Minotaur Takes her and she
[55:25] vanishes in a Flash of light Percy
[55:27] basically thinks his mother has been
[55:28] killed at this stage Percy somehow
[55:30] manages to kill the monster and he
[55:32] passes out right afterwards is the last
[55:34] few paragraphs that conclude this scene
[55:36] the last thing I remember is collapsing
[55:37] on a wooden porch looking up at a
[55:39] ceiling fan circling above me moths
[55:41] flying around a yellow light and the
[55:42] stern faces of a familiar looking
[55:44] bearded man and a pretty girl her blonde
[55:46] hair curled like a princess's they both
[55:48] looked down at me and the girl said he's
[55:51] the one he must be and you can see here
[55:53] this comes on page 59 of my addition
[55:55] about 16% of the way through the story
[55:57] this then leads into the entering of the
[55:59] new realm this is where your protagonist
[56:01] is taken from their Ordinary World and
[56:03] thrust into the extraordinary world of
[56:04] your story now Ordinary World
[56:06] extraordinary world you can just take
[56:08] those terms as metaphorical in some
[56:10] stories there will be a very literal
[56:12] very clear transition between the
[56:13] Ordinary World and the extraordinary
[56:15] world something like Harry Potter is a
[56:17] good example Harry goes from the Muggle
[56:19] world into the Wizarding World but in
[56:20] other stories like maybe a detective
[56:23] story where there is a crime that comes
[56:25] along that is sort of more brutal or
[56:27] more violent or more devious than
[56:29] anything the detective has dealt with
[56:31] before that can also signal a
[56:33] transformation from The Ordinary World
[56:35] where the main character kind of
[56:36] understands the rules into the
[56:37] extraordinary world where the character
[56:40] is off balance they're out of their
[56:41] comfort zone and there're so much more
[56:42] danger and threat as a result of that so
[56:45] in the case of Percy Jackson this
[56:46] transition occurs when Percy wakes up in
[56:48] Camp Half Blood and he discovers that he
[56:51] is a demigod he is the son of a human
[56:53] mother and one of the Greek gods is his
[56:56] father father or mother he doesn't quite
[56:57] know at this stage who his Godly parent
[56:59] actually is but he basically learns that
[57:01] all the Greek myths are real and the
[57:03] Greek gods are alive in modern day
[57:05] America he's told that the big three
[57:08] Gods so Zeus Poseidon and Hades they are
[57:10] not allowed to have kids because there's
[57:12] this dangerous prophecy that if one of
[57:14] their kids gets to the age of 16 they
[57:16] will destroy Olympus and he is
[57:18] introduced to the other demigods in the
[57:19] camp including Annabeth who is a girl
[57:22] who sort of helps retrieve him after his
[57:25] initial confrontation with the minor she
[57:26] is a child of Athena and initially she's
[57:29] a little bit kind of edgy towards him
[57:31] another key figure he meets is Luke who
[57:34] is a child of Hermes and Luke is a bit
[57:36] of a older Mentor figure who takes Percy
[57:39] under his wing and helps to sort of
[57:41] introduce him into Camp life under
[57:42] Luke's guidance Percy is tested to try
[57:45] and find out which God he belongs to but
[57:47] unfortunately he sucks at almost
[57:49] everything here so he still continues to
[57:51] feel like a huge Misfit next we move on
[57:53] to the fourth story structure point
[57:55] which is the antagonist threatening your
[57:56] main character so this is where pressure
[57:58] is applied to your main character
[58:00] typically through either the sort of
[58:01] introduction or just some kind of key
[58:03] action from your antagonist so you might
[58:06] have actually introduced your antagonist
[58:07] earlier on maybe you even introduced it
[58:09] in the hook of your story right at the
[58:11] start but this is your opportunity to
[58:13] tighten the screws on your main
[58:14] character and to elevate the level of
[58:16] threat they face for example in Percy
[58:18] Jackson during a game of Capture the
[58:20] Flag which is a training exercise that
[58:22] all the demigods in Camp Half plot are
[58:23] going through Percy is ambushed by
[58:25] Clarice and some other children of Aries
[58:28] Clarice is kind of a bit of a bully
[58:29] figure towards him she's a very strong
[58:31] Warrior and they don't really get along
[58:33] too well the start of the book now Percy
[58:35] thinks he's going to die or be horribly
[58:36] maimed at this point because the Aries
[58:39] children have a real grudge against him
[58:40] but by entering a creek of water he
[58:43] somehow gains enough strength and skill
[58:45] to miraculously defeat them and this
[58:48] actually lets his team win the game of
[58:50] Capture the Flag he finds out that he
[58:52] was used as bait by anabeth so that Luke
[58:54] that Mentor guy I was mentioning from
[58:55] before could win so Percy feels a little
[58:58] bit bent out of shape for being used
[58:59] like bait in this way and unfortunately
[59:02] he doesn't have too long to Relish in
[59:04] his victory because immediately after
[59:05] this he is attacked by a huge hellhound
[59:08] this kind of massive doglike creature
[59:10] sent from the underworld however he is
[59:12] saved by the campers and then receives a
[59:15] very critical sign let me read this
[59:17] scene to you now Percy Annabeth said
[59:19] pointing by the time I looked up the
[59:21] sign was already fading but I could
[59:23] still make out the Hologram of green
[59:24] light spinning and gleaming
[59:26] a three- tip spear a trident your father
[59:29] Annabeth murmured this is really not
[59:31] good it is determined Chiron announced
[59:34] Kiron by the way is the centur who is
[59:36] the leader and supervisor of this Camp
[59:38] All Around Me campers started kneeling
[59:40] even the Aries cin although they didn't
[59:42] look happy about it my father I asked
[59:45] completely bewildered Poseidon said
[59:47] Chiron Earth Shaker stormbringer father
[59:49] of horses hail pereus Jackson son of the
[59:53] sea God now this is really not good news
[59:55] because it is established in the story
[59:57] that the big three Gods so Zeus Poseidon
[01:00:00] and Hades are forbidden from having kids
[01:00:02] because of this prophecy that if one of
[01:00:04] their kids makes it to the age of 16
[01:00:06] they will destroy Olympus and you'll see
[01:00:08] here this particular Scene It takes
[01:00:09] place about 33% of the way through now
[01:00:12] this leads to the next kind of reveal
[01:00:13] which elevates the threat of the story
[01:00:15] further where Chiron basically says that
[01:00:18] Hades sent a minion to steal the master
[01:00:20] Bolt the master bolt is the principal
[01:00:22] weapon of Zeus it's kind of the
[01:00:24] lightning bolt that all of the lightning
[01:00:26] BTS are formed from and it's a major
[01:00:28] component of Zeus's power however it's
[01:00:30] been missing and if we continue on with
[01:00:32] this scene here he hit it in the
[01:00:34] Underworld knowing full well that Zeus
[01:00:35] would blame Poseidon I don't pretend to
[01:00:38] understand the lord of the Dead's
[01:00:39] motives perfectly or why he chose this
[01:00:41] time to start a war but one thing is
[01:00:43] certain Percy must go to the underworld
[01:00:45] find the master bolt and reveal the
[01:00:47] truth so this basically sets up the main
[01:00:49] quest of the story we learned that
[01:00:51] someone has stolen Zeus's lightning bolt
[01:00:53] they've framed Poseidon for it quite a
[01:00:55] few of the Gods think that Percy is the
[01:00:57] one who has stolen this device and what
[01:00:59] you'll see here is that it really
[01:01:00] elevates the danger that Percy faces
[01:01:02] because he can't just stay sheltered in
[01:01:04] Camp Half Blood in the security and
[01:01:06] safety that provides he now needs to
[01:01:08] Quest Across America to get to the
[01:01:10] entrance to the underworld which is
[01:01:11] hidden in Los Angeles in this story and
[01:01:13] go down to basically retrieve the bolt
[01:01:15] from Zeus so the Threat Level has
[01:01:17] massively increased here and from a
[01:01:19] structural perspective that's exactly
[01:01:21] what you want to be thinking about at
[01:01:22] this antagonist threatens moment you
[01:01:24] want to be asking yourself how do I
[01:01:26] Elevate the stakes and the difficulty
[01:01:28] that my main character is facing in
[01:01:29] order to force them to grow and to
[01:01:31] progress along their Arc so this
[01:01:33] basically leads to Percy Annabeth and
[01:01:35] Grover setting off on their Quest
[01:01:37] leaving Camp Half Blood and journeying
[01:01:39] west across America our next structural
[01:01:41] moment is the midpoint Revelation so
[01:01:43] here in a moment of insight your main
[01:01:45] character is going to finally understand
[01:01:47] a really important truth about
[01:01:49] themselves and if you remember when we
[01:01:50] were talking about character arcs before
[01:01:52] we discussed the difference between your
[01:01:54] character's lie and your character's
[01:01:55] truth the midpoint is the moment where
[01:01:58] they finally understand the truth maybe
[01:01:59] for the first time but they're not able
[01:02:02] to fully relinquish the LIE yet they
[01:02:04] can't quite let go of the lie because
[01:02:07] it's got its roots deep into them now
[01:02:09] this is a very crucial moment for your
[01:02:11] entire story you can almost think about
[01:02:12] this midpoint as the pivot that your
[01:02:14] entire story revolves around and from a
[01:02:17] character Arc perspective it's a really
[01:02:19] crucial moment a really crucial
[01:02:21] opportunity to show your character going
[01:02:24] through the process of change if you've
[01:02:26] struggled to develop character arcs
[01:02:28] where it feels like a character is
[01:02:30] changing in an organic and natural way
[01:02:32] and it feels like your character is just
[01:02:34] changing on a dime it's probably because
[01:02:36] you haven't worked out how to write an
[01:02:37] effective midpoint Revelation and a book
[01:02:39] that I found really useful for
[01:02:41] clarifying my own thinking about this
[01:02:42] was actually James Scott Bell's write
[01:02:44] your novel from the middle to quote from
[01:02:46] James here in the midpoint of your story
[01:02:48] the character is forced to look at
[01:02:49] himself as if in a mirror only it's a
[01:02:51] reflection of who he is at that moment
[01:02:53] in time who am I what have I become come
[01:02:56] what do I have to do to regain my
[01:02:58] Humanity sometimes it's the character
[01:02:59] looking at the odds how can I possibly
[01:03:01] win it looks like I'm going to die
[01:03:03] physically or spiritually now what am I
[01:03:06] supposed to do that right there is the
[01:03:09] kind of emotional goal of a good
[01:03:11] midpoint in your story so how does this
[01:03:12] actually apply in Percy Jackson well the
[01:03:15] midpoint I would say here comes after
[01:03:17] they defeat Medusa so this sort of
[01:03:19] creature who if you look at her in the
[01:03:21] eyes it would turn you to Stone Percy
[01:03:23] Annabeth and Grover managed to defeat
[01:03:24] her and they sort of this quiet
[01:03:26] reflective moment afterwards to bond and
[01:03:29] just think about the quest that they're
[01:03:31] actually going on here we learn a bit
[01:03:33] about Grover's motivations for coming
[01:03:35] along to help protect Percy here as
[01:03:38] shown in this scene the god of wild plac
[01:03:40] has disappeared 2,000 years ago Grover
[01:03:42] told me but for the satas and Grover by
[01:03:45] the way is a SATA so they kind of look
[01:03:46] like a human but they have the clothing
[01:03:48] hoofs of a goat but for the satas pan
[01:03:51] was our Lord and Master he protected Us
[01:03:53] in the wild places of the earth we
[01:03:55] refused to believe that he died in every
[01:03:57] generation the bravest sers pledge their
[01:04:00] lives to finding pan they searched the
[01:04:02] Earth exploring all the wildest places
[01:04:04] hoping to find where he is hidden and
[01:04:06] wake him from his sleep and you want to
[01:04:08] be a Searcher Percy asks him it's my
[01:04:10] life's dream he said so this is an
[01:04:12] interesting thing to keep in mind with
[01:04:14] your midpoint Revelation typically the
[01:04:16] midpoint is going to be a more quieter
[01:04:18] contemplative moment where your
[01:04:20] characters you know might be sitting
[01:04:21] around a campfire after a Long Day's
[01:04:22] travel or after a big fight and just
[01:04:25] reflect ing on what's happened how
[01:04:27] they're changing the difficulties that
[01:04:29] lie ahead of them and it doesn't just
[01:04:31] have to be your main character that goes
[01:04:32] through this moment of introspective
[01:04:34] reflection in fact as you can see here
[01:04:36] the midpoint is an excellent opportunity
[01:04:39] to develop Your Side characters in a
[01:04:41] little bit more detail as well and to
[01:04:43] get them to maybe start opening up to
[01:04:45] the reader so some of the other things
[01:04:46] to think about with your midpoint here
[01:04:48] from a structural level are it's a
[01:04:50] really great opportunity to do a bit of
[01:04:51] reflection on the odds we see this quote
[01:04:53] here from Percy Jackson how are we going
[01:04:55] to get into the underworld I asked
[01:04:56] Grover I mean what chance do we have
[01:04:59] against a God in Percy Jackson They also
[01:05:01] use this as an opportunity to develop
[01:05:03] more sympathy towards Annabeth who at
[01:05:05] the start of the story is a bit of a
[01:05:06] jerk towards Percy but we have here this
[01:05:08] line from Grover where he says don't be
[01:05:10] so hard on her Percy she's had a tough
[01:05:12] life but she's a good person and then we
[01:05:14] also get a bit of added complication
[01:05:15] here as well so after the crew are
[01:05:18] attacked by the furies which are these
[01:05:19] sort of Servants of Hades down in the
[01:05:21] Underworld we get this exchange between
[01:05:24] Grover and Percy maybe but Annabeth and
[01:05:27] I we both got the feeling they weren't
[01:05:28] asking about a person they said where is
[01:05:31] it they seem to be asking about an
[01:05:32] object that doesn't make any sense Percy
[01:05:35] said I know but if we've misunderstood
[01:05:37] something about this Quest and we only
[01:05:39] have 9 days to find the master Bol
[01:05:41] Grover looked at me like he was hoping
[01:05:43] for answers but I didn't have any so you
[01:05:46] can see here it's a very simple dialogue
[01:05:48] exchange but it does a great job of just
[01:05:50] reminding us of the stakes reminding us
[01:05:52] of the timeline that they've got 9 days
[01:05:53] to find the master bolt and also adding
[01:05:56] this extra hint of worry that maybe they
[01:05:58] don't fully comprehend what they're
[01:06:00] trying to achieve here and then lastly
[01:06:01] and I know I'm spending a long time on
[01:06:02] the midpoint but it is a very very
[01:06:04] critical element of your story and it's
[01:06:07] something I often see writers skip over
[01:06:08] or not give the attention it deserves
[01:06:10] lastly we see Percy Express his true
[01:06:12] motivations for the quest so remember
[01:06:14] Percy Begins the story thinking that he
[01:06:16] just has a single mother and he's never
[01:06:18] known his dad he obviously finds out
[01:06:20] later on that his dad is bidon the Greek
[01:06:23] god of the sea and we get this
[01:06:24] particular Exchange between him and
[01:06:26] Grover I thought about what Medusa had
[01:06:28] said I was being used by the gods what
[01:06:30] lay ahead of me was worse than
[01:06:32] petrification so obviously that's just
[01:06:33] internal thought that Percy's having
[01:06:35] here I haven't been straight with you I
[01:06:37] told Grover I don't care about the
[01:06:38] master Bol I agreed to go to the
[01:06:40] underworld so I could bring back my
[01:06:41] mother who was of course sort of turned
[01:06:43] into that light and vaporized by the
[01:06:45] Minotaur earlier on in the story Grover
[01:06:48] blew a soft note on his pipes I know
[01:06:50] that Percy but are you sure that's the
[01:06:52] only reason I'm not doing it to help my
[01:06:54] father he doesn't care care about me I
[01:06:56] don't care about him Grover gazed down
[01:06:59] from his tree Ranch look Percy I'm not
[01:07:01] as smart as Annabeth I'm not as Brave as
[01:07:03] you but I'm pretty good at reading
[01:07:05] emotions you're glad your dad is alive
[01:07:07] you feel good that he claimed you and
[01:07:09] part of you wants to make him proud
[01:07:11] that's why you mailed Medusa's head to
[01:07:12] Olympus you wanted him to notice what
[01:07:14] you've done and see here how this comes
[01:07:17] almost smack bang right in the middle of
[01:07:18] the story it comes here at the 49% Mark
[01:07:20] bit it's pretty much in the middle of
[01:07:22] this book and it really is this quiet
[01:07:25] moment that pivots the main character's
[01:07:27] Arc and shows you sort of what Percy is
[01:07:29] seeking for here there is a element of
[01:07:31] him sort of seeking for his father's
[01:07:33] approval so when it comes to writing the
[01:07:35] midpoint in your own story I want you to
[01:07:36] be thinking about what is an aspect of
[01:07:38] my character's motivations that I can
[01:07:40] perhaps reveal or explore here or make
[01:07:44] evident to the character that they
[01:07:45] didn't realize they were pursuing
[01:07:47] earlier on in the story and this leads
[01:07:49] us to our six structural moment which is
[01:07:50] the Amplified pressure moment so this is
[01:07:53] where your protagonist you know in the
[01:07:54] midpoint they started to slowly
[01:07:57] understand a bit more about the truth
[01:07:59] and to combat the lie that has been you
[01:08:01] know weighing them down throughout their
[01:08:02] life so far however in the Amplified
[01:08:05] pressure moment your protagonist's new
[01:08:07] understanding of the truth is going to
[01:08:08] be challenged by your antagonist
[01:08:10] basically ramping up the intensity and
[01:08:12] the danger of the lie so your character
[01:08:15] might be forced to backslide a little
[01:08:17] bit away from the truth and towards the
[01:08:19] lie in the case of Percy Jackson this
[01:08:21] happens when they encounter Aries the
[01:08:23] God of War who basically lead them into
[01:08:26] this trap now Percy manages to get the
[01:08:27] others out of this particular trap and
[01:08:29] Aries gives him this information as a
[01:08:31] reward he says that Percy's mother is in
[01:08:33] the Underworld as a hostage and he then
[01:08:35] gives them this backpack full of
[01:08:37] supplies here is the exchange between
[01:08:39] Aries and Percy in this Sim so Percy
[01:08:42] asks my mother's been kept why you need
[01:08:44] to study War Punk says Aries hostages
[01:08:47] you take somebody to control somebody
[01:08:49] else nobody's controlling me he laughed
[01:08:53] oh yeah see you around kid so you
[01:08:55] remember earlier on that a lot of the
[01:08:58] arc that Percy goes through in the first
[01:09:00] book is going from a position of feeling
[01:09:02] like his life is out of his control and
[01:09:05] the gods are manipulating him
[01:09:06] circumstances has manipulated him and
[01:09:08] just generally feeling quite helpless
[01:09:10] and then by the end of the story he kind
[01:09:12] of reaches this point of being able to
[01:09:14] step up to take responsibility to take
[01:09:16] charge and to use his courage as a way
[01:09:18] to actually Forge his own path forward
[01:09:20] so you see here Aries is kind of like
[01:09:22] taunting Percy and dragging him back
[01:09:24] towards the lie that he is helpless that
[01:09:26] he is powerless and that he is being
[01:09:28] manipulated by all the people out there
[01:09:30] now pretty much straight after this we
[01:09:31] go into a dream sequence where Percy
[01:09:33] hears the voice of this monstrous
[01:09:36] creature in Hell which is where they're
[01:09:38] heading they're heading into the
[01:09:38] underworld he hears this monstrous
[01:09:40] creature talking about how Percy is
[01:09:42] walking right into the Trap that they'
[01:09:44] have set here's that scene and he
[01:09:46] suspects nothing it asked another voice
[01:09:49] one I almost recognized answered at my
[01:09:51] shoulder nothing my Lord he is as
[01:09:53] ignorant as the rest I looked over but
[01:09:56] no one was there the speaker was
[01:09:58] invisible deception upon deception the
[01:10:01] thing in the pit mused aloud excellent
[01:10:03] Poseidon has played his most desperate
[01:10:06] card now we shall use it against him
[01:10:08] shortly you shall have the reward you
[01:10:10] wish and your revenge as soon as both
[01:10:12] items are delivered into my hands and
[01:10:15] you can see here this Falls at the 64%
[01:10:17] Mark of the story so again it's ramping
[01:10:19] up the threat and the pressure of the
[01:10:21] antagonist it's making Percy doubt
[01:10:22] himself it's making him question whether
[01:10:24] walking right into the underworld as
[01:10:26] they are planning to do is a smart move
[01:10:28] and it is ramping up the difficulty that
[01:10:31] the character faces as we move towards
[01:10:33] the end of the story so this brings us
[01:10:35] to point number seven the darkest low
[01:10:37] this is where your character kind of
[01:10:38] gets into a bit of a pit it's the most
[01:10:40] suffering that theyve faced so far
[01:10:42] another way of thinking about this is
[01:10:43] the kind of Dark Night of the Soul you
[01:10:45] may have heard that in other structural
[01:10:47] examples and at this point in the story
[01:10:49] the LIE has never looked so strong we
[01:10:51] set course at the stage for the final
[01:10:54] confrontation between your protagonist
[01:10:56] and the antagonist so in the case of
[01:10:57] Percy Jackson This Moment occurs when
[01:11:00] Percy Annabeth and Grover all finally
[01:11:02] head into the Underworld for the first
[01:11:04] time I'll read that scene to you now the
[01:11:06] shoreline of the underworld came into
[01:11:07] view craggy rocks and black volcanic
[01:11:09] sand stretched Inland about 100 yards to
[01:11:12] the base of a high stone wall which
[01:11:14] marched off in either direction as far
[01:11:16] as we could see a sound came from
[01:11:18] somewhere nearby in the green Gloom
[01:11:20] echoing off the stones the howl of a
[01:11:23] large animal and you can see here this
[01:11:25] happen
[01:11:25] right at the 73% mark of the story so
[01:11:28] again you know these percentage markers
[01:11:29] don't always have to be like bang on
[01:11:31] accurate to the 9o structure I showed
[01:11:33] you before but you will often find when
[01:11:35] you analyze great stories out there they
[01:11:37] do tend to fall really close to those
[01:11:39] markers and whether or not that's
[01:11:40] because the author is consciously aware
[01:11:42] of this structure or whether it's just
[01:11:44] because subconsciously this structure
[01:11:46] kind of Springs from the patterns of
[01:11:47] story we're so used to telling over
[01:11:50] hundreds and thousands of years of human
[01:11:52] history either way it just shows you how
[01:11:54] moving through these nine points is
[01:11:56] going to result in a story that just
[01:11:58] feels right and in the case of Percy
[01:12:00] Jackson I mean how much more
[01:12:01] structurally perfect can you get for
[01:12:03] your darker low moment to be when your
[01:12:05] characters are literally heading into
[01:12:07] the underworld I think it's just really
[01:12:09] really nice how that works out here so
[01:12:11] this leads us to our climax now the
[01:12:13] climax is pretty straightforward It's
[01:12:15] the final confrontation between your
[01:12:16] protagonist and your antagonist in this
[01:12:19] final confrontation either the truth is
[01:12:21] going to win or the LIE is going to win
[01:12:23] what's important here is that one of
[01:12:25] those Concepts is vanquished and the
[01:12:27] other one Reigns Supreme so in the case
[01:12:29] of Percy Jackson while they're in the
[01:12:30] Underworld they confront Hades to get
[01:12:32] the bolt that they think he stole from
[01:12:33] Zeus to frame Poseidon but it's a trap
[01:12:37] and the bolt is actually inside Percy's
[01:12:39] backpack he's actually brought it down
[01:12:41] to Hades here's the scene where he
[01:12:42] discovers this I was speechless I had no
[01:12:45] Helm I had no idea how the master bolt
[01:12:47] had gotten into my backpack I wouldn't
[01:12:49] to think Hades was pulling some kind of
[01:12:50] trick Hades was the bad guy but suddenly
[01:12:53] the World Turns sideways I real I'd been
[01:12:55] played with Zeus Poseidon and Hades had
[01:12:58] been set at each other's throats by
[01:13:00] someone else the master bolt had been in
[01:13:02] the backpack and I'd gotten the backpack
[01:13:04] from and this is where Percy realizes
[01:13:07] that Aries set him up Aries gave him the
[01:13:10] backpack earlier on in the story and so
[01:13:11] Percy realizes that he has been
[01:13:13] manipulated in just the way the Aries
[01:13:14] warned him about so Hades at this point
[01:13:17] you know he has control of Percy's
[01:13:19] mother who was sent to the underworld by
[01:13:20] the Minotaur before and Hades offers
[01:13:23] this deal he says to Percy that he can
[01:13:25] return his mother if Percy returns
[01:13:27] hades's Helm which has also been stolen
[01:13:30] but Percy doesn't really know anything
[01:13:31] about this he's just finding this out at
[01:13:33] this stage in the story so Percy makes a
[01:13:35] very tough choice at this point to
[01:13:37] basically leave his mother in the
[01:13:39] Underworld for the sake of the quest and
[01:13:40] using three pearls that they were given
[01:13:42] by God earlier Percy Grover and anabeth
[01:13:44] all return to the surface and here they
[01:13:47] confront Aries on the beach here's the
[01:13:49] scene where they do that there he was
[01:13:50] waiting for us in his black leather
[01:13:52] duster and his sunglasses an aluminium
[01:13:54] base bat propped on his shoulder his
[01:13:56] motorcycle rumbled beside him its
[01:13:58] headlight turning the sand red Hey kid
[01:14:01] Aries said seeming genuinely pleased to
[01:14:03] see me you were supposed to die you
[01:14:05] tricked me I said you stole the helm in
[01:14:07] the master ball now what follows from
[01:14:09] this is a really cool fight scene
[01:14:10] between Percy and Aries in the surf
[01:14:12] Percy manages to sort of use the powers
[01:14:14] of Poseidon to defeat Aries or at least
[01:14:16] get a blow on him which then makes Aries
[01:14:19] get angry and leave essentially as per
[01:14:21] the terms of their fight but what Percy
[01:14:23] realizes is that there's something off
[01:14:25] about Aries and he realizes that Aries
[01:14:28] has also been manipulated by someone
[01:14:30] outside of him too so it's not like
[01:14:33] Aries is the big villain here he's also
[01:14:35] just being a porn in somebody else's
[01:14:37] game and this in turn leads to the big
[01:14:38] reveal and the big twist of the story
[01:14:41] which is that it's actually Luke the
[01:14:43] mentor the child of Hermes who was a
[01:14:46] friend to Percy earlier on in Camp Half
[01:14:48] Blood and showed him the ropes and kind
[01:14:49] of gave him guidance he's actually the
[01:14:51] one who set this all up he tells Percy
[01:14:54] that he hates the Gods he leaves camp
[01:14:56] and almost gets Percy killed with this
[01:14:57] poisonous scorpion right before he
[01:14:59] leaves and Percy just manages to survive
[01:15:02] thanks to getting into the water in time
[01:15:04] and then getting rescued by some other
[01:15:05] Camp members but now Percy knows that
[01:15:07] there is a bigger threat out there and
[01:15:09] so he knows that Luke is working with
[01:15:10] Kronos who is the ruler of the titans
[01:15:12] the the father of all the gods who you
[01:15:15] know was was cut up into a million
[01:15:17] pieces basically by Zeus and is wanting
[01:15:20] to come back and get his revenge and
[01:15:22] this essentially sets up the entire
[01:15:23] Conflict for the whole first five book
[01:15:25] series this brings us to our last
[01:15:27] structural moment which is the closing
[01:15:28] image so this is where you see your
[01:15:30] protagonists living with their new truth
[01:15:31] and need they've gone on this experience
[01:15:33] over the course of the story from moving
[01:15:35] away from their lie and their want in
[01:15:37] order to accept the truth and their need
[01:15:40] and this often times but not always will
[01:15:43] have some sort of mirroring to your
[01:15:44] opening image as a way to show the
[01:15:46] change and the transformation that your
[01:15:47] character has gone on so in the case of
[01:15:49] Percy Jackson Percy went from being this
[01:15:51] Misfit kid who was an outcast at the
[01:15:53] start to now having a camp full of
[01:15:55] friends who are just like him and he
[01:15:57] understands his kind of unique traits
[01:15:59] and actually appreciates them the threat
[01:16:00] of Kronos and Luke is on the horizon out
[01:16:03] there he knows that not all is safe and
[01:16:05] that there are bigger threats they're
[01:16:06] going to have to deal with however Percy
[01:16:08] has also managed to inspire some change
[01:16:10] in the side characters around him at the
[01:16:12] start of the story Annabeth is estranged
[01:16:14] from her dad and at the end of the story
[01:16:16] Percy sees Annabeth going off to sort of
[01:16:18] reunite with her dad on the border of
[01:16:20] Camp Half Blood and then you know leave
[01:16:22] for the end of the season and we get
[01:16:23] this nice little closing seen in the
[01:16:25] last few pages when I get back next
[01:16:27] summer she said so this is Annabeth
[01:16:29] we'll hunt down Luke we'll ask for
[01:16:30] request but if we don't get approval
[01:16:32] we'll sneak off and do it anyway agreed
[01:16:34] sounds like a plan worthy of Athena she
[01:16:37] held out her hand I shook it take care
[01:16:39] seaweed brain Annabeth told me keep your
[01:16:41] eyes open you too wise girl so what we
[01:16:45] basically see here and this is something
[01:16:46] I probably didn't cover heaps in this
[01:16:47] structure but is a major component of
[01:16:49] the book as well sort of more as like a
[01:16:50] subplot you basically see Annabeth going
[01:16:52] from sort of resenting Percy or being
[01:16:54] rude to him at the start to them
[01:16:56] actually forming quite a close
[01:16:57] friendship and then as the story
[01:16:59] continues there is a bit of a romance
[01:17:00] between them as well so the last thing I
[01:17:01] just want to talk about with structure
[01:17:03] before we move on to the next phase
[01:17:04] which is writing your first draft is
[01:17:06] that you should be using it as a guide
[01:17:08] you don't want structure to be something
[01:17:09] that is impeding you or Heming you in
[01:17:12] instead I actually find that structure
[01:17:14] is just like scaffolding when you're
[01:17:16] building a building it is something that
[01:17:18] helps you design shapes and put things
[01:17:20] together in a way that you couldn't if
[01:17:22] you were just assembling it all without
[01:17:24] the
[01:17:25] of this scaffold around it so use
[01:17:27] structure as inspiration don't feel too
[01:17:28] stressed about hitting each of these
[01:17:30] nine points I've mentioned at the
[01:17:32] specific percentage markers of your book
[01:17:34] just focus on taking the story through
[01:17:37] those particular points and when you do
[01:17:38] it you will often find that that
[01:17:40] actually makes the story flow in a much
[01:17:42] more natural and much more cohesive way
[01:17:44] particularly if you're someone who
[01:17:45] struggles to figure out what to do in
[01:17:47] the middle of your story or how to kind
[01:17:49] of get between a to B then look at those
[01:17:52] structural moments in more detail
[01:17:53] particularly those points between number
[01:17:56] three and number seven and that will
[01:17:58] actually give you a lot of guidance and
[01:17:59] a lot of inspiration for how to fill in
[01:18:01] those scenes and to not make the story
[01:18:03] feel like it just jumps from the start
[01:18:04] to the end too quickly okay so now that
[01:18:07] you have developed your story
[01:18:08] sufficiently and hopefully built for
[01:18:09] yourself a good outline that's going to
[01:18:11] give you a lot of guidance it is time to
[01:18:12] move on to the actual writing of your
[01:18:14] first draft the first thing we need to
[01:18:16] talk about here is how to actually form
[01:18:18] a consistent writing habit that's going
[01:18:19] to help you make rapid progress with
[01:18:21] your first draft and get it done in a
[01:18:23] way where you feel very motivated to
[01:18:24] right it feels fun and the words just
[01:18:26] flow from you effortlessly because
[01:18:28] ideally you want to try to be getting
[01:18:29] your first draft done in a couple of
[01:18:31] months rather than spending years to do
[01:18:33] it it's so much more motivating when you
[01:18:34] know that you're going to be able to
[01:18:35] finish this first draft a few months
[01:18:37] down the line rather than toiling away
[01:18:39] at it for a decade and it gives you more
[01:18:41] opportunity to then have more creative
[01:18:42] energy to come back and do the editing
[01:18:44] which is the really important work as
[01:18:46] far as I'm concerned now one thing I
[01:18:48] want to make sure that you're aware of
[01:18:50] right away is that it is possible to
[01:18:52] improve your writing habits in quite a
[01:18:54] dramatic fashion I got this message from
[01:18:56] Stacy who went through my easy writing
[01:18:57] habits course a little while ago and she
[01:18:59] was saying how you know before she went
[01:19:01] through this course she was averaging
[01:19:02] about 100 words a day and after going
[01:19:05] through this course and you know
[01:19:06] implementing the things that I teach in
[01:19:07] there she is now writing anywhere
[01:19:09] between 1,500 to 2,000 words on her good
[01:19:12] days on her okay days it's around 1,000
[01:19:14] to 1,500 words and on her bad days it's
[01:19:16] around 800 to 1,200 words this is
[01:19:19] awesome and it really goes to show that
[01:19:21] you should not consider your capacity
[01:19:23] for how much you can write in a date to
[01:19:25] be fixed and in this next section of the
[01:19:27] video I'm going to be sharing with you
[01:19:28] the principles that you can be doing to
[01:19:29] get this same kind of transformation
[01:19:31] with your own habits so the first thing
[01:19:33] to be thinking about here is to have the
[01:19:35] right mindset heading into your first
[01:19:36] draft for your first draft your job is
[01:19:38] simply to shovel sand into the sandbox
[01:19:40] it's not to craft these amazing sand
[01:19:42] castles or sculptures out of sand or
[01:19:44] anything like that just get the sand in
[01:19:46] there and then once everything is piled
[01:19:48] in you'll know what to work with that's
[01:19:49] when you can start refining the
[01:19:51] structures that you're creating in there
[01:19:53] the second key component of your mindset
[01:19:55] at this stage of the writing process
[01:19:56] should be to only focus on today's step
[01:19:58] it is so easy as a writer and I've
[01:20:00] fallen into trap this trap many times
[01:20:02] before to focus on you know what's it
[01:20:04] going to be like when this story is
[01:20:06] published or what's the cover going to
[01:20:07] be or what is book four in this series
[01:20:09] going to be about or how many sales can
[01:20:11] this book make or something like that
[01:20:13] and every single time I've fallen into
[01:20:15] the Trap of thinking ahead of thinking
[01:20:17] too far forward of where I actually am
[01:20:20] with the writing process it has just
[01:20:21] hurt me what you have to be doing and
[01:20:23] this applies to you know every writer
[01:20:25] out there no matter whether you're just
[01:20:27] starting out or you're a bit deeper into
[01:20:28] your writing career just focus on
[01:20:31] today's step and in many cases that
[01:20:33] action that you need to take today is
[01:20:34] simply just showing up and writing for
[01:20:37] an hour 2 hours whatever it is that you
[01:20:39] can make doe with in the day just sit
[01:20:41] down get the words down on the page
[01:20:43] don't Focus or worry about anything else
[01:20:45] because the thing is anything can be
[01:20:47] fixed with your story except a blank
[01:20:49] page so you want to end up with not a
[01:20:51] blank page now another key aspect of the
[01:20:53] first draft mindset particular
[01:20:54] particularly if this is the first book
[01:20:56] that you're writing is to really just be
[01:20:57] focusing on this question of how can you
[01:20:59] get 1% better with your writing each day
[01:21:01] so sometimes you'll show up to your
[01:21:02] writing and you'll go today I want to
[01:21:04] write better dialogue I want to make it
[01:21:05] feel more distinctive for every
[01:21:07] character maybe another day you show up
[01:21:09] and you go you know what I want my
[01:21:10] setting descriptions to be less generic
[01:21:12] and less cliched and more immersive and
[01:21:14] more Vivid and more interesting maybe
[01:21:16] you show up another day and you go I'm
[01:21:18] going to try to write in a way where I'm
[01:21:19] not using redundant words and I'm being
[01:21:21] as concise as possible I find that
[01:21:23] setting these little challenges for
[01:21:24] myself these opportunities for
[01:21:26] improvement every day it keeps me
[01:21:27] engaged in the story and if you just
[01:21:29] focus on getting 1% better with your
[01:21:31] writing every day by the end of a year
[01:21:33] you are going to be blown away with how
[01:21:35] much progress you've made the reason why
[01:21:36] I talk about all these mindset
[01:21:38] principles here is that writing
[01:21:39] particularly when you're starting out is
[01:21:41] mostly about just getting the junk words
[01:21:43] out of your system it's a little bit
[01:21:45] like turning on a tap and a bunch of
[01:21:47] Gunk and and crap is just flowing out of
[01:21:49] it and so many riters at this stage of
[01:21:51] the process they'll see the gunk flowing
[01:21:53] out and they'll turn the tap off and
[01:21:54] they think that the tap is broken but if
[01:21:56] you just let the tap flow for a little
[01:21:58] bit longer eventually that Gunk clears
[01:22:00] away and what you get is beautiful clear
[01:22:03] you know great tasting water when you
[01:22:05] are starting out as a riter you just
[01:22:07] have to get the junk out of your system
[01:22:08] and to do that you just need to be
[01:22:10] focusing on volume on consistency on
[01:22:13] showing up every day and putting those
[01:22:14] words down and not worrying really about
[01:22:16] where it's going to go because riding a
[01:22:18] book is like climbing a mountain if
[01:22:20] you're just looking at the peak all the
[01:22:21] time it doesn't feel like you're making
[01:22:23] any progress but if you just focus on
[01:22:25] the next step that you have to take that
[01:22:27] is the way to eventually end up at the
[01:22:28] top so your number one priority right
[01:22:30] now as you're going through the process
[01:22:31] of writing your first draft is simply to
[01:22:33] just be enjoying the process again this
[01:22:36] is the single biggest hack that I know
[01:22:38] of in order to develop effortless
[01:22:40] writing motivation it's to be exploring
[01:22:42] a story that you're just so damn
[01:22:44] passionate about that you can't help
[01:22:46] from sitting down and writing at every
[01:22:47] opportunity you get or you're thinking
[01:22:49] about it when you're driving around or
[01:22:50] going for a walk or in the shower in the
[01:22:52] gym or wherever else it might be in your
[01:22:53] life that is again I strongly recommend
[01:22:56] that you just focus particularly if this
[01:22:58] is your first book you just focus on
[01:23:00] writing a story that you're passionate
[01:23:01] about don't worry about whether it's
[01:23:03] marketable whether other people will
[01:23:04] like it whether it will sell just focus
[01:23:06] on exploring something that's incredibly
[01:23:08] fascinating to you and just Stokes your
[01:23:11] curiosity and your desire to know more
[01:23:13] to put it in the words of The Stormlight
[01:23:15] Archive it's all about focusing on the
[01:23:16] journey before the destination as Rachel
[01:23:18] Aaron says in the end what matters most
[01:23:21] is that you're happy with your own
[01:23:22] writing because contrary to the myth of
[01:23:24] the tortured artist a happy writer will
[01:23:26] always produce more and better than an
[01:23:29] unhappy one one day you're going to look
[01:23:31] back at this process and this stage of
[01:23:33] the writing career that you're in right
[01:23:34] now with fondness pretty much every
[01:23:36] author I've talked to has always looked
[01:23:38] back at their first book with this great
[01:23:41] degree of affection and joy because
[01:23:43] you're discovering so many things and
[01:23:44] the joy of riding is in the figuring it
[01:23:46] out I'm still figuring it out to this
[01:23:48] day but the amount of figuring out that
[01:23:50] you have to do with your first book is
[01:23:51] just astronomical and there's actually a
[01:23:53] lot of joy that comes from that a lot of
[01:23:55] growth a lot of progress a lot of flow
[01:23:57] so again don't Focus here on publication
[01:23:59] don't Focus here on Fame just focus on
[01:24:01] building the identity of a writer and
[01:24:04] learning to love the process and love
[01:24:06] the craft and love the process of
[01:24:08] getting better at the craft okay so with
[01:24:11] that kind of fundamental mindset covered
[01:24:12] let's actually discuss how you can build
[01:24:14] a great writing habit the first thing
[01:24:16] you want to be thinking about is how can
[01:24:18] I find my energy Apex some people great
[01:24:20] first thing in the morning but if they
[01:24:22] try to get any work done after lunch
[01:24:24] they will just be sluggish and falling
[01:24:26] asleep other writers are going to be
[01:24:28] much more night hours and this is
[01:24:30] something where you just need to
[01:24:31] experiment with writing at lots of
[01:24:33] different times of the day lots of
[01:24:34] different places and contexts as well
[01:24:36] because it's going to take a little
[01:24:37] while to find the sweet spot for what
[01:24:40] produces the best result for you I know
[01:24:42] when I was starting out as a writer
[01:24:43] earlier on like when I was writing
[01:24:46] across the broken stars for instance you
[01:24:47] know I would write from like 10:00 p.m.
[01:24:49] through to 2:00 a.m. in the morning and
[01:24:51] I would just get on these incredible
[01:24:53] kind of late night session where I would
[01:24:55] just be immersed in the story and i' be
[01:24:56] very uninhibited and I would just go
[01:24:58] from there I could probably do that at
[01:25:00] the time cuz I was a 19-year-old student
[01:25:01] you know studying overseas in London but
[01:25:03] these days I'm much more of an early
[01:25:05] morning writer and I find that if I
[01:25:07] don't do my writing first thing in the
[01:25:08] morning it's much harder to then come by
[01:25:10] it later in the day you also want to be
[01:25:11] treating yourself here as a mental or
[01:25:13] creative athlete athletes do everything
[01:25:16] they can to optimize their life outside
[01:25:18] of the actual playing of their sport in
[01:25:20] order to make sure that their games can
[01:25:22] be as good as possible and one one of
[01:25:24] the biggest levers that you can be
[01:25:25] pulling here is sleep to quote from Dr
[01:25:28] Matthew Walker sleep is the greatest
[01:25:30] legal performance-enhancing drug that
[01:25:32] few athletes are abusing enough if
[01:25:34] you're struggling to make progress with
[01:25:35] your writing it could just be that
[01:25:37] you're not getting enough high quality
[01:25:39] sleep right now the next thing to be
[01:25:40] thinking about here is to try to aim for
[01:25:42] daily writing as much as possible when
[01:25:44] you work on your story every day even if
[01:25:45] it is as little as like five sentences
[01:25:48] or 50 words or whatever it is it just
[01:25:50] keeps the story lodged in your
[01:25:52] subconscious and it means that as you go
[01:25:54] about your tasks in between your writing
[01:25:55] sessions you are going to be percolating
[01:25:57] this story over in your mind and your
[01:25:59] subconscious is going to be bubbling up
[01:26:01] with all sorts of great ideas and
[01:26:03] insights and cool character moments and
[01:26:05] scenes and all that good stuff I find
[01:26:07] that when I go a few days between
[01:26:08] writing it's much less likely for me to
[01:26:10] get hit with this kind of creative
[01:26:12] Epiphany and on the occasion where you
[01:26:14] might have to skip a day because
[01:26:15] sometimes life happens and you can't
[01:26:16] write every single day just try to have
[01:26:18] this mentality of no two skip days you
[01:26:21] know you missed a day's writing today
[01:26:23] okay I'm going to get back at it
[01:26:24] tomorrow and I'm going to try to write
[01:26:26] first thing in the morning even if I
[01:26:27] just get a couple of words down while my
[01:26:29] coffee is brewing or whatever it is it's
[01:26:31] just going to make sure that I'm not
[01:26:32] skipping 2 days in a row because the
[01:26:34] thing is once you skip 2 days in a row
[01:26:36] it's very easy to skip three four five
[01:26:38] and then before you know it a whole
[01:26:39] week's gone by you've lost track of
[01:26:41] where you are in the story and you're
[01:26:43] not really making a lot of progress
[01:26:44] let's dig even deeper into the science
[01:26:46] of habit formation so an atomic Habits
[01:26:48] by James Clear he talks about this sort
[01:26:50] of four-stage loop that creates and
[01:26:53] maintains habits in our life
[01:26:54] now in terms of creating a positive
[01:26:56] habit these are the four stages right
[01:26:58] here so you can see we've got Q craving
[01:27:00] response reward for the queue you want
[01:27:03] to make it obvious so that it's easy to
[01:27:04] start the habit for the craving you want
[01:27:06] to make the Habit attractive for you to
[01:27:08] do for the response you want to make it
[01:27:10] easy to do the Habit it's a lot easier
[01:27:12] to go for a 5 minute run than it is to
[01:27:14] go for a 2hour run for example and then
[01:27:16] the reward involves trying to make it as
[01:27:18] satisfying as possible that creates this
[01:27:20] Loop that hopefully reinforces itself
[01:27:22] over time and makes it easier and EAS
[01:27:24] iier to perform this habit so in the
[01:27:25] case of writing for the que you would
[01:27:27] want to be thinking about like how do I
[01:27:28] make it obvious for me to do my writing
[01:27:30] every day maybe that means you know
[01:27:32] printing off a map of where your story
[01:27:34] takes place having that up somewhere in
[01:27:36] your house so you're always sort of
[01:27:37] thinking about your story maybe you draw
[01:27:39] some artwork about your characters or
[01:27:41] you just have some you know materials
[01:27:42] around that inspire you to begin the
[01:27:44] writing process in terms of the craving
[01:27:46] to make it attractive for yourself you
[01:27:48] want to be asking what can I be doing to
[01:27:50] make today's writing session as fun as
[01:27:52] possible you want to be focusing on what
[01:27:53] it about the scenes you're writing today
[01:27:55] that's going to be fun to explore maybe
[01:27:57] it's the first time that these two
[01:27:59] characters meet each other or maybe
[01:28:00] you're going to have some great witty
[01:28:02] dialogue in there or perhaps this is
[01:28:03] going to be a demonstration of your cool
[01:28:05] magic system that you've not been able
[01:28:06] to write before focus on how you can
[01:28:09] make your writing as attractive as it
[01:28:10] possibly can be every single day for the
[01:28:12] response you want to make it Easy by
[01:28:14] following what I call the 5 minute rule
[01:28:17] so if you tell yourself hey I have to
[01:28:19] sit down today and write 10,000 words or
[01:28:21] I'm a failure that's pretty hard and in
[01:28:24] most cases the difficulty of that is
[01:28:26] probably going to just stop you from
[01:28:27] beginning in the first place but if you
[01:28:29] follow the 5- minute rule of just saying
[01:28:31] look I'm going to sit down for 5 minutes
[01:28:32] I'm going to open up my word document
[01:28:34] I'm going to just read through what I've
[01:28:35] done so far maybe type out a few
[01:28:37] sentences and then if I want to I can
[01:28:39] stop right there in most cases if you do
[01:28:42] that you actually kind of trick yourself
[01:28:44] into now being motivated to write
[01:28:46] because the thing is a lot of people
[01:28:47] think that you need motivation to
[01:28:50] perform an action what I have actually
[01:28:52] found from having written you know 1.2
[01:28:54] million words over the last 12 years is
[01:28:56] that action creates motivation and 50%
[01:28:59] of the difficulty with writing is simply
[01:29:01] just sitting down and starting once you
[01:29:03] get that first sentence down you have
[01:29:05] overcome 50% of the challenge that
[01:29:07] you're going to face for that day's
[01:29:08] writing session and it becomes so much
[01:29:09] easier to just keep going forward from
[01:29:11] that point and then in terms of the
[01:29:12] reward which is all about trying to make
[01:29:14] it satisfying so that you create this
[01:29:15] positive feedback loop for yourself a
[01:29:17] lot of writers just have the reward of
[01:29:19] you know finishing the first draft or
[01:29:21] maybe you know getting it published
[01:29:22] later on for example I like to think
[01:29:24] about how can I bring the reward forward
[01:29:26] into my present as much as possible and
[01:29:28] chunk it up so that I'm not just having
[01:29:29] this one big reward at the end but I'm
[01:29:31] actually having lots of little wins
[01:29:33] throughout the process so to do this I
[01:29:35] like to track my word counts every day
[01:29:37] in a spreadsheet I've been doing this
[01:29:38] since 2018 and I basically just write
[01:29:41] down how many words I wrote each day how
[01:29:43] long I spent on my writing and if I
[01:29:45] spent any time you know editing or
[01:29:46] outlining as well I also include that in
[01:29:48] there too and it just sort of gamifies
[01:29:50] the process it makes it so much easier
[01:29:52] to be motivated because you're able to
[01:29:53] see the these little winds stack up day
[01:29:55] in and day out and you create this sort
[01:29:57] of chain of consistent days where you've
[01:29:59] ridden every single day in a row and if
[01:30:00] you've never tracked your word counts
[01:30:02] before I think you'll be shocked at how
[01:30:04] much of a difference it makes to your
[01:30:05] motivation and to how fast you will
[01:30:07] progress with your writing for example
[01:30:08] here is a check-in post from Jack Harris
[01:30:10] who is one of the members of the fantasy
[01:30:12] Writers Guild my accountability and
[01:30:14] support Community for Fantasy writers
[01:30:16] and you can see here in his first week
[01:30:17] inside the guild he wrote a total of
[01:30:19] 8,800 words in his first week which is
[01:30:22] pretty good and one of the things we
[01:30:23] actually do inside the gu is every
[01:30:24] Sunday we do a check-in post where we
[01:30:26] basically share what our progress has
[01:30:28] been like with our writing this past
[01:30:29] week so you can see here the second week
[01:30:31] that he was in The Guild Jack wrote
[01:30:33] 11,000 words so you know he's adding
[01:30:35] about 2 or 3,000 extra words here and
[01:30:37] then in his third week he wrote a
[01:30:38] whopping 21,000 words that week and I
[01:30:41] don't actually have the screenshots here
[01:30:42] but in his first 5 weeks inside the
[01:30:44] guild he wrote around 70,000 words of
[01:30:46] his novel and this is particularly
[01:30:47] impressive considering he just started
[01:30:49] writing his first story late last year
[01:30:51] he's never written anything before so I
[01:30:52] actually pulled him onto a Zoom call and
[01:30:54] asked him how he's been a to use the
[01:30:56] guild to make so much progress as a new
[01:30:58] writer and here's what he said
[01:30:59] accountability is just a huge part of it
[01:31:02] I I recognized that I was just riding in
[01:31:04] a vacuum before looking at this like I
[01:31:06] said I wanted to be wise about the whole
[01:31:07] thing I need to Define myself a
[01:31:09] community being part of the community
[01:31:11] has just been huge it's been very
[01:31:12] supportive I I love the interactions I
[01:31:15] I'm kind of feel like a sponge just
[01:31:16] absorbing what I'm getting there it's a
[01:31:18] delight when you talk about the joy of
[01:31:20] writing it's just enhanced it for me
[01:31:22] inside the guild we've built an
[01:31:23] accountability method that helps our
[01:31:25] writers be more productive and to not
[01:31:27] just write faster but to also be writing
[01:31:29] better stories and to be writing with
[01:31:30] more joy as well we've even built a peer
[01:31:32] feedback system inside the guild as well
[01:31:34] which lets you get really useful
[01:31:36] critiques and edits on your writing from
[01:31:37] your fellow Guild members to help you
[01:31:39] improve your story and all this has led
[01:31:41] to amazing results like Arwin who
[01:31:43] finished his first draft of 107,000
[01:31:45] words or Cole who recently crossed over
[01:31:47] the 50,000 word Mark of his story or
[01:31:50] Beth who met her daily writing goal 52
[01:31:52] days in a row while being inside the
[01:31:54] or Jonathan who has found his incentive
[01:31:56] to write has gone way up because he now
[01:31:58] has so many more new sources of
[01:32:00] inspiration and feedback from the other
[01:32:01] members it's really showing me that
[01:32:03] finding the right Community is like
[01:32:05] activating a cheat code for your writing
[01:32:06] so if you would like to join us in the
[01:32:08] guild Community then go to jar.com Guild
[01:32:11] to apply okay so as you're going through
[01:32:13] the process of writing your first draft
[01:32:15] there's probably going to be a time
[01:32:16] where you feel stuck you just feel like
[01:32:18] you can't make progress with your story
[01:32:20] and you start to feel a bit frustrated
[01:32:22] about the book you're working on here
[01:32:24] are the ways that I get out of this
[01:32:25] situation when I faced it before because
[01:32:27] there have been so many times over you
[01:32:29] know the 12 years I've been writing
[01:32:30] where I've just not felt like the words
[01:32:32] were flowing the first thing I do is I
[01:32:34] re outline I look at where the story you
[01:32:37] know is heading at this stage and I ask
[01:32:39] myself is that the right direction for
[01:32:41] things or do I need to shift them into
[01:32:43] another Direction entirely I also try to
[01:32:45] Workshop my ideas with other fellow
[01:32:47] writers again that's something that's
[01:32:48] really cool about the guild is you've
[01:32:50] got this community of other writers
[01:32:51] around you so that you can you know
[01:32:53] quickly get feedback on different ideas
[01:32:55] and different directions for your story
[01:32:56] and sometimes it's just through the act
[01:32:58] of actually explaining your problem that
[01:33:00] you're facing to other writers that
[01:33:02] leads to these really good breakthroughs
[01:33:04] and unlocks so one of the things we do
[01:33:05] in the guild is we actually have a
[01:33:07] private weekly podcast where people uh
[01:33:09] basically send in their writing
[01:33:10] questions to me and I answer them every
[01:33:12] week and I've actually found multiple
[01:33:14] instances now of writers who have sent
[01:33:16] in their question to me I answer on the
[01:33:18] podcast and they go you know that was a
[01:33:20] really useful answer but I kind of feel
[01:33:22] like just asking you the question help
[01:33:24] me fix it and it's no longer an issue
[01:33:26] for me right now the other thing you can
[01:33:27] be applying and this is more on a scene
[01:33:29] by scene level so if you find yourself
[01:33:31] you know going to write a scene and
[01:33:32] that's just not that interesting or it's
[01:33:33] just not that motivating to you ask
[01:33:35] yourself this question which I got from
[01:33:37] Peter Armstrong who is one of Brandon
[01:33:39] serson editors why will this scene be
[01:33:42] somebody's favorite scene so for example
[01:33:44] you know in Kingdom of Dragons there was
[01:33:47] a sequence where Zora and her baby
[01:33:49] dragon dapple along with Zora's
[01:33:52] boyfriend at this time in the story
[01:33:53] mother are basically going on a boat
[01:33:55] between this sort of tropical island
[01:33:57] nation back to their homeland of Alaya
[01:33:59] and this was sort of a necessary
[01:34:01] transition scene to have in the story
[01:34:03] but when I was initially thinking about
[01:34:05] it I wasn't you know so enthused about
[01:34:08] it I was like ah it's just kind of a
[01:34:09] travel sequence it just needs to be
[01:34:12] there but I'm not really feeling too
[01:34:14] jazzed about it and I stopped myself
[01:34:16] right and I said no no no no no hang on
[01:34:18] a second there's got to be something
[01:34:19] about this scene that makes it really
[01:34:21] really fun both for you to write and for
[01:34:23] other people to read so I sort of sat
[01:34:25] down and I was thinking about it and I
[01:34:27] went this is actually a really rare
[01:34:30] moment where Zora is just able have like
[01:34:32] a bit of happiness and carefreeness with
[01:34:35] with dapple and with her sort of love
[01:34:37] interest mson at the time in the story
[01:34:39] and you know it's an opportunity for us
[01:34:41] to just be playing and to be like what a
[01:34:44] cool adventure where on you know we've
[01:34:45] got a baby dragon here we're sailing
[01:34:47] across the seas maybe Zora and mson are
[01:34:49] doing a bit of training on the ship
[01:34:50] because they're Rangers apprentices and
[01:34:52] their gr master Withers is there you
[01:34:55] know taking them through their paces and
[01:34:56] then I decided to kind of come up with
[01:34:58] this idea of well what happens if like a
[01:35:00] storm you know capsizes the boat and and
[01:35:02] zor and mson are throwing off and they
[01:35:03] have to you know try to get back to the
[01:35:05] boat and everything and all of a sudden
[01:35:06] this scene that initially just felt like
[01:35:08] a bit of filler it turned into one of my
[01:35:10] favorite scenes from the story and I
[01:35:12] think that when you read through it and
[01:35:14] you know it's something that happens in
[01:35:15] the first few chapters of the book you
[01:35:16] sense that Joy come across and it
[01:35:18] actually feels like a really you know
[01:35:21] enjoyable scene to experience so you can
[01:35:23] see like how much I'm lighting up as I
[01:35:24] talk about this idea right and so you
[01:35:26] can really see like that's the power of
[01:35:27] this question right it takes a scene
[01:35:29] that maybe feels a little bit boring and
[01:35:31] you tell yourself no no no no no there's
[01:35:33] going to be something I do in this scene
[01:35:34] that makes it a really standout moment
[01:35:37] for one reader it might not be for every
[01:35:38] reader but how can I Infuse something
[01:35:41] here that makes it more interesting for
[01:35:43] me to write the next question to be
[01:35:44] asking yourself if you've sort of gone
[01:35:46] through these first three steps and you
[01:35:47] still feel a little bit blocked is does
[01:35:49] this block actually reveal a problem so
[01:35:52] I like to kind of believe believe that
[01:35:53] rers block doesn't exist I think that if
[01:35:56] you give rers block too much power and
[01:35:58] you think that this concept really
[01:36:00] exists out there it doesn't really have
[01:36:02] any positive benefit for you it just
[01:36:04] kind of means that sometimes you feel
[01:36:05] like you've been struck down by this
[01:36:07] Supernatural entity which I don't think
[01:36:09] is useful at all I like to think about
[01:36:10] writing as a very nuts and bolts you
[01:36:13] know crafting thing a plumber doesn't
[01:36:15] get plumbers block where they're like
[01:36:16] you know what I'm not feeling that
[01:36:17] motivated to declog this toilet today
[01:36:19] they just rock up and they fix the
[01:36:21] problem and they continue on with their
[01:36:22] life I think
[01:36:24] more useful than thinking about writers
[01:36:25] block is actually split it out into
[01:36:27] these three different categories of plot
[01:36:28] block energy block or life block so plot
[01:36:31] block is like you're not feeling excited
[01:36:33] to move forward with the story and it's
[01:36:35] not that you facing rers block this sort
[01:36:37] of nebulous you know spiritual concept
[01:36:39] it's probably that your subconscious
[01:36:41] recognizes that there's something wrong
[01:36:43] in the story and that if you keep moving
[01:36:45] forward you're just going to create more
[01:36:46] problems for you to solve later on and
[01:36:49] you're going to end up having to rewrite
[01:36:50] it anyway so whenever you face these
[01:36:52] moments in your story
[01:36:54] and heck I literally had one of these
[01:36:55] moments the other day right where I'm
[01:36:57] currently through the process of writing
[01:36:59] the sequel to Kingdom of Dragons I'm
[01:37:00] about 90% of the way through the first
[01:37:02] draft of Sor of the sun which is book
[01:37:04] two in this series and I just found
[01:37:06] myself feeling really resistant to a
[01:37:08] couple of scenes I was writing leading
[01:37:09] up to the final climactic battle and I
[01:37:12] realized oh it's because you're forcing
[01:37:15] this character to do something that
[01:37:17] makes no sense for her it doesn't have
[01:37:19] any consistency with her personality
[01:37:22] traits that you've established before
[01:37:23] before it doesn't really work with her
[01:37:25] Arc that's why you feel resistant so
[01:37:26] I've actually changed that scene around
[01:37:28] a little bit recently and yesterday when
[01:37:29] I was writing it through I just had a
[01:37:31] big grit on my face cuz I was like oh
[01:37:33] yes this dialogue it's flowing so much
[01:37:35] better this character is being you know
[01:37:37] her usual kind of witty Snappy like kind
[01:37:40] of lowkey evil self and it was just so
[01:37:43] much more fun to write the next type of
[01:37:45] block is energy block so doesn't really
[01:37:47] matter how talented you are as a writer
[01:37:49] if you're running on like 2 hours of
[01:37:51] sleep and you're wondering why the
[01:37:52] writing isn't flowing it's probably
[01:37:54] because you got 2 hours of sleep so just
[01:37:56] assess that and ask yourself well am I
[01:37:58] really facing a blockage in my story or
[01:38:00] do I just need to get some rest and to
[01:38:02] get some new nutrition in the other kind
[01:38:04] of block is a life block this one's a
[01:38:05] little bit harder but I have found for
[01:38:07] me personally and for other writers I've
[01:38:08] talked to you know sometimes stuff comes
[01:38:10] up in your life where you just need to
[01:38:12] process that or you need to engage with
[01:38:14] that first and it's difficult to
[01:38:16] actually do a creative project outside
[01:38:18] of it whether it is you know the the
[01:38:20] loss of a loved one or maybe you've lost
[01:38:22] your job and and maybe you're going
[01:38:24] through some kind of heal thing at the
[01:38:25] moment sometimes you actually just need
[01:38:27] to focus on that first in order to get
[01:38:29] yourself into the right mental head
[01:38:30] space to write and then the last thing
[01:38:32] of all of these approaches fail is to be
[01:38:35] reconnecting with your sources of
[01:38:36] inspiration so you know whatever book it
[01:38:38] is you're working on right now there's
[01:38:40] probably some things that inspired you
[01:38:42] to write that book go back to those
[01:38:44] Source materials whether it is you know
[01:38:46] a book you read as a kid or whether it's
[01:38:48] a movie that was really inspirational to
[01:38:49] you and just try to reconnect with your
[01:38:52] joy for what made that story great often
[01:38:54] that's going to give you the clues you
[01:38:55] need to burst through the particular
[01:38:57] blockage that you're facing right now
[01:38:59] and continue on with writing the first
[01:39:00] draft and then the last thing I would
[01:39:02] say about this phenomenon of feeling
[01:39:03] stuck is that you know if you're 20,000
[01:39:06] words into your novel 30,000 words into
[01:39:07] it or whatever it is and you're thinking
[01:39:09] about giving up I really strongly
[01:39:11] encourage you to just push through to
[01:39:13] completion for your first novel you are
[01:39:15] going to learn so much more from
[01:39:17] finishing a crappy 80,000 word novel and
[01:39:20] then learning from that maybe moving on
[01:39:22] to another project rather than like
[01:39:24] starting and stopping five half complete
[01:39:28] novels in the same time and again this
[01:39:29] is why I really do strongly suggest that
[01:39:31] you pick a relatively easy and small
[01:39:34] scope for your first story to make it
[01:39:36] easier to push through those moments of
[01:39:38] blockages the blocks you're going to
[01:39:39] face on a 200,000 word fantasy epic that
[01:39:41] is the start of like a 10 book series
[01:39:44] they're probably going to be far more
[01:39:45] substantial and harder to overcome
[01:39:46] rather than the blocks you might face
[01:39:48] you know writing something like across
[01:39:49] thebroken Stars which is one point of
[01:39:51] view character a standalone story 80,000
[01:39:54] words again think about how you can rig
[01:39:56] the game to make it easy rig the game to
[01:39:59] put the odds in your favor so for some
[01:40:00] more tips here to make the first draft
[01:40:02] writing process a bit easier I like to
[01:40:04] start each day each day's writing
[01:40:06] session with a writer brief so this is
[01:40:08] basically where you know you'll just
[01:40:09] grab just grab a notebook a piece of
[01:40:11] paper whatever it is and you'll just jot
[01:40:13] down here are the bullet points for what
[01:40:15] I'm going to try to achieve with my
[01:40:16] writing today you know character does
[01:40:18] this then this happens maybe there's a
[01:40:20] line of dialogue in there just giving
[01:40:22] yourself a few minutes to sort of sort
[01:40:23] of warm up and to note down what you're
[01:40:25] going to write that day even if you
[01:40:27] already have a very strong outline I
[01:40:29] find it so useful and it just saves me a
[01:40:31] lot of staring at the screen blankly
[01:40:33] trying to figure out what I'm going to
[01:40:34] write the next tip is to try to end each
[01:40:36] day's writing session before you exhaust
[01:40:38] your ideas so there's this great quote
[01:40:40] here from Ernest Hemingway where he says
[01:40:41] always stop while you are going good and
[01:40:43] don't think about it or worry about it
[01:40:45] until you start to write the next day
[01:40:46] that way your subconscious will work on
[01:40:48] it all the time but if you think about
[01:40:50] it consciously or worry about it you
[01:40:51] will kill it and your brain will be
[01:40:52] tired before you start so what he's sort
[01:40:54] of talking about here is this practice
[01:40:56] of you know rather than writing until
[01:40:58] the end of your ideas try to stop a
[01:41:01] little bit before that so something I do
[01:41:03] on a very tactical level and it's a bit
[01:41:05] of a weird habit but I've found it very
[01:41:06] useful for other writers out there is
[01:41:08] I'll literally finish like halfway
[01:41:10] through a word or halfway through a
[01:41:11] sentence and I'll know where the next
[01:41:13] couple of sentences are going so the
[01:41:15] next day I can come back I can sit down
[01:41:17] I can immediately finish that sentence
[01:41:19] and I feel like I've got this instant
[01:41:20] sense of momentum with my writing and
[01:41:23] then it's it's also worthwhile noting
[01:41:24] that your first draft doesn't have to do
[01:41:26] everything at once there was a great
[01:41:28] post from Timothy who's one of the
[01:41:29] members of my fantasy Writers Guild the
[01:41:31] other day where he was describing his
[01:41:33] approach where he would typically write
[01:41:35] and just focus on the dialogue in his
[01:41:37] first draft he called it kind of
[01:41:38] scripting and he basically said you know
[01:41:40] I would just focus on getting the
[01:41:41] dialogue down and then I KN know that I
[01:41:43] would come back in my second or third
[01:41:45] draft and you know work the descriptions
[01:41:47] or the action around that and it's a way
[01:41:49] of sort of just quickly getting his
[01:41:50] ideas down onto the page I've actually
[01:41:52] done something very similar to this
[01:41:53] myself in the past so when I was writing
[01:41:55] the first draft of Kingdom of Dragons
[01:41:57] there's a whole subplot in this where
[01:41:58] Roven who is the the spy who steals a
[01:42:00] dragon egg to infiltrate alium the
[01:42:02] floating city of the Dragon Riders to
[01:42:04] destroy it from within I knew that I
[01:42:06] wanted him to be communicating with his
[01:42:08] master um a guy called aridan who was
[01:42:10] sort of the emperor of this other nation
[01:42:12] and I was going to have this sort of
[01:42:13] system where they would communicate to
[01:42:15] each other by using this this token or
[01:42:17] this amulet that takes them into a
[01:42:19] shared vision of the past and I wanted
[01:42:21] these visions of the past to kind of
[01:42:23] convey the worldbuilding of my story and
[01:42:25] to explain some important law that had
[01:42:27] happened 700 years prior to the events
[01:42:30] of the actual Kingdom of Dragons book
[01:42:32] itself but when I was writing the first
[01:42:34] draft in those scenes where it was Roven
[01:42:36] and arent inside the Visions I just
[01:42:38] focused on their dialogue that was it
[01:42:40] cuz I didn't exactly know how many of
[01:42:42] these scenes there were going to be even
[01:42:44] though I was outlining things you know
[01:42:45] sometimes I would realize oh it makes
[01:42:47] sense for Ren and aridan to have another
[01:42:49] conversation here or whatever and I just
[01:42:51] wanted to focus on nailing that dialogue
[01:42:53] and getting that conversation and the
[01:42:55] tension right then in my second draft
[01:42:57] actually went back through I counted up
[01:42:59] all these scenes that were in the vision
[01:43:00] and I outlined a little almost mini
[01:43:02] Nolla that takes place in these Visions
[01:43:05] where it would sort of show this
[01:43:06] background story of these eldrich Gods
[01:43:09] who had controlled the world prior to
[01:43:12] the Dragon Riders and the sun wardens
[01:43:14] coming onto the scene um and it was a
[01:43:16] really fun thing to write because it
[01:43:18] allowed me to sort of Infuse this
[01:43:20] element of World building and history
[01:43:22] into the background in in a way that
[01:43:23] made these conversation sces far more
[01:43:26] interesting and I I would posit that
[01:43:27] many people when they go back and reread
[01:43:29] this book they'll probably find a lot of
[01:43:31] new details and a lot of Easter eggs
[01:43:33] contained in those sequences and so what
[01:43:35] you can see there is I didn't focus on
[01:43:37] doing everything at once in my first
[01:43:38] draft I realized that look I'm going to
[01:43:40] have multiple drafts later down the line
[01:43:43] and we're going to talk about editing
[01:43:44] later in this video as well but it just
[01:43:46] takes the pressure off a little bit it
[01:43:48] means that you're not feeling so
[01:43:49] constrained by having to achieve all
[01:43:51] these different things at once you you
[01:43:53] can just focus on getting the bones of
[01:43:54] your story down first and then come back
[01:43:56] in and add some more richness and more
[01:43:59] layers to it later on the other tip I
[01:44:01] would have here is to try to write at
[01:44:02] full intensity what do I mean by that
[01:44:05] well I like to think about your writing
[01:44:07] intensity as something that increases
[01:44:08] when you're physically typing faster so
[01:44:10] more words are actually coming out onto
[01:44:12] the keyboard every minute when you're
[01:44:14] more focused you're generally more
[01:44:15] intense if you're like you know just
[01:44:17] staring at your computer screen and
[01:44:18] there's a blank wall behind rather than
[01:44:20] if you're in a busy Cafe and there's
[01:44:21] tons of stuff going on around you
[01:44:23] when you also have more story knowledge
[01:44:25] more knowledge of what's going to happen
[01:44:26] in your plot that helps you increase
[01:44:28] your intensity as well and when you're
[01:44:30] focusing on the things that you enjoy
[01:44:31] about your writing that also helps with
[01:44:33] your intensity factor when you don't
[01:44:35] stop to Tinker and change and edit
[01:44:37] things in your story as you go along
[01:44:39] that also ramps up your intensity and
[01:44:41] using placeholders is another method as
[01:44:43] well to boost the intensity of your
[01:44:45] writing so rather than sitting there for
[01:44:47] 20 minutes trying to think up the
[01:44:48] perfect character name just use
[01:44:50] placeholders you can see here I use
[01:44:51] these curly brackets a lot to basically
[01:44:53] just put in a placeholder for a
[01:44:55] character's name then later on when
[01:44:56] you're editing you can do control find
[01:44:58] in word or whatever other program you're
[01:45:00] using and you can come back through and
[01:45:02] change those later on I think in the
[01:45:04] first draft for Kingdom of Dragons I had
[01:45:05] something like 200 placeholders in there
[01:45:07] so you know it was probably a few hours
[01:45:09] of editing where I went back and
[01:45:10] actually fixed them but it meant that I
[01:45:12] could write in a far more liberated way
[01:45:14] in my first draft now the reason why
[01:45:17] intensity is so important here is
[01:45:18] because I'm a firm believer that writing
[01:45:21] at 100% intensity so you know you're
[01:45:23] typing as fast as you can you're focused
[01:45:25] you've got lots of knowledge of your
[01:45:26] story you're not distracted typing at
[01:45:28] full intensity for 20 minutes writing at
[01:45:30] full intensity for 20 minutes I should
[01:45:32] say is so much better than 60 Minutes at
[01:45:34] 20% intensity So 20% intensity looks
[01:45:37] like you know you're doing a bit of
[01:45:38] writing here but then every few minutes
[01:45:39] you check your phone and then you Google
[01:45:41] something random on the internet maybe
[01:45:43] you look at your emails you go off and
[01:45:44] make food or whatever that is a hard
[01:45:47] place to be productive there are some
[01:45:49] people where that's probably right and
[01:45:50] maybe that is useful for you but in my
[01:45:52] experience I write so much better when I
[01:45:54] just try to fully lock in and even if
[01:45:56] that means I have a smaller amount of
[01:45:59] actual writing time I think it's a
[01:46:01] better approach because the thing is
[01:46:02] over time the duration that you'll be
[01:46:04] able to maintain your full intensity is
[01:46:07] going to be increasing here but you
[01:46:08] really just want to be optimizing for
[01:46:09] attendance first and I know you might be
[01:46:11] thinking right now that like oh well if
[01:46:12] I write fast that reduces the quality in
[01:46:15] my experience that has not been the case
[01:46:17] I've found that the scenes I've ridden
[01:46:19] you know the ones where I've needed the
[01:46:21] least amount of editing and they've been
[01:46:23] the most fun to write and they have
[01:46:24] revealed the best things about my
[01:46:25] character and moved the story forward in
[01:46:27] the best way possible they have usually
[01:46:29] come when I'm writing really fast
[01:46:31] because there's just something that kind
[01:46:32] of unlocks the inhibitions in your brain
[01:46:34] when you're writing fast and the story
[01:46:36] feels like it's flowing out of you
[01:46:38] sometimes when you go too slowly you're
[01:46:39] sort of picking your way over every
[01:46:41] single word and you're really thinking
[01:46:43] about things and it feels a little tight
[01:46:46] it doesn't feel organic or natural as it
[01:46:49] does when you write with full intensity
[01:46:51] and with full speed and then the last
[01:46:52] thing say when it comes to writing your
[01:46:54] first draft here and you know obviously
[01:46:55] there's a lot of other technical stuff
[01:46:57] as well that I cover in my videos too
[01:46:58] like how to write good dialogue or pros
[01:47:00] and all that sort of thing as well but
[01:47:02] in terms of the sort of habits and the
[01:47:04] mindset when it comes to writing your
[01:47:05] first draft here you just need to keep
[01:47:07] going that's all it really comes down to
[01:47:09] here if you think about writing an
[01:47:10] 80,000 word story so you know that is
[01:47:12] pretty much exactly the length of across
[01:47:14] the broken Stars I think it's what is it
[01:47:16] work out to be in total it works out to
[01:47:18] be about 350 pages in this book an
[01:47:20] 880,000 words story if you just write
[01:47:23] 500 words per day you are going to have
[01:47:25] your first draft done in under half a
[01:47:27] year if you write 1,000 words per day
[01:47:30] you're going to have your first draft
[01:47:31] done in under 3 months so to quote from
[01:47:33] confucious here it does not matter how
[01:47:34] slowly you go as long as you do not stop
[01:47:37] all righty it is now time to move on to
[01:47:38] the fourth and final stage when it comes
[01:47:40] to writing your fantasy novel and that
[01:47:42] is the editing stage this is absolutely
[01:47:44] critical to get right writing in my mind
[01:47:47] is more about rewriting and it's in
[01:47:49] revision that you really get to shape
[01:47:50] the story and turn it into its best
[01:47:52] possible possible form so when it comes
[01:47:54] to editing the key principle you want to
[01:47:55] follow here is to work from the biggest
[01:47:58] changes first to the smallest changes
[01:48:00] you want to avoid coming in and you know
[01:48:02] tweaking around with the sentences or
[01:48:04] polishing up some dialogue and doing
[01:48:06] that for a couple of weeks and then
[01:48:08] realizing oh wait I actually need to cut
[01:48:10] out these five chapters from the story
[01:48:12] which I've just spent all this time
[01:48:13] polishing the pros on you don't want to
[01:48:15] be rearranging deck chairs on the
[01:48:17] Titanic you want to be coming in and
[01:48:19] identifying what are the biggest
[01:48:21] problems to solve in this story first
[01:48:23] then solve those and then drill down
[01:48:24] into the smaller issues as you get
[01:48:26] deeper into the editing process so my
[01:48:28] editing process is something that has
[01:48:29] evolved a lot over the years and
[01:48:31] continues to evolve and be different
[01:48:32] from story to story but generally I like
[01:48:34] to begin by letting the story rest after
[01:48:37] I finish the first draft I'll give it a
[01:48:38] few weeks and in that time I'll ideally
[01:48:41] try to go work on something else maybe
[01:48:42] it's a short Nolla I've actually written
[01:48:45] a bunch of short novellas and short
[01:48:47] stories between my major books so if you
[01:48:50] go to my website you can actually read
[01:48:51] those all for free you know I've got a
[01:48:53] little prequel to fires of the Dead for
[01:48:56] example I've got a little prequel to The
[01:48:57] Thunder Heist and I've even got a little
[01:48:59] prequel to Across the broken Stars I
[01:49:02] don't have anything at this stage that
[01:49:03] is a sort of Side Story to Kingdom of
[01:49:05] Dragons but I might write that at some
[01:49:07] point in the future and I find that it's
[01:49:09] really nice to just do a little pallet
[01:49:10] cleanse and you know write something
[01:49:12] else whether it is a short story that's
[01:49:14] set earlier than my book or whether it's
[01:49:16] working on a completely different
[01:49:17] project instead then what I will do is I
[01:49:19] will read the entire story and take
[01:49:21] notes I like to actually try to print
[01:49:23] off my story if I can or at the very
[01:49:26] least transfer it onto my Kindle and
[01:49:28] read it on there basically not read it
[01:49:30] on the screen that I wrote it on because
[01:49:32] it just helps to create a layer of
[01:49:34] objectivity and helps me look at the
[01:49:36] story with much clearer eyes once I've
[01:49:38] gone through and I've taken all those
[01:49:39] notes I will then work on my second
[01:49:41] draft the focus here is on Big Picture
[01:49:43] structural fixes you know things like
[01:49:45] the character arcs or whether these
[01:49:47] chapters need to be rearranged or if new
[01:49:49] scenes need to be written or that sort
[01:49:50] of thing the third draft is all about
[01:49:52] specific editing passes I'll get into
[01:49:54] that in a little bit more detail later
[01:49:55] on and usually at this stage this is
[01:49:57] when I will then open it up and give it
[01:49:59] to early readers to look at I'll talk
[01:50:01] about my early reader process in a bit
[01:50:03] once I've got their feedback I'm going
[01:50:04] to be incorporating that into my fourth
[01:50:06] draft and then I will usually be trying
[01:50:08] to hire a pro editor at this point in
[01:50:10] order to do the last big tweaks in the
[01:50:12] story before my fifth draft which is
[01:50:14] looking at the final polishes the you
[01:50:17] know word smithing trying to make the
[01:50:18] pros as nice as possible and all of that
[01:50:21] fun sort of polishing up stuff so I'm
[01:50:23] going to go through these steps in a
[01:50:24] little bit more detail here so in terms
[01:50:25] of actually making the notes on my first
[01:50:27] draft here what you really want to be
[01:50:29] thinking about is how can I trick my
[01:50:31] brain into thinking that I did not write
[01:50:33] this thing so what I like to do to
[01:50:34] achieve this is to actually either print
[01:50:35] my story out or if it's really massive
[01:50:37] like you know Kingdom of Dragons is
[01:50:40] prohibitively expensive if I'm printing
[01:50:41] out like 700 Pages or whatever transfer
[01:50:44] it to your Kindle so your Kindle
[01:50:45] actually has this cool feature where you
[01:50:47] can literally email a Word document over
[01:50:49] to your Kindle and you can then read it
[01:50:51] through there as an ebook and ideally is
[01:50:52] as well you might want to think about
[01:50:53] using a different font again to make it
[01:50:55] more foreign to give you a more
[01:50:57] objective view of the story and pretend
[01:50:59] you are an external editor in this stage
[01:51:01] pretend you didn't write it I will
[01:51:03] literally treat this like I am
[01:51:05] externally editing someone else's story
[01:51:07] you know I'll be like you didn't do this
[01:51:08] thing here or seems like the story is
[01:51:10] struggling with this like I'll literally
[01:51:12] write it the same way I would as if I
[01:51:13] was editing someone else's work I'd like
[01:51:15] to divide my first draft notes into sort
[01:51:17] of General notes on the story then
[01:51:19] structure specific notes character notes
[01:51:21] World building related notes plot notes
[01:51:24] and then I'll have specific comments for
[01:51:25] each individual chapter as well tell you
[01:51:27] what let me actually show you what my
[01:51:28] editing notes look like for Kingdom of
[01:51:30] Dragons let me get that up now so you
[01:51:32] can see here here are my editing notes
[01:51:33] for Kingdom of Dragons I've got about
[01:51:35] 20,000 words worth of notes Here for
[01:51:37] myself which is pretty excessive but I
[01:51:39] like to go detailed with my editing and
[01:51:41] you'll see here I've kind of laid out
[01:51:42] the particular editing process I want to
[01:51:44] go through for this book you can see
[01:51:46] here I'm mentioning the added scenes
[01:51:48] that I might need to add into the story
[01:51:49] and then if you scroll down you can see
[01:51:51] I've got some general notes Here
[01:51:52] character related notes World notes plot
[01:51:54] notes I've got this Arc phrases section
[01:51:56] as well which is basically you know an
[01:51:58] arc phrase is kind of a a motto that
[01:52:00] gets repeated several times throughout
[01:52:01] the story ideally as a way to sort of
[01:52:03] develop emotion and reflect a
[01:52:05] character's growth as well you can see
[01:52:06] me playing around with a couple of
[01:52:08] different Arc phrases as well some of
[01:52:09] them which made its way into the story
[01:52:11] too and then you can see I've got
[01:52:12] specific notes on each chapter for some
[01:52:15] chapters it's only a few little things
[01:52:17] here like okay you need to mention that
[01:52:19] tril is a tropical island as early as
[01:52:21] possible that's literally you know a
[01:52:22] note that happens pretty early on in the
[01:52:24] story some notes are much bigger to
[01:52:26] figure out like there's where is it
[01:52:28] there's some note I made up here about
[01:52:29] like do I need to cut out you know the
[01:52:31] first five chapters of the story or
[01:52:33] whatever it is um but basically you can
[01:52:35] see how I've structured them all through
[01:52:36] here it's really up to you to decide how
[01:52:38] you want to structure this for your
[01:52:39] story but it's very useful exercise to
[01:52:42] go through one of the other things you
[01:52:43] might want to think about at this stage
[01:52:44] of the process is doing what I call a
[01:52:46] wild imagination session so this is
[01:52:48] basically where you pretend that you
[01:52:49] haven't just spend you know a few months
[01:52:50] writing the story or whatever it is and
[01:52:52] you literally brainstorm every possible
[01:52:54] cool direction that this story could go
[01:52:56] in even if it is radically different to
[01:52:58] what is currently on the page there
[01:53:00] while it's not always possible or indeed
[01:53:02] you might not always have the energy to
[01:53:04] do a complete rewrite from scratch it's
[01:53:06] just good to entertain the thought and
[01:53:08] see where else this story could go
[01:53:10] because sometimes there will be clues in
[01:53:12] these alternative directions that you
[01:53:13] can work back into your second draft now
[01:53:16] when it comes to actually writing the
[01:53:17] second draft again the big Focus here is
[01:53:20] on the structural fixes on figuring out
[01:53:22] the big picture elements of your story
[01:53:24] so you want to be looking at things like
[01:53:26] what scenes do I need to add what scenes
[01:53:27] do I need to remove do I need to rewrite
[01:53:29] any required sections my second draft
[01:53:31] you know will typically have quite a bit
[01:53:33] of rewriting although it really depends
[01:53:35] from Project to project I would say with
[01:53:37] Kingdom of Dragons that probably had the
[01:53:38] most rewriting out of any story I've
[01:53:40] worked on something like you know the
[01:53:42] Thunder Heist which I've got under these
[01:53:44] piles of books around here the Thunder
[01:53:46] Heist pretty much had no rewriting
[01:53:49] required um across the broken Stars had
[01:53:51] quite a bit of rewriting because the
[01:53:52] first draft was like 60,000 words felt a
[01:53:55] bit too short for me so I figured out a
[01:53:57] way to add in an extra 20,000 words
[01:53:59] without patting the story out but
[01:54:00] actually just giving some more depth to
[01:54:02] the characters arcs the other thing
[01:54:03] you'll be wanting to look at here is do
[01:54:05] I need to add additional characters
[01:54:07] remove other characters or perhaps
[01:54:09] condense characters together so maybe
[01:54:11] when you start a story and you know this
[01:54:13] is something I'm going through with the
[01:54:14] current book I'm working on right now
[01:54:16] you think that someone is going to be
[01:54:17] more important than they actually will
[01:54:18] be and then as you get into the writing
[01:54:19] process you discover I'm actually just
[01:54:21] not writing a kind of stuff for them or
[01:54:23] there's not much reason for them to be
[01:54:24] hanging around that could be a sign that
[01:54:26] you need to condense that character and
[01:54:28] maybe merge them with a few other people
[01:54:30] in order to ensure that they're not just
[01:54:32] you know taking up space but they
[01:54:33] actually have some important function in
[01:54:35] your story you also want to be looking
[01:54:37] at how you can tighten and improve your
[01:54:38] character arcs as well make sure that
[01:54:40] they're sort of going through that
[01:54:41] process I mentioned earlier in this
[01:54:42] video and ideally once you finish your
[01:54:44] second draft you know the big picture of
[01:54:46] structure of your story is more or less
[01:54:47] set in stone here this is where you can
[01:54:49] then start having a little bit more fun
[01:54:51] or at least for me I find this phase
[01:54:53] particularly fun and you can go through
[01:54:55] and do different specific passes to
[01:54:57] improve your story so I like to do a
[01:54:59] character pass you know where I'm
[01:55:00] literally just focusing on characters
[01:55:03] sometimes I'll literally just focus on
[01:55:04] like one character I might go through
[01:55:06] and say I'm just going to focus on the
[01:55:08] mentor character here just going to try
[01:55:10] to make them really inspiring trying to
[01:55:12] make them very motivating for my main
[01:55:13] character and I'm just going to go
[01:55:14] through from start to finish focusing on
[01:55:16] them that might be a couple of days
[01:55:18] worth of writing it might be a few weeks
[01:55:19] worth of writing and editing but it's a
[01:55:21] really fun exercise to do because you're
[01:55:23] not worried about all the other things
[01:55:24] going on in your story you're just
[01:55:26] looking at this one specific element and
[01:55:28] trying to make it as good as you
[01:55:29] possibly can the other pass you might
[01:55:31] want to look at here is a dialogue pass
[01:55:33] just go through only focus on the
[01:55:34] dialogue and see how you can improve
[01:55:36] that make it more distinctive for every
[01:55:38] character probably the biggest hack here
[01:55:40] and I'll let you in on a little secret
[01:55:41] when it comes to dialogue I've pretty
[01:55:43] much never met a bit of dialogue that
[01:55:45] hasn't been improved by just condensing
[01:55:48] it I find that in almost every case with
[01:55:50] my writing shortening the dialogue
[01:55:52] compressing it down to its Essentials
[01:55:54] always makes it better the other thing
[01:55:56] you can look at is a hook pass so this
[01:55:57] is something I like to look at at the
[01:55:59] start and finish of each chapter
[01:56:01] basically just making sure that I'm
[01:56:02] always re hooking readers at the start
[01:56:04] of each chapter in an interesting way
[01:56:06] and I'm leading out of chapters in an
[01:56:07] interesting way as well you might want
[01:56:09] to look at a foreshadowing pass so if
[01:56:11] there's a big twist or some kind of
[01:56:13] mystery that's paid off at the end of
[01:56:14] your story you want to go back earlier
[01:56:16] on into the the book and figure out ways
[01:56:18] to sew the seeds to sew little clues of
[01:56:21] that so that it pays off in a good way
[01:56:22] later on you may also like to do a
[01:56:24] setting pass for me personally I find
[01:56:26] that when I'm writing my first draft I
[01:56:28] can be pretty threadbear on my
[01:56:29] descriptions of places and I can write a
[01:56:31] lot of scenes where it's just characters
[01:56:33] talking in a bit of a white room so I
[01:56:35] like to have a specific setting pass
[01:56:37] where I go back through and I ask myself
[01:56:39] you know am I sort of incorporating the
[01:56:40] weather in here in an interesting way
[01:56:42] like if it's a noticeable season like if
[01:56:44] it's winter right now am I mentioning
[01:56:46] the snow if it's summer am I mentioning
[01:56:48] the heat the blue skies all this sort of
[01:56:50] stuff and am I also setting each in the
[01:56:52] story in the most interesting location
[01:56:54] it can possibly be in a good example of
[01:56:57] this comes pretty early on in Kingdom of
[01:56:58] Dragons after Ren and Zora get to alium
[01:57:01] the floating Dragon Rider Academy they
[01:57:03] have this jeweling sequence where
[01:57:05] they're jeweling against some of the
[01:57:06] other Cadets up there and originally it
[01:57:07] just sort of took place in a generic
[01:57:09] room but I decided to set it someplace a
[01:57:12] bit more interesting I thought wouldn't
[01:57:13] it be cool if they're having this
[01:57:15] practice Jewel in a room that's sort of
[01:57:17] in the caverns of alium and they're on
[01:57:19] this sort of rocky bridge above a
[01:57:21] shallow pool of water so you know if you
[01:57:23] get knocked off the bridge then you fall
[01:57:25] into the water and maybe one of my
[01:57:27] characters in this case you know Zora
[01:57:29] this girl over here maybe she actually
[01:57:31] manipulates that in a way to win a jewel
[01:57:34] that she wouldn't otherwise and so it's
[01:57:36] just a little tweak but it makes the
[01:57:37] scene so much more interesting by just
[01:57:39] adding in this extra layer and of course
[01:57:41] you can add in any other the passes that
[01:57:42] are appropriate for you as well as you
[01:57:44] develop as a writer you're going to
[01:57:45] figure out what things you typically
[01:57:47] need to work on in your edit because
[01:57:49] you're maybe you know not as good as
[01:57:51] expressing that in the first first draft
[01:57:53] again this is the beauty of writing like
[01:57:54] you don't have to do everything at once
[01:57:56] and in fact just focusing on these
[01:57:59] different passes and knowing like this
[01:58:01] week I'm just going to work on my
[01:58:02] dialogue next week I'm just going to
[01:58:03] work on my setting it is so deliberating
[01:58:05] and it actually to me is probably like
[01:58:07] the funnest part of the writing process
[01:58:09] in a lot of ways I really do enjoy
[01:58:10] outlining as well but this is just so
[01:58:12] fun cuz you kind of know that the basic
[01:58:14] story is there and now you're just
[01:58:15] getting to tweak and play with things so
[01:58:18] at this stage your story will probably
[01:58:19] be ready to give to early readers you
[01:58:21] don't don't necessarily want your story
[01:58:23] to be perfect before you give to early
[01:58:25] readers because if you've invested too
[01:58:27] much time too much effort into the
[01:58:29] editing then you give it to early
[01:58:30] readers you might be more resistant to
[01:58:33] the advice they give you you want to
[01:58:34] kind of find that sweet spot where like
[01:58:36] the bones of the story are there but
[01:58:38] there's still a lot of room for
[01:58:39] improvement and you know that there's
[01:58:41] going to be more Improvement to come
[01:58:42] because that's going to allow you to
[01:58:43] have the sort of mental fortitude and
[01:58:46] creative energy to incorporate their
[01:58:48] feedback and you know actually continue
[01:58:50] improving your story so this phase of
[01:58:51] the process is about finding people who
[01:58:53] can give you honest feedback again the
[01:58:55] fantasy Writers Guild my community for
[01:58:57] Fantasy writers is something that can
[01:58:58] help you with this we've got a whole
[01:59:00] feedback system set up in there we've
[01:59:02] even got a feedback matcher who you can
[01:59:04] basically message them and they will
[01:59:05] pair you up with another writer who also
[01:59:07] wants to give feedback so that you can
[01:59:08] you know swap your chapters with each
[01:59:10] other and really learn from both the
[01:59:11] process of giving a critique and
[01:59:13] receiving a critique at the same time
[01:59:14] because it's very very useful to give
[01:59:16] feedback to other writers too and the
[01:59:18] main thing to be focusing on with your
[01:59:20] early readers is to be asking for their
[01:59:22] experience and their emotions this is
[01:59:25] really really critical and it's why I've
[01:59:26] bolded it here because you don't
[01:59:28] necessarily want to ask for their advice
[01:59:30] and for their Direction let me clarify
[01:59:33] what I mean here the reason for this is
[01:59:35] because most early readers you work with
[01:59:37] you know whether they are family and
[01:59:39] friends or colleagues or you know even
[01:59:41] other writers they probably haven't been
[01:59:43] trained as a Specialized or professional
[01:59:46] editor and so sometimes they are going
[01:59:48] to be well actually let me say that
[01:59:50] again if they describe their emotional
[01:59:53] experience of your story and they're
[01:59:54] like you know I really connected with
[01:59:56] this character because of this or you
[01:59:58] know I didn't quite find this scene
[02:00:00] worked for me they are 100% right you
[02:00:03] cannot argue with their actual emotional
[02:00:05] experience of what the story has done to
[02:00:07] them however if they turn around and
[02:00:10] they're like I think you should do this
[02:00:12] to fix it they might not always be
[02:00:14] accurate because they might lack the
[02:00:16] full understanding about what you're
[02:00:18] trying to achieve or they might not
[02:00:19] actually have the skill to know how to
[02:00:21] come in and diagnose and edit a story so
[02:00:24] you do want to be cautious when you are
[02:00:26] working with early readers if they don't
[02:00:28] actually have extensive editorial
[02:00:30] experience or that you know haven't been
[02:00:31] trained in proper editing because they
[02:00:34] may lack the ability to give you a
[02:00:36] correct solution to the problem it is
[02:00:38] much more useful to just gauge their
[02:00:40] experience their emotion their reaction
[02:00:42] to the story and use that as Clues to
[02:00:45] then come up with a solution on your own
[02:00:47] as a writer obviously you know if you're
[02:00:49] working with a professional editor or
[02:00:51] someone who is a really good writer then
[02:00:53] you can probably ask for more
[02:00:55] prescriptive advice from them but
[02:00:57] generally speaking you want to focus on
[02:00:58] their experience and their emotions the
[02:01:00] four questions I like to use to do this
[02:01:02] first of all what's great about the
[02:01:04] story so that I don't accidentally get
[02:01:05] rid of it what's boring so that I do get
[02:01:07] rid of it or change it what confuses you
[02:01:09] you know what didn't really make sense
[02:01:11] here and then lastly what don't you
[02:01:13] believe so was there a character
[02:01:14] decision that felt very unusual or was
[02:01:17] there something about the world that
[02:01:18] just didn't have the logic working
[02:01:20] properly I got these four questions from
[02:01:21] Mary robinet Cowell and these are pretty
[02:01:23] much the questions you know I'll be
[02:01:24] sending through to my early readers
[02:01:26] Whenever I send them a story so you know
[02:01:27] the early readers for Kingdom of Dragons
[02:01:29] these were the questions I was getting
[02:01:30] them to answer the important thing here
[02:01:32] is you really want your early readers to
[02:01:33] focus on Big Picture notes you don't
[02:01:35] necessarily want them to be coming in
[02:01:36] and be correcting spelling or grammar or
[02:01:39] punctuation because all of these things
[02:01:41] are probably going to change later on
[02:01:43] and that's not really the focus of what
[02:01:44] an early reader critique should be about
[02:01:46] it should be about the big picture
[02:01:47] structure of your story so for example
[02:01:49] right here we've got an email I sent to
[02:01:51] one of my early readers for Kingdom of
[02:01:53] Dragons Maddie who you know gave me some
[02:01:55] amazing feedback on this book a few
[02:01:57] years ago and you can see here these are
[02:01:59] the questions that I sent through to her
[02:02:00] I said you know this is an early draft
[02:02:02] so there's going to be a lot of typos
[02:02:03] don't worry about correcting them I'll
[02:02:05] fix them in the proof reading stages
[02:02:07] what I want is Big piture of feedback so
[02:02:09] you know what's awesome what's boring
[02:02:11] what's confusing what didn't you believe
[02:02:12] when it comes to receiving feedback oh
[02:02:14] boy this is this is a really tough thing
[02:02:17] to to go through as a writer it is going
[02:02:19] to hurt like even to this day you know
[02:02:21] like I've been writing for 12 years I've
[02:02:24] published a lot of books I've read a lot
[02:02:25] of reviews and everything it still
[02:02:27] always hurts when an early reader tells
[02:02:30] you that something didn't quite work and
[02:02:31] the reality is that right now you're
[02:02:33] probably not as good as you think you
[02:02:34] are I know it's a bit of a harsh thing
[02:02:36] to say but if you have not like
[02:02:38] published multiple books yet or you know
[02:02:39] you haven't finished a book yet you
[02:02:41] probably don't know the deficiencies
[02:02:44] that are in your kind of skills as a
[02:02:46] writer and that is totally okay because
[02:02:48] every single person starts there your
[02:02:50] favorite author they start there in the
[02:02:52] exact same spot so don't take negative
[02:02:55] feedback personally in fact really
[02:02:56] detach yourself from the idea that there
[02:02:58] is negative and positive feedback
[02:03:00] there's just feedback right that's all
[02:03:01] there is and your job is just to learn
[02:03:03] from it to develop a thick skin and to
[02:03:05] not let it harm your ego but to just use
[02:03:07] it as fuel to improve your story you and
[02:03:10] your readers your early readers you're
[02:03:12] both working together you're not on
[02:03:14] opposite teams you're not arguing or
[02:03:16] jeweling with them you're both working
[02:03:18] together to form the best possible
[02:03:20] version of this story so treat your
[02:03:22] story as an experiment you know you're
[02:03:24] thinking that if I do these particular
[02:03:26] things in this scene it's going to make
[02:03:27] the reader feel this particular way your
[02:03:29] early readers are a way to validate that
[02:03:32] hypothesis to test that experiment and
[02:03:34] if something doesn't work then it just
[02:03:35] means that you need to change the
[02:03:37] variables of the experiment that you're
[02:03:38] running it's also worth noting here that
[02:03:40] you get feedback from what your early
[02:03:42] readers don't say so you know if your
[02:03:45] early readers get seem to get like 20%
[02:03:47] of the way into the story and then their
[02:03:49] notes sort of dry up from there and they
[02:03:51] maybe just send feedback on the first
[02:03:52] 20% and you get this from like three or
[02:03:54] four people it's probably a sign that
[02:03:57] there's something you're doing in that
[02:03:58] first 20% that's not quite right and so
[02:04:01] the absence of feedback on the rest of
[02:04:03] the story is actually data and again if
[02:04:05] you are looking for a you know great
[02:04:07] community of fantasy writers to give you
[02:04:09] high quality feedback on your story I
[02:04:11] highly suggest that you check out the
[02:04:12] guild like I said before we've got a
[02:04:14] feedback system set up in there and
[02:04:15] everyone who comes in is personally
[02:04:17] handpicked by me as well so you you know
[02:04:19] that you're not just getting a bunch of
[02:04:20] random people giving you feedback on
[02:04:22] your writing you're actually getting
[02:04:23] feedback from fellow fantasy writers who
[02:04:25] are really dedicated and really
[02:04:27] passionate about the craft as you are as
[02:04:28] well so once you've got that feedback
[02:04:31] from your early readers it is now time
[02:04:32] for the fourth draft which is where you
[02:04:34] actually incorporate that feedback
[02:04:36] realize that you do not have to accept
[02:04:38] 100% of the notes that your early
[02:04:40] readers are going to give you again like
[02:04:42] I said before you want to ask for their
[02:04:44] experience and their emotions not
[02:04:47] necessarily their advice on what
[02:04:49] specifically to do again if your early
[02:04:50] readers are like actually really
[02:04:51] experienced writers or really
[02:04:53] experienced editors then you can accept
[02:04:54] some of that stuff a bit more but if
[02:04:56] it's just you know family and friends or
[02:04:57] newer writers then you really need to be
[02:04:59] coming up with your own Solutions what
[02:05:01] you want to be doing though is look for
[02:05:03] patterns so if one person has a problem
[02:05:06] with a particular scene and you've sent
[02:05:08] it out to five people and the other four
[02:05:09] people didn't really have a problem with
[02:05:11] it and you kind of like the scene then
[02:05:13] maybe you can leave it but if all five
[02:05:15] people say they hate that scene then you
[02:05:18] do need to do something to fix it so
[02:05:19] then once you've done that fourth draft
[02:05:21] and you in operated that early reader
[02:05:22] feedback it might be time to think about
[02:05:24] hiring a pro editor now the amount of
[02:05:27] editing that you need to get for a book
[02:05:29] is going to depend on whether you're
[02:05:30] going down the traditional publication
[02:05:32] or the self-publication pathway but if
[02:05:34] you are self-publishing you know 100%
[02:05:36] you need to get an editor involved on
[02:05:38] your story even if you are going down
[02:05:40] the traditional route as well it is very
[02:05:42] worthwhile to get a good developmental
[02:05:45] editor on your book because you're just
[02:05:46] going to learn so much from working with
[02:05:48] a pro who has you know edited dozens of
[02:05:50] stories before and actually has that
[02:05:52] experience to give you advice on what to
[02:05:54] do the thing with a pro editor here is
[02:05:56] that they're going to be able to solve
[02:05:57] problems with your story that your early
[02:05:59] readers can't ideally you want to find
[02:06:01] someone who has published similar books
[02:06:03] in your genre or at least has worked in
[02:06:05] similar books in your genre and think of
[02:06:07] this as a huge investment in your
[02:06:09] learning capabilities because the skills
[02:06:12] and the kind of problem Solutions and
[02:06:14] the writing craft principles that you
[02:06:16] are going to learn from a good editor
[02:06:18] they don't just help you for this one
[02:06:20] book they're working on they're going to
[02:06:21] help you for every single book moving
[02:06:23] forward it's no good just writing a book
[02:06:25] and then not getting any editing done on
[02:06:27] it and not learning and just going off
[02:06:29] and writing 10 more books and still not
[02:06:30] learning because just doing the same
[02:06:33] thing 10 times doesn't actually make you
[02:06:35] grow what makes you grow is doing the
[02:06:37] Thing Once learning from it failing
[02:06:39] knowing how to overcome that then taking
[02:06:41] those learnings into the next project
[02:06:43] doing the same thing there and
[02:06:45] eventually you just keep compounding
[02:06:46] your growth and your learnings as an
[02:06:49] author to the point where you then able
[02:06:51] to express stories in a magical way when
[02:06:53] it comes to editing there's a few
[02:06:54] different kind of types of editing that
[02:06:56] are available and it's important to know
[02:06:57] which one is best at this stage of the
[02:06:59] process we've got developmental editing
[02:07:01] which looks at the big picture structure
[02:07:02] of your story we've got line editing
[02:07:04] which looks at the sort of Pros the
[02:07:06] style the sentence flow it's a little
[02:07:08] bit more micro oriented rather than
[02:07:10] developmental editing which is more
[02:07:11] macro and then you've got copy editing
[02:07:13] which is like grammar spelling
[02:07:14] punctuation what you might think of is
[02:07:17] more proof reading now I would highly
[02:07:19] suggest that you just focus on
[02:07:21] development editing to start with if you
[02:07:23] are self-publishing as well you probably
[02:07:24] want to copy edit in there as well but
[02:07:26] developmental editing is going to be the
[02:07:28] most valuable for you at this phase in
[02:07:29] the process because it's going to allow
[02:07:31] you to just really understand whether
[02:07:33] the big picture aspects of your story
[02:07:35] are working properly it's also
[02:07:36] worthwhile saying that you know as
[02:07:37] someone who has done a lot of editing
[02:07:39] for other writers out there although my
[02:07:41] one-on-one editing program has been
[02:07:42] closed for the last year and a half
[02:07:43] because I've wanted to focus more on
[02:07:45] group coaching stuff on my videos and my
[02:07:47] own writing finding a good editor just
[02:07:50] allows you to have this incredible Ally
[02:07:52] in your corner who is as invested in the
[02:07:54] success of your story as you are you
[02:07:56] know there's stories I edited like a
[02:07:58] year ago a year and a half ago that I
[02:08:00] still think about to this day and I'm
[02:08:02] really looking forward to hopefully
[02:08:03] seeing quite a few of those get
[02:08:05] published this year an editor is someone
[02:08:07] who becomes you know almost part of your
[02:08:09] team as a writer so trying to find good
[02:08:11] editors out there is really critical and
[02:08:13] it can be pricey but is a worthwhile
[02:08:15] investment to be making into your growth
[02:08:17] as an author now this brings us to the
[02:08:18] final draft and of course you may have
[02:08:20] you know more or less numbers of drafts
[02:08:22] depends from Project to project but this
[02:08:24] last phase of the editing process is all
[02:08:27] about polishing so here I like to look
[02:08:29] at how I can sharpen my Pros to condense
[02:08:31] and cut the descriptions and the writing
[02:08:34] in my story sometimes I will like to
[02:08:36] actually change my font before I go
[02:08:37] through with this just as a way to again
[02:08:40] try to make the story feel like it was
[02:08:41] written by someone else so that I am
[02:08:43] more objective in how I am approaching
[02:08:45] it as an editor I like to also use words
[02:08:48] Read Aloud feature so in word you can
[02:08:50] actually get it to read your story out
[02:08:52] loud to you and this is such a fantastic
[02:08:54] way to catch little mistakes because
[02:08:56] it's so easy to sometimes skim over
[02:08:58] errors in your story when you're just
[02:09:00] reading it in your mind when you
[02:09:02] actually read it aloud and I do like to
[02:09:03] read it aloud you know from my own mouth
[02:09:05] as well but sometimes when you're
[02:09:07] writing you know big ass books you do
[02:09:09] find your voice gets a bit exhausted
[02:09:11] after a time so I like to use Read Aloud
[02:09:12] feature to basically just get that other
[02:09:15] objective perspective on my story I also
[02:09:17] like to use tools like Pro writing Aid
[02:09:19] this is basically a piece of editing
[02:09:20] software that plugs into Microsoft Word
[02:09:23] and it has all these different passes
[02:09:24] you can do within it so you can look at
[02:09:25] things like how many adverbs am I using
[02:09:27] in the story usually and that's an
[02:09:30] adverb I just used there the word
[02:09:31] usually is an adverb ironically enough
[02:09:33] you want to be cutting down the amount
[02:09:34] of adverbs because you know the adverbs
[02:09:36] usually show you an opportunity to write
[02:09:38] stronger verbs for example rather than
[02:09:40] saying John ran quickly you could say
[02:09:43] John sprinted they have other cool
[02:09:45] editing passes in there as well like
[02:09:47] looking at how much of your writing is
[02:09:48] using the passive voice versus the
[02:09:49] active voice looking at things like glue
[02:09:51] Words which tend to slow down the sort
[02:09:54] of rhythm of a sentence looking at
[02:09:56] things like sentence variation as well
[02:09:57] that's one of the best ways to improve
[02:09:59] your Pros rather than having sentences
[02:10:01] that all sound a similar length varying
[02:10:03] up and changing up the length of your
[02:10:05] sentences creates a much greater sense
[02:10:08] of musicality and Rhythm to your writing
[02:10:10] so they have a lot of cool editing
[02:10:11] features in there as well I've been
[02:10:12] using the tool since like 2017 they're
[02:10:14] not sponsoring this video or anything
[02:10:15] but I do have a discount link down below
[02:10:18] and if you do use that link it does give
[02:10:19] me a small commission as well at no
[02:10:21] extra cost for you so it's a great way
[02:10:22] to help support this channel as well the
[02:10:24] other thing you want to be thinking
[02:10:25] about too is sometimes even reading your
[02:10:27] story backwards I know this sounds kind
[02:10:28] of bizarre but again you just tend to
[02:10:30] like skim when you read through your
[02:10:32] story and if you read through it
[02:10:34] backwards from like the last chapter
[02:10:35] forward or even starting at the first
[02:10:37] chapter but starting at the end of the
[02:10:39] first chapter and then reading it
[02:10:40] upwards rather than you know forwards in
[02:10:42] the story it just allows you to see your
[02:10:44] story from a bit of a different
[02:10:46] perspective and when you're just
[02:10:47] focusing on making the individual
[02:10:49] sentences and paragraphs as nice as
[02:10:51] possible it's a good way to sort of take
[02:10:53] them in isolation so this brings us to
[02:10:55] the notion of finishing and you'll see I
[02:10:57] put this in inverted commas up here on
[02:10:58] my screen here because art is never
[02:11:00] finished only abandoned quote from
[02:11:02] Leonardo da Vinci this is a question
[02:11:04] I've had a lot of writers ask me how do
[02:11:05] I actually know when my story is done
[02:11:07] like how do I know when I've done enough
[02:11:09] editing I tend to find that when I start
[02:11:12] to feel diminishing returns from my
[02:11:13] editing where you know I go through an
[02:11:15] edit and I don't really feel like I
[02:11:17] change too many things or improve too
[02:11:18] many things then I have reached a very
[02:11:21] critical inflection point with the story
[02:11:23] I have two options here the first option
[02:11:25] is to seek publication for this story
[02:11:27] whatever that looks like for the current
[02:11:28] project or to start writing another book
[02:11:30] to accept that you know what this book
[02:11:32] is not quite ready for publication yet
[02:11:34] maybe I'll come back to it a few months
[02:11:35] a few years down the line or maybe I'll
[02:11:37] just have it as a learning experience
[02:11:38] and it becomes a bit of a trunk novel
[02:11:40] and the thing here is that most writers
[02:11:42] are going to need a couple of books to
[02:11:45] get good like I showed you at the start
[02:11:46] of this video here you know this is the
[02:11:48] list of all the major projects I've
[02:11:50] worked on over the last 12 years of
[02:11:52] writing in which time I've produced
[02:11:53] about 1.2 million words there and the
[02:11:55] green ones are the ones that got
[02:11:57] published you can see there that not
[02:11:59] everything is green there's a lot of
[02:12:00] stories I had to write in order to just
[02:12:02] teach me the craft of writing and some
[02:12:04] of these stories they didn't quite work
[02:12:06] out you know there was something wrong
[02:12:07] with them or quite there where it needed
[02:12:10] to be and it meant that those stories
[02:12:12] were you know not able to then get
[02:12:13] published maybe I go back to some of
[02:12:15] them later on and I do actually publish
[02:12:17] them but you can see here how many
[02:12:19] projects I needed to go through through
[02:12:21] in order to reach the stage of actually
[02:12:23] being you know good enough as a writer
[02:12:24] to get published and really from like
[02:12:26] 2013 through to what was it yeah 2018 is
[02:12:31] when I had my first publication that was
[02:12:33] A Clockwork prison a short story that I
[02:12:35] got paid 50 bucks for should be
[02:12:36] published in The Arcanist you know
[02:12:38] that's a lot of work to get to that
[02:12:39] point and the fact of the matter is that
[02:12:40] you know you're going to have to go
[02:12:42] through a lot of junk words before you
[02:12:43] get to the good stuff but when it comes
[02:12:45] down to it if you write a fantasy novel
[02:12:47] and you're happy with it and you're
[02:12:48] proud of what you produced then you have
[02:12:50] won that to me is success that's all
[02:12:53] success ever really is whether that book
[02:12:55] goes on to get published and have lots
[02:12:57] of people read it or whether it's just
[02:12:58] something that taught you something
[02:13:00] about the craft of writing or about
[02:13:02] yourself or about the nature of the
[02:13:03] world and you use that and you infuse
[02:13:05] that experience in the next story you
[02:13:07] write that is valuable getting published
[02:13:10] getting nice reviews even you know
[02:13:12] achieving a small measure of Fame from
[02:13:14] your writing whatever that means is nice
[02:13:16] for sure but what matters at the end of
[02:13:18] the day is that you are producing
[02:13:20] stories that you're proud of and that
[02:13:22] you're falling in love with the process
[02:13:23] of writing every single day and always
[02:13:26] trying to improve your craft so to those
[02:13:28] of us in pursuit of great stories to you
[02:13:30] I say keep writing and keep striving
[02:13:33] I'll see you in the next video