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