how to STOP OVERTHINKING your writing | tough love edition!!

if you are the kind of person who stares at a manuscript and over analyzes like every single sentence this video is for you here's my book these are the tips that literally help me write 500 page novels hi YouTube okay so I've got a really exciting video for you guys today it's something I think would help a lot with people who are trying to write a book have just started delving into the world of writing fiction and writing longer form projects so novels or short stories that are a bit on the longer side novelas maybe um so yeah if you've just started writing fiction or you're a veteran of writing fiction you know what this video is for everyone it's for everybody who's ever tried to write a book or write something but finds themselves overthinking it like insanely I have been there it's awful it can be totally debilitating I think this is a video I could have definitely used and probably could use every single day when I'm overthinking every single word and can't seem to get words down on the page that I actually like so this is the slightly toxic verb of how to stop overthinking your writing from me Esme I'm a bestselling fantasy author of The principle of moments here's my book these are the tips that literally help me write 500 page novels so you know you might want to you might want to listen yes but as I said these are the slightly toxic ones I felt like when we're trying to build our confidence up from the ground we need a little bit of toxicity sprinkled in there to just help us um get that extra like so without further Ado here are my top three toxic tips for over coming overthinking while you're writing the first thing I want you to do is go to your bookshelf pick up any book literally any book I don't care what it is I I really don't open that book find a random page and read that page what you're going to see is something absolutely mindblowing novels are made of sentences books are made up of words I know I know I know say it with me now novels are built out of sentences your favorite author or the author of the book that you've just picked up wrote that novel one sentence at a time it might have been grueling it might have been hard but if they hadn't put one sentence after the other that book would have never been completed they did it and so can you just remember one sentence at a time I think the thing about this advice is that people start overthinking their sentences on like a word by word level and they really tie themselves and not thinking that every single sentence they write has to be some insane addition to the cannon of of literature it doesn't you are not trying to write poetry where every single word counts and can have triple meanings and sounds like the most beautiful sentence that's ever been wrought by human hands no you are trying to write a book and sometimes that means simple sentences it means cutting off those adverbs when you're writing about speech you are allowed to just write he said she said or said character you don't have to be talking about like he growled he hissed like every word has its place but if you are trying to get things on the page just write the sentence and stop fussing ing about making it the most beautiful thing that anyone's ever heard and honestly I think we've all read books where you open it and the author is clearly trying to make you just contemplate the human existence and you know the question of life with every single sentence and it gets boring and worst of all when you do try to write those sentences that hit hard and really drive home the point for the reader the meaning and the impact is lost because you've tried to do it every other sentence so Simplicity wins especially when you are trying to write that first draft just put one sentence after another and the draft has to be done eventually now my next point is a little spicy but go to Goodreads or Amazon I know we hate Goodreads but go to Goodreads Amazon story graph wherever and search your favorite book okay whatever the book is that you're literally like this is a masterpiece there is no better book written I love this book with all my heart and soul like the more deeply connected you are to that book go and search it up right now I wait go Google it did you now filter for one star reviews on the page of that book and read some of them what you see May horrify you I I don't do this a lot anymore but when I was writing my first draft of the principle of moments I used to do this and I think it just serves as a reminder that no one's Untouchable because you will see you will see people in those review sections tearing a strip flaying the skin from authors that you thought were totally Untouchable that you thought were great to the genre from books that genuinely changed your life and changed how you viewed the world like people will actually be ripping them to shreds the savagery in some of those comments will actually make you gasp and draw away from the computer screen because it's so scary and I think it just serves as a perfect reminder that you cannot please everyone and a book that is a masterpiece to you might literally be a trash fire to somebody else and that's okay sometimes when I'm writing and I think a lot of writers have this you probably have this you've got all these different voices in your heads that seem to come from like different perspectives so you're like oh I think this type of person would love it but this type of person would hate it this type of person would accept that this is the way it is but this one would pick holes in it pick one pick one type of person pick yourself Choose Yourself love me yeah and right for them they are going to be so many people who just from the basic premise of your book will just be like I don't like it if you go the Goodreads page of my book I'm sure there are one star reviews absolutely tearing it to shreds and you're going to have to make peace with that because not everyone is going to like your book and that is the best thing that you could possibly understand as soon as you understand that it is truly impossible for you to put out a piece of work or a piece of art and have every single person love it then you will be set free seriously when I realized this it changed my life and it changed the way that I approach fiction every single time that you write there's going to be a someone who looks at your hard work and goes eh not for me fine accept it and move on okay move on it's fine I promise you it's okay people cannot like things and there are books that other people have loved that you've hated I'm sure and that's okay it's okay I promise now my next tip is for the socially anxious people out there the people who get embarrassed at the thought of other people reading their work I've got one sentence for you WR like no one's watching because no one is you're not a celebrity who do you think you even are this isn't big brother there's no one standing behind your shoulder going oh I wouldn't have written that if I were you there's literally no one there there's no one watching you why are you acting like you're on camera stop looking around embarrassed stop critiquing yourself inside your mind like are you actually letting people survey you from like mentally no just no you are alone unless you're in a cafe unless you're broadcasting your laptop screen onto a projector for an audience and in that case I would say I think there's something going on that uh might not be PG for this channel because you obviously have a fetish for humiliation right like there is no one in the room because there's no one there you're alone and that's wonderful I feel like when we're writing a lot of people have a tendency to like imagine this readership or this audience that doesn't even exist yet and I think it's amazing to be like um doing things that are loving toward that audience so if you're seeding things for later or doing some amazing foreshadowing that's going to make you know future read to sit up and be like oh my God she told us that in the beginning or he mentioned that in the start I feel like I'm part of the club that got the clues that were laid in this book that's perfect that kind of loving response that you're imagining from a readership is the fuel that keeps writers going but why would you imagine negative stuff I feel like this really speaks to what humanity is like someone once told me um people have a tendency to always imagine millions of worst scenarios like they always imagine the worst scenario for things they're nervous about or project they're doing or just literally any situation people have a tendency to always imagine a million of the worst outcomes but nobody ever sits there and imagines the million best outcomes that could happen you know so why are you giving people who aren't real who aren't in the room like there's no one here why are you giving them that power over you in your work stop it just cut it out okay no there's no one there now be free okay look I'm not perfect I'm not coming here to say oh my God like I never worry about this stuff cuz I do so I think the final toxic this is the least toxic thing the final non-toxic tip that I would give is like you can't slay every day you can't get on that computer and have a fire writing day every single day some days a flop days and that's okay accept it think do you know what today wasn't my day I didn't get done what I needed to do take care of yourself go do a face mask go watch Bridgeton go for a walk in the park talk to your friends talk to your family call your mother or your father or whoever that you haven't called in a while that you've been putting off yet do your laundry I know you need to do that but whatever you do just come back promise me okay between us promise me that you're going to come back and you aren't going to quit don't be a quitter or I'll come for you okay no quitting allowed go do what you have to do accept the flop day but just sit back down eventually don't let the manuscripts just like float off into the ether never to be seen again it deserves to see the light of day or your next project does so whatever you do take that space But don't quit okay don't quit and stop overthinking everything there's really no need for it you're fine you're good and like I said before be dancing like no one's watching because no one is you're good we're not going to your eighth grade teacher or your year eight teacher isn't come going to come through with a red marker and start marking everything up because nobody even knows about this project nobody has access to this document except you be free stop overthinking and if all else fails go to that Goodreads page of your favorite author look up the one star reviews and understand that you can't be you can't be people pleasing in this business of writing books won't get you anywhere okay that's all from me I hope that helped um I really enjoyed making this video definitely going to make a few more like this and let me know in the comments if there's anything else that you guys want to talk about or any tips you want to hear from me I've loved every second of this video and I hope you have too all right bye [Music]

Channel: esmie the author

Views: 24,005

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Id: XRTX8Wb5Ogw

Length: 10min 32sec (632 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 08 2024