What if 99% of all writers watch this video...

One thing I love is when a book feels natural to write. I recently started a new fantasy story, and I already have 1500 words, a finished chapter, and 3 fleshed out species with their own backstories. Your advice is amazing. Keep up the great work. Oftentimes reading another story you love is a great way to gain inspiration, and is my recommendation to any writer.

For me, the main reason I haven't published over the decades of writing is simple. I'm a pantser, and that means lots, and lots of editing. I discovered that AI can help me plan my novel upfront very quickly though (the main reason I didn't plan before,) so I've finally created a novel that I feel is in good enough shape upfront that I'm willing to edit it for publishing. I have to admit, I thought I would hate writing a novel that I had planned out. I thought it would steal all the soul out of my story, since most of the fun I get from writing is the sense of discovery and adventure that I experience as I write my novel. This turned out to be a false concern. I get just as much enjoyment from writing a novel that I planned, and I have the added benefit of knowing where my story is going, so I have a lot less writers block. AI is also awesome at helping you to overcome that. It's great for brainstorming, and helping you to find creative ways to solve problems.

My first book came so naturally over the past few years, because it’s a sci-fantasy story about music. As I am a musician, I was excited and passionate to bring it to life. That’s my tip for those out there struggling with their first book: write about what you love! And draw from your own life experiences. My setting is a holiday resort island, and it’s pretty much exactly like Hamilton Island in Queensland Australia. As I lived there, I could describe my setting in so much detail and I was able to relive my adventure there vicariously through my characters.

I think the part of daydreaming is crucial. I personally spend about 25-40% of my time daydreaming, and I’ve had some of the best breakthroughs and ideas for my novel there

Translation: I got a sweet gig where i get paid to do very little work from home so I can spend time rock climbing and writing.

This is some great advice, as always, Jed! I've done the dead-end, boring jobs that are equally as draining to creativity as those that require more 'effort', so you have to be careful with those too. As for writing itself; the drive & desire to write can override everything, if you allow it. After putting myself on a writing hiatus (lasted a whole month instead of a year), my drive took over. I was able to re-think & re-plan my entire story & I think it's better for it. I'm chipping away slowly at it as I work on other things, but I'm happy with what I have so far. I tend to aim, not for a thousand words a day, but usually writing for a specific amount of time or, just write this scene. It all depends on my mood.

Finally some love for "Two Steps From Hell" and Audiomachine as inspiring music! I have a mix of those and BrunuhVille that I play while taking walks - walks long enough to get grand ideas but not long enough to forget them. It energizes body and mind.

I always watch these videos before I go write, gets me in the mood lmao

Dude. That picture of you and your friends holding the book up looked like the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen.

Job interview at the financial firm: - What makes you qualified to make articles and newsletters to explain our business to customers and investors? - I'm writing fantasy stories. - Hired!

Hahah I love climbing too. I even write in the climbing gym sometimes. They have amazing coffee. I go 3 times a week as well. Have socialising time as well. It's great to have ideas for dialogue and character interaction. Also it is very rewarding to have a balance in your life.

I've seen this channel grow a lot recently, which is a great thing as, well, it has great content. Keep it up!

So many tips in one video. Thanks!

Wrote 3k words in 3 hours yesterday thanks to yours, Brandon Sanderson, GRRM, and Bookends lit agency yt videos. Thanks!

Tldw: To optimize your abilities as a writer, just get a high income, low stress job that doesn't require many hours per day and allows you to work remote from your home. Easy peasy

Invent myself out of a situation? That's exactly what I am doing now... I also listen to music and I swear it does effect my writing style especially the rap.

Once again, thank you for a great video! I've quickly became a fan of them and return to them often. I left a draining job that was slowly killing me working 60+ hours a week for a 40 hour a week job. I'm just getting back into my creative pursuits again. I'm not bringing work home with me. Instead I tend to bring my writing with me. I keep a little pocket notebook for little blurbs of inspiration or ideas. Quick and messy but it's usually enough for me. They'll stay there till I use them or transfer them to a more permanent storage. I use the commute back home (30 minute drive) to think on the next scene, or where do I think the project needs to go next - What's next on the to-do list. It helps motivate me to actually do some writing or work on a project when I do get home. I'll often use playlists during the drive that I have saved for various characters to help me get into their mindset. Once I'm home and ready to work, I'll often switch to instrumental.

So the first rule of writing is .... OH MY GOD YOU'RE A BEAST - loving the muscles man. Who needs a best seller when you have abs.

Thanks Jed for another great video! I'll definitely be working to apply these principles.

Trust me, I won’t feel guilty about taking notes while on the clock 🤣

I have written a lot, but I wrote for myself. I wrote because I could not find the answers that I was seeking in other people. I read a lot less than I used to because of this. However, when I show my work to other people, although my writing feels like the answers to all the existential questions that I had in the past, it has absolutely no effect on anybody else. I suppose the reason that I was the only one who wrote what I wrote was because I was the only one who cared. I do not think that increasing my work or efficiency will help in my case, since although I have already solved all of my problems, they are not anybody else's problems.

Excellent work. I find that if I try to write cool stuff instead of writing a "book" to sell I enjoy it much more. I also count world building as part of my writing.

I deeply feel for this video, thanks for the encouragement! I love the aspects of solid, creative writing... I'm on the outlook of my 2nd book in a 5 book series. Been writing for 6 years, and I can say, I whole-heartily agree with most of your points in a lot of your videos. (Except, I live for lyrical music when I write; it connects the story to everlasting songs and depth of moral meaning, not distract). I love fantasy most of all, but I tend to mix it with a compellation of other genres. I write everyday in physical books: I don't count words. I do it until I hit the end - writing more than 1,000 since it brings fulfillment and joy to my life. And I hope so for everyone else. I am on the way with a series that has been the roller of my life - soon I hope it changes the world. My world - and yours too.

I'm throughly enjoying your channel. Thank you so very much for all the great advice.

Great advice as always.

On the job thing, a brick layer would be able to use their job as a think tank for the story. I work as a baker and am at the point i pretty much run on autopilot while at work so i spend the time in the world i have been building.

I really appreciate the personal finance and business-like aspect of these writing habits.

This is great. I'd definitely be interested in some energy management videos!

I have a very laid back, flexible job that has been not only handy for going into writing/drawing for graphic novels as I’ve always wanted, but it’s been mentally healing that jobs like mine exist. I can come in and leave whenever I want, and that lack of flexibility and basic compassion/respect I didn’t get at other jobs made me feel like my need for a laid back job made me seem entitled and lazy. The skew here was, I was wanting to work on what mattered to me, not drain all my limited energy for labor that has nothing to do with my life goals. If you are in this position, leave that job NOW or your novel will never happen! You deserve to live out your passions right now, not work until you deserve to.

I have a 50 hours a week job but I love it and it helps me do research for my writing. I only average 100-200 words a day though because of the longer hours and spending time with family.

I absolutely love the emphasis placed on physical exercise. I love exercise and seeing someone who loves writing and exercising helps me realize I’m not alone in that aspect. You look really in shape Jed keep this up.

Recently been watching more of your videos, this one's my favorite so far

A great video as always

I hope someone follows your suggestions and creates something that brings people joy.

Thank you for the video

Oh. The arcanist was my first pub too. They were great.

Halfway trough the video , your video really resonated to my own expiernces as an aspiring writter❤ Ive been listening two two steps from hell , audiomachine, pandoras journey ,hanz zimmer and thomas bersegens masterpieces . It is what has triggered my whole story in the first place . Love you for bringing this up because as an intuitive writter they create somuch emotion for me , such vast characterl depths that requures exploration. Also the outlining of my book ,is a damn life saver. I went trough the outlining process at the first half of my series (still in draft) because i found difficulty in connecting all of the sub plots back together and continue on a much more fast pasing, action filled satisfieng second half . Things needed to get done in my story, and done good. It took me a good month. And now i know. Where it all is going . Feels like a weighing mountain that just fell of my shoulders. Three months passed since the outling and my slow , yet steady pace has given me a chance for hella ofaaa loto improvement on the quality written. Thankyou for everything Jed ,❤ love ya. Imma make it one day, loving the proccess

Great stuff! Exercise so you're good looking, find someone to have a family and kids! Kids enrich your life and bring you to the next level. And you'll see what is really important

If I may ask, where do you work for your day job? Writing articles and learning about finance along the way seems intrinsically interesting to me… A remote work is certainly a good idea as a writer, so I would appreciate some inspiration for what corporations offer this kind of day job! Also, I thank you wholeheartedly for your advice and I am already eager to implement it. Hence, the question above. :)

I'm hoping to write 10 trilogies but at the rate of 100ish words a day it's going to take me about 30 years to finish. 😅 11/365 chapters completed.

15:17 dang right dude, that’s all life is for me

Jed Herne can you do a video on how to write child birth scenes. I have never seen it mentioned nor have I read a book with it in it. There is a scene of a hectic early birth in a book I am writing and I'm having a lot of trouble with no references.

What would you say is a good average word count for a 15 minute sprint?

hey, I find all your writing videos super helpful, I just had a question I thought you might be able to answer: If I create a fantasy race, how do I bring it up from the point of view of someone from that race. let's say he is the only POV character, and I need the reader to know that he is this fantasy race and not human, but I don't know how to casually bring it up. "Hey and by the way, just so everybody knows, I am in fact, not human." and all the characters around him for the first few chapters are also of that same race, so I can't use them to bring it up either. any thoughts on this?

The idea of having to write and edit 60k to 90k words turns off alot of people. The way i see it, writing novellas or novellettes should be a good place to start for newer writers. Even short stories. People should be encouraged to write whatever they want, however long they want. Just write. You can always expand your short story later. Chapter by chapter. Dont stress yourself.

Your video is great. For 99% of writers. What about the 1% of disabled writers? Like me. Points 1 and 2 I wouldn't be able to do, even writing 1000 words a day is a struggle due to disability, but your other points are great, I do a lot of day dreaming etc as a pain management tool, so I have that down to a tea. Anyway, thanks for the great advice. Will be putting it to the test and see if it helps.

I work 60 hours+ at factory. I got no energy for creativity n writing

lol no offence to him but Brandon Sanderson doesn't look like he does a lot of exercise

Sorry but the advice to skip a vacation and instead work less is terrible for most everyone. Most people, no matter how much they write, will never get published. So reducing their income is bad for them, their family, their future prospects, etc. Also, the vacation/time off is a great reset that helps one appreciate their life more. As Stephen King so aptly put it in his book “On Writing”: “Life isn’t a support system for art. It’s the other way around.”

I don’t have a problem with writing a thousand words per day, I can’t make the book long enough and not make it feel too stretched, do you have any tips for making a book longer?

I see that I probably need to add a new comment to get your attention rather than reply to an old one. Since I did see a heart added, I presumed the following was not seen. I really like that you add a heart to comments that you have read. It really helps me to want to add comments to your postings. I disagree with your run on sentence. The correct punctuation is a semicolon, not a comma. It took me 40 years to feel comfortable using them, so I understand why a person would hesitate to use one. I have also recently started using dashes. Your example was something like 'Tom surveyed the city's walls; he didn't notice many guards.' Your suggestion was to use a conjunction: 'Tom surveyed the city's walls, but he didn't notice many guards.' To me, that changes the meaning. In the original, both statements are equal statements of fact, i.e., there were probably few guards on the wall. The second is a statement of fact: looking, followed by a statement of his action, but suggesting that the guards might have been there, Tom simply failed to notice them. Using a colon would have made it more a report: 'Tom surveyed the city's walls: he didn't notice many guards.' As I remember it, the sentence was in this third person, which, if correct, is the real reason it feels mushy. I would have preferred 'Tom surveyed the city's walls: not too many guards.' (I can't do italics for 'not too many guards' to show this is what he was thinking/saying to himself.) Interesting prose has a varied sentence structure, not constant SVO.

I would say that a more specific title would improve interest, something along the lines of 'non-writing tips for getting ahead ....' There are already too many 'How to get ahead ...' videos and articles. You missed one point in a day job. A job that leaves you mentally drained may interfere with your writing. Writing code or some other formula creation process may alter how you think and so write. On the other hand, a mindless task like brick laying can leave your mind free to work out a better plot. I am currently analysing the first two paragraphs of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and the writing has a lot of problems. It was the creativity that sold the series, not the quality of writing. If you want to see a copy when I finish, let me know and I'll give you a link. I agree that writing routinely will help to improve your style and speed but for most people, they are going to need to be able to toss most of those words. It is like photography: the person who catches the perfect moment is not the one takes one photo a year, but the one who takes 10,000 photos a year. People think that creativity means you sit down and write a fantastic image. The reality is that you write a so-so image and slowly over time hone it to something fantastic. Most writers do not have the luxury of that much time and we can all see the results. I agree that I need to create an outline; it would help tremendously as I don't know exactly what problems to include in the book and in what order yet. But I am still creating the characters. Finally last week, I was in the right mood and it just flowed; I could hear her. I could have outlined all I wanted and never come close to that character. The real trigger was a very specific phrase event (a way of hearing the words), and there she was. Professional writers collect such triggers like Ron collects chocolate frog cards. They used to carry a notepad and pencil/pen with them everywhere; I use my telephone for that. I like songs in foreign languages like Finnish. You contradicted yourself. Initially, 'write 1000 words a day', anything, write for yourself, something that you would enjoy to read, but then near the end, 'write your dream novel'. No pressure whatsoever! I think 'edit your text down to your dream novel' would be less threatening and more realistic.

Earn more, work less! Great advice.

One other tip I’ve heard is that new writers will benefit more from writing short stories than from writing novels. If you can write one short story a week and one novel a year, then you’ll write fifty-two short stories in the time it takes you to write one book. You’ll be able to improve your storytelling more quickly if you write short stories. Short stories are also easier to complete.

How is Jed SO HANDSOME?

Bro low-key used the Across the Spider-Verse soundtrack

Got so happy when you mentioned Two Steps From Hell! Thanks for another great vid, Jed.