Відео

Correcting my chapter while listening to your video. Thanks.

Fantastic advice. Thank you.

Ellen, you are a treasure <3 Thank you so much!

The best advice in this video is to not to edit as you write….you never know when a scene will be cut or an entire section you spent hours to rewrite will change. Just use placeholders and focus on finishing to save time later.

I'm on the right way, then. Thank you for this! 😊

Your content is a life-saver ❤

How about a "methodological iterative pantser"? I'm not sure how that falls along these lines. Simplistic example: -- First iteration: >> I love pizza! [Basically my first draft at an outline.] -- Second iteration: >> I remember how much I enjoyed the first time I had pizza as a little boy. It was in a shopping mall. [More complete outline.] -- Third iteration: >> I remember how much I enjoyed the first time I had pizza at a food court in a shopping mall whose name I've forgotten. It was right after playing Smash TV in the arcades. I ordered a NY-style pepperoni pizza and I vividly recall being amazed by the stretchiness of the cheese and how well it seemed to match the Dr. Pepper I had on the side. [Starting to turn into something more than an outline.] ... basically keep iterating like this, fleshing and fleshing out the outline until it becomes a complete story, then start ruthlessly editing and cutting. I'm basically winging it a lot but I'm winging the outline, then fleshing things out in a second pass, then third pass, and so forth, until the outline becomes the story. I don't write sequentially. I come back to things and flesh something out a little bit (but without spending too much time on it so that I don't lose sight of the big picture), then flesh the next thing out a bit, and do repeated passes from beginning to end over and over until it feels like I have enough. I'll also insert placeholders often like: >> [Insert a paragraph here expressing John's sentimental thoughts about zoos and his father, tying them together]. It's similar to the way I draw. I don't draw a face by drawing one fully-detailed eye, then next eye, then nose, then mouth, and so forth. Even when I get tempted to dive into details early, I forcefully stop myself and move to the next section of the picture. I rough everything in and keep iterating over the entire portrait, constantly moving across the entire canvas, working from a fuzzy picture to a detailed one. This way, I never get lost in the details and lose sight of forest for the trees (something I'm very prone to do otherwise if I approach problems in a sequential order, as though I need to complete a chapter or come remotely close before skipping to the next). It helps me stay focused on how everything is relating to everything else so that the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts.

Thank you so much for those videos! I guess I'm more an Intuitive Plotter type (although I've resonated more with some advice for Methodological Pantsers) and now I see why I feel uncomfortable with most of the advice in the writing community, which tends to be far more Methodological Plotter oriented. Methodology gives me headaches and that's about it

Soooo many "aha" moments watching this series. Thank you! 💜💜💜

Thank you for sharing

So helpful! Useful insights, much appreciated. 🤩

Just subbed ❤ Thanks for all your hard work.

Hyper detailed research interjected is more annoying than less imho; I dont care how a saline flush in an IV requires an intact interlock for the delivery of inconsequential nonsense.

People hate Samwise?! I refuse to believe this!

There was this one girl in a writing class I took. She wrote this action packed story and people in the class tore it apart but at least something happened in it. In everyone else's story and almost every story not written by professionals and a lot written by professionals almost nothing happens. In most stories there's some glaring error in it that could easily be fixed. Usually the pace is too slow. Even classics like Father Goriot the pace seems really slow. It's full of exposition mixed with description and so little happens that anything that does happen is lost in all that description. It's hard to tell what the book is even about. So if someone writes a story that's too action packed but things don't logically fit together that story is still head and shoulders above the others. I don't think I've come across many stories by aspiring writers where stuff happens. People should probably write novels as scripts first just to make sure something happens. Maybe write it 3rd person limited point of view. Just action. Maybe over the top action. From there it's probably an easy thing to connect the events together.

THIS!!! IS THE VIDEO I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR!! TY <3

So if you have a couple story arcs running in a novel does each arc need individual pinch points or the story as a whole needs them at certain points in the work? I have a book I am working on with one comedic storyline and another murder mystery. The murder I have most of the details worked out and it's falling in line with the standard beats. Do I need to do the same for the comedic story?

7:12 emotionally charged words and getting into lizzys POV, 8:03 observational and distant, 12:29 want to write from a perspective, some bias, emotional charge, not neutral 14:30 omniscient still has a slant, 21:41 1 idea per para

Ty for the video it helpful

This was so helpful. Thank you 🙏🏻

"made his way" for "walked"?

if i have giant eagles that give rides to humans in my world, should i use them when it's critical for character to quickly and safely arrive somewhere in order to save the world, or should i have them just walk thousands of miles through endless deadly hoardes of monsters? thx

Perfect

No need to apologise Ellen about the quality of your video. Your videos are extremely helpful and useful.

So, a flat character arc is when the character rejects the lesson and refuses to change. I'd assume that in a sense, you can first have a positive or negative arc where the lesson is learned but then later proven wrong and unlearned, returning the character back to where it started in that regard making the overall arc flat; i.e. you could have a flat arc that consists of a positive and a negative arc in sequence. Although it's mostly just semantics, I guess, and you could really treat it either way.

Methodological vs Intuitive, I'm a head-gut, bordering on method, only because of my broad education in theory. But good storytelling has always been my niche. So, I believe that makes for a very compelling writer. ❤ and 😊 plotter.

Super super helpful info. Great to hear this perspective

The way you break things down.... I needed that. Thanks for an insightful video

Hi Ellen! I just fell over your channel and am superdelighted. When I realised that I am a methodological pantser, everything made finally made sense. Thank you for revealing myself to me! I followed your advise and have now put together a structure sheet that works for me. However, I still struggle to now how to structure side plots and how to integrate them with the main story. If you would consider doing a video on that theme, I think it would be a great help for many. Thanks again, your channel is so great!

Blood stained roses in a romantic setting sounds like a dark romance thing… seems like something I would use

*Q:* would these four components of character arc apply to the antagonist?

Good to know that I've done it right. My novel starts with my character shopping for a new suit with his overbearing mother on the day before starting a new job that he knows he's not qualified for (he lied on his resume). It's super uncomfortable and stressful for him in different ways. Then he enters his new stressful world, but the real inciting incident for the story is three chapters later. :)

I appreciate how you get to the point with examples. Also, what is that white square with the triangle behind you?

Gosh... you are great, so inspiring!!

As someone who has tried writing one book then succeeded in (currently) writing another one, all this info puts it into perspective why one flopped and I continued on with the second project. Structure to a degree helps me stay centered and the flow of creating gets me to walk down the path. Chaotic is perfect word to describe this to someone who is on the outside looking in. My wife is boggled with the amount of random tidbits and sheets of thoughts I have. I think going forward, I’ll lean into the method more of embracing structure then using that to inform my writing. Super helpful!

even as a already published author your videos help out tremendously. Keep up the good work

Hey Allen. Take greetings first. I was curious to know if you have your own fictions and wanted to read them

I’am a Peruvian filmmaker and scriptwriter. I have started to write a novel picking up a script of mine. I am going thru hell. You can’t imagen dear Ellen how useful and illustrative your videos are!! I thank you so much!!

For number 5: Another way you can use sentence lengths is to provide a sense of lightness and dynamic to your paragraphs. This is especially useful when writing descriptive passages. Having some shorter and simple sentences can help break up more complex, vivid sentences and make longer paragraphs feel shorter and lighter than they really are.

Great specific info. In the moment it’s difficult to ask these questions so to have a chart is awesome

Thank you for making each point succinctly. That's so rare.

You don't have all that

great video

The four types of writers wasn’t something I’d ever heard of. Super helpful to know myself during the process. I never considered editing as I go instead of at the end of the draft. Would definitely change up some things for me.

I find your inspiration and insight spot on. Thank you for taking the initiative and time to provide these ideas. From the coast of maine. I’ m a 70 yo guy trying to write short stories . Bravo to you.

I don't wanna do anythingggggggggggg. There's no conflict. My scenes are just NOT. I just wanna cryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

"The lesson will always be the opposite of the belief." "The belief should cause problems in the story." I needed these explanations.

It took me months of google research and UA-cam watching to find this information. Except, you present this info in such a nicely compacted, condensed way. My 12 pages of feral info... vs your paragraph of pure gold. TY ❤

Really enjoyed this breakdown as well. I wonder if characterization could more fleshed out if there was occasional telepathy going on with the team (or however it was described earlier in the chapter). So they can communicate while the exploring is happening

Cool format for a video! Interesting to see it unfold in real time