Rewatching this video for the third time! ❤

Honestly, you are amazing. I sincerely hope you see my comment because it's meant to encourage you. I have watched hundreds of videos attemptIng to improve my writing. This may be the most honest and efficacious video that I've seen thus far.

I've been watching videos for two months to improve my writing and this is one of the very best. Thank you so much for all your help. God bless you.

10 years in the making and three rewrites later, Alexa you have been my motivation, this video has pushed me to pull the fingers out.

I FREAKING DID IT, I'm so excited I can't sleep!! And I need to share with likeminded people!! I'm 29 now and it's been my dream to write a book since age 13, but I never got it done because I couldn't get past 100 pages! 740 pages now, let's go! Almost done editing it too, I'm so happy!

1:30 Not me though. I like my world building! Had to stop myself from _brainstorming a version of the Cod Wars for RWBY._ I like a piece of work that makes me go "Cool! So how would they do XYZ?" Characters just can't do that!

You know what's my problem with show don't tell, as a reader? I'm autistic. When you're trying to show me someone is frustrated, I don't see what you're showing me. I just see random irrelevant information about bodily movements and such, which means nothing to me. If you want to say that character is frustrated, just say he's frustrated, dammit. In your "corrected" example, I totally lost the point that C is reacting to D's perceived distress. She's trying to be nice. Maybe she's condescending to the poorer girl (or that's what you *tell* me D thinks is happening), but there's no distress, and no reaction to distress, in the new text. I've been in many situations where I used pen and paper when others around me used laptops, and I didn't feel distressed about it, so why would D be distressed?

Hi there, my book is done.

Thank you for this video. It was helpful to me do to I am writing my first book and it is multi POV from first person. It is a fantasy adventure book, with dragons. This video was informative and gave me hope for the editing after i finish the first draft. I am about 40,000 words into it. i am worried about word count as I think it will be well over 100,000 word once done. as I have watch you other video on publishing and word counts. If it is long enough I was think just turning it into 2 books but will see what happen after the first draft is fully written. thanks again for all your videos. they all been helpful to me.

Ooh, I may want to do this but do you know how many essays and interviews there are to apply for it?

I already know what you mean about having two lives. I work in HR at the state government and then have a whole illustration/ comics practice too! I call the government job my “Clark Kent” job. I’ve gone to coffee shops after work to work on my graphic novel and comic writing too. It is a good hack! I also find that waking up before work helps too, bc you have the most brain power. Going to bed on time is crucial for all of this!

I'm reading The Road... It does have these and most of the sentences feel mechanical and they start like He slept...He walked nothing wrong but it does feel mechanical seeing many sentences starts like this ..also I'm reading The three body problem, so much of filtering words but it flows like butter.....better than the Road...like its setting it is very Dull and Gray and mechanical and flowery... The point is The Road won Pulitzer, Three Body Problem is a bestseller... So these things don't make or break books... As a non native speaker, I really wonder about the credibility of Pulitzer I mean...go read The Road sentence by sentence, see the repetition of sentence structure, see the repetition of gray, dull etc oh man... I'm not expecting much of a plot, but it's pretty bad compared to others...

Before writing this video I was thinking: Man I really just don’t feel like writing right now maybe if I watch a video it’ll help so I watched some random writing advice videos and they did absolutely nothing and then I see this. Brutally Honest? It probably isn’t that harsh, none of these videos are. “No one cares about your life. Or your writing. Your book will probably suck. You just have to write. Watching this video isn’t writing” oh. I’m going to go write then 😭

I think I was way closer in my first draft but was trying to force a tragedy where it didn't fit.

I guiltily confess that I am a tense-shifter....... or I was....maybe it's will be?

I LOVED THIS! I will let you know when I get my book done. Time to WRITE! THANK YOU!

Thank you for your video!! It’s great and it helped me so much, especially the ,,writer block” part!! ❤

*magical creatures* Oh, you mean the Mascots that are there to sell merchandise and nothing else. (Teddie P4, Morgana P5, Happy Fairy Tale, every Mascot to Magical Girls)

I wish I could leave a like everytime I watched this video, not just the first time. Thank you so much for this.

I think there are two types of mistakes, some that can make you a lousy writer and some that should make you question whether you're fit to be a writer... info dumping is a trick one, so many great classics are filled with info dumping as soon as they begin, all right the authors get away with it because they're classics but still that don't make the dumping any less intrusive in the story... but in all fairness I don't mind it when it's done in a smooth and pertinent way... now if someone really use excessive dialog tags the way you described it, it's a whole other level of mistake, let's be honest...

So cute. You think I have to trim my work down to make it shorter instead of the other way around

Does Developmental, Line, or Copy tell the author when there is too much exposition or if the style they are writing in needs reworking or if their writing as a whole needs more polish? Aka: who tells the author when their writing isn't great.

I did watch a lot of your videos, and I did before subbing...but now that I've subbed, I must say I really like your videos ...

Tough love just got real.

I've heard many writers who have taken workshops from him say he's abusive. Their stories convinced me I'd never read anything by him. He's also a terrible teacher. All of this is from writers who have felt many of what you're talking about: white, male, older and out of touch. Thank you for this review, Alexa, and for your specific evidence that backs up why this is a piece of garbage.

astounding how bad this advice is

I'm a little disappointed in your take on this. It was clear cut mean girl behavior where a traumatized person was publicly humiliated and retraumatized. Dawn was the victim and treated like absolute garbage by Sonya and the literary community for doing something altruistic based on the ASSUMPTION she was doing it for attention because Dawn, again the same lady who admitted having little social support due to trauma, had the unmitigated gall to talk about it. Validation seeking is a social faux paus but it is a trauma response and when you mock people for it without taking the time to understand why they are doing it, you are further isolating and stigmatizing someone who needs social support more than ever. You can gracefully tell someone they are coming across as seeking validation while also empathizing with them and encouraging them to get professional help to process trauma. Also, Sonya told her that she was her friend and they had years of communication. Even if Dawn misjudged the friendship, so the fuck what? Is that a crime? Sonya had the chance to clear the air when Dawn confronted her and Sonya gaslit her. I am disgusted the literary community sided with an emotional abuser and over-intellectualized one of the most psychologically damaging manipulation techniques. I'm a leftist who believes in systemic racism and talks about privilege frequently, and this topic is genuinely irrelevant to race and privilege but is being conveniently weaponized by Sonia, a person who has already demonstrated that she is very manipulative, and everyone just goes with it? Privilege is also about more than skin color. Dawn is white which is one ASPECT of her life that gives her privilege over Sonya, but that alone does not mean Sonya is the less privileged party. Sonya had a loving family, had an economically privileged background, had a large group of powerful friends in literature that assisted her in her cruelty and I'm supposed to believe because Dawn was white that ALONE makes this about white privilege and saviorhood? I am sick to my stomach seeing people I genuinely considered empathetic and introspective so easily manipulated into defending emotional abuse and gaslighting because it vaguely resembles at surface level some broader yet oversimplified concept of systemic inequality. Privilege is complicated, I thought we were smarter than this. Dawn being white doesn't make Sonya the disadvantaged party. Also, it's telling you are so worried about group chats. It's standard practice in these types of proceedings and is a good thing to have to protect children being cyber bullied and victims of domestic violence. Many abusers and violent people would be free if the courts couldn't investigate this. Blaming Dawn is wild because she did not order the subpoena, the courts did, and by your logic parents of children who are bullied and women seeking justice from their abuser are overreacting and unethical. Your concern over that aspect makes me question the way you treat others behind their backs. I do not feel the need to talk shit about people in my life in a group chat behind their back. I wouldn't do what Sonya did to my worst enemy. There is a difference between venting and what Sonya did, and you can express frustration while being graceful about it. I hope you have become a more thoughtful and empathetic person since this video was uploaded. Based on your conclusion, I worry you could do emotional harm and stigmatize someone being bullied because like most people who fail to stop the bullying, you are easily manipulated into accepting that the victim is deserving of inhumane treatment because they have trivial flaws. You fail to acknowledge that victims of emotional abuse are rarely perfect and giving others the impression you might be annoying and needy is not justification for emotional abuse. And yes, bullies are abusers.

"I say a comma is NOT needed after the parentheses (nor later after the word 'adding')" he said, adding "because the quotation marks already indicate the dialog is separate from the dialog tag."

I am 14 and am currently writing my book... The problem is i am NOT that fluent in english when i speak face to face, i can only feel confident by writing or texting... So this representation thing is STRESSING ME OUT like hell...

“I’m the only writer who has written more books than he’s read.” - Garth Marenghi

Oh God...this definitely helped...one of your best video Alexa🎉🎉

You should also drop the that - My mother always said gardening was the root of happiness.

Very informative, but super misleading. I was looking for info on the cost of traditional publishing, not the cost of marketing the book and buying a website and getting giveaway gifts and all of that. What are the costs involved in finding a literary agent, then finding a publisher, etc. Are there costs involved at all?

I just wanna say you are the most fair skin person I have ever seen

This is hilarious.

Excellent information!

i would honestly listen to you talk about and explain this stuff for HOURS, it helps a lot of things make more sense for me! i think specifically because im really used to the way you speak, from years of watching your videos. i really appreciate this topic! id love to hear more, esp since im someone who really struggles with this kind of stuff due to being autistic

How do i get my cork board to look like yours in the demo video. Also, are the NON-FICTIONS format the same as the fiction. You video speaks on the setup for fiction and I need non-fiction…. Thinks seem to be different

"Hey!" He said "Hey" He ejaculated

I CAME BACK HERE TO SAY THAT I FINISHED MY BOOK BABY ! HELL YEA

So in order to show instant of telling you have to.have dialog and scenes mostly through the book? Ithink a lot of dialog is tiresome.

18:51

16:13 - 21:10

heyyyy i m 13 and i m gong to publish my first novel in around 2 months.. i wanted to ask if this pacing was right. here's a extract- “Dude, what’s your problem? I’ll tell Mom it was just a joke!” I shouted, panicking. We had only 30 minutes left before we had to leave for school. Without a word, Asher quickly hid his face and bolted into the bathroom. Confused, I walked over to the cupboard to get dressed. That’s when something caught my eye. There was a damp spot under Asher’s pillow. So, he was crying all this time? The thought hit me hard, and guilt began creeping in. But just as my mind started to spiral, a sudden shriek from Aunt Bea snapped me out of it. I bolted downstairs, and Mom and I rushed into the kitchen. “What happened, Aunt Bea?!” I asked, my heart pounding. “What’s going on, Bea? What’s all this noise?!” Mom demanded, equally frantic. Rio flew in, babbling in incomprehensible gibberish. Before we could make sense of anything, Dad rushed in behind us, his face pale with worry. “What happened?!” he asked, fear in his voice. Aunt Bea pointed at Rio, her face red with anger. “That stupid bird just pooped in my favorite, special, legendary stew!” An awkward silence hung in the air as we all stared at Rio, who seemed completely unfazed by the chaos. “Really, Aunt Bea? That’s why you screamed so loudly and woke up the whole neighborhood?” Mom asked, clearly frustrated. “Can’t you just make it again?” Dad chimed in. “Yeah, you old hag,” Rio added, squawking from his perch. Unable to contain my laughter, I sprinted upstairs and buried my face in a pillow, laughing uncontrollably. Tension filled the air as Aunt Bea argued with Mom, while Dad sighed in the background, trying to stay out of it. Rio firmly sided with Mom, echoing her points with a calm "yes" each time she spoke. This only fueled Aunt Bea’s anger, her face turning red with frustration. Then, without warning, she snapped, "I don’t want that bird in my house, and no one’s getting lunch today!" Her voice cracked with emotion as she stormed off to her bedroom, leaving a heavy silence in her wake. Aw man, I thought. I really liked the stew, and now we'd be stuck with some lousy canteen food. Asher came out, curious, and asked, "What’s going on?" I explained everything, and he couldn’t hold it in any longer-he started laughing. "Man, I love that bird," he said between chuckles. "The way it gets on Aunt Bea’s nerves is priceless." He kept laughing so hard that he had to catch his breath. I shook my head, trying to hide a smile, and headed downstairs to pack our bags. just provide some feedback for improvement somewhere:)

Loved this video. New writer here, the hardest part is naming every character!! I have the story and I am writing chapters and then going back to rewrite them to make them better and better. Some chapters stronger than others but it is progress and I have had SO much fun writing it. She is correct, just start writing it is so much fun. Writers if you are not doing it for excitement and fun, you are doing it wrong!

Peppy 🎉

I watched this video when I was still in the learning/planning phase of writing my first novel and now I'm re-watching 30k words into a pretty clean first draft. All of this is so so true (except my first book is awesome so far lol) and I love how you present information. You were meant to do public speaking, for sure. I also purchased and burned through the Ivies and Pretty Dead Queens-- both were page turn-y and delicious. Some aspects drove me mad, I won't lie, but evoking emotion is a win is a win is a win. Thank you for all that you do <3

28:58 -- Excellent alternatives to the usual rule about using POV character with most at stake in a scene. I find in my historical mystery-suspense, the best POV for a scene is the one that informs the reader in the most fruitful or stimulating way. Sometimes, this is the least informed or least experienced POV character because the reader gets to learn about the world or other characters via basic or naive questions. Sometimes, the best POV character is biased toward discovering some important information, or likewise biased against (blind spot). Sometimes the best POV character is the one that is most transformed in a scene, or has their subplot most advanced by the scene.

Re: adults reading YA meant for teens, I think the problem is in real life, we call college-age people “Young Adults”, and there’s a huge difference between someone in college and someone in high school. Perhaps we should be calling it “teen” something instead?

For the "no idea is original thing", I think it's the concrete ideas (tropes, certain plot points, certain character archetypes, central idea) that are not original, but your entire story's plot, language, character building, and how you express the story's theme is uniquely you - you can try as much as you want to exactly replicate another author's way of writing, of expressing their central idea, of building characters, and it's never, ever going to be the same. You'll end up different and original anyway - any book will. So stop focusing on the minor parts where your ideas coincide with others - because when they are limited, they have been used since the beginning of human civilization.