A Screenwriter's Hot Takes on Productivity

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[@matthewharner1744]

I just have to say that your the first channel that gives genuinely good advice that isn’t blatantly obvious, thank you so much

[@TaranVH]

I recently found another fantastic writing resource, Brandon Sanderson's channel. The first video is called "Lecture #1: Introduction - Brandon Sanderson on Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy" ... I'd link you to it, but then my comment might get stuck in the spam filter.

[@localscriptman]

@@TaranVHBrando Sando is a real one

[@thefriendlydefault9684]

Any Mistborn fans?

[@skaidonC]

@@localscriptman Video idea: Sanderson; things he's done well, things he's done that could have been better (as he's such a successful author)

[@localscriptman]

@@skaidonC Well I certainly have thoughts on his classes, but I know next to nothing about novel writing

[@EphemeraEssays]

Something that works really well for me is not to read my inspirations, but read the things that inspired them. By meeting that certain idea further back on the road before it was fully developed, I have an opportunity to turn a different corner.

[@Kay-kg6ny]

Oh that's a good idea!

[@localscriptman]

That goes pretty hard

[@Rocktopian]

Oh this is *smart*

[@jay-wo7dd]

I will try that

[@ikemeitz5287]

Totally the same. That was a huge turning point for "classical literature" for me as well. If I follow these threads back far enough, SURPRISE, they all lead to Melville, or Shakespeare, or Tolstoy, or, heck, to MILTON even. And once I got there, I was ready to actually enjoy the stories because I could see how they develop. I think there's a lot to be said for writers reading WAY above their paygrade. You're not gonna be able to write Anna Karenina. But if that's what you're reading, your characters are going to be way better. If you're training to run a 5k, and you've got a marathoner friend you run with, you're going to CRUSH that 5k.

[@PharaohofAtlantis]

A thing that I have started doing recently is that whenever I am consuming some media I ask myself, "how is this helping my work that I should/want to be doing". Sometimes it is obvious, "it is the same genre" or "it has a similar structure to what I was thinking about". But sometimes the answer is just "I want to do this and I will be happy if I do - which is good"! Re-affirming that things I am doing as things I am wanting to do and that they are helpful, is helping me a little bit.

[@ashleyedwards3082]

Absolutely agree, just ask the question do I actually want to do this or am I distracting myself

[@smelyely3353]

As for gardener vs architect, as a gardener I will say gardening a script is much more dangerous than gardening a book. They are both writing but books don't have constraints. Movie/show scripts do. Architects will always excel more in a script format because they plan around their constraints. If you're gardener, you could write a sequence of scenes by the seat of your pants, maybe even give them narrative fluff for your satisfaction, but don't actually write the script until you have a plan. I haven't done a lot of script writing but the little I have done I had to force myself to plan because you can't just wing time/resource constrainted mediums like that without a lot of pushback. For books? Go ahead

[@xenthine]

As a prose pantser, I think this is definitely true. I often lean toward script-writing advice because it’s so much more structured and I think viewing audiences are more sensitive to structure. I’ve experimented with my process and planning techniques because in everything else, I am a planner. I have an advanced degree in urban planning. Yet I find it incredibly difficult to do, or adhere to as a writer-I hated myself for a long time because of it. Luckily, a book-tuber (erin Brock, maybe) turned me onto the notion of “methodological pantser.” Essentially, i pants, but I’m aware of and practiced with the planning tools, so I’m developing a pre-pantsing development routine. Even if I don’t deploy those tools, however, they still shape how I think as I write. I hear other writers advise noobs to just write, and I kind of agree, but I think more often than not noobs end up solidifying their story and structure before they really should, making successive drafts harder to reimagine, thus fix.

[@skoomaenjoyer9582]

Good way to put it. A lot of book readers don't mind some fluff/unoptimized pathing, some even like it; more pages to fill more time in a "mundane world." Efficient framework still benefits books, and terrible framework will kill them.... further, great framework can propel them into the brilliant-storytelling category.

[@kingq3904]

Tell that to Kaufman, Tarantino, Aaron Sorkin, James Mangold, and Larry Wilson, among other successful gardener screenwriters. Just because gardening doesn't work for you doesn't mean it won't work for others and work very well. You can definitely garden successfully with the restraints of the visual form in mind.

[@smelyely3353]

@@kingq3904 This why I'd say Tarentino is inconsistent in his screen writing. I don't expect everyone to agree with me on that though.

[@kingq3904]

@smelyely3353 What about everyone else I named? If you know about the Coen Brothers, they don't outline shit either, lol.

[@narimdraws6696]

I call myself a plantser - plotter and pantser :) As I write my novel, I already have the canon figured out. I have key scenes brainstormed, but what I'm leaving to pantsing, are the actual scenes themselves that connect the key scenes together. It's fun to discover what your characters choose to do especially when you already have their core characters and how they'll develop throughout the story figured out. I'd say the plotting eases my anxiety, and the pantsing of the scenes and how they play out really bring out my excitement!

[@marynvos4028]

My process is almost a mirror of this 😅 I lead with an emotion or concept I want to convey attached to specific scenes.

[@upg5147]

I feel this is almost all plotters. I can't imagine it being where you plan each scene and then get to the final draft. What are you writing at that point? You're just putting all those scenes in order and calling it a day, you basically already wrote the whole book.

[@straps-of-skin]

@@upg5147 I plan everything before I write it. I set up an overall plot outline, then I go and write quarter outlines for each section, then I go and write scene outlines. After all that, You dont have to worry about forgetting anything or falling into any plot holes. I see it as organizing my lego block before I start pitting them together.

[@upg5147]

@@straps-of-skin How are those scene outlines written out? Like bullet points? What they do for the overall story?

[@straps-of-skin]

@@upg5147 Yes they are. I set up the main point of conflict between the characters first, then I go through and outline each relevant characters motivations so that when I start actually writing the dialogue I have a stronger idea if what they are actually “fighting” for in the specific scene. I also outline setting stuff and what not but thats the bulk of it.

[@Mithros6030]

I find the sweet spot for pantsing is leaving some room in my outline to have the characters take control of the story a little. Maybe there's a lull in the action and they decide they have a heart to heart in the heat of their dying campfire. And then maybe I cut that heart to heart because it was something I needed to know, but was boring as hell to read. By not getting too attached to the plan, I can savor the little surprises my characters can show me.

[@FrenchyMcToast]

I think about Architect vs Gardener this way: George RR Martin is a Gardener and he's written probably the best fantasy series since Lord of the Rings. He's also written himself into a corner so tight that he's spent more that a decade untangling it, and he's so fed up with it that he doesn't want to finish the thing any more and turned his legacy over to a couple of hacks. All that to end up with an incomplete work that's comparable, but still inferior to, Tolkien who was maybe the most extreme example of an Architect. Lord of Rings is so dense that there are university degrees solely devoted to it's study. If you've ever seen someone described as a Tolkien scholar that's not a joke, they went to college for that. He had hundreds of years of history, an entire cosmology and multiple complete languages before writing a single word of Fellowship. He's written a classic that will endure for centuries. I can't tell you the number of times people have commented that they forgot Game of Thrones even existed after the show ended.

[@bruh9297]

Here's where I shock you by revealing Tolkien was actually a gardener who was a religious rewriter. His friend CS Lewis was the architect.

[@Chris-fn4df]

Every word of that on GRRM is a hot take from a frustrated soul. A show and a movie are different things. The show exploded his readership and consequential literary legacy for generations. As you said, the show is being forgotten. That statement right there makes me wonder why you mention it at all? The books are his baby, and the show has given him a massive readership. Or you can only see through the scriptwriter’s lenses… in which case, I wonder why you mention the _book author_ at all? Do _you_ even know what you are about?

[@isacsln]

This is so ironic because Tolkien always thought about the ideal role of a person as being like a gardener. Someone who nurtures and creates beauty, without feeling the need to control or destroy. There’s a reason Sam was a gardener by trade, that Aragorn was notably good with herbs and plants, and that the symbol of Gondor was a tree. He thought of all creative endeavor as being subcreations of Gods original story, that serves as the trunk to the Tree of Tales. Tolkiens most autobiographical work was “Leaf by Niggle” about a man who wanted to paint a tree as perfectly as possible, he fails, but is rewarded in the next life by being the gardener to a real version of his painting, which was so beautiful that God saw fit to make it real in the next world. Just like how the Dwarves were made by an angel who was inspired by Gods creation, and God breathed life into them, finding them beautiful.

[@nobodyimportant4778]

Idk who needs to hear this, but... You ain't gonna tolkien your way to a happy and productive life. You can't worldbuild your colossal, monumental, way over-detailed setting for a decade where the vast majority of stuff in the setting is in no way applicable to your cast of incredibly by-the-books barebones characters and their arcs and then have gratification and livability fall into your lap for your "generous" contribution to society. Neither would tolkien approve of doing so. Lotr isn't the standard. It was a vast cosmological fluke.

[@unlucky_thir13en]

Damn, Lucas really called me out for binging a 700-episode anime I've seen before, and in the very next breath called me out for having a bed, work desk, gaming platform, and minifridge crammed into my room. 😭😭😭

[@localscriptman]

Hey you do you

[@flaviapetrorossidefigueire6044]

Well, if that anime spires you i fuess there is no problem tho

[@smelyely3353]

Doesn't matter what you do, as long as you make the choice to do it. You can be lazy without being on constant autopilot. This is also a very good way to mitigate ADHD symptoms for the days where your brain feels like it's at 2% capacity, very cool video thank you.

[@nbucwa6621]

this is a great add-on because as easy as it may sound to someone without adhd, sometimes I can't just sit and watch a whole movie or series. Understimulation is a real thing. I also sometimes can't just watch a new show or movie because overstimulation is also a real thing. One option may be better for me than the other depending on what set of symptoms my brain is presenting me that day (or hour or minute). Making an active choice on what I'm consuming and how I'm consuming it and being fully aware of that choice is the most important part.

[@arzabael]

@@nbucwa6621 man the general specimen has shifted since the golden era. I guess if the movie had a little hand that came out and jacked you off it would reach the stimulating needs of some of our fighting new generations.

[@paddyq3235]

I'd call myself a chaotic planner. I have some gardener tendancies but I'm so busy with other creative works and school that writing is almost constantly set on the back burner for me. I haven't gotten the opportunity to sit down and write so I haven't had the chance to garden. I find I consume content about writing like this channel because it scratches that writing itch despite the fact that I don't have time to write. I end up in an endless loop of planning and changing and planning and changing because I can plan things out in my head while working or doing mundane tasks but can't/don't make the time to to sit down and actually write.

[@Raikeran]

bruh i feel you on a spiritual level. theres this project ive been wanting to write out but so far i only got a rough outline of it (that the story itself is already deviating from in my head and on paper) and the story keeps building and changing in my mind every day. i dont make time to write because my creative energy is spent on schoolwork, and then the little i do write on a document i end up getting anxious about 😅 i think things'll liven up once graduation comes around

[@bradyarguin]

Agree agree agree, and I think the “hustle culture” dickish tone here is the way it NEEDS to be delivered. I know I’m the type of person to lean toward the Instagram reels for 2 hours over a dedicated rejuvenating movie, but obviously feel better when I commit to the latter. Feel the same way about movie theaters forcing you to do that. And one of my favorite things my screenwriting professor does is assign us films to watch specific to our project bc in the end that IS the best way to the end goal. And yet? Knowing all that? More often than not when left to my own devices I choose the device that fits in my pocket. I know you’re speaking against re-watches but I can picture myself coming back to this video a lot when I need motivation and need someone to yell at me about it. I’ve been needing a creativity specific hustle culture video. Thank you.

[@bradyarguin]

Also as someone with an eating disorder the food analogy is funny bc it kinda shows that in some ways I’m fighting the same war on two fronts

[@ZelphTheWebmancer]

I think the “hustle culture” dickish tone (I see the first part, but not the dick-ish tone) it is not needed. I delve into productivity, How To Be Successful on KZbin type video for a good while and what I learned after all of that is that once I started to liberate myself from this idea of being productive, of needing to grind to get things done so I can fulfill my goals and instead cultivated the intrinsic motivation I have to do what I want to do is when I started to not only feel better and less self-loathing for failing to get things done, but I also started to get things done. It could be a personal thing, and procrastination is a multifaceted issue that requires a multifaceted solution to truly deal with, but the mindset of distancing away from "hustle" and "grind" help me a lot. Although, the advice of actively and consciously choosing the media you watch it's really good and complementary with what I been going through.

[@flaviapetrorossidefigueire6044]

Honestly re watches are a must when you have bad memory or when you need inspiration or need to analyze something( to get better at wiritting or maybe for a school Project ), but doing it too much can indeed make the experience less than it was

[@nobodyimportant4778]

I think if you wanna look at your phone during a movie, it's neither good nor bad enough to engage with the human part of your brain that wants to know why it's good or bad.

[@isaacsteward6210]

Ideas are like vampires. They usually suck😂

[@oj5826]

You’re the first KZbinr I’ve ever seen that I feel is so similar to me. I also fall into media traps but I also like to watch cinema, and in order to write my novel I started to read Frankenstein as a productive piece of investigation. I’m stuck at home without a job or school (3 month gap period) and I have nobody to talk to about writing. Your videos are almost therapeutic to learn that what I’m doing is a struggle, and a step in the right direction. Thank yoi

[@cindellednic]

I agree that I feel like I get more out of these videos than just writing advice. I feel inspired and that I'm being spoken to as a writer instead of a novice, not being patronised. They're very on my wavelength and make me feel creative and inspired.

[@SteveJubs]

Architect gone a bit gardener here. For me, it’s about the ability to trust yourself enough to experiment and go off outline if something new (and maybe even better) surprises you while you’re writing, and then to know for a fact that you’ll be able to go back and either edit what came before to make the new path work, or go back and try again if the new path ultimately didn’t work. Editing is everything. The better I’ve become at editing, the better my work has become overall, which allows me to loose that anxious grip a bit on mapping out every little thing before I even start writing what I pray will be a perfect first draft. It’s not going to be. No matter how much planning I do, I’m going to have to fix things that seemed fine in my outline, until I got to that specific scene in the draft where the rhythm or chemistry or motivation was off in some way I genuinely could not have seen until it was there on the page in front of my face. And I get that this vid is about efficiency, but I think even though (or maybe even especially because) the industry is how it is, we should be pushing back against the cult of efficiency, stop moralizing productivity, and insist that great stories often take time to tell.

[@minanikolic1456]

Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@summertime69]

I'm working on a project surrounding the Korean war. Because of this I decided that I would consume and engage with media that are also on that topic. Documentaries, mostly, but also MASH, and other fictional interpretations. Letting the work inspire the media is genius and thats how I allow my relaxation/refuel time feed my productivity on projects :)

[@saessakharmony]

watching this made me realize why i'm in a stump right now. i have a friend who, albeit doesn't really know what the hell i'm writing about, gives GREAT ideas, and whenever i talk to her about my works she always has something to suggest which makes the pieces link together better. back then i never talked to others about my works because i was embarrassed but now i realized that i'm not the type who can productively work alone. great video man 👍

[@peanutgallery4]

The hypnotic Windows XP screensaver forces me to agree with every statement you make

[@grain9640]

5:25, I bought an awesome used Samsung Note on ebay, and I love it for doodling and if I make a point to not get distracted, then I don't BUT I've recently realized that nothing beats a physical notebook. The tactile nature literally grounds you. I theorize the modern human NEEDS more physical & tactile experiences than we are getting on average, including working with physical paper. I can spend 8 hours a day working with excel sheets and text editing for my job, and I've realized there's a certain frustration to constantly manipulating things you can't touch. A discomfort that I've suppressed for who knows how long, but I can't do anything about. As nice as Ctrl-Z is, having physical access to your work is nicer. It's just mentally grounding and more peaceful. I've been feeling the same way as an artist. I started out with 90% digital art, but I've moved to 90% traditional art. Not having undo is such a blessing, my problem solving skills are so much sharper and I think harder. I can't thank our AI overlords enough for encouraging me to make the switch!

[@Xanzorath]

There's no such thing as a wasted draft if you're still learning how to write/tell stories. If you currently lack the skills to put your ideas on paper, it matters a lot less what the ideas are and lot more how much time you spend practicing. Not that you can't practice outlining while also practicing putting narrative on a page, but if you already have outlining skills spending a lengthy amount of time putting together the perfect outline for a story you don't have a prayer of telling might not be the most efficient way to spend your time. If a writer hasn't before, I highly recommend getting one complete draft of something finished. Even if the result is garbage you want to burn, you now have a better idea of what telling a full story requires than you could of before, and everything else you write will benefit from that knowledge.

[@JT_Film]

As someone who, for various reasons, was forced into going phoneless recently, it lead to the most healing, inspiring, exciting week. I watched movies and read books without the ability to scroll. I drove without access to maps, and learned more about my town as a result. It's a lot harder when your phone is handy, but turning it off, leaving it in a room, convincing yourself that you'll miss NOTHING - calls, emails, posts - that can't be caught up on later, is something you won't regret.

[@nonameless2]

Pantser here: every time I try to plan (believe me, I've tried) it does not work for me at all. I write this uninspired, basic, boring as crap outline that makes me want to throw it away and never think about the story again. In order to learn about the characters, I have to spend time with them in the context of the story. This leads to A LOT of rewrites (the current story I'm working on is the fourth completely rewritten draft) but I personally enjoy that a lot more because they end up feeling developed and like real people. If you're a writer who can just whip up a fully-fledged human being out of thin air and know exactly how they'd act/react in every single situation, that's awesome. But I can't do that, and I'm okay with it. The fun for me is in the journey.

[@JWChris28]

I am an intense architect that tracks a lot of details throughout my narratives, but I've found that sitting down and gardening with it, finally writing it out, can both reaffirm that the planning is close to airtight and generate surprises that make the process feel less scripted even though its been planned. When I first got into writing, I was a gardener until I saw the power of planning. It's really about finding balance in different periods of your life and recognizing how much time you can devote to projects at any given time: gardening supplies immediate rewards and a renewed inspiration in your current project while planning meticulously crafts a sturdy foundation that you can rely on for a long time.

[@ForgotCheez]

Not with creative projects specifically, but I used to be a fully "live by the vibe"/"feel my way through problems" kind of person. I haven't converted to needing to plan everything, but after a lifetime of depression and a stint at the hospital, something clicked into place and I feel like I found the yin to that yang. As an example, I had played guitar for years, and half written a dozen songs, but never really saw anything through to the end. Within a year of the hospital, I had written and fully produced a full song, and written another. They aren't amazing works of art, but they feel *very* expressive of who I was, and I think I'll always be proud of myself for that much. I think I need the 'gardening' in order to speak truth to me, and what I want to say. But the 'planner' part was also needed, to give me some structure to operate within. It kind of removed writer's block, before it would even happen. More than anything, I think the 'planner' part also helped me focus on what was actually important about what I was working on. If I felt really strongly about adding or removing a line, I just did it. But those times I wasn't sure, when it was close~ish to 50/50, it became very easy to look to my plan to help sway me one way or the other. "Yes this line is funny, but the point of this section is really the wordplay, so I'll ditch it."

[@maxsherman1685]

I don’t have time to watch this video yet but local is the only channel with notifications that show up when the video is posted and I want my comment to have a little liked by creator thing for internet validation

[@zacharyjohnson9357]

Give this creature a like, goshdarnit!

[@lookatthiscatbro1462]

I’m an architect trying to learn gardening as an additional tool. I really like the planning part of writing have always naturally gravitated towards it but over time, a disability of mine that includes things like brain fog, memory issues, fatigue and chronic pain has slowly gotten worse so I only have a limited amount of energy I can really spend sitting and doing something. Initially I tried to work past it but it was like trying to form ideas out of nothing (or like trying to lay those tracks on thin air). So instead I’ve started keeping a notebook around me at all times so when an idea comes I can write it down and revise what I’m working on in the moment. Then once I have a basic understanding of the themes, plot, characters and relationships between them all I go back to the planner stage and work from what I have to solidify it all and plan out the basics of scenes (not the exactly outlines so I don’t overwhelm or exhaust myself with too many things to keep in mind while writing the draft; more I keep a general idea of where the characters are + thematic parallels with ideas of specific, possibly important lines to remember) and then I go on and actually start writing the story itself, sometimes revising the plan if something feels better one once actually wholly written.

[@minanikolic1456]

Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@ahennessy7998]

Fr fr on God you can hit that media grind or be media blind 😤😤😤🔥🔥🔥

[@sapheiron]

Since I only have one room and do everything in that room, I tend to listen to specific music when working on my project and only then. Instead of designating areas you could use other things to activate the right mindset. A designated room, a certain time of day, specific music, there are a lot of ways to do this but the core principle of setting up some pavlovian trigger to go into creative mode seems totally indispensable to me.

[@grain9640]

I only have one room too, and I have a "thinking lamp" that's just a small lava lamp. I turn on the lava lamp and another bright desk lamp, and turn off my main light so the rest of my room is dim and my desk is bright with an eye catching lava lamp that softens shadows and has a pleasing warmth. I later found out that the University of Hawaii did a study and asked students (who mostly all lived in dorms and all had a desk lamp) to turn that desk lamp on ONLY when they were studying and to turn it off when they were done, and the students that did this started studying way better. Another thing one-roomers should be doing is making their bed. It's hard for me because of my cat, but I've been better about this. My sleep cue is a box fan I put in the doorway. I sleep so much harder with that airflow, but I recently realized when I turn it off-- it feels like my day is starting. Almost like "boxfan room" and "daytime room" are two different places.

[@tripwire202]

​@@grain9640 I have a writing shirt! Beautiful fish patterns. Fun tactic. Nice to know there's science behind why this functions.

[@Onezy05]

"Don't wait for consumption choices to inspire your project. Allow your project to inspire your consumption choices." And this is exactly why I decided to sit down and start properly reading A Song of Ice and Fire and rewatch certain Sopranos episodes. But in more important news, this is damn valuable advice.

[@Oblogonogo]

loved this. as someone who just completed a giant project and has spent about a year trying to get back on the horse, this was a great take

[@reno9821]

For me, the biggest appeal of writing and just consuming stories comes from the idea that it's the one place where "anything is possible" is not wrong, and you can actually pull off anything in your story with a good enough execution, just some are harder to make work than others. The goal to start writing has pretty much spawned out of wanting to see some really fun ideas i've had in my head come to life, and getting tired of waiting for the near-impossible chance it not only happens, but is done well. For a while though, I got discouraged because of thinking that by doing all the hard work of writing up that story, i'll rob myself of enjoying it personally and leaving that only (hopefuly) for the rest. A big help with getting through that was to approach writing more as a game or challange, where you think up literally any idea, and do your best to find out how to make it work, research all the stuff that may help you with it and gain inspiration from other works that may be similar to it. It's not easy, but it is an enjoyable challange.

[@a.c.6640]

i've learned my lesson about planning ahead the painful way. the only times when i actually go with the flow is for very short projects, and even then, a small outline can help sooo much.

[@narogmog]

Would you consider doing a video on how you would balance a "9 to 5" with creating art and trying to be a healthy person who still goes outside, exercises an socializes?

[@AlastorNahIdWinRadioDemon]

I moved into my own place recently and have an actual work room now and I can say for sure fact I have been more productive than I had been in the past 3 years because of it on all accounts. I only work in my bedroom now if I'm having an actual physical issue that requires me to sit with my legs fully outstretched rather than bent at the knees.

[@GameTornado01]

Or you could do what Tolkien did: Don't plan, just write, and any time you run into a problem while writing, you stop until you figure out a solution, and when you do, you start over writing from the beginning again.

[@NathanTRousseau]

I'm a natural architect who has found the value of gardening. I spent about five years developing the history of my fantasy world. I was reading and watching everything I could about writing, and putting it into practice within my world's history. I developed a LOT, and eventually I got to the point where I had planned so much Contextual info that when I made the jump to writing short stories; and later novels; set in my world, I found I barely had to plan at all. The stories flowed naturally and realistically Because I had done so much work beforehand. I had maybe a rough Rough outline of the first novel, just historical bullet points, but even those points I had to let go of because the character's story was flowing so naturally. I really felt like my conscious mind had to "not get involved" and release control. Now, in the fourth draft, I am curating it with all the intention that I can. There IS a lot of back writing to do, but I only found my main character's personal journey AFTER the first draft was done. I saw the story that had flowed out and realized... ok, this story is about powerlessness in the face of trauma. I had NO idea that was the story based off of my bullet points. Second draft then I was able to tweak every scene to just sharpen those intentions in each moment and movement. I've kept pretty much every scene in my first draft, I've just primarily re-written dialog and adjusted the exposition ratio. Now I feel like I'm just not writing if it isn't the gardening method. I think, for me, it just needs to be bookended by planning. That being said... book TWO in the series, which I haven't begun writing yet, has a Very in depth outline and I have planned nearly every scene, so we'll see how that goes. I see tremendous value in both ways of thinking.

[@type-writerproductions1116]

As someone who’s always found himself more of an architect than a gardner, Breaking Bad helped me realise the benefits of winging it, so to speak. Keep in mind, I’m specifically talking about long form television, or really any long form media, be it comics, a trilogy of movies, or series of games. Everyone knows Aaron Paul was infamously meant to die towards the end of the first season, but they loved his performance and what he brought to the character so much they decided to keep him around, and he went on to become the heart of the show. They wrote the show season to season, and while Vince Gilligan may have had a general ending in mind, for the most part they made it up as they went along. Had the writers planned everything from the get and stuck to it, how much of Breaking Bad would be what it is today? This isn’t to say you should be flying be the seat of your pants at all times, that’s how you end up with a show like Riverdale. But if you’re too rigid, too focused on sticking to your original, how many great ideas will you miss out on? Hell in the case of The Walking Dead, they made an entirely new character for the show because they loved Norman Reedus. Not to mention that reception is also important, you could be writing what you think is the greatest season of television, only for it to come out and not really resonate with the audience. At which point you’re forced to make a choice, do you continue down the path you’re on, potentially alienating the audience because “they just don’t get it man”? Or do you take the feedback and constructive criticism and use it to improve the next season? If you’re writing a a long running tv show, you aren’t the same writer by say season five or six than you were at the start, at least you shouldn’t be. And with that growth comes new ideas and possibilities, to stifle that by stubbornly sticking your fingers in your ears and going “la la la la, I can’t hear you” is antithetical to writing, and art as a whole. I think there’s room for both types of storytelling, they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. But we can’t conform to a one or the other mentality, otherwise the art suffers.

[@minanikolic1456]

Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@SeniorAdrian]

I have this theory for like 8 years that in order for great art to make a return humanity needs to log off social media.

[@Qtippery]

I do agreement. Over the past 2 years I have built out a world and the story I want to tell within it. I even found a good creative partner in one of my long-time friends. I personally have found the gardening to be enjoyable for small excerpts and short stories within the world/story, and as I write what's cool or makes sense at the time I start to have questions about how it would/could or couldn't fit within the rules I have set up. To further your analogy, gardening is when you want to see something grow, you don't know what it will grow into or when it will die, or even if it'll be the same as when it started, its pretty to look at and sometimes the joy is even in watching how it unfolds. creating a blueprint for a building almost always has a purpose or need in mind, but especially an end. The biggest difference to me is that Finality behind a pre-planned and built thing vs the organic growth and cultivation of thing. Gardening is when you want to see how far you can go, how long something can last, how big or how deep it can go by just exploring the unknown without ever looking behind you to see how you got there. Its two different types of media. Family guy, or the MCU are both examples of how far can we make something go, while any show that has a clear definitive end with a clear well-defined message is something that was built with that message in mind.

[@incendium2239]

Just wanted to say your content has really inspired me and given me the tools to get working on a novel I’d been dreaming about writing for years. Thanks so much for your amazing work

[@incendium2239]

also for making the whole process entertaining :)

[@markbv591]

I’m an architect type, and I know I am because for the longest time, I thought everyone was the gardener type, and so therefore I must be too. I tried writing stories for years with this approach but fuck all happened. It took so much to finally accept that I can’t just materialize a story in an instant out of nothing like it seems most people on the internet do. That I *must* plan *everything.* and when I finally started planning, *that’s* when magic started to happen

[@narimdraws6696]

this channel is a literal goldmine. NEVER CHANGE REAL LIFE ALIEN GUY!!

[@octopuddle6933]

A few years ago i had a tightly plotted, designed and worldbuilt magnum opus comic. I have 10 or so WIPs of pages. My silly little fancomic i make based purely on vibes howevever, is about to break 100 pages. Pantsing lets me ride the excitement of ideas as they happen, bypasses the "im a hack oh god" stage because im done by the time its happening, and gives me a place to force interesting twists "in the edit" as i construct the timeline and plot. Plus, people seem to like my self indulgent bs for some reason. I wouldnt nessesarily recommend it, but its working for me in the space I'm in right now. Editing a screenplay or novel into submission is also probably easier than figuring out how to place completed 5-15 page sets on a timeline, too.

[@WisdomThumbs]

As an artist/writer/Dungeon Master/full time utility worker, there’s a reason I’ve only rewatched my favorite show *once.* Running fun DnD trains the “pantser” part of your brain. It’s tough at first. It helps that I did a LOT of pantsing as a kid and teen, mostly with fanfiction. That led to my mentor. He was already published, and just keeps knocking out projects after becoming a dad/game creator/polyglot/teacher of teens and other schoolteachers. Thing is… He started as a gardener. Now he’s half-gardener, half-pantser. He just goes with it and makes shit up with the flow sometimes, because he focuses on efficient thinking and efficient time management. In the process, he’s taught me a bunch about gardening (both literally and metaphorically).

[@Sky_flying2024]

Ray Bradbury, in his 2001 speech(An Evening with Ray Bradbury), which anyone can still watch (it's pretty funny and filled with gems of wisdom), talks about writers reading 1 short story per night, reading a classic piece of poetry, and writing a short essay., and 1 short story a week. Of course, for screenwriters, this is slightly different because the medium is different. But I think what Bradbury was getting at, at least in my own subjective take, is that no artist is an island, and that consumption of the arts is part of an artist's job to enrich their storehouse of influences and possible inspirations. (listen to Tarantino and Scorsese talk about films. Those guys watched a lot!) Watching a movie or reading a story daily for a writer and screenwriter is different than just someone trying to be entertained. In my opinion, it's just part of the process of becoming a better artist. Part of the job. How can an artist become better without studying the works of others?

[@ArthurLopes39]

Thank god I've always hated the concept of TikToks and Shorts. I just don't get how people can play a game or watch a movie while scrolling stuff at the same time.

[@jay-wo7dd]

I plan to write a graphic novel, and I'm trying to find that balance between knowing enough of how everything will act out from start to finish to be able to write it without problem, but still giving every character and scene enough of a chance to drive the story in their own direction in the case that may end up working better. Productivity is a huge struggle for me for a lot of the reasons you mentioned. I always work in the privacy and comfort of my house because I have adhd so a lot of my brainstorming pretty much requires running around and pacing as a stim, and that's something I can't really get away with in a public Panera. I can't just sit still surrounded by millions of people or my mind will completely freeze up. I want to keep my phone around too just in case of emergencies. I'll see if I can find a balance between phoneless public Panera and all the distractions of a home.

[@AndrewLawton16]

Would you like advice?

[@bason3183]

I've been following your channel for about a year, and I have to say, I love how unique and varied your content is. In some of your previous videos, you're out in the wild or on a boat in a river, and here, this video is more laid back. I haven't found a single other channel on youtube like yours. I know I'll be following your channel for a long time.

[@miguelangelrivas8692]

the problem i have with working with other people on my story is that they want to tell their own story. As in, most writters i've talked to already have a massive story in their mind that they want done. and i want MY story to be made, i want to write MY story. I don't think there are writters that exist that are just like 'yeah i'm down to help someone else write their story.' Usually it's 'Hey, let's peer review each other's story.' Which is nice, but my story is already pretty long, with many moving parts, characters, archs, etc. To top it all off, it's still in the planning phase. So it would take a while to explain my story to someone else, which a lot of people don't wanna do. idk, but my thoughts are just that, nobody wants to write for a story they aren't super passionate for. I don't have money to pay anyone either

[@AndrewLawton16]

You should explore writing circles. I write with four other people. We all work in the same space, which keeps us all productive because there's accountability. We all know each other's projects pretty well. And whenever I need to talk through something or want input, I have five other people whose perspectives I trust immediately available to me.

[@minanikolic1456]

If you're willing to actually write your story instead of just waiting for an advice, I am more than willing to help! Yes, I do have my own story too, but in helping others, I find ways to help myself too! So... Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@paddyq3235]

We love when a Local video starts with a slightly existential monologue making me question my life.

[@porter5224]

finally, one of these I don't have to build for myself from the ground up! I've genuinely found that I just can't write in a place that I do much else, and I don't live in a house that has enough available space to section off a 'writing' space. Going to essentially the middle of nowhere on bike rides, the further the better, is unironically the way I've written about half my book so far.

[@YarnRay]

I do agreement, I do. My approach to productivity recently is... not thinking about productivity. At least, not in the way I have in the past. Previously, I've viewed productivity as an inside -> out process: enacting my will/discipline (inside) on the world around me (out). Flipping this has been incredibly helpful. Instead of prioritizing how I interact with the world, be mindful of the outside -> in: what am I letting influence my internal and creative process? To my dismay, 700 episode anime rewatches, youtube binging, and general social media debauchery do not build the ideal environment for maintaining my mental health, and my mental health-contrary to every popular portrayal of artists, ever-seems rather important if I'm interested in doing... anything, art included. Great video! Maybe I'll watch again later while simultaneously browsing my phone and snacking and discording (guilt, guilt, guilt) and such.

[@AmethystBad]

this channel is like a free masterclass. there's so much helpful information here that is just available for anyone to absorb. thank you for making this channel to help people like me learn how to make things :D

[@gierasole]

"new ideas are like vampires, youve got to invite them in" is a really sharp analogy, i like that

[@redthepencilmonster7011]

I'm more of a plotter, but I think the biggest advantage of pantsing is that you aren't waiting for permission to start and make mistakes. I have trouble bringing anything to completion, so I challenged myself to pants my way through writing a short story to prove to myself that I could. Although I didn’t like the result, just finishing SOMETHING was empowering. If you feel like you're never going to finish your first draft, it may be helpful to ask WHY. Plotters who never finish generally procrastinate the first draft because of a phenomenon known as "worldbuilder's disease," spending too much time making maps, character bios, conlangs, etc. Meanwhile, pantsers who never finish tend to over-revise the first chapter/scene and never move on. So maybe the solution for both camps is to experiment with new methods. Do whatever it takes to get that dopamine rush that comes from finishing the first draft instead of waiting for motivation to hit. If you suffer from worldbuilder's disease, that may mean forcing yourself to start pounding out the first draft, because chances are you'll NEVER feel ready. If you're in the latter camp, though, then either don't give yourself permission to edit until you've finished the first draft or consider making an outline if you feel stuck.

[@DEADIKATED]

I used to be addicted to watching TV as a kid. In My 20's when I was going to school and trying to get ahead I noticed I would turn on the TV first thing when I got home. I unplugged it and was good for a very long time. Some where in 2013 or 2014 I got addicted to KZbin and now I'm back to suare one.

[@Kaizen_]

Another day another banger, was just thinking of this with my friend. You make some good points, keep up the work

[@Paincreas.]

Thank you. These videos make me happy, friend. As someone who has a hard time focusing like so many of you, I cherish this man’s videos showing me what structure can look like and how I can start to make changes in my daily living as well as my creative projects.

[@Asimov_]

you are the only channel i even watch on youtube anymore. literally came out of nowhere it seems with the best advice i've ever heard about writing

[@daveisntsogreat]

your content always comes at the right time, this is exactly what I needed to hear

[@grateful_riceball]

I really want to say that you've opened my eyes so much ever since I discovered your channel. I am a big time procrastinator and I could never motivate myself out of this endless loop of lazing around consuming things instead of creating them like I've always wanted to. I love media and I can't deny that one of the best memories I have had in my life is from consuming media. Eventually, I want to get out of comfort zone and do cool shit. I will continue trying even if I have to keep failing. Thank you again.

[@brittney3165]

Wish we reframed pantsers/plotters as a spectrum instead of a binary. It's so useful to *both* pantsers and plotters. the pantser's question can evolve into "how much of a skeleton do i need to keep from feeling creatively stymied?" and the plotter's question can evolve into "Are there areas in my story i don't need to have locked into place prior to writing?"

[@donutholebandit6212]

I used to be a pantser, 100%, when i was a kid writing stories. Then later, i started planning things out more and more, leading to nothing ever getting done because i needed to be "finished" with my worldbuilding before i ever put anything to page beyond an outline. I think nowadays im trying to lean more into the pantser side of things for my actual scene writing (fixing mistakes via revision on a smaller scale), while remaining more of an architect with the worldbuilding and outlines, because thats where mistakes and inconsistenci3s matter much more. Still in the learning process, or relearning i suppose, but its going well! Who knows, i may actually have my first finished script by the end of the summer lol

[@davidwadsworth1760]

A good tip is to write for 10 minutes every morning when you first wake up before you even drink your coffee or talk to anyone, before you get into your 'what do I need to do today' mind space... when you first wake up and your still partially in that dream state is when you are most creative, write down anything that comes to mind, and then come back to what you wrote when you are actually ready to work and you might be surprised by the interesting ideas you had. Youre welcome!

[@editing_in_action]

I'm a longtime pantser/gardener who has found great value in structure. I always wondered why my plots wouldn't come together, or why I couldn't get my characters to do what I wanted. It turns out that not knowing specifically what needed to happen and why contributed a lot to my overall lack of forward momentum. Go figure. It honestly wasn't until I took a long break from writing and tried my hand at drawing that I figured it out. When you draw, you never start with your final sketch, but instead generate shapes and forms from rougher sketches, working your way inward into something more refined. Iterating from rough sketches into finer sketches allows for both the creative aspect (getting the rough idea down on paper, like a few spontaneous lines or gestures) and the analytical (what do I make of those lines? Do they play well together? Do they form any interesting intersections or possibilities?) When I finally came back to writing, I wanted the same iterative process. What's the best way to get the overall sense of a work while allowing for iteration and expression without, you know, just writing the whole thing? How do you encapsulate a work in shorthand? It struck me. Outlining is to writing as rough sketches are to drawing. It's not the final form, but it's not supposed to be. It's the skeleton. The undergirding. The structure. My writing has been much more productive in the couple of years since that epiphany, and while I do allow myself room for creative spontaneity, my stuff is much more structured and rigorous than it was before.

[@markbv591]

Dude why are you so cool? Like what is it about your vibe that’s so comforting?

[@ravenhayakawa]

I'm an artist and although the specific writing solutions don't apply to me, you do an amazing job at giving advice to all creatives. No matter what medium, these talking points prevent almost every type of creative block and burnout.

[@peakshua]

Best essayist on KZbin 👏👏

[@Roman-ht7rx]

Just discovered your channel, watched second video and I love it. No bullshit, straight to the point and genuinely useful information. Thank you, man.

[@coopieself]

whoever wrote "I garden because I love the flowers, even if they are all the wrong colours in all the wrong beds" this is my favorite sentence ever written its so cute

[@batrachskadi7792]

I'm a natural architect. Writing outlines and meticulously planning everything in the story is the most fun part of the writing process for me. I really don't see the perspective of "you can't have an impactful or surprising story if you outline it hard beforehand" or "structuring it all out sucks the soul from the story". I don't think it's true at all! BUT. Over the years that I've been writing, I HAVE had to see the benefit of the gardening approach. The projects I have the most passion for are all long-form. I start out the outlines, and sometimes I even finish them, but almost every single time, I've burnt out and not finished them. Not ABANDONED them, just let them sit in my WIP folder and collect dust until I remember them months/years later. But all the projects I've ever actually sent out and published were short-form things I just... sat down and wrote in 1-3 sessions. I'm not as enthusiastic about them as my long-form stuff, but I FINISHED them! And I've become a better writer because I was ACTUALLY WRITING SOMETHING! I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes you literally just... have to write. Sit down and just write. You can't be your best if you're caught up entirely on planning, and you can't be your best if you just go in blind and mess around without thought. You gotta find a good balance. Which is obvious, probably didn't need to be said, but whatever.

[@minanikolic1456]

Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@Zeeboq]

I find that in the moment of conceiving an idea, I fall in love with it and have the same drive and passion a gardener would. Although, I understand my own ambition and am an extremely detail oriented person-in that sense, I am an architect: I want to make sure every corner and crevice is top-notch. It is a gruelling and lengthy process, but I do enjoy the technicality. Also, it's nice to see someone so outwardly spoken on their process as I can relate it to my own! It feels less... lonesome.

[@JenksAnro]

I'm sad to see your old videos are gone, I miss them

[@mercury4885]

representative of the adhd gang, splitting recharge time and project time made a world of difference for me, but i think a creative partner really might be a potential, truly huge breakthrough. your advice is always cutting through the waffling i do anytime i approach creative pursuits, i'm grateful for your work!

[@isawasquirrel9422]

I kinda do both (referencing the gardeners thing). An idea for a short story pops in my mind while I'm riding my bike to work, or walking to pick up my carryout order, etc. Then I explore where I want that story to go and specifically what I want that story to mean. I also take your advice and make each character a representation of a theme. I jot down a skeleton of a skeleton of an outline in my phone or a random piece of scrap paper. Thing is though, I never get to fleshing out that og outline further until I've already started writing the first draft. When I do, its for a section/scene/chapter (I write novel type fiction, not screenplay :( sorry) that's coming up but I haven't started yet outside of set-up from previous chapters. Admittedly this does lead to some ideas popping up later in the story that require I go back and sprinkle some set-up in earlier parts, but usually those explosive ideas are expansions or expositions of my characters, whom I've already set personality types and motivations for, so it's never too hard to slide in. I usually come up with the ending sometime in the middle of writing my stories. Granted, I've not had the ability to get a professional to look over my stories, so I don't know if my methods "work" or not from a professional's point of view. That plus my latest 2 are fan fictions of Bloodborne so little bits of context may be lost on readers who don't know at least the basic premise of that world. Despite all that, the people who've read my stuff say it's kool. They could just be gassing me up though, idk lol

[@4xdblack]

Hey, for the record, I finished rewatching that 700 episode anime in 4 hours. You don't know me son.

[@jonharker9028]

I’ve had similar revelations about committing to a piece of media and being selective about inspirations before, but it’s good to have it again in video form. Hell, I saw an article advocating for the same when consuming music just last week, keeping hold of or discovering the joys of tangibly owning music rather than streaming it. I also like the uninterrupted completeness of the cinema / movie theatre experience, as you mentioned, and reasonably recreating that when I want to watch a film (even at home). I’ve personally refused to binge shows now, taking my time with episodes and relishing in that digestible once-a-week experience the way we used to take them in. Letting things breathe, and choosing to slow down, has actually helped a lot. Thanks for this, and carry on with the good work.

[@cocoabear_art]

I’m definitely a gardener but at the same time, I’ve focused on planning for a few years now so I’m also an architect. Some days I’ll write something completely random from start to finish just for fun but i also have longer, more complex stories that i love planning out. I can see how that might make some gardeners feel like they’re done with it but it just makes me excited to work on it more to see the end result. It’s like putting a puzzle together and every piece gets me more interested in seeing the composition at the end

[@bruh9297]

As an extreme pantser (really tried the planner method for a while but found I did my best work winging it), I feel like none of the stated reasons really get at the heart of why it works for me. Which is fair as I didn't discover this until recently. Basically, I need to be in the story to know how the story goes. I need to experience the plot with the characters for it to come alive. I'm not able to get proper emotion and understanding just looking at a plot or a character outline and so my additions feel forced and lifeless. Recently I've tried to get back into planning after having spent two years now in full pantser mode and it's tough. Legitimately facing block because I don't know what should come next (well, I know, but again it feels lifeless), but the stories I pants are flowing smoothly and I'm right where I need to be. When I throw caution to the wind and just write, suddenly the world is alive. Suddenly the characters have wants and needs and they want to go in different directions, and I follow them all throughout like a dedicated cameraman. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's frustrating, often it takes long (2nd draft becomes the clean up draft). Sometimes the plot is pretty much whole inside my head, I'm just getting it down on paper. And sometimes I don't know where the fuck I'm going, I'm literally making up brand new characters on the spot and bullshitting. I suspect there are a lot less pantsers in the community than one would be led to believe. Something about the stupid belief that true writers are artsy and intuitive + not wanting to put in the work to learn story structure. Which is bizarre because I'd say knowing structure is doubly important when you pants. You gotta memorize that shit.

[@enjae2762]

I was a gardener myself up until a couple of momths back when I picked up on the fact that having a general theme your story plot is centered on in its entirety is actually a really good thing. Does it mean that I will not be able to slam in a scene I think will be amazing on a burst of inspiration? Yes. It also means that I will not act on the urge to suddenly write a spinoff series in the middle of the main plot beat. ((you were a part of this realization, thanks for that.)) It's also helped me finally nail in where i feel my story should definitively start and definitively end as well as give story relevant functions to characters that were originally side characters. And for all the reins I'm now giving my creativity, though i strike out or don't give thought to as many ideas as I normally would, the ideas that do make it out of this grueling hunger games are ABSOLUTE GOLD. For other gardeners that might not be sure how to architect or are feeling doubtful implementing this in their story, try this. Write as much about this particular story as you can, incorporate as many creative bursts of storytelling as you can and explore every single "what if it happened this way" you can, either within an allotted time period or if you're not pressured, till you feel like you have a big enough pool of lore to make a big decision. Don't get attached to any scenes but make sure you like everything. Now from all of that work, pick a theme. Not an explanatory sentence, not a vibe, a theme, usually a single word. Now explain the story you're trying to tell in a single simple sentence eg. "The story centers on characters that are trying to grow, some with and some without the influence of trauma." Now have you picked a sentence and a theme you're satisfied with? Good. That is your story's GOD now. Your guide to everything that gets into your story and what you need to strike out from the previous pile. And going forward, if your GOD doesn't like the creative offering you brought him, he strikes it and it does not go in your story. The God thing is just my fun analogy for it but i hope you get the idea and i hope it works for you gardeners, gives a nice-ish structure to the beautiful madness in your heads.

[@Halberddent]

I'm an architect, a heavy outliner, and I have toyed around with discovery writing. For me, the trick is to be perfectly aware that writing a scene off the cuff is not part of the drafting process, it's brainstorming. When I outline I usually ask myself a bunch of questions "how does this work? Why does she feel that way? How do we resolve it?" But if I can't come up with the right questions in an outlining mode, just jumping into a scene can help me discover them. So I write the scene, then I use what I learned to keep outlining. (It's also a nice brain break to jump into prose for a while, do some descriptions and dialogue.) I suspect many gardeners will write an entire first draft as a big brainstorming session, ideally with very little editorializing and creative inhibition slowing them down. Then they can analyze the first draft and use it to inspire and organize the next. So on and so forth. Not a functional system if you tend to be a perfectionist or invest a lot of ego in the quality of whatever you're writing in the moment. (Me.)

[@minanikolic1456]

Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@ozz9041]

I wrote my first two full length Screenplays without an outline, notes or story board - and just wrote them like I was watching it in real time … I call it the “Crime Scene” technique…

[@era_by_era5771]

I'm an architect that is moving more towards the middle of the spectrum. When I used to outline, I thought in order to make it good I had to know every. little. thing. I had insanely long character profiles, dozens of "how does that work?" In my worldbuilding , and everytime I sat down to answer these questions, it felt like a chore because half of it didn't actually matter to the story or what I wanted to be working on with the project. But your channel and some others have helped me loosen up, since I plan the best when I let myself just keep typing paragraphs summarizing, put it into a bullet point list, and then figure out what needs fixing. So like pantsing but during the outlining. I'm actually excited for when I get to work on it instead of thinking of all the unanswered questions (I'm not even kidding one of them was the character's GAIT. WHY PAST ME WHY)

[@minanikolic1456]

Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@MioneBeast]

The story I’m currently working on is one where the first draft was coming along, but I had to set it aside for awhile. When I came back to it everything started to fall into place for a better, slightly different approach to the story. Part of this is because I took a little more time to plan things out. Even then I found I had to take a character out, but I really would not have figured that out if I hadn’t started writing. So often, even when I plan, it’s when I’m doing the actual writing that the real inspiration hits and I can fine tune things, so I’m planning before, fine tuning as I go, re-planning, taking more notes so I don’t forget changes I need to make in revision, and it’s a somewhat chaotic processes, but in the end I have something I can be proud of. A lot of your advice has helped me to streamline the process and maybe someday I’ll be able to plan a whole project out with no pantsing involved, but for now I’m still learning and I can’t always visualize how the story will pan out until I write it. I always allow myself the flexibility to run with a better idea when it shows up, even if I have to rework something I planned. Maybe the reason people pants more than they plan is they get more I inspiration from writing than they do from planning. Seems like putting the horse before the cart, but if you end up with a story by the end of it who cares how you got there? Although, I will admit, there’s a possibility if you plan more you’ll get to that finish line a lot faster.

[@livdil98]

"what if" and "wouldn't it be cool if" is so much of my notes and idea process. Just the other night I was out to dinner with a friend discussing a story and spontaneously figured out the magic system for the story, along with some details that plugged a plot hole.

[@stardra]

As an artist and a writer, I feel it’s best to get the big things down like you said. I make sure to get the big ideas/scenes down, get to the core of my characters and then I put in the details. Like with drawing, I put the circles and lines down of the sketch first to guide me then I develop it from there. I’ll make adjustments here and there if the idea strikes but after a certain point you can’t change the whole thing. You can change a position of a limb or placement of an object but you can’t just turn the whole drawing on its head unless you want to start over. Same with writing. I got the base then I just let the rest come to me. I’ve even found that at school during PE, I’ll just walk and listen to music. This hour of just being in my own mind every day has given me so many good ideas and a lot of time to brainstorm. You have to figure out what amount of planning and just bullshitting it takes for your work to come out as you’d like it. Some people figure it out early on, some take years. But this is just how I do it.

[@J4Blue]

I approach writing similarly to animation. So in animation there are two main approaches: Theres's straight ahead, where you just draw one frame after the other until you get the action you want and then there's pose to pose where you plan out each of you important key poses first then go back and make in-between drawings to finish it off. Neither method is right or wrong because a good animator uses both depending on what they are animating. I say all that to say that in writing, I usually start with a outline as an architect for most things (the equivalent to an animator's pose to pose). This helps me get the broad scope of my story's events down, making sure i know exactly what I'm trying to accomplish. Then eventually I end up having to take the gardener approach (Equivalent to an animator's straight ahead) for certain scenes for something less structured, less planned, more spur of the moment, such as comedic scenes or one liners. In the same way Pose to Pose is better for consistent character animation while Straight Ahead is better for fluent effects, Architect is better for structure and pacing while Gardener is better for creating believability and nuance.

[@mydude5017]

I'm a natural architect who can indulge in gardening every now and then. In practice I benefit from cycling between them. What ends up happening is that I sit down to write a manuscript informed by my very careful outline (plot, boom, third rail, boom), and during the writing stage I realize that there were emotional or plot holes I didn't account for, or Cooler and Better ways to execute the outline so it's not as formulaic or restrictive. Generally I can caulk over the holes with improvised characterization or troubleshooting in real time as I write. It's faster than if I were to try to interrogate *where* those holes where in the architecture stage. I would never have found them unless I spent an absurd amount of time ruminating until it's watertight. It's like learning on the job. Diving in head-first and figuring stuff out as I go. I would say I implement 75% Plotting to 25% Pantsing. The Pantsing portion is where the personality and magic comes out, but the Plotting portion is integral to making sure I don't write a novel of just VIBES and that there's themes and Everything Means Something.

[@minanikolic1456]

Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@ArchiduquesaMA]

Finally a type 3 pov on creativity, thank you

[@localscriptman]

I do it for the (ennea)gram

[@ROVERLORDD_]

dude this video was amazing, great voice control, great script hehe thanks for posting this :D

[@TitanAnon]

I gotta say dude, your videos are great for all writers, not just screenwriters. Im writing a horror video game and your videos have helped a lot

[@sun9228]

I don’t usually comment on videos but I have to say that you just blew my mind and opened up my brain’s pathways. I’ve never heard of gardener vs architect but now that I know, it’s a game changer. I’m writing a book right now and I’ve been struggling so much with figuring out how two of the main characters get the foreground story going. I thought of them first, I know what the purpose is and generally what needs to happen in the grand scheme of things, but writing the nitty gritty has been exceptionally difficult. Meanwhile I thought of main character C later, yet because I figured out early on exactly what he needed to do, when to do it, how he’s meant to feel and his motivations, writing his individual scenes has been a breeze. I even have more fun writing for him, and you just helped me realize that’s BECAUSE I’ve already planned everything out for him. Now I know for sure that what will help me get through this block for A and B is all planning. I can’t write beautiful, detailed scenes for them because their arcs aren’t fully fleshed out yet. So thanks so much for that! Sorry this was long, but it’s 1am and I just needed to say thanks.

[@naterslayer8924]

I have always been more of a plotting writer. Before I even make a story I create most of the characters, world/place, and lore before I plan it out. Then I plan out a chapter write it with that plan as a guide, plan out the next chapter write it repeat. Perharps I should more plan out the whole story before I began writing, even though I have all of the events planed in my head. Thank for the hot takes, your channel has some of the most refreshing takes and advice in my opinon.

[@minanikolic1456]

Do you want to be *hyper efficient marketing dude who's very good in problem solving* to my *scatter brained dude overflowing with what ifs and wouldnt it be cools* ? We could help each other maybe!

[@envrie9423]

Your channel is incredible dude. It truly does challenge me and makes me uncomfortable in the most positive way possible

[@jeremiahaldan1639]

I did spend years locked away in a room, doing the lone wolf writer thing, and my brain definitely stopped braining, but I've been trying to get more connected lately. Great advice in this video, thanks!

[@ashleyedwards3082]

Man this was a crazy start to this video. A few months back I saw Sam Harris on a podcast and he said “True wealth is the quality of your attention” and it’s so true, what is being rich having a lavish lifestyle if you can’t pull your eyes away from your phone and interface with reality. I took that as living your life with intentionality. Since that change I go for hour long walks without earphones, enjoy cooking more heck, I decided every time I had the impulse to scroll I would read some of a book instead. I’ve fallen back in love with reading and film again and essentially rewired my brain. I think we are starting to see more and more people reject tech in that way.

[@Domzies]

When you stared on advice specific to writing I was surprised how much of it applied to writing my masters thesis in physics. I do seem to be more on the planner side of the spectrum. I cant seem to force myself to start writing this thing until I know exactly what Ill write in it. Furthermore, I also appreciate your general advice on productivity in the first part of the video. It also kinda really opened my eyes when you talked about rewatching favorite anime, which I indeed do.

[@wyattbiggs802]

The beginning is the best summary of what I've learned over the past few years, in my trials and tribulations with media consumption. Thank you

[@Merione]

I feel like I'm a gardener that really really really wants to be an architect. I love your videos and I get it. I truly do. What you say is what I've always said a "good writer" should be even before I came across your channel, because I see the value in planning, and I enjoy doing it. But every time I sit down to actually do it, my brains starts planting seeds and following weird tangents until I completely lose my focus and I have to kick myself in the ass to stay on track. I'm not a professional writer and I don't aspire to be one, I'm just a guy who loves writing that has just recently finished his first draft of his first script ever, and I feel so dam proud of it, even though it's a crappy Marvel superhero fanfiction and a pro like you would probably trash it in two seconds (and I'd probably be there to hold the trash can for you). But still, I loved the whole process, and I would do it again, and probably will do it again. I just hope I can learn from this experience and from people like you to get closer to the kind of writer that I want to be.

[@daydariftwalker]

I gardened my very first book, and slowly transitioned to an architect style. My suggestion is to write a short version of the story, write in chronological order but don’t figure out every detail, only the stuff that you’ve figured out or that will be important later. Also, don’t worry about grammatically correct or complete sentences. Do this until the end of the story and you might end up with several thousand words, depending on the length of your story. The outline for my 60k first draft was 6k, which I would be able to get done in a week or so. Once you’re done, retroactively put it into an outline format that works for you. This allowed me to use a gardener mindset but still end up with an outline that I can use. Hope this helps

[@Merione]

@@daydariftwalker That sounds like awesome advice, thank you! I can see the benefits of doing something like that, to capture the best of both worlds. I'll definitely give it a try.

[@L_For_Literature]

No outlining for me. I don’t just go in and write without knowing where I’m going. I write, go to work, think every single second where it’s going, playing it out like a movie in my head, where I go down hundreds of avenues that I believe may fit, then decide where I’m going with it.

[@w1ckedn0nsense34]

I'm not even a gardener, I'm an architect, but I can tell you that I do feel the restriction that gardeners do. It's more like, I have an idea that's too broad with not enough detail, but I can't magically create scenes out of wholecloth to summarize. Idea: I want my character to, somehow, be executed for her revolutionary actions because of (x earlier themes) Great! Love it! How does that come to pass? I'm someone who is very critical of media but all of my favorites are explicitly books and movies that make me EMOTIONAL. I don't really cry about events in stories or even like most romances at all, but I love the stuff that can induce those reactions. It's really hard to feel emotional about a character's choices or relationships when you're outlining and since I want to inspire emotion in others, some things have to be really spontaneous. If I'm not emotional, why would my reader be? That's extremely specific though, I would really discourage a lot of people from favoring emotion in their writing. It kind of flips my statement on its head, "just because you're emotional doesn't mean your reader will be." All of that stuff is propped up with the fact that I do outline, I will cut scenes mercilessly, and I do critique what I have written. A lot of my desire to write emotionally is a desire to be challenged. Side note, I almost never rewatch anything but this video is finally rescuing me from watching season 1-8 of the Simpsons for the fourth time IN A ROW. Ay carumba.