Ten Weird Writing Tips That Actually Work

Here are ten unusual writing tips that I like to use. Let me know your fav, or share one of your own!
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[@TimbrrWolfe]

"I won't tell you what names I use when I want to like a character less but there are a few in rotation" 😂

[@cheylovesgod]

Hmm… I wOnDeR wHaT tHe NaMe Is?

[@sock356]

I see you are looking to be a writer well you should learn for a master like myself I'm Edward wartson a professional writer so I will help you just think about the world and realize it's all a story and you can change the world well no I can change the world because It's my job as a history writer you cannot because you couldn't make a story but maybe you can with my help.

[@meatbleed]

@@sock356 what a comment

[@TNcFlipbook]

♥♥

[@aurin_komak]

@@meatbleed definitely one of the comments ever

[@jessicam.g.8529]

A list, because I like lists: 1.Temporarily change the name of a character with the name of someone you like or dislike to imagine them more complexly. 2.Cut the last thing you wrote as extra words often make it weaker. 3.Stop writing while you still have ideas to have a starting point for the next writing session. 4.Print your manuscript for proofreading, as having a physical copy makes it easier to spot mistakes. 5.Keep sentence-long summaries of your scenes as you write them. 6.Keep a list of topics, ideas--- to follow up later 7.Keep a list of problems for revisions, instead of stopping to fix them while drafting. 8.Sumarize problem parragraphs 9.Swap scenes with a writing partner 10.enter your character's brain.

[@susanscott8653]

I was actually told No. 3 by a writing tutor years ago. He expressed it as leaving a thread for you to pull in your next session. No. 4: I can vouch for this one myself. I can't proofread from the screen to save myself 🙄. Reading it aloud helps too, but whether you would want to do that with a whole novel, I don't know...🤔. Not a tip exactly, but I wish I had developed a regular writing routine when I was young. Much harder when you are older I think. 😕

[@griffinrorcrafts]

Thank you!

[@TNcFlipbook]

♥♥

[@lu_amaral217]

Thank you! I also like lists so you saved me some work

[@katgreer6113]

Just use something to read your draft out loud. You can literally HEAR your mistakes, rather than your eyes skipping over words. No need to waste ink or paper here folks.

[@yunnazee]

My favorite writing hack is acting out the scenes, I know its super weird but I'm a D&D and LARPER so acting out the scenes to see if they flow well before I write them actually helps me work through plot problems I hadn't thought of while typing up the outline. If you are comfortable acting weird its actually super helpful.

[@Jo-dk9my]

Me too 😂 I wonder if my neighbors are worried…sometimes I’ll just be jumping around and sword fighting an invisible wall

[@EmmaBennetAuthor]

That’s such a great idea!

[@itz_leequirrielexlaflamant2091]

That idea is perfect. I do that too

[@lunaraydue1340]

Once I grabbed a friend and pantomimed a scene of choking them on the floor and then being hit off with a bottle so I could better picture how the scene would play out 🤣

[@EmmaBennetAuthor]

@@lunaraydue1340 omg!

[@edenmckinley3472]

My weird writing tips: 1. listen to music. A ton of music. Three hour How To Train Your Dragon ambience loop has got the creative juices flowing multiple times. Once, I listened to Hurt by Nine Inch Nails for four hours while I wrote a particularly sad scene. I can now sing it from memory. 2. have several documents open on my computer so I can work on another story or look up notes if current story isn't going well. 3. write a poem about how the character is feeling, an element of the world, or a cultural attitude of a made-up culture. Once, I even wrote a love poem from one character to another to cement their relationship in my mind. (My sister read it and pestered me to include it in my book, but I am less confident in my poetry skills than I am in my prose skills.) Poetry never fails to cut to the emotional heart of the subject, whereas prose can get mushy. 4. eat an apple at the beginning of my writing session. Apples are my favorite food, they're nutrisious, and the physical catharsis of chewing something helps my thought process. I also like to have a cold drink on hand to sip throughout. 5. If I need time to think or if the plot is stuck, I go for a walk in the park across the street. I get in twenty minutes of exercise so no one can accuse me of sitting on my butt all day, and pacing helps me think. 6. I often delete the first thing I said rather than the last. Especially in inner monologues, I work up to the point through several sentences, fleshing out the idea, then delete the often weak, unnecessary beginning sentences. 7. write unnecessary scenes in a separate document. These scenes may not even be included in the book. It could be the MC on their deathbed surrounded by grandchildren, it could be a scene of a group of friends playing volleyball or the MC's first date from the POV of the love interest. It helps me understand the character if I know their life outside what happens in the book. I know that the MC can cook nothing but eggs and oatmeal, I know that he will have six dogs who know him only as "Daddy", I know that his future wife will have a miscarriage at age 37, triggering the only real argument the two of them will ever have. It's small details like that which make the character feel like a living being who has a life beyond the story.

[@sydneyperson1336]

u should start a youtube channel

[@camieami]

I like the way your mind works

[@shlafrock2175]

Nice ✨✨

[@TNcFlipbook]

♥♥

[@Christian-97]

5 surprisingly helps me a lot. I take walks when I write, it gets the creative energy flowing.

[@Buffy8Fan]

Writing tips that aren't just the standard ones you hear everywhere. 😁

[@HannahLeeKidder]

🙌🙌🙌🙌

[@thursoberwick1948]

@@HannahLeeKidderSeconded. Thank you for *original* content.

[@celtictarotreadings333]

It’s so refreshing to hear something new. I get tired of the same boring advice

[@lukasz96]

If thousands of trained and professional writers keep repeating the same 5 tips, it's you, not them. Maybe that's it, huh. All you need to understand. But instead you waste time watching some self-centred ytber who didn't publish shit besides some short stories. Could it be because her alternative and "original" tips suck? 🤔 I mean, if her tips are soooo great that a video needed to be made, surely she's a best-selling author with multilple hits, right? It's sad. You start researching, hope to not waste time, and yet, apparently, most of the tips on the internet are some ridiculously bad fanfic circlejerks. Sigh. "Original" in this case means "I don't want to learn the hard stuff, I don't understand what I am doing but somehow I still think that whatever I will come up with is just... better". 🤑🤢 Have some standarts...

[@bonnietelocole6777]

​@@lukasz96have you considered that everyone is unique, and what works for you might not work for them? For example, I'm working on 3 projects at the same time while watching videos and thinking of ideas for my handful of other projects. I thrive in this chaos because it's how I function, but I know there are people who would never be able to function in such chaos, because that's them and how they are. 7.8 billion people on this planet, never expect everyone to agree on anything. Including whether or not professional advice helps them.

[@NateMonoxide]

The best tip I've ever heard is "don't tell anyone about what you're planning to write. Tell them once it's done". Something about getting people's reactions before any of the work is done means you're far less likely to see the project through. It rings true as well, since all the people I know who often mention they're 'writing a book' have been working on the same thing for upwards of a decade with little to show for it. There was a psychological study that pretty much reinforced the idea too.

[@heycj]

Yeah, there was this one book I was writing a few years ago, when I first started writing, I told all my friends I was writing a book. I eventually had to stop working on it because the pressure that they all knew what I was writing weighed VERY heavily on my shoulders. It was definitely all psychological though, and since then I only tell people I wrote a book when it's done.

[@Kephy_]

Especially your parents... I told my mother and she is asking every week if I finished bruuuuh

[@samwallaceart288]

I've been outlining my graphic novel series for 3 years now in the background of just living life normally and developing myself as a person. Haven't told a soul. It's something I probably won't finish anytime soon; the subject matter is something I'm passionate about but is even more personal for other people; I know for a fact there are things I haven't got right yet, that I wouldn't want put out in their current state. I need to find the right version of this story and be very careful not to fuck it up just because I felt pressured to finish it by an arbitrary deadline. I'm not in writer's block, it's been intensely rewarding but exhausting to work through this story and I get new ideas every day; I'm not holding off on actually producing it because I'm scared or unable, but because I know the story isn't matured yet and I want to do this one justice.

[@chesspiece4257]

if you’re like me and feel the need to ramble about your plot points to get them straight in your head, try this: “it’s just for fun.” or “i’m just planning it, not writing it.” (don’t lie, obviously, but you can totally convince yourself it’s not gonna happen right up until you start writing it.) and then you tell no one you’ve actually started writing it until you’re finished. it’s also great because if it’s an Offical Project™ people will critique it but not offer any decisions because they don’t want to step on your toes. if it’s just for fun, they’ll mention cool ideas, and have lower standards when it comes to critiquing it.

[@taewoods2034]

Yep took me a while to realize it. But Andrew Huberman pretty much explains it.

[@sørinstudies]

I think this is the best advice I've gotten about writing. My college English professor once told the class that when you don't know what to write, just put you thoughts down on the page. For example, you could write "I don't know what to write but I want to say __ and this is the direction I want to go." This has really helped me as I write a lot of argumentive research papers and I need to get my argument across clearly and effectively. But, I think this could really help if you were writing a novel or poem as well.

[@HannahLeeKidder]

Yeah, I had a poetry professor tell me the same! We would do writing sessions in class where we weren't allowed to have a still pen. It's a great exercise!

[@mariayates8625]

"writers just don't know how to shut up." TRUE!! I have used this tip so much and it almost always makes my prose (or any other writing for that matter) cleaner.

[@HannahLeeKidder]

It is so true!!! One time I reached over my friend's keyboard and deleted the last paragraph of her story and she read it back and GASPED. If you've been staring at a story trying to figure out what's wrong with it, it's Almost Always that it needs a trim

[@esztervizhanyo1708]

My weird writing tip is (1) draft in a separate document from the manuscript and (2) draft in a weird font. I write in Google Docs for the moment, and it was really cumbersome to scroll down, reformat, and only THEN start writing every time. Writing in a different spot from my """final""" draft also helped turn off the Editor Brain (TM) so that I could actually finish my book, because when the scene is in a dumb font then it doesn't matter if the writing is dumb cuz it's going to look a little stupid anyway, and it turns out that's okay. I can go back and edit it to make it better later. Bonus: if the "final" entirety of the manuscript is in a different font, I won't skim over errors as much.

[@shieldgenerator7]

what a weird cool brain hack!

[@TNcFlipbook]

♥♥

[@kericacathouse]

oh my god as one with really bad "editor brain" this sound genius

[@liv.s.]

comic sans enjoyer 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

[@RaptorsCantSwim]

My favourite writing tip is using your story/ main plot as a plot for a tabletop roleplay, like DnD. Seeing other people's interactions with your characters or plot (or world, if it's fantasy) is an eye-opener for all angles of the story. Everything from pitfalls to solutions. Seeing your friend's reactions when their shenanigans make it into your book is also a lot of fun. 😅

[@jacksonkerr2095]

That is a really cool idea! I have played RPGs from time to time, and it has brought out some spontaneous (and hilarious) moments. The one time I tried to GM, my outline for the episode was more like a script than a regular plan for a session. It certainly gave me out into the different kinds of writing and how they function.

[@RaptorsCantSwim]

@@jacksonkerr2095 It is eye-opening, indeed. I always recommend people to try and write different things and different formats. Sometimes trying to imagine a scene in your book as a scene in a movie or on a stage can change your perspective completely. Also writing in different styles, such as writing the outline of the story as if it were a fairytale or imagining it as a comic panel can be helpful, should one have fallen into a block of some sort.

[@CdFMasterVideo]

I wouldn't be surprised if that was how the script of the DnD movie was written!

[@M1dn1ghtF0x]

this isn't just helpful for writign, but also fun to do with friends when you're all bored in a room xD

[@cjpreach]

MY FAVE WEIRD WRITING HACK. I love to brainstorm characters and plot by taking several sheets of printer paper, laying them out on the table, and putting a circle (which represents a character) in the middle of each page. One for my MC, and others are for supporting characters. I draw a relationship web on each page that shows each individual's CHARACTERISTICS, as well as the ACTIVITIES, BACK STORY, DIRTY SECRET and INTERACTIONS each character has with all the others. The whole story comes to life in the scribbles. P.S. I know all this is supposed to be possible with Scrivener, and other programs, but I can't visualize my story on the computer screen.

[@HannahLeeKidder]

Sometime pen and paper just hit different!

[@Onajourney519]

I know I always go back to pen and paper! But the issue is I can't read my own handwriting haha

[@carolinea5201]

@@Onajourney519 I tried something similar with a new program that popped up on my MacBook in recent months, it's called Freeform. I can draw boxes, and add text, and insert photos. It's a cool way to make a mind map!

[@stefo66]

Tip 8 is it, my writing increased both in quality and quantity when I realised that what you write doesnt have to be "good" it just had to be writing - you can then just go back and fix it later, but also sometimes what you thought was rough and garbage sometimes actually turns out to be alright. It's better to get a draft down however bad it is and just fix it after the fact

[@rickcoona]

I find using Text-To-Speech helpful for not only spotting typos, but catching text that may "Look" like it works but when read aloud don't sound right. making it an easy fix. I also sit down and interview my characters like picturing meeting them in a coffee shop and sitting down and asking them about their life, history, and loves it makes them much more Dynamic because they will tell you things about their life you had No idea about

[@timtrottproductions]

writing for reading and writing for talking are not constructed the same way.

[@rickcoona]

@@timtrottproductions no, but it DOES help find typos and you may find that something may look good written, but when you read it out loud, or use a text-to- speech program, you discover the error in your prose. consider it a useful tool, rather than just reading it out loud.😺

[@CaterpillarFriend]

100% Text to speech has been immensely useful for me in the editing process.

[@hey_its_jj]

I don’t write my book in order. Ik weird right? If I have a chapter that has something significant, like a death or plot twist, my brain gets the ideas and if I don’t write it out I will loose the idea before I get to that part in my book. I have used this for my novel I am currently working on and I have been going strong 😊🎉

[@thursoberwick1948]

I often write the end towards the start of my project. This is because it keeps it fresh and gives me something to aim for.

[@khall3131]

I don't write in order, either. I tend to write the opening scene first but then I'll move on to other important plot points in the order that I think of them. I may have a bunch of ideas for how a scene should go but if I waited until I had written everything that comes before it, I'd forget my ideas before I had a chance to write them down. I tend to write the beginning, then the end, then the middle. It makes sense to me because if I know where I'm starting and where I want to end, I can figure out how to make the journey from point A to point B.

[@lesliewells1062]

Some writers write the ending, and then go back to the beginning and everything they write works towards that ending. I like your way of doing it!!

[@hey_its_jj]

@@lesliewells1062 awww Ty ur too kind 😊

[@TNcFlipbook]

♥♥

[@dokida]

these tips are SOOOO GOOD hannah. i have one too! something that really humanizes characters i'm struggling with is imagining the kind of music they really like, or grew up with. this might be super specific to my personal experience (and my slightly unhealthy obsession with finding and organizing new music into genre playlists), but i find that the music we listen to says a lot about us, and listening to artists that my character would listen to is a really easy way for me to really sink into their psyche. i like making lil character mixtapes, so i can swap between several different ones based on who i'm focusing on or what part of the story i'm at. it makes me happy to see you on youtube still after all these years

[@edenmckinley3472]

Oh, I do that too! I make playlists for certain characters, stories, or scenes that have a particular mood. Really helps me get in the mood.

[@StraightBananaAction]

This is an awesome idea thank you

[@shieldgenerator7]

im writing a story this month that was literally inspired by a song i listened to, and i actively listen to it while im writing the story

[@philcollinslover56705]

awesome i might use that. i can draw, but cant write for shit

[@lesliewells1062]

I love that idea! And I started thinking, what about the movies and books and decor styles they would like. I love it!

[@paneljump]

+1 on the 1-sentence summary, and here's a trick if you're using G-docs/Word/similar: 1. imbed that sentence at the top of the scene within the document 2. give that sentence a "heading" rather than "paragraph" formatting 3. (optional) make the imbedded heading text white or very light gray (so it isn't annoying) 4. add a Table of Contents at the top of your doc Doing this keeps the summary synced with the manuscript, automatically provides hotlinks to let you navigate to the scene, and displays page count. NovelPad is better, especially if you're messy, but gdocs are free.

[@harrisonmccartney4878]

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from Oakley Hall's The Art and Craft of Novel Writing. He basically says that to liven up the scene, finding a way to balance the action, description and "drama" are essential. This helps writers avoid being list-like with their details, or making dialog that turns into a speech, two things which can slow the reading to a crawl. It's best to give a little detail, offer some character sentiments or have them act in place of their dialog, with the action bringing into focus more details, and then show some consequences of their words or actions upon the scene. Basically making sure that the scene is dynamic by not being stuck in just one mode of storytelling, whether it's descriptive storytelling or verbal storytelling or narrative storytelling; always make sure that you're juggling bits and pieces of each in. An example for those who might need one to understand: Jake Towns walked back into the cabin from the soaking rain, shaking his boots upon the wirebrush doormat trying to scrape the mud from his soles. "If this ain't the worst weather we've seen in a minute," he said, fluttering the tail of his longcoat to free it of water, "You'll be lucky to get out of town by next Tuesday. We don't get rains here often, but when we do they like to stick around for a week." "It won't stop me," Jason Cargill said, the blade in his hand reflecting the light of the lamp, illuminating the wood shavings that fell to the floor from his whitling, "I've rode in worse conditions than this. This is piss, but it's not a flush." Jake removed the gray newsboy cap from his shiny head and battered it against his knee, then tightened it in his grip to wring out the water. "That so? I wouldn't do it, 'less I had to." "Well, you don't have to." "Neither do you," Jake started removing his outerwear, dumping them to the floor where their drippings had already started to produce a puddle. "You don't know what I have to do." As you can see, the dialogue is given room to breathe with action, the details come to life with characters interacting with them, the implications of the characters and their attitudes are discernable by the way they talk and their actions; Jake is coming in from rain trying to get dry while Jason is sat down whittling a piece of wood with a knife, showing Jason's bold confidence and Jake's wary lived (and evident) experience with the reality of bad weather; and lastly details are filled out not only by compiling them into a list of doormats, lamps, wood shavings, and puddles, but are gradually revealed as the scene calls them each into action. The doormat is there because Jake is rubbing his muddy soles on it, the lamp is caught in the glinting of the blade, the wood shavings are the product of his whittling, and the puddle is the result of Jake's wet clothes. Not only do they fill in the scenery of the cabin, but they're all given notable purpose as we come to them. All of it combines to tell a quick story of a man's determination to ride the next day regardless of the weather.

[@lovelylost4649]

Tips I have found helpful: 1) Find sounds that match the setting or songs that inspire a scene on repeat, keeps you focused and can write for much longer without losing focus 2) Writing prompts can sometimes help with world building. Some of my best breakthroughs happened while testing out a prompt and changing the tone from what I have been writing.

[@Sally-vk9yw]

a good tip is to try put something i’ve experienced whether it’s an event or emotion in my novel because it makes it more personal and of course its easier to write about something you’ve experienced. Even if it’s something like love, loss, betrayal etc. I wrote a story where one of the side characters were in a really toxic friendship which was something i had just experienced and it was so easy to describe how they felt so useless and they put up with all the comments their toxic friend gave them and how they were there for their friend but the friend was never there for them. it turned out really well and it didn’t take much effort to try put myself in the characters shoes since it was something i had experienced firsthand. It was sort of just writing what i had felt at the time. So yeah i would definitely put something personal in my writing 💕💕

[@shlafrock2175]

I hope for your better future and relationships 💪

[@TNcFlipbook]

♥♥

[@jestypop8698]

not sure if its that weird but one thats really surprised me is how changing my location can really impact my writing. i just spent a day sitting at the computer not getting anything substantial down but sitting on my kitchen counter with google docs pulled up i just wrote a ton more than i expected. just finding somewhere different to be (even better if it matches the vibe your writing) has done wonders for me

[@s.rtilly5822]

My writing hack I just made for my shitty memory: When outlining (which I recommend everyone learn to do in some format or another), there are little nuances or details that are referenced like "They go to this hidden place and found so-and-so's spellbook." - if this is a newer concept for the novel, I may actually make a footnote (as I write my outlines in google docs before working in Novelpad (link in the description)) on the hidden place and the spell book. This helps in a few ways. 1) Making a footnote makes you think of the thing and thus you may remember it more. 2) Footnotes are non-intrusive. I can skim past that little number if I know what the reference is. 3) If I forgot, the reference is there, in detail, but away from the section itself so it's not clogging up the flow of the point. This may be excessive but that's what I need lol I also color code the names of every character in my outline. It's a great visual to see if a scene is too crowded or chaotic or if too many people are mentioned (info dumpy scenes).

[@Arkylie]

I use the comments feature on Google docs much like you use footnotes. Also for anything I delete while rephrasing -- should I need to undo it later, or work part of it back in, it's right there, and it quiets the part of my brain that freaks out about losing things.

[@nikkinewbie6014]

Good ideas. Thanks to you both!

[@Joerideabike]

I don’t write in order. It is a mess. I don’t recommend it, not even to myself, but when a scene “drops” on me I write it down as fast as I can like almost in real time. I buy medium point black ink pens so the ink comes out fast and doesn’t slow me down. When the writing turns a bit stale and intentional, I quit for the day. But now I’ve got plops all over and no real idea how to connect them. But I am happy bc it is put down on paper My tip? Always always have a pen and a scrap of paper to write ALL your ideas, especially the stupid ones, ha ha. 9:04

[@KaiInMotion]

A fun one I've been getting a lot of miles out of recently is to write a scene as just dialogue, write the convos out as a kind of loosely-resembling-a-script format and then going back in and adding dialogue tags and details and other prose afterwards. Only when I know the convo itself is the core focus of the scene and needs to pack the most punch. It helps maintain the flow of the convo instead of distracting me from the interaction.

[@HannahLeeKidder]

idk why this video is popping off but i'm scared, join my mailing list pls view.flodesk.com/pages/60a6adbc8c76bb525a084442

[@swordturtles5401]

Yeah, this was the first result when I looked up writing, but it worked out, thanks for the tips!!

[@ilavalolipop]

Because its extremely helpful!

[@DecoySammy]

First time seeing your channel but this video was really helpful. I hope that other people will find it also. You deserve a sub. And now you've gotten that sub.

[@zephyrias]

I got recommended xD

[@crow_winged_author_kat]

I'm a new author on KZbin, and this video just came up on my feed. I love it!!

[@rowan404]

#10 is how I do most of my writing. Instead of writing the scenes in order, I write a scene that matches my current mood, situations occupying my mind, etc. It is both cathartic _and_ productive!

[@johnpublic1623]

With number 4, I like to use the document audio feature to read it back to me. My eyes will miss the error but the audio playback will not. It will help find clunky parts that sound great in my head until I hear it.

[@2boston.m.a610]

(Mainly for drafting a poem, but can be used for fiction.) I'll make a packet of poems by other writers that share something in common--image, form, syntax, etc.--and outline the approaches to how each poem develops based off of that. Then, I'll make myself an assignment from those outlines--e.g., "write a poem that is six stanzas long, use a made up word as a verb, an image of a swan must appear in either the third or sixth stanza, and must use the line 'suppose you do change your life. Now what?'" Or, I'll make a cento from those packets. Either way, keeps me reading and thinking about writing.

[@dameanvil]

00:27 📚 Create complex characters by temporarily renaming them after real people you like/dislike to gain fresh perspective. 01:10 🖊️ Consider cutting the last section of your writing to maintain focus and strengthen your point. 01:39 🧠 Stop writing while you still have ideas to ensure a productive next session. 02:20 📖 Print your manuscript for proofreading to spot mistakes more easily. 02:47 📝 Keep sentence-long summaries of scenes to create an outline as you write. 03:28 💡 Maintain a list of topic ideas to passively generate content for short stories, poems, blogs, etc. 03:56 🗒️ Make a list of problems in your longer project for later revisions rather than interrupting your flow. 04:54 📝 Summarize paragraphs to maintain momentum, then fill in details later. 06:03 ✍️ Swap scenes with a writing partner to gain fresh perspective and ideas. 06:59 🧘‍♂️ Get in your character's head by writing about something you're personally going through.

[@TimbrrWolfe]

I've actually done the second tip a few times after you mentioned something similar previously and it really does work out sometimes to just....chop the last bit off. Authors do be Unleashing Words, and sometimes they gotta be reined in.

[@dougsundseth6904]

Remarkably good list. The trick that I have used (don't remember where I first saw it) is to turn off your screen when writing. This prevents you from dropping into edit mode when you're writing, so it's easier to maintain momentum. Also, when you go back to a piece written this way, while you will have lots of errors, you have a built-in excuse for them, so you're likely to have a lower emotional attachment to your 'deathless' prose and might find it easier to rip things apart when they need it. Obviously, this works best if you're a touch typist. 8-)

[@sophiafenger]

Keeping track of first draft problems (number 7) is soo helpful! I write in Google docs and I'll just comment on my own writing when I'm worried it'll pose a problem later. I know this is interpreting the tip in a slightly different way, but even doing this for life problems too can help clear your mind for writing. If you are struggling to focus on writing because you're thinking about what you need to do later or you want to fact check something you just wrote, write it on a notepad so that it's out of your head and you know you can come back to it. Hannah, I appreciate that you're straight to the point and informative all the way throughout your videos, which is something not every booktuber can say!! Don't worry about the length of your intros :)

[@needing_therapy]

One thing/tip I think about a lot because honestly I can be QUITE the people pleaser, is write the book you want to read. Because if you are writing for like a cash grab, or you just hate it, or you think that if you do “blah blah blah” nobody will read it, you aren’t going to feel as motivated to finish it. There’s less passion. Sometimes when I’ve been in a rut, feeling too constrained by my perceived expectations of the people around me or my personal expectations, just thinking “what do I want to read” can really help.

[@kiterafrey]

Switching colors of the font is very helpful too. As a professional editor, I learned that trick. I use it in my own writing now. I have a color for rough draft, a color for paragraph by paragraph rewrites, and a color for first round of copy edits. Then after doing developmental edits I repeat the process. For me, not everyone but for me, color stands out more for me than font.

[@Helo_Dragons]

This hack seems weird to me, but I almost guarantee someone else does it, is to put your favourite music in and do something else- work out, go for a walk, cook something or have lunch, maybe drive or play a videogame. At surface level that just sounds like blatant procrastination, but then like Hannah here has mentioned a few times you subconsciously work on these problems, and that helps me a lot. I can't count the number of times I just got up, went on a walk, and came back with golden ideas and a new drive. Thanks for the tips!

[@alousnamer]

Good tips! It's always about how to sustain the 'keep going' phase until you have a 2nd or 3rd draft that can go out to betas, imo. I also have found a ton of use going into 'summary' mode for scenes I don't have as crystalized in my head. I think about it when I'm doing a Zero Draft as writing either 'narrative' or 'treatment' and just flipping between them as needed and making little notations for myself when I run into an issue. I've consistently found that your story will shape itself through that first draft no matter how much you try to outline and pre-plan, so it's critical to push through that to the end and these were great tips for that!

[@lilwoofs]

My favorite hacks I do are 1. Walking, walking can make you calmer and make your mind more clear and run better. Sometimes I write while walking, or sometimes when I need an idea I’ll walk and then write those ideas down 2. listening to music that reminds you of the story and characters, just helps you get in the mood to write for that story, and 3. Making a snack or drink you only really make when you write, I do strawberry milk, and it kinda makes my mind think, yay it’s good to write and gets you also in the mood to write

[@maxturner4872]

Tip 5 - Keep sentence-long summaries of your scenes as you write them - is also a great idea if you plan to submit the work anywhere. Although it might need some work, it can easily be adapted into a synopsis for publishers rather than starting from scratch.

[@BKNeifert]

Print to PDF works, too. Or just use a Text to Speech Program. But, so far it's been solid advice, some I've even used. And there you said it. You're going to go pro one day. You have real advice, not the common platitudes. Yes... sentence long summaries as plot maps. Works wonders. Yeah, when I was writing the Elf in Manhattan and The Riddle in the Sea, I definitely had notes in my books concerning the direction I was going. Still have all of that. I actually have a folder, that contains all my edits and their pagination for all of my books that I found on my latest revision. That's how meticulous I keep my notes. That's another skill. Sometimes when writing my longest books, I'd go periods of a couple of weeks not writing, and to get back into the flow, I had to read the entire manuscript before I wrote even one new sentence. I've never summarized a problem paragraph, but I've definitely mapped conversations. It's fun when your subconscious goes off script, but having that blueprint is a secret weapon, which helps organize your themes. I normally go once through the whole story in my head, and write down plot points, and then when I get to writing the actual work, I expand upon it. Sometimes I even use the same plot maps for other materials, and will write the same story twice, only with different twists. Or, I just pull the blueprint from Bullfinch or whatever source I'm using; like Hercules can be a fruitful plot if you want to write something tight, or a Bible story. I wrote Utopia off of the story of Jezebel and Elijah, and spliced it with a few others. Or Joan of Arc, I spliced Cyrus the Great and Joan of Arc; which surprisingly worked beautifuly.

[@sakisaotome6753]

i actually really like to open what i am writing in something that has built in text to speech function and then hit play. this is such a good way for me to catch things that i feel i can't pick up on just from just reading it.

[@sunflowersnight196]

One thing that I find works for me as an amateur writer is finding music that suits the scene I'm working on. I think music in the background is a common tip, but for me it can't be just any old music. If I'm listening to something sci-fi themed but working on a sort of medieval fantasy story, I'm going to get stuck. However, if I put on a medieval themed playlist, I generally find writing process to be smoother. I don't necessarily know why it works for me, to be honest, but I'm such an auditory based person that it helps. Also, put your draft in a tts. Having it read to me helps me find mistakes a bit easier than if I just read through it on my own.

[@madisonpetri7361]

Definitely going to be putting that tip about changing your characters' names to someone you know into practice. I think it's also a very good way to ensure your characters don't all end up with the same personalities. I don't think this one is WEIRD, but it can be revolutionary if you've ever only worked with word-count goals. If you struggle to hit word-counts, try writing for a certain amount of time everyday. I find I get more done that way, personally, and it might be better for people with faster pacing in their prose (or people who are like. writing comics or poetry, etc.) My second one is a little weirder. I like writing with Google Docs because I like to use the comments feature to leave notes or tone indicators (I'm a comic writer, so a lot of my storytelling would come through visuals, not words) as I write the scenes.

[@fieldbones]

Something that helped me as someone that struggles to write in a long sitting: 1. write about whatever scene your brain is fixated on and dont pay attention to if its a permanent part of the story or if its just a whimsical idea you had until after the first draft is done. 2. Write out of order if you need to. A lot of people feel pressure to write a story from front to back and so when they cant think of anything else, they just stop writing.

[@MurkyMaster]

Fave writing hack: Something I call a Book Volley (kinda hate that name but its what I know it as). Good idea generator and exersize 1. grab 3 random books off your shelf, and a dictionary 2. get a random word and its defintion from the dictionary, write this on a doc 3. get a random sentence from a random paragraph on a random page from each book, write those on a doc 4. write 10 ideas that associate at least 2 of those 4 above entries. Doesn't matter if its a line from a car manual, a line from a romance scene, a line from the acknowledgments of a non-fiction, and the definition of bumblebee, theres something in there with any combo Bonus: get four random images, add more books, only pull from books in your stories genre or the time period its set in. All sorts of fun things.

[@Glynn1087]

When I want something to be emotional, it usually involves me acting out what I wrote... as the characters... and if I'm in tears... it will probably be put in 😊😢

[@dare7782]

I used to be here for just the Twilight Rewrite, but through whatever series of life events I'm now pursuing writing and really appreciate these tips. I love that you include some really unique things.

[@beatlemaniacgonewrong]

I plot out my chapters in my own Chapter Index--each chapter has a one sentence synopsis and some notes about it so that I can write the plot out several chapters ahead, plus I have a three page notes section as a preface to my first draft so that I can write down future ideas as I go; also yes I unload many of my problems onto my characters to make them more realistic and keep word and page goals

[@WriteReadRedd]

#7! That is one that I need to do. I went from nitpicking issues, to where now I am ignoring issues. An issue log is a great idea. Because I have forgotten so many of my edits that I wanted to do.

[@francapiroto763]

As an avid Sims 3 player I use the games trait system as basis for my characters personalities (with a few creative liberties) and it works surprisingly well

[@HannahLeeKidder]

but for real, try novelpad, i think ur gonna love it: novelpad.co/?via=hlk10wt

[@oonagi5051]

novelpad is so good ! i love how when you're actually writing it's not to cluttered on the browser. it's just a teeny tiny column on the side

[@inker_monkey]

ok

[@mygeekycorner9988]

I love to read my book aloud. Makes it so much easier to catch awkward wording or typos.

[@kinda_cold_in_the_closet]

For the last one, I do use that quite a lot for dialogue. It's the reason I got into acting and it's a great way to both practice acting and get great dialogue for ur characters :)

[@nicodiangelo9810]

Get a candle that matches the theme or mood of your book. Last year I was writing a story set in a forest, and I had a pine candle I burnt through entirely. Also I don't know if it's weird, but if I'm having trouble getting in the head of a character, I just freewrite their thoughts in deep character perspective, so their literal thoughts as narration, no italics, reacting to the world and people around them. Usually it turns into a lot of them complaining about things lmao and it tells me what their mood is. Then I highlight it to delete later and get back into the scene with their mood firmly set in my mind.

[@lajourdanne]

That assertive yet monotone "don't leave" was fantastic 😂. Subscribed!

[@dreamcatcher9360]

I really like 10, I do it all the time. Once I go a cramp in my leg while writing and I didn't know what to write next, so I just had the main character get a cramp in his leg as well! It worked like a charm.

[@harpeowl]

to me personaly drawing or painting the characters helps a lot when figuring them out

[@Mambo1061]

I have more good things to say about this video but initial impression thank you so much for getting to the point and staying there quickly, and keeping the video under 10 minutes Some content works for longer format on KZbin but there’s something to be said for videos that don’t drag

[@thatoneseason]

Kinda going along with tip 3, I’ll stop a session in the middle of a sentence. That way when I come back, I’m launching into an easy completion and it spikes my feeling of accomplishment

[@celestegosling6054]

Thanks for some great tips! I started doing number 7 recently and it has helped to keep my momentum going with writing my novel. I'll be writing and then I'll realise I'm referencing something that I haven't really written much about throughout the rest of the story, but is important, so instead of going back to fix it right then, I'll write a note to fix it in the first round of edits, and just continue my story. I have lots of notes, and little questions to myself in a physical notebook (at the moment). Some are general, but a lot I will put the Scene number next to so I know where I need to look for that issue. I also have a lot of placeholders(e.g. [name], [inn name] etc.) because I don't want to be spending 10 minutes trying to decide on a name for someone or something every time there's a new one.

[@lesliewells1062]

Figuring out names is hard. I have a baby name book that is great and there are lots of lists on line

[@aleciariddick7719]

My favorite one is to stop writing while you still have ideas. I write my ideas out when I write and it may take me two weeks to write again because I've ran out of ideas so great tip.

[@bellaluna9228]

This is so excellent. I’ve been struggling to sit down and get into my writing lately, and this helped me reconnect. Also the bit about writers talking long past the point made me feel called out 😂

[@HannahLeeKidder]

I'm so glad it helped! and yeah, we all have that problem lmaooo

[@alternativeenigma5277]

I like to keep specific songs in a playlist for each type of scene. That way if I struggle to feel exactly how the characters would feel, I can feel it through the music.

[@TimRG]

Tip 3 is one of my favorite pieces of writing advice. Leaving something in the tank for the next day makes writing so much easier.

[@wanderingbelle7]

I like to have a document reserved for loose ends and half-baked scenes/ideas. So like if I write a scene that doesn’t end up fitting the mood or whatever but the writing or characterization or dialogue or whatever was super good, I’ll just ctrlX the whole thing into the loose ends doc so I can use it later if I want. I also put brainstorming, scenes from later parts of the story that haven’t connected yet, and occasionally chapter outlines in there. It works well for me, maybe it’d work for you too:) Great tips in this video!♥️

[@jelestra]

Keeping a list of mistakes you notice or additional things you think about, and then going back to fix it in the next draft, rather than lose the flow, is very useful. Lots of useful tips. Thanks.

[@itsjusttravis692]

I've been doing this thing where if im stuck between two or more potential ways to go about something, like say a character needs to make a decision, i will force myself to entertain one of the ideas and see where it goes. If i dont like where it takes the story then ill scrap it and entertain the next option. This has proved to insanely useful for my writing as im incredibly indecisive when it comes to making big or little story-altering choices and ill even often think of cool new ideas while im entertaining an option i didnt necessarily like at first glance

[@BrookeLewisballerinagirl]

These are some great tips!! One tip that I’ve used is to have a notebook or separate place to write ideas down. I use a notebook dedicated solely to ideas for my novel and I usually start the writing session by scribbling down some ideas and get the creative juices flowing.

[@nikkinewbie6014]

Brain dump. ☺️

[@rzuue]

I used to write on the internet, like fanfictions are amateur originals, uploading only one chapter at a time. I noticed, that if I only upload a chapter, after I have finished the next one, I'm much quicker at writing the whole thing and much more motivated. It's like you have the chapter done and want someone to read it, you really want to show it, but you can't until you've written the next. So you have much more motivation to get the next one done. If you don't upload them online, you can still do it like that if you have friends to whom you show your story.

[@SkaldIduna]

Thanks for this list. It's giving me ideas. 🤩 Sometimes if I'm stuck I will hop on a bus or go for a walk and come back a few hours later with a new perspective. 🌻

[@tramasrarasoddplots]

Thank you so much for the tips. I have seen several of these kinds of videos. However, most are either too vague or too specific. So, they never work. These tips are just right to try a couple of times and see if they work.

[@Jannyl13]

If you don't want to print your text, word (and probably also other programs) can read texts aloud. Really helps me to notice mistakes!

[@amitain4254]

I keep an open notes file for all of the random ideas, bits of dialogue, scenes, etc. and peruse it whenever I feel stuck or need something to work on. I'm a big NovelPad fan and even though I've been in a writing slump (life, car accidients, injuries, moving... you name it, it's probably happened in the last year and a half), I still love how easy it is to jump on and know exactly where I am without having to dig through pages and pages of text (I was previously using Google Docs).

[@HannahLeeKidder]

Same! I love my lil dump files haha Gosh! I hope your life friggin settles down soon. That sounds like a lil much.

[@amitain4254]

@@HannahLeeKidder Thanks. It is, but the only way forward is through.

[@abigeorge1974]

I'll regularly bounce off story ideas off of my best friend and it really helps because I just finished my second chapter and I realized I could split the second chapter into another one and I let her look at it and she's like "if you can split it and it makes sense then split it, will it also help your brain?" and I explained that I was just really attached to the idea of X,Y,Z happening and she said "You said even if it's not directly stated there's a passage of time, use that blank to describe what happened with my MC the extra can help fill out the 4th chapter." I'm really glad I have her as my best friend and she understands my writing chaos brain

[@thatoneleaf9895]

Was gonna save this to my writing playlist and watch it later but here i am already 5:30 in, love the vibe 😭😂

[@briannafenty4403]

Love these! Whenever I finish up for the day, whether that's finishing a scene or a chapter, I like to write the next sentence or 2 sentences of the next scene or chapter that way I have a jumping off point for the next session. It's SO MUCH LESS INTIMIDATING than staring at a blank page. I also do chapter numbers and titles, and I like to set up the chapter headings and title the chapter at the end of the session before I write it in the next one, because it feels like a little reward (I'm obsessed with titling things).

[@anandahuja4319]

Wonderful tips, very handy some of them. Loved them. Keep sharing more. I loved your flash fiction collection LITTLE BIRDS!

[@khattiseitap3367]

If I have trouble getting an insight into a character I switch the narrative to first-person for a while. I also often let my characters become free verse poets when they describe things in the narrative. All of this gets cut later of course, or often I do it somewhere other than in the draft.

[@NegInfinity]

Short, efficient and to the point. Thank you.

[@janetmartinson2280]

Assign a different font to each POV character. It helps keep the narrative voice consistent for a given character, and helps prevent accidentally slipping into a different character’s thoughts.

[@hairyballbastic8943]

homestuck type beat

[@Enne_Ti]

To me the thing that helped me the most was consistency. I had my daily objective to write 300 words almost every day for almost two years. Even if I was aware what I wrote wasn't the best and not what I had in mind, I continued writing, I would fix later what I didn't like. Also, my main advice is to stick with one project and not start new ones. You have new ideas? Good, try to re-adapt them to the already existing project, add depth to your work. I'm definitely not a successful writer. Heck, English is not even my first language, but I still managed to publish my book and even get a physical copy, and when you hold for the first time the thing you have worked so hard for in your hands, it doesn't matter if it will be successful or not, it doesn't matter if it's a masterpiece or a piece of crap, you'll still love that feeling. One last thing: write because you love to write, not for success or money.

[@ChielReemer]

These are actually very useful! Thank you!

[@elizabethhouse3473]

Wow so good thank you! The summary sentences! The problems list!

[@starlitbri]

i have a couple of weirdish tips (note i use google docs to write so these aren't going to be relevant for everyone): 1. put everything in different areas, so like one place for your outline, another for a thought dump, your draft, etc. because it makes it easier to find stuff (like you only have to scroll through three pages of your thought dump instead of like 100+ pages of that, your outline, edits, and your draft for one random background tidbit you need) 2. outline your draft before you revise! i like to read through my draft and comment my edits (like if a scene goes too long, i'll comment "have A leave at *moment* and end scene") then i'll outline again with my edits added in that way i don't have to go through 100+ comments and my previous draft when revising. Also, you can work out plot holes, arcs, etc. in the new outline instead of when you're trying to write 3. if you don't have a writer friend to swap scenes or ideas with, ask a friend you like and trust for help. i got stuck on reincorporating a sub plot because i made story changes that made introducing this sub plot hard, so i asked my friend if she was up with helping me and she gave me a bunch of ways to add it in and ideas for other issues and stuff for that story. honestly, i love talking with my friends (non-writers and writers) about my writing issues because they always hype up my ideas or suggest something that adds so much more to my story where i can't imagine it without that suggestion 🥰

[@esztervizhanyo1708]

3rd one is so fun! Friend who don't write but read a lot are really good editors!

[@Dragoniiia]

Ohh! Those sounds actually helpfull! Thank you! Maybe I will be able to finally write my book

[@StutleyConstable]

I don't know if this qualifies as weird, but I recently started writing conversations between my characters. I may use these scenes in the final draft, or I may just keep them for personal reference. The conversations are always about elements of the story and have proved useful in exploring how the various characters feel about what is going on and what reactions they will have. I have also discovered characters that I would not have thought of, which allows me to fill in plot holes and find different paths for the plot. Another useful thing from these exercises is I develop background for places. The local coffee shop or bar become more real in my mind when I include a few more details and I can add those details to other scenes if they are useful.

[@stawrra]

A weird tip I can give is that, when you can't come up with an idea for a new book or novel, go to a random word generator and pick it to give you 3 words and then make those 3 words the main concept or part of your story. Idk why but it's very fun and always works for me 😅

[@josepablolunasanchez1283]

I have found that RPG systems are great to design characters as the rules provide a framework to add depth to a character.

[@TenTonNuke]

Top 3 tips I picked up from Stephen King's infinitely helpful On Writing memoir. 1. Use your writing space only for writing like you use your bed only for sleeping. When you go to bed, your body knows it's time to sleep. Likewise if you only write at your desk or table, your body will know that it's time to write and you won't procrastinate. 2. Don't make your characters do things. Rather, put them in situations and see how they react. Let the character determine the outcome. King has said he often doesn't know what his own characters are going to do. 3. If possible, walk away from the book and come back to it in six months. Then, as you're reading it with fresh eyes, try and cut at least 10% of it out. Specifically adverbs. King hates adverbs. You don't need to specify that someone was screaming loudly. Of course it was loud. That's what makes it screaming.

[@ngtskynebula]

Lots of great advice here. Thank you very much!

[@mariayates8625]

"I know none of yall can do math, stop playin'"

[@lesliewells1062]

Thanks for this great video--it really inspired me! The video and all the comments. An idea popped in my head that I don't think is on here. If it is, I apologize! What about writing out a transcript of a therapy session in which I am the therapist and the character is the patient, as a way to get into the character's head and heart and their emotions. That might not resonate for someone who hasn't done therapy, but I've done it for years! I hope it helps someone!

[@indig0icee]

Love the list!

[@sparklefulpaladin]

I do something similar, but I don't record it. I enjoy reading my stuff out loud, but I hate listening to the sound of my voice. The number of things I've caught when doing this is way too high....

[@BoredOfBills]

Genuinely helpful. Good video. Thanks.

[@NaDa-kw2fu]

Turn off spelling and grammar checkers if your writing application has those features. They are distraction and take your attention from doing the high intensity brain dump of writing.

[@recreepy]

The visuals are etched in my mind.

[@brucesheaves7115]

This was really helpful thank you! These are really smart tips that i am so glad i learned

[@jose11032]

Hi Hannah, this was without a doubt the most creative tip video i have seen in a long time! Love you just get to it! You are “deleting the last sentences” while you even are talking 😂 Thanks! SUBSCRIBED!

[@KitKatCrochetStudio]

The second I saw you I was like, "I LOVE HER HAIR 🤩🤩!!!"

[@LifeinGlow]

What a great video! 🌻 Love your tips, especially #8. And some comments are helpful.

[@TocYounger]

This was original and extremely helpful, thank you!

[@kutaxter2761]

Ngl I was looking for some videos for beginning on writing and the only reason why I chose this video to watch was because I saw a wave master punching bag in the thumbnail. Great vid tho!

[@HannahLeeKidder]

She is in the room beside me. 🥰

[@SumiRebeiro]

Concrete, specific, practical. This is SO helpful. Thank you.