- Hello everyone, my name is Mandi Lynn.
I'm the author of the fantasy novels Essence and I am Mercy
and thriller novel She's Not Here
and also the creator of AuthorTube Academy.
And today, I wanted to talk about the worst writing advice
you can receive.
So, giving people writing advice is tricky
because everyone is different.
Everyone has their different way that they write
and different way that they think they should write.
But today, I wanted to talk about some writing advice
that you may have gotten in the past
that may or may not be controversial.
Tip number one, write every day.
So, this is actually a tip I've given out a lot
and it's a tip that, I think, has very good value.
However, I wanted to talk about it here today
because there is such thing as being human.
It is not humanly possible to write every day,
and even if it was, it's not necessarily the best thing
for your sanity.
Now, I like to say that it's good to write every day
because it helps you form habit.
And when you form habits, you're able to write more
and you're able to write more often
and the words just flow easier.
However, with that said, we have to keep in mind
that we all need breaks.
No matter how much you love something,
you can't do it every day.
It is a lot of pressure to write every single day,
and when you put that sort of pressure on yourself,
you stop enjoying what you're doing
and it makes it feel more like a job.
With that said,
I do wanna say that you should feel no pressure
to write every day if it doesn't work for you.
I tend to write almost every day
when I'm in the midst of writing a novel,
but when I'm in between novels,
I need that downtime to relax and do other things.
Tip number two, write in one genre.
So, obviously, I don't enjoy following this tip
because I've written young adult fantasy,
historical fantasy, and psychological thriller.
With that said, I can't seem to stick to a genre,
and I have a feeling my fourth novel
will probably be a different genre as well.
Now, the reason this tip is handed out
is because if you are published,
you need to go into a niche market,
and when you
hop around genres,
then it's hard to find an audience
that will like all the different genres you've written.
So with that said, me writing in three different genres
is considered risky and not necessarily smart.
However, I've written three different genres
because I don't care!
I write in different genres
because I write the story I wanna tell.
I can't just pigeonhole myself to one genre
because I find that really boring.
I write the way I read.
I like to read a whole bunch of different things
because I like to see what's out there.
If you only read young adult fantasy,
you'll notice you're reading the same thing over and over.
And that's not a bad thing,
but it's just the fact that you can only tell
one genre's story so many different ways.
And then after a while,
you're just reading the same thing over and over again.
And I feel like the same goes for if you're writing.
If you're writing in only one genre,
you can only tell so many different stories.
Writing in multiple genres gives you some wiggle room
to exercise your writing muscles and try out new things.
And you'll notice your writing improves
when you try to tell different types of stories.
Tip number three, you must have beta readers.
And this is a tip that is not necessary.
While it is extremely, extremely useful
to have beta readers, by all means, is it necessary?
Is it necessary to have someone look at your novel
and edit it and give you feedback before you publish it?
Yes, absolutely, especially if you're self-published.
If you are the only person who's read your book
and you publish it, you're gonna notice
you're not gonna get the most friendly reviews.
Now, while beta readers are amazing,
they help you give feedback,
if you have a hard time finding beta readers
or you just don't feel comfortable
letting random strangers read your book
and give you feedback, that's okay!
I didn't have beta readers for Essence or I am Mercy.
Frankly,
I don't even think I knew it was a thing at the time
because I was just so ingrained in my own stories.
However, I did hire a professional editor.
That editor helped me spot plot holes and fix things
and do everything that a beta reader woulda done.
As long as you have someone looking at your book
at some point and giving you constructive feedback,
you are fine.
Tip number four that I like to ignore
is write what you know.
Now, it is much easier to write what you know,
and you can give something very organic and true
to your audience when you write what you know.
We don't know everything!
And frankly, if you are just a regular old person,
the odds are
is that you have a pretty normal and boring life.
How are you supposed to write a page-turning novel
if all you do is go to school or go to work
and you don't have
drama in your life?
How are you supposed to write an exciting and engaging story
if you haven't experienced something
that's exciting and engaging?
This is just another way I like to reiterate the fact
that you can't pigeonhole yourself when it comes to writing.
Just let yourself write.
If you've never experienced something,
but you wanna write about it, try to experience it.
Whether that means experiencing it
through another novel that you've read
or doing some real-world research,
as long as you throw your heart and soul into something,
you can write about anything.
The last piece of advice I like to ignore is don't use said.
So, this is actually a very controversial thing.
So, I've heard of people who say you can only use said
or you shouldn't use said and you should use other words
to describe things like
he vehemently uproared or something, I don't know,
but people like to get really creative
when they're using dialogue.
And while that's great, you can't use it all the time.
So when you're reading dialogue, you want it to flow
and you don't want your readers to even know
that they're reading dialogue.
You need to throw the word said in,
so you know who's talking,
but if you throw the word said in,
people are so used to it that they don't even notice it,
so all they notice is this is who's talking.
They don't notice the actual word said and all that.
And
if you use all these fancy
different ways of quoting dialogue,
it pops out at the reader.
And sometimes it's a good thing,
and sometimes that's a bad thing.
So if you strictly say you shouldn't ever use the word said
or you strictly say you should only use the word said,
you are, once again, pin-holing yourself
and you really shouldn't do that.
There's a lovely balance,
I think, about
maybe 80 to 90% of the time,
you should be using the word said
and the other 10 or 20%, you can get all fancy.
But, really, there's always that balance
and there's no strict rules to writing.
And that's basically all I wanted to translate
with this video is that everyone's gonna give you advice.
Some of it's gonna be good,
some of it's gonna be bad.
And maybe I've given you some advice
that you don't agree with,
which I'm sure is completely possible.
And I know for a fact people have giving me advice
that I don't agree with.
You just gotta do what works for you
and do what feels right in your heart
when it comes to telling your story.
If you enjoyed this video,
let me know in comments down below,
and let me know what the worst writing advice is
that you've ever received.
If you wanna stay up to date with everything
that I am doing with my books and my publishing house,
be sure to subscribe to my author newsletter.
It will be linked down below.
And when you are subscribed,
you get the first three chapters of She's Not Here
as well as my mini-guide of how to conquer writer's block.
Thank you all for watching.
Be sure to give this video a thumbs up,
comment down below,
and subscribe.
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