NaNoWriMo Writing Advice, circa 2014

**The following is the transcript for the above video. Although it can be read, it's best when certain things can be seen or heard :)**

I hate the fact that I just said that. 

Oh, my God, no… 

Hey, everybody! 

How you all doing out there? 

Welcome back to my channel. 

I hope this video is finding you well. 

My name, for those of you who do not know, is Andrew, and this November 2020… it's just me reconnecting to all these crazy aspects of myself. 

The other day, I reacted to the first post that I put out on my blog. 

I had a great time with that. 

Today, I’m gonna be reacting to the first time I tried to give writing advice six years ago during National Novel Writing Month 2014. 

NaNo 2012 was the first time I participated in all of this, which was what that last reaction video was about. 

I don't know, I’m excited about today, so I’m not even gonna waste any time. 

Let's just get Write On In.

Okay, so I’m just on my personal channel right here right now. 

I just started uploading some content on it again recently, just because after I started this channel, I was getting some more random subscribers and so I just wanted to have something fresh. 

But oh, actually, right there. 

There you go, sorry, there it is. 

My bad. 

This video is called the Tides of Darkness folder, and I’m pretty sure this is the folder in question, and this is the book that came of all of this. 

I do not know what this looked like back then, and obviously this. 

I don't remember if this was the first half or the second half that I wrote. 

We're gonna figure that all out, so, ah! 

Anyway, here's my first writing advice video. 

October 23rd, 2014 was when this came out. 

Here we go. 

Hello there, how's it going? Uh, this is Andrew Stillman. 

Um, I thought today I would, um, show you — 

Look at that hairline, first of all. 

I’m — it's coming back because now I’m on — I’m on treatment for it, and I just cut it all off. 

But that this is the hair that I’m trying to bring back. 

— you guys a little bit about my, uh, Tides of Darkness folder. 

Tides of Darkness is my sequel. 

This is this book. 

Working on the last half of it for NaNoWriMo.

The last half, so this is. 

The fantasy book, this is, like, this I don't know, it's gonna be pretty crazy. 

If you've read Immortality Awaits, it's gonna be really crazy in Tides of Darkness, so yeah. 

The first — I started out with just a, uh, character list. 

So funny of how many just, like, going through the whole thing. 

It changes perspectives a lot. It’s just like in Game of Thrones —

Just like Game of Thrones?? 

It's like Game of Thrones, I don't have that many people. 

It's true, though, my stories do not have as many people as Game of Thrones. 

That was a complaint that I had a lot in the first book.

They said I had too many characters, but the thing is, there's only 14, and they all get more attention in the second book, anyway, which is what this is all about. 

AKA, I was just a really shitty author and I produced a really crappy book that I now, six years later, talk really awfully about. 

Okay, the next step, we have when things start to get fun. 

Oh, when they're fun. 

I did two sentences for each chapter. 

Hey! I have this as an exercise on this channel right now, under the plot exercise video. 

I’m just saying, like, I hand wrote that ish on all of these. 

This is just the last half. 

I already did this for the first half, and already written the first half. 

The first half is currently standing at about 70,000 words, and the second half is looking to be somewhere around 80. 

I don't know why I’m doing this to myself, but I am. 

So yes, so I do two sentences per chapter just to give myself an idea of what ish is going to be going on. 

Now we are really getting into the pretty fun — 

Okay, am I at least moderately more interesting than this now? 

I hope so. 

I get told a lot more these days that I look like Tom Ellis, so I hope that is at least some points in my favor. 

Um, I then took all those two sentences and wrote up three paragraph, five sentences. 

See how far back this goes? 

And I went through and I hand wrote out for what I did. 

So there's 20, but I sure didn't know how to make that interesting to share.

I’m a big fan of handwriting. 

I kind of think that all authors, writers, everybody should be handwriting ideas and stuff down first. 

Agreed. 

Um, if you put it in ink, it makes you think. 

I hate the fact that I just said that. 

I hate the fact that I just said that, too! 

Oh, my God, no! 

Oh, no. 

I’m only two minutes in? 

Oh, God. 

I really like to, uh, hand write things out first like this as far as just outline purposes go, because I really feel like it puts me into the mindset of the story. 

I’m not too worried about, uh, actually writing at the moment, you know what I mean? 

I feel like I remember that couch behind me, by the way. 

I was, this is, the only time I’ve ever lived by myself, and I was recording off of my computer. 

Not this exact computer I have, but a Mac just like the one that I have. 

A lot of times, when it comes to, uh, typing or sitting down to write, that we get all distracted and we try to make everything sound pretty off the bat. 

And I think that the most important thing to do first is to actually get the story down. 

Truth. 

The handwriting out the outlines, to me, at least, gets the story straight out, because I’m like, okay, you know, what do I want to happen?

I’m not sitting here trying to make everything pretty, because my hand hurts. 

Apart from general writing stuff, I also have questions. 

They're pretty common questions, I haven't answered all of them quite yet. 

I also made a comment in one of my videos about how ain't nobody has time to go through this, so I’m glad that I did for this. 

But I have, “What do you want to happen? How do you want to get there?” 

Okay. 

“What are the main emotions and how are they examined?” 

Oh, that's a good one. 

“Where do you see this book going? What themes do you want to cover?” So this is the kind of stuff that you're supposed to know. 

Also, I’m going to be honest right now, watching me here, and then looking over and seeing me on this screen here is a very weird experience. 

Because I’m — I look very different, and it's so weird, because I looked more like this, like, two days ago, before I just shaved everything off. 

But this beard, in this video, is actually fresh. 

This beard has been around for maybe three months, because I grew it out when right before I published Immortality Awaits. 

I think I like to just sit down and actually think about it. Obviously, I haven't finished writing it yet, because I got a little distracted writing those 25 chapter outlines, because those need to be done for NaNoWriMo, which starts next week at this current time. 

Uh, I think today is the 23rd, so I have eight days left until we get started. 

We all have eight days left until we get started, oh, my goodness gracious, what are we gonna do?? 

We're just gonna write, that's it. 

That's it! 

I said — I say it enough on this channel, just go write. 

So, yeah, so I asked myself these questions about things I want to happen. I want to get there talking about the emotions. 

I can answer that question. If you have read Immortality Awaits, the big emotion for that book is anger. 

That's true. 

That’s why there's that big fireball on the top cover. 

I know that fireballs, people talk about them being a little bit on the cliche side. I don't know, they're a little different in my book, and they are a little necessary, I suppose, because they're just part of one of the four elements that come through. 

The emotion associated with that, uh, is anger, I — because I associate anger, fire, rage, kind of all one and the same thing. 

Um, so now, here in book two, which is called Tides of Darkness, and the emotions are —

I’m such a pretentious dick sometimes when I’m younger, I feel. 

People said that to me a lot back then, too, I feel, so it's fine. 

Sadness, uh, isolation, depression, loneliness, and fear. 

There's five, and I know that's a lot. 

It's going to be a pretty emotionally-packed book. 

Side note, saying this now, and what I’m about to go through actually — not in this video, but, like in these upcoming videos — this is actually the only book I’ve ever cried while I wrote. 

So, it was a very emotion-packed book, as awkward as I am trying to explain it. 

It was actually, like, I cried so much. 

The fear aspect is gonna be kind of examined by everybody, especially with Donovan and company. 

They have been really taken out of their element, they are far away from home, they have no way to contact their families, their friends, their old lives, and they are stuck in a war, and they're scared. 

Minus the war part, everything I just said is why I went to New Zealand, so I could feel the same… same thing. 

Because, I mean, who wouldn't be, really? 

But they're trying to find the adventure behind it, and there's just a lot of fear coming from everybody, and it's kind of about overcoming your fears. 

But then the actual power, the emotions, are sadness/depression/isolation/loneliness —

Okay, and what has effing changed? 

Nothing. 

Same themes, same idea, same everything going on in NaNo right now, pretty much. 

So, but yeah, I’m not 100 looking forward to writing that, because I think I’m going to be pretty depressed by the end of it. 

But I suppose that just gets the job done. 

I cried so much. 

Next, I don't know, comes the challenge for myself for the second book. 

I give myself a challenge in every book, I’ve said it on this channel before. 

As if what I’m currently doing isn't a freaking challenge enough, the “big challenge,” what was my big — what was my “big challenge” back then? 

Worldbuilding. 

First of all, whoa. 

I have been pretty open on this channel about how worldbuilding is my least favorite thing. 

There it is. 

Second of all, that where's that map actually probably fantasy off that map is what became later on. 

And then this map is blown up on my wall over there, so, okay. 

So weird. 

I still want to know what like this looks like, I hope I hold it up at one point. 

Writers out there know that this is some crazy shenanigans. 

So this so far is the map I have drawn of Ianaro, I am not the best artist —

It was called Ianaro still at that time?? 

Oh, heaven, it's not even what my world is called anymore! Oh, my God. 

We spent the first book in here down, in this. 

I’m literally —

So now we're going to be spending the second book — 

Oh, my God — 

— and then see how there's four quadrants, there's four objects, see where I’m going with this here? 

So I just started drawing this finally. 

Um, I have a little tiny map between Konida and Liarda that I drew for, uh, Immortality Awaits that I needed to get a little bit more into it.

So, we have some lakes over here, and then we have the ocean lines up around in here.

By the way, I know you can see all this coming — you're welcome for cutting out all, like, the jump cuts and a lot of the stuff that's going on in between, because I know that I’m not making y'all sit through all of this. 

I haven't done any of these, yet, which is probably going to be part of what I do for the rest of the month/why I want to go to New Zealand really really really really really bad. 

Why I want to go to New Zealand?

Okay, first of all, last video I didn't even have 10 reasons why I loved New Zealand. 

Second of all, I can already tell you that three days after the last of these videos that I recorded I’m about to get to — it's a foreshadow, by the way, we're gonna get to it by the end of the month — but three days after this NaNo experience was when I decided to go spend a year in New Zealand. 

And then, whoa, hello, all three of these, right here in this video. 

I have all these places that they're going, Parnalder, Quentavane, Trestinore, all these places that you have no idea what I’m talking about because you haven't read the book yet. 

Nope. 

Um, but I haven't filled out any of them rushed to Ra'ash D'Avocier here, uh chelsea Parnalder Ardenway (??)

They're going all over the place. 

They don't have my story. 

This was before I did any of this scenario. 

I like that name, Denaria. 

Pretty cool, Denaria. 

I like that name, Denaria. 

“It's pretty cool,” that's funny, because now it's my world name. 

So, I guess I really did like that name. 

And I just said a minute ago that my world name had changed, and it's Denaria. 

And here, in this video, apparently, is where I’m — okay. 

I don't know where I came up with that, but it just happened. 

So I haven't filled any of these yet, but I need to. 

I really to, um, they're filled out, and I’m at least working on the map, but most of the worldbuilding process is going to come at the end, when I’ve already written out the story.

Because the first draft really is just all about the story, which I think everyone can kind of agree with. 

Which is what the whole point of NaNo is, which I’m really excited for this year. 

But I’m trying to be a little bit more prepared, because ooh man. 

Last time I was not prepared. 

I still did it, and I was not prepared. 

I just don't want to end nano hating what I wrote as much as I did last time. 

Last time, I found out about it on, like, October 27th, and I had four days. 

That was probably one of my lesser bright ideas. 

Anyway. 

That coffee mug! 

Oh, my God, that's from Borders! 

I used to work at Borders in the cafe, and I stole that coffee mug when they were going out of business, and I was really sad when it broke. 

But I remember. 

Wow, yeah. 

As I was saying, my thing actually cut me off, that's why there was that odd cut. 

Because I just decided to stop recording, but anyway. 

I found out on October 27th. 

I only had three days to get my life together, and then I busted out 54,000 words of the novel that had absolutely no preparation going into it. 

And it was really, really awful. 

So, this time, I would like to have a little bit of a better experience, which, but, of course was no means NaNo's fault — 

Defending NaNo! 

How cute!

Like it would be NaNo's fault if I had a bad time! 

Silly little writer here. 

But I was moving in the month of November, and having already partaken in NaNoWriMo and being no stranger to moving, I knew I would not be able to pump out 50,000 words in a month on top of moving. 

Not gonna happen. 

Whatsoever. 

I started Tides actually last year. 

Apart from my really awkward delivery and terrible editing skills, I’m happy at myself for my very conscious effort of keeping eye contact into the lens. 

This is so bad. 

For NaNoWriMo as, like, a sub thing for myself going on, let me take this to write whenever I can. 

And I got 30,000 words, so we'll see. 

We'll see how this year goes. 

I have one more thing left in my folder for now. 

I’m still kind of in the beginning stages of the second half. 

I didn't do any of this for the first half of the book, honestly. 

The first half kind of was already in my head rolling around, so I just kind of sat down and busted it out. 

When I got to about chapter 15 was when I was like, “I have absolutely no idea where I’m going with this.” 

This was back in June, already. 

And then I took the whole summer off, because I just didn't care. 

And then I took the whole summer off because that was the summer that I published Immortality Awaits, and that was the summer that I quit that blog I was just at the other day, and when I — my little “writing” depression started, so. 

NaNo was coming up, but I’m like, “Well, I need to stop being such a lame person. 

I’m working on the calendar which inspired the kingdoms here of — 

Oh, my God, I made my own calendar?? 

Oh, maybe I should do that! 

As, like, an exercise sometime for some writers. 

“Make your own calendar in your world.” 

If you're watching this, bonus prompt. 

The regions, all that kind of stuff, and then the two big ones here that have been left blank, kind of on purpose, because I don't even want to get into this debate in my own fictional world. 

The religion and the politics, really, this is the kind of stuff that just drives me crazy.

Especially when it comes to the “United States” a real life situation. 

“United States.” 

Currently, one of the funniest things about this little event is that recording this right now is November 3rd, 2020 and I just came back from dropping off my ballot. 

So, I definitely know where this vent went.

Together, UNITED, and I feel like these two topics break apart more than anything else in the entire country.

And I mean, maybe I’ll get into that a little bit in the book, but it just bothers me so much. 

Because I’m pretty moderate when it comes to all these things in general.

I like to see things from both sides. 

That's why I have the story told from the villain and the hero, because I think — 

Nerdy Narrative! Lezlie! 

If you're out there and you're watching this and you're here at this moment right now, and you know because you've been reading my story, I did that binge watch on your stuff the other day.

I saw your video about the whole “is the villain really the villain” in your little angsty ramblings, so… 

I got you girl. 

I think that the opinions on what makes the villain and what makes the hero are twisted, contorted a little bit. 

I’m trying to show — 

Lezlie! 

— what makes a villain a villain. 

Is he really that bad, or is it whatever? 

I mean, that's a lot going on in the rest of the series, so, I mean, I’ll get there, but I haven't gotten too much into the religion or the politics of Ianaro. 

It's big stuff, because it’s this kind of stuff that then people are going to read and relate it back to their real life, and I’m just not trying to have that kind of a disagreement. 

But I just try to be, like, “Oh, that's how you think, cool.” 

I agree to disagree, because that's my life, thank you so much. 

I still feel that way. 

Thank you so much for watching. 

Sorry I got off on a little bit of a vent there at the end. 

Uh, ironically enough, I am not going to get into that vent today, but it's Election Day, so, like, of any day, it would be the day right now that I would want to be like, “Six years later!” 

Because I was in New Zealand during the 2016 election, so. 

But, yeah. 

That is currently my Tides of Darkness folder. 

So I’m getting ready for NaNo 2014. 

If you don't have a folder, you should get one, or make something on your computer, or something to just get it away from all the other files in your life. 

Uh, because, if — especially if you're a first-time NaNoWriMer, it's not as easy as it sounds. 

And even when you read people talking about how hard it is, you're not gonna understand it until you actually get to it. 

That's true. 

You don't have a lot of time to mess around. 

You should definitely try to start hard to 1667 every day. 

Try to do spurts so you can get yourself ahead, because being ahead is the best place to be. 

Truth. 

As of this recording, I’m behind right now on this month, this year's NaNo, so, whatever.

Especially, you do not want to fall behind on the first week, or you're probably going to be screwed. 

So, good luck. 

Good luck on NaNo and general novel writing. 

Okay. 

“You Gotta Work, Bitch,” that's one of my recent ones. 

Hey, what's up, Alex? 

He's from the Shelf Space Discord. 

Well, that was super fun, kind of. 

A little bit awkward, but fun for me, I think. 

Wow, I have changed a lot. 

I really hope that I’m a lot more interesting to watch on camera now. 

It's not like I’m the most interesting person ever, anyway, in the first place, but that was a little bit awkward. 

But I, I had some gems of advice in there, some things I guess I would still, you know… say. 

Anyway, so, thanks so much for watching, exactly like what I just said in that video. 

I’m gonna be continuing these reactions throughout the month. 

The rest of the videos of this are all shorter, at least, so my reactions are gonna be shorter with these videos. 

But I don't know, this is still really fun for me to, like, see where I was at. 

Especially, like, with this map, to see this not complete was pretty cool for me today, I think. 

So, anyway, thanks so much for watching. 

Sunday is gonna be my first little writing vlog from this year's NaNo, if you want to check that out. 

You can also read my whole first draft of this year's NaNo here :).