Preface

I had this blog post up here before, but when I rebooted the blog, I updated it too. What’s this all about? So, as the title suggests, here are some things to know before you write, with or without AI assistance. AI can assist you with your story, but it doesn’t know everything or can sometimes mess up. You should be able to fix those mistakes. And for that, you need certain skills.

I’m a reader first, a writer second and AI enthusiast third. The reason this matters is that I think you need to read enough to understand how stories work if you want to write good books. You should see enough and get enough input to tell a good story from a bad one, and know when you actually have a story, and when an idea isn’t ready to be a full novel yet. This isn’t something you can learn as a skill. You should be naturally curious and enjoy reading. The second point is you need to know how to write if you want to do it. Writing is something you can totally learn, like how to “show, don’t tell” and when and why to do it. You should know that characters aren’t real people, so you have to treat them differently, and it’s not always obvious how and why. Writing can be puzzling initially, but it makes sense as you learn more. Being an “AI enthusiast” isn’t necessary, it’s just how I identify myself.

The problem with trying something more complicated for the first time is that you don’t even know what you don’t know yet, and that goes for writing as well. There are tons of online sources to help you get started — but the issue is, there are just so many of them, and they all give different advice, which can make it confusing and frustrating to sift through it all and find what you really need to know.

I’m just not a creative writing teacher. I used to teach German and English, and now I earn my money by localizing games. I may not have taught writing specifically, but I have experience teaching and understand the difficulties people encounter when starting out, especially when learning to write in a second or third language.

Yep, learning.

Writing is like using a language, it takes both brainpower and physical effort. You have to grasp the intellectual part, which means you need to understand the concepts well enough to explain them to someone else. That’s a pretty decent level of knowledge, but it’s definitely doable.

And then there’s the whole physical and mental aspect. Writing is like running a marathon. If you ask a pro chess player how much weight they drop during a tournament, you might consider taking up chess for weight loss. I won’t tell you how to handle that. Figuring out the mental side of writing is something you’ll have to do on your own since we’re all different, with different personalities, lives, habits, and needs. I’d suggest you take a look at the NaNoWriMo page and read through their articles and pep talks by famous authors. Checking out their forums might help too.

Alright, let’s cut to the chase and talk about the important stuff. Once you learn and understand the craft, you need to train to use that knowledge without constantly thinking about it. It’s like you have to use the same grammar point a few times before you can use it in a convo without even thinking about it.

YouTube writing channels

Before I get into books, let me show you some videos you might find useful. There are many channels dedicated to the writing craft, many by so-called “authortubers”, who run their channels mainly to promote their books or build their brands. Their writing doesn’t click with me, and their advice is too generic. You can find way better, more detailed tips somewhere else. But since YouTube is a great way to dip your toes in the water and get some initial feedback without spending a dime, it’s where I’ll begin my list of must-know resources, because there do exist some channels that are absolutely worth your time.

The first channel I’ll suggest isn’t really about writing, at least not directly. If you’re into futuristic stuff and sci-fi, you should check out Isaac Arthur‘s channel. I like him a lot, and even named a character in one of my older books after him. Consider propulsion, ringworlds, van Neumann probes, black holes, AI – Isaac’s got it all. His channel has some amazing videos, sometimes discussing SF books that connect to his videos.

There are more channels that SF authors might find useful, but for now, I’ll focus on the ones directly related to writing. The first one I’d like to suggest is Diane Callahan. She’s listed as a developmental editor and author on her channel. Her videos have solid examples for whatever she’s explaining, and she’s straightforward. Don’t bother with all that wishy-washy “show, don’t tell” or “no passive voice” stuff you find all over Reddit or “booktube”. When she asks you to show something, she tells you what, how, and why.

Local Script Man is a great no-nonsense channel about constructing story elements, like plot, theme, or characters. Lucas has a straightforward way to explain his thoughts, and while he’s specialised in scripts (as the channel name suggests), most of his advice is equally good for novel writers.

Derek Murphy‘s got great tips for self-published authors on all sorts of topics. At this place, you learn self-publishing, not writing, but it’s still important to improve your knowledge broadly, even if you don’t want to self-publish. Derek is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to book cover design or ads on Amazon/Facebook, and he’s always happy to share it for free. He’s got advice on plotting and editing, which is nice to have on video, even though I’ll share some book recommendations later, and those books are a must-read, while YT videos are a bonus.

Reedsy is another great channel with loads of advice. They’ve also got a website with a bunch of cool stuff like name generators (although nowadays, I’m using ChatGPT for name ideas) and an ebook tool. I’m actually using that, even though I could go with Scrivener or Calibre, but I really like it. Anyhow, their YouTube channel is all about the craft. How to do stuff, with step-by-step explanations and examples. Reedsy is almost like a textbook, so you should definitely give it a look. They probably have videos on topics you’re having trouble with, and I bet they can help.

Lastly, there’s always the reliable Brandon Sanderson. People say his channel is a one-stop-shop, and even Brandon himself would be shocked if you thought his seminar videos could make you a writer. They can’t do that. But his videos are super insightful and very Brandon Sanderson-esque. By the way, you should also listen to his podcast Writing Excuses, it’s like a masterclass in writing. And don’t worry, the books I’ll recommend next will make up for anything that’s lacking.

My top 4 book recommendations

There are some books that I think are pretty essential for learning the craft, and then there are others that are nice because they teach you specific things or have a different approach to certain topics, which you might find helpful. Let’s check it out.

The very first book I’d recommend is Understanding Show Don’t Tell: And Really Getting It. This one will teach you what “show don’t tell” means, why people throw it in your face even when they themselves don’t actually understand but have seen it mentioned so often, lol), and how it works. Why it’s effective. Understanding narrative distance, why you’d want to control it, and how it impacts your choices of showing or telling in your story. Fantastic book, quick read, gets to the point without overwhelming you with unnecessary details. A great read for aspiring writers.

Save The Cat Writes A Novel is another book I think you should read. This is based on a book for screenplays, adapted for novelists, and talks about how to plot a book. Even if you’re a “pantser” (or “discovery writer”, if you like), it’s important to learn about plot design, hitting beats, and why it matters. Sometimes it’s better to know than to be blissfully ignorant, especially for writing—it’s both a craft and an art. STC definitely teaches craft. It gives you tools you can then use or not, but if you choose not to, you’ll be aware of what you’re dealing with.

Now that you know what “show don’t tell” means, and you can create an outline, you might want to learn how scenes actually work, how to write events with emotional impact, and how that relates to conflicts and reactions. Techniques Of The Selling Writer teaches you this, and more. This book is the go-to for scene writing techniques. Nothing else comes close. You won’t find anything nearly as good. This is what people think about when they talk about “learning to write”. This is where you’ll learn to write. It’s the proper way to teach writing prose.

The next book I’m recommending teaches you about the monomyth and other interesting stuff you might or might not use later, but the reason I suggest it is because of its chapters about characters. The author goes into great detail about archetypes, relationship webs, and roles like “fake ally” or “mentor,” and he uses lots of examples to really drive his points home. The name is Anatomy Of Story, and like STC, it was originally written for screenplays — but that doesn’t matter, because everything he writes about characters in this book is true for novels too. This is the last book that is an absolute must, in my opinion. Now here are some honourable mentions.

Other nice reads

How Not To Write A Novel is a fun book that shows you the mistakes authors make and how not to do them. It’s a good buy and a good read.

How To Write Funny and its 2 sequels are interesting reads, even if you don’t write comedy. It’s not just about jokes, but also about understanding emotions and how to deal with them.

Take Off Your Pants is an alternative to STC that could be a better fit for people who aren’t into STC. It shows you how to outline using various techniques, mostly with questions instead of beats.

2k to 10k has some useful techniques to help you plan your writing better, even if you’re more of a pantser type. Plan well, avoid brooding, and speed up your writing process. There’s a blog post. Search it on Google. It’s like the TL;DR.

The author of Understanding Show Don’t Tell also wrote Understanding Conflict (And What It Really Means). Awesome teaching, very useful, and almost on my list of the mandatory reads, but the other books on that list got that covered already. Great as additional read, to really make things clear. Janice Hardy is fantastic, definitely give her a look on Amazon.

No Stephen King’s “On Writing” then? Yeah, that’s a hard pass. On Writing is more of a memoir than a book about writing, and the advice on writing is too generic and vague to be helpful as a textbook. And Stevie should know, he’s a teacher, too. If you’re into SK, it’s worth a read. If not, what’s the point? It teaches you nothing the books I listed don’t.

And that’s pretty much it. Take a look at those YouTube channels when you can’t find time to read and study (and I’m telling you, this subject needs some serious work, there are no quick fixes). Read the books when you have the time to really think about them.

What’s the next step? Think about joining NaNoWriMo next November. It teaches you to set aside time to write every day and form good habits. Don’t stop writing until you’re finished, no matter what. Don’t worry, you can edit it later. The real learning happens when you finish and edit your work, so starting 10 books and writing the first 10k words, only to give up, won’t teach you much. You’ll learn how to start books, but that’s only a small part of what you need to know.