@Nicholas-mb7dt
Just hit 50,000 words on my first ever book, your channel has helped me so much!
@Ferstantanoes
Hey! It’s the author of Bad Parts and also the author of Entry Wounds! (OGs know that intro lol) In all seriousness I always love your vids!
@artharris515
This was terrific. I know you can't do this for every video, but the way you approached it was just so honest. Please do more like it.
@LouMires
My ultimate writing career goal is for people to love the stories I love to tell. Thank you for this video and your channel, Brandon! It is super helpful and encouraging.
@DannyPorter-lk7jw
My goal is to write a great book I'd enjoy, and one everyone else would want to read đź“š.
@spindash2023
This was great! Thank you for speaking up about your journey. I've thoroughly enjoyed your books, and have never cared one way or another how it was published, I'm just glad it was. I read Entry Wounds during one of the worst years of my life. There's too much to explain, but I was grieving the death of my grandparents, my job was terrible, and I just felt like I was going through life without any control of my destiny. I'm not explaining it properly, but the point is, your book helped me through a dark time. I've learned about your books through your channel, and love your content. I've been wanting to write my book for ages, and I've learned so much from your videos. They inspired me to finally pull the trigger and keep on writing. I'm still in my first draft, no doubt making tons of mistakes, but I'm enjoying the process. Scared shitless, but having fun too. For right now, I just want to finish and finally get the ideas out of my head and onto the page. Thanks again for the years of inspiration!
@SARbeaver1
The best reward for writing is the experience of having written well.
@singleactionjake
I just started as a new writer and your videos always help me so much. You explain everything in such entertaining way. Thank you Brandon you are the best writer :D
@lucasbrentwood1474
You are a generous soul, Brandon, to share your insights, your growing pains, with such transparency. I appreciate your thoughts, though I come from a far different perspective. My greatest passion in life from my earliest memory was to write. I finished my first full-length YA novel when I was 10, and won numerous awards. But in my family it was a "frivolous hobby" confined to secret midnight hours; daytime I studied science and math. I tried through all of life to carve out time, any time, to write, and half-completed a dozen or more books, but never could pull away from social and family obligations to do the hard hours of finishing. Now I'm past it all, in my sixties, and I live with nothing but regret. I'm not saying you're wrong; not at all: I listen to some of these fanatic self-pubbed writers whose entire lives are consumed with churning out books and marketing them, and I admire (and envy) their success but always say, when will they self-destruct? The stories abound. Life must be a balance, yes. But that balance must include time for the (legitimate) passions that make your soul shine and bloom, or you will crumble and fade and return to dust without hope. Where I am. If any young writers are reading this, take the advice of an old sod: if writing is your passion, draw a line in the sand early on, and stick to it. I've seen so many others in my circles who did that for their passion, and funnily enough, once those around you get used to it, it's just accepted, and you can have a life and a writerly life alongside it. I wish I'd known that.
@errantwinds-up8uu
Thanks for being real with us! I haven't even come close to finishing anything yet, but your advice is still valuable.
@matthewsimpson8583
Thank you Brandon for this! Hearing about your journey and struggles as a writer is super inspiring and gives me hope about my future
@whipless9668
Reality IS broken! Thank you Brandon for this inspirational story!
@HandGrenadeDivision
I would suggest education on how to write is also an essential. Not just excellent videos like yours, Brandon, but books and formal classes. I took a fiction writing class with the local writers society and it was the best thing I ever did. Not just for the info it provided, but by getting my stuff in front of other readers who thoughtfully analyzed it. Sometimes helpful, often not, it nonetheless was instrumental in boosting my confidence and expanding my technique. I find now even ChatGPT is capable of boosting my productivity, especially if I ask it specific questions about theme, character, historical research, etc.
@FCSchaefer
This was a great video, one of the best by a writer that I have ever watched. I absolutely love hearing authors talk about their process, and just what it takes to get a book written and in the hands of readers.
@string-x9t
I wanted to write a story for atleast 2 years by now but I just couldn't. I would make multiple attempts but ultimately abort them since I did not like the way they were going. I think I finally am happy with what I have in mind and I am absolutely determined to finish this story. Your channel is an absolute goldmine of writing wisdom and your videos have helped me very much. Thanks for everything you do.
@petereldergill2942
I actually wrote a kids book for my own kids. My niece illustrated and inked it and it was given to me for my birthday. I didn't even know they were doing it. My kids loved it and I would read it to their classes when they were in like grade 1-3. We have one copy, of the original pages. I've always wanted to it published but that's probably passed. Just sharing :)
@DamirMesic-b7o
Hello, I am late into my teenage years and I just finished my first book of over 49 000 words. I love your videos and style of presentation. I have been following your videos like a checklist. I love the way you presented this video because it’s not only a video, but it’s a story in itself. In your videos you are a voice with an occasional face. In this one, you’re telling your life story and it really humanizes you. I am a person who loves to hear other peoples’ stories and journeys. Thank you so much for your content, it really helps out a lot.
@danielmenzies3255
My big writing goal is for someone to read my story and say "Let's exploit it for money." I don't care if the publisher is major, local, or a hippie with a mimiograph.
@zapdosmaster1452
Here's where I am at along my writing journey: I've been a fanfiction writer for over twelve years now. Writing fanfic (and writing well) made me interested in studying the craft of storytelling, and over time I developed an interest in fiction criticism. I've been following blogs and youtube channels that give writing advice for years as I tried to improve my own writing. My main goals have been to have fun and create opportunities to chat about my favorite fandoms with the people who read my stories, and I have had enough success at those two objectives that I feel very satisfied at the present as a mature fanfiction writer. Over lockdown during 2020, I had my best story idea ever come to me and I wrote it with all the free time I found myself having. It became my magnum opus among my entire catalogue of fanfiction, and I enjoyed writing it so much that for the first time I began to think about adapting it into a novel as original fiction. That excitement only lasted for about half a chapter before I realized that just changing all the character names and altering their personalities a little was not going to be nearly enough to make it work. The biggest issue currently is that there are two or three scenes that plagiarize other stories where I took the ideas from. Stealing story ideas was fine back when it was just a fanfiction where they worked as callbacks the readers were supposed to recognize and appreciate from the source material. Now, however, I find myself totally stumped as to how I can make the changes I need for this story to truly be original. Even though I understand that there has to be a lot of fixes that could be made, I don't know what they are. I honestly can't see myself rewriting it from scratch and improving it that way. Nor do I know anybody willing and able to rip my story apart for me and give me ideas for what changes need to be made. I am not arrogant enough to believe I have the perfect story that can't be improved, but I am a little afraid that if someone did give me some suggestions I would have a hard time accepting the constructive criticism. Basically I really need a good agent with the professional experience and knowledge to tear my story apart and put it back together, like Brandon had, who can give me tons of feedback and advice for what I need to change. But I also still need to discover that mindspace where I can be personally willing to accept changes to what has become a version of the story that I already really, really like. Getting my story published would be a dream; even if it doesn't make any money it would be something I could leave behind for my posterity. And would be something I could check off my bucket list. In the meanwhile, I continue to write fanfiction when I have ideas that I can't not share with other fans.
@WriterBrandonMcNulty