Shaelin(http://www.shaelinbishop.com), a writer who I follow on YouTube has released a thoughtful video on her problems with the writing community. At first I was going to blow it off, but I listen to the entire video, and decided to share it here. We have a wonderful community here at WF, and this is in no way directed at our community or any individual(s). But, I found her comments very insightful, and they made me think. Which is always a good thing.
I watched it last night, and thought it was alright. She did kinda address some ot the issues I have with watching the writing related vids out there in the youtube sphere. Though I feel that the majority (as far as I have seen), don't really like to talk about their personal works (outside of telling me how to buy them). Something that I find quite fascinating, on top of not really discussing what/how they wrote their book(s). Just use them as an excuse to supplement their income along with Patreon and Teeshirt-Mug sale sites. Though from what I gather Shaelin doesn't do either, but the majority only seem to have one book, in their early-mid 20's, and act like they know everything there is to know about writing. This is where I fall out with such types of individuals. Due to all the things they do, versus the things they ought to do, in order to be more realistic and constructive within that particular community. Feels more like a race to who can pull out the trendy articles and discuss them, that pertain to writing and not source their material along with their social media and sale accounts. While I am happy there is some kind of community for it, I find it to be rather dull and lacking in any real charm or helpful incite.
She talks about writing community as if it had one voice and problem was that this community does not agree with her in every subject. I find a lot of voices, a lot of opinions and large acceptance to have it that way. In every community there are people who focus in pecking orders and BS talk. Ignore button helps in those situations.
I think that she probably should have thought this through and scripted it a bit more, because I'm not at all sure what she means. I can think of different things that she might mean, but I don't know which guess, if any, is right. It seems a bit like an emotional rant to someone that she assumes understands all the background. Edited to add: I watched it again, and, yeah, it's "assumes understands all the background" that's my issue. Its sort of as if a person who's been spending a whole lot of time with followers of the Atkins diet posted a video assuring the world, "It's OK if you eat a piece of bread. It won't ruin your life. You won't be publicly shamed." And most of the world is saying, "Um...OK, thanks, but we already knew that." I'm sure it's relevant to a bunch of her friends. I'm just thinking that either more background, or a disclaimer of, "If you're not an active participant in blah, you won't get what I'm saying here," might come in handy. (I will watch the first five minutes again to see if that is there, because I have faint echoes of something like that. I'm thinking maybe there was an effort to put her video in context, an effort that needed to be put more in context.)
Thanks for the summary @CT I can't spell pracee. I spent an hour on the internet trying to spell praysee one time, it broke me. Is it like my son and 'folk music?' [oh, on Facebook, obviously] ... '....THAT prick knows nothing about folk music..!' 'Well son, he did sell 10 million albums?' 'Exactly my point, a complete traitor to the temple of folk's dignity...'
That - when i was starting to write i used to watch jenna and her friends quite a lot, but now we get to the point where she has two books out and I've got seven (shortly to be eight) and i question whether she really has much left to teach me these days i tend to spend most of my watching /listening time with Jo Penn, Sarah Painter, Mark Dawson and Adam Croft - all of whom are in a similar age range to me, and have a decent number of best sellers - admittedly their shows are mostly about how to sell rather than how to write - predominantly because their audience is ppeople who've got this how to write thing down already
Yep i listened to the bit where she said 'poison the well' six times in three sentences then turned her off....
I liked her point about new writers being too fearful to start writing, because they've been exposed to a huge wad of information on do's and don'ts when it comes to writing. They spend all their time 'learning' rather than do-ing. She says to just write, and I agree with her. If you write, you have given yourself raw material which can be polished and shaped. If the story remains in your head, however, that's where it stays until you actually write it. Great writers of the past managed to turn out their books without benefit of online communities—or even writing courses, taught by experts. Online communities can give us a sense that we are not alone, and we can exchange ideas which we couldn't really do with people who are not writers. But as a source of infallible information, writing communities are not necessarily what people really need to become writers. I liked that point. She's a bit yappy/eye roll-y and hair twitchy for me, though. I don't know that I'd want to watch her videos. Pity. As @ChickenFreak suggests, she might be more effective if she scripted these presentations and presented her ideas calmly, rather than just rabbiting on.
I had the same immediate reaction, though I couldn't stop watching. At least she's an attractive train wreck.
Of all the new author BookTubers, I like Vivien Reis the best. More than once, she talked humbly about critiques she received on her WIP, and made a video on a topic she was studying for her own, immediate use. Better, she doesn’t talk shit, hardly at all. None of the standard “let me define idiocy and then assure you that you, my listener, are in the club of people who is better” tactic we all learned from Rush. She keeps a pretty positive channel, which is what I’d mostly want. If I want to hear negativity, I want it from the harshest truth tellers who gate keep for big money, like on FilmCourage (or at least people who went through that way).
