I Tried Stephen King's (disciplined) Writing Routine for 30 Days...Here's What Happened
I followed Stephen King's writing routine in an attempt to finish my novel, Kingdom of Dragons. Kingdom of Dragons launches on Kickstarter on Nov. 2nd! Check it out here: bit.ly/kingdom-of-dragons
⏲️ TIMESTAMPS:
1:21 - Principle 1: Start each day with a walk
1:42 - Principle 2: Review yesterday's writing
2:10 - Principle 3: Listen to one song on loop
2:37 - Principle 4: 1000 words per day
4:26 - The Freewrite Traveller
4:39 - Flying to Melbourne
5:01 - Principle 5: Revise at the end
6:23 - How King dealt with rejection
7:02 - Day 11 / Flying to Canberra
8:01 - Day 19 / Train to Sydney
8:12 - Principle 6: Art supports life
9:38 - Day 21
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#stephenking #writing #vlog
I wrote like king for years in my youth. His method helped me write many good short stories and half a dozen award-winning ones. I still follow it when I’m writing a piece. But his method is obsession. If you’re a writer it’s an easy desire. But writing is not always an easy thing, as joyful as it is. You have to be willing to sacrifice your time for it.
I actually create playlists for each story I write depending on how the songs influences the scenes that are playing in my mind. And what helps the writer’s block for me at least, is going to my local gym and then sit and relax at the campus library.
that sounds good
I do create voice record playlists of myself talking about the story ideas. I can't start with a really creative idea at first but when I criticize other thoughts, I always come with a creative response. So I act like a picky story gourmet that dislikes the current idea and insists they always have better ideas.
Great video again Jed. Congrats on finishing the first draft of the Kingdom of Dragons! Super stoked to read it!
Thanks so much for this! As a writer myself, I found it inspiring! And thanks so much for the wonderful glimpses of Australia and all the fun you were having with your friends!
Awesome video! I love you're channel. It's nice to have your introspect on these processes. I don't really have an interesting life but i won't let that stop me from writing and telling stories!
Really enjoyed this video. I read "On Writing" a few years ago (not long before the pandemic) and loved it. I may give it another read as I need some inspiration. Kudos to you for living the Stephen King life for 30 days (and documenting it!)
I come back to this video a lot because it always motivates me to write! SO excited for kingdom of dragons to release!
Wow, I can’t believe I’ve not come across your channel sooner, this is super insightful! Congrats on completing your novel!
Thanks!
Everyone writes so differently. It's really a fascinating and intimate process. For me, pausing to edit or starting a writing session by editing the previous work, motivates me to move forward. I can't keep going if I feel like the story I'm telling isn't the one that I want to tell. improving my previous foundational work helps me to build upon it in a confident and natural direction.
Congrats on finishing your book! Amazing video, very motivating. Have a good one.
Thanks!
Thanks Jed, this video gave me that burst of motivation and inspiration, I needed. Just finished the last scene in the first draft of my novel! Cheers!
Wicked! Nice going, Luis
Adverbs exist for a reason. I came across plenty of adverbs in King's books. I think his advice is not to rely too much of them as they tend to become a superficial device for description.
Great video! fun to watch and inspiring footage! Makes me want to follow in your steps
Cheers Adam!
Thank you for sharing!
Nothing is more motivating than living a life you want to live. Congratulations on finishing Kingdom of Dragons! I can’t wait to read the final draft. On another note- your video editing has gotten damn good.
Thanks Michael! It's giving me a ton of energy and excitement right now for sure :). And cheers for the note about editing - lots of hours behind the computer to get this video polished.
I agree, Jed's video editing has leveled way up!!!
I just stumbled upon your content. I'm pretty envious of your book collection haha. Wonderful content. Very creative shots. Thanks your your honesty and candid experience :)
Thanks Sam! Might have to do a bookshelf tour soon
Hey, I really like your channel! Your teachings are great! Greetings from Brazil =)
This was so good! Thanks, Jed
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hey Jed! Just wanted to drop and comment and say I have enjoyed watching your videos! I love the principle that writing should be in service of life, not the other way around :) I'm working on the first draft of my novel now and just ordered the Freewrite Traveler - so excited to try it out. Sending all the best to Kingdom of Dragons!
Thanks! Good luck with your writing :)
Wow, that was such an interesting video! I've always been a huge fan of Stephen King's work and it was fascinating to see how his discipline and routine contribute to his success as a writer. I really admire your dedication to trying it out for 30 days, and it's great to see the progress you made. Keep up the awesome work, and I can't wait to see what other writing experiments you try out in the future! I think I will be definitely trying this one!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome Video. Keep making great content
Thanks Luke!
This was a fantastic video, both engaging and entertaining. I enjoyed seeing places around your beautiful country as well. I don't know that I could work with hearing the same song on a loop without driving a knitting needle through my ear, but it's hard to argue with success.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I just recently started following you and I am appreciative of your content my dude. I’m a writer as well so I can appreciate a break from my art and watch yours. Keep grinding brother!
Thanks, you too!
wow this is really helpful! well, it seems helpful. Now I need to try it
I love this series! And, congrats with finishing your first draft. Hopefully, this one also takes off like the Neil Gaiman video :)
Thank you! I quite enjoy making these, too, so might do some more in the future
I cannot imagine all these public places being good for "shutting the door" lol good video though! I found it very odd I already did the song loop sessions previous to knowing King does it too! Kind of cool.
Congrats!
This is seriously the best 'vloguesque' video I've seen! Super informative as well!👏👏👏
Nice! Am looking forward to have the pleasure to reed the Kingdom of dragons ♥️🤗
Hope you enjoy it!
Congratulations!!
Thanks!
Great video man, I'm very glad I found your channel. Your video on how much money you made as a writer was also very, very helpful! I signed up for your free writing advice pdf. Thanks for these great videos and content which are extremely helpful for an amateur writer like me!
Glad I could help! More good stuff coming.
I like how you are intentionally changing your writing environment. I dont think King does this, but I can see how it would help me because right now I feel like there is only one place I can write and that place is not always available to me.
Oh man, that song thing is EXACTLY what I do. Though I should add, I have a tendency to do it regardless if I write or not.
The adverb thing when I read that in Sai King's book On Writing... that was a hard lesson to learn. Really pointed out to me how heavily I relied on that -- and how I needed to revise.
Good job finishing your book. I'm not sure if I quite agree with your thesis statement though, in terms of needing an interesting life to write. I think anyone can write and saying other wise is a little gatekeep-y. Many can't afford to travel, but I understand travelling and writing as a combination can be incredibly stimulating for the brain.
Thanks! I don't think you need to travel to live an interesting life. Plenty of people I know live super interesting lives without ever leaving their home city - it all comes down to your attitude, I think
I took Jed's comment to mean simply that one needs to engage with interesting things, from whatever vantage point is available to them: immersing oneself in the creations of others, enjoying places outside one's home, whether new or familiar, close or far, and being open to everything around you rather than sitting in one place and experiencing a stale and routine existence.
@@Jed_Herne Yeah, I do agree with that. Thanks for clarifying.
@@mikevoss4894 This interpretation is fair, and I think I just misunderstood the message of the video! All the best!
Agreed. Look at Jane Austen; the Brontë sisters. Some of the best writers in the English language. Of course there are writers who led crazy lives ( Cervantes comes to mind) but it's by no means necessary.
Amazing!
I was expecting a lot more cigarettes from the chaotic days of early King. Just kidding. Great vid, Jed. Really enjoyed seeing so much of Australia in this one! That freewrite is too cool. The 1 song loop is fantastic and seems so "King". It makes perfect sense though. I definitely have a few shorter playlists that I tend to loop. Going to go full force on my session this afternoon! Cheers!
Ha! I did have an earlier cut of this video where I talked about King's drug use, etc, but I sorta didn't feel like it was the right place to discuss it so I ended up leaving it out
Interesting experience from a promising writer.
I like that you showed us a week like I have, with random events happening. Also, it seems like you failed in writing those 1000 words a day on some days, and that is the way real life goes. It made the experiment realistic.
Great video! I disagree with you about editing as you go, but to each their own.
"...when you stop to edit in the middle of a first draft, it stops your momentum. And momentum is critical for getting a book done." While I agree, it's only to a certain degree... There have been times where stopping to review what I've just written has shown me plot points I don't think are very strong or plain just don't work. Therefore, had I just continued on with the momentum I'd had, I would've been continuing on a path that would need significant editing or to just be completely binned once I'd gone back to review the final piece. Rewrites to improve the plot were the reason why my first proper book took me ten years to complete. Blind quantity shouldn't be the goal. 50k words full of errors, for me, would result in months of editing. I'd rather write fewer words I won't need to edit. That said, I found this video pretty inspiring, even if discipline has never been my strong suit.
for myself, the number one thing is to shield from distractions. To that end, I write as soon as I get up, with the curtains closed, no "peeping" on the internet under any circumstances. That first hour of the day is just for typing the story. By then end of it, I feel quite accomplished, because there is a world of difference between an idea in your head and actual typed scenes. Music can help, especially when I want to convey a specific mood or time period, and to that end the right song will come almost naturally.
Thank you, this was useful. I use brown noise for writing sometimes. It is scientifically proven to be better than music for focus. But I do like to listen to music when writing dialogue.
Good content, thanks for sharing. Also, can you share the link to that Stephen King video?
The Freewrite looks awesome. Alas, my eyes need a larger screen + large fonts. Hmm. I may have to think about this.
Remember, it's not about how many words you write. On Twitter someone called out the author, John Scalzi, and said if you're a full time author you have no excuse not to write at least 3000 words a day, and that he had a full time job and still wrote more than that. Then the author responded and said "if typing is all you think qualifies as writing, well, okay, that's a choice you can make." And then Neil Gaiman responded and said "I wrote Coraline at 50 words a night."
Jack kerouac: "there are 3 things you need to write... 1. A good typewriter 2. Teletype paper so you never have to keep loading in paper, wasting time. 3. Drugs... a shit ton of Hardcore drugs."
😂
wow that white library is so pretty, now I want to travel there just so I can sit in that library and write 😂
I used to have a M-F job where I got up at 3am. headed off to work at 4am, walking 3 miles to be at work by 5am. Worked until 1pm and then by 2pm I’d be at the library, writing until 6pm. It permanently messed up my sleep schedule but it’s how I finished my first novel. I miss that job. I do listen to music to drown out the world but I pick a classical music station in another country in another language so I’m not distracted by the segues or commercials
I would like to try this routine but being more of a pantser than a planner it is going to be a mess 😂 trying to finish the first book of hopefully a long series
Great video! Congrats on finishing your draft :) Can I ask what laptop you are using?
Thanks! In this video I was using my Freewrite Traveller - I made a review video about it here: kzhead.info/sun/q6iIhtmClopjm40/bejne.html
@@Jed_Herne Thank you! I will check it out :)
I've always wanted to start writing. Not sure I'll be good at it though
Good advice, I'm writing my book in longhand and I usually get 600-700 words in 30 to 40 minutes. For a hour its 900-1000, alittle bit into 1,200 too. I can write 4-6 pages in a hour & a half. I'm trying to keep track of everything.
Good stuff!
been doing this, its quite an effort, but damn if it didnt help me get going, finding a rythm i like
Very inspirational,
Thanks Mark!
@@Jed_Herne missing the podcast mate
"The pram in the hall is the death to art." Such an interesting debate, about life and art. The mind that gave us Shawshank must know something!
"The pram in the hall is death to art." Yeah,tell it to Shirley Jackson.
163000 words ? You're a hero 🎉
What’s your advice on how to write a book with lots of point of view characters like Kingdom of Dragons?
What is that device you are writing on that looks sick I need that
I have a manila envelope with rejections. Maybe I need to put them on display.
I totally call my chapters scenes too lol
Do a review on that type writing device you’re using
I spoke too soon
Yep, already done one :)
5:14 It definitely was a good idea to get rid of the adverb there, but rather than delete "pleadingly" try deleting the word "asked" and replace it with "pleaded." It's a stronger verb that gives you a better idea of how the character in question is asking that question, but without overcomplicating the word by making it an adverb. "Where is he?" she asked. vs. "Tell me where he is," she pleaded. If someone is pleading/begging/prompting/entreating/imploring someone else to answer a question, say that instead of "asked" to denote how desperate they are for the information.
Watched your video about Neil Gaimans routine before this one. After trying out different routines... what of them did you adept to your own routine? For example, do you still write on paper? Do you prefer silence like Neil or a one-track-loop like Stephen?
I was just about to write that it sounds like a bad idea to edit in youre first draft, and then at the second u came to that point. Though it sounds so little to only write 1000-2000 words a day. Every day I dont have work I aim for 5k words a day and I still feel like I have gotten almost nothing done, bot as they say, slow and steady.
You've got a beautiful office.
Patrck Rothfuss and George RR Martin clearly do not take morning walks.
Just discovered you! I would like to recommend the series “One Piece” to you since you’re a big fan of Fantasy novels. If you have never heard of it, it’s a manga series that has been going on for 25 years and it’s amazing. World building is incredible and it’s something I think you would enjoy.
If you have never read manga and are hesitant about it give the review series that Merphy Napier has done for One Piece a watch. She could never get into Manga, but a follower of hers kept persisting her to read One Piece and she fell in love with it. Some other notable Manga that I think you would also enjoy are: “Hunter x Hunter” / “Berserk” / “Jujutsu Kaisen”
One piece is one of the worst manga lol
Looking down at a omputer like that is extremely bad for your upper back and neck. If these machines you use had a HDMI port for a monitor that be great and I'd use one.
How is your nose??????? 😂 , thank you for your content and congrats !
The AI-enhanced Stephen King in the thumbnail set off my fight or flight response
Hows the new book going?
In the final stages of editing now - should hopefully be launching on Kickstarter in the next few months
That's good. You taught me so much useful stuff in your videos. Your use of imagery is inspiring in itself. I appreciate all the help you've given me. I'm writing on some expansions for the novel that I'm writing. I'm writing the mythology behind it.
Try his routine from when he wasn't sober
I had a book that flowed out of me 1000 wasn't the minimum, it was 2000
Which one will you suggest to take neil or Stephen's writing routine as you've tried both.
I think King's is more sustainable and better for most people, purely because handwriting is quite slow
I hope we can collaborate on a novel someday
I realized listening to psytrance tracks instead of songs really let’s me focus
Your videos on this vien are fantastic but I have an important question - Why is your door knob so high????
That's a standard height?
I can’t imagine listening to music while writing or at my day job. I need nearly total silence to concentrate. Do you still listen to music? Also, what happened to your Neil Gaiman-inspired routine you started earlier in the draft? Did it get stale?
Absolutely - music is huge for me. It's always instrumental (no lyrics) and this helps me lock in to my writing. I found that the handwriting component of Neil Gaiman's routine was too slow for my liking. It was a useful experience to get me out of a rut, but I never intended it to be a full shift from my usual process - I just wanted to try a brief taste of a different method.
First author I have ever known that has a book completed after Draft 1.
It's not done - plenty of edits to go :)
Read the opening scenes from Kingdom of Dragons here: jedherne.com/kingdom
I'm thinking about doing a collaboration for a novel sometime. Would you be up for it Jed?
Ok, I am going to say, most other novelists will tell you that King is a machine. His method of writing is not something that is easy to duplicate (George R. R. Martin called him a freak right to his face. I'm not saying that maybe GRRM couldn't benefit from a little more structure himself, but don't be hard on yourself if you can't match SK's output. He can do that because he is different from most of us and he has a VERY fertile imagination. Also, this is his full-time job.
Every writer has their own method. Neil Gaiman tried King's everyday thing, and did well. Still, Gaiman has his own style, and method. Gaiman insisted that you must write free hand, and never type. Typing is to fast, and it doesn't give you time to think. He also insist you must use a fountian pen. Okay. The truth is, you have to find what works for you. There are three things all writers must do. One is write. No writing, no book. Your writing has to be fit to print. This is obvious, but this is why most writers never progress pass the finished product. Lastly, you muct make money from your work. I had to take a writing class in college, and my teacher asked, "Has anyone made money writing anything, in any form? Anything? Menus for a restaurant? A loan applicatrion? A letter begging your parents for money? If you did, and made money, you're a writer." I had girl friend who showed me how to write to sources that paid for personai stories of someones life. Most embarassing moment. What does God's love mean to me. The were often only one or two paragraphs. My girl friend had list of sources with a couple thousand listings. She had underline the sources she used most. If I was going to submit to one she used, call and ask if she had submitted one there. She said, "I don't need the competion." I was most successful with religous themed writing, and woman's writing. Sometimes people would send letters to the magazines for me. Sometimes people sent me money. I made sixteen hundred dollars on one personal "Lost Romance" story that was page long. I'm not a woman, or religious. I never wanted to be a writer, and I have no skill at it. My girl friend had this ridge formate for writing that material. Often it was just putting differnt names and places in the format. My teacher asked hom much I made. I told him, and he said, "You've made more money than I have for two of my books." He wrote poetry, but still. I'm not bragging. Hell, I'm borderline iliterate. If you have any skill, you can be a writer. Just work at it, and don't give up.
Now I want to know what song you could listen to on repeat for hours!
Here's a few: The Way by Zack Hemsey Ninth Dynasty's Legend by MythFox Destiny by Hiroyuki Sawano The Chosen by Neal Acree Ghostblade by MuthFox
@@Jed_Herne I'll give them a try when I'm writing this afternoon!
UPDATE: Kingdom of Dragons (the book I was writing in this video) is out now! Check it out here: bit.ly/kingdom-of-dragons
So, did you pick a Springsteen song? King would approve. ;)
Springsteen is my fave musician, but I only listen to stuff without lyrics while writing - otherwise it's too distracting
@@Jed_Herne Good point. Paradise by the C, then. ;)
Of course, King wasn't all but screaming "look at me! Pay attention to me!" whilst writing. So... Good luck on "Kingdom of Dagon!“ Wait, that's my title!
What are you typing on?
A Freewrite traveller (I did a more detailed review on my channel if you want to check that out)
How is your book selling?
Kingdom of Dragons isn't out yet - but hopefully it will do well!
If I wrote 1,000 words a day, the page would read “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
So this plus Nail Gaiman's style is how i Roughly write. Though SK was using cocane for a long time, i wont hold a word count.
Hello
Took Cormac McCarthy 16 years to put out his latest. It's common for writers to take years to finish a novel. Five to ten years is very common. (Especially literary writers.) That being said ... Oi. We need to be better. ;)
Is thousand words a day a lot...? 'Cuz I on the regular write near on 3000-4000 words a day for D&D prep, that is while working a job. This isn't to brag, but for me, the writing process is very rapid.
you're fine. 1k/day is piss easy unless someone has 0 attention span.
@@bogdiworksV2 I figured as much, it seems very, very little to write only 1k words a day to me. It'd take years to finish a boo- oh... Yeah, I know why it takes so long for them now.
I use Sound Effects rather than music. Why? Music has structure, and it interferes with my thinking process. Thunderstorms, seascapes, nature sounds, rain on metal roof - these provide me the static I need to ground out the distractions around me. These have no formal structure. It works with my ADHD.
Interesting approach - I like it!
THE SNAIL
What is he writing with
A freewrite traveller (I made another video talking about it on this channel)
“…People used to say, ‘Write about what you know,’ but what I knew was boring…” - Stephen King
freewtite?
You forgot the most important part of SK's routine. 👉 👃❄