let's geek out about writing

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]The only way I learned how to write is through writing. I had no idea how to write before this.

[00:00:16]Uh yay. Okay. Okay. I'm like so excited to be filming this video. I made this little cute vanilla iced latte and it's tiny. It's a tiny vanilla iced latte.

[00:00:30]Um it's mostly ice actually if you can see that but today um what I'm going to talk about I'm so happy. Okay, like I basically finished my script. Like I've said this a thousand times. You guys are probably whoever watches my videos is probably sick and I know who watches my videos. What's up guys? Anyone watching these videos is probably very sick of hearing me saying that I finished my script.

[00:00:55]And that's fair because I keep saying it but I really like have and I guess I did finish it a while ago. I've just been tweaking it here and there but okay.

[00:01:06]I don't have the printed version because that was like a version from 2 weeks ago and it has actually it's changed quite a bit but not in a way that like nothing huge. I've just like added a couple scenes and rearranged some stuff and added some dialogue and taken out some stuff too but um here it is. Okay, well.

[00:01:27]Um I don't know. I've just been feeling so like happy about it going through it like feeling like if there's anything I'm going to change like I'll figure it out and I'm not stressed about it. Like I'm just so happy with it and I feel like it's like complete story.

[00:01:44]I love it. I love reading it. I love hanging out with these characters. You know I say that all the time. I need to stop but um I was thinking about starting a new story. I'm really feeling like I need to start a new project. Which is so exciting. Um, this one that I just finished was something that I had wanted to write forever. Like since I was in like middle school I'd wanted to write something like this.

[00:02:12]Like if 13-year-old me could read this script, she would be She would be writing fan fic. She would be obsessed. She would be making edits.

[00:02:21]She would be She would be so happy to see that I wrote this script. Little side note, when I was in high school, I was really into theater. And like I decided like my dream was to work on Broadway and like do something with video on Broadway. Like this is something I probably like wrote in my journal. In my late 20s, I got my first full-time job. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but there was a whole pan Whatever. I My first like real full-time job that was salaried was to work on Broadway and produce video.

[00:02:48]And the job was awesome. Like I loved it, but it paid like nothing. And it just like kind of sucked. I remember being like, "This is what I manifested as a little kid. And like what And she should have dreamed bigger. Like why was I dreaming so small?" So to think of little 13, 14-year-old Louise wanting to write a movie like the one that I have written and actually having done it, I'm thinking like she was onto something.

[00:03:18]I don't know how those two thoughts were connected, but I guess it goes to show you that if you are in middle school right now and you're dreaming about what you're going to do as a grown-up, it's probably going to come true. So dream really, really big. Do not dream too small because you girl dreamed too small and it came true.

[00:03:34]So let's actually get into the content of the video because I have the app to now for 5 minutes and have not really said anything of substance. I want to start writing a new script.

[00:03:45]And I have an idea. I'm not going to say too much about it because I'm scared if I like talk about it, then I'm going to start hating that idea once I write it and give up on it, or I'll completely change it. But I was kind of thinking like, "Oh, maybe what characters I could put into this."

[00:03:59]I wrote down a bunch of like log lines, like ideas for scripts, and this is the one that I feel like most drawn to.

[00:04:08]I don't Get off the table, bro.

[00:04:11]I don't really know, actually. Maybe I should stop talking about it. I made a video um a little bit ago about writing a first draft. Because as I was nearing the end of this project, I was really thinking about what it was like to write the first draft and trying to get inspiration and remember that it's okay to write like a really bad first draft. Obviously, it's totally okay. So, that's kind of what I did that video on a while back, and now I've been thinking about it because I'm so scared to get into writing a first draft that's not perfect because I've been polishing this like script that I think is so good for a while. But the reason the script is so good, Nicky and Nick right here, is because I spent years, I'm not exaggerating, coming up with the story. I really think that this draft did take me about 1 year. That was after many years of A, learning to write because I did never written anything before, and B, figuring out the story.

[00:05:07]Um so, I kind of wanted to just do a video kind of talking about that journey going from first draft to last draft to like inspire me to write something new and make me feel like it's going to be okay, like it will work out if I stick to it and work really hard on it, and to pat myself on the back for finishing something, and just to like, you know, if inspire anybody that's going to watch this to just freaking write the thing.

[00:05:30]Like, just write it bad. I don't know. The girl just writes. I need like a t-shirt that says that.

[00:05:36]Let's focus.

[00:05:37]As I talked about in my first draft video, or maybe I didn't. I have no idea what I said in that video. I hate that video actually because my hair looks really bad. So, hopefully it doesn't look disgusting today. So, basically when I started with my first draft, all I knew was that I wanted to make a movie about a crush.

[00:05:55]Like that was it. Like I didn't have a premise or anything and I knew I kind of had an idea of characters. I knew that I wanted to make a movie to write a movie about a boy who has a crush on his best friend who's like really popular. But of course the first draft wasn't anything like the characters weren't anything like what they are now.

[00:06:14]is the first draft. And all of the drafts in between also was like a lot of figuring out exactly what I wanted. I knew what I wanted but I didn't really know how to get there. And that's, you know, learning to write.

[00:06:25]Um, the elements I started playing with were like that idea, the characters, the premise and I also was really playing with the setting. I thought the setting was really important and it wasn't not what I talked about in that first draft video. I don't mean like the fact that I said it in my hometown and anchored it in something real. Like that was great but I don't think I did that in my very first draft. I think that was something that I worked in later. By setting I guess I just mean like the like background. Um, in my very first draft a big part of the characters was their income level. Like they were from like kind of a low income kind of darker grungy background and they like, you know, were exposed to like drugs and things like that as kids. Obviously that doesn't work its way into this draft but um, that was like a really important part of the first draft and helping me to figure out kind of some of the main tensions between them. Like having a setting and or I guess it's not really a setting. Just like some kind of background thing. Like if it had been basketball, that would have been a good one which is kind of what it is now.

[00:07:34]Um, but yeah, having some kind of like tension um, through the setting um, that can, you know, support these characters, whatever. I don't really know what I'm saying.

[00:07:44]I basically knew like the main tension and emotions that I wanted to explore, and I chose the premise, the characters, and like the setting background kind of information about them based on the feeling that I wanted to get across. So, the first draft was really just about like the feeling and the vibe, and I do not mean the tone. I will talk about tone later. I think for a book and a screenplay, tone are very, very different things because so much of the tone in your screenplay is going to come out in the movie if it gets made, but I'll talk about that.

[00:08:16]I'll talk about that in a minute. I think if I'm going to be writing a new first draft, the whole first The first step is to figure out like the emotions and the tension and the like just the things that I want these characters to feel and the things I want to feel while I'm writing it. That's what I did the first time around, and it was really fun. So, hopefully it'll be successful this time, too. I'm just trying to remember like that journey I took past the first draft, like once I'd gotten the story out and looked at it and been like, "Okay, I wrote fade to black, like but this script is not good, and no one can ever read it." Then what did I do?

[00:08:59]Then I think I learned how to write. I think I watched like a ton of like Ellen Brock and Abbie Emmons and like tried to learn classic story structure cuz I didn't really know it. I think, of course, story structure is like ingrained in us.

[00:09:10]We've all read tons of books, watched tons of movies that all go through, you know, beginning, middle, end, whatever, midpoint. But I think, of course, I needed to study it to understand what I had done wrong in, you know, these first few drafts. No matter how much I studied, I was not able to really learn how to write theme and character arcs. Um Ellen Brock has this amazing video about character arcs that I would recommend if you're struggling with this because I was really struggling with this for a while.

[00:09:43]Yeah, I really struggled with theme and character arc and I really really wanted to be the type of author that knew author, screenwriter, whatever, that knew the theme from the beginning. Like I really wanted to have a total idea like this is what the story is about, this is the theme, this is the lesson, this is the question I'm asking and exploring and then everything, you know, base it all off of that. But unfortunately, I am not genius like that. I'm not the type of writer that can do that, sadly. Um, the theme and the character arcs, which I think are, you know, kind of the same thing, are something that I only figured out from writing a ton, from putting my characters through every situation, and knowing what was right and what was wrong for the tone of the project, I guess, and the type of story I wanted to tell and felt to get across the emotions I wanted across, I guess.

[00:10:42]Does that make sense? I don't know if that makes sense, but like I really tried everything in this writing process. I like oh my gosh, it took me drafts and drafts and rewriting scenes, adding characters, taking out characters to really figure out what I needed and wanted. And I knew like, for example, I was telling Jay this story actually. For example, I knew that at the midpoint Nikki needed to have an experience with a new character and every draft was completely different.

[00:11:18]First, it started with him talking to this girl outside of a gas station and they're like standing outside having a Slurpee. Now, it's a completely different scene and I never really knew what that scene needed to do, but I knew it needed to be there. I knew he needed to have some kind of experience with a new character to show him something, and I just didn't know what it was, but I knew it needed to be there. Like, I had the intuition of knowing at the midpoint he needs to like be faced with his, you know, big problem, but I didn't know what it would be, and I knew that a new character had to do that. And it felt so obvious when it it hit me, but I was like, oh, that midpoint needed to be because that is his big flaw. Like, this is his character arc is getting over that. I actually kind of feel like my main character's arc is like the weakest one of the three that I wrote.

[00:12:06]No, come on. I don't know.

[00:12:09]I still feel like it needs work even though I'm sitting here telling you it's done. But that's like an example of something that took me so many drafts to figure out. The only way I learned how to write is through writing. I had no idea how to write before this.

[00:12:23]I went to school for film, and I just learned how to write. And the only way I was able to was through writing. I'm sure that this is not um a one-size-fits-all type of thing. I'm sure that there are tons of people who do not need to learn how to write through doing. I'm sure you can read craft books and learn. I've loved reading craft books. I love Save the Cat and all of that stuff. Like, I really do love learning about story structure, but the only way I was really able to understand it was through doing it.

[00:12:50]I don't know, maybe I'm slow. Yeah, the character arcs really like revealed themselves to me over time. I knew from the very beginning what I wanted the climax, the inciting incident, and I guess the final scene to be, but I didn't know anything else. And I know the most important part of the story is that revelation moment that leads us to the climax. I had no idea what that was until recently. That's also something that I figured out in this draft. Like, I did not know what these character arcs should be at all. I just knew these big moments I wanted to hit. And I did have an idea of the final image, but again, that didn't really come to me until later. That changed a lot over time. I do think my final image in this final draft is a lot closer to the final image in my first draft than any of the other drafts cuz that one that first draft final image I kind of killed and then the one I've come back to is kind of similar. The character arcs came out as I was writing.

[00:13:51]They were not something that I could figure out in a map.

[00:13:55]They had to reveal themselves to me through writing. And it was really, really hard.

[00:13:59]But I'm really happy with the character arcs that I wrote. And honestly, now I was going to talk about how I did it, but I truly have no idea. I just had to throw as many things at my characters as I could until I figured out what they were. I did always have an idea of the characters' personalities and the type of people I wanted them to be, like the type of people I wanted to see in the situation.

[00:14:24]I've tried to describe the characters' arcs like three times and um I haven't been able to. Basically, taking these characters from point A to point B was a real learning experience for me, learning how to write and create a character, but it was such a fun and rewarding experience and I loved it. So, I think there were certain points in the writing journey where I was like, I'm never going to figure out who these characters are. Like, this is so hard. I feel like I've tried so many things and it still hasn't felt right.

[00:14:58]But I got there. It took me about a year with this new draft, but I got there and you can do it, too. If you're frustrated right now with your characters and you feel like you haven't figured out their arcs, just keep going. It's not Like, for a while I was like, am I just a bad writer and this is like a personal flaw?

[00:15:15]But no, I have learned that it is truly something you learn and get better with by doing. Like, if you think you're a bad writer now, keep writing because you will become a good writer. I swear. It's not A lot of people have natural talent, but it doesn't have to be that way.