Why People Are Canceling NaNoWriMo: My Take on the NaNoWriMo Forum Disaster Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2023-11-25 | As I am sure you have seen there has been some people angry with the NaNoWriMo organization this month, and I cannot blame them. While all the details are unclear it appears one of their moderators took advantage of their position to groom underage teenagers on the site. That being said at this point in time the moderators have taken control of the forums where this happened and are committed to making NaNoWriMo a safe space. We will see in the future what that entails, and it will be interesting to see how many people return to NaNoWriMo as a result of this.How do you feel about this whole NaNoWriMo Forum disaster? Do you see yourself still using the NaNoWriMo site and forums in the future? Why or why not? #nanowrimo #nanowrimo2023 #writingcommunity
Restarting My Book | The Road to Publishing My First Book [Writing Vlog] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-20 | After coming up with a solution for many of my book's problems I realized I needed to "restart" writing my book. Fortunately, due to the nature of my work in progress and how it is a series of short stories that stand alone, the damage was not as great as it could have been.I am behind the writing schedule I set for myself, but not too far behind! In fact, with a good November, I may be able to get back on track!On the side I also took some time this week to work on other short stories for contests and writing a story for a text-based videogame I am working on for the Scream Jam 2024. Wish me luck!
Beyoncé Has Contributed Nothing Towards My Book! Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-18 | A huge thank you to Beyoncé, without whom my future book release would not be possible. From her unparalleled advice on my world building to her late-night brainstorming sessions on character arcs, she truly gave her all. I lost count of how many times her iconic lyrics inspired entire stories—honestly, it’s like she knew exactly where I was going with the story before I did. It should be her name on the cover, not mine…Her fierce spirit and chart-topping wisdom were a guiding light throughout, and this book is basically the literary embodiment of Lemonade. Beyoncé, this one’s for you. I couldn’t have done it without you, Queen B!
How to go From Writing Fanfiction to Original Fiction - Tips on How to Become an Author Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-17 | Transitioning between writing fanfiction to writing your own original fiction can be challenging, but as a fanfiction writer you are already ahead of most beginner writers.Before I started my author journey, I was a fanfiction writer. Many authors first get into writing by first writing fanfiction for a reason. Fanfiction is a great way to practice your writing in a low-pressure situation.Eventually, however, the time comes where you need to leap into writing your own original stories (if that is your goal). There are several major differences between writing original fiction and fanfiction and a big part of this transition is developing the writing skills that fanfiction did not quite address while also leaning on the skills you have developed in the years of writing fanfiction.No matter what you do to prepare, the transition from fanfiction writer to author is going to be filled with trial and error. As a result, the best advice I can possibly give you is JUST GET STARTED! You'll figure the rest out along the journey :)
Building my Author Website From Scratch 😮 Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-15 | I built my author site on a Raspberry Pi 4 using Jekyll to organize the site and Nginx to host it! Check out the full project in the linked video!
Coding My Own Author Website | The Road to Publishing My First Book [Writing Vlog] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-14 | I coded my own author website and hosted it on a Raspberry Pi 4! While I still have a while to go before my book is ready to be published, I figured it would be a fun idea to build my author website now. While it would have been a lot easier to just build a WordPress site, I thought coding and hosting the site would give me a better resume project.Creating this author site was so much trickier than I thought it would be. There were several points where I just wanted to give up, but I pushed myself and now I am honestly pretty satisfied with the result!Moving forward I plan on releasing my short stories that do not win the contest I wrote them fore onto this site! I will also post monthly blog post and do my best to keep you all up to date on my projects!If you want to create your own author site, I would not recommend building it the way I did in this writing vlog. However, if you have any questions about the steps, I took I will gladly answer them. I didn't want to make this video too technical because I didn't want it to feel like a boring class lecture!Let me know what you think of my author site! In a lot of ways this current site is like a draft of what this site will be when my book eventually releases!patricknilanauthor.duckdns.org
He’s Dying!?! Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-09 | Do you like to read your dialogue out loud when you write a scene? What are some lines in your book that would lead to a crazy misunderstanding!
Write A Horror Story with Me! [Writing Vlog] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-04 | Writing horror isn't a skill of mine, but I gave writing a horror short story a shot. I think it is great to explore new genres and horror is definitely a genre I want to explore more in the future. It blends wonderfully with sci-fi!What are some horror recommendations you have for me to read? Check out the short story I wrote for this video in the comments below. Sorry I am so terrible at reading out loud. I'm working on it!
Rewriting the Same Scene… AGAIN Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-03 | Do you find yourself writing the same scenes over and over again?
Which Writer Are You? Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-10-01 | What’s your favorite type of punctuation?
Reflecting on Turning 23 Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-30 | I haven’t quite accomplished all I hoped I would so far in 23 years, but hey I’ve still got a lot of time (I hope…)
Rotting My Brain By Writing 10K WORDS Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-30 | Writing 10k words in a day will never be easy, but I have to say this was my easiest attempt yet!
Writing 10K Words in One Day to Meet a Submission Deadline | The Road to Publishing My First Book Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-30 | After setting a goal for myself to enter some short story contests and open submissions this month I allowed the deadlines to creep up on me. In order to get into the habit of submitting more writing every month I decided to take on a 10K writing challenge to work on a few entries.Writing 10K in one day is never going to be easy, but this is the easiest attempt at writing 10k words I've ever had. A big part of what contributed to my success in this writing challenge was breaking up my writing into hour long sessions.That being said, in the future I will look to improve my writing habits instead of writing another 10k words on the deadline!Towards the end of this 10k writing challenge I wrote a bit for one of my old Wattpad projects. The story I wrote for this video will not be up until later this week but feel free to check out some of my other works on Wattpad!wattpad.com/story/359954933-welp-now-whatIn next week's writing vlog, I will be attempting to create my author site from scratch. Hopefully I will be able to display some of the short stories I have written for these contests on there!
24 Hour Readathon - Attempting to Read 4 Books in One Day Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-28 | This Wednesday I decided to attempt a 24 Hour Readathon. For this Readathon I attempted to stay up and read for 24 straight hours. My goal, like when I attempted this challenge the first time was to read at least 4 books in an hour. Last time I was only able to read two books during the 24-hour challenge but this time I have high hopes to do better considering the titles I have chosen to read are a lot more reader friendly than Solaris and the Forever War. I also promised myself not to fall asleep this time!This time my lineup of books includes All Systems Red, The Hunger Games, Skyward, and the rest of the Murderbot Diaries assuming I completed Skyward with enough time to continue.While this reading challenge was brutal, it will not be my last! I plan on doing another one this October to celebrate Halloween! If you have any horror book or short story recommendations let me know!!!
Random Writing Prompt: A Terrible First Date at the Apple Orchard 🍎 Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-26 | What’s the worst first date you’ve ever been on?
25 Fall Writing Prompts Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-24 | I challenged myself to create as many writing prompts as possible in a half hour. Instead of making a writing challenge video I thought I would share the results with you.I challenge you to write a story using one of these fall writing prompts I came up with. I will be sure to give some feedback!
The Best Way to Learn How to Win Writing Contests is Entering Writing Contests! Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-24 | Are you interested in entering writing contests? If so, my best advice for you is to go for it!
Creating My Book’s Playlist Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-23 | Have you ever created a playlist for a book you’re writing? I’ve tried this out to see if it will help motivate me to write! If you’ve done this before I would love to know what songs are staples on your writing playlist!
Creating A Writing Playlist | The Road to Publishing My First Book [Writing Vlog] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-23 | In an attempt to regain some motivation to work on my work in progress, Operation Ark, I have decided to make a writing playlist. The idea behind this playlist is to choose songs that make me think of my book and hopefully get me in the right headspace to write it.I am actually making two playlists, one for inspiration and another playlist with no lyrics that I can listen to while I write.The writing playlist, like my book, are still a work in progress. I linked them below. let me know if you have any good recommendations for what songs I should add!Writing Playlist (no lyrics)open.spotify.com/playlist/4DP1sTZWRkw3W7PHCFZimo?si=HBtssYPLQ-mNbCJJG7_KeQ&pi=u-d7zTmAxUQcGFInspiration Playlistopen.spotify.com/playlist/4jwwiuErgBbsIKXamvX0eG?si=f37uFh1LSBWXNO16p2ZZ0w&pi=u-Y8Tr9hy-SIu9In next week's writing vlog, I will let you know if these playlists help to inspire my writing!
More Attention From The Author Can be a Death Sentence! Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-21 | What are some signs that a character is about to 💀
There is NO time to write quite like 1 AM Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-20 | What is your favorite time of day to write? I like to write late at night! I’ve been also trying to get into the habit of writing first thing in the morning!
How I Create My Entries for Writing Contests Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-19 | Recently I have been entering my writing into a lot of different writing competitions, so I thought it could be helpful to show my process for creating entries for any fellow writers interested in participating in writing contests. While I haven't won any writing contest outside of school, I have run quite a few writings contest and I have implemented some things I picked up from hosting these contests to my process for creating my own entries.Speaking of writing contests, I will be running one once my Instagram hits 100K, so stay tuned for that!instagram.com/memesforwriters
Is It Still Ok to Do NaNoWriMo? Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-17 | After making two videos talking about the NaNoWriMo controversies I wanted to clarify that it is still perfectly okay to take on this writing challenge. The NaNoWriMo writing challenge is a challenge to write 50,000 words (an entire book) in the month of November. You do not need to associate with the NaNoWriMo organization to participate! This is a challenge that really got me into writing many years ago. Despite the mistakes the organization has made there are still plenty of authors who will be taking on this challenge within the community on their own! The community has always been the best part of this writing challenge!That being said if NaNoWriMo is not for you, or you can't help but associate it with the controversies I will be on the lookout for new writing challenges this November! I am also considering starting my own writing challenge at some point, if that is something you are interested in!
Edit My Book With Me - The Road to Publishing My First Book [Writing Vlog] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-16 | My editing skills certainly need some improvement but come edit a chapter of my book with me! If you have any tips on editing a book, I would appreciate them! I pretty much have no clue what I'm doing...So far, the editing process has taken a lot longer than the writing process for my WIP did and my progress is slowing down, but the important thing is I am still moving forward. While it has taken me a while to edit my chapters the positive thing is the edited chapters are a lot better than the versions on draft one.Hopefully as I develop more of an editing routine I will be able to edit chapters faster!
Discovering Lemons On Wattpad 🍋 Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-14 | Downloading wattpad as a 10 year old was not a great idea… What are some of the most cringe stories you’ve ever read on Wattpad?
Exploring The Disturbing World of Wattpad 🍋 Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-13 | A lot of us readers and writers shared the experience of exploring Wattpad, AO3, or FanFiction.net at a young age. Some would call this experience of discovering smut or lemons to be traumatic, but I prefer to think of it as an author cannon event!Explore the depths of Wattpad with me as I read the milk fic, a strange love story between Elon Musk and Barry the Bee, and more before I decide to gauge my eyes out!Also, if you are interested in reading Europa on Wattpad the link is below. Please don't read it tho...wattpad.com/story/349771431-europa
A Random Writing All-Nighter Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-11 | I decided to pull a writing all-nighter to make up for my lack of writing productivity!
Non-Stop Writing Challenge! (If I Stop My Draft Gets Deleted) Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-11 | How many words could you write in 15 minutes of Nonstop writing?
Writing For One Hour, BUT If I Stop Typing My ENTIRE Draft Gets Deleted [Writing Challenge] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-10 | I challenged myself to write for one hour, but if I stop typing for just a few seconds I have to start over. The idea behind this writing challenge, besides torturing myself, is to see how many words I can write if I write for a full hour without any distractions. My stretch goal is to write over 2000 words in just one hour.To do this challenge I used Squibler, The Most Dangerous Writing App. On top of deleting my draft if I stop typing, Squibler also makes it so I cannot see what I have written.I challenge you to take this writing challenge on yourself. If you accept the link for The Most Dangerous Writing App is below! Be sure to tell me how many words you are able to write in the hour, assuming you last that long!squibler.io/dangerous-writing-prompt-app
Submitting A Short Story for A Writing Contest - The Road to Publishing My First Book [Writing Vlog] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-08 | This week on top of continuing to edit and rewrite the first draft of my book I took the time to work on a short story submission for a writing contest. This writing contest is a horror micro fiction contest to write a horror story in just 100 words!Working on this short story was a great way to practice polishing my writing and also gave me a confidence boost.As for working on my book the progress has been a bit slower than I would like this week, but the important thing is that I like the way the second draft is turning out! Hopefully as I edit and rewrite more the process becomes a bit easier!For those of you interested I found this writing contest using authorspublish.com. It is a great resource for finding writing contest and submissions to publications! authorspublish.comNext week I plan on continuing to try to win a short story contest or get a short story into a publication. I also may begin to work on that text based horror videogame I have been talking about forever depending on how much time I have between working on my novel!
Using NaNoWriMo’s AI Logic to Get Out of Cheating on a Paper Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-06 | Check out my full video on NaNoWriMo’s AI stance!
NaNoWriMo Posted That Not Accepting AI Writing Is Classist, Ableist, and Racist?!? Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-05 | Unfortunately, the NaNoWriMo organization has found themselves under fire again. This time they released a post where they revealed their stance on AI, and it is a pretty bad take.Not only do they support AI writing, but they do so because they claim not doing so would be classist, ableist, and racist... Yeah...On top of this comment about certain minority groups needing AI to right writing inequalities they are also sponsored by a company that provides generative AI services for a monthly fee.If you were looking to take on the NaNoWriMo 50,000-word challenge as a way to inspire yourself to write more this November I encourage you to take the challenge on anyway on your own. I participated in NaNoWriMo for years without even knowing there was an organization. Hopefully this will be the last time I cover a NaNoWriMo controversy! It is a shame because this challenge provided me with a ton of motivation as a young writer!
This NaNoWriMo Take is CRAZY Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-03 | Apparently according to the NaNoWriMo organization it is classist and ableist to disagree with AI use for writing…I wonder if that has anything to do with their new AI writing sponsor 🤔
This Will Surely Improve My Writing Productivity… Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-02 | I’m super exited to have finally upgraded my writing setup! Check it out in my most recent writing vlog!
My New Writing Desk Setup - The Road to Publishing My First Book [Writing Vlog] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-09-02 | After talking about it all summer I finally updated my writing desk with a brand-new gaming pc with dual monitors! I am hoping this new writing setup will make me more motivated to work at my desk where I find I am more productive. The vertical monitor will also make it easier to read documents for editing and allow me to have my first draft and the new draft open at the same time.Improving my writing setup has been something I have been looking to do all summer and now that I have started working in my second draft for Operation Ark the timing is perfect. That being said I cannot help but feel like I have not been as productive as I could have been this summer. While I have written an entire rough draft and grown my writer socials, I feel like I could have done more.To lift my spirits, I have decided it is a good idea to work on a smaller project that way I can complete something before summer ends and have something to show for the season. To do this I am moving forward with working on a text-based videogame and looking to enter a short story contest or get a short story into a publication. If you know anything about how to go about getting a short story published on a site or magazine let me know because I am clueless!Next week I am going to need to be productive if I want to stay on track to finish my second draft of Operation Ark before November.Feel free to check out my other writing platforms!Instagraminstagram.com/memesforwritersTikToktiktok.com/@memes4writersAlso be sure to check out my game development channel!youtube.com/@UCL5QWZHPKL7Fj8Rn8aiIGPw See you next Sunday with another writing vlog!
How to Grow Your Author Platform On TikTok [2024 Guide] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-29 | TikTok is a great platform to grow your author platform, but that does not mean it is easy! Over the past year and a half I have had a decent amount of success on TikTok building my platform. In this video I go over some of the things that have been key to me growing my author platformThe most important part of growing your author platform on TikTok is consistently posting quality content that provides value to potential readers!TikTok is a great place to meet other authors, find writing inspiration, and even market your book! Feel free to drop your TikTok account below and tell me about your writing journey so far!The link to my author TikTok is below! Feel free to look through my account for inspiration for your own author platform!tiktok.com/@memes4writers
Can I Write A Short Story In 3 Minutes? [Writing Challenge] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-28 | Today I challenged myself to write a short story, or piece of micro-fiction to be more accurate, in 3 minutes.For this challenge I used squibler to force myself to write without taking any breaks for the three-minute duration! This is what I was able to write during the challenge!"As he resurfaced from the cave and the rescuers escorted him out of the tight rock opening for the first time Mark had the opportunity to think about what had happened down there.Exploring the deep caves of Europa was risky business. Him and his wife knew that when they took on this mission. Now he alone was left to discuss what happened there hours ago.There would be no mission to recover her body. That would be suicide. Knowing that he looked to the rescuers and said what only he could know for sure wasn't"As you can see I did not complete the challenge this time, but I definitely think I can do it in the future if I try again!What writing challenge would you like to see me take on next?
The WORST Writing Challenges I’ve Ever Taken On Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-27 | Which of these writing challenges would you like to see me try and take on again? Or, what new writing challenges would you like to see me take on?
Gaslighting My Main Character Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-27 | Sometimes my “characters” will take control of my story only to leave me with a dead end…
Reading My Disaster of a First Draft… Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-26 | In my most recent writing vlog I began reading my first draft, and I have to say I am both beyond proud and disappointed in myself all at once for creating such an amazing piece of word trash!
Setting a Publishing Timeline - The Road to Publishing My First Book - Week 11 Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-25 | Now that I am starting to read over my first draft of Operation Ark to start editing/writing draft 2 I thought it would be a good time to start creating a timeline for publishing this book. I do not have much experience editing books or working with editors, so I do not know how realistic this timeline to publish my book is, but I'd like to think it's feasible. After setting my optimistic publishing timeline I opened up my first draft after letting it sit for a month and read the first few chapters. While I will admit they are a bit rough, there is a lot that I do like about them. With a lot of editing, I think there is a lot of potential in the stories I've read over so far. In this writing vlog I mentioned my love for game development and my plan to make a text-based videogame! While I will be making videos about that game on this channel, if you would like to join me on my game dev journey check out my game dev channel!youtube.com/@patcavestudio
I Clicked the WRONG Link Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-24 | Nothing like having your innocence stollen by a random smutty fanfic…
Just ONE More Chapter Before Bed! Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-23 | It’s so hard to just read one more chapter. Sometimes I just need to know what happens next in the book. Sleep is overrated!
Um… How Do Authors Make Money??? Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-21 | Does anyone know what to do after writing a first draft?I feel like there’s a step I’m missing between writing my first draft and making millions of dollars…
I Have No Idea What to Name My Book Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-20 | Now that I’ve started working on my second draft it’s really stressing me out that I haven’t come up with a name for this book yet…
Reading More Books in a Day Than I Did All Last Year Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-16 | I did not quite hit my goal in this reading challenge. That means I will be attempting again soon! Next time I would like to read some subscriber books so if you have a book be sure to let me know about it!
A Casual 24 Hour Reading Challenge Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-15 | Earlier this week I challenged myself to read as many books as I possibly could in 24 hours. The goal was to read 5 books in 24 hours in order to spark my love for reading again. All the books I chose for this reading session are well known sci-fi books as that is my favorite genre to read and I would like to get more familiar with the genre. While this reading challenge did not quite go as well as I would have hoped I definitely still think it was a success. In reading and reviewing Solaris and The Forever War I have also gotten some ideas for my own novels.In the future I would love to do a reading challenge where I read your books so be sure to tell me about any books you have published in the comments. While my favorite genre to read is sci-fi the books you recommend me do not have to be only sci-fi as I enjoy trying new genres!
Reading and Reacting to My Old Writing - The Road to Publishing My First Book - Week 10 Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-12 | This week on the road to publishing my first book I took some time to read over some of my writing from before I knew I wanted to be a writer. I am so glad I have so much of my early writing saved so that I can look back at it and embarrass myself by reading it to you all.While this writing vlog series is only ten weeks old, I have actually been working towards becoming an author for almost eight years and I've been writing creatively for even longer than that.Next week I will begin reading over my first draft for Operation Ark. Hopefully that isn't as cringe worthy as these stories I wrote ten years ago...In this video I mentioned the disaster of a book I wrote in one week. I rather you don't read it, but here it is linked below!wattpad.com/story/349771431-europa
How Many Words Can I Write in FIVE Minutes [Writing Challenge] Patrick Procrastinates Writing 2024-08-09 | I challenged myself to write as many words as possible in five minutes. To really push myself to write as much as possible I used The Most Dangerous Writing App to write as many words as possible in a short time span. I challenge you to write as many words as you can in five minutes! If you take this challenge on comment how many words you were able to write! The link to Squibler, The Most Dangerous Writing App, is below! squibler.io/dangerous-writing-prompt-app
