Writing a book is hard. And frightening. Writing in general is both of these things. It’s extremely discouraging and difficult to be pushed and inspired to do, and that’s even when people have a love for it. I personally lost motivation to write. Even after reading tip and trick on how to motivate myself to write, I was never zealous enough to get through much of anything. Then I discovered a series of writing videos on a Youtube channel called Polandbananasbooks and everything changed.
Christine, the vlogger of Polandbananasbooks, provides videos of her writing process for over a 2 and a half year span. She begins from the start of her novel and it continues through to publication. She even has begun to discuss another novel she is working on. It’s an incredible feat of tremendous value to have such a detailed recording of the writing process available for all to see.
Never on the internet have I seen the writing process recorded in such a way. Whenever I’ve seen someone discuss their writing process it’s always after the fact, a summary of what happened. Her videos are so much more in the now. Instead of saying, “here’s the process I’ve used for the past few years” or even, “here’s how I wrote my latest book” it’s, “here’s what I’ve done in the past few weeks/months, and here’s what I’m going to do.”
Christine also separates herself from other writers when she discusses her writing process because it isn’t laced with advice. Typically when writers go in depth discusses their writing process it’s done to provide tips for aspiring writers. Christine, however, simply states where she’s at in her process and for me that was more encouraging than any other writing advice I’ve read. I’ve always heard how other writers struggle and work through countless drafts, yet I’ve never felt the full reality of that until I watched Christine’s videos. When I actually witnessed her say her novel was full of errors and needed to be thoroughly edited, it allowed me to really see the truth of how difficult writing is for other people. With that realization I felt that I could write and make mistakes and that was okay.
Another thing that felt so inspiring about her videos was that she was so relatable. She wrote because of her love for story-telling and because she simply loved writing. She loved reading, and finally she wanted to write a book of her own, and that was something I understood greatly. She also discussed her writing so casually that it made me think that if she could do it, why not me? Why couldn’t I write a book? After all her reasons for writing were so similar to mine, why shouldn’t I start writing like she did? And after finding another Youtuber around my age discussing their novel they wrote, I was finally pushed to do it.
Now I wasn’t aiming for publication like Christine, but I still wrote. Seeing her perseverance and admittance of mistakes was so real and honest it made me feel like my mistakes were okay. It allowed me to understand that a first draft or even a fourth draft may not be perfect. It’s a forward and backward process that takes time and patience, but even with the struggles it has its rewards. I’m extremely glad I found the Booktube community and the writing videos hidden within or else I probably never would have been able to write and grow nearly as much.