Jenna Moreci, if you’re out of the loop, is a self-published author with an AuthorTube channel. She wrote and published… Eve: the Awakening, the Savior’s Champion, and the Savior’s Sister (the companion novel), and recently came out with a “How To” book called Shut Up and Write the Book which is similar to her channel, but is a step-by-step guide to planning, creating, and writing a book.
Now, I read Eve a while back (like, 2017-2018, if I remember correctly?) and I thought it was trash. I didn’t finish it but that was also because my parents got rid of Kindle Prime (or whatever it was) lol. Then sometime last year, I bought the Savior’s Champion mostly to support her but also out of curiosity. When I read it, there were quite a few notes I had where the story wasn’t the greatest… but it wasn’t the worst. I gave it like a 3/5 stars.
There’s a thing going around where many AuthorTuber or BookTuber books aren’t that great, and although I haven’t read from many, I can kind of understand where these perspectives come from.
But of course, I decided to give her non-fiction work the benefit of the doubt because it’s technically the same thing she does, only… in written form. So I had my library order it and I’m currently in the process of reading it. I did skip quite a bit (mostly the stuff I know, like how to create a story from an idea, etc.) but truthfully, it’s not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. Just like her videos, she’s spot on and goes in depth with certain things that definitely makes it worthwhile and easier to understand, but also gives you new ideas on how to make a story work. Like, I recently passed a section that gave a step-by-step outline of the main story beats you want to hit for each act and it really gave me some great thoughts into my own outline.
It is ironic where authors can’t exactly follow their own advice, but then again, doesn’t this happen to everyone with any situation? Like, it’s easy for me to give life advice, but I can’t take my own advice for the life of me. However, when it comes to writing, you’d think you’d follow your own advice if you say that this is what you do, right? I guess giving it is far easier than implementing it.
Have you read it or been tempted to read it? Do you read writing how to’s? If so, which ones did you find were helpful or not so helpful?