Welcome back to another blog about tools that I genuinely find useful! This one will be specifically for writing and reading (some will overlap the one I posted in June though), including some of my own genuine advice, YouTube channels, and websites. If you’re a fellow writer/reader, I sincerely hope this helps you somehow <3 And if you’ve got anything to add or ask, DO comment please!!!! ❤️
(note: some are VPN-required for a few countries)
──── General Advice ──
Writing
- Writing is supposed to be fun, not feel like a task. This is something I’ve grown to learn and experience throughout my writer’s journey. If you don’t feel like writing, don’t ever pressure yourself to do it! IT IS better if you find some time to write everyday (doesn’t have to be long, ~20min) to keep it consistent. This is obviously up to you, but I just feel like that makes more progress…? :’D However, if you’re really not in the mood DON’T write, just relax and do the things that you WANT to do. I’ve changed my mind about this (as mentioned in my previous blog about how to overcome writer’s block), because I feel like if you genuinely do something else that you enjoy and not get stuck in the cycle of frustration of not coming up with a good scene/idea, you’ll suddenly get inspiration and motivation to write later on! (at least for me, lol)
- Try to romanticize writing! You don’t have to do anything fancy of course lmao, but I always feel like a drink like an iced matcha always helps me set the mood sometimes. Also put on a playlist, if songs with lyrics or just lofi distracts you, I honestly feel like typing away with the sound of rain in the background or when it’s ACTUALLY raining is soooo soothing (fun fact: it’s actually raining right now as I’m writing this 🌧️)
- Find a writing community. When you hear this, you might be thinking of social media, and while that is true, writing communities can also be offline. You could start off by sharing your story idea to a friend, or anyone really who shows interest in books/writing/reading. If your town has a local writers’ workshop or some sort of a club for young writers, you could join that too, or you could perhaps start your own one! There are also a lot online, of course- I’ve stumbled across millions of teen author classrooms and groups on Pinterest and also quite a large community on YouTube. I’m not in any as of the moment but I do want to apply to this summer writing studio for young writers next year, and I just feel like that really makes you feel hopeful yk, especially when you see others’ accomplishments/passion? Idk haha shorts on YouTube just always makes me feel that way^^
Reading
- Read across various genres. While you may love sticking to your own genre and browsing through a million books (like me) I feel like you could look into other genres! You never know what you’ll find <3 I never really liked classics to be honest but since starting novels like To Kill a Mockingbird (for my IGCSE lit class this year) and Sense & Sensibility (in my free time, I don’t remember who told me but I’ve heard it’s quite good), I’ve grown to appreciate the genre. There’s quite a bit of historical background involved and I’m honestly not THATTT big of a history person but it’s just pretty cool in general !!
- Recommend books to friends/find a reading community. I feel like this is very helpful as well because you could go scroll through Pinterest/Reddit/Fandom to find books related to your favorite genre or the genre that you want to explore, there’s always a lot of book recs! If your friend also loves reading books then you COULD also exchange them if you have paperbacks, and I feel like recommending books to others and gushing over them together is lowk the best feeling???
- (P.S. Please don’t kill me t-t but I’m not on BookTok and to be honest I don’t really recommend scrolling through a whole lotta reels to find a ‘suitable’ book? I know this is contradictory to my statement above but yeah, I feel like most people will end up with this MASSIVE TBR and in my very own opinion they’re all mostly popular books with lots of cliches (NO HATE OKAY 😭). Of course these books might/WILL be good if this entire crowd of people are recommending them, so I’m not saying they’re awful or anything, but by searching solely on BookTok I just think you might be overlooking other books^^)
- (P.S.S. That is why you could maybe go to your local bookstore/library! I’m pretty sure there’s not one fully in English where I live, but if you DO have a nice bookstore obviously you could go check out the newest and latest books)
──── Websites ──
- Aesthetics/names/books/community! I love Pinterest haha it’s one of my sources of inspiration, besides writing, looking at fanart and gushing over books together or reading people’s rom-coms (there are also many Pinterest writers so do check them out!! I love their stories), you can also search up a lot of other stuff!!!
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- To scroll through names! No offense to Pinterest, uh but their names are a bit more… fantasy-based sometimes? You will have to type in the right keywords to find the names you’re looking for bc most of mine are always a little… over-the-top or made-up names, which is nice but if you want something ‘slightly more classic’ do look at Nameberry (though I think they have ads/limits now, it used to be completely free-)
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- I love this website so much! You can literally download ANY ebook there which is great, but the cons are that nowadays when I try to download books I’m redirected to Google searches ~2 times before it works? I don’t know if that’s just my IPad’s problem ehh bc a month or two ago when I used my laptop it was fine
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Goodreads
- Lol this is just the website to search up books (I think MOST books are on here) and look at ratings, reviews, upcoming books, and recommendations. If you don’t want to get MAJOR spoilers though I do, uh, recommend you to stay away from reviews 😭👍🏻
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Google Docs/Word (I think just an app?)/Pages (I think this is also just an app?)/Reedsy
- Just a few platforms to write on! I used to use Word & PPT but now I’ve switched to Google Docs, really anything is fine haha, even Notes
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──── YouTube Channels ──
(These are just the channels that I personally enjoy, if you’ve got any recommendations please DO drop them in the comments!!! thank you aaa I would be sooo grateful 😄)
(btw some of these (aspiring) authors also have their own websites but I’m not sure about everyone, so you’ll have to search them online I’m sorry t-t)
- This was a new channel I stumbled upon a few months back, and I personally find her vlogs super inspirational! Nicha’s also an aspiring author and very enthusiastic about her upcoming books, which she does talk a lot about in her videos. I also love the advice she gives and sometimes she puts in little snippets of her writing which is SOOO cool !!! I think she discusses tropes in books and does book reviews as well
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- I mentioned her last time, but her videos are REALLYYY good! I started watching her in 2020 which I think I might or might not have also mentioned (WOW 6 years ago, I think I was flabbergasted at this too-) and although I don’t really watch her videos as much anymore, I think they’re very detailed, helpful (character arcs, planning books, etc.) and include lots of references to movies haha!! She’s written four novels so far I believe, and I’ve read all her 3 books on Tessa and Weston they’re soo adorable </3
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- Like I mentioned before, Ana Neu has her own writing podcast and is an aspiring teen author (I think she still is, I started watching her like in 2020-2021~ish? so I don’t really remember :’) Update: okay so I watched one of her videos and it says she’s an uni student, idk tho hhh) She did a few videos on reacting to subscribers’ first chapters/synopsizes and also does writing vlogs which are super fun to watch! Additionally she gives detailed overviews of her upcoming stories, plans, tips, etc. and has done collabs too with other (aspiring) authors in the past!!
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- She’s written lots of novels and even started her own publishing industry! I believe she also started her own podcast a few months ago (??) on various writing/book topics so yes, do check her videos out, she’s very experienced too I believe !!! I think she even went to train for karate or kung fu once to write her novel haha which is very cool. She published her own book at 13-ish once and took it down then rewrote it too!
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- She’s a 16-year-old author that (I think) comes from Belgium? C.H. Degosserie has published 3 books so far (one of them is in the bestsellers category which is very nice) and is currently working on a YA dark romance (I’m very, VERY excited !!), so she has quite a lot of experience imo. Do check her videos out, she has a lot of inspiring shorts 😀
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- Luna Yasir is also a teen author who’s currently working on the second book after ‘To Dethrone a King’. I’ve only read the preview but I’ve heard it’s really good, and she also self-published it! The aesthetic/editing of her shorts is amazingg too (I kept giggling and swooning haha)
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- Ms. Atazadeh is SUPERR genuine about her writing and gives you the best advice. She gives deep delves into the whole author process (writing, publishing, naming, marketing, book covers, what platform to choose to publish, if it’s worth it, etc. etc.) and I love her videos because she’s just so genuine (? I’m sorry I don’t know what other word to describe her videos lol they’re just GENUINE). She’s a YA fantasy author but I still haven’t read any of her books yet (yes, mental note to myself to check them out sometime, I only read the preview of one too)
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- I also mentioned her last time haha. Ms. Matesic is a developmental editor who works at Penguin Random House and I believe she’s very professional, she also does a lot of videos on updates/news/controversies in the writing community, like the use of AI, if ‘this and that’ are worth it, controversial writers I believe? as well as a few videos on editing parts of others’ novels and stuff like that
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- LMAOO I love this channel sm 💗 her shorts as well as videos are really well-made and hilarious, I can always find myself laughing! If you’re feeling lost sometimes looking at these shorts will always make you feel better (at least for me, that is) and even if you’re not it’s always a great way to relax!!!
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- I don’t actually watch a lot of her videos, but she also published a book as a teen I think and won an award which is SUPER cool! She gives great advice as well, valuable information about publishers, the writing process, and controversies.
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- I love how she talks about overused tropes/characterizations/controversies about BookTok etc., it’s really nice to see her analyze them because as fellow writers and readers we can gain insight and relate to her videos yk?? She started her own podcast too (I think it’s called ‘Once Upon a Ramble’ or something similar) and is an aspiring author!
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- I sadly don’t watch this channel THAT much either, but he’s published two books and has taught at universities/his own writing courses! He too talks about things like that how to write good dialogue, how to choose book titles, and how to make your novel interesting/novel elements which is very crucial
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also pleaseeee check out my own channel too 🥺 I lowk feel kinda guilty for advertising all my stuff on my blog but please do!!! I will be very grateful if you can join along my journey to publishing a book as a teen, and ofcc I’ll be updating more <3
Link: sallywu (@x.sally11) thank you smm eeek 🫶🏻
Like I said above, I sincerely hope this blog is helpful to our fellow writers/readers out there! These are some of my own genuine advice and thoughts so if you’ve got anything to recommend AGAIN, PLEASE COMMENT^^
Thank you for reading till the end, and have a wonderful day/afternoon/night, wherever you are ⋆˚꩜
10/9/26 ♡
