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  • I was like death lines? What are death lines??

    Oh, deadlines.

  • Barnes and Noble was having a buy 2 get 1 free sale and I picked out 2 books but the rest I'd already read or they didn't look very good. There was one that looked romantic and cheesy--like a guilty pleasure book. I wasn't going to get it until I looked at the back and saw that Maureen wrote a review. It said: "Very romantic. You should date this book." Oh, Maureen, you never forget to be awesome. I bought that book :) DFTBA.

  • @marissagrace23 omg did you buy anna and the french kiss? I remember that review on the back XD you are going to love that book!! (John Green loves that book as weel =D)

  • @marissagrace23 That's Anna and the French Kiss! John loves that book too. :)

  • Forget questions about being an author! I want to learn more about your fort making skills!

  • "I hope you enjoy scarlet fever if you have it"? LOL. is that something people normally enjoy? (yes I know she meant the book)

  • watch?v=ghQUSC1fM8U&feature=yo­utu.be

  • I just started reading "Let It Snow". I'm at the second story and when I read the first story written by Maureen, it was actually amazing. I'm going in search of her books now since I've read all of Johns books so far.

  • Look up 'the tango: Maureen'. That character has the same first name and last name as you! Rent!

  • "I'm not complaining. I'm just externalization my internal monologue."

  • You mean to tell me that England is MORE than a radiator and a wall? I have been decieved!

  • eh, i'll procrastinate tomorrow.

  • I've read Scarlett Fever. Even though its a very girly book I liked it very much Maureen.

  • "i'm just externalising my interior monologue." great nerdfighter quote

  • i am the teaanager who sits in my room reading books, but i am a horrible writer that's why love books, I'm so amazed someone can write such beautiful things

  • Psh, quality forts take more than 30 seconds

    PS: Love those gloves

  • That is the cutest little puffer fish I've ever seen. Very eye-catching thumbnail.

  • I throw frozen turkeys at pedestrians

  • Ha Ha i have the same gloves as her

    

  • I love Maureen's advice because it actually helps me. :)

  • I discovered Nerdfighteria about a year ago, and until now I have always skipped over Maureen Johnson videos. WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!?

  • Seeing that Costa Coffee cup makes me long to be back in the UK. Silly Australia, why so far away from all that is good?

  • I made a self-challenge to have 5 short stories of varying genres at least 15 pages long each due to the fact I have to have short stories for my Fiction Writing class in the Fall, and I wanted them done before August 20th.

    I'm not finished the first one yet.

    Why?

    I still have about 245 Vlogbrothers vids to get through first.

  • I wonder if there´s any room here for my comment considering the comment section is stuffed with people who consider themselves to be the next J.K Rowling. Put up or shut up people.

  • i didnt know she wrote 13 little blue envelopes. i love that book!!!

  • You see, I'd love to be a writer, but paperwork and stuff confuses me and scares me slightly; the whole "find an editor, send in your first drafts, etc etc" bit just puts me off the whole thing.

  • Maureen, I'm a published teenager. I'm working on a second book to get published. I definitely see what you mean, it's definitely a job - especially when you take homework and a social life into consideration. I love writing, in fact it's going to be part of my senior capstone, but it's a lot of hard work.

  • I've written 8 formats. Have written at least 5 chapters, repeated some, on each and have never finished one. I sort of alternate reading different books together with writing. Also fanfiction. Is that procrastination enough?

  • I swear there was just a subliminal ad for "American Idol" when I watched this video.

  • Jesus. My procrastinating is already at a professional level. Just 2 days ago I did a History project I had 2 WEEKS for in 1 night. Oh and did I mention I also had a huge math test the next day that I was studying for as well. I need help.

  • I am wonderful at procrastinating. I also never want to be done with anything I write. I am so glad to know I am not the only one. I guess I am normal... well, at least in the writing sense

  • Why???

  • Teenagers are experts at procrastination! With all this technology and being...a teenager you learn to procrastinate by middle school (if you're lucky).

    And college becomes like the Procrastination Olympics. It's procrastinating and getting A's is where the challenge (and the fun) begins!

  • Thank you so much! I want to become a writer but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to because of the deadlines...I'm already a huge procrastinator.

  • is that the yeti??

  • @uniqueandepic No, that is Maureen Johnson, a writing friend of John's. Not his wife.

  • @frustratingwriter It would be the weirdest thing if they were married..... *imagines it, then shudders*.

  • @uniqueandepic haha no its a friend oh johns. she is also a writer

  • I was writing when she was talking about having to write before you're an author... :)

  • i could tell it was England...look at that radiator...

    thats an Egnlish radiator...

  • @gereatriczing what do American radiators look like?

  • @radioactivecakeX

    they are more loopy :S i dunno how to describe it but my auntie had them imported from america becaused she missed the place. they looked so different and she said they all looked like that :)

  • Where did she get those gloves????!!!???!?!!?!?

  • The fugu fish is sooo cute I want one! 

  • Omg, im going to be an author! Ive been writing for 12 years, i read all the time, i procrastinate a lot, and i built a fort (technically a doggy play pin) out of random stuff in my basement in like 2 minutes. Omg, dreams do come true.

  • I thought she had a wrist brace on when I frist saw this, so I winced when she hit her hand off the wall. XD

  • i wrote a phd, can i be a pro writer?:! :D

  • OMG I ACTUALLY LOVED THAT BOOK!

  • was this filmed in England because that is so much like the radiators we have here!

  • @Lilia1992

    She says she's in England about eight seconds in.

  • @SirTeeGeeEss lol. yeah I'm a ditz. But the England bit is cut off so it's not clear.

  • I sometimes get jealous of school textbooks because they're continually getting revised new editions put out. That doesn't happen with normal books. If I wanted to make changes to my final assignment for my writer's craft class , no matter how genius they were, I could never re-hand it in.

  • I like you, Maureen Johnson (not the girl from Rent, though). You should fill in for the vlogbros more often.

  • Want to be a writer: check

    lots of reading and writing: check

    procrastination: CHEH-HECKS-YES!

    Looks like I'm well on my way

  • I absolutely LOVE Little Blue Envelopes!!

  • I need to read her books.

  • Wow i clicked this video because of the giant fugu fish

  • Wow. Maureen Johnson, John Green, 13 Little Blue Envelopes. I JUST made the connection.

    MAUREEN I LOVE THAT BOOK OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH.

    There, I said it. :D

  • I never realized how much Maureen's voice sounds like Sarah Vowell.

  • OMG are u The Yeti???????

  • @MegaBacktalk Nah, unfortunately. This is Maureen Johnson. She's an author friend of John's.

  • as a matter of fact, that room looks very english.

    (but that might be a lie, because i have never been to england.)

  • the name maureen johnson reminds me so fricken much of RENT

  • Anyone know where to get gloves like that?

  • @ItachiLover2 a homeless shelter?

  • @ItachiLover2 you can get them anywhere. i bought my pair from target

  • PORCO DIO STI VIDEO DE MERDA!!!!

  • che palle...

  • 1:52 I saw an almost blink:D

  • Oh wow. I thought I was pretty good at procrastinating. If I haven't properly learned to do it yet, I can't wait to see how great at it I am when I'm a professional.

  • informative and fun video, thank-you.

  •  I want to become a writer. where do i start? what's the first thing i need to do?

  • @frequencydude ...Write.

  • @Artemis750 wow, now its all so clear to me.

  • @frequencydude You're welcome. I'm glad I could be of help.

  • do you not blink?!

  • I am definitely an expert at the procrastination thing. I'm almost at evil-scientist level when it comes to procrastination.

  • @TheHill88 Sounds like a decent idea for a video. "How being an expert at procrastination can lead to the downfall of a popular YouTube channel". Ok, that title is maybe a bit wordy, but you get the idea.

  • @HeyRadialMoon Are you talking about my channel? If you are, well, you may see it as a downfall, but I don't see it that way. I don't place importance in views and comments. I have met a lot of good people and will most likely continue to meet more from the YouTube world even if I was to never post another video again and those people, those friendships, are all that matters.

  • @TheHill88 I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to sound as negative as I guess it did. Being a hardcore procrastinator myself, I guess I thought it was kind funny. Yes, I agree, friendships are the most important thing. :)

  • i have had Scarlet Fever its not nice

  • Wouldn't you WANT to take a long time to make a fort, if you're trying to procrastinate?

  • Driftwood sculptor?

  • procrastination is so much fun X3

  • Longest staring contest evar.

  • "GIMME THE BOOK!!!" lol u crazy!

    I'm like you too, and other writers where I can't give it up. Recently I've just released some new stuff and then people read it and tell me what to fix, and then I freak out! and I don't do that a lot because then I kinda get defensive about that lol and If I had a dead line I'd probably freak out about that too XD

  • this was very informative. I myself enjoy writing but could never commit to something longer than 20 pgs or so. i greatly admire the authors who can

    on a side note, not to sound superficial, but a bit of eyeliner could do wonders. I've only seen John and Hank so far so maybe you do wear it sometimes but idk, I just think you have a lot of potential for makeup, especially your eyes just my thoughts

  • thanks for making this, Maureen. :) <3

  • i'm writing a book called nostalgia, about the hardships of women in victorian england, as well as a tragic death relating to two life long female friends that have gone through these hardships. I don't have a twitter, never been there, but if there is any way i can contact you, and send you sort of like a preview of my story to see if it's good enough to be published despite my age, that'd be nice.

  • i hope you enjoy scarlet fever if you have it . ha

  • Maureen Johnson only makes me think of RENT.... man i'm a theatre nerd.

  • Where are her facial expressions? It's kinda weird watching someone talking and not moving his or her face at all...

  • Comment removed

  • You are absolutely right. About everything that you've said in this video.

  • I think I've actually read one of her books without even realising it...until this point. (:

  • Believe me, I have already perfected writer's procrastination at the age of 16! Writing a research paper in under ninety minutes? Done, and I got an A, too!

  • pfft, how about a college level research paper on the animal of your choosing under an hour?? I got a B.

  • I wrote another one in an hour on T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land." Not an easy poem, I tell you ;) Haven't gotten a grade back on that, yet, though.

  • @amandalaaaaa I've got it down and I'm only 13!

  • @amandalaaaaa i have write a charater analyses paper, in 45 mins, im fucking boned

  • @amandalaaaaa i wrote an eight paragraph essay in 30 minutes, and i got 250/250 possible points. Ahh, the joys of high school/college papers~

  • @amandalaaaaa humble much?

  • wtf?

  • how to make a proper outline would help! please :D

  • Writing as a profession...it's something that I wonder on. I have stories in my head I feel need to be told, yet I sit down enough as it is. And to be any more socially taken away from the world frightens me a little. But if the story is to be told... :(

  • Because I watched this video, YouTube recommended to me PETA's State of the Union Undress, The Uncensored Version.

    Wtf? xD

  • I need to know everything about getting and keeping ideas for a good story and how to work on just one book and not two at a time

  • AHHH. AHH. AAHAHAHAH. 13 little blue envelopes SEQUAL? D: *drools*

  • SEQUEL!!!!!! Yay! ^^ Go Maureen!

  • I love your flappy pink gloves. :D

  • Comment removed

  • you really seem like a very cool person, i would like to interact with you. ohmy godddddddddddd i need more friends, wanna be mine? anywho, i agree, i want to be a doctor but will probably be an author !!

  • omg! i love reading and writing! and i haven't done my hw yet and its 8 PM!

  • YOU NEVER BLINK!

  • Maybe you blink every time she blinks.

  • TOUCHE!

  • @delayedreaction John doesn't blink either. Neither does Zefrank. Get with the times, man. :)

  • she totally did once! (yes i checked XD) at 0:34

  • OOOMMMGGGGG Costa coffee!!! I havnt had that since I was in Lebanon I miss it soooooo much :(

  • GOOOOOOOOOOOO!

    BIRUT!

  • MAUREEN!!! I shall miss you greatly.

  • The ads make want to kill some. Makes me fucking nervous.

  • Congratulations to you!!! My college English teacher encouraged me to write....I'm liking the idea more and more...lol

  • That is exactly how I feel about deadlines most of the time.

  • I totally agree, I dread deadlines! Besides, real work is never finished, they're just placing an imaginary line when you have to quit doing what you love to do.

  • ENGLAND!!!!!! 5* lol

  • maureen makes me happy

  • So, as an author you've probably met a lot of authors and talked a lot about author-y type stuff. I'm a computer programmer and an artist. One thing I've noticed is that two things seem to always be important when you want to be "professional":

    First you start with general ideas and then work down to the details. For my projects I starts with "build a website" and eventually gets down to lines of code. Art projects start with composition sketches and work to details.

  • Writing seems to start with an outline and general plot ideas and then refine down to the actual book.

    Second it seems really important to do as much on purpose as possible. So, if the pace is slow it's slow because author decided how they wanted the pace to progress through the book and at this point they wanted the pace to be slow. If there is a cool deeper meaning in the book it's because the author chose to put it there.

    How many professional authors that you know work like this?

  • Oh no! it's almost her last one? I'm sad now...

  • can we please keep maureen!!!!!

  • Too much like work. I think up an idea, maybe jot some enigmatic notes which I soon forget what they were supposed to remind me of, and laugh myself silly at my idea as I picture it in my mind. Then I'm done. No deadlines, no endless rewrites, no hassle.

  • I've been telling myself for a while I was going to put my stories in writing. This video, for whatever reason, gave me the push to actually do it

  • Plus, you havent properly learned how to procrastinate yet...

    Was it an accident to say that, or was that intentional? I had to do a double take on that phrase...Nice sense of humor, though, I think...

  • "A boys whos dad died" does'nt really even begin to describe it, sorry :)

  • Maureen, thank you for this video. I spend my days writing and reading, well....I also practice tattooing grapefruit, but thats not what I wanted to comment about. I would really like to know how, in later years, I could get a book published. I started, about a month ago, writing about this boy, Jimmy, who's dad died. This story is without a doubt a "teenage novel" but I think, if I keep writing in the direction I am now, it is more than just somthing teenagers would like to read.

  • I love your mittens! I must get some of them because I like to type (lots) but my fingers get cold doing it :D

    Haha! One step ahead, I am already the queen of procrastination!! Now I must actually get to writing, NaNoWriMo was a massive failiure on my part, MORE DEDICATION NEXT NOVEMBER! (And for the rest of this year-that might help too)

  • I like this vid, but those flaps on your gloves are very annoying... what are they for, really? Storing extra tater tots?

  • they fold over your fingers to make mittens

  • Writing, no. Procrastinating, yes, mastery has been achieved!

  • while i might not have the writing talent required to write professionally, i think many people i know could attest to the fact that i have procrastination down pat

  • And this is why I joined NaNoWriMo last year. Without that, nothing would ever be done and a lot of us would be sitting around, procrastinating all day on youtube.

  • I hear ya. : D

  • @IcedCapQueen

    Of course, Julie, but thanks for the support. I've been thinking of taking that jump though, between writing and BEING a writer, because I do enjoy doing it.

  • Thanks for the writing advice. I am a (non-professional, teenage) writer, but deadlines? Procrastinating? Yeah....those are going to trip me up a bit when I actually want to publish

  • how do you build a fort like that :¬)

  • Some girls I know are planning on publishing a book. I WANT to publish, but I feel it would bring to much attention (even if it's only been read by 30 people) so I might write part of a book with someone, or write for a magazine. Do you have your own youtube channel?

  • OMG I DID NOT KNOW YOU WROTE THAT BOOK! LOL I'm kinda a retard I know. I was a fan of yours and I didn't even know it!

  • heeeeeey you wrote 13 little blue envelopes? i liked that book :) i'll get the sequel.

  • ABBA SHIRT!

  • i giggled when she said i hope you enjoy scarlett fever if you have it, and all i could think was "she hopes i'm sick?"

  • I really want to read your books!

    Who the eff is Hank?

    What should I do during the Super Bowl?!

  • Hank is John's younger brother!

  • LOL I know! xD

    It's a VLogbrother Question-Tuesday Joke. haha

  • Comment removed

  • Wow. I am really sad that your time here night be over...i really enjoyed this video. You should have to make like a video every week or something. John can have a day, Hank can have a day, and you can have a day.

  • I want your arm mitten things. They are the best colour I've ever seen arm mitten things in. I hope you keep vlogging after the actual actual John Green comes back, I would watch that. And god knows, I need more stuff on YouTube to watch - I have a thesis to procrastinate from.

  • The floor had the best lighting out of all the shots...

  • Maureen, I think it would be awesome if you kept making videos. It would, after all, increase your procrastination ability even further (and then you could even put off making videos).

  • whatever, i still love you for putting Avatar in my mind lol

  • the people from the united states... they always say america... what fools... don't they know that includes Canada, Brazil, Chili, Mexico etc. etc... and its not hard to get published... just needs time... and there is self publishing which is easier, but there is more upfront costs

  • does she have a youtube channel?

  • how did you get started as a successful writer?

  • That is one BOSS fort.

  • Hey Maureen, I have a few questions.

    First, if someone wants to become a writer early on, how do they make sure that they will really be good at the profession and won't just be wasting their time when they could be training to become something? Also, is being a writer really, really hard in the means of getting a publisher, an agent, ect. I mean, one would probably have to hold a different job until they could get that carrer really going, right?

  • @RandomRaincloud Writing is never a waste of time! Even if you never get to be really great at writing, writing is always an amazing way to IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH SKILLZ. Seriously. And yes, to get it started I do think you'd need another job, related to writing or not. If you really love writing I suggest also holding a stable job like for example a journalist! :)

  • I've wanted to be an author for a long time. Unfortunately, I set my goal way too high. I wanted to publish a book before Nancy Yi Fan did (she was 13) but I'm turning 13 in a few days so...yeah, not gonna happen. My new goal is before 16, but I'm not very far, and I'm kinda writing a million stories at the moment, most of them being fan fictions about Harry Potter. Are my goals unreasonably high?

  • @harrypotternerd27 Hey HP nerd! :D As much as hp is infinitely awesome, to get started I REALLY SUGGEST get off the HP craze and branch out. A ton more. Even if it becomes twilight fanfics (please dear god no), just expand. Try various styles of lit too, like old school classics like pride and prejudice, and then catcher and the rye.... good luck! <3

  • WAIT.

    OH MY GOD, WAIT.

    You're in London ?!

    I can't believe that I didn't find that out earlier =[[

  • I intend to pursue a career as an author and I was wondering how you go about getting an agent. It is my impression that you must first get an agent if you want to send your stuff to publishing houses and have it actually be considered as opposed to sitting in a muck pile somewhere, so in conclusion my question is this: how do you get an agent.

    Oh, also about how many words are your novels usually?