/lit/ - Literature

first for writing

second for fuck animefags and fuck pseuds

I'm on page 85 of planned 300 now. It's slow but I mainly write at work or my day off today but I'm so full of energy now but it's 8 AM but my body failed to sleep.
Major brain fog though so I'm not even sure this day off will be productive.
Current plan is try to sleep for an hour, check stock market at opening bell and buy a long term stable stock (likely trow or Clorox, leaning towards 10 of trow)
Take nap after thats sorted, sleep til 2pm or until family or life awakens me. Grab a potion of Dr Pepper and cooked animal flesh and do my life errands, then take another hour nap.
Then I shall awaken, turn on my laptop and back up my files on onedrive and write while watching YouTube til 2AM.
Then its time for another 40 hour workweek aww yeah.
Workaholic life.

I'm going to be going to University as a mature student this year. Haven't done any essay writing for years, so wondering if there are any good resources specifically for writing non-fiction, and also if writing fiction on the side could benefit/be benefited by the essay writing?

I checked out that critiquing site and came across this. Truly masterful writing. Seriously though, don't state one thing and then contradict it in the next sentence.

>>18078684
CC is pretty whatever. I forget who said it (if it can be attributed to any one author) but I do try to read everything, good or bad. Critiquing others is also a very valid way to learn lessons you can apply to your own writing, similarly to how teaching something to others helps solidify your own understanding of what you're teaching.

>>18078684
Fuck me that is cringe

Rate my first paragraph

>To whom it may concern... well, was that how I should begin this letter? “May” implies a sort of uncertainty. Maybe. And “concern”? Now that implies something else, maybe something out of the ordinary. Extraordinary, even. No one is concerned anymore, you know. They’re only dumbfounded. That’s all, dumbfounded, that’s all.

>>18078853
shit/10

is that straya?

>>18078533
>Any progress on your novels?
Yes, I'm done now. I was never going to become the next Faulkner, the next Nabokov or the next Joyce, but I hid behind the language barrier to avoid criticism for months, maintaining an illusion that was fun to live in while it lasted. I had thought my country's education system was topmost in the world, but this turned out to be utter bollocks. A child of 18, a person ten years my junior, has a greater vocabulary than I, who had to look up the word “topiary”, and no one likes the expression theory of art anymore, I am likened to a long lost dinosaur.
This will be my final post on /lit/. I've been humiliated and exposed as a fraud. My writing is pretentious, infantile, banal drivel. My observations are dull, my language grade school level. My tenses are mixed up; I use colloquialisms, ellipses and onomatopoeia. I mix tired and trite idioms together to obfuscate their unoriginality with a veneer of irony; I have continued to recite ornate Jewish chimpanzee parables with diminishing returns. The parable seemed very clearly to me to be asking me whether or not the now-grown-adult can choose. I say yes, of course, but that's not my issue.
I was never cut out for writing. I began writing my "book" on January 6th. Since then I've produced 82 thousand words for it. These words are a tide of garbage without value, without insight, without form. The themes of time, space, infinity, memory and pointless duelling are not present in my work. It was never real writing, it was anime and weebshit. Look how many words I wrote, because apparently literature is bodybuilding and just aimlessly typing will somehow improve my writing. I don't even know what genre it is that I'm writing. Is it autofiction? A comedy? A picaresque?
Regardless, I have failed. I have put down my pen. Never again will my fingers click-clack across the keyboard. No more outlines, no more characters. Goodbye

>>18078603
>40 hours
>workaholic

I would give all the gold in China for 40 hours a week

>>18078955
Why’s it shit?

Are 'Creative Writing' courses worth the money? or are they just a waste of time?

I've not got a lot on at the moment, and there are some 10 week courses advertised for only £130.

>>18078964
Pointless

>>18078966
You are paying for critique you can get online for free
You are paying for content you can get online for free

>>18078975
I think you’re a little slow if you didn’t get characterisation, stream of consciousness, its epistolary mode, or mood from it.

>>18078962
Self doubt is healthy, it's how you know you actually care about the quality of your work. I go through the kind of introspective hell you're describing AT LEAST once a week. It's part of the craft of writing, which for all the protestations of the critics and hermeneuticians will always be reaching after the ephemeral. Writing, and art in general, are infuriatingly abstract. There is no cosmic rule you can point to that gives you an unassailable metric by which you either pass or fail. You really will never actually know if your writing is worth a shit or not, or what you can even do to make it not-shit. See you tomorrow, anon.

>>18078993
>characterisation, stream of consciousness, its epistolary mode, or mood
Oh I go tthat alright, but it was shit

>>18079019
That's a pasta, I'm afraid.

>>18079032
You got me. The point stands though.

>>18079030
>Everything has a POINT?
Why?

>>18078853
Too short to judge. This is one of those things where I'll need to see the answer to the question.

>>18078966
No. Almost every learning resource can be found online.

>>18079039
>it's shit
>why
>it's pointless
>no it isn't
>yes it is
>alright it's pointless but pointless isn't shit
yikes

>>18079054
Do you read to have a point shown to you? Are you that much a brainlet?

>>18079058
Stop shitting up the thread. I know you just woke up and want to shitpost before mommy takes you to high school, but trolling isn't welcome in this thread.

>>18079058
So why'd you delete it then, you lil bitch?

>Rate my first paragraph

>To whom it may concern... well, was that how I should begin this letter? “May” implies a sort of uncertainty. Maybe. And “concern”? Now that implies something else, maybe something out of the ordinary. Extraordinary, even. No one is concerned anymore, you know. They’re only dumbfounded. That’s all, dumbfounded, that’s all.

>>18079073
It reads in a self-congratulatory way, as if the author is really excited about his ability to ponder the implications of particle usage, as if it's some great mystery that only the author is capable of unraveling. It's shit.

>>18079037
At some point, we should collect all the feel-good replies to this pasta into a single thread.

>>18079083
>author
Lol I’m not an author, and it’s sad if you think you’re one.

Is 'Kind Regards' considered more formal or informal?

>>18079073
I’m waiting for the punchline, anon, where is it?
If he then restarts the letter “To whom it will dumbfound,” I’d be in for the rest of the ride.

>>18078963
I just come home and work on the arts after I clock out (and on lunch break/normal breaks etc) so I'm always progressing myself in one way or another.
The stability is nice, I'm not going to lie. It has put me into a pretty solid position life wise.
When I finish this part I'm working on now and then another 300 page part story, I'm going to hire an advertising firm. I enjoy writing, but it doesn't matter how good or bad my books are if nobody knows they exist.

>>18079111
Almost. That part comes at the end of the next paragraph. I just posted an abandoned work from five years ago to see what anons thought.


>Well, so much for the modern world. Especially on this island, people are dumbfounded. That’s right, I’m stuck here, at least… there’re a few islands I’m stuck on. Some isles, an archipelago, straits, sand bags in the broiling sea. To whom? Yes, to whom, to whom, to whom, to whom, to whom? The fact that I’m on an island may cause distress or – ha, how ironic! – some concern to whomever reads this. To whom it dumbfounds.

>>18079119
>self-publishing
lol

>>18079143
Stream of consciousness writing may be one of the absolute hardest to get people to enjoy. No one minds having their head in their own ass, but to want to put your head up someone else’s...well, there had better be something very interesting to look at in there.

>>18079172
I don’t know where I was going with it; it was more of an experiment in all that I’d learned from uni and reading as a freshman. It turned out very vague and disjointed. But I suppose all epistolary novels can be that way, as they’re a bunch of documents (“Frankenstein” does it better than me).

>>18079146
Meh. Honestly when I first published my first book I contacted every publisher available and my only choices were Vanity Publishing and one publisher that is called Viking Publishing but I had a lot of work going on at the time so I slapped it on Amazon and now I just want to get the words out on paper (at least these next 2) then go back and say hey I've got two complete stories I want to share with the world.
I could make Self Publishing work if I put in the proper keywords and advertised myself but I'm constantly on the grind and can't right now.
I've got money, and my books are available if someone wants to read them.
That's kinda all I wanted really.
Of course, if they did get popular I wouldn't be upset about that.

>>18079096
He referred to the author of the piece, which is a standard way to refer to the individual that wrote a thing. Not that the author of the piece is 'an author' i.e. a professional or whatever.

>>18079209
Didn't Viking get the first print of GR?

>>18079107
than what

>>18079216
>Author
>“Wrote a thing”
Not all the time. It sounds as fancy and unnecessarily honorary as “penmanship” or “man of letters”.

>>18079193
>I don’t know where I was going with it
Yup. I found the problem!

This kind of stuff is good for your own benefit, just like an artist may scribble and doodle to work out a shape...i don’t want to follow an author if I don’t think he knows where he’s going.

>>18079209
why are there cuts on her left thigh, signs of self-abuse or rape?

>either way

>>18079222
They're a really prestigious company that goes way back, so while I'm not 100% sure of the initial's meaning I wouldn't be surprised. If I could do everything over I would have given that agent the time of day he deserved on first contact but I was super swamped.
Now I've redone the story, edited it, made it nice and pretty and expanded the universe and bundled everything up, so if I do go back later they're getting a much better series than what I initially offered anyway. (That agent probably doesn't remember me or work there anymore so I'll have to start fresh.)
It is what it is. Life doesn't have a road map.
Givin' it the ol' effort though.
Brain is going 404, nap time.

>>18079262
Gravity’s Rainbow. I can’t believe an anime fag got accepted.

>>18079246
Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not sure where to go for a next novel. I usually work in poetry now and I’m quite obsessed with Elizabethan stuff.

>>18079172
I really like this post.

>>18079255
In universe that character was a bookworm that would only be dated on a dare and severely bullied, so each of those tally marks is a boy she killed for playing with her heart.
I like using her pictures because although my relationships usually end on fairly neutral notes, I'm the kind of person that is much, much stronger when I have a significant other that I can rely on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSjEQPLKfe8
I have a soft spot for characters like that, especially since I'm in the arts myself.

>>18079291
>I’m in the arts
English? We need more artsanons and humanitiesanons posting here.

>>18079275
If it's any consolation I grew up just outside Yokosuka naval base as a child since my dad could afford to rent off base. I've added Japanese myths and legends to some of my later works but I as a person hide my weebery very well. I just happen to know more than a smidge of the language.
Those nerds that run around shouting random Japanese words just give you blank stares if you actually talk to them in Japanese and talk about actual Japan. It's kinda isolating in truth.

>>18079323
Okay, your life sounds fascinating and you seem like an interesting enough person to pull off the low culture thing. Any tips on getting an agent?

>>18079312
I've been around for a long time, for the earlier half the year I was on another board but I do canvas painting and I've got several books out.
I'm liberal arts to the core.
There's a lot of really talented people here, but we're all flitting around the shadows in an ephemeral haze. It's kinda sweet really.
(really though, nap time. Dying. aaa.)

>>18079338
Honestly this is all I did. Only got one call back but that's all you need. (I should have just taken it in retrospect but I didn't.)

https://querytracker.net/

Send a copy of your work to each one of them. Be nice in the email. Make your email professional.
They may be interested in you on a whim. Maybe. Maybe not. You can't read minds but unless you email them they don't know you exist.
Just be nice, and remember you're probably not the only submission they're getting. You're not trying to sell your book to them, you're just letting them know you exist. (Is that good advice? It may not be. Just give it a try! Go Anon you can do it!)

>>18079262
1. I think you may be confused about what agents actually do.
2. I do not believe you wrote something Viking would have published so pyw

>>18079389
Thanks so much! I’ll give it a go.

>>18079241
No it doesn't. It just means the author of the writing. Get a grip

>>18079522
Read Barthes, pseud.

How do you guys take a story idea beyond a sentence? I have very few ideas and they're mainly "a story about a X who Y" or something to that effect, and I never know how to flesh it out.

Will this become easier with practice?

What’s a genre that is underrepresented here on litchan?

>>18079671
I leave it out to soak for a while, like this: https://youtu.be/eLo33ZsZHbY

>>18079775
Under-represented:
Westerns (talkin’ the good trashy stuff...L’Amore, not Steinbeck)
Children’s books
Non-Fiction (technical books, biography, history)
Chick-lit (for obvious reasons)

Over-represented:
Philosophy
Religious texts
“The classics”
Memes/dude-lit (Cormac McCarthy, O’Toole, Pynchon, DFW)

This is more a request than anything, but - one of the anons here posted a poem beginning with words "The great god Pan is dead". The poem was really good (in my opinion at least), I got it saved on my old phone, but can't really find it. Can someone post it? Anyone has it?

Where's the line between monster girl and full furry if I want to write publishable porn?

Some people were unneccessarily harsh with me in the last thread when I asked for help.

Feels bad man.

>>18079996
>Googled it
>found it easily
>too easily
>not posting it (would have if it was hard to find)
>look yourself before asking /lit/

>>18080031
Different day different anons...what do you need, brother?

>>18080031
It wasn't unnecessary. You were either being a faggot or you need to grow a thicker skin.

>>18080047
>You were either being a faggot or you need to grow a thicker skin.
nm, same anons...sorry.

>>18080031
It’ll be okay, anon. You can’t control everything, but you can control how you react to the things you can’t control. Don’t let their words affect you so heavily.

So I’ve realized that while I can write whatever I do write will be shit
I’ve decided to accept this and produce something shitty on a larger path to produce something great, but now I have another concern:
Should I just dig in to the shiftiness and not care and write something completely self gratifying that is overwhelmingly shitty, or try to be as unshitty as possible to communicate to people that even though I am terrible I am trying to not be
Any advice?

>>18080113
Just edit, you numbskulls! For 95% of people, your first draft will be shit.

Through the miraculous power of editing, today I wrote 1500k words, deleted 400 and ended up with 2 complete chapters for my troubles.
Tomorrow I'll do two more and then part 1 of 3 will be finished.
This is pretty alright, you know?

>>18080238
>1500k

>>18080238
Yeah, 1.500.000 words is amazing work in one day

I forgot to login to 4chan again but can someone tell me where the based department is so I can contact the literary agent?

How many words is a stoic character allowed to utter before they lose that title? Should I be counting in terms of sentences, or in terms of a scene?

>>18080362
Tree fiddy

>>18080238
>>18080263
>>18080313
In one day, this man wrote twice as many words as there are in the Bible and he's not even done yet. No, he doesn't even consider it a completed book. His entire day's worth of effort are to his mind a mere two chapters. Brothers, are you collapsing?

>>18080362
A stoic character speaks as much they want. I think you mean Laconic, in which case I would say in terms of sentences where they would likely only be talking when spoken to and when they do, their answer would likely be encapsulated in a austere single sentence with few to no adjectives or adverbs.

>>18080362
As many words as Gabriel the Angel utters.

>>18080377
My entire self published history is 200k over 3 novellas and one unfinished novel, in many years.

>>18080421
>my entire self published history
Anon, I...

>>18078966
Don't do it for the course, do it if you want to find actual people to bounce ideas off.
Because despite everything the people who attend creative writing classes at least have taken the first step of wanting to write.
Although if you're like some of the misanthropes here, don't bother.

>>18080035
You're a retard, dear sir, and a liar. It was a good poem written by an anon here, and I'm pretty sure he didn't post it anywhere else. Whatever you are refering to is almost certainly some shit and not a good poem.

>>18078966
Creative writing courses are full of insufferable wannabes and narcissists. I hated nearly all of them, bar one fellow channer.

I want to write my main character taking stimulants but I’ve never taken stimulants other than, like, coffee...

>Wrote 400 words
>friend said “I dig it” and laughed at my humorous parts out loud
>”so anon, would you read an entire novel of this if I wrote it”
>”I don’t know, depends how it pans out”
Should I be happy I can grab his attention? I want to have a lot of worldbuilding and allegory, but want it to be carried by action and plot (which I’m not the best at yet).

>>18080819
Yes be happy, I’ve never had an actual person compliment my work

>>18080819
Is he hot?

>>18080792
is "take some then" the answer you want to hear?
I once tried adderall and a pretty high dose too but it did literally nothing for me

>>18080836
Try for to a writing workshop.

>>18080958
He’s had gfs and been on dates. So sure. A bit bearded for some tastes though.

>>18080979
You sound young enough that you don't have anything of value to say, so you should try for genre fiction.

>>18081007
But I hate the idea of genre as much as its fandoms. Also I’m in graduate school, so not a kid really. I like genre-infused literature like Pynchon or Saunders.

>>18080972
No, I just want someone to point me to something I can read that describes it. Every time I try and google it, it’s just medical websites

Chapter 26 released.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40361/erased
One thing from the last thread. I'll admit that I am shamelessly shilling this when I release a new chapter. But not trying to be more annoying than that. When the first part of the story is complete at ch. 31 I'm also going to shill it on, allah forgive me for uttering this word, leddit.
Growing up I've always thought of marketing as a dirty business. People throwing shit in your face to make a quick buck. Not necessarily wrong, but not the whole story. Marketing, at least from a marketer's perspective, which allows them to sleep at night, is about letting people know about things in order to improve their lives. As a marketer that's how you have to look at it - that is how they look at it. Objectively speaking, a necessary evil. One that writers, even if traditionally published, are going to have to cultivate and use, no matter what your particular inclination for or against it is.

ah shit forgot the image
[shilling intensifies]

>>18081256
It’s okay, anon. You forgot your pic this time.

>>18080046
>>18080047
I asked for some help with beginning to learn the art of screenwriting and some people did not take kindly to it.

>>18080112
Thanks

>>18081039
https://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp_front.shtml

An entire archive of people describing their experiences with all sorts of drugs.

>>18078533

>But her interrupted her: “England… Ah, yes, England… Shakespeare, eh? Eh? Shakespeare. Dickens. I remember, by the way, when I was young, I amused myself translating Dickens. Thackeray. Have you read Thackeray? Th… Th… Is that how they pronounce it? Is that the way they say it?”
> He grabbed her and was holding her entirely in his fist. He watched her as she flung herself about a bit, as she struggled awkwardly, childishly, kicking her little feet in the air, while maintaining a pleasant smile: “Why yes, I think it’s like that…”

Is this good?

>>18081256
I think the shilling isn't as bad when you two do it since neither of you is marketing a product that costs money (paypal/patreon).

How to I get better at articulating my thoughts and opinions? Should I do randomized writings prompts on subjects? I used to journal about my day but reading back on entries were almost all mega-cringe and yielded no insight.

I have no idea how I am going to get my book published. I have the utmost faith in its quality, however, there is next to no market for it. What's more, it is an academic scholarly text, and I have no terminal degrees or connections in the academic world. Further, even among academics this is highly niche field, there is only a handful of scholars working on it the world over. Not because it lacks importance, but because it is cutting edge and not many have caught on.

To self-publish would feel like throwing it away, but to sit and let it gather dust after all the work I've put into it is unacceptable. There must be a way.

>>18081554
Write about something you want to figure out rather than what you already know. It works your brain differently.

>>18081386
Thanks so much for this

>>18081494
what

Does scrivener ever go on sale?

>>18081735
I don't actively check, but I think it did go on sale a few times.

>>18081735
Yes, especially during NaNoWriMo. Wait til November

>>18081735
what can scrivener do that like google docs cant do for free?

>>18081763
Be offline and outside of a browser and not connected to google.

>>18081763
All in one organization and built-in compilator.

>>18081763
Google docs is fucking shit, slow, and has annoying formatting.
Scrivener can:
Plan, story board, export as an actual novel or ebook in any file you want with table of contents that goes to each section, and MORE —reply to this post to find out—

What is the best way to share a manuscript without risking copies leaking? I'm paranoid about sharing anything digitally. Obviously the best option would be to just print and bind it, but that's not always feasible.

>>18081787
Hmmm this is a relevant post to my quetion

>>18081802
If you’re paranoid, only ever show an agent, or get family members to critique and edit.

>>18081666
What is the ultra-niche subject?

>>18081784
Oh it looks nice to have all your folders so easy to access...

What are some memorable and endearing boy+girl friendship dynamics examples I could analyze

>>18081809
8 Ways Scrivener Will Help You Become A Better Writer Overnight

1. It will help you organize. Scrivener is very similar to a physical binder in the fact that it allows you to capture everything in one place. You can do all your brainstorming, outlining, note-taking, and writing without ever leaving the program.

2. It will help you block out distractions. Sometimes you need complete focus and concentration to write that next scene. Scrivener has an awesome distraction free composition mode that takes over your whole screen and allows you to focus only on your writing.

3. It will help you stay motivated and on target. Set yourself a session goal of 1,000 words or even an entire manuscript target. Than watch your progress bar turn from red to yellow to green and feel that exciting momentum start to build.

And on top of that it has an extremely powerful statistics feature that allows you to track every last detail.

4. It Allows You To Write Now & Re-Order Later. Whether you are a plotter or pantser, Scrivener can cater to your own unique writing style.

5. It has a realistic virtual corkboard to help you brainstorm and storyboard.

You have to play around with this yourself to see just how awesome this feature really is. You can write notes on the front of the cards, rearrange them, and even mark them with labels.

6. It will help you collect all your research in one place.

Take all those webpages, pdf’s, images, and even Evernote notes and import them right into Scrivener.

Then choose the “split screen” option and write with your research and editor side-by-side. No more switching back and forth between programs.

7. It allows you to be creative by giving you a powerful safety net feature called Snapshots. Over time your manuscript may take on many different forms. Sometimes you get an idea and just want to run with it, but you are not quite sure how it will work out. No problem. Simply take a snapshot of your manuscript before starting.
This will preserve it in its current state. Now write till you’re heart’s content and if you don’t like it simply click the “Roll Back” button and revert to the previous version. If you want to see what is different between the two versions – click the nifty little “Compare” button.

8. It will format your book for you making self-publishing a cinch. When you are finished with your masterpiece it’s time to compile. Scrivener’s compile feature is one of the most powerful tools around. Just tell Scrivener what kind of platform you want to compile your book for and it will walk you through the rest. Within one menu you can effortlessly include all your front matter pages – title page, copyright, dedication, acknowledgments etc. If you are creating an eBook then Scrivener will automatically handle the clickable table of contents for you. Drop in your cover art, fill in your meta data, then hit compile and you have yourself a publish-ready.

>>18081784
Oh shit, I didn't know it did all this. I've been a Word champion for almost a decade now and have never been bothered to switch.

A side note, does anyone write in tenses other than past? I wrote my first few novels in present but I'm defaulting to past now and I find it easy to write very lazily.

>>18081917
I write mainly in present tense. Reading others in past tense can be somewhat jarring to me if their word usage is all over the place.

https://youtu.be/bzyfNEO1B5g

>>18081933
I just hate the temptation for passivity in past tense. It's very, very easy to write a lot of passive sentences or worse, deep-dive into exposition and get lost in the sauce. Present tense kept my writing immediate and focused on action, like writing for a screenplay. It seems to be very uncommon in published work, though.

>>18082034
Isn't YA like 99% present tense/screenplay writing?

>>18082039
If it is, that might explain why I never see it since I nearly never read YA.

>>18081913
You getting paid for this?

>>18082084
>shilllllll, I’m gonna use my shitty word processor that’s free and makes me look like an idiot when I don’t format manuscripts properly

>>18082092
>format manuscripts properly
12 pt font and 1 inch margins? yeah that's a lot of value right there

>>18082092
>ctrl+a
>ctrl+2
wow so hard to do proper format

>>18082124
Kek. He doesn’t know.

>>18082136
Wordfag

>>18082092
I use notepad...

>>18079935
>children's books
Give me the lowdown on writing a good children's story.

>>18081913


I like gdocs for doing the pre-manuscript wriring, like for a first draft cause I can work in the same, real-time updating document from multiple devices. So I can edit/write the same doc from my phone, laptop or pc. Other than that it is pretty easy to lay out chapters with headings. Anything else like "goals" and shit is just cringe. Some program telling me to write 1000 words does not help with productivity. And you can easily set your own productivity goals for free.

When a first draft is done I may reconsider just to help with the formatting but all the other gadgets seem pretty gimmicky, ill just stick with free shit.

>>18082170
you could at least use notepad++ or vs code to open up folders with lots of docs in them as a project or something.

>>18082309
Why would I do that when I can just write

>>18081913
I tried it out for a couple of days figuring that since I only heard of Paperbackdreams-tier "writers" using it that it would be dogshit. It seems okay but it's nothing I can't manage myself by taking the time to organize separate documents. Also maybe this is my /g/ Unixtard side talking but having a kitchen sink solution to what's really a simple case of file management/multiple documents felt awful. Also WYSIWYG is trash. I don't know why I'd sink money on this.

>>18082244
Children’s books are like abstract art, everyone thinks they can do it, and they wonder why so few succeed.

>>18082345
I will say though the scene/chapter stuff being broken into movable chunks by default is a neat feature. If I ever changed my mind it would be for that alone though again, it's nothing I can't do with freely available tools.

I finished it.

>>18082403
Alright.

>>18082403
What's it about? And don't say a glint of yellow

My prose is very to the point and bare bones. I find it difficult to wax lyrical about things. I feel like my writing should be describing the weather, or the scenery more, etc. But none of that is pushing forward the story. My prose is solid otherwise, not great, just not-bad. Any advice on being long-winded with descriptions in a good way?

>>18082434
Don't get caught up in the "progressing the plot" meme unless you're writing a thriller. Establishing atmosphere and mood and reinforcing themes is just as important. Nobody who won't go to the story's Wikipedia plot summary wants to read a story told entirely in the bubble of the events that happen.

>>18082434
Write what's natural. Hemingway never wrote like DFW, and DFW never tried to write like Hemingway. It's about the crafted scene around the writing. Compare Hemingway's old man in a bar scene to something super dense like the Echo chapter in House of Leaves. They both have punch for different reasons.

But if you really want to be long-winded, use more adjectives and "think out loud" about things you're writing about. I for one hate long winded descriptions when they're done poorly; see Herman Melville's pulpit chapter in Moby Dick.

>>18082458
>>18082470

>The two month journey to the cusp of Wish Mountain was miserable, slow, and exhausting. The modest weight Hress had maintained in his dungeon cell had diminished. He was the thinnest he had ever been, his eyes were sunken and bruised, and he wore a beard which he hated but kept because it obscured his face that was now known in every village across Rose Kingdom. In the beginning Hress and Bailey were able to travel ahead of the news of his escape. But delays in their journey sprung up, and word of the dangerous fugitive Hress Dunter and his Accursed blood-drinker companion became common knowledge.

>Along the way, Hress had met a smuggler in a pub called The First Step who told him that if he wished to illegally set foot on Wish Mountain from the Rose Kingdom side – the south-east – his options were fewer than it seemed. Over the centuries boulders of varying sizes, some as large as houses, were brought down from the mountain and placed around the south-eastern rim. And on those boulders more boulders were placed, and so on, creating a multi-layered beaded blockade of stone. Despite the difficulty, this smuggler was Hress’s only option, as he was out of time and money.

>Now, every bone in Hress’s body ached. He trudged along behind the old smuggler close to the rim of Wish Mountain, thinking of Bailey who was no longer accompanying him. They were as close as they could get to Wish Mountain without setting foot on it. The forestation was thick with roots. Moss covered the tree trunks, and the large roots and rocks along their way. Hress made a sodden splash. His feet were already wet from walking among the damp moss, and his shoes were barely holding together.

>The smuggler gave an aggravated ‘shh!’ and grunted, crouching behind a large mossy boulder several inches shorter than him. He ushered Hress to hurry close to him, but Hress simply trudged forward and remained standing. A spacious path lay beyond the boulder between forest and more boulders, bending to the right. It was trodden hourly by sentries who would have a clear line of sight of any trespassers. Due to their ever-changing schedules it was impossible to know when a sentry might come passing by.

Here's an example of my writing.

>>18082482
I think it could do with less passive sentences, and I think that's what's catching you. At least that's what's catching me. You can afford to be more dynamic with your descriptions of the world, but you don't have to be purple or long-winded. Just changing the sentence composition will probably help on its own. Example:
>It was trodden hourly by sentries who would have a clear line of sight of any trespassers.
>**Sentries passed along the path every hour and they could/the wide clearing allowed them to/(etc.) easily see trespassers.
I'm glad you don't spend 8 sentences telling me what Hress's hair color is, or his skin, or how old, and you let me build the character in my mind so I as the reader can make the story my own, which helps with engagement. If you made it more flowery in terms of prose or description, I feel like I'd lose interest. Does this help at all?

Can someone give me a writing prompt? I write surreal modern type things, usually with a twist. I'll post results within the hour.

>>18082550
Thanks for the feedback. It reads more passive than usual because this passage is catching the reader up after a time skip of 2 months.

My attempt with Wish Mountain is for it to be a comfy read, like an old grandpa is reading the story to his grandson. (Like the Princess Bride)

>>18082572
Guy wakes up in the body of a bimbo.

>>18082583
That seems rather... magical realm. But, anon always delivers.

>>18082244
I'm still trying to do it. I think the best advice I have is to study the hyper-successful ones. Andersen's stories, Narnia, The Hobbit, Harry Potter etc. There are more commonalities than differences, and the more of them you can identify the better off your stories will be. In terms of the difference between writing for kids and writing for adults, I would say that these are the things to keep in mind:
>Whimsy over all else.
>Repetition is key.
>Tell nearly as much as you show.
Other than that, most of the rules are the same.

>>18082577
Ah okay, well you're doing pretty great in that regard. Have you thought about adding a preface to your story about that for your reader's sake? It might be a nice little note for someone to read.

>>18082482
why do you insist on writing shitty fantasy? you could make this ok if it wasnt just the same dime-a-dozen fantasy schlock that is endlessly pumped out into the ether

>>18082634
maybe he likes to read fantasy?

>>18082634
Okay, have you read all ten released chapters? I firmly believe my fantasy isn't schlock, and is more in line with being a traditional fantasy adventure with horror elements included. In my opinion schlock is when you stop caring about details, giving characters silly armour and unrealistic weapons; you have the same old orcs, dwarves, goblins, etc.

I've gone out of my way not to include tired stuff like that.

I need some input, how cringe is the following?


A pebble, lodged between the rubber grooves underneath Arda’s left sneaker, scratched like a metronome on the dirty pavement as she made her way down another city block. The sun was white-hot and baked the concrete pads of the sidewalk until the smell of stale urine rose up like morning fog from a pond. Arda ran her finger along the metal curly-q binding of her tiny notepad, hidden within her jacket pocket.
A man with his palm raised up asked from the gutter of the people walking by: “change? change?” But the walkers didn’t hesitate or glance downward. Lonely figures sat all along each block in this part of the city with their eyes drooped and palms up, begging in hopeless monotone. Some of them stood, some ignored the walkers altogether. Some muttered nervously to themselves and others shouted angrily at unseen things. One man wrapped in a dirty blanket snored. The shuffling of feet and groaning from the pavement and squinting into the sun converged into a hushed routine the walkers were oblivious to. To them it was all unremarkable; the muttering and pleading represented only an audible extension of what filled the gutter on any sidewalk on any day of the week: filth, detritus, someone else’s lost things. The beggars were a part of the city architecture, imminent in it’s low overpasses and plentiful dumpsters, designed not to be noticed. But Arda noticed. She saw the intricate and accidental coordination of this miserable display; the unwritten rules of their dance made clear through harmonious synchrony. Those standing only moved within a flowing current that took them up and down the block, weaving gently between men in suits, never brushing their shoulders or stepping on their toes. Some failsafe still functioned in the minds of those who seemed to have lost them, keeping their shouts aimed upward or inward, not at the walkers where they might cause trouble. Such a clash between walkers and beggars would mean the disruption of a cosmic order. It happened sometimes, but not often. Never this early in the day, where the symphony’s crescendo was somewhere far off. For now Arda kept time with her scraping pebble.

>>18082634
fantasy is fun wow what a difficult conclusion to deduce

>>18082650
I as well, think my genre fiction novel is not shlock. We all do.

>>18082572
You missed the /ffa/ thread, but there are many good prompts there
>>18063260

>>18082673
It depends what you mean by schlock in that case. I would agree to Wish Mountain being pulpy, sure. But schlock, I feel, means being lazy.

>>18082749
Let's let merriam-webster dot com decide:
>schlock: of low quality or value
Seems like it doesn't matter how hard you try or how far out of your way you go to make it good; if it's not good, it's schlock.

>>18082572
Just use ai Dungeon. That's literally what it was designed for.

>>18082914
Plenty of fun stuff in the AI thread:
>>18081764

AIDungeon is a pain in the ass to use, ShortlyAI is much better if you’re actually using it as a writing assistant.

>>18082656
No writing is cringe if you're trying to improve. So with this, I get the intention, but I don't agree with the execution. If your aim for this section is to describe the natural state of the homeless and outline it against an indifferent city where seemingly only Arda notices it, I think a better way to do that is to show clear actions rather than outright exposition. For example, rather than say "The shuffling of feet and groaning... someone else’s lost things" you might show a character interaction that shows being indifferent to the homeless is a natural part of that society. A good way for that is an aggressive or desperate beggar ignored by a common person who is maybe made uncomfortable and starts walking faster. Or if they're with someone, the other says "Just ignore them", etc. You could find way to tie in that it's not just this street, but all around the city that these things happen.

>>18083523
Thanks I appreciate that

>TFW didn't write anything today
But I at least finished up my main cast, names and all. That's something, right?

>tfw write like a YA fag

How do I upgrade?

>>18083626
Just embrace it. It's the most lucrative market.

>>18083640
But I want to be better. And my plots and characters are too good for YA anyways.

Not really.

Lament of Sicopas

From the mountain to the sea, I have wandered.
Both people seen and places been, love banished
Fade in time like dye on linen in the sun
My sons ached, my daughters trembled when death came
The West is no longer home for forlorn chiefs.
Where then shall we go? I ask God; only friend
Do I become a whale beached, proud and rotting?
I would sooner see my flesh flayed, bones broken,
Teeth splintered in winter, blood boiled in summer.
No.
West is no longer home, but I will fight here
Our homes are burnt, lands left barren by devils
The tide washes from the East, we are but shoals.
I go to Sulk'Twu, genesis of my line
where my father's of the House Tilmut were laid.
Buffeted by salt water, until eroded.
My house ended. Die I will, though die unmoved.

if 50 shades of grey is terrible all around, both in prose and in story
what explains its success?

>>18083821
Half of the United States' population is under 98 IQ points.

>>18078533
hi, everyone! I was wondering if my prose is good? I'm writing a short horror story and I'm it's hoping its atmospheric.

>Jefferson laid on the muddy ground, deep in a forest, under the gray sky. the white sun was covered with clouds, pouring over the decaying hotel, abandoned Church, and the rest of the rotting town with its rhythmic pitter patter noises. Hoofs landed on the wet mud, leaving small craters. Behind the horse was a mule following with a piece of rope strung round its neck, being held by a man. He was on the horse. Raindrops trickled down on the fringes of his buckskin shirt.
>Trudging past the dark wooded buildings, most of which their owners left after the silver mines dried up, they stopped at the saloon. A soft orange glow escapes the foggy windows. he jumped off his horse, mud splattered everywhere, he tied the reins of his two companions to the hitching post and stepped on the low drenched stairs. A loud creak played out.
>Inside the building he was met with watchful eyes and the smell of alcohol and wet wood. The eyes came from a group of card players huddled around a large table like encircled wagons, and the bartender, whose wrinkles were like deep flesh pockets. The whole place, despite being decorated with lamps and candles, had a grey tone. The stranger waltz to the bartender, his steps hammered on the floorboard, which was the only noise beside the rain.

Rate my AI-generated (lightly-edited) "writing." Think it's human enough for the royalroad sort of audience?
https://pastebin.com/8agYjjsp

/wg/, I'm in a dark place right now. All my writing has ground to a halt. Every attempt I made to move my social obligations out of the way has failed, and even if it hasn't I'm crippled by writer's block, self-doubt, anxiety and anhedonia

I don't know what to do except stop, but all that does is make me feel more like a failure who was never meant to accomplish anything than I already did

>>18083952
I deleted my last reply on accident; OKAY!
A lot of run-on sentences. Trim that shit or add full-stops.

Work on your tense. You jump between present and past infrequently
ex:
>A soft orange glow escapes the foggy windows. he jumped off his horse...
Should be:
>A soft orange glow escaped the foggy windows. he jumped off his horse...
Also, a glow is already soft bitch; redundant.\

>smell of alcohol and wet wood.
Idk how old you are, but bars don't permeate with alcohol
They reek of BO, grilled food and tobacco; I'd fix that. However, I do like the phrase "wet wood."

Last comment:
>his steps hammered on the floorboard, which was the only noise beside the rain.
I've never known a bar to be quiet. May talk about what day it is, the journey or longevity of the strangers week. I don't know where he's been or how long he has been with his companions. This reads more like the opening scene in a screenplay than a novel.

Overall, the bones are there; refine.

>>18083954
Yes. The web-serial audience are pretty gullible.

What kind of person falls for this?

https://youtu.be/mZVRXistd5k

>>18084098
Fuck off, you're thread was pruned for a reason.

>>18084108
>you’re
Amazing spelling, 4chan

>>18084098
Nigger

>>18083821
>what explains its success?
Mommies who like to masturbate to Alpha Chads.

>>18083821
Women are just as big of coomers as men

True writers teach me how to defeat the first draft
I can bash out 1k words in 30 minutes but it always ends up reading like boring script
What's the point of the drafting process if you're just gonna effectively trash the first draft anyways and rewrite it. I know it's the right path but please help me get my head in the right place

>>18084265
>True writers teach me how to defeat the first draft
Plot it out beforehand. That way, you can just use a scalpel and play around with dialogue.

>Uni Room, a poem

Pajeet in my booked room,
Oh that’s right you dindu...
Thee, Skyping with women, doth thou coom?
Didn’t thou read the rules or know, Hindu?
That thou must book it for an hour first,
Doth thou forgeteth in thine thirst?
Wherefore dost thou stink like McDs?
I bet thou payeth international fees.

>>18084532
Why do you move from using you to using thou and thee

>>18084265
Well, treat the first draft as:
Detailed outline
Food for thought as even the first draft can have good scenes and rationalizing what is written can often push towards better ideas.
Proof of your success and effort as you made the first step

I feel like my time may have been better spent sleeping than writing this, but that one isn't actually up to me.

>>18084696
Wash, wash
stopped reading there

>>18079093
You do it!

>>18084603
Because I can, cuuuuhhhhhhh nnnnnttttaaahhh

>>18082572
>I'll post results within the hour.

>>18082591
>anon always delivers.

>>18085438
guess he woke up in the body of a bimbo in another state

>>18080836
>never had an actual person compliment my work.

So... who’s given you compliments on your work! Or rather, what?

>>18083968
Tenacity breeds success my friend. It's better to write schlock you hate than to not write at all, because at least with schlock you have somewhere higher than nothing to build upon. A lot of people on /lit/ forget that a great book is distilled over time, not written overnight (and those that are written overnight are actual one in a hundred million gems, so don't feel bad if that's not you).

>>18078962
Hey man, I just want to say not to be so hard on yourself. It’s natural to have doubts and go through this and you’ll probably improve as a result. I think the key (at least for me) is to go about writing with real intention. It’s not like bodybuilding at all. Aimlessly typing will not improve your writing. You have to look at your work earnestly and ask yourself what every sentence means, want it truly means, and what is truly being conveyed. And I do mean every sentence. I’d take a step back from your work after your first draft and come back in a month or so. Doubtless you will cringe, but I guarantee you will also find gems and will be reminded of why you started this in the first place. The truth is that novels don’t come from dark places, but from a desire to do something good. Something worthwhile. Beautiful even. And I’ve no doubt you had similar intentions. Come back after a month and go from there. And if it’s shit, I mean truly unsalvageable, then toss it out. You wrote a shit novel, so what? At least you wrote it. Don’t be so hard on yourself.

>>18085975
Is this a pasta?

>>18086034
If it is it's a new one.

>>18083640
It has the most one hit wonders but is a smaller market and in general is harder to break into. It's harder to be the next big thing in YA to the point where it's actually lucrative.

I know i should write some short stories for practice and to get real feedback before writing a full novel, but I just want to jump right in.

>>18086038
From what i can find, this is the 17th time this pasta has been found in /wg/. For such a cynical piece of bait, it has received many genuinely kind and supportive replied from other anons. Idk if the poster needs to hear it or not, but i think both the pasta and the replies have actually made /wg/ a bit more welcoming for those who feel insecure about their writing (that is, all of us).
>>>>>/lit/?ghost=yes&task=search&search_text=“Any%20progress%20on%20your%20novels”%20“%20Yes%2C%20I%27m%20done%20now.”&offset=0

tl;dr Your pasta is delicious, anon. Another serving please!

>>18086613
I've been trying to find something new to add to it most times I post it other than just updating my word count. I'm glad to be of service.

>>18086579
Writing short stories is pretty different from writing a full novel in terms of plot composition and flexibility. If you want fast feedback but still want to write something longer, try writing a novella instead. It's a little shorter, but you'll get close to the scope of a novel that way.

>>18086682
Best thread tradition

>>18078962
How autistic can a guy get?

>>18086682
i see you anon
carry on

>>18078533
after his enormous cock had been plunging itself deep into her ass, the buildup of pressure became intoxicating, and she became obsessed with controlling the thrusting of his penis
his penis smelled of rotten death and bugs, a product of severe dehydration and septicemia resulting in extreme horniness and retardation yet his skill with the penis was unparalleled and women and girls would travel all over the world just to have him give an assfuck

>>18078962
>how to stealth shill 101
>shitpost edgelord-triggering diarrhea in neo-emo gothic revivalist gestalt
ok
so how do I buy your pukefest of a “novel”?!?!

>>18086973
how does a cock plunge itself, you boob

>>18078684
ah
he believes in the make believe of contributions
let me guess
these are logical contradictions

>>18085767
as in someone not on 4chan. Most of my real life friends do not know I write and do not regularly read so wouldn’t really care if they found out.

>>18078684

>the word optimism often produced a prototype
I don't think this person knows that 'prototype' means; it would make more sense if they used something like 'conjured up an image' or something to that effect

>a disguise of silence
again, weird wording and also, attaching an immaterial concept like 'silence' to a more concrete concept like 'disguise' makes things more confusing for the reader; sounds deep and profound though

>wings of a butterfly beating
overused cliche'd simile

>>18087000
>it just keep happening

>>18087000
We got another one boys!

>>18087000
It's people like you that keep the copypasta from being obnoxious

>The man in the pin-striped shirt stood there, hunched over the podium like a sleepy dog. Twenty-five sets of young eyes glistened back at him. “So what’s the deal… ahem… with watermelons?” The perspiration set in, he felt a warm mist setting under his eyelids. “I know what you’re all thinking… um… yes… NOPE! Perhaps I’ve made a mistake… ah yes, here it is. ”He scrambled and fidgeted behind the podium for a moment, looking down at the floor and then back into the eyes of his students. He let out a loud hiccough and pressed a clenched fist to his mouth. No further words came out. He stared solemnly back at the fifty glistening young eyes. Trembling, lowering his arms again to further fidget behind the white podium. He unfastened his belt buckle. Some of the young eyes quickly diverted their gaze and one or two freshmen could be seen passing through the auditoriums rear exit doors. The man tossed aside his leather belt and in a startling motion dropped his trousers. He walked to center stage and turned his back to the class. Bending down and resting his weight on one knee, he began spraying some of the filthiest, foulest, most putrid stuff imaginable out from his raw asshole. Cheeks spread wide, his sphincter pulsed and winked at the horrified students. He shouted between bursts of propulsive waste, “SEE…. THE THING ABOUT…. WATERMELONS”. Nearly the entire class had left the room by this point. A senior girl in the third row had fainted, and two young sit-ins remained in the back of the auditorium. They let out a few cheers and guffaws amidst the professors strangled cries. “THE THING IS… DID YOU KNOW THIS CLASS? THAT IN WEST AFRICA…. AHHHH… THERE ARE WATERMELONS…. THAT CAN REACH…. UHHHH…. UP TO ONE-HUNDERED… AND… UH… FIFTY POUNDS?” The man’s waste looked like bloody gauze soaked in black mud. The pile continued to grow higher and higher. He turned his face back toward the class, hot tears covered his face. “WHERE… HAVE YOU GONE, CHILDREN?

"Write everything as its happening now."

is this good advice for YA?

>>18088555
I don’t know what this sentence means

>>18088555
yea what the heck are you going on about

>>18088573
"write everything as if its happening now" meaning all verbs and action

>>18088555
It makes for a breakneck and tiring read if you take it too literally. Good rule of thumb for people used to writing very long passive sentences

>>18088515
I would change the “putrid stuff” to just “shit” that’s the time to just be direct and terse, and make the bloody gauze part a bit tighter and pithier but otherwise it wasn’t too bad, at least I liked it

Anyone have any whitepill books that will help me want to write? I dedicate a certain time to each day to write (I've written about 175 pages of my project this way), but I've been having trouble shaking the feeling that what I'm doing is futile.

Do you guys think it would be weird if, when I have a character mention the name of a company (like a law firm with two members), that in the dialogue an ampersand is used, as that's how the official name of the company is written?

>>18088773
>making progress
>what I'm doing is futile
are you stupid? insecure? how about instead of writing what you're currently writing you change the direction of the book and make it more fun to write.

Anons, how the fuck do I finish the fucking book I sterted? Since February the 2nd, I've written 31000 words for a book that a rich friend told me to ghostwrite. Since the beginning of April I wrote only 1k words and I can't f sit down to finish it for shit. Send help.

>>18088863
Hire a ghostwriter, have any poor friends?

How do I write better comedy? Being funny on demand is hard.

>>18088829
I don't think it's weird. The reader will read it as "and" anyways.

>>18088847
>make it more fun to write.

My book is about a profoundly depressing topic but it's important that I finish it.

how do i know if my novel idea is interesting enough? I know the execution is more important but a decent publisher won't even read my prose if the story synopsis doesn't interest them

I'm writing a novel, but where do I start actually trying to be a writer? Should I start a blog? Should I send short stories to random magazines? Or do I just finish my novel and let it speak for itself? I don't know if I need some kind of profile to get a publisher interested. Would appreciate some advice

>>18088914
Depends on your comedic style. Some people like wordplay, double meanings, and punchlines. Others like outrageous or absurd situations. Reading "classically" funny books like Catch-22 can be supplemented with classic comedy movies imo, because even though they're vastly different media, they follow similar rules and setups.
Thinking about it as I reply, you could probably take a scene from a comedy movie and transpose it to prose as practice for scene flow.
>>18088986
I'd judge it based on how often it's been done before in the basest concept form, and what makes it different from other things out there. If it's a boy meets girl story, how is it different from the other boy meets girl stories out there? Specifically, setting and plot are key.
>>18089012
I keep a Facebook page and a blog periodically updated. Anyone with a computer can write a novel now, so going the extra mile helps. Having a repertoire of short stories may be a boost as well. Your biggest boost will come when you get an agent interested enough to pass your work around for you.

>>18089064
>Your biggest boost will come when you get an agent interested enough to pass your work around for you.
and what are agents interested in? would short stories help there or would they just read my manuscript? I hope twitter followers or whatever doesn't matter because I never know what to put on social media when I haven't produced anything concrete yet

>>18088963
a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down

>>18089110
That depends on so many things I can't really give you an answer; genre, what's popular this month, what the agent or the company is internally looking for, etc. Having a body of work shows that you can complete projects, have written before, and gives them an idea of where your writing is at if it's in different genres or has been stretched across a long period of time. I don't think social media matters that much, at least until you "make it" and have a following and want to retain them.

>>18089145
good man, thank you for the advice

>>18087000
half of people who bite are fren posters and half are crabs
way to fall on the wrong side of history you miserable fuck. stay in your bucket

>>18088515
This is 2021, my dude. No one’s leaving that auditorium, no one’s fainting...they’d all be standing phone-in-hand livestreaming it.

This guy knows how to write, though! I don’t care what you write about, throw in some tidbit of ‘huh, I never knew that’ trivia and I’m hooked every time. Hannibal Lector taught me about pigeon breeding, Monte Cristo about the Moccoletti at Carnival, and Ayn Rand made some shit up about the origin of the dollar symbol I believed for way too long.

WRITING CHALLENGE (pick a very boring prompt 1-5, and a random fact A-F) and post what you got. [for example, i just finished reading 5A]
The boring prompts:
>1. A job interview that went okay, I guess
>2. A pedestrian was distracted and now must wait for the next walk signal
>3. Person falls asleep reading and can’t find their spot in the book
>4. Site always makes you reset your password to something you won’t remember
>5. A poorly-planned orientation seminar

The random facts:
>A: Obscure fruit/vegetable fact
>B: Obscure history/political fact
>C: Obscure sports/games fact
>D: Obscure culture/language fact
>E. Obscure math/physics fact

>>18089280
>WRITING CHALLENGE (pick a very boring prompt 1-5, and a random fact A-F) and post what you got. [for example, i just finished reading 5A]
>The boring prompts:
>>1. A job interview that went okay, I guess
>>2. A pedestrian was distracted and now must wait for the next walk signal
>>3. Person falls asleep reading and can’t find their spot in the book
>>4. Site always makes you reset your password to something you won’t remember
>>5. A poorly-planned orientation seminar
>The random facts:
>>A: Obscure fruit/vegetable fact
>>B: Obscure history/political fact
>>C: Obscure sports/games fact
>>D: Obscure culture/language fact
>>E. Obscure math/physics fact
Why the fuck would we waste our time on this shit instead of working on our novels?

>>18089295
t. socially maladjusted

>>18089312
>Let’s waste time on useless and pointless prompts.
No, thanks. I’ll rather write and plan my novel. Keep that shit out of /wg/.

>>18089295
I think it’s safe to assume that anyone browsing /lit/ right now is not also head’s down composing their magnum opus. If you’re wasting time here, anyway, you might as well be writing something better than the next great shitpost.

>>18089324
>Let's waste time writing and discussing writing
where do you think you are

How important is it to males here that the female romantic interest(s) be a virgin? Does that change if the female is hundreds or thousands of years old? And is there a 'tipping point' when, say, having five or six would be a turnoff, but then it circles around so someone who has had hundreds becomes a turn on when the MC tames her? Say, a succubus for example? (though that's not what I'm writing about.)

>>18089436
>How important is it to males here that the female romantic interest(s) be a virgin?
very

>>18089442
Hugless, kissless, never been on a date as well? Or just no sex? I promise I'm not fishing for an answer, I'm still planning characters out. One of them is going to have a history and the other's going to be a virgin, but I can't decide on the third.

>>18089450
you're missing the point. a woman bringing up past relationships she's had is incredibly unattractive. they bring it up to create insecurity in her current partner, or because they're retarded and they don't know any better. if a girl had 10 partners, but they never bring them up, that girl would be more attractive than one that had 1 partner but couldn't manage to keep her yap shut.
statistically speaking, however, the one with 1 partner would be better to marry than the one with 10.

A few days ago someone mentioned how cringe was having too much dialogue in a story. I think he mentioned that more than 15% of the text being dialogues was not good or something like that. I totally disagree with this, but what do you guys think?

>>18089569
>someone says arbitrary rule is how it is
>I disagree
yes

>>18082656
Not cringe, I think you have talent and potential but you're waiting for something to click.
You don't have to take my word for anything but here it is.
In my opinion it's too overly complex and descriptive. Perhaps you are doing this on purpose, to try and create a certain mood. Some people may like that atmosphere, but for me, I need to feel more progress in the flow of action, a clearer beat in the pace.

If I were to write the same thing -
In describing the dirty city setting and homeless people I would use probably half as much wordcount or less. I think it could be described clearly without making it sound so overly poetic. There's only so much meaning to be found in the dirty city setting, I don't feel as if I'm being shown a wonderful kaleidoscope of dreams.
Also
I would make more happen. This Arda character, if she directly had some kind of conversation or interaction with one of these homeless people, that conversation/interaction could be peppered with lines here and there that describe the atmosphere around her.

'Is that you Arda?'
'Yes, hi Jon..blah blah blah?' Next to Jon a man wrapped in a dirty blanket snored. There was a hushed routine the walkers were oblivious to. A convergence of groaning and shuffling of feet. To them it was all unremarkable; the muttering and pleading represented only an audible extension of what filled the gutter on any sidewalk on any day of the week: filth, detritus, someone else’s lost things. The beggars were a part of the city architecture, imminent in it’s low overpasses and plentiful dumpsters, designed not to be noticed.
'I am answering your question here.'
'I see.'
'Additional explanation. Gah, I'm so dirty and homeless and stuff. Cough.' A man in a crisp suit walked past, (contrasting dirty Jon on the floor) careful to give Arda at least 4 feet as to not brush shoulders with her.

>>18089569
Clive Cussler's books are riddled with dialogue and they're fantastic.

>>18089665
God man thank you, this is the kind of input I’m looking for

>>18089569
Depends on the style of the writer and the genre. It might be generally a good rule of thumb in a vague way.
If you had homicide detectives working out a case then I imagine there would be various scenes with way more dialogue than normal as they go back and forth discussing the fine points of times and dates and evidence. Courtroom scenes would involve a lot of talking.

>>18089686
Glad you liked it fren

>>18089569
Well I really liked JR so that guys just gonna have to go suck a dick

>>18082656
>Arda ran her finger along the metal curly-q binding of her tiny notepad, hidden within her jacket pocket.
I liked that detail.

Is there a market for white knight syndrome wish fulfillment romance?

>>18090352
If the market is your hard drive sure

Should I only write what I enjoy? What if what I enjoy writing is cringe tier? Should I just do it anyway?

>>18090471
if you don't enjoy writing what you're writing what the fuck are you even doing?

>>18090352
>>18090438
I dunno, Teaching Feeling was pretty insanely popular for a bit.

>>18090471
Trent Reznor enjoyed writing about his sexual angst and frustrations and now his band is immensely popular and influential.

>>18082656
Holy shit someone posted work that doesn’t actually suck. Seconding the recommendation to tighten it up a bit though. You have a few grammar problems but not big ones. Hope your story turns out well.

>>18082656
It's not bad, just exhausting to read. I can't imagine reading this when I have a bunch of alternatives if I want something cumbersome.

>>18082656
>A pebble, lodged between the rubber grooves underneath Arda’s left sneaker, scratched like a metronome on the dirty pavement as she made her way down another city block. The sun was white-hot and baked the concrete pads of the sidewalk until the smell of stale urine rose up like morning fog from a pond. Arda ran her finger along the metal curly-q binding of her tiny notepad, hidden within her jacket pocket.

It seems like every noun comes paired with some descriptor
>rubber grooves
>left sneaker
>dirty pavement
Some of it is useful, but with every noun weighed down like this, it really slows down the flow. The kind of stuff that (if you were reading before bed) you might catch yourself reading the same line on repeat without realizing.

Not saying it’s better, but just wanted you to see how it reads if i remove the padding:
>A pebble, lodged between the grooves underneath Arda’s sneaker, scratched like a metronome on the pavement as she made her way down another block. The sun baked the concrete sidewalk until the smell of urine rose up like fog from a pond. Arda ran her finger along the curly-q binding of her notepad, hidden within her pocket.

Up to you where you want to speed it up or slow it down...personally, i find it easier to get i to something if it begins at a faster pace. You can get more descriptive once the reader settles in a bit.

Just broke 65,000 words fellas, I'm feeling good tonight. I think this arc will wrap up in the next 8,000 or so, and then it's on to the main chunk of the story, finally.

>>18090786
>arc

>>18090789
Oh sorry, "Act".

>>18078533
I've been working on a short story with a premise that I thought was very interesting, but I just discovered today that there's a movie with a very similar basic premise to what I've been working on. Kind of feel like abandoning the story now because I feel like I won't even have anything I can do with it because of the film. I'm worried that if I finish the story, submit it to various publication, that even if I get it published there will be an accusation of plagiarism, even though I started the thing well before I even knew of the film.

What do?

>>18090858
Wasn't there literally just a post like this yesterday? Just write it. I sincerely doubt anyone will actually care.

>>18090858
>>18090874
>even his post about plagiarism was unoriginal
Poetry

>>18090789
>story arc means anime
dumb derivative frogposter

>>18091008
Only toads say arc.

>>18091029
character arc, narrative arc, story arc. dumbshit frogposter eat more paste

>>18090874
I don't lurk here everyday, anon.
>>18090956
That is kind of funny, I have to admit. Like when Shia LaBeouf planarized his apology letter apologizing for plagiary.

>>18091045
You say what you hear. Nobody says arc outside of anime communities because it's outdated terminology. If you say arc, you're a fucking toad, simple as.

>>18091055
who you calling a toad, pal?

i remember when i was a kid i read this book called toad rage and anyways that doesn't have much to do with this thread i just really liked that book and hope that someone who reads my story likes it as much as i liked toad rage

Speaking of frogs, next month I'll learn how my frog story did in that writing contest from February. Boy oh boy!

>>18091055
>doesn't know basic terminology
>calls others toads
haha

>>18091459
What people know and the words they choose to use are different things. Nobody discusses story structure in literature in "arcs," even though it is a word with a definition that fits. If you use it, you're a toad, and you need to go back to the swamp, and that's all there is to it.

/wg/, I feel bad about taking a break from my writing especially when I'm so close to the end of my first draft but I've been pressuring myself constantly for years and it feels like I've squeezed most of my enjoyment out of the process

there's still so much I want to do with this story. but with my ability to write so dependent on my shifting moods I think my only option is to wait until I'm in a different state of mind

>>18083672
>And my plots and characters are too good for YA anyways.
If you think in terms of "plot" and "characters", you're well set for YA

bros, this is such a basic complaint, but... i know exactly what is happening in the first two acts of my story and i have a good idea of the ending, however the middle is just blurry. i'm writing a synopsis of the whole narative right now and towards the middle there are so many blanks and "i don't know yet"s that i feel like an absolute retard. it's normal i suppose. anyone has any tips for this?

>>18091055
this is not true and shut the fuck up

>>18091330
I'm legitimately excited anon, let us know either way

>>18091330
Hey, I remember you, hope you win that writing contest.

It really does feel good when you finish 8k words in a single sitting and you feel like you could write more. Helps that it's completely self-indulgent.

>>18092178
Good job, hope you can maintain that momentum for later.

>Bouncing between three ideas for a story.
>Decide to just write all of them in a three-way p.o.v story
>First P.o.v is on the brink on either being edgy or dark, not to mention, the dominate narrative
>Second P.o.v reads like a Y.A, and with any luck, (I doubt it) I can make it work with the first p.o.v.
>Third P.o.v is completely disconnect with the other two, that my attempt to integrate it feels shoehorn.
You guys, can not comprehend my frustration right now.

The only way I can see this work is if I write short stories, in the hopes of interweaving them. But, I am on the fence on it.

>>18092567
How would a short stories help you in your problem? Wouldn’t it make it worse?

>>18092594
While I wouldn't go as far as say they would help. It would alleviate my problems significantly, since those short stories will be use for world building and perhaps most importantly, set up how the main story plays out.

>>18092619
That’s what I don’t understand. How would writing three short stories help you in binding the three stories of the main story? The problems you’re having right now won’t just go away.

>>18092630
Each Short story give wider context on what's truly going on the main story. Clear up a few issues and hopefully, allow an easier integration.

>>18092686
If you oh say so, anon. It feel like you’re running away from the main problem.

>>18092467
Thanks bruh.

>>18092720
I can assure you, I'm not running away. I really think its the best I can do.

>>18091055
Wow, an actual retard.

>>18090471
Enjoy writing what you want. Trying to write something you don't like is going to burn you out.

>>18092738
Not that anon, but do you have any tips?

>>18091691
Take a break every now and again to freshen up.

>>18080334
Just self-publish.

>>18088986
You don't. you have to let the readers to decide.

Has anyone heard of Rarible? Is this a scam or real

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/comments/mw68mh/in_a_couple_hours_i_made_more_selling_two_nfts_of/

>>18088515
Seems dated. You should really update your vocab.

>>18092794
Scam.

>>18092794
It’s obviously a scam, anon.

>>18092799
Ok just confirming. I don't even understand what that guy is saying, his books are like bitcoin? It made no sense

New thread.
>>18092806

>>18091916
I like this quote from Thomas Harris about working on writing. From Wikipedia:
>In 2019, he elaborated on his process, as well as the difficulty, describing it as "passive [...], sometimes you really have to shove and grunt and sweat. Some days you go to your office and you're the only one who shows up, none of the characters show up, and you sit there by yourself, feeling like an idiot. And some days everybody shows up ready to work. You have to show up at your office every day. If an idea comes by, you want to be there to get it in."
The idea for him is that writing is and should be work, and sometimes you have to get to bare-knuckle basics by asking questions like "What should happen next? What do I want to happen? Where do I want to take my characters next?" followed by questions like "How do I get there? What makes the most sense in terms of logic and emotional response?" and just really grinding out ideas.
It's helped me in a few tough spots, even if I had the intent to write that day and ended up spending the whole time writing ideas down, physically writing out the question-answer process, and then backspacing what I didn't like or even writing explanations about why I didn't like it. It's hard work, but it helped me.

>>18091055
>Nobody says arc outside of anime

Probably because that’s the only kind of community you hang out in.

>>18093636
You mean 4chan?