I'm a great writer. What can I do with this gift?

[Anonymous No.12049136]

I've posted a couple things in /lit/ and gotten glowing feedback. I thought I was decent but now recognise I'm better than that.

Where do I go from here? I've never published anything anywhere. Ideally I'd like to publish some short pieces of 1,500 - 10,000 words, anywhere. I could also publish a compilation of pieces. Some day, maybe in 5 or 10 years, I could be writing a book. But I don't know what is the first step.

[Anonymous No.12049192]

>>12049136
>I’m a great writer
>people on /lit/ liked what I wrote
O am I laffin

[Anonymous No.12049246]

>>12049192
this isn't fucking reddit. if you write shit, people will tell you it's shit. if someone says something is good here, it means something, because they are being sincere. also, the bar is a bit higher here, as it is people that read joyce and hemingway, and not your dumbfuck friend who once read half of the great gatsby 10 years ago.

[Anonymous No.12049255]

Just make a blog and post your shit there.

[Anonymous No.12049278]

>>12049255
>make blog
>post my shit there
>get like 3 new readers a week
>all my shit is there on the internet for free
>then, a miracle occurs
>become famous well-read author who sells books for money

[Anonymous No.12049295]

>>12049278
You asked how to publish, not how to get an audience.

[Anonymous No.12049315]

>>12049246
>joyce
>hemingway
Unhinged garbage

[Anonymous No.12049361]

>>12049246
if it's shit, I'll tell you it's shit
if it's good, I'll tell you it's shit because I envy you and don't want you to know at all costs
if it's decent but not good I will tell you it's shit because try harder you pampered zoomer
if it's super disgracefully shit, and only then, I will tell you it's good so I can kek at the thought of you trying to make it in the writing world with your """talent""" and ending up as a strung out alcoholic on the road to mediocrity and hopefully suicide

[Anonymous No.12049375]

>>12049136
how oId are you op?

[Anonymous No.12049383]

>>12049136
Don't gloat before you make a request. Calling yourself "a great writer" ... Absolutely disgusting. You deserve to be spat on.

if there's a publisher you like, go on their website and look up "how do I get you to publish my book." Every single publisher will have that info on their website.

Also, improve your writing pls. We all know you're not worth shit yet. (But you do show potential)

[Anonymous No.12049416]

>I'm a great writer
Anyone who unironically likes their work is a hack

[Anonymous No.12049441]

I posted some rants and obscure images on /x/ and they said I am Jesus. I knew I was in commune with God but now I see that he and I are one and the same.

Where do I go from here? I've never harassed people in the street anywhere. Ideally I'd like to rip the veil off the Reptilians and disrupt the the shadow feed. I could also write my manifesto across the walls of the city. Some day, maybe in 5 or 10 years, I could be crucifying the tormentors. But I don't know what is the first step.

[Anonymous No.12049491]

>>12049361
Hey, that's pretty good writing anon

[Anonymous No.12049511]

>>12049491
that's the spirit, good job

[Anonymous No.12049592]

well, here's a decent example:

https://delicioustacos.com/
http://timkreider.com/

Why do these two writers have such drastically different careers? One publishes in the NYT and the other has a little blog and posted a book on Amazon.

It's not about talent. It's about something else. What did they do differently?

[Anonymous No.12049618]

>>12049592
One writes: haha lazy millenials, haha dumb lefties, amirite

The other writes:
Work is living death. “Job creators” are murderers. America is Satan’s agent in the world, spreading the Antichrist gospel of “work ethic.” It must be annihilated. This is what I believe.

Trump, while fun when irritating people, is just one more Satanic agent pushing jobs, jobs, jobs. Entrepreneurs and hustlers are not human beings. They are demons. Their purpose is to propagate evil.

America treats these malformed creatures as gods. Steve Jobs was an archdemon whose food was human suffering. Bill Gates and his succubus wife Melinda save African children only to one day channel them into psychic pain extractors (schools) to devour powerful waves of anguish. Elon Musk, a retarded boy seduced by a Zulu witch and given unholy powers. Warren Buffett feasts on flagellated fetus fear, wallows in Wall Street worship from his Luciferian temple of false modesty built to defile an Omaha burial ground. ArchdevilMaruk Z’huqq-h’r-Bhurrgh, an infernal superorganism psychically conjoined to perpetually starving harpy sisters, innovated the ultimate demonic feeding trough of advertising-based agony. A book that eats faces.

All entrepreneurs and businesspeople, as well as high-level executives and professionals, are not people. Rather they are eager servants of Hell who gorge on human pain. Vomit it mama bird style, in paroxysms of quasi-sexual greed ecstasy, back in the gullet of their beloved master, Satan. There are no exceptions. This is just my opinion.


and that is one of the more coherent passages

[Anonymous No.12049629]

>>12049136
You should write daily, submit to magazines and contests, decide what genre to write in, create an online platform (website, social media), build an audience, and write your first book. You should decide whether to self-publish or traditionally publish, but nevertheless be constantly engaging an audience to prove your marketability.

Go to a website like submissions grinder that just maintains a big list of things you can submit to, and start writing and submitting.

Under no circumstances should you pay anyone anything for any of the following:
>courses on writing or publishing
>university degrees or private tutors in creative writing
>small press publishing of your work
>books about writing
Unless they are a successful author or landmark work in narrative, and can actually demonstrate they have "skin in the game"

[Anonymous No.12049631]

That complacent attitude is the doom of any writer, bad or good. Just saying.

[Anonymous No.12049633]

>>12049491
thats from hemingway

[Anonymous No.12049634]

>>12049618
what are you trying to say

[Anonymous No.12049640]

>>12049629
thank you, this is a great response

[Anonymous No.12049679]

>>12049634
one is a somewhat witty boomer conservative, the other is out of his goddamn fucking mind for all intents and purposes. who do you think is gonna make more $$ from his target demographic?

[Anonymous No.12049689]

>>12049246
the people in the critique threads barely have read anything

[Anonymous No.12049700]

>>12049689
I try to give good feedback but the posters don't give you a lot to work with much of the time.

[Anonymous No.12049701]

>>12049631
It's hard to imagine a serious writer not being arrogant. Given the fact anyone can write these days. I've learned to let it be.

[Anonymous No.12049723]

>>12049679
> out of his goddamn fucking mind
except everything he wrote is completely obvious to a non-anglo. Your ethnocentrism is what led you to this life of servitude. Incapable of communication with your neighbors, you dived head down into the trap of usury and the mythology of the entrepreneur, never stopping a second to contemplate your demise or simply compare your way of life with others. No wonder every single country in the world harbors unlimited hatred for the US and Israel. Protestant work ethic is proto-capitalism. He's pushing the satanic dialectics a bit too far but everything is still true. Every theologian on earth will agree with what was said, except the drugged out, STEM working, credit taking consumerist anglo. They aren't people. They are agents of capital.

[Anonymous No.12049747]

>im a great writer

[Anonymous No.12049758]

>>12049136
>great writer
>never been published
>never written anything

[Anonymous No.12049793]

>>12049246
i think you're overestimating us

[Anonymous No.12049817]

>>12049793
highest IQ board on 4chan

level of discourse here is pretty good

some guy told me it was the best thing he'd ever read on /lit/

[Anonymous No.12049829]

post an excerpt lol

[Anonymous No.12049838]

>>12049723
cool rant, 'cept I'm a non-anglo myself, and blatantly aware. but yes, it's fine besides the whole all too satanic thing, and the fact he's preaching the end times to the people causing it, in their language, in their country. we were talking about being successful not being right

[Anonymous No.12049844]

>>12049723
based

[Anonymous No.12049993]

>>12049361
You should put this to print anon, it really moved me.

[Anonymous No.12050001]

>>12049634
Wew lad

[Anonymous No.12050007]

>>12049136
>I'm a great writer
>but I haven't really written anything yet
you're nothing then

[Anonymous No.12050018]

I'm going to take you at your word, OP. You've already taken your medicine courtesy of detractors in this thread.

Seek experience. Be open to experience of all kinds. Reflect on your experiences. Put yourself through useful thought exercises to jar bits of brilliance loose.

Be harshly critical of any confirmation biases you observe in your thinking. Be honest about the shortcomings in your work. Seek neither happiness nor sadness too earnestly, but regard both as teachers with a lot to say.

I know this sounds like something Wayne Dyer would tell Oprah, but you'll be limited to showing off your technical prowess if your themes lack any orientation.

[Anonymous No.12050022]

>>12049136
Create a good book. Don't squander your gift. People here are NEETs and assholes.

[Anonymous No.12050236]

>>12049701

Arrogance is one thing. Complacence is another. No great writer has ever thought of their own work as a flawless masterpiece. Recognizing one's own limitations is precisely what pushes them forward.

[Anonymous No.12050253]

t.

[Anonymous No.12050296]

>>12050253
so, if I think I'm shit it's slightly more likely that I'm shit, and if I think I'm good it's slightly more likely that I am good?

groundbreaking

[Anonymous No.12050304]

>>12050018
>all that reddit spacing
>all those short sentences, each the same trite

You write for an audience with the shortest possible attention span imaginable, this might fly somewhere else but not here.

[Anonymous No.12050308]

>>12050296
no. amateurs think theyre great while their actually moving their first steps. learn how to read a graph

[Anonymous No.12050329]

>>12050308
The graph reads that the change in perceived score is insignificant when compared to the actual score, increasing only slightly. There is no scale on the "score" axis, at most it visually says that all people think they're in the top %.

Astonishing.

[Anonymous No.12050401]

>>12049829
Jerry realized, with a sort of laugh, that every joke he had recently heard had been told by himself, to himself, and at his own expense.

[Anonymous No.12050481]

>>12050329
t. Sheldon cooper
Of course there's no scale on the y axis. It's a dumb infographic

[Anonymous No.12050671]

>>12050401
nice copypasta bro

[Anonymous No.12050693]

>>12050401
>>12050671
where is it from

[Anonymous No.12050775]

>>12050693
Seinfeld

[Anonymous No.12050787]

>>12050775
stop torturing me, I have memory problems

[Anonymous No.12050996]

>>12049136
How come you are simultaneously a gifted writer and ask random strangers what to do with your talent? Seems contradictory to me. That is to say, the definition of talent can only manifest itself when you more or less know what to do. Maybe I'm a talented engineer and got some appreciation in my high school years, but since I haven't pursued that path I would hardly qualify as a "talented engineer"

[Anonymous No.12051115]

>>12049817
>highest IQ board on 4chan
>level of discourse here is pretty good

[Anonymous No.12051242]

>>12049246
You are quite possibly beyond delusion if you honestly think anything you've said is true. Sure, /lit/ may have a marginally higher verbal IQ than other boards since many of us are in English/Philosophy studies or merely have a keen interest in reading, but to assume that we have the highest general IQ is laughable. There are retards on every board including this one, and just because you might've heard some inbred on /pol/ say that /lit/ is the smartest board, and just because you heard the same general feedback most posts here receive, doesn't validate any of your claims.

That being said, repost your shitty story so I can laugh at it.

[Anonymous No.12051282]

>>12049993
thanks guy, will immediately abandon job, gf, and family to focus solely on my writing destiny

[Anonymous No.12051364]

>>12049136
>>12049136
im putting you on the spot, anon.

show some of your work. if youre good and believe it to be true
we will tell you

post it. dont hold back. nows the chance to finally know your merit

[Anonymous No.12051414]

>>12051364
you sound like you only fuck black guys

[Anonymous No.12051416]

>>12049817
No, that's /sci/.
>>12049246
>people are sincere
As someone who has posted in the the rate threads of /soc/ very often, I can tell you that people are still overly sensitive and are not objective at all.

I suggest that you write a short stort. It could be a mere 1500 words. You will post this story on lit and then you will ask for a grade out of ten.

You will also post a paragraph that you think is well written by any author, preferably don't say who it is. This is a reference to 10/10 writing and you will do the same for 0/10.

People will read your text, the good and the bad texts and then put you inbetween these two upon a grade out of ten.

[Anonymous No.12051442]

>>12050304
Hey, here's an idea, kill you're self and never come back!

[Proud Social Justice Warrior !BgjMIiqmkk No.12051447]

I've posted a couple of my photos in /fit/ and gotten glowing feedback. I thought I had a decent body, but now recognise I'm better than that and should become an athlete.

Where do I go from here? I've never competed in anything anywhere. Ideally I'd like to play Tennis or some other individual non-contact sport that pays well. I could also do events in running or swimming. Some day, maybe in 5 or 10 years, I could be in the hall of fame. But I don't know what is the first step.

[Anonymous No.12051537]

>>12049136
Don't fall into the trap that a lot of terds here do and try to get a book published right off the bat.
First, you will want to submit your short works to lit mags. Read the first to get a feel of whether or not your work will actually "fit" there. Ie highly experimental fiction will pretty much never show up in the New Yorker. If you're as hot of shit as you think you are, start with the best possible magazine you can find, submit there, and wait for the response. If a rejection, try something else. Keep trying elsewhere, until you find a home for your first piece, and consider how good/reputable of a publication it is. Try to move up from there.

Once you start getting publications in reputable magazines seek out an agent. Oftentimes you'll need an agent to just get into the big name litmags anyway (ie The Paris Review, though they do take some things out of slush still.) You'll want to make sure this agent represents work you like, and also places work with reputable publishers.
If prose fiction is your thing they will likely advise you to compile a collection of your stories for them to show to a publisher, and then a pitch and/or a rough draft of a novel. Most of the time that will help you get a bigger publisher than you would if you just went for short stories because novels are more bankable. They'll offer a contract for both the current collection and then the rights to publish the novel when completed.
Prepare for tons of rejection, even if you are "great."
Source on process: I'm good friends with a reasonably well respected writer of short stories

[Anonymous No.12051546]

>>12051416
But /sci/ is infested by engineers

[Anonymous No.12052028]

>>12049361
what a cheeky sonuvabitch you are.

[Anonymous No.12052032]

>>12049375
answer this

[Anonymous No.12052070]

>>12049829
Lysidike took her ability to read his mind as a matter of course, but his converse power was still unsettling. Time was only Anaximander ever gleaned what she thought with any proficiency; but he deduced her nature from what his oily smarts told him was the nature of a person, and only sardonically hinted at his mastery. Tlexictli didn’t even have to puzzle to catch her straight away, so the privacy she took for a metaphysical given in her youth broke up, and she felt her disagreements with her husband as dumb sensory pressures, like heat or cold. Their cross-purposes weren’t any easier for their transparency, but there was nothing to worry over – they’d conducted business together before becoming sentimental.

[Anonymous No.12052075]

>>12049246
Man... you're new to /lit/ aren't you?

[Anonymous No.12052083]

>>12049375
Unironically answer this .

[Anonymous No.12052338]

>>12049629
>Under no circumstances should you pay anyone anything for any of the following:
>>courses on writing or publishing
>>university degrees or private tutors in creative writing

What do you think about paying for critiques / developmental edits?

[Anonymous No.12052752]

>>12051546
Yes and there are a lot of people on /lit/ who don't read. Does this make all of them stupid, does this make the whole board stupid or is this a cherry picked argument that does not prove anything?

t. salty engineer undergrad

[Anonymous No.12052876]

>>12049136
Submit to the top journals, Paris Review, Tin House, Granta, etc. and see if they will take your work since it’s so good.

[Anonymous No.12052983]

>>12052028
no, just a jaded twat

[Anonymous No.12053030]

>>12049136
>"I'm a great writer"
>used past participle instead of simple past

Being a slightly above average writer isn't enough to cut it in this industry. Practice on your craft some more until you realize that you're not as good as you once thought. A writer really shouldn't be liking their own work. That's the job of the editor and your readers.

>>12049375
Probably in his last year of high school. We were all like that.

[Anonymous No.12053442]

>>12052338
That's fine because you actually get a service and can evaluate whether it was valuable or useful to you and your work.

Those things I mentioned are bad mostly because they bait and switch. They imply they will help you become an author but essentially offer an extended writing practice or thought exercise and (with some exceptions maybe, in the case of universities with strong industry connections which identify you as promising) then leave you where you started.

[Anonymous No.12053445]

write

[Anonymous No.12053510]

>>12052070
this isn't mine, btw. fuck this guy. i'm not going to post anything here, because given the atmosphere, i could post anything and it would get ripped apart (rightfully so). i came in here swinging my dick with the whole "i'm a great writer" thing because i knew it would grab attention and get all sorts of replies. but obviously i don't actually think that.

i think i'm better than average, and that i have potential. before posting some stuff here, i didn't think i had any potential. but you come in posting "hey guys i have potential and maybe some day after 2-3 years i will be pretty good" everyone will say fuck off and come back in 2-3 years. but there are too many really talented failed writers that have no concept of the industry and fucked their careers because of it, so i'd like to start thinking about that now.

by the way, i'm 30.

[Anonymous No.12053555]

>>12052752
Here here. Truth is most engineers just use mathematics while a mathematician loves mathematics. Likewise a mathematician uses tools and buildings made caringly by engineers and underage chinese kids who love their respective jobs. Likewise, most people just use as a tool the same language the poet considers as a superior means of artistic creation. It's all an imaginary food-chain we use to distance ourselves from people we see as too different from us, wondering with disenchantment if the grass could ever befriend the cow.

[Anonymous No.12053631]

>>12053442

I've seen online novel writing programs between 8k and 16k, and thought my book would be better off spending a fraction of that on a couple critiques and development edit.

[Anonymous No.12053646]

>>12049136
>Where do I go from here?
up your own ass

[Anonymous No.12053652]

>>12049361
Based and redpilled

[Anonymous No.12053653]

Not OP, but I've written some prose-poetry inspired by Pessoa, any ideas on a suitable publication?
Not counting on being published, but I'd like to try.

[Anonymous No.12053681]

I've posted a couple custom cards in /tg/ and gotten glowing feedback. I thought I was decent but now recognise I'm better than that.

Where do I go from here? I've never designed anything anywhere. Ideally I'd like to design 10-15 cards, anywhere. I could also design a whole set. Some day, maybe in 5 or 10 years, I could take MaRo's place. But I don't know what is the first step.

[Anonymous No.12053717]

>>12053030
>used past participle instead of simple past
care to explain?not OP but I can't point out any error there(not a native speaker either)

[Anonymous No.12053751]

>>12053510
>I wanted attention

[Anonymous No.12053766]

>>12053717
Idk what they guy was talking about because none of what he said applies to that sentence. I imagine he was just throwing big words around to sound smart. That sentence isn’t even in the past tense and there is no past participle in the sentence.

[Anonymous No.12053796]

>>12053631
The only benefit I can see from that is if there are other people who are also trying to write seriously/professionally.

From my experience, most people who are interested in writing and join real life writing clubs are boring women, old people with nothing better to do, or some professional writer who is taking a fee from all the other attendees and using the thing as a side gig. Online writing clubs - no idea.

You just have to be really careful with writing because there is a whole industry that exists solely to sell you your dream and exploit your naive aspirations. Don't get caught by it.

[Anonymous No.12054341]

>>12053796
>boring women, old people with nothing better to do, or some professional writer who is taking a fee from all the other attendees and using the thing as a side gig.

That describes the feeling I get from Denver's Lighthouse. https://www.lighthousewriters.org/workshops/book-project


This seems like a cheaper option. I wouldn't mind some formal education in writing since I have only a STEM background. https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/writing-certificate/writing-certificate

[Anonymous No.12054446]

>>12053766
>>12053717
I was pointing out the first sentence of his text body, not the thread subject.

>I've posted a couple things in /lit/ and gotten glowing feedback.

>>12054341
I'm currently enrolled in that Stanford online writing program, and you should know that a lot of their classes are a hit or miss. The quality of instruction varies from class to class too much for me to be comfortable, honestly. It's also way too expensive. It's barely worth it for me even though I've got a good discount from my going to Stanford. That certificate really isn't worth it.

Just take a couple of continuing studies writing classes that aren't in the certificate program. It's cheaper and way more worth it. I'd highly suggest taking FICT 50 W if it's still available. That class was insanely good at teaching the actual art of plot and how to construct it; it was like taking two classes in one. Jeff Lyons is the instructor, and he's a really good guy who dissects the absolute fuck out of your work.

[Anonymous No.12054487]

>>12054446

Thanks for the honest info. Any other instructors that you would recommend?


I've got about 50k words written, split into three arcs. Might be too much. The prose is also meh, but I'm not sure if a poetry class or the likes could help with that.

[Anonymous No.12054576]

>>12054487
I've taken about a dozen of these classes already, and Jeff Lyons and his class were the only noteworthy things to stand out during those two years. However, if you come across a class called "The Art of Plot" (EGL 53 W), avoid it like the plague. I wasted $500 on that class. The instructor had no business teaching high schoolers, let alone professional writers.

And now that I think about it, these online writing classes are actually decent if you take the workshops into consideration. A lot of your classmates will be professional writers who've already published actual novels and poetry collections. God knows what the fuck they're doing in introductory plot and poetry classes, but they're good sources for feedback and information wells for the publishing process. The average age of these classes is around 30-35, believe it or not.

[Anonymous No.12055110]

>>12054576
Who was the instructor?

I'm 32, having wasted my 20s in a engineering job.

How much time do the classes take? Realistically, I only have 10 hours/week to spare...

[Anonymous No.12055264]

>>12055110
Sorry for the late reply; it took me a while to dig in the archives for her name: Michelle Richmond. It was a really lame, uninspiring, and low-level class that cost $500 with a Stanford student discount (without is $880). I learned absolutely nothing new, and we had mystery novels as required reading.

It all depends on how much you want to get out of the class, honestly. You could definitely get away with 10 hours/week, but the class with Lyons always took me no less than 20 hours/week. On really intense weeks, I'd spend 25-30 hours.

I wouldn't recommend it if your free time is for relaxing from whatever it is that you do. I know I've been throwing flak at some of these classes, but they're still just as intense as junior/senior-level private university classes. You're better off saving your time, money, and stress by taking a free MOOC. There are a lot of really good ones out there; I've taken some myself.

[Anonymous No.12055327]

>>12049817
>level of discourse here is pretty good
I'm one of the best posters here and I actively undermine discourse on the board at every opportunity I get by calling people "faggot" or "queer" or "moran" half the time when I get corrected

[Anonymous No.12055335]

>>12049136
whats the diagram over the pic supposed to mean? men are belittled and entrapped by their libido?

[Anonymous No.12055351]

>>12055335
Oedipus

[Anonymous No.12055704]

>>12055264

20 hours with multiple classes in the program, or 20 hours for ONE class?

Any MOOCs that you would recommend?

[Anonymous No.12055749]

>>12055264

Eh, I'll make a new thread asking.

[Anonymous No.12055843]

>>12055704
I took no more than two classes at a time in that program. A normal week would involve no more than 25 hours a week. It's only around the end of the quarter when I have to pull insane hours, but that's normal for any college class.

Pretty much any creative writing course on Coursera will do the job. It's $49 a month, but that plan will let you take as many classes as you want with a certificate at the end if that matters to you. Coursera is pretty reputable too. I used it to take the five courses needed for a specialization from Wesleyan University. It was as good as the courses at Stanford, on and off campus, if you're curious.

[Anonymous No.12056003]

>>12055843

Good to know, thanks.

[Anonymous No.12056501]

>>12051537
>OP gets a helpful, well thought out post
>ignored
This is how we know you're full of shit. Fuck off, you make this board worse.

[Anonymous No.12057192]

>>12056501
>OP didn't reply to my post
>Better sperg out
That post was OK but mine was better and got replies. What that post prescribes is quite a specific path to be noticed by high brow literary magazines and circles. People may have quite different ambitions to that.

Not least because the contemporary literary establishment is a shambles full of talentless rent-seeking minorities and gender revolutionaries.

[Anonymous No.12058109]

>>12055335
it's a photography meme -- just as there are writers that scam courses, there are photography teachers that draw random lines on photos and say that this is what makes it great. it goes at such and such an angle and ends at such and such a fraction of the way down the photo.

there are actually some rules that sort of matter. like the rule of thirds. but it quickly just turns into nonsense, and this pic is kind of poking fun at that.

[Anonymous No.12058232]

>>12049136
Someone like you shouldn't call themselves a "writer" except in the privacy of your own home, away from reality, in the absence of company, or in your delusions, unless either you have published or use the word in the most literal sense that you write stuff.

[Anonymous No.12058237]

>>12049136
For you, OP.

[Anonymous No.12058683]

>>12058109
I see. It's like seeing metaphors where there is just plain descriptions. Like interpreting a book as an allegorical representation of some historical event—maybe an event occurred centuries after the book was written. Like seeing references to pop culture everywhere, or missing references to pop culture because pop culture is so ephemereal. I understand.

[Anonymous No.12058880]

>>12050001
that's a pretty good deal for that pizza tbqhq

[Anonymous No.12058894]

>>12053681
There's the Great Designer Search anon.