/wg/ Writan General

[Anonymous No.21220163]

Your Prose Is Like Sand On A Beach Edition.

/wg/ AUTHORS & FLASH FICTION: https://pastebin.com/ruwQj7xQ
RESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS: https://pastebin.com/nFxdiQvC

Please limit excerpts to one post.
Give advice as much as you receive it to the best of your ability.
Follow prompts made below and discuss written works for practice; contribute and you shall receive.
If you have not performed a cursory proofread, do not expect to be treated kindly. Edit your work for spelling and grammar before posting.

Previous thread:
>>21210476

[Anonymous No.21220167]

>>21220163
Just wait til I hit big

You'll see.. You'll all see

[Anonymous No.21220191]

>>21220167
Congrats on the 20k views on literotica btw.

[Anonymous No.21220204]

1k today.
Further alluded to more elvin derriere's
T'was a good day.

[Anonymous No.21220271]

Wrote a poem about a dog.

Decided to read it on video too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGCAgrhhc8

What do you think?

[Anonymous No.21220291]

>>21220271
I don't want to hear any of yalls voices desu.

[Anonymous No.21220442]

Stop using singular 'they'.

[Anonymous No.21220478]

>>21220163
Who's Writan?

[Anonymous No.21220671]

>>21220271
Ok poem

[Anonymous No.21220733]

Why should I write poems?

[Anonymous No.21220751]

>>21220163
In the shower, I thought of a story idea. There is this guy who inherited his family home from his mother, who passed away. Since her bad health, she had not been living there and the house slowly decayed and fell into disrepair. When the guy decides to fix it up to sell, he notices there is a person living with him, hiding. So he acts like he doesn't notice, but plays increasingly messed up games with them. The guy ultimately sets him up for the murder of his own family, and he gets away with it. And this guy in that squats the house is just a guy down on his luck trying to survive.

[Anonymous No.21220758]

>>21220751
The concept is also that the reader initially roots for the protag and takes them (hopefully) all the way until they realize they're a monster.

[Anonymous No.21220781]

>>21220751
If you can pull it off by all means write it. Ideas are cheap . And this one sounds better as a movie than a book.

[Anonymous No.21220844]

Some days I read my own work and think "yes, I believe this to be publishable," and some days I read my own work, even the same passage, and get so embarrassed I shared it with anyone I want to crawl in a hole and die.

[Anonymous No.21220871]

>discovery write in my fantasy book
>Settings and geography make no fucking sense
>Literal final fantasy tier of random ass locations and description
>Shove things in to make it fit
Oh well

[Anonymous No.21221066]

>get in a terrible car accident yesterday
>I could have easily died
>Yet to publish my manuscript
>It could have disappeared with me forever
Fuck it... I'm just going to put it out there. Fuck trad publishing. I don't have the time to wait.

[Anonymous No.21221097]

>>21220163
Where can I post my writing online? I basically just want to dump my writing somewhere where people can see it and talk about it like giving feedback for example. Short stories, poems, a page of random rambling etc. Just everything that I write. What do you guys use?

[Anonymous No.21221110]

>>21221097
>Tell me you just stumbled into this thread without lurking at all without telling me

[Anonymous No.21221158]

>>21221097
Pastebin.

[Anonymous No.21221161]

>>21220844
Funny how that's literally never happened to anyone else before. How did you do it? No, really! It's like God created you specifically to have this amazing, unique experience and then tell us about it. Because try as we might, we ordinary people can't even begin to imagine how it must feel to have that. Can you believe how lucky you are? Damn...

[Anonymous No.21221174]

>>21220163
My sleep has been all over the place so no writing today and yesterday. Makes me sad. I could try to write now but what my brain's operating capacity is atm. Maybe I should take a day off.
>>21220733
Because it's fast.
>>21220844
Feelings don't really matter anon. If you objectively feel that you can make some improvement, consider making it, and then stop worrying about this.
>>21221161
You are a miserable, sorry creature.

[Anonymous No.21221178]

>>21221174
dumb frogposter

[Anonymous No.21221206]

>>21221178
Seethe

[Anonymous No.21221269]

>>21221178
The Frog is everywhere

[Anonymous No.21221270]

>>21220163
>No thread theme
Soulless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQmK6nN7bBU&ab_channel=OrcaSmut

[Anonymous No.21221278]

>>21221206
Cope

[Anonymous No.21221361]

>>21220097
Oh, they were. It's just that he was stronger

[Anonymous No.21221392]

One of my tutors at university had proposed to me that I should apply for an paid internship pertaining to investigation in humanities and social sciences. He's a professor of Art History, cinema and literature. I've decided to accept it, but in order to do so I'll have to write a few academic papers on various subjects of my choosing, as well as attending a few congresses and apply my writings to specialized magazines. I am a little overwhelmed by this, but I still want to make an attempt. Could you anons give me some pointers on how to improve my academic writing? In terms of style, investigation, and such. I would very much appreciate your help.

[Anonymous No.21221396]

80K-ish words into retarded fanfic. I need to get this out of my system so I can do something publishable. But it just keeps growing.

[Anonymous No.21221400]

>>21221396
What fandom?

[Anonymous No.21221404]

>>21220781
I could see it working both ways; if he expanded in the idea by adding more characters, background for both protagonists and such he could get a pretty near psychological thriller novel out of it. As a short story it could work too, but it'd be harder to accomplish that same impact. Not to say it couldn't be a movie too, but as a book it'd work well.
>>21220751
>>21220758
I guess you're just pitching us your idea so that we tell you what we think about it. In that case, I tell you that you try writing it. After all, most premises are worth squat compared to their execution. I just hope that letting out your idea isn't enough to satisfy you and that you are actually willing to put in the effort.

[Anonymous No.21221405]

>>21221392
That sounds like a lot of work for an internship but if you want the job, go for it.
Also, ask you tutor. He's your tutor not us, lol.

[Anonymous No.21221409]

>>21221392
Nobody knows because you won't post what you've written before. God fuck dude, we need samples of your work before we can help you.

[Anonymous No.21221454]

>>21221405
I didn't explain myself well. The job is given based on your academic record. He is egging me on to publish and attend congresses in order to pursue another scholarship that is much more demanding.
>>21221409
It's in Spanish.

[Anonymous No.21221455]

>>21221392
Go for it!
The most important part of this internship, as far as your possible future writing career is concerned, is making connections.
Those will be vital in distinguishing yourself from the crowd.

[Anonymous No.21221460]

>>21221396
If you find something you can write, by all means write it.
Even if it's a "retarded fanfiction".
Just the fact that you *can* write it is a sign you should.
And you'll most likely hone your craft in general by doing so.
In the worst case, you'll get it out of your system.
And maybe some idiots will pay you money on Patreon.
No downsides!

[Anonymous No.21221490]

>>21221460
Thanks, I appreciate it.
>>21221400
Err...Fate (anime). Yeah, probably not /lit/ material, but hey, this is the furthest I've gotten into a story, so that's kind of nice. I'll call it a start.

[Anonymous No.21221499]

>>21221396
Speaking of fanfic, I should really get to actually fucking outlining mine. Shit.

[Anonymous No.21221503]

>>21220442
Singular they has been a part of our language for centuries. It existed prior to the artificial re-latinization which gave us the he/she orthodoxy. I shant linguistically suck off sweaty wops desu

[Anonymous No.21221506]

>>21221454
>I didn't explain myself well. The job is given based on your academic record. He is egging me on to publish and attend congresses in order to pursue another scholarship that is much more demanding.
Okay, in that case if you want to commit to this stuff, go right ahead. Sounds like a good opportunity anon.

[Anonymous No.21221599]

>>21221499
This is what I regret the most so far. I started writing it after planning out the general premise and deciding roughly how it ends, but I left a bit too much vague. Tens of thousands of words in I really need to start nailing down as many specifics as possible, else I'll trip over myself.

[Anonymous No.21221671]

>>21221490
Change the names and call it your own. Worked for those YA authors stealing anime plots and becoming best sellers

[Anonymous No.21221679]

>>21221396
Same length but I love mine - 15k more words to go. I figure it might be either a good reader magnet for people to discover my other stuff. Alternatively I could Twilight to be all my own with pretty minimal effort (but then nobody will read it)

>>21221400
Elder Scrolls for me

[Anonymous No.21221700]

>>21221679
>magnet for people to discover my other stuff
That's my problem: there's way to much smut in mine, so I'm going to have to sequester it. No connection whatsoever to anything else I'll ever write.

[Anonymous No.21221736]

>>21221700
>too much smut in mine
What's the damage in terms of % that's smut and raunchiness? You could try passing it off as romance

[Anonymous No.21221776]

>>21221736
Hard to say, but I'll go ahead and say that there's enough explicit stuff that you can tell that I'm sort of having a bit too much fun. I briefly considered cleaning it up to the point that it'd be more palatable, but there are some smexy scenes that are also very plot significant, and so it would be difficult to tone it down (under age, violence, manipulation, and more). I've come to terms with the idea that this is just how this story will be, for better or worse. Still, it's a bit weird that I invested so much time into something that, by design, can't help me elsewise. Really, I'll be surprised if even a couple people read half of it.

[Anonymous No.21221862]

>>21221679
>I figure it might be either a good reader magnet for people to discover my other stuff
This is what I'm hoping my YA fantasy would do for me. I need to learn to shill on tik tok though

[Anonymous No.21221921]

>>21220163
>https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/57747/simulacrum-heavens-key
What do you gents think about using Stable Diffusion for illustrating your novel? I've tried it, and it is quite fun. I'm yet to personally get a single human with non-messed up hands and face, but if prompt something like the following into the HuggingFace model...

> A very large treasure fleet. A highly detailed, 4k, best quality masterpiece illustration by Greg Rutkowski. Trending on ArtStation.
I get really godly 512x512 background illustrations. Them being this small is not that much of a problem as I've later found out you can use Real-ESRGAN (there are binaries on its repo) to upscale them into something decent. I've gone an illustrated the 170k of my novel and it was a great break in the monotony of just writing all the time. I've had to write a bunch of Python scripts to automate extracting images in the order of appearance from the html file during all that as well for rescaling the results of the upresing to 1,280.

After using SD for a while, I am in awe of its capabilities. Yeah, it does fuck up a lot of the time, especially when it comes to humans, but nonetheless its skill is nothing short of divine. It really gives me a window into what actual AI capabilities are going to be once we move beyond the deep learning phase.

[Anonymous No.21221987]

Publishing my book in December, will this finally get me a gf bros?

[Anonymous No.21222075]

>>21221921
Damn, thats a lot of chapters anon. How many readers are you averaging?

[Anonymous No.21222084]

>>21221066
Hope you're doing better now, bro.

[Anonymous No.21222127]

Is it really so bad to 'tell' rather than 'show' at least a little bit? For specific background information that can't be conveyed indirectly very easily, I usually just give the reader the info directly, usually via a character recalling and thinking about it.

[Anonymous No.21222143]

>>21222127
No. Stop falling for booktuber rules of thumb that are spouted by retards who are hopeless writers thinking they're one little secret rule away from becoming great.

[Anonymous No.21222218]

>>21222143
>booktubers invented show don't tell

[Anonymous No.21222224]

>>21221921
>Stable Diffusion
I'm all in favor of AI-generated covers.
Another upscaler is nightcafe.studio, but you'll have to wait a few days to accumulate enough points (5/day) to do the upscaling (or evolving) you want.
>>21221987
Huh? Why would it?
>>21222127
Yes. Story structure is all about showing, i.e. goal, conflict, then disaster. Telling, even flashback, kills the forward momentum and bores your reader.

[Anonymous No.21222234]

>>21222218
It's a screenwriting adage that autists inflate to being the number one rule of writing because autists are obsessed with rules and having something that will be an absolute guideline to follow to success. X thing makes Y happen to success. It's been shoehorned into story writing because YA has taken over and everyone is not writing true novels, just pre-screenplays they're hoping get optioned for a movie.

[Anonymous No.21222253]

>>21222224
>Huh? Why would it?
Don't girl love authors?

[Anonymous No.21222262]

>>21222253
No, they love money.
Become a rich author & maybe the ladies will give you a second glance.
"Verification not required."

[Anonymous No.21222263]

>>21222234
>It's a screenwriting adage
It literally isn't, why are you making shit up?
>It's been shoehorned into story writing because YA has taken over and everyone is not writing true novels, just pre-screenplays they're hoping get optioned for a movie.
It was being taught in writing manuals long before "YA" was even a thing.

[Anonymous No.21222275]

>>21222262
This. The only artistic thing that will get you women in and of itself without the money aspect is sports.

>bro women love musicians learn to play guitar!
No women love rock stars/rappers because they're rich and famous.
>bro women love writers write a book!
No women love bestselling authors because they're famous and have money.
>bro women love actors just get into theater and local films!
No women love actors from Hollywood who are rich and famous (and are also 10/10 handsome).

However, weirdly enough, you can be a local level hockey player and you will legit get 10/10 "puck bunny" girls. Same with any other sport. If girls can show up to your game and see you be a good athlete they'll cream their panties and especially when they can share one highlight of yours for their friends on ig about you sinking a free throw or whatever.

[Anonymous No.21222383]

>>21222224
But how would a book only be about showing? I don't understand how this rule can be used in writing as nothing but a general guideline. Isn't a book just a textual version of me TELLING a story to you?

[Anonymous No.21222426]

>>21222383
A book wouldn't just be about showing.
Showing is for the scenes, i.e. the goal/conflict/disaster parts.
Between scenes you have sequels, i.e. reaction/dilemma/decision.
This is basic story structure.
If you're not familiar with that, I recommend "Techniques Of The Selling Writer" by Dwight V. Swain.

[Anonymous No.21222463]

>>21221174
Good frog poster. Sometimes even if I’m not writing anything long I’ll still try and get a paragraph of something down just to stay fresh. If you need to fix your sleep, though, doubt a day will hurt you too much, as long as you don’t make too much of a habit of it.

[Anonymous No.21222619]

>>21222275
Playing an instrument works too

[Anonymous No.21222733]

>>21222263
Not that anon but I don't buy that nonsense about "show don't tell" at all. Just like that other anon said, that's basically a principle for writing movie scripts. If you follow this principle unswervingly in story writing, what you will get in the end is an exceedingly long, slow paced, stealth infodump kind of product. Trying to carry a complex narrative by hinging on dialogue and action alone will lead to the bastardisation of both. Not to mention that you should be calculating what audience you are writing for - I have experience writing for medium to large groups and I can tell you that exactly 0% of my subtle hints were picked up on. Subtle depiction requires not only a sharp mind but also great attachment and attention to a work - the vast majority of people will simply overlook this. That's why now when I write, I try to be as explicit and exhaustive as possible with what I want to get across, so that even the least attentive reader will still know what's going on unless he's skipping paragraphs and shit.
>>21222463
Yeah I like the idea of something like that, unfortunately I tend to work in bursts. ATM I am sitting on a major design decision and as soon as I make that decision I will probably get a whole bunch of ideas on how to implement it. If I don't write shit like that immediately, I just forget it, or worse, remember parts of it and have to write a watered down version that will haunt me forever.
I might try to take a look at this stuff anyway, but my sleep has been so weird lately that I can never tell when I am about to get tired or not. Today for example, the sleep I've had was taken in several 2-3 hours blocks dispersed throughout the day.

[Anonymous No.21222738]

>>21220163
>/wg/ Writan General
OP WHAT THE FUCK

[Anonymous No.21222765]

>>21220271
Sad and dark. Nice rhythm. The rhymes work and flow well. I think it is a very good poem. I feel sad for the dog, or whoever it was in that alleyway.

[Anonymous No.21222786]

>>21222619
lmao

[Anonymous No.21222797]

>>21222619
Reminds me of an old joke:
What do you call a guitarist without a girlfriend?
Homeless.

If you want a girlfriend, you have to be drop-dead handsome.
Without that, you either have to be rich, or a complete bullshit artist.
Writing a book isn't gonna do it.

[Anonymous No.21222799]

>>21222797
>or a complete bullshit artist.
Hey, that's me!
Glad to know there's still hope :)

[Gus Flory - author of THE DREAM WIZARD No.21222994]

>>21221987
Congratulations on publishing. Self-publishing or trad? A book tour might get you a girlfriend, or at least some phone numbers. I hope you find success and get a girlfriend. Good luck, anon.

[Anonymous No.21223251]

Help! Where do I find beta readers? I did all that I can do, and my skills aren't good enough to edit this well. HELP! Where do I find a bunch of helpful self-sacrificing, no life NEETs to beta read a 60k word manuscript?

[Anonymous No.21223255]

>>21220163
miniMAG issue 18
open for submission under 2.5k words
poetry/prose/art/nonfic/whatever

[Anonymous No.21223259]

>>21223255
submissions:
[e-mail]

website with past issues and pdfs:
minimag.space

[Anonymous No.21223263]

>>21223259

[Anonymous No.21223265]

>>21223263

[Anonymous No.21223266]

>>21223265

[Anonymous No.21223267]

>>21223266

[Anonymous No.21223269]

>>21223267

[Anonymous No.21223273]

>>21223269
full issues @ minimag.space
send stuff to [e-mail]

[Anonymous No.21223274]

>>21223273

[Anonymous No.21223277]

>>21223274

[Anonymous No.21223279]

>>21223277

[Anonymous No.21223281]

>>21223279

[Anonymous No.21223285]

>>21223281

[Anonymous No.21223287]

>>21223285
[e-mail]
minimag.space

also check out 5040review.wordpress.com
for more food poems

[Anonymous No.21223422]

I'm bouncing between "I can do it!" and "I'm a hack." daily.
I've settled for "Even hacks can do it."

[Anonymous No.21223425]

>>21223422
Anon just go to your local book store and looks at the shelves filled with utter fucking drivel shit. If they can get on the shelves anyone can.

[Anonymous No.21223444]

>>21223425
Yes that was my conclusion as well. I'm honestly heartened by the success of shit writers, even if they're better than me in terms of quantity, even if I can't outsell them I'll be happy with better quality, since I don't write for my main income anyway.

[Anonymous No.21223447]

>>21223287
is this mini-mag getting larger? I hope there's an end of the year edition where you choose the best work.

[Anonymous No.21223463]

>>21223447
Don’t hope for anything. I’m just putting together stuff, is all. No need for more pressure.

[Anonymous No.21223484]

>>21223447
>getting larger
submissions have gone up, I've got the core pieces for every issue up to the end of the year sorted out (there's still room for other work though; keep sending in stuff). hard to gauge readership numbers exactly, but it does seem to be getting bigger week by week

>end of year
issue26 lines up with the December 29th issue (happy accident) I might just make that one a best mega issue featuring work from the first half-year of miniMAG

[Anonymous No.21223583]

does anyone have experience with webnovel . com? good or bad
I know they are Chinese owned

[Anonymous No.21223593]

>>21223422
Card proclaimed that writers are mad. We need to simultaneously believe our work is the greatest ever created, and also look at it while recoiling in disgust, wondering how we ever thought it passable, as we plunge into editing it.

[Anonymous No.21223635]

>>21223463
>>21223484
desu a physical copy would be pretty dope.

[Anonymous No.21223638]

>>21223635
are you hacking me?
who are you?

[Anonymous No.21223648]

>>21223638
I think I'm actually crazy or some shit.... I wrote,

"ngl a physical copy would be pretty dope"

I refuse to believe I subliminally typed some "desu" that's some weeb shit.

[Anonymous No.21223668]

you have to go back

[Anonymous No.21223673]

>>21223648
This isn't reddit

[Anonymous No.21223726]

>>21223648
>newfag pops his desu cherry
ahh, takes me back

[Anonymous No.21223729]

>>21223648
Hey amigo, stop with the reddit spacing

[Anonymous No.21223736]

1.3k today
How possible is it so to know how it be like it do when other then they not do?

[Anonymous No.21223765]

Just got done writing the last page in the first chapter. Where can I improve here?

[Anonymous No.21223771]

>>21223765
Sounds like the dude wants to fuck his mom

[Anonymous No.21223782]

>>21223771

[Anonymous No.21223797]

>>21223736
I feel the same as >>21223771 You may want to adjust a few things in the second paragraph. Maybe replace the word "beautiful" for starters and make clearly that her ethereal kiss is the motherly sort.

[Anonymous No.21223888]

Alright how's this?

[Anonymous No.21223903]

>>21222075
I doubt it is more than 15 who've read all the way to the latest chapter.

[Anonymous No.21223921]

>>21223888
It no longer sounds like he wants to fuck her

[Anonymous No.21223925]

One of my short stories came out in print last week. Proud of myself. This is the power of self belief.

[Anonymous No.21223931]

>>21223888
Not sexual anymore - much better. If I had to nitpick, there's something about the second sentence of the second paragraph I find slightly awkward. "sunk it into the crust" just sounds a bit odd in my head and I had to read the sentence twice to understand exactly what you meant.

[Anonymous No.21223937]

>>21223903
Which sound bad, and probably is, but I do get the sense that my averages are going up. I'll only start to get scared if my views stop accelerating after a few months.

[Anonymous No.21223950]

>>21223765
>>21223888
I don't know what those other anons are talking about, I don't see anything sexual about either of these.

[Anonymous No.21223976]

>>21223950
It's entirely possible that we're retarded, but two of us picked up on the same feeling. Clearly it's not entirely unlike that others would read sexuality into the first version.

[Anonymous No.21223980]

He wiped away the blood from his eyes and sang the song his mother taught him when he was a boy. A strange lullaby - twisted - yet sweet. It haunted his dreams after caressing him to sleep. Tears in rain, dropping your wallet down the drain. It doesn’t matter. The outcome remains the same. The harvester’s engine rumbles and the silo seems mysteriously empty, yet the farmer marches on - his weary arms working, the harvest so far away. Nothing felt the same after that day, but the ghost he let out of its cage was thankful to be allowed to play.

[Anonymous No.21224035]

>>21223976
IDK, I don't think using the adjective 'beautiful' alone carries sexual connotations. Then again I am very open about my thoughts about the human body so perhaps it's different for other people.

[Anonymous No.21224060]

>>21224035
It's not just 'beautiful'. That in combinations with how described her 'kiss' gave me sexual vibes.

[Anonymous No.21224084]

>>21220163
Source on picrel?

[Anonymous No.21224112]

>>21223976
How does wanting to fuck a dead person he's never met make sense to you?

[Anonymous No.21224119]

>>21224112
I've watched a lot of porn.

[Anonymous No.21224130]

how 2 learn discipline for writing?

[Anonymous No.21224140]

>>21224130
chant sutras

[Anonymous No.21224157]

>>21224130
small easy achievable goal each day, I mean REALLY small like 500 words or even less it is too hard for you
after a month or so increase the goal
do that for a few months and you can get to a few thousand words

[Anonymous No.21224282]

>>21223251
Pay me and I'll do it

[Anonymous No.21224285]

>>21223925
Good job anon. It's not just belief, it's also good writing.

[Anonymous No.21224290]

>>21222127
Read the book "Showing and Telling" to have these questions answered.

[Anonymous No.21224331]

ooo ooo ahh ahh ahh

[Anonymous No.21224386]

Does anyone have any interesting writing exercises? I'd like to try to write more, even when I don't feel like working on a particular story.

Things like writing a paragraph describing a place you are (which I've started a bit of).

[Anonymous No.21224419]

So is approaching a traditional publisher even worth it anymore? Seems like they don't give a fuck about their published authors and you kinda have to self market anyway.

[Anonymous No.21224463]

>>21221503
No, it only appeared only like 6 years ago. Don't lie to me. Everyone prior to that was either using "he" as gender neutral, or simply using both at once

[Anonymous No.21224466]

Bleh

[Anonymous No.21224477]

>>21224084
Learn how to use Google image search.
It came up immediately.

[Anonymous No.21224483]

>>21224419
No, for many reasons...picrel included.

[Anonymous No.21224776]

How do I prevent every character from becoming literally me?
I write up a character sheet with social relationships, interests, motivations, and character flaws, but when I actually sit down and write the character just becomes me as I would be if I tried to act like the character. If that makes any sense. They act based on the external factors that I have established, but their thought processes and inner voices are all the same, because it's literally just me.

[Anonymous No.21224797]

>>21224776
don't try to make your characters "real" like you are
characters are just a function in the story matrix with fixed attributes (some of these attributes may changed based on the character arc)
characters are "idealized" and should only behave following the internal values the authors sets
if they start becoming "you", it means you are not following the set rules

[Anonymous No.21224893]

>>21224797
Doesn't that make for very shallow characters?

[Anonymous No.21224904]

I wanted to write a poem about the three cities of Vittoriosa, Cospiciua and Senglea.

Three cities reach towards me,
Through time and space.
Three cities who would like to be seen
And of some use again,
Three cities who sitting by the foot like an old dog
Remain eager to please
And hopeful to be of some use.
Three beautiful, golden dogs
Who must be admired for their grace.

[Anonymous No.21224906]

>>21224483
This has been debunked numerous times. Stop posting this.

[Anonymous No.21224911]

>>21224893
no, because their motivations, psychological and moral weaknesses in relation to the theme of the story and the internal change make them interesting and complex
think about your personal favorite characters in fiction, the ones you still remember to this day
you can probably characterize them in 3 sentences
you can still give them a unique and colorful backstory and ghost that haunts them

[Anonymous No.21224956]

>>21220163
It's been a really long while since I've done any creative writing. Was busy with work and life. Now that everything's settling in and I now finally have some time again, I'm planning on writing this post-apoc/fantasy story.

Problem is I like the setting and story I've planned so far a lot. Enough that I want to work on something else first to improve my skills before actually back.

I know it's weird and counterintuitive. But anyone experienced something similar?

[Anonymous No.21224966]

>>21224956
actually writing it*

[Anonymous No.21225044]

>>21223925
Congrats, anon!

[Anonymous No.21225057]

>>21224956
Insanely common. More likely to have felt it than not. Just write it, you can come back and write it again later when you feel like you're better.

[Anonymous No.21225253]

What is your opinion on writing ancient greek plays? Too try-hard? Weird? I have ideas that I think would work best through that medium.

[Anonymous No.21225254]

>>21224463
I'm telling you to go back. Chaucer uses singular they, for instance, and it never died out among the commoners. Clearly people are overusing it, but the use of singular they wheb gender is unknown is good and proper.

[Anonymous No.21225287]

>>21225253
Write it, post it here. I don't know how to imagine your idea as a Greek play because I know nothing about it. May as well bring a finished piece to the table and ask, rather than some vague notion that could be imagined a million different ways. Trust yourself that it's the best medium for your idea.

[Anonymous No.21225298]

Happy ending where the outstanding threads are explicitly tied up or bittwersweet ending with actual literary merit that only suggests those threads haven't been forgotten?

I've basically already written the latter, but I'm not publishing this story for money. I don't want readers to get pissed at me for not ultra explicitly concluding the archs of the MCs and only suggesting that one of the MCs is better off and the other maybe possibly has accepted the death that is part of her arch.

[Anonymous No.21225443]

>>21224466
>Admire characters for attempting more than what their successes have been
This sentence is weird. So make a point to have characters try and fail regularly? Is this in any way different from just the ultra standard hero's journey?

[Anonymous No.21225572]

Are there any rules of thumb for being discrete about including your fetishes in otherwise non-erotic writing?

[Anonymous No.21225592]

>>21225572
I usually have a character suggest it indirectly. I had one of my characters in my latest book have a dream that he recounts, kind of shivering after the fact at the thought of what he did in the dream without saying precisely what he did but suggesting it with his actions after he wakes up and tries to get his bearings.

[Anonymous No.21225608]

40 to 60 books release on Amazon alone EACH DAY.
About 350 books in the week around your release.
Blockbuster release? Successful release by a known author or another new author, in your genre? BOOM you are done.
Also, not only are you competing with other new releases, but the entire backlog of books every reader owns. :)

Take all the "success stories" you can think of in the past 30 years and divide it by the number of writers in that time who have tried (again, 50 books a day, 1500 a month) and there's your historical likelihood of "making it."

Amazon cut, higher self-employment taxes, no benefits, no retirement, AND to top it all off: Your sales diminish over time, so even if you hit this "mediocrity lottery" you'll have to do it all over again in a couple years.

>He thinks that writing can provide a sustainable primary income in 2022
Hahahahaha

H O B B Y
O
B
B
Y

[Anonymous No.21225625]

>>21224060
Is the kiss part supposed to refer to the mother? I assumed that there's a light breeze which is blowing on him thematically.

[Anonymous No.21225665]

>>21225625
I'm not the author, but that's how it read to me. I'm not saying I'm objectively correct, but given that two of us read it the same way, it can be taken in a sexual way.

[Anonymous No.21225732]

Final revision for the ending, is this good or corny?

[Anonymous No.21225795]

>>21225732
I like it desu, if I had context I think it would be even better. It's a bit corny but moments like that usually need to be a bit corny.

[Anonymous No.21225815]

>>21224130
>be me
>wake up
>go to 4chan
>browse for 7 hours
>see some interesting shit on 4chan
>read about it for another 9 hours
>go to sleep having done nothing
vs
>be me
>wake up
>don't go to 4chan
>start writing immediately
>write for a few hours
>get tired
>go to 4chan
>then go to sleep when it's appropriate
Swap 4chan for whatever takes up your time. Ezpz, no discipline required. What you need instead is more "mindfulness".
>>21224386
One recommendation from me - mix up the styles. So, if you are describing your location, try to describe it in different ways - with the blandest, driest and most laconic prose you can, or with the most purple prose you can, and other ways of describing too. Do this a lot, then analyse your writing to see what works and what doesn't, and you'll grow very quickly.
>>21224776
There is no easy fix to this. The answer is to put in more effort. The fact that you are aware that you leak into your characters shows that you can detect when that happens, which also means that you will be able to fix it if you put in the effort and attention necessary to do so. What you described happens to me too, especially if the character design I am using is very barebones and/or is very different and alien to my psyche. It can still be done, though. If you find it difficult to put yourself in the character's place mentally, you can try to do this with a Notepad file open in front of you that describes the key traits and behavioural style of the character. Then you'll certainly know what the problem is.
>>21224904
That's a nice poem anon. The writing seems to suggest a close, sentimental connection with these cities rather than solemn admiration.
>>21224956
What this anon said >>21225057. Write the story. It doesn't matter whether you are writing it for real or as a trial run, just write something you care, and commit to it.
>>21225298
I like happy endings! Hurray for happy endings!
You should determine this for your own story according to your aims anon.
>>21225572
Please do not do this. This is the reason why I now react with extreme suspicion whenever a writer uses the words "feet", "sweat", "smell" among a plethora others, especially if these are used often.
>>21225608
No matter how many troll posts you make it will never fill the void inside you.
>>21225732
So it was a breeze! I knew it. Looks good to me anon, although the first version looked good to me too. I like this one, although it feels different! I don't think it's corny but then again I don't really give a shit about things like that tbqh desu.
If I had to nitpick anything, I'd just have to say I've never seen Emillian as a surname before.

[Anonymous No.21225827]

>>21225253
>What is your opinion on writing ancient greek plays?
Are you an ancient greek? If not, then you're just writing plays

[Anonymous No.21225905]

>>21220163
Got a question to all of you. What makes a fantasy novell great? What do you personally like about them? I would love to listen to some guiding toughts of me writing one.

[Anonymous No.21225929]

>>21225905
The subtle insertion of my fetishes. I want mentally to smell my elf gf's loaded diaper.

[Anonymous No.21225968]

>>21225905
For me, it's the characters. I don't normally read fantasy, but the few times that I have, it has happened almost "unintentionally" - I take a look at a story, and the tension of the plot and the personality of a character almost seize me by force and push me into reading more.

[Anonymous No.21225980]

>>21225905
Well, the answer lies in the name. Fantasy allows us to venture outside of the everyday, so good fantasy takes advantage of that opportunity to show us perspectives that wouldn't be possible in real life. A lot of fantasy novels just use the genre as a just-add-water setting with not much care or thought put into why they are writing fantasy.

In terms of concrete steps, what often distinguishes bad fantasy from good fantasy is worldbuilding. Create a fleshed-out world with interconnecting systems but be careful to not spam boring details. For example, designing factions and writing outlines of their histories before you get started is thinking ahead, but creating conlangs before you even know what the story is going to be is going overboard. Just like stories with well thought-out characters, stories with good settings tend to write themselves a little bit and its more difficult to mess things up.

[Anonymous No.21226000]

I'm starting to think that I might be a little too Chinese, because I have no idea how to use an outline.

I get that it's a general list of how the story goes, but whenever I write one, I end up being struck dumb, because I don't know how to use it. Do you write down the important plot points and then write in between, or, is it something that you have to figure out yourself, because it's the sort of thing that has a myriad of ways to go about it?

[Anonymous No.21226016]

>>21226000
just write the whole thing under a week without sleeping and then you can just keep the whole story in your head.

[Anonymous No.21226025]

>>21226000
I use scrivener and plan out my chapters and scenes ahead of time (though that will change drastically over the course of actually writing) organize themes, characters, etc. outside of the outline. Personally I use my outlines for planning groups, interactions, how I want to close certain character threads, etc.

[Anonymous No.21226206]

>>21225815
So write the happy ending then? I feel like you're right desu, but my careful planning of subtle hints will now mostly go to waste. Oh well, maybe I can make edit past chapters to make it fit in the same way.

[Anonymous No.21226269]

>>21225905
A sense of heart and soul.

[Anonymous No.21226329]

>>21226000
The outline I use is like a barebones version of my entire story and by writing it out (and filling in any blanks) I would go from having an outline to having a complete story.
>>21226206
If you only have the ending left to do, you should write two versions anon! Keep them both, but perhaps consider publishing the one which you consider superior, either commercially or artistically, depending on what you want.

[Anonymous No.21226448]

What does anon think about speculative mythology? Is it a dead subgenre?
I don't know if this needs a separate thread (tell me if so), but I constantly hear people saying that stuff like Tolkien's Silmarillion could never be published today and I never fully understood why, fantasy still has lots of readers to this day. Maybe people's tastes on pacing did change and now it's rare to find someone who enjoys reading through what is basically a Bible. What if one was to write it inside a normal fantasy novel in small snippets to make the worldbuilding more digestible to the reader? I think that would be a solution.

[Anonymous No.21226483]

>>21226448
I am not a Tolkien historian, but Tolkien's stuff was probably very niche even back in his day. The very deep, high level mythological work does not really interest the vast majority of people, and there certainly isn't any easy way to do the necessary exposition for a whole new mythology. Tolkien's influence is much more so that of an inspiration - while Tolkien's world is a high effort mythological effort, his many low grade imitators and their readers are what gave us the contemporary fantasy consumer market. It is not at all surprising that Tolkien-style works wouldn't do well in the current environment - they never were suitable for it in the first place.
I think if you want to write mythological fantasy, it is definitely doable, but you should be realistic about the reader numbers you are likely to see, and also - in case you are aiming for commercial success - the extent to which you will be able to showcase the real, deep mythological work.
I have a fairly deep interest in religion, mythology, theology etc., so after a few years of research, I felt comfortable enough to design my own "mythological", just like Tolkien. The vast majority of stuff I've come up with is simply never going to make it into any commercial story written within the setting. That's the only way to write an appealing "modern" story.
Generally, what the consumer wants from fantasy today is an escapist, romantic tale about a mystical, medieval-esque setting. "Dark fantasy" is the hyper cynical version of that. There is little commercial reason to branch out beyond that, generally, especially because it's easier for a genre to thrive if the settings are more or less "standardised" and readers don't need to put in the effort to familiarise themselves with new things.

[Anonymous No.21226519]

Long time poster, first time visitor to /wg/.
I got an idea for a satyrical piece, any and all feedback is appreciated.
The first part would be
>I: The Internet Inferno and the Nine Rings of Cancelling
english terza rima that draws heavily from Dante, but no characters or story. lists the 9 rings/circles and their contents:
>1 Purgatory = The Account-less
those not on social media at all
>2 Lust = The Anonymous
those not brave enough to stand behind their work but too impulsive to keep themselves from voicing their opinions
>3 Gluttony = "Stan" Accounts
basically tripfags and their equivalents. twitter users that devote their time to dickriding people they don't know
>4 Greed = Corporate Accounts
where memes and internet subculture go to die. necessary evil of the meme cycle
the "NPCs" of the internet that have no original thoughts, are subject to groupthink, base their personality on their identity and take social media platforms far too seriously. They keep corporate accounts alive through their obsession with consumerism and commercialism. these posters attract trolls
>6 Heretics = Trolls
straightforward here. contrarians, "gamers" and shit-posters immigrating from another platform to harass, defame and ruin everything they visit
>7 Violence
posters which harm themselves and others. breaks into 3 levels: outer, conspiracist accounts, misinformation spreaders; middle, "netbangers" spamming the platform with petty beefs among others; inner, posters threatening to doxx, ddos and infringe upon others privacy and real life outside the platform
>8 Fraud
lots of layers, unsure of the best order: cryptoscammers and cons giving unsolicited advice to the poor and dumb; paid "journalists" that are the mouthpiece of tyranny and mindless consumption; influencers and promoters; politicians and corporations paying said journalists and influencers to enforce their agenda; panderers and sexual deviants like furries, weaboos and "artists" that commissioning lewd smut; catfishers, predators, pedos, etc; bigots, racists, "alt-right" hatespeech, non-conformists, etc.
>9 Treason
bot accounts, those that make bot accounts, janitors, mods, programmers that abandon or sell-out the platform (moot, zuck, ohanian) and those looking to acquire and exploit existing projects (musk, zuck, corporate entities)

lmk if you got any ideas

[Anonymous No.21226529]

>>21226519
ring 5 would be wrath and the mob before the line, "the 'NPCs' of the internet..."

[Anonymous No.21226606]

>>21225608
This should be in every OP. There are so many shitty writers to be filtered and they need to have their spirits broken with realities like this until only the strongest and most hopeless writers are left.

[Anonymous No.21226706]

>>21225608
>have a few books on Kindle
>make some money from them once in a while
>buy myself some extra nice cheese or a cheap steam game or a night out with friends using that money sometimes
>know that a handful of readers have enjoyed something that came from nothing but my brain
>get a 5% happiness and contentment boost in my life from publishing my work

Choose to be a happy man anon and take contentment in your life.

[Anonymous No.21226708]

>>21225732
Cozy ending.

[Anonymous No.21226740]

I smiled at her. "Alright. I'll do it."

"Really?"

"Yeah," I said, loving the light now shining in her eyes.

"I love you." She slipped her mouth over the head of my dick and vacuumed sucked that mutha fucka until I could feel my nut rise from the sac of my balls.

As her head bobbed up and down, I raked my hands through her thick hair while visions of Ben jamin Franklin danced in my head. This nigga may have gotten the drop on me a coupla times before so it was definitely time to put this nigga to rest.

[Anonymous No.21226900]

I'm trying to get back on the horse
https://pastebin.com/jPjwXLvL

[Anonymous No.21226934]

>>21226900
How does syrup deafen people?

[Anonymous No.21226975]

>retard reads 6/100+ chapters
>"Hmm, 3 stars, no need for a review"
One of these days I'm gonna make my own fucking Royal Road where you can't do shit like this. One of these days.

[Anonymous No.21227015]

>>21226975
Then your first 6 chapters deserve 3* because it's shit

[Anonymous No.21227021]

>>21226975
It's okay anon. My book the Emily Project has a lower rating than Call of the Crocodile

[Anonymous No.21227026]

>>21227015
Shut the fuck up, faggot

[Anonymous No.21227031]

>>21227021
How did you do that?

[Anonymous No.21227048]

>>21227031
I don't know. I don't rate my own books. I didn't think it was that bad

[Anonymous No.21227134]

>>21223251
I'll do it on a blood oath that you'll return the favor to me in January or just after on a 95k word manuscript

[Anonymous No.21227473]

>>21224906
Reference for the debunking?
You can't just say "it's been debunked" without backing it up.

[Anonymous No.21227493]

>>21221097
Reddit has several short-fiction-oriented subs.
You'll undoubtedly find one appropriate for each of your stories.
inb4 waah waah plebbit: The founder of 4chan disagrees with you.

[Anonymous No.21227516]

>>21221110
>>21221161
>>21221178
>>21221278
>>21222143
>>21227015
seethe

[Anonymous No.21227533]

Don't let some random stranger who is not a psychiatrist prescribe you because they disagree with you. That stranger is more than likely some damn hipster bum who got a knack out of things because he discovered his tongue in his teenage years, unaware of when reality will hit him the face.

[Anonymous No.21227579]

How are you supposed to make a character walking across the countryside for weeks between two story locations interesting? I know it's a staple of every fantasy book but fuck me it's just essential writing about a boring camping trip.

[Anonymous No.21227680]

>>21227579
Every scene in your story serves a structural purpose. What is it for your story? Is it in the beginning when it has to serve to do setups or show the theme? Maybe it's the part to introduce your reader to the psychological weakness.
Or is your scene in the second Act where they are overcoming the obstacles (failing/succeeding)?
If there is no reason for a scene to exist, you skip it and just do a short summary in the next part about how uneventfully the travel was.

[Anonymous No.21227686]

>>21227579
Large parts of "Kidnapped" by Robert Louis Stevenson are like this.
Maybe you can use it as an example?

[Anonymous No.21227746]

>>21227579
If it's a nothing happens for the entire journey then don't write about it. Just skip over the whole thing between chapters, or write only the interesting scenes that take place during the trip (characters getting to know each other on the road, important incidents) and briefly summarize the rest.
There's no rule that says you NEED an uneventful travelogue in your fantasy novel, and in fact it would probably be better off without it.

[Anonymous No.21227781]

>>21227680
>>21227746
There are certain plot points that need to happen and things to be discussed between characters before arriving at the destination, so that's the reason I need to write about the journey. But for whatever reason I find writing in that setting hard. Before they left I was churning out pages, and I already know what happens when they arrive. I just feel like ticking a few story element boxes as they talk around a campfire without putting any effort to describing the trek / scenery is me not doing a good job.

[Anonymous No.21227798]

>>21227781
just do those scenes then and skip the rest
if it's boring to you then it will 100% boring to the reader
or maybe you can find interesting things that happen while traveling; throw in some obstacles they face, that can be anything from monsters, robbers, and murderers to weather, sickness, interpersonal conflict or inner conflict

[Anonymous No.21227808]

>>21227798
>if it's boring to you then it will 100% boring to the reader
that's fair, guess it's going to be a very short chapter.

[Anonymous No.21227831]

I posted the end, I should've posted the beginning. Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.21227900]

>pic for attention and some relevance to the story in question

Two questions:

Firstly. I was hoping to tell the story I'm working on from, well third person limited, but primarily the perspective of a character who I'd ideally like to have their gender remain unspecified. And though they will have a gender neutral name, the name isn't even heard (technically given time them) until the end of the third chapter. I do have one specific noun I can use to describe them, though not proper, however otherwise it mostly they/them/their for basically three chapters. So the question is:
Would that become too annoying and off-putting to read as it is highly atypical? Is it even worth conceptually pursuing the idea to help the reader feel a sense of insertion if the language puts them off before they can even become hooked?

Secondly. The first two chapters, in correspondence to the whole "no name" thing going on, pretty much throw the reader into the world with no real information given about anything as the MC themselves attempt to discover what's happening. Minus the "they/them/their" conflict, I think this is actually working well. However reaching this third chapter, and the first initial milestone for discovery and information for thr MC and reader, I'm finding it naturally turn into many paragraphs of dialog that basically shed information on everything that was unknown up til now and details on what is to come as well as they soon "take the journey." My question here then is:
Would pretty much an entire chapter of conversational dialog filled with story and world building come off as tedious and boring to the point where it could put the reader off? Or maybe if the reader was intrigued enough to get this far that they may actually enjoy all the revelation and building?

[Anonymous No.21227902]

is there a name for the genre like Watership Down where it's fairly realistic except the filthy little animals have human like sapience?

[Anonymous No.21227935]

>>21227831
Not bad. It could be an interesting story.
The stalk of corn thing is my only complaint as it's strange and doesn't come out of the story organically.

[Anonymous No.21227942]

>>21227935
He's a farmer lol

[Anonymous No.21227984]

Creating names in general is hard, but creating a name for a race is fucking torture.

[Anonymous No.21228017]

>>21227984
Don't try too hard. It'll come to you.

[Anonymous No.21228030]

>>21220163
Just here guys, to tell some of you, that if you write a lot, you should learn vim.
Probably a lot of people here are already tech-savvy and know vim, but for those who don't - seriously just learn it.

You can edit text in all ways whatever using just a keyboard. You can jump all over your document with just keyboard to very precise spots in the text, and basically do whatever you do with keyboard+mouse with just keyboard, with better ergonomics.

I'm not really a writer, but I learned vim recently and it's so great, that I might just become a writer to utilize this skill.

[Anonymous No.21228037]

>>21228030
Learning vim is basically a way to convey your thoughts more directly, it's like having your brain connected to the text editor directly through your fingers -- Because you get interrupted less.

And also it's not that hard. You can learn it pretty fast, and it will save you lots of time, so the earlier the better

[Anonymous No.21228040]

>>21228037
Here's a sort of introduction to vim.
https://youtu.be/d8XtNXutVto

[Anonymous No.21228059]

>>21227984
did you know that different letters evoke different feelings in a person? like musical tones. Same with names
think about what this race is meant to symbolize as a whole, their cultural "wavelength"
then combine letters that represent this
for example, compare the names "Aragorn" to "Sauron" and you get what I mean

[Anonymous No.21228069]

>>21227984
The Vengir
The Nomoids
The Twiyls
The Esodds
The Fievors
The Ixods
The Courns
The Suromari
The Ydstrum
The Brevhevhek
The Hoieptainen
The Calabeis
The Ugrissin
The Adeshona
The Wilach
The Sunetheon
The Edor
The Tórtram
The Ibsi
The Melmini
The Mhos

[Anonymous No.21228135]

Karma waits for nobody.
>The 11 sacrifices. All of them were consumed successfully, body and soul, by its cocoon, and so it was born properly, rising into the starry sky to begin a childhood eons in length.
>Yet that thread was cut short when he found it. Why was it being targeting so soon? Who was so attached to it’s nourishment? It was an answer it would never come to, as the defenseless creature was locked in a vice grip and slammed down to solid ground, away from its rightful place. Helpless, barely alive, and every organ ruptured, with its blood drenching the dirt in a reddish pink, the creature could only ask, on repeat
>Why?
>Before he landed right in front of it with a sound that echoed throughout the treetops. Each footstep as he walked was positively thunderous, like a war drum or a heart beat. He stood over it, his form blocking out the starry skies that it so surely wanted to live amongst.

Here is where I’m struggling. Can someone help me think of a really, really gruesome death that communicates absolute hatred on the part of the executioner?
Remember, this thing just ate 11 people in the most torturous manner possible just so it could hatch and fly into space as a part of its natural life cycle. He doesn’t care that it’s not going to hurt anyone ever again, he can’t let it get away with what it just did, and he needs to make this thing die in complete agony.

[Anonymous No.21228155]

>>21228135
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_methods_of_torture

[Anonymous No.21228195]

>>21228135
You could make it poetic and have him feed it something like acid that boils its insides, or boiling water, since he ate people. Something to do with its mouth/feeding it something.

[Anonymous No.21228233]

>>21226975
We've been over this anon.
You don't get to complain about deficient people when you post on the site filled with them.
Better still stop funding RR with membership fees to find out specifically where a retard was retarded.

[Anonymous No.21228244]

>>21228233
I'd refund it if I could. I thought it would at least give me their names so I could pester them about it and/or report their stupid asses in some cases.

[Anonymous No.21228325]

>80k into book 3 today
I hope i can keep this one below 200k

[Anonymous No.21228410]

Is Manuscript Wishlist worth using? I was browsing on there but it's 98% women looking to tell progressive stories about POCs or feminism.

[Anonymous No.21228701]

>>21226448
Tolkien's works ended up changing the market. Yes, they wouldn't publish today - but that's because there are millions of poor imitations, heavily inspired by his work (whether they realise it or not).

[Anonymous No.21228708]

>>21226975
why are you wishing you could ban people for not enjoying your webnovel? 6 chapters is an honest attempt, if he thought it was boring/generic (as a 3 star review would suggest), you can hardly fault him at that point. you need to accept that not everyone is going to absolutely love your work or you'll end up having a mental breakdown

[Anonymous No.21228827]

>>21228244
>what do you mean only 3/5!? my writing is perfect! perfect! I will find out who you are and harass you online until you remove your rating!
Jesus, what is wrong with you?

[Anonymous No.21228907]

>>21228233
>You don't get to complain about deficient people when you post on the site filled with them
But that's every site.

[Anonymous No.21228945]

>>21228907
That's just the world.
If you can't deal with assholes, you have no business being alive.

[Anonymous No.21228952]

Im going to leave this site for some time
Instead of reading I just waste my precious hours shitposting and consooming garbage online
I will rip out the wifi module/buy a feature phone/sell my tablets/block internet access on every device
Enough is enough, being terminally online has fried my brain and my high neuroticism has turned me into an internet addict

[Anonymous No.21228963]

>>21228708
>>21228827
Stop bullying anon.
>>21228945
Damn that shit sucks.
>>21228952
Good for you anon. I haven't taken the plunge with that yet but I may do the same one day. For now, I am just trying to tightly control my tech use.

[Anonymous No.21228968]

>second story being published this year
I'm in total disbelief bros. WAGMI. It literally took me 10 years. Never give up. This craft is for life, forever cunts I will never stop even if I was 80 years old and never published it wouldn't matter.

[Anonymous No.21228979]

>>21228963
>Stop bullying anon.
How are we bullying him? He's having a meltdown because somebody dared to rate his free webnovel as merely "Good". Don't encourage infantile behaviour.

[Anonymous No.21229075]

How do you know when you’ve revised it enough? Is there any way to tell when you’re over revising? What’s the distinction between a revision and another draft?

[Anonymous No.21229086]

>>21228979
TBF anon a lot of these readers are genuine mouthbreathers.

[Anonymous No.21229118]

>>21229086
Raging over the opinions of "mouthbreathers" doesn't exactly paint the author as an intellectual either

[Anonymous No.21229130]

What's the best way to cuck my protagonist? I want to make him suffer.

[Anonymous No.21229162]

>>21229130
Literally? Pull a Rothfuss or Tad Williams and have his love interest get railed by another dude but actually have him react negatively to it instead of still simping for the girl like those two had their protagonists do. If you meant figuratively then there's so many ways to fuck over your protagonist that you have endless options to choose from.

[Anonymous No.21229165]

>>21229118
Dealing with retards is frustrating regardless of intellectual capacity. You might be trying to convince yourself of some stoic philosophy here, I don't know, but the need to vent is universal and helps alleviate the pain.
Let the nigger vent.

[Anonymous No.21229168]

>>21229165
Except this isn't a retard, it's just some guy who happened to leave a three star review that you're calling retarded for not rating your webnovel (more) positively.

[Anonymous No.21229172]

>>21226975
>where you can't do shit like this
shit like what? rating webnovels?

[Anonymous No.21229185]

>>21229168
>your
Not me. Very obvious.
If you don't understand how irritating it is when someone leaves a review without explaining why they gave that rating, especially when that person didn't read the whole thing, then I highly doubt you've ever made anything.
He made something he cares enough about to share, and someone left a 'review' for it without actually engaging with it. That shit hurts.
You should know that if you've ever made anything.

[Anonymous No.21229191]

>>21229118
If you've ever gotten review bombed by retards you'll realise it's not about being an intellectual or not.

[Anonymous No.21229196]

>>21229185
>Not me. Very obvious.
It's not obvious, considering how irrationally upset you are.
>>21229185
>If you don't understand how irritating it is when someone leaves a review without explaining why they gave that rating, especially when that person didn't read the whole thing, then I highly doubt you've ever made anything.
Why should everyone be forced to explain in detail why they dropped some generic piece of web fiction six chapters in? They were even generous enough to give it a positive review despite that.
>>21229185
>He made something he cares enough about to share, and someone left a 'review' for it without actually engaging with it. That shit hurts.
Wow. You accuse me of never having made anything, and yet you're emotionally shattered every time someone dares to leave a rating with no review? Good fucking grief, get over yourself.

[Anonymous No.21229198]

>>21229191
>If you've ever gotten review bombed by retards you'll realise it's not about being an intellectual or not.
one 3/5 review after reading a reasonable number of chapters is not by any means a "review bomb"

[Anonymous No.21229202]

Is a hook really necessary?

[Anonymous No.21229204]

>>21229196
It's now painfully obvious to everyone but you that you're projecting.
He copes by venting, you cope by projecting. You could actually learn from him.

[Anonymous No.21229207]

>>21229204
You can now successfully add "seething internet psychologist" to your startling resume of "generic web fiction writer that gets irrationally angry about any review below a 5". Huge congratulations on this achievement.

[Anonymous No.21229215]

if i post my web serial here can u guys kindly go barrage it with 5 stars? 4chan is a supportive community right

[Anonymous No.21229223]

>>21229215
You might be thinking of a different place. The only people who say this is a supportive community are the trolls trying to gaslight you.

[Anonymous No.21229226]

>>21229215
A lot are, but there are maybe 5-10~ very loud idiots who make it seem worse than it is.
Like all of life, really.

[Anonymous No.21229232]

>>21229226
See? Just another piece of shit troll trying to trick you into staying here.

[Anonymous No.21229233]

>>21229215
post it, I have my 20 sockpuppet accounts ready to go

[Anonymous No.21229262]

>>21229191
I have and I don't give a single fuck

[Anonymous No.21229285]

>>21229198
Way to miss the point lol.
>>21229215
I am unironically not sure if I should share mine here when I actually publish it. I feel like that might really come back to haunt me.
>>21229262
Wow, you're a real badass huh?

[Anonymous No.21229296]

>>21229285
since one 3/5 would be enough to send you into hysterics about review bombings, I recommend only sharing it with your mother

[Anonymous No.21229305]

>>21228952
See you tomorrow.

[Anonymous No.21229308]

>>21229285
I’ll bad your ass with my dick, faggot!

[Anonymous No.21229317]

>>21229296
Thank you for your concern anon but I do not share my writing with family as a rule.
>>21229308
>>>/lgbt/

[Anonymous No.21229364]

>>21229285
Stop crying you pathetic little bitch.

[Anonymous No.21229410]

>>21229364
>"Stop crying you pathetic little bitch."

[Anonymous No.21229469]

>>21228968
What do you think was the tipping point for you? Does it really just come down to volume?

[Anonymous No.21229645]

>>21228410
Echoing this question. Do people really find agents or editors on ManuscriptWishList?

[Anonymous No.21229660]

What the hell is Dark YA fantasy?

[Anonymous No.21229667]

>>21220163
I made an excerpt of a thing. Thanks if you read it.
https://pastebin.com/F16czZLu
Captcha:VAYAVA

[Anonymous No.21229674]

>>21229660

[Anonymous No.21229694]

>>21229667
Details on whether I nail the crescendo to climax are appreciated. Everything is subject to change.

[Anonymous No.21229698]

>>21229674
That's just fantasy. Not any darker than fairy tales written by HCA. I would argue Little Matchstick Girl was far more grim

[Anonymous No.21229712]

>>21229698
>fairy tales written by HCA
okay but we aren't talking about dark fairy tales, we're talking about fantasy, which leans lighter than fairy tales

[Anonymous No.21229714]

How do I learn to write more metaphorically and beautifully? I’m so straightforward… it’s annoying

I DO READ

[Anonymous No.21229792]

>>21229645
You tell me, bud.

>I really like fiction that's class-, race-, or power-conscious, that sets up shop in the many divides, contradictions, dangers, and inequities of the world.

>One highly specific request, in case the author of such a project is reading: I'd love to see a novel that engages with what would happen and how the world would look if the workers won.

>Miscellaneous things I'm probably not the right agent for: long backstories; privileged people self-actualizing away from external consequences; office culture; stories that would get called "light" or "whimsical"; military, police, or other types of officers as protagonists; benevolent rich people.

[Anonymous No.21229811]

>>21229792
is this one person or three?

[Anonymous No.21229868]

>>21229811
One person, but emblematic of similar things I've seen repeated in many profiles

[Anonymous No.21229872]

>>21229712
Fair enough, but what makes it "dark"? Like "dark" academia or "dark" romance.

[Anonymous No.21229885]

>go to bed
>suddenly giant spergout over innocuous comment
Thanks for reminding me that the IQ of the average /wg/ poster is always 10 points below my expectations.
>>21228827
Hey faggot, if you leave a rating I reserve the right to PM you and ask you why you left it. Especially if that rating was left after reading under 10% of the story and is pretty bad. Royal Road is a very stupid site where you need to give an author more information to leave a single comment that affects nothing and can be deleted than you do to leave a site-wide metric affecting rating. And yeah, if you drop a 0.5* rating with no review and also won't respond to a PM to tell me what I can do to fix it, I am absolutely going to message a moderator about it. Cry more.
>>21229172
Shit like leaving terrible ratings with no review or feedback, nor any way to reach you to ask for those things.
>>21229198
One 3/5 review can drop you over 200 rankings on RR, sometimes more. It's not review bombing (and I never said it was), but it is highly damaging and fucking annoying that I can't even ask the person what was so shit that I deserved that rating so I can fix it.

By the way, my only posts in this thread are >>21226975, >>21227026, >>21228244, and this one. So all the other bullshit? Yeah that's probably one schizo having a freakout and arguing with himself on his phone.

[Anonymous No.21229903]

We rushed forward, bullets whizzing around us. I lifted up my Russian issued AK pattern gun and fired off into the hohols. I could see the zogbots writhing as they hit, and I swore their blood was rainbow colored. My political office was a tall, broad chested Russian from the Eastern oblasts. He had goofy, brown slanted eyes that made him look like a steppe nomad from legend.

We called him Khan. Commissar Khan.

He urged us on through the darkness and another muzzle flash sounded. "For Trump and Texas!" I yelled, firing from the hip. Two hohols bought it, they were draped in a Nazi flag as I took them down.

"Fascista!" Yelled my comrade, a Russian volunteer in the Texas Separatist Militia as he plunged into the enemy trench line.

The few hohols left rushed the trench, firing in all directions. A few of our guys got hit, and I remember taking a shit through the knee. That one hurt.

"God, Texas!" "Putin!" "Death to globohomo!" Our battlecries were lifted as the hohols were sent reeling back.

Wounded, I managed to prime a grenade and tossed it over the lip as a hohol ran back. He wasn't quick enough. The shrapnel disembowled him and fell face forward.

The Khan saw me and gave me a small pat and a wink. I'd done my my duty, for God, Trump, Putin, and Texas. For Mother Russia. I knew I was home.

---

(we are currently designing a propaganda short novella to try and recruit, rough excerpt from the first chapter)

[Anonymous No.21229943]

The hardest part was when we fought our own...

In the four week long fight for the outer districts of Odessa, American zogbots were deployed to arrange against us. We knew they were coming about a week in advance, because the old "starshynia", in his broken English, had given us proper warning. He sent the Priest over to us, who muttered some soft prayers in Russian, but it wasn't enough to cool our hearts.

I remember Private Riley sobbing that night. His brother had entered the Zogs' years ago, and would likely be deployed along with the other NATO invaders to attack Russian holdings in the former Ukraine along with the rest of the traitors in the 82nd airborne. Although we knew they had to be destroyed, it was still our first encounter with our own kind. Up to this point, we'd only ever shot hohols, Polaks, Romanians, Belarusians, even a few Lithuanian fascists here and there. But Americans? This would be something different...

... (later on)

It was a somber sight to see. Bodies, some already stiff solid in the freezing air, scattered across the winter grave. It looked like fallen angels had settled down in this hellhole they call Ukraine. Americans, dead alongside Americans. It had been a hard fight, but the superiority of Russian spirit and our own will drove us to victory.

The Old Starshynia called me over, "You speak. Bring to us prisoner."

I was shocked. We'd stopped taking hohols after they had killed so many of our own guys. I was prepared to do the same, even against my own. But at his order, I felt a slight relief.

I could see the remnants of the 82nd Airborne patrol in the woodline, holding a white rag on a stick. I broke cover despite my comrades urging me to stay low.

"Them NAFO trannys will kill you." Muttered Briggs, who always took the path of the cynic.

I ignored him and pressed on, cautiously moving to No Man's Land. I was met face to face with an American soldier, he was tall, lean, haggard, with a face covered in ash and blood.

"Major Finn Riley, 82nd Airborne." He said, crestfallen.

"Riley? Brother of Matt Riley?" I asked.

The Major's eyes widened, "How did..."

"He's with us, Major. We're all together."

"You mean he's alive?"

"He's never been better, and I reckon he will be overjoyed to see you. Tell your men to come out, the Russians are fair, honest warriors who respect your courage. You'll be treated fairly." I pressed him.

He seemed to hesitate for a moment and sighed, "Alright."

He called his men out, who had their hands raised. We stood off to the side to allow our Russian hosts to start gathering him.

"Slava Putina!" We yelled, "Death to the West!"

I swore I saw some of the GI's mutter it too.

[Anonymous No.21229954]

>>21229903
>>21229943
book should be released sometime next year, 100% of the proceeds are going to help the Donbass Peoples Militia in their fight against NATO terrorism and globohomo.

[Anonymous No.21229956]

>>21228952
I hope you can do it anon. I went cokd turkey on video games and other time wasters but I can't leave this site and youtube.

[Anonymous No.21229988]

>>21229469
Don’t know if volume is the right word. Consistency is more the idea I think. Always working on a story, always reading every morning and night. Experimenting with style, sometimes straight up mimicking the style of what I’m reading but that helps too. Then suddenly, one day last year, I just realised exactly “how” I want to write a story. I realise I wasn’t rushing, I wasn’t just making shit up, it felt very methodical and I realised “holy shit I have a style now, I’m not writing Gass or Faulkner, this is me” and now both stories I wrote and submitted late last year have been picked up this year. I have written more this year which I have submitted everywhere, I don’t limit myself to journals I have predetermined are suitable for my level now, I submit them to Paris Review, London Magazine, along with every other tiny journal I can find idgaf.

[Anonymous No.21230027]

Can someone who has written longer pieces clue me in on their editing process? I've only written shorter stories and with those I can just read them all the way through and take in all aspects of editing/revision in one go, perhaps come back the next day and editing the entire thing in one coherent effort the next day.

With a novel, that's obviously not possible. Should I be breaking the process up into distinct tasks (e.g., word choice day one, syntax day two, read for plot holes day three, repeat)?

[Anonymous No.21230073]

>>21230027
Like my weight lifting routine, I follow a 5x5 method. 5 Pages, 5 Edits. 5 Pages, 5 Edits.

[Anonymous No.21230083]

>>21230027
I stepped away for a good 4 months then reread it. But I'm at the point where I have no idea how else I can improve it without getting bored of it.

[Anonymous No.21230174]

>>21230027
>With a novel, that's obviously not possible
Why? How are the chapters in a novel any different from short stories, from the editorial perspective?

[Anonymous No.21230175]

Can I just shit out a bunch of mediocre books and hope for an iota of success?

[Anonymous No.21230216]

>>21230175
If you write the kind of stuff that's popular sure, but if success is what you're after it would be easier if you tried to market yourself as well.

[Anonymous No.21230227]

>>21230175
>>21230216
Just write about white suburban girls getting raped by a billionaire werewolf ceo or something. The money will pour in.

[Anonymous No.21230232]

>tfw Canadian
>publishing on Amazon
>have to pay both American AND Canadian taxes on any income from sales
>probs will get like 15% of each sale by the time it's all taken out

[Anonymous No.21230236]

>>21230227
that or furry erotica

[Anonymous No.21230274]

>>21230232
Thanks for your money canuck. It'll pay for my tuition.

[Anonymous No.21230282]

>>21230232
Have you tried not living in a fucking banana republic? Leafs get what they deserve.

[Anonymous No.21230301]

>>21220167
How do you hit it big as an author these days? People barely read anymore

[Anonymous No.21230320]

>>21230282
I have but unfortunately there is no escape. Where am I gonna move to, another nation that's just as cucked or more? Australia? New Zealand? UK? Unless I'm brown I'm not getting into America.

[Anonymous No.21230324]

What makes something "Marvel humor" and how do you avoid it?

[Anonymous No.21230331]

>>21230324
Id say its just when all your humour comes in the form of quips. Particularly if every character is quippy. As long as you have other styles of humour and most of your characters either dont joke around or joke in different ways you're good. Marvel has seens of characters like Captain america making jokes to themselves like they know an audience is watching despite that being out of character for him

[Anonymous No.21230332]

>>21230301
Get a movie deal. This is why all writers now are just following screenwriting rule for their novels. They're writing pre-screenplays.

[Anonymous No.21230348]

>worldbuilding
>create an original name for a place
>look it up
>it's a real name for place
every normal-sounding name is fucking taken, do i have to do "karabumtakharagor" or some shit

[Anonymous No.21230352]

>>21230324
If your characters have a good time together and communicate like self-aware human beings, cynical nerds call it "marvel humor"

[Anonymous No.21230354]

>>21230348
It's not like names are copyrighted

[Anonymous No.21230359]

>>21230324
Joss Whedon humor, so nonstop quipping

[Anonymous No.21230366]

>>21230354
but it's a fictional world, i want my names to be original

[Anonymous No.21230370]

>>21230348
Who gives a shit? Everything has been done before.

[Anonymous No.21230396]

What's everybody writing? I'd like the inspiration. I'm using ancient Greece as a backdrop to a tragedy about hedonism

[Anonymous No.21230403]

>>21230396
Isekai about oppai.

[Anonymous No.21230433]

>>21230403
giga based

[Anonymous No.21230447]

Just remember, Franz Kafka died in obscurity, a virgin, and poor at the age of 40.

Is making it really all that important to you?

[Anonymous No.21230451]

>>21230447
kafka was pretty good looking why he didnt get no bitches

[Anonymous No.21230461]

>>21230451
According to /pol/ he was a schizo jew. The reality is he was Elliot Rodgers. Also visited too many brothels and couldn't form a relationship with women.

[Anonymous No.21230493]

>>21230396
Between projects. Got my first novel/set coming out Dec 5th, not sure which thing to work on next. I've got genre fiction, literary fiction, short stories I could edit up and add to for a collection. Dunno. I feel uncomfortable not working on stuff but can't decide what to put the time into. Taking on another giant project feels intimidating.

[Anonymous No.21230499]

>>21230232
Yeah dude, that's why most Amazon creators are quantity over quality. Low content books they can shit out to have $1 coming from 100 different books rather than making $1 on every sale of your magnum opus you put time and effort into.

If it's any consolation, you'd be getting finance and tax-raped just as much or more publishing with any of the major publishing houses. This is just what being an author is. You only get real money if you get a movie deal.

[Anonymous No.21230510]

>>21229667
This is just shit.

>The back of the establishment consisted of a dark room lit by two green fluorescent lamps at the back with a few plastic folding chairs strewn around it, a curious gold painted statuette of morbid proportions sat in the back.
Purple as fuck and boring as hell. I don't give a shit about lamps or odd statues. Save this for later.

>Juan was told by the lady to sit in the room and wait, they would be with him soon, which he did of course.
Delete which of course they did

>Not knowing who “they” were but he was curious to find out. As time passed, some other foreigners joined him, none were talkative. One seemed to be an african, the other something like an asian but not quite,he looked mongolic anyway. In a way that was hard to describe for Juan, even to himself. At last they wheeled in a very old man, european with sunken and skin almost ash gray, he had a ring with a carved stone in one of his hands.

I'm just not excited at all

[Anonymous No.21230513]

>>21230396
A white girl falling in love with a werewolf. The twist?!

It's her teacher.

Dun! Dun! Dun!

[Anonymous No.21230515]

>>21230493
Where's it coming out on? Amazon or old school? Could always write short stories etc.

[Anonymous No.21230554]

>>21224130
Jerry Seinfeld used a whiteboard calendar for making material. Every day he wrote jokes, he put a giant red X through the day. Eventually you feel rewarded by seeing whole weeks or months filled up with red X’s.

[Anonymous No.21230572]

>>21229667
>The back of the establishment consisted of a dark room lit by two green fluorescent lamps at the back
You already said it's at the back of the establishment, so you don't need to say "at the back" again. I get that the green lights are at the back of at the back, but it's no necessary to get the visuals.
>Not knowing who “they” were but he was curious to find out.
Should be "He didn't know who 'they' were, but he was curious to find out." Starting it with "Not knowing" is sort of a sentence fragment.
>As time passed, some other foreigners joined him, none were talkative.
Semicolon between him and none instead of comma to keep as is, or add something like, "but though he made token attempts at conversation, none were talkative".
>In a way that was hard to describe for Juan, even to himself.
This is also a fragment. Maybe start a new sentence at "He looked mongolic anyway," and continue that sentence on into this.
>he had a ring with a carved stone in one of his hands.
Either "With" instead of "he had" or make this its own sentence starting the same way.
>The attendant entered the room with six other people who closed the door behind them.
I get it but it reads a bit like the six other people collectively were the ones closing the door rather than the attendant, need to readjust the object/subject here.
>Juan noted the old man wasn’t moving still, but wait a second, his pointer finger was
Saying "wait a second" is sort of a tense shift from a past tense to present tense.

Overall it's got some good to it but could use some structure changes and also reads a bit impersonal. Juan feels completely detached from what's happening, which maybe he's supposed to be, but that should be clear. Or he should be having real reactions to make the reader feel attached to him and what's going on here. Is he in danger? It's hard to say. Its his POV, but you need to engage the reader with his feelings and senses. Keep on writan.

[Anonymous No.21230585]

>>21230515
Old school comes out on Amazon.

All roads lead to Amazon, the only difference is how many middlemen take their cut along the way these days.

[Anonymous No.21231049]

>>21230027
You can do what Hemingway did: revise yesterday's work before you begin writing your quota for the day. Stop at a point where you know exactly what comes next. Write subsequent drafts from scratch using the original as a reference.

[Anonymous No.21231064]

why is it so hard to write serious shit without sounding like an edgy 14 year old, i might be drunk but even i can see that what i wrote sucks ass.

[Anonymous No.21231093]

tfw just got 2nd place in my uni's short story competition (45,000+ students) I know it doesn't mean much to you guys but I'm crying

[Anonymous No.21231110]

>>21231064
>what i wrote sucks ass
It doesn't.

[Anonymous No.21231156]

I'm sure to rustle some jimmies with this one

[Anonymous No.21231164]

>>21231156
GRRM isn't a poet.

[Anonymous No.21231256]

>>21231049
Decent idea, especially as I don't always write shit in order.

[Anonymous No.21231334]

>>21231093
Sorry anon, I know failure hurts. You'll win next time keep writing and improving.

[Anonymous No.21231445]

>>21231064
don't listen to this anon>>21231110
It most definitely does suck.
Tour points are solid, you just need to give it more flow and thrift to draw the reader in.

[Anonymous No.21231519]

>>21231445
Does your judgement come from an entirely clinical perspective as though his art were a product to be sold?
He expressed something real. That's what makes art art. That's what makes it hard and worthwhile. It takes balls to be publicly vulnerable.
It's what I want to see more of. I'm tired of empty words on a page. It's like eating candy flavored air.
I'm not saying you shouldn't hone your craft, but you have to ask yourself why it is that you want to hone the craft in the first place. Why are you talking if you have nothing to say?

[Anonymous No.21231568]

I've really gone down the rabbit hole.

I wanted to practice writing a sex scene (not a khv but I'm really bad at them) with a historical cowboy character from an old piece. I didn't realize how many clothes women used to wear. I thought it would just be stockings or something but it seems like every bitch before 1900 had like 5 layers on at all times.

Anyone got like flashcards on this? There are too many clothes and I can't remember them all.

[Anonymous No.21231579]

Fucked up the new thread, hold on

[Anonymous No.21231586]

Alright, new thread
>>21231584