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/lit/ - Literature

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2638688 No.2638688 [Reply] [Original]

Writers thread:

Tell us what you write and if you're writing right now.

How has writing treated you? Have you ever published? What's stopping you from publishing?

>> No.2638708

I've always been drawn to writing. Started out majoring in Journalis. Then switched to Philosophy. Then switched to CS.
So now... all I write is code.
But I feel there's a connection, a line, from where I started to where I ended up.

>> No.2638764

>>2638688
Nothing. Too scatter brained to sit down and write something. What usually happens to me is I'll write and then something will happen like my computer will eat all my backups or a flood will eat my notebooks and I'll just give up.

>> No.2638777

I'm currently working on a novel with elements influenced by westerns as well as low fantasy.
I normally write about things in the real world, but in the near future (no futuristic technology) and assuming a somewhat different sociopolitical climate.

Writing is something I quite enjoy. I've not published because I am never satisfied enough with my final product to submit it for publication.

>> No.2638787

Never been published, never will be, mainly because I hate showing anyone my work. And because I'm lazy.

In the most general terms, I usually write about dysfunctional people in dysfunctional relationships, making the best of a bad situation. Generally, I start with the bad situation, then work my way from there. I ask "What kind of character would succeed in this situation?" and "How would their personality be affected?". And it just so happens that this almost always leads me to write about people who are fucked in the head.

>> No.2638790

>>2638787
That actually sounds really interesting to me. Could you post more? Perhaps a synopsis or something?

>> No.2638801

>>2638787
As a psychologist, I find the premise of this quite interesting. Would you care to share just a little bit?

>> No.2638813

I'm working on a set of short stories (currently too timid to call it a "book") that all involve unexplainable phenomena in a subtle way while still retaining a realistic setting. It's like one step shy of magical realism. I just managed to "complete" the idea (rather than it just being a few abstract snips of images and dialogue rolling around in my mind) of a new story for it today, so I'm kind of excited.

>> No.2638820

I am wrangling over this short story in the works.

Trying to finish it up tonight so I can start something new tomorrow. I write terribly slowly, and edit half as fast.

>> No.2638822

>>2638813
Good job. I find that getting an idea fully conceptualized is quite difficult at times.


To answer the tread's opening question again, I am always working on my poetry. I think someday I'd like to get an anthology of my poetry published someday.

>> No.2638832

Outlining and in the early stages of writing an impressionistic pomo-ish novel, it follows a group of young inner city adults throughout the aftermath of a drug run gone sour and a pair of savage murders that soon followed.

>> No.2638835

>>2638813
With this set of short stories, are they linked like Dubliners or are they following one character?

>> No.2638837

I usually write horror and absurdist comedy in short story form. It wasn't until I started deconstructing some of these stories for a current project that I realized it was all existentialist - and I kind of resent it, a little.

Regardless, I tried to submit with numerous genre-based writing magazines and have been turned down repeatedly on the grounds of genre conflict. I wish that, when they say they publish horror, they would be a little more specific about what kind. I've yet to submit my comedy stuff anywhere but I have no idea who would even be willing to publish that crazy shit.

Also I write poetry; all of which is taken directly from dreams I've had. That also remains unpublished but I'm working on something else, at the moment.

>> No.2638848

>>2638832
Are you going for making it very tasteful linguistically or are you going for using base language to achieve a more real and human feel?

>> No.2638849

I write one liners in a small notebook that I keep in my back pocket, and once a week I'll sit down and write a few pages following plot more closely, as well as expanding dialogue to include the bits from my smaller journal. I'm writing about a sad kid, based on both me and a good friend of mine who recently committed suicide. Each chapter starts with a nightmare and the nightmare's consequence in actions for the following week or month. Between dialogue, there are long passages of thought, mostly philisophic ramblings that you could expect from a depressed teenager, but I think it's working quite well.

I've never been published, but I'm fairly tight with a zine community, and I have some art school friends who are ready to just make books if need be. The indie times are really helpful to me.

Also, my captcha was "orklion", then just a picture of the number 48 on a wall. Really.

>> No.2638851

>>2638820

also it's about a dude who ends his ill significant other's life, w/ ambiguity concerning if her illness was of a serious magnitude or not and if he ended her life for her sake or his own

>> No.2638852

>>2638837
>absurdist comedy
You know you're posting that, right? Like... I'm not giving you a choice. You WILL post it for me to read. I don't care what it ended up as, you are posting it now.

>> No.2638865

>>2638852

I'll post some of it. I warn you now, though, I can't tell if it's funny, stupid, so stupid it's funny, or completely batshit. I has been previously compared to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, if it was ghost writer by a deranged hobo.

>> No.2638868

>>2638865
>also note, this is complete stream-of-consciousness freewriting. I never planned to write any of this. This is an excerpt from part one of five in a connected series.

"In the beginning there was The Big Bang or, rather, a big bang. It was the sound of an almighty gun splattering the brains of an omnipotent, scaly fish god across the blackness of oblivion. It wasn't man that killed god... twas loneliness. And so the scalp, cranium, and grey matter of our depressed creator flung out in all directions, ultimately cooling and forming galaxies. Within these foaming sweetbreads, systems of planets were born; hurtling around the axioms and neurons of a former deity. Yes, the stars themselves keepers of the dreams of a once mighty thing. Only the greatest of minds could peer into the stars and glean the thoughts of our dead god, whose body decays just outside our sphere; who causes the emptiness of space to reek a bit like fermented halibut. It came to pass that someone did try to read the mind of the universe."

>> No.2638872

>>2638868
>cont.

"Plemus the Allseer, a psychic from the Timur system traveled to his home star to gain any insight he could and was struck profoundly with a single phrase from within. Soon, the galaxy was a quiver with the knowledge that had been imparted to it, though the scientific and religious communities were less than thrilled. The sentence that ran through the great mind of Plemus was as follows, "I think I'll have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch today." This caused great consternation amongst the thinkers, not in the irrelevance of the phrase itself but in what it implied. It stands to reason that if this star contains such a meaningless thought, like that of a common mortal, then also like that of a common mortal it would take multiple and immeasurable lifetimes to have a hope of finding a star that contains anything more important than, "Oh, I wonder if I left the stove on?" So, the universe's collective attentions were driven from that prospect and back to the void of space and how to traverse it."

The rest of the series is either better or worse, depending on your sensibilities.

>> No.2638883

>>2638868
>>2638872
I like it. A lot actually.
I'd publish that. For real. If it's not already published, do it now, because I'd buy it on Kindle (the best medium for indy writers)
I'm not saying it'd make you rich and famous, but it would get your stuff out there and read. If you can't publish it for some reason, a text file would do for any curious readers. Post it on lit and I promise you'd get a few reads.

>> No.2638887

>>2638868
I can see the Douglas Adams comparison.
>>2638870
In some places, I feel like you are going a bit far with the prose, nearing purple territory, otherwise it's good. The dialogue is real, the idea is quite brilliant.

>> No.2638889

>>2638848
>>2638848

I like it tasty but there's room for the latter, judge for yourself. I just posted a link but it was fucked up so i deleted it, there was some text repeated. here it is, fixed I hope, some excerpts from what I've got so far:

http://static.inky.ws/image/1983/image.jpg

>> No.2638892

>>2638889
The dialogue is base, the descriptions are more tasteful.
I read it before you deleted the link, and my impression was that the prose was a bit much in places.

>> No.2638893

>>2638889
The dialogue is very real, and the premise is brilliant.

>> No.2638894

>>2638887

>a bit far with the prose, nearing purple territory

was that for me? if so i know what you mean, I'm going for a specific tone of vernacular that's hard to exactly get at, over time it's fleshing itself out more, we'll see

>> No.2638898

>>2638894
It was directed at you.
I noticed it got better the further down the page I got.
Keep working on it and you'll get it right.

>> No.2638900

>>2638883

I've always thought about publishing it but that was mostly wondering if I even could. I have no idea who would take this. I went from a strangely executed writing exercise to a five (maybe six, int the future) part series of... whatever.

>> No.2638902

>>2638898

Thanks, man. And thanks for reading.

>> No.2638908

>>2638900
I think you'd be able to get it published.
I'd buy it.
>>2638902
I like to read people's work and provide any help I can. Thank you for allowing me that pleasure.

>> No.2638914

How does one even publish through Kindle?

>> No.2638925

>>2638914
Use a sharpie to write on the kindle, then xerox it. Clean the screen and repeat until you have a full book, then staple the pages.

>> No.2638934

>>2638914
If it does well, submit it to a print publisher so the "purists" can read it too.

>> No.2639037

>>2638790
>>2638801

I think that by overgeneralizing, I've made it sound more interesting than it actually is.

But as an example, when I was an angsty teen, I wrote short stories, or at least chunks of short stories. Most of them were outright pornographic, and even the ones that weren't were heavily sexual. The characters weren't really characters, they were just set pieces. Years later, I thought back to those stories, and I wondered "Who would actually act like these characters do?" The answer is, most of the time, "a sociopath". So I take that and run with it.

So you start with the story I wrote when I was maybe 15 about a guy who psychologically breaks rebellious sex slaves for a living, by building their trust then breaking it, delivering the final blow to their already fragile psyche.

Come back to that a few years later, you end up with a guy running away from his past. He has severe issues with women for two reasons. First, because of sexual abuse, and second, because, of the only two women he thought he could trust, one betrayed him, resulting in the death of the other. Now he's obsessive and paranoid, partially because a lot of people want him dead, but mainly because he needs to have absolute control over his life.

The plot, predictably, is about him discovering that the girl he thought was dead isn't, and the circumstances that surrounded her faking her own death force him to confront just how messed up he is. Meanwhile, the same circumstances that brought her to seek him out have also resulted in most of his physical protection being destroyed, so he's forced to run.

Man, writing it all out like that makes it seem really disjointed and confusing, but oh well.

>> No.2639054

I just started on a script. I have this great idea that I'm really excited to write.

>> No.2639059

I'm mostly writing short fiction at the moment, with my first four completed stories this year due to be published in various small press anthologies. They're all at just semi-professional payment or royalties and they're not going to be very widely read, but it's an easy way to accumulate some publication credits. I know a couple of the editors are planning to put my story forward for 'Best of the Year' anthologies and I've been asked if I've got any novels on the go, so it might be nice if something came from it one day, but I'm not getting too excited and just looking at it as writing practice for now.

>> No.2639084

I write short stories (and try to write large ones too, but I constantly fail). I don't have a particular genre I write. I have never published (maybe I'm misundersanding. I understand 'publishing' as selling a phisical or an electronic book in a book store) and I'm Mexican. Writing in spanish is one of the reasons I haven't published. The other one is being 16.
This is the last thing I wrote. Hours ago. In spanish btw.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C7IAXOutNch6bjzbJAdEI_3RoRDBSl8Fru1bycyU_fU/edit

>> No.2639087

I'm writing a short story in a modern epistolary style: emails. There are graphs and images.

>> No.2639108

I mainly write about the supernatural mixed with some sort of fantasy essence. I like to center on characters who are brave yet flawed. They always end up along strange and dangerous journeys and mostly end being a shadow of their former self, for the worst by the end.

>> No.2639283

I'm writing a poetry book which has the main theme of failure. Seems kind of melancholic but It's not really, I guess life really is about failure and how we deal with it. I just started writing down the ideas, let's see where this goes.

I am also an existentialist. Writing this will be fun.

>> No.2639295

>>2639087

>not using gmail chat

>> No.2639297

I've been wanting to write a story about two teenagers in the 1950's who go out on a date and the guys ends up killing her during a drag race with another guy. I'm not sure what I want her death to symbolize. I thought about making him the all-star HS jock, but nah

>> No.2639307

I'm writing an epic limerick, about a young cross-dressing homosexual poet who writes a series of limericks about vaginal misfortunes and is then lynched by a rabble of furious feminists. I'll call it "Death of the Author: A Meta-Fiction in Doggerel Verse" and make my pen name the same as the main character's.

>> No.2639312

I write short stories and poetry
I have tons of material but I'm fickle so I rarely review what i write - thats why i don't publish

for me its about writing and not about having anyone read it. i also dont think people would understand or like my writing

>> No.2639360

Wrote a couple of novels, working on another. Friends tip-toe around criticism. All i can write is science fiction and erotica. Never published due to low self esteem and the fear of getting a fanbase like twilight's.

>> No.2639375
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2639375

>>2639283
>I'm writing a poetry book which has the main theme of failure.

I'm sure it'll be right on point throughout.

>> No.2639378

I wrote a weird piece not long ago: http://nigthshadoe.deviantart.com/#/d4fwukg
My English skills sucks and perhaps is the reason I don't write that much...
I have always been kinda intrigued by crime and fantasy, so I'll maybe write something close to that.

>> No.2639379

I usually write screenplays because I often have long conversations moving the story along. The formatting of a screenplay makes it easier to write stories with tons of dialog.

I have been experimenting with a prose/script hybrid so I can include more description and internal shit while still maintaining the quicker, more free dialog formatting. Kind of fun, but I feel like no one would take it seriously.

>> No.2639383

Everytime I try to write something I end up hating it and stopping, and then I end up trying to write something else.

>> No.2639387

I published 4 novels to date. Only at a small indie publishing company, but it's a start.

I write lesbian hardboiled detective fiction. The setting is San Francisco in the early 50's.

My main character was heavily influenced by the old Candy Matson radio show.

I wrote 4 books about that character (I call her Charlotte "Charles" Perry).

I'm working on a horror novel right now. It's about a psychiatrist finding out that one of his patient who tried to commit suicide is involuntarily making people around him go murderously insane. Well, that's only a part of it, but I'm just beginning to write some random scenes to see were it will take me.

>> No.2639395

I don't consider myself ready to write a novel. I stick to short stories (for fiction). Some of them have been published in literary magazines.

I also write articles in newspapers, literary analysis, philo articles and texts.

On a personal level, I write thoughts, self observations and things alike.

Most of the stuff a I write, though, are notes and rough drafts that never end up in a consistant text.

>> No.2639398
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2639398

I only really write short stories, which is unfortunate as most people simply cannot be bothered with reading short stories. They are rarely tied up nicely at the end. How can people be expected to handle it.

I haven't been published. Only nearly been published.

Was thinking of writing a short story, but I'm worried that it'll just end up reading too much like something between Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner.

Also have a couple of other story ideas that are either dumb or extremely difficult to write about, one of which probably require some sort of knowledge of quantum mechanics. Though I'll probably just fake it.

>> No.2639421

Welp, this is what I'm working on at the moment. Don't worry, it's gonna get less saccharine fast (let's just say that Philip (the narrator) knows approximately nothing about Callum). http://pastebin.com/sP6HVUfV

>> No.2639424

I normally wrong songs, poems or essays.

Currently me and a friend are working on a play, however it is more for fun than anything.

I am also slowly working on a novelette which is essentially about:
The Fool who lives next to The Devil, later becomes Reversed Death and is haunted by the chained spirit (The Star, The Hermit or the Hanged Man?), eventually meets The Sun who at the end of the story smiles at her.

To make it less obscure - a story about a young woman living in an apartment building next to a police officer who abuses his wife and daughter. The guilt of her inability to help the women turns her mad, she starts hallucinating (chained spirit, sun) and eventually breaks into the neighbor's apartment and kills the officer.

>> No.2639431

My general technique for writing something is as follows:
>Come up with an idea
>Hammer out a shitty first draft
>Try to improve the shitty first draft
>Decide it's futile, give up
>Wait several months
>Reread the draft and wince
>Start over from scratch with the same basic idea
>It's actually decent now
I've done this for pretty much everything I've ever written.

>> No.2639437

>>2639360
> fear of getting a fanbase like twilight's.
wtf?
How is that a bad thing?
lots of fans = lots of money and a foothold in publishing for when you want to get your true 3deep5u artsy masterpiece published. Just look at J K Rowling:
>Wrote shitty kids' fantasy books
>Got super rich and famour
>Now has the money, free time and connections to get her still shitty but more literary stuff read and printed
What's not to like?

>> No.2639438

I'm not sure if getting included in an issue of TAR counts as being published, but it is something. I plan on writing a cyberpunk-inspired drama eventually as well

>> No.2639479

I write short stories, but can't seem to get interested in writing anything other than science fiction, even though I don't really like the genre.

>> No.2639495

>>2639479
Well, there's such a thin line between sci-fi and bonafide nerdy literature these days. Just bridge that gap and you can be the next George Saunders.

>> No.2639723

>you are a writer
>omgomgomgomgomgmomgshitomgomgfuckomgomgomgkillmeomgomgomgomg

>> No.2639730

>>2639495
I'm reading that then, thanks.

>> No.2640606

>>2639387
If you are writing about a psychiatrist or a psychologist, have someone in the field consult.
I'm tired of seeing my field misrepresented and turned into a joke.
I'm not fucking kidding, every time there is a psychologist on television and he says "tell me about your mother," I want to punch my television, and when it happens in a book, I want to tear it up.

>> No.2640616

I write short stories, and occasional scifi/fantasy (not too much). I find dreams, phycology, death, major subjects of mine.
I find my main problem is that I'mm not satisfied with my writing skills, though among my peers I'm considered on of the best.
I've never published, but I've won competitions.

>> No.2640627

>>2640616
What part of psychology do you find most interesting?
Feel free to ask me any questions, I mean, I'm only a PhD in psychology, but I might be able to provide some assistance.

I try not to write about my dreams, they are quite unsettling.

>> No.2640641

Hey everyone, I've been writing for a while now and I've been published in three literary magazines, (albeit two of them college journals). I have written for a few blogs, and I just started a new project here: http://www.tensioninthebistro.com/the-adventures-of-porkflower/

I have written a lot of short stories and some considerably worthless poetry. Mostly right now my biggest problem is getting my work out there more. I know how to write, I don't know how to PR Rep. WTB Suggests