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/lit/ - Literature

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5415982 No.5415982 [Reply] [Original]

How the hell do I deal with the fact that I'll never create a classic and important work of literature? I used to want to be a writer very badly, but after starting to read even more I'm depressed as I've realized I've already been outclassed in every art form, talent, skill, etc. ESPECIALLY writing.

>> No.5415989

Just wait. You'll grow up and realise you're not special and don't need to be. No-one who created any of those things thought that's what they were doing at the time anyway.

>> No.5415992

>>5415982

Write because you have something to say, not because you "want to be a writer." The people who don't recognize this are the ones that end up paying tens of thousands of dollars to MFA programs every year.

>> No.5416005

>>5415992
I've thought about this, but the issue is that if I don't write for a while I get really depressed.

There are those few rare days where I'll go home from work and bang out four pages of some good shit, and I feel amazing for the next day because I feel like I really expressed my thoughts in a well put way.

Maybe I'll review shit. That's normally the stuff I have the most to say about.

>> No.5417249

So now you can write for the love of writing?

>> No.5417480

The fact that other writers have outclassed you, as you think; is just your own ego being afraid. I write and i have not published anything yet, and i have thought the same things...but in the end, what really matters is "have i written a story that's valuable to me?" first. If you write something that you don't give a fuck about, maybe you can get recognition, money and fame; but you won't have the satisfaction to know that it came from your guts! And that's the point of writing i think.

>> No.5417553

Become an academic and vent your frustration on your students.

>> No.5417603

>>5415982
You shouldn't read - it will turn you into a fucking awful writer.

Most people on this board don't realize this. Your writing will become more and more derivative as a result of grasping other writers techniques; ultimately, you will form habits.

Throw your shitty books away because they're all shit. Do not think they are shit - know they are shit. Every writer to have ever lived is shit, aside from you. One day you'll be able to sit at your computer and write the craziest fucking thing you can think of.

This board is terrible for writing by the way. A solid zero, not a fraction more.

>> No.5418862

not OP

>>5417603
i love you anon. thanks.

>> No.5418872

"There are other causes of inactivity incident to more active faculties and more acute discernment. He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has precluded him, or change his course as new attractions prevail, and harass himself without advancing. He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches carefully over his own conduct, lay out too much of his attention upon the comparison of probabilities and the adjustment of expedients, and pause in the choice of his road, till some accident intercepts his journey. He whose penetration extends to remote consequences, and who, whenever he applies his attention to any design, discovers new prospects of advantage and possibilities of improvement, will not easily be persuaded that his project is ripe for execution; but will superadd one contrivance to another, endeavour to unite various purposes in one operation, multiply complications, and refine niceties, till he is entangled in his own scheme, and bewildered in the perplexity of various intentions. He that resolves to unite all the beauties of situation in a new purchase must waste his life in roving to no purpose from province to province. He that hopes in the same house to obtain every convenience may draw plans and study Palladio, but will never lay a stone. He will attempt a treatise on some important subject, and amass materials, consult authors, and study all the dependent and collateral parts of learning, but never conclude himself qualified to write. He that has abilities to conceive perfection will not easily be content without it; and, since perfection cannot be reached, will lose the opportunity of doing well in the vain hope of unattainable excellence."

-"The Rambler #134"

>> No.5418877
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5418877

Read my last Sentence, dear.

>> No.5418890
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5418890

I'm too fucked up on this Thai Stick-- but I got deadlines, man. So finish the sentence

A screaming comes across the sky. . .

>> No.5418895
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5418895

Hey Tom, I can help you with that.

>> No.5418898

>>5417553
This.

>> No.5418899
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5418899

>> No.5419065

Realize that it doesn't matter, and write whatever the fuck you please anyway.

And if you did, you'd just be circlejerked over forever anyway.

>> No.5419079

>>5417603
You're going to need a bigger hook for that b8

>> No.5419090

You get over it, anon. You're gonna die and the universe will end one day, everything will go to squander. What a lark.

>> No.5419104

>>5415982
By realizing that the work will eventually be forgotten and will never survive eternity so is entirely meaningless anyway

>> No.5419958

>>5415982
How the hell do I deal with the fact that I'll never be the first one to land on the moon?

>> No.5420002

>>5415982
You don't, because it's a fucking imaginary problem. Do you think Joyce, Hemingway or Fitzgerald sat down, said to themselves: "Right, I'm going to write a masterpiece which will be glorified, analyzed and celebrated in years to come"? No. The wrote because they liked writing. Fitzgerald was often criticized as a shitty, derivative writer during his time yet is now said to be one of the best. Go figure. Don't let your ego get in the way.

>> No.5420015

>>5415982
>How the hell do I deal with the fact that I'll never create a classic and important work of literature? I used to want to be a writer very badly, but after starting to read even more I'm depressed as I've realized I've already been outclassed in every art form, talent, skill, etc. ESPECIALLY writing.

Read something by DeLillo and realize its pretty fucking easy.

>> No.5421225

>>5415982
You need to lose your ego son.

Do you have any fucking clue just how many lives have been lived, how many different, unique personalities that have been born, did stuff, then died?

How many of them do you think were remembered?

Now what makes you so fucking special?

>> No.5421525

>>5419079
I do think it'd be pointless to stop reading altogether, but that advice isn't actually bad at all, reading could definitely be detrimental to your confidence and indeed cause you to form habits.