/lit/ - Literature

>>13829406
It's not about "being an author," it's about sending a message.

>>13829406
I just like reading. I'm in STEM.

>>13829406
Nothing put the publishers are stopping them from becoming ''authors''

>>13829406
LOLOL

The real publishing contract was the friends we made along the way

Lately, I've felt like giving up on everything I used to be passionate about. Maybe, find a nice little garage to rent out, and just read good books until my time is up. Others seem to have more faith in my work than I do. But, I always feel like a mediocre wage slave. I should probably figure out how to become stable, and then work on art shit; nothing has been working out the way I had planned or envisioned. This might be the most biting and bitter part about getting older.

>>13829444
ASS
go back

>>13829551
You wouldn't have noticed me had I not mentioned it.

The author is dead.
Nice cope idiot

>>13829551
Go back to the Albanian Secret Service?

>>13829406
I already am. Getting published, even in a small capacity, is not difficult, it's just time consuming.

Being a published author means nothing. Unless you intend to make a living out of it, you're really just doing it for self improvement, pleasure, and to create something, which is what writing is supposed to be about anyway.

>>13829406
It's never been easier to be published. You can do it yourself and reach millions.

>>13829406
I am an author
Just not a financially successful one.

>>13829943
I don't think when people talk about "getting published" they mean vanity publishing.

>>13830097
I don't care what people mean when they shitpost.

>>13829519
iktf

>>13829406
there are people on this board right now who think

>>13829849
kek, was just about to say that

>>13830137
Let's persevere through this shit, anon. We can do it for each other, since we won't ever have to actually prove anything to one another.

>>13830179
i'm developing my ideas and aesthetic, but finding time and energy to sit down and write is difficult. wageslaving just dries me out. i come home half dead. i have this idea in my head of what i want to achieve, and i have completed (but not published) several novels that are pretty decent-ish, but i can't reach that ideal yet. i can't die happily unless i do.

>>13829406
How hard is it to get an eBook on kindle?

>>13830241
Amazon kindle store*

>>13829406
I am an author. I have a novel published by a major publishing house in my country, and I am having some of my short stories published and translated in two languages.
By published I mean physical publications I got paid for (and did not pay for). So it's totally possible to become an author, and there are people in here, beside me, who totally have the skills to do it.

>>13830325
Is it talent or did you work for what you got? What kind of training did you do?

>>13830097
Not that anon, but it is equally true. By just grinding literally anyone can put a novel on. When your first novel is published, you get to meet lots of people who published their first novel as well at presentations and literary awards, and I can assure you that most of them are completely normal people. They may not care a lot about creating "high" literature, yes - most of them write very auto-biographical stuff, or genre novels - but they are way better than the average childish twenty year old something who wants to be a writer and never wrote anything longer than 20 pages. In most cases, you just have to be able to chunk out a good, coherent story of around 300 pages and you'll get a good shot. It is true that most of the people who are able to do this remain obscure, but also, there are more people who get their stuff out now - and get paid for it - than there ever were in history. You don't get fame and you don't get money out of it (you may get some girls, though).

>>13830335
I don't know about talent, but as for exercise I just tried to write a couple of hours every day since I was 17 and always had in mind that I wanted to write novels and get better. Basically, in the last 12 years I have always been working on something. I wrote a lot of bad stuff: I have at least one novel and one long story (100 pages or so) that were not published nor considerated for publishing before my novel came out. I participated in a lot of contests, won some and lost some others. But I guess what made the difference between me and other 20 something year olds wanting to write was that I was doing it constantly. I thought of it as my main activity, and did everything else as if I was an "incognito" writer: it was always on the back of my mind. I take notes very often and keep a diary.

Now I have changed my schedule a bit, namely, I don't write every day but when I do I can do it from 3 to 6 hours. I try to get as much time as possible in order to find immersive moments where I can do this long, especially when I am working on some project. Planning and rereading takes more time, and I rewrite things a lot. But honestly, I think that what I noticed the most is that people who say they write don't write, much like people who claim to read on /lit/ don't read. People like the fantasy of doing things, but actually those who engage seriously with an activity are not many - and I don't even think I do that good, I would honestly like to be writing way more than I do.

Humility and attention were also very important, and still are. You need to be able to recognize what is good criticism and what is not, both in the things you say about your work and in the judgements of other. This is very difficult to do, and there is no fixed criteria, but it makes the difference between being a delusional crazy man who thinks he's the reincarnation of Joyce and a person who actually gets a book published. Wanting to be as good as the geniuses of the past is a great motivation and it is good: but you need to be able to assess objectively that you are not (yet?) as good as them, if you want to keep improving.

And of course, reading a lot helps. Read every day. Think about what you read and think if you could do it, or how you could do it (or if you could have done it better!). Sometimes you'll recognize that some books you could have never written. Others will seem closer to you. But really, you can learn from everything, so keep reading, every day.

>>13829444
Fucking based

>>13830453
Thanks for the detailed answer. I've only just begun to take my writing seriously (I'm 25) and it's somehow comforting to know that it's about putting in the hours. I don't have any talent, but I know I can put in the hours because it's a labor of love.

>>13830453
Great post. Helped me feel better.

>>13829406
You act as though it's difficult. Several of my poems and stories have been published. The hard part is gaining name recognition.

>haven't written for 3 months
>just put down a summary form for a short story
>it's good

>>13829406
I don't write for success I just want to put a story onto (digital) paper and be done with it.