/lit/ - Literature

The more I write the more I have to put my faith in my editing skills to make something out of this absolute fucking mess. Man, I hope I'm not just polishing a turd and instead refining a sculpture.

Are any of you going to write a Christmas themed story?

>>16905719
I don't like Christmas. At most I like snow.

How do you create conflict?

>>16905753
People with different, incompatible motivations are forced to share a space.

>>16903307
https://pastebin.com/BPgMQXba

I was expecting something like Things Fall Apart, but the story was not like that
Then was expecting the oven to be used to cook Jews, but it was not like that
Then I thought whitey would use his little new negro slave'd boipussy, and that didn't happen either

3/10

How do you get your first short published? I've submitted to the main 35-40 magazines, but I'm unpublished. Every piece of fiction on their websites seem to be by writers who have been published in a handful of other names from that list. Seems like it's easy once the ball is rolling and you can throw out some names, but getting that first one out there is daunting.

Do you guys ever get the feeling that everything you feel like doing is cringe?

At 100k words now on my fantasy novel. Have enough planned for several hundred thousand more, but apparently it's important for a debut to not be more than 120k.

Thinking I might end this soon at a reasonable place that's coming up, then do re-writes and edits and save the rest for a sequel.

>>16906506
I imagine it's like anything in life, anon - the first step is always the hardest to take. :)

>>16906511
The trick is either to not care and do it anyway, or to not write cringe.
There are deidicated fan communities for every imaginable type of cringe, it doesn't matter a huge amount.

I'm writing a sci-fi story where country borders and empires have shifted heavily on the Earth over the passage of many centuries. Countries have come and gone, empires have risen and fallen, and history has marched on. However, there are still people of different races/ethnicities.

So the thing I've used to denote this is that I describe peoples' skin color. Instead of calling someone "African" I say they have "dark skin." There's also "brown skin," "pale skin," "sallow skin," "ruddy skin," and so on.

I'm not going to cause a shitstorm doing this, am I? I've heard that there's some controversy about calling East Asians "sallow-skinned" because it's vaguely related to the old "Yellow" slur. But I want to find a decent way to differentiate my characters of East Asian descent to my characters whose roots are elsewhere, from centuries ago. In particular, I have a hapa character who I make sure to describe as sallow-skinned, to distinguish her from her friend, who is of Northern European descent and whom I describe as pale-skinned.

Basically, I'm not gonna cause a shitstorm doing this, am I?

>>16906545
Good plan anon

>>16906948
Sounds pretty autistic. Can't you just describe someone as east Asian looking or African looking?

Are you very specifically going for an angle where people have even forgotten where these people come from?

>>16907070
>Are you very specifically going for an angle where people have even forgotten where these people come from?

More or less. Though many populations are not far from where they are in our time, you get some occasional extreme exceptions. My story takes place thousands of years in the future.

>>16906948
Get more creative with your descriptors. Describe how racial noses, eyes, cheekbones, etc. look like. Skin tone is only a fraction of ethnicity.

>>16907145
Good point.

I obviously don't have time to luxuriously describe every single character's face every time they appear, but I can do that from time to time.

Whenever I try to write from a prompt I get writer's block.
How do I learn to improvise?

>>16907739
>write from a prompt
there's your problem. that shits gay

>>16907762
I know but it was actually for a routine I wanted to get into.

>>16906948
You do realize that different races are defined by things beside skin tone, right? Even normies know that the blue eyed blonde is the Aryan ideal

>>16905686
comfy pic! iirc it's Norilsk, one of the most uninhabitable cities on earth.

blease rate my short poem, it's about wanting to put a stop to a certain friendship because i keep torturing myself with false hopes and scarce meetings (p.s. im ESL)

> return at once what i have borrowed,
> become again alone and hollowed,
> so is my dream;
> and yet each hopeful coming morrow
> i burn myself with hopeful sorrow
> a man can dream.

>>16908474
oneitis: the poem

>>16905719
When I was younger, I wrote little Christmas short stories to my mom as present. Then, somewhere along the way, I lost my ability to write stories that weren't dark and edgy as shit, so I had to stop sharing them.

Tell me how to improve you shits

https://pastebin.com/BPgMQXba

>>16908593
it's far worse than you can imagine.

>>16908703
i love dark and edgy stories, anon. what are they about?

>>16908718

Start it off with the roof finally caving in under the heavy rain first, then explain why. Or start it off with the man saying ”im gonna hire a mason” then just reference the ruined building behind him or something.

>>16908703
You are not alone, cursed fecal bro.

>great at planning
>shit at putting it down in prose

how should I practice, what resources should I look at?

Dear Jabari,

Enclosed in this package are about four dozen dried baobab. They are an citrus-like fruit that is indigenous to Africa and may help Lupita Westenra with her condition. She needs to sleep with the baobab every night. I suggest you make a wreath of baobab leaves to hang around her neck and a crown to put on her head. The fruits you can hang around the window and the door.

Miss Westenra will surely complain about the inconvenience – be sure to tell her how lovely the scent is, how pretty the leaves are, and so no.

It is vital that your patient wear these dried fruits when she sleeps. I will arrive in Whitby soon.

Sincerely,

Abrafo
While Jabari read Van Hassain’s letter, Lucy examined the baobab fruit. She pushed them back into their box and closed the lid.

“Oh, Jabari, what a curious fruit! I think give these to the innkeeper and she can put them in a bowl in the lobby.”

Jabari began knotting the baobab leaves into a wreath.

“On the contrary, these fruits are all for you. They’re called baobab and Van Hassain had them specially sent to you, all the way from our ancestral land of Africa.”

He took a bite of the fruit.

“Not bad,” he thought. “Tastes like orange.”

Once the baobab wreath finished, Jabari put it on top of Lupita’s afro. Then he made a second wreath and hung it around her neck. Lupita wrinkled her nose.

“These leaves are itchy.”

“My mentor is a strange man, but over the years I’ve learned that he has good reason for doing the things he does,” said Jabari.

Soon the windows and doors were covered with baobab garlands. He cut a hole in each baobab fruit and looped string from them. Those he tied to the bed headboard and chairs. That night, Lupita slept peacefully, although she was annoyed that Jabari insisted on closing the window and trapping in the air that was increasingly smelly with baobab.

The thing I'm writing is turning into something where I have one "main" character, probably 3 others whose perspectives I'll show at times doing different stuff and then a bunch of background characters that will be just kind of there mainly just to talk occasionally. Is this retarded?

Guys I want to see the quality of your writing skills. I want you to write what happens in this video in your writing style. Prove that /lit/ knows how to write.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1DwrLTYeeI

>>16909401
I see you found a garlic alternative. Unfortunately, unlike garlic, it has never been used for medicinal purposes so you'll probably get called out for making shit up to act like you know about African culture.

>>16909524
Yes.

I'm writing a poem and the ending of the third stanza is this:
>To ruin crafted nature’s portrait claimed.

Is that a good line? I am trying to rewrite Shakespeare's sonnet 1 in my own words. The line is
>And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:

I am trying to say in the stanza that the deer runs off from human eyes (hunters) to self preserve, which ruins the whole aesthetic (the natural order) of the landscape. Please help.

>>16909524
Only because it sounds like you have never read a book before, as this is common in plenty of genres. Read some books, anon.

>>16909574
To nature's portrait ruin claimed? Try switching the order maybe if you don't like what you have?
It's difficult without knowing the tone and meter of the lines before and after. It seems good to me.

>>16906506
make sure your story is not shit and aim for magazines who are still small or do anonymous reading

>>16909600
Would,
>Unearths the beauty of nature's portrait

be better?

>>16909627
>>16909574
nah i think you are right, i do like the first one i came up with.

>>16909581
I've read plenty (e.g something I'm reading now cycles through a different storyline each chapter between 4-5), I just feel like I have too many characters and doing it well sounds hard. I'm still going to try it, though.

>>16909638
If it turns out shit, then you can just rewrite it into something good when you're more skilled. Keep writing it.

Are there any very brief philosophical essays about a specific thinker or school of thought?
I'm in my first semester of philosophy and we have to write a short essay (about 3 pages) on descartes and I want to look at other essays just to get a feeling of the composition and things like that

>>16909687
nigger do your homework

>>16909536
No one ever called out Stoker for claiming garlic had medicinal properties though.

>>16909638
You should have multiple characters only if their experiences are integral to the story and can't be told through a single point of view. Jumping from person to person just for the hell of it and having lots of characters whose only job is to create an illusion of population is shit writing.

>>16909401
Why did you leave so much space between single sentences?

>>16909797
Garlic is, even today, considered to have medicinal benefits.

>>16909810
it's perfectly normal to have a small group of people as your main characters and jumping from one to another.

>>16909824
Yeah, I've seen those new age hippie websites too. From my own experience, it isn't that medicinal, if you use actual medicine as a standard. Once I had a itchy red rash all over my upper chest, and I mashed up garlic and rubbed it on my skin. It didn't help and it made my skin sting. I then gave up and went to the doctor and she gave me an anti-fungal cream. Within a few days, my skin cleared up.

>>16909818
I feel like the spaces in between the lines are visually too close. It bothers me a bit, but if it doesn't bother other people, I'll use standard formatting

>>16909932
I can't tell if this is a troll, but in case it's not, "medicinal" doesn't mean it magically fixes things. It can be anything from steeping it in tea, eating a significant amount of it, smelling it, keeping it in the corner of your mouth, etc. I've never read that mashing garlic and spreading it on a fungal infection can kill the fungus.

>>16909932
He wasn't really advocating for medicinal use of garlic though. He was saying that Stoker used a plant that was (and is) considered slightly medicinal, rather than any old plant. So the writer of Blackula should consider picking a plant that is considered medicinal rather than picking any old African plant.

>>16909833
Did you actually understand what I wrote?

>>16909932
I recommend you try rub yourself with gasoline next time and complete the medicinal ritual juggling lit zippos.

>>16910029
> It can be anything from steeping it in tea, eating a significant amount of it, smelling it, keeping it in the corner of your mouth, etc.
Amazing what passes for medicinal nowadays

>>16910053
Now that I think of it, my white botany professor used to be really into plants with """"medicinal"""" properties and traveled to third world countries looking for different plants. He always said that western medicine never appreciated traditional herbalists. I always thought he was wasting his time, but who knows, maybe he had a point

>>16910073
nah man, imma stick to proper medicine in the future. No old wives tales stuff for me. But Blackula will probably get one of these Nigerian herbs

>>16910064
no

>>16910161
What are you talking about? This is an argument about writing, not medicine. Spaz.

>>16909621
But then won't it look arguably worse to have only been published in no-name magazines?

>>16910201
>to have only been published in no-name magazines
>only
treat it as a stepping stone

What music do you listen to when writing? Personally I listen to the made in abyss ost.

>>16910244
jazz or ambient shit, but i always unplug in the end because they get distracting.
lately, it's antiphon by alfa mist.

back when someone asked for tips on writing horror, an anon recommended checking out "House Taken Over" by Cortazar.
i really liked it and i found a neat version with the house plan: http://socks-studio.com/2013/02/20/house-taken-over-by-julio-cortazar-1944-illustrated-by-juan-fresan-1969/

>>16910198
My opinion is that anything that is considered "medicinal" is basically regular healthy food. Apples allegedly have the ability to keep doctors away, yeah? But some people really believe in that medicinal stuff, so I'll pick something that is more in line with that

>>16910244
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPIC-z3MJLM

Guys, i’ve made up my mind: i’m going for self publishing. It’ll take a lot of work with extra proof reading and doing everything myself but at least i won’t have to wait for three months publishers to reject me.
It actually feels good to know what i have left to do. Gonna take some time off from work to do the final editing.

Thanks for listening frens.

>>16910332
good luck bro, i hope you make it

>>16910244
>What music do you listen to when writing?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrd77aUMw3g

Obnoxious loud music, because it distracts me and makes me angrier.

>>16910332
>and doing everything myself
Congrats on deciding and having a plan. Don't do everything yourself though. You need beta readers and do yourself a favor spending the money on a proofreader. It's just as important to your success as spending a few bucks on a good cover. You don't need to go crazy getting a top professional, but you need a trained set of eyes looking over your work.

>>16910332
one of us one of us

>>16910332
keep us posted anon I really want to know if self publishing makes any money

>>16910403
>>16910361

You lads make money on this at all? Not primarily in it for the dosh, just curious.

>>16905686
I accidentally named my fantasy planet Pangea.
I keep trying to think of another name, but I can't come up with anything I like better.
Can I use Pangea with out it being... weird?

>>16910471
I made $20 this month. So after I get the vaccine, I'll have to get a job

>>16910592
Why would it be weird?

>>16910592
As long as its continents aren't separated by bodies of water it's fine.

>>16910638
It just seems like it would be.
That'd be like naming a country in your fantasy world Utah, or something.

>>16910710
Just make sure your planet has all the continents in a single land-mass and it'll feel natural.
>That'd be like naming a country in your fantasy world Utah, or something.
Westeros is a city in Sweden and it doesn't bother people much.

>>16910592
You asked this like a month ago. If you're still this irrationally worried about something so dumb, it doesn't bode well for your story

>>16910814
Charmed to meet you again, anon. It is something that I keep coming back to when I'm in a slump. I wouldn't say irrationally worried, more like persistently annoyed.

can someone tell me how to grow some balls and turn my dreams into reality?

>>16910841
Then change it to Polyterra

>>16910851
Just
DO IT

>>16910237
>treat it as a stepping stone

But what if it does the opposite, and undermines my chances of success? Editors of the bigger journals turning their noses up and the like.

>>16910856
too kinky.
Nathogea or Nathgea?

>>16910966
Nutgaya

>>16910966
>>16910990
Notgaya
Also known as Novum Homum, or Nohomo

>>16910966
Nova Nigeris:
NoNigs

I'm good at writing erotica but I feel bad knowing that my only talent lies in making men, sometimes women, cum.

>>16910592
Call it Planet.

>>16911093
Bold. I like it!

>>16911079
negro any reasonably soft and appropriately sized hole can make me cum, making people cum with words alone is a talent you should be proud of.

>>16911079
Where do erotic writers upload their works? Amazon? Archiveofourown? Literotica? is there anywhere else?

>>16911079

>>16909401
I don't know when this book is set, but the word "afro" might not be appropriate for the time period

>>16905695
What do you focus on editing, and how do you edit?

Is this a good place to ask what are the fundamentals of what makes a good story?
I'm supposed to start with the Greeks too, right?

>>16910990

>>16911287
I haven't started editing yet, just noticing how dire my need of it is. I hope that I turn out a better editor than a writer, otherwise I'm screwed.

>>16911133
I, too, would like to know.

>>16910880
then don't do it, i guess

I've been doing nano pls no bully and I hit the word count but I'm not quite finished. It's an almost everyone dies at the end story. Is that cringe? How do I make it not feel abrupt or like the story was all a waste?

>>16911562
well, we'd have to know the story to tell you that

Which is better for my fantasy story. An adventure where you know what direction it's going in from the start or one where it slowly unveils itself as the story goes on and then finally you know where it's heading.

>>16911613
Fair enough. It's various groups of people hiking in the desert, someone dies the first night and it's unclear if it was an accident or murder. Eventually other strange things happen, people get stranded, and die or are killed. All in 3-4 days. I know that still isn't really enough info, but there you go.

One more autistic point- I'm having difficulty determining if I'm writing 3rd person omniscient or limit.
For example, if Anna is the POV character, and I write:
>Anna looked at Eric. His pleas were pathetic, embarassing. They were all like children. Still, it made some deep knot in her stomach twist uncomfortably. She rubbed her face and said, "I don't know what to say. Let's just rest for a while."
>Beside her, Silvia shifted her feet, nervous. She shot a worried glance at Anna before shuffling away to sit on a rock.
Is saying Silvia is nervous enough to to make this omniscient? Is just saying what Anna is feeling inside making it omniscient?

>>16911079
isn't the audience for individualized, custom smut literature on patreon 80% driven by men

>>16911249
interesting, it turns out that the term "afro" was coined by African Americans during the civil rights period. But an afro is simply what happens when a black person grows out like a normal person, isn't it?

btw, check out this neato plant. The medicine form even has a very African-sounding name, umckaloabo
> Pelargonium sidoides, South African geranium (Umckaloabo)

Pelargonium sidoides is native to the coastal regions of South Africa, and available ethnobotanical information shows that the tuberous P. sidoides is an important traditional medicine with a rich ethnobotanical history.

P. sidoides root extract, also known as Umckaloabo, is a herbal remedy thought to be effective in the treatment of acute respiratory infections. There are numerous studies about P. sidoides and respiratory tract infections that showed that P. sidoides may be effective in alleviating symptoms of acute rhinosinusitis and the common cold in adults, but doubt exists. It may be effective in relieving symptoms of acute bronchitis in adults and children and sinusitis in adults. In one research, P. sidoides was documented to represent an effective treatment against common cold. It was reported to significantly reduce the severity of symptoms and shortens the duration of the common cold compared with placebo.

How many people read books just to learn more about fantasy/sci-fi world's lore?

I hate how hard it is to get useful feedback.

>>16911666
>Is saying Silvia is nervous enough to to make this omniscient? Is just saying what Anna is feeling inside making it omniscient?
What the hell does it matter?

how to make money with writing so i can avoid wageslavery? Any fiverr tips?

Anyone want to make some money?

I'm looking for someone to adapt the manga One Piece chapter by chapter into prose. Basically neatly written, stick 100% to what occurs in the panels. I'm a richfag so I can pay 100$ per chapter adapted. Would want at least two chapters a week adapted for this money.

>>16912256
>>16912253
yes make a deal on fiverr

>>16912253
Looks like you're going to be writing a novelization of One Piece

>>16912256
Holy moly, this sounds like a pretty good deal to be honest famalam

>>16912256
/lit/ always larps about how good they are at writing and whenever they have a chance to prove it they all go silent. They are always happy to jump into any argument to make fun of other people or brag about how well informed they are when it comes to prose and other intricacies to writing, yet whenever you ask them to write something they all go silent with the only exception being someone who writes on the level of a 1st grader.

>>16912278
Give me a break dude, I write 25-40k words per week on the average, I'm not gonna write extra just to prove something to an anonymous weeb. Unless you pay up, of course.

>>16912233
Because it needs to be consistent when you do an editing pass.

>>16912253
Smut. Lots of it.

>>16912278
someone's still butthurt that the mods longer allow 15 simultaneous One Piece threads on /a/

>>16912312
>Because it needs to be consistent when you do an editing pass.
Why? Nobody cares about pointless shit like that.

>>16912256

>>16912256
Are you providing the mangas and how long is a chapter

>>16912356
I'd be more concerned about the fact that the manga is currently 997 chapters long, still on-going, and at the rate of 2 chapters per week, it will take you about 15 years to catch up. That's quite the commitment for $800/month.

>>16912316
They still allow that amount for Dragon Ball Super.
Maybe One Piece fans should be more domineering.

>>16912439
Why would I care about "catching up" or finishing the series, I've never heard of One Piece until you showed up on this thread.

Furthermore, you didn't answer my question about how long a one piece chapter is, because depending on the length that I suspect it is, it may be a $1000 to $2000 per chapter job

>>16912501
I'm not the commissioner, retard.

>>16912524
I see. Most likely he's left the thread. So much for that weebnigger. It's back to writing smut on Patreon for me

I could use a bit of advice, /wg
See, I've painted myself into something of a corner. My piece is set around the 850 a.d. and has a comparably level of technological development, though I have made some exceptions.
However, it has occurred to me like a slap in the face that I have described several character as using plate armor. Naturally this is somewhat anachronistic, and since weapon development is always chasing armor improvements, giving the world the metallurgy responsible for plate armor would throw a rather large monkey wrench into the world's future, since who is to say what full plate could possibly evolve into given 300 years and no gunpowder/cannons to counter it.

Am I overthinking it? Is this something which only I will notice? Or should I simply go back and redesign these characters armors?

>>16912569
quick wiki search says plate armor was used as early as the anicent greeks and even the romans. You'll be fine. You can always handwave it as them only covering certain areas rather than full armor.

>>16910592
Call it OhFuckItshapoenedagainipissednyselfwithgreyshortsonanditssoeasytotellbutimaplanetsohopefulkynoonewillseebutohnosomeintelligentlifehasdevelopedonmeandnoetheyobservethemoistpatchwhatshame

>>16912635
too late. I already named it Nutgaya

>>16912569
I don't get what you're trying to say.
Is your piece set in a fantasy world with technology that's like earth in 850 a.d?
Regardless, if plate armor is a relatively new thing in this universe then you shouldn't worry about that it means for tech evolution.
If you're doing an alternative history thing and it matters then just keep in mind that it would just lead to a lot more bludgeoning weapons (pic related would do, don't imagine someone just carrying around a club in case a plate armor shows up), as long as we're talking about the proper upper medieval/renaissance plate armor.
Or you could just say it's made of shittier material or with a less refined process and thus still be pierceable by spears and arrows and what not.

>>16910361


thanks for the advice! I have had several beta readers and they don't really say a lot more than that it was a good read. No real complaints desu, and one of them is a [insert my language] teacher for high schoolers.

>>16910471
i'm not in it for the cash, not with this book. This one is for proving that i can finish a project. The next ones maybe.

>>16912603
In the sense that they had breatsplates and full helms etc. Not like a classic full suit of medieval night's armor.
>>16912643
Yes, I am saying it's a fantasy world comparable to the ninth century.
You make some excellent points, about both bludgeoning weapons and about excusing it via weaker techniques.

Overall, both of you seem to be of the camp of not worrying. And it's not as if there are illustrations to show it's this highly advanced late 1700s plate, so perhaps the reader will assume what they can and will. Scalemail, leather armor, and chainmail is also referenced for the lesser combatants.
Thank you, Anons, for your contributions.

>>16912790
>Thank you, Anons, for your contributions.
we want an official thanks at the end of the book

>>16910347
>>16910403
>>16910436

thanks for the encouragement, also! Nice manners should be encouraged, even though it goops up the thread a bit.

>>16912808
Oh, you will, Anon, you will.

>>16912895
Ominous!

I am unironically writing something for one of those short story subreddits lol.

Call me a faggot etc

>>16912937
why would you do that

>>16912937
I think that's fine, but don't normalise their culture. That is a lovely monkey.

>>16912958
Idk I think it could be a fun challenge. Also if my story goes completely unnoticed there then I'll know I'm definitely bad at writing

PT1.. I'm a published YA writer.. what do you guys think for my unannounced project?

In the days when the earth seemed to be fully explored, there wasn't much left for explorers to
discover. A young couple who have just married two months prior embark in a row boat to a
small island in the indonesian archipelago. Henry Johanson and Milly Johanson: survivalists,
archeologists, and most of all explorers. Why did they go to this island; they are researchers, who
really cares.
“Henry, come on row with me, row with me.”
“Aw man, we’ve been rowing for a whole forty minutes.”
“Well I guess we can take a break.”
“Thank the Lord!” Henry heavily exclaimed. Now Henry began to open a can of tuna and
some crackers. He gently used a spoon to smear it unto a Ritz cracker. “Want some?” he asked
extending his hand towards Milly.
“Would I?” Milly questioned back excitedly.
“Would you?” Henry asked once more.
“Yes, my lovey-wovey.” Biting the cracker straight from his hand and smiling with each
crunch and each bite while proceeding to then kiss him on the cheek.
“Hey, c’mon, you're gonna get me all dirty.”
“That’s the idea, Sweetie.” She pushed him down on his back making him spill the tuna
and crackers.
“Well in that case I guess I’ll,” Henry dipped his finger in one of the grey chunks and
wiped it over her lips “Get you dirty too.” Henry began to kiss off the tuna as Milly grew redder
and hotter.

He was enraptured by her redness, but it made the sudden gray clouds behind her all the
more apparent. “When did those clouds roll in, it was clear a minute ago.” tip tip tip tiptiptiptip!
“We need to get rowing, Henry”
“Gotcha!”
Eventually they had reached the island as the thunder began to rumble. The rain started to
pour sideways and the two adventurers immediately became drenched.
“Help me pull the dinghy over there!” yelled Henry as more rain polluted his glasses.
“I’m way ahead of ya!” Milly mightely yelled in command. They began to pull the boat
furiously to a great rock face not too far from shore. It was there that they began to create a
shelter and attempt to dry their drenched clothes.
Henry began to explain “there’s no use of making a fire; everything’s drenched. So just
help me get some leaves to make the shelter a little dryer.”
“Alright, I’ll get some sticks to create a small frame.” Molly said in response.
“Gotcha” Henry replied.

In about an hour the shelter had been completed. The two were by each other’s side to
trying to keep warm while still in their underwear.
“Nice ain’t it?”
“Still better than Calcutta.”
“Yeah, that was terrible”
Rustle rustle
“What was that?

>>16912937
Which sub

This is gonna sound dumb but how do I help someone get published? Its for my Mom who's had a manuscript lying around for 3 years and just survived Covid and basically I'm just a programmer. I talked to her about self publishing on Amazon but she is adamant against that so I wanted to ask y'all about what I should do

>>16913080
PT2

The rustling continued. Milly drew her gun and Henry pulled out the pocket knife he had
on hand. The rustling continued and so did their racing hearts.
Then there it was, a little blond boy. All he had on was just a loincloth of dried leaves and
a makeshift spear. He must have been only seven, but Milly and Henry were just wondering what
a little child let alone a blonde child was doing on a remote island of indonesia.
“We saw that right, right?” said Henry.
“Yeah, that ain’t normal.”
They began to search for the boy, wherever he may be calling out little boy and yoohoo
all while (don’t forget) in the rain and their underwear. The two were scared he might get sick
and die in the cold or worse yet, get struck by lightning.
“Little boy, where are you?” yelled Milly “little boy?” Suddenly she saw the boy’s spear
fly towards her, scraping the side of her torso. Achoo! Sniffle. All Milly thought of was that the
little boy was sick. She could hardly care about the (little in her mind) cut. She saw the boy
wiping away his boogers all over his cheek. She extended him the bottom of her tank top to blow
his nose, which he did in a large amount. “Do you understand English?” She asked. The boy just
looked up at her. “I guess not.”
“Milly!” “Milly!” “Henry!”
“Oh Thank goodness you’re alive!” At that moment Henry noticed her cut. “Milly, are
you all right? You’re bleeding down to your thigh.”
He brought her back to the tent with the boy following him.
As Henry began wrapping up Milly’s wound, he looked into the boy’s eyes. He could see
the want for redemption in his eyes.

Come hold this.”
“He doesn't speak English.”
“Well let me try this.” He motioned to the boy to come towards him and hold up the
bandage while he wrapped Milly. It was there where the three waited out the rain and were
awoken by a clear sky and the sun.
As the sun beat down as if it didn’t see the rain the day before, our adventurers prepared
their dinghy for a voyage back to civilization. They didn’t even bother actually doing what they
went there to do.
“Do you want to come with us, little boy?” Milly said while motioning to him towards
the boat. The boy shuttered and shook his head as maybe he was attached to the island somehow
or someway. “What are these?” Milly asked as she was handed two marbles the size of ping
pong balls, one blue like indigo and another like orange and honey. Milly put them away in her
satchel as he waved her and Henry goodbye.
As they rowed they saw the boy wave wider and wider before returning into the jungle.
“I’m going to miss that kid, you know.”
“Says the woman who got attacked by him.”
Something caught Henry’s eye. Something was expanding in Milly’s satchel.
“Hey, what is that? Check it out.”

Do you write every day? I try to, but some days I just want to read or watch a movie instead and cannot be bothered to. Then I am filled with guilt.

Nightly Bath
Drip, polished faucet, on my twisted toes
Cold air and goosebumped porcelain
tears at my rotting skin

In the shiny knob,
upturned pupil catches its reflections,
each iteration more
green
small
slimy than the last

Moist flaps of lips dangle from a face,
revealing hills of red flesh, capped
by popcorn kernels, with
weary white bones jammed between.

Little thumbtack bellybutton,
now stretched oval portal,
spills cornucopial with viscera
moving, slowly on my chest in beats

Beats which cast more blood through vein,
beats with crooked red berets
beats who can sing to you dancing a waltz

An inch of spoiled silk,
an almost-bath for an almost-corpse,
the water surface wobbles,
sucking away at flaccid thighs

Dying waves, iridescent pulses in the water,
clouded by red and pink,
leave dark damp memories on the tub,
slowly fading, waiting to be replaced

Knotted, warty knuckles
hang, sticky, from the snowdrift edge,
the oblong halo of the tub

Spattered red spots, like freckles on
the pale skin of a thirsty beast,
while murky streaks of snanguine rust
in little rivers, twist, slow, downdrain.

>>16913084

ask for her permission to send it to agents/agencies. There's advice in the thread OP but here's a link: https://querytracker.net/

Good luck, and what a nice son you are! (there are no girls on the internet).

>>16913149
thanks m8, knowing what I've read about it already, I'm in for a futile slog

>>16908703
>When I was younger, I wrote little Christmas short stories to my mom as present.
This is the cutest thing i've ever read

>>16913174

but for a good cause! unlike the rest of us who are in it for ourselves

>>16908703
I know that feel. I wrote so many stories in school my teachers told me off for it. I wish I hadn't listened and had continued to write since then. I feel like I wasted years.

>>16913194
That said, if she does pass before I can do something, I'm prolly going to publish on either Amazon or some site that might digitally distribute such works for free, if only to just get it out there. Thanks for the encouragement

>>16913124
I strive to, but setting discipline is incredibly hard. I procrastinate with playing in VR, and watching anime, plus being a "essential worker" during the weekends. I do serial chapters so it kinda helps to force myself with deadlines though. I'm upset at myself that I can't shit out like 20-40k a week like some writers do. Most I can manage is at best a total of 2-4k words over 2-3 consecutive days.

>>16905686
> the art of fiction
By who? Several authors come up from a search.

I am working to greaten my wordstock of the true-born English tongue.

>>16913080
Why is your formatting and punctuation so weird

>>16911666
I want to beta read your story, Anon, because I'm writing something similar.

>>16912310
>I write 25-40k words per week on the average
Excuse me?

>>16913401
I can barely eek out 300 words a day

>>16905686
I was wondering if I can colons like this? for example

lee heard something on the tv and it went something like this:

"Man was buttfucked by an alligator last Tuesday night."

or is it like this?

lee heard something on the tv and it went something like this: "Man was buttfucked by an alligator last Tuesday night."

I've maxed out at 5,000 words a day of fiction if I go for a full 16 hours with barely a meal break. If I didn't care what I wrote, I guess I could write more.

>>16913520
Both those examples are unusual in normal English, ESL-san. Neither is incorrect, but you'd rarely see them in a published novel. If you really wanted to write it that way, you could use either, depending on when you wanted to start a new paragraph.

>>16913090
Yo where's part three nigger I'm intrigued

>>16913520
bro just treat the TV as if it were a character
>Lee turned on the TV just in time to catch the news: "Man buttfucked by an alligator."

>>16913497
I'm happy if I finish a paragraph. I've been rewriting a sentence for like 2 hours.

>mfw I wrote 2,814 words today

>>16913658
>I've been rewriting a sentence for like 2 hours.
Why bother? Unless you're changing how something is gonna play out just push the story forward and then edit everything later.

>>16913686
I'm writing a prologue to a novel I'm doing and there's no dialogue it's just a long description of a particular event. I want it to be really good since its the first real book I'm writing, and doing descriptions like this is difficult. I can pick up the pace for scenes involving characters and dialogue, but I feel like I won't be able to concentrate on the rest of the book until I get this part just right.

>>16913676
gj anon

>>16913676
Give me your words and no one gets hurt

>>16913725
OVER MY DEAD BODY!

>>16913139
bump for crit please

>>16913703
Barebones it. Write bits of the book you feel like writing and have current inspiration for. Return to the opening paragraph with more information from how the rest of the book develops. You can't write the perfect intro for a book you haven't written unless you are some sort of wizard. Don't be too proud.

Bros... we're on the precipice of victory, Nanobros!

>>16913139
I think you're effective with the gruesome imagery for the subject of suicide. But words like "halo," and "waltz," and "beret" detract from it. It makes the brutal act into a performance art piece.

I'd love some brutal thoughts on the narrator's voice. I'm not sure it's coming across as deluded and narcissistic as I would like it to.

https://pastebin.com/eTqpbKxY

I'm 31K into a story, and I have grown proud. I started off not caring, thinking to myself "I am writing because it is fun for me". However, now I think "this book is tremendous, I need people to read it."

How to stop myself getting any hope?

>>16913853
Pride in creation; humility in reception.

It's good to have hope. Write it as if it is the greatest thing to ever grace God's Earth. Then read it, realize it's shit, and rewrite in until it's no longer shit. But never lose that hope.

I refuse to believe that any of you are real. There is no concievable way for anyone on 4chan to be employed or making money off their work. Therefore I've come to the conclusion that everybody in this thread with the exception of me and >>16911562 this anon are either bots, CIA operatives or a figment of my imagination.

>>16913393
Y-you first

What is more important for writing good fiction: study or practice?

>>16913806
Hold me

>>16914050
Definitely practice. Make no mistake, you should always be reading something, but learning all the ins-and-outs of football, the theory, the rules, the tactics, the greats. It's all fine and dandy, but it's a huge leap away from actually playing it.

Wuxia anon here. I've had a lot of stuff going on haven't been able to write much for the past month or so, but hope to get back to it soon. I hope you're all doing well and have gotten a lot of good writing done

>receive inspiration
>have a general outline in my head for at least the first 2/3rds of a novel
>can't be bothered to sit down every day and transform it into a written work of art

>>16914189
Cheers.

>>16914193
Try finding a suitable piece of music, it helps in my experience.

EVERY TIME I THINK I AM MAKING PROGRESS I JUST FIND SOMETHING I DON'T LIKE ABOUT MY STORY AND I TRY TO CHANGE IT AND START DELETING MONTHS WORTH OF PROGRESS Am I supposed to just ignore the flaws I notice in my stories? Do you have to be slightly retarded to write where you just ignore issues in your work so you can make sure it gets finished

>>16914367
Maybe write something harder to fuck up?

>>16914396
No the problem is I am trying to write a perfect story. My beta readers think my story is good but I don't think it's good enough

>>16914428
Good is good enough Anon, don't fuck things up

>>16913862
NotP, is that u?

>

>[Pronoun] looked across the room. [Pronoun] picked up the ball, examining the texture. [Pronoun] threw the ball to the dog, but it didn't react. [Pronoun] scratched [Posessive Pronoun]'s chin.

How do I break out of this hell?

>Mods delete advice
Yo, what’s up with that?

which one of you wrote this and took out an ad for it?

1/2
I walked away and sat down next to Linda, utterly defeated. The old man who was in the line before me was trying to look at my nametag across the room. He didn’t seem to care that he was making me uncomfortable. Mandy sat down on my right. I kept my eyes glued to the light and dark blue square patterned carpet. When I grew tired of its illusionary deception, I switched to the overhead fan that swung at a low setting. I was going to pull out my phone and look at that but felt it would look rude.
“It shouldn’t be too long”
“Yeah. The lady said it should only be about 5 or 10 minutes… Is Rick in town with you?”
“No.”
“Did he decide to stay in Melbourne?”
Linda gave a little laugh followed by a frown. “No, he didn’t. We decided it would be better if we stopped seeing each other. And when I say we decided I mean only Rick decided. He didn’t even tell me. I got home from work one night and saw all his stuff was out of the apartment. I tried to call him but he must have blocked my number. It was awful, I cried for days. And now I’m living in some shitty apartment in Frankston. From what I can gather from his friends though is that he is currently living in Bali and engaged to a 19-year-old ladyboy, or whatever they go by.”
“Jesus, when did that happen?”
“2 months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did. I messaged you on WhatsApp.”
“I don’t use WhatsApp. I deleted it”
“A ladyboy? Like a girl with a penis?” Mandy said, inserting herself into the conversation.
“Yes.” Said Linda slowly. “A girl with a penis.” She didn’t take her eyes off her diet coke.
“If they had a penis, they wouldn’t be a girl but, would they?” I said.
“That’s really insensitive of you Jon.” Mandy replied.
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes Jon, it is. I take gender studies, so I would know.”
“Does that mean he was gay?” I said, returning to Linda.
“Yeah, I think it would mean he’s gay.”
“But it’s a girl he’s with.” Mandy said. “If he looks like a girl, it would mean he’s attracted to the way girls look. He didn’t run off with a guy who looks like a guy. Just a guy who looks like a girl.”
“Now who’s being insensitive?” I said, mockingly.
“That’s not insensitive. Ladyboys usually take pride in their male genitalia. Most prefer to be the less dominant in a relationship, common personality traits of a women.”
“Does that mean the ladyboy is gay?”
“Can we talk about something else please.” Urged Linda, who was clearly uncomfortable about our inquiry into sexual orientation and ladyboys. I looked at her face and saw a sadness. I took hold of her hand and pressed it into mine. She embraced my squeeze; it was a comforting feeling.

2/2
Linda was a woman whose character was of a different decade. She expressed such a genuine care towards people and friends alike that a person of today could almost mark it as suspicious. Short, slim, light fair hair, always in a cotton sweater and pair of denim jeans, she would have been an ideal mother. The bad string of men that have plagued her all her life have kept her from being that but. The first one beat her, another was a drunk, another one me and Dad had to run out of town because he was trying to get her to join a cult. Her loving demeaner has proven to be pernicious. Though only 38, a mere 3 years older than me, it feels as though she is more akin to an aunty than a sister, as her distinctive warmness puts her beyond her years. Mandy was almost an opposite to Linda. She was strong and tall, a few inches shorter than me (6”3) and had deep dark red hair. Ample in her breasts and hips, she possessed a plain face that fitted in nicely with her figure. Mandy was much louder and fouler mouthed, preferring to leave no stone or conspiracy of the times unturned.
I let go of Linda’s hand and turned my head to give Mandy a half-smile. She looked at me then turned her eyes back down to her phone. I looked at the small flatscreen TV that was on the wall and watched the news. Prime Minister Christopher Lep was giving a press conference.
“This aggression that is being displayed by the Chinese government over the Spratly Islands is something that will not stand. It is in the Chinese official’s best interest to keep a stable, friendly relationship with the Australian Government. As Prime Minister, it is my job to keep the Australian people’s interest at the forefront, and me and my team plan to do just that, whatever the cost.”

>>16914563
This guy got real reviewers, 500 word and in depth and everything, holy shit. I thought it'd be full of 4chan reviews like
> dusk ember made me cum, 4/5

https://www.amazon.com/Dusk-Ember-Robert-Jacoby-ebook/dp/B07P8TH5X8

>>16914010
I'm serious Anon, you better post a full transcript asap

>>16914819
I'm not even done with the shit first draft. It's not like I just need to do proofreading, I have huge chunks missing with (fill in x here) or whatever. It'll be a hot minute.

Gimme a quick rundown on your story.

>>16914862
Fair enough. It's various groups of people [playing a mystery game] in the [mansion], someone dies the first night and it's unclear if it was an accident or murder [or part of the game]. Eventually other strange things happen, people go missing, and die or are killed. All in 2-3 days. I know that still isn't really enough info, but there you go.

It's an almost everyone dies [by] the end story.

>>16914896
Sounds fun. If you have a draft I'd give you notes when I'm done vomiting out my story.

>>16914927
I'm not done yet either. More like 2/3 finished. The beginning is the easy part, it's the middle and the ending that are tricky.

>>16914434
good is not good enough, why would I slave away writing if I am just going to make something average anon

>tfw finished my 40 page novella today

>>16905908
Clausewitz would call it wills instead of motivations and war instead of conflict

>>16914989
What’s it called what’s it about

>>16915027
It's about myself, and it's called "The Man With the Massive Dick"

>>16914947
Ain't that the truth. Well, good luck, anon.
Spoil me on the ending, is it a murderer?

>>16914530
Clarissa look across the room. There, wedged in the corner between the couch and the wall, was the ball she bought for the dog. Meandering over to the corner, she picked it up. Attempting to find something in its texture that would distinguish it from a regular tennis ball, for she had bought it under the marker of a dog's play-ball, she found nothing. She threw the ball into another room...The dog did not chase, even the energy to simply pick its head up wasn't there. Plopping down on belly next to Kerry, Clarissa scratched his chin.

What you shared is a skeleton. You must then decorate your skeleton with flesh.
The biology of that flesh must be mapped by you.

>>16915046
> Clarissa look across the room.
GOD I WANT TO JUST SLURP DOWN A GIANT COCK

>>16915046
Thank you, anon. It seems so simple in theory, but it just doesn't come naturally to me. My initial writing experience was journalism and it's hard for me to not excise all the superfluous detail. I appreciate the post.

>>16915044
It's an unfortunate string of circumstances, including but not limited to murder.

>>16914962
You risk getting burnt out and needlessly complicating/bloating your story

>>16905686
Infinite jest getting voted #1 on this board's best books list is a joke right?

What makes a story well written for you?

Yup. I did it. You can too.

>>16915543
What will we do to celebrate, Anon?

>>16915594
Be depressed about the sudden lack of productivity. About leaving our characters behind. About waking up and not having any pressure to write.

>>16915176
I didn't waste all this time just to make a story that is "okay"

>>16915646
sunk cost fallacy

>>16915532
When the writing is good

>>16915027
It’s called “Shell Game” and its about an ambassador trying to expose a conspiracy that will lead to war.

>>16915788
What makes good writing?

>>16915816
Being well-written

>>16915675
You don't know what sunk cost fallacy means if you think it's applicable in this situation

>>16905686
Going to write a tarot based analysis of Undertale for no reason. What books do I have to read to make it as pretentious and insane as possible? Already have Crowley's Book of Thoth and Meditations on the Tarot and have read some of Evola, Guenon, Crowley, Land, and various other occultists.

>>16915543
Congratulations!

>>16915594
>>16915543
>>16916238
What's the point you retards, your story sucks because you spent more time writing than you did planning it out

>>16916246
How do you know that anon didn't spend time planning it out? There were pre-NaNoFagMo threads for a month before the actual writing month

>>16911130
Thanks man, but still it wasn't my plan to become a well oiled smut machine
>>16911133
I don't post them anymore, I used to jump between random sites depending on the interface. Literotica was always my go to tho.
>>16911706
I don't know about that, I don't write them for others other than my gf

>>16916246
I should have planned it out more, but I did have a general outline for the beginning and middle.

Idk, it's more than I've had before, so that's worth something. Easier to polish a turd than to polish nothing.

>>16912316
Most of those threads have always been bait threads like "When did you drop One Piece" or something

>>16906239
You're a very wicked person.

Anybody want a 50% Scrivener coupon code?

>>16916759
Is Scrivener worth? I've been using google docs and it's kind of a pain.

>>16916804
It's a solid choice. There's a lot of overwhelming features, but the beauty of it is you can use as little or as much of it as you want either as an overpriced word processor or use it as an outlier for any notes or other things to keep track of. The only major drawback is it doesn't have any functionality for grammar checking, so you have to save and port it to something else like G-Docs or Grammarly. The compile function lets you also... compile it from a variety of things from epub to pdf and everything in between. Also has a lot of presets from things to screenplays to short stories and non-fic/fictions.

>>16916804
If you've got a big project with lots of chapters/intricacies/notes and you need that reference at hand at all times, yes. There are also quality of life things that are bonuses, and you're going to want it or something like it if you're actually exporting a novel.

>>16913187
One story was about a lonely guy who randomly meets this cute girl, who's interested in his life when no one else is. By the end, we find out the girl was an elf working for Santa, checking if he's been a good guy, and reminds him of what really matters about Christmas. It wasn't particularly well written or anything, but the idea was cute. My mom's been asking for a sequel for the past 10 years, but writing something like that is completely impossible for me today. How can you get your innocence back?

>>16913213
Same here. I'd use any excuse to turn a given assignment into a piece of creative writing. Fortunately, my teachers were pretty chill and actually encouraged me to keep at it.

Man fuck depression. It's so hard to be creative now.

It's me again. I think I finished my creation myth poems now and wanted to know what you think of it.
I am writing with unreliable narrator and so this is just something the MC hears and not something that is confirmed true, it's more a cultural observation and less a definitive truth
https://pastebin.com/tkr5Zpip

>>16917307
I don't understand poetry but that's a nice bit of detail to add to your story

>>16917307
It just goes on and on and on. There are too many filler lines that say nothing and overuse of "so" and "thus". Trim the fat. The core of oral tradition is to use few words to say a lot, because how the fuck else will the speaker memorize it?

>>16908474
No. The buildings have too few floors for Norilsk. This looks like a regular 50-500k russian shithole city

t. Norilsk-chad here

kek lit quarterly's thread was pruned. Looks like janny's story wasn't accepted

>>16917580
Did the thread have anything in it?

>>16917624
Just the OP post

>>16917629
That makes it even weirder.

>finally come up with an idea that might be solid enough for publication
>realize the story's not long enough to be a full novel
>nobody in my country publishes short stories unless there are enough for a collection
Should I even bother?

>>16917839
Surely you have ways of lengthening it.

>>16917854
I don't like to add pointless padding just for the word count. Editor would make me cut it anyway, if it wasn't important.

>>16917839
you know what you must do

>>16917873
Well I guess you better come up with new ideas to fill a collection.

is writing poetry a good way of developing a style for prose?

>>16917901
No, because it's not prose.

>>16917891
I've already published a lot of shit on Amazon. But I'd like to get something traditionally published too, just for the bragging rights.

>>16916954
post that elf story please

>>16917950
I'm sorry, I've replaced my PC three times since and lost the original file along the way. My mom might still have the printed pages, but not sure

>>16917839
Depending on the word count you could sell it as a novella. 10-20k words is the perfect length for one, can be fast-paced and read in one or two sittings. They've been gaining popularity lately.
Otherwise, learn how to rewrite and edit. You don't need to pad the story, you'd need to add elements to it, whether it be a new plot event or two which help build tension or adding a few shorter scenes throughout to help clarify things for the more mentally challenged readers. Rewrites can sometimes double the length of a work. On the other hand, if you don't feel the story deserves the extra details and that more happenings would only hamper the pacing, just keep it a novella/short story.

What are royal road's demographics like? Is it mostly girls like most writing sites? Seems like it's a younger crowd, is that true?

>>16918535
It's mostly people with Downs syndrome

>>16915814

Sounz interesting. Good job!

I'm serializing a book on my website. Pls read. Thank you.

https://awfiction.wordpress.com/2020/12/01/682/

If you think prose is important then your book is going to fail, I can tell when I'm reading a book and the author prioritizes on the least interesting aspects to a book making the rest suffer as a result. By not understanding the most important things to a book, you are dooming yourself to writing something uninteresting since you revolve your entire story around the worst aspects.

>>16915630
Started feeling this today and basically decided I'm going to proceed as if the month didn't end. I'm still going to have a daily word count quota but it won't be as much. This is the only way I will ever get anything done anymore. Wrote 400 words this morning before work.

>>16918906
What's it aboot, eh?

>>16918535
RR is overwhelmingly male teenagers and 18-24.
Wattpad is almost entirely teen girls.
RR broke free from the fems by pandering to LitRPGs geeks with their user leveling system. As a result, the romance is taken over by verbose stat descriptions and the vampires are replaced by wuxia protagonists who repeat the same sequence of actions for thousands of chapters.

>>16917500
Thanks for the info, but I was looking to get more input on stuff like metre, rhythm and language

>>16918906
Felt kinda unsettling to read. The whole thing with the autistic child and the way characters speak is kinda jarring to me.

Are there any examples of ordinary, non-special main characters that exist in a fantasy world, with fantastical characters?

I want my MC to be normal in a world of special people, but I don't know how he would be able to drive a story forward without being able to have some ability or proficiency.

How do Campfire and Scrivener compare?
I always see the former being memed on by some youtubers I watch.
What about yWriter?

>>16919501
Wizard of Oz
My first thought is that what is normal to you and me would be abnormal in a fantasy world. I would think about how such a character would interact with that world and how these fantastical characters would perceive this normal person. You could create a conflict that way.
You could also go for a thing where the MC trains and develops his abilities and proficiencies.

>>16919497
i'll give the benefit of the doubt and say it's an accent thing. but yes, it feels kinda off and they both sound like the same person at times.

The people who say "no one is going to steal your idea" only say this cause they're projecting and have no good ideas of their own worth stealing. I have an original unique premise that hasn't been done before and is going to be a big hit. Other people try to cope with this by telling me I don't.

>>16919501
Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
All of the Hobbits are basically nothing that go on to save the world, and have big adventures.
There is nothing really special about them, other than being light on their feet.

>>16919267
post apocalyptic western about a guy driving a train across the desert.

>>16919497
unsettling as in difficult to follow from a technical aspect?

If most writers are bad, and if most successful writers write trash that you wouldn't read yourself. Why the fuck would you take advice from anybody then? It's not like anyone here on /lit/ is going to write a book you'd give a shit about, so why take their advice on how your story should be done?

This is quite simple, but, I'm a 40kfag and GW was doing a drive for horror short story submissions. Wrote something for it, which I'm quite pleased about.

One of the main reasons, not gonna lie, is that it had a deadline so I was forced to actually finish something.

>>16906948
>>16907070

Just include their IQ scores.

I sometimes write little haikus that I post into discord, or put up as my status message. I just drop them into random servers I'm active on or whatever. Here's a couple.

Embers in repose
Awaiting matchlight again
With nothing to burn

or sometimes they're more... well, like this.

Talking about kin
Say sometimes I rip the skin
Leading me to sin

I enjoy the restriction of it, forces me to be creative.

>>16920297
what does talking about kin have to do with any of that

>>16919519
yWriter is good if you just want the ability to single click to access certain scenes without needing to scroll around a large document or open another file. I used it back in 2009 to replace notepad and it was nice. It became a bit annoying so I switched back to Word around 2013.
I moved on to Scrivener in 2017 because I needed to format a book into manuscript formatting and was paranoid that I was missing something because I continually found things which needed replacing (margins, font formatting (i.e. replacing italics with underline), em dashes, straight quotes, proper chapter division with #s, proper half-page whitespace before chapters, etc) Scrivener allows you to create chapters and scenes and do everything in rich text, then it lets you compile for specific formats in one click.
I don't know what Campfire is, but it looks similar to Scrivener. I'd say you can stick with Word unless/until you need some specific functionality like exporting.

>>16920341

Oh shit, I'm sorry. You're right.

>>16920346

Scrivener cucked me and the autosave feature didn't work and I lost a bunch of stuff I'd written. I was infuriated and will never forgive it.

>>16920359
That guy is clearly ignorant of wincest

>>16920373

His Daddy never gave him good advice.

>>16916847
Is that your novel anon? Looks dope

>>16920371
I save my files in google drive and have scrivener to backup projects on each close (should do that automatically, check AppData\Local\Scrivener\Scrivener\Backups) and so it's nearly impossible to lose progress.

>>16919461
That's like asking opinions on the rhythm your fat mom wriggles her ass. Make her drop the burgers and ask me again.

a gaggle of destitute layabouts and philosophers

>>16921028
Switch the places of 'philosophers' and 'destitute layabouts'
Longer things go after shorter things when in a list.

>>16917307
I'm the anon that suggested the iambic pentameter before. I see you made half the lines rhymed and normally styled but still kept those | marks. Still don't really understand what you are going for with them. Also, the 8686 works well compared to 6646 or whatever you used before. Nice improvement.

>>16920371
I also save only one copy on Microsoft Overdrive + Word. I guess I like living on the wild side too

>>16917994
its still an amazing story
do they get together in the end? I must know

>>16921200
I disagree.

- – - - – - – – - – - - – - - es bueno.

>>16915816
Clear narrative, characters with purpose, intrigue, cadence.

/wg/, I want to find a way to rekindle my interest in my ongoing fantasy novel project. What can I do to get my mind spinning?

>>16922138
and none of those things decide if a book is going to be good. This is why none of you guys are going to make it.

>>16922173
Reflect about why you wanted to write it in the first place.

Why do I feel like I can't write down my story even if I have a lot of stuff in mind for it?
I don't even care for the prose. I'm just writing an outline to check the structure and then start working on scripts.

>>16922224
Coming up with an outline and ideas uses a different part of your brain than turning it into pages. It's a whole different skill to come up with ideas than it is to write a book, and all the time you spend training this skill causes your writing skills to fall far behind making it impossible for you to put those ideas onto paper.

>>16922522
Damn. No wonder I feel physically incapable of writing when it's not taking notes for this outline. I've been daydreaming this stuff for years.
What can I do?

>>16922205
you know, it's funny. I originally wanted to write a mythology for my city but the story changed so many times in so many ways it barely resembles itself anymore and I actually like it better the way it is: a clusterfuck of all my interests.

that said, there's still a lot of interests and ideas I never managed to work in. RP-style magic items, battle pets and bodily mutations were supposed to be a part of the story but they only really got worked in partially. I need to think of how to better integrate them

>>16922562
Anon I already spelled it out for you. You can be a level 1 writer, but a level 50 ideas guy. If you try to write it, it will turn into a level 1 story.

Level up your writing skills by writing. There's a reason why people who have good writing can still make a story no one gives a shit about. They are a level 50 writer, but a level 1 ideas guy.

>>16920420
yup sure is, I'm serial-publishing it on Royal road if you wanna check it out. https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/31062/saga-of-the-cosmic-heroes

>>16905686
keeping with the commieblock theme:

the barman appears and he's telling us it's last call and i glance at my watch and it's only ten o'clock. i switch to english and point out that they're supposed to close at 11, but he says they're closing at 10:30 tonight so it's last call and would we like another? and i ask her, in russian, and she bounces the question back to me and she looks good and i'm having fun and i'm thinking, why not? i tell the barman we'll have two more, the same, and anya tells me he looked very disappointed as he walked away, but i didn't notice a thing.

i had thought she looked older when we met, standing tall behind the bar, eyes like a deer, i was drunk but i remember saying that, she looks like a deer! like a baby deer! to my friends before i eventually approached and asked for her number, which she wrote for me on a folded up white piece of paper. i took a photo of it and threw it in the trash in the toilet. if alina finds that in my pocket i'm finished.

but now, sitting next to me, she looks smaller, less cervine, she has crooked teeth, in fact she's not even a barmaid but just a friend of someone who hired her for some temp work after her shop closed down due to covid. still, she's wildly sexy, sitting next to me in a cream-coloured cable-knit sweater and tight black jeans. long pink nails, kind of 90s, honestly not my thing, and they've grown out, probably needed to be replaced three weeks ago, but i'm feeling optimistic and the photos she sent me earlier were incredible so i'm paying no attention to them.

we talk about photography and modeling and traveling, and we haven't quite finished our second drink but they start turning out the lights, trying to get us to leave but actually creating a romantic mood and i tell her this, joking, too nervous to pronounce the words with confidence in russian so i say it in english, but the only part she understands is that i want to kiss her, and then we're making out, and i pull away and she asks me, what are your plans for tonight?

>>16922197
Completely incorrect.

What problems might I find if I make my protagonist female but I'm aiming my story to young boys?
The supporting cast will be mostly male and stronger than her anyway but I was wondering if there could be some sort of disconnect.

>Going to bed
>Come up with idea to use in story
>Go to sleep thinking I'll deal with it tomorrow
>Wake up and can't remember what the idea was
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA From now on I will keep a notebook by bed at all times
>>16923407
I think it will be fine as long as she is a proactive character

>>16923431
Oh yeah, she is. There are times where she gets swept by the plot in my draft but she does act on her own.

>>16923292
There are countless books that contradict your stupid statement

>>16919225
gl duderino

>>16923431
>solve a major problem in the narrative while showering
>"I'll remember it tomorrow morning for sure"
>...

Bros I got two writing commissions, one 2k the other 4k. When both are done I get $100.

Bros if this keeps up I might be able to stop wageslaving.

>>16924330
Tell us how you managed it, your background, etc.

>>16924375
I made an account on fiver then advertised on discords where people post smut.

I write smut.

>>16921378
The elf girl goes back to Christmas land after the eve, but the MC is left with hope that they'll meet again next year.

I had also plans for a sequel story where the MC travels to the Christmas land to look for her, but then life happened I never got to it