/lit/ - Literature

Hey! Time for a thread survey.

>What genres do you primarily write?
>How long have you been writing?
>Do you read regularly?
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
>What are your goals as an author?
>What are the main influences on your writing?

>What genres do you primarily write?
Fantasy, Sci-fi, Smut, and Magical Realism
>How long have you been writing?
First actual story I finished was at age 22, but have been trying to write all my life.
>Do you read regularly?
Everyday unless I have work.
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Manga, I like to listen to audiobooks; really enjoyed listening to the Battle Royale audiobook.
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
The smut I write is either for commissions I do, or I'm writing smut chapter at a time because I want to get a patreon going. Other than that I write short fiction and novels in chapter increments which I'll release gradually online to build an audience.
>What are your goals as an author?
Have my books made into movies and to made enough money not to have a day job.
>What are the main influences on your writing?
Christianity, anime, classic lit, and movies.

>>17005074
>>What genres do you primarily write?
Sci-fi Space Opera

>>How long have you been writing?
This novel I've been working on since March/April. Short answer for in general: since elementary school, but the first real attempt at writing was in 2011 was a short story based on a country roleplay I did for a time.

>>Do you read regularly?
I try to. If I find something that piques my interest in the first place.

>>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Manga, light novel, webfictions.

>>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
Weekly serializing it on RR.

>>What are your goals as an author?
Finishing the story. On a far more optimistic fantasy note, if it got a anime adaptation of some sort (OVA, movie) that'd be enough to make me die in peace.

>>What are the main influences on your writing?
Most direct influences were the Youjo Senki anime and then light novel. The setting was inspired by Legend of the Galactic Heroes 1980s OVA, and elements from Universal Century Gundam series(namely, Gundam the Origin). Aside from that, it's been digesting a lot of anime over the years, good and horrible. A lot of nonfiction historical books over the years as well.

Does anyone else have an absolute shit time naming things? I'm not just talking stories, but characters and places too. I can't name things for shit, though I have been getting better at coming up with titles(even if they are a little pretentious sounding)

>>17005274
I open up google maps and look in Asia for cool-sounding names. Don't forget you can use the placeholder word TK (meaning To Come) so you can always come back to it later. For characters, I take the easy way out and use the random name generator it has for minor/side characters.

>>17005291
>random name generator
I've found a site that actually has a shit ton of name generators for nearly every scenario you can think of and that's usually how I name things unless there's a geographic/plot reason for it to be named something else. But even that isn't perfect because sometime I find one I'm happy with but the more it sits and the characters reveal themselves to me it doesn't always fit.

>>17005274
Are your stories set in the real world, or elsewhere?

>>17005272
>Youjo Senki anime and then light novel. The setting was inspired by Legend of the Galactic Heroes 1980s OVA, and elements from Universal Century Gundam
Excellent taste.

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
War, and slice of life for lack of a better term.
>How long have you been writing?
Three years.
>Do you read regularly?
Kind of. At least once a week.
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Genre fiction and trashy japanese light novels, and about one or two "classic" novels a year.
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
I write for myself, but I do occasionally post my works on Wattpad, where they get zero views.
>What are your goals as an author?
Write more. Write anything. I have no inspiration any more, and all but one of my stories are crap. I've never been able to write a series before, so I'd like to do that.
>What are the main influences on your writing?
Films primarily, of diverse kinds. Several of my ideas were also inspired by my own dreams, but they are usually impossible to adapt to literature, or at all.

Every time I want to write, I just end up going on f-list to roleplay instead. Should I just write porn?

Newbie in need of advice. Is it possible to have a first person narration segment in a story that's otherwise not first-person? Essentially, I want to have a monologue that's in the style of, to pick the example I can think of quickest, this: https://youtu.be/9JXEttdWRG4?t=11

Perhaps as the unmarked prologue/epilogue, or before every Act? I can sense having it within actual chapters would be clunky and jarring.

It would actually be a character that's important to the plot eventually, not some unexplained narrator construct.

>>17005667
>Is it possible to
Yes. The question is if you can pull it off.

i'm going to read the nutcracker for christmas

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
no genre
>How long have you been writing?
i don't remember
>Do you read regularly?
i try to
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
literary
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
hurl it at submittable and cross my fingers. otherwise shelf it.
>What are your goals as an author?
i want to be one
>What are the main influences on your writing?
plot: my own life experiences and others'. hence they are not so good.
style: hemingway, since he got me into lit, and whatever book i'm reading at the moment

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
Humour
>How long have you been writing?
Four years
>
Yes. Most of the time, it's individual poems or works that I have to teach
>What do you primarily read?
The Western Canon. I do enjoy stepping outside of it to read works from foreign authors. Recently, my boss recommended some Korean translations. Contemporary trash poetry sometimes as well. Gets me heated.
>What do you do with your fiction?
My micropoetry regularly gets published; my free verse is a bit too controversial or weird to get published; my non-fiction books are already out in the world; my true fiction is about to get published
>Goals
To be the best, as vain and vague as that sounds. To prove to the world I know my shit.
>Main influences
Joyce, Dazai, Dante, Ellis (sort of), Nabokov

>>17005587
There's no shame in writing erotica.

>>17005546
>Are your stories set
At the moment in the real world. I have plans for an analog world so I don't have to worry about being 110% historically accurate with customs and shit, but that's irrelevant atm.

I started writing an isekai type story just for the sake of subverting all of the awful horrendous tropes that crop up in them nowadays, thinking it would be a silly fun exercise.

Taking the realistic approach is not fun. It’s depressing.

But I enjoy writing elves as tribalistic savages and have an elf girl that is captured and smears herself in piss and shit to avoid being gangraped.

>>17006110
>smears herself in piss and shit to avoid being gangraped
1. I can't see anyone knowing this
2. Implying that would stop anyone who was going to gangrape someone

>>17006127
There are a few other women that don’t do this, and become the preferred targets.

What are you referring to with point 1?

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
Philosophy, philosophical fiction, literary fiction (I know I sound like a pretentious ass for typing those words but bear with me)
>How long have you been writing?
13 years. But I would say I only have gotten serious about it in the last 5.
>Do you read regularly?
Yes, but not as much as I used to which I regret.
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Everything. Primarily philosophy, science papers, and articles.
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
Lately I've been starting to take myself more seriously as a fiction writer. I used to win awards in school for it, but I guess I feared rejection when I was younger and also in the back of my head I thought that I would stockpile a collection of stories for future anthologies.
>What are your goals as an author?
It used to be just to delight in my own intellect in imagination. More recently, I want to reach people, something I struggle to do otherwise. I want to be appreciated and to provide useful thoughts to the people who matter.
>What are the main influences on your writing?
Honestly I'm not a huge fan of his but I think DFW said it best. "A writer is someone who is interested in everything." By the same token, Camus said, "To write is to live doubly." I'm interested in the world and the human condition and I want to forget that I am locked in the confines of my skull by immersing myself in it though literary contemplation, however briefly and imperfectly.

So is it still a staple of every writer that we like jazz, or was that just a thing pre-1960?

>>17005272
I've seen your shit and it's bad.
>Manga, light novel, webfictions.
This is why it's bad. You need to read traditionally published books. I've probably seen more anime than you too. You're making mistakes that are omnipresent in web novels and don't know any better.
>Weekly serializing it on RR.
Yep.
>if it got a anime adaptation of some sort (OVA, movie) that'd be enough to make me die in peace.
Even if they don't want to admit it, this is the goal of every Royal Retard. You don't actually want to write. You just want to be making anime but can't because you don't have the talent or resources.

I've seen every one of the shows you mentioned (every single Gundam) and those creators all drew from literature, especially LoGH which you are most emulating. You're not born into this world knowing what to do when writing. You at least need to read something like Sanderson at the bare minimum if you're writing speculative fiction.

>>17006698
A bit brutal, but alright.

>>17006486
Jazz is no longer counterculture. Now we like doujin music.

>>17006698
>You're making mistakes that are omnipresent in web novels and don't know any better.
Not him, but can you outline some of these as someone who doesn't read web novels?

>>17006782
>doujin
post examples?

>>17006790
For one, improperly punctuating dialogue tags. I sometimes like to click on trending stories on RR just to skim for errors, and this pops up constantly.
>"That's fine." She said.
instead of, correctly
>"That's fine," she said.
This can be avoided by literally reading one (1) novel and paying attention to how it looks, even something as shitty as Twilight.

I also see tenses being a mess, general grammar mistakes, two sentence paragraphs on average, and an absolute lack of dialogue tags in many cases. The latter two are directly inherited from Japanese LNs, and shouldn't be used by American writers. Ambiguity in Japanese is standard.

>>17003618
I am eagerly awaiting either acceptance or rejection.

>>17006810
The sound or genre isn't important - any taste can be accounted for. It's how it relates to the greater system. Jazz at first was played by black artists who were just as technically capable as their white counterparts, but instead of playing with true orchestras in symphony halls, they played with their bands in clubs. Independent production.

Doujin artists are just as technically capable as their employed counterparts, but instead of releasing their music through labels, they release through conventions or on the internet. Independent production. Soundcloud is the big Western counterpart where the releases are solely on the internet, bypassing physical media entirely. Obviously there are plenty of inept doujin artists and Soundcloud musicians, but the distribution process is what's important.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dka3-4MH_Dw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpz4G-qgH_8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1zofUJ-ykA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShHeP-hnP_o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTtY_Xdxj1A

Again, all kinds of genres are out there, a lot of them a lot heavier and more dissonant than these - it just so happens that instead of some hired classical composer riffing off of Beethoven for his newest work and getting the Boston Symphony Orchestra to play it, it's an independent composer riffing off of ZUN for his newest Comiket release using sampled or synthesized sounds to play it.

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
Scifi/Fantasy. Eventually want to move away from genre fiction when I'm in my thirties but that's half a decade from now.
>How long have you been writing?
About four years tbqhwyf
>Do you read regularly
Yes almost everyday. Sometimes I go a week without reading when I'm battling depression and shit
>What do you primarily read?
I read classics and western canon plus African literature. Yes I'm African.
>What do you do with your fiction?
Leave it unpublished and cry
>What are your goals as an author?
Make a living
>What are the main influences on your writing?
Politics, Philosophy, Crazy African superstitions

>>17005074
Fantasy
22 years? I was coming up with stories and having my mom write them down for me before I learned to write myself.
1200 pages a week now that quarantine has left me a NEET
Novels
Leave it in a folder unless I think a friend would like, which is when I email it to them
To get shit out of my head so other shit can appear there
A couple comic book writers and one Finnish guy who wrote the world's longest autobiography

>>17005074

>What genres do you primarily write?
Fantasy, romance, horror, comedy. I don't want to think in genres, I just write what I personally think is interesting. The idea of "I'm writing fantasy!" makes me want to kill myself.
>How long have you been writing?
About seven years seriously. I started writing short stories and whatever random trash ever since I learned to write, but there's nothing worth mentioning.
>Do you read regularly?
Not as much as I should, but about a book per month on the average. Don't have the time to read nearly every day, but I have 3-4 books in progress all the time.
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Mainly classics, or otherwise acclaimed books. And books for research, related to whatever I'm presently working on. I used to read LNs, but the translations are always so terrible I had to stop. I don't want that choppy language to influence my own prose.
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
I've self-published some books and short story-collections digitally via Amazon, others I posted on my website. In the past few years, I've been posting serial chapters on RR. I'm not a native English-speaker, querying to foreign agents seems ridiculous, and traditional publishing is a dead end in my country.
>What are your goals as an author?
I want to amaze my readers the way I've been amazed by so many masterpieces of fiction out there. I'd also like to leave something lasting in the world, to prove I lived. Would be nice if I could make enough money to survive a little longer while doing it.
>What are the main influences on your writing?
Virtually everything, really.

>>17005667
I've read a third person narrative that swapped to first person for a chapter 400 pages in, and it's a classic of it's genre. The question is always whether or not you can execute it well enough

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
Fantasy schlock. I want to branch out but I feel too amateur to put my hands on anything but the shittiest of pulp
>How long have you been writing?
On and off for a couple years. Got a good streak going right now though. Hopefully I don't fall off the boat again
>Do you read regularly?
Semi-regularly. I get obsessed with reading about once a month and will binge read for a couple days. Completed a few oeuvre's this way
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Web fiction in regularity. Actual books in quantity
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
Unpublished in a folder. I haven't finished anything so I don't want to put it up. I hope to eventually finish something and release it slowly as a serial. Web fiction is often meandering and incoherent so I want to write something complete, even if it's kind of shit
>What are your goals as an author?
To get good. To be able to write easily and well
>What are the main influences on your writing?
Dunno. My writing has a very neutral voice unless I intend to convey a certain style, in which case I'll read a prolific writers work

I yearn for a better tomorrow for all mankind. How do I write a book that helps this come about?

I’m writing a fantasy book. I heard someone criticize another book the other day and it got me thinking. How much attention to I need to pay to etymology?

Like if I have a gay character, I can’t have others refer to him as a sodomite since there would have been no bible and no Sodom in general in this setting. Should I be looking into every word, or just obvious examples like this? What about loan words like naive? There was no France and no French to take the word from.

>>17008523
Come up with a new word that anal-ogous to sodomite but within your setting.
Or accept the fact that all language is tied to something from our world and unless you write in an entirely invented language you'll be saddled with the baggage of our world in how you phrase things.

>>17008523
choose the gayest ass city in your fantasy world and call them a resident of that place

>>17008548
I don't know, you then just end up calling them a random word and since the reader doesn't know what it means, you have to explain it, and its all just a bit clumsy.

I guess he could try something that is simpler and more universal, like gay people being called brown pipers / mud pipers etc.

Arse bandit. lol.

>>17005972
based

>>17008523
>How did Orcs know what a menu is?

Words that have just become synonymous with other things are fine.
As long as you aren't comparing a horse to a car, in a world that cars don't exist, you are alright.

Don't worry about it.

Chapter 12.

https://awfiction.wordpress.com/2020/12/12/engine-zero-zero-chapter-12/

>>17005272
how old are you?

>>17009139
I'm 25

>tfw I was planning on my book being a series but my spark fizzled out and I've spent the last two years slowly dragging my soulless husk towards the 75% mark and can't even fantasize about the sequels

I'm never going to be able to do this, am I

>>17010911
This is why I never plan anything in advance, I don't even make a plot outline, I just think up an ending to the stort and get to it when I get bored

>>17010911
>>17010989
I plan my longer stories with multiple "goal posts" along the way, so that if I run out of steam, I can technically end the story at any of them. Not everything may be answered or explained, but better than being flat out unfinished.

blog post incoming

Stephen Chbosky said that he had the idea for Perks of Being a Wallflower when Charlie(The MC) came up behind him and "tapped him on the shoulder." I never knew how literally he meant that until this week.

Sunday night, after a month of despair and doubting if I should even bother after failing to write a novel yet again, I was laying in bed looking down at my desk and the window behind it when a girl knocked on it. 7 days and 18,000 words later, I feel like I'm getting somewhere. It might not be good. It almost certainly won't get published, but I'm writing the longest story I've ever written so far and it's all just pouring out. It feels better than I could've ever imagined, bros.

We're all gonna make it. Just have faith.

>What genres do you primarily write?
Speculative fiction.
>How long have you been writing?
On and off for about four years, consistently for the last six months.
>Do you read regularly?
I try to. A book a month is what I average.
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Actual books.
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
I'm currently publishing on RR to develop a routine.
I'm currently writing to self publish.
>What are your goals as an author?
To make slightly above minimum wage so I can find a cheap place to live.
>What are the main influences on your writing?
World history, Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Michael Moorcock, Robert E. Howard.

>>17010989
>>17011153

I have a vague idea for book 2 and some smaller, less fleshed-out ideas for books 3 and 4 but no concrete plot yet

book 1 was a pastiche on the typical western fantasy adventure novel that ended with the characters realizing they had more to live for in the magical world than the real one. I know that book 2 is going to be a bit more atypical. The main characters find themselves separated by physical and emotional distance as the opening notes of the apocalypse sunder the world into disconnected regions and are trying to put their home, their world and themselves back together in the right order Little do they know the quest they've been given would put the world back together into a cosmological singularity

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
Poetry and my novel is something very close to the works of Celine and Dazai.
>How long have you been writing?
Two years now.
>Do you read regularly?
Yes, I always have something to read close by.
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Poetry and basically everything which deals with the human condition and existential dread. I also love books about how our most primitive needs influence our lives (e.g. The Piano Teacher).
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
I show it to my friends and they say it is bretty good. I'm going to try and publish my novel when I finish it, along with my poems.
>What are your goals as an author?
Lowkey to be the voice of our hopeless millenial generation.
>What are the main influences on your writing?
"Dark" writers I guess, such as Celine, Dazai, Ryu Murakami, Cioran, Plath, de Sade Baudalaire etc.

>>17011747
>goal
>Lowkey to be the voice of our hopeless millenial generation.
I'm looking forward to that.

I absolutely despise fantasy readers and yet the only ideas I ever have are inspired by mythology and Tolkien

Gardner are you in this thread? How do you write your books so fast? I’ve been trying to write about 500 words a day. I’m beginning to feel drained.

Anyone have any resources for essay writing? I found a niche I think would work for blog/video type stuff, but I'm a little lost. Every time I sit down to write non fiction it ends up reading like a manifesto.

>>17006880
That has no effect on the quality of the writing whatsoever. Bring up a legitimate concern next time.

>>17012414
Why?

>>17013230
>grammatical errors and problems like unneeded tense changes have no effect on the quality of the writing whatsoever
This is what you just said. Suppose you're one of them who thinks true quality is conveyed through the soul of the writing even if the grammar's ff.net tier.

Read an actual book, Royal Retard.

>>17013257
My bad, I was referring to how central your criticism about punctuation in dialogue was. I do agree with you on the other points, but that is nitpicky to the extreme and should be mentioned last, if at all. Besides, a book being properly published means jack shit since garbage like "hunger" exists and is critically acclaimed despite being awful in almost every sense of the word.

>>17013285
>My bad, I was referring to how central your criticism about punctuation in dialogue was.
That's because it's such a basic rule that is being ignored. Nearly every story I look at has a problem with it in some way. It wouldn't deserve to be nitpicked if it wasn't a symptom of a much larger issue, which is the absolute lack of reading done by people on sites like RR.

No matter how bad the rest of a book is, if it goes through a proper publisher or agency, it will not have these problems due to editors fixing them. Only reading fiction on RR, or translated from Japanese by amateurs, will cause an endless cycle of erring because the reader doesn't know any better.

>>17012641
I don’t exactly have a method. Unless I have a really vivid dream. That happened with my last book (Call of the Cradle.) I wrote about 50K words in 13 days. Half of that time was spent editing.
That’s my most extreme example. Sometimes I’ll write as little as just a couple hundred words a day. But in rare occasions I’ll write around 6k words.
I also don’t outline anything. That only leads to writing yourself into corners. At least it does, for me. Hope that helps.

>>17013426
Well, actually I did outline Call of the Crocodile. That was my first book, and I haven’t outlined any since.
My feedback has been better for my other books, so I’m inclined to believe just winging it, works better for me.

>>17013236
I dunno, I'm fascinated by indo-european mythological literature and consider Tolkien a part of that tradition, but I find the whole fantasy genre that he spawned to be incredibly low quality and basically disconnected from the wider tradition that he drew from. Whenever I have inspiration to write it's in that same vein and unfortunately would fall into being categorised as fantasy.

How do I overcome being disgusted with myself for even beginning to think I should write anything at all? Every piece of advice I've read says that hating your work is a good thing but nobody addresses hating your work so badly that you stop before you start or a few sentences or paragraphs in.

Any continuity errors are the fault of my first person protagonist and not me.

>>17013520
as long as you aren't writing smut, you're ok

>>17013520
The trick is to stop criticizing yourself in the process. You need to get those ideas out and down on paper. Only once you have raw resources can you start carving and chipping away everything you don't need to make something great.

Write for yourself, Anon. Fuck everyone else.

>>17013520
idk if this would work for you, but try writing in a notepad or something so spellcheck or grammar notifications don't come up. Just keep putting stuff down then edit later.

>>17013520
Just think of it as what it basically is - a draft. Like a rough sketch to get a picture of what you want to draw before judging whether you want to invest your time in it

>>17008523
Call him a faggot
Or a queer
Or a cocksucker
Or a pillow biter
Or OP

I'm assisting a workshop, we are only 2 attendants. The last class the guy told us we should be searching for readers outside the workshop. The ting is, I don't have friends, and I don't want my family reading the disgusting shit I write.
I write in Spanish and anyways my stuff is damn bad for /lit/ standards. I just wanted a hobby I can enjoy in solitude, this is unfair.

Despite her unconsciousness, Lupita looked more beautiful than ever. The sun’s golden-red light caressed her smooth skin. Her afro looked dark, luxurious, and shiny under the evening light.
Jabari turned toward the window and looked at the horizon. The warm rays turned cool as day became night.
“I wish Lupita could watch the sunset with me. It would be a romantic thing for a boyfriend and girlfriend to do together,” he thought.
A pair of bare, Black arms embraced him from behind. A cold, feminine cheek pressed against his face and soft hands caressed his beard.
“Hello there.”
“Miss Westenra!”
He felt the pressure of her breasts against his black. The faint scent of cocoa butter wafted in the air.
“Oh, boo! Where have you been all day?” said Lupita. “I’ve missed you.”
The change in his patient astounded Dr. Seward. Her eyes were seductive underneath her dark lashes.
“I have to be real with you,” said Lupita.
She caressed his afro and moved her hands down his neck. Her lips were an inch away from Jabari’s ear, and he shivered from her hot breath on his neck.
“I’ve always had a crush on you,” she whispered.
The inner fire in Jabari flared up. But at the same time, a horrifying chill came over him. Her cherry red lips, soft and tempting, grazed his skin. He pushed her off and stood up.
“Miss Westenra, I have to leave now. I have other patients to see at the clinic.”
“Hey, Doc! I thought we was gelling.”
“We are gelling,” said Jabari. “But we must do the honorable thing. If you want, we can start courtship.”
“No!” said Lupita. “I want to do the nasty.”
In the dimmer light, it was harder to see Lupita’s features. Jabari thought that she looked like a wild animal. Her eyes gleamed like a wolf’s and her canine teeth long and white. With inhuman speed and strength, she grabbed him and forced his body on the bed. She began to undo his belt when –
knock knock knock
“Room service,” came the voice from outside the door.
“Come in now!” yelled Jabari.
The receptionist came in with a tray that had a plate of food covered by a cloche and a vase of South African geraniums. One sight of the new visitor and Lupita screeched and hid underneath the covers. Jabari stumbled out with his pants halfway down his legs.
After he returned home to the clinic, Jabari sat down in his office and drank a small glass of brandy. His hands shook as he wrote a telegram to Van Hassain:

Westenra unusually aroused tonight. Made a proposition to me. Strange behavior. Come see her soon.
Jabari

17th and 18th centuries writers were usually novelists/poets/playwrights. What's the 21st equivalent? novelist/screenwriter/game designer? Are you diversifying your writing?

>>17015429
I would like to write comics but don't have the connections needed to get into the sekrit klub

>>17005074

>>What genres do you primarily write?
Horror at the moment, but I also like writing coming-of-age fiction

>How long have you been writing?
On and off since 8th grade. Just started taking it seriously again while I was unemployed from the coof.
>Do you read regularly?
More now that I've quit weed, but it was pretty sporadic for a few years
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Horror, Horror short stories, Coming-of-Age, Philosophy, books about Carl Jung, poetry, classics. Need suggestions for new stuff to read, preferably fiction.

>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
Just started publishing my horror shorts on a website my friend got me connected with. It's unpaid, though.

>What are your goals as an author?
To write something worth selling.

>What are the main influences on your writing?
Lovecraft, Jung, Orwell, Bradbury, Joe Meno.

>Writing about a fictional secret society
>They use a lot of Latin
>Spending the last week obsessing over trying to get the Latin right so I don't get BTFO'd by critics

Am I worrying too much about accuracy? Would most people even notice?

>>17015523
No. If you were REALLY cheeky you would make the phrases contain completely ridiculous shit and the members of your secret society wouldn't even know it because they don't know Latin themselves.

>>17015534
>>17015523
Latin isn't THAT far from English, I'm pretty sure even a school kid would notice if it's complete bullshit, never mind more learned readers.

>ctrl+f
>/wg/
>3 results
I hate wallpapers general

>>17015523
The cheat here is to have them say a lot of Latin proverbs or famous phrases.
Leave mundane dialogue in English.

So On Becoming a Novelist is just 12 Rules for Books, yeah? Are Gardner's other books on writing more tactile?

How did commoners in medieval times lock their doors?
Say they had to make a trip someplace that took a few days to get to; would they just have to hope that when the returned someone hadn't moved into their house?

>>17016073
Homes weren't owned by themselves, usually it was owned by the rich land lords/nobility. It would be a bad idea to move into such a house when they have 100 armed warriors ready to stab people and you don't.

>>17016177
But how would you keep your possessions safe while you were out? Or couldn't you?

I know that people would bolt their doors through holes from the outside, and a thief would have to reach in to unbolt it, that's where 'caught red handed' came from, right?
But would a thief just have to chance it, and hope that no one was home before they robbed you?

>>17015468
You only need connections to be an animator. Comics are largely solo unless you want to work for Marvel or DC and I have no idea why anyone would want that.

>>17016196
>But how would you keep your possessions safe while you were out? Or couldn't you?
You'd still have someone living there.
commoners lived in big families back then

I spent my Friday night on Mimas while she parties with her new boyfriend

I am on mimas, one of Saturn’s dozens of moons. I can tell by the massive Herschel crater which gives the moon a “death star” appearance. It is one of the smaller moons of our solar system, it could fit snugly into one of our moon’s small craters. Mimas is made of water-ice making it highly interesting to scientists as one of the potential back-ups for humans after we finish the murder of our planet and need more living space. I stand on the edge of the Herschel crater. I wear no space suit, just some average outfit. I am not suffocating or freezing. I am fine. The majestic beauty of Saturn fills the sky of this moon. It’s rings are so close that I reach out in a fruitless attempt to touch them. Stars were splattered across the sky like some pointilist Pollock. Mimas completes a full orbit of the gas giant every 22.6 hours. And while this is much faster than the speed at which Earth turns about the Sun (31.04x faster to be precise), I did not feel sick. Taking a seat on the edge of the crater, I gaze transfixed at the gas giant. I count the rotations as happened: 1, 2, 3… 10… 100… I eventually lost count but I must’ve been there at least 10,000 years frozen in awe. I then spent time adoring the light blue of Uranus and studying the layers of Jupiter, having futile staring contests with it’s eye. I explored the Herschel crater and other parts of the moon. I came to know Mimas, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter quite well. One would imagine me to have gotten bored during what felt like 10,000 millennium but I never did. I felt more at home, isolated on minute Mimas than I ever felt with 7 billion at “home”. It’s funny, I had to be transported to these cold, deep reaches of space to find a peace within myself, a peace matching the silent serenity of space and one which I never knew I had let alone could attain. I felt my time here would soon come to an end so I said my goodbyes to the planets and the friendly Mimas which let me ride upon it like a faithful steed. In these closing millenniums, I felt a deep somberness, deeper than space. I watched stars say their goodbyes, some with bangs, some with whimpers. It felt like saying goodbye to old friends although they were surely older than myself. But the somberness wasn’t terrible, it just felt like a part of it all. There was a very nostalgic sense to it and it all made sense. I returned to the spot where I first landed upon Mimas. I sat down in that groove where I first introduced myself to Saturn, where we had a short, silent conversation of 10,000 years. I smiled goodbye to the giant while patting my steed, and for the first time in a billion years, I felt warmth fill me.

is there a name for a confused shrug?
The kind of shrug that says "what's your point?"

>>17016786
Gallic shrug?

>>17016788
Yes.
How do you put that in a sentence though?
"she gallic-shrugged"?

>>17016817
Try “gave a _____ shrug.” I’d use noncommittal or half hearted most of the time.

Ok retarded question:
I've been using quotation marks for dialogue:
>"like this" anon said
But I've got some dialogue where I think I should add some more quotation marks.
something like:
>"no, don't say me too, say I love you too"
Of course it can't be:
>"no, don't say "me too", say "I love you too""
because it looks like shit

So should I do it with apostrophes like:
>"No, don't say 'me too', say 'I love you too'"
Or do I just bite the bullet and have all dialogues use apostrophes instead?
>'No, don't say "me too", say "I love you too"'
The final "+' sucks either way.
I guess I could use cursive but that kind of looks like shit too.

What do I do?

>>17016921
Do dialogue like
- this, he said.
- When you do it like this, you can use "quotations" properly

>>17016196
>But how would you keep your possessions safe while you were out? Or couldn't you?
You ask someone to watch your stuff, and/or hide the valuables. Jesus is this really beyond you?

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
Literary fiction
>How long have you been writing?
Since I can write
>Do you read regularly?
Trying to, but it really depends on my time and mood swings
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
Literary fiction, mostly contemporary promo bullshits, but now I am taking a crack at Hölderlin
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
Sending it to journals, with no hopes. Sometimes it works out.
>What are your goals as an author?
To be thought at university lit courses
>What are the main influences on your writing?
Linklater's nostalgic feelgood movies, Houellebecq, Hajnóczy, Bolano, Beckett

Chapter 13.

https://awfiction.wordpress.com/2020/12/13/engine-zero-zero-chapter-13/

>>17017443
I commend your consistency.

>>17005055
Both of the first readers I have given my novel drafts have taken oppressively long to read it, despite both having stated that they consume literature at a voracious rate.
Which pretty much confirms it's just not very good.

>>17005224
Where exactly do you publish?

>>17005272
What's RR?

>>17005546
Link to story?

>>17005922
Links for your stuff?

>>17006110
Link?

>>17007384
Link?

>>17016921

use the 'insert quotation words' for the quotation in the sentence. This is the correct way to do it. Don't go for
- bla bla. said john
- ok. said jim

it's low brow fantasy tier dialogue

>>17014468
You mean, there is you + 2 writers, or the entire workshop is just you and another guy? I have a "writing club" where it's just me and another guy. When it's that small, you can do whatever the hell you want, you're all friends

>>17017700
RR is Royal Road, a website that has a ton of serials.

Many of you are in this not because you like books or literature, but because you came from anime, games, comics or movies and wanted to tell your stories in these formats, despite the means and resources.

However, we all know that a frustrated filmmaker or artist will never be able to make a good literary work, at least not as good as someone who loves the written word and likes literature. So, I ask you: how do you deal with this fact, or how do you mentally reprogram yourself to start to like literature?

I'm of the kind who tries to reprogram themselves to like literature more than other mediums. I grew up watching anime and playing games, and I always had a interest in storytelling. But it was only from the age of 16 (today I am 24) that I started reading and taking literature seriously to improve my writing techniques. Although I strive to genuinely like literature, the feeling of being an imposter or less than those who have always loved it is undeniable.

>>17018314
Stop projecting. We're not all weeaboos

>>17018576
I'm talking about the genre writers in general, too. They seem to write things that would be best suited for a visual medium, be it comics or cinema.

>>17018314
I was into literature when I was young, then eventually I got into anime and manga. Recently I've gotten back into reading. You're allowed to like several things. I don't need to deal with that fact. I still read manga, far more than I read books, but I still want to write. You're allowed to like different things and be passionate about many things at the same time.

If you don't like literature, don't force yourself into it. If you want to write, read books that interest you. If you're into certain types of anime in certain genres, read a few books in those genres.

I made a draft for an isekai story featuring a wastelander physicist

It's completely unedited so there are going to be huge amount of errors
It's just a draft and I plan to turn it into a full series after a while

12000 words done in a month. Man, I had so much fun writing this
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTYXTCND_nQbbRQ5KttQ4ZJ-Jf3E_Z7c40alH8utYtRJO-RrYk07tn-0HEM7-fCtsDBpL6Z9LEU0TtX/pub

I combined my love of /lit/ and /sci/

>>17018314
Dunning Kruger
You are in the valley of despair

Keep going. You are gonna make it

>>17018314
>nooooo it's literally impossible to make a good story unless you've never touched an anime, movie or videogame!!
shut the fuck up lmao

Help, what am I doing wrong?This is my first paragraph and it just doesn't seem right.

>Catalina emerged from the elevator onto the eleventh floor of the apartment complex. She walked down a hallway that had overdosed on bleach. The doors belonging to the rooms she had no interest in, were impotent in subduing the sounds of chaos that resided behind them. She could hear the arguing of couples, the wailing of madmen, and the cries she recognized as coming from neglected children, cries she herself had once shed.

>>17020108
Well, that really isn't right.
It's like one different spike after another instead of an intense but smooth slope

Would this be more to your liking?
>Catalina arrived at the eleventh floor where she was assailed by the strong and painful scent of cleaning toxins. Her every step resounded through the glassly halls and every door she passed through shook with the muffled sounds of chaos in its different forms - a couple's mad folly, the cries of abandoned children, and the dying whimpers of souls lost in their own madness. Her unhealed wounds bled with the bitter sounds that she has grown too familiar

See?
There's a flowing emotion with the naration wherein we describe the scene like a gradient of colors. That's my style though.

Everyone has their own ways

>>17020040
That's not what he's saying.

You can include Gundam style mecha, big titty bitches, crazy swordplay, etc. in your fiction, but the problem lies in the formatting. So many young writers want to make an anime first and a novel second, and it shows in how they write. They format their plot to follow the structure set by episode counts or manga arcs, instead of writing for the word count that is expected of their genre.

I'm only this harsh on people who do this because I used to do the same thing. I will never stop being influenced by anime tropes, but I can at least write a novel now.

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
Sci-fi, urban fantasy, alternate history

>How long have you been writing?
Since I was twelve, so a little over ten years

>Do you read regularly?
Yes

>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
I kinda read a bit of everything- history, historical fiction, spoopy paranormal/cryptozoology shit, political shit, sci-fi/fantasy, classics, nature stuff, etc.

>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
Online publishing or just having it for my own eyes.

>What are your goals as an author?
None lmao I just write for fun

>What are the main influences on your writing
European/Middle Eastern mythologies, American history, Christianity, various science things I've picked up over the years (paleontology, hbd, ecology, etc.)

>>17019168
>You're allowed to like several things
I know.

But if you're an artist of a certain medium, you should consume works primarly from that medium to understand how the storytelling functions in that format.

Do you see animators reading mangas/books more than they watch animation/films?

Do you see filmmakers reading other things or watching animation more than they watch films?

Do you see writers watching anime/films or reading comics more than they read books? Well, at least in this case, it's what happens. We have more writers consuming other mediums than the one they work in. This isn't a problem per se, but if you're preoccupied in writing a good novel in text format, you'll struggle to get it right because you did not read enough to understand how it works. Ironically, it'd be more fitting for these people to draw a comic or get a camera and start recording. They seem like a bunch of frustrated visual storytellers who couldn't make it because of contacts and resources, so they resorted to books, as writing is the most entry-level of all arts.

>>17020108
>>17020211
Both of these are pretty overwrought but the first one is a little better.

>a couple's mad folly
This doesn't make sense.

>The doors belonging to the rooms she had no interest in, were impotent in subduing the sounds of chaos that resided behind them.
The only real problem with the first one is this line. I'd just cut it down to something like "Cries rang out from behind every door".
Also "stepped out" instead of "emerged" maybe?

>>17005074
>What genres do you primarily write?
Crime and near future science fiction.
>How long have you been writing?
About five years now. Started incapable of stringing a description together and have reached mediocre ability.
>Do you read regularly?
Yep. I read every day, at least five chapters from a variety of books.
>What do you primarily read? (actual books, web fiction, etc.)
I bounce between pulpy fiction, varying from horror to Tom Clancy and just non-fiction about usually violent topics. I'm reading one currently about the history of urban sniper operations. Fiction wise, I'm reading through a horror book that is Mormon influenced.
>What do you do with your fiction? Leave it unpublished and sitting in a folder, query agents with it, publish it online, or something else?
Sitting in a folder. I have ideas for serialized stories that I publish online, but want to get more practice in.
>What are your goals as an author?
Make something readable. Despite constantly reading and writing I just know I will never be that good but I also have my own ideas and they're pretty detailed. They're not vague, I can plot A to B to C and sub points between them so might as well write something instead of just daydreaming.
>What are the main influences on your writing?
I try to ape Elmore Leonard and Westlake.

>>17020652
>What are the main influences on your writing?
I try to ape Elmore Leonard and Westlake.

Nice. I'm really going for Westlake. Especially his Parker stuff. I want my prose lean and sharp like his. Sometimes Leonard can get caught up in trying to be hip, it works, but boy do you know it. "Swag," is one of my all time faves.

>>17020344
This reeks of projection, a little bit of grasping at straws.

>>17020705
I like that in Elmore. Carlos and his Ice Cream is probably my favorite bit out of a story.

>>17020766
He has a point.

>>17020344
>Do you see animators reading mangas/books more than they watch animation/films?
Yes, they probably read mangas a lot if their job is to adapt mangas into anime.
And even if they're western animators working on an original IP they probably don't watch that many animated movies simply because there aren't many of them.

>Do you see filmmakers reading other things or watching animation more than they watch films?
Unless you're only preoccupied with the technical aspect of a movie you're probably have a culture outside of it.
You'll also read a lot of memoirs and books by others filmmakers

>Do you see writers watching anime/films or reading comics more than they read books?
Depends.
Fiction writers probably do consume a lot of fiction in all media.
And you can easily write non-fiction without being that much into books.

Truth is that if you're a creator you like creating.
most people don't dabble in more than one trade because it's better to hone one's skills in a particular thing, but this isn't always the case.
During the renaissance there were plenty of people doing both sculpture and painting.
Do you think anyone told Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo Buonarroti
>"NOOOOOO YOU MUST ONLY BE A SCULPTOR, PAINTER, ENGINEER OR POET! CHOSE ONE!"
It's a retarded argument, Anon. Art is art, creation is creation.
I'm diagnosticating you with a inferiority complex you caught because you've only recently discovered a passion for reading and writing and you feel like you've wasted your life.
Keep on writing bro, but don't scoff other media.
Watch that retarded anime if you want, it won't make you retarded and you shouldn't feel guilty about it.

>>17021101
One little caviat: videogames can be a waste of time.
i don't presume to know what you play but stuff like mobile games, gachas or glorified lootbox dispensers are made to waste your time and you shouldn't play them ever.

>>17020108
>Catalina emerged from the elevator onto the eleventh floor of the apartment complex.

This is an ok line, but you could have something stronger for a first line. It is good that you immediately establishes a character and a place though.

> She walked down a hallway that had overdosed on bleach.

The imagery is good but its in passive voice and should be changed.

>The doors belonging to the rooms she had no interest in, were impotent in subduing the sounds of chaos that resided behind them

Overwrought and purple. Change it to something like:

The many doors she passed could not hide the chaos within.


>She could hear the arguing of couples, the wailing of madmen, and the cries she recognized as coming from neglected children, cries she herself had once shed.

You don't need to filter things through your protagonist. Just say it, its already implied they are seeing these things in a third person limited narrative.

>>17020211
>Catalina arrived at the eleventh floor where she was assailed by the strong and painful scent of cleaning toxins

Too much. It would be better as:

Catalina arrived at the eleventh floor, assailed by the scent of cleaning toxins.

When you say "cleaning toxin" Strong and painful are already implied.

every time I write I tend to unconsciously emulate the style of the author I either read last or am currently reading

how the fuck do I avoid this

>And with one click of the lock, just like he had done upon beginning his inner cycle of
pleasure, the door swung upon. And there he stood just as he saw. The end, the brother, or perhaps death himself. Yes it was, death himself, the crucifix around his neck shining like his scythe.
>“What... what in the goddamn world you doing you twisted little son of a bitch”, said the ferry man standing at the door, his eyes now revealed, empty like a skull. Durant’s fear was gone.
>“Heh, heh. I was just finishing up”, he said smiling a big smile, though this time a different one.
>He leaned over the other boy and searched the floor.
>“Finishing up what, ya freak bastard... goddamn I’m gonna have to tell the whole town about this you ain’t gonna get out of here alive why I swear on my father’s grave you gonna be”-, Bang*, Bang*, BANG*. The carpet was now redder.
>"Goddamn nigger", he scoffed harshly, yet apathetically, even causing the already terrified maiden on his right to let out a gasp.

>>17021376
least you could do is proof read

>And with one click of the lock, just like he had done upon beginning his inner cycle of pleasure, the door swung upon. And there he stood just as he saw. The end, the brother, or perhaps death himself. Yes it was, death himself, the crucifix around his neck shining like his scythe.
>“What... what in the goddamn world you doing you twisted little son of a bitch”, said the ferry man standing at the door, his eyes now revealed, empty like a skull. Durant’s fear was gone.
>“Heh, heh. I was just finishing up”, he said smiling a big smile, though this time a different one.
>He leaned over the other boy and searched the floor.
>“Finishing up what, ya freak bastard... goddamn I’m gonna have to tell the whole town about this you ain’t gonna get out of here alive why I swear on my father’s grave you gonna be”-, Bang*, Bang*, BANG*. The carpet was now redder.
>"Goddamn nigger", he scoffed harshly, yet apathetically, even causing the already terrified maiden on his right to let out a gasp.

>>17021320
Lmao I just embraced it. Last thing I wrote was a synthesis of Evola and Wilde cause I had just finished Revolt and read Dorian Gray a few months prior, a weird mix but it was interesting.

Looking back on my story a good half atleast of the pages is dialogue if not more. Is this too much for a novel? Are there some types of conversations that should be cut? I understand not everything I have drives the plot forward but I think a fair bit definitely adds to characterization. I skip introductions, unless of course the characters are meeting for the first time and it's actually interesting, but I can't think of other conversations to cut. Maybe it's not even bad to have that much dialogue and I'm just stupid

I don't know how to accept that my passion is never coming back and that my only option is to keep writing without feeling the rush of creation except in rare flickers

>>17005667
There are no rules. If you write a novel based on what a novel is supposed to be like, then it probably won't be very interesting.

I'm 9/10ths of the way through my novel and I'm really struggling to finish. I went back and finished missing chapters at beginning but I'm having a hard time pushing over the hill. It just feels like such a mess and I'm scared to face the second draft. What do I do?

I keep drinking to counteract the stress writing this book is contributing to my life, which only serves to delay completing it, which allows for the stress of not completing it to persist for longer. Which causes me to drink more...

>>17023096
First of all stop telling yourself you're 9/10ths through. You haven't even completed the first draft. Stop thinking in terms of objective completeness, as if there is a percentage bar filling up the more you write and edit it. Think only in terms of your own subjective level of satisfaction with it. When you're satisfied with it, it's finished. Keep going until you have nothing more to say and then polish it. Don't let the "best be the enemy of the good."

>>17022585
Bro, it is true that there is no right way to do art
But there certainly are wrong ways

How long are your chapters? Is 1500 words too short?

>>17023292
2000-3000 range, generally. A chapter should be as long as it needs to be for a story to be told, though.

Imagine being a Fuckign Retard who has trouble churning out words. I just wrote 700 words of Good Shit in less than thirty minutes.

I've turned to writing smut.

I write for an hour and a half each day and make on average $20 for every 2k (takes me 1hr and 30mins to write this much, but past two days has been a quick 45 mins).

Clearing $330 dollars by the end of the week. I figure its better than breaking my back as a wageslave for shit money. Hope I can make it last.

>>17023809
I like that idea.

>>17023809
I tried that. It was mentally draining and I cannot bear the thought of making mass produced and effortless crap.
A wageslave that does not require thinking is better for me

>>17023840
In what way was it draining for you?

>>17023887
I kept on repeating the exact same thing and any attempts at putting effort to challnge myself goes unrewarded because it is not the story I want.
Feels like waste of time.
A job that requires no thinking allows me to focus on my story while setting my body on autopilot

I just put some excerpts from passoa, nabokov and pinchon into the hemingway writing tool to see what grade they write on. So nabokov was grade 10, passoa grade 6 and pinchon grade 3. Who would have thought?

>there’s people on this board who call themselves “writers” and don’t read at least 2 hours everyday
Holy shit wtf are you guys doing here? Bunch of adhd zoomer normies.

>>17023292
I tend to aim for around 5k. 4k is still alright, but anything shorter than that just feels rushed and empty to me. It should be a "chapter", not just a "scene". A series of events that are worth separating as their own thing from the rest of the narrative. Of course, there are books that do it otherwise, but that's my philosophy.

>>17023134
>Don't let the "best be the enemy of the good."
That's really a damn good saying.

>>17024059
>there are people on this board who call themselves chefs who don't eat at least 2 hours every day
Holy shit wtf

>>17019753
Why is there a sudden surge in the popularity of isekai, or weeb Roadtrip?

>>17024460
I wasn't really inspired in isekai shit. I feel disgusted by it as a matter of fact because of the writting that just sears the eye

What I wrote was a genuine love letter to my love of physics, philosophy and comfy apocalypse genre.

>>17024460
It's because untalented retards see WN shit like Re:Zero getting popular and want to duplicate it in America with the far-off dream of getting their own anime someday, hoping it'll save them from their McJob or hopeless future after schooling.

>>17019753
>It's completely unedited

You know, these magic words completely terminate my interest to open any links here.

>>17025036
If you can't handle my worst drafts, you don't deserve my best ones

Serious answer is because I am just excited to share it and it's not even a draft. But a blueprint of what I want to do.

I love physics and philosophy and my novel turned out to be so much more packed than I anticipated so I would have to redo it all once I finished the blueprinting.

>>17025075
How about you post the best, short excerpt

>>17025162
There is none.
The entire post was a barebone summary, that, for some reason, I managed to break through 12000 words and I am confident that it would end in triple that. If not more

>>17024460
I don’t know exactly, but it’s the easiest and most direct and laziest route for wish fulfilment. You can write a fantasy story with a self insert hero, but it will never be as relatable as the nerdy timid track-kun. Take your average anime/manga consuming customer, stick them in your story, make them a badass with a harem of cute girls chasing their dick. You’ve just guaranteed yourself rent and food for the next however many years. Isekais popularity hasnt really been suddenly surging, its just been up trending for a long time.

12 kingdoms is a really good isekai from decades ago that no one has even heard of. Because it’s not about a teenage boy with a harem in an otherwise generic middle aged fantasy world , nobody cares. I feel it’s silly to complain though, most of the popular works in any genre are completely derivative and awful e.g. 50 shades of grey, twilight.

>>17025075
Is it comfy mad max dr stone? Sort your link out , it seemed to be broken for me. I like the idea of atypical settings for the whisked to another world genre, I think it’s got lots of interesting potential even if as a genre it’s been ruined.

>>17025213
Looks like google docs itself is not loading,

What is "bad writing"?

>>17025235
Google is completely fucked, I can't even check my email

>>17025255
I can't even check youtube.
Google shut down today

>>17025255
Is the day finally come?

>Have to throw out cool and unique idea because it doesn't flow with the rest of my story and I don't know how to make it play out properly with my characters
AAAAAAAAAA MY MONA LISA

>>17025280
>>17025369
And it's back

>>17025375
Remember when Cervantes worked two short-stories into the narrative of Don Quixote?

>>17025511
>Don Quixote
I'll have to give it a read, but I don't think something like that would work out for what I have in mind. Thanks anon

Is it considered plagiarism to get inspired by things you read or watched when you write?
Some elements of my stories are borrowed from other places

>>17025764
Yes.
Hope you have a good lawyer.
You see in court, fucko.

>>17012414
That's ok. I call myself a fantasy fan but only like the lowbrow pulpy stuff and can't stand long series or "epic" high fantasy shit. If it can't be done as a standalone I lose interest, unless each book can hold it's own like Elric etc. I tried reading LOTR but couldn't. Not because it was difficult or whatever it just didn't appeal to me. So, I'm a pretty shitty "fantasy fan" I guess.

>>17026023
You're allowed to like what you like.

>>17005307
What's the site?

>>17026069
Ignore the cringe name, there's a shitload of generators on it.

https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/

>>17026044
Cheers, bro
Also, checked

Far as I know, no, of course not. If you copy prose directly though that's an issue.

>>17025764
Define element.

If your story is about a dude getting betrayed and getting revenge, then it’s too universal to be copying.

If your story has a tall muscular swordsman who is betrayed by his angelic charismatic friend in a demonic ritual where the woman he loves is raped, losing his eye and arm, and goes on an epic journey of revenge against former friend then yeah you are just copying Berserk.

currently working on a standalone sci-fi novel and I'd like to know if the idea is appealing or just retarded

>mankind is a type II civilization with extremely limited FTL travel capabilities
>builds habitable megastructures like o'neill cylinders etc
>society is fully automated luxury space communism but it operates on the back of a labor class which has to live in horrible conditions on cramped stations and deadly outposts on uninhabitable planets (this is the central conflict)
>strange and inexplicable disasters start occurring : for instance one of the cylinders stop gyrating one day which renders them inhospitable and ends up killing millions
>protag is a 2-meters tall grill with asperger's syndrome who grew up on a manufacture station and eventually becomes space Lenin (ie a principled but violent revolutionary)

>>17026351
>boring setting
>seen it a million times
>yawn dystopia
>generic mystery
>you now have my attention
Give her big tiddy and I'm sold.

>>17026402
no she is a plank. not an attractive person. think of a slimmer Gwendoline Christie

also not a "dystopia", it's meant to be portrayed as strictly better than the society we live in

>>17026351
I think the problem you have is why would a type 2 civ rely on labour rather than on drones? It could work as soft sci-fi, or science fantasy, but not as hard sf.

>>17026351
>FTL travel
Oh, so it's actually fantasy

>>17026419
>it's meant to be portrayed as strictly better than the society we live in
You described a dystopia.

>>17026467
>>17026507
definitely not interested in writing hard sci-fi. I honestly don't get the point. there has to be some fucking magic at some point. if it was scientifically and logically consistent it would just be reality.

>>17026351
>>17026419
This feels like I'm being too mean, but I feel like you might not have thought this idea out as much as you think you did.

I mean, you did kind of describe a dystopia there, and there's something about a female main character with Asperger's acting like Lenin that seems like a recipe for disaster.

The nocturnal lights of seasonal merriment outside have little effect on Jenny, what with the constant compliments buffooning her ears that make her fume.
She shudders at the unwelcomed adulatory carols and struggles to hold in a visceral urge to shoo the meddler outside, and more so to stomp his nose!
"Oh! Get awa—" Jenny's snarl is interrupted by an aromatic rebuttal. Her nose twitches at the burst of fumes, whiffling the bunny's head with sudden puffs of sweetness; ameliorating her huffy vitriol with a little discreetness.
After the smell, the smirk, the spell is a peculiar phenomenon. Indeed, Jenny's greatest weakness is slowly unveiling to the eyes of the unaware as she creaks the door open: a carrot cake. A smooth spire of sugariness, it is winning her attention.
Ever singed into fascination, it is near impossible for her to duck away from the tempting aroma. Her tummy itches, and above all, her legendary animosity is quickly chowed down by gluttony. Her wayward gaze turns into a glimmering spark, crafted beautifully with leftover tears as she wobbles the treat on the table.
"That deficient little monkey," she ventilates the space with a flourishing remark, "he knows I'm a carrot junkie."
The scrutiny she aims at the distinct confection is charged with rapacious ardour brushing her good. Her ears sticking through the hat twitch and stir welcomingly, drooping attentively as Jenny bends forward to take an indelicate poke of cake.

With the luscious indulgence baking inside, slushy clouds moved silently under the skies above, cottoning the bare night, letting loose a confectionery spatter, once again bringing the airs to life in a waterfall.

"Oh shit, I'm full," sighed a blooming Jenny, chilled by the pitter-patter of raindrops falling outside, "that twat made the best carrot cake I ever had."
At that moment, with her ears tempered by the stormy attention, she sunk into the ensuing infatuation of the flowing feast to her hearing and gustation. Jenny blurted a "thanks, fucking creep..." before falling snoringly asleep.

>>17005074
>Horror, comedy, fantasy, sci-fi
>Since high school
>Fairly regularly, I spend more time writing than reading
>Books and comics
>Put it on the internet, have put stuff on Amazon in the past and have recently started posting on Royal Road.
>Make something people will enjoy. Be able to support myself. Have people do lewd fanarts of my characters
>Too many to list, I think I take a bit of everything. My current main project is influenced mainly by the Wrong Turn movies. There is probably a little bit of Azumanga Daioh in everything I write.

>>17026597
Turned me off in the very first sentence tbqh. Just say Christmas lights you faggot. It's one thing if a character says something gay like that but don't put it in the prose.

>>17026579
you're correct, there are some problems with it. I do not regret asking at all, and I expect people to be mean on 4chan in any case.

I'd say whether or not I've described a dystopia depends on your view of the world as it currently exists. to me, it's deeply unequal and chock full of human suffering and indignities. the setting I envisioned is the same, but less so. it's somewhere I'd rather live.

>>17026678
>but less so.
I mean, if you can fight your way to one better countries, it's often just an illegal plane or ocean trip.

You described somewhere where likely you have to cross an entire galaxy, with futuristic tech.

>>17026597
Backing >>17026666 up one hundred percent. I didn’t even know you meant Christmas lights for a good few more sentences. Put down the thesaurus and write how you actually think.

>>17026597
Is this a satire of it was a dark and stormy night?

>>17026666
I admit I'm a thesaurus-rex but it's supposed to sound overly poetic and flowery to contrast with the bun's uncouthness.

>>17026728
that's the thing though, the "better countries" achieve their living standards primarily by extracting wealth from the rest of the world. our economies are not closed loops and never were. if things are shitty over in east asia it's at least in part because we require them to be so. I don't expect you to agree but that's the gist of it.

as far as I remember "type II" means resource/energy exploitation at the solar system scale. going from one place to another would typically take a few months, going significantly faster than voyager but still well below the speed of light.

>>17026798
>I don't expect you to agree but that's the gist of it.
But isn't that just what you are describing with cooler tech involved?

A labor class living in horrible conditions in cramped stations and deadly outposts. The former seems like a surveillance and mass murder nightmare ready to happen and the latter just the worst parts of a FOB in one of the stans.

>>17026798
No they dont lol, that’s not how it works. Poor countries are poor because they are filled with genetically incompetent nitwits that squander any attempt at uplifting their society with rampant corruption and lavish expenditure.

Wealth isn’t extracted - it’s created. All the wealth of the west was created through technological innovations. The industrial revolution, modern agricultural methods, all modern technology, none of that was extracted from the ground in Angola.

You could fix any African country I. A generation by placing whites in charge. Rhodesia was proof. Remove the whites and it collapses and people start eating soil or each other.

>>17026825
>Rhodesia was proof.
This is a genuine question. What do you actually know of Rhodesia?

Chapter 14.

https://awfiction.wordpress.com/2020/12/14/engine-zero-zero-chapter-14/

>>17026792
Problems with the thesaurus heavy nature of the writing, what about the tense of the prose. It just doesn’t work for me, idk how others feel. It’s usually give a sense immediacy but it clashes with extremely flowery over the top writing style.

>>17026820
>But isn't that just what you are describing with cooler tech involved?
yeah, precisely. but the "cooler tech" has implications. for instance in this story it enables a planned economy to function, where before such endeavors failed as we both know. the result is that fewer people are so literally exploited and living conditions overall are better. but still, the inequality sticks out like a sore thumb. the people in power try to sweep it into the rug.

in other words, while it was an improvement over its predecessor, it's still far from a complete solution, and the system accumulated entropy over time and has become resistant to change. enter Space Lenin.

>>17026825
I am not a racist, and therefore our ways of thinking are strictly incompatible.

>>17026844
I once again commend you for keeping it up.

>>17026834
It was once known as the jewel of Africa and the breadbasket of Africa because of its great agricultural prosperity, solely the result of white governance and white farmers organising the countries agricultural output. Then for reasons, the whites lose control and it becomes Zimbabwe. Land is confiscated and redistributed in the typically corrupt African fashion - to friends and cronies of the new black political elite. The land is not maintained and becomes overgrown, complex agricultural machines aren’t maintained and rust to dust in the fields. The economy declines, the currency hyperinflates, and misery abounds as the black populace has to suffer the whims of a deranged tyrant. Human rights abuses abound.

It’s the single most depressing place in Africa.

>>17026887
Typical liberal mindset, can’t acknowledge anything outside the bubble of safe politically acceptable thought.

At least you will be able to write your main character well. You can base the stories antagonist off of me.

>>17026909
>It was once known as the jewel of Africa and the breadbasket of Africa because of its great agricultural prosperity, solely the result of white governance and white farmers organizing the countries agricultural output
And those people were sadists, ruling over savages and making them even more savage. It was a minority rule in the colonial style, that didn't wake up to the fact that the shit they were doing was basically making them open on every front to being usurped by foreign powers like the Soviet Union and China.

People jerk their recce off, while ignoring the fact they were basically all the retarded parts of Vietnam, with the worst of the British pacification of Palestine mixed together. Human rights abuses abound is a fucking giggle on your part, considering what policing used to look like. Hell they fucking copied some of the shit from the pacification of Palestine.

I don't care if your wife is half retarded, beat her hard enough she's going to listen to her brother and stab you when you are sleeping.

Help me out with something anons.
Calling a spaceship a she:
>1) Yes to all
>2) Yes but only if we know the name
>3) No
Example:
>1) The Dickhole shot her guns at the enemy ship, hitting her.
>2) The Dickhole shot her guns at the enemy ship, hitting it.
>3) The Dickhole shot shot its guns at the enemy ship, hitting it.

Which one?
I like option two but I'm not sure if it's correct to only call some spaceships a she

>>17026939
racialism has no basis in science. as far as I'm concerned it's the product of simpler minds trying to rationalize the sociopathic behaviors they inherited from their parents who are also stupid, shitty people.

>>17027021
Yes to all, ships are female.

>>17027021
I think there's a great precedent for it, in naval tradition. also, you're overthinking it. give your ships literal genitals if you want. it's a superficial detail.

>>17027041
Automobiles are also sometimes called she, especially if it's a beloved car or truck

>>17027032
It actually does, genetics basically determine life outcomes to a disturbingly accurate degree. Intelligence is affected by upbringing and environment BUT it is a fairly strong heritable correlation. You can make smart kids smarter with good schooling, but you can’t make stupid kids smarter than the smart kids.

Racism doesn’t mean one person is worse than another, it just means different. Different groups of humans evolved in different environments, were subjected to different selection criteria, and intermixed with different groups.

You won’t read about it in a science journal entire career and life would be blacklisted for even implying such a thing.

Africans aren’t bad people because they have a lower on average IQ, but they DO, and it’s important to not ignore. There are marked genetic differences between Africans and other races due to the amount of speciation that took place. Medicine even admits race is a thing because you need to match organ donors based on racial grouping, and create drug profiles tailored to benefit race.

But feel free to not believe me because the concept is too shocking and offensive to you.

>>17027032
Western whites are the only people that don't buy into tribalism, and that's only because of decades of education trying to eradicate it.

>>17026792
Original guy who criticised you here. Honestly I didn't find the rest that bad, but having the Christmas lights bullshit right off the bat was awful. Ease into it, at least. Otherwise it just comes across as a high schooler trying to pad his word count.

>>17027021
Two sounds right but I’m not why, I suppose because it’s the easiest to read. I think the rule is - if you refer to the ship with a name , you use the feminine form. E.g. the Acheron fires off her port side cannons. But you could also say “The ship fired off its port side cannons”

So the Acheron fired off her port side cannons, hitting the enemy ship, it’s hull rupturing in a shower of lethal timber shrapnel.

>>17027114
>You won’t read about it in a science journal entire career and life would be blacklisted for even implying such a thing.

This isn't true at all. There is ongoing debate about the role out genetics in intelligence and certain inheritable diseases within the literature. Its just they use facts, rather then the "facts" my aunts posts on facebook.

When I write Blackula, I feel like I'm this guy
>>17027206
defending my black brothers. They are my brother from another mother ... and another father

My black characters are top of their class, profession, intelligence, etc

Despite being 17% of the characters, Black characters cause 80% of the plot holes.

>>17027206
It is true, you just don’t want to concede it and resort to ad-hominem attacks implying I’m somehow similar to the stereotypical crazy Facebook conspiracy theory relative.

The “ongoing debate” is the academic inability to admit there might be some kind of race based difference in intelligence despite it being proven fucking time and time again.

But feel free to keep believing Australian aborigines have identical IQ outcomes to whites of Ashkenazi Jews if you bring their education up to par.

>>17027206
>my aunts posts on facebook.
>he has a facebook
shiggy diggy

>>17027248
Or* , writing anything on an iPad it’s like being anally raped by a racehorse.

>>17027114
while you understand basic concepts like the diversity of characteristics, and their propagation through heredity, you don't understand that "high melanin content in skin" does not constitute in a valid or useful category of human. drug profiles and organ compatibility are not products of race, but of traits which sometimes correlate with race.

this isn't to say that race doesn't exist, but rather, it's a contrivance, and its applications are limited.

you do not appreciate just how astronomically difficult it is to establish a causal relation between ethnicity and any human behavior or capacity of any kind. even if you want to take shortcuts and support that notion with your superficial analyses of history and African politics, there are always countless counter-examples (like for instance, poor and destitute white communities all over the western world). there is always a better explanation, and it's usually sociological. using race as your sole theory behind the poor economic performance of certain american nations is not only even harder to prove than the simple correlation between race and cognitive capacity, it also ignores a whole slew of theories that are quite frankly way, way more solid. to say that you are in over your head would be an extreme understatement.

the problem is you put the cart before the horse. you inherited white supremacy first, then started finding ways to justify it.

>>17015162
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm going to add a few sentences about how the black room service girl had a tray of black food. Right now, it's written as a generic black girl with a covered tray

http://www.botswana.co.za/Cultural_Issues-travel/food-of-botswana.html

>>17027279
Oh no, I originally didn't even specify that the girl was black. That has to be fixed. I'll give her braids. Black people like braids

>>17023809

Over been interested in this, done an odd commission for some fetishes, what are you using?

>>17027248
>The “ongoing debate” is the academic inability to admit there might be some kind of race based difference in intelligence despite it being proven fucking time and time again.


I'm saying that the scientific consensus already agrees with you. No one seriously disputes that genetics plays a role in intelligence. The extent to which other factors can confound the data is controversial though. The conspiratorial stuff about geneticists all denying this is what I was mocking.

>>17027248
it has been proven exactly zero times.

>>17027272
I did my undergrad thesis on speciation so I’m well educated on the topic contrary to your preconception that I must be a skinhead who only sees skin colour.

Skin color is irrelevant but phenotypic profile is not. Even by eye you can clearly differentiate some African populations just because of how distinct they look e.g. Somali, North African, sub Saharan , Hottentot, on and on in ever increasing sub division.

Populations that have gene flow can muddy the line of species, sub species etc. I’ve never once implied block people aren’t human, because that is ridiculous and demonstrably not true. I am saying that human populations can exhibit marked genetic differences that are not just skin deep.

Anyway, I have to go for a bit so feel free to attempt to patronise me some more, but I afraid I am more educated on the subject then you think, and you are less educated than you think.

>>17027335
Studies show aborigines have superior visual IQ and spatial memory

Whitey BTFO

>>17027363
your knowledge on evolutionary biology may be sound, but that does not mean it extrapolates onto other sciences in which you have no background whatsoever. remember that you are trying to convince others that ethnicity on its own explains the varying abilities of individual states to procure wealth. start to consider the implications of that instead of falling back on authority you like to think you have.

it's sad that your university education (which I'm going to very charitably accept is not made up) contained nothing about epistemology whatsoever. you must be american.

What do when I have written the first part of a poem, and know where I want it to head but can't figure out how to connect the two parts?

>>17027447
That guy has actual arguments, whereas the only thing you have have is "you're racist", which on 4chan is neither an insult nor wrongthink

>>17027500
forget your persecution complex and actually read my posts.

>>17027447
> remember that you are trying to convince others that ethnicity on its own explains the varying abilities of individual states to procure wealth

No I’m not , obviously there are significant other factors at play, you’ve constructed a complex ideological position for me from a few shit posts, and ignored my main points regarding race in and so on.

But feel free to elaborate. For example, why did China soar to an economic superpower despite not having railways in the 50s, but countries in Africa have just regressed? Both have harsh colonial histories and China got fuckrd by Brits in the opium wars.

>>17027522
I assumed you were the person who wrote this :

>Poor countries are poor because they are filled with genetically incompetent nitwits that squander any attempt at uplifting their society with rampant corruption and lavish expenditure.

>>17027514
I don't have a dog in either fight. That other guy has logical and sound arguments based on reality, whereas you have
> Blacks could've been successful had it not been for x, y, z

>>17027522
This entire comment chain is another off topic /pol/ derailment shitting up the thread. Can you all fuck off?

>>17027587
I personally think it's great. I'm not referring to this particular comment chain, but the current political fad of pushing black excellence, deserved or not. It's going to be a gold mine for writing books. Literally write any normal white book but make all the characters black, and suddenly you've got the next White Fragility or How to be an Anti Racist

>>17027522
china found a viable way to accrue wealth and leaned heavily into it. their population also makes them far less susceptible to things like brain drain, or the debilitating effects of mass murder at the hands of colonial overlords. the central planning of the CCP could have also helped to an extent, since it permits the state to act in a concerted manner in ways that other states of the region could not. in addition, china was always big enough to present a tremendous threat, which protects them against foreign meddling. when african leaders oppose western interests they get assassinated and replaced with those corrupt leaders you allude to; see Thomas Sankara for a perfect example.

still, if your theory is sound, wouldn't it then also make sense to compare more successful east asians to less successful east asians? is the genetic stock of china that much better than that of vietnam? if their gdp per capita is 4 times higher, are they 4 times smarter?

>>17027616
Reminds me of the post where a guy reveals he wrote a novel where 10% of the words were nigger and that didn’t include variations like niggerly. Someone suggested he should have just larped as a black author, turning it from a comically absurd racist plaything to a thought provoking racial masterpiece.

>>17005074
-Fantasy
-3years
-Not anymore
-Fantasy
-No one ever saw what I wrote exept a few friends and anons
-maybe continue writing on day. My stories have been collecting dust
-Anime

>>17027728
Yeah, I've already come up with a black penname to publish Blackula :^)

>>17027763
Is it Nigel G. Erwin?

Does someone have some advice on writing exposition? I have been stuck on this for a while now. It feels like I have to give exposition at some point. Especially if I want to tell the reader about a characters backstory or some aspects or history of the world I created. So how do I do it I just can't figure out a smooth way.

I'm writing poetry again for the first time in months.
It's so hard but I love it.

>>17027789
Funny. Currently I'm fond of the name Jerekius, but I'm still deciding what sort of last name to use. Washington, Freeman, Townsend, etc. I want a last name that evokes anti-slavery but in a romantic and literary way

>>17027823
You could try weaving it into dialogue, but remember that in order for it to not sound corny, it has to be something that the actual characters would say to one another (ie, not information that they should already know), you can have it as an internalization by one of the characters (maybe an object brings up a memory or something like that). Just for the love of fuck don't infodump. If it doesn't advance the plot, it's unnecessary to include. Also why you shouldn't fall for the worldbbuilding meme.

In movies lazy exposition is stuff like a news report at the beginning that sums up everything the viewer needs to know at the start. It sucks, but easier to get away with in movies because there's less time.

>>17027856
I'm leaning towards the transcendentalists for last names, because they were abolitionists
> Thoreau
> Emerson
> Alcott
> Hawthorne
or even Hardy, after the guy who wrote Tess of the D'urbervilles

>>17027907
>Also why you shouldn't fall for the worldbbuilding meme.

Why not? Not disagreeing just interested in elaboration, I find it hard to know how much info to give. I read advice along the lines of as little as possible, no more, which lets the reader fill in the gaps. But it’s harder than it sounds.

Smut writers be like

>>17027907
Why should I not worldbuild. That's in my opinion one of the strongest points in a fantasy novel.

>>17028295
>>17027967
Ok, yes, worldbuild--but only to the extent that is necessary. Beyond what is required for the plot to move forward it's all masturbatory. Lots of writers get stuck in the black hole that is worldbuilding with no story to show for it. At that point just stick it in a d&d campaign.

*clack bone against a stick*
*Repeat for 50,000 years*

>>17027907
>If it doesn't advance the plot, it's unnecessary to include.
This.
Any worldbuilding that didn't come up naturally in the plot you can put in the Appendix.

>tfw struggled all day
>tfw the last hour it all came together and cranked out 1000 words in 30 minutes without realizing it
Feels good, man.

>writing something way too personal
>writing family into the story
>being way too honest about everything
Either I'm never publishing this thing, or I'm going to be glad I'm moving to the other side of the country this coming winter.

>>17028338
Of course my story was always more focused around characters anyway, but the entire first volume is almost exllusivly how the actions of teh main characerts grand father influecnc and guid his early life. So I wanted to at least give a short sippid of his life from the main characters fathers positions so that the reader could conect the dots in the future by himself.

how do I know what to write about?
>>17028400
reminds me of this disjointed note I took on a fuck ton of DXM
>tilt shifted giant beyond comprehension
>stood in the bathroom for 10,000 years

I've edited a paragraph of Blackula

“Room service,” came the voice from outside the door.
“Come in now!” yelled Jabari.
The Black receptionist with braids came in. She carried a tray that had a plate of food covered by a cloche and a vase of South African geraniums.
“I have your dinner, Mrs. Westenra,” she started saying. “You’ll like the side dish – it’s morogo – a leafy green vegetable from Botswana.”

>Someones femdom fetish fic is trending on Royalroad with an incredibly high rating
>Mfw

>>17029674
Link?

>>17029744
It's something like sexy blue babes, just look on the trending page, you'll find it.

Does anyone else have trouble with characters not wanting to give up information? I've got this romance/friendship plot going and the bitch doesn't like talking about herself in general, but getting *anything* meaningful out of her is like pulling teeth. How do I(or the character) fix this?

Does it get easier buds?

>>17029873
define "easier"

>>17030086
Extending the time of the writing sessions. My attention span is shiet.

I have a hard time figuring out action around dialogue. For example, should it be:

>Mom, we have to," Anna whispered, tugging on her mother's arm. "He's got the gun. Mom." To Anna’s horror, far from being quiet, her mother began yelling.

>"Go away," Penny shouted. "Leave us alone, we didn't do anything."

Or should it be:
>Mom, we have to," Anna whispered, tugging on her mother's arm. "He's got the gun. Mom."

>To Anna’s horror, far from being quiet, her mother began yelling. "Go away," Penny shouted. "Leave us alone, we didn't do anything."

>>17030215
Make sure you're physically comfortable. If you're sitting there and there's a pain in your back you're not going to wanna stick around.

Aside from that, if you're not interested writing it, then why the fuck would your readers be interested?

>>17030241
This is the equivalent of my dad saying I'm depressed because I don't go out.

Thanks, I guess.

>>17030447
What the fuck are you talking about? I don't go out either and I'm fine. I don't see the connection.

>>17030221
Use exclamation marks if the character is shouting dumbo

>>17030499
Exactly. As there is no correlation in my attention span and my interest in writing. Your reading comprehension is pretty poor to be here, anon.

>>17030570
You have to be 18 to post on this website

>>17030581
And you have to know how to read.

>>17030585
I read just fine. You're the dumbass not giving enough information and just assuming people know what you mean. That's ignoring the fact that you're wrong about your attention span having no correlation to your writing. Every person in here can tell you that if they're bored by whatever they're writing it's that much harder to actually write.

Now gtfo out of my thread, you underaged buffoon.

>>17030570
>As there is no correlation in my attention span and my interest in writing.
if writing doesn't hold your attention then your interest is probably in "being a writer", not in writing.

>>17030629
I considered that. But the brief moments when I'm focused I really enjoy it. The whole process really, from thinking a story for days to actually putting it to paper. But then I struggle to find the right words, I wonder if my phrasing is cringey, and the long etc you all know. Maybe it's a deeper issue for me, I don't know.
But yeah, it's a possibility. Sorry for derailing the thread. Be safe anons.

>>17030669
So your issue is more self doubt than your attention span. That's a totally different issue. The only way around that is to turn off your internal critic and just write. You can only start sculpting once you have a block of raw marble.

Write things.
Finish things.
Edit/rewrite things.

I've decided I'm going to take the smut pill. Are there any good tips or any must-reads for an aspiring porn author? I've been erotically roleplaying on different sites for over 15 years now.

>>17030221
Always use a separate paragraph/line for a different characters actions and speaking. The second one reads and flows better.
Also >>17030537

Where do you publish (short) short stories? I've written something ~4 pages that I think is pretty good.

>>17030854
$0.99 for ebook on Amazon KDP, bundle 4-5 of them for $6.99 paperback and $2.99 ebook

>>17029811
have her drop implications if she doesn't like to state anything outright. you might have to put her into a vulnerable position in your story. what kind of story is this, exactly?

>>17031090
>what kind of story
Not a clue, but it's flowing out of me, so I've grabbed on to this bull with both hands and letting it take me where it will.

/5eg/, I can't take this anymore.

the act of being creative feels like I'm eating all my favorite foods but they just taste like cardboard

/wg/, I can't take this anymore.

the act of being creative feels like I'm eating all my favorite foods but they just taste like cardboard

>>17031252
Keep at it and become a better cook

Hey, I was hoping to get better at writing dialogue and scenes between characters in general. Anyone got some exercises I could do or books I can read for that sort of thing? I'm trying to inject a lot more of it into all of my stuff but it's all so flat

Is there a term for the sort of pathetic that I am? Where I want to have written a book but not to write one? Where I dream of accomplishment without taking action toward it? I feel like it's just my mind trying to cope with who I am, with what I've become, or better put - what I haven't become. I'm average, and I know there are many other average people, but I don't know how they cope with it? How do you wage all day and watch Netflix all night and not have part of your mind gnawing away at your soul because you know it's all hollow?

>>17031851
Try and imitate the voice of someone you know and/or yourself. That should help you dissect the pieces and learn what make dialog feel right

I have a vague idea in my head but I need help developing it.

Life on the trail as a medic/frontiersman, except for it's a surreal hellscape inspired by Florida/just Florida but fantasy, sprinkles of comedy. Roving gangs of scalp-taking Mexicans instead of indians, sightings of the skunk-ape, weird towns full of ghosts that disappear after you leave them. I have seen a fair number of westerns but I feel like I am shitting at setting up plots. Like I am intimidated by the whole idea.

Looking for advice, had to write it for class

>>17031851
Read 'Dialogue' or 'Story'

>>17032104
Make it "And then picked me to go" instead of "they picked"

>>17032130
Not him, but I think the double they actually flows better here.

I'm struggling. I can't feel the light in my soul and the words know it. They won't come to me

>>17032336
If the mountain won't come to Mohammad...

>>17031966
>>17032104
Thanks, I'll try to do the exercise a bit, a bit uncomfortable to do that with people you know but eh c'est la vie

I'll give the author a look, I think I've seen that book recommended to others a couple times now

>>17032346
how do I come to them? force words out with no care for quality?

i've tried that. it's demoralizing. I can write when I feel uninspired, but not when Im feeling hollow

>>17032372
Semen retention.

>>17032379
You say it like a joke but it's true. On the days I fap 5-6 times, I have terrible brain fog

>>17032552
>5-6 times
I can't even do more than 4 times with an actual woman, what the hell are you eating

>>17029674
>described as "porn with plot"
>1,700 followers in 20 days
>5-star reviews praising the plot after only two chapters
sometimes I wonder why I even get up from the bed in the morning

>>17029674
I could do that...

>>17029783
Is it this?
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/37934/sexy-space-babes

>become suddenly very ill, out of work
>work on a long fanfic of a jrpg nobody cares about
>Getting sicker and sicker each day
>Almost bedridden at this point
>Going to post it all at once after editing it
Not sure what I'll do afterwards, it's basically the only thing that's given me any kind of joy or meaning since becoming sickly months ago and, even then, I'm not even sure about posting it. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

>>17032722
Yes

>>17033010
Maybe it'll be your legacy.

>>17032722
Does this dude not know how to format his work, or is RR just shit?

>>17033217
What? Looks normal to me.

Dream is humored by your arrogance and contempt.

>>17033292
?

ये सब चुटिए दिमाग का भोसड़ा करते हैं।

>>17032552
All things in moderation anon. You must be fucking genetically superhumanly high test or something to be able to fap 5 times a day. You are like the coomer meme guy made real.

>Tell friends I'm writing a thing
>They ask to see it
>excited to share
>just finished it
>suddenly I feel embarrassed and cringe
God damn it I always cringe when I make something that's not completely stupid or silly.
It's just a sci-fi story with some serious moments and some jokes but for some reason I feel like I just wrote a mlp fanfic or something.

>>17033746
You're just weak

>>17031861
That's just the regular kind of pathetic.

>>17033773
Says the brain fog guy

>>17034163
I'm not that guy. Coom gives me clarity and zen.

>>17033773
The more you fap, the less satisfying the faps feel, the more you fap.
It's a neverending cycle, I'm actively trying to limit myself to no more than two faps a day, but if I let my mind drift and I haven't fapped in a couple of hours I will eventuality start fapping without even thinking about it or realizing it.
I'll be watching some youtube video and be like "Wait, why am I fapping to a documentary about Antarctica's logistics?"
Gotta keep the noggings occupied.

>>17034209
>Wait, why am I fapping to a documentary about Antarctica's logistics?"
Because Herzog's voice is so soothing?

>>17031006
yes goyim just sign the part that grants us digital exclusivity

>>17034218
>This disheveled young man is Anon.
>Anon is content spending the entirety of his day staring at a computer screen.
>Unlike most humans, primates, or even mammals, Anon seems to scoff social contact.
>But why?
>Could it be the same instincts guiding monks to isolate from the world, in search of enlightenment?
>Or is it simply evolution, the natural path for an animal whose social interactions are almost completely online?
>We just don't know.

>>17034476
It works. Especially the "But why?" part I could hear crystal clear.

Chapter 15.

https://awfiction.wordpress.com/2020/12/15/engine-zero-zero-chapter-15/

>>17034561
Do you get a lot of views or followers on your site? Is posting on wordpress instead of some community site worth it?

>>17032361
>uncomfortable to do that with people you know
You can always delete it. It's just easier to know if you got the flow and cadence of people talking right if when you know in your head how they should sound.

>>17033206
As cathartic as it has been too write, God, I hope not. It's nothing special.

Should I write in my own language (French) or in English?

Make a new thread before this one dies.

>>17035379
No u.

>>17035379
sorry im gay

>>17034409
The standard Amazon contract doesn't demand digital exclusivity.

You're thinking of Amazon Select, which requires digital exclusivity to its Kindle Unlimited Program in exchange for potential additional royalty payments from its Kindle Read program. This contract only lasts 90 days though, and you can choose to renew it or return to the original non-exclusive contract

> t. published same ebooks on Google Play, Barnes and Noble Press, and Amazon and have switched books between standard and Kindle Select

>>17035379
I don't have any cool pictures to make new threads