/lit/ - Literature

sneed

>>19361359
Almost done organizing my 3rd draft to do list. I now have a firm grasp on euphonics too, for what it's worth..

Obligatory “why bother, nobody here writes” post.

>>19361486
The Shitkickers proves this false

How do I become better when I'm at work?
Should I think about new ideas? Talk with my characters in my head? I don't want to lose 8h every day and don't gain anything from it

>>19361497
Does Shitkickers actually have words in it or is the book empty?

>>19361486
The flash fiction anthology is on it's 3rd installment.

>>19361503
You should be working when you’re at work.

>>19361330
Any news on Unreal Press

nobody here writes

I'm sitting with my dog, reading Aristotle on Poetics. A book over two thousand fucking years old, and it gives better advice than what you can find on google.

It's an heirloom copy passed down to me from my grandfather too.

What a strange feeling.

>>19361777
Your tears sustain me, weeb.

nobody here lifts

>>19361330
I'm considering writing some essays à la Montaigne, reading through his collected works has opened my eyes to the potential of using the essay as a way to iron out some of the thoughts that are rattling around in my head. I'm not even necessarily interested in posting the essays, just using them as a tool towards better understanding of my self. I've been inspired by this blog as well, which some anons might find to be a fun read: http://paulgraham.com/essay.html

>>19361805
I've come to the understanding that most truly good advice has long since been discovered and we've merely forgotten where to find it. Schopenhauer was right to lament the neglect of ancient languages in education, in that we lost the direct line of Latin and Greek to interface with the ancient and perennial wisdom.

>>19361503
When I'm not busy at work, I have done some of these things:
>listen to a writers podcast
>read a short story
>continue any non-fiction reading
>read through literary devices, make note of ones I'd like to use
>read about grammar or rhetoric
>chart rising and falling action of scenes and chapters
>chart out scene-sequel or foreshadowing
>think about themes and write things down

>>19361714
>thinking that there is actually stuff to do all 8 hours
not the other poster, but I can't imagine I do more than an hour or so of actual work a day, outside of teaching in class.

>>19361899
>caring what dead old white guys think

>>19361834
Why would I lift I work for a living.

>>19361899
Schopenhauer was very correct when he said to only read the best writing you can put your hands on, and that by virtue of weathering the ages, old writing is very good writing.

>>19361503
Write on your phone google docs has an offline function

>no-one here actually writes

>>19361834
I stopped lifting after a minor hip injury and also gave me a chance to write more. I think I could only dead-lift 3 plate max, plus showering and eating all the time was awful. If I do it again I'll try a home gym.

>>19361997
Yes, no one writes here.

>>19362017
I knew people here don’t write, I just didn’t think they would go this far. Christ.

>>19361997
>mfw 20k words
I'm so lazy but I've been getting better about putting more time in.

>>19361777
The Shitkickers is released.
Just because you are pathetic and don't complete projects, doesn't mean others are the same as you.

>>19362055
Seek help, Jason.

>>19361330
What's your way of writing?

Personally for the first draft, i just write a rough summary of what's supposed to happen at the end of an arc and what's going to happen in the middle. Then i just write stream of consciousness, with lots of sticky notes stuck on the sides.

If i encounter a hitch, i skip the scene. But i'll leave a few notes on what the scene is supposed to be like. In the first draft, the only parts with "real" writing are key scenes that i think would be really important in the overarching story

Then in the subsequent drafts, i wrangle it and try to make it look at least readable

>>19362247
>first draft: riff off outline in no particular order, but usually major parts first
>second draft: clean up major plot and characterization errors, any scenes I felt I needed to add or take away
>third draft: organize themes, lit devices, edit for pacing and prose.
>fourth draft: run through it one more time for anything I missed.

Tomorrow I'm working on a scene about the farm from my protagonist's childhood. Protag relates it in chapter 5, and we get a look into understanding what brought him to the city in chapter 1. A lot of the elements are drawn from my own experience a child on a farm ( I shared this months ago), but taking motivations of one relative who reacted quite strongly to their circumstance.
>hunger and poverty
>working in the field all day
>chasing chickens out of the tree to get them back in the barn
>hickory nuts rolling down the dusty hill and behind the fence where the pigs gobbled them up
>insane parent with a late spouse gains imaginary partner that dies and is resurrected on a regular basis
>adding some scifi elements: machines genetically alter a persimmon tree without their knowledge, and it fruit poisons and kills someone
>parent shoots drones out of the sky
>protag decides he never wants to be poor again and abandons it once it becomes impossible to fix, leaving his mad father to die alone
I'm gonna try to put my heart into it.

>>19362247
>What's your way of writing?
By writing.

Considering the modern literary industry is something like 75% female--meaning your prospective audience, colleagues, and bosses--I sincerely hope none of you 4chan-browsing autists with no vagina, no social media, no fanbase, and no moral political views think someone will SPEND MONEY ON YOU to allow you into the clique. They can literally smell people like you. I mean, everyone can, but you know.

>>19362379
b-b-but my japanese animes told me women like submissive men

>>19362382
Keep crying pseud.

>>19362382
Who exactly told you that?
>o-other coping submissive men writing fictional women because they can't get real ones
Oh. Oh my.

>>19362379
>Caring what women want or think

>>19362379
>the modern literary industry is something like 75% female
>source: deez nuts lmao

>>19362424
You don't know one of the most basic facts about the industry lmao

>>19362379
The woman char that I'm writing is from the future, the culture is different so people will have to understand it's not woke for a reason after Neo-Industrialism. I sweep the issue under the rug because culture is not the focus of the story. I can get a female alpha reader, and I've been pointed to resources on the female voice that tends to:
>indirect and manipulative rather than assertive
>sympathize rather than give advice
>notice styles like color, design and fashion
>more emotional, except hesitant to show anger unless it's passive
>self-deprecate accomplishments rather than boast
>maintain eye contact and interpret body language, facial expressions

>>19362452
>it's not woke
>I sweep the issue under the rug
>culture is not the focus of the story
Anon... it might very well be a great story, but prepare yourself for disappointment.

>>19362468
The future I present is actually post-singularity utopia that woke people frequently champion they are aiming for at TED talks. I think I give it a pretty fair assessment, but it's a more personal story than one about culture of the overall world.

>>19362451
>some anons in these threads unironically tell you that you aren't being discriminated against if you're trying to get published as a man in the industry
Thanks for the infographic

I had a cool idea for a story but thematically it'd have to take place in a part of my country I've never been to, don't have the means to study, and don't intend to visit. I'm too much of a pedantic to just make something up about the place, so I had to throw the idea away completely. Has anyone else here gone through that?

Also, an unrelated question, how many of you have written or are writing stories very strongly inspired by media you enjoy? The ideas I had for my scrapped story were based on Twin Peaks, I wanted to do something in rural Michigan where a guy has sex with a Finnish demon and is killed by his mutant offspring.

>>19362489
No we don't, we tell you to quit your bitching and stop shitting up the thread.

>>19362486
Like I said, it sounds interesting and it could be a great novel, but don't be surprised when mid-twenties college female interns #1 - 4679 throw your manuscript in the trash. You are simply not giving them what they or their readers want.

>>19362489
Surely with enough high wit they will still publish you, right? Recently an anon here mentioned the "great incel novel" never gets published because it's not sympathetic enough to its antagonists.

How do I be inspired instead of copying word-for-word, or scene-for-scene?

>>19362496
>don't have the means to study
doubt

>>19362547
I mean, why would you expect to get published by people who don't like you, don't relate to you, don't want to sympathize with you, and don't want to read about you? You could MAYBE still publish something like Drive today but only because the protagonist is an eccentric alpha heartthrob that women find romantic.

>>19362546
If it's really about the surface level takes, what about these which I have outlines ready to start:
>post-exile Jews in 550 BC and their struggle against Samaritans in the Persia Empire
>psychological horror in the overthrow of Aztec civilization by other natives, African slaves, and Spanish
>four book dark fantasy anime-shit with a strong amazon knight as the foil and theology/philosophy undertones
>short story about a carnivorous crystal
>short story on non-newtonian weaponry

>>19362610
>post-exile Jews in 550 BC and their struggle against Samaritans in the Persia Empire
MONEY. Easily your best shot. Boring as hell, from the sound of it, but real potential for a NY Times bestseller.

>psychological horror in the overthrow of Aztec civilization by other natives, African slaves, and Spanish
Minorites fighting minorities? No go unless you find a way to pin it on the Europeans.

>four book dark fantasy anime-shit with a strong amazon knight as the foil and theology/philosophy undertones
no
>short story about a carnivorous crystal
No.
>short story on non-newtonian weaponry
NO!

Seriously, I'll be keeping an eye out for that first one. If you have no morals or integrity and a passable writing skillset with a low barrier of entry, you could legitimately become the next FOTM meme writer.

How da fuck are you suppose to describe aliens?

>>19361997

>>19362673
>Easily your best shot. Boring as hell, from the sound of it, but real potential for a NY Times bestseller
I actually was going to do this second, and I looked far and wide and there's not much historical fiction in the setting. The political drama and conspiracy in basically the world's first empire is fascinating and fairly well-documented. I mainly focus on the Jewish historians putting their history back together, but they begin to share the perspective that the Persians and Samaritans had since 800 BC. I guess it's boring by virtue of not being scifi, but I personally find the climax to be a painful epiphany that is overlooked too often. It's not even so much about Jews to me than it is to help people reflect on what heritage really means.
>If you have no morals or integrity
Why would that come in to play?

>>19362496
Same. I had the idea of writing a fantasy scifi shonen deconstruction that gets game of thrones like at the war arc. Taking cues from the first world war. Problem is, i haven't read game of thrones, i don't have an intimate knowledge of history, war tactics and politics, and i'm not 30

Some of my favorite projects involve mashing up 2 of my favorite stories into one. For example, gantz x danganronpa. One of my frustrations when watching shows i like is when a good character with potential to be a top tier character, but the show never uses that character to achieve their potential. Like Ruby from RWBY. She is a very moral person with a naive worldview of good and bad. But her morals are never challenged. Even though she exists in a world where existing normally is an immoral act. So i want to do her character justice

>finally get a good short story idea
>write (half of) a decent draft
>meeting with family for six weeks
>can't write around them for shit
>story is going to die

Fucking kill me.

>>19362955
Bring writing utensils to the bathroom and take long shits

They'll get suspicious if I take an entire laptop, but I guess I could write on my phone.

>>19362979
Meant for >>19362962

>>19362979
>>19362983
Or with pen and paper.

>>19362989
I thought about it, but it's hard to destroy the evidence afterwards. And if I use one sheet per session, it'll hinder my writing because I won't have the whole work in front of me at once. The phone is a better option for now.

What are some good literary magazines for submission? The New Yorker gets recommended the most online, but I don't feel great about it.

>>19362995
Wow, your family must be really weird if you need to "destroy evidence". What are they going to do, burn you at the stake?

mc in my essay was supposed to be a version of me dialed to 11 but slowly ended up being me (easy to write now though).

>>19362496
>Learn a bunch of secondhand info about Japan from years of NEETdom but don't know dick about China which a major faction of my story is based on
>>19362955
Honestly writing stories in short bursts isn't all that bad, sometimes it's even better than sitting down to write for a few hours

>>19363003
No but I don't think I want to be caught writing stories as a grown man.

>>19363011
I guess so, I was hoping to build a writing habit though.

>>19363021
>I don't think I want to be caught writing stories as a grown man.
Uhh, anon? Most writers are adults.

>>19363026
Yeah, established writers are adults but 'amateur writing' is for children. I may not think this way, but people around me do.

>>19363040
You're NGMI if that's all it takes to make you stop.

>>19363046
I'm not stopping anything, just hiding it.

>>19363068
Oh I'm sorry, I thought you said here>>19362955
you won't be writing for six weeks?

>>19361910
Yes, focus on technique, who needs ideas or vision?

>>19363073
I was worried I'd have to stop but if there's a way out then I'm taking it.

>>19362017
>each of the results are a different image
Are you really this stupid?
>>19362023
I sincerely hope this is a samefag because no two people on this site should be this stupid. I mean the bar is really low but this is pathetic.

>>19363001
Bump.

>>19363021
You will never make it if that is how you think. Either put your all in it and don’t give a shit what others think or give up.

>>19363097
nobody cares

>Add a comma to a sentence
>Suddenly think of /wg/
>Delete comma
Th-thanks

>>19363422
>not just running your rough draft through something which can catch and delete comma splices
Memorizing grammar is for fags

>>19361330
I need help /lit/. I have a short story of 2000 words minimum I need to finish by next Thursday. Reply with your best writing prompt.

>>19363570
Yeah, just write.

Ia it possible to publish but still avoid feminism trash?

>>19361910
goals

>>19362452
that's most women

I don't really get to write too often, maybe 1k words a week at best. I have a full time job and a family, does anyone have any tips for how to write more?

>>19363570
>>19363570
Approx. two weeks is more than enough time wtf. Why do you need help?

>>19362694
start with the genitals, like any other character

>>19363741
Genuinely this could be a really good idea when describing aliens.

>>19363722
Take 15 mins each morning to write 250 words

Finally halfway through a novel and not quitting. Feels good man.

Has anyone here come back from utter loss of motivation? Not writer's block or lack of confidence, just "what am I doing it for", nothing's gonna happen. How the fuck do you rekindle that spark? It slowly died in me and in the last two years I can't put any effort in any structured project because I know it will be a waste of time and I'll be crushed when I will put it out there any nobody will give a fuck.
>inb4 write for fun lol
stfu you don't write

>>19363971
I've seen this happen to a friend. I think the best way to deal with it is to build up to a magnum opus. No one like Beckett, Joyce, or Pound wrote Trois romans, Ulysses, or The Cantos within the first ten years of writing, they did smaller works first where you experiment with modes and forms. I think you need to read a whole lot, too, including philosophy, psychology, history, sociology, linguistics, plays, poems, novels, and short stories. What kind of stuff did you used to write?

>>19363971
quit. go back to video games and anime you weakling.

>>19364009
You pseuds are still mad that the animewriters mogged you?

>>19363851
Yeah I have the time in the morning so I'll try this. It just feels so slow; it'll take almost a year of writing every day to finish a book. This is hard to cope with because it's a lot of time to spend on something that's going to be trash because it's by first book.

>>19364013
Who cares if weebs write more (there is no proof of this by the way); they all write thousands upon thousands of words that are trash. Anyone can write better than a weeb after 1 month of learning how to write.

>>19364024
Damn, if this ain’t some cope.

>>19364029
I bet you're that one royal road anon with the semi good art but I have never bothered to read your stuff because it looks dull.

>>19364035
Imagine seething over an anon who writes his story for over a year now. Actually pathetic.

>>19364038
Who cares about the duration? There's plenty of shit anime and manga, plenty of dull sitcoms. That's like saying that Big Bang Theory is good because it's got so many seasons, or that Infinite Jest was good because it was so yuge. Short pieces are honestly based and you cannot convince me otherwise, especially when someone has finely crafted it over days, nay, weeks or months!

>>19364052
>especially when someone has finely crafted it over days, nay, weeks or months!
Actual cope. Just write.

>That feel when I reread my early chapters and saw how much fluff is in them.
Especially after the first adventure, during the training arc.

>>19364038
Why do weebs get so defensive when they get mentioned? The initial post didn't even mention them as writers. interesting to be honest. Post an excerpt of your writing since you (as a weeb) write so much. Surely you have something lying around right?

>>19364078
>Just write.
Why would I spend time writing for the fucking sake of it? That's like driving without knowing how to first. Read. Read. Read. Stupid anime-addled idiot.

>>19364092
>Stupid anime-addled idiot.
lol.

>>19364086
Here you go. Posted this a long time ago.

>>19363079
>ideas or vision
that's why I read the non-fiction, sometimes a novel. Most of my ideas I glean from my life, history, and predictions (plans) for the future. They say truth is stranger than fiction. With the right unfamiliar twist on what is familiar to us, that's enough to make a good story idea.

>>19364121
Fucking hell, it’s depressing to know that the animefags are the only writers here. Shit, people here just keep making excuses like this faggot >>19364092

Do you guys think this is a good opening paragraph to a short story?


In January of 1993, I conmited my first murder. I still remember with precision the incidents that preceded the murder. What happened afterwards though, I cannot recall smoothly. After the act, time had become disfigured for me and nights and days felt like they had reversed order. Day would follow day, night would follow night, dusk was perpetual and dawn always far away. Sometimes the twilight wouldn't let up even after it seemed like dozens of hours had passed. I did not understand why I had killed John, why I *had* to kill him and if this was punishment for my sin like Father Alberto had said. I understand now, of course but at the time, I believed Father Alberto, and I was genuinely sorry I'd done it. I had had no choice. But Father Alberto couldn't understand this, not until I smashed his wife's face with a spade and he begged for the death penalty at my trial. Of course, I didn't get the death penalty. The judge was not aware, nor made aware, of my previous murder. Father Alberto was hysterical, nobody believed him. They should have though, speaking in retrospect. That would have saved so many lives.

>>19364121
Like I said. Trash.

I'm worried my book feels too YA. I want it to be heavy, dark, and gruesome, but I'm unable to have that tone right at the start.

I would love it to feel like this sounds:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaMbKZPBruU&t=2794s&ab_channel=redrum

I'm halfway through writing my second chapter, do I just continue and try and correct the tone as I go? Also, does anyone have any tips for writing something that's very dark, occult and gruesome? Or even how to steer away from a YA style?

>>19364121
Better than what’s posted here, but that’s not surprising. Everyone here is a shit writer. So congrats, you’re the best writer in this general.

>>19364121
>So, I'm Matthew
This makes the narrator sound like a smug 2000s high school movie star, I can already see him shrugging with a smirk.
>Last September ... [etc]
Run-on sentence.
>; but sooner or later
You cannot use conjunctions after a semi-colon, it's not allowed. The point of them is to break off a new clause where you would otherwise use a conjunction to connect two premises.
>So of course, I did neither
You need a comma after "So"
>so often; but
Again, you don't know how to use semi-colons.
>"passion for customer service", so why not?
The comma goes inside the speech mark.
>; watch the movies he likes
You need to change that to a comma from the semi-colon, which you have, again, used improperly.
>; but
Again, you don't understand punctuation.
>>19364130
You don't read if you're constantly writing. I doubt you know how to read.

>>19364148
It's fiction you nitpicking shit. Punctuation is used for a "break" in the flow of the sentence. How he does it is not "wrong". It's at best unconventional. You're supposed to read the sentence in your voice stopping for the appropriate amount of time at the punctuated parts. This kind of nitpicky nonsense is why you've never written anything and you'll never get published and probably also why you can only read fantasy crap.

>>19364148
>this nitpicking “critique”
Bro, just take the damn L, already. This is just getting sad as fuck.

>>19364156
>>19364158
>It's SUPPOSED to be shit!
I say you are genuinely shit at writing as someone who has been in actual grad school and not LARPed as it in "fiction piece" that was called a "non fiction chapter excerpt" in the file name.
>you'll never get published and probably also why you can only read fantasy crap.
But, little anon, I do get published, even from journals in the first world, unlike you.

>>19364162
>He’s still going
Anon, please, just stop. Don’t make your humiliating even worse.

>>19364156
How he does it is definitely wrong. He wants to use em-dashes. Here, feel free to copy and paste this one:
—

>>19364143
Make the characters adults. They have mature feelings and emotions, responsibilities, but rounded with those layers we need to understand. There's history about them before the story starts. Remove themes of characters who worry about fitting in to a clique, which is school shit real adults don't care about. Also to avoid "New Adult": make it not about their first job, or college, first place they've lived outside mom and dad's house.
You can have dark and gruesome stuff with kids in it, but people are also going to focus on the internal conflict. If your characters are immature, it may feel like it's for YA no matter how serious the external conflict is.

>>19364162
What even is that? Why would you post that? Are you autistic? Do you think I genuinely care anon? I just casually insulted because you deserve to get insulted more. You clearly do not get insulted enough if you were able to finish your MFA.

>>19364162
So do I, what about it?

>>19364178
>Why would you post that? Are you autistic?
I legitimately think his ego is bruised.

>>19364178
The fact you don't know means you're retarded. It's submittable. You would know that if you actually were a writer, but you're evidently not one.
>MFA
That's cute. I was in a top institution studying Literature, but you were only daydreaming about it in your "non fiction chapter excerpt." Sorry you were too busy being a NEET and watching anime.
>>19364189
Projection.

>>19364193
>Actually having an autistic meltdown

>>19364193
That's not my writing anon. You're genuinely too retarded to insult. You're detailing all your fantasies on 4chan. Do you really think someone that actually went to a "top institution" would do that? You did not go to college, you're a 3.5 GPA high schooler who wishes he didn't ruin his life smoking weed. You are also a virgin and now you're probably crying or creeped out or smiling because this is an authentic social interaction and you don't have many of those.

>>19364177
The problem is the whole story revolves around a character who is a late teen who's last family member has died and they have to struggle to keep the family business going, having to do increasingly terrible shit to keep it afloat.

You know those memes of people saying that they stay up late to read arguments. I'm fucking living it man.

>>19364193
Not going to lie,
>you're a 3.5 GPA high schooler who wishes he didn't ruin his life smoking weed. You are also a virgin and now you're probably crying or creeped out or smiling because this is an authentic social interaction and you don't have many of those.

The weeb killed you with this. Hope your top institution education can help you come up with a good comeback. Losing to a weeb is not a good look. Especially in the writing world.

>>19364207
Nice, so you acted like a retard to bait me? Did that really show me that animewriting was better?
>3.5 GPA
American spotted. Why are you online at this time, retard? Don't have a job to go to?
>>19364231
Samefag.

>>19364212
Some teens are forced to become adults early, just like some adults never grow up, hence "New Adult." If you haven't already decided on it, perhaps your character has done most of his maturing before the story starts, and mostly surrounded by mature adults. If that character isn't associated with dumbass teens often it can work, especially if you rarely call attention to teenager stuff. If it's not important to the protagonist or story, you don't even have to show it.

>>19364239
No, I am actually a novelist lol. I am not the Matthew guy but I am going to be published soon. A novel through Dalkey. You can read it. It's called "The alien". It's about an isolated man, it's like notes from the underground. Also, run on sentences are perfectly okay. What matters is how the sentence flows when you read it. That's an aesthetic thing. It's alright if you don't get it. Don't push yourself. Follow the rules your top institution taught you.

>>19364219
Same. Can't believe the weeb actually won.

>>19364247
Yeah my character has had to grow up quite quickly and doesn't react too much like a teenager. They experience the death of their grandmother first hand and have a transition of feeling alone, but after this they come out strongly and just get on with shit. I think throughout the book I might just have to put them in really severe conditions to show that they're hardened and not just a teenager.

I think my subject matter is very YAish. The character is a witch running a potion shop and the book is meant to be very dark occult. I think I need to make it very gory and sexual, not diluting the kind of things occult beings will get up to.

>>19364252
When's it coming out? I don't mind giving it a read. I can't tell if you're joking because this place looks prestigious and there's no title called that. I'm not really all too sure why anyone would parade their works on here when warosu is going to keep it online forever, and you might be known as "that 4channer" or something.
>run-on sentences
I get that some writers are capable of pulling it off, like Thomas Pynchon, but the one in question was terrible.

Apart from writing, how do I learn how to write? Any resources? I'm reading some of the books from the sticky but Art of Fiction and On Writing seem more tangential or once-removed from writing.

>>19364327
Reading novels and short stories, poems and plays. That's really all there is to it. You can go down a type of aesthetic route where you enquire into what makes a literary work beautiful, but that is mainly the formalist tradition, so look into Clive Bell et al.

>>19364327
>how do I learn how to write?
by writing.

>>19364321
How subtle. Well, there will be one. You will read my book and so will everyone, some day.

>>19364341
Why do you faggots never say to read? It's not that hard and it's what you expect of your fucking readers. Nearly every fucking famous writer says to read.

My writing isn't great, would anyone be able to give me some advice?

Dust covered the few objects in the sole bedroom of the House. The room was a closed mezzanine with a small stained-glass window overlooking the only other room – excluding the basement – which was accessed through a cramped and narrow stone spiral staircase which Meg had to crouch to climb. This was her grandmother’s room. Within it was her bed on a simple grey wooden frame, it took up most of the room and navigating it was a labour. Tucked into the corner of the room across from the door, on the other side of the bed was a bedside table with three drawers which Meg had never had the desire to look in. A large, asymmetrical wardrobe towered over the end of the bed, so close that the doors could hardly open. Inside the wardrobe, on the floor, was a large chest. This is where the book is kept, among other objects which did not grab Meg’s attention as much as the forbidden history of magic and her family. The chest needed a key to be opened, a key which never left Meg’s grandmothers person. When the book entered the chest Meg was sure she would never be able to steal looks at it. However, her grandmother would often leave for the town and forget to lock the book away and Meg would know she had precious little time to uncover the secrets held in the large leather tome.
To Meg this room was sacred and being in it in any capacity felt like being in a church. The room was always noiseless, and the air felt thick and heavy. She didn’t like entering this austere room and could count on both hands how many times she had. Perhaps the oppressiveness of the room had seeped into her grandmother while she slept; Meg felt the opposite was true.
The woman in front of Meg was not her grandmother. Her grandmother was not so frail and pallid. Her grandmother commanded discipline from Meg in a way that Meg herself could not understand. A silent and unassuming look would wash into Meg’s blood and fill her heart with obsequiousness. Often, the two disagreed, but Meg knew she was bound to her family, and tradition stated that she takes orders from her grandmother. She was all Meg had; Meg was all she had. A creeping feeling came upon Meg and the thought descended upon her that she had been so servile and willing to placate the terrestrial whims of her grandmother because she pitied her. Seeing her grandmother fade out of existence seemed to leave a space for the thought to occupy, like air rushing into a vacuum.

>>19364358
You still haven’t taken the L?

>>19364361
Why don't you?
>>19364360
Generally, creative writing professors might say "avoid telling, just show" but this was actually enjoyably expository for me. It would be nicer to move it closer to Meg's consciousness and perspective as it's already halfway there. Third person limited would help this kind of piece, I think. Also, you might want to fine-tune some stuff because sometimes it gets repetitive like
>from Meg in a way that Meg herself could not understand
Change up the subject with "she herself" or something.

>>19364358
If we started reading then no one would be writing, then again none of us write in the first place.

>>19364386
I've never taken a creative writing class or anything, but I've obviously heard of show don't tell. I don't really understand how to implement that here though, maybe I don't understand the concept as much as I thought.

>>19364207
Jesus, anon, what the fuck? You didn’t have to kill him.

Come to our occult/spiritual server, we have a literature channel where we can help you with your writing and recommend books.
discord gg YUQscaYnkm

>>19364453
Nice try, glowie.

>>19364137
Drop 1st pov, follow killer into church for confession

I put honey in my tea

>>19364327
with art of fiction there are 2 books with that title. gardner is good, other one is shit. OP is a cock gargling faggot.
>how
read. read at least 300 books and youll start to get it. whenever you read analyze what the author is doing and why.

>>19365074
Ah I have the other one, Lodge. He kind of describes what some useful techniques are, and kind of talks over an example, but it's not really telling you how to do anything, just showing.

I hate how much this descended into some weird kind of fetish type shit, but what do you guys think? I'm pretty new to writing so any feedback is pretty appreciated.

>>19365089
Also wanted to mention that I was going for like a first person present tense narrative and I was focusing on trying to tell the same story from two different perspectives with two different distinct character voices.

>>19365083
he's a midwit, throw that out and read gardner.

What’s the point why even bother I can’t write about romance because I’ve never been loved I can’t write about parenthood because I’m an incel I can’t write about heroism because I’ve always avoided responsibility but in the end nobody wants to read a book about a bitter old man avoiding the world.
Is this when I’m supposed to KMS?

>>19361505
420 pages worth of words!

Remember, the pseuds seethe the most when you finish a project and release it.

>>19362062
Imagine telling a writer who completes projects to seek help when you yourself produce nothing

>>19364130
You are a fucking clown

>>19365192
Just be a reader anon, uplift the voices you like, you don't need to be in the choir or the band

>Read books about how to write a story
>Come up with characters and plot points
>Start writing
>Feel like it is a fucking stupid story and it is a waste of time
How do you overcome this feeling?
I just want to feel free writing something, it doesn't even have to be "good", I just want to have fun.

>>19365292
You need a mindset change. Keep writing even if it's stupid. Embrace the stupidity. Try and grow into the story.

>>19365192
Doesn't stop Japanese people from making idiotic, masturbatory harem anime or Chinese people from making romance stories in which a rich powerful man who is also a god reincarnated falls in love with a girl.

You can do it anon.

>>19365292
stop thinking about what others will think and write

>>19365296
Someone wrote this and got paid for it

Do we need a separate /crit/ thread? No one seems to come here to read and talk about each others work. Rather, people want to ask questions about the act of writing.

>>19364121
>she'd said, as we laid in bed
No one mentioned it, so I will. It's "lay in bed." "Lay" is the past tense of the intransitive verb, "lie." "Laid" is the past tense (and past participle) of the transitive verb, "lay." Yes, there's a past tense "lay" and a present tense "lay." The characters aren't laying an object, they're lying down. People mess this up so often. Drives me nuts.

He hurried through the night. Briefcase carriers hurried past, backwards, collars upturned against the cold. Legions of the indifferent dead - he did not know the dead could feel cold, or was it a repetition of life-habits. These dead men roamed free, their brothers remained trapped, sacrificed to bind a thousand tons of useless brick
Above, the enclosing forest of light, beams crisscrossing from murky branch to murky branch, a covering of pine needles. He passed under the bridge with it’s flashing sign ‘Abandon all hope’.
Head slumped to slumber at the feet of cackling mammon, gold skin glistening

>>19365368
>No one seems to come here to read and talk about each others work
There are people doing that in this active thread dude

>>19365368
We have been doing so every thread but not every anon is prepared to provide critique because theyre new themselves to writing. Be patient.

>>19365368
i give crit here. most people who post a sample for crit post a garbage level wankrag as a joke and they get asspained no one takes 30 minutes of their life to write out a crit for it. if you demand service go pay a professional editor.

>>19365430
>>19365431
>>19365432
Apologies guys. I just miss /crit/

>write a short story collection
>some fags want to publish it, but the terms are pretty shady
>contact an agent
>he said that he read my shit, it's good but I should drop this whole faggotry with short stories and write him a novel
>also tells me to drop this potential publishers, because it's basically a one big scam
>he asks me why do I have such a strange taste in literature, reading only obscure books like "Babyfucker", classics like "Journey To The End Of The Night" and mildly obscure classics like "Pale Fire"
>want to sound funny
>"it's because of this old imageboard for racist weeaboos with a foot fetish"
>"uhmm ok"
>with time, it starts to become harder and harder to contact him

I just hope I will finish writing the book before he ghosts me completely

>>19364360
All of the details are plainly stated in a similar way, like they are just being listed.
>the rooms were like this
>the object was here
>Meg thought this or that
I cannot remember a very long shopping list - this is why I need to write the list out in the first place. I struggle to follow the narrative, because it is like a long list. It has less story.
This is tell.
You must weave things together and feel some kind of organic journey happening. You remember much more if you enjoy what you are doing.
This is show.

There are certain things that have more gravity here.
>The chest needed a key to be opened, a key which never left Meg’s grandmothers person...the book...steal looks at it....grandmother would often leave for the town and forget to lock the book away...
That could really set a tone. So could the environment of the strange small house with the cramped spiral staircase and the basement.

Here is my suggestion -
Meg has to physically walk in the front door and then up that staircase
You describe the house in a more organic way as she does that. Mention her discomfort on the stairs, and some of the idiosyncrasies of the house as she walks past them.
Build the tension of her sneaky mission as she goes.
>Meg walks in the front door.
>the dust
>she goes up the crazy stairs
>why is she going
>Meg briefly remembers an anecdote regarding the cellar and her grandmother -
What her Grandma keeps in there maybe - or - her Grandma was too old to even enter the cellar these days, and so despite the smallness of the house her Grandmother was limited to even less of it
>you explain the strictness of her grandmother as you mention that she is scared of the bad thing she is doing
Perhaps you wouldn't mention the book until she actually has it in her hands, then that moment is a crescendo to the tension and creepiness you developed

>>19365525
Yes you must be more professional in those sorts of situations anon.

There are many publishers however, so you can try again.

>>19361503
Assuming you can't read or write during your off time, I would try and bring a book/laptop so you can work during lunch.

PC went kaput.

Am I really supposed to write pen to pad like old timey days???

>>19365525
You can't be serious

>>19365266
Can someone give me the basic gestalt on Shitkickers?

Someone here released a book?
How do we know it was an anon?

>>19365636
Great explanation, thanks! Would this mean that things she doesn't interact with in the room should just be discarded? Like the beside table etc

>>19364121
As irritating as the people accusing others of not writing are, getting so assmad about criticism you samefagged to dogpile the guy critiquing you is pathetic, come on. We're not automatically going to take your side just because he's a autistic faggot too.

>>19365525
Based as Mr Freeze from /tv/

can i write if i'm esl? are there any esl anon writers here?

>>19365768
Yes you can, we have a few in /wg/ and seen some threads in /lit/ from esl. Lots of them are published in the US. Do your best fren.

>>19365738
In that specific instance, I would say yes discard it. Because you also mention that she has never had a desire to look at it. That and the fact that it has 3 drawers is a real tell-listing move in my opinion.

>This is where the book is kept, among other objects which did not grab Meg’s attention as much as the forbidden history of magic and her family
Why would those not grab her attention?
It grabbed my attention.
You could briefly tell an anecdote relating to one of those perhaps, and mention the personality of her grandmother as you do so. Is the book a single book, or are there two - one of her family history, one about magic history?

For me, random physical objects are a great divider of tell and show. They can either be pure distilled tell boredom, or they can activate a story, or a memory, and then become a launchpad for good show content.

>>19365791
I might try and rewrite this passage soon and post it again in one of these threads. So to do more showing instead of just listing and describing the room I should do more of describing the character's interaction and thoughts on the room and its contents?

>>19365768
Yup

>>19365089
I think the prose is pretty plain and could use some livening up, especially in the first half. I get what you're trying to do by having the protagonist keep talking about how rich he is but it gets stale pretty quickly. It might be more interesting if you expand on his journey on how he got into digital horse racing and even include some technical explanations of it.
The second part was a bit better, though, again I think it could ue some livening up. Maybe be a bit more descriptive with how gross the room is. For example, don't just say "There's leftover food everywhere' say something like "There're several pizza boxes scattered around the room. Each of them days old and with pizza that looks like it's only half-eaten. Why didn't he finish one before ordering another?"
You also seem to use third person descriptions which doesn't really work in first.
>I slowly walk over to him, trying to be sexy but easily looking like I'm being held at gunpoint. Should be something like
>I slowly walk over to him, trying to be sexy but feeling like I'm being held at gunpoint
Since we're seeing it from how the person feels not how someone else is looking at them.
I think it's a good idea to have the two different stories, though, anon and I actually laughed at "Harbringer's a fucking digital horse?" so I think you're off to a good start.

>>19365525
>anon cvcks himself out of a publishing deal with autism
finish the novel you lazy piece of shit. he isn't here to be your friend, he's here to publish a finished manuscript.

>had gap in story to fill, one scene that was a free space for anything to happen
>trouble filling it, decided to leave it for the time and move on
>now, reading related materials (obscure literary commentary on a related subject)
>come across something to adapt into that gap that fits perfectly and finishes the entire novel out

thank god. I've gotten all the difficult parts out of the way for the edit, now I just have to smooth the prose out. It's all easy sailing from here. Then I can finally print it and double check everything.

>>19364360
>>19365738

Another thing I wanted to mention - the layout of the house
>Dust covered the few objects in the sole bedroom of the House. The room was a closed mezzanine with a small stained-glass window overlooking the only other room – excluding the basement – which was accessed through a cramped and narrow stone spiral staircase which Meg had to crouch to climb. This was her grandmother’s room.
This for me was a very fractured way out laying out the house.
I had to stop, re read the details, and imagine the blueprint like I was looking at an architect drawing. I missed that it said mezzanine on the first pass and I thought the house was one downstairs room, and one upstairs room, and a basement.
>excluding the basement
was a particularly jarring line
I didn't absorb the fact there was a stained glass window until I made this post, having scanned your example a few times over.

I like the house you imagined, keep it. Its irregular, cool, and fits this tone you are developing.
But you are trying to download the floorplan of it directly to my brain, the same way you imagined it, rather than convert it into story details a sneak it into my brain. Also the fact that it is so unique makes it a little harder to explain.
The spiral staircase, does it emerge in the center of the rooms floor? Is there a door at the top of the staircase, and Meg has to open it to enter the mezzanine?
The stained glass window overlooks the single main room. You may have to make Meg look up at it from below, and appreciate it. Or have her look down out of the mezzanine window once she enters the mezzanine. Something.
Maybe she walks over the basement door and it makes a hollow sound.

>>19365733
>Someone here released a book?
Yes. Again.
>How do we know it was an anon?
Because it's full of mistakes and reads like senseless pothead trash and the author won't stop shilling it every 15 minutes

>>19365341
In all fairness I hate her, too.

>>19365802
Yes, generally. But you should not over expand, which is what people describe on here as 'purple prose'.

Like I said before, in my humble opinion I think Meg has to physically walk in the front door, go across the floor, up the stairs, enter the room, go to the wardrobe, then get the book.
In a straight sequence.

The beats of the writing must punctuate that process.
And there should be beats.
Like her footsteps. Bitesize pieces, that follow one another.
Pausing every now and then is fine, to elaborate on something special, to occasionally explain something more important. Like a longer note in a piece of music.
But there is a beat, and a flow.

>>19365813
I get what you mean about the prose being kind of boring. I was trying not to write as I would as a narrator and more like how these characters' internal monologues might be. I guess I need to not go so far into the monologue and make the prose a bit more interesting.

I'll maybe expand some more on the details of the horse racing, I just wasn't sure if it was a useful part of the story. Perhaps I wrote myself into a box by having him say he wouldn't explain it.

Cheers for the advice, I'll try and make some changes!

>>19365920
Yeah, I think this again comes back to me telling and not showing. I think because it's somewhere that my character will keep coming back to later in the story I was trying to front load the description so I wouldn't have to describe new elements every time she went there, but I get how it just gets boring.

>>19365997
Okay so have the descriptions follow the character but potentially have some pauses to talk about particularly interesting parts. I'll try and do this when I rewrite. Lots of good information here, thank you.

>>19365831
Yeah, I'm working on it. I'm not too worried, though. Out of the 3 books I wrote, I got positive replies concerning two of them. But the writing business is kind of sketchy here in Poland, because here stupid fucks either read thrillers written by women or self-help pseudo psychology shit (it's even worse than you fucks simping over Jung) and that's mostly it. So even if you get a positive answer and a contract is ready and presented to you to read and sign, if you don't write this kind of literature, then you are in the "not-a-thriller-writen-by-a-female" risk group, so many publishers try to make you chip in some money, so they don't lose as much when your shit won't sell. It's like that especially if it's your first book to be published. I'm actually planning to create a new e-mail account and persona and present this book to agents and publishers as a woman, so I have better chances to actually get on the shelves this time.

>>19366115
Wtf I thought Poland was based...
What about self-publishing? I wonder if the social media marketing field is a bit more fertile in non-anglophone countries, since I imagine it's not as absurdly saturated.

To the anon who gave me this prompt for a short story:
>Guy plays basketball at an outdoor court with his buddies, goes to buy some beers and tries to get the number of the cute cashier.
I've been working on it all afternoon. I haven't forgotten about it; I'll have something to show you guys soon, a day or two if we're being optimistic.

>>19366152
We are based, but not when it comes to the art industry, which is already overrun by leftists and soon everything will be. Also, self-publishing requires money, which I don't have a lot of and sure as fuck I won't spend on self-publishing. At this moment I'm making my own fucking bread. And I mean it. It's called podpłomyk, pic related.

>>19366239
If Shitkicker guy can do it, so can you!

>>19366244
Shiteater spent like 4k on shilling his book and refused to state exactly how much he earned back. He's a schizo retard of the caliber of the worst tripfags.

>>19366277
Where did I spend 4k?

$500 on the paper cutter
$200 on the printer
$750 on the hot glue binder
$100-200 on misc. things

Not even 2k let alone 4k, and this equipment will last.

>>19366239
fuck that's terrible, they're getting there too.
I make flatbread like that too sometimes, it's nice.

>>19366212
Based anon actually writing

What's a good self-publishing house that isn't CreateSpace or Lulu? Preferably with a legit name.

Soon.

Never wrote prose before. Wrote 1200 words today that I don’t hate

>>19366626
Amazon clearly, its given us such hits as

>>19366643
what settings are you using? i'm at a similar wordcount and it gives me ~130 pages. the pagecount for document format isn't the same as a pagecount for a printed book because they use smaller paper, so how do you get yours to display that?

>>19366655
Just measure a book in the size you ideally want published in.

>>19366655
12pt double-spaced and chapter formatted, but still 8.5x11. When converted to InDesign 6x9 book paper format and the font size is adjusted, it actually goes down to about 320 pages.

>>19366553
Thanks, man. I'm 4227 words in, all written today. It's been a while since I've been this into it. I hope to take a few hours tomorrow to have it completed, then revise it, then show it around here. I'm doing this explicitly for /wg/, to get some feedback. I really hope you guys end up enjoying it.

>>19366710
based diligent and eager to please anon poster

>>19366650
I thought Amazon was CreateSpace?

If my google account gets banned, does it ban every google account made on my IP or just that account? Keeping in mind google's never banned me before. I've been using the same one for years so naturally I've posted some dumb edgy shit when I was a teenager on youtube and other linked services, so all it takes is some faggot finding a comment I made 7 years ago spelling nigger in cursive and all my stories I keep on google docs will be gone. I figured I could mitigate the risk of losing them by simply sharing them with an alt account then copying them as separate files all onto that account. Will that work or am I fucked no matter what I do?
>GOOGLE DOCS LMAO ANON YOU'RE RETARDED
okay then recommend me somewhere for storing them, I can't save them directly on the laptop since I have to share it with my family because poorfags

>>19366795
flashdrive
email to yourself
stop writing elf lust power insert fantasies so you wont have to hide from your family
get a fucking job and move out
etc
you're stupid and whiny. solve your fucking problems.

>>19366795
Your youtube account is not tied to your gmail. Unless your hacking people's accounts google dosen't care. If you really do want another back up downlaod your files onto the computer under a secret folder or use a flash drive.

>>19366828
>stop writing elf lust power insert fantasies
No.

>>19366828
>solve your fucking problems.
I couldn't because I'm shit with pooters, that's why I asked the wise anons here

>>19366831
>Your youtube account is not tied to your gmail
Mine is because I didn't know any better at the time. If you search it up there are lots of cases of people getting huge sweeping bans across multiple websites/apps because it was all connected to their 1 google account

>>19366795
you can have multiple accounts on one laptop

>>19366856
I know. I'm wondering if I'll get an IP ban or if the ban would only affect that one account. I couldn't find any answers on the internet so I came here

>>19366833
>elf
Low tier
Gotta start romancing sentient masses of plasma

>>19366833
absolutely based

>>19366855
you're an imbecile. go get an education.

>>19366905
Can you give me one ;_;

>>19364207
>Do you really think someone that actually went to a "top institution" would do that? You did not go to college, you're a 3.5 GPA high schooler who wishes he didn't ruin his life smoking weed. You are also a virgin and now you're probably crying or creeped out or smiling because this is an authentic social interaction and you don't have many of those.
Kek, extremely based. You weebs are alright. Keep on writing. And ignore his critique.

>>19367203
did you save my filename?

>Post my eng101 essay for critique
>Everyone shits on it and tells me to expect a bad grade
>Too verbose, I should write more like a sixth grader
>Score 77/80
>Professor calls my writing substantive and masterful
>Assures me my vocabulary is appropriate and well developed

Anyway, what's your reason why /lit/ is a shit board?

>novel i'm working on, one of the characters starts to groom another character
fuck i didn't mean for it to go like this. is there a way to make this work or its just always gonna be muh dark writing?

>>19367322
Make it hot and I'll read it

>>19367322
Just say that its a personal experience from your childhood if called out

>>19367319
No one here reads.

>>19367319
your teacher has low standards

>>19367469
This is so true, its painful.

>>19367469
Because I want my writing to develop without being shilled someone else's work.

>>19367575
A musician who doesn't listen to music.

A director who doesn't watch movies.

A painter who doesn't look at other people's work.

An actor who doesn't watch TV shows.

I can keep going, but I hope you get the idea and understand how stupid this attitude is. you can just admit you are too lazy to read, which also means you are too lazy to ACTUALLY become a writer.

>>19363001
>What are some good literary magazines for submission?
BDSM Weekly has a column for short stories

>>19367596
Not that guy, but I appreciate the sentiment of not wanting to taint your writing style while in the middle a project. I read for years. Years and years. I even majored in english in undergrad. So I've put my time in, I've read both the ancient and modern classics, as well as a bunch of schlock. So now I'm turning around and I'm putting words to paper. I imagine there are a number of people like me on this board - we've put in a lot of time reading already - so I hope you'll forgive me if I'm not reading any current NYT bestsellers, but I couldn't care less about that old grey whore: I'm not a bipoc queer jewish woman of color.

The one story I am looking forward to reading is JK-sama's in a giant marathon session, and I'm planning to do so once my current draft is complete. Which should be soon. Hopefully by thanksgiving weekend, and, if not, by christmas.

Are there any good writing discord servers?

>>19367737
How do you even use intertextual techniques or know how to frame a story without reading? It generally bewilders me. You can keep your own style by merely affecting one, you don't have to be some ascetic monk that doesn't read anything to become blissfully ignorant.

>>19367888
>How do you even use intertextual techniques or know how to frame a story without reading?
By writing.

>>19367319
Nice one on the essay. I recall getting comments like that in a religion class because I was paying attention to "myth" of communities and their organization, whereas most students were just CHRISTIAN BAD AND DUMB.
From the sentiments in other threads on /lit/, you'd think most of /lit/ reads and writes for superficial reasons. Don't take these boards too seriously though, treat it like banter.

>>19367878
Look it up on google. They get deleted here, from what I've seen.

>>19367893
Do you understand what interxtuality is? It's writing about what you've read.

>>19367896
I dont want reddit shit.

>>19367596
This is bullshit.

I used to read 3 books a week, like 200 a year. Sometime in 2010 or 2011 the books all became beyond shit and I started to read maybe 1-2 books a year.

>>19367878
you don't want to be in any online "community" about writing, let alone discord
it's all 15 year olds writing terrible YA or fanfiction or in the best case, people who approach writing like a STEM thing and waste enormous amounts of time writing lore for a story that will never happen.

>>19367934
Just read older books.

>>19366743
It is.

Golden Peacock? Fear, rather than boldness, fueled a surge of awareness in Hozza.
Bonnelle seemed to relax, tilting her head alluringly. “Now, I’m not saying anyone in the Dark Lands would be fool enough to slay a Golden Peacock as it soared, but there’s always bad weather or unruly,” her voice died as she watched the Dread Lord rise. “Wild … life.”
The Dread Lord slid across the carpet toward the other table, arms arced back, head snaking toward Bigrummar. “Perhaps there are some fool enough,” the Dread Lord snarled.
Noticing the Dread Lord’s approach, the table’s occupants ceased their droning conversations and jumped out of their chairs. They lined up in order of rank, Bigrummar at one end and Tad the other, standing as straight as they could. Glum wobbled, his bent back making him lean into his cane as he tried to be tall. Although Bigrummar had to look down at the Dread Lord, this was the only time in his life such height wouldn’t make him feel powerful. He shivered as the Dread Lord stood before him, that noseless, inky black face inspecting the golden feather which hung from his chain.
“Tell me, War Master Bigrummar, how you came across such an ornament,” Withering Sorrows spoke a deliberate, forced calm. The wraith raised up one hand to clutch the feather in its hand. It ran its bony thumb along the intricate vane woven from varying shades of gold as it waited for an answer.
Bigrummar finally stammered: “Well, mighty and powerful Dread Lord Withering Sorrows, it was a couple of months back. Me and Yurzan and the others, we had patrol duty out west. One night we’re trying to sleep but then we wake up because this big, stupid bird lands in the middle of our camp.”
“It was very bright,” Yurzan interrupted. “I thought someone in the War Party had decided to start a bonfire in the middle of the night! So I ran out of my tent yelling: ‘Hey, put that stupid fire out! We’re trying to sleep here!’” He pumped his fist in the air to illustrate his point.
Tad giggled. A grumble from Glum silenced him.
“Right, yeah, and instead of a bonfire it’s just this golden bird going ‘RAH! RAH! RAH!’,” Bigrummar continued. “So you know, I,” he looked away from the Dread Lord.
“You what,” the Wraith asked as it strangled the feather in its inky grip.
“I smashed it,” Bigrummar answered.
“We wanted to get back to sleep,” Yurzan explained.
As Bigrummar soared from one end of the room to the other, Hozza marveled at the strength of the chain that feather hung from. The Dread Lord had been able to throw the big troll just by holding the feather.

>>19367922
If you want a discord full of channers, there's a /lit/ discord.
>>19367939
This.

>>19366626
I gotta help you guys self-publish

>>19367953
Seek help.

>>19367888
hey dummy. I've read all kinds of books. hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of pages. I know that reading makes you a better writer because it exposes you to so many ways that words are used. but reading is not writing.

that said, does having a shakespeare reference in your work automatically make it more erudite? I would say yes. but does it make a bad story good? no, of course not.

>>19367953
With a face like that no wonder he's an idpol schizo

>>19367953
whats the shitkickers about?

>>19367979
That's a good point. I work in research and the amount of times the chemists came up with a successful idea sometimes hinged upon how often they read the literature and their connections with other experts. Understanding those techniques helped them figure out novel synthesis.
I have a similar approach to reading. Techniques or words that get my attention go into my toolbox to help me create my story.

>>19367939
>you don't want to be in any online "community" about writing
what is this thread then? just shitflinging?

>>19368019
Nobody here writes so yeah.

>>19366855
No one cares some account online said nigger. I have google accounts saying terrible things for years nothing happend. Unless your a big target no one cares quit stressing yourself out .

>>19367979
A good story is informed by effective reading. Something made in a vacuum is terribly shit. That's what all the YA LGBT stuff are: completely devoid of literary influence.

>>19367953
he cute

>>19368037

>>19367997
Do you know what The Shitkickers guy looks like?

How do I make my writing feel like a Wes Anderson movie?

>>19367970
You forgot to use my name

>>19368047
>Something made in a vacuum is terribly shit.
but nothing exists in a vacuum. a topical story that speaks to the reader can be a good story, without any kind of literary grounding whatsoever.

Please, someone please tell me that people write here.

>>19368112
only animefags write.

>>19368116
Do you think this place is just a hangout for people that don't write (anything good)? Animefags cant' write quality literature.

>>19368066
Nobody who matters writes.

>>19368112
I edited scenes today, chapter 5. >>19362350
I may share more next year if I think it will get good feedback. Last time I posted ~5k words it got plenty of hits here but only one critique, I guess because it was still disjointed scenes thrown together.

>>19368005
>A normal Vancouver man is pushed to the brink by a series of events that leads him to vigilantism and to the question of how far he’s willing to go to defend his city

>>19368173
>A normal Vancouver man
No you're not Jason, you need to seek help.

>>19363570
Oxygen polluted the sky.

>>19366795
Who the fuck uses Google Docs? Especially mobile because there's no separated pages

>>19368066
Aren't you that schizo retard who throws a tantrum whenever someone critiques your work.

>>19368208
I get more pussy than you and lived in a huge house, retard.

>>19368238
post an excerpt of your book lol.

>>19368132
let's see your novel that exeeds the quality of #1 best selling author Willl Wight

Finished 56k words on my first book, bros. I'm gonna make it.

Finished chapter 32! It’s like 6,700 words long but whatevs.

>>19368244
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00BDYI9D2/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i0
>>19368451
Well done, go anon go!

>>19368248
Rothfuss says to never post your work online to an anonymous place, especially forums, because people are going to shit on it and break your heart.

>>19368753
Can confirm, this happened to me multiple times. What Rothfuss failed to mention is that they only break your heart by shitting on you if you suck, which both Rothfuss and I most certainly do.

>>19368821
Better than being ignored.

>>19367944
The opening line is ominous, strange even. I don’t know if you’re really doing a good job of explaining the feather and chain thing, though. It would be nice to have a little more info on it. How big is it specifically?

Pic related is a sample of what I've been writing. What do you anons think?

>>19369105
>Filipino girl
We say Filipina for women. That being said, I like your description of her so far, feels very embedded in reality and experience.
>Lela
This part now reminds me of Lolita with the allusions to "flame of my wildest unrequited passions."
>you what what I'm talking about: the arch that signals a sense of willingness and fertility
This is a good observation but you might want to be less informal, as it grates against your voice throughout the piece. Perhaps go with:
>you know that of which I speak: the arch that signals a sense of willingness and fertility
Could you also perhaps describe whether she has a groove on her back? I think it actually signifies whether a woman can support a baby or something, thereby becoming desirable.
>Then, as he fluids dribble down my chin, she ought to take my head in her hands and pull me closer to a kiss.
I think I like this description of a surreal, violent fantasy that borders on transgressive, but it's all too serene at the moment. The biting might be better off described as a mark or trace, something to tarnish her. Regardless, this part was slightly shocking and titillating, so well done.
>but spice quickly becomes customary, and toys become ragged
Well done, I like this bit.
>The night is young and so am I - perhaps we
What? Did you leave a bit out?
>Smells are incredibly powerful
This gives me Perfume vibes, you should read it.

>>19369197
This is actually my memoir, but somewhat fictionalized. Basically, my diary desu.
>We say Filipina for women
Hmm, okay. I forgot about the -o and -a signifying male and female. Filipino girl might come across as ladyboy, which I assure you she was not.
>This is a good observation but you might want to be less informal, as it grates against your voice throughout the piece
Thank you, this is very useful. It's hard to keep my "voice" consistent because my own mind is constantly going back and forth between vulgar simplicity and poetic, flowery prose.
>but it's all too serene at the moment
I suppose so. I never meant it to be an act of violence but a passionate sharing of flesh, a most intimate display of total surrender and carnal sacrifice in pursuit of a mutual body lust.
>What? Did you leave a bit out?
Yes, I screwed up and had to ctrl-z to bring back a bit. The missing writing is in pic related.
>This gives me Perfume vibes, you should read it.
Who is the author? I would be happy to. Smell is a very underrated sense by the general public.

Also, thank you, thank you, thank you anon! I really appreciate your response; it made my day.

>>19369228
>perhaps we will meet again under auspicious circumstances.
Nice ending, and you might if she reads this and enjoys it.
>a most intimate display of total surrender and carnal sacrifice in pursuit of a mutual body lust.
You might want to read Georges Bataille's "Erotism" because he has a lot to say about experiencing life and intensity in sex, which is akin to poetry, madness, death, etc. It's called limit-experience. In fact, your entire piece might benefit from a reading of "Story of the Eye" which is my favourite piece of erotica.
>Who is the author?
Patrick Suskind. There's also a movie adaptation by Tom Tykwer if you'd like to watch that. I remember it being pretty good.
>it made my day
I like to critique when something good comes up and I enjoyed yours, it just has some tightening to do, but I can see it doing well. Is your memoir all about the senses? If so, you might want to read up on Empiricism, because there's a lot of cool philosophical stuff you could diverge into. I think pic related would be down your alley, here's the PDF:
https://holybooks-lichtenbergpress.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Philisophical-Works-of-David-Hume-Vol-II.pdf

>>19369301
Who was the elegant writer that Hume quoted? It almost made tear up.
>Nice ending, and you might if she reads this and enjoys it.
Ahaha! Good one, anon. I never spoke a word to Lela. We parted ways upon entering high school. I like to imagine she is as lost and forlorn as me, but that would be spiteful. Or is it?
>read up on Empiricism
Is that the opposite of solipsism? I will admit that I am a philosophical philistine, a mere pissant, but from what little I have gleaned in the context between /lit/ posts and therapy sessions, I liken the two. If I am mistaken in such a comparison, please correct me.
Looks like I have a lot of reading to do. Thank you for these recommendations. I will thoroughly study and understand them to further inform both my world view and writing.

>>19366828
Fuck no, I will write about some dude getting an elf waifu

>>19367322
>Wrote about some 18 years old tart helping (pretty much raising) a 13 years grill
>They meet again 8 years later
>Grill is head over heels about him

Did I wrote a grooming story as well? LMAO

>>19369347
>Who was the elegant writer that Hume quoted? It almost made tear up.
Joseph Addison. It's from "Pleasures of the Imagination"
>Is that the opposite of solipsism?
Well, solipsism is skepticism that there are other minds, which Descartes (the Rationalist) discusssed; Empiricism, on the other hand, is about experience and believing there is little to be believed but what you personally see, hear, taste, touch, basically. They don't have to be solipsists, no, but they're a bit unrelated.
>Looks like I have a lot of reading to do.
Well, only pick it up if it interests you. I think you're a good enough writer so it can only be augmented by reading more, so just go for what interests you. I hope I wasn't dumping too much on you.

>>19368112
>>19368116
kill yourself already

>>19368753
>listening to podcast where Rothfuss is a guest
>Mary R. Kowal gets upset at some of his writing and asks him to apologize for misogyny
>he refuses to and insists using women as literary devices is just his style
>asks to apologize again
>he laughs and declines

what are some good literary journals in English?

>>19369628
/magazines

>>19369618
I would normally say based but I still hate him too much.

>>19366795
You can easily simply do it on your shared computer, have your personal profile on it and encrypt the file.

>>19369645
Also always back it up, computers are unreliable.

>>19369634
I personally don't know much about him besides that since I don't read fantasy, I should check out when people make threads about him. What's the basic gestalt?

>>19369652
He's fucking terrible.

>>19354156
I love this guy.

Someone say something

>>19370364
I've carved a couple smaller crosses today because the one I made first was too big. Carving crosses is hard, and it's easy to split the wood especially if it's terrible wood like the one I have.

Oops I thought it was the Christian LARP thread. Sorry. I'm sleep deprived.
I wrote 4 pages in my diary desu today.

>>19370396
>>19370396
>>19370396
>>19370396
new

>>19369618
Not familiar with his work. What’s misogynistic about it? Was there a rape scene or something?

>>19370398
Isn't that a little premature?

>>19369663
Why?

>>19371024
He's somewhat like Neil Gaiman which is already terrible, but more pretentious, meandering, sycophantic and juvenile. He reads like fanfiction written by a 15 year old who thinks he's so smart. And he actually does act like he's Tolkien's second coming.

>>19368132
0.00000001>0