/lit/ - Literature

Your arms must be at least this hairy to enter

Why does he use so many monitors? I only use two: story in front and notes to the right.

>>19383171
One per page.

I personally write no less than 3 pages at a time.

Ahem. “What’s the point? Nobody here besides the shitkickers guy and the crocodile dude write.”

>>19383171
I write on a laptop in libreoffice.

How do I stop feeling ridiculous when naming fictional rivers/mountains/cities/nations/ethnicities/etc ?

>>19383325
Open up google maps, navigate to literally anywhere outside of America, and go to town.

>>19383325
Let's hear em

>>19383325
learn etymology like tolkien.

>>19383325
Name them things like White Mountain, Black Mountain, Red River, Fast River, Slow River

>>19383325
Use mythological names or something. Or fuck it, make up something new. Rivers are no longer named, we now have a unique numerical identifier for each river.

>>19383325
Read philology books.

>>19383515
>Rivers are no longer named,
It's 2021, anon, we've already named all of them.

>>19383171
Gotta have one for porn obvi

>>19383325
Always base it in reality. Find something that exists and modify it.

>>19383336
>Sursia/Sursian.
The kingdom and ethnicity of the main characters
>Voran/Voraman
Voran is the river, voraman/voramani are named after the river, they are settlers from the east of the continent
>Cautegrad, Souxgrad
cities in Sursia
>Agantia/Agantian
an empire
>Purmand, Kanmand, Lavmand
cities in Agantia

The forests and rivers are all, simple: Hars river, Black Forest, there are villages and fortresses named after people. The continent is called Urpa, the action takes places across the Burm peninsula, an analog for the Balkan peninsula

>look through my genre on goodreads
>just one list is 2,000 titles long, and it's not even exhaustive
how do you guys cope with this feel? more novels exist than anyone could read in a lifetime.

>>19383775
There's nearly 1,700 space opera fiction on Goodreads but I actually don't think about it whatsoever.

>>19383656
Holy shit this is embarrassing hHshshhsa swhat are you a child hahaha

>>19383862
Don't listen to this faggot, just make sure you actually have a good story and characters to carry your setting and don't get too sucked into the worldbuilding autism.

>>19383012
>tfw my terminal, reading and writing fonts have tripled in size in the last 4 years
am I getting old? is this an old person thing?

>>19383529
Ah shit, I forgot that every book ever takes place in 2021 in the current universe.

>>19383656
>Souxgrad
lol

>go to install printer to print out manuscript
>turns out they dont even offer normal downloads anymore, just that cancerous "app" from the "windows store", all of which i have disabled six ways from sunday because my laptop is a COMPUTER and not a SMARTPHONE and i want it to look and function like a computer
>no choice but to transfer document to my phone and then print it off my phone
holy fuck just kill me. tech trannies have gone too far.

>>19384373
what printer? what company?

>>19384390
Probably some HP piece of shit

I've written myself into a hole and need to unwind out of it. I mechanically unwind scenes back to an early place where I strike off in another direction. Is there anything fundamentally wrong with this?

>>19384390
not that guy, but I recently went through the same frustration with a Brother printer. Although I did feel like a little bit of a boomer when I realized I unironically wished I was hard lining appliances together.

>>19384441
I have a similar problem. I can only think about something I wrote in a single way, even though to improve it I must step outside those parameters. It's related to a cognitive bias called functional fixedness. Basically, you think of something in terms of how it was originally used, or the prototype.

I had the same thought that one way to solve the problem is to walk it back and return to square one, but the shadow of the original concept still lingers and I find myself retracing the same path. I haven't figured it out yet but I suspect the way around it is to literally rewrite the entire section from the beginning word for word, using the original piece as a reference but not as a blueprint. That way any alternative turns you can take you can make.

>>19384471
sounds like I have brain goop problems

What's a good way to say suddenly without saying suddenly? I want shit to slap the reader in the face, but like one anon said, the words instantly and suddenly kind of delay the whole ordeal.

>>19384507
just have whatever suddenly happens suddenly happen. maybe be very sparse with punctuation for a bit in order to show the fast pace

>>19383656
make this post again but explain how you came up with each name

I've been browsing ebooks on amazon for a little while and it's a fucking terrible experience. I have no idea how anyone finds anything on that shit store. Unless you know exactly what you want before you go there it's useless, you'll get no good suggestions and no way to properly filter to your taste.

>>19384507
Shorter words, shorter sentences if you can. If there's foreshadowing for it, don't let it get to close to when it actually happens. Remove some of the details of what happens, because if it's fast you find yourself in a new circumstance with little explanation. People that know disaster is about to strike seem to experience it in slow motion. People that have been surprised by disasters they didn't anticipate remember very little.
Let's say John is reading a newspaper on a corner, and he's thinking about some news article for a while. Then an explosion happens that he didn't expect. Perhaps the next line is John lying in the street under shattered glass. You don't even have to explain the explosion happening, and that is what makes it sudden. The faster you get from one state to the next the more jarring it may feel. It's tough to do. If you put together context, such as ringing ears, a collapsed brick wall, sirens and screaming, the reader may realize what had happened.

>>19383203
As usual, not true.

You can get info on my novel, including an early draft of 40% of it for free, plus many of my short stories, here:
https://reddit.com/user/ulatekh/comments/pluf8q/hello/

>>19384628
>reddit.com
Ehh, pass

>>19383656
>>Cautegrad, Souxgrad
Russo-French mixture?

>>19384373
Ugh. Stop using Windows.
You're probably autistic enough to handle Linux.

>>19384507
Use a thesaurus.
"Abruptly" and "without warning" are two synonyms for "suddenly".
Go look up others.

>>19384630
Mostly because Reddit offers markdown text.
This site's only formatting tag seems to be "spoiler".

>>19384390
HP. I give up. I spent more than an hour trying to set this shit up. It spat out 2 illegible half-printed pages and seems to be under the operational logic of occult magic. it will sit there for 5 minutes doing nothing and then all of a sudden it will start printing. even running the test page did nothing. I give up.

I should have just gone to the library and printed there like I always have, but I was like, let me be not a poorfag anymore. I could have gone to the library, had my copy, and been back already.
>>19384638
might set up my secondary laptop with linux to try it out, but that wont help the printer work with it either. i completely give up. i want that hour of my life back. i might throw the printer out the window and see if i can hit anyone with it. all i wanted was a hard copy of my draft. fuck me. why cant i just plug the fucking printer in and it would fucking print my fucking page. my entire day is ruined now.

but actually the manuscript is done and i'm going to query now. i should be happy but i'm not.

>>19384664
You don't just have to run one OR the other.
You can always set up your computer to be dual-boot.
All of mine are.

>>19384715
for what purpose though?

>>19384628
>https://reddit.com/user/ulatekh/comments/pluf8q/hello/
every single one of these stories is a B or C grade at best.
i admire you dedication, but instead of quantity, you really should aim for quality.
none of these are very unique or memorable. very bland.

>>19383012
How mean are you to your characters? How much are they suffering?

>>19384910
I make them suffer because I love them. My deuteragonist gets dragged through the mud for almost her whole backstory but she meets characters who mean a lot to her from these trails of suffering

>>19384785
So you don't have to make a decision one way or the other.
Also, although many of my Windows-based video games run fine under Linux with Wine, the copy-protected ones don't.
Freaking Ubisoft.

>>19384839
Some got better responses than others.
Top rated ones include "Happy Anniversary", "New Generation", and "Lottery Scratcher".

>>19384910
>protag's mom dies before he knows her
>despises his insane, incompetent father and fends for himself somewhere else
>goes from optimistic to humorless and obsessed with securing a place for himself
>murders the colleague who blackmailed him, will always think of himself as a murderer
>his wife isn't who he thought, and she sells her soul
>things break and he can never fix them
>eventually can't provide for his family either, and can't even have a child
>loses grip on reality as his opportunity to sell his soul disappears forever
It doesn't end there. I was really mean to all the characters, but I give them their due respect.

>>19383171
>Why does he use so many monitors?
Because he doesn't write and just larping, like the rest of us here.

>>19383529
If Russia can rename their capital surely we can rename some random bits of water.

What are your thoughts on quoting popular song lyrics at the beginning of your book?

Off the top of my head the only person who does that is Stephen King. And I always thought it was corny and contributes nothing to the story.

But I still feel like doing it for no particular reason.

>>19385065
I wouldn't dare do it

>>19383203
nanowrimo fucker
17k

>>19384910
they literally all die.
in both novels i've written.

>>19385065
"For no particular reason" is probably the real problem here. If you can find a genuine reason to use them then I don't see why it couldn't be made to work. It's not all that different than using quotes from other books or poetry and that has been done successfully for hundreds of years.

>>19385155
Right, but that's corny and pointless too.

>>19384500
I'd recommend studying Flaubert's rewriting process. The consummate literary artist, Flaubert was famed for his exacting, systematic and relentless drafting process . Madame Bovary took him 5 years to write. This blog post valuably distills his method:

• First, came what Flaubert called the “old plan,” which would change as the project developed. In this stage, Flaubert would daydream around his subject, imagine his characters and their psychology, imagine key scenes, choose locations, and perhaps do some research such as reading, visiting places, interviewing. He continued until he could see the story in his mind’s eye.

• Second, Flaubert wrote what he called scenarios, which contained main lines of the narrative but in a very unfinished fashion, with semi-formed phrases, and with names and places signified by x, y, z. In this way he explored vast territories and created, as it were, a set of signposts.

• Flaubert’s third stage was to write expanded drafts. Sentences and paragraphs started to take shape as he explored many possibilities of the narrative. The pages of these drafts were thick with corrections and insertions between the lines and in the margins. At this stage he might do more location work, less to check for accuracy than to see scenes through the eyes of each of his characters.

• In the fourth stage, the labor of style began. In a series of drafts, elimination occurred: a page might be reduced to a phrase, and large parts of the expansive drafts were deleted. At this stage also, the text was subjected to the test of reading aloud. Further drafting occurred until everything fitted together, like a musical score, to be heard by an imagined reader.

https://www.onfiction.ca/2009/02/art-of-prose-fiction-i-flaubert.html

>>19383656
Mmm something feels off. Can't quite put my finger on it but they don't seem to roll of the tongue too well. Sorry for not being more helpful

>>19385065
I never understood King's song choices. Some made sense but others left me scratching my head more often than not

>>19384628
The first line of your novel contains a comma splice. Stopped reading there.

>>19384664
You'd think that in 2021 HP would have gotten their shit together. I've never known a shittier printer company than that. The printer never works when you most need it, if one ink cartridge is low it won't let you print ANYTHING, an incredible pain in the ass to set up... god, what a shit company lol

That being said, if you want to read your manuscript in book form for cheap, lulu.com is pretty gud

>>19385344
"Jimmy ran out of the liquor store, holding two twelve-packs of beer in his hands."
Those are NOT two independent clauses.

Couldn't bring myself to write for the last 7 days. Just banged out the first few paragraphs on the next chapter just now at least. Anxiety has been getting cripplingly bad for me and I can't stop eating as a result I feel. But the words are out nonetheless and it's a little reassuring now.

I've sent the first query and feel like throwing up.
Also, apparently all my formatting is completely wrong. You aren't supposed to use tab to start paragraphs. Who knew?

:^)
https://pastebin.com/myet3Z52

I can't decide what the primary conflict of my story is

>>19385525
I mean, if you used something that formatted your writing easily for you like scrivener you wouldn't.

What software were you using?

>>19385525
>first query
Enjoy the long silence and the bot-sent, generic rejection letter.

>>19385525
ygmi

>>19385065
Kinda makes me think about why I drop Latin into my author's notes sometimes. If anything, it's just an excuse to use it since I learned it to read the Vulgate. Most people either don't care or probably dislike it.

>>19385525
I'm supposed to hear my fate by tomorrow from the publisher's acquisitions team. Praying for you; pray for me.

>>19383656
"Worldbuilding" is for autists. You could very easily structure your narrative in a way that never necessitates the naming of any landmark, culture, or ethnicity. It's absolutely unnecessary and they sound silly to you because you recognize that the concept itself is silly.

>>19385584
Dr. Seuss...in HELL!

>>19385525
What format did you send it in?
I write all my fiction (including my novel) in Markdown format, then use pandoc to convert it to a .odt with appropriate settings for all the named styles.
No surprises, easy to change.

Yesterday I realized I can just write at work and email my text pieces to myself. Provided the day is slow and I don't get interrupted by customers needing help with their stupid bullshit, I could potentially have hours of extra writing time per day.

>>19384910
>How much are they suffering?
I hadn't really considered it but now that I do, they're suffering intensely, and there are multiple instances where it will seem as if they've finally found some measure of happiness only to have it snatched away. But the struggle is what makes it interesting, right? Besides, I've always hated people who think that stories become more "mature" or whatever by deliberately eschewing happy endings and I fully intend leave my characters on a positive note.

>>19385724
Dr. Seuss: Capitalist Realism Edition

>>19385718
This is a good way for your world to feel barren and lifeless.

>>19383171
I use two, one with Overleaf open to write and the other with Outlook open to look like I'm doing work if anybody walks into my cubicle

>>19384910
Protag had his mother blaming him for her suffering and wishing he was never born
Get experimented on to make him a weapon and a slave. While he managed to run away, he lost some of his memories
The girl he loved cucked him
Father tortured him and pretty much raped him with rotten magic slime
So he's now an edgy cynical retard who want power at all costs as long he keep being himself

Silver lining, he gets an elf waifu before he dies

>>19384910
my protagonist is a basic bitch teenage girl who is forced to play dark souls
so yeah, im thinking she's in for a world of hurt

>>19386130
I've already read Mari no Naka though

>>19385728
they all want you to paste it into the email. .odt is what i write in. idk anything about styles, i just start typing because i'm clearly an idiot.
>>19385663
>>19385689
waagmi
agents really make it hell on you with nitpicky guidelines and special snowflake requests. I sent 3 queries in 3 hours. half the agents i had marked are closed for submissions and dont tell you until you get to the last line in a tiny footnote on their website. christ.

>>19386175
>half the agents i had marked are closed for submissions and dont tell you until you get to the last line in a tiny footnote on their website. christ.
Burning ag*nts at the stake when

>>19386185
they're really quite self-important for being nothing more than parasites.
after i query for this one i want to rewrite my other manuscript and finish it up, so i'll be back in the writing game in a week or so. what i would rather be doing than reading about some middle aged woman's pet cats.

>>19386190
Remember, all you need is one successful manuscript to turn into a book and agents will bend their own rules just to get you for your next one.

>>19386130
I remember a manga like that.

>>19384910
Protag had existential crisis due to finding themselves as a different person in a different world. If you are talking physical, not even a scratch on anyone.

>>19385525
>You aren't supposed to use tab to start paragraphs.
Fucking excuse me?

>>19384910
How do I get better at descriptions?

>>19385525
>You aren't supposed to use tab to start paragraphs. Who knew?
Was it too hard to google a formatting guide?

putting out a poetry book in a couple weeks :D

How do I get better at writing descriptions

>>19384910
There's 5 main characters, but we mainly focus on the main girl. At one point in the story, she gets beat up into an inch of her life by none other than her sister. Over the course of the story, the main MC loses 2 of her best friends, and her sister.

Her main goal is to stop the big bad from destroying her academy, her country, and at the end, the planet. The main MC fails to stop all three. Killing almost everyone. Leaving her, and the big bad alone together at the end of the world

>>19383012
itunes on his top right monitor

>>19383171
with his troll fingers he can't alt tab

>>19386814
>distracting himself with the names of the songs
Unfortunately, Terry is never gonna make it.

>>19386492
Please tell me where this pic is from, i completely forgot

>>19386498
just get it all out of the way at the beginning of the story. introduce your main character by having her look in a mirror.

>>19386498
>show what else surrounds the character to associate those things with him
>describe the five senses, not all the time but share them
>use similes, adjectives, etc
If you're having trouble, try observing or remembering how things behave to see what it makes you think of, then try to list out more and choose the description that works. There's a lot going on in the background that we ignore all the time, so just look around and observe like you've never seen it before.

>>19384610
Apart from 'bestseller' lists, the answer is also boughts. You find a book you like and check the 'people who liked also bought' section to find similar stuff. Which is why it's so important to write for a specific audience and branch out as little as possible. You don't want a fantasy reader to mistakenly buy your vampire romance book and give you a bad review because he wanted fantasy and not romance.
Of course, this only works for genre fiction. If you want to find original stuff you're shit out of luck.

>>19386832
I know it's a meme, but I cringed anyway

>>19386498
>>19386832
You start your story from the moment the MC wakes up in his bed. Before anything else, you describe the room around him, with special attention put on the brass knobs on his nightstand. Then he gets up and goes to the mirror on the wall and describes himself, and he must look exactly like the author, just maybe less fat and with more hair. Then you can do whatever you want.

>>19384637
Caute from Cautus meaning secure in latin
Soux from saxous meaning rocky in latin
grad from old slavic for town.

Someone finally told me that they thought my writing was good enough to be a bestseller

Feels good bros

Also, digging in an old reaction face folder is a dangerous game

>>19387161
>Someone finally told me that they thought my writing was good enough to be a bestseller

Bestsellers are not well written though

>>19387162
If they only last one week, then they cheated with pre-orders. If they made it to a second week on the list, they have actual quality to them.

Regardless, people reserve that as high praise and you damn well know that you undercutting cunt

>mfw 2121 was hiatus city
It's interesting how a change in environment impact one's habits and writing discipline.

>>19387167
Believe it or not, I am happy for you anon.

>>19384595
>Sursia/Sursian.
From Sors, allotment in latin
>Voran/Voraman
Voran is german for forward, the man suffix comes simply from man
>Cautegrad, Souxgrad
grad town in slavic, caute and soux are corruptions of the words for secure and rocky in latin
>Agantia/Agantian
Agant or something similar was taken from the name of a flower in Sanskrit
>Purmand, Kanmand, Lavmand
Lav comes from lava which is fleece in Sanskrit, kan comes from the first syllable for bronze in Sanskrit, Pur is the first syllable for east. Mand I just made it up on the spot. Most of everything was made up on the spot

>>19387111
lmao

>>19387111
>he
NGMI. It must be a she, and she must suddenly feel the rough cloth of her robe against her perky bosom.

>>19387255
Uh-oh, sounds like one of those rape novels from the 90s. Maybe tone down the male gaze a little?

>>19387290
You may not like it, but this is what peak bestselling writing looks like

>>19387255
NO! It must be a he (female)

>>19383171
Well, he doesn't NOW.

>>19385129
Oh goddamn, I have a 50k word novel to write and now would be a really good time to write it, wouldn't it?

But instead I find myself trying to come up with ideas for a bunch of graphic novels I goddamn know I am not going to write. or draw.

>>19384507
I'm currently reading Hyperion and I thought this was a pretty good example. The paragraph starts with:

>The bishop stood so quickly that papers on his desktop were knocked to the floor.

It shows its a sudden action by the papers getting knocked onto the floor. Contextually it is sudden, because the bishop has not been described in any way as moving and has been pretty calm up to now. And in terms of construction, it feels sudden because it starts the paragraph.

>>19385766
Does your work not flag email that is sent externally? My old job used to block them for security reasons.

>>19387464
Customer service sometimes requires emails to be sent externally so of course they won't be blocked.

>>19387393
NO! It must be a she (with a feminine penis).

>>19387699
Now that's the stuff

>>19384441
Burn it. I mean literally set a fire in your narrative. Then start from ashes. People dont read short books anymore

>>19387733
I was told they read nothing but short books

>50k words
>want to start over
When I started I still was unsure how it would end. Now I know and I'm thinking of just going back and doing it again.

>>19388020
isn't 50k super short for a novel tho?
Like I'm a little discouraged about this even though I'm almost 20k words in because I think this book is gonna be waaay bigger than 50k words

>>19388030
He said he wants to start over, not that he's finished.

>>19388020
fuck i forgot to start my novel.
reckon i can do 20000 words in a day ?

>>19388030
Starting over, not finished. When I began I wasn't really sure what was going to happen, just that I needed to start. I actually used a short story I had written before and just kept going after the end. Now that I've had to deal with and write in the world I know what I'm doing for a story now.

>>19386492
>meanwhile
>half the people ITT dont even know what a reasonable wordcount is
i may be an idiot but i'm an idiot with a finished manuscript.
>>19386218
pretty much. you just need one foot in the door. i'll keep writing until i get something published.
for laughs, i saw an indian woman working at one agency, and every book she helped get published was written by an indian american. these people, really actually.

>>19386492
You assume people write here.

>>19388308
I reached 1k words on a new thing today. It has two references to Matthew.

>>19388384
Man, Matthew needs to stop saying the truth here if people are that obsessed with him.

>>19384910
my characters are their own undoing

I got distracted yesterday and tried drawing the scene I was writing.

>>19388693
have your characters considered going on a diet?
who wants to read a book about fatasses?

>>19388828
How about you take a diet of my dick up your ass you stupid faggot?!

>>19388693
ballpark, how much would it cost an illustrator to adapt a 100k word book?

>>19388897
I have absolutely no idea. I’m not good enough to do commissions but I’m good enough that I wouldn’t pay someone do draw what I want.

If you're writing a duet (2 paired novels) should you just kill yourself or do agents want that? It isn't sci-fi/ fantasy/ YA.

>>19383012
Remember to show not tell.

>>19388897
Do you mean adding illustrations to the book on a by-chapter basis? Are you asking for freelance indie artists or, well, actual somewhat big-name artists? This also depends entirely on whether you want anime-style or don't mind knock-off Indonesian/Korean/whatever style art, western anime/cartoon art, or realism art.

If you're interested in asian artists drawing anime-like art, you can expect "reasonably" cheap within the 500-1000$ range, just going by non-commercial personal use (like if you're writing for free somewhere without patreon and such). For anything else, your milage will vary wildly for a reasonable ballpark answer. Starving twitter artists particularly in the western community you might look close to $1200 is my guess, this is a most liberal estimate. Most of this so far is going off the assumption that you might have like 15-20 illustrations throughout the 100k book.

I'm mostly going by some of my favorite starving artists whose starting prices are in the 60-90$ range for just waist up and without backgrounds, again absolutely YMMV. Needless to say, as much as I love supporting my favorite artists because of an unhealthy commission hobby I haven't been commissioning many western artists in the past couple years. That one who I went off of took about 6 months to just start my commission.

No matter which region artist you might look into, one thing to bear in mind is an artist's availability; they might be willing to do just one or two of your requests when their commissions are open—so it might be best to get these commissions months ahead of time. I don't usually ask my go-to artists if I can carpet bomb their commission slots though, so if you're feeling more confident you could ask about paying in advance for numerous commissions. For this reason, I don't stick to commissioning one specific artist for my story and like to switch it up several of my favorite ones and as a means to support their art.

I'm only mentioning non-commerical personal use so far. If you're looking into opening up a Patreon or self or tradpublishing... that's going to be pricey—you might be looking at close to 2000$ or more for about 15-~20 chapter illustrations. I consulted an anon friend who got about 5 illustrations for his book and he paid around 1k$, but he said it was mainly out of goodwill because the artist was a graphic designer and needed extra cash. Western artists from my limited glances at ToS are particularly stingier about commercial rights (one was like 300% of price just for cover art) but Easterners don't really give as much as a shit from my experience—more chill, but YMMV.

>>19389270
>have a couple scenes that I told first and realized I could show them
>one of the scenes I am still telling is with a monologue
>the story is mainly about what happens after Chapter 1, but the monologue allows the protag to explain his past mindset to understand his dynamics
I don't want to spend too much time on the topic and I'm hesitant to use a flashback.
How does /wg/ feel about flashbacks? I can't tell it in chapter 1 because the most important themes and symbols don't appear in the scene. I feel like it'd setup false promises if I told that part first instead of a flashback or monologue later.

Another one of my short stories is getting published! In Boulevard no less, and they're even paying me $200 for it.

Keep pushing, anons, you got this.

>>19389575
>the story is mainly about what happens after Chapter 1
that's usually what stories are about, yes

>>19385003
He wrote 41 novels, most of them best sellers.

How many have you written?

>>19385065
>What are your thoughts on quoting popular song lyrics at the beginning of your book?
Corny as fuck. Maybe if there is a profound quote that matches the theme of the book, but that's really hard to pull off.

The Wire would do quotes from its episodes (out of context obviously) at the beginning of the episode which contains them, which worked quite well

>however
>although
>nevertheless
I hate these sorts of transitional words (especially "however"). They are essentially signs that what was said before was a flawed point so you need another sentence to fix it. They make what should be a complete thought a subordinated clause which diminishes the force of the writing. It's like you're reconsidering what you just wrote, so you have to go and correct the record. If that's the case why write the first thing in the first place? However these types of words serve a useful function. Too much use of them is a sign that you're not confident in what you're writing.

>>19389604
No I'm serious. I guess I could say the themes appear in this past scene but they manifest differently. So instead of talking about snakes, auras and chocolate, that scene has robots, stars and mutated fruit. It's still building into the same ideas of a stalking enemy, the vision of the future and views on justification. I just want to introduce the "snake set" first because it occurs more and represents the new world.

>>19389584
Damn. Being a writer must be depressing. Imagine being successful and getting $200 for it. I guess most writers aren’t in it for the money obviously

>>19389670
Obviously not! I'm a full-time civil servant. But I'm pleased that five of my short stories, none of which took more than about a week to write, have now been traditionally published, and as a direct result of those 'credits' I've secured representation to traditionally publish my first novel late next year. No great artist ever did it for money.

At what point does a rape scene become tasteless?

>>19389704
The minute it enters your work. It's completely unnecessary, anon.

I've been toying with the idea of trying to write something some day. It's occurred to me that I'd like to write about characters and places, which I think myself and others would find more interesting than my standard journal-type rants. I quickly wrote this sketch of a person as practice.

>He is about 44, shorter than average, not unattractive, well put together, a bit stocky, round face, light beard, short brown hair, eyes fairly close to one another and a smaller nose than one would expect – but again, not unattractive. A respectable being. He told us, I believe unsolicited, that he used to play in a band that did quite well for itself, including a tour and a record and a record deal. One record and one tour, to be clear. He was eager to demonstrate his knowledge of rather obscure genres of metal, to which his band belonged. He plays guitar. Curiously, he has a very poor quality amplifier. It is perhaps a 20 watt Fender combo that is no fewer than 20 years old. His guitar is a rather nice Schecter. Of that sort that features prominently in the music scene of which he was a part, I happen to know. He always plays with his guitar tuned a whole step down and capoed at the second fret, effectively defeating the purpose being tuned down. Also, he uses the type of capo that I believe is inferior to the Shubb variety. Perhaps most interestingly still, there are six of us who play together, and he is perhaps the worst at making pleasant sounding music. His guitar sounds very bad through his amplifier, and he doesn’t have remarkably good rhythm or style. This is odd because I would have guessed he would be particularly good, and certainly not the worst sounding of the six of us. But, he is fine. He isn’t “bad”. Also he is a perfectly respectable and pleasant human being otherwise. The more the merrier. He doesn’t detract from the music or the good time. But so he has caught on that I am somewhat familiar with the sort of music that he used to play, and he has sought me out as someone with whom he’d like to talk. It is easy to tell that he is eager to share with someone his enthusiasm for the genre. He is somewhat starving to speak to someone about this topic. Not in an unbecoming or pathetic manner, because we all have these sorts of things, but I happen to be a knowledgeable conversant on the topic that he most fancies. And so he is eager to speak with me, on that topic. And it is fine. But it is funny, in a way. He is 44 and sort of “reliving the glory days” and seeking someone with whom to talk about them, who will appreciate them. But yes.

>>19389809
*conversationalist, among other errors that only become visible upon posting.

>>19389704
Tasteless is a word used by people who are both offended and too stupid to express why they are offended without coming off as fragile.
I might be put on a list for writing this, but rape is a tool like any other. Use it correctly and it can be a great addition to a story, use it incorrectly and it may be distracting. Either way you should be immediately discarding any complaints of being tasteless.

>>19383325
Quoting the villain in my novel, the dastardly Yag Gengir, the most base things become dignified when done in good humor.

>>19383012
Is it possible to have two smart guys in a five man band?

My lancer is a detective, but my smart guy is a macgyver/hunter/hacker type character

>>19390232
this is your brain on tropes

>>19389689
I feel like the civil servant who is an aspiring writer is almost a trope. Lol. I’m glad you’re having success and I hope your debut novel is something you’re proud of

>>19390273
I always read up the tv tropes page of every tv show/movie/game/book after I've finished consuming them

>>19390232
>2 smart guys in 1 group
you should probably kill them both off just to be safe

>>19390622
just knowing that people like you exist makes me want to blow my brains out.

Jason Bryan hasn't spammed this post yet?
Is he dead?

hit 19k today
the shitpost thus far: https://ghostbin.com/rvPDx

How he write 3 hours a day for decades?

>>19391013
he just be urself'd :^)

I think I want to write a book called the Call of the Shitkickers. Thoughts /wg/? A horror story about a guy who gets his bike stolen by a crocodile.

>>19391098
I can just imagine the smug look of the crocodile as he gives the guy one last look, before driving the bike off a bridge and into the swamp waters of florida

>>19383012
>write when I drink
>read it the next day
>schizo ramblings in print

>>19391546
That's a good start.

>>19391013
Booze and cocaine.

I've started writing the first novel draft of my planned 8 fantasy books. Assuming I actually pull it off my my work is inevitably subpar at best, will I still gain some sort of a following just for pumping out that much stuff? Should I publish all of them at once or go one by one?

>>19391704
One by one. But instead of writing 8 bad books, write one good book and then worry about more.

>>19391704
yes but what i would do is write the same 8 books over and over again until they dont suck anymore

>>19391704
You'll get better as you go. If you want some following for the first, maybe regularly post it on RR or whatever.

Does anyone know of any youtube channels that narrate their own (good) short stories? I was thinking of starting one and wanted to see what the trends are.

>>19391710
I didn't just pick a number and decided to roll with it. I have arcs and climactic beats laid out; even if I snipped and jam packed it all into one book, it would be quite hefty. Two or three books would be doable though, guess that answers my question. Thanks Anon.
>>19391711
First book I'm working on started out as a 40-page short story. Now I'm trying to flesh it out more because I'm really not proud of the lack of interesting stuff. All the more interesting stuff happens later.
>>19391723
What's RR?

>>19391746
I didn't tell you to squeeze your 8-book story into one book. I told you to write one good book. It can be the first of the 8, but don't just write shit and move on to make more shit. Make a good book first. Don't worry about writing a series if you can't even make a single novel worth reading.
Just focus on this one thing. Make it good. Work on it. You don't just get to go "lol my work is subpar XD", you need to look at why that is and then fix it.

>>19391746
A webnovel site. Basically, if your first work going to require a lot of editing to do right, you might as well do it with live feedback from online audience.

>>19391752
Suppose I am getting ahead of myself by thinking about the whole thing rather than focusing on the smaller details. Greatly appreciate the reality check
>>19391753
Sounds neat, I'll give it a look. Thanks Anon

>>19391771
Full name of the site is royalroad.

>>19389663
Yes, yes, well done. However

>>19391771
One step at a time, anon.

>want to write desperately, have vivid imagination of a specific aesthetic
>can't think of anything to write about
in another words, i have a world with nothing in it. i could think of something, but it would be uninspired

>>19391829
Who cares if it's uninspired? Write uninspired things within your world until you hit upon something good.

This "I'm creative and have a good imagination and am really, really good at writing... but I don't write because of X, Y and Z" is a very common excuse people use to hide the fact they aren't as good as they think they are from themselves.

Is it bad if I switch from POVs (two POVs specifically) to omnipotent 3rd person between chapters? I would make it clear that it's a different speaker with either narration or images or both, but I don't know if this is a no-go in general.

>>19391857
It's fine.

How do I come up with a high concept plot

I always get writer's block around 14 days into November. Why this accursed number, I know now why! But I want to but only sigh.

>>19391916
You take a high concept that interests you enough to put effort into.

>>19391704
>my planned 8 fantasy books
I hate you

>>19391993
Why?

>>19392117
This. Any fantasy series worth writing is at least 12 volumes.

>>19391098
You may be joking but I might actually write a short story about a dog stopping an alien conspiracy just because it got memed. Unless of course it was already written, then I will do my own version of it.

Last time I asked /wg/ for a story prompt it worked out great for me, so I'm doing it again.
Give me a premise and I'll try to make it into a short story.

>>19392241
An explorer discovers the literal edge of the world.

A suicidal man throws himself into a dumpster to be compacted, but he discovers instead that the suicides have built a secret city in the sewers away from society, where they go on living.

>>19392258
>hmmm that's a big drop
>okay guess ill go home now

>>19392241
A man dies and goes to Hell. Once there, he uses the readily available quantities of fat and ash to create soap and becomes an entrepreneur, selling soap to the denizens Hell's high society.

>>19392316
He should lower down a team do discover an even more fundamental question.
WHAT IS THE SEX OF THE TURTLE?

>>19392241
A man pays an escort for the girlfriend experience, then takes her to engage in various wholesome activities like laser tag, rock climbing etc.
They have dinner, go to a hotel, have decent sex and fall asleep. In the morning the escort wakes up to find that the man has committed suicide by jumping off the balcony and has left her a note explaining he was terminally ill and wanted to experience happiness before ending things

I'm making progress on a novel and I'm pretty excited about it. What do ya'll think?
>A cruel and nihilistic woman marries a faultless altruist and the two become obsessed with an implicit game of forcing the other to surrender on their incongruent viewpoints
>She sees in him a helpless pet ignorant of the cold and violent world around it
>He sees her as a beautiful sculpture trapped inside the marble, the ideal woman waiting to be released
>Early into the story he dies violently
>Blueballed and dejected, the wife begins going through the stages of grief
>Gabriel the messenger of God appears and demands she accompany him to Heaven where she has been ordered by God to stand trial for charges untold
>The woman and Gabriel will travel the path to Heaven as it's described in Dante's Paradiso - specifically, they will go to:
>Mars, where she will experience anger
>Saturn, where she will negotiate with angels for her husband's life
>the Moon, where she will confront depression
>Venus, where she will be fooled by Gabriel and manipulated to confront her love and hatred for her husband
>the fixed stars, which she (love), her husband (hope) and Gabriel(faith) will stand upon while they argue over their contrary perspectives
>and then, as she reaches acceptance of her loss, she will become the ideal woman that her husband hypothesized, forever rejecting her sadistic behavior and declaring that she'll live in her husband's image
>her husband, in the meantime, will realize that his wife's perfection now is evidence that God is imperfect, at which point God will smite his spirit and cast him to hell
>upon which point she will stand trial in Heaven, and God (as communicated by the Metatron, a floating mouth/esophagus/vocalcords) will find her guilty of being the angel of destruction, and will punish her by granting her immortality
>She will reject God's wish and he will blind her with a sight of his burning image, before casting her down back to earth for eternity. There, she will remain immobile for her first many centuries, until an epiphany will change her mind about the reality of what she's experienced, and she'll vow to decide her own life without considering god's will.
>the TL;DR: it's a tragedy about an altruistic husband trying to chisel out of the marble a perfected form of his incredibly talented, but nihilistic and cruel wife. when he dies, and she goes through grief, the purpose of that is that going through the stages of grief builds her up into that ideal person he knows she can be, all of which is meant to tie into god, and the epistemology, and dante's paradiso, so that god can take the built up, ideal woman and strike her down along with all the progress she's made over the course of the story. while creating a tragedy out of the romance between the characters, the story also rationalizes a world where God must be evil

>>19392637
No
She goes thru too much

>>19392663
it's all about punishment >: )

>>19392637
I like it but
>that his wife's perfection now is evidence that God is imperfect,
This one part makes no sense whatsoever.

>>19392693
most of the latter half of the book takes place mostly in epistemological and ontological conversations regarding the existence and morality of god. this specific part is a satire of Anselm's ontological argument for the existence of god, which is flipped on it's head in the story when the husband envisions a being (his wife) more perfect than God itself. It's set purposely as the penultimate chapter to create a more even footed antagonism between the widow and God at their encounter.

>>19392121
Writing 1667 words per day for two weeks straight is shit and I should have planned ahead more.

>>19392637
Sounds fedoracore

>>19392637
>and then, as she reaches acceptance of her loss, she will become the ideal woman that her husband hypothesized, forever rejecting her sadistic behavior and declaring that she'll live in her husband's image
>her husband, in the meantime, will realize that his wife's perfection now is evidence that God is imperfect, at which point God will smite his spirit and cast him to hell
This doesn't make sense. The change the wife makes doesn't really seem that noble. Why is the wife judged before her death and the angels manipulate her instead of helping her? Isn't God's will that all might be saved? Why does she instead find her husband more virtuous? Why is the wife cursed to immortality instead of hell? Why would God condemn her husband who was already dead, shouldn't he be judged at the time of death or on Judgement Day? The husband thinking his love can heal his wife is incredibly naive. He's sort of proven right which is awkward.

From the summary you provided it seems like you're portraying your characters as having it together, but the Godhead is confusing. In Paradise Lost, the Father and Son act in a patristic way that even a devout Christian would agree makes sense. Lucifer was also portrayed biblically because he's constantly rattling off delusions. He says things that prior events in the story established aren't true, as well as classic heresies. It's just that you see Milton has sympathy for Lucifer's attempt at freedom despite these delusions.

Can you touch on your inspiration for this story and the feelings that brought this story to life? Can you be more clear on the tragic flaw for your characters? I like the idea of traveling to the other planets.

Is my idea bad for YA
Writing about a girl who is given a full scholarship to an elite, cut throat prep school in exchange for infiltrating the popular group and finding out what happened last year with a former star student was blinded by “accident” and won’t tell who did it. She also has to avoid getting caught or else she could be the next victim

She has an unknown connection with the school but not sure about that yet. Might be that the dad is a deadbeat and abandoned her and he turns out to be a wealthy benefactor to the school.

IDK
is this too dull?
The MC is a lower middle class girl who has dreams of getting into a top school and obviously this would be a better opportunity to get into her dream school since this pre school has all the connections.

>>19392974
If you have an interesting character arc for the protagonist it could be fine. A lower middle-class girl going to an elite school is obviously going to run into social conflict on top of the other main conflict. Should work well for YA. A lot of YA is about self-discovery and challenging the status quo. Characters are asking the protag to return the status quo and for that genre I'd expect her to discover this status quo isn't what she wants. Up to you though, it could be the group behind the death is portrayed as a status quo and she's heroic for trying to expose it. If you give it some thought I'm sure it could be cool.

>>19392506
You know what, nevermind I'm using this myself.

>>19393025
Sorry I don’t know technical terms but character arc = internal conflict? Is it too boring without one?

I'm writing a scene with a reporter, a priest and the village idiot. They went stargazing together one night and the priest is telling them about how a Vatican librarian solved the problem of there being too many relics claimed as Jesus' foreskin by claiming the holy foreskin ascended into the heavens and became the rings of Saturn.
Fun things are fun.

Does anyone here use notebooks for writing/planning etc in? I was gifted a nice one but don't really know what to use it for.

>>19393189
You don't necessary need tons of internal conflict for short stories where dynamic characters aren't the main focus, but novels explore enough sides to a story that without an understanding of a character's internal motivations a story can become dull.
If you haven't read it, read Story Genius in the OP link to know what I'm talking about. I think it's around chapter 2-4 that describe character motivation, which is the heart of a character arc. She has a motivation, a misbelief formed by some event before the story, she cannot resolve the external conflict before resolving the internal conflict by correcting her misbelief. Then your character will finally mature and understand what she really wants to get what she needs. Those internal conflicts often parallel the external conflict, but not necessarily. The outcome is totally up to you, but the resolution of a character arc will precipitate as that character makes their decision.
With your story I can imagine there's a special reason your character wants to get into an elite school. That's a very different world from where she comes from. Think about what made her decide that, hint at it or eventually reveal it. What does she think about the murder? How does the story conflict change how she sees elite schools? Something' may change her for better or worse. Maybe her beliefs are reinforced.
The point is that beliefs are challenged, and there is a tension with the reader because they want to know what she'll do. Is she going to quit the school? Is she going to disappoint someone if she does? What might happen to her if she stays? When you engage your protag's motivation, you are going to get your readers tensed up about these questions and they will keep reading.

>>19393254
I was thinking of using it to collect quotes and ideas that might influence a story I'm writing but that didn't seem like enough to justify marking it.

An alternative idea I had was to keep it in my bag and use it when I'm sitting in a cafe, waiting on the bus, or generally just killing time to write a description of an object, person or place - to try and work on showing and not telling.

>>19393254
>>19393278
I have a box of scraps of paper of every idea I have ever thought. if I had your note book I would tear out a page each time I needed something to write on.

>>19393254
I write them in the nearest text field with autosave, be it pc or phone. Sometimes a paper notebook, yes.

>>19393283
As someone who - for a reason I really don't understand - has a habit of never using notebooks to keep them pristine for something 'worthwhile', this hurts.

>>19393273
I’m going to read story genius right now, thanks.
I have another plot I’m deciding between. It’s a YA fantasy. If i typed it out, could you tell me which one is more promising? If you have time ofc
Thanks for the help

>>19393343
each has their ways

>>19393383
Yeah go ahead. I was taking a lunch break and just finished baking biscuits..

>>19383012
Where do you get your ideas for books? Most of mine are from dreams I had.

>>19393419
Thanks.
This one is way less fleshed out in my head so sorry for any potential confusion.

The MC is a witch that has demon blood and has access to dark magic that her coven says to not practice. She’s always been ostracized due to her powers and her mother makes her wear a magical object that dims her power and makes her only allowed to practice natural magic

Every 250 years in this town, there has to be four 17 year old girls sacrificed to appease the ancestors and nature and allow the witches to keep accessing their energy. The MC refuses to participate and has days to find a spell to find a loophole. Her and her crazy friends decide to summon something from a grimoire that can help and this burst of mystical energy attracts hunters…. That hunt and/or capture supernatural creatures (it’s a whole organization). The MC has an issue though because the allure of the dark magic makes her want to get more and more power

I haven’t finished developing this shit but I just want her to go through a corruption arc I guess, she can’t manage the power she has access to, the organization is after her, maybe throw in an evil love interest who she ends up siding with because he tries to manipulate her into seeing his side of things, validates her, says they’re alike and he wants to use her for some reason. She’s ‘special’. Her coven basically has always seen her as a loser, burden, scary so she’s just like fuck it, I’ll embrace this and work with the evil guy

So this organization is after her and her coven is basically after her

This is not finished at all… i just have these vague pieces.


HOPEFULLY THIS MAKES SENSE. IM SORRY.

>>19391704
why do newfags always obsess with writing a fantasy series? like we really dont have enough of these?

>>19393469
My experience of the human condition.
>>19393514
Fantasy is easy because you don't have to do any research, you can just make shit up. Lazy people who want to be "creative" find this appealing.

lads I wanna dip my feet in standup can I post what I write here
I am writing about shagging my dog

>>19393518
>Fantasy is easy because you don't have to do any research, you can just make shit up. Lazy people who want to be "creative" find this appealing.
basically

>>19393518
Sci-fi can have this problem too.
One can come up with any sort of high technology for major plot convenience.

>>19393518
>Choosing what genre to write based on its perceived difficulty

>>19393503
It does make sense. There's a Bradbury short story called "April Witch" that deals with a similar issue from a different angle. A witch will lose her powers if she falls in love with a human. Here's a link: https://ghostbin.com/fLlPk

Your plot could be good. Your witch has to decide the value of her powers. She is threatened by most of her options. Is it possible for her to lose her powers and lay low with regular people, or will they find out who she used to be? Will the coven come after her for betrayal? Her loophole plan could of course go horribly wrong. There's a lot of possibilities there.

Give special consideration to how the magic works. Is it important to the narrative and generate conflict because the characters want to avoid its consequences? Will they be forced to use magic to get what they want and lose something in the process? Do you want characters to just wave a wand, say nonsense and then someone turns into a frog without any blowback? Think about why the coven values these powers so much, why they're willing to sacrifice four teenagers to do so. Is the problem really just the four girls, or does the protag have another problem with magic?

Some publishers will be picky about topics and say things like "witch stories aren't in season now sorry pal." I have no idea if they are right now or not, but here's how you could make it work anyways. For example, let's say the witches are the familiar aspect. Perhaps the witches are in a setting or have powers you don't normally see. Maybe the witches work undercover: park rangers, journalists, who knows? Maybe they're out in the wild west, on a Mars colony. Or you could go the Brandon Sanderson route and just throw giant crabs into the story. In genre fiction if the combination is compelling enough you can get a good hook. You don't have to reach for some bizarre juxtaposition. If it was writing it, I might put the witch in Reconstruction Era Southern US and just make some nice literary Southern Gothic without incorporating extremely fantastic creatures.

>>19393579
no

>>19384507
The reader only ever sees what you show them, and they don't see it until you show them. If you want the reader to experience something suddenly, reveal something suddenly.

>>19393749
Thank you! You’re so helpful. Witches actually are what the market is leaning towards right now in YA. I just love magic though so that’s why this idea is something I want to explore.
If you had to pick one that you think would be more appealing to the masses, something people would actually be engage in, which would you choose? I can’t decide on which to invest my time into first.

I am trying to think of a twist or hook for both. A lot of YA authors try to include fairytale retellings or mirror teen movies or shows like Mean Girls or something. I am just not the best at historical or sci fi or monsters outside of werewolves, demons, etccc so it’s hard.

Thank you so much though, I have a lot to think about.

Fuck you comma splice guy. I'm tired of your shit. I'm tired of your comments. I'm tired of your commas. I'm never using a goddamn comma ever again and it's your goddamn fault. I hope you choke on your vomit after getting your shit kicked in a dark alleyway.

>>19393749
>>19393799
Oops, forgot to say that her powers are important to her because being a witch has always been part of her identity… magic is bloodline based and a mundane life isn’t something she’s ever imagined living. If she lost her powers, she kind of loses something special that she loves about herself and she has in common with those around her (her friends, mom, etc).

The magic is important to the coven because it’s tradition. It’s just something their ancestors have always practiced and they don’t question the morality behind killing girls because it’s seen as a noble sacrifice to the ancestors. The MC is not having this at all. She’s not willing to die for ‘traditions’ and doesnt see it as an honor. These people never treated her well in the first place and now she has to die for them lol

You lads ever just imagine your characters doing shit that perfectly makes sense for them to do otherwise but won't write it on the paper because it wouldn't ever be relevant to the story and/or too weird for your editors and readers to see? Is there a term in writing for this?

>>19393875
Daydreaming.

>>19393823
>>19393799
I'd capitalize on the witch boom then, you can visit your other story later. You're free to stick to typical settings and symbols like werewolves. Consider what will stand out to readers if someone pitched it to them. Maybe it already stands out. Compare it to most of the witch YA out there. Here are some things to consider as you plot: what event in your protag's childhood convinced her that the magic was part of her identity? What convinced her that sacrificing people wasn't worth it? Why does she not respect the ancestors? Why would she sympathize with a teenage girl? There's a reason she feels differently than her kin so explore them. The extremely obvious direction to go is...she's a half-witch :O ! This would only be cool if that other half wasn't human. Personally I'd go with experiences that shaped her view, but revelations about who she is, or who the witches have always been, can work too. Maybe she's a real witch and they are the half-witches pretending to be pure. Just be careful you're no doing what someone else has done.

I had to do this for my current story by looking at a bunch of post-singularity scifi because I was worried it wasn't original. I looked through hundreds of summaries and the only one that was an actual utopia had a wildly different conception of a super intelligence, very different character motivations, completely different ending and not to mention it was so obscure that no one even knew it. One of the tropes of biblical "first-day light" without the sun is pretty uncommon too, but it was in an Isaac Asimov story.

>>19393875
>ever just imagine your characters doing shit that perfectly makes sense for them to do otherwise
Like having sex with me? Why, yes!

>>19394029
I think the corruption part of my story is something that stands out because the other ya witch books are very a hero’s journey types
But yeah, I need a twist to make it ‘unique’ even tho technically, every idea has already been one
I might just go read myths and fairytales and see what i can pull ugh
Maybe the twist can be in the romance. Hmm

You sound super smart so I’m sure your novel is great. Are you pursuing traditional publishing?

Near the end of my latest story there's a short section of stream-of-consciousness narration, where the MC is very unwell. Please can I get some feedback on it? I don't tend to go for SoC.

>>19394064
shut up SHUT UP GET OUT OF MY HEAD

>>19394087
If the corruption part is rare then that could very well be the selling point. If you present the story and start with dark undertones, you can set up the tone that corruption is inevitable. You want a surprising yet inevitable effect for a twist, it's not a sucker punch. Build up the dark themes of corruption, but give plenty of evidence that it won't happen. That way readers will be surprised but they will understand why it happened, and were even looking forward to because they liked the creepy cover, title, or first page.
I'm aiming for traditional publishing, gonna go for an agent because I don't have time to do my own marketing with a smaller publisher since I have a full-time job.

>>19387152
Mixing two languages sounds strange.

So o was with my NaNoWriMo group today and one of the women was talking about how she’s hesitant to have a Native American character in her story because she’s not Native American herself and her therapist told her it would be a bad idea without significant research because otherwise she’d be telling “someone else’s story.” I said that sounded retarded unless the therapist was talking about plagiarism. I was asked not to come back to the group next week.
Is it worth it to try to write when most other writers are pozzed faggots?

>>19394276
wait so does this mean I can only write about white people how will I get published without diversity

>>19394276
Tell her to read Native American authors' stories and history. What is unique about their experiences and myths? What is the myth that binds their community? To my knowledge, most but not all natives held universalist beliefs. You can look up most mainline religious history and many of them felt that the myths of yesterday may not necessarily be the myths of tomorrow. This is the reason many tribes cooperated with and accepted the new myths of Europeans and they mixed their cultures. Aztecs are one exception to this. They were a periphery empire from the parent Mayan civilization. I really want to explore that aspect of their resistance because it's fascinating how different they were from the other nations. Another aspect is that most native nations were classified as societies, not civilizations. They did not go through the same cycles of history as others. A lot of them were destroyed because of dependence on foreign technology and their myths fading into irrelevancy. The first chapter of Tragedy and Hope (Carol Quigley) explains this. It is not to disrespect natives or even westerners, but simply to admit the civilizations tend to have this effect on small societies without conscious effort, so it'd be unwise to blame westerners for this. One might also question what was left of the original England or Spain before the Romans showed up. History changes people.

Then she should write a character informed from some of those experiences and then include a Native American as an alpha/beta reader if she's concerned about the accuracy.

I say this and I'm pretty far from woke. There's a difference between understanding what you're writing about and be ashamed that you want to use it as a setting. If I could have told my story in a futuristic setting I would but when I looked at the elements, it kept implying a different thesis so I just went with a historical narrative to tell a personal story. I will be doing that for a story I plan set in another country, but I'll take the feedback at arms length because it's set over 2000 years ago, so the modern people will be quite different. I just wanted to see how some readers might react to it, but mainly concerned with how the narrative works.

>>19394276
Just do what she did.

>>19392933
if you're still here, I'll extrapolate a little. firstly, about the section you quoted, I had kind of explained that part to another person in the thread here >>19392817
>Can you touch on your inspiration for this story and the feelings that brought this story to life?
My inspirations have an effect on my prose and tone and stuff, but not really my plot writing. I have a lot of stories in my mind but they all just come to me, not really inspired by other books. This one is, of course, inspired a lot by Dante's Divine Comedy, but that's something I baked into the finer details much after the fact. I just wanted to write a tragedy about violent love and the beauty in destruction.
>Can you be more clear on the tragic flaw for your characters?
the wife is a sado-masochist that acts hedonistically and violently in her waking life, and hypocritically regrets and grieves for her dead husband. going through grief, building her up into his ideal form, is her conquering those faults with the help of his spirit.
The wife is brought to god and "judged" in this way as a red herring - he's not actually judging her, he's basically giving her a promotion. god's objective in the story is to create harmony on earth, which he requires the angels to do, and he needs an angel of destruction, which, before her journey, the widow is shown to be. i do also go deep into what harmony is and why as well. the point of the religious sector of the story is to make an ontological argument that god is evil, which is itself the catalyst by which the tragic romance is played out.

>>19394276
let me tell you, finding a writing group that tolerates your bullshit is pretty great. I've got some friends ive known for over decade now and they don't give the slightest shit about the racist things that end up in my writing.
because it's fiction and they're not retarded.

anyone's wiener longer than mine?

>>19394681
that's a lot of words no one will read

>>19394694
well, yeah. it's about the journey not the destination, man.

>>19394681
Mine's shorter by about 50k words desu

>>19394681
How do you approach editing on something like this? Do you break it off into acts and edit those and move on? I'd have to really think through each turning point in advance so I wouldn't write myself into a corner.

>>19394722
this was basically a journal. i keep it for my own sake and potentially draw material from later, but if i were ever to try to convert it to something of interest to others i'd pull material to create episodes, describe characters, and fit that into some larger narrative. i wouldn't just "edit" the whole thing. it's more like source material, at best. like i said, it was for the journey.

>>19384910
The protag in my short story an heroes, though its not very melodramatic

>>19389888
>Quoting the villain in my novel, the dastardly Yag Gengir
kek kys

>>19383656
>le vore river
based

>>19393579
typical bong

>>19393518
Possibly the most pseud post I've seen this year.

>>19394681
>>19394878
what's the content, how do you write 400k words about anything that isn't a solid plot, how long did this take you
i'm curious, because my writing is thoughtful and "deep" maybe but it's always brief, I don't know how to write that much

If an animal is intelligent and talks it isn't bestiality, right? It's a monster, right? Therefore it would be acceptable on amazon, yeh? Asking for a friend haha.

>>19395321
Don't make me break out the furry consent chart.

>>19393469
>first idea started from a friend asking me a question about search engines, which lead to a brainstorming session that boiled down two fundamental flaws in human nature, exploring how they are interpreted by different kinds of people and what future civilization I could use to illustrate that point
>next two ideas after I wondered what events in the past are most elucidating, strange and could be revelatory about someone's ethnicity and civilization respectively
>another one came from built up experiences in church and the high degree of misunderstandings, deception and lost friends. Trying to explore the idea in a fantasy setting with characters who represent institutions and archetypes of different spiritual motivation
>rest of the ideas are just dumb science questions I had about work that might turn into one thread short stories such as a carnivorous crystal

>>19395321
Your friend should delete their manuscript

What future scene in your story are you the most excited to finally write?

>>19395693
the scene where the characters turn to look at the reader and say "the author is now rich and famous thanks to you, well done reader."

>>19395693
A 19th century English dandy confronts the devil at a forest crossroads and challenges him to a duel

>>19395765
wtf? That's my novel...

>>19395773
Not anymore, nerd

>Rate my prose
Bipsy was a Bootsie. A Bootsie was Bipsy. Bipsy Dipsy Flipsy did Mipsy with a Klipsy. This all meant nothing to Gino, who himself had opted to shootsie the Bootsie with his Uzi. This sort of idiotic inner monologue often plagued Gino as he worked, one of the many touches of insanity that he often claimed transcended space and time with its nature. The truth of his actions was nothing short of egregious vulgar slaughter, the type of killing that immediately drew attention and forced the eye to look for more. More mayhem, more chaos, more words on a page to keep them attuned to the circumstance. The xeno’s name was more than likely not Bipsy, but it had indeed been a Bhutzi, though this was all the knowledge that Gino needed to operate on before he took the job.

>>19395693
The second last scene. Only one thing happens the entire scene and no words are spoken. Not a lot of technical details to worry about because of it. Writing that prose to resolve the tragedy should be very cathartic. I'm likely going to write it this month.

>>19391704
>>19391746
>>19391752
>>19391771
I'm in the same boat (15 pages in), and I agree with one step at a time anon. You can't write a great series if you can't write a great book. I don't know if you're a perfectionist exactly, but I'd advise to err on that end of things

>>19391829
What's your aesthetic anon? If there's a theme that runs through it consistently, you can use that to start a character, and a story.

>>19395693
when my totally-not-hitler analog gets to have a little speech explaining what's going on and says:
We are faced now with the greatest weapon of the vampire, the one that preys on the inherent weakness within the hearts of men.
[crosstalk where the other characters try and guess what is it]
No, not any of those, as horrible as they may be. I am, of course, referring to that most foul and tempting black rite, the vampire's deadly art of usury.
And then I think I'll have a character start uncontrollably winking.

>>19395825
I look forward to read this

>>19383171
He does a bunch of stuff. I remember watching his documentary on alzheimers and on one of his monitors he had the Unofficial Elder Scrolls wiki open on some page about Oblivion lmao

>>19395693
When the seer girl, after the protag experiences a soul-crushing revelation, admits to the protag that she was only ever helping him out of duty to her order, and never believed in him. He attacks her, and she easily overpowers him and is barefoot

>>19395693
Protagonist gets in fender bender he has no insurance, licence. Gets out hoping guy in front won't call the cops. Till he smells the weed from the car in front. He hit a drug dealer who also begged him not to call the cops. Both people agreeing to forget this ever happened.

>>19395923
>spoiler
I’m sold.
I always had this image of my Danny DeVito MC rubbing his cock against the bare soles of monster girls. Unfortunately that may have to stay on the cutting room floor so I’ll let you carry my torch.

>>19395693
Tough choices. The deuteragonist Li and protagonist Victoria meeting again after nearly a decade shortly after Li has lost literally everything meaningful to her. I think there's a lot of emotional stuff with Li before this that I look forward to writing someday but these are scenes that I likely won't write for another year I think. In the coming weeks, there's a marine assault on a space colony that I'm stoked for, and later some heartwarming cute girls doing cute things between Victoria and her notgay friend Friederika and the emotional departure between the two at the closure of their character arc for vol3/4

>>19383656
If you aren't going to invent an entire language to extrapolate naming conventions from, then don't bother. Since you said it's supposed to be an analogue for the Balkans, twist Balkan proper nouns.

The names are bland, you're just smashing syllables. "Urpa" is bad.

>>19395890
kek

>>19395260
it's basically just journal entries. what i'm feeling. what i thought. what i did. describing days. describing situations. venting, clearing my head. stuff like that. just a place to be honest.

>>19393723
Yes, that is what fantasy authors do, they choose what they perceive as the easiest path.

>>19395693
from: >>19392637
>the fixed stars, which she (love), her husband (hope) and Gabriel(faith) will stand upon while they argue over their contrary perspectives
this

I have a story idea that has a lot of layers but I’m a new writer and feel like it’s over my head. Should I just write a cute contemporary story first to “sharpen” my skills or just write this story? It’s a contemporary/urban fantasy

>>19396994
write from prompts, contests, do shorts, don't stop writing. you enjoy it, why aren't you doing it right now? don't ask questions, don't worry about the story coming out right. they're all practice. for the big story you wanna do, flow chart it out, write notes whenever something occurs to you, give it time in your mind to age the chipped edges away and become smoother and more complete. don't be afraid to write a piece of it when you feel like the iron's hot, but don't dedicate yourself to writing that one piece in it's entirety because you WILL get stuck and you WILL throw parts out and over edit yourself and then you won't know what's even good anymore.

>>19395693
The one where the journalist is on his deathbed and keeps talking about how he's been saved and how grateful he is to the person he views as being responsible for leading him to God while that person is trying to bite his tongue and not confess he's lost his own faith.

>>19396769
Or maybe they're just writing what they wanted to write

>>19397030
I’m going to enter a short story contest but even that’s stressing me out. 5000 words for a whole story. It’s totally different from a novel.

>>19397233
i know what you mean. 5000 words sounds like a walk in the park, but starting and finishing a complete story in that span? kinda scary. but there's tricks to it. write just one scene that captures your imagination and take it from there. or try to plan out a story that takes place over as little time as possible. look for subjects that require less nuance and exposition. reduce your focus to a singular character and give them a great arc. hyperfocus on one thing. try any of these, shit out ur 5k words, then go through and edit it like 12 times. you might delete the first 500 words you might delete the last 1000, just because it's finished draft doesn't mean you have to keep it, but don't marry yourself to a short. sand it down until it's solid - focused, engaging, fast - then ship it out and move on.

>>19397281
do u think that a girl meeting her long time online friend that she has feelings for is too dull for a short story?? It seems like the plot has to be crazy dramatic

>>19397303
listen dude
your story doesn't have to be dramatic, it has to be good.
it doesn't need to be a totally new idea, it has to be good.
don't worry about whether the plot isn't dramatic enough, you haven't written it yet. write it out, critique yourself, make the reader want to know more about the characters and the world. don't use shock value just apply empathy and growth. finish the short. then go back and look for the moments that could have been more tense, or add things, etc. it's good though to remember that any given scene you write should either start low and end high, or start high and end low.

>>19393514
For my first novel, yeah. I want to make it good, but at the same time, it's not my magnum opus, so I'm willing to make errors with it as my first published work. My other non-fantasy stuff will come later when I've gotten enough feedback and grow as a writer.

>>19393514
I am absolutely fucking slightly annoyed with the state of modern fantasy. Everyone is trying so hard to be different and unique, but it all ends up being the same. So much anal focus on magic systems and worldbuilding that no one gives a shit about with no attention paid to writing an actual story with characters who do things.
All fantasy these days looks like it's knocking off tolkien. And that's only because I don't play much DnD because I'm pretty sure that's the shit they're actually ripping off. They've all got the noble humans and the industrious dwarves and the violent orcs and the pure elves and they all say "well ive got this really interesting magic system" and I just don't care because you're doing the exact same dark lord returns plot that everyone else is doing and has been doing since long before tolkien. but at least back in his day, people still gave a shit about characters and giving their characters things to do. Oh and the best part is that despite the dark lord shit they always do, modern fantasy rejects the idea of morality altogether and tries to be grimdark and morally grey.
I am going to single-handedly fix modern fantasy. I am going to RESEARCH folklore and history and use it to create a NEW fantasy world derivative of the timeless mythology that is proven to work. I am going to write CHARACTERS who have hopes and dreams and want to DO SHIT that matters and they will DO SHIT indeed because I'm tired of motherfuckers doing shit I don't care about. I will show you piss bastards how to really do a morally grey story by setting it in a world with hard-defined good and evil. You can't have grey if the audience doesn't know what black and white looks like.
I am tired. I am annoyed. I am going to write something that is actually fucking good for once in this god damned generation and I don't care if no one reads it, I just want to prove that this sorry ass excuse of a modern fantasy genre doesn't have to be shit.

>>19397422
>a morally grey story by setting it in a world with hard-defined good and evil.
>You can't have grey if the audience doesn't know what black and white looks like
I thought this already on the first line, but you really are a retard

Feeling a bit discouraged. I'm only writing about 500 words every few days for my first story so it feels like I'll never be done. It's just hard to get the output. I know it will become easier to write the more I do it, but that's too rational for me right now.

What the fuck, listing things is amazing. I was stuck with a situation my character was in and couldn't think of a logical way out. Remembering some advice about making a list of possible actions no matter how bad or stupid they are I thought I would give it a go. Got about 6 ideas down, 5 of which were garbage and 1 was actually a really good way to get out of the situation that didn't rely on some kind of plot-breaking device.

>>19397483
than you are going to help me fix fantasy

I want to enter a contest and the story has to be upbeat
However, personally as a consumer, I like dramatic, depressing and dark shit. How do you come up with something upbeat and coming of age? Helppp. I think it would be good writing practice

>>19397905
I was the same way, but honestly dark things started to depress me. So I decided to indulge myself until I became sick of dark stories. I have two stories in my outline bin, one that is super dark and one that is as light as I can get. You'll find yourself going to the light project when you get sick of the dark project. Go hard for dark first, then let your want for something lighthearted bring you to light. Also read hobbit.

Is this idea too cruel or does it make the main character too unlikable?
It’s YA
Basically, a 16 year old girl meets a guy who gets stood up by his shitty girlfriend and she just decides to save him from the embarrassment at the restaurant… blah blah blah, they connect, he likes her, she thinks he’s geeky but sweet and his family has money so she’s like…. I can just use him as a pretend boyfriend

Then she actually starts to like him after a while but he learns she was talking to her friends about how he was just a practice boyfriend.

How do I even make this girl likable?

rate my story idea bros

>be modern day, main character is a small white dog
>scooped up by some drunks and brought to apartment
>after eating and drinking the dog is contented before they bring it to a dark room
>three drunk as fuck college students start trying to practice magic on it
>this ranges from turning it green to trying to make it speak, to a bunch of other harmless but impactful things
>suddenly fbiopenup.wow
>as the door is barged in, one of the members messes up his spell in the process and accidentally turns the dog into a small person
>small boy, age ???, status stupid
>fbi grabs the magic users because uh oh magic illegal in the world what a twist
>they also grab the naked guy on the table, assuming him to be one of them too
>put them in the gigantic tower in the capital
>this is used to store/eventually kill all magic users
>when you are thrown in, you quickly realize that they have built a miniature society in here

rest tbd, i just like that beginning because fuck it, dog

>>19397941
does this take place before or after the dog tries to warn people about the aliens?

>>19397965
after
i like my ramen spicy

>>19397554
Yep. No matter how dull you are as a writer you can revise revise revise until you find what works. For the same reason your characters can appear much more brilliant or witty than yourself.

>>19397941
Be honest, which drugs and how much did you take to come up with this?

>>19397993
Came up with it on the edge of sleep. Wrote it down. Was sober.

>>19398060
>>19398060
>>19398060
New thread!

>>19397965
fucking kek