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/lit/ - Literature

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Anonymous Mon Feb 12 16:05:42 2018 No.10685778 [Reply] [Original]

How did you become a good writer?

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 16:11:23 2018 No.10685812 >>10685778 PRACTICE AND CRITICISM

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 16:12:33 2018 No.10685817 >>10685778 nobody on /lit/ ever did

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 16:13:03 2018 No.10685820 >>10685778 imitation

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:04:15 2018 No.10686090 genius

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:05:39 2018 No.10686102 >>10685817 This.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:07:20 2018 No.10686111 >>10685778 Imitation and then slowly diluting that imitation to make it less obvious.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:14:15 2018 No.10686146 >>10685778 >good writer >on /lit/

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:35:53 2018 No.10686236 File: 599 KB, 663x465, ce07821ed6c901a747677a6cfbc63920.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>10685778 Understanding that your English teacher actually were right when critiquing your shit. inb4 > i wasnt into le lit in school

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:37:18 2018 No.10686245 ITS SIMPLE YOU JUST NEED T-

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:39:31 2018 No.10686256 >>10686245 -OLSTOY

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:39:56 2018 No.10686258 just be yourself :^)

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:41:24 2018 No.10686263 >>10685778 Wrote stuff I liked.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:47:49 2018 No.10686296 By not reading or writing and browsing lit everyday Practice this and you'll be published in no time

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:50:25 2018 No.10686312

Um...i started out bad, but with promise, as most of my teachers said. I stayed bad for a long time, then as I got older my outlook changed, I started writing seriously, didn't try to write just to prove dumb points and or satisfy my ego, and just focused on telling a good story, and then I finally got published. Still not really an accomplished author as of yet, but It seems like I'm at least on the right path.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:56:51 2018 No.10686339

>>10686245
Practice every day
Read every day
Study why you enjoy certain writers
Study why you dislike others
See what the writers you admire had to say about their own process and development
Imagine the kind of writing that both you and somebody other than yourself would want to read
Be persistent, especially in the face of rejection and failure
Be sincere

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 17:59:19 2018 No.10686355 >>10686263 This can be true provided you have good taste. if you think The Martian is the best book ever, then your writing is going to reflect this. This is where read more comes in.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 18:00:55 2018 No.10686365 File: 72 KB, 788x685, 307.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>10686236 >mfw my Creative Writing and English teacher told me that I was a genius

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 18:06:17 2018 No.10686389

>>10686365
I don't think any sane professor would ever tell a student that. For one, I don't see how it's possible for a student to be a writing genius. If they were one, they wouldn't be a student, they'd be out writing books on their own. A student is somebody, by definition, who has no idea what they're doing and is looking for guidance. At best you can tell them that their stuff is promising, maybe if they work at it another ten or twenty years it'll be something.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 18:12:29 2018 No.10686424

>>10686389

High school teacher, not university professor.

That aside, I don't think so highly of myself -- but I still disagree with what your assumption. One of my favorite writers didn't publish her first book of short stories until she was 32, as she was busy earning a PhD. She won the Pulitzer Prize shortly thereafter and has since authored a handful of other works.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 18:17:26 2018 No.10686452

>>10686424
What makes you think she would have published it earlier, if she wasn't busy with her schooling? It probably took her that long to develop the right mindset to writing good material.

Most writers don't become good until they're at least 30 anymore.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 18:24:01 2018 No.10686494

>>10686452

Nothing.

She won a Pulitzer Prize and is a fantastic writer. I'd consider her a genius. My only point was that somebody who's gifted wouldn't necessarily abandon their education.

I've only submitted content to magazines and newspapers, but I think publishing houses are notoriously picky, no matter how talented you are. There are tons of stories around the Internet of folks submitting award-winning material to publishers only to be turned down and told 'their' work isn't up to par.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 18:37:58 2018 No.10686565

>>10686494
>My only point was that somebody who's gifted wouldn't necessarily abandon their education.

I didn't say they would abandon their education, just that if they were a genius as a student, they wouldn't need the education. She probably obtained her "genius" status, somewhere along the later stage of her education, or sometime after. She wasn't a genius to begin with, as a freshman student. No student is, at best they can be promising, which was kinda my point.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 18:41:26 2018 No.10686578

>>10686565

Eh. I more or less agree with you.

I do think some people have a certain knack for education that's probably brought about by a combination of genetic potential and upbringing. Not everybody has it, no matter how much they do or don't read and write.

Having said that, I do think education is a necessary prerequisite for just about anyone who isn't an actual Ubermenschen.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 18:44:12 2018 No.10686593

>>10686578
Some people can obtain good writing, or anything really, by going through the education system. Some (most I would say but it's arguable) do it by other means.

Education of course, is pretty subjective. Just because somebody wasn't an actual university student, or was a poor one, doesn't mean they haven't ravenously read the classics and studied their ass off at writing.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 20:47:20 2018 No.10687292 >>10685778 I didn't, but i like my own penmanship.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 20:54:03 2018 No.10687319 >>10685778 >>>>implying

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 20:54:55 2018 No.10687323 The only way is to write a lot, and to write when uninspired.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 21:25:52 2018 No.10687505 I read more than I wrote.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 21:27:17 2018 No.10687512 I've always been told I'm good at synthesising information (highschool and uni). When I read Hegel, it made too much sense.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:26:35 2018 No.10687725
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Shared my work with people I knew would rip it apart. Studied under people way above me. Read and mimicked writers far better than me. Wrote every chance I got, even when I didn't want to. Even when I was tired, uninspired, and even more insecure than usual.

Writing is a skill, and like any other skill worth mastering, progress begins at the end of your comfort zone.

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:33:34 2018 No.10687757
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>>10685778
I'm hoping I achieved that by doing a lot of writing. I'm in the second-last chapter of my manuscript tonight, which means I'll probably be self-publishing within two weeks. Then I'll see whether I get a barrage of one star reviews or something more favorable.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:36:52 2018 No.10687765 >>10687757 >self-publishing why

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:37:22 2018 No.10687768 >>10687765 Because I doubt any traditional publisher would touch it with a ten foot pole.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:37:52 2018 No.10687771 This basically >>10686111 >>10686236 >>10686339 >>10687323 >>10687505 All other post are SHIT

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:42:49 2018 No.10687786 >>10687768 What about the editing process?

Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:46:20 2018 No.10687803

>>10687786
I'm going to give it a once-over myself, then pass it onto another person to do the same. I tend to make the odd typo here and there when I write it out, but I always catch them when I go back to edit. The second pair of eyes are for just in case I missed something. I know it's not really professional, but my main concern is really for the obvious mistakes and typos to be fixed, not so much to have a literary opinion on it, which I can't afford.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:50:19 2018 No.10687825 >>10685778 you don't, but you attempt to.

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 22:53:38 2018 No.10687847 >>10685778 read, write, edit, criticize, re-write, wash, rinse, repeat also fap to lots of hentai tiddies

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 23:49:23 2018 No.10688080 >>10685817 >>10686102 be like the occasional popper inner and smell the shit so you know what not to step in

>>	Anonymous Mon Feb 12 23:56:45 2018 No.10688115 >>10687803 Print it and mail it to yourself as a poor man's copyright and then post it here

>>	Anonymous Tue Feb 13 00:10:26 2018 No.10688178 >>10685778 I studied, I read, I received criticism and criticized myself, I practiced multiple forms periodically, I never gave up, I always believed I'd be a good writer because I always come back to wanting to write

Anonymous Tue Feb 13 03:09:27 2018 No.10688770

Explored writing as it's own thing, as opposed to what I was writing. Both are extremely important but there are skills inherent to writing itself. But both are important to develop tho. So I explored a lot of different types of writing while in college and found my niche.

>>	Anonymous Tue Feb 13 03:18:02 2018 No.10688802 >>10688178 I do this also but I ask who ever I can

>>	Anonymous Tue Feb 13 09:12:18 2018 No.10689950 >>10687725 Underrated post.

>>	Anonymous Tue Feb 13 09:24:37 2018 No.10690001 >>10686578 >>10686494 What's her name?

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