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/lit/ - Literature

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13535942

Anonymous Sat Jul 27 00:36:59 2019 No.13535942 [Reply] [Original]

how the FUCK do you learn to write? my writing is trash, absolutely trash, irredeemable garbage. I write every sentence knowing that it's shit, that it lacks rhythm,that it lacks soul, that it lacks proper word choice, paragraph structure; how am i supposed to learn this shit: don't tell me "just read bro", kys please, no one learns writing by reading, if that was the case harold bloom would be the best writer of all time.
i'm writing a modern day oedipus rex btw, in which a respectable family man descents into nightmare after encountering internet porn and video games. it reaches it climax by him cutting his penis off after a streak of 7 bloody ejaculations in a row, after 7 ejaculations prior to that. he gets divorce raped, loses all his income, and dies in a prison without ever seeing his son again, and his daughter grows up to become a man hater (the book ends with her posting about her "abusive" father on facebook). it feels kinda disingenuous though, using modern culture like that. do you think the greeks thought the same about using current events? do you think aeschylus would cringe writing a play about athenian politics?

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 00:42:12 2019 No.13535942,1 good fucking lord dude that's a hell of a concept the way you wrote this post, at least, shows that you're a competent writer at the least

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 00:55:22 2019 No.13536013 >>13535942 Practice debating or public speaking you get an ear for word choice quick

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 01:16:19 2019 No.13536076 Link what you wrote

>>

Anonymous Sat Jul 27 01:49:23 2019 No.13536196

>>13535942
I don't write creatively, only for school or work, but
>proper word choice
Non-fiction, especially philosophy, really helped me improve there. There's such an emphasis on exactitude and well-defined terms that it makes for good training.

Also, you tell us a lot about your story as a whole, but probably the most important thing i learned about literature, is that often every sentence is thoroughly thought out. I can't really remember a book where the author only tries to sound good and tell the story, it's almost as if every sentence is a story. If you look hard enough there is symbolism behind everything and if you take a paragraph out of a classic book you can usually draw parallels to other works, to religion, to mythology, or find a hidden meaning, a joke, derive a philosophical or political argument off it, etc.
Maybe you already realize this but that's my best advice, just take your mind off the big picture and try to say something meaningful every sentence.

>don't tell me "just read bro", kys please, no one learns writing by reading,
Then maybe don't read alone, find someone to teach you, attend courses ? I know i didn't read the same way at all before, then i had a good teacher who explained texts to me in detail, step-by-step, almost word-by-word, and made everything much clearer. Sometimes i learnt more by analyzing 1 chapter for 4 hours, than by reading entire books only paying attention to the intrigue.

>>13536076
also this

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 01:54:37 2019 No.13536214 >>13535942 It's called talent, mate. It's a gift some people have. You obviously don't.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 01:56:37 2019 No.13536226 File: 13 KB, 207x300, The_Flight_to_Lucifer.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>13535942 >if that was the case harold bloom would be the best writer of all time. hey, this book is pretty good.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 01:59:36 2019 No.13536232 >>13536214 This. It's ALL about genetics.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 02:19:24 2019 No.13536284 File: 389 KB, 483x447, laugh.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>13535942 >don't tell me "just read bro", kys please, no one learns writing by reading

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 02:42:51 2019 No.13536357 >>13535942 Read more. Have solid beliefs. Write more.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 05:42:39 2019 No.13536959 >>13535942 just read bro. ellmann says joyce read nearly everything by the time he was 20. also your story idea feels like shit. ur post feels like shit. leave and go read loser.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 05:43:57 2019 No.13536963 >>13535942 Maybe try by writing something a little less intensive. Work your way up.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 05:44:29 2019 No.13536964 >>13536357 >Have solid beliefs i can bring you dozens of examples of authors without "solid beliefs". literature isn't about moralizing.

>>

Anonymous Sat Jul 27 07:36:20 2019 No.13537237

>>13535942
Most people learn how to write by reading since they take traits from the writers they read from.
Another choice would be to take a creative writing class (I might have a course about that somewhere that I could upload for you from Udemy).
There's nothing wrong with using a modern setting for your story, the idea of a story should be able to work in any setting.
As a training exercise try to think of a short story, maybe only even a single page and rewrite it as if it were to be used in different genres or if it were written by writers you know well.
You'll be able to find a style of writing that works well with the way you think and it will go a lot smoother that way.
Like if you were to rewrite it in a tolkien-esque fashion you'd spend most of the page describing the scenery or if you rewrote it as Lovecraft you'd mostly complain about the nigger that walked past your apartment door or something.
Doing it this was make it a fun way to bulk up your creative muscles.

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 07:49:26 2019 No.13537264 >>13535942 If you profoundly need to write something, then it can only be written one way. That is what style is, and you won't find it on image boards

>>	Anonymous Sat Jul 27 08:01:29 2019 No.13537288 >>13535942 I like your writing in that post