/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.14714569]

How's the writing career coming, /lit/?

[Anonymous No.14714585]

>>14714569
fine...

[Anonymous No.14714591]

>>14714569
N/A

[Anonymous No.14714596]

I'm only 18, that means I have lots of time to go right? I don't need to rush it?

[Anonymous No.14714653]

Pretty well, actually. I got another poem published this past January, and I have another one coming up at some point. That brings the total amount of poems I've had published up to seven. I've only been paid for one of them, but I feel like my career is just ahead of me.

I also have a short story that I'm really proud of that's out for submission to several places, and they've been holding it long enough that I think they're taking it pretty seriously. Just getting the story published in one of these places would be a huge boost for my career.

Finally, I am currently working on the first part of what I hope to be my greatest work, a work I've had in mind since I was in high school and which I have gradually built and developed over more than a decade of thinking, reading, and writing. It's going really well so far. It's slow going, but I don't feel bad about that because I'm trying to be careful, and pay extra attention to what I'm doing. But it feels wonderful to finally start this big masterpiece of mine. Especially because I have immense pleasure writing the four main characters. They've rolled around my head so long that to actually write them feels like meeting old friends after they've been away for a long time.

[Anonymous No.14714713]

>>14714569
tell us what your book is about, wojak

[Anonymous No.14714742]

>>14714596
If you aren't already writing your masterpiece at that age you're already fucked bro.
No for real age makes no difference, time pressure is real but age pressure isn't. Just don't be like "I'll do it later". Runway isn't just a procrastination buffer.

[Anonymous No.14714753]

>>14714569
I want to release this novel I did but now I'm discouraged because /lit/ hated an excerpt I posted but at this point there's no choice so whatever.

[Anonymous No.14715930]

>>14714753
Never trust /lit/'s taste.

[Anonymous No.14715936]

I'm trying to write now. I've had a journal for months but I've only filled up five pages. I know I have a talent for writing but I've wasted it so far.

[Anonymous No.14715946]

>>14714753
This board is full of retards, most of whom don't read. Don't put too much stock in people's opinions here.

[Anonymous No.14715968]

>>14714569
Spent a few years researching this, just sent it to the publishers to get printed, wish me luck anons

[Anonymous No.14716035]

>>14715936
take every post you make on 4chan with a little substance in it and write that into a journal and you are now a writer

and being an author is somehow publishing those 4chan logs

its not all much besides just a habit

[Anonymous No.14716038]

>>14714753
>I want to release this novel I did
then do it wtf

[Anonymous No.14716040]

Pretty good, had pic related published last year, got a few good reviews and a few sales

[Anonymous No.14716101]

>>14716040
Can you post an excerpt?

[Anonymous No.14716208]

>>14716101
Not from my phone I can't, look up Empire Times, it's the student magazine of Flinders University, they did a review the other day. It's also on Goodreads

[Anonymous No.14717227]

anon...

[Gaskun !!LKQ0Koj4uFz No.14717804]

Pretty good. Vampire book cover is finished so I need to finish the profile on Ingram spark for the paperbacks. Book 15 is only 10 pages so far but having been unemployed since late October has messed with my writing work ethic. It’ll be good as soon as I’m working again. The goal, as always, is to land another job, master everything as fast as possible and then write on the company dime. I always write better on someone else’s time. Plus it frees up my evenings for outings instead of being at a keyboard. 16 and 17 will follow quickly behind since they’re sequels of 14 and 15 and another trilogy of books follows that unless the vampire books earns enough momentum to write the already planned 2 sequels for it. I’m spending WAY too much time playing PUBG. I’ve never witnessed such cheating. It’s aggravating to spend 10 minutes gathering shit only to get no scoped from 200 yards away by some fuck head using a hack

[Anonymous No.14717877]

I blew my load and had some mediocre poems and short stories published when I was 24 which generally were terrible. Now at 28 I've just had my second short story published under a pseudonym, they're actually good and being well received. Now I'm faced with the prospect of having to write under a pseudonym for ever.

Maybe if I make it big it will at to an aura of mystery, like banksy, and I can reveal myself when I'm old and the magic's gone.

[Anonymous No.14717884]

I haven't written anything since June 2018

[Anonymous No.14717885]

my mixtape gonna soon...

u be ready

[Anonymous No.14717887]

>>14714753
post the excerpt

[Anonymous No.14717998]

>>14714742
true. it's not about not being to 'make it', but you'll always regret not to have begun earlier.

[Anonymous No.14718432]

I live a weird double life where I write literary fiction and try to publish but also write novel length fanfics for a certain popular media franchise that I post online and therefore get more readers than the litfic.

I'm currently trying to shop a novel I finished last fall to agents which is a grueling exercise in disappointment. I've also sent applications to some summer conferences/workshops. Now I'm going back to another fanfic to keep the weight of coming disappointment at bay.

[Anonymous No.14718486]

>>14714569
The first time I ever tried submitting to my school’s literary magazine, my work was accepted.

After that I submitted a new work through 3 new submission cycles and got rejected every time despite what I felt was a marked increase in my writing ability. One was a short story taking place in the Middle Ages about a grumpy, drunken mystic, another was a kind of surrealist horror story in the realm of Kafka’s The Castle (3k words maybe) about a girl who wakes up in a house where a party is occurring and she doesn’t have any memory of who she is or where she is, and another was a simple love poem I wrote my gf for our 2 year anniversary. Everything turned down. Recently my school had an English department showcase were students submitted work to be performed out loud. I submitted a prose poem about reflecting on reading Ernest Hemingway as a teenager which I thought was really good (in comparison to my other work). It was accepted along with maybe 6-8 works from other students, and I got to read my work to an audience for the first time ever (good Lord I cringe thinking about it), but I got a good crowd response.

I submitted the same poem to a flash contest which is still pending. If I hear back that it doesn’t get in there I think I’m just going to submit to the lit quarterly. I kind of want to clean out my reserve and start over but I’m reticent to delete everything (which I have done before and regretted). It’s odd, the stuff I wrote in like a day and sent off without a second thought gets published, and the stuff I toil over gets rejected.

Overall I’m alright tho. Writing is a great joy in my life even though I stress and sweat over it.

[Anonymous No.14718500]

>>14718486

Give me the love poem

[Anonymous No.14718506]

>>14718500
Are you going to use it bro?

[Anonymous No.14718509]

>>14718506

I'm trying to write my own love poem for a girl and I'm stuck. I am looking for inspiration.

I'm assuming your girl liked it? If she didn't forget I asked.

[Anonymous No.14718523]

>>14718509
She did like it a lot. It’s about the first time we met. By no means do I consider myself a poet, I just tried to create an image and recall a memory.

[Anonymous No.14718527]

>>14718523

Damn, that's good

[Anonymous No.14718537]

>>14714742
Except that pretty much all great authors are published at least by 28

[Anonymous No.14718541]

>>14718527
Thanks anon. I’d say it’s just okay but I appreciate the encouragement a lot.

[Anonymous No.14718549]

>>14714653
This didn't receive replies because /lit/ is seething at your success
Good job bro

[Anonymous No.14718556]

>>14714653
That’s awesome anon! I like to see other anons getting out there submitting and continuing to produce regardless of success or failure, and you’re racking up successes. Keep going!

[Anonymous No.14718567]

It died when I was 20. I'm a writer now, but only because I practice law. Not what I dreamed about.

[Anonymous No.14718578]

>>14717804
What's vampire book called? When do you expect to release it?

[Anonymous No.14718607]

I'm writing some stuff now. One is a self-help book for 4chan and the other is a first person novel/novella about bitchy college girls. I sent in something for the quarterly spring edition and have not heard back yet. My only published work is a mom/son incest smut story that got 500 or so downloads. It was free and you all can read it if you want. Google the title and pseudonym.

[Anonymous No.14719949]

>>14714569
I'm writing my book, but keep getting blocked. I need to find someone to talk my work through and bounce ideas off of. I'm doing a creative writing degree, but most of the people on the course don't have a clue what they are doing and the ones that do are busy working.

[Anonymous No.14720442]

>>14714653
I am proud of you anon
Where do you submit your poems? The only places I've ever had anything published were my uni's awful semesterly magazine and the first edition of Lit Quarterly, which paid surprisingly well

[Anonymous No.14720458]

>>14720442
I go here to find a lot of places to submit:

https://www.submittable.com/

This is a submissions portal for a lot of magazines and websites. It has a 'Discover' function that allows you to search around to find magazines, journals, and websites with upcoming deadlines.

Also, as much as some people aren't going to like it, keeping an eye on social media is helpful. I've found at least one publication that's published a poem of mine just by noticing their Twitter account.

[Anonymous No.14720627]

>>14718537
Didn't Murakami start at 27?

[Anonymous No.14722292]

Wow, Shake's/Plate sure was really smart, wasn't he?

[Anonymous No.14722309]

>>14714569
i hate these threads :(

[Anonymous No.14722313]

What the fuck is "writing career". Does anyone actually dream of such a thing in the year of our lord Satan 2020? You do realise that these days you have a greater chance of becoming a rockstar or a celebrated TikTok artist than making a living as a writer? Especially if you're a white, straight, english-speaking male in a western country. In that case you might as well just buy a lottery ticket and hope for a jackpot, that's more likely to happen than you publishing a successful novel and making any sort of monetary return.

[Anonymous No.14722330]

>>14714596
Yes and no. It's unlikely you will be able to write anything decent now but keep doing it anyway to get better and better. Time will start to fly.

>>14718537
And most started writing even before their teens.

[Anonymous No.14722340]

>>14722313
So? If someone is passionate about writing, the money and fame is just a (statistically very unlikely) bonus. But if they are somewhat serious about it, viewing it from a career perspective (aka. doing it regularly and with professionally) is still important.

>if you're a white, straight, english-speaking male in a western country
That's the sort of fucks who actually get published most of the time, although white women dominate YA. Just because agents and publishers claim to give a shit about #ownvoices doesn't mean they actually do. It's the equivalent of corporations using LGBT flags on twitter for a week.

[Anonymous No.14722346]

>>14714569
I've written a book, but its unpublished. I'm terrified to send it out, even though I've asked lots of people their opinion and they've said its great; one girl even cried after she read it. I just feel like I can't trust them and its still not finished. I also have tons of poetry I'm afraid to submit, even though people say that's good too, I know for a fact it isn't, at least on a technical level.
Nonetheless, I've kept writing and am even making some progress on other books.

[Anonymous No.14722381]

>>14722346
>cried
Find an agent that believes in your work. If it needs revision (it does) then they'll help you, and they'll help you find a publisher. You gain nothing by sitting on it at this point.

[Anonymous No.14722404]

>>14722381
> If it needs revision (it does) then they'll help you
Not how it works. Agents only help with revision to sell it to editors after the agent is in contract with you … which is unlikely if they are presented with a work which obviously needs a revision.

[Anonymous No.14722415]

>>14714653
Please learn to punctuate better. Get into the habit of pacing with semi-colons. Otherwise, congratulations; good work.

[Anonymous No.14722435]

>>14722381
I'm looking. I just have no confidence in my work. I'm finishing a general query letter at the moment, but its more difficult than I thought. Once that's done, which it should be in a day or two, I'll just have to bite the bullet.
Anyways, I think you're right about the revision. Its a very short and simple story, but the ending especially bothers me, although no one who has read it complains. It just feels very anticlimactic and rushed, sort of flat.
I appreciate the advice very much.
>>14722404
I think the story is simple enough that the revision would be pretty minimal. At the very least, I'd be glad to know for sure that its not ready, and maybe an agent or some other would let me know, even if just to say its no good yet.

[Anonymous No.14722436]

>>14716040
Just ordered this. Better be good - nine fucking quid! Goddamn Australians.

[Anonymous No.14722440]

>>14722436
>support fellow /lit/izens
This anon is the hero of the thread. Even if you wanted to be applauded, you done good, anon.

[Anonymous No.14722459]

>>14722435
>Once that's done, which it should be in a day or two
Damn, that's fast. Or maybe I was damn slow. Took me 2-3 days just to find a base that didn't made me cringe and then I spent almost two months on tweaking it and adding personal touches for individual agents.

>It just feels very anticlimactic and rushed, sort of flat.
That's how I feel about mine too, though I suppose it's only given to have inflated expectations of a story you know beyond what's on the pages.

[Anonymous No.14722469]

>>14722440
I don’t want to be applauded. I just think new art is always worth investing in. Who knows; maybe one day Lewis’ll be famous and I can have a pub anecdote that goes “I bought that fucker’s first book when he was just a little itty-bitty shitposter on some Cambodian crocheting forum - NINE fucking quid it cost me!”.

[Anonymous No.14722471]

>>14722469
Based.

[Anonymous No.14722474]

>>14722469
>Who knows; maybe one day Lewis’ll be famous and I can have a pub anecdote that goes “I bought that fucker’s first book when he was just a little itty-bitty shitposter on some Cambodian crocheting forum - NINE fucking quid it cost me!”.
I hope very much for such an outcome.
I didn't mean to be hostile or anything. I was just covering my bases, if you get what I mean. As a fellow starving artist, I meant what I said otherwise.
Sorry for the misunderstanding, it was my bad.

[Anonymous No.14722490]

>>14722474
No, not at all, man. You didn’t say anything problematic. It’s all good. It’s a bit flash, I suppose, and I’m sure others would if they could; I just mainly wanted him to know his hard work has paid off. All nine fucking quid of it! Dang.

I’ll buy anything you guys post up, too. I’ll look out for you especially. Keep going.

[Anonymous No.14722500]

>>14722490
Thanks anon. I hope I publish something worthy of your hard earned cash.
You're a real bro.

[Anonymous No.14722507]

>>14722500
Nah, you, man. I know for sure I’ll be splashing the cash on you at some point in the future, too. Look forward to it.

[Anonymous No.14722547]

>>14722507
It may be some time, but please expect me anon.
You've been very kind and encouraging, and I appreciate that very deeply. When the time comes, I will see you again.
Thank you very, very much.

[Anonymous No.14722630]

>>14714569
If only I knew how to write a book...
When I was a kid I wanted to write something, I made it 6 pages in and my story ended.
It's been years since then but it always deprives me from trying again, one day I'll give it another shot I hope.

[Anonymous No.14722851]

>>14722547
De nada. What’s your pen name? I’ll buy ten just because of how based you are. I’ve known a few writers and I know how hard it is but in my view (like, I paint as a hobby), I do genuinely think you’re gifted with a spark but it’s the hard graft that makes it a blaze. So, seriously - don’t give up, don’t compare, don’t get despondent. It’ll happen, I know. I can’t stand it when artists give up. Whatever it takes, whatever shitty little job it is you have to do, whatever meal it is you have to miss, whatever. All of it counts. Every second. You think it doesn’t matter and you wish it was easier, but all of it will eventually pay off. You’ll see.

Anyway, that’s my little gay pep talk, but for real - don’t give up. The real test of any true artist is not failing but to not have tried at all. That’s what I think anyway. You can do this. I believe in you. 100%.

[Anonymous No.14722852]

>>14722630
Start writing short stories then, the word count doesn't matter at all

[Anonymous No.14723913]

>>14714569
I'm entering beta for my first novel, just dropped a couple hundred bucks for beta copies. So far, so good.

[Anonymous No.14723923]

>>14714569
I'm gonna finish the first chapter of my novel this weekend. I'm really gonna do it this time.

[Anonymous No.14723957]

>>14716040
Did you self-publish or get an agent?

[Anonymous No.14723967]

>>14714569
I could make it as a sophist

>studying
>everyone around me
>it is quiet
>conversation of intent starts
>chubby autistic kid starts talking
>"the phenomenological relation between the intersubjective measurement of the object and blah blah blah blah"
>everyone quiet
>no one knows how to respond
>but I do, because I know philosophy
>stand up
>"you may think you've baffled everyone in the room, but not me, I know philosophy"
>you looks surprised
>random guy tells me to stop chiming but I tell him to shut up louder each time as he bitches some remark back
>give qt sitting next to me a seductive side look
>just showed my charismatic dominance
>"well you know, if the intersubjective denotes a mode of experience it acts as the objective and so entails a backing into Husserl's 'bracketing'"
>chubster is astounded
>no one knows what to say
>he's flabbergasted
>I've just torn down all philosophical future of this kid with my pure outwitting sophistry
>I begin to explain the difference between subject/abject
>he objects(mfw)
>I grab qt's ass
>let go
>"if you want to know the future, just ask"
>"ask?"
>"you should known hussurl since it is you...BRACKET!"
>bell rings
>everyone leaves class
>mum picks me up
>i'm safe mfw

[Anonymous No.14723976]

>>14714653
How much money have you made though? Being published isn't a career.

[Anonymous No.14724132]

>>14717804
>fucking 15 vampire books
I hate that I'm intrigued by this

[Anonymous No.14724305]

I need an editor and an agent and I'm golden. That's not going to happen any time soon so in the meantime I'll just keep writing whatever comes to me.

[Anonymous No.14724445]

>>14724305
Pay for a developmental editor, it's easy.

[Anonymous No.14724505]

>>14724132
The books would have to have been awful not to make it at this point. It's a larp.

[Anonymous No.14726076]

Got my first publication proposal today in the mail /lit/

[Anonymous No.14726144]

>>14726076
Congrats anon
I hope you get many more

[Anonymous No.14726240]

I'm seething so hard at other people's happiness. Why is this happening bros...?

[Anonymous No.14726316]

Just a daydream. I don’t have anything to write.

[Anonymous No.14726320]

I made someone bust ropes with my erotica so I consider that an accomplishment.

[Anonymous No.14726480]

Is there anybody there who's trying to go blind into a genre? A (sub)genre you've created? Or simply some undone ensemble?

[Anonymous No.14726529]

>>14722415
>coping this hard

[Anonymous No.14727107]

>>14714569
Gave up in my mid 20s because very few people can actually write things that aren't garbage, and I'm not one of them. Kind of got tired of my shitty 20-something pseudo-intellectual bullshit, especially considering I am just totally incompetent at emotional realism or writing characters that aren't all just a bunch of boring-ass robots that nobody would ever want to read about.

I guess I was good at descriptions. Maybe if I have a midlife crisis I can try being a travel writer (as in, not someone who travels, just some underpaid jackass who tries to put photos into words), assuming I haven't killed my vocabulary with alcohol by then.