/lit/ - Literature

>>12312342
Chicago, USA. A lot of the universities here include an unlimited train pass in their tuition, because you have to commute to different parts of town depending on which kind of class you're taking.

>>11915319
Before you're more than 5,000 words into the piece, write a complete outline from beginning to end. Revise the outline as you continue your first draft.

Cut every single adjective and adverb, and only add such a word back if the sentence is ruined without it. "The bird" is usually better than "the black bird," and "the black bird" is almost always better than "the fat, black bird."

Read a textbook on how to read poetry. Learn terms like assonance, consonance, anapest, etc. Apply them in your prose.

Repeat things in powers of 2 or 3.

Vary sentence length.

Write with at least two themes in mind, and revise with at least five.

Write drunk, edit sober.

Better to stop writing in the middle of a productive streak than during a moment of frustration; it's easier to come back to something that was speaking to you.

Be draconian with cuts. Cut your favorite part. Cut the climax. Cut the scene that really gets at the core of each character. Then, try to make the piece work without that cherished element. Even if you don't succeed, you'll improve it before you add the cut element back in.

Read aloud.

Talk to yourself as you go.

If you're stuck, get out a new sheet of paper and write whatever comes to mind for ten minutes. It could be something as silly as "boy gosh golly gee I sure do love apple juice, I'd like some right now," or it could be something very serious, a la "my father just passed away, and I feel bad because I didn't cry when I got the news, but I suppose I still don't feel bad enough because I still haven't cried." The substance doesn't matter. What matters is getting the mind back in a productive place.

The first sentence should have some hint at the conflict of the vignette / chapter / scene / story / novel.

Read.

Have fun. You're writing because you love to write, not because it's a chore you have to do.

>>11119486
Happy birthday you absolute legend. Your novels brought me back into serious reading & lit crit, and I've become a much more well-adjusted person as a result. I wish you a wonderful year, and many more wonderful years to come.