/lit/ - Literature

>>5212777
>middle schooler

You may think it will be difficult to fill up an hour, but you are going to have to spend a lot of time repeating what is going on and trying to find new ways to go where you are trying to lead him.

Focus on asking smart questions, rather than giving answers.

Be firm, quick, and kind when being critical about something he has messed up on. For example lets say he messes up on subject verb agreement or something like that. Point it out, say it is wrong, and then ask him why he thinks it is wrong, why he thought it was correct, what other ways this could be done, or maybe giving examples of how his mistake, when extended to something else, seems very obvious. The last one is risky as you might come off as bullying him.

Really though, breaking down the wall on what needs to get done, is you getting excited and showing by example why literature and language is amazing. If you can do that you should be good.

>>5135714
>>5135727
Sorry, I didnt mean your process, I meant your criteria.

For example, maybe you just cant stand first person when a piece of fiction deals with a certain philosophy because it always comes off as preachy from the narrator.

>>4872867
What about in other languages besides French? Also, thanks

>>4872877
>>4872881
I've been thinking about that as well. I think im going to take the list as a basis for what I plan to read, and then when I come to a new book on the list, ill look it up and decide to read it or not. Ill only start doing this though around the 19th century and forward. Thanks for the heads up in any case

Any book recs?

>>4623083
Your ironic quips arent much

>>4623094
Meh. Maybe I just want to see him get better and move forward.

>>4616694
I feel like this picture is supposed to be offensive in some passive aggressive way

>>4578193
So now we deal with the best friend, which is where this story is really going to start taking some work.

Which college are they attending? Our main character (lets call her Arianna for now, I like the name) is 17, so she is a freshman. If we decide on some particular college, like Berkeley, we have to know their policies on freshman housing. Do they require dorms for freshmen? If they do, dont they have policies for this sort of thing?

All of this will determine what happened to Arianna's best friend (lets call her Jessica). Is Jessica in San Fran with Arianna? Was she there before Arianna? Is she still planning on going to college there? This is why you should write what you know about. You wouldnt want to write a story set in Manhattan and not know how people deal with cabs. Still, that doesnt mean you can only write about what youve experienced first hand. Just do your research after your first draft, and then edit whatever mistakes you have (this is called logistics, by the way).

So they are in dorms. Jessica doesnt want to room with Arianna anymore, because Jessica has been in San Fran the entire summer and has made new friends. Arianna now gets the dorm to herself, and doesnt have to pay for the other half. She may get a new roommate.

So now weve canceled off quite a bit of what this story could have been aoout. Arianna probably wont become homeless, and nothing severe has happened to our character.

Now, we could decide to leave this entire situation as mere setting, and leave it at that. Or we could enter the story when things are more uncertain, say when Arianna first hears from Jessica that she isnt planning on moving in with her anymore. This could be over the phone while Arianna is still entering San Fran for the first time (besides that time two summers ago when both Arianna and Jessica visited Berkeley and made plans to go there together).

At this point in the story (call with Jessica), Arianna doesnt know whats going to happen, and neither does the reader. Sure, if the story plays out long enough well find out that Berkeley has a policy for this sort of thing. And maybe Arianna is confident enough as a character that this doesnt phase her, and she already believes that Berkeley has a policy for this sort of thing.

But what about Jessica? This is her bestfriend, how could this happen all of a sudden? No matter if the story focuses on Arianna fearing homelessness, Arianna will still have to wonder for a good amount of time why Jessica did this all of a sudden (again, Jessica only said in the call that they wouldnt be rooming together, she didnt say why). Because Jessica was so brief (and wont take Arianna's calls), there could be a story here, beginning with the call, and then Arianna, completely alone in a new city, dealing with her problem.

The gaps really will fill themselves now that you have all of this background information.

continued

/lit/, OP here.

Is there a difference if youre trying to publish short stories in magazines versus publishing a novel through a publishing house, in the context of a literary agent? It seems most of you are giving me advice for publishing a novel, not a short story.

Why can't right wing people not be bitches and embrace futurism instead of some reactionary shitheap of teary eyed sentiment? The past is done, it's neon time.

hey /lit/ im taking a creative writing class with author Ron Calrson.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/50688.Ron_Carlson

Never read him, have any of you?

bump

>>4212607
I plan to, im just curious about the environment since I dont know too much about it.

>>4212599
Is there no way to get into an academic journal because I need to be cited by people worthy of citing, or what?

>>3946918
I understand what youre saying but I also want the narrator to have a voice where he focuses on details, I was planning on describing the conversation between Travis and the girl for quite a while.

I promise im not disregarding what you said, it just might be too early for me in this work to try and kill the narrators voice and switch it out with something else.

Mainly im afraid that if I calm down on the narrators voice ill lose quite a bit of what im trying to do with him (the above posts about the narrator being Z)

If it helps I just finished reading all of Salinger's works and I really like what he does with Buddy.

>>3779262
Not-doing is the same as doing

Bump

If there is something that already has all the info im looking for, a link will do.

OP here

After talking to my profs and counselors, I have these options.

Go full blown mother fucker, double major with english emphasis creative writing, minor in math, minor in linguistics (cant major in math, not enough time to do a major outside of school of humanities, english probably the best out of the humanities)

The above, or take away one of the three: major in english, minor in math, minor in linguistics. If I take one away, I can work on other things, like more logic courses, and learning a third language while strengthening my second.

Btw I go to UCI, whatever its worth.

So, input?

is surreal settings and concepts in literature something people today would be interested in? more specifically short stories, sold at low prices; not $5-15 but more around $1-3. this is something i've been thinking about for a month or so. i feel people would be more inclined to buy a book that was $1-3 compared to $10. this follows the same idea that companies use for mobile apps. most mobile apps, in this case games, are sold for $1-5 commonly. some utility apps have "pro" or "gold" ver. for around $3. i feel people would prefer to buy a e-book for $1 compared to $10; if they don't like it then it's no big deal, they're only down a buck.