/lit/ - Literature

>>8223280

That is a very difficult way to get published and widely read. There is no easy way, but some ways are particularly difficult.

My recommendation would be to build a ladder. It's much easier to get a good short story published in a C-level journal.

Once you've done that, you can continue to hone your craft and get published in better journals. You can also enter contests if you have the cash (I'm agnostic on this one).

When you have been published in about ten journals, including a few B-list journal and, if you're lucky enough (I'm convinced it's luck) an A-list journal, you will find getting an agent and publisher relatively much easier (though still difficult).

And you may find you're first book is already done - a collection of your published works.

Along the way, you ought to have collected a few good editors and a few good readers. This is fairly important.

Alternatively, you may be a bad writer. If you post the first few paragraphs here, we will probably be able to tell instantly and advise you as such.

>>7933124
>Italics are for internal dialogue, period.

No, try again, Senpai.

Italics are a common and obvious crutch for poorly read and otherwise stupid writers with weak prose.

Other similar crutches are bold font and em dashes outside of dialogue.

>>7867834

Can you explain why I'm wrong? I'm not interested in an argument, but evidence I've come across indicates intelligence is mostly inherited and it's mostly from the mother.

Here's the WSJ:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB835919711841023500

What do you base your belief on?