/lit/ - Literature

My outline is looking pretty solid

I'm actually writing a narrative poem. It's coming along fairly well. Writing a poem that tells a story is a lot more time-consuming than just writing a poem about a feeling or a moment or a thing.

>>10311607

Kek'd. No offense.

>>10311621
What meter(s) are you using?

>>10311627
It's interesting. When I started getting into narrative poetry I quickly found I just couldn't squeeze my storytelling into iambic pentameter, so I expanded it out to fourteener meter, which has seven iambic feet. But somewhere along the line when I was writing my first big poem, I wound up dropping the last syllable of each line. So what I really seem to do now is write in thirteen-syllable iambic meter, with the last foot a "broken foot," the short syllable by itself. And for this current poem I'm using eight-line stanzas, with the first seven lines being in the "thirteener" meter I've described, and the last line being a nine-syllable line with yet another broken foot.

>>10311585
nope

>>10311642
How long is it?

>>10311686
So far it's coming up on three pages, and I'm not even halfway done with it. It's more like a short epic than anything, even though it's actually a science fiction story.

>>10311585
I just hit 10,000 words! I abandoned my last novel after about 2,000 words so I guess it's improvement!

>>10311642
Curious to see how you did this. I always find ending on a unstressed to be quite difficult, hence why I and many others rarely use trochiac

I find emjambimg for myself personality too much of a strong point of my writing to consider doing something in a similar way to you

Been trying to do the typical write with trochees and end on a stressed, so the opposite of you but I'm not having much effect when tied in with my affinity for emjabment

im at 35,000 words and twelve chapters. Im slowly loosing all passion for it though

>>10311790
Passion is overrated.
Just shit it out of you.

>>10311790
Stick with it, anon. Just push through and finish it. Even if you do end up abandoning it, you'll feel a lot better when writing future novels knowing that you finished one before.

About to start the second draft on Monday, everything is going according to schedule.
I'm getting ideas for the next one too, quite excited about it but I'm pacing myself. First things first.

I recently realized that my story is fueled entirely by my disappointment and cynicism in the current state of things.
My subtext is almost exclusively raging against the status quo, and shaming those responsible.

I'm not sure how I feel about that.

>>10311785
Well, as I said, it wasn't something I started out doing. I just sort of fell into it. The meter makes sense for the kind of stories I've been telling.

>>10311823
thats good though, all the best stories have a sort of moral aim.
I was writing starting a story for the first time and realized its all action and world building and nothing actually interesting.

>>10311585
Finished and published, up for sale on amazon and depressed as fuck it's only had 1 sale in 3 days

>>10312987
how did you even get 1 sale?

>>10312987
Just published too. Waiting on ad campaign to truly kick in.

>>10312987
>>10313343 Here

Try a free promotion in a month's time if you don't get sales. Let your fellows here read it and review it.

>>10311585
>open up a new doc.
>write 3 pages
>open up new doc.
>5x a day

>>10313414
>write a chapter
>later write changes i want to make in a .txt file
>write a new chapter without ever editing the old ones
fuck

One day, Stepan Fyodorovich Diderot was having a thoroughly bad time; when he had finished reading his Camus for the day, a feeling of gross revulsion overtook him.

"Oh gentlemen, not these sounds!"

As it was, Stepan had a change in mindset. Glibly tossing his $20.80 hardcover edition of "The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and Selected Essays" over his shoulder and into a nearby recycling bin, he came to a firm resolution that today, this day, would be when "O brothers", he would become a devout Christian. In vain, he tried to recall Stephan [sic] Dedalus's famous soliloquy at the end of Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", not realizing the irony of his own realization. There was a lot Stepan did not realize. Still though, he idolized Joyce. Perhaps he had to. Yes, out of necesity, he had to idolize Joyce, and felt good about it.

"From this day forth, I declare to not let thy mind be sicklied o'er by the pale cast of thought that... yes, doth make cowards of us all!"

Wrote it on my calculator

>>10313352
There's a preview option available for the ebook version https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B077PC7PXX/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1511641333&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=ravendale&dpPl=1&dpID=51ufaBy1GjL&ref=plSrch

>>10311585
Just started to re write my book yesterday. I was 20,000 words in before realizing that what I had was generic and amateurish. That was a year or two ago, now I feel much more capable of not sucking.

>>10313656
Or just search Ravendale on Amazon since my link didn't work

im writing, and i have a lot to go. im about 42k words in, and 6 chapters.
i have an outline of 50k that has progressed faaar past where i am now, but is also unfinnished. truth be told, i got tired of outlining and wanted to start writing.

my problem is that i am in a bit of a dull section for the story, lots of exposition and dialouge, but little time in-story passing.

what i want to do is jump ahead and write the next part, where we get to the action again, but i feel like tying it back into my older stuff when i go back to connect them will suck. i dont want to write myself out of a connection point between sections...

do you guys jump around in your writings? especially stories. do you write parts you love, then connect them with the shitty droll parts of writing?

>>10311642
interesting
how difficult is that? how does it sound?

>>10311585
before I finish I have to start
before I start I have to figure out what I even want to say
this has always been my biggest problem, how do I figure out what I want to say, or what I want to have happen, or what would satisfy my expectations?

>>10311585
Yep. But now I don't have an idea for the next one, and another opportunity's coming up soon...

>>10313797
I personally don't find it difficult. As I said, it's something I just sort of fell into. As for the sound, the short syllable at the end tends to act like a hammer. I've found it to be an almost insistent sort of poetry, driving forward and declaring confidently. Here's a sample from an earlier poem I did, when I was still figuring out how to write it:

At last amid the rain and wind and darkness came a light.
A streak of sunshine burst upon the roiling water walls.
Marin in her wat’ry form erupted from the mess,
Foam and fluid sparkling in a rainbow through the sky.
Bands of color gleamed and shone amid the sunny rays,
Bathing her and coloring her in a spectral swirl.
The sky above was blue; the air was calm, the winds were still.
She was in the eye, inside the center of the storm.

>>10311585
I want to write a book but I have no idea how to actually write a novel, like sentence structure and all that. I've made outlines and I have the story in my head but they play out more like moves/screenplays rather than a novel. I've come up and even developed a couple of stories but they just sit in my hard drive because I have no idea how to put them on paper. Such is life for a brainlet

>>10313859
I see what you mean

After years of hearing other people doing it, I have in and decided to give nanowrimo a shot. Nothing guarantees page count or quality content but I used it to get a little more motivated. Trying to write a coming of age story intertwined with a vampire story without making it ducking cornball. So far it’s working

>>10313927
First describe yourself. Write down who you are. Write down what you like. Be honest. Honesty of self is important with accurately conveying concepts and ideas for viewers. the ancient tree groaned as the wind gushed against it.

Bleh god im just grasping at ideas high as fuck with a cat bed on my head naked drinking lemon juice. Ignore me.

>>10314941
Maybe thats the key, brb gonna get lit

>>10315042
Atta boy champ

My novel has too much going on. Too many characters with their own quests and their own arcs, not enough space to talk about it and frankly the very idea that these characters all happen to know each other is nothing short preposterous

I got too ambitious, but I can't fix this story without tearing up so many ideas that mean everything to me

just finished a 74000 word satire novel and now I'm ready to look for agents and/or publisher, which I have no experience in. Best case scenario, it'll green-light for a film adaptation in the mainstream that'll most likely be watered down, but overall possible

>>10313738
Author name? Need to know what exactly I'm looking for.

>>10315152
Look at each scene and character and decide what is "important" that you cannot do without, and then find the stuff that is "filler" or doesn't serve a purpose. My novels was 313 pages, 149000 words. I had to trim 50 pages of fat to get it down. Some characters will have to get the same treatment.

>>10315297
Is it politically incorrect? My sci-fi novel's got racism, crude humor, people bashing transgendered people, and I couldn't find any agent to touch me.

>>10311585
One is a complete first draft at 150,000 words, waiting on feedback before editing. The other is at 16,000 words so far.

>>10315569
jaymes romero

>>10315578
yeah it's politically incorrect in a way, but my novel doesn't take sides. i think it'll be fine

Whoever said editing was the easy part is a fucking liar. This might be the hardest part of the job, and the worst part is I'm confident right now that I'm royally fucking the pacing

>>10315611
Not seeing a preview option.

>>10315746
Either you can do the editing (if you know what you are doing) or drop 3k on a full fledged novel for professional editing.

>>10315668
Float it to agents but don't be surprised if you get shot down. I can't count how many times i've been rejected.

>>10315766
maybe I'll do that for the typos. For the actual writing though I need it to be good enough on its own so that an agent can pick it up. It feels like cheating otherwise

>>10315766
where do you find agents? that's the part where im stuck at?

>>10315774
Editors just fix typos and crap, and point out issues with plot or motivation. They don't change your writing style or quality.

>>10315777
https://www.agentquery.com/default.aspx

https://querytracker.net/

>>10315781
>>10315777
Can't remember, but I think this guy helps you to write query letters too.

>>10315781
In that case, the editor isn't going to help with what I need to fix.

The fact of the matter is I created an abrupt scene transition and now I'm trying to work out how to smooth it out and how the MC should be acting after the cut. while still moving the plot along

>>10315795
Going to bed soon. Can you outline the scene and how it transitions? I could help if you don't mind spoilers.

>traumatic plot setup happens
>character gets shoved out a window to safety by a parent
> --- CUT ---
>character wakes up in an unfamiliar bed
>before they can even remember what happened the previous night, a woman walks in and talks about how the mc is scheduled to meet with someone the've never heard of before

I'm fairly certain I need to stretch out the "pushed out a window" part and find some way to imply parental death a bit more heavily

I also need to give the character more of a chance to react to their circumstances before throwing any curveballs at them

>>10315815
whoops >>10315801

>>10315815
Without seeing it I can't really offer an option. It can work as is if pulled off correctly, but I'd need to see the connecting threads to really offer an opinion. Sorry.

I’m stuck with my short story collection. Overarching story, but each piece can stand on its own. I just can’t write any good prose nowadays. I know I used to be better, my friends who read me know I used to be better. I don’t know what happened.

I’m also collecting the best poems (imo.) I wrote this year. There are 4 sonnets among them and I’m trying to write 10 more for a crown of sonnets. Shit’s hard.

>>10315152
I'm having this problem with having my protag and antag interact, at all.

Starting to think I'd be better off pulling a Fifth Element and have them never meet.

>>10311585
i haven't even started. i've been juggling like six different story ideas in my head for three years and have put nothing down in writing.

i think i'm afraid that if i actually sit down and start writing i'm quickly going to realize that i'm worthless and my dream of making it as a writer will finally be smashed to bits.

>>10312964
It makes me feel like a giant asshole though.

which one lil square ass nigga?

jk I haven't finished anything

>>10313656
anon this isn't good :(

>>10315297
books that are famous get film adaptations. enthusiasm is good but don't get ahead of yourself

>>10311585
Ran into a wall on my Novel. Trying to get back into consistent writing with various short stories. I’m seeing middling results.

Aye. I wrote two short stories.

>>10313656
That’s an ebook, nigga. Ain’t nobody paying 8 dollars for digital.

>>10316271
>>10316626
I haven't been able to access the free preview, but yes the the price is way too high. You are competing with brick stores and paperback. Your price needs to reflect that and give people incentive to spend on yours.

Unless you poured a shitload of research into your novel or are established, you really should be near 3 dollars. Five max.

>>10317099
>How does one set a free preview without enrolling in KDP select?

>>10315152
is this a joke about cloud atlas

>>10312987
Buddy, did you even proofread the description? I'm not paying $15 for a digital book written by someone who doesn't even understand capitalization.