/lit/ - Literature

(Talent×work×output)^books read

the best writing contains wit, accuracy of description, and tropological potency. those are the main ingredient of good writing.

Read Poetics by Aristotle

lol it's simple
>me write good;
>you write bad.
but of course a dolt like you wouldn't understand.

not fucking Disco Elysium, that's for sure

>>14983634
If it keeps the reader reading...

>>14983634
ive wondered about this a lot. there's books i love and i can talk about why i love the books but is that the same as talking about why i love the writing or why i think the writing is good? it feels very subjective. some people would say that some writing is cluttered or tedious or boring but i feel like i would like something like that.

>>14984194
i feel like this might be the most accurate answer.

>>14984210
It's subjective. But subjects are so alike that it becomes almost objective. It's rare to see someone whose tastes are truly deviant to the point of being alien
>>14984185
the seethe is palpable

>>14983662
The books read bit doesn't work if you're Harold Bloom.
It's actually incredible how bad he is considering he dedicated his life to literature.

Good writing is going to be different based on what your objective is. Are you writing a novel? A short story? Poetry? A script? An argument? A scientific paper? A blog post? A shitpost? Each of these things is going to have a radically different set of conventions and tropes that lead to something being "good" in a conventional sense. I'm not going to argue the semantics of "what is good?" because you also ask for praxis on how to accomplish it. You want tactile tips and information on how to write something well within the standard western convention of writing. Broadly speaking all these things are going to go through a standard writing process that generally uplifts the quality of writing, this being:
>draft
>edit
>rewrite
>technical edit
>content edit
You could go even further
>peer reviewed content edit
>peer reviewed technical edit
Going through this process will polish a work to an extent that it is "better" than it was before. It will make it presentable to an audience. Technical editing is easy to learn, there are plenty of books on the mechanics of it. This isn't only missing commas, but also rephrasing things in the way you want your reader to understand. Defining "it's" removing "that" or removing "of" and making it possessive unless you wanted a passively written article. etc. The rewrite and content edits are probably going to be the more difficult parts. You are going to confront what you made and it is difficult to murder your own baby. I'd suggest taking some time before revisiting it and put some distance between you. And again, these things are going to vary depending on the amount of work and effort you are going to put in, for example this post will only be seen by a few people and not replied to, I'm going to make sure its coherent, but I'm not going to do extreme revisions on it, that's just not beneficial enough to me.

On the specifics of the medium you are going to write, it'll depend on your tastes and what the standard operation of the genre is. You can't improve it until you know what the barrier to entry is going to be. What characteristics in writing you read do you like? How is their flow? What words do they use? Sometimes I like to pretend I'm a writer and use something along the lines of method acting to write like them. This is a fun and interesting exercise, but not always helpful. Another thing is to just put in critical practice. You can type for ages, but the key to improvement is two fold, knowing your errors and fixing them and learning more about the subject so you can spot errors you didn't see before.

I hope this helps and wasn't too meandering.

>>14984185
Disco Elysium is on the level of, like, the best episodes of an HBO show, or the best parts of a Stephen King book. It's not literature, but it's better written and more engaging than any other videogame or almost any TV show. I guess I'd rate it on the level of a very good movie, like a Paul Thomas Anderson flick other than TWBB and Magnolia.

>>14984368
>There is nothing. Only warm, primordial blackness. Your conscience ferments in it — no larger than a single grain of malt. You don't have to do anything anymore. Ever. Never ever.
>An inordinate amount of time passes. It is utterly void of struggle. No ex-wives are contained within it
>The song of death is sweet and endless... But what is this? Somewhere in the sore, bloated *man-meat* around you — a sensation!
>The limbed and headed machine of pain and undignified suffering is firing up again. It wants to walk the desert. Hurting. Longing. Dancing to disco music

Here's a quote from near the beginning to, inb4 some anon busts in here to bitch without actually talking about the writing itself.

>>14984263
Because he was always cerebral and his inner voice(s) was always too much intellectual to allow to mimic the failures that human psychology produces. Intellectual people idealize everyone, including stupidity (which they themselves have in minor forms), and never understand it really or how people can be dumb, so they tend to be much complacent to others, in a mix of inferiority vs superiority. You need to not like things to be able to like them sincerely later, and as you mature you notice the things you liked the most are the ones you like less. People, but tastes mostly.
A too cerebral person might be so sticky with the rational (but not sxactly most logic) perspective, root it the most and not allow the fluidity of mind failure and, honestly, laziness, that one needs to experience to then become full. Thats why writing dialogue, which should be the easiest and just replicating voices with their differences, turns out to be so hard, the hardest part. The funniest is, they sure hold great conversations themselvss, be it here on lit on some good threads or with a few also intellectual friends, but the dialogue part fails so much. Many times they also just cant really create an autonomous protagonist or characterr that doesnt be, even if they try the hardest (and they do try), the reflection if their ideas, many times and I believe this was blooms mistake, the reflection of literature itself.
And now this wasnt something that should have been written, especially here in this place where people are too smart intellectually but sometimes feel too "special", even in their failures. I hope you still take it well, and i know many people here can do great things.

>>14984401
>doesnt be
Sorry, isn't, lol.

>>14984401
Speaking of inauthentic dialogue, this post is kind of gibberish, man. I can almost understand it, but you haven't really strung your words together in a way that makes a lot of sense. I think you're referring to concepts as though they have discrete, specific properties too often without specifying what they are. Other people don't conceive of abstract ideas in the same terms as you, so you're going to need to explain yourself more thoroughly if you're going to be understood.

>>14984438
if only someone could explain to him a thorough process for clarity and improving his writing.

>>14984438
>>14984452
Obviously im not caring to find analogies and metaphors here on 4chan, but is good that youve understood

>>14984368
>>14984393
Disco Elysium is Pynchonian video game. For that alone I am willing to overlook most of its transgressions. Definitely the most cerebral video game I've ever played.

>>14984278
T. Mid wit who has never written anything of substance in his entire life.

>>14984185
This, it starts off with the old amnesia trope and there's too much exposition, every character is too willing to go on in length about the world, in a way it's kinda like reading a fantasy encyclopedia, which can feel like a waste of time. Still enjoyed it though, had some good bits.

>>14984951
Just trying to help.

pseud game ,fuck you

>>14983634
Good writing is getting the point across in a stimulating manner
>>14983662
I'd revise that to include the factors of having something to say and the ability to express anything genuine. People who just want to be writers and want to figure out how to be writers are on kind of a confused and backwards project in my opinion.

>>14983634
Communism. Just make it about communism and wait for the awards to roll in

>>14985053

Go back and replay it with a different skill set. It absolutely deserves a minimum of three full playthroughs.

>>14983664
>tropological potency
please explain