/lit/ - Literature

MFW I write a scene where only women and POC die

>>17574891
i'm writing a loona fanfiction this is part of the prologue

Once upon a time, there was White.
White had three daughters, Red, Blue and Yellow, and they lived freely around the Strip. There were no colours, except the three of them.
One day, Red had a headache. It was the first time she experienced any kind of feeling, and it was pain. Intense pain on her forhead. She spent times suffering from her illnes, and then, from her forhead, Pink was born.
Pink was a different colour, of the likes that any of them had never seen. A mixture of Red and White, something new and unpredictable.
And they were scared.
White was peaceful, and told her daughters to take good care of Pink, that she was one of them now. But the colours didn't think that way.
When White fell asleep, they locked Pink on the other side of the Strip, and left her there, hidden. They would go there from time to time to check on her, but Pink had requests. She wanted to be entertained, to escape from the boredom of her confinment, but there was nothing the Colours could do, for entertainment was a concept that was yet to be thought of.
Pink thought of it first, from her needs. There was a place and beings lived in there. Beings not quite like the Colours, different, and she befriended them. They did thing together, and the beings started having ideas of their own. They did creations of their own and lived lives of their own.
Little by litte, the other side of the Strip became something new, something that the Colours had never thought of. From Pink's boredom, the world as we know it was created.

tfw writing a novel about a 25 year old femcel whos dad dies and leaves her isolated in a large house where she begins to discover her sexuality by penetrating herself with random house objects

>>17574955
i just realized this looks like something out of steven universe FUCKKKKKKK

What I thought was a short story turned into 20,000 words novella and if I'm being honest, that's roughly halfway to the end. My biggest problem right now is keeping track of all the characters at once. I keep focusing on 2, maybe 3 characters, while the rest just disappear or don't exist.

I'm thinking of rewriting everything at this point if only so I can salvage the story idea. But fuck me, did it get out of control.

>>17574891
I wiggle mine own rampallian backeth and f'rth to entice that gent furth'r, which w'rks, because seconds aft'r yond, i feeleth the cock yond madeth me screameth liketh a wench in heateth slideth into mine own did wet cunt.

his big hands moveth up to mine own hips, and that gent but soft sides his longeth rod in and out of me, taking his timeth and letting me sav'r ev'ry inch going in and out. Humour t stretcheth me out liketh this is wond'rful, and the being bended ov'r liketh this somehow maketh t feeleth coequal bett'r.

looks liketh mine own fav'rite position is doggy style anon.

unlike the oth'r position, i can't seeth that gent at all unless i behold ov'r mine own shouldst'r, which somehow maketh t hott'r.

mine own bethought processeth is broken howev'r, at which hour that gent slams f'rward festinate and hard, making me falleth into the couch cushions.

"surprise ya?" that gent teases, smirking at me at which hour i glance ov'r at that gent.

"fuck thee!" i sayeth, giggling.

"not so s'rious anym're, i understand you not?" that gent sayeth, slapping mine own rampallian.

i freezeth up at which hour that gent spanks me, as i wasn't expecting t, but parteth of me wanteth m're.

"i knoweth not what thou art talking about. " i sayeth.

i feeleth that gent speedeth up, and anoth'r firm, hard smack goeth across mine own rampallian, earning a decently loud screameth of pleasure from me.

"i bethink thee doth. " that gent sayeth, slapping mine own rampallian again f'r emphasis.

i grabeth onto the cushions as that gent speeds up coequal m're, the sounds of that gent slamming into mine own rampallian filling the cubiculo, 'long with mine own slutty moans.

"fuck!" i moaneth out.

"you w're this s'rious and did stick up wench at which hour thee cameth ov'r," that gent sayeth, spanking me once again. "but anon behold at thee. Bended ov'r and being fuck'd by thy son's bully. And thee fucking loveth t. " that gent sayeth, pounding coequal festinate'r.

that gent grabs a fistful of mine own hair and pulls backeth, making me behold up at the mure. Mine own screams has't gotten loud'r, and the pleasure is fucking unbearable.

"fucking admiteth t. Thee loveth this a whole lot m're than acting liketh a valorous mother and chewing out thy son's bully. " that gent sayeth.

his cock keeps pounding hence ruthlessly, and t's slamming 'gainst the deepest parts of mine own cunt.

"say t!" that gent sayeth, spanking me.

"i fucking loveth this so much!" i screameth out. "i loveth how valorous thy cock doth feel! t doth feel so fucking wrong, but t just maketh t feeleth coequal bett'r!"

>>17575160
Fuck this is relatable. I'm working on a novella that at one point had a dozen or so characters.
I've been killing them off periodically and trying to tie it into the main story but I wasn't expecting how difficult it would be. Mostly because I only allowed myself to place perspective in the head of 2 of the 12 characters.

>>17575196
"so thee careth not yond i bully and harasseth thy son whenev'r i seeth that gent?" that gent asks, his voice gruff.

"i don't! i careth not! just keepeth fucking me-e-e-e!" i moaneth out, mine own eyes almost rolling to the backeth of mine own headeth from the pleasure

>>17574891
>animefag actually uses an acceptable OP image this time, even as he spurns the previous /wg/
Is this the end of an era? Is the discord finally over?

I'm writing a novel in my native language, and I'm halfway editing (25000 words). Everyone I sent the transcript said they really liked the writing.

I might finally create something boys.

Does your family read your writing? Do you ask them to read it or do they ask you? Why do they usually say? If not, why?

>>17575160
>>17575200
Genuine question: how and why does this happen?

>>17574936
Congwatulations.

>>17574891
>Any progress on your novels?
Just finished writing the next chapter and now I'm going through edits of it, yeehaw.

>>17575349
The only family member I really want to read my finished book is physically and mentally ailing, probably even towards the end of her lifespan. I really hope I can make it in time. I don't allow my partway-written works to be read because it gets in the way of my cue-reward cycle. I'm something of a brainlet organizationally so I have to rely on that type of operant conditioning in order to not... well, to "not not write."

>>17574891
Kinda petty not to link the previous non-weeb /wg/ thread.

I miss the rush of having a cool idea for a story, a character, a scene, a setting

my head's just full of empty and dust bunnies

>>17576668
Write about a guy driving at night while listening to a funny call-in radio program

>>17574891
>Any progress on your novels?

I finished editing and proofreading my novella a few months ago, and I submitted the manuscript to a small press in the U.K. that focuses on novellas, Fairlight Books.

While I was waiting for them to respond, I bought a couple of the novellas they already published. I was reading pic related when I got the rejection email for my own submission. It's not terrible, but it is amateurish, pretentious, lazy, and boring.

It got me wondering: Is my work worse than this mediocrity? Out of curiosity I googled it and found mostly effusive praise on sites like Goodreads. They even praised the characters, which were, in my opinion, barely placeholders for characters.

Worse yet, according to the acknowledgments page at the end, the same woman who sent me the rejection email was apparently integral in the publication of Atlantic Winds.

I moved on to the other novella I bought, The Nail House. It started out better than Atlantic Winds, but halfway through it devolved into a half-baked thriller; the little bit of authenticity and pathos in the characters and their relationships disappeared. The dialogue remained shitty throughout.

Sure enough, though, Goodreads and blogs were filled with praise for it. (Thankfully, though, there were at least a couple sensible reviewers who gave it the treatment it deserved.)

Anyone read these or other novellas by Fairlight? I'm wondering if it's just me, if I'm just salty because of my own rejection. Or perhaps my own taste in fiction is lousy.

Posting again, thoughts? What do you think about the story?

>>17576758
thats sounds indescribably dull.

>>17576802
And that's why you're never gonna make it

>progress on novel

Quite a bit. Episode one is only one more chapter away from being done, then on to Episode two.

There's a solid arc of events that happen in the current six chapters that have been released. The remaining chapter is focused on wrapping things up and moving into the next ep.

I've put a lot of work into getting this story written to a standard I'm happy with. One thing my story has which you won't often find in web novels is word economy.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/37998/wish-mountain/chapter/609878/the-trial-of-hress-dunter-chapter-one

Try it out and let me know what you think. I'd appreciate the feedback. At this point the story is what it is for better or worse.

>>17576758
>>>reddit.com/r/writingprompts
Go back
>>17576668
I'm the opposite of you buddy. I have 8 novels outlined but I can't bring myself to write because I'm an ESL and my native language is from a nation with less than 10 million who don't read lol

>>17577368
Why did you bring up reddit for no reason? Is this your idea of good conversation?

>>17576802
With a car, you can go anywhere you want.

>>17577411
Nope. I'm advising him to go back to where his ideas will be appreciated. There's no problem with that. I got kicked out of r/bookscirclejerk and got told to come back to 4chan and look at me I'm much happier back here

I've actually started writing and it's at times helping me convey what I want to happen to the story to being completely nonsensical. I've constantly stewed on the type of story I want to tell and at least I'm finally writing.
Sci fi adventure slice of life in a futuristic setting where you hear on the news about wars and foolish politics going across different parts of a vast galaxy federation. My MC is just trying to learn more of the daily lives of its citizens and meeting new people.

>>17577427
I see. But I've never been to reddit. Maybe you should lurk more and realize that telling people to go to reddit is not necessarily helping you fit in here?

>>17577427
>Admitting that he uses Reddit
ngmi

Anyone else writing visual novel?

>>17577643
I have one as a side project. Why?

>>17577644
Was just curious. What is yours like?

a friend sent a story he wrote and it was the worst thing i read. then i wrote something really bad too. now all my enthusiasm about writing is gone. i just sit and edit my old stuff.

>>17574891

I am about 22k words into a novel I began writing a four-ish months ago. I am not too fussed about things going nowhere, the novel is just a personal experiment in itself. One chapter is only good in the bare-bones of it really, and I will rewrite it. How many of you would rewrite parts you're not happy with immediately, and how many of you would wait?

>>17576763
Oh, my. Sounds like you stumbled into a sad, cynical truth about the publishing industry, even on the small scale.

>>17576763
Publishers take what will be profitable for them. Even if profit comes from nepotism or a deal with another company.

>>17577523
>admitting he doesn't take every opportunity to shill himself
>refusing to bathe the normies in the superiority of your own writing because you don't want to step down from Mount Olympus
ngmi

>>17576763
How do you know if your work has authenticity and pathos?

Has anyone here had anything published?

>>17577777
Checked

>>17577647
It's about my momcest fetish hidden under 9000 layers of fantasy, technobabble, B-tier action sequences, and essays on nationalism. Only one route and over-ambitious shoestring budget execution. And probably no music.

>Word of the Day
Hypergamy - the action of marrying or forming a sexual relationship with a person of a superior sociological or educational background.

Go use it in your writing.

>>17577814
Sounds like a pretty typical VN then

>>17577785
I had a story in the Coronameron

>>17577845
Yeah, I've done my homework.

I have an idea for a murder mystery where someone's been killing off retired artists.

The detective considers the options: crazy fan who wanted them to keep creating, someone who hates the elderly, someone who hates an artistic movement they were a part of, Disney-style corporation who wants to buy off the rights of their less recalcitrant heirs.

The twist is that the murderer is some guy who really likes the public domain and believes that hurrying the expiry of the artists' copyrights by a few decades will provide such a great aggregate benefit to culture that it justifies the cost of cutting a few lives a little bit short (he is a utilitarian).

I have trouble coming up with red herrings for this story. It seems like all the other suspects' motives would also have to be really wacky, and that would reduce the impact of the reveal. Any ideas?

Pic related: Tom Lehrer (92 years old) recently released all of his works into the public domain, presumably because he has no children and wouldn't want his songs from the 50s to be copyrighted until the 22nd century.

>>17577985
Suspects don't have to have obvious potential motives

>>17577785
i had a very short story published two years ago. now it's nothing but rejections

>>17577985
How does the detective figure out such a vague motivation? And as a "reveal", it's incredibly lame.

>>17578011
Do you think that makes sense for someone suspected of murdering several people who all had something specific in common?

>>17578096
>How does the detective figure out such a vague motivation?
I don't know. Maybe he is familiar with the murderer and his views before considering him a suspect?
>And as a "reveal", it's incredibly lame.
I think it's interesting because it has an element of truth to it. Because of the way current copyright laws work, artists who stop creating art create negative value to the world for every year they stay alive (if we don't count their value performing other jobs, their value to their friends and family, and their intrinsic value as a human being). This wouldn't be so if copyright term length was independent of the author's lifespan.
So if someone put a really high value on culture and the public domain, and an unusually low value on the lives of the elderly (perhaps by counting years lost, not lives lost), they really could plausibly want those artists dead. It's a bizarre worldview, but the external circumstances aren't contrived.

>>17578344
>I'm writing a murder mystery
>How is it solved?
>I don't know, by coincidence?
lol

>>17578344
It's lame because it's just your dissertation on why copyright law sucks masquerading as a story

>>17576763

after having sent out about 30 queries and getting mostly rejections for my own novel recently, I can empathize. I would look at the the books the agents had recently repped and read the first few pages, and while there were a couple of good ones, I really felt that the great majority were just not very good. I don't think my book is very good, but objectively it felt better written than most of what I saw.

That said, this is a bad road to go down. Agents 1) generally, don't know what good writing is, and 2) to the extent they do, they are way, way, way more focused on what sells than what reads good. There are tons and tons of poorly-written books that sell by the truckload every year - agents are not stupid, they know this, it's what pays their bills. Additionally, the traditional publishing industry is a complete shambles anyway, so taking the opinions of agents and publishers too seriously is unwise, to say the least.

You can use this information in two ways: 1) Write to market. For example, here are lots of agents who really want "diversity" stories and women's stories, they will basically bend over backwards for them, this is almost all they know how to sell nowadays and you can probably get published this way. I'm sure there are other genres like this; romance, YA, etc. 2) Write what you want, and accept the fact that it may never get published. The only thing you can NOT do is mope and complain about the state of the world; it's unproductive and will make you much more unhappy than if you just started a new project.

Good luck with your story anon

>>17579249
What makes books sell? Is it just generic synopses?

>>17579249
Or, you could just admit you're not a good judge of your own book, and the works that were published had superior qualities.

>>17579391

Working backwards: most published books don't sell (well, at least). Publishers market all of their books; publishers sign books they think will sell; agents sign authors they think will sell. What the market is currently buying is what agents will sign. You can tell what agents will sign mostly based on their agency's recently repped books; you can also tell what agents want by following them on Twitter. That said, the traditional publishing market is shrinking, which is important to keep in mind when thinking about what "the market" wants. There was no market for Twilight-like books before Twilight was published; then that market exploded; now agents aren't as keen on vampire romances.

>>17579429

True, I think everyone is probably the worst judge of their own work.

>>17579588
>True, I think everyone is probably the worst judge of their own work.

Not me.
I love my shit.

>>17579614
>I love my shit.
That's the problem

>>17579660
What if I hate my shit?

>>17579614
I think an important distinction people often fail to grasp is that a "book I don't like" is not the same thing as a "badly written book". Just like a "book I love" doesn't equal a "well written book".

If you ask people why they liked book X, 99 out of 100 will answer, "I don't know." It's just about the feels.

The main problem I encounter these days is an inability to write at length. I really don't need many words to express my ideas. I guess that isn't entirely bad, but I do wonder if I'll ever be able to write a full-length novel. I think maybe I'm so pedantic I omit anything I don't consider perfect and get left with very little. I also feel as though perhaps my ideas are all very rudimentary and I need to grow more as a person before I can write anything of substance. I don't know, anyone have any thoughts?

>>17580138
>I really don't need many words to express my ideas
A novel does not consist ideas. Of course you can distill the narrative themes down to nothing, but that's not a novel. A novel consists of characters and conflict. Themes are, to be frank, a bonus.

>>17577777
>How do you know if your work has authenticity and pathos?
Those are the only things it has in spades; those are its chief selling points, I think. But I also think the plotting and structure is solid, and the dialogue is at least pretty decent. I put a lot of work into the plotting and structure in particular. The only thing it's notably deficient in is prose style. I'm simply not a great writer. But I am a competent one, so it doesn't read like a twelve-year-old wrote it.

I just realized I may have misread your question. If you were asking for a general rule, I guess I have to fall back on the old "I know it when I see it."

>>17579249
Thanks anon, I appreciate the kind words. And I understand and agree with your point. Like you, I have accumulated rejections from agents, and it's what I expected. But Fairlight Books is different. Their focus is on quality literary fiction, or so they say. Their mission statement is to save literary fiction from a death caused by the wild success of the genre-dominated world of self-publishing and the concomitant increase in risk aversion by the traditional publishing industry. So if they rejected my manuscript after publishing these (at best) mediocre works, it means either that they don't know their stuff or that I don't.

The other thing about Fairlight that may be worth mentioning is they seem focused on undiscovered or emerging talent--giving the little guy a shot. Maybe my work seemed too polished to them. Then again, I don't kid myself about my skill as a wordsmith, so I doubt it's that.

Anyway, I'll take your advice to heart and not dwell on it.

>>17579391
>What makes books sell?

See below.

>>17579588
>agents sign authors they think will sell.

This anon hit the nail right on the head. The thing to remember is that agents don't want books, they want authors. They don't want to put all their eggs in one basket, and they aim for a steady stream of income. I'm not an expert in these matters, but from what I've read in the context of both screenwriting and traditional publishing, the most important thing to prove to an agent is not the quality of the single work you're currently trying to sell, but rather your ability to produce more of the same and your commitment to doing so. Agents aren't looking for an individual work of genius; they want work-horses.

"I don't quite get it, Sojsha" said Ernest, pausing to puff some smoke while staring at the sunset.
"Clearly the previous owner must have been this Mr. Chuck - but why advertise that on the storefront? Truly, what did Sneed mean by this?"
Sojak Redditovic was rapidly losing his patience.

>>17576763
Any amount of nepotism could have gone into why a shit book was published. However, there is a rule in just about everything that people interpret someone doing a relatively simple thing well a lot better than someone attempting something ambitious to mediocre or medium quality results. Maybe you tried to write a novella with a story too complex and ambitious for your current level of skill, while Atlantic winds was a much simpler and easier novella to write but well within the skill set of the author who attempted it, so it comes across as more publishable. You said it’s not terrible, just lazy and boring. That means the author essentially didn’t attempt a novel out of his skill range and went with a simple novel that was easy to plan and flesh out. You probably just did a mediocre job at a much more difficult task while he did a great job at a relatively simpler one.

finally got around to finishing something. this is a 10,000 word reflection on my travels in France.

>larthurhunt.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/france_-no-slogans-.pdf

What do you make of it? I'm thinking of turning it into an email newsletter that's just ad-free reflections/observations from my travels.

>>17580901
Post an excerpt before I download any malware

>>17580992
Can web-hosted PDFs actually transmit executable malware? Is that really a thing?

Anyway, here's the beginning.

>>17581030
I'm sorry to say it looks like a grade school report bruh. Frankly, I expected a tiny bit of creativity and reflection from your "reflections".

>>17581138

Alright well thanks, glad you gave it a shot.

>>17580901
excluding this, have you written anything else since the spanish bus one?

>>17581200

Yeah, a novel I'm working on. Why?

>>17581200

Some flash fic too, actually. Maybe more that I'm forgetting

>>17581246
nothin. i liked that one and the one on the church roof and i'd like to read more of your short stuff if you feel like sharing

Chapter 12 dropped. Shilling it here. Not really sure where to shill on reddit, desu. Need a make an account there to do that too. Not real excited to do so.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40361/erased

>Any progress on your novels?

Got Act I done with for the third book. Rewriting book 1 has been a bitch. Rewrite of book 2 will be super comfy, though.

Writing another series about a brownie named Pumpkin charged with guarding a graveyard and making sure the souls of the deceased are comfortable as they wait to go to Saint Peter's. The local town is full of gambling and a demon based on gambling seeks to control the graveyard. Pumpkin is all about luck and thus the Demon's bane, but he can't really leave the graveyard without the Demon's lackey's getting in. Shenanigans ensue when a human unlocks the ability to see spirits and demons.

Haven't been able to write much anything in two days. I get this burning feeling in my head when I read and feel sort of flu-ish. It goes away when I stop trying to write and do something else.
Maybe I've been at it for too long lately. Shit sucks.

>>17581826
>two days
I'm 800 words into the next chapter after almost three months.

>>17581871
Stop thinking so much

>>17581871
I normally write around 5-6k words per day from Mon to Fri. Have to take weekends off to not burn out.

>>17582020
You'd write everything I posted online in the last couple of years in a month.

>>17582020
That's fucking insane. I do pretty much that in a whole week.

>>17582020
that's about as much I do in 2 1/2 months time...

>>17582048
>>17582089
>>17582224
I'm pretty embarrassed about it, really, since it gives the impression I don't care at all about quality. But if you want to get noticed in the field, then there's pretty much no choice but to deliver.

>>17582020
What is your writing routine?

>>17581398
r/ProgressionFantasy, that's where non-litrpg web novels are shilled. Put a few numbers here and there are you can shill in r/litrpg.

And if you are completely shameless then you can go to discords of popular web-novels and ask them to give it a try. I have also heard that Royal Road forums are a good place to build an audience.

>>17582020
See, I can write whenever, but when I just crank it out it doesn’t feel *inspired*, you know? And I’ve written enough to know that when it’s not inspired I’m just going to end up going back and replacing it with something else, so essentially I’m just spinning in circles to abate my own anxieties about the passage of time.

>>17582253
I just treat it like practically any day job. I start at around 10-11am. I have a laptop that's not connected to the internet, so I sit down with it and start punching. Can't have any distractions, I don't even listen to any music, but I live alone so it's easily arranged.

5k is the word goal and I usually reach it by 4pm, with a lunch break in the middle. Sometimes it takes until 6-7, but it's better to not take any longer, or the next day will be a bitch. Not very glamorous, but I enjoy it.

>>17582425
I'm glad to see it's working for someone. I'm going to wake up tomorrow and drill down on it.
What do you write?

>>17577703
I edit only after I have finished writing. The more you forget, the better.

>>17582020
Wow. I usually get burned out by 1500 words. Once or twice I have done 2500 words in one sitting but that’s an aberration

>>17582419
All creative people use techniques to inspire themselves. It's not always possible to just sit and wait for the right "mood". It may never come. Unfortunately, no one else can tell you what inspires you, you just have to try and find things you think are interesting.

When I'm in a slump, I read a good book, or watch a movie, or draw. It usually works. You shouldn't neglect your body either. Go run/walk/lift, eat healthy, etc. Your diet has a pretty huge impact on your productivity.

>>17582487
I try different things, fantasy, mystery, scifi, historical. Web series, blogs, novels, short stories, just trying to find what readers like.
Good luck with your writing, anon.

>>17577755
>not wanting to be on mt. Olympus
>able to travel between the realms and does so frequently
Look at this loser. He’s probably some queer with with wings on their shoes

>>17582619
Yeah I know. It’s just that it ends up being something I have to go back and edit out if I try to force it. I’m writing eight different stories simultaneously so I tend to just leap between them when I don’t know what to do with the others. I know I know “don’t do that!” but I figure the novels and characters that stick in my head after I’ve abandoned them for a month are the best ones.

>>17574891
>Any progress on your novels?
Three part series. Worldbuilding 3+ years, finally getting around to writing the story.
I worked through the weekend on it.
>Book one
is now fully outlined chapter-by-chapter, and I LOVE the story. It's jewel-like, symmetrical (characters are twins who go opposite paths) and wrapped up with a bow.
>Book two
is about 60% outlined. I don't want it to be a slog, I need to find a way to keep it feeling fresh and alive as the characters go through increasingly difficult trials.
>Book three
has a general trajectory, beginning middle end, but a lot of the details are sketchy.
>Trying to find
ways to keep it interesting, throw curve balls at the reader, complicate genre conventions, and stage good ole' entertaining plot twists.

I'll definitely be shilling this on /lit/ once it's done....

>>17582676
>It’s just that it ends up being something I have to go back and edit out if I try to force it.
Nothing wrong with that. It's always better to have something to edit than a blank page. I never expect any sentence I put down to be "final". Rather, knowing it's not is a relief.

>I know I know “don’t do that!”
Why not? You definitely should.

I always have multiple works underway, for the reason you said, and also just to keep things going. When I wrap up project A, then project B is a couple of months from finished too, then C, and so on. There's steady output. If I only wrote A from start to completion before starting B, there'd be a gap of years between the books, C yet only a distant dream, and readers would forget I ever existed. And I'd be dead.

>>17582695
>once it's done....
so never?

>>17582796
ouch, anon

>>17582803
>3 years of worldbuilding and all to show for it is outlines
I mean, this can only really go one way

>>17582825
b-but i was finishing my master's degree and didn't have time to fully commit to the novels

a-and tolkien worldbuilt for decades b-before he wrote LotR...

>>17582842
anon I've been writing straight through the pandemic at a rather high-risk job and almost died from covid in December from an unrelated exposure, you have no excuse!

>>17582619
I wish you the best of luck too.

"Worldbuilding" is a fucking cancer and antithetical to being an actual writer. You should plan, yes, and maybe make a map so you don't accidentally send your character west instead of east. But spending hundreds of hours in a worldbuilding document is a sign that you don't actually like to write and just want to make a video game map instead. Sit down and put some goddam words in your manuscript.

>>17582842
>but this author a hundred years ago did it too!!!
You should never, ever use this logic, especially with Tolkien.

>>17582958
He was being ironic.

>>17582323
okay, thank you. I'll try those two and the RR forums. not going to slum it up in discords. not until I'm about ready to put it out on amazon to try and make a quick buck.

>>17582695
>world building PLUS outlining
unfortunately that means you're basically nowhere. sorry anon

>>17582969
no, i wasn't.

>>17583000
>>17582958
guess i'll die

Hey guys been planning out a novel for a bit and started writing today would appreciate any thoughts on my introduction

To the reader who finds this letter, I hope you’re having a better day than mine. Has it been only a day? Was it just this morning that I stumbled into this place? Without a clock, without the sun, who could tell you the time? Sometimes a minute feels like an eternity. Sometimes the days fly by and you hardly remember them. Time’s hard enough to untangle normally. And in here? I think it moves differently. Everything does, here inside. You can never find the room you were just in, never figure out where you’re going. Sorry, but you’re probably still less confused than I am at this point. Let me back up a bit.

My name is Claire. Long as I can remember, I’ve lived in a lonely little town that maybe the rest of the world just forgot. A place I won’t name, as it may not be somewhere anybody should find. Not that it would be easy. Nothing but forest, miles on miles – I think we all decided it wasn’t worth the trouble of leaving. And we weren’t unhappy, there were good times, laughter. But in the end the days kind of ran together, like the wrong colors of paint. Looking back, maybe we always knew something was wrong. Couldn’t have told you in words, but we might have said it in a look. In the silence, when conversation ran out. Our home had no definition. You finished that last day of school, what next? We walked off that stage like actors, finished with the act. No more semesters, finals – life was harder to measure. How much time passed, between then and now? I’d grown, sure, you could see it in a picture. But I was like a plant in the dark, not knowing the direction. In a picture, though, there was a way to measure it, I thought. To catch some of that time, like butterflies in a jar, before it all fluttered away. I walked out the store queen of the world, new camera box, feeling like I had the answer. Pandora’s box, more like it. All the questions I was about to unleash.

>>17583398

It's fine but you have to present a conflict or desire within these two paragraphs. It's too descriptive. Run on monologues are rarely fun to read, unless you're Dost and none of us are. Give us a motivation to continue beyond merely establishing the facade of the character.

Sure, she's imprisoned. Does she want to escape? Has she resigned to her fate? I'd drop something very stark and unabstruse in, like, the second sentence.

1/
I stood waiting, waiting. There was no place to sit. I mean that, besides the floor, there was no place to sit. There was no seat to speak of, no stool no bench. Someone asked me what I was doing here. I said that I was waiting for a return. I went to see if it was returning. The window was a few inches in height at the very bottom of the wall. To see what I wanted to see, that is, to gain access to the view which would yield to me details regarding the returning of the one I am waiting for, I needed to lower my head so that my eyes would be parallel with the glass pane of the window. For if I were to look at the window from my position, that is the position from above and to the left of the window(that is where I was standing) I wouldn’t see what I would like to see. In fact I would see little but black. In other words, directly beside the window,at its level, was darkness, but beyond it was darkness. I mean that beyond it is darkness but this darkness is further revelatory than the darkness directly beside it. I was hoping it would be more revelatory;indeed, I had never been promised that it would reveal more than the darkness which I could see from the position I disclosed moments ago, that is,mostly nothing. Someone asked me what I was waiting for. I told them.I was waiting for a return. Someone asked me if they could assist me. I told them they could help with the return. They could not help with the return. Once this was finished! I decided it was time to take a look. My legs hurt. I mean that my legs used to hurt, my legs used to cause pain. One day I would briefly tell you the story of when I went to visit my mother in the city, the time I had wanted to go to visit my mother which forced me through woods and through terribly non arable land, and how on the last leg of the trip my legs stopped working well enough to be used as such so that I had to lie down on the dirt next to large trunks and I was forced to use not a cane but a crutch(just one which flung on my left side) to go visit my mother in the city. It is not for nothing to say “My legs hurt. I mean that my legs used to hurt, my legs used to cause pain. ” It is difficult to bend down to take a look with stiff legs. But my legs hurt,but didn’t hurt, so that if one were to ask me at that time to bend I could. But I was aware that bending could be a reasonable source of pain to my legs, for injuries once gone can at once return.

>>17583659
2/2
Pains and things can leave and can possibly return.It has occurred that divorcing oneself from something is done imperfectly so that links and relations remain and that links and relations build up again by way of building on the links and relations remaining and suddenly return is upon you. But I knew that not bending to take a look might cause me other pains,these pains likely being of the soul rather than that of the body, but I vaguely remember. But I vaguely remember that pains of the soul may sow pains of the body(and possibly vice versa so to speak). So it was to choose between possible pains of the body and possible pains of the soul on the one hand,and possible pains of the soul and possible pains of the body on the other. All these tricks of the mind made me weary and slumbered so that my initial plan to take a look remained the priority.

>>17582323
>r/ProgressionFantasy, that's where non-litrpg web novels are shilled.
Is there one you might recommend for stuff not Fantasy, like sci-fi?

>>17583603
Thanks for the input. How about something like this:
I write this letter in the hopes that it is never found, that I can walk free from this mad place, tear the paper to shreds, and forget this nightmare. I also write this letter knowing that it may soon be the only proof left that I ever walked, talked, and breathed air among the other happy people on this planet. And to the reader who may find this letter, I hope you’re having a better day than mine.

>>17574891
>Any progress on your novels?
No, I've mostly been reading - though it's been helping. I've figured out a lot of what I like vs what I don't like in they type of story I'm writing.

>>17582880
that doesn't say anything about how much time your job takes desu

>>17582958
Worldbuilding is fine as long as you know you're just doing it for fun and don't have delusions you're doing meaningful work on a novel or other storytelling project

I think this short story of mine needs some work, but I'm not sure. If anyone has any comments or suggestions I'd appreciate it.

writings going good- I've got a trilogy of novella length stories that I took a break from to write a rash of smaller ideas. the one I'm writing right now is about a boxer who nearly kills a man in the ring and a virtual reality psychoanalyst. The analyst takes the boxer back to a time he didn't expect and he's forced to re-examine a memory he forgot.

Have you guys ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of ideas you have? I have about fifteen individual stories, each easily a trilogy. I'm still writing for one of them everyday, but every so often I'll catch another idea for something new. Then every time I try to write something from that pile, I become anxious due to the other ideas I have. As if those other ideas are more important, but that happened regardless of which idea I try to hop on to. Should I just bite the bullet and write every waking moment? It seems like something mystical to me, yet so fun and exciting.

>>17584182
Yep. I have most of the ideas written in a Scrivener project under the name of "Ideas", and have begun working on three of them, abandoning all three once they have broken the novella barrier (8.500 words where I live). Not that I don't write novellas (although I never wrote one), but I just rush to write them and therefore I lose myself, think "I should outline this before" and then another idea consumes me and the same happens. Currently focusing on writing short stories.
>>17584128
Seems pretty fucking good. Would love to read it and I believe that just the idea sells. Very good blurb.
>>17584095
I do like the fact you didn't used deadbeatten descriptions,
>the sadows previously confined to the corners of the room began to consume it
is pretty original, and although it's a small detail, it made me interested in the rest of the story. The image you evoked is quite nice, also. Would love to read the rest. The sentence before the last:
>Dietary restrictions imposed on the Jarl by the Syrranid doctor...
Also made me very interested in reading the rest of it.

Now, frens, I have a small problem. My Libreoffice autoreplace has been working with tab only, and not with space, i.e

Before, I used to type --, press space, and it would be replaced with a —. Now, I have to press tab to reach the same effect. Anyfren know how to fix that? Should I just use "s to dialogue instead?

You’d think having no power or water would have given me a chance to write, but I’ve spent the past 2 days taking care of the family and the house and I’m exhausted. I’m sorry /wg/. I keep procrastinating. Not just this crisis but I always have a reason not to write.

1943 written today

I keep thinking my shit isn't any good, but then I remind myself that how am I supposed to know if it's good or not if I never finish it? I can always change shit i don't like afterwards.

>>17577427
I made a reddit account and got banned from /r/writing for racism denial because a black guy made a post saying he was worried about racism in the writing industry and I told him not to worry about it and that he could still become a successful author

that's the last time I'm leaving this place

lmao, lads, i'm actually starting to make a decent living blasting out really shitty romance novels. if only i knew it was so easy earlier

>>17584555
im sure thats all there is to the story

>>17584739
whats the approximate length of your novels. like 50k, less? vanilla or fetish?

>>17574891
>any progress on your novels
No, even my failed attempts are getting shorter and less detailed as my excitement slowly dies :^)

>>17574936
Might try that right now.

>>17584891
50k-60k, vanilla

>>17584739
Please elaborate. I want to do the same thing. Are you writing those harlequin romance novels with bare chested muscley men or are you writing more smut for a male audience? I'm just starting to do the latter, up to about 10k on my first. But I have high hopes since I've been 'practicing' by roleplaying on f-list and yiffchat most of my life.

>>17582020
Good stuff. My ideal would be around 2100 words/day, 6 days a week, but realistically I'm too distressed to hit that point with any consistency.

>>17585066
not that guy, but men don't really read romance novels. I mean, its probably more like a 10% male, 90% women thing, so you're always going to be better off writing for the much larger demographic. but it sounds like you're doing fetish content, and there is always a dedicated crowd willing to spend money on that crap, no matter how small the audience

i am approaching novelette length, feels good at the moment but you know i'm gunning for that novella length next. ho baby you know it.

>>17583659
>>17583663
Pretty interesting writing anon, reminds me of a chapter from Infinite Jest. One suggestion I have is to simplify some of the sentences in that first section just a tad;
>To see what I wanted to see, that is, to gain access to the view which would yield to me details regarding the returning of the one I am waiting for
I know it’s probably a stylistic choice, but this sentence in particular just felt like a little much.

I also had some trouble following train of thought with the “pain in the leg” section but that might be the point. Either way, I enjoyed it. Keep at it bro.

>>17585102
Very good point, though I did think the male audience was growing with the advent of litrpg, light novels, and rainbow road. I'm gonna write what I want either way, but I wouldn't mind tweaking it for more mass appeal. Money is always nice.

>>17584182
I'm in a similar camp with reading. It's finally occurring to me just how shallow my literary knowledge is when measured against my goal of writing truly great art that moves people (thankfully, I at least don't have to worry about money). Every time I start plotting out the beats and messages of a story, I'm confronted with thoughts of "have I ever even read a book with this idea before?" and it becomes intimidating. My wishlist of books is starting to become unmanageable, especially because I want to read interesting non-fiction to cover up gaps in my knowledge while also searching for literary inspiration. Maybe I love reading more than writing, and the visceral urge to write comes from a place of necessity rather than enjoyment. I don't think so, but maybe.

>>17585066
like that other anon said it's almost exclusively women buying this shit, and they read a lot of it which is why it's profitable in the first place. you can make okay money writing erotica and it has a lower barrier to entry but full romance novels have better potential for higher earnings. personally i write historical romance novels for adult women

Is this sentence too long?

>>17585343
Ah well, kinda what I figured. Good to know so I can set my expectations. While I have you, any recommendations for books I can check out to figure out the genre expectations? I'm not against keeping my options open.

>>17585359
Anonymous...

>>17584336
>made me very interested in reading the rest of it.
Thank you very much for reading fren, glad you enjoyed it. I’m afraid I can’t help you out with the program you’re using, though. Hope someone else is able to.

Has anyone found themselves reading a lot less since they've begun their major writing projects?

I feel a lot less motivation to read since I started my big project last year. I took six months, even more, to slog through the Divine Comedy. I'm SUPPOSED to be reading A Brief History of Seven Killings right now, but I haven't touched it in months. Part of this is obviously how much time I waste online, especially on 4chan.

But I think my being so immersed in my own writing is playing a part, too. I find myself thinking about my project constantly: snippets of dialogue, facets and details of characters, new plot elements, new ways to apply the broader themes, etc.. I feel consumed by it, and I feel like it's taken over the part of my brain that's "literature" related. It's like I'm so focused on my own story that I don't have any more room in my head for anyone else's stories.

>>17585951
Yes. I've read practically nothing since starting a story about a month ago.

Greetings, my dear urban landlords and extractors of capital,
I am appealing this fine because I believe to have been cheated for multiple reasons, which I shall list hereafter:
The First Reason by which I believe to have been cheated is that I was attending the Department of Transport office for a driving test in order to acquire my learner's permit, the waiting location of which was no more than 15 meters from the location in which I parked my vehicle, and was within direct line of sight (I did not notice the officer apply the Breach Notice, because I was conversing with my assessor). This fact is directly connected with the Second Reason, but it should also be stated that I assumed, and under good reason to do so, for all other Department of Transport offices possess free parking facilities, that this office would ALSO possess free parking. Now for the Second Reason which is directly connected:
The Second Reason, and by far the most important, is that upon entering the carpark, I did not receive ANY impression WHATSOEVER that this carpark was not subject to the same rules as all of the other carparks directly attached to Department of Transport offices and facilities. I did not see a single “pay to park” signage anywhere in the vicinity of my vehicle, and I only noticed upon leaving the carpark -- after receiving the non-compliance notice -- that there was indeed an obscured sign in the other end of the carpark, totally out of visual range for me as I entered the carpark, surrounded by large banyan trees with thick canopies. I would love to provide a photo, but by the time I considered appealing this non-compliance notice I was far away from the location, as I had to travel all the way from South Fremantle to Perth, just for a 10 minute parking-stop to receive a driving test.
The Third Reason is this: That I had only occupied the spot for a duration of some 10-15 minutes before I returned and left the spot, in which time I seemed to have been issues the notice without even perceiving the existence of the parking officer, nor the financial nature of this parking lot.

Can someone rate my parking fine appeal? I'm really fucking pissed off and just want to smear shit in their faces. If I don't get this fine appealed I'm letting them take me to court because I can't even afford the small fine (poorfag). I'm going to make such a big fuss about this because I have literally nothing better to do with my pointless deadend life. Maybe I'll blow my brains out in court.

Been thinking about writing a "burgerpunk" themed story where a well meaning low wage worker at a fast food chain who believes in the "work hard and you shall succeed" American Dream ethos slowly lose his faith in it after an economic downturn brings undue hardship on him and his family.

I was thinking of titling it "Arbeit Macht Fries" Brilliant or a bit too on the nose?

How the hell do you manage to muster up the endurance to fully draft out a novel-length story? Without crumbling to self-doubt? inb4 just don't have self-doubt

>>17586219
just take it one sentence at a time

>>17586219
Write more, you'll get over it eventually.

>>17586219
>self-doubt
lol fag. either you have a novel length story idea or you don't. if you're are worried about your prose I guarantee you can find a published novel with worse prose
>b-but I'm not as good as joyce or whoever the fuck
get over it

Is 'just write' the 'just b urself bro' of writing?

>>17586370
yes, because it actually works

>>17586370
It's true. If you're insecure in your writing or can't bear to look at it, you just need to torture yourself long enough by looking at it, and the feeling will go away eventually. If you can't manage to write a long story, you need to gradually work your way up to it through various abandoned projects. You'll get there eventually. No veteran writer has these thoughts, only people just getting started.

>>17586219
>muster up the endurance
I'm 230k words into writing one novel for the past 8 months, and every few days my endurance gets tested getting a chapter out on time. Having somewhat strict deadlines help especially if you're serial writing, but it's also an endless cycle of stress as you try to keep up the momentum for what feels like an eternity. It's rough but I know I couldn't bring myself to abandoning a project after getting this far.

>>17586370
yes and no, with all these aggravating questions about how do I write and low-effort crap of that nature it really is just write nigga, it's not hard. Just google it if you're still not sure. That's what it's for. Half the time I'm sure they're just bait.

>writing another gay chapter

>>17574891
Yeah it’s going. I think halfway done with my newest novel. At least 25k words in. I am glad that there are so many short story competitions out right now. It gives me a break from writing novels and focusing on shorter fiction. When you have a daily writing habit it’s nice to step back. But I’ve also started another novel. Gotta have a few going at a time with the rate I get rejected.

>>17582020
post a cap of your writing.

>tfw almost 2000 words written tonight

AND I finished up a major section of this current book. It was a good night.

>>17585964
Poor legal reasoning.
No flow.
It’s not really an appeal.
You admit guilt repeatedly.
Ignorance of the law is no defense.
Your best bet is to go in person to the magistrate and ask them to lower the fee, and give them these reasons in person. When I was in a similar situation, doing this cut my 150$ ticket to 60$ because the judge was nice.

>>17586852
prove it, post an excerpt.

>>17574891
Making some good progress actually I’m stoked

>>17586856
>You admit guilt repeatedly.
I told the truth (ignorance is actually permissible in situations like this, because it's their duty to make parkers aware that the location requires payment - especially as in this case there is reason to assume parking is costly [it's a DoT premise - all others are free]. It also is not law, it's only an implicit contract which was not implicitly acknowledged by myself due to the lack of adequate signage [t. completed contract law at uni, this would not hold in court]), and I won't even be able to afford a $60 ticket because I have bills to pay soon. Thus, guilt is not admitted, which you would understand if you had any reading comprehension whatsoever.

Finally, I will ultimately have to go to jail if they don't retract this notice and bring it to court. I will simply not be able to pay it, and nor will I pay for unjust extortion when I know it is wrong and I am right. As I said, I will probably shoot myself in the courtroom, or outside of it if they frisk me, if it comes to it just to make a point.

Tldr learn to read better.

Just finished another school project and can get to work on my novel again. Today I will write about that time I stole something from the storehouse to give to a guy I had stolen something from months earlier.

>>17586856
>Ignorance of the law is no defense.
That's not how contracts work. Contracts are not law.

I've adapted a few Harlan Ellison and Philip Dick stories into screenplays. I enjoy the process of editing and adapting because I feel like I don't have my own stories to tell. Any advice on how to write something original?

>>17586889
>>17586901
I wish I never became a lawyer. Ignorance like this makes me want to go to the rope store.

I do hope a clerk takes pity on you, but with the attitude and confidence you have, I highly doubt that’ll happen.

>>17586944
I refuse to believe you are a lawyer if you are this clueless about basic contract law.

>>17586954
A parking ticket isn’t contract law you dolt. It’s not governed by commercial codes or services case law. It’s a municipal arm of the government prosecuting you for violation of whatever state traffic code or municipal rule they think you violated.

>>17586954
You're a lot stupider than the person you're talking to and it is readily apparent. You should probably hit up >>>/adv/. Your appeal has a few typos, by the way.

>>17586976
>A parking ticket isn’t contract law you dolt
Yes it is. I entered into a contract with the owner of the parking lot, which is a private company (allegedly, although as I said, there was zero visible signage upon entering and I had every reason to believe it was a public lot due to being connected to a public building). They have to bring the case to court themselves, which is processed under civil contracts. Which country are you in? Maybe America is that archaic.
>>17587002
I fixed the typos up because I wrote that up while angry and posted here first
>You're a lot stupider than the person you're talking to
no u

>>17587012
So you were ticketed by a private entity for not having paid the fee for parking on private property that happened to be next to a governmental service, which had their own parking lot? And the company in which you parked upon their lot has since sent you some sort of petition or complaint or demand letter requesting payment, less they take you to some form of court, and litigate the fact that you parked in their privately owned lot?

>>17587054
Yes, I'm fairly certain this much was evident from my original post.
>which had their own parking lot?
The government parking lot, which had "reserved for staff" slots, was integrated into the commercial one with no barriers or reasons to think they were legally separate lots. Every other DoT office has free parking spots at the front next to the staff spots, but this one happened to be privately owned (which I am certain of, because I have the ticket with me which states just that, and even explicitly states that they "may choose" to bring the notice to court if left unpaid for more than a month). The whole actual dispute of guilt here rests on the fact that, due to the lack of signage, I was totally unaware of even entering into some sort of contract in relation to their privately owned property, which I did not even know was privately owned.

>>17587076
If it’s a civil case brought by a private entity, it wouldn’t be a determination of guilt, it would be a determination of liability. The question is, who are you sending this “appeal” to? If they have yet to bring suit or even send a demand letter, you are simply waking the dog by talking with them and it is currently not in front of any court. I’m not sure what your writing in the writing general is attempting to accomplish other than being a diary entry to remind you of what to say when you call a lawyer and ask for their help.

>>17587104
>The question is, who are you sending this “appeal” to?
That same company, or at least a related private company which manages appeals for them. Admittedly I have no practical experience in this area, but I figure that pursuing the matter immediately would be better than putting it off, which is normally the case in situations like this. Ideally, they will decide to dismiss this one minor case rather than bother with someone who appears determined to defend their position (and which appears to possibly have some degree of weight behind it). In the case that isn't ideal, as I said I have nothing better to do and will go down standing up for my position. Call me a retard, I am in many respects, but I will go down here on this stupid hill, I won't admit my guilt when I know I was wronged, especially by money-hungry vultures like these.

>>17587160
I am in full support of you, retard. We’re not even in the same country. Still you should call a lawyer friend if you have one in your jurisdiction. Find out how bad the mill is and if there’s known ways of getting around it amongst the lawyers.

>>17587169
I will see what I can find out, I know one guy who at least completed a degree in law, but he works in taxation. I'm still waiting for a reply from that company for now.

Apologies for rageposting in this quaint little thread to everyone else.

>/wg/ - Law & Order

>>17587238
What can you expect from people who spend all their time on weeb visual novels?

>read short stories with same theme as mine
>they're all better

wtfugg.

>read short story with the same theme as mine
>it's shit

lmao sucks to be him

>read post about an anon memeing my post
>doesn't get repeating digits

On the contrary, it sucks to be (You).

>>17587334
>read short story with the same theme as mine
>it's shit
>all the readers will assume mine is shit too by association

>be NEET
>extremely productive, write a dozen pages a day
>ideas constantly flowing, can write when inspiration strikes and keep going as long as I want

>get job
>spend majority of my day at work
>get restless when I have a new idea and can't write it down while working
>can't even zone out and think about how to progress the story
>get home, rush to get as much writing done in little free time left, it all turns out shit
>find myself living for the weekends when I can actually get things done

Is having a job the biggest writing gains goblin?

>>17587379
>spend majority of my day at work
You work over 12 hours a day? That's fucking rough, man.

>>17587386
not him, but uhm everything you do after you wake up you do to get to work. including working overtime, preparing shit, commuting etc. many wagies use 12 hours per day for work. planning a career is the most essential part of one's life after family matters.

>>17587386
t. never worked a day in his life

>>17587404
Oof, that's pretty harsh. I hope you won't regret it on your deathbed.

>>17587386
>1 hour to force feed myself and get dressed for work
>40 minutes to get there
>40 minutes to get back
>assorted chores
>shower
>eat dinner
>read, if there's even time for that left

>>17587416
I'm doing fine. at least better than most of my generation I guess.

>>17587413
I have never spent 12 hours a day working, this is true.

>>17587416
ironically, NEETs regret being atomized and not being part of some greater company, while wagies regret having not enough time and energy for other things.

>>17587438
Feel lucky then. I have never had a job that didn't assrape you with 12-hour days, and that doesn't include commuting. At least it motivates me to write, as I'm never going back to that bullshit alive.

>>17587985
>. I have never had a job that didn't assrape you with 12-hour days, and that doesn't include commuting.
That's completely ridiculous. Does it pay well enough to make it worth destroying your physical and mental health like that or do you live in a country where you don't have a choice?

What makes a piece of writing science fiction? Like I'll read a story from a Russian author and it's about Serbia or Cossacks but it's labeled literature but if someone talks about space or space ships it's science fiction.

Help a layman understand.

>>17588020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction

>>17587972
NEETs don't regret not being part of a company, they regret the lack of structure and connection and meaningful contributions to others. Working at a company is like the most soul sucking way to try and achieve all that, almost no one actually wants that badly to be part of a "company"

>>17588024
thanks, this helped lol.

>>17588041
thanks for explaining the two (opposing or mutually implying) meanings of the word "company", both of which were intended by my last post.

>>17586915
You write what you care about.

>>17588006
That kind of days are pretty common in certain fields regardless of country. The pay is shit and not worth it, but if there's nothing better available, then yeah, what can you do. Anything easier goes to the old, retarded, and immigrants.

>>17588167
I've very rarely done any work overtime. Guess getting vocational training and joining a union wasn't the dumbest move.

Will twitter cancel me if I write a romance between a 17 year old and a 19 year old?

>>17588300
recently there was a tweet that stated that Call Me By Your Name is problematic because of the age difference, whereuponwhich the tweet concluded that the author of the book is a pedophile. so it hardly matters what one writes.

>>17574891
Don’t know if this question is asked here a lot, absolute newfag to /lit/. I've always had this story in my mind but it’s more in my head like a slice of life TV show a la Seinfeld. I obviously don’t have the resources to make a tv show happen. Do I just write novels for this or is it retarded trying to write a “story” like this with loose continuity and it being a slice of life kind of thing? It wouldn’t have your typical exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, conclusion or whatever, I think.

Something that spans like 10 seasons but I don’t want to waste my time on writing scripts when writing it in a novel-ish way seems more worth my time.

>>17588380
good i am going to write a shota romance and no one can stop me now

>>17588386
You can try writing an serial with every chapter as it's own thing. Or a collection of shorts.

Thoughts? Would you continue the story?

How do I make it clear that my characters are not white?

So I'm not white and almost none of the characters in my story are white -- they look like brown Latin Americans. I don't like describing character appearances that much, so naturally readers tend to assume that the characters are white. Attempts to describe skin color tend to come off as unnatural. Similarly, making the few white characters 'unusually white' or something to that effect just makes people think the specific character albino or extremely pale.

Personally I don't mind people making mental images of whatever race, but I'd rather that their picture be what I'm trying to show.

>>17588715
their names obviously

>>17588715
f you tell it too often, it might annoy readers. If you don't, readers might ignore/forget.

>>17588582
>It was afterwork hours in Albertsville and a man just entered a diner.
Where's everyone - he said. It was raining yet the diner was empty.
It was the first clue that something happened to the world.
Personally, I think your piece if way overwritten.

>>17588582
Cut everything above "the sky was dark", and you're getting somewhere.

>>17588774
over the raaainbooow

>>17588770
To be precise, I don't meant that's an example of how it should be written. But its the lines that move the plot forward, so it might be a good idea to build context around them.

Im trying to write a sentence where someone is asking how long a person could survive getting suspended or being forced to hang upside down. Is it

How long do you think someone could survive getting suspended upside down

How long do you think you could survive getting hung upside down

>>17588435
Exactly what I was looking for lmao, thank you.

>>17588810
Either is fine.
It really depends on the character speaking I suppose.
'Suspended' is more formal, 'Hung' is more casual.

>>17588958
Ye is informal ty. I ended up with

How long do you think you would survive if you were forced to hang upside down

But i think it can be punchier

How do you cope knowing that all your effort and care means nothing because a hundred web novels with spreadsheets for character stats in the goddamn text will be better received and remembered?

am i allowed to steal a magic system from another author or is that crossing a line?

>>17590119
Do at least something original with it.

>>17590119
>magic system
>magic
>system
This is top tier pseud. There is nothing less meaningful than devising an arbitrary science to explain what should simply be the unexplainable.

>>17590168
B-but anime

>>17590119
Nobody gives a fuck about your magic system. Every successful story with magic looks something like this: there is a good magic that the protagonists are introduced to and quickly come to love which lets them do many wonderful and mysterious things. But there is a counterpart to it in a bad magic which leads men to evil. The protagonist must make a journey from the comfort of the good magic and come closer to an understanding of the bad magic, by either wielding it themselves or by confronting a fearsome villain.

There's your fucking magic system, eh? Literally every successful, memorable story I can think of with magic follows that. If you have a counterexample, it's because it was not something worth remembering. Anyways, given that every good magic story is told so similarly, I don't think anyone truly cares if the finer details align a bit as well.

>>17590352
but my magic system is just some pleb who found a gun in 4th century AD
It only has 6 shots and he blows the first 1 trying it, the second one accidently killing his friend, the third one shooting a robber and the fourth one was a miss and the fifth one shooting a king

>>17590352
Sounds incredibly lame. Good and evil are so passé

>>17590393
I don't care

>>17590398
Ngmi

>>17590393
That's pretty dope, also reminds me of Men-at-arms by Pratchett. The premise of the book is that someone finds a gun before guns we're supposed to be invented.

>>17590475
And the moment Vimes touches it he turns into Judge Dredd

>>17590415
CARE DAMN IT! CARE!
>>17590475
The 6th shot is wasted on some triviality and when a mob realizes his gun no longer works, they tear him limb from limb

>>17590497
Ah, so you've read it. A man of culture, I see.

>>17590528
Who hasn't read Discworld?

>>17590514
What happens to the gun, bro? I'm intrigued now... Don't suppose you have a link to a draft?

>>17590536
People from Pseudopolis. That is to say, Pseuds.

>>17590539
Nothing. A few powerful men try to get it to work but it gets lost in the grind of one ruler to another.
No first draft yet

>>17590553
Look anon, I like you and I'll give you a (You) for that, and that's cutting my own throat.

>>17590573
Well get writing brother. I'll keep an eye out for it in the general.

>>17574891
I have a question: A character of mine (16-17) is orphaned in a car-wreck. Assuming they just emancipate him because he's so close to 18, what would he have to deal with? ie. paperwork, funeral costs, debts, hospital costs, etc. etc?
Is there a website where I can look this up?

A few dystopian short stories of mine:
dumbeddownstories.blogspot.com
Feedback appreciated.

I just wrote 3 pages, but it took me 3 hours, and now I feel exhausted. How can I write faster and more sustainably, while still maintaining quality and freshness in my prose?

>>17590733
I recommend taking your meds

>>17591432
understand that rome was not built in a day and your story won't be either

>>17591432
Step it up. I wrote a 6-page short story to lift your spirits. It took me only about a minute.

>>17591432
>while still maintaining quality and freshness in my prose
You don't.
Just get the story out, and clean it up later in your edits.

800 flash fiction I wrote. Any feedback is appreciated: https://pastebin.pl/view/42e820d1

>>17591432
If you wrote a sentence and thought of a better way to write it, note the second in another window and go back to wiriting forward, otherwise you might get stuck.

Bakker is the Black Sabbath of literary fantasy.
Love him or hate him. Just like Sabbath, he did his damn thing and his work will live forever as classics. Simple as.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fgaBMFi1oc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_s5TefzAvI

>>17591687
And I want to be The Cure.

>>17583398
>Without a clock, without the sun, who could tell [...] the time? [...] A minute feels like an eternity[, the [unmemorable] days] fly by [...] hardly [noticed]. Time’s [difficult] enough to untangle [as is. And here? —] I think everything moves differently within. . . .
Flow issues. Scrutinize commas and consolidate.

>>17585102
Nora Roberts is the Stephen King of Sfult Romance genre, and quite possibly has comparable or greater net worth. Boomer thots eat this shit like candy

>>17585359
>He roused to the sensation of shock streaking up his foot from a stubbed toe
The extended no cuts shot equivalent from film is an admirable target, but this needs deft negotiation of punctuation and several strategic semicolons to get by — alternatively there’s the Celine route . . . like this with elipses . . . like spent brass from a hot gat

>>17587379
Audio notes. Should be composing while you toil anyhow

>>17588386
Skeleton sketch the entire thing. The form it takes should suggest itself from there

>>17588582
Reduce the word count of the first paragraph by 20 words

I ordered a physical copy of my book so far. I thinking holding it and feeling the weight and seeing it come into reality will really push me.

>>17575752
I would like to know this too. Hell I've seen someone post a "short story" once that was over 100 pages. When I hear the phrase "short story," I think like a single chapter at most, but usually anywhere from a paragraph to 3 pages.

How would I describe a fit, buxom woman without actually saying the words?

>>17592641
Just say it don't be a bitch

Everytime a new illustration for my book gets finished, it drives me harder to complete the series.

>>17592641
you could have a scene where she trips but her MASSIVE MILKERS protect her from the fall

>>17588386
>I obviously don’t have the resources to make a tv show happen.
Always Sunny's pilot was made for like a hundred bucks or some shit. Film a pilot with some friends, pitch it to a network, see if any of them like it. If not, you probably had some fun and learned some things, and you didn't waste a bunch of time writing screenplays that nobody will ever read.

>>17592744
I would but two of my beta readers are hardcore feminists, which kinda sucks. But they were nice enough to give my work a read. I described this female character in question as attractive (from the eyes of another female character) but they wasn't bothered by that so maybe I could outright say it. I hope to have a nice balance of male and female readership in general if I can get published one day
>>17592771
Heh, nice one anon.

>>17593044
>I would but two of my beta readers are hardcore feminists
Then just leave it out of the copy you're giving to the beta readers. Insert it back in afterward, after you've gotten feedback on what you actually need.

>>17593044
>two of my beta readers are hardcore feminists
don't use them for beta readers, use them as twitter checks to make sure you don't get cancelled. sure, they will have opinions on the story, but the only opinion of use to you are if they say any section is sufficiently problematic which means either you need to deeply revise the section to avoid getting put in the crosshairs, or you're doing something right

Do you naturally leave the habit of purple prose and peacocking or is it something you have to break?

>>17592764
it's a good feel isn't it?

>>17574891
Any writers that were coomers?

>>17593635
George R.R Martin
J.K Rowling
Stephen King

>>17593635
In what way?

>>17593512
What the fuck is peacocking, sicko?

>>17593635
Frank Herbert, probably.

Is it just me or some of these popular stories don't even have a good plot, it's the world or the characters that draw people in?
Can good wordbuilding and characters carry a story?

>>17593829
Good characters alone can carry a story.
As a matter of fact, a story can still be good even if it has only one of those three, so long as it's done well enough.

>>17593829
which popular stories?

>>17593829
To what extent are the good characters a part of the plot?

>>17593635
i suspect most writers are coomers

>>17594009
Most people are coomers

>>17594030
>he thinks most normal functioning people are coomers
go outside

>>17594048
I go outside and women are dressed in yoga pants and short shorts that show their butts

>>17594048
Normal doesn't mean good.
Also writers aren't normal people.

>>17594048
Most people use porn or have ever used it (I don't consider women as people). Also anyone who has kids is automatic coomer.

I will never feature sex in my stories. The closest I will get to implying sex is a character existing because mommy and daddy conceived them.

>>17594078
Glad you took the advice of only writing what you know

>>17594078
Why?

>>17586370
I have no problem being myself, but I can't write at all.

>>17588386
I spent about a year planning a slice-of-life story until I realized that I have no idea what people do or say and had to cancel it.

>>17594111
lmao

Need some help fleshing out an idea. It's a porn book where, in short, the MC becomes a member of the seamstresses' guild after mistakenly believing it's just a front for prostitutes. He gets them tons of business by redesigning outfits to be sexier. Some fun cross guild rivalries akin to sorority pranks, things like that. Fantasy setting if the term 'guild' wasn't a tipoff already.

But I feel like it needs some other angle. All I can think is that they need to raise money or they'll lose the guildhouse like some kind of 80s movie. Should he start trying to actually turn it into a brothel? Or does that come off as too NTR-ey if he's going to be fucking the girls too? I know people don't like used goods, after all. Maybe something silly with designing magical spy disguises or something that leads to some fun with organized crime?

>>17594336
they accidentally rent out the downstairs to a christian boys school

>>17594336
that could be fun. just think of things the seemstresses' guild would work on. they'd be contracted by noble houses or possibly the king for a royal ball or something. or maybe something happens in the harbor and they need to make new sails for the ships. or something. he could get into all sorts of hijinks
>Should he start trying to actually turn it into a brothel
I'd say no, and your reasons for it are right. better that they're just horny sorority girls and not literal, depressing, accept money for sex with whoever can pay whores
>designing magical spy disguises
whatever's fun. there's no reason not to have a serious overarching plot, but I'd keep the day to day light and fun

>better that they're just horny sorority girls and not literal, depressing, accept money for sex with whoever can pay whores
They don't necessarily have to be. In my story there is a 'guild of courtesans', but they're not necessarily prostitutes. They specialize in entertaining clientele, but that entertainment is not necessarily sexual, and members of the guild are free to choose what activities they engage in. The whole thing is a front of one of the largest secret intelligence operations in the setting though.

>>17594531
That helps a lot, thanks. I think something lighthearted and more episodic makes more sense then for the first book, and I can worry about if I want to add in more plot if I ever finish it and even want to write more.

>>17594450
That's an interesting thought too, but I think getting paid to flirt is definitely just as bad for porn/romance book. It almost feels more NTR than getting paid to 'just' fuck.

i dont thiink it even deserves a star. i purchased this for 20.22 but apparently it has refunded. i feel sorry for whoever purchased this thinking that it would work, it sure didnt. so i went with itunes instead. it is so silly that i sent a complaint and they did reply but it was a robot, i sent more then 4 messages, still replying with the same thing. i will check if it has and i will give an update on wether they did refund or its just a stupid con i some how came across on. nothing to trust on the internet these days some things are to good to be true. STAY AWAY FROM THEM

[stolen]

>want to have female protagonists in story
>not sure how women actually talk to one another
Should I just nix the idea and stick to writing what I know?

>>17594111
>>17594222

Calm down guys he's already dead.

>>17594972
I can say with a high degree of certainty that you shouldn't care about that.
Write a good female character first and a realistic one second.
Unless your story relies on the uncomfortable realism then in almost all scenarios you shouldn't bother with it.
If you're scared about people giving you flak for it—don't be. If you write a realistic female character you'll get hate for her being just a stereotype and a poor character. If you write a good female character you'll get hate for her being unrealistic and just wish fulfillment (or being what an incel thinks women are like if she's an antagonist).

>>17594336
I'd say that paints him as more of just a pimp unless he develops deeper feelings for a girl and still whores her out.
>>17594634
>something lighthearted and more episodic
Then I'd definitely agree with >>17594450 and not have any actual prostitution.

>>17575349
Had a parent read an early draft of my book and felt nauseous the whole week.
The expression she gave me afterwards was awful. Looked like she was staring at the aftermath of a three-car pileup in her own garage.
Feedback didn't help.

>>17575349
My mom got super offended when she learned that I let my friends and brother-in-law read my work when she outright said several times that she doesn't like fantasy or adventure shit because she's a christ cuck. Gives me shit about it constantly.

For the past six months I've been doing about one 6k word chapter per week. 180k done so far, target is 230k. So close bros. If I can keep it up I'll be done the week of April 10th and then I can edit.

>Two ambiguously brown twin brother/sister duo
>One white guy
>Hapa girl
Will publishers like this main cast ensemble?

>>17595462
What was the feedback?

>>17595721
Make it white girl and hapa guy and they'll fucking kill for it.
Otherwise the white guy has to be incompetent and reliant on everyone else.

did anyone do the rhino prompt from a few months ago?

Currently in the near-final stages of editing and fine tuning my novel.

It takes the werewolf/shifter gay romance trope and turns it on its head, by making the scenario very realistic and gritty. Where the gay romance is just a vehicle to explore the importance of male relationships regardless of sexuality. And makes lycanthropy a loose allegory for gay men in the late 80s-early 90s with their reckless attitudes toward life and living on the edges of society.

So far a writer friend of mine is beta reading it for me and really likes the concept.

It deals with themes of trauma, sadism, redemption, and reality denial.

>>17595711
What's the story about anon?

>>17596048
Hapa girl is super white passing tho, she has blue eyes and a japanese last name thats only brought up like a few times in the story

White dude can be a huge asshole at times and he's flawed like anyone else in the story but he butts head with the brown girl for leadership of the group if that works.

Memes aside, tvtropes is a really valuable database and an incredibly powerful tool for the writing process.

Do you agree?

>>17596109
Female 20-something journalist has to finally grow up after getting HIV from her chad boyfriend and deal with her guilt from a traumatic childhood. She travels to a small town in Texas on a whim and gets sucked into intrigue centered around the defunct national park nearby that closed after a disaster in 2007. She gets in over her head very quickly and ends up inside the national park with some of her new friends and has to put her petty self-centeredness and ennui aside so that she can help stop the misguided former head ranger from causing another disaster like the 2007 event.

The adventures of Grug

Me Grug, Orc adventurer. Me tell story of Grug fight wizard woman.

Grug sit one day in war meeting.
Big room about 20 by 30 Grug think
anyway, Grug talk with king about battle plans.
Grug use little sculptures and everything.
Make Grug look Professional, show King Grug not all
Orc, but also brains too.
King sit on big chair, like 10 feet up, Grug ask him come down.
but king say no. Grug worried he not see Diorama Grug made.
Grug feel stupid he waste so much time.
So, Grug proposed Battle plan.

Let Grug Explain. Grug used map from library. Enemy line, real bad,
too spread out, less guys us, more guys them. Grug show this with little
blue twig men on north side of fort, that’s us! Little red twig men on south
side, that’s enemy. ENEMY SMASH! Grug accidentally break table.
Real embarrassing. Grug sweating now. Grug really not want fuck this up.
Grug practice in mirror for this. So, Grug keep talking.
2 routes of grain support enemy army. Grug Propose hiring bandits beyond
war line to take grain.
Drought season, make everyone hungry. Let enemy extend and take fort.
Get tired real fast, torch everything, wait for winter. Let starve,
then punch hole in main line near spring time.

King Nods, Grug feeling good. Everything coming up Grug, Grug on top of world.
Golden God Grug. Grug is good Grug. Grug for lack of better word is good.
Then Grug world come crashing down. Evil Wizard woman walk up.
Wizard talk about stuff Grug not understand like “War Crimes” and “Ethics”
but king seem agree. Grug think Wizard Woman use trick with tit magic.

Wizard woman have magic floating book. Grug not sure what magic she do, but
think it is tit magic. Woman have big tits, Grug thinks stuffed it. Nice legs.
Brown hair. Skin kinda tan. Face look mean. Smug mean Wizard woman.
King look at her and not move eyes from tits.
FFFFFFFFFFUUUCKING tit magic Grug think. Grug not bring tits for presentation.
Grug flit through presentation notes, but Grug not know how read so no help.
Little doodle of Grug pushing Simp in toilet make Grug laugh. Simp Grug’s squire.
Story not about him. Grug not land war meeting.

Grug walk out of war room embarrassed. Grug go to wizard woman in hall
on way out. Tell she fuck presentation up. Grug secretly just want talk with
Wizard Woman. Grug have crush. Wizard woman laugh and makes tit jiggle.
Call Grug dirty Orc. Grug get so mad. Grug ask witch woman if stuff bra and
suck dick to get audience with king. Wizard woman not like that.
Wizard woman say magic words and big stone thing walks up.
That when Grug know Wizard woman knows stone magic, AND tit magic.

>>17596278

Stone thing look like golem smack Grug out of hall. Grug scream. Fall two stories.
Very manly scream Grug made. Not little bitch boy scream. Anyone Tell you Grug
make bitch boy scream is liar. Anyway, Grug fall out window,
and land gracefully on neck. Grug take axe, no help. Golem show up. Axe not break
rock man. Wizard woman laugh, call Grug stupid and say mean things about
Grug’s tiny dick and say Grug virgin. Grug face go red and he go the ooga booga.
Grab Rock man leg and try lift, but rock man kick Grug. Hold Grug against tree.
Hurt Grug. Real hurt Grug. Wizard woman laugh at Grug. Grug not want admit.
But Grug cry a little when nobody looking.

Grug sleep like 2 weeks from concussion. In dream Grug try talk with wizard woman,
pants fall down. Grug try again, and she talk with bigger Orc Chadorc. Grug Dream
talk to King, and King send Grug to prison for make Wizard Woman happy, but
Grug do nothing. Grug think help Wizard Woman, save from bandit. Then random
peasant with beanie and glasses, say “you no owed Grug. Misogynist predator Grug,
Big power difference Grug” Wizard woman leave, and not appreciate.
Grug think Grug kind of owed though, and that Wizard woman lack reciprocity make
her inferior creature, and not worth help. It imply sociopath and lying to take advantage
really same either way to Wizard Woman. Grug try flirt in King room but king show up
and tell Grug leave. Where Grug suppose talk?

Grug meet Grug parent’s. Grug Dad Orc like Grugbut wear shirt with sweater vest and
thick rimmed glasses. He smoke tobacco pipe and call Grug “Sport” all time.
Grug Dad say it easy as walk up and give firm handshake,
then kidnap like tradition Orc wedding. He talk like interview job too.
Grug Dad not know thing change. Orc “assertiveness” not political correct.
Nobody Marriage now. Divorce court too costly. Grug think Romance dead.
Wizard Woman clearly no care for Tradition romance. Clearly whore.
She Fuck dickhead Chadorc. Grug Dad know nothing. Grug start think
Nietzche was right, God is Dead. World not real like schopenhaur said.
Grug never met Grug Dad anyway. Not sure why Grug think Grug Dad
look like that.

>>17596289

Grug always hear, “go gym, build more muscle, work on self Grug,
then deserve girl, be interesting Grug, it your problem Grug, sound bitter Grug.”
Grug kind of bitter. What poor 300 pound rape monster suppose do?
Grug think about Wizard Woman. Grug want make little Gruglets with her.
Think Grug. Then Grug realize.


Next Morning Grug wake up. Big epiphany. Grug pick deadly nightshade in
Garden. Grug meet wizard woman. She summon big rock man again. But
Grug know better now, he prepared with smart plan Ha ha. Grug punch
Rock man really hard. It no work. Grug try punch harder. It work. Grug
kill rock man. Grug walk to big titty Wizard Woman. Give flower. Grug
blush too much. Not tell what happen next for Grug. Okay Grug tell,
Grug Fuck Wizard Woman in butthole.

But Grug learn important lesson:

Grug learn women really shallow and like stupid shit to soften ego.
And that was story how Grug got charged statutory.

>>17596278
>>17596289
>>17596295
Is this some sort of parody? A social commentary?

>>17596255
>tvtropes is a really valuable database and an incredibly powerful tool for the writing process.
I don’t know, I have mixed feelings for it, but I say it’s more of a guideline.

>>17596255
>tvtropes
Why the hate for it?

>>17596063
No.

>>17596295
why did he get charged statutory

>>17596295
I think Grug is smarter than he lets on. Either way, I found Grug to be an interesting and multifaceted character, and I look forward to fanfiction smut with this wizard woman in the future.

>>17596264
Which National Park is it?

>>17596469
this one

>>17596461
It was a small hoodwink, i was debating on. We never know much about the perspective of Wizard woman because Grug's only interested in her womanly body and literally doesn't understand why other people have a problem with his single minded pursuit of getting sex from her.

Beanie peasant was actually right: "you no owed Grug. Misogynist predator Grug, Big power difference Grug"
When is chided by the king or thrown in a cell for hitting on Wizard Woman , it's not for nothing. Though it's in a dream sequence, so meh.

I did however debate on whether i'd put it in there or try to make the final hoodwink something more likeable or agreeable for Grug. But this has a kind of 4channy edginess that fit when i first wrote it. I probably could have put in a she said she was 18 joke, or removed it. Compromises like this and choices, are kind of hard to decide on.

>>17596524
well. it just doesnt work for me because the penultimate sentence seems like grug figured something out but if that wasnt true i dont know. grug seems like hes dumb but he understands cause and effect and stuff and wouldn't attribute everything to that.

>>17596462
Thank you for the positive opinion. I appreciate the sentiment.

>>17596542
You're definitely right that the penultimate sentence is a revelation for Grug.
In particular it's always the kind of "wrong" lesson to take away.
Like in the story, you might conclude that romance isn't dead and that his
imagined slights and cynicism were proven wrong, but Grug undercuts this
but learning the opposite thing. Grug isn't necessarily a guy who learns
to be a good man, he learns to be a good Orc, or maybe just a more
aware kind of person in his own way.

In some sense it's a kind of distinction between him and a kind of moral hero.
And then it gets undercut a second time when you find out his actions are
totally in the wrong, ande even from the beginning
you know he's morally wrong, but because of the way he frames it, he feels relatable.
The whole feud starts off because Grug wants to commit war crimes, and Wizard Woman
objects to it. I kind of imagine Wizard woman as being a bit of a slut, but possibly of the more compassionate characters in this small pocket universe i thought up.

Whether he's right or wrong, the important thing i'm thinking is if i write him in a story again
He needs to visibly apply that lesson he learned, to show that it wasn't strictly a one off joke.
It's a morally gray change in his tool belt.

However i take your advice to heart, on possibly removing that line or replacing it with another joke to drop out from under the reader.

>>17596048
>hapa guy
Are you just saying this because white femoids feel threatened by asian/hapa girls?

>reach a good point for a chapter break
>feel like i havent written enough
>check wordcount
>2300 words
feels good man