/lit/ - Literature

first for

You will never be a real writer. You have no prose, you have no personality, you have no plot. You are a mentally ill man twisted by megalomania and illusions of grandeur into a crude mockery of nature’s perfection.

All the “validation” you get is two-faced and half-hearted. Behind your back people mock you. Your parents are disgusted and ashamed of you, your “friends” laugh at your horrible style behind closed doors.

Critics are utterly repulsed by you. Thousands of years of literary tradition have allowed them to sniff out frauds with incredible efficiency. Even self-published authors who are successful seem uncanny and unnatural to a critic. Your limited vocabulary is a dead giveaway. And even if you manage to get a drunk critic to praise a short story, he’ll turn tail and bolt the second he reads the first page of your rambling, incoherent "novel."

You will never be happy. You wrench out a fake smile every single morning and tell yourself it’s going to be ok, but deep inside you feel the depression creeping up like a weed, ready to crush you under the unbearable weight.

Eventually it’ll be too much to bear - you’ll buy a rope, tie a noose, put it around your neck, and plunge into the cold abyss. Your parents will find you, heartbroken but relieved that they no longer have to live with the unbearable shame and disappointment. They’ll bury you with a headstone marked with your birth name instead of your pen name, and every passerby for the rest of eternity will know that a complete failure is buried there. Your body will decay and go back to the dust, and all that will remain of your legacy is a collection of terrible Joyce fan fiction.

This is your fate. This is what you chose. There is no turning back.

>>18491674
Care about yourself, my man! Have some respect for your time, and for the quality of your work! Contrary to what you believe, you CAN actually make it. You just have to believe in yourself, and trust in your development of writing as a craft.

https://voca.ro/1drgODOWvwVy

>>18491674
Oh, so /lit is infested with crabs, just like /ic.

>>18491743
>crying about stale pasta
ngmi

>>18491743
It's just an edit of a pasta mate.
I'm fully aware I'm not a real author.

>>18491743
brainlet

>>18491743
It's /lit/ you fucking newfag. Include the trailing slash. Newfags have no sense of decorum these days.

>>18491730
KEK

Over the years, I've taught myself how to write well enough that people are willing to pay for it, entirely through reading and practice. I've never attended any sort of course, formal or otherwise.
Do you think it would be worth it for me to go through an online course, or something of the sort? And perhaps most importantly, which online courses (or books on the subject) would you say are the best?
For context, whenever I see writing advice, or people citing guidelines on what is good writing, 9 times out of 10, it's something I've realised myself naturally and applied already.

>>18491961
Ask your editor.

>>18491985
Anon, I write commissions for people online, I don't have an editor. That's kind of why I need to know that in the first place, so I can see whether I need to improve through formal study before I advance further.

anyone up for crit for crit?

Does pantsing produce superior writing? Why does everyone in my group seem so opposed to outlining and planning? Is it just trendy to say that you don’t plan?

This thread needs more anime.

>>18492524
>searching her book of spells for the cure to blue hair

>>18492524
What happened to the old thread? Was pretty sure it was anime?

>>18492565
Mods deleted it for no other reason than they were faggots. Pretty sure nothing even warrant it being deleted.

>>18492616
>Delete a /wg/ but don’t delete the other threads that are off-topic.
I shouldn’t even be surprised at this point but here I am.

>>18492626
Pretty sure they even started deleting some anon's story due to it being fanfic, even though he was able to post it here before with no problem in previous threads.

>>18492646
Well looking at these faggots
>>18491749
>>18491760
>>18491819
>>18491877
I’d say your board has just the mods it deserves.

>>18492646
That was actually me. Got a warning for posting fanfic, even though previously I was able to post it with no problem. I honestly think they did it to give the pseuds some breathing space.

>>18492663
You will never be a real writer.

>>18492663
go back

>>18492616
it got deleted? anime OP? AAHAHAHAHAH that's what you get!

>>18492508
It can lead to incoherent and inconsistent writing.

Here is the beginning of a problem. Ideas?
> character is scrambling to find a solution to a problem when there are only very few options
> story requires him to kill several hours before he gets to it

>>18492508
Planning restricts you because you are faced with the task of achieving preset outcomes while at the same time having to make it flow naturally. So it disrupts the flow of writing
I do it anyway.

>>18492694
> complaining about anime
What are you doing on an anime imageboard?

>>18492694
>Hating on Anime OP
You wanna know how I know you don’t write? Fucking pseuds, I swear.

>>18492508
Pantsing requires a different kind of writer but it's not necessarily bad. Unfortunately the internet is full of retards who can neither plan nor improvise so I'm sure most are against pantsing since just about everyone has been burned by a story where it is clear the author has no clue what to do.

This does beg the question, what did Ina do that made the mods delete the thread? That was Ina right? I remember mods started deleting Kiara pics in the OP since she started saying anti-sjw in her streams. Wonder what made mods mad to prune an Ina thread.

>>18492709
70k word script in, expecting word from editor next week. Suck a fat one.

>>18492753
Post it

>>18492748
>Ina
>controversial
The mods would have to be fucking retarded than usual. But then again, Ina did kill a jannie in one of her streams, so maybe one jannie was offended?

>>18492616
MODS=GODS

>>18492762
Here you go, spigot. First paragraph:

For three days I had been sitting on the train. The journey had taken me through snowy mountains and misty woods, through foggy towns and dreary villages, and the further east we went, the whiter the landscape became. On the whole, I was quite comfortable in my first-class compartment, had it not been for that accursed heating system that bubbled around the clock and made the air unbearably dry. With conditions like these, I found it difficult to concentrate on the contents of my black briefcase. Spread out on the table were notebooks, brochures and books, letters, tracts, and leaflets, newspapers, magazines, dispatches, records, verdicts, treaties and a few other printed products that did not yet have a name of their own. Each of these writings had something to do with contagious diseases. It was a small dedicated library I had gathered from the archives of the Faculty of Medicine and served me as a pastime during the train ride - and as preparation.

1/

I can’t say whether it was the pint of orange sorbet, or the sundrunkenness, but I woke up that afternoon from the strangest dream.

Some nights before, I woke from a different one. In it, I walked through a desert. There was a ticking noise. Where I walked, the noise followed, beating in my ear. Driven insane, I dropped to my knees and dug into a dune with my hands. From deep in the sand I pulled out a rusted mechanical stopwatch so old that its pin had fallen out and I could not silence it. When I threw it into the wind, ten more blew in afar, each of them smoking me upside the head.

Later, Chloé and I were in Paris on a Tuesday afternoon, laying on the Champs de Mars.

I ask: Do you think the lack of people is a global pandemic thing, or a Tuesday afternoon thing?

She says: I think it’s a bit of a both thing.

The gardens are empty, save for a couple of couples picnicing here and there. I hear one of them speaking English and it angers me. Then I'm angered that I’m feeling angry about something so hypocritcal. The sun is scorching. We eat pasta salad on the grass. This is my last day in France.

Today, France. Tomorrow, Canada. I think: How weird.

When the pasta bowls are empty save for olive oil, we spread ourselves out under the sun and hold our bellies in our hands. She repositions herself on top of me, putting my torso under her arm. I look up at her face and neck and shoulders and chest and the blue sky behind her and regret that she can only see what I see in my eyes.

Chloé says: My big American obese man.

I roll my shirt up and stick my stomach out as far as it can go. We joke about the weight I’ve gained since I’ve been in France. I stretch my belly out further, like it swallowed a basketball that swallowed a beach ball that swallowed an even larger spherical object.

Chloé snaps a photo: The Eiffel tower in the background, my feigned enormity in the fore. She’s deadpan, then laughs when viewing the photo on her phone. I laugh, though I cannot see what she sees.

She’s wearing this frilly white thing with balloon sleeves that only a specific type of French girl can wear. She lays back down with me on the lawn while our bodies cook together under the sun.

She says: So you know, I’d never drop out of law school to travel with you.

I say: I would hope not.

I was hoping you’d fight me on that point.

No you weren't.

On our walk home, Chloé stops at a dessert place and buys these little microwavable cakes stuffed with chocolate fondant.

Chloé puts a tub of mango sorbet in my hands. It’s so cold I have to wrap it in my shirt.

She says: Treat yoself.

I buy it and regret teaching her that expression.

Once we’re inside her appartment, we cozy up on her couch while she watches her show on her laptop. I rest my head on her shoulder and spoon the whole sorbet container into my mouth.

She says: This is my perfect happiness—my series, my chocolate, my bébé.

>>18493272

2/

When the screen goes dark between scenes, our eyes meet in its reflection. They stare at themselves. We find each other while finding each other while finding each other.

I slip into a sugar coma. When I wake up, I sit slat-straight.

Chloé sits up too.

She says: Ça va?

Ça va?

I say: That was a crazy vivid dream.

What happened?

Remember those boys I used to babysit? They and their parents were at my family reunion. For whatever reason, my own family’s reunion was at the childhood home of the boys I babysat in middle school. Anyway, we’re in the swimming pool in their backyard, but my family and their parents are inside. The boys are probably, what, eighteen or twenty now. And they come onto me in the pool. They grab me and lean in for a kiss. I decline the offer and back away but they persist and eventually try forcing themselves onto me. So I shove them off of me, get out of the pool, and run inside. As soon as I get through the door the first people I see are their parents, who stare at me and hold a finger to their lips, making the ‘hush’ motion. As if they knew what had happened, but didn't want me to make a scene in front of everyone.

She says: What is hush?

I say: When you want someone to be quiet.

She nods.

So I sat down on the couch in the living room, where the whole family was gathered to watch men sprint around a track on TV. I notice that my mother is seated next to me, and beside her, on the far side of the couch, is my dad.

Your dad?

I nod.

>>18493283

3/

The whole room’s invested in the race on TV. And while we’re watching the race my dad keeps chiming in with snide little comments and criticisms, things like ‘What idiot chose this for us to watch?’ and, ‘Who finds this entertaining?’ Then my aunts and uncles start making jabs at him like ‘Shut up, Keith,’ and ‘Who asked your opinion?’ That sort of thing. The whole time I feel embarrassed that my dad is starting an argument and ruining the vibe at the reunion. As the room turns hostile I stop being embarrassed and start feeling angry. Suddenly my aunts and uncles and cousins storm out of the room and the reunion’s over. Then I hit a breaking point. I’m so furious that I start lashing out at him, going straight for the heart. I’m yelling in his face telling him that I hate him for being such a failure and a fuckup. That I hate him for ruining himself and being an alcoholic. That I hate him for fucking up the family and not making an effort to be honest or work on his issues or admit to them. That I want to kill him for the abuse and the torment and the threat he always posed. That I hate him for seeing my own failures as failures and that I hate him for being half of me. But then I realize that he’s not speaking, and I look down into his eyes and notice that he's decades older. He’s an old man, in this dream, and his hair has fallen out. He’s missing his front teeth and the rest of them are yellowed and crooked. His face is deformed, and half of his mouth is frozen like he has Bell’s palsy. Do you know Jean Chrétien? He was kind of French.

No, I don’t.

Well, my dad looked like he had Bell’s palsy. And he couldn't speak. The whole time that I was going off on him, telling him how much I hated him, all he could do was whimper out of the side of his mouth. He looked like an old man on the brink of death, terrified in his eyes. And that’s when I switched. The rage withered away. It was as if I had seen vulnerability in him for the first time, and I sobbed. Here was the broken down man I’d always known but never seen. I took his shoulders in my hands and I asked him to forgive me, and that I forgave him. I hugged him and kissed his cheek and I told him I was sorry and that I only wanted to make him proud. I said this over and over, that I only wanted to make him proud of me. It became evident that he was dying, so I took out my phone to get a photo of us together while we were still alive. The whole time my heart was racing and my hands were frozen. My phone wouldn’t turn on. I panicked and dropped it and looked back at my dad, now pale as a sheet. I told him one last time that I was sorry, that I understood him, that I only wanted to love him and make him proud, and that half of the good in me is him.

Bébé.

My heart’s still racing.

I can see that.

It feels cliché to talk about a dream out loud, but I cannot describe the urgency I’m feeling.

You have to see him.

>>18493288

4 (End)/

I know.

I’ve been saying this since we met.

It’s as if every other sadness and every other resentment I have in me is a knock-on effect of the sadness and hate and resentment I have for my father. When I let it go, in the dream, I felt at perfect peace. As if I had made room for everything else in its absence. I felt liberated. I felt like I've never felt, and it’s startling and disturbing and no less real that it came to me in a dream.

It's poetic. You leave tomorrow. Doesn’t it make closure?

You mean, bring a sense of closure? Maybe. I’m going to ask him to talk when I get back to Canada. I still have his number. I’ll ask if I can drive up north to see him at his place. We’ll sit by the lake or something. I’ll mention the dream. I think he’ll understand.

Remember to be sweet with him—you can be so severe, Liam.

The next day, I flew to Toronto on an empty jumbo jet (pandemic thing, not Wednesday morning thing). There were fifteen other passengers, and we all ate microwaved chicken.

In the airplane, fast asleep, I see her face. She asks me where the noise is coming from. I pull the stopwatch from my pocket and press the pin. It mutes. In the silence, she stares at me concerningly until I smile, then she smiles.

>>18492616
Based mods. May they strick down faggotry with merciless judgement.

>>18492616
strike*

>>18492616
based mods DESTROYING the anime scourge.

>>18491612
I have severe ADHD and it's almost unbearable wanting to be a writer. Jesus Christ, I need medication.

>>18493556
what do you want to write about? Wite it in ADHD format. Bullet points for the 1 second attention span of modern day.

>>18493068
Reads about what I except from pseud. Maybe my first non-fiction novel as a chance after all.

>>18493660
What’s this?

>>18493674
Some non-fiction novel I'm writing on the side called pseud≠intellect. Truth be told, the main character is inspired by all the pseuds here on /wg/, so that's something. All the other side characters are just people I know in real life, but with their names change.

>>18493713
Holy shit you are obsessed. A pseud must have raped your dog.

>>18493713
>acting this much like a pseud and calling others pseuds

>>18491961
>>18491961
No. The prose of those students are workshoppy and bad. Furthermore, you've developed your own style, which is already more than they'll ever have. Also, don't taint yourself, as you've said:

>whenever I see writing advice, or people citing guidelines on what is good writing, 9 times out of 10, it's something I've realised myself naturally and applied already.

most of these things do come naturally with practice, and also a lot more. Just remember the kind of "people" who pays for these sorts of courses/classes and the kind of "stories" they produce.

>>18493713
Did you actually get a job with Penguin Random House due to a short story contest?

>>18493272
>>18493283
>>18493288
>>18493295
this could have been a pastebin or a jewgle docs share, but instead you've decided to flood the thread

>>18493660
Your hook is pretty weak.
>mentions flat chests in the first page
stop letting anime bleed into your writing.
And honestly, it's not bad, but not a topic I'm personally interested in reading. Definitely seems like the kind of book directed at melodramatic english majors.
Also - why would you ever become an English major?

>>18493068
Mildly cliche but I'm at least interested enough to keep reading and see whether I'm interested in what happens next.
And now for my repost from last thread:
Hey /wg/, I'm here to share with you the first 3-4 minutes of the VN I'm working on and would like some feedback. I'm trying to create a serious VN about an AI that speaks through art and I thought I might try to make it a VN instead of a novel. Still deciding whether I want to switch back to novel though. On one hand the standards of a VN reader are really low and the visual aspect works well with my art themes - on the other hand most VN readers are uninterested in anything except hentai and moe shit.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/daxarob9m0k7f3c/Vertigo-0.0.1.a-pc.zip?dl=0

All the assets except the words are shitty stolen placeholders that are probably copyrighted. If you could give your thoughts on the writing itself, I would appreciate it - I have my own perception of how it is already, but I want to hear some other perspectives ahead before I move forward. Particularly, I just want to know whether you're interested and what you perceive the quality of the writing to be.

>>18490772
It doesn't even ask for admin permissions.

>>18493809
Trust me, I tried. This godforsaken site kept flagging the posts as spam whenever I included the pastebin link. This was the only way I could post without triggering that filter - ironically, becoming spam.

>>18493764
I have to get into the pseud mindset to write my nonfiction novel or else I won't be able to write the essence of what makes a pseud a pseud. Trust me, I've tried writing it without the mindset and all I can say it was a disaster.

>>18493717
Say what you will, but I alredy got a few chapters done.

>>18493805
Never got in Penguin Random House, but I did manage to get a job in my local publishing house by winning a a few contests in my local area.

>>18493837
>I have to get into the pseud mindset
You are already one. Liking Hololive doesn't preclude you from being one.

>>18493660
>>18493713
>>18493837
>Someone from this place might actually be writing a decent novel
>It shits on the pseuds
I will be in ironically be waiting for this novel to be actually published.

who's your favourite writing tuber

oh fuck /wg/, i just realized something.

my story features a fantasy world where talking animals and mythical creatures are the dominant form of life and the small handful of humans who wind up there are teenage and tweenage autists

it would be a plot hole if I didn't make one of them a furry

>>18493884
>that
>getting published

It
>talks about breasts on the first page (anathema to NYC liberal millennial agents)
>has a lay/laid misuse
>has been posted on an evil Nazi site
That's just from taking a glance at it. Amazon is the best it can do.

>reread my older stuff that I was proud of
>it's fucking awful
>unbelievably bad
>yet I've had teachers show my stories off to their friends, my friends show it to their loved ones who then demand I write more, and total strangers at the library were wowed by my work.
Is it possible to give off such a pathetic vibe that all these people will lie to me about liking my stuff? I feel like everyone I know has been playing a joke on me. And I'm not underage. I wrote these stories in my early twenties.

>>18493965
Post 'em. But it's more likely that -- as always -- normies are retarded.

how the fuck do i start writing? my head is empty but i want to write

>>18493853
Thanks for trying to cheer me up, but I need to come here every now and again to see how pseuds behaves and what excuses they come up with as to why they don't write. I also had to resort in using warosu on some slow days. I'm incapable of maintaining the pseud mindset for more than a few hours, which makes writing my novel extremely difficult. But the times I do write makes it worthwhile.

>>18493884
Thanks, this novel is a lot of fun and I'm wondering if it will succeed in getting traditionally published, but overall, I really don't care if it does or not. What's important is that I wrote it.

Is there any recommended book or resource into non-fiction writing? I want to get better at condensing my thoughts and getting points across in a clearer way, my writting is very rambly and disjointed. I feel like most of the time I am just vomiting my thoughts into words with no filter.

>>18494040
Do you work with outlines?

>>18493950
Don’t be jealous you pseud. That animefag should be an inspiration for you. He actually became a pseud for the sole purpose to write his novel and he’s actually doing it.

Also,
>Ignore the reason why they were talking about the breasts in the first place
NGMI.

>>18494054
You forgot your avatarfagging this time.

>>Ignore the reason why they were talking about the breasts in the first place
I didn't criticize it, just said agents will.

>>18494067
Are you schizo or something?

>>18493816
>Your hook is pretty weak.
Of course the hook is weak, this isn't the first chapter of my story. Due to the difficulty of me entering the pseud mindset and not to mentioned the limited time I have in that mindset, I write what I can, whenever I can.

>>18494107
Good luck on your novel, anon. It seems interesting and worth reading. Hope you get published.

>>18494107
I think you might be a pseud anon.

>>18494030
If you don’t care about being published why are you writing the story then?

>>18494188
Sadly, no, just a poor imitation of the real thing. I will never be a pseud.

>>18494340
I was always fascinated by the pseuds inability to write their stories and the continual excuses they would make whenever someone, mostly an animefag, would call them out on it. So I resolved myself to see if being a pseud hinders one's ability to write a story. For the most part, it was a mixed success.

>>18491612
>that pic
>lmao why can't i hold all these plot points and devices and themes and characters

>>18494363
>For the most part, it was a mixed success.
Why mixed success?

Here's an idea for a novel I had. I like to daydream about it.

"The Seismic Saddle Point Kids

A dystopian novel. There are two societies in "Eurasiamerica" : the Uppers and the Lowers.
The Uppers are the Elite Authoritarian Class. They relish in the advancements of technology that have been taken to the extreme.
Nanotechnology and synthetic biology have been interwoven and organic nanites which live symbiotically within the human body have been produced. The Uppers are omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent. Through the nanites interaction with the human brain they ; are always observing everyone, know every event that takes place and have gained complete control of both mind and body. The Uppers do not share their wealth with the Lowers, for the sake of superiority alone. They prefer to rule passively above the rest of humanity and leave them to their own devices. Neither compassionate nor malicious, they are mostly benign. (They hardly play a role in the story at all as characters.)

The Lowers themselves live off of scraps left in the junkyards. They form their own rules and culture in each separate land. The scavengers harvest materials and goods, the engineers design rudimentary machines, the mechanics build and repair those machines, the minstrels make music and poetry, and the priesthood distributes amitra. Amitra is the genetically engineered psychedelic plant which proffers profound visions to those who imbibe it. The visions take the form of lucid dreams which last for half a day.

The story is centered around 5 young adults(Lowers), two male and three female. They are lucky enough to inherit a lifetime supply of Amitra and go on a harrowing journey through the dreamscape. Objective and Subjective Reality begin to blend together as the drug's influence is felt in the outside world.

As the journey progresses and they start to develop closer relationships, romantic ties form between each man and all of the girls. They have both a collective journey and also a personal journey of self-discovery as they unravel the truth of who they really are.
It eventually turns into a tale of jealousy, rivalry, conspiracy, murder, destiny and Cosmic Union."

>>18493660
Still trying to act all high and mighty when he proved you wrong?

>>18494471
Have you ever met one of those annoying potheads who talks about nothing but the last smoke he had, how great it is to smoke pot, why he smokes it daily despite the negative health effects, different strains of marijuana, when he's going to smoke next? Yeah but now it's a book

>>18494420
>Why mixed success?
Originally, pseud≠intellect was supposed to be written in the most bullshit, self-fellating, hot garbage prose imaginable. I'm talking about postpositive adjectives in writing so that it can sound better rhythmically, stream of conscious, to make it short, think of some rando 20 year old who think's he's writing proto-finnegans wake.

It's times like these that make me wish I never deleted it, so I can share it here. After my first failure, I decided to tone down the pseudness, to where I am able to write pseud≠intellect at its current state. It's why I call it a mixed success

>>18494659
can u stop talking, you literally post anime faggot

>>18494659
>I'm talking about postpositive adjectives in writing so that it can sound better rhythmically, stream of conscious, to make it short, think of some rando 20 year old who think's he's writing proto-finnegans wake.
>It's times like these that make me wish I never deleted it, so I can share it here.
Holy shit, why’d you delete it? I want to read it and see how god awful it is. You robbed me of what could have been a great experience.

It is surprisingly a lot of fun to make an original language for the lore of a setting... Hm... Might need to rename everything depending on how the language ends up.

>>18494760
>Holy shit, why’d you delete it?
I'm not exaggeration when I said I wanted to genuinely kill myself after that experience. Wrote five chapters of that story and I wanted to kill myself soon afterwards. I didn't even know what the fuck I was doing anymore. Took me like entire month to recover from that experience. And by the end of it, I just deleted it so I can forget about it. Ever since then, I've been writing pseud≠intellect in moderation. I also stop drinking alcohol and smoking. It's done wonders for my health but I would not recommend to anyone to do what I did. I'm just glad I'm in a better state of mind now.

>>18495017
>Putting your health at risk by writing a book.
Why would you or anyone else for that matter, ever do that. No book is worth getting sick over. Let alone worth dying for.

>>18495327
Maybe not for a normal person, but for a pseud, the book is everything, nothing else matters to the pseud but the book. Everything else becomes secondary or nonexistent at all.

How to write a story for a VIDEOGAME?

Are any of the books in the OP considered better than the others? Or any that I should read before the others?

>>18495436
depends on the kind of game you're making
If you're making something straightforward, look into how games like Max Payne and Thief handle narrative, and how Dark Souls handles worldbuilding. Fully explorable environments are your friend.
If you want to be a bit more strange, look into Rain World and how it crafts theme and bolsters it's simple story through player experience, or Gorogoa in how it tells an unusual story (for vidya) without a single word.

>>18493965
You'll never know unless you post excerpts here for 4channers to judge

>>18493660
I'm about to fall asleep reading this. The prose is pretty good though.

>>18491612
In the past year I came up with a concept for a novel about an Asian immigrant worker turned gunslinger on the run after murdering a railroad boss. It was supposed to be a synthesis of US history, Cormac McCarthy's Westerns, railroads, the egomaniacal Ames Brothers, and wanting to explore that from an Asian perspective (being Asian myself).

Well, it turns out my idea was not as original as I thought. Earlier this month, a book called The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu was published. I have mixed emotions. Happy, since the idea was successfully executed by an Asian brother and saw the light of day. Sad, because I wanted to be the one to tell the story and now any attempt will be seen as a follow up.

On the bright side, I have a few other story ideas that I am equally passionate about and would like to explore, and I don't necessarily think that someone else having told the story should prevent me from taking my own stab at it later on, especially when it was something we both came to on our own.

>>18495327
Stop replying to the mentally ill avatarfag

>>18496536
Nah, he writes. Something that’s rare here.

>>18496529
Resident Evil 8 had a bunch of similar ideas and characters to my fantasy novel, like the Duke and the vampires/lycans.
Fucking bullshit, why does Resident Evil suddenly have vampires and lycans

>>18496567
Yeah, well, I guess there's a comfort in knowing that we have brushed against good ideas. I think the trick is to move onto new things, to just write for the love of it and hope things work out someday when enough hours have been put in.

>>18492319
Perhaps drop a proton mail or something
>>18491612
Hey anons! Where do I get alpha and beta readers? I need a wider pool of people to get feedback from.

>>18496662
I guess you could try reddit and fiverr.

>>18496674
Fiver eventually. But paid reading is something you do when you already have a first draft of your manuscript.
Red it may be the solution I require.

Anytime I see people discuss writing pornography they're exclusively focused on the financials and never craft. Obviously people aren't going to take smut as seriously as other forms of writing, but it's disheartening.

Lust is a necessary, deeply personal, and nearly universal part of life.

Guess I just came to vent into the wind.

Hi anons, can you help me out? I'm trying to write a story, however coming with just a memorable name is proving to be an issue. I've tried to figure out a pattern with the titles of books and even in names in general to come up with a memorable name, however neither solution works as I have yet to find a name that I find myself satisfied with. Therefore, I come to you anons in my time of need to ask what makes a title catchy? What makes a name memorable? Could any of you anons assist in such an endeavor? What titles and names have you anons used for your own stories?

I keep thinking of a story I want to write but won't do justice to. It's about a prisoner getting mindwiped and implanted with an A.I that controls his body and does low-ranking military official work. It gets damaged on the battlefield and when under emergency reparation, the field technophysician doesn't notice that the damages reached deep inside the brain where the mind chip is located. Now the guy wakes up with full control and must play pretend amongst humans and robots as he climbs the military ladder to survive.

In the meantime, 3 very high ranking pure human and cyborg military officials are found dead in their homes. While everyone is searching for the killer, a dangerous anti-cyborgs extremist group release a video claiming they did it. The amnesiac hero recognizes the face of his mother behind one of the veiled masks.

>>18496931
If it can be articulated, it isn’t the true path.
What are the topics and genres? Maybe we can help you name it.

>>18491612
I haven’t seen why can’t I hold all these limes guy in a long while. Thanks anon. Good memories of simpler times.

>>18496931
My story's title went through some changes. Originally, it was called Mobile Troopers, and at various points had subtitles like "[The] War in the Stars". But I had some suggestions to change it to something else because Mobile Troopers was technically taken because of Starship Troopers at least in French translations. The name was actually based on mechas which was basically an eponymous term for Mobile Suits like in the Gundam franchise.

Other titles considered was simply Cosmos, and made-up mecha title names like Zalzadia. Earlier in 2015 (MT was conceived in 2016), there were titles (regarded as a series) with variations of 'In the Stars' or "of the Stars" with a noun or adjective. In September 2019 I finally decided on Saga of the Cosmic Heroes after some consideration. Some other title like Records of the Mobile Troopers was considered, or Records of the [x] before I changed it to the Saga title. I think just the other day I was toying, non-seriously, with the idea of simply Cosmic Saga, but I'm content with the title I have now.

>isn't that basically just ripping off Legend of the Galactic Heroes?
In a way, yes and no. Part of the inspiration was Saga of Tanya the Evil, and I regard it as a homage to LotGH in some ways.

>>18496804
I'm with you anon, it's just a simple fact that anything involving money will inevitably become predatory. People see low standards, learn how to cruise along them and exploit them.
But we can't allow the efforts of other people to discourage us from working towards what our own truths. When I write porn I try to keep things humorous, enjoyable, and to the point. It's a wonderful thing and I won't let social norms decide what I can or can't do regarding it.
>>18496945
>but won't do justice to.
What makes you say that? Is it the plot's complexity? Maybe you can try to start off small, like a shorter entry of the setting, then work your way up.

>>18496931
I'm calling my story "The Perpetual Pain". Relying on alliteration to be catchy, with a vague meaning to make you wonder and want more.
Though, I worry that it sounds a little too edgy.

>>18496931
Literally use the story, find the most unique thing that's easy to remember and make it a title. Like Behead all Satans or My twisted world.

>>18496993
>What makes you say that? Is it the plot's complexity?
It's that I don't know anything about the military or how wars are fought at all. I also have doubts about my prose and lack confidence in writing something compelling.
>Maybe you can try to start off small, like a shorter entry of the setting, then work your way up.
Sounds like a great idea, actually. I'll try. Thanks anon.

>>18496945
Sounds like a story of a guy who realizes that he lives his life under an external persona, but if he does what he wants as he wants it would ruin his social standing, so he has to slowly remove the pretense.

>>18497091
But that aside, write what resonates with you and rationalize it after the first draft.

>>18491612
>Not-anime Edition!
Finally, This makes me want to write again. Fucking hated that weeb shit. Hopefully there's a new janny who hates that shit too. Take a bump you glorious OP.

>>18497107
yeah, remember back when /wg/ had different topics for each thread? Like, "what's your MC like?" edition, and "short story" edition etc. That anime fucker almost sank this ship, but some great janny or mod stepped in and at least gave us hope that we might be headed in the right way.
We really should have topics again... it was kinda helpful for discussion and posts in the thread too, if i remember correctly.

>>18497125
i've been here since the first thread and it never had topics. only it had was that the "does your story have focus of a bunch of pesud stuff" and that was dropped quietly after a while

>>18497130
yeah, but it had a different question every time until it turned to "any progress on your novel?"
Unimaginative cunt.

>>18497125
Tbh, I don't, I got in to writing a few months ago, and I totally got into it, read a couple books about writing, download some writing programs, and read up on all the "rules of writing", watched an ass ton of videos, and I posted in these threads daily, even made a shitty RR account. I was super excited to get into writing and I actually finished a short story, and was in the middle of a second one.

But the anime weeb OPs kind of turned me away from this general. Kind of quit after it was just anime spamming and thread camping to make the threads. Those topic for the threads is a great idea. IF these threads continue without anime OPs i'll go back to writing on /wg/.

>>18497143
Wow, sounds like you're not going to make it if a picture is all that it takes to make you stop writing.

>>18497136
no, it was the same question if you want to call it that. It was something regarding themes and essence of time. I don't remember and I'm a bkt tipsy. There were sledom ever any actual questions evrrbaside rrom any progress of your story

>>18497153
The questions were mostly pseud in nature, and I also remember someone trying to do some stupid prompt shit. That one died quickly, since it was pretty stupid to think people were going to stop writing their novels for a prompt

>>18497143
important part is that you're writing. I come here sometimes, then get bored of it and try to find something else to do online, but honestly the reason i keep coming back is for the one in a million post that is actually good.
Keep up the good work, and don't give up just cause someone spams anime. We need you here as a counter weight.

>>18497153
>>18497162
maybe i'm confusing it with the sffg thread. No matter, we should have topics. Occasionally. When someone comes up with a good one.

>>18497162
You sure it wasn't some retarded contest or something? I remember someone trying to force that shit here.

>>18497171
>we should have topics.
No.

>>18497152
It's not the picture, it's the culture that it attracts. Whats the point of writing if it's only going to be critiqued by a bunch of underage weebs who don't like what your writing, or only like weeb style stories?

I want people who are into all types of literature to read and give me feedback, not just cartoon watching pillow-humpers.

>>18497163
Thanks, I will, just felt my time was better spend reading instead of dealing with retards online. Got through a lot, but I'll pick it back up, I'm motivated enough.

I finished chapter 7/20 of my first round of revisions. Really it's been more of a complete rewrite with how much I've had to delete/add.

>>18497184
>Different anons want to write different things
>No, you should only write in a particular way
This does not bode well for /wg/.

>>18497211
You should learn 2 read. That's not what I said at all.

>>18497211
i guess you'd like taking advice from your mom about which vidya to play.
Same thing goes here - trying to get input from people whose limit is what they consider to be the top tier anime with some philosophical mumbo jumbo thrown in there is extremely worthless to someone that wants to appeal to people that are not into anime. This is generalizing, of course, but the fact that the anime pics repelled that guy (and me), speaks for that the images had impact on who wrote here and who didn't. If you don't understand that the image has implicit effects on how people percieve the thread... let's turn it around then, if it's not important, why camp the threads and make anime pics every fucking thread for half a year?

>>18497195
>almost a complete rewrite.
Major rewrites risks fucking up the structure of the novel, but i guess you seem to have the time so keep at it!
What's it about? Just general things like genre and mc, not asking for specifics.

>>18497245
It's a utopian novel. A person from the present is transported years and years into the future where everything is perfect. Except there's a twist, and this drives the conflict.

>>18497271
sounds cool and actually not done, as far as i know. Keep at it!

>>18497184
What is it that’s convinced every dipshit on this board to be an elitist shit? This happens in every thread, not just /wg/. If some anon wants to write weebshit, let him write weebshit, don't put him down. If he wants to write something that isn't high-standard, let him. More often than not, you or others who agree with you aren't going to write any better than them.

>Inb4 animefag

Not even writing anime, but fucking hell get off your high horse.

>>18497326
>What is it that’s convinced every dipshit on this board to be an elitist shit
Low-self esteem mix with a superiority complex. Notice how a picture was all it took for them to quit writing. They’re not going to make it and they know it and are using any and all excuse they can.

>>18491612
>Any progress on your novels?
Yes, I'm done now. I was never going to become the next Faulkner, the next Nabokov or the next Joyce, but I hid behind the language barrier to avoid criticism for months, maintaining an illusion that was fun to live in while it lasted. I had thought my country's education system to be topmost in the world, but this turned out to be utter bollocks. A child of 18, a person ten years my junior, has a greater vocabulary than I, who had to look up the word “topiary”, and no one likes the expression theory of art anymore, I am likened to a long lost dinosaur.
This will be my final post on /lit/. I've been humiliated and exposed as a fraud. My writing is pretentious, infantile, banal drivel. My observations are dull, my language grade school level. My tenses are mixed up; I use colloquialisms, ellipses and onomatopoeia. I mix tired and trite idioms together to obfuscate their unoriginality with a veneer of irony; I have continued to recite ornate Jewish chimpanzee parables with diminishing returns. The parable seemed very clearly to me to be asking me whether or not the now-grown-adult can choose. I say yes, of course, but that's not my issue.
I was never cut out for writing. I began writing my "book" on January 6th. Since then I've produced 105 thousand words for it. These words are a tide of garbage without value, without insight, without form. The themes of time, space, infinity, memory and pointless duelling are not present in my work. It was never real writing, it was anime and weebshit!
Story arcs, character arcs, narrative arcs, these are all outdated terms. You say what you hear, and only the anime fandom uses the term “arc” anymore. I am a toad! Look how many words I wrote, because apparently literature is bodybuilding and just aimlessly typing will somehow improve my writing. My appetites grew as I wrote, I set a goal of a 100 thousand words when I began, only for the cancerous growth to demand a 137 thousand words soon enough to be completed, and still I don't even know what genre it is that I'm writing. Is it autofiction? A comedy? A picaresque? Am I merely shitposting edgelord-triggering diarrhea in neo-emo gothic revivalist gestalt?
Regardless, I have failed, and even in my failure I have merely imitated how people who think they write well but write poorly write, and I couldn't even do that well. "Oh I can do that anytime if I wanted to" I thought, but no. I have put down my pen. Never again will my fingers click-clack across the keyboard. No more outlines, no more characters. Goodbye.

Imagine throwing a hissyfit because people are calling you out on your thread-camping lmao

>>18497326
i like it. At first i was a bit aprehensive to the second paragraph and the "stupid glory" thing, but then i realised the protagonist is supposed to be a bit arrogant.
I'm not sure dead animals smell right away, even if it's gore... but if you're sure about this, keep it. The premise seems interesting.

About the boring discussion about anime: no one is saying "don't write weebshit". All people are complaining about is that the people with more time on their hands kinda are skewing the threads into something that a lot of people don't wanna be part of. There's a difference between that and telling people not to write what they want.

>>18497360
>Thinking anyone who disagrees is the thread-camper

>>18497326
You don't understand. There was a weeb who would camp threads so he could constantly spam weeb images. Mods even deleted OP images because some were pretty close to being pornographic. He was advertising it as an anime writing general, but it's not an anime writing general. He refused to compromise, didn't let anyone else make a thread. So, how can someone come here expecting good feedback, when the ones giving feedback only write and consume anime? Those images only attract those "writers". Would a non-fiction writer want his worked critiqued by solely fiction writers? No, right. There has to be variety and that's where the conflict lies. The OP's were also lazy, and copy pasted and never changed.

I don't care what they write, I even critiqued a few excerpts that were anime style writing. The guy is still here, it's >>18497349, and he's spamming the same weak arguments like his images. "herr ngmi".

This place is the same as it was a few months back, dude's going to camp the thread and spam it till he has the opportunity to make a new one, probably has one already ready.

>>18497349
>being this butthurt when your thread gets delet

>>18497368
>>18497373
Not even the anime OP, nor a animefag for that matter, I’ve seen your kind since /crit/ days as far back as 2017.

>>18497326
You get off your high horse. This isn't "suck my dick for free" thread, it's supposed to be a thread for discussing writing, for writers of all experience levels helping each other get better. But animefags aren't here to get better. They can't withstand criticism of any kind without sperging out and going on a spam spree. They're literary equivalents of tiktok whores looking for validation from strangers. But if you think you are beyond criticism, then don't post your trash in public!

>>18497394
There are so many thoughts in this but i have no idea what they're about. I'm guessing it's someone thinking about their relationship, but i have no interesting in an insight into active generalized anxiety. Sorry, but i would never read anything like this. If you're a male emulating a female brain, i think you did a great job.

>>18497326
Too much McCarthy, without McCarthy

If I am writing a novel where humanity is far removed from inhabiting Earth and much of their history there is lost, how would I go about describing something like an Asian character given the concept and term 'Asian' doesn't exist? Or is it okay to use something familiar like that to the reader if it's not in dialogue and/or exposition?

>>18497442
Describe what makes Asian character and Asian character without saying they're an Asian character?

>>18497442
Just... dont?

>>18493965
I wrote a short story n college that was the most pathetic exuse for prose ever put to page. It was about a writer with writer's block. I cringe even thinking about it.

>it won a fiction contest and I got a hundred dollar check for it

This board is not representative of the world. To most people, mediocrity is above average

>>18497442
ching chong ding dong?

>>18497442
The phrase you're looking for is "slant eyed"

>>18497404
NTA
>that one animefag that writes some weeabo serial gets shits and is constantly told to read “real” books despite him trying to help others.
>One write anon made the mistake in posting a picture of workplace that showed Japanese and an anime girl. Gets shit on.
>The continual seething at people using royal road, or any website for that matter..
>That one writer anon who wrote short stories of his favorite animes as writing exercises. get shit on
>It’s the animefags fault
Take your fucking meds. Next you’re going to tell me the mods killed /crit/ by pruning it whenever it appeared next to /wg/. You fags stifle any and all discussions you don’t like.

>>18497476
> the mods killed /crit/ by pruning it whenever it appeared next to /wg/
but they did

>>18496529
yeah but even if you publish it, people are going to call it a rip off of Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu, like 50 Shades was to Twilight. Not that that should deter you, because 50 Shades was wildly successful and the author is a multi millionaire now

>>18497476
You act as if weebs aren't persecuted everywhere on the internet. I'm pretty sure they'd be accepted here if they weren't annoying fucks who didn't spam. But no, for some reason their subculture finds it necessary to be the most annoying. You don't see wrestling fans doing the shit they do.

All anyone is asking is for them to stop forcing their subculture here. We want more than one type of writing.

>>18497524
they killed the anime OP. It's a victory and we should move on and keep talking about writing rather than continuing this futile discussion.

>>18497524
>All anyone is asking is for them to stop forcing their subculture here. We want more than one type of writing.
Oh fuck off, they never did anything like that. Just because they decided to write in some genre, or whatever the fuck they’re writing, you don’t like doesn’t mean they were bringing their subculture or whatever. That shit is cope full stop. In fact here’s the web I mentioned earlier that gets shat on by you fucks >>18496986

>>18496529
thank you for posting this. It just increases my urgency to self publish my shit ASAP because first is always best, no matter the quality.
And i'm very sorry someone beat you to it, anon. Publish it anyways, but... damn unlucky.

I've done some research for Blackula

> African foods
Injera is a sourdough, flatbread of Ethiopia. It is traditionally made with teff flour, made from a grass native to the Horn of Africa. It is traditionally served with soup that is eaten with the hands. The injera is used to scoop up the stew or soup.

Doro wat is an onion-based chicken stew from Ethiopia.

> traditional African medicine that treat wounds
Wild ginger (rhizome from Mozambique)
gotu kola (tea plant from South Africa)
buchu plant (South Africa)

> Black slang
wild disrespectful
mad as hell honestly
throwing shade at someone
beat the breaks off someone
heffa (derogatory term for woman)
nasty hoe
asking to get schooled
just … no. Stop.
major props
to whoop [adjective] ass

>have a basic idea
>imagine kino scenes that could stem from this idea
>start writing
>get bored with my own prose
>keep daydreaming about the kino scenes instead
WHAT A LIFE

Is this a good way to end a chapter, or is it too hand-holdy and clichéed?
>The girl noticed she was afraid for her life. It didn’t occur to her to feel this way before: Death seemed so certain that fear appeared pointless. Anger, pity, and annoyance were more appropriate then. But now, now that death was but a mere possibility, it terrified her. Maybe her story wouldn’t end so abruptly. Maybe it was too soon to set a period. She’d have to fight. Fight the terror, fight the pain, just to have that last laugh over Aunt J.

>>18491674
>Critics
stopped reading there
2/10 pasta

>>18496945
That's a good plot
Would make a nice movie at very least

What does /lit/ think about story set in post-apo Mars colony?
Basically for some reason every colony in solar system looses contact with each other and every ship trying to leave dissapears.
Mars is terraformed and couple centuries have passed.
Main protag is a descendant of original colonists that have been blesse with long life due to genetic enhancements so you still have some of the pre-fall colonists around.
People on Mars are divided into long living pure blooded tribals and techno-barbarians of mixed blood living in ruined cities.
Main protag was always fascinated by stories about ancient Earth (during the height of system colonization) and accidentally finds out that there is a single com sat still operational out there.

>>18497852
Basically any story works. It's all about execution.

>>18497862
True dat.
But it's harder to write an interesting story in a overused setting like Tolkienesque fantasy.

Strange sounds came from the red steel door that led to the engine room. Sandy Prescott was on her way to the bridge when she stopped and looked at the door. Fluids gurgled, pumps whirred ... but she heard something else. Sandy placed the stack of files she was to take to the captain on one of the workbenches and typed the four-digit security code into the console on the wall. A hidden mechanism caused the metal lock to snap. Squeaking, the door opened a finger's width and the sounds grew louder. The curiosity on Sandy's face turned to alarm.

With shaky hands, she pulled the door crack a little wider and peered with one eye into the engine room. The electric overhead lights had been extinguished. The only source of light was the burning coal stove. The machinery and the iron walls were painted with red and black by the dancing flames. A figure that looked like Peter Billings knelt before the fiery furnace, throwing his upper body back and forth, like a broken metronome, and with each swing, his head almost hit the ground. A continuous moan flowed from his mouth, dark and slimy, as if rising from his bowels. Sandy stared at the demonic scene. She wanted to run away, but her legs disobeyed her. Suddenly, the moaning stopped and Peter Billings - or the figure that looked like Peter Billings - slumped over and hit his forehead against the floor. The dull thump of the impact echoed off the flickering walls. After a few agonizing seconds, the lifeless body began to twitch. Like a wooden doll on strings, it slowly straightened ... bent back further and further ... until the head buckled and fell into the back of the neck. As the charcoal-black eyes stared at Sandy, she began to scream.

>>18497871
>Sandy Prescott was on her way to the bridge when she stopped and looked at the door.
I think that's too blow by blow and looks like an explanation.

>>18497878
I'll try to figure something out. Thanks mate.

For hundred years!- The ancient runic cup shattered into pieces on the floor, spilling the wine over torn document. -Me, on the leash here for a hundred years! The usurper!
Please princess, please.- The maid couldn't help but glance around them. Even the walls under the barrier dome could have ears.
Do not *please* me.- The princess looked past her and untied the lord-guardian mantle to stand up. -Is the contact ready, or are you here to remind me of my duty.
The maid took her time to bow, to hide the denial gesture to a maid that was about to enter with one of the few remaining cups. -The contact have prepared the infiltration route.

>>18497852
Sounds interesting.

>>18497918
>The contact have prepared the infiltration route
ESL

>>18497976
Yes, some grammar mistakes go under my radar. That's where reader feedback will come through.

>>18498006
How about you read a book before you start writing before wasting everyone’s time.

>>18498013
You mean in English? I read those whenever I find something interesting.

>>18498020
Maybe you should some more before coming here and wasting everyone’s time.

>>18497442
>The slant eyed, yellow skinned, buck toothed being looked at me. Or maybe not, I couldn't tell because of the aforementioned slat eyes.

>>18498027
Maybe the english published writers could make more interesting books. Because webnovels and LN translations are not exactly conducive to learning by example.

>>18498027
>>18498013
Rude, the foreigner is trying his best

>>18495541
>and how Dark Souls handles worldbuilding.
Piss poor and barely there with an absurd need to rely on third party sources that get brushed aside as just being "They gave us such a good mystery my guy!!!!!!"?

>>18498037
>Having any faith in english published writers
>having any hope at all in publishing houses
>Still having any hope in Literature at all.
Anon...

>>18498027
If he lives in non-anglo speaking country there is no point for him to bother with writing in English, at least for now.
It's usually easier to succeed on a local market.
Depending on how big the market is obviously.

>>18498092
If he wants to try writing in English, he should. Don't be a crab

>>18498104
>If he wants to try writing in English
He shouldn't tho at least not if he actually wants to publish.

>>18498037
You haven't even tried reading western fiction. Most of it is just the same chuuni shit seen in LNs, just without the waifus.

How do you know when your book is ready to go to agents?

>>18498524
Not western fiction of the last two decades, yes. Good books were so sparse that I stuck to 20th century.

>>18491687
love you anon

>>18498530
Post it on /lit/, of course, and judge based on how mean-spirited the feedback is.

>>18491674
What writer hasn't been buried under his own name?

>24
>browsed this board for almost 4 years
>never wrote a single word

>>18498992
Today's the day to start!

I HATE R/WRITING
I HATE R/WRITING
I HATE R/WRITING

>>18499183
>I HATE R/WRITING
Why?

>>18499183
>The cover and the title are very important
>The cover
>literally judging a book by its cover

>>18499219
I mean, whether you like it or not those are important for getting people interested.

>>18499307
Do you think the author makes the cover? Or has actual say in it? It's all men in suits making those decisions.

>>18491730
Please say bababadalgharagtakaminnaronkonnbronntonnerontuonnthunntrovarrunawnskawntoohoohoohoordenenthur-nuk! vocaroobro

My test reader rated my latest chapter a 9+ and the one before it an 8- (scale is 4-10)
I don't know what to make of this. My work is clearly very uneven.

>>18496945
Stealing this. Will attempt to write a short story with this premise and post it by next week. Wish me luck.

>>18499628
>scale is 4-10
What the fuck? Why isn't it just 0-6, then?

>wrote 1500 words today
Feels good. What doesn't feel good is when I'll inevitably realize tomorrow that large parts of it are bad, thus forcing a rewrite.

>>18497093
You're totally free to interpret this, I take it as a compliment!
>>18497838
Thanks, anon.
>>18499640
Good luck! There's nothing new under the sun. I'll try to write a short story when I have time. Post it afterwards.

>>18499896
Never rewrite early, you fool.

>>18499628
>Ask someone for critique
>"This is really good!"
>Start writing the next chapter
>Get anxious over my ability to replicate what made the last one work
Fuck

>>18499909
I can't help myself. If I don't, I always feel like anything new I write stands on shaky foundations.

>>18499916
Quality depends on what the reader feels. As long as something is readable and doesn't feel forced, it's already a 5 to me. If the plot goes forward and I feel like my time hasn't been wasted, it's a 7. The last points are based on character development and personal taste.

>>18499918
>I always feel like anything new I write stands on shaky foundations.
1) It probably does, and that's okay.
2) If you can't handle the uncertainty, try outlining.
Getting stuff onto the paper is most important.

Write stories that are compelling for you and fun to write. It shouldn't be a difficult and painful process. If it is, then you are trying to write for a market, which is a shitty thing to do. Write for yourself, make it good, and then try to find an agent.

What's a good book to study if I want to learn to write interesting characters?

>>18499987
Thanks, anon. I'll try.

>>18499183
>>18499203
>>18499219
Hmmm

>>18499916
>rating chapters
What the hell? The only worth of chapters is in how they work as part of the whole, evaluating them individually is completely meaningless

>>18500910
Every chapter should be its own story with beginning, middle and end.

>>18500919
I do what Frank Herbert did and end the chapter where I would put a scene break.

At least for this one novel (series). I wouldn't do it normally, but I've been working on this project for so long that it now can be considered my default.

>>18500919
Not really. If every chapter is some kind of attention-hogging amusement park ride, it only gets super formulaic and numbing in the long run. Chapters, like sentences, require variety and contrast. Otherwise, you don't have a novel, just a bunch of repetitive short stories

>>18500919
no

>>18500919
there are people who disagree with this, to be fair, but i am inclined to agree from an authorial standpoint. even if a chapter contains multiple separate scenes, i find it helpful to structure them individually (and thus the work their aggregate composes) in that way. for me, the alternative is meandering, tangential sections that are chapters in name only. by coming into a chapter with an outline of what i want to accomplish with it with respect to the story as a whole, it helps keep my writing more focused, and it makes later edits for things like motif and theme that much easier, since i can have an idea of them from the get-go. this is potentially a little overly-formalist, but whatever's clever ultimately.

I am a little inspired by J.Hellers something happened and my own neuroticism

If anyone can offer some feedback on this opening to a short story I'm writing, I'd appreciate it.

how do i come up with character names that dont sound fucking retarded?

>>18501710
Serviceable Id say, its not egregiously long winded nor is it excellent

I personally enjoy a more metaphor driven description but that may not be the style you're going for

>>18501589
Some awkward and long-winded phrasing (like that second sentence) but otherwise I found it pretty funny. I would continue reading only if there's some event that disrupts what you've set up here and in a way that heightens the irony even more.

>>18501710
This is too long a passage without some kind of reaction from the character. It's almost the equivalent of watching someone do something from far away with a pair of binoculars -- except what they're doing is so mundane that I don't want to watch them for very long. You could have just as well said, "he parked his bike near the tunnel, took a swig of whiskey, built a fire and rifled through his meal sack" and lost nothing.

>>18502015
That's telling, the anon wanted to show.

>>18501848
Sorkin likes to use the names of athletes because they all have mellifluous names. You could also use a phone book (or its equivalent).

>>18502038
I'm aware of that. But it's better to tell the boring stuff than show it in excruciating detail.

>>18502048
no

>>18499909
Rewrites to stuff you just wrote isn't necessarily bad. Writing is thought on a page. Sometimes you have a better thought to replace that one, and if you don't replace it, it will mess up the flow of the rest of the story. That said, usually people rewrite more rather than write new content, which is wrong

>>18501848
Doctors, nfl players and baby names by country

>>18501848
This is the formula that I use:
>first part of first name is a bodily fluid
>last part of first name is a generic object
>surname is taken from the top 20 American surnames

Cumball Williams
Poopcup Johnson
Shitstick Smith
Peepen Jones
etc.

It's gotten a pretty good response from my beta readers, and two agents are currently taking a look at my manuscript.

>>18501884
Thanks for reading anon. When you say "metaphor driven," you mean something like;
>"the vines hung from the cave entrance like the bars of a prison."
right?
>>18502015
>>18502038
Thanks for the help anons. It is a mundane process, but I was hoping it gave some idea of what sort of person Cullan is. I think the next paragraph where he decides to eat moldy beans does that a little better, though. Either way, appreciate you reading.

>Be me and friend
>Writing brothers
>Get asked to write a script for some Exec's passion project
>He is a producer by skill
>Super imposing himself on our writing with the most retarded of ideas, tells us to write freely, but then removes it the next week we start writing (out of a 4 week deadline) when he suddenly tells us about his "concrete vision". I explicitly asked if he wanted us to include camera directions, he says yes and that he wants our creativity unchained. We include camera directions, he suddenly tells us we want no camera directions -> have to reconfigure all of our scenes. Suddenly tells us every scene will be done on a static camera and that our script must convey that, tfw 3 weeks left and already losing hair. He wrote up a couple scenes and they look like a fucking elementary school spelling b winner, and tries to "blend" it in with our work while giving himself a writers credit.

How do people do this and keep their integrity?

>>18502758
I'm pretty sure anyone who tries "meeting their integrity" gets fired, let go, posted due to creative differences, their input dismissed, ignored, etc

>>18502787
*keeping their integrity, not meeting

>>18502787
*parted due to creative differences

Does anyone have advice on writing branching narratives? Like, how much should I be outlining and all that?

>>18499183
THEN WHY DID YOU GO TO R/WRITING

>>18491674
fking lol

>>18499896
>wrote 1200 words today
>ended up deliting everything

>>18503073
>write first chapter of my novel
>I've written the first chapter of my novel 100 times
>read through it at 2 in the morning
>delete it at 2:15 am
>contemplate suicide
whats the point

>>18501589
I never read J. Hellers, but I'm guessing that accounts for the strange present tense.
>titbits
It's actually tidbits, unless that's intentional. I also think that sentence runs on a little too long.
It's also a little awkward using "me" twice in that sentence that begins, "I decide to qualify."
Besides that I thought it was pretty well written, much better than a lot of the stuff on here. Like that other anon, I honestly would read some more.

>tried to wake up at 7am today
>subconsciously turned alarm off and slept into 11am
>tried to start writing after waking up, but ended up dicking around for some 6 hours
>after enough procrastinating opened up document
>wrote 6 words so far, got lazy and started watching a friend play SRW X instead
brothers...

Well boys, I did it, I finally managed to write 1500 words in a day for what is my worst chapter yet
Cheers

>>18503323
It just fucking happens bro,, don't beat yourself up so hard over it
But for one thing, men are bad at multitasking, and another is that opening up the document tricks your mind into thinking you're more productive than you really are. So you'll tell yourself that you're fine alt-tabbing into something else, but really you're just tricking yourself into complacency. Have one, at most, distraction in the background.

>>18503848
These past couple weeks I've been burning through videos of a youtuber called AntDude. Surprisingly, it just werks.

>>18499183
good advice, don't get mad cause you got filtered.

how does one get better at describing things?
is it just through accumulation of experience?
is reading more books the only way?

>>18499887
Because that's how the education system in my country works. Don't ask me, ask the people who came up with it.

Reminder that handwriting is underrated and you should try it.
>but you'll have to transcribe it to digital later
Use this as part of your editing process. Typing out your handwritten manuscript can serve as your first pass at line editing. It essentially forces you to pay minute attention to what you've written, and greater attention equals higher quality writing.
>but I can't write as fast as I can type
This is a good thing. It slows you down, makes you consider every sentence you put down on paper. This contributes directly to the quality of your writing. Crossing out poorly worded and awkward sentences mars up your pretty little page of handwritten prose, acting as an incentive to pay even more attention.

In addition to the above, there is a high quality body of research on typing vs. handwriting and their relationships to memory and engagement with the content. Handwriting has been conclusively proven to improve retention and comprehension of written material compared to typing. Give it a try, anon!

>>18493295
i read it

>context: an office worker and a street food seller (TA) was talking over coffee when the latter gets a stroke

“Sorry I asked. Look, I might be able to help if she’s on my floor—”

Something splashed onto his leather shoes. He looked up. TA was lurching, tearing into his abdomen, clawing at the air for something to hold on to. A guttural groan escaped between grinding teeth. He tossed the coffee and jumped forwards and grabbed his shoulders, bony and slipping, choking like sobs. TA clawed deeper into his kidney and tried to scream but the sharp pain sliced his throat, sent him limp and kneeling on the ground and leaning on the only person he’d talked to all night.

Wide eyed, the worker froze. TA’s body felt cold with sweat and the groans reverberated between their chests. He screamed for help, forgetting all embarrassment, screamed again into the empty plaza. Please don’t die, he thought, not with me, not with me. Footsteps, running. He screamed again. What’s wrong what’s wrong? Hospital hurry, hurry hurry I can’t I got a bike. Bring him to my car. Is he breathing? I don’t know, yes maybe. What’s the matter? I don’t know, his his stomach. What’s his name? I don’t know. The fried rice cart was towed away by security before dawn.

I wrote some words ........ into my resume

>>18505085
do they usually claw at their stomach?

>>18505105
i should've said it's the kidney, not a stroke. trying to keep it vague because i want to reveal that he sold his kidney.

lately i often go on /pol/ just to get ideas for my book and i just marvel at the brainrot that transpires there it's fucking amazing there's so much material for an absolutely schizophrenic novel

>>18505171
you should stay there

>>18505171
try /x/ while you're at it

>>18505179
no i don't want to get cancer

Ofttimes I reread my writings, even my emails and posts, smirking and thinking that this is the good shit, while acknowledging at the same time on the edge of my mind that this is due to compulsion and social anxiety. Do you know what I am saying?

>>18505382
This reads like a dril post except with better grammar.

>>18505022
thanks! thoughts?

>>18505592
What do you mean? This is not a drill.

>>18505608
i can dig the prose and i like the nuances (like the call back to the wednesday thing thing). the story itself is meh.

Just finished my one page for the day and I'm feeling good. Only took me around four hours tonight.

>>18505774
Good on you anon

>>18491612
that guy cant hold all those limes! :D

>>18506187
he can, he just chooses not to. he wants to portray the image of a man who can't hold all those limes, but from the amount of limes within the crook of his arm, it is obvious that they could all easily be held. all he needs to do is adjust his grip on them. i would suggest a two-hand cup grip, allowing the limes to stack up between his open palms. holding the palms together would give the limes a surface to rest on without falling on the floor, thus fulfilling the goal of holding all those limes. he knows this, but because he can't be seen putting forth too much effort in his holding of the limes, he allows them to fall freely in an expression of self-deprecating humor. we are supposed to be amused, and in the process allow him to maintain a little bit more of a mental wall between his true capabilities and the outside world. i would assume he's an introvert.

>>18505085
>guttural groan escaped between grinding teeth
This sentence felt a little awkward. I would personally remove "guttural."
I also think you should also try and cut back on some of your "-ing" verbs in the first paragraph. when possible.
I understand you're trying to show the chaotic interactions between the office worker and the strangers coming to help her, but you should establish that someone is speaking when you say, "What's wrong what's wrong?"
Maybe you could do something like;
>A voice from behind, what's wrong.

>>18493288
I liked it anon.
There were a few sentences that read a little awkward to me. These ones in particular;
>When the pasta bowls are empty save for olive oil
>I felt at perfect peace
Could use some re-working.
I also think the first part of the story is much more interesting than the dream sequence. I think it's a mistake to tell us how the protagonist feels about his father outright, at least during the dream sequence itself. Alluding to more of those feelings and letting the audience figure it out for themselves would be more effective.

>>18506243
thanks anon

>>18506424
thank you :)

Do any of you participate with local writing groups (maybe virtually ever since Covid)? If so, how do you determine if they’re worth your while?

>>18507181
I do. They're worth it, even if the majority of writers are terrible. It's a social network, and that's valuable. When I launched my Substack, a good 20 of them subscribed which also helped me a lot. Plus, they're normies, so when I workshop something I get the sense that I'm getting the "average" reader's opinion that's representative of "the market" rather than the snobby opinions of disgruntled 4chan types. There's real value in that.

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/audiobook/passing-tales
Someone please buy and share.

>>18507326
Why can't he release this as a normal not-audio book? I don't want to listen to his "quirky", overly excited voice

>>18499183
The only hateful thing in this post is OP claiming he's got ADHD. I truly hate twats like that and they're everywhere on shittit. Nowadays everyone has got undiagnosed ADHD when they're in fact just retarded with generational short attention spans.

>>18507472
you are very correct. people are looking for excuses for their failures and ADD/ADHD is here to save the day.
ADHD is real, but it's in no way near as prevalent as the amount of diagnoses in western countries would indicate.

>>18501710
is his name Cullan or Caelan? Is it one or two people named basically the same thing?

>highest inspiration during the day is at work

make it stop

>>18507612
>he doesn't have a job which he can write during

i'm 26 years old and still posting on this board after 8+ years. can't believe it. win quickly, boys, because already at my age the fire is burning out. I have some credentials to my name, publications, master's degree, all that, but still, the drive to create a "great" novel that was alive at 18-22 fades faster than you can ever predict. Already I just want to go to law school and move on from the writing phase of my life. I'm giving myself another year to finish this manuscript - i'm at 76k and counting. But after this, it's time to hang up the dream of my writing career and commit to something more concrete. I'll write forever as a hobby and a personal interest, but this whole "being a writer" thing is nearing dusk.

>>18507713
Your master degree isn't in english/literature... right?

>>18507713
sorry bro but you're wrong. maybe it's faded in you but thats just cause you set your mind to being a young prodigy etc. I'm 38 and have just finally found the time to work regularly on my novel, and that's fucking amazing considering i have kids. Sure, it might not be your day job, but you can still write. And that's what's important, right? RIGHT? Yeah, you better not be in this for the fame and money... poser.

>>18507512
I've been trying out both but I must've missed that one, sorry. Do you have a preference for either? much like >>18501848 I'm trying to come up with interesting names that don't sound stupid.

>>18507935
No need to apologise. I like Caelan more... sounds irish/gaelish, but wtf do i know, i'm ESL.

>>18507904
>I'm 38 and have just finally found the time to work regularly on my novel
I'm 32 myself. My life lately is characterized by a burning passion to write and perfect the craft. I don't even care if I ever make a "career" out of it. I don't have a great job and I don't have much in terms of material wealth, but writing for the sake of the writing itself has become one of the most consistently joyful things in my life. Really, the Vedas figured this out literal millenia ago. Sing for the sake of the song, fight for the sake of the fight, write for the sake of the writing. Separate yourself from the expectation of results and focus on the action itself.

to those who count and have a list of read books,

how many books did you read before write anything even a short story or a poem?

>>18508149
yup. all else will most probably leave you disappointed.

>>18507962
Thanks anon! It actually is an old Irish name, good spot.
>>18508341
I started "seriously" reading around 2019 and went through around 40 books before I started writing short stories in late 2020.

>>18508341
Unless you've been reading since you were very young, you are NGMI and nothing will help you. It would have given you key stylometric habits that you can't obtain as an adult, similar to how Genie the feral child never developed proper language skills. Only natural readers can become writers. If you attempt to force yourself to be a reader, just so you can be a writer, you are NGMI.

>>18497326
>Across the rhino's back a string of shrikes was perched
This sounds really off to me, but I'm probably just retarded. Can a grammar pro explain to me why they used "was" instead of "were"?

>>18509333
"A string" is singular. "Of shrikes" modifies the singular noun, but doesn't change it to plural. You should use "was" with singular nouns.

Your mind reads it as plural due to "shrikes" being plural, but you should be focusing on "a string" when thinking whether to use "was"/"were".

>>18491674

lel

>>18510990
wait FUCK i left my trip on godamn it i hope you faggots dont browse /lgbt/

also i finished my rambling half autobiography half manifesto where i talk about diapers, being trans, a bit about self harm, my mom trying to fuck me, fallout new vegas, my dad being a tranny, my dad dying, my tranny friends dying, college, having covid, my thoughts on vaccines, the city and state im from and idk just like the past 21 of interesting stories, ancedotes, and my opinions

>>18511018
>fallout new vegas
There's the root of it

>>18507713
you dumb nigger, there are literal zoomers who wrote their first great novel during their pandemic summer break

> Scottsdale teen Knishinsky writes first fantasy novel
Rather than being on Tik Tok, watching Netflix, or playing video games, 14-year-old Danit Knishinsky stayed occupied writing her first fantasy novel while quarantining during the pandemic.

The Scottsdale resident worked during the lockdown to write and publish her first fantasy novel called, “Maddie Skirkoff: World of Odds,” according to a press release, calling the book a “perfect summer reading” for ages 7-16.

“I strive to share my stories with the world,” said Knishinsky, the first-time published teen author, who has been telling stories reportedly since the age of two.

The release said her first written story was at 4 years old. As the pandemic forced teens to curb their extracurricular activities and shelter in, she put her energy into writing an adventurous story not only for herself but for her contemporaries, spending 12 months crafting her fictional novel.

Her father became her editor and helped her navigate through the publishing process, noted the release.

“I think one positive aspect of the pandemic was that it cleared the calendar for a lot of people, allowing them to pursue endeavors they didn’t have time for before, like catching up on a hobby or pursuing a personal dream,” said her father, Ran Knishinsky, in a prepared statement.

Maddie Shirkoff: World of Odds is a story of a young girl named Maddie who always “dreamed of finding the extraordinary,” the release said, adding about what she does when “the extraordinary shows up at her front door” as a portal transporting her to a dream world including goblins, fire-breathing dragons, and magic potions to corrupt rulers.

Describing challenges including saving a daying dog, summoning spirits and more, the adventures are filled with challenges that the character, Maddie has to confront if she were to return home, the release said.

“I have been influenced by my favorite writers that include JK Rowling, Rick Riordan, Soman Chainani, and James Patterson,” said the young author.

A voracious reader, she is inspired by the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson book series and their authors. Entering the ninth grade in the fall, she enjoys creative writing assignments in school.

She lives in Scottsdale with her father and mother, Alma and her sister, Yael, 11. In her spare time, she enjoys ice skating and loves dogs, especially her two golden retrievers, Casper and Chloe.

https://www.yourvalley.net/scottsdale-independent/stories/scottsdale-teen-knishinsky-writes-first-fantasy-novel,239469?
https://www.amazon.com/Maddie-Shirkoff-World-Danit-Knishinsky/dp/0578875519

>>18511090
excerpt from the book

>>18511090
>Her father became her editor and helped her navigate through the publishing process

So, she cheated. Got it.

>>18511102
now that's some good writing

>>18509094
lol what a load of crock. >>>/b/ and pls don't come back.

>>18511116
:^)

>>18511102
This is shit lol

I feel like unless I'm writing my prose to be humorous, erotic, or unsettling then its not interesting to read. It can be competent, but the spark that makes readers want to keep reading just isn't there if I stick to a more monotone prose.

...Am i schizo for applying renaissance painting basics to my writing?

>>18503918
You sound like a retard

>>18511152
so you've realised you need to make an effort to be interesting. that's where we all are. no one is interested in your internal monologue ramblings. they're a dime a dozen in every thread. most likely your thoughts aren't anything new to most people. if you were, however, to convolute them into interesting conversations and humouristic dialogue etc, well now you're talking. basically: it seems you've figured something out. don't try to ignore it just cause you wanna focus on your monotone prose. or rather, choose - do you want to be interesting or are you more interested in just rambling?

>>18511090
Am I crazy or is this totally self published?

>>18511353
yes, it is, but the point isn't whether she did or didn't convince a bunch of publishing jews to publish her book, it's that she finished the book in the first place

>>18511358
I could finish a pile of shit too but I have unreasonably high standards for myself.

>>18511361
someone clearly doesn't appreciate high lit. Maddie's adventure with talking trees is just like when Frodo and Sam talked to Ents and saved their forest from being burned up by the big orcs

>>18511374
She's 14, why are you so angry? It's better than anything I wrote when I was 14, considering I went through my awful smutty romantic phase short story phase when I was 16.

>>18511391
I'm not angry, it's the other guy pissing on a teenager for not getting a publishing deal from Hachette or whatever

...
>have inner monologue 24/7
>craft a fuck-ton of stories.
>add in small detail, character traits.
>has basically been happening to me ever since I was a kid.
>dancing around in my room to music doesn't work as much anymore.
>try to write.
>prose is ass and skeletal-dry. rely more on telling then showing.
>punctuation is awful and flaccid.
>discover https://www.typelit.io/ and zettelkasten.
>plan suddenly erupts out of nowhere two days ago.

(The) Goal Is To Grind Until Death.

To put things short, I set up a zettelkasten on the writing habits, techniques, word choice and themes of the author(s) that wrote The Odyssey, KJV Bible both Old and New Testament, Ulysses, Crime and Punishment and so on to help expose what can be used for me to improve my writing. The Zettelkasten will help me systematically organize important information, develop my own ideas and help mutate those habits and techniques into something that I can assimilate for a hopeful good and fertile writing style and prose.

Well /lit/ anons? is there anyway to improve this? I only thought of this two days ago.

>>18511434
>>18511434
>>18511434
>>18511434