/lit/ - Literature

I am writing a novel. I expect it to get published.

Yeah I'm doing that right now.

I've currently got 1400 words for about...like 2 or so weeks of work. It's not about the speed or anything for me, but I feel like if I can keep myself at a rate like this or better, the story will be told.

When I was 16 I wrote a 400-page fantasy novel but my computer crashed and all I had was ~50 pages printed out and then a very rough outline in a journal.
I've thrown out or lost about a thousand poems and short stories, and a couple novels now. They were all just practice anyhow, there's no way any of them could've gotten published.

I'm not working on one currently, I have a few ideas going on that I've written bare-bones outlines for, basically just concepts like the cultural diaspora of the last half-century exacerbating feelings of alienation in the middle-class and their despair regressing into the desire for fascism.

>novel erserese
Captcha is taunting me.

>>1962242
>>1962242

I believe you will find the inspiration once you travel.

>>1962242

You got a great idea for a book. I was thinking more on the cheesy romance novel or something.

I'm working on the 5th draft of a 65k~ word novel that I started this year (but planned for years before). I do want to get published.

I highly recommend doing NaNoWriMo at least once. It really helped me get past that urge to go back and agonize over every single line, and just WRITE. You won't produce something perfect, but it's fun as hell and I got a really developable premise and some great characters out of it. It's a great exercise to prove to yourself that hell yes you are capable of producing a first novel draft.

I started on a fantasy novel at the start of the month. I've got 32,267 words so far, about 135 pages. It will be somewhere between 300 and 600 pages when it's done. I want to get published, but I expect several months of hardcore editing once I finish it before I even submit it.

The setting is a continent that has been separated magically from the rest of the world, where a race that are more or less elves have invaded and enslaved the human population, who have never encountered magic before. The story begins with the slow formation of a revolution, but will eventually switch focus to the state of the outside world and why the "elves" chose to barricade themselves on the continent in the first place.

>>1962252
write what you know

I wrote a 500pg novel with multiple points of view and subplots and all that shit then I lost it.
Never again.

I have written a whole range of short stories in different styles and with different themes. Many of them with the same name for the protagonist.

Am working at putting these together as a novel.

I can not think of writing an entire novel as all the novels I read are written too loosely, feels like words filling pages, nothing more.

>>1962448
You seem to be reading the wrong lit, bro. Get yourself some Evelyn Waugh.

>>1962427
>lost it

This is why only amateurs type up first drafts. Everything I write is on pen and paper first, edited, then edited during the transaction to digital.

I'm planning on eventually writing a short fantasy novel with some hidden sci-fi twists. I just need more brainstorming, will power, time an editor, and research before I start. If I ever get around to doing this I'll self publish cheap (ninety nine cents to two dollars) ebooks instead of using a e/paper publisher.

>>1962455

Thank you added to wishlist, now the long wait to tax return

>>1962464
I do it the same way.

>>1962464
Good for you, but I can write only in the computer.

>>1962491
Save your work in EVERY thumb drive, EVERY disc, and EVERY hard drive you can get your hands on!

>>1962485
>>1962482

I write as a compromise of the two.

I type out a first draft, as I can type faster and don't linger too long on the words, forget everything, give up and get drunk.

After typing the first draft, I print with large margins (about a third to a half of the page) and with 1.5 line spacing. this allows me to edit and compress the writing that is already there

>>1962498

bonus prize....

date and punch holes in the drafts for a chronological record of the work...

How the hell does a first novelist get published anyway? Don't you have to know the right people?

>>1962506
Generally, you have to have published some short stories in magazines, first.

It is damn difficult to publish a novel if you've got nothing shorter published. Nobody wants to waste their time on a novice, naturally.

John Kennedy Toole could tell you about it.

>>1962506
Not if you self publish!

http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home

>>1962515
>Who can use PubIt!?
Anyone with a valid U.S. Bank Account, U.S. Credit Card, and U.S. Tax ID can sign up to use PubIt! Your Tax ID can be a Social Security Number (SSN)/ITIN or an Employer Identification Number (EIN).


It's always too good.

>>1962540
That's just a generic example of one way to self publish your work. There are plenty of other sites on the web where you can do this...

Fun topic, so bump

>>1962545

Mfw you guys don't have local printing offices where you are at? Most of them will do up paperback books easy and cheap. Why would you ever use some overpriced bullshit website?

>>1963079

How much % of the profits do they get out of my work if I sell paperback books?

>>1963747

Huh?

Printing Offices are like CD Duplication places for musicians. They don't take any percentage of what you do, you just come to them with a book and they will print it in an edition of however large you want ( if you go to someplace small and local then you can get smaller editions, eg 200 or 300) If you order in bulk you can get a much better price than only buying a few.

>>1962464
>>1962427
>>1962242

why not just save often and on a flash drive?
are you guys fucking retarded?

>publish e book for free
>no printing costs
>????
>profit

got a 90,000 worder hanging around in editing/revision. From what I can glean from the publishing industry, self-publishing is basically useless unless you're writing pop fiction (because nobody buys literary works). Also, publishing shorter works isn't absolutely necessary to get a novel published. You're better off sending your novel to 50 agents than perfecting your short story abilities enough to get published and only having time to send your novel to 15 agents.

>>1963863
>>1963877

>self-publishing is basically useless unless you're writing pop fiction (because nobody buys literary works)

It's good when you just want to be read instead of turning a profit (like when you already have a stable job and know you won't make enough with writing). People may not buy literally works, but there are plenty of us /lit/erates who will download free information. Doing so might even result in growing a fan base willing to buy your work.

>>1964460
but if you want info freely disseminated, why publish it? Why not just upload a text document?

>>1964488

I was talking along those lines, but with the addition of something akin to an open source licencee (I still get credit for my work and said credit remains even when someone adds their own material--getting their own credit for whatever they add/create) rather than pure freeware (free=freedom/rights).

If you want to make profit by publishing online (as in, ebooks) you should try to have a fan/reader base before doing so. It also helps to run a 'professional' style blog. This will also help you get reviews/more publicity on blogs, book websites, and all that good stuff.

>>1964555
This is pretty much correct.

It helps if you write some sort of insipid vampire pornography, too.

>>1962242
>the cultural diaspora of the last half-century exacerbating feelings of alienation in the middle-class and their despair regressing into the desire for fascism.

This is an actually interesting premise for a story. I must say, I'm surprised. I thought most of /lit/ just wanted to write fantasy/dystopia fiction.

>>1964572
http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/2010/08/epic-tale-of-how-it-all-happened.html

inb4
>no talent
and
>wah wah wah the industry is fucked

>>1964609
"What exactly is a publisher going to bring you at this point that you can't already get? Only one thing--your books in stores. And I believe bookstores are going to be dying as fast as video stores have done in the last five years. It's like jumping off your own sound boat that you built yourself and climbing aboard a sinking boat that has someone else at the helm and they tell you to sit in the back and shut up.

Amanda, your industry is Amanda, not the publishing industry. Are you willing to give up control and vision of My Blood Approves to people who will never care as much as you do, no matter how hard they try and how much they say they do?

This is all heavy stuff, and things I've been mulling all year. A publisher may promote you if you are already a bestseller or they invest a lot of money. An agent may get you some foreign, audio, and maybe even a film deal, but people are getting that kind of interest without having agents. (At that point you'd probably need an agent or lawyer to handle a specific negotiation, but if they want to control everything, then you need to ask them all these hard questions. Many agents are in total denial about what's happening--clearly the ebook era is growing rapidly and clearly publishers are no longer necessary for success, as you and others have proven.)"

wah wah the industry is fucked!

>>1964608
by my eyes, that sounds like dystopian fiction

Yeah, I have attempted to write novels. Never finished one, but I've gone far enough to know that the bulk of it involves hardcore, single-minded research, all in the effort of making my shit look believable.

>>1964572
Hey, whatever pays the bills.

>>1964633
This!

I've finished two novels and have another at about 80k words that's yet to find a plot. I don't want to give up on it, but I'm thinking I kind of have to.

Currently in the process of editing one of my novels, and it's hard fucking work.

just enter competitions.

It costs entrance fees but who cares about $20 a fortnight.

Bonus... you will mostly hear nothing back, maybe the perfectionist was right

I have seven weeks of holiday so I'm going with the Chabon method and trying to write 1000 words a day. If I manage to write 1000 words everyday then I'll have 50,000 words at the end of the summer, then I can just complete the remaining 30,000 words in the academic year. I never thought writing would be this slow.

I have a habbit of starting and writing several chapters then stopping. I just write because I like to though so it desn't bother me that I never finish anything. I'm like that one girl everyone knew in high school who's floor was littered with unfinished novels.

>>1965990

Not me. Music music everywhere

>I have came upon myself a lot of time

I'm not really one for a novel. I've written short stories but never really tackled a novel. Probably because most novels I've read seem to drag on where everything seems to be filler for the next important event. I like short stories because I can get to the point quicker and still be as descriptive as I want.

i write like:

1 paragraph, sometimes 2

dwell on said paragraph/s, editing them into oblivion

decide i hate it

start again
i dont think ill ever finish a short story let alone a novel.

>>1966086
This, everytime.

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

>>1965990
>I never knew a girl that interesting in high school.

>>1966105
>>1966086

>I’m one of the few writers I know or have heard of who suggests that one sign of the unready amateur writer is in starting too soon. That is, not only on their attempts to get published – I suggest that a long apprenticeship is usually needed – but on trying to convert an “idea” into a story or novel. Once again, I wish I had a dollar for every time, at a party or elsewhere, I’ve heard some would-be but still-unpublished “writer” say that he’s starting work on his novel, often a fantasy with a title such as “The Singing Sword of Sha-na-nah,” which he says will be Book One of the Sha-Na-Nah Chronicles, probably six books, maybe ten.

>Mother of God! What hubris. What staggering arrogance. Here’s a pup who’s never published a short story and he’s already sending his minions out to fell entire forests to feed his fantasy (in more ways than one) infinology.

>Usually their thinking about these “six books, maybe ten” – their gathering of plot, characters, ideas, themes, and style, other than a vague plan of imitating George R. R. Martin or Robert Jordan or somesuch -- wouldn’t provide enough fuel to power a short, short story.

>One of the problems of today’s crop of would-be writers is that the great majority of them want to go straight to writing novels (or long sequences of novels, the dreaded Chronicles of Sha-na-nah) without ever mastering, or perhaps even writing, a short story. While it’s certainly true that some writers are novelists at heart rather than short-story writers (I found out that this was true of me), just skipping the short-story form is too much like a young would-be filmmaker announcing that he or she is ready to be paid to do a big-budget major motion picture even though he or she has never picked up a movie camera.

>>1966173

This is great, except that he won't admit that the genre's elephantiasis naturally leads to this kind of thinking.

>>1966173
>I’ve heard some would-be but still-unpublished “writer” say that he’s starting work on his novel, often a fantasy with a title such as “The Singing Sword of Sha-na-nah,” which he says will be Book One of the Sha-Na-Nah Chronicles, probably six books, maybe ten.

>>1966188
Well, first of all, it doesn't, and secondly, that's completely irrelevant to what he's saying. He doesn't bring it up... which is not the same thing as refusing to "admit it." It's not as if he's being peppered with questions under torture, and gritting his teeth and shouting "Never! I will never admit that the genre is stricken with a word which is a disease which means something other than what you thought it did! I'll die first!" Not addressing some random idea of yours that doesn't naturally fit within his argument is not "refusing to admit" it.

Go try to sound smart somewhere else.

>>1966086

Just try writing out the entire thing before you even consider editing...

I can't see the argument in writing short stories before writing novels. Can someone explain this to me?

Wouldn't it be more effective to write 1 80,000 word work, rather than 80 1000 word works, especially if your end goal is to become a long-form writer?

>>1966341
experimentation, in form and rhythm and editing

and charecters that don't need a novel

>>1962464
Bullshit. I just email a copy of my novel every now and then, and keep another copy elsewhere. Only a fool would keep just one copy and trust that their hdd won't fail. In any case, writing with a pen is tiresome and needlessly hampers editing.

>>1966357
editing with a pen is fucking priceless

>>1966341
The argument is basically: practice makes perfect. Short stories allow you to experiment with forms and styles while perfecting your craft and developing a rich understanding of what makes stories work.

People who write novels without first perfecting the short story often (not always) practice bad craft, and have little understanding of how stories work.

Writing a lousy novel is a much bigger waste of time and effort than writing a lousy short story.

>>1966348
I read that as "write about characters with only cursory depth while practicing many different forms, despite novels having only one form." Like, I can see the argument, but I can't back it outside of resume-building reasons.

>>1966367
>novels only have one form

>>1966173
>I suggest that a long apprenticeship is usually needed

But in a society that is too focused on diplomas and teachers who only teach multiple students, where can I find such a mentor?!

>>1966367

Not hollow characters, just characters at a specific point.

>>1966341
>Wouldn't it be more effective to write 1 80,000 word work, rather than 80 1000 word works, especially if your end goal is to become a long-form writer?

But with short stories you have more things ot sell. Profit by county.

>>1966372
>finding novels with multiple forms between the front and back covers

The point still stands: no novel has 80 different forms, and neither you nor I could possibly learn to write effectively in 80 different forms anyway

>>1966437
Well, setting aside for a moment this number 80, which you have just pulled out of your ass, you certainly seem to have a low opinion of yourself.

Speaking for myself, I have the capacity to learn all kinds of things. You might want to find another hobby. You'll never be an interesting or successful writer. You don't seem interested in doing the work.

>>1966378

He doesn't mean that you need a master, he just means that you need to work hard at writing for years before you ever are ready to get published.

>>1966341

Because as he said, most ideas aren't worth 80, 000 words.

>>1966466
>He doesn't mean that you need a master

Well that's a disappointment, I rather fancied the idea of an alchemist like master/apprentice relationship.

>you need to work hard at writing for years before you ever are ready to get published.

That doesn't mean I can't mess around with short stories and grow a small fan base--once said stories become readable--via blogging from a personal website in the mean time.

>>1966521
>That doesn't mean I can't mess around with short stories and grow a small fan base--once said stories become readable--via blogging from a personal website in the mean time.

Sure, but thats not what he's talking about. That would be part of the apprenticeship.

>>1966521
>That doesn't mean I can't mess around with short stories and grow a small fan base--once said stories become readable--via blogging from a personal website in the mean time.

Thats what he wants you to do. Expirement and practice and hone your craft before you get it in your head that you're ready to write a novel.

Also, if that actually is what you do, you chose the most faggy way to brag about it on /lit/.

>>1962427
Up until I finished the thread, I was thinking you meant you went mad.

Will this (see pic) prove helpful in honing my writing skills?

I want to write a science fiction novel. I just need a good idea.

>>1966803

No. Go read fiction.

While I am trying to work on a novel, would it be suggested to STOP work on it to write/publish a good array of short stories first or do it whilst writing the novel?

Would the novel take away from the time for other pieces? Would writing a major piece among other smaller pieces allow me to stretch my talents and improve?

>>1967017
Yes.

#1 step to write good fiction: Have talent. No matter if you read a lot of books, if you don't have talent, you'll suck. Proof: Harold Bloom.

>>1967017
Do it while writing the novel. If you can, take excerpts of the novel to ( if you need to) edit minutely and turn into short stories. If you're writing a short story and think it might fit into the novel, do it.

>Would the novel take away from the time for other pieces?
It's up to you to take time or make time for one, all, or none.

>Would writing a major piece among other smaller pieces allow me to stretch my talents and improve?
Maybe, maybe not. That all depends. Try it and see. Or don't.

>>1967041
>>1967041

Regarding excerpts, how long would they need to be to even be considered a short story by a publisher?

Is there a word count/page count?

>>1966812

See

>>1966173

"ideas" aren't worth shit.

>>1966803
Any body gonna answer me?

yes several and they collect dust on my harddrive.

>>1968315
It will give you useful pointers and refreshers for English syntax?

bump

I was thinking of writing a sci-fi short story that mimics and satirizes the first world-second world relations along with the human condition of the first world and comming to terms with your life style depending on the day to day suffering of others.

Ye or nay?

Workin on a novella. Kinda sorta about first contact with an alien race, if it were introduced as gradually and benevolently as it possibly could, written in a kind of wide-lens omniscient perspective.

>>1969080
>>1969004
>sci-fi
NO
NONONONONO

>>1969102

It's done more in a slice-of-life / magical realism sort of way.

>>1969102
But hard scifi is godtier! Just have some real scientist's constantly advising you when writing...

A bildungsroman in which the protagonist is a shark.

A spacecraft crashes down on an unkown planet and the pilot finds himself in the midst of a seemingly familiar world inhabited by apes that want to do bad shit to him. Turns out that while they apes and humans quarrel over the moral dilemma of slavery a new force arises to be reckoned with - a vicious predator outmatching both the humans and the apes intellectually and technologically. As the humans and apes are joined in an unlikely alliance they come to see that they are not so different afterall. Discarded it though cause I thought the plot was too deep.

I am still hard at work on my fanfiction about me and Anon solving internet mysteries together

/lit/ is the only possible audience I could have, but I'm not sure anyone's interested in reading it

>>1969706
Fuck yes.

>>1969854
I'd read it.

>I have came upon myself a lot of time and want to write a novel.
>I have came upon myself a lot of times and want to write a novel.

Funny how one letter changes that sentence.

>>1969854
>>1969854
>>1969854

Son'fa bitch, Sherlock, I need to read this!

>>1969862
>>1969880
hahaha

well, i will post some of it in maybe half an hour

>>1969891
Okay. I'm going to bed now, will follow this thread tho fo sho.

>>1969898
(so please do link to it in this thread because i'm genuinely mega excited to read it)

>>1969102
What's wrong with sci-fi. The sci-fi wouldn't be over though just necessary for the setting.

About to finish up a novella - writing it, that is. Editing should go quick, though, since when I can't bring myself to write further I spend time going back and nitpicking. I'm pretty sure that's a bad habit but I haven't yet seen any affects. The novella is at 23,500 words right now and finishing up will add on another 3,500 or so. Been thinking a lot about the name recently. It was The Human Fable, but that's taken. I was wanting to change it, anyways; it sounded too formulaic and stiff. Planning on publishing the ebook and setting up a blog for it. It's a science fiction piece that is influenced heavily by Stanislaw Lem's work.

>>1969949

>going back and nitpicking

I've heard it's good to skip around whilst editing. It's in case you change your tone towards the end, it unifies the writing, or something.

>>1969908

The problem with sci-fi is that there is sooooooooooooooooooooo much of it out there. It's hard to come up with something fresh. The golden age of science fiction was rife with unprecedented imagination and vision which hadn't been widely demonstrated before then. Compare that to now; every science fiction work is just one more variation of a now old concept. It's like trying to do a prime time cartoon sitcom: The Simpsons did it first. ALL of it.

Okay, here it is. This is the first time I've used paste bin, sorry if i f'd up

paste bin dot com/NdY2YmPs

tips on writing are welcome, I have no idea what I am doing

>>1970137
>>1970137

I mean, sure, the story has a really spontaneous action as it's revolving mostly around people just stumbling into the office, but my god I did laugh at the shared 4chan humor.

> as he pointed to the doublesguy.jpg in her purse

You write clearly and give a good immediate personality to your characters - it's good!

So sad you are Anon's bitch...

:(

>>1969962
What about radical alterations to what we consider human? Say, a scenario filled with advanced nanotechnology and brain structure scanning/imprinting such data into genetic/tissue-engineered blank brains? I don't see any problems with mixing scifi elements into fantasy (ie: magic = utility fog).

I like Oreo cookies with milk.

>>1970535

Oh there is definitely tons of good science fiction waiting to be written, don't get me wrong. It's just that there is an abundance of stale science fiction being written, because it is an easy mistake to make.

That sounds like a pretty good concept. The effect of technology on the human biological makeup is definitely a hot spot for science fiction now.

The novella I'm about to finish (>>1969949) is about an experiment where a man is put into a house that has been fitted with a machine that can control matter and is run by an artificial intelligence. It records his dreams and memories and creates the people form them in the house. As the story progresses it basically turns into a preface to the Singularity. It makes for a lot of philosophical commentary centering around the value humans place on something being "real," and whether that value is misplaced.

>>1970511
thanks a bunch for readin'!

the two characters that come into the office aren't unrelated from one another, though where I've left off does give that impression...When I write more perhaps I'll share it.

>You write clearly and give a good immediate personality to your characters - it's good!

Thanks. I am ripping off Sir Doyle every steppa the way. I have little experience with writing stories.

>So sad you are Anon's bitch...

Oh, I don't mind it so much

>>1970753

I am genuinely enjoying this. I also find it strangely quasi-arousing. Partly because I can tell that you've based "Anon" on me. (I am, after all, Anonymous.) But mostly because I've always felt that way about Holmes and Watson anyway.

It's honestly good, SHG. Touches like "risus sardonicus" are particularly ConanDoylesque. (The only scientific terminology Sir Arthur actually knew was from medical school.)

Please post the complete story when you finish! I'm dying to know where it goes.

>>1970780
>>1970780
>>1970753
>>1970753

Yeah I definitely saw that relationship from the start.

I was just confused as to why Sherlock was Watson - it's like a joke in itself.

>>1970780
thanks!

"risus sardonicus" was some straight up theft from--er, homage to The Sign of Four. nice catch

>I also find it strangely quasi-arousing.

Well, Anonymous...I find YOU strangely quasi-arousing, so it works out.

I wrote a short story years ago, and in May I began the process of having it published in a literary magazine. It got picked up by a magazine I'd never read before, but whose name was well known to me and which has what I would describe as medium amounts of circulation. I've never thought of myself as a writer of fiction (I'm an academic, so I tend to expend a lot of my creative energy on penning overly verbose and technical non-fiction for other academics to foam at the mouth over) but if this story is received warmly, I may just consider making the transition. I've got at least eight ideas for novels, I know for a fact that when put to paper at least half of them will manifest themselves as some of the cheesiest shit ever, but I think if I ignite some sort of passion within myself that it would be entirely possible to follow through and get it published.

>>1970790
>I was just confused as to why Sherlock was Watson

Why Sherlock Was Watson
by Sherlock Holmes Guy

"And you," said the randomly selected /lit/izen, turning to shake his sprig of sage in my face, "I don't like you."

My dismay at the affront was quickly superceded by my curiosity over it.

"Why not, pray tell? I find myself abundantly likeable, and it is rare that I encounter someone of the opposite opinion. You may accoutre your observations with invective, but--"

"Shut up."

"--but frankly that is not the part in which I am most interes--"

"Never speak again," said he, "you have a cunty way of talking."

My eyebrows nigh collided with my hairline. He had a point, there. I saw the corners of Anon's lips curl upward in amusement at the utter truthiness of the remark. Welp, that was that, then. I was simply not cut out for the part of smooth-talking Holmes. I blinked away a single tear, gathered up my scattered vocabulary, and resumed my role as narrator.

Couldn't get through the entire thread before saying this. If you're complaining about "losing" a written work, whether electronic or physical, you're irresponsible and stupid. Learn to not be a waste of space before you attempt to write something.

bump