/lit/ - Literature

Previous >>20111292

What's a good hosting site so I can post shit on here in PDF format?

Whats a good strategy for getting readers on Royal Road?

>>20121526
Catbox and litterbox.catbox

>>20121552
>Fast updates; story doesnt have to be good, just constant fast updates
>Lit-rpg
That's it.
Fast updates is how shitty stories get on trending, btw

>1000 words tonight
>all narrative, not a single piece of dialogue in sight
I did alright today bros. Now it's reading time.

>>20121659
You should read my flash fiction.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QLsgCkPQvpYspvf-dyefxEFbZDiI3UQX36_RiGJJ1ns/edit?usp=sharing

Small paragraph from my "Man fucks a horse' story that I'm unsure how to grammarize for full effect.
How would you guys handle this?
> Not even a minute into our walk we caught sight of a man in a bronco up ahead barreling towards us — Well, not inside of a bronco, but inside of a Bronco. ‘B R O N C O’ as the front grill would have me spell it, if it had its way. My accidental double entendre uneased my easing erection.
Is the em dash the best use here?

>>20121752
I'll read it tomorrow. I'm trying to finish Moby Dick sometime this century.

Have you guys been building your social media presence and an email list?
Both are going wonderfully for me.
Book will drop when email list hits 1000 subscribers

>>20121758
Seems fine to me

>>20121790
just go with #booktok you idiot. If your'e going to shill, shill correctly. Get a proofcopy, then record yourself for 10 seconds on tiktok, hashtag it #booktok. Have some friends share it, and hope it spreads.

>>20121798
NTA but I look ugly and my story is niche so I don't think it would do well on tiktok

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11f4QBB86vwNEMPVKaWLIwgszLMlUNW6kkYLKaTOq3Fs/edit?usp=sharing

>>20121639
Damn, what if I'm not writing a LitRPG, do I have any chance?

>>20121806
the uglier you are the more bookhoes will buy it. They'll claim to love "personality"

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11f4QBB86vwNEMPVKaWLIwgszLMlUNW6kkYLKaTOq3Fs/edit?usp=sharing

Every so often I find myself wondering if first person would be better, but I also may change perspectives later on for specific chapters.

>>20121752
This story is fucking stupid as fuck. But I laughed.

I tried to write a short scene where the two main characters are playing backgammon, only to realize I don't fucking remember the rules to backgammon.

I used to be a high functioning night owl that did his best work at 3 am, now I'm dysfunctional at midnight. What has happened to me? Where has the time in my life gone?

>>20121821
If you upload quick enough, maybe. I just checked trending and 90% of the stories of litrpgs
>https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51947/the-strongest-spirit-form-i-was-summoned-from/chapter/856550/chapter-01-the-summoning
Even this shit is on it. That's your companion btw

>>20121851
>https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/51947/the-strongest-spirit-form-i-was-summoned-from/chapter/856550/chapter-01-the-summoning
>5 chapters a week

God damn.

>>20121752
This is stupid

>>20121875
You can tell this guy just writes chapters everyday from his shit prose, grammar and story.
The smart people just write a bunch of chapters before they start uploading and royalroad, then dump for the first week

>check royal road
>1000+ pages
>100+ chapters
Jesus fuck. What the fuck do they even write about?

>>20121896
Presently I'm shitposting about how much I hate Roussaeu, though a guise of fantasy action adventure

>>20121896
>Beware of Chicken author makes 15k a month
Holy fuck.

>>20121896
I might be slightly wrong but royal road started either as a fanfic site for LMS or as a place to post the translated chapters of LMS so the people who first went there were already used to huge amounts of chapters so that's what they made which brought the people who were into chinese webnovels who also have a gorillion chapters and now that's the normal.

>>20121937
The story is a breath of fresh air if you read a lot from the genre and the comedy is on point. Guy deserves his success.

>>20121937
Hey, people LOVE wuxia cultivations, and royalroad readers are weak to humor + the story hasn't been dropped yet.
I give author props for being able to constantly chuck out chapters at same rate.
>>20121896
Antagonist # 49283

>you can get 1k a month by posting:

>“Ughhhhh, ”
>My head agonizes as memories quickly resurface, the summoning of the naked man, of him killing the two [Mages].
>My breathing quickens, eyes widening in horror.
>I have to get out of here!
>Forcing myself to stand, I look towards the stairs… only to find a massive bony skeleton guarding the exit.
>No
>“D-dont kill me… please.” I yell out automatically.

yeah... switching to royalroad for monye now

>>20121798
>HOPE it spreads
No thanks, I’ll plan it out, then zi won’t need help.

>>20121990
name?

>>20122005
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/22546/inexorable-chaos
This Author is MASTER at dragging out his story

>>20122012
Why are we all so fucking useless? We can't even write a single book, and these guys are churning out masterpieces at rates faster than we can shitpost.

Is Royal Road just WattPad with anime avatars?

>>20122059
That + better format. Also less fanfiction. Although some shitty harry potter/batman one is on the trending page today.

3rd or 1st person? Which one is better for me to write a story with? I'm dabbling in 1st right and I like it but... I dunno.

im the poster who keeps shilling litrpgs ama
>no i dont write
>yes i demorilize non-litrpg writers

>>20122080
then write in first person. First person is nice because you can monologue the shit out of it with purple prose and inane ramblings.

I'd like to do a one off chapter where we cut to a different country where the characters would be realistically speaking a different language than would be spoken throughout the rest of the story. I have no idea how to tell the reader that our characters are briefly speaking a different language.

>>20122108
>Interlude (Alt Universe)
Done

>>20122095
I used to be afraid of first person and then I realized you can actually be more lurid and purple than in third person

newfag here, how does royal road work? can I directly monetize off the site or do I need to link to a patreon?

>>20122113
Can you elaborate? Should I just blankly state that the characters are speaking a different language in the chapter introduction?

>>20122120
Just say it's an alternate universe. Believe your readers are smart
>>20122117
Patreon. They aren't jewish enough (yet) to take your money

>>20122108
>>20122120
What's the viewpoint? Did the characters travel there or is this an alternate version where they were always from there?

>>20122108
It's easier to just put parentheses to indicate another language.

Unless you have some sort of action that can tell the reader what the language is.

>>20122124
It's not an alt universe though, its just in a different nation.
>>20122125
It's basically a flashback to when two characters are in a different country trying to blend in. Ideally I want to do this several times.

>>20122139
First or third person? Is it a real world country/language or one you created?

>>20122148
Third person. It's a real world language and nation.

>>20122068
name?

>>20122150
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/52122/magical-marvel-hp-x-mcu

>>20121752
stupid but cute, I liked it

I think my magic system is a mess now. It' turned into SUPER SAIYAN

>>20122169
Oh boy spelling errors everywhere.

>>20122149
>Jakub strode to the curb. "Hej, taksówka!"
>He got into the rusty car and made small talk with the driver as they sat in traffic. His Polish was still good enough to pass for a native but years in the UK left a twinge of a foreign accent. He resolved not to say another word in English until he was safely back in Belfast. Fortunately for him the driver spoke only Polish and a bit of German.
>"How long have you been a taxi driver?"
>"Thirty years, give or take."
>"Do you like it?"
>"It pays the bills. What brings you back to Polska?"
>"Business. Can you make an extra stop and pick up my associate?"

>>20122175
Shit, I forgot to change UK to Ireland when I changed the city.

>Another 1k today
>I am about 15k words from finishing second book
>still haven't edited the first book
should i just post it on RR and let the betas correct it for me?

>>20122093
what is the best lit-rpg and why?

>>20122321
Are RR readers even good editors?

>>20121990
Perfect prose, excitement, grammar, and flow. What's not to like?

>>20121639
>Fast updates is how shitty stories get on trending, btw
This isn't true. There are multiple factors that decide if you get on the list. But the staff said being consistent matters more than just spamming a lot.

>>20122321
You should do it and post here if it works. I am in the same situation and I want to know.

> >20122169
I’d change “fresh meat” to just “meat”. The first one sounds like she’s a school bully to me, while the more succinct “meat” hints that she is succumbing to animalistic instincts. Draw it out a bit like “meeeaaat…” for something that reads more unsettling.
Also I might change “the shining blonde…sides of her face.” to “Where once golden locks had framed her face as a halo, there was now only a few matted strands of hair and X that clung to her temples.” where X can be shit, dung, dirt, blood, up to you.

>>20122663
>>20122169
Crap, messed up your (You).

>>20122169
You've got to be trolling

>>20122384

>fucked-up dialogue tags
>changing tense
>everything in passive voice
>ending sentence with comma
>missing period
>space after ellipses
/wg/ laughs at RR stories, but every posted sample here makes the exact same mistakes.

>>20122715
>space after ellipses
Why be this pedantic when you could just complain about using an ellipsis?

>>20122736
Using ellipses is juvenile and looks like shit, but it's not outright wrong.

Is is weird if there’s no quotations throughout dialogue? The characters say they are saying stuff but there’s no quote marks.

>>20122772
Check it out, this guy thinks he's Cormac McCarthy

>>20122772
Yes, it's weird. Deliberately making things harder for your reader when clearer, widely used alternatives exist just makes you look like a tryhard. The chances are high that your prose is confusing enough without gimmicks.

>>20122798
Wow who's that? Someone good? It's funny I happen to write the same way..

If my protagonist and narrator dies at the end, is it more believable to use past tense or present tense? I don't plan on going the afterlife route.

Is there a book that teaches you word choice?

>>20121850
Anon, I'm afraid you're getting OLD
>>20122051
We all write books. None of us read.

>>20122690
Well Mr Negative Crabs it's called a first draft.

What the fuck even is "litrpg"?

>>20123340
Dragon Quest but in book form. And usually info dumps

>>20123340
the way to success

>>20123347
I've never touched Dragon Quest.

>>20123361
Better start playing. Also play final fantasy

>>20123340
A midwit's genre

>>20123340
Why does someone ask this every single fucking thread LURK MOAR FAGGOT

>>20123340
Literature that emulates role playing games. Tropes like stat sheets, HUDs, item drops from enemies, named weapons and attacks, HP and mana bars and potions, BBEGs, etc

>>20123120
>is it more believable to use past tense or present tense

>"And that was where I died."
>t. ghost

>>20122108
It's still obviously going to be in English, but maybe change the sentence structures a bit to indicate it being a different language.

I just dreamt about my books story. How weird. But it stopped where I stopped. Anyone experience this before?

>>20123120
Past tense is fine. A lot of narration isn't really plausible as later recollection. Use whatever works best for the meat of the work.
One time I made only the final half of my final chapter present tense. I wouldn't recommend that in general but it worked there.

>write action sequence
>Reads like an anime VN

>>20123120
It's not unreasonable to have it past-tense first-person, then switch to third-person when the narrator dies as the story's framing sort of "pulls back". Or you could just simply describe the last thoughts before fading.

>>20123437
switch to litrpg and make money

>>20122835
Why? A lot of older literature gets dialogues across without quotations.

>>20123480
A lot of older people also got by without ever washing themselves, but I don't recommend trying

>>20123480
And really old literature lacks punctuation altogether, but I'd really prefer if you used periods and question marks and the occasional comma.
You can get it across, but it'll be take more mental strain. Your readers are used to quotation marks, why not use them?
You could leave them out if you really benefit from a certain stylistic effect, but chances are you don't.

>>20123518
This is the reason older books tend to be either unreadable or require a later edit to make themselves more understandable.

>>20123480
It's 2020 not 1400.

He'll books written in 2010 feel and write differently.

>>20123541
Not to say you can't read older books, but it does mean you have to sort of mentally readjust how you read. I read Frankenstein for the first time a while back and it took me a while to really grasp its writing before I got into it.

Does Royal Road allow fanservice-y stuff?

>>20123518
I’m referring to stuff written like the narrator was writing a letter to the reader rather than objectively describing a scene like a camera. So I guess this is more a case of person rather than style for style’s sake.

>>20123618
It depends how it goes. Frankenstein is technically framed almost entirely as a letter, for example, but the narration is more standard with dialogue and all. If it's just a short section, go ahead and write it like you would write a letter.

>>20122169
You need way more dialogue in the fight. There's a reason why quips are used so much in Marvel movies. It breaks up the long expositions and voices help the characters "show" what they're doing. Even shit like "eat this!". Or "I don't want to hurt you", "too late" add a lot to action.

>>20123598
Go and read their rules, lazy cunt

>>20123635
Internal thoughts can work too, depending how you wanna frame the fight. It's also just a really poorly paced fight scene, nothing feels engaging to read. It's often better to describe the effects of a fight than the moment-to-moment actions, too.

>>20123618
You could paraphrase the speech, particularly if there's not a lot of it. Otherwise I'd use quotation marks even in a letter, they're just too convenient.
Are you talking about paraphrasing or about literal quotes without quotation marks?

I've finished reading Art of Fiction by Gardner as suggested by anon on a past thread. What book should I read from the new reading list next?

>>20123644
It starts off well with the punch in the gut.

>>20123667
True enough, but then it's just a lot of "X did Y, A did B", it's too bogged down for what should be a quick and dirty fight by the sounds of it. Also "Who now is also", but that's tense issues.

>>20123640
i dont wanna spoonfeed me anon pls

>>20123598
I have explicit sex scenes and they're fine with it. Granted they're roughly 5% of my total wordcount, if that. If every chapter is sex scene after sex scene they may have a problem with that.

>>20123400
Oh, so it's just light novel isekai.

>>20123706
To a point, though isekai doesn't always have those. LitRPG is "some aspect of the world is quantifiably game-like and interfaces are at least a thing", it can simply be one character sees those interfaces and everybody else is just living in the world normally (Solo Leveling for example) or the game systems are just a fact of life of the world.

>>20123712
How popular are LitRPGs? Can avoiding them cripple my growth?
I wanted to get into the RR gig but, God, I really hate that whole "game menu out of fucking nowhere" shit.

>>20123723
They're pretty popular on Royal Road because I think, as stated, it started as a site for fanfiction based on one popular one (Legendary Moonlight Sculptor, which is a VRMMO thing so it makes sense there overall), but you don't need to do them.

>>20123723
>>20123712
>Video game menu
I just can't understand how these pictures in a book makes me engaged as a reader? Feels like I have to drop everything and study it

>>20123674
>>20123667
>>20123644
>>20123635
Thanks. I'll rewrite it. Something quick, dirty, and to the point. But then I can't drag it with DBZ super saiyan powerups

>>20122445
Spam + decent chapter length.

>>20123729
What? They're more just there as a way to quantify the local magic system. In cases where it's only a single character with the interface, typically everybody else will have a more normal approach and look at the protagonist as odd for how much they quantify things. If it's just how the world is, it'll generally be just part of the narration for the sake of it.

>>20123729
You aren't autistic enough.
>>20123723
>can avoding them cripple growth
Yes.
But here's the unspoken secret I shall reveal to you...
TIME LOOPS.

I don't know what prose is. Am I gonna make it?

>>20123757
Did Mother of Learning really popularise those that much?

>>20123758
Yes. Free yourself from the convention known as prose. Write your story without interference from accepted norms. For you are the creator, not the consumer.

>>20123760
Yeah, decent time loop stories will find themselves on Rising Stars. Last one I remember was some God re-looping time to try and speedrun reaching Godhood; Speedrunning the multiverse.

Plus, look at all the fanfiction out there with some guy who can go back in time when he dies. People love it.

TLDR: be interesting

>>20123765
But without knowing prose, he will become another Sanderson hurling popcorn to a world that needs meat and vegetables.

>>20123771
There's a fair amount of "powerful protagonist fucks up and gets sent back to the start with memory of their first journey intact" stuff too isn't there. My idea isn't actually too far from that, though it's more "powerful protagonist becomes near-totally powerless and bodiless and must rely on others who he can help teach".

>>20123758
Homer didn't know what prose was and he did alright

>>20123779
>powerful protagonist becomes near-totally powerless and bodiless and must rely on others who he can help teach".
People are pretty much suckers for "Weak to strong" stories, so this should get some good traction on there.

>>20123796
It's in early stages, mostly planning after creating a solid-ish first chapter that I posted on here and realising I had no real idea where to go from that first concept. I had a vague idea to have flashbacks of him interspersed, leading up to the start of the book where he "dies", and maybe a moment near the end where he's temporarily restored to full strength just to show how ridiculously absurd he really was. It's sort of a trio of protagonists, with him as the focal point but the other two being the more active participants.

>>20123771
>be interesting
>directly copy these popular things
you aren't interesting

>>20123804
>strong
>got ego'd and died
>wants revenge for who killed him
>collects buddies
>???????????
>gains full power towards end
>Either stretch out story for bloated content and money or end

>>20123811
>Putting a twist on a concept
That's probably better way to put it
Much like and Isekai where someone from the fantasy world comes to Earth instead of us going to them
>you aren't interesting
Soon i will make this thread litrpg only
im like 50 of the replies here

>>20123815
Well, see, the thing is he wanted the current state, because he was stuck in his 'destiny' up until then. He actually made a deal with the supposed villain he was supposed to handle and the result was his current state. He has a "body" as such, but it's just a hunk of rock he can't really do anything from except loosely perceive the area until somebody's holding it, then he can see through their eyes and whatnot.

>>20123652
>reading
you'll never make it

>>20123831
Can he inhabit them or communicate with people he touches? If so, then story may turn into a "getting my body back and doing fuck all with fate type thing".
Conflict comes from beings above who see Destiny isn't going the way it should

>nobody ever posts anything they write

>>20123869
This is writing general not reading general. Why would post things for people to read?

>>20123864
Inhabit, no, communicate, yes. I did initially have it split up into two separate but connected pieces so he'd be in contact with the other two protagonists, but I'm worried that might make the stakes harder to raise. Can't really have one get in danger if he can just warn the other immediately where they are, though I suppose I could funge up some magic reason why, or have them pull it out of the person or whatever. It could also just be a low-stakes story about him finally getting to live his own life such as it is while raising up others to somewhere near his level. Some sort of arbiters of destiny or whoever kicked off his whole heroic lineage thing in the first place might not be a bad avenue to explore. That was a mystery I did plant in my initial draft of the first chapter, that nobody actually KNEW much about the "first hero".

>>20123878
Write it then we'll find out. Too much brainstorming not enough writing

>>20123878
WHy are they not in a group?
>nobody actually KNEW much about the "first hero".
Reminds me of this Web Novel I read. The hero didn't exactly like fighting for the Gods so he ended up "escaping" and is now in conflict with them.
>low stakes
Make sure to be funny, or Ngmi

>>20123757
Re;zero ruined everything

>>20123889
They ARE in a group, I more meant on the chance that they ARE split up or something, but I guess that's a bridge to cross when I come to it. I don't think I want "fight the gods who set this up" to be the thing, it feels too obvious.
>>20123885
Fair enough. I'm gonna work on a planning document to at least get a vague notion of where I want to take this, at any rate. I may as well post that first chapter again (I have two separate versions of it, one that's more recent and redone to be entirely first-person, the other was first swapping to third for the other two characters, and I wasn't sure how well I could pull that off, but I wanted to have their other perspectives involved too) if anybody cares to give it a read.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12GTaSTXTmm6KKKgXCT7M0LPOBjxvYFzfTJFHgeD702U/edit?usp=sharing
The highlighted part is where the versions diverge if anybody wants to read both.

>>20123820
>shilling litrpgs this hard

>>20123757
>TIME LOOPS
god fucking damn it

>>20123930

>>20123979

>>20123757
>TIME LOOPS
I refuse to read anything with this tag. Honestly its almost as bad as Harem, Virtual Reality or Gender Bender.

Does anybody have any actual experience using any of the sites to upload their writing? I am trying to find a good place to start publishing the first few chapters because I feel like my story would work better as a more episodic sort of thing, I really just want to get the ball rolling.

>>20124121
Host your own site on WordPress and shill it constantly.
>Royalroad
>ScribbleHub
>Spacebattles
These are common for story peeps

>>20124080
Same. I have this almost irrational hatred for repeating things and time loop stories tick all the boxes. It's just such a fucking annoying gimmick. Who wants to read that shit?

>>20124183
The fun is exploring different permutations of the loop, and the existential horror it can delve into, like Groundhog Day.

>>20124188
That has to be the most overrated movie of all time.

>>20124183
>>20124188
Try https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36735/the-perfect-run

>>20124188
>>20124192
The best time loop in media is Endless Eight anyways.

>>20124208
Sounds vaguely fun and that it's a finished story is nice. I have no idea how people keep their stories going on so fucking long sometimes.

>>20124208
>Void Herald
Smart guy. He wrote both LIT-rpg AND Timeloop, how can /wg/ ever compete??
But real talk, he started his writing journey doing Fate stay/night fanfics, and look where he is now. Respect his grind.

>>20124229
He does write litrpg but that one is just time loop and capeshit.

>>20124228
If you go only by the posting of his story it took him a year to post everything and he already had similar concepts for the powers from one of his other novels.

>>20124188
No its so dumb. Its like the proto story filler that most of RR is in love with.
>Can't think of new and diverse characters?
TIME LOOP
>Can't think of new and interesting environments?
TIME LOOP
>Can't think of how to dynamically develop your character without getting him to have static challenges to overcome?
TIME LOOP

>>20124145
Between these options what are the major differences? I'm looking to hopefully accomplish some stream of revenue at some point. Is the Amazon thing a meme?

I am the writer of
>>20121837

>>20124268
Post on all three.

>>20122108
Just say they're speaking a different language.

>>20124257
I suppose having established writing ability is probably the biggest factor for doing well in making a complete story instead of these endless sprawls that go nowhere.

>>20124208
Honestly too memey for me. So much lolsorandumb shit in it and half the plot threads aren't even interesting.

>>20123869
Why the fuck would I want to attract the attention of dozens of pretentious midwit English-Lit dropouts who do nothing but bitch anonymously to each other all day to my story? There is a damned good reason most people don't post their shit here.

Posting some bits of a piece I'm working on. It's a bit of a sandbox piece, trying some things. A few tangents that go nowhere, a few I like a lot. The idea of the piece was to play around with Ligotti and Lovecract and their particular brand of haunted house stories and kind of spoof them a bit

1/4

>>20124602

2/4

>>20124603

3/4

4/4

Not the end of the piece, but it made me laugh and felt like a good half way mark or something like that.

>>20124580
Your story sucks
> is a damned good reason most people don't post their shit here
because they suck
and even if they dont ill tell them they suck anyway

Any /k/ tier literary stuff? I can see a rising genre here.

>>20124208
Gave up a bit over halfway through chapter 1. It just kept getting worse and worse.

>>20124626
Military lesbian stuff. Booming nipples. Cocked receivers. Oiled breasts constrained by camo bikinis that can’t hold them weight of’em godd old hooters. . .

>>20121526
Does anyone here use pdfhost.io? Pros/cons?

>>20124616
>Your story sucks
You'd never know faggot, because you won't be reading it. Hell, even if you do read it, you'd never know it was from me.

Is second person gimmick amateur trash? I’m writing a character addressing someone as “you” but the novelty has worn off.

>>20124723
I feel like that really only works well in CYOA stuff.

>>20124727
I mean, it’s technically first person, but the narrator is written as if they are addressing another character directly, hence the use of “you.” You did this, I did this. I just wonder if would get confusing or if I’m just being retarded.

>>20124747
I think that's better served for shorter stories or a small segment or some such (or if it's framed towards a hypothetical in-universe reader like it's a published thing in-world).

What's with the timeloop hate? All of them can't be shit.

>>20124859
They're not. It's just a case of "current trend bad".

>>20124859
It's overdone since Madoka Magica. 12 years ago.
>>20124602
I personally hate reading shit like this. That said it's my opinion but this cool nihilistic wicked sense of humor is overly purple. It drags on for too long and unless the author ties the man's complaints to an irony, it just comes off as a pretentious pusedo jargon of words.

>>20123738
About what length are talking about?

>>20124859
The only good time loop stories are those where you find out the characters were looping only in the very end and you only have to sit through one loop. Or, a quick recap at most, like in Madoka.

>>20124676
I'm just here to demoralize posters, don't take me too seriously

>>20124943
But you said you liked my cum pancake story

>>20124895
What's an example of good written time loop fiction?
I tried Mother of Learning but it didn't capture my interest before the weirdly unrelatable juvenility of the protagonist turned me off. Too shonen, maybe.
(Happy Death Day was fine and Outer Wilds was fantastic, but they're not literature. The Man Who Folded Himself and —All You Zombies— were great fun, but not really in the genre.)

>>20124973
All you need is dead or edge of tomorrow. Madoka or stein's gate are good too.

What makes them good is the timeloop helps them achieve a goal. Most now are some shit like rezero which timeloop for the sake of it. Just to drag something onor get a new setting.

>>20124973
Admittedly I haven't actually read any time loop stories myself, I've only played some games with them (it's also a current-ish trend in games it seems) so I can't offer much help. Read what sounds interesting, really. I'd probably look for ones that use the time loop in some interesting way, whether exploring why it's happening in the first place, having another character ALSO in the loop without the protagonist being aware, dealing with the emotional pain of undoing relationships, exploring the existentialism of it all, etc. It doesn't have to do all that, it can just be a fun thing of "time loop to make the most of a situation", but just some thoughts.

>>20124993
Re:Zero's an odd case. It's not really a time loop as such, it's just a save point. He's not stuck in some perpetual repeating thing like Groundhog Day or Mother of Learning, he only ends up repeating situations that go bad for him, and they explore how that affects him well enough.

If I have 14 characters the readers don't know names of, would it be awkward to have them all introduce themselves?

>>20125032
In what context? Are they new people being introduced to your POV character? Are they characters you've shown in the past but haven't given the names of?

>>20125044
This is the intro chapter and they've all been described but most haven't been introduced by name.

Today I finally discovered that the "just write" meme must be supplemented with the "just read" meme and then your prose begins to get better

>>20125044
>>20125052
To add on, they've all been invited to a dinner party and no one knows why and not everyone knows everyone

>>20125032
for what purpose?

>>20125052
>>20125060
Probably best to slow the roll of the introductions in that case. Have it happen throughout the initial couple of chapters, but don't frontload it. Is this some sort of murder mystery?

>>20125060
Are all 14 of the characters integral to the story? Is this a who dunnit murder mystery? If so, maybe. But introducing all 14 at once sounds like literal autism tier.

>>20125055
What if what I read is postsby other anons? Will my prose get better?

>>20125079
You will improve if you try.

>>20125073
Very similar, it's a deathgame story. After this scene, the deathgame is revealed.

>>20125078
Yes they're all important.

>>20125055
can't wait until you figure out the "just edit" meme

>Benedick grew to be a man of impressive stature and self-estimation. His physique—which was from nature alone quite imposing—had been cultivated from a tender age through wrestling and boxing into the shape and firmness of a Hellenic statue. His face was framed by incisive cheeks and a cloven chin, and his handsomeness was by convention except that it was stamped by a highly muscular upper jaw. His hair so red and brilliant that it seemed to kindle rather than grow. His eyes were as blue and soft as a clear sky, and when they flashed they resembled a storm.

>Louis saw to it that his son had all the upbringing of a proper gentleman, or as much of it as could be obtained in America. Besides an exemplary classical education, Benedick was given a rigorous regimen of swimming, riding, shooting, hunting, and dancing. Of all that he was taught he excelled in, but nothing pleased him so much as fencing: he was so enamored with it that the proscription against living by the sword in the Gospel he took for a mandate, perhaps the sum of the Gospel itself. Louis cultivated his son’s passion and ultimately obtained private lessons for him with the famous Maestro di Vino, who brought the boy to a startling dominance in the sport.

Looking for feedback on the first chapter of my novel. The rest can be read here
http://noahdunavant.com/2022/03/13/chapter-one-benedick-gascogne/

I’d also appreciate some on a short story I wrote, Love a Letter from a Suicide Bomber which can be read here

http://noahdunavant.com/2022/03/20/love-letter-from-a-suicide-bomber/

>In this, if Allah wills, my final hour in this world, I find my thoughts your constant prisoner once again as if we were still newlyweds. My memories of you have become so vivid it is as if I am reaching both the end of my life and living it anew at once. I remember holding you gently on our wedding night, mistaking your shyness for fear of my need. Holding you and simply telling you, I love you, beloved, like a lullaby, until you held my hands and looked into my eyes and said, Have me, so very quietly. How short it was, so short I was ashamed until I needed you again. And neither of us slept for long before we felt the other. And how when it was very late and we bathed and prayed and thanked Allah, Almighty and Majestic, in prostration the rest of the night. All this I now remember and even feel your touch so much as to sigh.

>I remember when Hasan began to form and we shared his life together and recited Quran to him every night as he was snug in your womb. I knew then why Allah, Glorious and Most High, had given the womb a name from His Mercy. I remember his birth and my crying as much as he did and thanking you for giving me a beautiful son as you held my hand and smiled, your eyes worn and hair in turmoil but your lips in a shaking, joyous smile. May Allah reward thee with good.

what program/website do you guys use for writing, i was using google docs like the thinking person but i woke up today to find it deleted 3000 words i wrote yesterday so now i'm looking for a more stable program.

>>20125130
Atomic scribbler, it's free

>>20125130
scrivener

>>20125086
Spend maybe a chapter or two just dedicated to introductions. Give everybody a clear idea of each character's primary trait, if it's a deathgame sort of thing, that's very often the defining thing as I understand is that everybody is very solidly characterised.

>>20124993
>All you need is dead or edge of tomorrow.
I liked the movie, I guess I could give the novel a try.
>Madoka or stein's gate are good too.
Not literature. (Debatable for Steins;Gate, I guess, but that's also a video game and I already know video games can pull it off.)
I want to watch Madoka some time, but is the time loop part of the actual structure of its plot? >>20124918 ("quick recap") sounds like it isn't. Fiction about a time loop is not necessarily time loop fiction.

>>20124997
In a visual medium a (partially) repeated scene is uncanny to watch, and it doesn't have to waste much time. In a video game simulation adds depth.
It's not the same for literature. Repeating narration verbatim breaks with the convention of relaying only salient information, of having a narrator instead of a camera. It's immediately boring. Simulation is right out, and I don't think there's a way to get the fun of visual repetition. (Unless you used verse, perhaps? e.g. Erlkönig is repetitive in a good way.)
I've actually written Outer Wilds fan fiction, and looking back, there are no events I narrated multiple times. It takes place over the course of loops, but there's not much repetition in the plot's structure. There are no scenes that the protagonist goes through multiple times to make different decisions or learn more information. That makes me suspicious.
Probably I just haven't found something I liked yet, but I can't rule out that prose isn't suitable for a time loop structure.

>>20125032
If they all introduce themselves in a row I'm not going to remember their names.

>>20124907

What else would you compare it to?

>cool nihilistic wicked sense of humor

The humor is supposed to come at the narrators expense for being so long winded and a redditor

> overly purple.

It's more of an experimental thing above all, but I feel like it's just purple enough

>>20125130
Doesn't Google Docs have some kind of edit history? Have you checked that?
I use Emacs (org-mode) but I wouldn't recommend it. I do think there's value in using something with limited formatting instead of a full-fledged word processor.

>>20125130
openoffice

>>20125179
I think the best way to do a loop in written word is with something like play out a single loop (maybe twice to hammer in it's a loop, with the first repeat having the looper be really confused), then show the looper trying out different things to alter the course of things. Multiple permutations of the loop is the thing that makes it work, it's why Groundhog Day works, because he does so many different things and improves himself during it. I think as long as it's not literally copy-pasting scenes it can work out fine as long as you portray the protagonist's response to it repeating.

>>20125130
MS Word

>>20125204
i did, it was as if a finger snapped or something and all my progress was gone. a bit of a bummer but ive rewritten it now
>>20125136
>>20125135
>>20125220
>>20125233
ill give all of these a go

>want to publish serially
>make a Royal Road account
>select genre to filter by
>no option for literary fiction

Any alternatives?

>>20125249
>literary fiction
whats the basic gist of your story, what makes it literary?

>>20125252
Not telling because it's too identifiable, and maybe nothing makes it literary but that's what I'm aiming for when I write it. I distinctly remember one of these websites having an option for literary, I don't remember which one though.

>>20122169
Better?

>>20125249
>wanting a tag so people can avoid your pseud bullshit
kinda based

>>20125130
I write all my fiction in a text editor, in Markdown format, and convert it to ODT using pandoc.

>>20125130
This is why I always have backups. Lately I tend to draft in Google docs but save locally into a word doc regularly (on completing chapters at a minimum).

>>20125204
>I do think there's value in using something with limited formatting instead of a full-fledged word processor
What's you're thinking here?

>>20125130
this happens?

i'm scared now

>>20125369
Just save it as a local copy periodically.

>>20125338
Thanks.

>>20125262
Bump. Maybe a literary tag is asking for too much. Is there a serial publication option that doesn't mostly cater to an audience of children?

>>20125364
>>I do think there's value in using something with limited formatting instead of a full-fledged word processor
>What's you're thinking here?
A word processor is for formatting printed pages, but you likely aren't going to publish your story exactly as laid out on the pages in your program.
The only formatting I use is italicization, section breaks, maybe headings and bolding if I'm feeling fancy. So why use a program that can also change text size and font and color and has dozens of options for inserting images and organizes everything into pages with configurable margins? I don't use that. It's a distraction that takes up UI real estate.
Word is ultimately a tool for creating printed documents. I'm only looking to create text, and there's other software that specializes for that need.

>>20125402
I can understand those points, but if you're just writing a story, you won't even use them, right?

The only thing you need from a writing application is a distraction free environment, auto save and cross device syncing. All of this is offered in Microsoft Word, Google Docs and Pages.
Dedicated writing apps are a meme.

>>20125414
I wouldn't use those features, but they'd still get in the way. They'd take up space on my screen, they'd take up keyboard shortcuts, they'd enforce a particular way of displaying the text, and they'd mean I have to put my text in an unwieldy docx instead of something simple and interoperable.
It's because I don't use them that I don't want them at all.

>>20125402
So use a text editor, write in Markdown format, and convert to ODT using pandoc and a template with all the named styles set the way you like.

>>20125468
I use org-mode in Emacs and export to HTML or sometimes Markdown.
I have no reason to involve ODT at any point.

>>20125464
You can quite easily save files in Word as other formats. Personally I'm using Google Docs, though I dunno if I'd move to something else if I actually get to trying to upload these things.

>>20125464

I'm fucking sick of it. I feel like I'm writing mediocre shit and getting nowhere. I'm going to challenge myself. Instead of writing something comfortable I'm going to write something that I detest. Something that even I can't stomach. Something that degen readers will love. And I'm not going to edit shit. It'll be written fast and loose. Incest and underage girls. I'm going to post on Royal Road as soon as I finish chapter 2.

>>20125468
>tits got smaller
>ass got flatter
>views turned feminist
Women shouldn't be allowed to read

>>20125536
Probably best to finish at least several chapters to have a backlog before posting.

>>20125504
Fair enough—but does it still organize your text into pages? How many of the keyboard shortcuts are relevant to the kind of work you're doing? Is form easily separable from content or are you trapped in WYSIWYG hell?
I could use a word processor for my writing, and I honestly don't think choice of software matters much—but it still feels like the wrong tool for the job. Like, Publisher is obviously a bad choice and Word is already halfway to that extreme.

>>20125369
I'm assuming he wrote the deleted words while offline and closed it so the next time he loaded the document up, it didn't save them.

>>20125130
Wordpad
>>20124969
I was high

>>20125478
If you want to make an actual book, with pages and headers/footers and whatnot, HTML won't cut it.

>>20125548
>but does it still organize your text into pages?
>keyboard shortcuts
None of this really matters to me. New pages aren't overly distracting and none of the shortcuts I've used for obscure punctuation have been overwritten. As long as I have my autosave + iCloud + clean environment I'm happy.
And If I ever need any of these word processing tools they are right there. Back when I used Ulysses or Scrivener I would have headaches with laying out pages for screenshots or shit not autosaving correctly (mostly Scrivener).

>>20125629
So far I'm not looking to publish physical books.

>>20125638
That's reasonable.

>>20125369
No. He just had a shit internet connection and closed the doc at the wrong time.

Premise: The main character, Lloyd, is a University engineering student. His little sister was a prodigy and a genius but she got into a car accident and died when he was young. In college, he and his best friend are trying to make contact with aliens on another planet. His roommate tells them its pointless. They link Lloyd up with the transmitter and to everyone’s surprise they establish a connection with Lloyd and someone from another world. A message comes over from the other side asking if the receiver was “Lloyd Reeds”.

>>20125960
...Okay, and? Did his sister vwoomp herself over to another world instead of dying, what's the takeaway from this premise.

>>20125974
After sending a confirmation. They stop receiving messages from the otherworldly contact. Disappointed they stop for the day and decide to try again tomorrow. That afternoon, Lloyd keeps getting immense headaches, he starts seeing things that aren’t there. While he’s speaking to a girl his vision blurs and the next thing he knows he’s in his apartment in front of a strange woman he’s never seen wearing a lab coat. The first thing she says, “…brother?”

Essentially her sister, from a timeline where he died saving her from a car accident, established a link with a world where he survived and transported him over.

>>20126002
>>20125960
sounds good. Now write it.

>there are people in this thread that honestly think you need shit like page numbers, headers, and footers while writing
Jesus fucking christ, you put that shit in AFTER when you're organizing the text into a format for printing. How do you not know this?

>>20126002
>>20125960
cut out the headache stuff and schizophrenia. Keep it simple with the brother and sister bonding through death and multiverses.

>>20126019
I guess it wasn't obvious. There's no schizophrenia. She linked him between worlds so he's blipping between worlds until he fully crosses over. He'll be talking to someone and the next thing he knows he'll be in the middle of a city street, and back to talking to someone

>>20121515
https://files.catbox.moe/h03aag.pdf

Please be harsh

>>20126040
Good, if rambly, opening paragraph.
That second paragraph is a little too "bland infodump"-y, throws too many nouns around even if they're largely real-world things.
Infodump problem persists a bit in the third paragraph. It's not bad to exposit a bit, but you're giving too much too fast. Give the key details needed for this job instead of your protagonist's life story. It's clear he's got cybernetics with later info, so that dump early on feels extraneous.

>>20125032
>>20125060
>>20125086
Have your POV character be one of the first ~5 people to arrive, introduce himself to everyone there, and then have everyone else trickle in one or two at a time throughout the rest of the chapter.

>>20126040
>Giant paragraphs
>Immediately filters 70%of viewers
Heh, nothing personal kid

>>20126030
Ditch that. Just messages between the two is enough. If anything your ending will be one of them crossing. Or sending a picture

>>20126112
Ive had this said before, what do you mean, most fiction has long ish paragraphs. genuinely unsure

>>20126119
It's not that they're long, it's that they're not particularly engaging. They're just bland infodumps. That can work for some stories, but a story like this needs a generally smoother pace.

>>20126120
got it

How do I get into the mindset to write without remembering all the times my mom or dad ruined my time trying it well into adulthood?

>>20126127
Develop an Oedipus complex. Act on it.

>>20123793
he also had zero competition probably

>>20126119
You need shorter paragraphs when reading on a computer screen so there's more visual reference points for where you are.

>>20125402
>>20125504
I guess I get the urge for simplicity, I just don't have an issue ignoring a few small buttons at the top of the screen and like writing in a format truer to how it would appear on a page.

Also please tell me you guys aren't writing on an eye raping white background at least. I'm a blue-gray page guy myself.

>>20125079
bakker. it will change your perspective on what prose can do

>>20126117
Nah, it's incest so they meet early on.

>>20126242
>it's incest
Well, that's made your premise untenable now. Even with the fuckery of them not really being each other's sibling because of alt timeline stuff it's still not really gonna fly.

>>20125354
Immeasurably based

>>20126040
Are you purposely trying to make it boring?

>>20126254
Is incest unwriteable or do all incest stories have to a certain kind of story?

>>20126040
>look dear reader, my character hates airports! isn't he so heckin' relatable!?

>>20126299
It's more unpublishable in a western market. Even if you do some workarounds like not-blood-related or whatever.

>>20126315
Is a teacher x student relationship more publisheable? (male teacher, female student)

>>20126318
Probably, though probably only in erotica I think. I dunno, I don't really look at erotica. Browse Amazon, see what's there.

>>20126318
cringe. turn it around

>>20126318
Why couldn't they have just been childhood best friends, and leave everything else as it is?

>>20126348
The premise isn't dead in the water, I just wrote the premise with incest in mind. I can rework the romance. But I guess the overlap between sci fi fans and incest readers is low.

>>20126315
Good thing Amazon Kindle exists

The rest of the house was painted in stains of dried fluids, in oscillating tones of crimson and maroon. The randomly scattered pieces of the victims like the sporadically encountered, immobile yet illusive, seemingly slithering and twitching tendrils of vegetation in a vermilion forest. The abstract patterns of red gushes sprawled in random directions as if the petals of a proverbial flower that erratically blossomed in an asymmetrical arrangement, and from within the center of any self-respecting flower there must an aromatic effluvium. Caramelized notes of sweet yet ferrous organic aromas entering your nostrils, causing the occasional upwards impulse of queasiness to travel the esophagus as if a pure bout of gravity coming up, causing the mouth to salivate in the contained retching, shock waves responding to the nausea by reverberating in all directions through your insides. This was a superficial unseeable mist of scent that encompassed the underlying and now ascending, more present stench of rotting flesh. A deep, noxious putridness that invaded the senses and stunned them, assaulting through odor and taste, its malodor almost palatable once inhaled.

>>20126352
I thought Amazon didn't allow incest.

Wow, I had no idea this board existed!
Hello anons. So I always liked writing and it’s something I’ve had a thing for. I started making short stories on a different board, and it started out as shitposting, but some anons told me I should try writing a book.
If I’m honest, it never really occurred to me, but I kind of want to try but I have no earthly idea how to write a book.

>>20126350
People who want to read incest don't really care about a cool sci-fi plot. People who want to read a cool sci-fi plot will probably rather any romance be less taboo.

>>20126350
Alright, so are you considering any of the other ideas we've suggested?

>>20126358
You will never be a writer. Go back to shitposting

>>20126358
Post your writings.

>>20126354
purple prose

>>20126380
No shit.

>>20126391
more purple prose

>>20126409
That was actually quite beige.

>>20125130
iawriter on phone, notepad+ on PC. dropbox syncing. I save into txt files.

>>20126354
Can't tell if bad on purpose.

>>20126363
Well, I'm stuck because without the original romance there's no conflict. The forbidden love aspect is gone now. There's no conflict unless I can figure out new motives and characters goals and what's hindering them, otherwise if I just do time travel shenanigans it'll just end up as a steins;gate clone. I need to seriously rethink where the story's going.

>>20126356
just don't mention it until someone complains

>>20126378
lol no, they're just stupid little stories. Besides I don’t wanna dox myself.

>>20126436
Unless your audience is coomers, you should make it clear that you don’t actually agree with that throughout your text and are artistically exploring a theme. Why the fuck is your story incest anyway? It doesn’t seem like it had to be at all if your characters are “from alternate universes.”

>>20126487
>>20126436
You could still have the romance between two alt timeline people who lost the other in their own timeline, explore the weird existentialism of it, examine the small differences they might have from their other selves and delve into how they're just replacing and not really loving the new person, or something.

>>20126487
the sibling relation is fine. Just don't do the sex thing. Having a brother find his long lost sister from an alternative universe and vice versa is a very compelling story. Just stop with the actual incest. They can flirt, and be completely confused because they don't know each other, but yet still know they're siblings.

>wrote the adopted daughter meet cute section
>it won't happen for another 2.5 books
I am a sick man. I am an evil man. I think my liver is diseased.

>>20126436
Don't listen to this >>20126500. Incest is beautiful. Human history is littered with incest. Follow your dreams. Keep writing that incest story!

>>20126472
You can't post even a bit of your writing without doxing yourself? That's new.
Write us 500 words right now and post it then.

>>20126507
>another book where finding cute daughteru isn't the inciting incident
Another book dropped.

>>20126710
But where can I publish it?

>>20126745
Have you written it?

>start posting story on RR ~2 weeks ago
>~500 views, 7 followers
>one 5 star rating
>See some random guy complaining about his rating
>He started posting under 2 weeks ago
>Less content
>~3.5k views, 100+ followers
>17 ratings
So this is the power of shilling your shit and writing a copy of something already successful, huh? God damn good thing I didn't want to make money, I'd be halfway to ACKing myself if I had spent all that time writing a decent story with a semi-unique premise only to get blown the fuck out by "Cute anime girl + random other thing book #5999999".

>>20126847
go on their forums and start asking for reviews. I'm still trying to gather enough chapters to post on RR. But I'm finding my chapters to be too long. About 2500 to 3500 words.

>>20126855
Yeah I don't feel comfortable doing that until I hit at least 200 pages or so. God damn I wish I had no shame.
>2500 to 3500 words
>too long
Honestly I don't think that's the case. 3500 is getting there but it depends on the posting schedule. Most successful stories average between 2k and 3k per chapter.

>>20126847
are you writing a litrpg? if not there's no chance

>>20126884
Lolno, but then again neither is the dude bitching that he's only got a 4.2 star rating. I should have just invested in an anime cover.

>>20126887
dont give into RR's low quality standards

>>20126907
Yeah I know, I'm just bitching too. I spent a lot of time making my cover and threw out like 6 other covers before I settled on the one I have because they looked like shit. I wouldn't change it because I guess I have some "artistic integrity" or some gay shit like that, but it's just stupid how putting an anime girl on shit will instantly get it more views.

You're not gonna make it
No, you ain't gonna make it

>>20126909
their fame is temporary and their stories will always be bottom tier trash. their writing is the kind of thing retards eat up. I rather not have that kind of audience of mindless people who are only interested in cheap thrills. the thought of it disgusts me.

>>20126937
but they get money. it's not like our stories are any good. Some idiot here writes about cum-pancakes, another about some shit about giant monsters, a third about cigarettes, someone is plotting an incest story, there's a fantasy writer in here, and another bozo that's writing about complete inane shlock. None of these stories will ever be completed.

>>20126947
I finished a novel last year, I'll finish another this year! Believe it!

>>20126937
Yeah pretty much. That being said though, what I'm posting was deliberately dumbed down for general audiences even if it does have some crazy themes going on in the background. I guess we'll see.

>>20126947
What do you mean our stories arent good? do you think the garbage on RR is any better? What we write about is interesting and sometimes controversial but that's what makes our stories stand out from the rest that conforms to a general audience. Sure we may not get success now but I guarantee that in the future we will because continually nothing creative is being produced and people will search for writings that actually have some meaning behind it.

>>20126978
Name one interesting story we have. Do you really think cum-pancakes is interesting?

>>20121752
A harrowing tale on the cycle of revenge that leads to a downwards spiral a violence. 9.2/10

>>20126909
I'm pretty sure I've spent about 50 times more time and effort on my anime girl cover than you on your "artistic integrity"

>>20126194
It's not even about simplicity—Emacs is hilariously complex, like some sick practical joke from the eighties.
It's about the tool for the job. Word is a hammer. My prose isn't quite a nail. If all I had was a hammer I'd use it, but I know how to use other tools, so why bother?
>eye raping white background
This is a sign you need to turn down your monitor brightness.

>>20125105
>literally naming your MC "Good Dick, the chad"

Another thing I wrote, just messing around with settings

>>20123757
I fucking love time loop stories the most out of anything but I refuse to ever write one.

>>20127812
The problem is here
>who had herself first heard
Heard what?

>>20127839
So something more like
>The unusual silence had made her remember a story she was once told by her grandmother, a story she had herself first heard during her time living among the elves.
Or maybe
>something more like
>The unusual silence had made her remember a story she was once told by her grandmother, a story her grandmother had herself first head during her time living among the elves

>>20127847
All you need to do is add one word.
>who had herself first heard it
There, sentence fixed.

>>20127277
>turn down your monitor brightness
Cope. I'm always at the lowest or a knotch above. It's just 2 clicks or your mouse on most software to change page color to something darker and pleasent, once you try it there is no going back (assuming whatever obscure garbage some of you use is even capable of these basic settings).

Especially if you're writing in the evenings, harsh light is brutal on your sleep rythms/melatonin production.

>>20127894
I did dark mode everything once upon a time, but no more. No more Arc-Dark, no more .gtkrc, no more Tomorrow, just Yotsuba B.
I even style my terminal emulators black on white (and send pull requests to applications that don't handle that well).

>>20127966
>I do everything wrong on purpose!
>I use Yotsuba B
You're sick. Sick!

>>20126715
>>another book where finding cute daughteru isn't the inciting incident
>Another book dropped.
Don't fear, anon. This is an inciting incident in its own way. It causes the MC to reevaluate his ambitions.
>>20126980
There was a story on here about a priest confronting a serial killer and it had themes of Catholic faith in the face of a slowly darkening world

>>20128120
And it was never finished

>>20126980
>>20128203
Ummmm did you forget about Call of the Crocodile?"