/lit/ - Literature

Don't give up.
Don't allow sadness to crush your spirit.
Strive to make the art that will change it all.
Push back against the failure of culture to maintain its strength.
Drag it kicking and screaming with you, if you have to.
Feel pity if you must. Feel sadness, feel rage, feel hopeless, and feel fury. Then write.

>start writing a chapter around how mud bricks are made, get two pages in
>learn how incredibly easy Roman concrete is to make
>scrap all material relating to mud bricks
Research is important. Do it before, not after.

>>20400204
Yyyyep.
The next part of the novel I'm outlining takes place in a fortified city-state, after the fall of civilization.
I expect I'll be doing a lot of background reading this weekend.
Stuff like "DK: The Survival Handbook", "The Encyclopedia Of Country Living", "When Technology Fails", and "Holding Your Ground". Maybe even "SHTF Survival Manual".

what are you reading /wg/?

>>20400269
autobiography of red

>>20400269
Anna Karenina
Dubliners with the Joyce reading group
That's about all I have time to balance

>>20400269
Suttree.

>>20400269
Crime and Punishment
W.B. Yeats poems chosen by Seamus Heaney

Shameless cash in I know, but could I write a horror novel about the backrooms and put in on amazon? Would that get downloads off of the memey brand recognition?

What do?

>>20400384
accept the offer.

>>20400385
Should I also be putting up the chapters faster? I’ve written the whole book and am already through most of the second. I just use timing cushion to give the chapters a spit and polish (although sometimes it’s almost a rewrite) before posting.

>>20400427
sure.
go for 1 chapter every week.

>>20400269
Lol I can't believe people actually bought other anons shit books.

>>20400427
At least once a week seems to be the 'minimum' for being popular-ish on Royal Road. Some are absurd (Defiance of the Fall did 5 a week for example), which is why it's important to build up a backlog in case you slip up.

>>20400481
If you haven't read them, how do you know they're shit?
Also...seethe

>>20400427
>>20400482
Every day is too much, but once every two weeks is like, jesus dude are you even alive

>>20400488
The most common I see is twice a week, I believe? And this is assuming every chapter is approximately in that 2-6k word range.

>>20400488
Honestly I just figured people had better shit to do than read my dumbass book. I thought I was being nice by doing once every other week.

>>20400542
The best feeling you want to instill in a reader by the end of the chapter is them wanting to read the next one, or feeling satisfied if it's an ending. That sort of mindset you have is a little self-defeating.

>>20400269
This.

>>20400269
Genuinely interested to hear the reviews of Emily Project and Eggplant

>>20400565
How is it?
I read an excerpt online, and couldn't get past the prolific spelling/grammar/punctuation errors.
Stuff like that bugs me.

>>20400575
It doesn't get better in the other one.

>>20400575
>asking the author how his self published book is, the 34895839423rd time he shills it that week

>>20400487
If Gardner is the best author /lit/ produced these other anons have no chance. They're probably filled with grammatical, tone, syntax, word issues that are even more offensive than Gardner's

>>20400575
I think I just got to the big epic “twist” part of it. I like it.

>>20400575
wait 4 the twist @ the end tho

>>20400584
Where did this myth come from? Gardner's incesasnt shilling?

>>20400591
It’s only Gardner himself who says this, he’s just on shill duty. Ignore him.

>>20400591
incessant*
fucking bullshit that I fixed the typo and it still went through

>>20400574
Shit, with no redeeming qualities

Writing has become impossible for me now, when it was so easy just a few years ago.
I think I have ADHD.

>>20400574
Im only a few hours in but honestly made me laugh a few times and some scenes are downright creepy. The characters are eccentric or criminal, liking it so far. I found one misspelling and some things arent capitalized that should be but maybe thats his style. Very liberal use of italics for emphasis but just a nitpick.
Also Wgon needs to get a better quality to print his covered because it looks like a compressed jpeg while Nesmers cover is super crisp and clean.

>>20400584
I've read these two books cover to cover, and they weren't filled with spelling/grammar/punctuation/plot/etc. atrocities.

>>20400600
So you've read them? Or are you just seething mindlessly?

>>20400602
Have you tried reading different material? Also have your life circumstances changed?

>>20400204
Chinaman anon here.

Research is a bitch. Every little thing needs to be researched from mining towns, to rickshaws, to immigration houses, lanterns, Chinese customs, southern American customs etc.

Holy shit no wonder why nobody writes historical fiction.

>>20400638
I don't need to. I already know Emily Project and Eggplant are shit because of the premise and the previews on Amazon.

>>20400565
Why are you reading your own book?
Or are you really that bad of a shill?

>still 1k+ words stronk a day.
If i can do it so can you!

>>20400646
Since this is a writer's forum, I'm sure we're all looking forward to your example of better writing.
And if you're just Gardner...ROTFL.

>>20399905
>At least give the poor fella some constructive criticism, if you care about 'em, so that they might improve.
I do. I tell him, "maybe don't start with gratuitous violence and bloody rape in the first scene, anon. There is no need for that unless the story demands it. Waste no words."

>>20400647
F Gardner and Jason Bryan are both 4chan legends.

>>20400659
How did they become 4chan legends?
By writing badly-conceived, badly-realized books, and shilling themselves incessantly?
I look forward to 4chan writers that become legends for better reasons.
>>20400631 have possibilities, IMHO.

>>20400600
>>20400646
God damn, not only is Frank a greedy lying shill, he’s salty about other people doing better. What a little baby you are lol

>>20400640
Hence the advice "write what you know".
Still, research can be fun.
I'm presently reading "SHTF Survival Stories" by Selco Begovic, for background on writing a warlord's compound, and a separate fortified city/state, after civilization collapses.
Looks like a version of it is available here:
https://ia601005.us.archive.org/34/items/TheSHTFAnthologySelco/The%20SHTF%20Anthology%20-%20Selco.pdf

>>20400631
Why arent these on the pastebin? I remember Sunanon too.

>>20400683
I really hope that's just someone LARPing Gardner, because if he's really shitting on other unknown authors...yeah, that's pretty insecure.
What, is he some sort of star?

>>20400711
I think I'd have to create an account on pastebin to edit them, and I haven't.
Or maybe only certain pastebin accounts can edit them, I don't know.
Bottom line...someone needs to do it.

>>20400204
Had this issue so many times, doesn't help that I like to be extremely autistic on accuracy, should get rid of the habit somehow.
>>20400697
>>20400224
>keep thinking about pic related
>more and more related to it shows up on unrelated threads
>now even here
Is this a synchronicity? Unironically believe I should prep now

>>20400712
Someone was LARPing as him a few days ago. Gardner’s in every single /lit/ discord. He doesn’t shill his books and he’s supportive of other writers. I posted the link to one of the discord’s to call the larger out. He suddenly stoped the very obvious larp.

>>20400754
*larper

>>20400751
Er...if you didn't start prepping once COVID hit, I don't know what to tell you.
Of COURSE you should prep.
You can start by buying lots of food with long shelf lives, e.g. beans, rice, and pasta. As well as pasta sauce and SHTF meat like Spam.
You should also buy weapons (not just guns) and medical supplies, and learn how to use them.

Supply-chain issues are bad enough...but America's new free-spending president gave us horrible inflation.
Hyperinflationary collapses happen...look at Weimar-era Germany, Venezuela (a founding member of OPEC, fer crissakes), and Zimbabwe.
It's one of the reasons my in-development novel features civilizational collapse as a plot element.

My novel is set 70 years in the future, but the problems its people face are set in our possible near-future.
So there's the /wg/ angle for my diatribe LOL

what do you guys think of swapping viewpoint in a scene to describe one character and then the other, leaving a blank line to separate the two? Does it take you out of the story?

Example:

***

Raymond looked at Jill. She was cute but on the bookish side, with straight hair that wanted to be curly.

Jill sneaked a peek at Raymon. He was a slab of a man with a slab of a face, though attractive in that big chest, big arms kind of way.
"Let's go," said Jill.
The left the barn and headed towards town.

***

Fuck it, I'm really getting deep into science fiction, hard science fiction. I'm deranged when it comes to my worldbuilding, I am toying with the idea of making my MC a hermaphrodite along with a certain proportion of characters on the setting but I'm afraid it might put off people when it comes to our current "climate", I don't know, it does sound logical for space colonization.

>>20400781
Hm, sorry for the offtopic but how bad is it going to get anon? I am looking into some guns but you know, major cities. I'd have to TLOU this shit.

>>20400781
>>20400793
How far along are you on the research on your novel though?
And, I thought the areas that would be affected by this in a significant manner would be basically ME and Africa, the usual, not the rest of us.

>>20400789
Give Dune a read. It swaps character perspective on a single page constantly, and manages to do so without making it feel like whiplash. No dividing lines like you're asking.

>>20400754
cap

>>20400781
fuck off, /pol/ anon. Inflation has been coasting up ever since FDR's New Deal. Every president for the past twenty-five years has done fuck all to avoid it.

>>20400790
"The Left Side Of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuin featured a species of people that switched genders naturally, and only showed one or the other during mating/breeding season.
So you're not really out of line.

>>20400751
Bro I bought 3 years worth of food over a year ago and have been keeped stocked since its an embarassing amount of resources and I even bought a house to get somewhere people will be food secure to so they wont try to rob me. I dont write specifically on disasters but there are nods to previous disasters in my stories. In several theres a shift in beauty standards to fatter women and in one it shows how common it is for people to ask if youve had anything to eat as a gut check for social standing.

>>20400793
How the heck should I know?
I don't have a crystal ball, just an imagination.
Hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.
>>20400801
I come from a family of frontierspeople.
I'm also paranoid and cynical.
So I've had a prepping mindset for a long time.
If you don't think the U.S. can be affected, just think of hyperinflation, our broken supply chains, mainstream support for violent rioters, the growing legion of mentally-ill, drug-addicted homeless, and the everpresent bare shelves at the supermarket.
>>20400813
I'm not on /pol/ much. But inflation has gotten a lot worse lately. The data is hard to ignore. See picrel.
And do whatever you want, anon. Seriously.
But if SHTF, you'd better have more value than as fodder for a hydraulic-liquefaction tank in a backyard crude-oil refinery.

>>20400828
based
Also, I'm totally borrowing the beauty-standard shift and asking if one has eaten.

>>20400845
Going to be honest, in a SHTF with no modern society, I'll just eat people.

>>20400845
Biden didn't take office until 2021. The chart's already incorrect just with that.

>>20400879
That's a good way to contract brain-wasting prion diseases.
Cannibalism has no place in my post-collapse novel for that reason.

>>20400886
The little gray marks on the X axis show the division between years.
The year numbers are placed in the middle of the relevant range.
Way to be illiterate in public.

>>20400887
I've researched this, you can actually certain parts safely, mainly the thighs. The rest can go if you want to be certain, anything from the chest and above is a hard no.
Look man, if you live on a major city and there's a happening you have to get really creative because you get the worst of it.

>>20400890
Aw shit, forgot it was 2022. Carry on.

t. still dating stuff as 2021

>>20400894
Hmmm...TIL.
Maybe I'll have limited cannibalism in my novel.
Perhaps prion diseases became more prevalent after the collapse, so people shy away from cannibalism.
I was planning to make the wasteland dwellers work harder for food.

>>20400921
I understand...time seemed to freeze at the beginning of 2020, and doesn't seem to have started moving again.
And now we have highly-transmissible monkeypox to contend with.
I'd better finish my post-collapse novel before it simply becomes the news.

So I have a...
>nobleborn
>prettyboy
>martial artist
>wizard
>with affinity for bone magic and natural bone armor
What kind of weapon would best fit him?
I defaulted to short spear, especially since none of the other main cast use a spear, but I'm not entirely sure.

Maybe a spear that doubles as a staff? That could be interesting.

pic tangentially related

I might try my hand at a non-fiction book. It would be about having a long-distance GF that I never met in person and we met just at the start of covid lockdowns. She lives in Australia, I live in the UK. The book would be about us meeting online, becoming friends, 'dating' and waiting for the day the airports open up and allow us to see each other.

Though it doesn't have a happy ending. Still have to live that part and find out how it ends, bros.

>>20401039
why would anyone read your autobiography?

How do you get down to writing when you're full of regret about something you did?

>>20401128
Are you a woman?

>>20401128
Put all the thoughts into a tangential problem a character different from you and get creative. Write in stream of consciousness for a while and see what feelings come out. Some of my best writing is when I get emotional, it's almost like method acting if you need to get in the head of another person or dramatize your own misgivings.

>all my stories involve domineering red heads with green eyes
What the fuck is wrong with me?

>>20400654
Clearly bad advice, if a story doesn't cold open into brutal violence, is it even worth reading?

>>20401029
Maybe have him lug around a big bone spike that he passess off as a "spear"?

>>20401170
Welcome to the club.

I need help figuring out dynamics. Is a character having multiple simultaneous mentor figures too much? Like, each indirectly teaches the main character some important things. Specifically, there's 4 characters.
>A warrior who is proactive in their duties and tries their best to guide those around them
>The main villain sort of teaches him about power and the obligation to use it.
>Some old character who shows boundless compassion to those around him while refusing to back down in the face of evil.
>His parent, who teaches him about justice and hanging on to whatever you have left
Via this, our protagonist develops into his own person.

>>20401029
Bones lend themselves to clubs and spears pretty well, or maybe a staff.

>>20401184
The first two don't seem like actual mentors, just people the protagonist learns from by observation. Is this a significant part of his character that he tends to sponge off other people's views and needs to develop his own? Pull that into things, have it be that while all the stuff he learned is helpful, all it did was make him confused about what he wants to be. If you feel like you're overloading him with teaching, go and do it, and see where it leads.

>>20401184
Depends, how many characters do you have overall? Personally I'd err on the side of keeping your cast small, unless more characters is intended to flesh out the scope of a setting.

>>20401120
That happens all the time.
The going wisdom is that everyone's first novel is an autobiography.
>>20401128
That's the real function of diaries.
Write down whatever's bugging you, and get it out of your system.
Then go back to what you wanted to write.
And like >>20401168 said, it may become raw material for something else later.
>>20401170
based
picrel

>>20401197
That's how he learns from all of them. Observation

So what percent of /wg/ reads popular genre fiction like Sanderson and enjoys it? How many are writing it? It gets shit on a lot here, and this board in general, but I'd assume there's a decent portion of us writing and consuming it.

Taking it a step further, how many read and enjoy LitRPG and Isekai? Those style of high production rate web serials clearly have an audience based on how many 10k/month Patreons there are. I'm not as much a fan of it, but there's been a few I liked. Is that anyone's goal here?

>>20401219
Then none of them are really mentors. That's just his character trait doing its thing.

>>20401221
I've read Sanderson's Cosmere stuff at least. It was mostly pretty good, though I have my problems and I can see myself getting frustrated if those continue to be present in his newer books. I am in fact planning on writing mostly fantasy stuff because I don't really have too high-minded an intellectual attachment to writing, I just wanna write a good story.
Isekai/LitRPG stuff is fine. Some of it's shitty shlock, but that's true for any genre. I actually have a second idea for a story (not the one I'm currently working on) that is one of those, because I felt like I could at least contribute a fun variant of it. Basically it's a recon drone from a sci-fi setting gets portal'd into a fantasy world and its scanning abilities become retrofitted as LitRPG status stuff. Thought it'd be fun to have the slow growth of personality from the drone, and the unusual interactions of technology and magic.

>>20401231
I said mentor FIGURE.

>>20400804
"Dune" is written in omniscient viewpoint.
The only other book that I can think of that's written in omniscient is "The Hobbit".
I'm writing third person.

>>20401256
That doesn't really come across as different to me but okay.

>>20401221
I've read "Mistborn" and a few others. They're very well done.
Most isekai I've seen is anime. There's only one or two good isekai animes in my opinion.

>>20401209
>>20401177
>>20401170
We all know why

>>20401275
Third person and omniscient aren't exclusive. The narrator swaps in Dune are omniscient, but the way its written is in third person thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wwr4X2rAbo

This woman made $1.15 million dollars self publishing. How do I get on her level?

>>20401309
Omniscient IS third-person. Third-person is simply split into two, limited and omniscient. Limited means you're anchored to one character (perspective switches can happen), omniscient means you're not really tied down, the narration is detached but you can see into people's heads, etc. The line isn't super strict, you can waver between the two.

>>20401184
Multiple mentors may be “too much” but each one you’ve listed in fact a specific totem of subconscious story structure. however I do not know the linear progression your protagonist meets them. the warrior may well be a Threshold Guardian, the old man a Belly of the Whale (whereas old men are typically reserved for the Guardian). The parents are obviously the Goddess/Mother and the Atonement/Father, depending on their placement in the linear storytelling. The main villain clearly, well, the villain, and should remain as such. This may well be “too much”. Normally in story structure, “mentorship” is the point of the Trials and or Belly. These are rituals wherein the protagonist experiences ego death, and the lessons wherein “mentor” him.

which is to all say, you have primal totems of story already in place, but you’re lost in the dark, and confused on the importance of “mentoring”, when the most crystalline objective should be telling a good story

>>20401320
*sigh*
people have differentiated omniscient and third person by "omniscient" and "third person" for years.

>>20401316
Start a YouTube channel

>>20401336
I have literally never heard that.

General Question:
I’m doing a sort of fantasy/romance with a fairytale type of narration. How important is show vs tell when I’m going for an old-fashion feel? I have included many character emotions and thoughts but there is still quite a bit narration. I’m currently at 93k words so I’m hesitant to rewrite it all…

>>20401345
If I tell you a book is written with an omniscient viewpoint, are you going to assume it was written in first, second, or third person?

>>20401336
Then those people have been using the terms wrongly for years.

Is there like a "good character checklist"? Things to make sure a character has in order to be appealing, agency, motivation, hopes, fears, needs, conflict etc

>>20401328
Only one of them actually directly "Mentors" him and by that I mean "Repeatedly interacts with him in a way that isn't aggressive or violent."
In fact, his amount of genuine allies can be counted on like, one hand. The rest are either neutral/non-aggressive to him or want to kill him on-sight.

I have schizophrenia and started writing a novel in the hospital where the main character becomes obsessed with killing a political figure. I thought it was a good way to explore the dehumanization and depersonalization of the internet age, it’s mostly satire. Now that I’m doing better I realize nobody is going to touch this and if I finish it and send it somewhere, I’m probably going to get a knock at the door.

>>20401367
Third. I know omniscient is third-person. There's just ALSO third-person limited.

>>20401395
it's a good question for a lawyer
can you make the politician a fictional person?

>>20401416
Yes, it is a fictional person, his views and affiliation are left vague and nondescript because I think the idea of this character not having genuinely identifiable convictions is important.

>>20401395
Kind of reminds me of the movie Taxi Driver

>>20401373
That doesn’t provide me with anything

>>20401437
I never noticed the connection, but that’s true. It’s not quite that dour.

>>20401364
If you're at 93k words, stick with what you have.
Unless it sucks.

>>20401467
Understandable

I'm serializing my latest novel onine:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54446/the-mystery-of-the-real-live-dead-person

I had no idea /lit/ had a writing general. Do you bros have any tips for writing efficiently? I write 4000 words daily and despite knowing what to jot down it takes me ages to do it. I proceed at 600-800 words an hour, I don't know why it takes me so long.

>>20401595
Just different speeds. I only seem to be able to write at Starbucks

>>20401595
Take advantage of your creative bursts. Focus on a single paragraph on a shit day. It evens out.

>>20401595
4,000 words a day is pretty good.
are those "ready to publish words" or do you have to edit them?
do you publish a book every 25 days?

Not confident on this one at all. Feels worthless in a way that even more drafts won't fix (obviously the formatting on this one isn't polished at all). I hate to call it experimental, but it is definitely an experiment.

https://files.catbox.moe/d18k03.pdf

>>20401613
How long are you allowed to loiter in coffee shops? My best friend is a bohemian type and seems to live in a local one. My desktop setup is too comfy to write elsewhere but Id go read at Starbucks maybe.

>>20400181
i am struggling to understand why i should self publish when the self published works presented in the pastebin havent managed an even modest amount of attention or cultural impact

>>20401661
Pretty much as long as you want as long as you buy something

>>20401715
Because you will not get trad published unless you as a person and your work fills the limited criteria of what publishers are looking for in today's idpol influenced landscape. It is not a question of "why" you should do it, it's that you don't have a choice so get used to it.

>>20401724
what if im a homo?

>>20401729
If you're a homo and you're writing about homos you may fair better

>>20401634
I don't write books, it's just content for websites. I'll be told what to write on, broadly speaking, and after I do my Googling and visualise the structure in my mind's eye I set out to write it down. I can see entire pages' worth of content in my imagination but typing it down takes me a long time.

>>20401658
I'm not feeling it. it's not funny, it's not dystopian enough, and the first paragraph lost me with giant skyscrapers. I think it would be better if you introduced Kylgh first

Arki had no more time to waste on the dead man. He moved to the depths of the tunnel where no light could reach him and decided against lighting a torch. If there really is a beast down here, a torch would make me a moving target. "No… I’ll have to blend in with my surroundings", he thought.

He could feel every one of his senses adapt to the change. A rat’s squeak turned into a loud shriek, a small breeze turned into a gust. Every few seconds, a big splash would be heard in the distance, echoing across the tunnel. Arki would use that opportunity to make a subtle step forward. Moving on, the environment became even more livid than before. Counting his steps, he came to a halt and then turned to the left.

As he continued onwards, Arki felt the change in the air around him. It’s not as humid here. I must be close to an exit, he thought. Turning to the right, he ran his fingers along the wall and eventually felt a small ledge. Arki grabbed firmly onto the ledge, putting one foot after the other and slowly climbing up, leaving the tunnel behind him. Pushing the grate above him, he looked up and spotted the stars dotting the night sky.

The alleyway before him surrounded by quaint little buildings with terracotta roofs. Myriads of scents immediately swarmed him. The aroma of lilies, irises, cinnamon and saffron extinguished the stench that arose from the tunnel. The fog had now dispersed. "How long did I spend down there?" he wondered. He covered the hole he left behind and explored the alleyway. An ornate gate stood between him and the street. Even if he wanted to climb it, there’s no way he could, as it was three times as tall as him, with large bronze spikes at the top. "The only way out of here is through the way I came," he thought.

Arki approached the house that faced the gate. A naked woman’s figure was carved on the cedarwood door. The sign next to it wrote “KARRINA BATHHOUSE”." I have heard of this bathhouse before", he thought. It was one of the few bathhouses in Kadesh whose business didn’t decline after the invasion, thanks to its proximity with the Academy. Arki knocked on the door and waited.

>>20401658
it is very rough but I kind of like it

>>20402002
I fear the references are just too niche. The general fairy tale aspects are pretty clear, but then there's all the Maeterlinck stuff and more specific esoteric tidbits like the son of a widow or weird trivia like the etymological connection between Arthur and bears.

It's so satisfying to edit drafts and remove all the unnecessary lines

>>20400181
Do any of you get random spurs of inspiration (like you see a scene so clearly) and then sit down in front of a blank page and just kinda look at it like that awkward date from three years ago? Like why the fuck did you even open your word processor/notebook/printing press/cave-wall-you-carve-into?

it's frustrating.

>>20402306
Yeah but Im getting better at it. Just go through the process of putting the image back together start by asking questions
>list all the 5 senses you felt
>do word association with the things yiu thought of
>explore the emotions
>try to understand where there is tension and harmony
Not definitive but just ideas. Whenever O get stuck I just methodically ask questions and then i have a huge list of things i need to tell and by then one or more versions of a scene become vivid. Write each version if necessary, theres no shame in scrapping your writing if the finished product benefits.

>>20402306
Don't forget when you compose some sublime lines while trying to think about how to put that inspiration into words, but then when pick up a pen or lay your hands on the keyboard, everything that comes out is dreadful and mundane.

How do I avoid my impulse to skip over all the buildup and rush to "the good stuff" by sloppily summarizing what came before, totally ruining the impact of the big scene I envision?

>>20400269

>>20402432
Write the big scene first to get it out of your system, then write the stuff before it

Chapter 1 and 6 compared. Interesting.

>>20400269
Look Homeward Angel is interesting but somewhat purple. If you like Faulkner you'll probs enjoy.

>>20402375
Don't hurt me like this. The words sound beautiful in my head like I'm being carried away on a wind, and then I write and it's like I'm plodding over rocks.
Has anyone noticed recurring themes in their writings, by the way? I really like night and wind and water metaphors and I'm not sure if it's because I'm le sensitive or what.

How to name aliens and their planets in non-cringe ways?

>>20402565
I loved Wolfe's poetry (a Stone, a Leaf, a Door) so I had to. I actually started reading him because Ray Bradbury was heavily influenced by him.

How do I write sex scenes that women would enjoy?

>>20400204
Disagree. Shit like exciting making concrete only for it to be easy is the epitome of postmodern charm. Not just random emo shit.

>>20401739
really? im willing to suck dick to get my shit published

can i just lie and say im bisexual or something?

>>20402669
become one

>write a chapter
>sentence extends to a new page
>there's tons of blank space
>begin to try and add an additional scene to make the page look longer
Anyone else do this?
>>20402674
Jeff Beezos got you.

>>20402694
>Anyone else do this?
yes but i don't think its a good idea.

>>20402453
Not sure if this is based or schizo.
In either case, I see the Matrix e-books are available at http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/alien.ufo/ .

>>20402674
Sounds like you already are.

>>20402707
i am not gay, just an opportunist

>>20402648
Pick names from the constellations. An alien race in my book is named after one of the constellations. Then just hybridize Earth phrases with Greek letter names and run down the court with it.
>Eridanians (Eridanus) who live on Alpha Mael in the Achernar star system

>>20402713
Oh? Would you kill someone for a chance to get published?

>>20402694
I write in web view so it's one long page

>>20402669
read sex scenes women enjoy. copy that.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54622/the-kill-list/chapter/911699/chapter-1-rainfall

The first chapter of a generic high fantasy Kill Bill knockoff I'm writing is posted.
It's not going to win any awards, but it's been fun writing it so far. Any feedback on the prose is welcome. It's really just a fun project that'll allow me to practice my writing while also, hopefully, eventually let me claim I've written a "novel."
Some anons liked my weird horror pieces the other day. Feel free to give this a shot as well.

>>20402797
oh, and here's the blurb:

Isadora Ordreid is the Scion of Priene, the princess of a city that sits between desert and grassland. The reign of her father, King Furan Oredeid, has come to its end in a bloody coup détat, plotted by his closest advisors. In the chaos, Isadora manages to flee the castle, and dedicates herself to reclaiming her throne and wreaking vengeance on the those who broke their oaths to her family.

Carving a bloody path, Isadora is still haunted by questions. What happened to her twin brother? Who was behind the coup? What curse lies beneath the city of Priene? She has no choice but to press on, hoping to find answers.

>>20402671
Postmodern charm?

Which idea is more interesting?
1. Science fiction where Humans can reincarnate as if it's a completely normal thing. Everyone is essentially immortal.
2. The mother of the chosen one watches said son/daughter die. And she chooses to take up arms against the demon king. The prophecy is fulfilled because the chosen one defeats the demon, but it's only implied it was done through secondary means.

>>20402797
Generic but your writing style is consumable. No huge grammar fuck ups, no overt red flags. brety gud. practice dialogue more

I spent all of my writing time today agonizing over the prettyboy character's outfit...

>>20402799
Yes. That seemingly effortless poetic charm that otherwise drudgerous authors produce, like that scene with the boats in V.

>>20402732
assuming its someone i can reasonably get away with, like a rando on the street

>>20400181
Jack flicks the scroll wheel of his computer mouse as the blue and purple pixels flash across the monitor. The website 4chan and it’s Literature image board flickers the catalog of jay pegs and bold thread titles. His middle finger pushes the wheel with slow ratcheting clicks as one thread catches his notice. The Writing General, a realm of the wishful, and wistful. Jack nudges his wrist moving the mouse cursor and clicks the plastic button. The computer monitor briefly flashes comforting blue and purple as the thread loads through his disappointingly slow and affordable internet connection. Finally, Jack thinks, I can talk among peers and fellow confidantes of the written language art. Clicking the reply box, he begins typing out entirely past tense sentence structure. Filled with fantastical names, and places, in all weirdly European and historically based terms. A stream of unbridled consciousness enters the white box of text. Truly, an epic of modern adventure and true love. Finally finished, Jack clicks the captcha and enters the text shown. After moving the slider, the captcha reveals the text reading “U LUS G4ME”.

Her head was directly underneath the golden light of day, producing the impressionistic illusion, momentary as it is, that would lead the inattentive eye to describe her as blonde, which she actually wasn't. With or without the light, this was the result of the natural archetypal image she embodied, if primarily in spirit, the blondness that one would naturally expect to conclude her perfectly groomed appearance, like the brain that expects the next note to seamlessly flow in a musical composition. Her hair was cut at the neck's length, a characteristically feminine voluminous style, yet still elegant, cascading in curtains of a caramel-tinged brown silk, beautifully shiny in this blended, subdued way. The collar of a pristine white dress shirt protruded from a black sweater as sable as pitch, a black and white pairing reminiscent of the keys in a piano, the predominant blacks in their perfect pentatonic scale, playing the flats and the sharps, the flats that could so powerfully conclude a phrase when sustained. And of that sustain she was the physical embodiment. Like the simple crystal glass of champagne, not ornate with detailed carvings but a smooth thin cylinder, uncomplicated totem of poise and finesse, filled with the amber liquid that when held against light would also turn golden, and from its bubbles and color produce its attention-grabbing radiance. It was in her deliberate refinement that her generally simple composition was uplifted, irradiating a lustrous aura. As in the automatic stimulation of music, that in the first couple chords of the major scale, all whites from end to end, transports you into the entire emotional context of triumphant joy, in that same way your brain instinctively knew the collection of ideas associated to her by laying eyes in her shine, under that sun. The freshness in the smell of perfume and clean clothes, the tidy and careful organization of her affairs, much like the memorized nature of her knowledge spheres, her beautiful calligraphy and words pronounced in the Queen's English exiting roseate lips delineated in a self-satisfied feline smirk. In that demure sophistication she exuded the so called "attitude" through which one expresses a sample of the substance of their soul in its entirety.

>>20402798
coup d'état

>>20403084
Prose so flowery I was picking thorny weeds out of my asshole until a bee stung me in the penis near the end.

>>20401395
I'd like to read it. You should post it, anon.

>>20401395
Stephen King wrote The Dead Zone and didn't get sent to Guantanamo for it

>>20402494
What program are you using?

>>20403128
kek, I'd actually like that as a review

>>20402809
The first. Chosen one narratives are tiresome

>>20401209
a busty wide-ass blue/green-eyed redhead could ruin my life and I'd be grateful.

wait, this is not a porn board.

>>20402809
>The prophecy is fulfilled
it isn't.

also
>the chosen one
don't. potter-esque characters are done. for at least a few more decades.
just make it a random kid who decided to stop the grownup asshole villain.
unless of course, the background is something extraordinarily unique -
>a race of 6-inch humanoids, who've spent their entire existence avoiding and dodging the 6 ft tall surface dwellers, must face the giant assholes because of the danger of encroachment. and then there was a prophecy that someday the giants will bulldoze their forest, but a wonder kid will cut off a fuel line, light the spilled fuel on fire, and see the bulldozer go up in flames - forcing the humans to discard their plans to construct another suburban locality by clearing a forest.
it has to be stupid unique to stand a chance.

>>20401395
>nobody is going to touch this
someone might.
2022 is literally the perfect time to get it out there.

>going to get a knock at the door.
by a literary agent. if your work is publishing quality.

What does /wg/ think of my monolog

>>20403395
I don't like it. It takes a billion words to express... what, disapproval? It comes off more as writing for a web novel or an interlude between smutty sex scenes. The capitalization and the stylistic choices you make in general really lend it a sense of the amateur author. Using capitals like that to suggest emphasis is poor form.
>like a sewer of lies
You were already losing my good will up to this point, but by the time I'd read this, I decided I didn't like it.

Keep reading and keep practicing, anon. You'll get there.

>>20402809
If you go with the first one read about the game Destiny theres hours and hours of lore entries by different writers covering the topic of immortality. The story is loosely based on the 1000 year Reign in the Bibles book of Revelation with a scifi twist so the military is immortal but regular people arent and the immortality is a tech gift given as a surprise when amazing people die. It also goes heavily into causality and will-to-power but most of the in game narrative is dumbed down and only winks at it.
If you did write this people would immediately think Destiny as its been out almost 8 years and still ongoing in seasonal installments.

You guys ever get lonely in this craft? I have a pair of friends who work together on this music project, they have released a couple of EPs to Spotify but nothing major - we often like to compare our trajectories, as I have a few stories published I'm proud of. But on days like these I begin to envy them. I have no idea what happened. I was supposed to spend this Sunday really bringing out the middle breathes of these 2 different stories I'm working on and I have written exactly 0 on either of them. I completely fucked off all day and it's because I'm very distracted at the moment, I spent all day listening to music on headphones, trading coins, and watching old Pride fights... somehow I feel like collaborative efforts have a different energy that can help to avoid days like this. I haven't even eaten today fuck I'm just getting food for the first time now and it's 9:00pm.

>>20400181
[x] indian man
[x] women
[x] black man
[x] racially ambiguous person
[ ] black woman
[ ] hijab
[ ] asian man

4/7, not bad, but just do a little better next time.

>>20403694
How could I feel lonely when I'm constantly surrounded by you good folk?

>>20403694
Tell me about your pic-related, is it good?

>>20403735
Of course Henry James is the granddaddy of all your /lit/ icons. it's incredibly dense and I mean it, but you get used to it.

>>20403743
>granddaddy of all your /lit/ icons
Explain

On the archives I searched a keyword in my writing that appears nowhere else on 4chan for shits and giggles. Someone reposted an excerpt here which I recently posted to try to make fun of me. It drew a compliment, which I find fucking hilarious.
>I think I'll continue enjoying this piece regardless of what some retard on the internet thinks
Thank you, faceless anon, for the kind words. I needed them, at that point, and the idea that my writing could be mistaken for copypasta or even a meme edit of some established author's work... well, it was heartening. Dr. Bucksneed will ride on, even if his author is going through a rough spell. I hope we will all continue working, and I hope we all can muster the courage to step outside the box a bit, and to question the common narrative that commercial success is objective success, and that we should look no further in our ambitions than making with our fiction money sufficient to propel ourselves from the wage cage.

>Try to write something
>It's just the last few things I read chimerised
How to get over this problem?

>>20403990
Problem? What problem? Just digest whatever you read and regurgitate it with a touch of your own ideas. A good writer borrows, a great writer steals.

>>20403955
Don’t let one compliment go to your head. If I’m remembering the bucksneed thing correctly, I did not like it one bit.
Your prose is overly dense to the point of alienation. I understand you’re the type to take that as a compliment, but please don’t. It’s wooden and awkward. I think someone in the thread called you a “thesaurus victim” and, at least from memory, I would have to agree. It felt as though each and every word was agonized over, not with flow or comprehension in mind, but with the paralyzing fear that you would be called a midwit if you dared use a four letter word.
All of this I could forgive, I see far worse errors every single day in this very thread after all. Fix it up and go next would be the usual advice, but not here. There’s one thing about your work that genuinely irks me, and that is the misuse of 4chan culture. A buck is a black man who is raped in the ass as a corrective punishment. Sneed is a Simpsons character that has had multiple edits of him raping black men as a corrective punishment. Please explain to me why a “bucksneed” is a wizened teacher who speaks of life lessons in the prose of a store brand Joyce. At what point does he stop musing over life and take up his role as the middle cart of the pain train?
If the whole thing is just done for the subversion of taking two crass concepts and making them civilized, well that’s just boring. If it’s done to fit in (which I feel is the more likely option) then my advice would be to scrap the whole piece.

>>20404079
Because it means that I end up writing stories that are soulless mishmashes of tropes that seem like something an AI would make when told to make a hit TV series.

>>20404100
>Please explain to me why a “bucksneed” is a wizened teacher who speaks of life lessons in the prose of a store brand Joyce
You tell me. I don't write fiction to be picked apart and distilled into a series of finite and concrete meanings. I do have my own reasons, but they're only mine, and they're strictly equal to yours. So, while as a genuine 2006 oldfag, it hurts a little that it seems inauthentic, I also don't want to defend it too much, because your interpretation is valid. I believe in the death of the author, but I'd hope that if you saw the good doctor in his other incarnations in the 30k or so words preceding that one passage (in which he's been a number of other things: a soldier, a janitor, an executive, a cage fighter) you might be inclined to see it a bit more favorably.
>>20404100
>thesaurus victim
I do kind of resent this too. I can understand why people might think that, but I go to really, really great pains to use only my natural vocabulary. Please consider the possibility that the dialogue you're remembering is, first, not the one that got reposted; and second, not representative of the prose in its entirety along the course of the larger thing in question. I try to play pretty frequently with the stylism, and what you're decrying as wooden, thesaurus'y, etc., well... this always sounds like a cop-out, but it's intentional. Fully.

>>20404100
>Sneed is a Simpsons character
Also, the way I see Sneed is less its literal implementation, but more in its function as a cultural phenomenon, whose extrapolations I won't bore you with. Consider the possibility that there might be more going on beneath the surface, and that maybe your misunderstanding is not my fault.

>make bunch of random pointless characters
>Talk about them once
>Never mention them again
Is it good to bring back characters from chapter 1?

>>20404128
>>20404139
Most of what you say here is fair. I haven’t read the entire thing and maybe this wooden dialogue and misuse of a 4chan meme is an outlier to the rest of the story.
You have irked me again though with your talks of death of the author. Death of the author, at least to me, has always been a way to discard the retarded interpretations presented by the author. Ridley Scott attempting to say that Deckard was always a synth is a good example of this. It’s a retarded take that ruins one of the core aspects to the film.
I have never seen death of the author used as a smokescreen to say “Well my interpretation doesn’t matter, only yours does. Death of the author and all that.”.
David Lynch made Twinpeaks with an idea in mind. Twinperfect making a 4 hour video that is wrong top to bottom does not discount this fact.

>>20404178
Not every character needs to be significant. Sometimes, like in real life, some things and some people just aren't going to matter to you. Unless you secretly go to bed every night hoping you run into Bobby from preschool at the supermarket, just so you can catch up, I think it's pretty safe to say that some characters can just be bit players.

>>20404209
>discard the retarded interpretations presented by the author
On this, we more or less agree. Since we're talking film, both Lynch and Bergman are and were notorious for their refusal to go into what their films "meant" to them. It's this kind of radical equality married to an uncompromising, internal vision that resonates with me. Maybe "death" isn't sufficient, because my opinion on what my interpretation is of my writing is closer to maybe a scouring of the author. I want nothing less than the author's obliteration. I want it to be that the author is just another reader who stumbled upon this strange and often incomprehensible sequence of words. Naturally, as the actual author, I have my own secrets and ideas and goals for the work. But if I succeed, they're just mine. They're immaterial. I don't believe in the death of the author as a mechanism or a facilitator or catalyst for a specific goal as much as I believe in it as a philosophical stance toward the creation of art, in and of itself.

I am, in so many words, a complete crackpot. But I do try to own it, and that doesn't mean I can't care deeply about my work.

>>20404247
suicide of the author

>>20404255
We can only hope.

>>20402797
Shamelessly bumping this for feedback.

I want to make a giant turtle monster character, but I'm afraid it's going to be called a Gamera ripoff

Any advice for writing a first person narrator who's a pretentious blowhard without making the narration itself obnoxious?

>>20404276
Who cares? Just make a giant turtle monster. If it doesn't behave like and have the exact abilities as Gamera it's fine.

>>20404255
I have too many things I want to do first. I don't think I'll run out of them before I get around to suicide.
>>20404264
It's well-written. The prose tugs you along. Descriptive passages are curt but effective. They don't grate or pull you away from the flow of things. It leans a little too heavily on fantasy tropes for my taste (e.g. man-beasts) but I guess that's just how it goes with fantasy. Keep going, anon. You might stumble into something that's actually really good.

>>20404280
That's pretty much impossible given first-person narration is linked to the narrator's personality. He's going to be thinking and saying obnoxious shit all the time, and that's the point. Unless you're framing it like him telling the story at a later date when he's less of a tool, so the narration mocks his past self.

>>20402797
Pretty good, if unoriginal. It's very fantasy trope heavy, it even has the female assassin thing going on. Would read second chapter.

Since you're also a horror writer, I think if you incorporate your horror stuff you wrote into it, it would be way more interesting. A horror fantasy would be worth reading.

>>20404280
make him seem pretentious through dialogue?
"Yes, yes. I was traveling through the Amazon. The jungle, not the river, mind you. When Tom Cruise turned to me to ask advice on how to act out his next role. I told him and the movie was a huge hit."

>>20401316
Publish erotica and romance.
5k words a day. Don't revise and don't edit: they don't deserve that.

>>20404312
Not a bad idea. Maybe subvert the whole thing. What if your narrator is actually a really down-to-earth guy, but for some reason can't help but express himself in really obtuse, circuitous ways?

>>20404281
It doesn't

>>20403228
>a race of 6-inch humanoids [...] must face the giant assholes
So, the plot of "Fantastic Planet"?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070544
>>20403990
Read more non-fiction?

>>20404352
>Fantastic Planet
hmm.
indeed, everything worth writing has been written already - but not by me.
I had no idea.

>create a character
>Badass Conan the Barbarian type character
>Turn it into a girl
>Suddenly progressive and unique
Why do fantasy writers do this so often? Can't anyone write a girly girl that likes girly things and ducks up in her job because she's a woman, but people forgive her because she's cute?

>>20404365
From what I've read of Wheel of Time, all the women are insufferable, catty cunts who fuck everything up just because they insist on acting like insufferable, catty cunts regardless of the severity of the situation and keep getting away with it because men are long-suffering.

>>20404365
That's not how progressives write "strong women" and you know it. They just make them insufferable cunts, basically embodiments of "muh toxic masculinity". ACTUAL strong women (such as this theoretical "Conanette") are fucking kino.

>>20404359
No, you just have to write it differently.
But it helps to find out how aspects of your idea have been done before, so as to be ready for the comparisons.
>>20404383
So the books are like that too?
I saw the TV series...more like labored through it...and yeah, it was insufferable and boring.

>>20404397
Oh the books are infamous for how awful the women are. Robert Jordan clearly knew what women are like at their worst and just made every female character be that all the time.

>>20404397
>you just have to write it differently.
exactly what I meant by "- but not by me."

right now I'm trying to write a "Hogwarts in space."
the challenge is not finding enough time.

>>20404409
>Hogwarts in space
Ender's Game?

>>20404286
I'm writing it as a travelogue put together from journals he had written as it happened, so I'd like to avoid too much commentary from him after the development he goes through in the story.
>>20404312
>>20404323
Doesn't really fit the arc I want for him. The plan is that he grows to become down to earth because of his adventures.

>>20404416
>Ender's Game
FUCK ME!
are there no original ideas left in my brain?

>>20404406
Did Jordan at least write the awful women ironically?
It'd still be worth reading, then.
As it is, the show makes me afraid to read the books.

>>20404425
nihil sub sole novum
there is nothing new under the sun
"originality" is just stirring the stuff you've stolen around and mixing it up a bit to make it seem new, not unlike making small alterations to a recipe to make a new recipe

>>20403084
Bretty good. It's flowery without reading like it was forced to be. Almost Jamesian.

>>20404427
>ironically
No. I think you misunderstand, he's writing women as awful because that's how he perceives them. It's not depicted as stunning and brave, they're horrid cunts who ruin everything for everyone and the men have to fix everything.

>>20404425
Hey, don't feel too bad.
My first novel was an anarcho-libertarian "Atlas Shrugged" set in modern-day America.
My most recent one is a mystery, though I tried to make it funny instead of all dark and gritty.
My next one (according to current plans) is in a genre that petered out in the early 1950s...psionic fiction.
The ideas aren't original, but hopefully the execution is original enough.

>>20404423
Then you need to do SOMETHING early on to make the audience endear themselves to him. A completely unlikeable dickbag of a protagonist who gets better is just not sufficiently compelling. Give them some heart, some reason for people to want them to grow.

>>20404437
true.

>>20404444
checked.
>The ideas aren't original, but hopefully the execution is original enough.
a comment worthy of the quads.
thank you.

>>20404443
>you misunderstand
I'm sure I do; it's why I was asking.
So the show's "innovation" is to make the horrible cunts "stunning and brave"?
Then Robert Jordan may be worth reading after all.

>>20404443
I don't think it's really meant to be "women bad" as much as it is "the dominant group of any society will inevitably trend towards power-hungry assholes who stomp on the ones lower on the totem pole".

>>20404459
Gareth Bryne spanking Siuan until she falls in love with him clearly shows how Jordan felt about women.

>>20404450
>completely unlikeable dickbag of a protagonist who gets better is just not sufficiently compelling
unless the hook is amazing.
>"Alright, that's it, I'm going to kill everyone on this planet starting next week," said the richest man in the world calmly, and went back to staring at his formula for an airborne flu-like disease.

>>20404450
>completely unlikable dickbag who gets better
OTOH, redemption is a huge trope in American fiction.

Why are we so fast this morning

>>20404454
Glad I could help.
Another way to help write original takes on old ideas...write out your unoriginal ideas.
The point is to get them out of your system, and make room for other things.
Also, you'll have material to plunder for smaller ideas.

>>20404499
>44 99
checked.
good advice.

>>20404450
He's not a bad guy or a dick, just vacuous and self-absorbed. I don't even think it'd be an issue in third person, but I'm committed to showing the change in his narration because of the stories I'm homaging.

is anything original anymore?
hasn't it all been done?

>>20404444
>My most recent one is a mystery, though I tried to make it funny instead of all dark and gritty.
Can you post an excerpt? That actually sounds pretty interesting.

>>20404515
And that's fair enough, but you have to give some compelling thing to stick with him until he gets better early on. It doesn't have to be much, just an idea of where he COULD go, some altruistic action, some compelling thought, etc.

>>20404526
Write about a fat obese angel that gets shit from the four archangels. That fat piece of shit then becomes Satan

>>20404554
has been done

>>20404528
I'm serializing it online:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54446/the-mystery-of-the-real-live-dead-person

>>20404456
>Then Robert Jordan may be worth reading after all
I enjoyed the series, Sanderson's contributions notwithstanding. The show is absolute cringeworthy meme levels of awful. Book 1 can seem very generic fantasy-ish, it really hits its stride in book 2.

Any anons have anything on I can purchase that needs a review? I've been reviewing /lit/ indie material and will gladly purchase youir work. I check these threads periodically.

>>20404280
I'm kind of doing this as well. My techniques are 1) show him being grateful for something. Maybe just for his mother calling him for his birthday or even a sunrise, to show he has that in him. 2) show through narration/other character reaction that you and the world realize he's a bit of a twit, humorously so even.

>>20404526
Why sing any song that's been sung before, why watch the sunset if it's set a million times before and will a million times again?

>>20404526
The hero of the land becomes a world reknowned panty thief. But the kingdom is powerless to stop him because he saved the world from the ancient evil.

>>20404541
Putting the problem into words is helping. The initial conflict is him finding himself in a strange land and attempting to return home. Over the first few chapters he realizes not only is that goal unlikely to be achieved, but that he has also lost the resources that he has always relied on and that he sees as the reason he's special compared to others. As the story continues he is taught to nurture other virtues and, without realizing it, begins to become a new, more complete individual.
So what I need is something in the first chapter to foreshadow the development and bring things full circle once it happens. I'm thinking maybe a situation where he fails to save one of his traveling companions. I can show humanity through his regret and later call back to it with him succeeding in a similar situation.

>>20404627
You want to read the Emily Project? Please be nice...
https://www.amazon.com/Emily-Project-K-K-Wgon-ebook/dp/B09X6JX44X

>>20404587
>has been done
When? Where? How?

>>20404644
Anon... I want to be nice, but there's a grammatical error on the very first page.
>Cartels believe to have kidnapped fifty

>>20404662
Paradise Lost

>>20404664
Son of a bitch. After all these months this is the first time I saw that. And I stole it from a Yahoo news article.

>>20404644
I am a harsh critic, but I try to be fair and I always find some good things even if there are major problems. here's my GR profile
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144028475-william-pearce
What's your book about?

>>20404668
Well, that was 1667, so it's due for an update!
And as long as >>20404554 reads the original, and avoids the cliches, it could work!

>>20404526
>>20404554
paradise lost?

>>20404627
>>20404681
Yep, picrel is EXACTLY the sort of person I want to read my books. LOL
I have two...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HLY13CL
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1BHVHMG

And I was going to tell you about Xenos Depths -- I bought a paperback of that yesterday -- but you already found it.

>>20404681
A redditor gets a robot and finally learns to grow up.

>>20404643
It doesn't have to be that big of a deal or that direct, just something to make the reader, who's in the head of this obnoxious guy, not want to just throttle him.

>>20404698
I already picked up xenos depths. i'll get to it in a few days, i'm just going through a Gardner book first and trying to "review it."
>>20404703
okay. i'll pick it up. it will probably be a couple weeks before i get to it, but i will review it.

>>20404526
A tentacle rape monster gets hunted down by a horny female hunter that wants it to fill all her holes.

>>20404662
say a write a story about a boy whose horrible aunt and uncle force him to sleep under the stairs
one day a giant shows up and takes him to ninja school
is it "harry potter" or me changing one thing make it new and original?

>>20404723
Aren't there entire Japanese GENRES about that?

>>20404747
No no no. There's tentacle rape monsters hunting women all the time, but never the reverse. Tht in itself is original and new.

>>20404723
"buffy the vampire slayer" with a twist

>>20404715
It's an action story with a war involved, so that's not particularly dramatic in the overall context. Thinking about it I like the idea of him not wanting to talk about the failure and having the narration skip over several days as he avoids journaling to not have to confront what happened.

>>20404788
That's solid enough. Just have him barely acknowledge it, then abruptly cut to the next journal entry a few days later.

>>20404282
>>20404311
Thanks for the kind words! Horror will definitely play a part as the story goes on.

some say "mistborn" is original.
but it's
"lord of the rings" were sauron won
"oceans eleven"
"my fair lady"
and the magic system is base on magneto

>>20402740
Psycho

>>20404918
The trick is to make it _seem_ original. Make enough changes so that the work is camouflaged. Like changing the setting from the real life world to a space opera or a fantasy. Changing the gender of the protagonist and etc.

>>20404918
Sandersen in general is dogshit and its very sad the state that fantasy is in that someone like him is able to completely change the trajectory of the entire genre

Hard magic is gay

>>20400181
Whats the best website to use if you wanted to publish a serial? I dont just mean 1 chapter a week, I mean pulp type serials comprised of novellas. I want to incorporate illustrations as well as cover art for each installment, so it helps if the formatting isnt dogshit

>>20402797
why do you retards keep publishing on rr

>>20405000
seethe

>>20405000
Because it's currently the best platform for serializing one's own work, retard

>>20404981
If he's so shit how did he revolutionize the genre?

>>20404918
I don't think Sanderson has ever claimed it's a wholly original idea. He's themed it pretty explicitly on two separate things (what if the chosen hero lost and heist against the dark lord) and mashing them together.

>>20405096
Wait, THAT'S what Mistborn is? I heard all this wankery about that series and IT'S JUST THAT? I thought at least the plot/setting could offset the inconceivably fuckass lame magic system, but guess not

>>20404992
I know WattPad allows one to post an image per chapter.
One can format text easily by uploading a formatted document to Google Docs (.docx or .odt or whatever), copying text from that document while it's open for editing in Google Docs, and pasting it into WattPad's text-edit box.
The same technique can be used to paste formatted text on ScribbleHub and RoyalRoad.

>>20405102
Wikipedia has a pretty thorough writeup:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistborn
And yes, the inspiration was apparently an inversion of Harry Potter, plus an "Ocean" style heist.

>>20405040
Because the fantasy-reading masses are media illiterate children who overvalue novelty over good writing and interesting fantasy. Sanderson-esque fantasy will be left in the ditch once these people catch onto the fact what they like right now has become the new tired fantasy formula. So in about five to ten more years minimum.

>>20405176
>I know WattPad allows one to post an image per chapter.
Stingey
One can format text easily by uploading a formatted document to Google Docs (.docx or .odt or whatever), copying text from that document while it's open for editing in Google Docs, and pasting it into WattPad's text-edit box.
Good to know. Does this let you paste images too with scribblehub/rr or do those platforms just not support images at all?

>>20405229
Funny how i fucked up quote text in a post about formatting

>>20405229
I don't remember seeing an option to attach images on ScribbleHub or RoyalRoad, but that doesn't mean it's not there.
I intend to post another chapter of my latest novel to all 3 sites later today; I can check then.

>>20405237
Yah, and what's up with "Stingey"? LOL
No hard feelings...I just kid.

>>20405240
You can embed images on RR and Scribblehub from urls.

>>20405000
lots of potential readers. non-obnoxious website that runs off minimal advertising.

>>20405240
Thanks bro. Whats the novel?
>>20405252
Apparently the proper spelling of the word is "stingy" which doesnt seem right to me.

>>20405240
>>20405252
You're doing it again. Stop doing it again.

https://files.catbox.moe/nruelo.pdf
Pls gib feedback
>pc is temporarily unavailable and they dont make libreoffice for phones, thats what the watermark is about.
>yes, i know it isnt formatted.

>>20405276
Fine, here's all 3 URLs:
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54446/the-mystery-of-the-real-live-dead-person
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/493896/the-mystery-of-the-real-live-dead-person/
https://www.wattpad.com/story/310698071-the-mystery-of-the-real-live-dead-person
I was trying not to be a shill.
>stingy
I find I write British spellings of a lot of words, despite being American. No idea why.

>>20405302
>I find I write British spellings of a lot of words, despite being American
I do that, too. I think I do it because when I was a kid I read a bunch of English writers. Roald Dahl, Brian Jacques and Tolkien. And then, later, Shakespear, ofc, and Pope and Swift and Joyce.

>>20405295
Well, it's the usual collection of sentence fragments, comma splices, misspelled words, and misplaced punctuation. Pretty common for this thread.
It's too short to get a sense of any originality it's bringing to the fantasy genre.

>>20405302
Read he first paragraph and I had to stop. Your similes and metaphors are just stupid.
>Fires = children's vomit
=Riot police = school bullies
>Fire extinguisher = offended college student

It just sounds stupid. Like some nerd that had issues back in grade school and lacks any imagination save the torment he felt growing up

>>20405413
Yikes

>>20405413
The similes and metaphors are intentionally ludicrous.

>>20405302
>The protester’s whines emerged from the howling feedback of the bullhorn’s distortions. “Ow! Hey! We’re only ten feet from you! Was that really necessary?”

A complaint being so exact doesn't read correctly. Try something like, "Ow! Was that really necessary?" The implication of proximity is already there.

>>20405419
>i'm being retarded on purpose

>>20405419
Be that as it may, they're uncomfortable to read. Just a bit of feedback anon, you can't please everybody.

Can anyone suggest to me resources for coming up with French sounding names for people and places? I'm writing a fantasy in a similar setting to 100 years war.

>>20402705
I'm a big fan of schizo core

>>20405436
Me too...long-time Subgenius here...but I don't think the Matrix books claim to be fiction.

>>20405419
Then you didn't set up your story to be a comedy or satire well enough. The protest is too serious

>>20405458
So you haven't even gotten to the naked chick yet?

>>20405467
Of course not I stopped on the first paragraph. Set up your opening better to indicate it's a comedy or satire.

>>20405473
The opening was intended to be misdirection.

>>20405473
Your second paragraph should be your first. And you till need to work on the metaphors, even if it is a satirical comedy the comparisons are just stupid.

>>20405404
>Well, it's the usual collection of sentence fragments, comma splices, misspelled words, and misplaced punctuation.
Easily fixed with drafts and self editing.
>It's too short to get a sense of any originality it's bringing to the fantasy genre.
And these are your only two channels of critique, middle-school level writing errors and genre originality? I asked for feedback, not a channelawesome review

What genre garners the most success?

>>20405517
Minecraft guides

>>20405509
It was too short to engender any other sort of review.

>>20405517
romance is the biggest seller, then mystery, followed by thrillers. that's like half of all book sales.

>>20405524
How do you read? Do you need to reach page 20 before you decide something is worth reading or not?

>>20405517
I would assume romance novels.

>>20405517
Supermarket smut romance

>>20405535
It varies.
I persisted through 25 pages of "Breadworld" before posting a review.
18 pages of Chinaman-anon's work.
40 pages of "The Visionary: Evolution: Taodore Bentley" by K. Angello-Mayfield before I gave up.
2 chapters of "A Trillion Trillion Years".
8 pages of James Joyce's "Ulysses" before I couldn't stand it any longer.
Your 3+ pages wasn't even enough to get an idea of what your story was about.

>>20405413
>>20405423
>>20405427
>>20405458
>>20405473
>>20405495
I guess I need to learn to write for the easily filtered.

>>20405564
why ask for feedback if you don't want to hear it?

>>20405553
You dont need to know the plot. You could read a random page from any book and if it wasnt some postmodern written mosaic you would immediately be able to see the strengths and weaknesses in how the author writes. First pages even moreso.

>>20405564
But that's what I've learned so far.
It was a valuable lesson.
And if I can't figure it out...I can only hope most potential readers aren't that easily filtered.

>>20405564
>I guess I need to learn to write for the easily filtered.
the only people you're filtering are women unfortunate enough to look at you... or probably to stand downwind of you.

>>20405429
Google

>>20405599
that was cruel and i apologize. i don't like you and i don't think you can write for shit, but that was uncalled for, and i apologize.

>>20405599

>>20405295
Pretty bad. Very clumsy sentences. You're trying to pack in way too many exotic words and florid descriptions.

>>20405610
Le Gueguelle?

>>20405295
i like what you're trying to do. i don't think you pulled it off, and i don't think you should be discouraged by others' terse and summary dismissals. i can see the vision beneath it, but it's mired with stuff that should probably have been caught in editing. some clumsy wordings, etc. i'd say that you should do a good editing run before posting it again. it's hard to say more than this because of how rough it is.

>>20405591
I guess you and I are different types of readers.
I evaluate the strengths and weaknesses in how the author writes on several metrics and consistency of plot is the most important one to me.
Also, >>20405295 only gave us 3+ pages, so I couldn't very well do what you said.

>>20405621
>Very clumsy sentences.
Examples?
>You're trying to pack in way too many exotic words
I know. I thought it would be alright since most are name places. Is that not the case? As far as things like "sept" and "menses" go, theyre very self explanatory given the context but i do recognise that theyre a little unnecessary.
>and florid descriptions
This i didn't know. Again, any examples?

Do any of you have websites?

>>20405633
Thank you. I'll finish this chapter and give it another draft.

>>20405630
Oui

>>20405564
>Easily filtered
Ohhhj you're one of those people. Then don't bother posting shit if you just want to smell your own farts; you tortures genius you.

>>20405599
Poor Boswell. The man has become the face of shit writers with an ego. All you had to do was give us a copy of your book for free..

Is it okay to have your pen name the opposite gender?

>>20405704
Why would you?

>>20405677
I'm serializing my new novel for free.
I'll probably serialize the first one when I'm done.
But...why would you want a free copy if you think it's shit?

>>20405718
I feel like writing romance works better if it appears a woman wrote it when in fact, I'm a hairy old man

>>20405704
Sure, why not.
Katherine St. Clair was actually a guy named T.E. Huff.

>>20405645
>Examples?
First sentence. Two cliches: kicking and screaming, blinding light. The natural reading of "its occupants" would be the Age's occupants, which is weird. It's obvious from context what you mean, but it sounds odd.
Second sentence. "Had special reason" and "most of which" don't agree in number. The special reason and "precise opposite" are left unstated, so the reader is sort of left waiting.
Third sentence. "unjustly terse" is ironic in a wordy sentence. "repurposed" is very modern and out of place in a fantasy--although some of that is unavoidable. (Use google's ngram viewer when in doubt.)
Fourth sentence. "at a pace to match an asteroid" is nonsense. "Regency" is a noun and could not be part of that form of address.

I could go through the whole thing and point out what's off, but you get the idea.

I recommend writing in as clear and straightforward a manner as possible. Then go back and add some ornamentation where needed. Right now, you're trying to cook by pouring all the spices in first and then adding meat as an afterthought.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here. I pretty much have all the same problems as you. It's probably a natural stage of development.

>>20405704
jk rowling went with jk so has not to alienate boys

>>20405677
Says the pseud that has never ONCE posted any of his own writing.

>>20405719
>But...why would you want a free copy if you think it's shit?
you are so fucking genuinely retarded. it's impressive that you manage to not only breathe, but ostensibly manage to take successive, sequential breaths while simultaneously managing complex tasks like walking or typing.

the point is not that anybody WANTS your novel. it's that your gay, coy little refusal to do so while spamming WowPepesFrom4chan.com with offsite filenames says in gigantic, red block letters that you're only here to market yourself. like you do on r*ddit. and y*****e. and i'm sure anywhere it's legal to spread your asshole wide for strangers in hope of a passing nickel, there you are with your gut sagging below your knees, cheeks spread wide and begging for change.

you are a bugman. you offer nothing. the only reason you're here and even talking is because you're trying to Build The Community. you are playing the social media game, and it is so completely fucking obvious because you are so completely fucking inept at it. go away.

>>20405646
I do! What do you want to know?

>>20405887
>you're only here to market yourself
Not true. I also read other people's writing and offer critiques...meaningful ones, not just filtered seething.
If I like it enough, I buy a paperback copy...as I did for Son Of The Sun, Salvation On Peril Island, and most recently, Xenos Depths.
What have YOU bought?

I also offer lots of advice to other aspiring writers.
Many of them thank me for it.

And I would still like to see you post a sample of your own writing.
After all, unless you're a writer, why are you in /wg/?

>>20405771
Thank you for getting specific, it was very helpful. Ill try to cut some of these down and refine the wording a little, especially the opening sentence. I find it awkward to write in the workflow you recommend because just writing succinctly how things happen and why feels wrong. It feels like writing instructions more than telling a story. How do you describe the inside of a brothel for example without being at least a little purple about it? If you dont season to taste, how do you know what youre cooking is any good?

>>20405924
>I also read other people's writing and offer critiques...
such that you become known as The Guy Who Gives Meaningful Critiques That Aren't Just Filtered Seething... and then buy your book.
>If I like it enough, I buy a paperback copy...as I did for Son Of The Sun, Salvation On Peril Island, and most recently, Xenos Depths.
yeah, you're attempting to engage in that bog-standard tit-for-tat social media garbage that everyone else does. that's your strategy. you are playing the social media game, trying to weasel your writing, which wouldn't stand out in a high school, regular ass english class, into circles of other writers. this is literally how the game is played. build your network. advertise. put your name in people's mouths.

it's so fucking trite and obvious. you aren't from around here. you don't belong here. the only reason you ARE here is because you have some naive fantasy that if you play the advertising game well enough with social media and carefully milquetoast and saccharine cock-rub "critiques," then your mediocre (generous) writing might win the lottery and let you escape from whatever soulless job you have, which is probably some kind of engineering, if i had to hazard a guess.

again, fuck off. nobody needs you here. you need us, and i'm just going to call you out on this every single time you drop your writing. every time.

>>20405942
>then buy your book
Today is the first day in a long time that I've mentioned my writing is available for purchase.
You're claiming a general pattern when there isn't one.
Also, inflating a specific into a generality is one of the classic signs of a sociopath.
>bog-standard tit-for-tat social media garbage
No, I bought what I genuinely liked.
>i'm just going to call you out on this every single time
Don't you have anything better to do? Like post your own writing?

>>20405974
>inflating a specific into a generality is one of the classic signs of a sociopath.
What kind of armchair do you sit in when you do your psychoanalysis, Freud? Or should I say Pseud?

Can I get some feedback on my writing? This is a very typical passage. I have my manuscript just about finished but am hesitant to publish. What do you think?

>Boswell and pseud at each other's throats again
Always my favorite part of the weekend.

>>20405979
So much projection.
I guess that means you can't refute any of my other points.
Now post some of your own writing already.

>>20405999
Too bad he's not interesting enough to base a character on.

>>20405995
Reads very well anon, can't knock it.

>>20405995
"wore underneath" -> "worn underneath" ?
"tail;anything" - Semicolons separate sentences. This should be a comma or an em-dash.
"This is will" -> "This will" ?
preserve -> persevere ?

I hope, for your sake, that the rest of your manuscript doesn't contain this proportion of errors.

>>20405473
>>20405488
Didn't realize I was such an expert at misdirection.
Truly, I didn't.
Hopefully it wasn't just dumb luck.
But oh, the strident reaction it got!

>>20405917
What do you use it for and do on it?

>>20404992
Just got back from publishing new chapters.

RoyalRoad's and ScribbleHub's editor both have an "insert/edit image" option in the text-editor.
RoyalRoad also has pre/post-chapter author notes.
I haven't used either, so I can't say anything more about them.

It looks like WattPad just has attaching a single image to the top of a chapter.
I've used that before; it works as advertised.

Does anyone else use Grammarly?

>>20406074
It probably does. No worries. I have a proofreader lined up.

>>20406103
No. I read their terms and it gives them free reign to steal anything you input.

>>20405653
Legion d'Honneur!
Les Miserables!
Hngngng hngngng hngngng!
(Chokes to death and dies)
What happened?! What happened?!
He spoke French! He's DEAD!

>>20406095
I use it to publish weekly flash fictions and the occasional blog. Now that my fourth book is finished too, I'll be using my website to talk about the book and post updates that it is up online. The website has also given me access to a mailing list but I'm not sure how successful it is.
It's important to have a platform, I think, so people take you seriously and can see "Oh hey, this guy isn't just throwing stuff into the void. His website is clean, easy to navigate, and has information about him and links to his social media sites" (Goodreads, Facebook for me).

>>20406103
>>20406121
Yeah, I was unnerved by Grammarly's terms too.
I use Microsoft Office 365's grammar checker.
It doesn't find everything, but it does a pretty good job.
And Microsoft's evil, at this point, is a known quantity -- they suck, but I don't think they want to steal content.

>>20405995
Condense and clarify.
>It seemed an impossible task to rein in his concentration
He couldn't concentrate. Concentration was impossible. Or something less wordy.

Some over explaining like saying his underwear was under his clothing. If he can taste her, we already know it was a short time ago.

>>20406132
How did you set it up?

>>20406145
Thank you for your time and effort. Duly noted.

>>20406157
I bought a domain from Wordpress.com. The yearly fee wasn't much. If you buy from .org you have to set up your own hosting for it and design the site yourself and I'm not much of a developer, so I went with a template and tried my best to make it look unique. Plus I can now send people a short url with my name instead of some huge long URL.wordpress dot com.

>>20405240
>>20405252
>>20405302
>>20405419
>>20402705
>>20406130
>>20406085
>>20406010
>>20405719
>>20404444
>>20400781
>>20400719
>>20400712
>>20400680
>>20400651
>>20400638
>>20400575
>>20400224
>>20400855
>>20400887
>>20400922
>>20400929
>>20404352
>>20404499

You're spamming the shit out of the thread again you avatar faggot. Get back on your meds. At least now you've revealed your writing and identity.

>>20406302
You couldn't be more wrong.
I'm living rent-free in your head.

>>20405995
I actually really like this prose. Are you on RR?

>>20406328
>Hey guys, I just copy/pasted blue screen over you's in ms paint!

>>20406369
Is that the best you can do? Sad.
It's a legit screenshot.

>>20406369
This. Dude your post style and file name convention is so obvious, and I'm supposed to believe you only only posted two comments midway through an argument from obviously the same guy.

I honestly didn't mind you while you moderated your behavior but you're crowding the thread/lowering conversation quality by posting at this frequency. Also lmao at whoever reported me to the janny for calling you out - interesting I got an immediate warning.

>>20406360
I feel the same, other anon offered excellent line edit suggestions but it has really good bones to it and I'd keep reading.

>>20406360
This is from the last chapter of my first unpublished manuscript. I have zero online presence but hopefully that’ll change soon. Thanks for the compliment (:

>>20406409
You too. Thanks to you all actually. I feel more confident now.

>>20406409
Believe whatever you want; it was a real screenshot.
It's easy to LARP as someone using publicly available information.
We had a Gardner LARPer here a few days ago.

New thread:
>>20406485
>>20406485
>>20406485