/lit/ - Literature

No one writes in /wg/.

How does the use of first person perspective add to the novel Lolita, and how would making it third person take away from the novel? I've seen a lot of hate for first person perspective, but it seems to be done well in Lolita.

>>20464484
>I've seen a lot of hate for first person perspective
Good first person perspective can't be beat. Bad first person is fucking horrendously awful.

>>20464484
I haven't read Lolita but the general idea of first vs. third is that first is more inherently personal, you're much more 'inside' the character's head. This can lead to more heavy bias on the narrator's part, even unreliability, whereas third person has some measure of objectivity to its narration, at least in part. There's advantages to both, but the core of it is "first person allows a protagonist to really be well characterised and their story to be more personal, third person allows a broader perspective and more easily allows multiple PoVs".

Competing thread >>20464487

>>20464504
why you do this. this one is meant for sharing your work. fuck you

>>20464504
>>20464476
>previous thread
>>20458557

>>20464511
It wasn't intentional, seether.
I searched for "new thread", saw someone ask for one, and ran off to do it.
I didn't even see your post.
My OP includes more useful info anyway, as well as the Authors and Flash Fiction Pastebin.

>baldcore
I think it has legs. Emotion, contradiction, unreliable narrators.

>>20464566
It's fine for a story. Do whatever you want. But it's not going to become a genre.

I can write decently well but my life sucks, how do I fix this?

>>20464573
Write. get rich. your life will not suck.

>>20464570
>it's not going to become a genre.
I asked you last thread if you have ever taken a quantitative methods course. Well? have you.

>>20464566
Well, sure you do.
But I'm warning you...there'll be hell toupee!

>>20464596
Ah, yes, I remember reading that book.
It recommended I write a book about marketing and sell it to suckers.

>>20464578
Yes it will, it'll just suck differently.

>>20464476
Babe, she said. Come back to bed.
Lynch’s Dune was blaring on her MacBook. It wasn’t as good as Blue Velvet, so instead of watching it, I was thinking about my opening line in a novel. It went along the lines of, Verily, I went down to the docks the night I was accused. My girlfriend once again called out: You’re missing out, Anon.
Wait, I said. I’m just having a smoke.
I rolled a cigarette on a dog-eared copy of Infinite Jest, half-read. The smell of Port Royal Rum and Wine wafted into my nose.
Okay, she said. But don’t smoke inside again, I hate how it stains the walls. And stop chain smoking.
Yes, babe.
I walked outside to the back yard and placed the cigarette into my mouth. She was slender and white like a mistress, my secret pleasure. Lighting it, I inhaled them let out a smoky breath of relief.

>>20464585
You didn't ask me that and I don't know what quantitative measures are.

>>20464573
Write about how much your life sucks.
As the old saying goes, write what you know.
And you know suck.

>>20464481
Go jump in a lake, demotivational pseud.

Okay but like, what if I make the estranged son want to fuck his dad

>>20464620
anon said last thread that not 5 out of 100 people would be interested in reading baldcore. I suppose anon has not attended any sort of statistical mathematic course of study.

>>20464622
Ew, trauma dumping. God no. No editor wants to read that.

I want to write, but my mother shoves a funnel down my throat and force-feeds me sauerkraut six times a day. What should I do?

Write about love in your best prose.

>>20464632
It worked for William S. Burroughs.
And then he went on to form the Burroughs Corporation and sell computers.

>>20464632
>No editor wants to read that.
what if one were to innovate on trauma dumping?

>>20464644
Love is a state of temporary insanity caused by hormones and a lack of critical thinking.
If you're not cured of it by the time you're 40, you're a subhuman cuck.

I want to write, but I'm depressed, I get wet, my face broke out, I'm nauseous, I'm constipated, my feet swell, my gums are bleeding, my sinuses are clogged, I got heartburn, I'm cranky, and I have gas. What should I do?

Why the fuck is no one posting their work. What was the point of this thread

>>20464660
Drink an antacid and then get plastered on absinthe, then write. You're welcome.

>>20464677
Because it started right off by demotivating its participants, with >>20464481 .

>>20464649
have you ever loved someone?

>>20464682
I did that last week.
Now I'm confined to my house, and have to wear an ankle monitor.

>>20464685
Not without it ending in a humiliating disaster.

>>20464682
I've tried writing while drunk, doesn't do anything

>>20464677
Posting work for critique is towards the last part of the process. Much more is involved in the writing "process"
I'm over here trying to develop a nascent sub genre of sad boy fiction and people are acting like it's not work.
Baldcore will be popular, among premature bald men, within two years. Baldcore will be popular because Tolstoy made the "peepshow" short story a phenomenon.

>>20464695
Works differently for different people ig. Drunk writing has given me some of the best first drafts I've ever made. Sure, they may be half cogent and very rambly, but I find that the lack of inhibition the buzz gives me helps me dump my brain into the paper way better.

>>20464690
Now that sounds like a story worth telling.

>>20464708
A gag order was part of the terms of the settlement.

>>20464708
I do a combination of cannabis and long walks with a pen a paper close at hand. But that is me.

>>20464649
WUBBA LUBBA DUB DUB

I'm not writing because I'm a twenty year old with nothing to say.

okay I'm going to go watch the game but I will be thinking about writing

>>20464677
No one writes in /wg/.

>>20464660
>>20464481
>>20464677
>>20464730
>>20464732
>>20464735
This tomfoolery shall not stand.
You will sit at the page and think of all the grand masters before you who struggled in their weak moments.
You will put your hands to the keys, or grip your pen or pencil, and realize you are part of a tradition spanning the entirety of human history.
You will write and commit your name to the world's history books.
Don't ever give up.
You will be a writer.
You will make it.

>>20464735
bro we are on the verge of a totally new genre thanks to anon posting his old cope stories about premature baldness.

>>20464706
Write your damned story. Stop imagining how successful and awesome it will be. (Or shit-posting or whatever the fuck you're doing.)

>>20464751
bro you started shitposting first all you could have done was follow the plot from the last thread.

>>20464751
OK, here's a "damn story" for you...new chapter posted a few hours ago...
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54832/leave-bad-enough-alone

>>20464684
If that's all it takes to get you demotivated then maybe you aren't fit to be a writer.

>>20464751
>>20464780
Boys, boys...play nice now...

https://p302.zlibcdn.com/dtoken/115e93d696d56b77d746f10768eddc56

A pdf of a book on how to write American Gothic literature for anyone interested.

>>20464481
Not real books, no. I write exclusively fanfiction.

>>20464808
Hey, that book called me a conformist!

>>20464803
yo girl what's your number? you wanna write some fiction together?

>>20464802
Just pointing out the disconnect between the OP byline and the 1st post (presumably done by the OP).

>>20464856
>(presumably done by the OP).
so tell me why an OP would sabotage OP's own thread,

>>20464868
Actually I also suspect OP did it. Look at the second line. Do you see that post about Lolita? I wrote it. I had wrote it in Notepad ahead of time and had it CTRL + C ready to be pasted as soon as OP posted the link in the old thread so it could be the very first thing in this new thread. I was constantly refreshing the page waiting for the link to drop and as soon as I got here, I found that first comment was already here by the time I got here. Considering that I had clicked on the link in lightning speed, there is a suspiciously high chance that OP posted that comment and then dropped the link in the old thread.

Will this be a good story?

>>20464846
666.
That would be most pleasing to The Master.
Why don't you tie yourself up and close your eyes...I'll be right over.

>>20464888
If you like maple syrup flavored prose

>>20464882
>Considering that I had clicked on the link in lightning speed, there is a suspiciously high chance that OP posted that comment and then dropped the link in the old thread.
It's a genuine thread retard, why else would I put Tolstoy in the op pic?

>>20464808
Hey, this e-book site rules!

Writing Fiction: An Introduction To The Craft (Garry Disher)
https://bunker4.zlibcdn.com/dtoken/d32b80b92f93c545422f39e2ed0fdb50

Experimental Fiction: An Introduction For Readers And Writers (Julie Armstrong)
https://swab.zlibcdn.com/dtoken/306dacd26b1fec14ca1b9e37b98bdaa2

Modern Japanese Fiction And Its Traditions (J. Thomas Rimer)
https://swab.zlibcdn.com/dtoken/fcc8d992f92e79198bff0e0d86b7f52c

I could go on.

>>20464904
By modern japanese fiction, are they referring to Murakami or light novels?

Maybe this isn't the right place since I want to publish my idea as a serialized webcomic/animation rather than a novel, but I'm working on this science fiction setting and just wanted to know if you guys know any resources specific to episodic fiction, which board would be better for me to post about my idea and bounce ideas off of anons would be, and just what you guys think.

Setting/Lore:
>Mid 22nd century
>Limited space colonization using O'Neil cylinders at Lagrange points, main industries are asteroid mining and the construction/maintenance of solar power satellites, which provide most of the Earth's electricity
>CLIF (Space IRA) has been engaging in acts of terrorism for the past 15-20ish years
>The League of Nations, the UN's successor has created the Vector Police (basically space FBI) to counter them and any other terrorist/security threats in the new frontier
>The 21st century was semi-apocalyptic, with massive technological and societal upheavals, ultimately culminated in a series of wars and disasters which kill off most of humanity
>Society and most technology has stagnated/regressed a la medieval China, but for the most part, things have never been better so very few people are interested in "advancing" either of them
>Aesthetics have also regressed accordingly
>Welcome to the space 80s
>Despite the setting feeling more "normal" than 2022, the philosophical and political underpinnings of society are completely different - with reactionary luddism forming the ideological core of 22nd century humanity
>HFCS, the internet, anti-depressants are viewed in the future as we view thalidomide and leaded gasoline
>Spacenoids and various malcontent/anti-LoN countries/groups on Earth have a shaky alliance

Plotlines and characters:
>An idealistic Earther former soldier and a bitter Spacenoid ex-cop as a buddy cop duo working for Vectorpol
>Their boss coming to terms with his life choices as he has never started a family, instead being consumed in his work, eventually coming to respect the terrorists he fights against more than the government he is accountable to
>MC's boss' old nemesis and his "elite" cell (who stole a small nuclear weapon 15 years before the events of this series which still hasn't been found haha) reactivating after
>The reason said nemesis "retired" in the first place was to raise his niece and nephew after his brother was killed, now 19 and 17 respectively at the start of the story
>Said niece's character arcs revolve around how completely out of place she is in this story (at least at the start of the story, she's a genuinely sweet girl who belongs in a slice of life anime), eventually turning into something of a coming of age story, from girl to woman under the unusual circumstances she finds herself in

>>20464888
You just know

>>20464908
>An ambitious dirtbag journalist who will stop at nothing to interview a CLIF bigwig

>>20464888
Is it anything like "A Boy And His Dog" by Harlan Ellison?

>>20464906
You tell me.

>>20464908
Sounds dope. Episodic fiction works best on Royalroad. You should have success if you market it well.

>>20464908
Sounds worth it.
So get writing already!

Do doppelgangers scare you?

Author of "Mald Against the Dying Love Life" here, been out for a bit but following up with you gents.

General thoughts on the nascent subgenre of Baldcore: I envision it as grounded firmly in the post 2010 male experience and defined by the following.
>bald male protaganist
>baldness is not necessarily central but is thematic and may play into a plot point to some extent
>themes of masculine humiliation/limitation within the modern world
>very much not interested in MGTOW or similarly bitter perspective. As the subject is male suffering there should be an aspect of humor without being slapstick
>more but don't have time now to write it all out

>>20463825
Very much look forward to seeing your forays into it, feel free to reach out to my burner email as well to contact me directly with Baldcore submissions: AlwaysBQuestioning@gmail.com

>>20463966
>the writing voice has too much 'attitude.' the risk of that is that you often sound cringey. there's a reason that they are always warning about 'purple prose' as it wears thin very quickly. hence, the strong preference on the part of critics, editors and publishers for a very 'neutral' or 'new yorker' style of prose.
If you'd like to read yet another neutral voiced 3rd limited meandering tale then Baldcore ain't for you, and it sure as fuck isn't for the NYT editorial board.

>>20464114
>>20464437
>>20464566
Gets it. Also respect your opinion and may remove the profanity, but I really want the informality it grants the conversation. Maybe I can just tone it down.

>>20464335
>>20464787
Brandosando reader NGMI :-(

>>20464476
Can somebody give me some short story prompts? I want to give writing a try but I don't know where to start. I don't want to burn out on another hobby attempt

>>20464956
as a formerly young bald man I say that the first quarter of this post is spot on and I wonder if anon has had exactly the same experience as me.

>>20464960
r/WritingPrompts is waiting for you

>>20464994
why you got to be mean for dude?

>>20464956
>General thoughts on the nascent subgenre of Baldcore: I envision it as grounded firmly in the post 2010 male experience and defined by the following.
>bald male protaganist
>baldness is not necessarily central but is thematic and may play into a plot point to some extent
>themes of masculine humiliation/limitation within the modern world
>very much not interested in MGTOW or similarly bitter perspective. As the subject is male suffering there should be an aspect of humor without being slapstick
>more but don't have time now to write it all out

Already done.

>>20465024
Emily went bald at age below 20?
(sorry to snipe this thread, it's half-time for the basketball game)

>>20464908
cool
>most technology has stagnated/regressed a la medieval China
I would assume the world government has a very heavy hand - high taxation, prosecution of thought criminals - and that vectorpol was not created in reaction to CLIF, but due to them their budget has increased immensely. I'd figure that they'd have access to serious, serious weaponry as a result.
I'd assume also like in medieval china, and other places, the more heavy handed the government tries to be, the more corruption that ensues.

>>20464955
I'll say. Last night, my house was broken into, and everything was replaced with an exact replica.

>>20465003
Mean? I was being helpful!
Some people like the writing-prompts sub.
I never needed it; I've got so many ideas, I have to beat them back with a stick.

>>20464956
>themes of masculine humiliation/limitation within the modern world
circumcision?

>>20465087
Or circumlocution. It's hard to describe how much that disturbs me.

>>20465106
They're both jewish when you think about it. One is a sacrificial blood ritual to their evil god and the other is pilpul to deliberately obfuscate their evil designs. Truly wretched people.

Alright, so I'm changing my prompt. Gothic fiction is about playing on your own fears. Lovecraft was terrified of the universe and immigrants and that showed the horrors of his books. Madness is a common gothic fear. I have a psychological disorder that requires me to take antipsychotics to feel normal. One of my fears is losing my mind, but another one of my fears is that my psych meds are subtly changing my personality and making me lose my mind in a more insidious way. So in my story, the protagonist slowly goes insane, and takes psych meds to try to fix it, which seemingly fixes the psychotic episodes, but then everyone else starts wondering what the hell is wrong with him and he doesn't know what he's doing wrong. To him everything is normal, but he's an unreliable narrator and he's freaking everyone else out.

>>20464926
That would certainly make for a very interesting story, to say the least.

>>20465078
You're literally telling me to go to reddit. Them's fightin' words 'round these parts; you can't really blame me for thinking you're just being snide. Even now I feel like you're being snarky with an ironic choice of image and post format.

>>20464926
>guy walks and thinks "you just know"
>dog talks to him back and says "every single night"
?????

>>20465137
There you go. Write what you know!

>>20465146
Oh, get over it.
Reddit Reddit Reddit Reddit Reddit.
Even moot agrees.

>>20465167
You even talk like a redditor, no wonder.

>>20465150

>>20465173
Oh, come on, I'm sorry...was it the "Reddit Reddit Reddit Reddit Reddit" part?

>>20465175
Wow that artist put like 0 effort into that phone

>>20465182
Your anger speaks volumes. Mind if I ask you a question? Am I correct when I say you're likely gen X or at the very least an older millennial?

>>20465196
What anger? I'm having a great night. I'm writing up a storm & checking this thread occasionally.

>>20465213
It was an aside to stop your petty rambling. More importantly, am I wrong when I say you're a gen x'er? This is just curiosity because you do seem to communicate like one and it's fun to gather data on these kinds of things: affirming your intuition on so on

I need advice about a plot/character that's part of a bigger story. The plot in question centers around the leader of a viking style explorer expedition of around 150 people aged 15-23, of which he is the oldest. Since they are all dumb kids, they follow him blindly. He is also supposed to be inexperienced, naive and having the power go to his head, leading to a big chunk of his peeps getting mangled by natives/disease/wildlife because of his overambition and poor management. Any tips for writing this style of naive leader type character, or any book recommendations are very much appreciated.

>>20465224
Sorry...I was writing a chapter where an older wizard messes with a low-level character while curing him of his affliction.
I guess it bled over.
And I guess I'd qualify as a young boomer.

>>20465237
I immediately thought of the Lewis & Clark expeditions.
History airbrushed most of the failures out of the official story.

>>20465237
Well the most obvious thing is to have the Dunning-Krueger effect in full display. Have him be incredibly confident about things he knows nothing about, and show the after-effects those decisions cause. How he responds to them is depending where you wanna take it, maybe he learns, maybe he doesn't.

>>20465064
I'm thinking more due to a cultural/demographic shift* following the events of the 21st century, although there would definitely need to be some level of government involvement. The notion of the Vector Police being used to supress technological development has crossed my mind, as there is a special division that does legally and morally questionable things. Part of the backstory regarding technological regression and the neoreactionary neature of society is as follows:

>The cyberpunk dystopia we live in intensifies. I'm talking a 90% unemployment rate because of robots, VR addiction literally killing people, self aware robot uprising (Powered by the Internet Computer)
>Anti-technology movements become commonplace and join forces with reactionary social movements. 'Everything went to shit after 1990' becomes a common belief
>Public demonstrations where people smash smartphones with hammers eventually becomes smashing Tech CEOs with hammers

*Now we've got your smartphone addled zoomers. 30 years from now we've got a generation of dynfunctional freaks who spend all of their waking hours in VR. 40 years from now the supermarkets are empty, society has effectively broken down, and WWIII/the resources wars/civil war started. Good luck. The idea being that a significant amount of the people who survived the 21st century were those who rejected tech at least on some level.

>>20465431
Yeah that was really sloppy I'm tired and abut to go to sleep

>>20464649
Who hurt you?

>>20464476
if im self publishing should i pay an editor or just edit it myself?

>>20464613
Trust me, the sort of suck that comes with being rich is a lot more tolerable than the suck of being poor.

>>20465479
Here is the thing. You will need a good editor. There are tons of cheap, shit editors out there to rip off well-meaning writers. To get a good editor, you will have to pay for it. And it’s probable that, unless writing in a niche or your writing is somehow very good, you won’t make enough money to cover your costs of hiring a good editor. To cover costs of an editor, you may have to market, but that means more cost that your book has to make up for in sales. So, you see the problem. Yet, you shouldn’t just post your story or book (unless it is niche and then people are forgiving, like niche erotica), without an editor looking it over. It’s likely you have big and little problems with the work that you don’t see, as you are to close to the work. If you miss these problems, your book probably won’t sell well. Readers forgive grammatical errors sometimes, or even help point them out, but they are equally likely to close the book. Big fuck ups they don’t forgive. The risk is up to you. Self-pub is fraught with perils. But you can make big bucks if you do it right.

>>20464618
>Lynch’s Dune was blaring on her MacBook. It wasn’t as good as Blue Velvet
Truth in poetry.

>>20465237
The people I've known to be the most "dangerous" in leadership positions have always been people that know just enough about something to be confident (and more importantly, trick people around them into thinking they know what they're talking about), but not enough to avoid the pitfalls or know exactly how to apply their knowledge.
Without fail, every single one of them is charismatic and affable. Leadership is nearly equal parts charisma as it is actual competence. This leads to situations where one or two people in the crowd see through the leader as an incompetent through his actions, but are shouted down by the rest who are enamored with his charm, so you could maybe include that in the story, that everyone is still defending the leader even after he's demonstrated his incompetence. Even after getting people killed and fucking up constantly, people still defend them, it's maddening if you're not under that same spell as the rest of the crowd.
One clarification, the leaders like this I've known are not malicious in what they do, they are genuinely trying their best to be benevolent, or at least competent leaders, they're just incapable of it.

>>20465237
Look into the character Dutch from Red Dead Redemption 2 for an interesting take on this sort of thing. A man charismatic enough that even his doubters get charmed back into unenthusiastically going through with his dangerous, emotionally-driven schemes.

>>20464644
It always seemed to end like this, Sammy thought as he turned the knife in his hands. It starts with a look, then a laugh and a touch, followed by kissing, caressing, fondling and fucking. Inevitably the fire died out, the spark was gone, and the bedroom turned cold and uninviting. Ian Curtis had been right, love would tear us apart. Though as he brought the knife down, Sammy couldn't help but giggle, thinking perhaps Peter Murphy's "Cuts You Up" was the more apt reference. She screamed, of course, but they always screamed, and he was practiced enough at this part that it was quick and clean. She only suffered a little and, once again, Sammy had avoided the pain and misery of another break-up.

>>20464476
Do any of you listen to music as you write?

>>20464481
I just wrote this post telling you to go fuck yourself.

>>20465645
I can't listen to music with lyrics. It distracts me. I sometimes listen to other music.

>>20464736
It's not over yet

>>20465533
Thanks for the advice
>But you can make big bucks if you do it right.
How do I do it right?

hey gang, feedback appreciated. too scared to post this one anywhere else for now

>>20465645
Pretty much all of my novels are written to a soundtrack of Joy Division, Bauhaus, Love & Rockets, The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, and other 80's post-punk "gothic" bands.

>>20465845
Way too negative. Couldn't finish it because I don't enjoy "woe is me" poetry.

Reminder:
You WILL create interesting, unforgettable characters.
You WILL make an immersive and creative world.
You WILL not give up on your writing.
You WILL touch your audience with what you've created.
You WILL make something truly amazing. If not for everyone else, but you.
You WILL finish your book.
And most importantly...
You WILL love what you're writing.

>>20465933
I'm trying to write an awkward date right now. The readers will cringe! The readers will squirm! The readers will never forget this trial, this tribulation!
I have such sights to show you...

>>20465944
>I'm trying to write an awkward date right now. The readers will cringe! The readers will squirm! The readers will never forget this trial, this tribulation!
NONSENSE. Don't believe in the doubts that riddle your noggin! Believe in yourself; pick yourself up from the negativity!

>>20465967
Anon you don't understand, this is my purpose. What I'm going for. Like watching a Lars von Trier movie.

>>20465977
Oh, I see now. Well, hope that all goes well for you. And most importantly; I hope you love what you're writing.

>>20465993
Of course I do. It's not like I'm doing it for the money or fame.

>>20465933
Aww, do I have to?

Today I wrote 0 words of my novel. I did however write 18 pages of porn.

would /lit/ benefit from shill threads like on /mu/

like format:

*link to ebook or published work*

>genre

>reccomendations/feedback

>>20466066
In theory yes, in practice I doubt it because a) people here don't like reading and (more seriously) b) authors here tend to not recieve criticism well (from what I've seen the last couple years). No one's stopping you from trying though.

“This book sucks!” screamed Ser Boats McSeaman, hurling said book across the room. It could have been full of spells for bringing people back to life, but the lack of pictures and fun reading-comprehension questions made it unintelligible to Boats. Once again his inability to read had prevented him from reading. He was furious.
Boats huddled over Jon Dough’s corpse. Knocks continued to pound on the heavy oak door that stood as the only defense between Jon’s allies and the traitors who had taken over Casablacka and killed their own Bored Demander of the Night’s Crotch.
“Everything is pointless, and we’re all gonna die,” said Eddddd in his low monotone. Boats punched him clear across the room and into a corner, still angered by all the time he’d wasted trying to read the spell “the spell book.
“Perhaps I can try one of my spells. I have seen dead men brought back to life before, and though my morale is low since I haven’t set anyone on fire in so long, there is a chance I can still help Jon” is what Smellisandre would have said if Boats hadn’t hurled three bookcases at her in the middle of the first word. Boats rampaged around the room, destroying every written word in sight. He even ripped a beam out of the ceiling because it sort of resembled the letter I.
Whoremund, who had been sleeping off the fermented hog urine he drank not ten minutes before, was awakened by the sound of Boats ripping ten books in half at once with his teeth. Whoremund immediately joined in, savaging every book he could find without asking any questions. While Ser Boats and Whoremund ripped up every instance of the written word they could find, Smellisandre scrambled to her feet and raced to revive Jon before Boats noticed that she looked like a lowercase t if she held her arms out to the side. She took a deep breath and began:
>“O Fire Man,
>Father of all,
>Put down that beer
>And hear my call.
>You see this kid here?
>‘Jon,’ I think?
>Please make him not dead.
>He’s starting to stink.
>So stick out your hip
>And swing your hair.
>Shake that rump like you just don’t care.
>Hand me the codeine, hand me the Sprite.
>Let’s go, Seahawks. Fight, fight, fight.”
Toast, Jon’s faithful direwolf, looked hopefully at his master. But nothing happened. Smellisandre turned away and looked sadly at Whoremund and Boats. They looked at Jon, then at Smellisandre, then back at Jon, then at each other; then Whoremund looked at Jon while Boats kept staring at Whoremund. Then Smellisandre stared at the person to the left of her, who was on Whoremund’s right and was perpendicular to Toast. Who was the person?

>>20466119
Vibes.

Would the best way to get into the mindset and life of late 18th century be through reading diaries and things such as or reading modern history books? Which would be better to start with? I guess a broad history would be better to start with, then getting into the specifics, diaries, literature of the time. I answered my own question, but I'd still like to see your guys' input.

>>20466500
>Would the best way to get into the mindset and life of late 18th century be through reading diaries and things such as or reading modern history books?
Of course.

>>20466545
Well my question is what should I start with. I also don't know where to get my hands on diaries like that, or letters. I don't know of any databases that have any of that, any books that collect them. Do you know anything about that? Thank you.

Ayo I think /lit/ ain’t shit
Can’t even post a tit
Always has a pseud in a fit
Can’t even meme a bit
Damn I try to quit
Because people like Tyler Durden Brad Pitt
There’s not even any wit
In that fucking cesspit
This is truth that I spit
No one smokes the reefer, not a bit
Parasitical like lice and the nits
Just dumb stories posted for crit
And everyone’s a nerd, a human zit
Even if they read, they’re still a git
That’s the story, I’ll stick to it.

>>20466563
Could use a bit more wordplay for my taste

Eat shit

Hell-Anon here. I'm kind of going back to the drawing board. I know I'm capable of better and after heavy introspection and revisiting a lot of the earlier chunks of my work I think a rewrite may be in order.

Saw a man get hit by a truck today. I don’t think I’ll ever take one of those street-facing stools along the window again. Saw the truck driver get out and look down at the man after he had walked a dozen feet from the truck’s hood. Saw the ambulance sirens in the distance and then I saw the wheels of the ambulance hop the curb just outside the Subway.
I kept—and I keep—wondering what his last thoughts were. There’s a good chance that he wasn’t thinking anything and the idea terrifies me. To die like that, thinking nothing. To die and have no final word, no image, no feeling, reverberating around your mind. To die with a smile and an awareness of it would be to go to heaven. To die with nothing…
I couldn’t take my eyes off the parade of it. I half expected cameras and boom mics. This isn’t because of some over consumption of television or because of some belief that senseless violence and death is reserved for fiction either.
I wondered what he was thinking as the paramedics threw the canvas over him and couldn’t tell myself that there was nothing behind his blind and hemorrhagic eyes.
I ate my sandwich—footlong meatball with olives—dutifully the whole time. I finished my drink before it was over and was left with the same feeling I had experience as a child, having eaten all of my popcorn during the previews.

????????????????????????????????????
>Others, the large majority of people, describe their access to maybe one or two blotched images from when they were very young, before the more precise order of things takes up around the ages of eight or nine, where they find that friends and pets have been preassembled and the ability to read and write has been automatically programmed. A friend of mine described finding himself one afternoon in the middle of a fight with another boy, wrestling over a soccer ball, realising in a disembodied sense that if he were to take control of himself in a more direct way, he could think ahead and pin the boys’ wrist against the ground. It felt like some imperative drew him forth from whatever region of the brain he was lying dormant in, and this, he describes, was the first moment he could recall in which he truly felt like himself. For most people, this experience will seem familiar. I tend to think that the more rigorous social demands of this phase in people’s lives is what signals the need for a more conscious arbiter to assume control of things. Usually, this occurs gradually over a period of months or years, the child in question never noticing that their enduring sense of self is being fashioned behind that plate of bone their father sometimes taps and calls their forrid, a set of memories that grow more vivid until the final (or first) distinct instance leaves a certain impression on them and tells them that they have arrived.

>For some, however, this moment can occur quite suddenly, and it feels very striking. It is an odd sensation a person may feel when they are called to answer the summons of the body for the first time in full! A total sense of being alive before ever being given the chance to prepare. I think those of us who have known this feeling belong to a third group of people who share the broader experience I have touched on of far-reaching, vivid memory… individuals who can return to the exact moment the lights came on—always much earlier than things intended—when the stark quality of being was revealed to that small child who had no capacity to explain how frightening things really are. Let me be the first to say that these kinds of people hold no advantage over their peers, and whatever insight they may glean from the unusually long vein of memory that runs through the sudden smell of a stale lunchbox is not guaranteed to bear fruit for them in any way—in fact, I believe this is the primary domain of failed artists who assume they among us are the only persons capable of finding meaning in their thoughts, who are endlessly intimidated by their more industrious counterparts, and yet firmly believe they are superior to them in some way for the fact that they alone have practised the careful art of thought and feeling, and soon they will have turned their favourite fantasies over in their head again for the thousandth time.

>>20465476
Who DIDN'T?
>>20465648
based

>>20466615
This is some good shit, in my opinion. Hooked me in very well. Clean language, great structure. Could be something longer, some existensial crisis or something.

Side note, this dumbass caption shit forced me to restart my browser and laptop like 5 times in order for it to work. Take that as a compliment, your story meant enough for me to restart my computer to tell you it was good.

>>20466612
Really? Aw, rats.
I was totally digging what you were laying down.
I still look forward to seeing it on my bookshelf some day.

>>20464644
Toilet seat, toilet seat
Up not down
She did cheat

>>20466643
thanks anon, nice to hear. Might be part of a short story, dunno if it fits. The commitment to get through this site’s dickhead captcha speaks volumes.

>>20466737
I think it could stand alone as just a very tiny short story, or maybe you could flavor up the language, restructure it, turn it into a poem.

>>20464644
So we run. The sun shines from above the canopy of rustling leaves, shimmers on the waves of the lake. Gravel crunches underfoot, and she's right there. I hear every breath she takes, from the corner of my eye I see her ponytail wag from side to side and her chest heave.
She steals glances at me just as I do to her. We're both smiling, unsure if we should try talking. We're running, but not so fast as to not be able to speak. Yet. But what could we say that would improve on the moment? Words fail me, as always when it comes to her. And Tia was never a big talker, not when she could act. So she acts.
"You're it!"
A quick tap on my bicep and she's racing away. I give her a few extra steps of a head start from sheer surprise. Then I give chase, but not too fast. The view is better from here, her buttocks hugged by the black tights, the curve of her hips and back visible from under the pink top she's wearing. A bright pink, the girly color. She always had an eye for color. I just wear earthy colors, neutral greens and browns and blacks, the kind that fade into the surroundings.
She turns back to look at me, winks and keeps running, slips off the gravel and onto the grass. Pointless bravado; she knows she's caught and is only prolonging the inevitable.
Tia skirts between trees. I follow. Now an alder's trunk is between us. I go left, she evades me. I go right, she evades me. Her face is red, her breathing hard, she's giggling.
I make a final charge and try to tackle her. The alder chooses her side and trips me. I roll and keep myself from tumbling too badly, but end up on the grass. She falls on top of me.
"Got you," she says.
"I thought I was it."
"Whatever."
She shuts me up with a kiss. I break off to protest us being too close to the road. She keeps kissing me. Whatever.

Good morning chat. Time to start writing today. I will update everyone on my progress by tonight.

I greatly prefer writing on pen and paper, but it makes it annoying when I'm trying to show people tiny examples of my work, as all of my "sketches" per se are written in notebooks rather than in word docs, and to show anyone them in clean ways would involve me typing them up, and god I just can't be damned to go through my notebook and type up whatever I wrote three weeks ago.

And when I get in a groove while writing, I'll write a lot, 10 pages even if it's good enough. I'm not saying that's, like, a lot, but it's annoying to then copy it all to the computer.

>>20466694
I appreciate that anon. I'm trying to be as critical of myself as possible though and I think the tone is off. I know how it's meant to read, I just don't think I've done a good enough job articulating it. I'm also nervous that the scope and scale of the story are perhaps starting to blossom into something that might be a bit lofty and/or grandiose. I think this biblical sci-fi thing I'm doing fits those stakes really well, but the key question I have to ask is whether my protagonist's involvement makes any sense. I have some REALLY solid ideas for some twists surrounding the nature of reality and all of that, but I think I need more characters. I also think that the setting would feel more real and more alive if I did the whole thing where I alternated between different character's points of view every so often between chapters. There are a lot of stories to tell and interesting ways I could have them intersect, and that would also help me build the world that these characters are living in in a way that doesn't require me to be following the protagonist's POV all the time, who is new and has no idea what anything is until someone tells them. Maybe I'm wrong though and maybe I just need to power through.

>>20466852
I'd say don't force yourself to do anything, just write. Write whatever feels right. Maybe steer yourself into writing what you need to, but let the story go how it goes.

Name two themes that keep coming back in your writing. I can't not bring these up.
>alienation
>being underwater

>>20466891
>love (lack of love, misunderstanding of love, unrequited love, usually more negative love)
>loneliness and feeling an alienation from the world and people around you

>>20466891
Insecurities over a perceived lack of worth in the eyes of others
Yearning for affection
The difficulty of properly communicating your internal experience

>>20466793
Good morning sirs have you purchased the writing software? If you have not you will to go behind the bar

>>20466891
Identity seems to keep cropping up, whether self-discovery or casting off a fake identity the world puts on you.
Also the notion of what makes somebody 'alive' instead of just 'existing'.

>>20466871
Can I ask what it is you were hoping to see more of? What you thought may be lacking?

Posting the most recent link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_wgchcMf9Fl8ixsTBBYxJ4E0v_yRH35YoFfJHCCW0k0/edit?usp=sharing
>>20466891
Shame, both needing to hide and and needing to be seen and understood for it.
Feeling like "if I just had X" or "just was more Y" everything would be better.

>>20466562
Kind of late reply, but, no I don't know any database or anything like that. But I just think reading diaries from the 18th century would be best fit for something like this. Do that first, at least.

>>20466928
Oh I'm not the first guy who replied, I just saw you were thinking of giving up and wanted to offer some advice. I'd hate to see a writer give up on their stuff.

I'll read that a little later, I'm about to leave where I am, and I need to pee.

>>20466942
Ok cool, thanks! Nice to see someone confirm your thoughts, lol.

>>20466946
Oh, well either way that means a lot. I'm not giving up so much as I am struggling to distill the right story from the content and ideas floating around up in my head.

>>20465024
What is pic related? I can't find it online.

>>20466612
We've all been there brother. What matters now is that you don't get discouraged and keep on writing, take your time and suss out how you want your story to be. Imo I love seeing your posts and your writing because you're one of the few people here that actally tries to improve and become better, and you have. If you think a rewrite is necessary, go for it, but keep your old work in a seperate file and don't be overcritial of yourself. If you feel like you have idea bloat, I'd suggest writing out those ideas either as short descriptions or full fledged stories and dumping them in a seperate file. I've got shit that's supposed to be WAY later in the story sitting there because the idea just wouldn't stop clogging my head, feels way better to get it to paper then focus on getting there with the main narrative. Hope this helps, cheers anon.

I'm writing a medieval fantasy book set in the 14th-15th century. I'm inspired to do so because of the lack of historical accuracy in the genre. I love ASOIAF but I'm doing this because the historical inaccuracy in that series. I want all fantasy elements rooted in real medieval mythology. I'm researching etymology in old French, Norman, Anglo Saxon, and English to create a distinction between English and French cultures in my naming of people and places. I want the book to be a fiction parallel to England, France, Brittany, burgundy, Flanders, Ireland, and Scotland. I want to write the most historically accurate medieval fantasy book ever written. I want to use old medieval terms. Every piece of armor will be accurately listed. I want to accurately depict what a Knight was in social standing and the battlefield. Tell me, what do you guys want to see in my book?

>>20467073
Dragons, sexy lamias, succubus, cat girls, and he'll I'll take slime girls too.

>>20467073
I want to see you actually write it.

>>20466612
Been there as well, just always keep an old copy and view it all as paying for an education with effort/time

>>20466612
Good that you still have passion. I think I'm about to give up on my Chinaman story.

>>20467073
Apart from dysyntery, I find the actual functionallity of armor to be a pretty fun thing to nail properly. Stuff like people getting injured from being hit with a sword through chainmail from the blunt force of the hit even if they don't get cut, or there not being weird shit like leather armor. And the functionality of weapons, for that matter. I dislike weird pirouetting and sword-dance style of overly flashy combat, what I love to see is visceral, real and grounded fighting.

>>20467073
It would be cool if when you make the French, Burgundian, Breton, and English naming conventions to also include their individual takes on something like Arthurian legends, since from what I know there is a lot of individual oral tradition, stories, and poetry in each culture. It would also be cool to see the Welsh side of it. Lots of people also neglect Scottish mythology, so you could write about Sidhe and what have you. Also, if there was a wider theme about how history is constructed via written accounts rather than linear, plain reality, I’d definitely find it compelling. History is stranger than fiction, so it would be cool to see what you come up with.

>>20467055
Thank you Anon, it does help. I feel the same way. I have many moments that feel very well thought out, but right now they're all disjointed spires. They're impressive on their own, but part of writing I'm finding it being able to build the wobbly thatched bridge that connects these ideas and takes you from moment to moment. I have a lot of "ideas" right now, more than I know what to do with, but finding a voice in the space between those ideas is proving to be harder than I thought it'd be. I could just write off the top and let the story tell itself, but I also don't feel like anybody wants to read five chapters of fluff. I'm also in the process of revamping the setting and retooling the "fantasy" elements into more of a sci-fi thing entirely, which is challenging but I think it's going to be incredibly rewarding and much more interesting by the time all is said and done. It's sort of a "Miltonian Sci-Fi" setting, where religious, supernatural, and paranormal events have physical explanations that are rooted in chemistry and physics, even if humans haven't quite caught up yet.

>>20467089
That's also a good point, I do plan on salvaging a lot of it.
>>20467102
Don't give up Anon. Also, link me to what you have so I can take a look, if you'd like that is.

>>20467073
there would be a lot of talk about god and jesus
people were crazy religious back then

help me brainstorm a novel about /pol/
here's what i've got:
the big bad is the globohomo
the globohomo's minions are the gloniggers
it's a thriller, so the globohomo is going to chase the protagonist
my big plot twist is that halfway through the book the hero stops believing in the globohomo and starts believing main stream media
come to find out, his little sister has been putting his meds into his orange juice every morning
i need an ending, a protagonist, a love interest, some cool set pieces, some cool scenes, maybe another plot twist, and a theme

Hey /wg/ I have this story about a man who falls into psychosis and its religion based

I have this part where the character goes to church before it starts (You know show don't tell) and the peacher talks about the devil and how can effect you. (He thinks satan is speaking to him)

While a sign of whats to come. I feel this is just plain bad foreshadowing. is there a better way of doing this? it feels like obvious foreshadowing

>>20467196
I bet your take on psychosis won’t be novel, nor even accurate. I suffered it and it’s shit you don’t wanna write or think about ever again.

>>20467181
little sister rules supreme
big bro rage and scream
rage so hard he blows steam
can't compete even in a dream

>>20467073
Lurking on all your ideas because I'm writing a medieval fiction piece too, but no fantasy elements. I want to tell a realist piece of fiction.
>>20467105
Everything in here is very important to include and I'm glad to see I'm doing everything right, except for the leather armor bit. From my research, leather armor and shields look to be common, but the armor a little more expensive than cloth.
>>20467135
I want to include this as well, but so far everything is very Saxon based. Might have to branch out into other naming conventions.
>>20467155
And this is being folded in too. I have a religious substory starting in the first book.

>>20467181
Your protagonist works a customer service job. He is frustrated by stupid people and vents his frustrations on anonymous image boards. This is where he finds his ideology. His struggle against the globohomo is partially a game of cat and mouse with their agents (psychiatrist, police, social worker etc.) who are concerned he may go postal.

>>20466891
dreams
young boy who goes through tragedy

>>20467204
I have psychosis dumbass.

I know what goes on with psychosis.

I do in fact write what I know.

Now be helpful in some way and not some assuming dumbass

>>20467211
Not anon where is the unusual part? Where is the payoff? His sister secretly medicates him? This is like a girl-power clit lit?
Asking because I'm bored.

>>20467238
I can't come up with everything, I've got my own things to write.

>>20467230
If you know it then why are you asking people how to frame it? It should be plain as day to talk about it. Even the ineffable nature of some it can be expressed easily by just saying the character is at the cliffs of sanity, plunging into the dark hidden underworld. For what it’s worth, the foreshadowing would be fine as long as it’s not on the nose. Perhaps use the church scene to show the characters background as well (whether he’s been to church often and what his spiritual beliefs are, whether the religiosity is only a product of the psychosis, etc). If you want to go stylistic, too, you could have some passages read like glossolalia and schizophasia.

>>20467265
Thank you anon.

>>20467211
i like it
that's a good plot twist
one scene could be a karen giving him hell and the management siding with the karen
his character arc would be a descent into insanity and then getting well
he could get gun advice from /k/

>>20467210
Just a comment on the leather armor bit, I meant to say soft leather armor like you see in asoiaf or lotr. Hard leather armor that was more akin to splinted or plate armor was definitely a thing. Side note, I love brigandines and surcotes and I'd love to see them getting more love.

>>20466928
>If I just had X
I have actively resisted this feeling most of my life and when I feel it, it scares me. I like to think of myself as in control and open minded, but when I get confident Im often humiliated for trying to shoot a little higher. Is it wrong to strive for a greater life even if its not necessarily better? I could elaborate but I suppose it boils down to fear of failure mixed with fear of never having tried.

>>20467365
it's pretty common
just write for you. plan on not ever showing it to anyone
then when you get more confidence in your writing, you'll have more options

>>20467365
In my opinion it's the mark of a great person that you even feel that critical of yourself. Plenty of people are content to go through life without a second thought as to whether theirs is a life well spent. We could get really philosophical and talk about whether or not their quality of life is improved by the fact that they aren't burdened by such thoughts, but ultimately that's irrelevant. I try to remind myself that it's my life to live. I can be as attentive or lazy or hardworking or depressed or whatever I want to be, at the end of the day though it's all on me.

>>20467483
Oh no I dont mean I have reservations about writing at all. Its mainly about women, family decisions. Ive learned to be bold everywhere else in life.
>>20467484
Thanks bro. Ive heard thoughtfulness is important to making likeable characters in a story also. Even if they are incompetent or are spiteful/unfriendly, a character that stops to weigh his life shows that potential that they can change and gets readers anticipating how they will

Why haven't you published a novel yet? Seriously, what's your excuse, /lit/? This won the Pulitzer last year. Most of you guys write at least on par with this.

So what the fuck is your excuse? Literary standards have never been lower.

>>20467536
It's better than my writing

>>20467536
Who the fuck writes to get awards and recognition? It doesn’t pay well so just write what you want and for fun, which usually means something more sovlfvl than this, even to an autistic degree.

>>20467536
>Most of you guys write at least on par with this.
>Literary standards have never been lower.
Someone so terrible at judging writing shouldn't talk about standards

>>20466563
You know someone’s rhyming is really bad when they can’t hop from suffix to suffix but must remain on the same morpheme.

>>20467536
I don't have the connections.

>>20467536
It's good. I'm going to read it.

>>20464484
First person is never good for anything.
Third person limited should be the norm. Anything first person can achieve or claims to have as its advantage, third person can do just as well.

>>20467536
>So what the fuck is your excuse?
For not tradpubbing? I'm not a kike with inside connections.
I do publish my stuff online in a serialized format.

>>20464476
I lean over the bridge. The train station’s screaming lights jiggle in the ripples of the river below. The moon is missing. Behind me, as I look over the water, the black mass – in black suits or “30% off!” heels and with undyed black hair – rush home to numbered shoeboxes, marching to the tedious taps of cards with circuits.
An old geezer hobbles over. He reeks of sake. He eyes me, playfully, not in a friendly way but as a bellicose little boy eyes his little sister’s doll. He leans on the rails right beside me. I know that he knows that we are alike, or at least more alike than with the black mass flowing around us.
“You like Star Wars?” he asks.
“Uh… sure.”
“You look like you like Star Wars. You look like you love it!” The geezer cackles. “You’re everything that’s wrong with this generation.” He wipes the snot above his lips with the back of his hand and snorts in the rest. “If you’re wife went off with another man, you’d probably try to stop her with the Force!” He guffaws, stops to visualise the scene in his head, me with my palm pointed at my wife’s back as she leaves me, and guffaws again.
“Hahaha. Very good, sir,” I say. “I am indeed a Star Wars fan, a fan of the Fett, even, but due to a lifelong cycle of toxic habits, I have never even held a proper conversation with a girl or woman, let alone their long-term affection. Being cheated on… to have something to be cheated out of… I sometimes wonder what that would feel like. Not as a fetish for cuckoldry but as an abstract notion that I have not and likely never will encounter in reality. Perhaps it is for the best, of course, but it makes one wonder. Of those parallel universes, like a kaleidoscope of phantom women whom I have never met nor lost.”
“Huh?” the geezer says. “What the hell are you talking about?”

>>20464994
>only fantasy/sci-fi shit
I don't know what I was expecting.

>>20467602
I’m a rhymer
Not an old timer
You think I ain’t worth a dime, huh?
Bitch, I’m on my motherfucking grind yuh,
Didn’t you hear? Want me to rewind for ya?
This is the fucking reminder, you’re from Grindr,
So you should resign, rescind, realign before you fucking reply,
So don’t shy away from the screen,
Just because my flow motherfucking mean,
I’m the best you ever fucking seen,
I got clout like Charlie Sheen,
Fuck the lizards, I hate the Queen,
In all aspects I’m better than you,
Especially when it comes to the peen,
And I got a big fucking crew,
My bars despicable like I’m Gru,
I’mma make yo momma my minion
Scalp a motherfucker like they Injun,
You got piles and a bunion,
So soi you smell like onion,
So let this be the reunion of the poon,
Yo bitch my little spoon and it’s you I’m gonna lampoon soon ya loony goon.
I’m gonna hoon down the street of some moonbats in lunar light,
Five Nights at Freddy’s not a fright,
My rhymes filled with spite at this dorky dime store Dolomite,
I destroy you like dynamite, and that’s aight.

>>20467536
Bland, but ok. And I don't think we can judge it based on three paragraphs. Fitzgerald is the only writer I know that every paragraph is exceptionally written.

60k words reached for my manuscript. Whoa mama

>>20467597
>when he removed his hat an apple fell out
>[aside]
>oh, actually he caught the apple
If you consider this good writing then I don't know what to tell you. If something interrupts something else, you don't write it to completion and then inject the interruption two sentences later after everyone's already pictured it happening. This is basic stuff - the kind of mistake you expect from someone just starting out, not a fucking Pulitzer-winning work. I won't even get into the prose.

>>20467683
If it's bland, it's not okay. Get some fucking standards. These are the first three paragraphs of the novel and they read as though no effort was put into them at all. This is supposed to be the best of the best, the cream of our time, and it's on par with a random post on /wg/. People remember good literature for the rest of their lives. I bet you've already forgotten that excerpt after scrolling down. What does that say?

>>20467725
Seethe more chud. I’ve won the Pulitzer and you just crab in a bucket over it. Sea kelp.

>>20467725
Ok, you have a point.

>>20467617
Quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever read on here, and that's saying something.

>>20467691
Good on ya, about how much left you thinking? I'm clocking in at 30k but taking a few days off to work on short stories (Baldcore story #2 is outlined, 3rd omniscient tale of corporate sabotage)

>>20467760
I'm projecting the first draft to be a little over 90k, somewhere around 93 maybe. Editing will obviously cut out a lot but hopefully not too much.

>tfw cramming for finale
how do i loose the sense of hurried impatience?

Started by writing ~200 words per day and now I easily do 500. Feelsgoodman!

>>20467824
Write backwards. Use the ending you have envisioned and make the way up to the point you are now.

>>20467834
interesting, do you think this approach could work for a multi book series?
I.e. start at the grand finale then work your way way back ?

I'm writing a Gothic Psychological thriller and I want to write a son of a wealthy family protagonist that's just as brooding and dark as Bruce Wayne from The Batman. Any tips?

I want my protagonist to come from a traditional old fashioned, hierarchical family, would it be strange for his younger sister to call him "brother?"

>>20467879
I honestly don't know. Maybe a series is too vast for that to work. I used that approach for a short story of mine and it ended up fine. I was too excited for the big reveal so I was rushing to get there. Making the way backwards helped me to see what needed to be done so the ending was as impactful as I wanted. And of course, remember that the journey is as important as the ending.

Why is everyone so afraid of posting their story here?

>>20467928
When I finish chapter 1, I will post it.

>>20467911
I think it's more common in Japanese culture than English. I'd think a pet name is best, something she uses a little haughtily and smugly since she's traditional. Like Zuzu for Zuko or Albie for Albert.

>>20467942
I call my sister [name]-chi which is short for chay-chi which means older sister in my parent's language, I've also seen siblings refer to each other by title in historical fiction and fantasy.

>>20467928
I don't write in English unfortunately. I wish portuguese ibs were more /lit/

>>20467928
I will later tonight, my first baldcore attempt.

For some reason, it’s tremendously difficult for me to start writing, but the moment I do, I can’t stop. Any recommended methods for getting over the hurdle of starting?

>>20467966
Go to the library. Always works for me.

>>20467928
Because no one writes in /wg/.

>>20467966
Walking in large circles outdoors.

>>20467966
once i turn on the "lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to" on youtube, i know it's time to work

>>20467975
No one *reads

>>20468024
I read "Turnabout" by Faulkner at lunch. Dem torpedoes, by gad. Also read "Ad Astra" which I think is the most interesting of his Wasteland stories.

>>20467956
King. But don't rush it on my account this is a long term project.

>>20467928
I only write anime

ehem
Hört mir mal bitte alle kurz zu ok
Ich erzähle jetzt die Geschichte von wie ich damals als ich noch jung war lehrnte was es heißte ein Mann zu sein und wieso dieses auch so wichtig war, nicht nur für mich sondern für alle Jungs, dass sie lernen Männer zu werden.
Ich war damals da war ich so 16 war ich noch ein ganz unwissender dummkopf also doch wirklich voller Ahnungslosigkeit vom Leben und im Nachhinein denke ich mir, Mensch, Hanno, da denke ich an viele Mitschüler und viele andere Personen aus dieser Zeit und denke die alle wussten alles, vieles schon was du erst viele Jahre später über das Leben gelernt hast und wie seltsam ich doch war, was mit mir denn anders war, dass es bei so lange dauerte und ich so vieles nicht lernte und wahrnahm, gerade da ich doch meine im Grunde recht schnell zu verstehen und aufzunehmen, aber eben bei so vielen Selbstverständlichkeiten gar nicht.
Ich war also 16 und ich spielte mit meiner Katze im hohen Gras bei den Felder. Diese Felder waren mit dem Fahrrad von Zu Hause in so etwa einer Viertelstunde zu erreichen und sie schmiegten sich an einen kleinen Bach der so vor sich hinfloß ich meine er lief quasi gegen Süden zu. Diese Felder waren schön und frei und nicht von der Landwirtschaft bedeuten. Ich kam dort sehr oft hin und fantasierte von den großen Kriegen der Menschheit, denn es war immer schon der Krieg gewesen der mich anzog wie die Lampe das Licht, ich fuhr dorthin und nahm meine Katze im Korb mit mir mit, ich hatte sie in einen Korb gesteckt, was diese sich auch gefallen ließ. Ich fuhr zum Feld wo keiner war, nur das hohe Gras und der Bach und umringend doch nicht nahe die Bäume eines Waldes. Im Übrigen kenne ich kaum Namen von Wälder, nun wird es mir bewusst. Ich kenne keinen einzigen Namenswald wo ich je gelebt habe...
Ich nahm meine Katze, es war ein Kater der Josef hieß, und nahm ihn aus den Korb und wie immer was er sofort tat, es amüsierte mich immer köstlichst, rannte sie nun erstmal wild im kreis als würde sie etwas jagen, wie ein Hund vielleicht, doch in gewisser Weise noch lustiger, da eigener. Ich stand dort und lachte. Es freute mich sehr wie an diesem Tag, es war ja ein Sommer, es war der Sommer wo ich 16 geworden war, ich freute mich am Sonnenschein und am blauen Himmel und dachte in diesem Moment schlichtweg: Ich bin der allerglücklichste Mensch der Welt. Es war dies schon bereits ein Muster in meinem Leben, dass ich zu Gefühlen der Ekstase neigte und mich in einen manischen Zustand hineinfreuen konnte. Die Katze hatte sich schon ein wenig beruhigt, während ich so vor mir her ging und in allen Eindrücken nur die Ausdehnung meiner Selbst sah, alles schien mir teil meiner eigenen Großartigkeit zu sein oder vielleicht war ich Teil einer großen ganzen Großartigkeit die ich, an einem solchen schönen Tag und als freier Mensch in vollem Maße in mich aufsaugen konnte. Ich war doch leider ein wenig schüchtern und heute, nun wo ich alt und durchaus sterblich

>>20467928
The feedback is either nonexistent or unhelpful.

Or seething.

What's the point to posting work here?

>>20467928
My first drafts are completely insane and the feedback I get is usually advice I already know to do for next drafts. Still trying to polish it but I had an episode doing another first draft of something else which I dont normally recommend but the inspiration was intense. Give me a couple months to get through 3rd draft.

>>20468092
also nun wo ich alt und sterblich bin so wünschte ich mir doch ich wäre geboren worden in einem altertürmlichen Dorf wo die Menschen vor Freude herumtollten und zu den alten Göttern beteten, ich denke beispielsweise, dass ich in einem Dorf gelebt hätte, dass Hermes den Götterboten als seine Schutzgottheit erkoren hätte, und wie sich nun die Menschen in vielen Festen die Freude wahrlich zu eigen gemacht hätten und nicht wie ich alleine im Feld mit meinem Kater Josef, sondern alle zusammen und singend im Gras herumgetollt hätten. Jetzt wo ich alt bin und so vieles mehr weiß, wie einst das Leben und die Menschen war, ja da muss ich sagen: Oh wie schade doch, oh wie schade, dass ich damals so glücklich war doch gar nicht hüpfte oder tanzte sondern nur so vor mir her Schritt, als würde ich meine Freude etwa wie ein Ei auf einem Löffel balancieren. Wie schade, dass so die Menschen heute sind, dass sie dem Glück nicht trauen und sich zurückhalten und sich ihm nicht hingeben und es nicht verehren. Es wundert mich also darum gar nicht, dass die harten Drogen und all die laute Musik in den Clubs und Raves doch so eine große Rolle bei den jungen Menschen spielt, die ja so gerne tollt und sich so leicht und herrlich an den Dingen des Lebens erfreut, aber doch so erzogen wird und sich selber so fühlt als müsse dies alles eben wie eine feine Feder.. als wäre dies alles so unheimlich fragil und doch auch entblößend, ich will nicht das Wort peinlich in den Mund nehmen, doch es scheint mir, dass es so bei den Menschen ist heute, in diesem Land und in diesen Umständen die unser Leben so schwer bedrücken, selbst wo alles scheint als wäre es nun gerecht und gut geregelt, vielleicht zumindest gerechter und guter als es jemals zuvor so war. Wie paradox und auch ich war so, und ich lernte es nie anders zu sein, es war fast als schämte ich mich besonders allein mich so frei und ungezügelt zu freuen wie es meine Seele mir bestimmte. Es war so, dass ich, als ich älter wurde etwa in bestimmten Szenarien durchaus vor Freude jauchzen und tanzen konnte, wie in einem Ritual, in einem Raum wo dies gebilligt und gefördert wurde, doch selbst, ja selbst etwa im Club so hatte ich das Gefühl gab es dort soviele Gesetze nach denen sich das freie Gefühl verrenken musste um dem Geschmack, dem geschmack einer man möchte fast sagen virtuellen Menschheit gerecht zu werden, die ja doch nie da ist, die ja doch niemand sieht, denn der Mensch, wenn er nur einen Funken Freiheit sich in seiner Seele erhalten hat, er freut sich wenn er einen anderen Menschen so glücklich sich freuen sieht, wie etwa ein Hund oder mein Kater Josef im Kreis rennt und jauchzt und hurra ruft, niemand ist davor feil, wenn er denn die Flamme der Liebe und deer Freiheit nicht in sich gelöscht hat oder löschen lassen hat, sich der Anteilnahme, der begeisterten Anteilnahme an diesem Gefühl zu entziehen, wenn es denn etwa nicht auf einer boshaftigen Tat beruht, denn so ist der

>>20468149
Mensch gestrickt und es ist sicherlich eine der schönsten, nein es ist die schönste Eigentschaft des Menschen, wie willig, wenn er denn nicht betrübt und sauer ist, wenn sein Herz nicht ruiniert ist, wie willig er ja ist sich dem Glück der anderen anzuschließen und es sogar für andere aus reinem Wohlwollen aus reiner Freude am Glück der anderen es auch noch zu steigern und zu veredeln. Das finde ich schön und darum ist es sicherlich im Rückblick, ich erkenne wie also schon in diesem zarten Alter, oder vielleicht besonders in diesem zarten Alter mir schon Fesseln an den Körper gelegt wurden, was ich damals natürlich überhaupt nicht verstand. Man ist ja in so einem jungen Alter noch sehr patriotisch gegenüber seinen Macken und wer sich so verhält, wie man selber glaubt sich nicht verhalten zu dürfen, der erscheint oft sehr dumm, sehr häßlich und überflüssig und peinlich, also fehlte mir in diesem Alter selbstverständlich ein umfassendes Bewusstsein darum, dass also meine Freude nicht einen reinen, ungestörten Ausdruck mehr finden konnte.
Ich will nun aber auch nicht darauf rumhacken, denn dennoch kochte es in mir ganz über und die Freude lief mir aus den Socken so toll fühlte ich mich. Ich spazierte ganz unbedarft an dem kleinem Bächlein entlang, ich sah ins Wasser und schielte nach Fischen, denn es war für mich immer etwas tolles, es ist auch immer so geblieben, wilde Tiere zu sehen. Ich könnte vielleicht sogar sagen, dass mich als einzelnes Ereignis nichts so sehr begeisterte wie einem wilden Tier zu begegnen, wie etwa einer Maus oder ein Reh zu sehen oder einen wilden Frosch an dem Bach oder einen Fisch im Bach, das war für mich wirklich etwas ganz besonderes, eine ganz besondere Wonne die mich ergriff und so ging ich ganz hoffnungsvoll doch ohne Anspruch, ohne Erwartung und sah was ich nunmal sah. Ich machte mir keine Sorgen um den Kater Josef, denn ich war sehr oft hier und Josef wusste, wann ich ungefähr nach hause gehen würde und er war ein gutmütiger Kater, der keine Freude daraus gewann mir seinen Willen aufzuzwingen. Er war ein überaus lieblicher weißer kater, nicht faul doch auch nicht hysterisch, nur dass er etwa sich frei freuen konnte, wo ich wie ein Mönch meine Wonne nur als Stille ausdrücken konnte. Er würde sich umschauen und vielleicht eine Maus essen, er würde vielleicht auf einen Baum klettern und von dort dem Treiben der Natur geduldig folgen, vielleicht auch mit so großen Glücksgefühlen wie wir Menschen meinen, dass sie uns vorbehalten seien. Ich machte meine Runde, das Feld am Rande des Baches maschierte ich einmal hinauf und hab und da ich auch etwas erschöpft von der Schule so legte ich mich irgendwann ins trockene hohe Gras, mit freiem Oberkörper zumeist, da ich nicht meine Hemden ruinieren wollte und döste vor mir hin und freute mich, dass ich nun durch die Sonne gebräunt werden würde und das ohne Angst vor einem Sonnenbrand, der mich doch in meiner jugendlichen Dum

>>20468149
>>20468203
I see.

>>20466119
I chuckled.

More.

>>20468138
Or no one fucking reads it and gives you advice

I have a problem chat, I'm a slow ass writer. What do I do to fix this

>>20468484
chat?

>>20467536
>>20467725
>If it's bland, it's not okay
You're deluded. Prose isn't poetry. It doesn't have to draw attention to itself. If she's describing something mundane, such as going to work, it's fine to use plain language. Save powerful imagery for powerful moments.

>>20467639
romance and erotica?

>>20467928
Everything in 4chan gets archived now. People might be more forthcoming if threads were permanently deleted.

I binged a bunch of Richard Stark novels and I have now resolved to become a three-novels-a-year writer of pulp crime.

Here is the intro I have so far.

>>20466782
There's something really striking about this. Your sentence structure is really engaging.

>>20466782
>>20468630
To offer a contrasting opinion: I think this offers only further evidence for the necessity of a moratorium on anyone on /lit/ writing about girls.

>>20464566
>>20464956
George Costanza core

>>20465024
Does Caleb like jalapeño cheddar corndogs as much as he likes corndogs?
>>20467036
It's on amazon under KK Wgon. I read it two weeks ago and found it quite alright. It has layman's prose but it's cute, sad and I think a nice coming-of-age story in regards to finding love.

>>20464484
Is lolita a good starting place to learn colorful prose?

>>20466891
>cultural homogeneity
>learning to be more admirable through competition and bad examples

>>20466891
Loneliness, lust, desire to love, lack of role models

>>20466562
>>20466950
daniel defoe's "the plague year" may be a good start. or anything by daniel defoe.

>>20466891
>Appliances Attached
>Autobiographical
>Bisexual
>Bondage
>Breast Enlargement
>Breast Implants
>Bridesmaid
>Castration
>Chastity Belts
>Cheerleader
>Corsets
>Costumes
>Defiant
>Diapers
>Extreme Body Piercing
>Gay / Lesbian
>Hair or Hair Salon
>Hormones
>Latex
>Long Finger Nails
>Maids or French Maids
>Petticoats and Crinolines
>Prom Girl or Fancy Dance
>Swimsuit
>Urinating
>Very High Heels
>Wedding Dress or Married

>>20468712
lol

>>20468712
Dmitrys please go away

>>20468712
O_O

>>20467911
It would be strange, but it would also be acceptable if she's 11 - 16, as obnoxiously precocious behavior is common enough in girls that age. She also had to call her dad "Father" and her mom "Mother" though, and other characters should note that it's weird (which can be as simple as her mother rolling her eyes and pleading "Can't you just call me mom?").

If she's an adult and doing that, it's going to come across as really affected behavior and a sign of some kind of mental issues, unless he calls her "Sister" in which case it will probably come across as incestuous.

>>20467634
I liked this. Just thought you should know.

Do you put references to things you like or love in your writing?

>>20467634

>>20468712
Unironically put my favorite tags in my writing but understate them as much as I can unless the story needs it. Even if you dont write erotica, evoking lust even a little bit is powerful stuff.
>very high heels
Need a girl wearing 10" platforms to shove her boobs on my face right now, thanks

How do you guys handle the use of different in-universe languages in your story? Do you just say 'He spoke in Whateverthefuckish', or 'He said in his native tongue', or another way altogether?

>>20468622
I like your use of language but in my humblest the scene in the bar needed to be well grounded before jumping into a summarized "flashback". In fact that's all kind of meaningless unless we have some sense of who our MC is and why they/we care about some wacky crime.

Commas are bit out of control too, especially at beginning. Need to read every line out loud to get a sense for rhythm.

Remove "very" in almost all cases. It really is a hollow weasel word that adds little if a sharp descriptor/verb is in place.

>>20468806
Yeah pretty much

>>20466891
>The liminal space where heroism and the death urge overlap.
>The inherent incompetency of institutional authority vs the inherent competency of personal authority.

>>20468622
>I binged a bunch of Richard Stark novels
Always a good use of your time. Now go read some Jim Thompson.

>I have now resolved to become a three-novels-a-year writer of pulp crime.
I approve of your life goals and wish you godspeed.

As for your writing: I read the whole thing and would have continued. I'm not 100% a fan of your prose, it feels a little wordy and writerly to me, but at that point were just talking personal preference and I can't point to any consistent flaw in it. There's definitely some stuff I really dig -- the concept itself is chef's kiss, I like "Tubsy" and "Royle" as names just the right amount of color), I love "his huge, scary wealth" as a turn of phrase.

I also agree with other anon that it could use a solid paragraph establishing Tubsy and Royle are in a bar and Royle is telling him the story before launching into the legend of Cooper's tomb.

>>20464484
Well it works for Lolita because Humbert is an intellectual, French-speaking, highly-educated, basically everything just like Nabokov. So he can write "as Nabokov" and use all his brilliance and it's credible.

If Humbert was a plumber, and the POV was still first person, it simply wouldn't work.

Likewise wouldn't work if the author was a bozo and trying to write from the POV of somebody like a Nabokov.

>>20468922
>>20468868
Cheers for the feedback. I'll try to work out an opening that doesn't launch straight into the anecdote.

Re. Jim Thompson, good suggestion. I've literally just downloaded an epub of Pop. 1280.

>>20468622
It's fine, a good start, keep going and ask back later for input.

>>20468622
>>20468622
>I binged a bunch of Richard Stark novels
I must confess I didn't know who this was, also didn't know the writer behind the pen name. Kind of jealous of your style, though.

Anyways, I have no idea what I'm doing. Probably need to revise this yet again, but here's some coming of age type thing I wrote. Kind of apprehensive about "publishing" it here, but if it needs to be revised, it won't be recognizable in a finished state anyways.

under 1,200 words

>>20469018
>I've literally just downloaded an epub of Pop. 1280
That's #3 on my list of all-time greatest novels (The Hunter is #5) and I almost recommended it specifically.

>I'm at a coffee shop typing
>Some crazy woman keeps looking over my shoulder reading what I'm writing
Help.

>>20469046
>Anyways, I have no idea what I'm doing.
Well, at least you're not in denial. So you have that going for you.

I couldn't finish the first paragraph. It's terrible. Pretentious, overwritten and purple, and presents nothing to engage with or create interest. It's just some wordy blowhard bloviating at me and I can't be bothered to keep going.

Read more. A lot more. Pay attention to how actual writers write. Maybe read some books on writing as an art and craft. Because you really do not know what you are doing.

>>20469083
Write "If you look over my shoulder one more time you will give me your number"

>>20468082
>a long term project
Yeah I won't rush it, but I'm in the get it all on paper phase.
The first one will be called "MY Last Good Hair Day"
I'll follow up with "New Employee"
Then maybe one about me and my gf at the time called "Baby, You're Bald"
But I have many yarns.

>>20469130
>Read more. A lot more. Pay attention to how actual writers write.

Yeah I know which books I want to read. I know what's in my personal canon. Can probably never run out of things to read. But yet I slack on reading.

Will posting here help me write more? Does it help you?

Baldcore is great and all but when do we get buckcore? I wanna see the plight of the average African American male juxtaposed against his undying lust for white cock.

>>20469213
Yes. Because I read other shit anons post and it drives me to do better than they can

>>20469213
No, it will only distract you. I could be writing right now. Am I? No. Well, I mean, I am obviously writing at the exact moment I write this sentence, but not the sort of writing I should be doing.

>>20469213
>Will posting here help me write more?
No, since no one here writes.

>>20469316
>>20469295
>>20469283
well thank you for replying

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10201733/chapters/22646174

May as well post it here.

>>20469346
'Abstract? Yes' is literally the Austin Powers 'Sex? Yes please' joke but it's getting me good.

>>20469357
Well, he wrote that before I started tryna rewrite the whole damn thing but,

Yeah,

it kind of is.

>>20466852
I thought your tone was spot-on...as I've said many times before, I really like the way you write.
And I *enjoyed* how it was lofty and grandiose! I considered that a positive!
Instead of rethinking, alternating between different POVs, why not just have the protag undergo more mentoring?
That way, you could involve other characters without having to change what you have so far.
Perhaps she encounters a minor setback, and one of the more experienced denizens helps her learn what she's missing.

>>20466891
Other worlds (i.e. fourth-dimensional travel)
Messianic complex / world domination
Moral ambiguity

>>20466914
Purchasing software is for people that can't handle open source.
I do all my fiction writing in a text editor, in Markdown format.
I convert that to e-book/print friendly formats with pandoc.
I organize all my ideas in an outline editor called TreeLine.
I save all my different versions with git.

>>20469046
It's ok, anon. Dont listen to the other guy. Yes, you should keep revising but you are doing ok here.

Of course you have to consider that the subject matter is bland, and it's not clear what you've got here in terms of whether it's a story or what. Clearly this can't be all of it, but if it's a beginning to a story (in which case change the formatting slightly, removing the headers) it could work.

If your narrator is a teen, you have to make the voice a little bit more teen-like.

>>20467181
So, "1984" by George Orwell?
>>20467536
What everyone else said -- no industry connections.
>>20467691
I remember the first time I did that.
It felt like a damn had burst. It was GREAT.
>>20467879
Sure...prequels are a thing!

>>20467928
Allow me to contradict you.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54832/leave-bad-enough-alone
It's a LitRPG where the bad guys are the sort of auteurs whose work ends up on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Needless to say, it's not a serious work. There's too much grimdark as it is.
If the PCs fail this mission, the bards will just have to get day jobs or something.

>>20464644
Your needs are my needs!
I like being near you, I want to make you happy.
Your wants are mine as well, I hope that you live and are happy still.

I'm sorry chat, I got nothing done today

>>20468538
A new arrival keeps referring to this thread as "chat". No harm, I figure.
>>20469083
Start writing about her, how crazy she is, and how she gets arrested and thrown into the loony bin.
>>20469155
Hell Toupee!

A third of the way done, fellas. How's your own book going, anon?

>>20469539
I'm glad you enjoy it... and that really means a lot to me. In terms of "lofty and grandiose", I'm planning on having some of the major players in the story include Angels from the whole "War In Heaven" thing, who've essentially ruled Hell from the shadows as an oligarchy. They have physical bodies and are mortal, which is why they use humans as figureheads in their stead. I don't want things to feel ridiculous or self-important, and I'm also aware that other works of fiction have had plots that involve these particular biblical figures. I just hope I can achieve something interesting and original with it, which I think I can. Hopefully...

As for other POVs, I thought it might be interesting to capture the perspective or perspectives of other characters, particularly those less fortunate. The vast majority of citizens in the Hell I've written barely scrape by, and for God only knows how long. There are a lot of interesting odd jobs I've thought up that people might be doing. I've even been tempted to write in a military character, as humans aren't the only ones in Hell. There's an awful lot I want to do, and right now it feels like I'm standing at the intersection.

>>20469663
Consider finishing your current story as-is, and write those other ideas as separate novels in the same universe?
Can you tell I really want to see you finish your current book? :-)

>>20469551
Microsoft words formatting and features are standardized so it does help out a lot when writing a book. Makes it easy to put in table of contents and a bibliography or footnotes too

>>20466891
Brothers or friends that are akin to brothers is nearly ever-present in my works.
Another is characters having lower opinions of themselves compared to those who came before, finding their fathers/ancestors having been greater men than they that they feel they could never match, which I can recognize that that's how I feel about my grandfather.

>>20469662
>90 pages
>30k words
Are you double spacing? I thought standard is single space 12 font times new roman

>>20469677
>Makes it easy to put in table of contents and a bibliography
Not him, but you really should just use a markdown editor. Then export to epub with PanDoc.
>>20469682
you too

>>20469677
You're missing the point.
You can create a Word/LibreOffice template with definitions for all the named styles that pandoc will use during export.
The big advantages of writing in Markdown are:
1) Being plain text, it's easy for version control (e.g. git) to show differences
2) You won't have mysterious "formatting typos" where parts of your text deviate from the otherwise regular format

New thread?

>>20469698
>>20469689
You make it sound like I'm smart enough to use these open source things.

>>20469682
The document is
>1.15 spacing
>Font size 12
>Libre Baskerville font because it's nice to write in
>1 inch margins
When it's done, I'll format it to fit the standard. My post was more about the word count!

>>20464476
Test.

>>20469662
We doing alright. Written 843 unique words tonight. Keep getting distracted.

Fucked up the new thread, how long is the cooldown

>>20469800

>>20469710
Enjoy your mediocre work, then.

>>20469821
>If you don't use my opensource program you suck as a writer!
You sound fat. You sound absolutely obese and greasy. Lose weight, fatass.

>>20469833
No, I meant you'll be using crappy tools that you can't wield to their full extent.
You'll forever be at the effect of mediocrity.
But, by all means, seethe into the void. That'll help.

>>20469845
i don't get it. what's the point? If you just use office, it's already all done for you. What exact advantages does the open source give?
>plain text?
What? What makes Times New Roman not plain text?
>mysterious formatting typos
What typos? It's already standardized. There's no 2nd or 3rd wheel here. You type it, it's completley done

>>20469662
Current Word Count: 20k
Goal: 80k