/lit/ - Literature

>>20567174
/M/echa edition? I'm writing an /m/ novel.

Hi /wg/ I have an interest in astrology and was wondering how I could incorporate it into my writing?

The useful part is i know how to read birthcharts so if i wanted a character I could just pick a random date and time and place and Boom character right there in fount of me.

But I was curious how would I incoprate my love of astrology into one of my storys

I’m unironically going to start reading F Gardner. You guys have gotten me really curious. Should I start with this of Call of the Crocodile?

>>20567214
*or

Dammit Hiro. Add an edit feature on this site.

Enjoy I've finished the rough draft of chapter 3
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17lyhWQgkKEI5SO9g4D6gtJSXAxjpsyHsZTdB9VZQkrQ/edit?usp=sharing

>>20567202
Same. Here's my prologue. I posted it earlier.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ewBw_5VcTiZ38i_sVr3v0V5Nnit76T1jqoK5vjU8nMI/edit?usp=sharing

What are you writers reading lately?
I started "Look Homeward, Angel" and can already tell it's a masterpiece. Do people read this as much these days because it inspired a ton of Americans writers in the early 20th century.

>>20567206
Read Gilgamesh and the 12 trials of Herakles. Those are structured on the zodiac

>>20564407
>5 books
>140 dollars
>mad about this
The only thing you should be mad about is that each book earned you only $28 you failure.
How many hours did you spend writing each one? Probably over 50 but not more than 100 hours each.
That means you spent 250-500 hours + 5 chunks of your soul to write books for horny fat cat women. You earned anywhere from 56 to 28 cents per hour of work.
Fucking kill yourself.
From old thread.

>>20567465
based meerkat anon dragging anons over the coals

>>20567439
the latter "mistborn" trilogy. the wax and wayne stuff
a lot of people don't like it and i was wondering why

>>20567214
I liked Call of the Arcade more.

>>20567174

Can we post poetry here? I was wonder if could get some feedback on this poem. I can return to anyone who needs,


The Soul of A City

The soul of a city is not its towers,
manicured or gray,
they are just as skeletons, encasing,
not releasing life.

Nor is it the cherry blossoms,
even if they sweep the park
with candy flames that photographers dine on.

And that shining cathedral, like an unfallen tear
held over the cars and high schoolers,
is not more blessed than the soul of a city.

Because the root is deep, and quenched
with the howls of the past:
the moon over the shattered windows
and the unlocked hands.

The home raised on the forgotten street,
where children are as honeybees
seeking nectar in a grail of blood.

>>20567142
>黑鬼 hei gui black ghost

this is the original derogatory term for blacks in chinese, but ever since the internet the youth started using Ni Ga or some other homophone for Nigger.

coincidentally hei gui is a homophone for 黑龜 which literally translates to black turtle

>main villains are evil social darwinist anthros that based their laws on the survival of the fittest without a hint of irony
Dragging this question from the previous thread, how prominent are furries in the Royal Road/Patreon grift?

>>20567465
hobos unironically have a better hourly rate by begging for change

>>20567214
I read Call of the Crocodile last year....it was an experience. Prepare yourself for the most ridiculously unpredictable twist in the history of literature.

I passed the 30k mark. Whew. All you gotta do is some every day.

>>20567856
Not at all. Furryshit automatically repels normal humans.

>>20568053
>write 2-3k words every day for a short period
>write around 38k in 17 days

any good methods for reconditioning this habit?

What's your opinion on choose your own adventure books?

Not as serious lit, just for fun.

>>20568137
i always end up getting the bad ending out of sheer mental retardation

Gardnerposting has gotten fucking absurd on this board. This has eclipsed Tao Lin posting. Literally fucking how did he accomplish this?

any good examples of two very quite and cryptic characters in dialogue?

>>20568053
Congrats, just recently crossed that threshold for the first time as well. I don't sweat daily counts but just write most days with the goal of finishing a chapter a week and doing an edit pass at the end (which is a reward for me)

>>20568115
Are you excited for the next few scenes? It might be you need to ditch/rework your outline so that it excites you. Alternatively you just need a break- happened to me around 30k when I got sick and just had to take a week off besides rereading and polishing my work to get excited about it again.

>read a million novels
>aaaahhhh I wanna write!!
>have no idea what to do
>barely passed high-school English
Aaaahhhh I'm just going to do it anyway!!

>>20568215
Don’t.

how's my cover?

What is the best sentence of prose you have ever read? Please share.

>>20568167
that’s the thing, i didn’t outline at all and just wrote scene by scene then connected it all together

>>20568359
Leaning against the wall, a young man wearing a visor grasp his gun, and peers down a dimly lit corridor.

>>20568346
dont mix bold and standard, but other than that i like
looks like a book youd see at barnes and noble

>mecha edition
Oh hey, I plan to have picrel as an antagonist at some point. Not sure when, but it'll probably be a long-lost ancient superweapon or someshit, built by the same lost civ that in-setting built seven siphon towers to pull power directly from the sun. Probably gonna have an antagonist from a previous arc hijack and reactivate the thing only to be consumed.

Just finished a chapter
I already hate it

>>20568705
At some point something switched in my brain and I suddenly stopped hating everything I wrote
no clue why

>>20568346
It annoys my autism that the rooster has a different art style.

>>20568743
i noticed that too. I'm going to get rid of the rooster stuff and go with san francisco itself. maybe do a silhouette of the rooster instead

Has anyone else published in Vella?
I'm unsure when readers start actually clicking your story and I'm guessing you need at least 10-20 episodes
>>20568115
Forcing yourself
I've written fanfic that was 3-4k in one day in the past so I know I got it but I'm doing 2k/day
I've got a 100 day goal sheet above my desk and I write my word counts there each day to keep myself accountable

>>20568746
I like the style of the hen, though.

I have written a one chapter protagonist to be unsympathetic but people have told me they like him
He's a self-aggrandizing narcissist sociopath who projects human qualities onto an animal
Jesus Christ

>>20568903
Most people project human qualities to animals, it's perfectly natural if misguided to do so.

day 11 editing
found out had to add plotpoint by way of another fapter
guess im writing And editing for now

>>20568903
people now think that Patrick Bateman is actually a good example to strive towards, so it isn’t too surprising that your character might be seen as likeable.

Currently writing a superhero novel combined with cyberpunk. If anyone's interested I'll post the first chapter. It's called TV-MAN

>>20567438
This is good. Though I have little to say of the story, you convey a mood pretty well. Here's mine.

https://controlc.com/fc9d153d

>>20567439
Knit of the Living Dead. Pretty childish book but it's similar to one story I've been wanting to write so I kinda wanna get insight on this type of stuff before I do. Also, I picked up Dune. All of these is just to help me write better, really.

I am here to report that you can, in fact, go from /lit/-posting self-pub to properly signed.
Only took sixteen months.
We're all gonna make it bros.
Look for PEOPLE MOVER this September.

>>20567214
Save yourself the experience and just read the preview on Amazon. It will tell you everything you need to know.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08KFJG9KW?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_0&storeType=ebooks&asin=B08KFJG9KW&revisionId=f148f9a1&format=1&depth=1

>>20567206
Have 12 main characters and each of them are born under a different sign. Maybe even add Ophiuchus somehow if you like.

>>20567174
The opening
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ybcs8fkuz9t4jp/Suburban%20Creeps%20FC.odt?dl=0
A draft chapter
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ohtwkbelbr81w0d/SC%20Drafts.odt?dl=0
Neither are finished.

>>20568153
By being a hilariously poor wordsmith. At least Tao-Lin resembled someone who had one stroke of competency. But that made him a little bit boring. F Gardner is so immaturely bad at writing that it's launched his projects into the meme-o-sphere without him even having to try that hard.

>>20568415

>>20569200
That's too sterotypical i'm trying to figure out creative ways to add it. Like foreshadowing or having some sort of theme in the story.

such as with tarot cards and there meanings

>>20569270
set it in a zoo (l havent given this much thought)

>>20569270

I'm not really sure. There's a lot you could do with it.

Something like Disco Elysium with a single character and each celestial body (Sun and Moon included) being a voice/character in the MC's psyche?

Maybe have a long-lost relative make up a puzzle about astrology for the MC with a heart warming ending?

Murder mystery where the main clue is the zodiac sign of the killer?

Astronomical drama where the planets and maybe other celestial bodies involved in Astrology are the characters?

Each chapter involving a specific zodiac sign but in a subtle way like an object or the presence of an animal?

>>20567202
My mecha novel is on hiatus for more than a year already. Although I still work on characterization sometimes and overall plot.

>>20568359
It's not the best sentence but yesterday I was reading "Mountain Victory" by Faulkner and came across a sentence that hit me really hard and I kept reading it.
>The woman looked at him with a static, musing quality, as though she had seen without alarm an apparition.
Now sometimes these effects are intuitive from a writer with a good ear for words but starting with "she" every syllable flows stressed to unstressed. I know you can get stronger effects in poetry when there is a build-up of rhythm that includes a break, but in prose little rhythmic clauses like this are gorgeous. A lot of English idioms happen to be that way because they strike us and whether or not Faulkner was conscious of what he was doing I have to give him credit for how good it sounded.

>>20569192
I was going to get this next year since I had been reviewing a number of books by anons, congrats on getting signed. How did that go about getting the same book signed after you had already self-pubbed, did someone reach out to you or what? I had even heard from some people that agents contacted people that wrote in &amp.

>>20569339
I reached out to *a lot* of places August 2021.
Heard back good news from 2 on them November 2021
Finalised everything around start of june this year.
Book will be out in September

It's a long process

>>20567174
How do you not end up like this?

>>20569368
Alright hope that works out for you and gets more exposure. You're writing more, correct? I have been trying to keep up with some anons but most don't even hint at what they're doing on Goodreads or what have you so sometimes I'm unsure if anons are still writing.

>really need self publishing writing to work our for me as a career once I've got a decent backlog
>pen name and author profile are neutral and not attached to my irl or online identities
>conventionally attractive and too schizo to even attach a photo to my author name
>anons here de-anoning
How are you guys not have having extreme paranoia?
I'm afraid to even show my friends my original work because I don't want anyone betraying me later or trying to blackmail me with screenshots of me saying no-no words or having the Wrong Opinion
I wanna take this as far as it can go which may mean working with the mainstream one day which means no background on le nazi site
Am I being too mentally ill here
I hate it that I feel like I can't share with anyone

>>20569368
With what publishing company?

>>20569503
I’m with you. I write under a pen name so people can’t cancel me either. People will definitely want to cancel me for what I’m writing, it’s a comedy.

thoughts? Beyond obviously being poorly written

>One of the only two engineers left on payroll finished the last of the last diagnostics while the other pretended to read a mission-critical checklist.
>"It's ready."
>"You sure?"
>"Hundred percent. You could check yourself, but I doubt you'd want to again."
>Both men found the tile between their feet oddly intriguing for a moment.
>"Just need to start it up now, right?"
>The engineer asking already knew the answer. Both men glanced at the Button.
>"You're the one that lost the coin toss."
>The engineer that lost the coin toss damned his luck then leaned and hovered his hand over the Button. The other returned his eyes to the tile. Both men flipped through their memories of the last decade. Any humans outside the bunker they called an office were fuzzy. The only clear shape was the Machine.
>"Should we have a countdown?"
>"I don't think there's really a need for that."
>The engineer that won the coin toss winced as the other's finger came closer to the Button. Maybe he should have called heads.
>"For what it's worth, I don't think we could have done any better."
>He left out "Or changed anything." A pause hung for only a few seconds longer than what was normal in workplace conversation.
>"Yeah."
>The engineers had done their job. The one with worse luck pressed the button. The Machine did its job.

>writing a fantasy novel
>reach 28k words
>realize my MC is too passive so I'll have to rewrite the first three chapters
>instead of doing that I end up daydreaming about making this book the first in a 14-volume epic series, coming up with a name for the series, for each book and general ideas for how plot-threads will carry throughout each book
Fantasy was a mistake. I'm going to drop it and write about lesbians or something other literary

>>20569541
You’re going into the smut market along with this guy?
You’d be better off working at McDonalds in the poorest part of your country.
>>20567465
Even panhandling would earn you more.

>>20567465
I'd rather earn $140 bucks than kill myself

>>20569503
I'm not afraid of that because I don't have a social media saying anything, never posted nudes or anything. Understand that even if you're innocent people will try to con you if you have money. They might try to stalk you or poison you (happened to a friend). People are incredibly envious over the pettiest things. My brother lost a "friend" after he got a pool table. I had people shunning me at work years ago because I got to operate the biggest machine, I didnt even get a raise for it. Do what you have to to be safe anon just realize there are a lot of bitter people out there but dont let that stop you.

>>20568215
Do.

>>20569550
>literary
>smut
Pick one.

wow literally just one more sentence left and I'm done with this fucking chapter for good

>>20569561
>Poison
Holy fuck what?
Can you elaborate?
Maybe my schizo tier paranoia isn't so bad then
I'm not really worried about nudes or social media (fb account is under a fake name and just for my author page) but I've got a discord account where I don't censor myself

>>20569671
just so you know I'm currently trying to reverse-engineer your location based on your discord activity and digital footprint
Sleep tight :)

>>20568393
Maybe a good time go pause and brainstorm/outline a little bit then. I go very light on outline too but sometimes it helps to touch up one or two upcoming exciting scenes to give yourself something to look forward to.

>>20569192
Congrats, King.

>>20569671
>I've got a discord account where I don't censor myself
Breh you picked the worst spot, discord literally hands user data on demand to SPLC and other Pacific Islander groups.

>>20569771
I dont use the discord for anything author related I should point out
Strictly a personal account

>>20569671
I cant go into too much detail but basically someone had money, got seduced by someone who attempted to murder and possess all the money.
Arrested already of course, but all the signs of someone you cant trust are there, even the honesty that lays everything out but pretends to be an exception.
Speaking of myself I never had too many people go to far trying to trick me but in the first 3 months of owning a home I've had people at my door pretending to be a security company, women pretending to be prostitutes but were petty thieves, among other things I dont want to mention. Even if you live on city limits people just come to you somehow.

>>20569783
That stuff is more interesting than what most of us can come up with, you should write those up

>>20568112
unless it's hmofa

>>20569783
Third world country?

>>20569896
I do write about some things I've seen but usually it's extrapolated from a few premises, a place and people. I won't be writing the one I mentioned I only have second hand knowledge.
>>20569938
The US actually, so yes.

Do any of you guys write literary fiction? What's the difference between romantic fiction and literary fiction? Is romantic fiction literary fiction but showing man's highest potential?

Hit my daily 250 words. Time for videogames.

>250 words

>>20569976
Litfic is a word publishers use for books they don't know how to sell, so it's hard to know as a writer if what you're writing is litfic or not unless your clearly imitating another author whose regarded as litfic

>>20568346
Chinamanon is Emilyanon?

>>20569976
Literary Fiction is character-driven. Any action in the story impacts the main character or characters, and understanding this impact is the whole point of telling the story. The overall tone of the book is introspective. Literary Fiction, then, is always a study of the human condition and often an exploration of difficult social or political issues that control our lives. For this reason, it’s generally considered more “serious” than genre fiction.

Another way to recognize Literary Fiction is by its story structure. Unlike, say, Thrillers or Science Fiction, Literary Fiction doesn’t follow a formula. A story arc may or may not be present, which also means that a satisfying ending is no guarantee. The line between hero and villain is often blurry, as is what they are trying to accomplish.

>>20569976
Yes I try to but I am likely shelved as southern gothic or speculative scifi.. The main thing you need to know about litfic is the topic's are far more weighty, usually contemporary, timeless and ideally not didactic. The expectations for prose are higher and usuallt without formulaic plot structure. The audiences are different but there can be crossover depending on the voice and content, as not all litfic is realism.

>>20570018
>>20570064
>>20570073
Thank you, that's very helpful.

>>20570038
Yes.

Any writing exercises worth doing? Coming from drawing I'm looking for something similar to observational drawing, basic effective practice even if it's boring

>>20570246
Ray Bradbury's "write a short story a week for a year" is something you might want to try doing.

>>20570246
Writing sprints.

>>20570246
work on your commas

http://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/phrases.htm

get a book you like, look for commas, try to figure out why the author put the comma there, and practice that sentence by putting it in your own words
study dialog
study how to move characters around the setting
study point of view and tense

i just realized my book is cringe kino, one more than the other depending on interpretation.
The character with the most page time is a teenage girl, which I presume makes her the main character of the story, but when the story ends it makes no sense unless you choose to see it as the story of the other character. Heroes and horrible individuals who shape the world in greater ways than her
she dies a inconsequential and thankless death

>>20570352
I'm pretty sure the appositive phrase in his post is correct or do you just mean that mastering phrases is important?

Have you ever made the retarded mistake of rewriting chapters? Share your pain

>>20570395
he asked for some writing exercises

>>20570527
I stopped writing to edit, and edited for three months. Then I kept editing the early chapters until I, basically, rewrote them. And rewrote them. And I still want to rewrite them, changing an exposition lecture to a museum and adding more characters to show the world living more. Also, probably make 12-25 chapters more concise.

>>20570527
I've made the mistake of rewriting an entire plot for a 90k book. It took me a long time to wrangle every detail into its new home and I still find holes every time I read through it.

> Write opening chapter
> Then write draft chapters out of order to get the ones I really want to write done.
Recommended?

>>20570697
Yes to the second but no to the first. Do your opening at the end.

>>20570527
My most heavily written chapter was 1 but I turned it into backstory cut up into small allusions through the story. I decided that chapter 2 was a better place to start because I jump into the quaint drama, the unspoken pain about the past. I want to build some dread first before hinting at the mysteries that the first chapter holds because before it was suspense since what occurred was so transparent that it distracted from what I wanted to first focus on.

Yes, my project is incredibly derived from The Black Company. Can one write grimdark and earnestly say they contain no elements derived from what Glen Cook popularized?

>>20570771
Try to add some elements that others have not and try to have a unique voice of your own that fits your story. Shift the Overton Window, so to speak. Almost everyone that writes Southern lit is compared to Faulkner no matter what so sometimes it's just a comptitle/marketing thing where people who want more of an author to hope you can do it.

>>20570334
Have you or anyone else here tried this? I've finished a novella and begun working on my first novel but I'm finding some parts of the process difficult. I feel like this might be a good exercise to gain experience.

>>20570844
I am trying to write one day out of the week but I cant finish a short story in one day. I'm really trying to finish my novel but I at least have 3 almost done shorts. I'm not satisfied with some of the prose I want to polish it a bit more but I keep going to another story after 2 drafts.

>>20570844
Hell no, it's completely arbitrary.

>>20570527
I once rewrote a first chapter 5 times. Killed the book for me but it was probably the single most beneficial learning experience I've had.

>>20570697
My process these days which seems to be working is to generally write sequentially start to finish, but to jump ahead and write quick an dirty sketches of scenes I'm really excited about - key lines of dialogue/disjointed descriptions that capture the spirit of it when creativity strikes. The needs of the story usually change by the time I get to these sketches in my serious drafting so they arent worth polishing, but they give a nice thematic destination to work towards.

>>20570898
but it mite b cool

>>20570697
I write the big plot points first and then fill in the rest later, usually. It just depends on the project, be open to discovering better scenes and characters as you write and meditate on what's really going on. If I am get emotional enough some scenes just keeping going nonstop and I can write it in order.

>>20569997
Put down the controller. You need at least ten times that.

>>20570527
Yeah. It sucks. Especially if you make changes that have cascading effects through later chapters.

>>20571402
I am so glad I stopped playing video games, I've played lifetimes worth already and had to admit I enjoy books more. I do want to write some characters that play video games at some point because autists are just a goldmine of content since almost no one writesvthem accurately

>need to write a few dumb things for the uni
>cannot
>turn on the text editor you write in
>pretend you're a character and you write an autistic monologue
>write a few beautiful pages
Can't wait for tomorrow lmao, I just found a way to hack my reality. Just pretend I'm a character and I write a story.

>>20571694
That's what I do to, and at the very least you can develop a character's voice and turn it into dialogue. Becoming familiar with your characters makes a world of difference.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17lyhWQgkKEI5SO9g4D6gtJSXAxjpsyHsZTdB9VZQkrQ/edit?usp=sharing

>>20571694
Yeah I started doing this and now I'm 40,000 words into my oppai loli milk farm novel.
works wonders

>>20571660
I find that writing characters with your hobbies is a surefire way to get authenticity.

>>20571402
For me 1.5k daily is my sustainable upper limit, up from 500 two years ago
I'll get to 3k eventually, then 5k

Its never about how much you write but how well you write

>>20570720
Why? Is that to set a goal for yourself and make it clear how you want to end without risk of derailing?

>>20571939
>wake up and check phone or game status
>clean up (maybe) then breakfast (leftovers or something easy)
>do undisciplined things like take breakfast to room then go back to kitchen to get a slice of butter then carry it back in your hand to put on the toast
>tackle some daily or exploration or grind in a game playing custom soundtrack or listening to some schizo's podcast
>make a frozen pizza while watching youtube videos
>eat half the pizza for lunch other half for dinner
>play different game possibly streaming for like 5 friends watching while they listen to you ramble about the podcast or argument from last week online
Not that I would specifically write this but you get the picture. It's not just the game it's all the context surrounding the game to highlight the person that's playing it.

Wrote 6193 words over the last two days. Got a solid start on a short story. Of course, it's porn. I wish I could be this productive when I'm not writing porn. That would be nice.

>>20572337
Porn makes the most money. Write more porn for WOMEN. The most rated and best selling Goodreads books are erotica.

>>20572337
Write something like Tropic of Cancer or Brave New World or even Ulysses. You can get creative and have sexual content, just be sure to dial it back in your edits as appropriate.

>>20572390
NTA but are you serious about porn making the most money?
I've written smut fanfic for free most of my life with positive reception
My only concern is that Amazon might have a bunch of rules for porn that are hard to understand or keep up with and on top of that I'd need a new pen name just for the porn

>>20572406
Romance/erotica. That's the best selling. But it has to be written for Women.
>My Cowboy's Desire
>Living with the Werewolf
>Five Nights in Bangkok

So plain jane girl somehow attracts the attention of a dangerous rich billionaire that had no time for anyone else, until he met her. Using her charms and guiles, and not being like any other girl, she successfully makes the man love her like no other, risking, career, reputation, and family ALL for her.

>>20572322
I'm not sure how you make money but, yeah, there's something there for you to work with. The community involvement with video games, for example, or your friends while you stream. For example, I sing and I've started to notice my interest in writing characters connected to particular kinds of singing, namely opera and barbershop, has increased and that makes them easy to write about.

>>20572390
Yeah, I should do that, but I dunno. I want to publish something I can show my family.

>>20572400
It's more of rednecky Story of O. It's about a girl who has come to the realization she is incapable of managing her own life, so she sells herself into sex slavery at an underground slave auction. Her goal is to get the most money she can for her body, and so she undergoes slave training so that can fetch the highest price. Most of the meat of the story is about her relationship with the slave trainer, who I'm basing off David Parker Ray, the Toy Box Killer.

Some days I wish my brain was a little less fucked up.

I have finished the prologue and chapter one of my SciFi/Fantasy Mecha story. It is about a world where humans and a vampiric species of humans known as the Rathrii coexist. The beginning is about how their society slowly unravels and the peace falls into chaos.

Anyone interested in reading it?

>>20572429
Writing that sort of thing might give me brain damage but I may try it some time granted I would have to make it more interesting than that (or try to) because I feel bad about myself if I write something stupidly simple
>written for women
That part isn't a problem at least

>>20572464
>SciFi/Fantasy Mecha
>a world where humans and [vampires] coexist.
Huh. That's new. I've the human/vampire worlds co-existing thing before -- Underworld and Ultraviolet come to mind. And I've seen mecha before. But vampires and mecha in the same story? An odd combination, not a lot of synergy there, but could be interesting.

I'll give it a read, though I'll tell you right out of the gate that this:
> prologue and chapter one...is about how their society slowly unravels and the peace falls into chaos.
Is a huge red flag and my criticism is probably going to pretty harsh.

Guys, I know I'm shilling, but I'm 7 chapters in and I really truly think you ought to read this book.

>>20572505
How does it compare to the chris fox books

>>20572492
Chapter 1 is just sort of setting things up.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_MvXoQP_1fj0VegqvcCoWlxwXdCfY6Tr0Vp9eimcjeM/edit?usp=sharing

>>20572553
>Chapter 1 is just sort of setting things up.
Yes, that's chapter 1's job, to set things up. Let's see if you set the right things up...

>>20572553
Okay, just read the opening and while I'm not a fan of the formatting, that's a solid opener. This isn't going to be nearly as bad as I feared.

So there really is no secret to increasing your word count per writing session? Just know what you want for the scene and work your way into higher counts?

>>20572553
Well, that was pleasantly surprising. I didn't hate it. It was actually pretty okay. The prologue was awesome, great use of in media res, really set the stakes nice and high, and I like that the prologue is a glimpse at the END of the story, and not BACKSTORY. That is a very effective use of prologue, and those are not words I say very often. Chapter One was a bit dull (other than the reveal that Nyra is Cas's little sister, which was a fun instant stakes raiser), and I kind of skimmed it, but it's far from a complete loss and if I was actually in the mood to read and not just doing you a favor, I probably would've been more engaged.

There's a lot of niggling editing shit I could point out, some incorrect tenses, shifting POVs, weak sentences, etc. but if you've only written this opening, you're still in rough draft mode. Which means what you're really asking is "Do I have something here and is it worth putting more work into?" And to that, I'd say yes. Keep going. Don't share more though until you've finished it and had a chance to do an editing pass.

>>20572459
My next novel has a girl like that, I give her POV time but she's not the protag I suppose. I've mentioned the character a few times in the general. (Something) happened to her that made her fantasize about being made worthless, animal like, and only good for sex and childbearing but due to her self esteem she stalks the protag and one day chooses him to debase her. She ends up teaching him to abuse her, choking for example, shove birth control pills down her throat, she brings in women have sex in her place, she disallows herself to speak at all, wears a maid costume with a bell around her neck and occasionally has emotional breakdowns for various reasons. These aren't even my fantasies as an author, anon mentioned itd be cool to write messed up things youve seen and well truth is stranger than fiction. I knew a girl that actually tried to do this to me and it still horrifies and confuses me. So the main conflict of the story is a man normalized to that lifestyle but trying to escape it. I dont write it as sexy, I am going to try to make it sound tragic because that woman just exuded pain and darkness.

>>20572595
Thanks for reading it,

> Don't share more though until you've finished it and had a chance to do an editing pass.

So by that, do you mean I shouldn't share more until the entire first arc is complete and edited or until the entire BOOK is completed and edited? because I expect this book to be long.

>>20569192
Based. Very based.

>>20572621
>until the entire BOOK is completed and edited?
That one. Sharing works in progress is really dangerous because you might run into someone a lot less nice than me who just wants to piss on your parade. And that can be really toxic to your motivation. Hell, even just being ignored can be rough.

>>20572635
I see, thanks for the advice. I'm glad to know I'm on to something here. It's too bad, because writing entire chapters without any feedback feels like I'm walking in the dark. Even this chapter I wasn't entirely sure where it stood in terms of quality until you read it.

>>20572594
Besides drinking/doing cocaine/etc, no, not really. It's like a muscle, you just have to keep training it AND using it so it doesn't wither.

Ethan the 12-year old mentally retarded kid spun out of view of my mind, along with his "curse", a mad dash around the sprinkler set, chasing birds. A picture of a family fell into the fire already warped by the flames.

>>20572641
Finding one person who will give you feedback isn't a terrible idea, but really you want to get the story out in full before you go back and rethink what you've already written. I have a lot of half-finished novels because I'm better at giving that advice than taking it.

Do you have an outline? Outlining can suck some of the spontaneity out of writing, but can go a long ways towards addressing that "where am I going, what am I doing?" anxiety.

>>20572669
I know exactly how the first arc will go and I had an idea for the second arc and I know how it will end, but I haven't made an outline for the rest of the story. I was planning on doing that once I finished the first arc.

>>20572680
To clarify, I meant I had an idea for the second arc and how it would go, and I know how the STORY will end, but no outline for everything in between

"Were you hurting her?" Ethan asked. The door to his sister's room stood ajar and I walked out. I liked Ethan. "Look kid, I'll give you some advice. It's not about hurting her. It's about being nice and a good friend. Your sister and I...we're close. In some ways I'd even say she's like a sister to me." Ethan beamed as I tipped his hat. Poor kid.

It's a shame that it becomes obvious when you want to include big tiddy characters in your stories. You can't not mention it because readers will imagine a default modest size. But mentioning puts an immediate focus on it. Shame.

>>20572766
Wether you can mention it or not depends on the viewpoint character. If you mention it, you're suggesting that that is what the viewpoint character notices. If you want to mention it, change the POV character to a pervert/playboy/womanizer

>>20569323
That's a great sentence - thanks for sharing. Not too many writers seem to care about the musicality or rhythm of their prose - fucking bizarre as writing is an auditory medium even if you read inside your head. My entire novel is being written lyrically, and though admittedly it takes a hundred times the effort I find it to be infinitely more rewarding for both myself and for the reader.

You're the first person I've come across in any writing circle who shares this passion for the flow of language. I'm so starved for writing that can satisfy it and I'm almost always disappointed.

>>20572437
I dont live like that but I do have NEET friends, and I was too before I got a job years ago.

I'm sorry to have to be the one to inform you of this but your son is GAY. FLAMING. I'm sorry mister Check but your son is gay and there's no going back now. wonder what it was

>>20572641
Not him, I'm the guy who gave you the concrete language/specificity feedback the last time you shared, but I agree that sharing advanced chapters/entire work constantly is a bad move unless it's with the same one or two people you can depend on not to ruin your story. The varying advice can give you whiplash and is terrible half the time even from talented writers.

I disagree with him on shutting yourself off from feedback now though. IMHO it's worth nailing down tense and POV from the start so bone up on that ask for feedback on that specificially either with another polish pass or two on chapter 1 or on a random short story. Getting these core skills nailed will pay off.

>>20572594
you might want to try writing sprints
they help you with your word count
they're also nice for warm up before you start writing

I need a name for a Conan the barbarian like character who is of Native American heritage.
Any suggestions?

>>20572772
Great advice. I've gone to the point of having one of my 3 protagonists / povs being a completely perverted womanizer who gives overly verbose descriptions of every woman he sees as even tangentially attractive.

>>20569212
The memes really are reminiscent of the Tao Lin posting. Just on a bigger scale. I don’t remember Tao Lin posts being anywhere near this frequent or retarded. I’m sort of impressed F Gardner managed this even if it was by retarded means.

>>20572991
Bison Mountain.

Find the tribe you want tand translate it

I decided, with the most recent draft of a sci-fi project, to be experimental with the prose, not sure if it hits the mark though. Thoughts on my opening paragraph?

>>20573111
I honestly have no idea what you wrote. The fragments and sentence structures are very confusing. Is Haloed the girls name? I don't know. Write it simpler

>>20567174
>ctrl + f
>"the fact that"
>4 results
how do i break this habit?

>>20568359
I always gush over this whole paragraph but this one really stands out to me
>The light spread upwards from the glass roof making the theatre seem a festive ark, anchored among the hulks of houses, her frail cables of lanterns looping her to her moorings.
I wish I had a longer prose memory. I'm sure I've forgotten many beautiful sentences.

>>20573171
It's fine to have a crutch bro

>>20573171
Just delete your crutch words in the next draft. For me it's "just"

>>20573131
Too schizoid, got it

>>20573233
Not even that. It's just bad sentence structure.

>>20567174
I need some 15-30 pages short novels to get inspiration for my fantasy world with modern weapons about a witch student and an apprentice knight falling in love with each other during a journey in a war-torn countryside to return her home, anyone got any ideas?

>>20573233
The term is “Gardner-esque”

>>20572846
wanna know why i just called you mister Check? its because thats about all you're good for, is writing checks to your family, your son is coming out for real gay, i made sure of that mister Check, oh yes, i made sure of that.

Yo can I get a grammar check?

"To the matter of my homosexuality: I believed there to be no comparison. I was not alone either as many a peer held that exact opinion, so much that it had become the prevailing sentiment. However, upon my journeys to become a better writer, I stumbled upon a forum post that made me question my very existence. How could I, a person of the highest magnitude of faggotry, ever read something more gay in nature than I could ever hope to manufacture? I was suprised, disturbed; one might even say defeated as to how they were able to outclass me. It was as if they had detailed the art of giving another male oral sex in their words alone. To think such a person existed shook me to my very core. Indeed, he was an expert in the field. I too, felt gayer for having read it."

>>20573448
>"To the matter of my homosexuality, I believed there to be no comparison. I was not alone. May peers held that exact opinion, so much that it became the prevailing sentiment. Upon my journey to become a better writer, I stumbled upon a forum post making me question my very existence. How could I, a person of the highest magnitude of faggotry, ever read something gayer in nature than I could ever manufacture? I was surprised, disturbed, and defeated as to how they were able to outclass my love for men. It was as if they detailed the art of giving another man oral sex using their words alone. (terrible sentence) To think such a person existed shook me to my very core. Indeed, he was an expert in the field. I felt gayer for having read it."

>>20573111
Hey I know its been a few hours, but I came to the thread late and I like your writing style. If you don't mind a bit of critique... just be warned its only my opinion, and you should always value your own over others - who usually want to tear you down.

First - opening more confidently would, I think, give a stronger voice to the narrative:

"Never in a all her days has that light flashed."

"Never in all her years did the red tick blare."

"They told her never to worry about the red ticker. It didn't go. It just didn't."

>>20573705
(cont)
"White plastic filtered the crimson signal. She watched the floating screen through panic, through trembling hands, through steady red ticking rhythm. And she was afraid."

"First fear; Was it her fault? Second; Should she say something? Third; What would happen to her...?"

"A glow, a varnished halo, an unstoppable swinging pendulum, and a simple mechanical clock gave the ultimatum. She had only seconds. If she failed... (insert plot here)."

Idk some ideas. I just liked ur setting is all

Currently trying to read all of the major books on creative writing (including the ones typically listed at the top). I think we don't understand fiction and I just want to make sure

>>20573796
*top of the thread

I'm currently reading The Art of Fiction by David Lodge. Boring af but halfway through

>>20573796
after having read multiple books on writing and watched a good number of guides and Brandosando's lectures, I've come to the conclusion that some people just don't have an affinity for storytelling of any sort and thus try to construct one, sometimes successfully

>>20573796
I know a creative writing guy, he gives me all these terminology and I just look at him funny. I have no idea what he's talking about and I just write to tell a story the best way i possibly can.

>>20573355
this is Fate/Stay night isnt it?

>>20567174
Is fanfiction writing that bad? Here's an excerpt from one

>>20573938
A sudden surge of pain shoots through me, though this time, situated between my thighs. The light hits me with a flash, colours dancing around as I try to adjust. I feel my back against a hard wooden floor. Above me is a blank white ceiling, slightly dusky and dirty from ageing and a small ceiling fan whirring gently. I take a moment to let the pain subside, and jolt upright, only to be met with a warm, hard surface against my forehead.

"Ow, watch it!"

My head screams in pain again, and I look down to see a small, dark-skinned girl lying almost suggestively on the floor. Her lilac hair is perfectly pulled into two twin-buns, though some of her hair still falls around her jaw. Her outfit - a plain gym uniform with purple trimmings - is too small in the worst of places, which isn't helped by her rather curvy body. She holds onto her head, and it's clear I'm the one responsible.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry," I say, throwing my hand out to her desperately, "I didn't see you at all."

She smiles, taking my hand as I hoist her off the ground, "Don't worry about it. You were out cold, there was no way you'd have known I was there," Her cheeks flush a little, "and I might have kicked you earlier, so..."

So that's what that was.

I glance around the room. Pink wallpaper with a lace pattern covers the walls, stretching all the way down what seems to be a long corridor. Wooden clocks hang just above every doorframe, and a few small paintings of fruit and flowers are hung everywhere. The floor is dark oak, topped with deep red rugs.

This can't be Lorem University.

The pictures online were so rustic and homey but the buildings are fairly recent, so there's no reason why it should look like it was pulled straight out of a Victorian dollhouse.

The girl looks at me, slightly unsure, "Uh, I'm sorry to wake you so suddenly. I have no idea what's going on, and you're the first person I've seen."

"It's okay," I say, "Do you know anything about this place? I'm supposed to be attending Lorem today."

"Me too," She says, a little too optimistic, "I was enrolling today as a Future Ultimate."

Hearing her say that eases me a little.

At least we're in the same situation.

"Oh," She says, holding her hand out for me to shake, "I'm Haruka Nico, and if you wanna be formal, call me the Future Ultimate Choreographer."

That explains the uniform then.

I shake her hand firmly, like father had always taught me to. "Kihona Hideyoshi, Future Ultimate Psychologist."

"Cute name," Haruka winks, "Sorry. Too far. Anyways, do you know where we are?"

"Well," I frown to myself, "If we're both supposed to be attending Lorem and happened to end up here, then we'd assume it's just that."

She nods, "Yeah. The last thing I remember was falling over outside. I thought I'd just, like, passed out from all the excitement."

>>20572247
Your opening is the most important part. It's what either hooks people or makes them drop the book. It requires the most work. You need to have everything figured out to make the perfect opening.

>>20573938
I've always written a blend of fanfic and original my whole life but now I'm just focusing on original because I wanna make a career from writing
You're grinding exp with writing fanfic as far as technique but make sure you aren't neglecting your creative muscles when it comes to making your own stuff
AO3 is a hard audience and kudos and comments are not rewarded for mediocrity unless you're writing a popular pairing in a popular fandom and even then you need to look at other works in the same category to judge how you're performing in comparison

What's the human equivalent of dog kibble? Like dry, crunchy, you can live on it but wouldn't want to? Could a person live on dog kibble? Will these questions get me put on a list?

>>20567174
>writing general
>it's just links for reading
bruh

>>20573846
Agree with this and it makes me sad for them on one hand but also kinda impressed that they can brute force some form of creativity albeit in an unnatural way
One of the more impressive fanfic authors I've known, one of the few I've ever commissioned, said she has aphantasia and I never would have guessed
>>20574169
Dried peanut butter maybe?
Granola bars?
A person could survive on dog kibble maybe it has proteins in it

Day 12 editing
I basically had to rewrite a couple of paragraphs
>Writing's supposed to be 'creative' and 'flow'.
Why'd no one tell me its all fucking work?!

>wake up
>time to rewrite chapter
>think it's gonna be easier than the last one
>original is 100% unsalvageable

The biggest problems you guys have is you want to be successful and write literature
No you need to write what people want to read and its not manga plots lines either

>>20574361
how about I just write what's missing from the world and not what people want to read you fat fuck

>>20574361
Define "literature"
I'm just writing what I would like to read
If I have to write something genre-strict later so be it but I'll always write what I enjoy too otherwise there is no difference between this and having a normal job

>>20572766
You can get away with it sometimes but it usually works if you're a woman or not bring it up too much. I recall Philip Roth making some people seethe about some story he did where a very buxom lady gets breast cancer, for some it just annoyed them a lot but he made lots of money anyways. I also saw there was contemporary fiction about a young woman struggling with macromastia and although its not topping charts it apparently got okay sales. Men but especially women can get incredibly limiting from self-image of their body. I've known some women that would cry at home because they thought they were too tall for guys to like them, and a girl with big breasts often hate them because it attracts people who don't care about her.

>>20573705
>>20573725
I appreciate the input!

>>20573854
Brother that is MF Touhou come on now

>>20573705
>If you don't mind a bit of critique... just be warned its only my opinion, and you should always value your own over others - who usually want to tear you down.
What the fuck is up with this spineless way of giving crit? Just give it to them and explain it.

>>20574352
I have the same issue. Every time I go back to the first half of my book, the dialogue is extremely loose and casual. But in the second half its more strict and sincere. Combining the two is very hard.

>>20574940
Maybe try injecting some drama into the narrator to balance it some more. I like to do that, even with a mundane scene if you write well you can transform how it feels.

You can choose to be anything you want in life given the right opportunities, but you guys chose not to advertise your books and now have 6 sales after 9 months and 4 of those sales were from family.

>>20575018
Joke's on you, nobody in my family would ever pay me a dime.

>>20575018
Speak for yourself. My book's a grimdark fantasy. It advertises itself

>>20575057
People still write that kind of schlock?

>>20575087
it's actually high-quality grimdark fantasy, which means I'm about to corner the market

>>20575091
Uhuh.
And what’s your name? I’m sure it’ll stick out against the other 1,000 books a day published to Amazon.

>>20575109
it doesn't need to stick out against anything. A fantasy series' main strength is the setting. If that's solid it's just going snowball book after book, and game after game, and so on and so forth
I just need like 10 years

>>20575121
>a fantasy series main strength is its….
Never gonna read it because no one knows it exists.
Ahahahahahahaha get fucked.
No eyes no buys.

>>20575134
don't worry I know what I'm doing
There's more than one way to get eyes

>Usurped king/prince, wandering his kingdom in disguise going on various adventures to take back his rightful place from his usurper

Is this an overdone trope? I'm writing fantasy and this is how the story plot has ended up

>>20575140
Ah, let me guess, royal road fanfic with 1,000 views after 6 months of biweekly publications.
Ngmi

>>20575150
>he still has tropebrain
just like write

>>20575155

>>20575018
>Emilyanon
>Advertised on Amazon $30 with $1 bids, Twitter, tik tok, Instagram
>Post and repost 10% my work 90% other as meerkater said
>Did this for the past month
>Not a single sale
>Now I owe $30 to Amazon
What did I do wrong?

>>20575167
>Post and repost 10% my work 90% other as meerkater said
Never said this
>not a single sale
Buddy, if you got 60,000 impressions worth of views, your ad must be criminally bad. Post it here.

>>20575181
I am currently phone posting
But I owe $1.29 and got 4 clicks from Amazon
:(

>>20575198
Show us your ad, I refuse to believe anyone could get 60,000+ (now looking you spent $1 bid, so 30,000) impressions and not get a single sale.
The average conversion rate is right around 1% of clicks. What the fuck did you do, post the inside of an asshole as the ad?
Post ad
Post ad
Post ad

>>20575207
I will when I get back home from work tonight

>>20575216
Thanks. I’m interested in helping you, but honestly this is just out of morbid curiosity with this request.

>>20575159
English please

>>20575264
thinking and creating thoughts by using the language of tropes produces garbage and needlessly constrains you. It's a result of experiencing all of life through media or being autistic

Give me the corndog, Caleb.

>>20575278
Well it's just the way the plot has developed, only then did I notice it took the same form as a typical fantasy trope- hence me asking if it's cringe or not

>>20575279
How did you like The Emily Project anon?

>>20575305
making decisions about your writing based on how much of a trope something is is also trope brain
just ignore

>>20575310
Ugh good point I guess, any tips for how to make this plot line a little more...idk original?

Stop responding to the meerkater. This is the same nigger doing follow4follow scams on twitter instead of writing.

>>20575324
The usurper is true the rightful king and his family are the real usurpers.

>>20575332
But the usurper is a blatant menace

>>20575324
>how do I make it more original
insert some stupidity into the plot. The more stupid something is the more realistic it is

>>20575341
Define stupidity kek

>>20575342
If you write dialogue for one of your characters and then read it and think: "God that's so fucking stupid, what an idiot this guy is," then you're on the right track

>>20575308
It almost made me cry in the chapter before the epilogue, it came full circle very beautifully. Epilogue confused me for a second but ended up thinking it was better that way. Emily is an awesome character that is naively cute and patient to a fault that hurt my soul. I kind of wanted to see more signs of her distress of being set aside, there was only a little but I suppose she was very sure she could show Caleb the light. Some of the lines made zero sense, the prose is just okay most of the time but for the genre I suppose doesnt need it. I'd have liked to see a little more commentary on fembots or Caleb's past about how he ended up incel eating cereal everyday. Get a better book cover next time also your penname is tough to search for.

>>20575338
Then he seems to create a rebellion through marriage of the usurpers sister. And the sister becomes queen agrees to marry prince of he renounces all his titles to the throne, but he gets to be prince consort. He knows he can't take the throne without her help.

Then the twist is the sister cucks the hero for BBC. Making his entire quest end in vain.

>>20575324
This is going to be very abstract advice. Take a moment to meditate on your story and what it is. Feel into the themes that are latent and/or possible in your story, then lean into them heavily enough that they don't become on-the-nose so much as taken off the beaten path. Think about what you might say about the human condition by speaking through them. What philosophical and psychologic things can you teach readers about the experience of being usurped? What can you tell us about the deeply personal desolation of wandering a place that was once "yours". What is it for a large mass of land to have been "yours" in the first place? What can you tell us about someone who wanders around in disguise, an unfamiliar face in an environment that is all too familiar? What is it, really, to take back your place from an usurper? Does that "spot" even exist anymore as it once did? Has anything changed?

>>20575324
the best way to deal with tropes is to be really tired of them and then just using the story to demonstrate why those tropes are so dumb and obnoxious

>>20575353
Seeks to create a rebellion through cooperation and marriage with the sister

>>20575369
and then rapes her

>>20575353
Anon you need help my brother
>>20575358
Thanks anon, I'll think about this

>>20575350
Thank you anon. I'll go back and revisit the story when I'm done with my Chinaman story

>>20575374
Np friend. Also, it might be a handy exercise to think about the literary fictions and authors richest in originality. mentally reduce their stories, peeling the layers of originality back, until you reach what they would look like as set of tropes. You might learn a thing or two, that way, about what separates trope hackery from mastery.

>>20575374
You wanted originality, so I gave it to you. What better way than for the hero's quest to end in vain? Especially by the hands of his lover? You don't even need it to be BBC, the sister can just be a huge manipulator of men and conquer the world. The hero was really just a pawn in a larger scheme.

Is Royal Road just a meme or is it actually useful for something?

>>20575331
I'll never stop replying.

>>20575401
I'll add: ultimately it comes down to taste as well, which reveals much about one's own dormant authorial voice -- but for sake of argument just imagine if Gravity's Rainbow was just about some tropes involving WWII, globalism, a couch surfer, and drugs. Imagine if Crime and Punishment were merely an arrangement of tropes about an angry renter who kills his oppressor and feels lots of guilt. Interestingly, even great works are revealed to be grounded upon "tropes" at heart. But that's simply what happens when things fall into common categories, no matter how complex or original.

>>20575415
How many authors do you know that started on royal road?
There’s your answer.

>>20575393
Revisit it how? Don't you want to move onto a third project? What kinds of stuff are you reading lately and what kind of talent are you hoping to get to?

>>20575427
Is it at least useful for practice?

>>20575167

this lady makes over $100k a year self-publishing.
She writes romance, but her business advice applies to everyone who is interested in self-publishing.

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCourtneyProject

>>20575427
they got traditionally published which is a different kind of pathetic mistake

>>20575434
A YouTube channel is 100% a way to go. Even bad YouTubers made money on their debut novel. I think Walden makes 75k from his channel alone

>>20575454
Now I’m wondering how much Daniel Greene made on his

>>20575461
more like Daniel Creenge

>>20575431
As someone who writes online as well, I would say yes to this. However, I see it as a huge time sink. I’d rather practice writing by writing my books.
On target to make my full time income from writing in less than a year. Time flies.

>>20575461
Not a lot, since he's become a manga channel now in the hopes of finding a new audience of paypigs

>>20575461
You want to know? I’ll tell you. It’s all available publicly.

>>20575482
Honestly some stats on YouTuber novels would be pretty cool

>>20575420
literary fiction doesn't have tropes

readers of genre fiction often expect tropes

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/BasedouWantTo/WriteALitRPG

>>20575461
>>20575482
His first book is normally 9.99, but it’s on sale for probably cost right now at 2.49.
He has over 2,000 reviews, and his current sales rank (lower now than at release) is around 29.5k which is about 146 sales per month.
You get roughly 1 review per 50 sales historically, which is probably closer to 1 in 10 if you have a large following where you can ask for reviews.
Assuming he sold somewhere between 10x2000 to 50x2000 books, he sold an estimated 20,000 to 100,000 copies
(Makes sense he has over 400,000 subscribers).
Let’s assume the lower end of 20,000 books.
The print costs are probably what his sale price is now at $2.49. So $9.99 sale price -$2.49 print cost x (0.7) for the percent cut from amazon exclusives (70%).
He earned $5.25 per book (not counting week long sales, can’t make it permanently on sale) he sold 20,000 paperbacks on his first book, so on the low end he earned about $105,000 in book sales
>$105,000 in book sales.

>>20575519
I bet he makes a lot more money on YouTube than with his writing.

>>20575513
Well no, I agree. But I believe anon was asking how to make his genre fic less trope-heavy.

>>20575519
>>20575509
His book was published roughly 15 months ago, which means on average, his book made him $7,000 a month before taxes.
This is all besides his youtube income. He probably earns roughly $15,000 per month before taxes if I had to do some napkin math. Possibly over $25,000 if you include his books + his youtube ad revenue + his patreon.
>$25,000 a month.
Btw, this is why I’m the marketing anon. I’d rather do this for a living so I can raise my kids at home.

>>20575429
>Revisit it how?
Revisit is a bad word, more like put out a second edition.
>Don't you want to move onto a third project?
I haven't gotten any new inspiration yet for a 3rd project. I also want to see how far I've come between the two books.
>What kinds of stuff are you reading lately
A lot of primary documents just because Finding San Francisco demands it. I've also read fantastical autobiographies like Twain's Roughin it and Captain Reilys Sufferings in Africa.
>and what kind of talent are you hoping to get to?
This will probably always be a hobby. I don't believe I'll ever get to a point where I'll sell enough to make this full time. Nor do I want to. I do however want to dip into fantasy and sci fi and see how I do there. And a first person contemporary.

>>20575420
>tropes involving WWII, globalism, a couch surfer, and drugs
Le war trope, drugs are a trope, having a mother is a trope! I hate you trope niggers more than you can comprehend.

>>20575358
Blessed post. The story should have an emotional core/consistent question or outlook that connects it all. An emotional sense of place.

>>20575519
Don't forget the Amazon shill bucks he probably gets on the side.

>>20575435
sounds like cope

OR want to be written no ideas where get !

It’s almost the end of June and I haven’t written anything in recognition of PRIDE. How do you integrate LGBTQIIAP+ elements into your stories? How do you make sure such elements are authentic?

>>20575790
I show people that might act a bit gay but I never explore their sexual feelings. I did a draft of a short story about a tranny but never reveal that it's a tranny, only be describing gender dysphoria as abstractly and painfully as I can. I don't mind having these kinds of people in my stories but I don't want to sully my writing with in-your-face degeneracy, it's not my thing. I do want to present dysfunctional people and perversion between men and women, but I just can't do that for gays and enbies unless it is drama and not romance.

>>20575790
I reread Mishima every pride month

>>20576001
N-no! That's the wrong kind of gay!

/wg/ is dead today, what gives?

>>20576072
Everyone gave up on their projects.

>>20576080
Victory.

>>20576080
No one is giving up. Even though the thread is full of poohpoohers and whiners, I will still be writing. And so will you.

>>20576149
What are you writing gun pointing anon?

cool place to learn english writing friends, we become legendary at english, my exam is this august, medium level english, need to improve my writing for the exam a bit.

>>20576202
I actually would like to know this. Is it the anon that did Modem Waves? That's the only one I know that has three (3) books.

>>20575150
I was going to write this but about a mortal man who discovers his own immortality and finds his way to Olympus. He is actually the seventh son of Saturn but was cast out by Jupiter because of a prophecy. He defeats Jupiter, inherits the throne of time from his father, and swallows it whole out of spite.

>>20576202
I've got a farce comedy ready to go out the door after I finish studying a business book, and then on the plate I've got a long book series to tackle, but part of it is already done. I want to write some silly independent novels as well, something contemporary and easy, maybe literary focused. I'm just waiting for the right idea to settle in my head.

>>20576308
I'm a different guy. I've posted flash fiction and sections of my work in progress stories here before, but none from my own publications/flash fiction/short stories. I do have three books self pubbed, though.

>>20576072
Its just one of those days, activity in this gen really fluctuates

>>20576319
I like you anon. One of my books shall be a comedy. I’m going to use this book with a bunch of obvious but deniable standins to smear the political groups I dislike.
What comedy books are you a fan of? I enjoy HHGttG.

>>20575537
>so I can raise my kids at home
Children are a big motivator for me anon teach me your ways
Bf is across the country and in school right now which is fair because I'm a little older than him so I'm aiming to make money at this to start a family with him sooner
What the fuck even is a book YouTuber
They just talk about their writing?

>>20576859
Booktubers can talk about anything if their audience likes them. It'd be better to keep it to reviews, advice/technique/ knowledge for reading and writing and also sharing a bit of your own work. I would do that but I think I will stick to a twice a month blog.

>>20576380
If you liked Hitchhiker's you'll like Tom Sharpe's Wilt series. Similar vein of a hapless protagonist in over his head. Catch-22 was good, too, and Voltaire's Candide was funny. I've never seen anyone do comedy in writing the way I really like it, with lots of farce and absurd happenstance, plus plenty of quick and dry humor, so I went out of my way to write that book and I'm happy with how it turned out. Are you going to make yours a satire or just go for the plausible deniability route?

>>20576380
Oh, and I've been told that the Illuminatus trilogy is also good.

>>20576859
A booktuber is just an author whose youtube centers around writing.
Youtube is much better than several platforms for branching out.

>get All Men Are Brothers in the mail
Chinaman anon I'm close at your heels I will eventually write something Asian but probably not in the next 2 years. I hope these 4 classic novels of China are worth it. The book itself is beautiful.

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/literary-agents-2316054
>To become a literary agent, you need to develop expertise and contacts in the publishing world.
How about a story about an agent that uses blackmail and kompromat to secure publishing deals?
We could express our rage and frustration about tradpubbing!

>>20573111
Nobody knows what you are writing here, anon. There's a light and there's a girl. About that much is clear.

>>20577063
And how would you sell this story to an agent?

>>20577095
I wouldn't, obviously.
The point of the work would be to express our wholly-justified rage about tradpubbing.

>finally finished first draft of my short story
I can't believe I actually did it.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17lyhWQgkKEI5SO9g4D6gtJSXAxjpsyHsZTdB9VZQkrQ/edit?usp=sharing

helluuu my name is not imporatnt, is this cool place to learn english?

>>20577015
Dream of the red chambers is the only one you need

>>20577193
based anime tiddy poster
>>20577291
I am getting that collection next month it's like 5 volumes.

New thread, for when the time comes:
>>20577536

>>20577494
I wrote it because AAPI stuff seems to be huge right now. After hells on wheels, warrior, crazy rich Asians, sheng chi, there's interest in this. And a cute Asian American girl gave me the motivation. But she didn't like it but I have 3 more chapters, hope to get some beta readers then try and traditionally publish it, then if that fails, go self publish

>>20577537
This thread hasn't even reached the bump limit.

Finished chapter 14 today. I have 3 unnumbered chapters completed, bringing it to a total of 17 finished chapters and a whole lot of unfinished fragments of various sizes, with 73k words written.
I just need write 9 more full chapters, bros. If I finish 1 chapter a week, I'll be done with the draft in august.

>>20578786
What's the point of this?