/lit/ - Literature

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
-Calvin Coolidge

I'm having such a hard time adding things to a chapter. It's only 850 words. I know chapter length/words doesn't matter, but I just feel it could be just a bit longer

I think we've grown past the need to add the anime writing section to the OP.

>>20643874
why is it there in the first place? it was added randomly and no one really said why

>>20643883
What it links to seems to be ironic as well, or at least for little kids.

>>20643887
switch it to the bad writing advice isekai video and move it up to the youtube playlist for writing category

>>20643874
Not until anime writing loses its popularity.

My attempt at writing with post nut clarity. I'm a recovering coomer. Can you examine my writing skills?
Cant post images cause ban :(

https://imgur.com/a/PAMFyee

>>20643874
>>20643883
Anime writing is great
>My attack, Swirling Flames can easily penatrate your armor!
>Tsk.... Go ahead and try!
>Waoh! Seki -Kun is so cool. I hope the breast for him!
>Breast? You mean best! You stupid cow! Are you doing it on purpose to flaunt those giant milk trucks?! I swear, Mami, your name suits you too well.
>Uguu... I made a boob-boob.
>There you go again... I give up.

>>20643849
mmmm thats some good shit calvin

>>20643927
Is Kram really talking to himself like a lunatic or an anime character or did you mean to type "thought"?

While walkin' in his fields..
Sought to plant the first seed
Desired to give Man the name
Sneed.
And when the last man falls
and the magic all halts
The fields become barren
The world is indeed dying
Then Chuck just laughs again
This time there won't be a seed
It's just
Sneed.
Thus the last became the first.

>>20643927
More
https://imgur.com/a/iSz2UV4

>>20643952
Why should we put time and effort into critiquing this when you can't be arsed to proofread basic punctuaction mistakes?

>>20643958
I don't get you. Can you explain more? I'm not to writing :)

>>20643964
Never mind.

Got 750 words done today. I've got time to write for the next few months, so I really want to get my draft done. Sitting at 61 500 out of 80 000.

>>20643967
I meant I'm new to writing. English isn't my first language

>>20643927
>Can you examine my writing skills?
Yes, I can. And no, I will not.

>>20643977
I'm envious you're able to write 61k words. I'm struggling to get to 50k

>>20643952
There should be a comma in the first line, not a period. Don't over use exclamation marks. Spell out numbers, don't use digits.

>>20643980
Why not? I can't think of any other place with people worth bothering

>>20643992
Oh thank you :) I see now

>>20643978
Just read more novels in English to pick up proper punctuation. the first sentence in >>20643952 is wrong. there are other things like "though" instead of thought

>>20643986
Don't be too envious. I've spent years failing to complete first drafts of novels (two so far). I've written 150 000 unread words in the past six years. The only things I've ever put out to readers are two 10 000 word short stories.

>>20643978
Your punctuation is shit, but the content itself isn't too bad. I tried writing in my second language (French) once and it was hard, even though I'm fluent. Another recommendation I have for you is to use fewer filter words.
>inb4 show vs. tell sperging and muh filter sperging
Instead of "he saw Church ladies pass by" , I think that just writing "Some Church ladies walked by. They shot him disapproving looks." might work better.

>>20643993
You could try scribophile, though it skews to the woke and boomer demographics and it's full of people nervously asking if their writing commits cultural appropriation and other sins.

>>20643993
Your writing is a bother by your own admittance.

>>20643840
>self pub with dale
Does he post here? Also the self pub resources seem sparse. Kobo but no BN or Apple?

I am so happy for spell check. I would never figure out how to spell poltergeist

my story idea is about a post-apocalyptic society where the apocalypse happened a thousand years ago. people die at 19 from dysentery or infections that they got from a scratch. women die in childbirth a lot.
but there's this myth about a stone on the other side of the world that has all the information that humankind could ever need carved into it. that's all we know except that the stone is supposed to reside in the mythical land called "georgio"

>>20644197
>the mythical land called "georgio"
just give up now anon there's no point in doing this to yourself

>>20643980
>Yes, I can. And no, I will not.

>>20644197
glad they bombed georgia guidestones tbqh

>>20643853
telling us nothing more than that doesn't help us help you. and chapter length does matter, 850 words is a scene, just add another scene.

>>20643744
>must be taller than her
dating girls taller than you is cum, I have resisted writing about it so far but one day I will

Friends, I need some thesauric help to create words that don't exist

Suppose I have a fantastical scenarion in which women in a medieval-esque fantasy setting are regularly employed in the military.
What do I call them?

I need some feminine or gender neutral equivalents to words like:
>spearman, archer, halberdier, pikeneer, swordsman cavalier...
The only ones I came up with are spearmaiden which is ok, and swordswoman which is tacky.

>>20644357
Maiden is a good tagword. Sword/Spearmaiden sound particularly fierce. Guard is neutral. Grenadier and dragoon are neutral. They'd still be Knights if they're given titles.

>>20644382
>Grenadier
Is that not masculine?
I don't know fronch

40th for anime.
Rip.
https://youtu.be/VZhDs5yegkI

>>20644197
It's always amazing to me that "writers" come here to test the waters on ideas this bad. I refuse to take any idea guys seriously that doesn't post at least a 1.5k word excerpt.

>>20644456
it's a joke, anon
"georgia guidestones"
they're in the news

>>20644357
>Suppose I have a fantastical scenarion in which women in a medieval-esque fantasy setting are regularly employed in the military.
>What do I call them?
Shield Maidens. But, in reality, if women are actually used in the military in a medieval setting, they would be in support roles (and they'd double as stress relief for the soldiers, which is part of the reason they'd even be allowed to be there at all). Mixed units wouldn't exist - unit cohesion goes to hell. I could also easily see them being used as spies or put in other specialty roles.

>swordswoman is tacky
I agree. A woman assassin is far more believable by an order of magnitude than a swordswoman. Also, a woman would be better suited strictly in terms of physicality to use a spear or other 2 handed weapon than something like a sword.

>>20644490
Wow. I even made an allusion to these in a story I was about to publish. I didn't mention the stones themselves. I think it would be a nice snarky mention them getting demolished in another story.

>>20644490
I don't come here for antisemitic jokes. I come here for writing.

>>20644357
Archress? Halberdienne? Swordress? Cavalesse? Grenadienne?

>>20644527
How is a reference to the Georgia Guidestones anti-Semitic?
I hadn't heard of them until they got blown up, but they're creepy AF...openly calling for the human population to be reduced to ~500M.

>>20644511
>if women are actually used in the military in a medieval setting, they would be in support roles
>A woman assassin is far more believable
I'm not arguing against that, I know it's not realistic. That's why I said it's a fantastical scenario. All men are dead and women HAVE to take on weapons such as spears and use them, there's no way around that.

>>20644456
Look at all the people that toss out ideas. Nobody actually follows through. Hell we haven't had a single completed self-published book since Boswell's book

>>20644357
spearmatron
spearhead
spearbearer
spearilist
spear-abbess
spearvestal
cenobite-of-the-spear
sister-under-the-spear
spearwife

>>20644545
>cenobite-of-the-spear
>sister-under-the-spear
>spearwife
the hell

>>20644539
I think Emilyanon was our last. That's still like 3 months ago now though.

>>20644550
it's called free association

>>20644357
>Suppose I have a fantastical scenarion in which women in a medieval-esque fantasy setting are regularly employed in the military.
>What do I call them?
Prostitutes. "Camp followers" if you want to be euphemistic.

>>20644550
Like a fishwife.

>>20644538
>All men are dead
I think the significantly more important question than female names is how do they proceate? And if that's not a huge issue in their society because of magic or w/e then I'm just going to say that your coom brain has gone into overdrive while reading yuri hentai.

>>20644567
The men are dead, they went to war and never came back. The boys are not.
There is no hot straight shota action, but the ladies need to take care of everything for the time being.

I don't really want to dump unfinished raw lore in here though. It's just a simple question: what would be a feminine version of the word "pikeneer"?

>>20644197
Based. Future bestseller, would read.

Haven't written anything in ~5 years but have suddenly started having glimpses of scenes and ideas that feel like things I need to write. They are all surreal and I am not sure entirely what they mean. Given the abrasive, dreamlike quality to all of this stuff I doubt anybody else will be into it but I am having the best time writing now; it's more enjoyable than it ever has been. I'm excited to see what happens next as though it were somebody else's book that I'm reading for the first time. Or a movie. What's up with that!?

>>20644590
Dykeneer

>>20644590
2bh anon if it is a group of women inheriting a previously all male military hierarchy they would probably just keep calling them pikemen. People who try to adapt long-standing nomenclature to their specific identity suck, the vast majority of people just accept it. You can have your little shota protagonist observe that the women who take up positions with masculine names become more aggressive or something.

>>20644590
Who are they fighting, monsters? They'd have to be fighting monsters. Please tell me they're fighting monsters.

As far as your question, just call them soldiers. If you're looking at it from a top down perspective like from the general in the tent, just say the pikes need to be deployed here, cavalry will be stationed here, archers here

>>20644197
>georgio

Is there anyway I can make this chapter longer? It feels too short. I'm missing something. Should I describe how the townsmen are burning down the farm? Or is focusing it on the perspectives of the MCs okay? i don't really go into 3rd person omniscient too much in the story.

>>20644645
I really hate that chapter. I really don't like it. I especially don't like the ending.
>Tonight, God lost.
It's giving me dry heaves.

As far as adding more, there's a lot, and I mean a lot you can add to actually paint a picture of the farm.
>The two rushed around the farm, frantically searching for Montgomery.
>Ching Chong goes here, Hutch goes here.
>They reconvened
You describe nothing. You could make this a 500 word description of then frantically looking through the barn, of Hutch getting his feet stuck in the mud, almost falling into the river, while sick with worry.

The pants were dead.

>>20644690
>You describe nothing. You could make this a 500 word description of then frantically looking through the barn, of Hutch getting his feet stuck in the mud, almost falling into the river, while sick with worry.
thanks that's what I needed. More description a nd problems trying to find the third person

I put up chapter 18 of A Hero Among Monsters if you’re into that kind of thing.
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/436962/a-hero-among-monsters/

>>20644690
Want a name on the acknowledgement page or just a random stranger on the internet? I'm almost done and you've been of tremendous help anon.

>>20644735
lol, I dunno if my one little brain jogging comment deserves that.
Unfortunately, I have bad news for you. You're almost done with your draft, and that's phenomenal, congrats, but you're nowhere near done. You'll probably spend as much time editing, if not more, than you did drafting in the first place. Good luck.

>>20644539
I'm still hopeful Hell-Anon returns.
I was really digging that story.

>>20644594
Anon, just write.
Making sense of it can come later.
If the muse is giving you a bunch of abrasive, dreamlike scenes, write them down, fer Crissakes!
>>20644602
BWAHAHAHAHA
But seriously, pikenette.

>>20644539
The first 16 1/2 chapters are now online!
https://www.wattpad.com/story/310698071-the-mystery-of-the-real-live-dead-person
Just wrapping up the isekai part.

>>20644796
>blimp anon quit
>burgerpunk anon quit
>that little duck-looking girl getting raped by a homeless man anon quit
>hell anon quit
>baldcore anon(s) quit
I've been here too long. Who else am I missing? Who here is going to quit next?

>>20644810
>Dreamlike scenes, write them down, fer Crissakes
Don't trust the machine elves.

>>20645311
I'm horsefucker anon and I haven't quit.
I WILL make it.

>>20645311
Diamond Dozen anon is dead
Kaiju anon disappeared
Tons of fantasy anons quit
And a host of people claiming they'll never post in fears of being associated with 4chan, AKA they haven't wrote shit

>>20645311
I dont have a nickname but I'm not quitting anytime soon. Especially since I'm managing the /wg/ pastebin

Someone give critique to the start of my stupid little story

"Death is a Girl"

https://pastebin.com/K1tHeGuA

Do you guys ever find it difficult to write about certain topics and/or themes that somehow feel juvenile once it's put into words?

I write about the death of my father and it turns out well into a story I manage to publish in a good journal. But you know I often think about the period of my life when I was much younger living with friends in the same place and while on the surface a lot of what we dealt with was pretty typical shit like drinking, girls, laughter, mischief etc. There are still a lot of seriously moving moments underneath all of that that really mean a lot to me still. But anytime I try to capture that feeling as accurately as I can and really pay homage to the spirit we sort of shared at the time, I always start to cringe and I feel like I'm writing an episode of a serial teen soap drama. You know it feels cringe and bad and just immature. But there is something there but it's the content itself that kind of invalidates what I'm trying to say. But then you know think of Dubliners or more so Portrait of the artist and that's nothing but that sort angsty shit being turned over albeit the time period seems to legitimise it.

Please forgive me I'm phone posting because I'm on the train and the words aren't coming perfectly but does anyone know this feeling? I'm writing another story right now about an older couple and life in our small town etc. and again as with the story about my father something about that sensible sort of concept and humble slow lives makes the story work so much better and read so earnestly. There's a period of my life I want to write about but I can't do it without it turning into some shitty fic from deviantart or Gaia or whatever.

>>20645426
>does anyone know this feeling?
that's called being self conscious. the way you get over it is by writing your nastiest sexual fetish

>>20645441
Well okay to some extent it's true but I probably forgot to mention that it's actually pretty objective that if I write about my young adult period and include characters based off my friends and the issues we dealt with - in the exact way I have found success by doing with my family - it actually comes out much worse. Have you had any experience writing about the young adult experience and classifying the innocent/naive/untrained feelings they have with any success?

>>20645426
You're writing about juvenile experiences, so you're writing for a juvenile audience. This doesn't imply that your writing itself is juvenile, just that it isn't meant for world-weary adults who are concerned with serious, boring things. Readjust for the new audience.

>>20644269
My chapters consist of only one scene and are mostly 2500~ words. What do you think?

>>20645457
But surely there is value in the experiences of young adults and children? And it's not true that stories about them are explicitly meant for younger audiences. There are plenty of stories that deal with young characters that are still challenging and meaningful. Think of Quentin Compson.

Just hit page 50 of my script.

>>20645311
Baldcore anon here - I'm still alive you fucker. But Baldcore is my 2nd side project. I'm focused on getting a chapter a week of my fantasy (Elder Scrolls tie-in, might genericize if Bethesda won't take me) to hopefully be done by September and when not that my historical fiction (copper age hill tribe family tragedy). I only work on Baldcore or flash fiction when I need a break from the novel format.

>>20643753
Thank you, I only did that as flash fiction but you may enjoy my first baldcore story which has as similar tone, my fantasy kind of has a cheeky humor to it. I realized this year I like writing 1st person POV from dandy guys, guess that says a lot about me:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ULki1Tj76fehp4Zk4U9eM6EzELhLybJ6qiLmo6FkQec/edit?usp=sharing

>>20645476
The principle is this: the things that were meaningful for a teenager once are meaningful for teenagers, even if it took you until adulthood to realize it.
Don't try to tease out some meaning that would impact your literature professor from something that made an impact on a teenager—it's not a matter of poignancy or sophistication or value, just a matter of audience.
Ok, maybe your audience's brains aren't fully formed and maybe that makes it fundamentally less valuable, but it's still more valuable than something compromised and insincere.

>>20645538
I appreciate what you're saying and I take your meaning on a lot of it. But I don't understand why you feel like a story about a teenager needs only to be for a teenage audience. As I have said there are plenty of writers like Faulkner, Hemingway, Joyce - fucking even DFW think of IJ the whole thing concerns teens at a boarding high school. There's no doubt all of these have had some impact on your literature professor.

>>20645373
>Kaiju anon disappeared
Fuck, I forgot this guy. I knew I was forgetting someone in my list. I also forgot the flash fiction anon, but I think he gave up because he couldn't get traction going with his newest collab.
>>20645533
I'm glad to hear it! You are going to make it.
Not that anyone is wondering, but I'm the original Fitzgerald anon and I'm still here making sure that doomposters receive suitable resistance.

>>20645352
I don't. That's why I make several redundant backups of my work, and why I chose an outline-editor with a quasi-human-readable document format (i.e. JSON).

>>20645455
That's not the young-adult experience, not anymore.
It's more about being raised on the unfiltered Internet, being confronted with mature topics way before one is ready.
I once wrote a short story about such a kid, and how his kidnappers paid the price for his preternatural maturity.

>>20645579
I'm trying to say: are you writing "about a teenager" or are you writing the world as a teenager once perceived it? it's a rhetorical question, but in those teenaged years there's this process of committing oneself to uncovering universal truths and then slowly realizing that there aren't any—that kind of thing is very attractive to teenagers, but doesn't quite scratch the cerebellum in a well-formed adult the same way. Anyway, I don't have any advice beyond suggesting that you should write with the intention of putting it in the hands of your younger self.

>>20645630
post it

>>20644357
coomers should be denied access to the internet

>>20645638
Here's a narration of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG_0ekDECVE

>>20645801
Boswell, you're like 40 years old. What do you know about coming of age in our current culture?

>>20645828
I do research.
You know, that thing writers do to write about things they don't personally experience.
And then I fictionalize it.
Again, totally normal.

There are used copies of my print-on-demand paperback on Amazon, being sold for more than the price of a new copy.
What does that even mean?
Why charge more?

>>20645614
>original Fitzgerald anon
I kneel. Is there an origin story or just something that felt right? Regardless it's the best meme on /lit/

If you could I'd appreciate tips, advice, and suggestions on handling a character who hallucinates. What are things to include/like or avoid/dislike before, during and after, the craziness.

>>20645850
There's a reason you don't have 40 year old women writing female coming of age stories set in the modern era. When you do, they come out like Wish Upon.
There's also a reason you don't have 40 year old men writing male coming of age stories set in the modern era. You are the example for this.

Petition to convert this board into a /tg/-style cryptolectal myco-rhizome persistent pseudo-text-adventure game with magical realism elements and extended reality superpersistent hidden XP gain and class type, inventory, goal checklist, and dialogue options, etc., including semi-hyperselfmodulating second-person character control within a continuous time space universe-hypothesis generative adversarial network, i.e. livemapping, progressive historical simulation, wind blowing through the treetops and birdsong fully rendered, et al.?

>>20645879
And yet you can't actually articulate the reason.
You just try, and fail, to gaslight.
Why not post your own writing, so you can show us all how it's done.

>>20645884
Permission denied, on the grounds of extreme autism and cringe.

>>20645879
>coming of age stor[y]
the protag in the story is like 8, going by the drawing

>>20645850
Emilyanon already beat you to the a middle age man having a coming of age story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EWMR1IpR5Y

>>20645801
This is just an edgy Home Alone fanfic without the creative traps, an idea that's about as trite and juvenile as Mario ingesting mushrooms.
I can't even engage with the ideas beyond that so I'm just going to point out that this might be the worst use of dialogue tags I have ever seen. You get better with them in the second half, but you make the mistake of forcing an action before the dialogue instead. Let your audience infer who is speaking. You only deliver two sentences as pure dialogue.

Oh, and since people aren't allowed to criticize your writing without posting some of their own for some reason, here is a small continuation of my horsefucker story.

>>20643840
How old were you when you wrote your first poem/story?

>>20646097
Maybe four or five
I would also draw so they were picture books based on the stories my dad would tell me at bedtime
As I got older I stopped drawing as much and just focused on the writing

>>20645729
It's not for coom retard

Day 26 editing
Chapter 24 is now tight
The more i edit the more i realize i must edit
>this has to stop sometime r-right guize?

>>20646320
Just use the Batcomputer?

Take my sugar! Take anything you like!

/lit/ bros, I have a question
There's a book I want to translate, but I have no idea how to deal with a publisher. Do I pay since it's the first edition of my first work or get paid? If the latter, what percentage should I ask for?

>>20646407
Just translate it and publish it for free, anonymously. If you are dummy and actually want money for it, get hired as a freelance translator by a publisher for the language and lobby to get the particular work as your job.

>>20645311
I've posted my draft here a couple of times before. Still going at it. Not quitting with a story like this when I have so much passion and autism behind it.

>>20645311
I don't have a nickname but I posted a little piece from my work that I thought would be funny to post
Anon asked me if it was a joke and I deleted it because I don't want to destroy my anonymity anyway
Not quitting though

>>20646097
Not sure if this counts, but, when I was like 9 I posted a story on FF.net making fun of most fanfictions tropes. This was before I was really into writing.

Fast forward at around the same age, I posted a story featuring most of my OCs going on some race tournament or something. It had positive feedback. (somehow) You can say this is my first real story, since I put actual effort into it, as little as that may have been.

>>20644590
>what would be a feminine version of the word "pikeneer"?
phallusette(s)

Discord tranny hours

7-2

>>20646571
I remember making an OC for an anime boy I liked but since I couldn't draw i would just edit over fanart of him with a Canon character and I met other girls who did this and became good friends with them
Friendship lasted a good few years which was impressive since I was maybe 12 at the time
Looking back my self insert fic got a lot of positive attention but it was atrocious
A good first experiencing for sharing my writing

Fellas, how do I make my characters distinct from each other? I Feel like in my writing every character is me and only differentiate from me when I need the story to progress

>>20645311
southern anon has not quit, in fact I doubled down and sold all my video games last month

>>20646720
Deliberately exaggerate the differences in their way of dialogue, have them act as dramatically (or under-statedly if that's part of their character) as possible in every scene, and make them do drastic mistakes due to their character flaws. During rewriting, you can tone it down, but I've found there isn't actually much need for that.

Also, remember to give them a distinct personal goals (both short and long term), so you can easily know what they should be doing in any specific situation. That in itself keeps the story going, though it might derail poorly planned plotlines.

>>20646720
Pick their traits randomly

>>20646760
>Deliberately exaggerate the differences in their way of dialogue
Precisely my difficulty, as I feel hardship when giving them different ways to express themselves. I feel like I am writing lines said by Odysseus all the time, except it's a sales woman trying to convice someone to believe they should lead a group discussion. Good Advice, thanks.
I've resorted to people watching, and was wondering about what makes everyone different, but without the parts the senses can register (looks, voice, and so on). And Came only to beliefs. Surely, forgot the making mistakes due to their flaws.

>>20646779
Make notes when you read. I've seen a ton of tricks people do. If it's not a difference in temperament, some characters seem to talk faster or slower, have different grammar, different vocabulary. If you want to write things the way people pronounce things, you also make readers hear how the voice sounds different. The biggest thing you want though is for characters to not always agree or see things the same way. When I started reading "Remains of the Day" I thought, oh all these British butlers are going to be the same. But they weren't, and it helped me remember them.

>>20646779
Pick their traits randomly

>>20646779
I too find writing distinct dialogue challenging. It feels I only have two modes: an utter pseud and a caricature boor. Still, I try to make do by deliberate word choices based on the character's background and forced quirks like short sentences or lack of pronouns. The thing is that most characters only get limited amount of lines to say, so it's important to make a quick impression. Overdoing that is probably a danger, but not something I worry about on the first draft.

Any tips on overarching themes? I will check out the books in the OP but not sure if that’s covered.

>>20646923
I would write an informal essay about themes and how I feel about them. How the theme affects our lives, what it means to me and all that. Then make a big list of words I think evoke that theme some subtle and some as explicit plot devices. Then you drop it in specific places, building tension for the potential that it will all come to something later.

>>20646954
Okay that sounds like an excellent exercise. I’ve done a lot of close readings and lit crit, but not theme analysis in itself. Thank you.

What is that book that was shilled on here for a few months that was about the religious and civic life in ancient societies (rome and Greece or maybe just rome). I think it was like a 'trad' book published by perennial press or something

>>20646958
I think one of the best things you can do is the culmination of the most important themes need to be shown and never explained completely. Crime and Punishment did this. Brave New World did this, even Eggplant did this. Dostoevsky could have went into another psychological episode exploring Raskolnikov's confrontation with Svidrigailov's fate and what it meant to him...but he didn't have to because he built the theme so strongly that he just showed the pain and vexation on Raskolnikov's face and we understand. In BNW the reader has been show this great divide between suffering and pleasure, but when the ideas come together Huxley does not need to explain John's horror.

>>20646963
The book with the dude holding a shield? I think it was advertised on /tg/ too.

>>20646985
Nah I don't think it was that, it was the interior of the pantheon or something similar

>>20645873
If memory serves, I originally used it to demand people post their writing and accept critique because we were in a slump when that wasn't happening. It quickly evolved into a WAGMI meme. I haven't had to use it as often as I used to because people aren't being crabs or doomposting as much, which to me means the meme must have had some lasting effect.
>>20646097
First grade, so I would have been six? Maybe five?

>I had never seen an aeroplane and I confess it scared me a little
Whenever I see stuff like this, I always think of the motto "Show, don't tell". Isn't he basically telling us that he was scared of aeroplanes? Why not SHOWING it though a continuous rejection of aeroplanes?

>>20647099
Because show don't tell is a bullshit principle invented by the CIA in an effort to curb politically subversive literature

Why the OP doesn't have link to videos by Shaelinwrites? I think she gives good advice and is pretty cute

>>20647099
>Show, don't tell
Yes, no quick conveyance of any information - not even of tangential stuff. It should be more like this.

>I saw an aeroplane and an electric shock ran up my spine, a gurgling cauldron of witches' brew roiled in my gut, and the tingle of an impending aeronautically induced heart attack shot up my left bicep. I shook the freshly pinched terror poop-loaf down my pantleg, letting my corn kernalled darling land on the pavement with a moist splat. 'Man isn't meant for such heights' I thought while watching the metallic wings catch the sun's brilliance as surely an ancient Sol once shone in the eyes of Icarus.

>>20646963
Found it, it's the ancient city - imperium press

>>20647145
I agree, this video is pretty nice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5H8oPyQaPQ

>>20647099
Because show don't tell is a retarded concept extrapolated on by a single off handed quote from Anton Chekov.

>In the dark, ‘neath the stone, where the dead rot to bone, that was where spirit made lair.

It's a shame that satisfying lines are often completely dysfunctional for scene construction.

who /lofi hip hop radio - beats to relax/study to/ here?

>>20647284
My brain is the lofi hip hop radio.

>>20647284
I started this a month ago but I also do classical and other things. Lofi is now my generic grind music, but I go for specific keys and moods when Im trying to zero in on a scene.

>>20647284
philip glass is better for concentration
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PufT63ER0uY

>>20644690
>>Tonight, God lost.
Why is that a bad sentence alone? I find it great as the payoff for something great.

>>20647099
i look at it like this
if you tell the reader something, it's unimportant
if you show the reader something, then the reader knows it's important to the story

>>20647292
Lo-fi, hi-def

>>20647099
I was reading The Art of Fiction and Gardner unironically tells you that of these two paragraphs the second one is better because of "show don't tell" and I feel like it's really quite bad.
>Detective Gerald B. Craine was very drunk. Sitting that morning in the parked truck, he couldn't tell reality—or, at any rate, what you and I call reality—from the shadows and phantoms produced by his delirium tremens. His sense of responsibility, his courage, his nobility of heart, his native chivalry, all these were as keen as ever; but his eye for mundane truth was not what it might have been. And so, believing he saw something, and thinking himself called upon for heroic action, he threw down the bottle, snatched out his revolver, ran into the house where the girl had just gone, and once again proved himself a fool.

>Where the snake came from he did not see. A roar filled his mind, the sky flashed white, and as if the doorway to the underworld had opened, there lay the snake, a foot across, maybe thirty feet long, greenish-golden. It moved quickly, gracefully across the street in front of him and over the curb toward the porch where a moment ago Elaine Glass had stood. It had large black eyes; in its scales, glints of violet and vermillion. Hatchet-head raised, tongue flicking, it moved with the assurance of a familiar visitor up the sidewalk toward the steps. With a yelp, without thinking, Craine threw down the bottle, pushed open the door of his side, half-jumped, halffell from the truck, and ran around the front. He drew his pistol as he ran. The students on the porch snatched their things from the steps and porch-floor and jumped back. The tail of the enormous snake was disappearing through the door. Now it was gone. He ran after it, waving the pistol, running so fast he could hardly keep from falling.

>>20647549
The first half of the first paragraph is good, but it ends like shit.

The second paragraph is competently executed but describing a pathetic scene, which is why it turns you off from liking it.

>>20647500
Agree with this and my patented alternative language for showing and telling is "experience vs explain".

Experience (higher level of detail, sensory experiences, reflective thoughts) things that are core to the story.

Explain (summarize, often in passive clauses) less thematically essential details from logistics to minor characters/locations or even minor traits of the character. Also useful to just give clarity - explain MC is nervous on planes and then experience it over the story.

Neither is good or bad, one is slower/longer while the other is fast and efficient. In my view good writing should be alternating between them frequently at the paragraph level. If done well, leaning towards Experience makes a passage feel very small and intimate while using more Explaining makes the world feel bigger.

>>20647549
Detective Snake Plissken was so drunk he couldn't see. He sat in the roaring truck that morning, filling his mind, the sky flashed white, and reality, to a snake, was as if the doorway to the underworld had opened, the shadows and phantoms produced by his delirium tremens, lying there, a foot across, maybe thirty feet long, greenish-golden. It moved quickly, his sense of responsibility, his courage, his nobility of heart, his native chivalry, all these were as keen as ever, gracefully across the street in front of him and over the curb toward the porch where a moment ago, his eye for mundane truth was not it might have been, Elaine Glass had stood. It had large black eyes; in its scales, glints of violet and vermillion. Hatchet-head raised, tongue flicking, it moved with the assurance of a familiar visitor up the sidewalk toward the steps. And so, believing he saw something, and thinking himself called upon for heroic action, with a yelp, without thinking, he threw down the bottle, with his revolver pushed open the door of his side, half-jumped, halffell from the truck, and ran around the front into the house where the girl had just gone, and once again proved himself a fool. The students on the porch snatched their things from the steps and porch-floor and jumped back. The tail of the enormous snake was disappearing through the door. Now it was gone. He ran after it, waving the pistol, running so fast he could hardly keep from falling.

>>20647637
Nice job

>>20647558
I think the first paragraph does a good job of quickly summarizing the character of the detective and then placing us in the action. The only bad thing is "believing he saw something, and thinking himself called upon for heroic action" just because it's so passive and vague. The second paragraph doesn't come close to communicating the character of the detective, it's just a long-winded sequence describing the momentum that gets him from his car to the house.

>>20645984
So now it's OK to do that?
Also, I posted my story on April 18, 2021.

>>20647695
Is that second paragraph supposed to be the second paragraph of the same story? I thought it was an entirely different thing.

>>20647718
they're two paragraphs describing the same thing: a drunk detective entering a house because he thinks he sees something

>>20647623
Yamoto used to be a cop. He worked at the Tamura Prefecture from 2001 to 2019.

compared to

"You're a cop," said Tia.
"I used to be. Is it that obvious?" said Yamoto.

>>20647549
The first one is perfectly fine. It just so happens to use a style that isn't popular anymore. The second one is more in vein with stream of consciousness, or maybe third limited, and since you don't get to see into his head, I'd hesitate to even call it that. I feel like this whole "show don't tell" debate is really an argument over omniscience in narratives, which tells me that no one who touts the show don't tell garbage really understands what they're talking about. Let's take these two samples.

The first is as if it were told to you by a narrator around a fire at camp. You're more involved with the story as it's being told than the moment to moment thoughts and senses of a character. And there is nothing wrong with omniscience in writing, at all. It's a way to tell a story that omits discovery on the part of the reader and supplants it with an unfolding of everything you need to know. It's less labyrithine, more "observe the story as a story happening/being told."

The second follows imagery without describing effects on the character. It reminds me of watching a movie. You get pictures of a scene and image fragments of what the subject sees, but no invitation is made into his head. It invites more thought from the reader: okay, what's going on, why is the snake important, etc. It's simply another way of telling a story. You let the actions showcase, like listening to a performer act things out ("He shot his pistol, BANG! And all the women screamed!").

I don't think either is a poor way to tell a story and in particular to suggest that the first is worst than the second willfully ignores that there are different ways to present and tell a story. I think these people just hate omniscient storytelling.

>>20647710
of course. writing is a race for the next big thing. now that fantasy is starting to die off and shift over to anime writing, the next big thing is on the horizon.

And I think it's going to be wholesome rom coms. with anime coomers latching onto SpyxFamily and Dress Up Darling, there's going to be some crazy wholesome family fantasy.
>I died and reincarnated as a family man in a fantasy world.

>>20647731
Dialogue is kind of a unique subcategory of Experience/Show in my opinion because it can be explaining/telling while also experiencing character dynamics.

But even so, the first version, even as overly simplistic as it is written, conveys more details about when and where he was a cop. The second version shows that he acts like a cop and was one at some vague point in the past. Either could work depending on what the story is about - a story about elderly Yamoto on his deathbed, having a last conversation with his son? Go with something like the first one. A story about middle aged Yamato solving his neighbor's murder? Go with the second one.

>>20647657
The final parasite...

It knows English.

Animefriend here.
How do you write a war in a setting with magic and powers without it devolving into a series of Mega Man boss fights near "crucial" locations?

>>20648609
the important thing with fantasy storytelling is that it's all about individuals
relentlessly describe single people, what they do and how they feel about it
never talk about a war or a culture or a country in abstract, detached terms
never give up complete information about how the war is going objectively

>>20648609
For starters, why are you letting individuals become more powerful than armies?

>>20648609
Add a bunch of pointless middle/high school drama.

>>20648609
But that's objectively the best way to handle that

>>20648648
Noted, but isn't this kind of the reason it ends up devolving into random boss fights?

>>20648651
I didn't, even had the guys with big targets on their backs that could only stay alive because they were more powerful than armies die before the war started, but I want to make sure I won't.

>>20648678
It was pretty lame in Naruto and made like 90% of the army feel absolutely pointless, even with charismatic and interesting bosses to fight.

>>20645425
This is good. I like it.

>>20645874
Go on /x/

Does anyone use speed (or any amphetamine / Ritalin) as a writing aid? Do you get way more work done? Thinking of trying it out desu

How do I become famous on scribble hub or royal road?

>>20648805
Write something that people actually want to read?
Were you expecting a different answer?

>>20648805
write a lot. quantity over quality. 2000 words a day at least.

>>20648805
First, you skim the first few chapters of the tippy top, then drink PirateAba's hemorrhoid blood and learn to shit out 200k words of """""servicable""""" text every week. Feel free to ask if you need an adderall prescription.

>>20645311
i tried quitting
can't

>>20645311
I self-pubbed a book. I just didn't post it here because I waited for people I know to pad the rating before risking trolls.

I've also gotten very lukewarm reception because I write genre fiction, so I don't think it would be particularly well recieved despite me being from this thread.

>>20648891
Not true at all. Emilyanon's book is generally well received. It's Genre fiction. Could it be better? Sure, but it was good.

>>20648891
The trolls would have to buy the book before being able to post a review on Amazon, i.e. without "verified buyer", the review generally gets ignored.

>>20648915
They could buy it ebook, review it, and return it. Which is apparently a shockingly common thing people are doing to avoid paying for books they read.

Regardless, I'm getting interviewed on it this sunday, so that will be a better reveal of the book than me linking it and limply asking you to buy it.

>>20645311
Wait did Hell-Anon actually quit or did he just stop posting?

>>20648956
>I'm getting interviewed on it this sunday
How did this come about, did you not instigate it? Since I haven't put any work out yet I haven't experienced anyone reaching out to me yet.

>>20647284
https://youtu.be/G6TtSX8tBEQ

>>20644357
just conlang bro

>>20649092
Networking through discord desu. Small time content creators will often just generally say they need content and you make contact

Got me a youtube review video too. And I've got other stuff moving.

>>20649151
Stop the slander
Chop the hand of a thief
And cut the mouth off of whoever come out they teeth

>>20649153
NTA but can you share the discord or point me in the right direction?

>>20648733
>This is good. I like it.
Th-thank you.
P-please tell me more, anon.

>>20649353
There is no "the discord". You ask around and be sociable and keep your ear to the ground. Find servers that have #shill channels and befriend those people

>>20647284
Zen has actually been incredible for focus and feelings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6GXOD1I6iY

>>20648805
Adderall and the ability to keep pumping out words despite knowing that it's low tier prose and slowly eroding your soul. Networking with other authors on the site/being involved in the community can also give you a decent bump

Is there a good place to go to get critique on a completed story? Preferably cover to cover critique, but at least a place where they'll read past the first few chapters and give you a reason they quit (e.g. bored me to death).

>>20648805
post it here. If no one reads far enough into it to give any kind of feedback you know you did something wrong.

>>20649933
That was meant for this anon.
>>20649856

>>20649933
I hate to ask you to spoonfeed me, but when I say 'completed story' I'm talking about a book length story (104k ish). I guess I could just upload the word/pdf file somewhere but that'd be fishy to download and throwing it in a pastebin would be (1) irritating to read and (2) formatting is fucked.
I usually just see anons posting pastebins/just pasting text/or jpgs, none of which are great for a full book sized story.
Any suggestion for ideal book readability from those self publishing sites in the sticky? I know they're mostly for piecemeal fanfic stuff so I'm thinking a book's formatting would get screwed up there as well. Not to mention it'd feel like shilling a bit, which I guess isn't the worst.

>>20650080
Attach .txt file?

>>20650080
Many anons here post PDFs to catbox.moe

>>20650080
To keep your formatting from going wonky on WattPad/ScribbleHub/RoyalRoad, upload your document to Google Docs.
Open it in their editor, copy, and paste portions into the web-novel text-box.
That (mostly) preserves the formatting.

>>20649153
I remember somebody doing a youtube review of my RR work. It basically left them confused and pointing at how it had both high and low reviews and ratings.

>>20650183
post the review

>>20648735
I'd like good advice not creepypasta/10

>>20650204
Kinda embarassed because my work has been in hiatus for over a year.

>>20650234
What have you been doing in the meantime?

>>20650240
You know, yard and house repairs, watching yt or anime, reading some stuff online. I've been adding some stuff to outline and planning further edits to turn "lesson lecture" exposition chapter to a museum visit and adding more characters to early arc to show the world more instead of assuming that people already know the subgenre.

>>20650234
im curious what the reviewer had to say and i think i know who youre talking about

>>20650089
>>20650131
>>20650139
Thanks for the answers, I should've thought about catbox.moe that's a great option.
https://files.catbox.moe/0n4a91.pdf
Looks like I'm going to be throwing this into every /wg/ thread I see for a while

>>20650262
It was a lot of 'yeah' and 'maybe' and such.

>>20650217
>His expression was the most horrifying the girl had ever seen.
I feel like you should add a bit of detail to the face. But if you're trying to go the Lovecraft 'horror beyond comprehension' path you need to build the story around the girl's psyche and how it crumbles. Either way, I just feel like that line should be where I get a more powerful emotion than what you're giving me.

>>20650338
These aren't mine, sorry.
It's why I don't care for /x/ or /k/

>>20649665
If you wrote more I think people would read it. I think the premise is interesting and your writing is more than serviceable.

>>20650268
I don't think I'm qualified enough to provide you a rigorous assessment but I can tell you I think this is fucking great and I'm already genuinely invested in the story. Just got to the switch in perspective from the bartender to Mustaqbal—thought the former plotting to rob the latter was cute.

>>20650268
>>20650400
Also, great worldbuilding

>>20644197
desu is globo prop it would sell real fucking well

p.1: flare -> flair
p.2: aren't selkies seal-people, not fish-people?
p.3, et. al.: heluva -> helluva
p.5: my bar bodily fluids -> my bar with bodily fluids
p. 8: so are the selkie, and Boozie, the only ones in the bar? seems like the barkeep would have to take drink orders from others.
p. 25: anymore thinking -> any more thinking ("anymore" refers to time)
p. 27: I'm far too tired -> I was far too tired (tense error)
p. 28: play my roll -> play my role
p. 38: wazsh -> was?
You have a fair number of comma splices, sentence fragments, and punctuation errors.
I have to stop reading; I need to crash.

But so far, I really like this story! I find it gripping! Such a nice change of pace from the monuments to boredom I usually find here.

>>20650562 was addressed to >>20650268
Like I said, I need to crash.

>>20650252
Sounds pretty algorithmic. You should have just gone to the museum.

>>20650610
And they will, but back then I wanted to do it quickly.

>>20649151
I'm no Tolkien

>>20650617
What?

>>20650721
I wanted to get exposition over with.

>>20650716
>non fungible tolkien

>>20650409
Thanks, I'm happy to get any input on it, I was starting to get worried the first story was just horribly boring so hearing that the start can hold your attention is good to know for me.
>>20650562
Damn, believe it or not I've gone through the thing for editing purposes at least 15 or 20 times. I always catch something though. I probably need to just read it entirely out loud.
As far as the punctuation goes I originally was using a bunch of semicolons but thought it looked bad on paper (too many ; seems pretentious for a casual scifi book) but conjunctions mess up the flow of the sentence. If you end up waking up and the thread's still going I'd be interested to hear your opinion on whether or not certain grammar mistakes should be forgiven for the sake of tone

>>20650728
Oh yes

>>20650754
>His tokens are fungible

>>20644357
Moneyshot honeypot
Jizz wiz
Insemination destination
Cream queen
Pecker necker
Splooge stooge
Marble cream gargle machine

>>20650754
>he paid 18000 pounds for it

>>20647284
My nigger. I did a stint on dark academica. but mostly it's lofi girl, or else the korean studywithme vids.

>>20643840
What do you do when you want to write authentic settings you've never been to? I'm pretty good at extrapolating, and being vague, but I want it to be real. I really like south east asia, but I don't want to stereotype it or sterilize it. Do you watch dokus, or read magazines?

>>20650973
Talk to someone who knows it.

I haven't written anything since getting out of college 4 years ago. I've got an idea for a novel that I've been kicking around for the past few months. Should I go for it even though I'm rusty or should I try to write something shorter to ease myself back into writing first?

Day 27
Chapter 25 loose cut
Still feel dirty halving chapters
At least I made pizza

>>20651074
Radical

>>20651057
You've got to find something that's novel before you can write a novel

>>20650268
This is very good anon. I'll probably finish it sometime this week.

>>20651074
I have a few 7k word chapters that I probably should shorten, but it just feels wrong to separate my writing into neat parcels of a predetermined size rather than grouping it naturally according to scene.
Having irregularly sized and possibly a bit too long self-contained sections is better than having adhd friendly uniform partitions with awkward transitions and cliffhangers, right?

It's up!

Chapter fourteen is here. Reached 30k posted on RR.

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54100/wish-mountain

Ask him the secret he said Shasta,
and turned to formaldehyde faster

>>20651318
Initially i agree'd with that way of thinking.
Now though? its about learning to craft an openning and closing and chapter count...well ok its mainly fapter count to trick adhdlets...But learning skills counts for something i guess.

Thopter count

>>20651502
ostajamaa

>>20650716
why are people like this

>>20650380
Thank you anon.
I'm almost done the first chapter. I'll post once it's done and edited.

Writers should also read. What have you been reading? I'm about to start East of Eden.

>>20651698
A children's book series I missed out on as a kid and some Vella stories
Only a few from this read4read group I joined are any good the rest are laughably bad but the worst has to be one with a 3strong5u Mary Sue assassin who is also gay and very sarcastic

thonk

>>20651698
Jurassic Park and a biography on Al Capone

bokbook

>>20643840
>want to write a semi-biographical book
>realize my life is boring

>>20651739
Live a bit longer and think about your life, it might be more compelling than you think. In the meantime read or listen to more stories, use your imagination.
>>20650788
>dark academica
Chopin's nocturnes are some of my favorites.

Pitlochry

>>20651698
Jurassic Park Fanfiction and It Waits Below by Eric Red

line number sacrodynia

>>20651747
Thanks man. I've been trying to gather my memories for a while and my life isn't boring, but it lacks a lot of those little random stories. All my big memories I need to find analogies for, and I'm almost crippled by the fear that my parents will recognize the scenarios anyway. I just get overwhelmed. I'm realizing that I'm not good at translating into fiction...

>>20651739
God iwtwm anon
Consider yourself lucky
I would give anything to say my life has been boring and aside from author stuff boring is what I'm aiming for

>>20651739
The best way to be more interesting is to stop consuming anime and manga. This isn't because this will add anything tangible to you. It's just that anime and manga compose the single most boring hobby ever devised by man. They are deleterious to everything that makes a person interesting.

>>20651926
Oh I stopped years ago. I just use them for reaction pics.

κλητός

>>20651926
I miss when anime was a luxury hobby to have and you couldn't find it at fucking Walmart of all places
Had to go to speciality stores like FYE
Can't stand hobbies I used to be happy to call my own anymore but all the same it just helps me focus on my original shit

Spooklight

>>20651942
Same. It never really goes away and I don't think old passions should. I was very passionate about the paranormal as well and it makes writing nerds and eccentrics that much easier if you hold on to the memories.

>>20652046
agreed

serandite Anantapur fart in a spacesuit, disyllabical

700 or so words done today. My girlfriend came to visit at the end of June so I was too busy to spare even a thought for my work, but I'm feeling like I'm back in the swing of things now. 700 words, five days a week, a book does make — in pretty short order.

How do I expand my scope and write about ideas and themes larger than just my home town and my father?

>>20652103
Nice anon. I am 1100 today but I have left my work for a long fucking time it took me like 5 hours today not even kidding.

تأکید کردن

چتر

>>20643840
Are you a planner or a pantser?

>>20652145
Imagination

>>20643840
What a day. We sat idly, watching this board die. We sat lazy, giggling at each off-topic thread. We sat sluggish, giggling at each unrelated post. We enjoyed it, feasting our eyes upon each and every trivial reply, maggots eating away at a corpse. Here we sit, allowing these.. these board tourists. These sightseers. Chewing away at this board, defiling it.. rather than letting Hiro host a proper burial..

Now we're nothing but aliens.. Foreigners to our own board. What hope do we have now? None. None I say. Meaningless, truly meaningless..

What a day indeed..

>>20652183
I thought I was a planner, but when i started writing my first (current) novel, i realized i'm a pantser

>>20652183
Panster.

>>20652183
Planner. I need to know key plot points, the beginning and end, and I thoroughly plan out chapters before actually writing them. It takes more time to actually write stuff, but editing is a breeze.

>>20652183
this is a false dichotomy
writing as a tool of thinking or thinking as a tool of writing amounts to much of the same

>>20652183
Considering the size of my supporting document, I'd say planner but with the amount of things I discover about character in the writing process, as well as how sloppy the first drafts are, makes me say I also write on the seat of my pants. It's tough to be firmly in one camp.

>>20652183
Completely pantsing feels like trudging knee deep through mud. I find it best when I have a beginning and end vaguely planned out, with some bullet points for the in-betweens

Reminder to all the GURMNIGGERS ITT

>>20652396

What the fuck is "genre fiction".
As opposed to what? Non-genre fiction? Fiction that doesn't belong to a genre? But that's not possible.

I'm sure this term came about for valid reasons and it's not retarded on purpose. But as it stands, it is not self-explainatory. A term that isn't self-explainatory and instead relies on obtuse external knowledge is bad, it's a misnomer.

Now please explain to the folks at home what "genre fiction" is. Is it the "character actor" or "immersive sim" but for literature?

>>20652268
george rr martin is a famous pantser
he said in an interview that he has his next book in his head but he hasn't written it down
doesn't that mean he has plotted it out in his head before he writes it down?

>>20652402
Can someone post the pasta/screencap of anon explaining that Gurm elevates Tolkien by merely existing as his complete antithesis (and also that he writes porn rather than literature)
Also hobbit sex

>>20652417
there's literary fiction like "to kill a mockingbird" and "catcher in the rye"
it's fiction, but it's set in the real world.

genre fiction is sf, fantasy, horror, etc

generally, the most artistic writers write literary fiction. readers aren't surprised when they see poetry

gene wolfe writes fantasy with as if it were literary fiction.

>>20652442
>fiction, but it's set in the real world
That seems rather limiting

heart sound

Trekfan

I find it strange how the term "copy pasta" has been legitimized despite it being a fairly cringe millennialism

>>20652183
The plan comes from the pants. This post came from the pants.

>>20652492
Cringe as an adjective is a cringe millenialism, you cringe zoomer.

>>20652512
cringe is a zoomerism

>>20652442
That’s not it at all and I feel like I’m responding to bait.
Literary fiction is fiction that goes in without a reliance on tropes or actively rejects them. It’s character focused rather than plot focused.
Just because it’s sci-if doesn’t mean it’s automatically genre fiction. I know George RR Martin is getting a fair amount of shit in this thread, but I would consider most of his stories in the Thousand Worlds series to be literary fiction.

>>20652417
I've heard like 10 definitions of what litfic is. Some people will tell you it's a term to describe fictional works with a more modern setting and that typically tackle topics of the human condition or have a more philosophical twist.Others, myself included, will tell you that it's merely a form of fiction that is more character driven than plot driven. The setting doesn't matter as much as it's rejection or sparse use of common tropes and trends in storytelling. For some reason it's also thrown around by aphantastic pseuds in an effort to make it seem like one form of fiction is greater than the other. It's a reductive and pointless dychotomy since you can tackle those same topics in a fantastical setting and via fantastical characters.

>>20652442
you can check amazon for books in each category
a lot of people won't read genre fiction, but they will read literary fiction
a lot of people refuse to read fiction and stick to nonfiction like history, science, biographies, etc

>>20652417
It's what pretentious retards use to convince themselves that they aren't reading le bad babby bookes

I wanted to get into writing so I decided to try writing fanfiction as a cheap way to practice and get attention/feedback from readers, I hadn't thought of doing it before but I've been having a lot of fun with it and getting plenty of positive reviews. Am I faggot for doing this?

>>20652759
No.

Why Jerry B Jenkins videos aren't talked about here? He makes easily understood videos with really nice examples to explain what he means.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-83QrAAbnQY

I'm having trouble with videogame writing, can someone help me hearing me out?
It's about the branching dialogue and insecurity, I am just so apprehensive of actually writing the choices because it's complex, the way things work and I feel I should go back to the basics but I always get myself so deep to scale down.
What should I do? Revisit characters and themes and make sure that's rock solid before drafting this?

>>20652802
Write one branch at a time

>>20652811
Sure, I have the marks of what has to be accomplished

>Introduce Main Character and Deuteragonist
>Introduce Setting
>Introduce Gameplay Loop
>WORLDBUILDING AND CHARACTERS

And on a level by level basis I know some vague things like pic related.
But really, I am worried about the writing, I have to be interesting, true to character and quality (I don't want the usual videogame writing) for every single branch, this is hard, dialogue mostly.

>>20649856
Scribophile, if you like wokesters and boomer romance novelists.

>>20652759
It depends entirely on the source materiel, fggot

>>20652759
Honestly it's a good way to get some practice in. I gained a lot of confidence from doing fanfiction. Just take it seriously and try to put out something that's legitimately good.

>>20647099
Because it's a draft of a short story, and that's just his writing style. A little dry.

>>20652759
I practice by sexting teenage weeb girls, 50 year old men pretending they're girls, and trannies. Whatever works to get words in

>>20652833
>boomer romance novelists.
I need to tap into this market. Goodreads are filled with shitty romance. And it sells. "forbidden love" seems to be the big one right now. And the dude risks it all because the girl's pussy is just too good.

How would I go if I want to have a book tradpubbed?

Do I make a manuscript first, or do I do the entire book already?

>>20650758
I can't say for sure, but I'll wager that grammar mistakes like comma splices won't be seen as style.
And I didn't know semicolons were pretentious. I use them in my writing all the time (which doesn't prove anything one way or the other).

>>20652986
Have a social media presence first, and be less white.

>>20651057
Why do you assume you can only work on one thing at a time?
Go where the muse takes you.
If you feel like writing a novel, do so.
If, in the middle, you feel like writing some short stories, do so.
In the middle of completing my most recent novel, I wrote a screenplay. I have no intention of showing it to anyone, but I got it out of my system.

>>20651698
"Stand On Zanzibar" by John Brunner, "SHTF Survival Stories" by Selco Begovic, and a bunch of Mad Magazine books.
I like a wide range of material.

>>20653118
I am not white, but I am also not black, I am a man as well. Do I have a shit? Seems like most writers are Asian women. I just read excerpts from the Iron Widow and it's Darling in the Franxx. From the mechs to the dinosaurs

>>20653132
The less oppressed you are, the bigger your social media presence needs to be. Have you tried sucking dildos on tiktok?

New thread >>20653140
for when the time comes...

>>20652986
>>20653118
What if I just never show my face, and use a non-white sounding pen name?

>>20652396
Aragorn's tax policy is whatever is slightly worse than what the last one was, as all of history is ultimately a downward spiral into mediocrity.

>>20652832
Drop a document outline and I'll do it for you.

>>20652759
I write giantess and vore smut as way to practice writing.

>>20653132
So invent an oppression. Just lie.

>>20651739
>have interesting life
>can't write semi-biographical book because stupid to admit to committing so many crimes
of course this post is fictional

>>20652759
Fanfiction isn't necessarily bad. It just generally is.