/lit/ - Literature

>>20879798
Fucking hell, your descriptors made me laugh so hard. Thanks anon

The OP is terrible. The old one was perfect and had so many good book recommendations and other resources. You swapped books for fucking Youtube videos, you goddamn idiot.

Wot mean? >>20880026
(((20880314))) maybe your OP was shit and should’ve been reworked.

Good editors remove more than they add.

>>20880326
I don't mind the new OP, but I liked the old one more. Yours needs more variety, many posters here would perfer to read rather than listen to or watch a video. Many of the old OP links that I didn't check out I saved to open a little later down the line, I'm not enticed by any of yours. And you could at least write more professionally. I can't help but feel like you changed the OP for your own sake, isn't it selfish to change something nobody had a problem with, but you?

i haven't liked an OP since i've been here (summer only)

>>20880291
At the very least you should put in the paste bin to /lit/ authors

Which one of you faggots did this?

this OP is terrible, but lets be real. how many FUCKING bookcovers do aspiring writier anon's need? how many publishers? and how many of them are reading fucking /wg/ OP to find these answers?
i'm going with 0-1 a year.
a pastebin, as someone suggested, would be good

>>20880364
>tfw your local bookstore doesn't have a literal based department

Writing a priestly character has been one of the best choices I've taken. I feel so reassured and reinvigorated in my faith and connection to God whenever I listen to/write some of his music or write out scenes where he works and acts in worship. I had a beautiful, beautiful moment while just preparing food and listening to a concert piece he would have attended. His good deeds do not only affect the people in his fictional world, it also affects me in such a good way and i am very thankful.

I still have to rewrite the dialogue in verse. Aside from that, are there any other complaints about the current state of Gang Weed the Movie?

https://www.scribd.com/document/551280851/Unfiltered

>>20880291
fucking faggot daniel greene
biggest cocksucker we'd ever seen
knows jack shit about books or art
less credibility than a wet fart

>>20880291
Thanks for adding to the OP anon, here's the rest

For General Writing
>The Rhetoric of Fiction, Booth
>Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Burroway
>Steering the Craft, Le Guin
>The Anatomy of Story, Truby
>How Fiction Works, Wood

YouTube Playlists for Writing
>https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTCv6n1whoI23GmdBZienRW0Q0nFCU_ay Robert Butler
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6HOdHEeosc [Embed]

Technical Aspects of Writing
>Garner's Modern English Usage, Garner
>What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing, Ginna
>Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, Tufte

Books Analyzing Literature
>Poetics, Aristotle
>Hero With a Thousand Faces, Campbell
>The Art Of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives, Egri
>The Weekend Novelist, Ray

Note to anyone posting a sample of your writing for critique:
>IF YOU HAVE NOT PERFORMED A CURSORY PROOFREAD, DO NOT EXPECT TO BE TREATED KINDLY. EDIT YOUR WORK FOR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR BEFORE POSTING.

Traditional Publishing
Pros:
>you get to focus mostly on writing
>you must write a proposal to the publishers and sell your story to them
>you make 10-15% profit max, but they also eat all the risk and the costs
>self publishing is basically like running your own company
>you only need to do some simple marketing and reach out to readers
Cons:
>you make 10-15% profit max
>self publishing you make 70%+
>they’ll still require you to do all the leg work of a self published author anyways

Finding Agents
>https://querytracker.net/join.php
>https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/

Self Publishing Options
>https://archiveofourown.org/
>https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/
>https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/writinglife
>https://www.royalroad.com/
>https://www.scribblehub.com/
>https://www.wattpad.com/

Self Publishing How-To
>risky, but much more profitable
>you must pay for everything yourself
>if you do, you will spend more time on running a business than writing, but can be worth it
>https://selfpublishingwithdale.com/

Poetry
>This Craft of Verse, Borges
>The Poetry Home Repair Manual, Kooser
>Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry, Mason

Anime Writing (^･o･^)
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4on26mKakgs [Embed]
>https://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Anime-Story
>Manga in Theory and Practice, Araki

For advertising
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQygKqJVFXg [Embed]

AI-generated book covers
>https://nightcafe.studio
>https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini
>https://app.wombo.art/
>https://penguin.jos.ht/
>https://beta.openai.com/playground

/wg/ Authors and Flash Fiction Pastebin
>https://pastebin.com/ruwQj7xQ

Other forums
>https://reddit.com/r/writing
>https://writing.stackexchange.com/

>>20880436
Keep posting it. I’ll keep not adding it. It’s too awful to even consider. If you want me to add the old OP, edit it down to something worth considering.

>>20880445
I'll just beat you to make the new thread and ruin the general by turning it into a constant war until the mods have to ban one of us for spamming, it seems more natural that way.

>>20880445
>>20880484
this is /wg/, isn't it? the op should simply be:
>write what you wish

>>20880445
I make 2000$ monthly by writing anime litrpg. What is the color of your Bugatti?

>>20880511
forgive me, bugatti-sama.. i kneel

>>20880511
tfw I make 6k/mo after taxes and can barely afford a one-bedroom apartment where I live

>>20880511
You think I’d believe some autistic claim about niche anime writing?
No, I don’t believe you earn minimum wage with your anime writing. Nor will you prove it.

How does the intro sound now?

>>20880445
On other boards we make multiple threads and go to the proper one that doesn't suck. Here we're apparently pussywhipped.

I dont think I can look at /wg/ this week. Please get your shit together.

>>20880613
this, later anons

How do I handle naturalistic dialogue with voices?

>>20880613
>>20880616
>>20880610
Desperate. You’ll be back. Maybe now you’ll respect the power of Gardner.

>>20880716
Power? More like the unbridled sociopathic schizo.
Are you still a believer? Because your God will send you straight to Hell for your horrible behavior.

i'd like to be a STRONG writer in ~5 years. not 10+. can it be done?

>>20880798
It can be done in 6 months.

>>20880812
Bullshit. How?

>>20880822
What the fuck do you I’m going to say? By writing. Did you think it was going to be some course

>>20880812
there's no way, not like what i have in mind. either way i am interested in any suggested writing exercises, processes, whatever.
if anyone could dig down and share any of their secret sauce, i'd appreciate it

>>20880843
No, I expected this.
What's the figure then? I'm NTA. 6 months? Not even actual talent could do that.

>>20880822
The same way Gardner did it -- by having absolutely no standards whatsoever, and churning out a bunch of zero-quality gibberish, epitomizing mental sloth all along the way.
Then, repeatedly bear false witness by shill-spamming and samefagging it all over the place.
It won't cost you anything...except your dignity...and your immortal soul...

are there any erotic stories on Royal Road worth reading? I tried searching for "fantasy + sexual content + traumatising content" but most of the results seem to be "transported to fantasy world" type of stuff that I don't like

Ok I'll study for real, if I want my dialogue based game to be good. What should I do?
I've got the premise, elevator pitch.

>>20880932
Practice writing for several years so that the answer to your question becomes obvious.
And, for God's sake, don't start freaking out about how you hate your life and how much you want to die.
We're sick of it, and it's why very few (if any) anons here are willing to help you.

>>20880909
you should be able to filter out words too.. try like,
-isekai in the search

>>20880932
why do you want it to be a game? unless you have some real advantage for going this route, please come down to earth and just write a book.

>>20880932
share pitch now. i WILL destroy it, for your own good. unless it includes 5 girls with various disabilities.

>>20880951
Practice writing? How? I need a schedule. Criteria.
Life is not the same without gigantic self hatred.
>>20880954
Because I am making a game? Branching dialogue gets me excited.

>>20880977
>Branching dialogue gets me excited.
good for you (really). i assume you're thinking VN? are you an artist?
however as a reader, i'm convinced that i'm not getting the 'best version' if the story has branches. which game would redpill me on THE BRANCH

>>20880977
Schedule? Criteria? Sounds like you're looking for a college degree.
Which we have repeatedly recommended to you.
Why do you keep asking the same questions, yet expect different answers?

>>20880368
all the resources in the OP are fucking awful. someone really needs to rewrite it.

>>20880999
reminds me of my friend who would ask the same anxiety fueled questions again and again, either worried or hoping the answers would change.
he's on meds now and is doing much better.
>>20880977
meds

I know that videogame writing doesn't have to be perfect but I really want to work on this project. I'm not aiming to be Disco Elysium, not at all.
Fuck, another game I like, Automata. Shit writing when you take a look under the fancy wrap.
>>20880994
CYOA-sim, sort of inspired by Planescape.
The setting was going to be a graphic novel. No one reads those anymore. Dialogue is my main block here, my setting and characters are solid. The genre of the game needs solid dialogue. Can you imagine playing an entire VN of shit dialogue? Couldn't be me.
>>20880999
College is not an option. Try again.

>>20881037
>College is not an option
So now you feel qualified to dismiss perfectly valid advice, huh?
Your arrogance knows no bounds.

>>20881047
It's not an option I can take. It's self learning or suicide.

>>20881053
please practice writing a short story first. dont try and learn writing while you make a game, that’s fucking retarded
share some work

>>20881061
I am reading my "inspirations" again. Trying to write 1 page short stories. Something decent will pop up, eventually.

>>20880601
It's flanked by, not flanked between. I dropped it there, but that doesn't mean what came before is good.
In the first sentence, you say its been a long time, but then create dissonance saying that it was only 'thousands of visitors' that created those dirt roads. Talking about dirt roads at all brings down the sense of importance of the Capitol.
It should be 'merchants lined up one after another'. Saying they're waiting for their declarations and inspections is unwieldy.
You repeat 'City of Aurora' too soon instead of just using 'the city'.

I’ve read so much machine translated chink fiction that my actual writing voice has genuinely suffered because I can nearly 100% understand MTL chinese with my combined reading comprehension and already extant knowledge of chinese.

Are there any exercises to remedy this condition or any specific books to read that can cure it most quickly?

>>20881246
Stop reading anime and lit rpg comics ffs man. Go read a real book, it’s that simple Chris chan

>>20881218
>In the first sentence, you say its been a long time, but then create dissonance saying that it was only 'thousands of visitors' that created those dirt roads.
I don't get this. Is thousands too little? I figured thousands includes hundreds of thousands. Does it not? And even so, wouldn't any number such as millions be much too large for a medieval timeframe?

>>20881246
Like the other anon said, reading good prose will impress it upon you the same way that reading machine translation did.

>>20880932
Fuck off janny for real

listen up you bitches.
Writing isn't a "hobby"
It's a fucking way of life.
You better be reading shit and writing shit every SINGLE fucking day or don't call yourself a writer.

>>20881450
Fuck off sponge for real

>>20880291
I fucking hate you OP. You're recommending Brandon Sanderson of all people to guide new writers? You deleted the actually useful books about writing. I think you're a fucking coward who is too scared to actually write so you're trying to sabotage other people who are really doing it. This OP is the work of satan you fucking brain dead moron. Why would you take it upon yourself to deface the OP of this general? Fuck you.

>>20881218
>It should be 'merchants lined up one after another'. Saying they're waiting for their declarations and inspections is unwieldy.
Disagree. having merchants actually standing outside preparing their papers is much better than just "lining up". What are they lining up for? So now we have context on why they're lining up. It's fine. Especially when his previous two sentences are short.

If anything, he should use the word "queue" instead of lined.

>>20881450
Days are an arbitrary metric.

>>20881286
>>20881258
I guess it’s back to reading Moby Dick and the Heart of Darkness for the 10th time.

>>20881464
Sorry for my schizoid outburst

I think I’m giving my main character too much to handle. By that I mean I’m exposing him to far too many events that would outright traumatize him

>>20881569
Okay re;zero

>>20880291
Are there any resources/books/inspiration on writing pulp fiction if I’m interested in doing that?

>>20881606
Silly anon that's not pulp that's Dragonlance

>>20881569
and that's a bad thing, because...?

>>20881456
Never fails.
Been gone for a week and this bitch been refreshing the page every day waiting for me to post.

Should I be afraid of writing a short sentence?

>>20881663
No.

>>20880977
I have an idea: go to an AI-generated art site, like nightcafe
search for a random picture
write a story about it
it's not that fucking hard
seriously, what happened to the advice of: 'Just write, write whatever, but just write'?

>>20880364
Where is atlas shrugged?

>>20881569
I hope your protagonist isn't a child at least.

1.3k words today.
Easier then yesterday.
I hope you get (you)r words in too.

>>20881657
Let's test your theory with another week of your absence.

>>20881655
Too much

>>20881793
I'll come and go as I damn well please, bitch.

>>20881791
Handwritten or typed?
Laptop or desktop?
Number of distractions while writing?

>>20881718
He kind of is. And he has had to deal with
>People dropping bombs on him
>A giant snake that wanted to eat him alive
>A parasite controlled wolf that was just insane
>An endless horde of vicious rabbits
>A robot that was basically designed to kill him
>A guy who is quite literally grooming him into a “Worthy foe”
All at the ripe age of one year old. And this isn’t even a quarter of the shit he ends up against

>>20881824
That sounds excessive.

>>20881817
Then please go.

>>20881829
I know. And mind you, he almost fucking dies from his injuries after a fight with the last guy, who just goes on his merry way a bit exhausted.

>>20881846
How does a one year old fight?

>>20881874
>the locals had colorful names for this area
maybe instead of that start with one of the more hilarious names?
Maybe something like Ass-up mountain

>>20881915
Ok.

>>20881861
I didn’t say he was human did I?

>>20881961
Same difference.

>>20881961
>he isn't even human
that obviously sounds like xenofiction, this shit might be normal for them, so why the fuck does it matter how traumatizing it is? have you seen what happens i nature? babies get repeatedly killed and eaten, dolphins get high for fun in the rape-caves, and you bother about some one-year old animal being traumatized?
also: one year for like a dog is 15 human years
so whatever creature you write, that's basically a teenager- the basic Anime protagonist

>>20881961
Don't let the haters talk you out of doing your gay little furry edgelord fic. Follow your dreams anon.

>>20880601
some grammatical issues, repetition of City of Aurora in the beginning, too many periods
>the pillars were engineering marvels
that's very vague, like the narrator doesn't know what he's talking about outside of a very limited amount of common knowledge
what is it that makes thee pillars marvelous?
>a custom and a desire to be close to her
if she's a divinity the pronouns referring to her should be capitalized
>traveling merchants lined, waiting for their inspections and declarations
>four of the five towers were capped by a roof
this is inconsistent
I'm not sure what's grammatically correct here, but in the first instance the subject is plural and the complements are plural, in the second instance the subject is plural but the complement is singular

I'm admittedly not very much into fantasy, so the subject matter doesn't do much for me, but it doesn't flow very nicely because of all of those small things pulling up and distracting me from the actual story
I recommend you proof your text before posting another portion of it

>>20882051
Get lost Sponge

>>20881874
looks good to me, the periods being so short gets a bit jarring though

how could i practice editing?

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

Not sure if the uptick of +3 follows came from here. Thanks if so.

Just shy of 40k words released for the story so far.

>>20880291
miniMAG issue 07 out now

accepting submissions:
minimagsubmissions@gmail.com

past issues @
minimag.space

special treat for /lit/ coming in the next issue

>>20882483
>>20881246
you're gonna love this

>>20882487

>>20882477
cool, i’ll check it out when i get up. looking for feedback?

>>20882490
rest of poem @ minimag.space

>>20881874
>>20881915
ditto his advice

>>20882495

>>20880601
kind of like Outlaws of the Marsh

>>20882498

>>20882499
submissions:
minimagsubmissions@gmail.com

site:
minimag.space

thank you to everyone who has contributed so far

>>20882494
Sharing my work. I'm open to feedback.

Jesus christ what an ugly OP image wtf who is this fag?

>>20882586
It's Daniel Green, he's a youtuber who wrote a book and is more successful than you will ever be despite no talent

>>20882606
What a decent sized audience does to a mother fucker’s success.

>>20882681
Only youtuber whose books I'm looking forward to is Philip Chase

>>20882691
why is he a youtuber, and not an author with a youtube channel?

>>20882708
Because he works full time, I assume.

>>20882746
>youtuber
>works
Error, unable to parse

>>20882759
I don't understand what you're trying to do here. The man's a professor who makes youtube videos as a hobby.

>>20880291
Dakota Warren writes more than you.
youtube.com/watch?v=1K_QMN4VpME

>>20882778
She cute

>>20882691
What is he a professor of?
.
.
Also everyone share youre favorite booktubers.

>>20882799
English. He's a medievalist or some shit. Can speak Old English.

>>20882606
Why did you post literally the worst picture of him on the internet? Is that what this general split is about now, one is just to demoralize everyone by posting faggots then claiming you'll never measure up?

>>20882814
I'm not OP, I was just answering the question.

My novel is going to be titled 'A Solemn Fiasco'.

Would you read it based on this?

>>20881450
listen Cringe
you have scrolled through one too many gigachad memes
you can't earn adoration of your peers by being a confident asshole. It has to come naturally, which it won't, because you're a sperg and a chud and a retard just like the rest of us. It comes off as fake, forced and tryhard, which it is. Just shut up and be normal.
Also lose the trip, let your writing act like one (of which this post contains NONE?!?!)

>>20882849
'A Comedy with no Jokes or Fun.'

>>20880291
Do you guys actually post writing for critique? Here's my story:

The man who loved the sea.
Davy Jones' locker, a place where lost souls can be sent to the bottom of the ocean.
In the days when the sea was young, before continents had grown and filled it with land, it was a vast, empty wilderness. There were no mountains, no forests, no fields: the sea itself was all that there was. And it was beautiful, even in the eternal twilight of those ages. It was a blue so clear and bright that the sky above it was purple, and the waves sparkled as they crashed upon the shore. The sand was white, and the water was warm and sweet as milk. All creatures dwelt in peace beneath the blanket of blue, and the birds sang in the trees. Men came from their huts of soft grasses and built strange pyramids of coral and shells in the center of the land, and they worshipped the gods of the sea in their temples of ivory and gold.
Then one day, just as the sun was going down, a terrible thing happened. Out of the great blue water came a huge boat, and it was shaped like an enormous snake. It slithered slowly toward the shore, and its bottomless eyes shone with a pale light. From its sides grew a number of legs, and these reached out to the ground as if they were trying to touch it; but they could not. The boat was not solid. It was alive.

>>20880291

>>20882495
>>20882121
It looks good to you!? So I'm not hopeless then?

>>20882102
>recommend you proof your text before posting another portion of it
The scary thing is I did... I reread and checked it like 5 times.

>>20883030
here's something someone once told me, if you think it looks good, sleep a night over it and read it the next day, or let it rest an entire week, then reread it, your mistakes will become more apparent

>>20882121
Alright, mind explaining that. I thought it was an issue myself but either I did this or I was going to get too carried away. It's nothing and I still have to post the rest of the page, but I'm not hopeless right? What about my dry dialogue? The game needs dialogue.

here's a question, currently writing about archangels
thought of writing them as the highest in the hierarchy, then I did some research and archangels are only above angels in the actual theological hierarchy, yet people assume wrongly thanks to Paradise Lost that archangels are the highest in the hierarchy
now should I portray archangels as the highest or should I portray them according to theological teachings
on one hand it would be more accurate to portray them lower on the list, on the other hand people will become potentially confused by not making them the highest in the hierarchy

>>20883065
>mind explaining that
what is that?
>I thought it was an issue
what was an issue?
>either I did this
did what?
>I was going to get too carried away
by what, and did you get carried away or not?
>it's nothing
what is nothing?
>what about my dry dialogue?
what about it?
>the game
what game?

>>20883180
Do whichever you think is better. Nobody cares about accuracy. Make your own hierarchy, with blackjack and hookers.

>>20883252
Stop trolling me.
What about the periods being too short? Any specific examples of it being jarring?
How can I make my dialogue more lively? Those two read like the same person to me right now. Went over and changed some things, a small thing, just thought they'd speak like that.
I need good dialogue for my game anon.

>>20883180
seems more like a theology question
in tolkein's world, he had god, arch angles, and angles.
gandalf was an angle. So was sauron
yes, middle earth was based on christianity

>>20882849
mostly, i read books based on reviews or if people i know refer them to me.
a title doesn't make much difference.
it's a good title, imo

What do you guys do before writing? Do you do some warm-ups or try to "get in the zone" first or do you write immediately?

I'm having a problem because there are some sessions where I feel invigorated and there are some where I feel like I could do better. If possible, I want to always write with the aforementioned invigoration in effect.

Can a character who considers suicide still be moral?

>>20880416
This was funny the first time you posted it, amusing the second, familiar the third, and tired the fourth. This must be the eighth or ninth time I've seen this posted in /wg/. Do something else.

>>20883339
Yes, what a ridiculous question.

Wow. These threads are worse than usual lately. I suppose it’s not too surprising, given that it’s a thread about writing for people who don’t write.

>>20883348
You’re a ridiculous question! And probably a faggot! AND a nigger.

>>20883314
i just sort of plunge into it
was watching this video by a screen writer who's worked on dozens of movies for decades
he says every morning it's like working up the courage to dive into a cold pool. but once he starts the words flow. it's been that way for him since the start

>>20882606
The gays and the ladies like him because he's pretty.

>>20881874
I think this is pretty good, had me intruiged at the least

How can I write like Pynchon?

>>20883260
>trolling
whatever gave you the impression I was trolling you?
I can assure you I was genuinely confused by your post, so I did my best to explain why exactly
>what about my periods being too short?
give you an example, compare the two following descriptions
The small tree came out of a rectangular black ceramic vase perched over a black table, and looking to its sides it was plain to see that whoever was supposed to be taking care of the doll-sized bougainvillea was not.
vs.
The tree was inside a vase. It was small, a bonsai, and it gave me a strange feeling. I was being drawn to it. The yellow and brown leaves scattered around the vase reached the floor. It was clear to me that the bougainvillea was left to its own devices.
>any specific examples?
obviously not, because the jarring feeling comes from the compilation of short periods rather than a single one of them
>how can I make the dialogue more lively
surely you're not asking random strangers to write your book for you, you have a tiny bit of pride in your work
>those two read like the same person
then you're oblivious to differences that might be quite obvious to other people, such as how their different tones are conveyed by one of them mainly saying "I [...] I'm [...] I [...]" and the other "you [...] you [...] you [...]"
>my game
oh that's a game
whew, good luck with that anon

>>20883379
christcuck going off like that, typical hypocrite shit. back to pol, son

>>20883406
Why bother us?
Go bother some other group.

could someone give me a writing prompt for my DAILY writing practice? i might share, but i wont get around to it until later

>>20883406
pynchon wasn't writing choose your own adventure VNs. please just write every day. and take your meds.

>>20883405
Ok, so you think maybe I could write a good video game then? With time to improve of course.
>>20883411
Oh, definitely not. I'm not asking for a collab I just want to be like Pynchon so my own dialogue is a bit flavorless I feel.
I don't think you sound that enthusiastic about the game idea, it's a branching dialogue game, RPG. Like Deus Ex or Planescape. Getting to the level of Vampire the Masquerade would be more than enough for what it needs to be.
Other than more writing, how can I greatly improve? I'll work on my sentences, get a better flow going on. Thanks.

>>20883314
I drink a shot of whiskey and start listening to ambient music.

>>20883347
I wrote a one-act play and am asking for feedback, you mongoloid. Maybe I should have just posed about Call of the Crocodile instead

>>20883347
I wrote a one-act play and am asking for feedback, you mongoloid. Maybe I should have just posted about Call of the Crocodile instead

>>20883428

https://www.redd it.com/r/WritingPrompts/

You people write more posts than actual samples.

>youtube howto/tips/tricks clickbait link with basedface
discarded

>>20882477
How do you have 93 chapters but only 40k words? Do RR readers like shorter ones?

>>20883589
I know

Is there an online tool I can use to translate modern English to medieval-ish English? I'm just producing small quotes, not writing a whole text, so I only want to make sure that it follows an older form of grammar and uses the appropriate words.

>>20883795
I assume you mean middle English as actual medieval english is unintelligible with modern english whereas middle english is mostly intelligible. I found this https://lingojam.com/MiddleEnglishtoModernEnglishTranslator

Do I need to have an antagonist in my story? It's a fantasy story mostly about the MC trying to survive growing up and land a reputable job, while all sorts of trouble comes up. I guess the chief antagonist is life itself. But I've also heard people whine that there's no story without a villain.

>>20883620
Wish mountain anon has cut, sliced, revised, replaced, and mangled his frankenstein monster of a story a dozen times by the date and it's still not grabbing people

>>20882801
/lit/ is a no nigger zone.

I got scouted by an editor from Webnovel dot com and they offered me a royalty contract, which would net me 50% of what my story earns them. I looked the website up and I remember the absolute dogshite interface, the retarded as fuck systems that gate content before it gets released and the horrid inkstone system for writing. Those were the reason I left the platform so quickly.
Is this shit worth it or would I just be drowned out by a neverendong flood of wannabe isekai light novels?
I would love to be able to write to earn a little bit on the side every day but the mere thought of having to learn what "energy stones", " power stones" "pilot reads" "trial reads" "win-win" and all that shit are cramps my stomach I might just end up doing some of the least rewarding shit ever.

Blog Post #223: I'm starting chapter 15 if 24 today gents, only approximately 36k words to go. I'm hopeful it should go smoothly as I started mostly pantsing but I have a crystal clear outline for the remaining portion/series of pay-offs to go through.

To new writers struggling just find a system that works for you. For me slow and steady does it, set reasonable goals (a chapter a week for me) and take then seriously without flagellating yourself when life gets crazy. I also do limited edit/polish of work so I can be proud of it - energizes me to continue.

This general may often be a cesspool but the feedback I got to my chapter 1 has been a great motivator as I trudge onward and been pulled up on Warosu more than a few times when I felt like I was just writing shit, so I'll ways be grateful for that.

>>20884127
>I looked the website up
Then you should already know it's a chink scam

>>20884120

>>20881976
>>20881965
He’s a genetically modified giant monster, it’s that simple

>>20883444
>it's fine even if it's not very good
with that attitude the result you're going to get is your work not being very good
>how can I greatly improve
read more, what the fuck do I know, I'm just a stranger who likes writing

>>20882483
A treat? For me? What is it?!

>>20884179
I didn't say I want to be mediocre, I want to do what I want at the level I want.
It's a movie idea I had, frankly I think it's high concept stuff. But an idea is useless with piss poor execution.

I'll read and write more, also watch more films, that's always good.

>had had

>>20884142
How so? What else do they do?

>>20884240
Do your own homework, there are lots of user experiences posted online

I got kicked out of my local writing group (we had a discord server). I got tired of one member constantly suggesting that people include gay relationships in their writing and complaining when hetero relationships were depicted. So I said that just because she’s a dyke doesn’t mean everyone in every story needs to be.
Apparently they don’t tolerate homophobia in that group. How do I find writers who aren’t complete faggots?

>>20884333
You should post that one anons homosexual murderer story on the discord.

How does my prose flow now that I've went back and reworked on my short? I'll fix and edit it a little bit more to finish it off soon

>>20884333
>So I said that just because she’s a dyke doesn’t mean everyone in every story needs to be.

How hard is it just to say "not really my thing, but I am glad you are doing it" ? 99% of situations can be dealt with by saying something like that, the basic formula being deflecting from yourself then affirming the other person. It makes the other person look unreasonably pushy if they keep it up. Most people just drop it.

>>20884366
How hard is it for a faggot to stop trying to push their gay agenda on everyone?

Thanks to the precious comments of other selfless anons in this thread I revised this snippet and I'm putting together a clear story structure, and I would very much appreciate a feedback on the new and edited revision.

At some point Saturn had been blown up by who knows what, the ice formerly making up its rings dispersed somewhere, its memory mostly contained in pictures taken by space telescopes.
Black frame, black to brown gradient lenses, RayBan RB3548 in 51mm size, or L according to the catalog I could find shortly after stealing them, and looking at the sun was just a treat, not lastly because it would only be visible for some 50 minutes a day from the mountain where I'd been living for the past 17 days.
“Smith…”
Breakfast was on my mind.
“It’s your turn today… where’s breakfast?”
Much the same was on her mind as well, so this time I replied, “Not ready yet, give me a few minutes.”
A sound of disappointment so quiet that you might have thought she was whispering to a lover or, knowing her, multiple at once, and with that I got up and headed out into an unstructured world of green to pick enough bananas for three.
I didn't know what was going on in the more "structured" world, where the price of a KWh of electricity was a concern for a rising number of people each bimesterer and standing less than 90cm far from anyone other than members of your immediate family or romantic partners was considered an outrageous lack of respect by anyone under 30, or just a conspicuously flippant gesture by people between 30 and 40.
The screen read 9:14, and I hardly cared.
One thing among what I cared about was the state of my number 1 favorite theater in the world; the rest was elsewhere in space and time: the then and there, to be more specific.
As I was coming back on the makeshift porch my colleague had proceeded to get more dressed, boil some water and unfold two chairs and a table, so I set the morning’s chase on the table while she poured water over the tea, I turned around to face the open side of the porch and kept looking at the bright light blue sky.
My colleague sat in the chair on the opposite side of the table, got a firm hold of a banana, and said “Disfruta,” and I replied, “Disfruta.”
Spanish was not the mother tongue of either of us, but it was the only one we had in common where an expression to use right before lunch and that was a wish rather than a strong advice existed; plus I like to believe it made us closer in a way, it gave a way to express that we had something in common aside from our profession.
“Any radio signal picked up?” she asked more casually than the first banana might have made you think, any and all sweet and soft bits devoured and the peel having thrown back to the earth.
“Nope.” Straightforward. I Just want to eat.
“Any news from Antonio?” But relentless she was.
“Nope.” I had the strongest feeling something more was coming.

>>20884100
I don't think you do. While you do need to have some sort of antagonistic force that acts as a cattle prod to spur your protagonist onward through the story, it doesn't necessarily have to be an antagonist in the literal sense; you can just have the various circumstances of your world push him to success. I think the whinging about having 'no bad guy' is only applicable in stories that are framed around the concept of the 'hero's journey', which hinges on having a tangible antagonist. I've sort of run into a similar issue with my story since the in-universe "threat / bad guys" of the story are the PoV characters. Think heroic antagonist / evil / villain protagonist. Hard as shit to write but so, so fun.

>>20884333
Same shit happened to me. The biggest library in my city has a decently sized ~20 ppl book / writing club and I swear to god they pump out some of the most toothache inducingly awful writing I've ever had the misfortune of reading. Tried to use them as beta readers but they spazzed out over how all of the main cast are religious zealots, white and straight, and how they 'can't relate to a main character that does bad stuff / is a bad person'. Anything they produced was bloated with muh niggers and every character was either gay, a tranny or some other flavor of fag. I don't even live in the US, mind you. If you can't find something local then try looking for online groups, maybe you can stumble upon a diamond in the rough.

>>20882849
It's solid as far as names go. Now all you need's a good blurb and an eye catching cover.

>>20884386
Impossible. And they vastly outnumber, and have institutional support you will never have. So you have to decide for yourself if you will simply idealistically thrash ineffectively against every single instantiation of this phenomenon, or figure out a way to navigate the environment before you an actually achieve something despite these people.

>>20880309

Glad to hear that.

>>20884333
>we had a discord server
Fuck off tranny

I have six stories, all somewhere between 14k and 22k words. Should I try to self-publish them as "novellas"? Are there any traditional publishers that would accept stories at this length? Would it be better to put them all into one compilation? Three are more pretentious /lit/ stuff, three are very genre fic.

For context, the protagonist is a wizard soldier kinda gal, and is falling to her death. Help me make the trinket grenade stuff be clear without being overly technical.

So, I do what I do best. I leave another mind to generate the saving idea to repair my current woes while I ready myself for the fall, far away from any quicksilver pool to break it. Should my own Pact be uncooperative, then I shan’t listen to it. And with only sixty feet left before a truly unbecoming second place, I pluck one of the trinket grenades from where I’d stashed it in a pocket of my robe.
The egg-like device is an intricate network of electrum circuitry, encased in glass frosted with runes. A product of Lunar Sultan’s alien psyche, the trinket grenade threatens to blast a Warlock’s Pact out of their soul and forcefully into their surrounds. Madness to give this metal air and clustered owls the Red Queen’s insight. That is, were it not for that same insight guiding my hands. So, I grasp the pin and tug it, letting the barb slice through my glove’s leather, through my necrotic skin, siphon a sacrifice of my soul. And in an instant, the trinket grenade’s frosted glass surges and flickers with rainbow light. The ground draws close. I clasp the grenade.
The bloody light coruscates ever faster, warping the world to a mindless mayhem. The parasol, what skeleton remains of it, slips from my mangled grasp. Thread-thin tendrils of my own iridescent lifeblood follow it. I had to mortify to cast that spell, I knew and my body is screaming as my flesh burns and corrodes to power the energies that the trinket grenade would amplify. Mortification is a terrible thing, so awful that I can only hope that following the fragments of Red Queen’s advice will vindicate it. This pain is worse than death, for it is the death of the soul.
Little can compare to mortifying oneself, drawing out the dreg’s of one’s power and burning their blood to do so, then casting a trinket grenade. To call it a jarring experience would make the transition from Arena Port to the Celestial heavens a pleasant cruise. Making it a fair and comprehensible process. And that blur of bright and dark, hope against despair, Red against Black and White, is not that. It is not that.
The detonation is all-consuming. There are no further limits, nothing to surpass as the artifice throws the power of my soul into the heavens. By the Red Queen, my world was already gray, but now it is not even that! My mind and my senses, human or divine, mortal or blessed, a mere djinni cannot…!

>>20884353
just some awkward sentences
>I had slipped out of my previous skin as easily as I could put on a new change of clothes.
>I slipped out of my old skin as easily as I change clothes.
and you could easily combine it with the next sentence:
>I slipped out of my old skin as easily as I change clothes, and had given it my old name, the name of the other me, and shoved it into a corner of the room. I couldn't look at it.
I'd suggest buckling down and looking into some literature on sentence construction. Artful Sentences or even more basic grammar books.

>>20884353
There's a lot to criticize in this excerpt but I would advise you to focus on your pacing. Consider The Metamorphsis, written in your style:
>One day I awoke from a night of strange dreams to discover that I had been transformed into a giant cockroach. I couldn't get out of bed and my boss came to ask why through the door but I couldn't answer. I thought about what to do and the door was opened by my family and they were disgusted at me. My little sister sometimes brought me food but I had to wait for it to rot. It made me sad not to eat food like a human. I am a bug now and I have to eat like a bug. I spent a lot of time wishing I was human until my family started renting out rooms. I scared the rude renters and my dad threw apples at me which is weird because I used to work really long hours to provide because he was too old to work. One of the apples got me in my bug shell and I died.

>>20884459
i am in pain, why have you done this to me

>>20884353
It's ssshit and you're retarded. Sssnakes don't just climb out of their ssskin, it takesss a lot of time and effort.
T. Sssnake

Ok, Disco Elysium takes too much from Pynchon. I wanted to take inspiration form him too. I am cutting that out completely, in fact I deleted his works from my drive. An anon told me to respect my influences, I'm starting over, kill your heroes.

>>20884511
fuck off janny

Does this do anything at all for you?

>>20884460

I'll rework this some more and have it go through another editing phase, should be a good exercise project for me.

>>20884468

I was actually thinking of The Metamorphosis when writing it the way Gregor isolates himself after becoming the bug was a huge influence on the character locking themselves away in the room after discovering they could molt their skin

>>20884695
It just needs light editing but fundamentally it’s fine. You have to be careful with the tone of it. It can’t be too casual too vernacular. You don’t want it to be conversational and you certainly don’t want to throw in words like shit gratuitously.

>>20884695
yes, please keep on going, this is shaping up into something interesting
is this going to become a horror story? It feels like it

>>20884458
Yes you publish them together as a collection of novellas and short stories

>>20884779
>can’t be too casual too vernacular
>don’t want to throw in words like shit gratuitously
why though? I think it really depends on the story and genre
I wouldn't want the word 'shit' and 'fuck' thrown around in some romance novel
>except it is scat and set in Australia
but I think in a contemporary horror story, I'd think it would fit well into it, things like that depend on the context and the characters

>>20883314
Caffeine helps with the invigoration. I sometimes do Buddhist meditation if my mind is not clear

>>20884779
>>20884784
Thanks gents

>>20884803
Regardless of the type of novel, words like that are distracting. Same reason you don’t put in purple passages. Words like shit and fuck carry with them an invisible exclamation mark. People hate reading exclamation marks and all caps in writing. Nobody likes to be shouted at especially when reading.

>>20884240
You sound like a power stonelet.
>>20884511
>I deleted books from a author
>Now I'll re download them
But have you written anything?

Hey /wg/ anyone know of a college with good English classes in Georgia (the state)? I don't care if the professor is the meanest person on the planet as long as its actually about writing and not political nonsense.

>>20884882
Everything I learned in Georgia was from one Harry Peach.

>>20884862
I'll continue writing shortly, reading too.
I just said that I am not touching Pynchon at all, his prose and humor, etc. It's not something I have in me, you just know who you are and what you can be, that I'll never do.

>>20883428

>>20885025
I hate women so much.

>>20885025
>Alphas
that's not how wolves work!

>>20884972
>I'll continue writing shortly
You'll do it now! Write me a fetch quest right now.
>>20885085
Werewolf.

>>20884459
It takes about ten times longer to read this than falling that 60 remaining feet would. This doesn't work.

>>20884695
Take out the curses it just makes it sound weak. Little bit of editing for flow but I like it.

>>20884353
Why are you writing in the past perfect? Just write in the past tense.

>>20884695

I like the descriptions of the honeycombed rooms check out EM Forster's The Machine Stops. He uses a similar kind of layout when it comes to people's living quarters in the short story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Machine_Stops

I'm calling it now and the big plot twist will be that all your main character's are bees and the story is from their perspective

>>20884495

How does a snake know how to use the internet?

>>20884815

How does this sound? For a bit of context, this is the inner monologue of a guy who's dying and delirious from cranial injuries and blood loss after a vicious beating.
>I don't know why that happened.
>I don't know why any of this happened
>I don't want to know why
>I can't move. I can't even breathe
>I guess it's over for me
>I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to d
And that's the end of our main character. Yes he gets beaten to death in the end. Yes.

>>20885270
Add an —ACK in the final line

>>20885073
>>20885085
Gaming category

>>20885277
And his killer goes off scot-free.
Or at least that's what we thought. Because the story continues after his death.

When is anyone going to show me their book rank is even in the top 100,000?
If your book isn’t even 100,000 in the world, is it worth reading?

>>20885270
Ending the novel mid-sentence is a chad move, I like it.

All this cult stuff reminds me of one of Kiara's best clips
https://youtu.be/_iWQgML2Q1s

Do any of you even have books in the top 500,000?
Surely one of you.

>>20885454
>>20885566
Does this count, or does it have to be just in general?

>>20885574
It has to be in general. If you’re number 1 in a rank with only 2 books it doesn’t mean anything.

>>20885566
Gardner has one.

>>20885120
So you want me to post one of my NPCs questlines here? I don't know if I can do that

>>20885633
Is Gardner unironically better and more popular than every anon here by just shoveling out pure shit?
I feel bad for anyone who puts there name to their work now.

>>20885659
Yep.

>>20885659
Amazing isn't it? He's managed to achieve near The Room-like status by being so utterly and unabashedly dogshit that it ends up being unintentionally funny. That and the absurd twists, I suppose.

>>20885644
I didn't even think you've done a basic concept of your game. Do go ahead and post it.

What is the opposite of prelude? Postlude? Postscript? There was another word for it, its at the tip of my fucking tongue and its driving me nuts. Google gives me nothing, help pls

>>20885788
Epilogue
onelook.com/thesaurus

What are your chapter names? I only have two in mind so far
>Snuffed Out
And a couple of chapters later
>Reignition

>>20885903
my first chapter is "I" and then a couple chapters later I have "IV" and even further on "XIII"
it might be a bit heady for the average reader, but intellectuals will appreciate it

>>20882783
Kind of.
I mean, I'd drill her.

>>20885199
You brainlets somehow figure out how to use the Internet...why can't a snake?
And don't deny you love snake jazz!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGY0MoIU-Ik

>>20885454
Do you need other people to validate things before you're willing to give them a chance?
Are you really that much of a cowardly follower?

Please laugh at my attempts to corrupt "Damocles" for my protagonist's name
>Damlan Oglis
>Dimitri Ocleez
>Damian Aldest
>Darlan Orius

>>20886106
No, I’m gauging if anyone is worth listening to.

>>20885903
I usually tie it to the subject of the chapter. I don't think I'll do chapter titles for my literary books anymore, though. I think they somewhat cheapen the effect.

>>20886107
That's always hard, had to do the same with a very very famous roman yesterday.

>>20885903
Two I have in mind so far are:
>The Hero's Journey
>Good Night, Sweet Prince
Needless to say, both of these are misleading.

>>20886125
Why not go by reviews instead?
Early adopters review books & give them good ratings, then hopefully that leads to sales.
You could give a poor-selling but highly-rated author the break that's needed.

>>20886107
Damon Cleese? Sounds like a film noir detective.

>>20885903
Love songs

>>20886146
Also this:
>He Kindly Stopped For Me

>>20886150
A handful of ratings can be easy to fake. Real sales cannot.

>>20886244
You can also read the "look inside" portion that Amazon offers for most books, and make your own decision based on that.

>>20886254
Deciding if a book is great based on 1 page? Why buy it at all then? I’ve decided the outcome

>>20886264
It's far more than 1 page.
Are you really this unable to think for yourself, or make an effort?
God forbid you're my target audience.

>>20881874
Put some fucking punctuation in those quotations, man.
https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/writing/style/essentials/punctuation-of-quotations

>>20886273
I’m able to think for myself. I ask these questions to get you thinking.
This is why your book has floundered.

>want to read amateur fantasy novels
>someone recommends Royal Road
>open up some random novel
>"-1 HP, skill gained, XP gained"

Wtf is this shit?

>>20884127
>He ignored the Koi pond in his profile
>Never realised he could cultivate the from deadly sins into Divine mandate koi.
>He didn't reroll his account until he got a good element
>He didn't participate in the Journey to the west event
>Missing out permanently on the Pigsy character
>Hasn't started his Terracotta warriors collection
I thought this was a place for writers?

1697 words tonight boys. Caught up on some shit I was behind on. Let's go.

>>20886286
"LitRPG", a genre invented so people who know nothing but videogames can pretend to be writers.

>>20886286
What if your book was a videogame? Mad innit?

>>20885454
What led you to be so bitter?

>>20886281
And this is why you're a sheeple, still living in the room where you grew up, sponging off your parents, smoking dope, fapping, and generally failing at life.

>>20886286
Try reading the Undying Emperor, or How To Lie Like A Military Bulletin

>>20886299
You unbelievably got every description of me wrong, lol.
It should occur to you that people dislike you or your work on a merit based system, not because they’re crabs in a bucket.

>story has gone something i did not plan whatsoever.
>Twink assassin homosexual cabin boy
>kills people for a secret society
>write write write
>suddenly story is about him taking over a small chapel
>he is now a murdering homosexual priest

What the fuck am I even writing?

>>20886318
You don't have enough information to dislike my work.
You're literally not even willing to try it...not even a free portion.

>>20886320
Who cares? Just go with it! Let the muse take you wherever it leads!

My best friend is a writer.
Is that normal that one day he's like
>bro this chapter is so fucking good
and the next day
>this sucks so much I'm such an amateur retard i want to die
? I see this cycle literally every week with him

>>20886318
Oh, you're definitely a sheeple.
>I can't make a decision unless others approve of it in advance...baaaaah

>>20886334
Yes. The high of finishing what you think is amazing combined with the low of thinking what you just finished is nothing but slop to get to an arbitrary number count. Eventually it stops being so extreme.

>>20886329
at this point i don't even know what i'm doing.

>>20886347
Sounds like Heaven!

>>20886289
Not your blog. Please do go.

>>20884195
rumor has it that gardner is releasing his new book exclusively through minimag

>>20886323
Why would I? It’s not even 500,000 in rank. Clearly you’re not trying.

>>20885633
>>20885659
>>20885663
>>20885669
Fuck off Gardner.

>>20886369
If someone with logic as poor as yours actually approved of my writing, I'd think I was doing something wrong.

>>20884882
anyone?

>>20886384
>If someone with logic as poor as yours actually approved of my writing, I'd think I was doing something wrong.

Lol smug people are the easiest to portray as basedjaks.

>>20886318
read the "look inside" portion of CotC
you'll be cured of wanting to read any more
they said it was free, but it'll blemish your soul

>>20886451
So what were you doing during our scintillating conversation?
Hopefully not just shitposting, smoking dope, and fapping.
I'll have you know I was reading the Bible.
And I came upon a portion that reminded me of you.
From Leviticus 13.45: "And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean."

>>20886286
Sword art online and it success has been a disaster for online books.

>>20882857
You don't know me, if you did you would know how foolish you are for that post.
Bitch.

>>20880436
If you have a social media following (say, youtube), 10% can be expected to paypig if you maintain high and regular engagement.

>>20886286
If you want to use game mechanics in a narrative, use the mechanics in a video game to heighten their impact.

>>20886706
oh shit mick ma is that popular? How do I become mike ma?

>>20886706
Gardner in all categories.
>Plot?
Gardner
>Syntax?
Gardner
>Sentence structure?
Gardner
>Prose?
Gardner
>Readability?
Gardner
>Flow?
Gardner
>Enjoyment?
Gardner

I'm planning to write a webserial about a poor nine-year-old boy in a victorian-esque setting who wants to make money to support his family. He ends up stepping into another facet of the world which involves lovecraftian horrors; the main theme is him trying to retain his morality and idealism despite the inevitably corrosion of his innocence that will occur from this discovery of his.

The twist, however, is that it's in fact a progression fantasy story at its core with clearly-defined powerlevels and rules.

>>20886581
Fuck off Sponge.

>>20886713
Fuck off Gardner.

>>20886279
Sorry, I'll kill myself instead.
>>20885741
I wrote the quest but now I'm too scared to share it.

>>20886713
Based
>>20886802
Read CotC or else you will never be a successful writer.

>>20886926
Take a break Frank.

>>20886286
Just don't pick up the fiction if the description says "gamelit", "litrpg", or "progression fantasy"

>>20885454
Wtf, my book jumped from rank 10 million to 3 million, but the reports still show 0 new sales

>>20887047
>they just removed Gardner's "books"

>>20887032
Japs seem to make these game-y elements less intrusive than westerners. If you go to novelupdates and pick up something to read like Omaegotoki or Blunt Ogre Girl only occasional stat boxes appear, meanwhile in RoyalRoad you're filled to the brim with [++++LEVEL UP++] [Upgrade skill Y/N?] [ACTIVATE MAGIC] like seriously just make an actual game at this point

>I sit at the bottom, my head poking above the surface. It’s different from the other one. It’s harder to see, the ground feels weird and slimy, and I don’t like it. I liked the other one more. It was cleaner and I wasn’t uncomfortable.
>Yet I don’t want to leave. Maybe it’s these little things. They sometimes sit on my head. One even gets right in front of my eye, and it feels like I’m looking at myself. Am I just one of these, just much bigger and stronger?
I wrote this late. These are the thoughts of our main character, who intentionally starts out with shitty prose only to evolve as the story goes on.

>>20887060
Well, LNs have editors who have some sense of moderation, while RR stuff is mostly by kids who think lots of numbers going brrr is what people want

>TFW one of your major characters is the Grim Reaper who wonders why humanity even exists
Plotting is really trippy sometimes.

>>20883620
There's 17 chapters so far.

>>20884112
I had to start over from the first attempt because my use of 3rd person perspective just wasn't good. And I've improved massively in my prose compared to the first attempt.

The story is lean and simple, made to be easy to follow. One rework a frankenstein's monster does not make.

Thanks for noticing me senpai.

>>20887105
Really deep stuff, does the plot twist reveal him to be Friedrich Nietzsche?

ESL here, is there any concrete rules on when to use em-dash or is it just stylistic like semicolon?

>>20887128
if anything you got it backwards. semicolon seems to have more people trying to enforce rules around it. em-dash feels like the wild west of punctuation

>>20887154
Just couldn't find anything besides "uh well you can use that to delineate subordinate clauses instead of commas", while my own language is more strict on that front.

>>20887128
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=how+to+use+em+dash

>>20887119
No, I decided to take a page from Plato's theory of forms and in my story the very first Death was the last person created in the perfect world that had no life or death.

>>20887200
So why did the people without life or death decide to create the concept of death? I hope it's not just because they were that bored.

>>20880601
Just terrible.

>>20887096
>>20887060

There's something primally satisfying about watching numbers get higher that tickles our ape brains in just the right way. Stuff like passing a certain word count threshold, or a certain number of chapters and the like. That's why people grind currency or levels or ranks in video games. Trouble is, seeing stat screens and game mechanics in writing will never not be jarring. Feels like the cheapest and weakest way to convey character growth / progression. Sure, it could be that it's just kids who get excited over big numbers, but even the ones written by adults with at the very least a servicable level of quality, like The Wandering Inn for example, have this shitty level up stat screen system that feels like a stinky cop out compared to actually properly showing and describing character growth.
>tfw I cast lvl 5 ice lance

>>20887208
It was simply a world of many ideas that vanished, leaving the last person as Death and so ever since then all beings have had a mix of life and death.

If you'd written a book several months ago, already published it and then decided to go back and reread it only to discover it wasn't as great as you primarily thought it was, deciding to rewrite it would you:
A) rewrite it and just update the previous version
B) rewrite it, update the previous version and add 2nd edition to the description/notes
C) leave one version as it is and create a new store page, including new cover art, renaming the older one 1st edition and the newer one 2nd edition

>>20887225
If it's already published it's already published, don't go George Lucas.

>>20887225
If you thought it was shit you shouldn't have published it. Just take the L and sit on the next one for a while.

>>20887225
Depends on how extensive the rewrite is. If the story is still largely the same and you're just fixing some details, then
>B) rewrite it, update the previous version and add 2nd edition to the description/notes
is the correct thing to do.

But if you have to change it on a fundamental level, alter events and characterization, then just fucking leave it. It's what it is, move on. First works are never masterpieces.

>>20880291
Writing likeable villains and antagonists is harder than I thought. How do you make an antagonist or villain with a sympathetic or engaging story? I don't want to be too simplistic, I have a habit of writing esoteric antagonists with primal goals that are aren't very grounded or relatable. Cartoonish villains are fun and all too, another fun way to write them, but I can't fall back on that every time.

If I write 5K words daily. How much improvement would I see?
>>20887225
>>20887229
>>20887251
>>20887255
See? Making a videogame has an advantage. You can start over eventually.

>>20887284
Give people a reason to care about your antagonist, remember that unless you're going for a specific sort of character your antagonist isn't purely an agenda, they're a character.

>>20887285
Fuck off janny.

>>20887291
Yeah, but giving them goals is so difficult. I'm a hero fan kinda person, like Superman and Luke Skywalker were unironically my favorite characters and I admire their heroic deeds and bravery.

My favorite kind of villain or antagonist is one who under certain circumstances would be a hero too. I do like the cartoonishly evil types but it's not very popular and I totally get it.

>>20887303
That's what my story is like too, my antagonist is really only the antagonist because he opposes the protagonist and I've become attached to him because he has a noble and sad character.

>>20887327
kek, every time. I also have a hard time killing characters, I tend to write more light hearted stuff like a Saturday morning cartoon or some shit. I'd say it's maybe PG13 if I had to give it a rating.

>>20887338
Pretty much everything I write is sad and disturbing.

>>20887342
I have a side project i'm working on that I want to be darker and bloodier. I want it to be a sort of mirror to the universe I normally write in and be edgier but i'm afraid of trying too hard.

>>20887343
You mean as in being tryhard? Do it anyway, it could be fun.

>>20887284
>How do you make an antagonist or villain with a sympathetic or engaging story?
Don't bother with that shit. Just make them unapologetically, comically evil

>>20887338
The more I like a character the more I want to kill him/her

>>20887347
The darker one is all about conspiracies, weird esoteric shit, flat earth, paranormal super powers and it's far deadlier than the other setting I normally work on. There's murder, intrigue, drama, action etc. This setting could really use more good villains.

My other setting is over the top adventure and action with a lot of various characters with their own stories and adventures that differ in tone a lot but are mostly high adventure oriented.

>>20887349
Man, that's like 90% of my villains. Power for powers sake, chaos vs order, the weak should fear the strong, i'm evil I don't gotta explain shit etc.

>>20887352
I tried a few times, like experimenting with various story ideas and characters but it breaks my heart so bad. If I ever reach a point where a character dying would be good for the story i'm going to have to force myself to go through with it. I won't ever do it for no reason but, one day it's going to happen. I just know it.

>>20884398
Cheers - the title is based on something Bellini uttered on the opening night of his opera, Norma. The novel itself is about the American chess player Paul Morphy, and Norma is the opera playing at the famous opera house game - it covers his life, the famous game, his time in Paris, and the civil war

>>20887359
I like stuff such as that, nothing wrong with fun adventures though.

>>20887359
My protagonist dies halfway into the story and he ends up having to kill the antagonist at the end. Notably, my antagonist is noble and he legitimately wants to save everyone but he also doesn't want to die, having suffered a brutal death and never having had a free life outside of the figurative cage that was his castle. It really is more of a mercy kill for him though.

>>20887359
I've seen my fair share of these "sympathetic" villains and it's never not lame. "Muh wife and daughter", "muh oppressed people", corrupt nobles' machinations, etc. Like, bro, you're still evil, you rain grenades on babies and put me through hell, it doesn't matter, shut the fuck up. Or, that's what I'd like the MC to tell them, instead of going all, "garsh, Mr Villain, I had no idea..."

I think the only kind of sympathetic villain is the type that acknowledges they're evil and deserve to die, but ask for neither sympathy or understanding, make up no big speeches, and have no intention to give up either. They've made their choice and that's it. And the only way for the hero to win is to likewise make up his mind and give his all.

>>20887423
I hate that sort of 'sympathetic' villain where the sympathy part feels more like an excuse than a real part of them.

>>20887423
>>20887431
That's why I have trouble with villains. Antagonists are a little easier but real villains? The protagonist and hero of my main setting is literally the type to do and say that kinda stuff. "I don't care, i'm here to kick your ass."

>>20887436
The funny thing is that last part is my main villain’s thing. He doesn’t care that much about a higher goal or anything, he really just wants to beat shit up. He has single-handedly killed an entire warrior culture civilization because of this. His fight autism is so powerful that he literally thinks something that is built from the ground up to kill him is boring

>>20887449
I have a few fighter autismos, one of them a human who goes full DBZ training to become stronger to fight the alien Goku/Superman protag of one of the stories and the madlad manages to do it. He's not a villain but I liked him so much I wanted to do an entire spinoff story just about this buff ubermensch. It would be about his journey to find power and what lies beyond that blah blah blah, i'm a sucker for this stuff.

Humans are kinda weird in this setting, they work on DBZ rules kinda.

>>20887449
I don't like that sort of villains either. The main antagonist needs to have a higher, personal goal, just like the hero. It's one's character that makes a person big, not what he does. "He's evil because...he just is!" That's a petty thug, not a villain. A small fry like that isn't worthy of being any hero's final adversary.

1.2k today
Two loose chapters done
>>20881822
>Handwritten or typed?
Typed
>Laptop or desktop?
Craptop
>Number of distractions while writing?
In a room by my lonesome with intermittent dogo breaks

>>20887472
I have a villain who's obsessed with transhumanism which is also deep down a complex he has about his own mortality and some vanity about the way he looks. It manifests as him trying to force humanity to leap forward to the next level.

The hero and protagonist is an android with an advanced body and brain who was made cowardly by her creator as a way to keep her safe. When faced with danger her fight or flight automatically goes to flight and her body is strong and fast enough to get out of trouble. She loves humanity and appreciates organic life greatly.

In the end she has to overcome the fear in her heart that was hardwired into her and learn the meaning of bravery. Not the absence of fear but the mastery of it. She turns the shield her creator gave her to protect her into a sword to protect others.

The hero loves organic life and humanity while the villain finds it disgusting, a psychological complex about himself that he externalizes.

That being said, I wanted to villain to experience a redemption arc and eventually become a hero as well and team up with the android against some other threat.

>>20887472
That’s kinda the point. He beats shit up because strong and he’s completely unapologetic in it

>>20887500
I think that's a solid dynamic, if not already a bit too ideal ying-yang division. But it can work, and their team-up could be interesting too.

>>20887285
I thought i told you to post a excerpt from your game?

>>20887472
Agreed, what reason is there to care about someone like that?

>>20886367
Thank you for replying though ;)

New thread >>20887581

Better thread >>20887604

>>20886286
It's all anyone wants to read.

T. author on RR that doesn't use XP shit

>>20887490
Not your blog fag.