/lit/ - Literature

>>20887604
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YZ2VhS-8wIiKG-PXkprBpPnGv1J7fRRr/
writing a guide to life
what do you want to see?

any very good books that have had a profound effect on your worldview or schemas?
>atomic habits
>josh waitzkin's theory of smaller circles

was rhetoric by aristotle any good?
is civil disobedience by thoreau still relevant?

What does /wg/ think about zombie fiction in the current market? I'm probably going to write a novel or two of the stuff next year after some research.

>>20887637
I have no idea what the current state of the market is for zombies at all. They were a huge fad around a decade or so ago but I haven't heard anything positive about it in recent times.

Thinking of writing an autobiography but it would be like two pages long at best

>>20887651
I think it's been enough time that zombie fatigue has worn off, the question is whether people will abide what is essentially pandemic fiction while still traumatized from the Wu-Flu

>>20887637
what had you decide to want to write zombies?

>>20887765
It creates a good context to cause an effective government and economic collapse. I could also subject the area to a HAND generated EMP, and well, perhaps I could do both.

More precisely than zombies, I want to force modern people into tribal enclaves and fight over government food deliveries like African warlords.

They're also a good entity for offhand violence to set the tone

I updated my snip from a few threads ago treasuring the precious feedback everyone offered, I'd appreciate it if you would have a look and tell me what you think and how you think it could be improved.

>>20887652
Do what Joyce did and embellish with florid prose

>>20887952
>the average dude writer: blood
>the sophisticated gentleman: sanguine fluid

>>20888006
No you nerd, I mean make your life story sound interesting by weaving what makes it interesting into the language

Oh boy we got a /wg/ skirmish and it's neck & neck!

I find myself more often adding text on my revisions than removing it

>>20888165
i remove text that repeats itself
"He grabbed a chess piece, picking it up and putting it in his pocket."

to

"He pocketed a chess piece."

it's not the best example, but you see what i mean.

>>20888193
I do that too, sometimes, but much more often I find myself reading something I wrote and feeling like it's limp and needs better ramp up or more vivid description. People post here as if it's assumed that you, the author, enter into a fugue state and completely fill the page with excessive, minute detail that just needs to be cut down to be palatable. Maybe I'll eventually write that way myself, but as I am, I almost always write too sparsely.

>>20888160
14 vs 6 unique posters, other thread is obviously the samefag samefagging by himself for a change.

He'll come crawling back here beg for attention eventually unless he kills this thread (he is a Jenny after all)

>>20888165
Happens to me too, mostly in scenes or chapters I've drafted out but am not very comfortable with. I usually end up expanding sentences with character-specific wording or observations during revisions and redrafts, which more often than not leaves them a bit more wordy than before.

>>20888212
How many times has this happened now? I remember the anime/anti-anime skirmish from a year ago.

>>20887781
I do zombies myself... Sorta.
Parasite worms that infest people and turn them into fucking disgusting monsters that are at least the size of a fucking car

>>20887661
I never understood the extreme backlash to zombie fiction. We got a few movies and one tv show. Meanwhile Hollywood shits out a dozen superhero movies a year and people eat it up.

He woke up one day by the passage of a train. His father had been a gambling fan. His mother a psychologist by profession. Together they had created an underground world to protect their family from the electric dragons that came out at dawn to punish humanity.
There was no place for normal professions. He had dedicated himself to the recycling of electricity cables. Leftovers from the feasts of said creatures. A job more competitive than lucrative. However, he did not know how to do anything else. He was a businessman by nature.
When he left the cave inherited by his parents when they died, he saw his sister watering the flowers that she had planted six years ago, if they did not die, they never really germinated. It was therefore a therapeutic act. The flowers were neither alive nor dead but in a limbic state, waiting for their true owner.
With no more property than his work tools, he greeted his relative without receiving a response. He did not expect it but he fulfilled his duty to maintain appearances, even if it was only for himself.
The apocalypse had not come as planned. No one expected angels to be 20 meters tall and have scales. Little was known about the military heads that had rolled after the first holy world war.
He was not a believer. He was not interested in feathers or scales. He was interested in surviving and the only way to do it without risking his skin every day was to steal a dragon egg, or rather an angel egg. The mangers were not only difficult to find but also dangerous to wander around. Mating rituals involved thunderstorms that could last several days or even weeks depending on the seriousness of the courtship.
A dragon egg had enough energy to run a small power plant and enough to power a small city. An engineer in tokyo had found a way to make it work, with no respect for nature or god. After all. Wouldn't it have been more sensible not to tempt the creator of said radioactive creatures?

>>20888287
Because people like those

>>20887828
You have to pick a casual tone or a technical one. 'At some point, Saturn had been blown up by who knows what' sounds like it's being described some joe blow truck driver. Then he switches to highly technical stuff. Find a voice for your character and stick with it.

Also, a whole planet getting blown up is fucking stupid.

>>20888299
Info dump/10

>>20888287
It's largely because the premise of a zombie apocalypse is normally unbelievable. No one ever hit a proper balance between "so slow they aren't a threat" and "so fast the entire planet is dead now"

>>20888337
My idea was that a viral outbreak causes it, so 90% of the people are zombified from the start.

>>20888331
that was kinda the point. Information is the main character here

I hope you brushed up on physics to improve your writing.

>>20888006
I'd take the bottom over the top any day. The bottom lets me imagine, how her breasts are falling with the rise of every breath. The top prose doesn't evoke that imagination in me. So just stop posting this shit

>>20888388
I just did some force calculations for a door holding back a flood. It's way more than anyone would assume.

I'm curious, what's your opinion of fanfiction? Have you ever written, maybe even published fanfiction?

not a reddit fag, I swear, but is there any better way to get short fiction (particularly horror) read by lots of people? I'm thinking things like nosleep.

>>20888307
>>20888287
I think the difference between Zombies and Superheroes is that with Superheroes you can tell many different stories and genres
>Batman = detective/mystery/drama
>Superman = action
>Dr. Strange = sorcery and fantasy
>Iron Man = Sci Fi

with Zombies, you have survival horror, which also has drama and action, but most of it is basically:
>Oh no, Zombies! The downfall of society! Guns everywhere!
I think there is also a bit of wish fulfilment in it:
>Fuck yeah Zombies! they called me mad, but here I am the mad prepper having prepped just for this! And I also have a cool shotgun and am leading my own group of survivors
not to say that Superheroes aren't wish fulfilment either, but at some point when you've seen one Zombieflick you've seen them all, and those who truly stand out and are actually fun to watch
>or read
are mostly comedy and those who don't take themselves too seriously

>>20888423
yes and yes, it's just Transformers' porn though

I was sat among tall yellowish reeds just shy of a wide dirt road.

Red from sunburn.

Hungering.

Thirsting.

Feet sore.

I’d found a large yellow blister on my left heel.

I hadn’t been able to resist the urge to pop it.

I’d hobbled for half the day, stopping every few minutes to sit down and rest.

Again I climbed to my feet and walked on.

Every step was agony.

Off in the distance I could see the vague shape of Rose City.

Tall masterworks of centuries old stone.

From so far away the city looked like the teeth of a rusted old key. I could see Wish Mountain beyond the city.

The way the two overlapped seemed to imply they were close together. The horizon was lying.

It was mid-afternoon and there was no end to the soddin’ road.

Weakly, I started to laugh.

Faced down.

My bed gave no relief.

Colourful blotches danced in front of my closed eyes. I recognized Dad’s firm hand pressing at the nape of my neck.

“Sod off,” I grunted, tasting dirt.

“Sit up,” Dad said.

I ignored him.

Someone else would need to work the fields.

Dad’s grip lowered to my shirt collar.

He pulled hard.

I wasn’t on my bed.

I was still on the road.

Old weathered boots were a handwidth from my face.

I turned over and looked up at the stranger.

He wore a long black coat despite the heat of the day, and a loose-fitting grey shirt and trousers.

Every piece of his clothing looked in need of a good wash.

My heavy-lidded eyes couldn’t yet focus on the man’s face.

“Are you trying to get to Rose City?” said the man in a deep, craggily voice.

>>20888427
Yeah try nosleep. That place is absolutely awful, the bar is set so low. The regulars must be 90 IQ knuckledragging retards as well. It seems they never get tired of the poorly written recycled tropes

>>20888428
My plan is to set up the plot structure like a western, lone wanderer shows up to town, solves the problem, leaves.

Except he solves it precisely how the secondary protaganist asks for it to be solved, and causes complete mayhem because he's a walking monkey's paw.

There will hardly be any threat from the walking dead rather than cruel people gaining power over others because of the situation. But, yeah, it's still kind of your first archetype of
>The downfall of society!

>>20888376
Information isn't a character. No one wants to read wiki articles about a fantasy world, especially at the beginning of a work.

Make a real character. Have him do stuff in your world. Let the reader discover background info naturally as it comes up.

>>20888437
is it a poem?
it's formatted like one

>>20888299
don't be restrained by what you 'think' needs to be described. like you have to premeturely ejacualte your characters features, relations and whatnot in the introduction..
just try to write something interesting on every line. or wwhatevers realistic to you.

>Chekhov's gun.
>"Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass."

>>20888733
just write one good story before you die

How long after finishing a novel manuscript should one wait before editing? I finished mine on Saturday and I'm getting antsy.

>>20888739
I think one week

>>20888737
>Don't tell me *noun* is doing *verb*.
>Show me a metonymy of a completely different object vaguely alluding to the original object.

>>20888740
Very good. I can live with that. I'll be able to finish a piece of short fiction before then.

Guys. I just published my diary. I finally became a writer

>>20888744
what don't you get?

>>20888739
let me look at it

To the anon who wanted me to post my quest. I scrapped this guy because I am too worried about it not being good or even decent.

Any tips for videogame writing? Been studying commentary on old school games but I need more.

>>20889065
have you played Fallout: New Vegas?

>>20888988
The folder for the 2nd draft is empty :(

>>20889073
New Vegas, 1, 2. Planescape, Pathologic, Disco Elysium, Bloodlines, everything Deus Ex, Sir Brante. I've played them all.

>>20889065
Where's your avatar homo?

>>20888957
He didn't even copy the quote correctly. I feel like /lit/ gets regular crossposters from /tv/ trying to bait with wojaks and when they don't get their dopamine hits in the adequate amount of time they run back to /tv/.

Gamedec vs Disco Elysium.
That's what good writing means. One is a generic and already forgotten mess that has no niche, the other one will keep on going. Deus Ex vs Half life.

What are the best 21st century books to read to improve your writing. I don't mean books that try to teach you writing, but good modern books that are worth stealing from. In other words, what are the best 21st century books?

>>20889088
You could try some classic Japanese rpgs like, Dragon Quest V, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI.

>>20889193
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh.

Kurvitz is Godard, experience and talent. I'm not even a bottom feeder, Truffaut would be too much of a prize for me. No shame in doing nothing of worth. It's all settled.

>>20889073
>>20889088
>>20889172
>>20889194
>/lit/
There are about 6 better boards for this conversation. Take it to the amature game dev general.

I know you are just desperate for any attention, but please seek it somewhere more relevant.

>>20889213
Writing for video games is still writing.

>>20889217
talking about writing for video games - over and fucking over without actually producing a single word - is not writing

>mfw someone complains about my protagonist being unlikeable
What critiques of your stories do you ignore without a second thought?

>>20889239
"get to the point"

>>20889217
Video games are not literature. It's off topic. Take it to the appropriate board.

>>20889239
>>20889250
Both are good advice.

>>20888315
>he switches to highly technical stuff
The contents might be significantly different, but the devil may care tone of the descriptions seems to be around the same from start to finish to me, where does it deviate so much?
>a whole planet getting blown up is stupid
no u

I am not writing. I don't have it in me to be a good writer, from the things I can ever hope to say or the things I've lived. Thoughts are cheap.
I'm not the reality of an artist. No art commune, no artistic lineage, or formal education. No movement. Empty, dehumanizing, misanthropic, utterly bland and antihuman. That's what I would write if I could.
Not because I can or choose, it's the only topic in which I can be honest. I am a caricature of a human being, crucial time spent in hospital rooms. I am nothing. I have faith in utter nothingness, it's the only thing I am passionate about.
Lesser into purity.

Any attempt at writing is an act. One by myself for myself. Surely I would have done it hadn't I killed myself. Were it not for the bullet in my head, I could have been better. Robbing yourself is a fair act if it comes to it.

>>20889328
>I am not writing. I don't have it in me to be a good writer
Then fucking leave

>>20888737
not happening

>>20889340
I'm person-shaped bagasse. A terrible investment. Billion year genetic failure, never meant to work it out.
I will kill myself. I have no talent, I'll never make it
Anon, why do I have zero talent?

I want to punish myself before death.
Disemboweling. Left hanging while ny body does it on it's own.

>>20889289
based Kazakhstan

>>20889250
"What is the point?"

>>20889239
>This is racist

I wrote 1,000 words today. It's the most I've worked on a serious project in a while. I also managed to make a breakthrough on a plot point that's been annoying me for weeks.
Other than that I wrote 6,000 words of smut.

What is your normal format when you're writing - fonts and size and all that? Currently I'm just typing in Arial size 11, any settings you use that work better for you?

>>20889773
Size 12 whatever the default font is in the word processor.

>>20889745
Not you blog fag.

>>20889773
silian rail, on bone

Any good videos on plot structure and character development?

>>20889852
I've shared before but below is my slightly outdated playlist of all the writing videos I've personally found helpful. A few that relate to structure in there.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvFmakK8XmFNHJuKVD2r7yOMyIHQqI41W

>>20889065
I just wanted you to post something besides your My chemical romance lyrics. Have you got anything, even a basic plot summary?

"ratchet up" is such a vivid, tactile metaphor, it's a shame that it's a cliche

The AI Writing thread on /vg/ has been overtaken by loli image-gen fags.

Can I hang out here?

>>20889988
I have lots.
Anon, if I want to develop only dialogue and improv? What should I do? Can it be done in isolation to all other elements?
Obscure movies inspired my project, it has to be like that.