/lit/ - Literature

Report in with your name and your story.

/unreal/ critique episode. submit better shit next time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz2rfxegZZc

>>21055885
L.A. Labuschagne. STIGMATA, or to spite the gods

>>21055885
Krake

Faceless, Ship of Fuls, Undying Emperor

Infinite Money Glitch soon

>>21055949
hey james how's it going?

what would be a fair price for short erotic stories (~30 lines) that borderlines fanfics?
will require some in-universe knowledge and dealing with weebshit and various fetishes but nothing too extreme, dubious consent at worst.
it's for events in a small game so it doesn't have to be fancy.

>>21055992
>30 lines
>lines
Lines?

>>21055995
lines

>>21055995
>tfw you are samuel beckett getting your check and the publisher had word wrap turned off

>>21055845
>Disparaging their discussions and dismissing the few anons
I was one of the people taking part in those discussions, and I've already given accolades to the few people taking part; they've formed a large part of how the candidate list has shaped up, but ultimately it is going to look like a circlejerk from the outside if it continues that way. The crowd of people taking part gained identities tied directly into the project and detached it slightly from the "by /lit/ for /lit/" ethos, discouraging others from contributing because it looked like a closed project (from my view of things). I also saw it as becoming too self-congratulatory recently, but some of this boils down to admittedly obscure personal problems. I'm choosing to change course at my discretion, and only temporarily.

>[&amp is] meant to be for /lit/ and by /lit/, but it’s treated as a solo project
There was a lot of change in that regard if you look back far enough. The editor used to rotate out with another guy, and he used to request that people pre-format their entries, but both of those fell off with time; it was also suggested in the past that people can create their own editions of &amp, but of course the will never materialised. I'm not going to justify the unannounced hiatuses, but it's clear that these sorts of projects can't rely on community support unless they actually give up on the "by /lit/ for /lit/" idea. The graphic design was certainly the most consistently positive element of &amp, and that's not something that can be easily offloaded. Looking at the entries and thread discussions it's apparent to me that people contribute with a drive-by approach; you're probably right that that could be assuaged by consistency, but I think it will always be a thorn in the side of these types of projects. I'm of the opinion that having a strong individual leading a project alone is better for a lot of reasons in this context, but obviously that leaves it up to his whims. I think a cabal is antithetical to the democratic anonymity of 4chan projects.

My decision to go "underground" with this for now isn't to revise the list, but just to get some of the core aspects prepared: templates/formatting and at least a semi-consistent approach to transcription. This is to address the problem you mentioned of not having a clear timeline or structure; I want to have the structural pieces prepared so that the rest slots into place, and these aren't tasks that I see as being easy to outsource. I agree with your criticism of going underground with it, but it's not my plan to emerge with something complete, only to set a firm foundation that's otherwise been lacking.

>Either treat this best-of as a compilation of your personal favorites or make it a genuinely communal thing where others share in the work.
It has been the latter exactly so far. Like I said earlier, I'm not planning to revise the list according to my taste, only to get some of the mechanics sorted out.

How's your patron doing?

>>21055956
Im at a fucking basebal game and I hate sports. But at least the beer costs $12

>>21056111
man I'm down here drinking $1 baileys and peppermint shots. my teeam lost the rugby tho

>>21056126
At least rugby is fun. America's pasttime will put me to sleep.

>>21056132
I mean, I'm a cricket fan, so no judgement

>>21056109
God damn...

>>21055888
Been looking forward to this one. I'm the guy who submitted late so not even in it but curious to see the live reacts based off the intro.

BTW do you guys have a direct download or podcast app option? YouTube can't play on phone with screen off to conserve battery.

>>21056145
eh I'll set up a podcast option later this week. Didn't think it was necessary because I put the text on screen as I read it out. Audiovisual stim, yknow?

>>21056109
>Patreon
I have enough money so that I don't need to whore myself out and beg to survive.
His Book of The Dead is alright if a bit slow.
Also its not really a lit-rpg, but at least it shits over he who fights with monsters.
Also i'm writing a story i think is worthwhile and enjoy reading instead of pandering fanservice crap that is endemic of the site.

>>21056154
Not worth watching if we can't see your pony startpage.

>>21056041
>>21055845
And about
>When you set the threads up as “&amp general” with a call for submissions at the top, it makes sense that people will discuss 015
I agree. I felt like it was a balancing act with representing someone else's (potentially still-ongoing) project, but clearly it was a mistake. It'd been my intention to make a new thread dedicated only to the best-of, but someone beat me to the punch on the last one and copied the old thread OP when it died. I didn't want to make another thread and fracture things, so I figured I'd produce some more material and wait it out before trying again.

Anyway, I'll keep your criticisms in mind. I think I have good reasons to disagree with some of your points, but I guess we'll see whether they were really justifiable in this case.

>>21056145
Watch youtube in firefox browser with the addons "youtube background fix" and "ublock origin" . They are dead simple to set. Just click the menu in the browser and they should be on the first page of "addons" . Never see an ad again. Customize firefox to your liking and allow yourself to adjust to it. You won't regret it. The youtube app is garbage anyway.

>>21056177
fuck you I have to change it now

>>21056041
>The crowd of people taking part gained identities tied directly into the project and detached it slightly from the "by /lit/ for /lit/" ethos, discouraging others from contributing because it looked like a closed project (from my view of things).

Fair enough, but isn’t it true that people contributing to &amp have gained identities in the past? The editor certainly had a developed personality within the whole thing, and there were others associated with it: Prussia I can think of off the top of my head. Plus the editor credited his helpers by name (or by alias) at the end of each issue, and seemed to converse with them in the old threads. Didn’t seem to detract from things.

> I also saw it as becoming too self-congratulatory recently, but some of this boils down to admittedly obscure personal problems.

Self-congratulatory in the sense that individual contributors were promoting their own work? That doesn’t really make sense. Not sure what you’re getting at here, or how your personal life would be related. What do you mean by this?

> I'm of the opinion that having a strong individual leading a project alone is better for a lot of reasons in this context, but obviously that leaves it up to his whims. I think a cabal is antithetical to the democratic anonymity of 4chan projects.

A strong individual would be one who commits to the project consistently. Nothing against the editor, but he clearly isn’t willing or able to do that. When you’re working on a project that involves submissions which others put time and effort into, you owe them some sort of consistent schedule, or at least consistent communication as to why things are being delayed. If the absence of this consistency, people will abandon the project out of frustration, or simply forget that it exists. If the editor can’t even provide regular updates on the magazine, then he’s not being fair to &amp’s readers and contributors. A strong individual recognizes his own limitations and enlists help when necessary.

Also, on a fundamental level, isn’t a group of people more democratic than a single person? If the editor didn’t like a submission, he could easily ignore it and no one would be the wiser. He claims he publishes anything, and we have no choice but to take his word for it. Not saying he’s lying, but there is a lack of transparency that makes the project decidedly undemocratic. If he had co-editors, these things could actually be voted on or determined communally, and he’d be accountable to others to adhere to a schedule.

>I agree with your criticism of going underground with it, but it's not my plan to emerge with something complete, only to set a firm foundation that's otherwise been lacking.

Seems like a good enough plan, but you shouldn’t prolong things unnecessarily.

>>21056166
9k a month is insane.

>>21056210
One guy on Royalroad is at 31k a month. In AUD that's 600k a year.

>>21056109
What kind of stuff do you have to write to get this?

Do you believe this or think they're just making it up to make it sound more impressive

>>21055888
Way too much dead air between the two of you; it was unlistenable.

>>21056337
I think some people are better at making things up as go rather than laying out the big picture before hand.

>>21056339
The big issue is they talk over one another and then just pause to let the other one go. It happens like 5-7 times. Not playing off each others jokes is also a huge miss. No chemistry.

>>21056395
There's a certain hesitation to roast somebody who might have submitted in good faith

What are some resources to learn the fundamentals of good writing?
I want to learn things like how to properly compose sentences, the kind of stuff they teach you in an English class but without actually going to one (I am not in college and didnt pay attention in highschool).

>>21056469
Word. I spent my english classes writing zelda stories instead of paying attention so everything I know is from reading. I'm still not sure what " ; " is for besides making a smiley wink.

>>21056469
>>21056485
Here you go.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/48673/48673-h/48673-h.htm#Page_1

How do you guys pick your fonts?

>>21056238
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/22518/chrysalis
https://youtu.be/cD8wGLZejRY
Hour long interview with the author.

>>21056505
Very carefully.

>>21056518
Any advice?

>>21056527
go through published books and see what fonts they use

>>21056527
Consider your choices and make an informed decision.

>>21054083
I also critique works-in-progress here.
The point is...I'm an active participant, not a whiny prima-donna like the author of >>>>21053814 .
>>21054386
Writers get enough of that as it is.
Your participation is not value added.

>>21056527
Standard — 12pt Times New Roman 1.15 spacings.
Bad eyes — 14 or 16pt Arial Bold 1.5 spacings.
In-betweeners — Garamond, Helvetica, Courier, etc.

why do people expect every single character be likable now? if you have one character who's shitty, a racist, a misogynist (even if they're obviously the villain" people look at you like you're evil, why?

>>21056678
Culture of idealization. Hence why there's so many self inserts right now. People believe they are "good" without any flaws, and when they self insert, they want to always be the moral righteous one

>>21056496
Thank you anon. This is exactly what I was looking for.

Damn, one 3 star rating dropped me 200 spots on RR rankings

>>21056745
God paid me to demoralize you further

Kell Inkston
Like 15-20 things on my website/Amazon
Good to see you all here

>>21056508
>>21056238
okay I absolutely *cannot* produce content of this quantity but, quality for quality? I can easily exceed this prose. Effortlessly.

Time to write not-40k fanfiction and see if I can worm my way into the Black Library.

>>21056877
I don't want to be demoralized, I want to see the path to improvement.

>>21055888
I liked the Tumblr anecdote.

>>21056678
Some can't separate fiction from reality. If it's said in story it's because the author believes or it could promote it.
>>21056893
>can easily exceed this prose. Effortlessly.
Maybe prose isn't as important as you think?

What's the point in continuing?
>go on twitter
>some girl tweets her book
>instantly 400 buys retweets and likes
>post my book
>not a single like

Why write 120k words when not a single person would bother reading it?

>>21056505
I type out quick brown fox in many different fonts in a separate file and choose one that fits the theme of my book.

>>21056745
>>21056877
>>21056912
Demoralization builds character.

>>21056991
Start pretending to be a girl.

>>21057034
Demoralizing betrays lack of character.

>>21057034
Demoralization is for failed-crab pseuds.

>>21057076
>>21057064
>>21057034
Give me some encouragement to continue my story!

>>21056893
Quantity is a quality all its own, and arguably the greatest quality of all.

>>21056508
You're shitting me. What the fuck.
Are these parents supporting you so they can read this to their kids?

>>21057085
Yes - and that's always been my primary issue. I can write a chapter at the most before losing focus - the potential for monetary gain might make me more efficient.

>>21057078
Don't give up.
Don't allow sadness to crush your spirit.
Strive to make the art that will change it all.
Push back against the failure of culture to maintain its strength.
Drag it kicking and screaming with you, if you have to.
Feel pity if you must. Feel sadness, feel rage, feel hopeless, and feel fury. Then write.

Chinaman anon, are you done with your book yet?

>third thread I'm still not in the OP for

>>21057115
Should’ve made the new thread faster then.

God why is writing a LitRPG so exhausting?

>>21057143
It's always the same Pastebin

>>21055888
Damn getting demolished like that was not pleasant, but does give me some fire to try again and do better next time. When is the next crit session?

>mogs your pc

In any elaborate heist, the heist reaches a point where the plan appears to go wrong. Something didn't happen in the chain of events that was supposed to happen. This could be represented through a subtle phrase, a gesture, a sleight of hand, something said to the wrong person at the wrong time. In this moment, the plan must account for the possibility of its own failure, and rewrite the story, so that every error ensures its own success. "It was all part of the plan all along", they'll tell you in chub-faced grins and shrieking tones. And who knows, maybe they're right. Maybe there is something out there between those cash registers and plastic phones. The world belongs to children now, you see.
"Mm-hm, yes.."
"Write that down", I contined. Dictating to my tutee. I was Professor of Narrative Television at the College of Illinois and tutored young minds every day.

>>21057236

Did anyone else imagine Saundra with huge fucking mommy milkers?

>>21056337
>>21056360
Yep. If I'm not discovering the story as if I'm reading it for the first time I get bored, and as a consequence I feel my writing would reflect that boredom and bore the reader.
I usually have a vague idea of where I want to take it, but if I discover along the way that there's a better road to go down I'm not so attached to the initial idea since it is so vague and I can quickly switch lanes quite painlessly.

How do fantasy stories drag on for 200k words? I'm writing my fantasy story, and feel like I'm half way done at 30k words.

>>21057365
Episodic structure, usually. Easy to write a lot when you're just riffing on the same template over and over while you develop your larger plot more slowly

>>21056991
Because you have to.
When I look at what is most successful among those that occupy the same 'genre-space' and platform, it makes me fucking sick. It's god-awful, mediocre-at-best, trite trash. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't somewhat resentful and didn't have disdain for their work, them and their readers, but that hatred comes from a place of optimism. You don't hate something unless you think it could be better.
Use that anger to fuel your writing. Harness it and make something undeniably good. At the very least you can be satisfied with yourself and those with an eye for quality will be thankful that you pushed on.

>>21057365
You just tell a long story. My 200k word fantasy story is linear and not episodic but it takes time to get all the information out there.

I hope you guys are treating your writing career like a business and not like a “whatever it is what it is” failure.

>>21057375
What larger plot? To kill the big evil bad guy? How many stories about walking around and killing a random giant monster do I need before readers get bored? I'm bored after writing three fights. There's only so many ways to write swinging a sword and cutting the enemy without wrong something dumb like
>Steel grazed flesh, rendering the arm to gash open with blood. Sir Thimble thrusted his sword into the orc, who let's out a scream, feeling the shaft of Timble's weapon disappeared into its body. Sir Thimble twisted the hilt, his hands gripped tightly to compensate the plasma soaked into the leather grips of the pommel. A loud thunk smacked onto Sir Thimbles head. It was another orc.
"You bad man! We take you to jail now."
Stripping Sir Thimble of his possessions the orcs came to a revelation. Sir Thimble was really Madam Thimble. The ferocious Red Knight of Paddycakes, was not a he, but a she!

>>21057395
How much exposition so you do? Travelogues are boring as shit

>>21057414
So add more characters and plotlines. Make up a mystery to solve. Introduce some political intrigue. There are a bunch of different ways to write really long stories, and we've got centuries of serial fiction to learn those tools from. Go read Dumas, Tolstoy, and Dickens, and take notes on how they kept the balls in the air that long

>>21057396
I treat it like a workout.
I'm a DYEL...

>>21057414
Look at GoT. You don't even see half the battles, the characters discuss them after the fact over extravagantly detailed feasts. Your story doesn't have to be a game of DnD. Write in a merchant who wants a fancy new wagon with leaf the springs because the washed out roads are killing his back. There could be all kinds of unforseen hiccups in trying to have a decent cart built.

>>21057365

>>21057414
Ignore
>>21057461

Read WNs. They can go on, and on, and on.

>>21057418
Not very much. There is a lot of travelling.

>>21057418
Why would you think you need exposition? Mere exposition makes scenes so much shorter than they could otherwise be.

>>21056109
Patreon is such a soul-crushing trap. There's the constant pressure to produce something by the end of the month, no matter what. Every time I post something, somebody leaves without a word. I'm confused and terrified and demoralized. Writing has turned into a weird race with my life on the line. I should just shut the whole shit down.

I keep seeing people on RR getting instant five stars and followers on chapter 1 - 5.
I used to think it was good writing but now i know different.
>>21057089
A majority of it is money laundering.

how the fuck do I turn my background, plot and characters into an actual movie script

>>21057920
Scene 1: Anon is sitting at his computer, typing.
Anon's voiceover: how the fuck do I turn my background, plot and characters into an actual movie script

>>21057920
Act 1
Scene 1
Opening: Fade in: It was a cold, dark rainy night...

>>21057920
Why would you want to? It's not the 90s anymore, unless you already work for one of these companies (and if you had the appropriate opinions to do so you wouldn't be on 4chan) you're not selling it.

>>21057365

>Gang comes together
>Run into trolls whom they must beat
>Meet and stay at shapeshifters house
>Find Orcs in mountain cave
>Get lost, deal with Gollum
>Get captured by Elves
>Escape in barrels
>Drift down to Human settlement
etc. Even when they accomplish their goal of killing the Smaug the story hasn't reached its end.

>>21057950
They meet Beorn after escaping the Misty Mountains, anon.

>>21057955
I was sure i would get something wrong. Anyway the point is there is more to a fantasy story than >>21057414 is implying.
>Travel to bad guy
>Kill bad guy
The book skips over the Battle of the three armies, you just need imagination.

>>21055879
Cold river water stung the insides of my nostrils. Never liked forcing my eyes underwater. Makes my eyes feel raw. But I guess I don't have a say in this matter, as it's either swimming through the whole width of this frigid river, or dying of starvation in the forest, or being granted the privilege of becoming some wild beast's dinner, both of which are highly undesirable to me.
My feet touched solid ground. I waded my way to land. Clothes already soaked and the extra weight is pulling me down, I shivered in the coldness of the evening hillside air. In front of me, was a forest of ancient trees. There was a bush nearby, and I instantly recognised what it was. Hibiscus rosa-sinensis. A white one too. How pretty. Should I pick some and surprise him by putting it behind his ear the next time we meet? No. You fool. There is no 'next time'. Not after what happened.
A sigh escapes my lips. Absent-mindedly, I ambled up to the flowers, just to feelt the petals, just so I don't forget how smooth and soft and velvety flower petals are, just to feel something for once.
To my left, was another bush about as tall as me, big enough for something to hide in. Blackberries, maybe? I thought I remembered reading somewhere that blackberries are real useful in situations like this, so I was planning to pick and stuff some down my pockets, but at that moment, neurons fired, and I noticed it. There was something in the shrub. My hand hovered on top of the berries, shaking. I blinked. I saw it.
A bone white face staring into mine

Thoughts? I'm writing a really trashy murder mystery supernatural novella

New substack entries. I'd more or less like an analysis of the subject matter than grammatical criticism
https://adolfstalin.substack.com/p/a-piece-on-the-general-purpose-of

https://adolfstalin.substack.com/p/an-opinion-piece-on-interpretation

How do I deal with time skips when writing? To be honest I'm not a huge fan of them but I see them in every book I read, I understand what a character had for breakfast on some random day isn't important to a story but I have trouble just writing stuff like that out. Am I really to believe that what characters do outside the story isn't important? The only good example I know of is Proust, but even still it's not as detailed as it could be at times.

>>21058148
Anon had been posting shit for quite some time already.
In the morning he would post shit.
At midday he would post shit.
And in the evening he would most certainly post shit.
Which brings us to the now.
Where even though many would think it cognitively impossible.
At this very moment.
Anon was in the midst of his biggest shit post yet.

>>21058229

>>21057272
She was obviously a flat chested book worm schizo

would a character be forgivable if:
X's cult friend and mentor pressure him into using his powers against a girl to remove her memories of X's friend raping her? this is in order to prevent X's friend being arrested. the victim remains traumatised but cannot remember why, as X learns he can't remove trauma. X grows to despise his friend but feels trapped by his involvement and shame

i want the character to be grey moral and redeemable, but im worried general audiences would see a rape cover up as too far or taboo

>>21057272
I imagined her as around a b cup

>>21058406
That's fairly irredeemable, X can't just feel bad about helping cover-up a rape. The least X could do would be make the friend forget the rape happened as well to deny him that satisfaction of "getting away with it" and possibly stop him from trying again. Maybe some intrigue can occur when a witness speaks out about seeing the rape happen but none of the involved parties can remember it, except now X is a witness too having seen it through both their memories' perspectives.

>>21056145
YouTube Vanced if you have Android

>both Mother of Learning and Paranoid Mage are in the top 10 of RR
Why do so many users on that site have such awful taste?

>>21058459
Normies trust algorithms. If you want to do something about it, go find a good story in the pastebin and read it, comment on it, give it a 5star advanced review, bring attention to it.

>>21058476
Do you have any recommendations? I want something magic/adventure focused with a protagonist that isn't an all powerful "hero" and whose enemies aren't a bunch of retards.

>>21058487
I write one of them, but I haven't sampled all the /wg/ stories. I'd post mine, but I feel like I'm being set up here, and I think I know who you are.

>>21058495
I'm not trying to bait you, I reached chapter 8 of the second book of paranoid mage before dropping it and now I'm pissed that I wasted my time on that pile of trash. I'm being sincere anon.

>>21058037
In general, the feel I get is that I'm being told a story is occurring rather than witnessing it. And this isn't a omniscient vs limited perspective thing; it feels like a 4th wall is being broken, and it feels this way because the narrative voice is written in 1st person but told/given in a 3rd person way. The 3rd person is great for showing a lot of action and movement and the 1st is better for internal dialogue and tangential wanderings. Not to say either can't be used for the other, but those are their primary strengths, and if you want to continue in a narration of this style, I recommend either buffering the action (motion) sequences with internal narrative or changing the POV. If your intent is to maintain the mystery of how they got into the situation, either approach will work. You just have to frame it correctly.
You have some repetition/obviousness in as well. "both of which are highly undesirable to me" is an example that comes to mind, since we can assume everything the narrator has said before would be undesirable to anyone. But maybe this is the narrator's voice and the editorials are important. This goes back to the previous paragraph.
What I like is the feel and scene setting you accomplished. The consistency of tone and the mystery you start makes me wonder, why is the narrator in this mess? I feel cold thinking about the river and wonder how the narrator will avoid freezing to death, since they have just climbed out of the river and it's almost night time.
And lastly I think for the final line, present the face immediately, then describe it next. This jars the reader with a face suddenly in the bushes, but doesn't slow down the presentation with an unnecessary description of what color the face is, etc., until the reader's alarm has passed.

>>21058509
Just go check the pastebin for the story about the magic and adventure about a hero fighting competent (enough) enemies.

>>21057396
Do you have any PRACTICAL advice for how to do that, or are you just being a mean-spirited demotivational failed-crab?

>>21058581
Step 1: tell other people to treat writing like a business
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit

>>21058442
youre very right, thank you so much. i think i may have him confess to her eventually and offer her the choice of having her memory restored so she may have some level of agency and give her her own POV chapters. his confession however causes his powerful cult related friend to seek out his blood, though
that or it might be still too touchy a path to go down altogether. ive not decided

As hard as I try to mimic Tolkien's writings, I feel I'll never be good enough. Nor will my labours at editing and compiling be as good as Christopher's.

>writing an ongoing story with weekly releases and audience input
>killed a fan favorite character relatively early on because it made sense, set up stakes, they had it coming, fulfilled their narrative role etc
>however there's still an out for the character to have survived and I can bring them back near the end for a happy note on an otherwise relatively bittersweet ending
Do it do it? I feel like I already got the impact that I wanted with how long it's been since it happened and everyone accepted it's not getting undone, but now I want to have my cake and eat it too and bring the character back for that ending scene and show how they survived.

How many books should a retard read before he thinks about writing his own book.
I started reading a chuck Palahniuk novel and call it egotistical but I thought for a moment "hey I'll write mine like this". As if this wasn't emulated a million times by a thousand different anons.

>>21058676
I read tons of the bereinstein bears books

>>21056206
>identities
You're right about identities existing in &amp already, but it felt like recently it became impossible to talk about it without being named, if that makes any sense--it felt like the threads were effectively de-anonymised to a certain extent to enable the discussion (plus you could tell who was who based on how posts were written). I think there's probably a soft balance with organising things off-site while keeping it as a definably /lit/ or anonymous/pseudonymous project.

I also think it's notable that the editor always signed his work anonymously when he made other contributions to the magazine. I always used a pen name for my pieces, and I felt obligated to use it to identify myself with the best-of for transparency reasons. I suppose that might have been unavoidable, however.

>self-congratulatory
I probably should have called it something else; I didn't mean people promoting their own work, especially since I think I was the only actual contributor among the little group I mentioned (I also think the selection has been fair so far). More like constant pats on the back (I didn't want to go as far as to call it ass-kissing), which is probably something I'm just sensitive to.

>project leadership
I think my view of &amp is that the content is democratic while the organisation is individual, but that's under the pretense of all submissions being published and &amp being a slice of /lit/ rather than a normal literary magazine. I think in some respects it's easier to trust an individual to be fair than a closed group. If &amp re-oriented itself to reject/accept pieces, then an editorial group could be vital, but that'd be a pretty fundamental change.

When it comes to this "strong leader" thing, I see it more as an ideal: one dedicated person with the requisite skills and vision to carry out a project without interference or outside bias. But that's an ideal, and you've pointed out the failings in that regarding &amp and the best-of. I still see it as being the ideal when it comes to these types of (mostly) anonymous projects, though, in part for the fact that it still enables a general anonymity.

I'll make an effort to keep things timely. Part of my interest in doing the best-of was as a sort of farewell piece to &amp. Either it'd gap the hiatus nicely, or if &amp actually died this time then it'd be a good final retrospect on the project.

>>21058072
I read your first essay. I think it's stupid. I can't take you seriously nor really comment on your rants. There aren't any citations or are there any specificities that you can draw upon. You're just spewing nonsense about men needing to fight and rape. Which isn't true at all.

There have been incels since time millenia, there's studies that 60% of men never have kids, and even some of the most prominent men like Issac Newton was an incel. You need to read way more anthropology and sociology literature before you write your rants.

>>21058676
read all the current stuff in your genre
that will help you're writing the most

>>21058737
>you're
Clearly hasn't helped you

>>21058744
AHAHAH what a slam dunk, AND WITH THE DUBS OOOOH GOTTEM

Does anyone else just use grammarly to draft?

>>21055879
What's your opinion on reddit writing subreddits?

>>21058148
Have him go about his morning Routine hopefully in a way that sheds some light on who he is. Then start the next paragraph with "That evening, ..." and have him enter the next scene. I agree that it's awkward to gague when this should happen.

>>21058659
Oh god, just highlight the text man.

>>21059093
It is highlighted.

My beta reader stopped reading, does this mean my book is boring and shit?

>>21059103
I mean like an on-paper highlighting scheme. This hurts to look at. On-paper you use regular highlighter markers, not crayola crayons.

>>21059105
Potentially. You should just ask for a clear reason.

>>21059105
Yes. Or they might be busy with other things. Who can say? Ask them.

>>21059111
First time I'm hearing of such complexity in terms of highlighting.text and usage of colour.
I've just been using what ever limited colours that are available to separate the text, according to the origin of each sentence or word.

>>21058694
> became impossible to talk about it without being named

I think that’s more due to the fact that the threads were getting limited traffic, and so the few active participants stood out more. If there was more activity in the threads, then the writing style/identities of specific posters would become less blatant. They might still be discernible if you were already familiar, but within a larger volume of content they wouldn’t be obvious to most.

As an aside, the editor has an official TikTok account for the magazine (@lampbylit) where he posts videos with his name and face associated. He explicitly states that certain works promoted on the website are his own, and shows the pen names he uses. He doesn’t seem to really want to keep the project wholly anonymous. I think it’s fair game to bring this up, seeing as he’s voluntarily made his identity known on a public platform.

>constant pats on the back (I didn't want to go as far as to call it ass-kissing), which is probably something I'm just sensitive to

I think some of this is down to individual personality differences. Some people are naturally more effusive and enjoy praising others’ efforts, or are reluctant to give critique that isn’t part of a “compliment sandwich.” Pats on the back implies smugness or falseness— the enthusiasm I saw seemed well-intended and sincere. I also saw a good amount of constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement with the graphic design stuff. Most pieces discussed in the doc didn’t receive wholly uncritical accolades from those who recommended them either. Plus, there seemed to be the typical troll comments showing up in the threads as well.

Again, I think this problem is related to the threads not garnering enough traffic. A wider variety of voices would naturally entail a wider variety of opinions. And this does seem to be something you’re personally sensitive to.

>I think in some respects it's easier to trust an individual to be fair than a closed group

It doesn’t have to be a closed group. I became involved in &amp in an editorial capacity (however briefly) simply by emailing the editor and expressing interest. He’s made it clear that anyone else can do the same.

> a pretty fundamental change
&amp has always rejected pieces, as you can see in this post from editor himself. It seems like the model of accepting everything was only adopted when submissions fell off and he couldn’t afford to be choosy. Even then, I’m sure there’s stuff he chose not to put in, even if he didn’t say so outright.

> an ideal: one dedicated person with the requisite skills and vision to carry out a project without interference or outside bias

This seems pretty unrealistic. As Donne says, “no man is an island.” None of us can ever be totally self-reliant, or have infallible judgement. It’s important to be open to accepting help. Rather than interference, think of it as assistance and collaborative effort.

>>21055885
Fuck tales: The story of an incel turned chad.

>>21059149
If you're going to be sharing your documents that are colored like this, trying using colors more like pic related.

>>21058229
Yes but what did the shit posting at each time period entail? What were the specific shit posts? Did anon really not eat or sleep or have any other thoughts about other things during that whole time? Would you repeat that same thing if that's all he did for the next week until the next noticeable plot point of the story happened?

>>21059057
I get what is supposed to be said, but it just feels clunky having a whole section of time cut out. What about the afternoon? I get the details of the afternoon aren't important but it still feels wrong to just skip over it because of that.

>>21059268
It feels like you're being intentionally obtuse.
>After an entire week spent shit-posting in the morning, midday, and evening, Anon was once again shitposting.
>Shitposting, constant shitposting, until the days drained away, and he realized he had already burned another week of his life. Shaking his head, he finished writing another shitpost, and hit enter.
>Anon was mentally drained after spending a week shitposting, day after day, when he was notified of a reply interesting enough to shake him from his stupor...

>a group of elementary school kids
>a group of young adults who have just graduated high school and have chosen not to pursue higher education
>a group of older people who are starting to understand their dreams may not ever be realized
All of the characters in my story fit one of these groups

Whenever I write a paragraph or try to write a story, the lines I write seem to be somewhat stilted. They don't flow, and they look correct but don't feel correct at all, if that makes any sense.

Do I need to read more about composition or do I just need to read more?

Why doesn't anyone post excerpts of their 60k novel anymore?

>>21059441
The language barrier, man.

>>21059441
For me it just feels disrespectful of other people's time until I've finished the manuscript (20% left) and have done at least one serious revision pass myself. I know I have a 1k chunk to rewrite, and some changes to make throughout for consistency, and prose across the board will be sharper then so why have people read when I know it needs major changes already? I might put out a call for beta readers on here once I'm in that position though.

>>21059441
No one reads in /wg/

>>21059297
I'm really not being intentionally obtuse, I just don't like how certain things are cut out from the story is all, even when they not really part of the story.

>after Anon hit send on his shitpost he looked around his room and turned around in his chair and reached for a half empty beer bottle, knocking over an empty one in the process. Bringing the bottle to his lips he stopped for a second to wonder if there is really no hope in turning his life around, only to chug the rest of the beer, despite the taste of cheap lukewarm beer quickly going down his throat Anon was quickly distracted again by what was on the screen. The page had refreshed to show a new reply on his thread. "I can't think of a specific reply to type here". After reading that Anon was briefly reminded of days long past where his friend Anon2 would routinely fall off his bike only to blame it on some random external force. Remembering Anon2 in that way reminded him of one of his favorite memories of Anon2(clunky wording here I know)where he said "a man walks into a bar, he said ouch". Anon briefly laughed to himself having remembered a joke he had known for many years but yet only just remembered. Anon then started wondering what other good memories he has so close but seemingly always out of sight. He clicked reply and wrote "honestly thank you for this message, even though you didn't intend for this to be the case it reminded me of a funny interaction I had with a past friend" After staring at the screen and the blinking line, not focused on anything but the blinking line, he held down the delete key until all that was left was a blank gray wall for him to write "kek" and hit send. Anon then started looking at his other tabs only to see there were no new responses yet, not wanting to deal with boredom or more unknowningly lack of distraction from reality, he opened up a new tab of Google to type "YouTube" and clicked on the first link that popped up. Confronted with a page of white only painted over by other people's creativity and their incinitive for clicks, causing Anon to be unsure of what to even focus on first until he settled on a star trek voyager thumbnail and read "the history of star trek" after having his curiosity piqued on a topic he knew hardly anything about but a few episodes he watched as a kid with his dad he clicked open in new tab only to go back to scrolling and forgetting about his previous line of thought.

Bad grammar aside, see what I mean about time skips and such? This thread limits word count and there's also rules on how long of a story can go on here too. But basically I would keep writing that much until he felt hungry and couldnt suppress the feeling any longer and then just go into that much detail for him making food. And then back to the long descriptions. I'm just not a fan of how some things go undescribed or skipped over entirely. If Im reading a story about a character I want to know their whole story, not just the highlight

>>21059404
Is there anything wrong with that? There are many books that don't even touch on the of any characters. Young children and people with no holes for unrealized dreams are some of my favorite characters too.

>>21055885
Captain caps-lock The Elevation Chronicles

>>21059408
Try reformatting your word processor. Change the actual layout of the lines on the page/screen and see what happens.

>>21059404
wow
he's literally me

>>21059441
Here

“And then she just stabbed you? I’m so sorry man,” the psychopomp said, putting a reassuring hand on Wulf’s shoulder. The demon was like a cross between an imp and a dragon, forced to wear a suit, and yet about to cry on Wulf’s behalf.

The other psychopomp, a much portlier one, nodded his head. “That’s why you can’t ever trust a Player.”

The thin demon sneered at his colleague. “You just don’t trust women.”
“I trust Miss Portnim…”

Wulf shook his head and looked down at the cup of coffee the demons had given him. Sofia had agreed that his debt wasn’t technically due yet, and to postpone his torture session until the god sword was sorted out, so her underlings had shown him over to the break room. High up in the brass bank, the window beside them overlooked the obsidian forest, and he was too far away to see the faces covering all the carnivorous trees.

Join me, as i take you on a gripping slow burn journey of intrigue an...zzzzZZZZzzzz

>>21059636
based and all killer no filler pilled

>>21059441
I need to get over this, but as much as thinking my prose sucks but I enjoy doing it allows me to just write a lot, I can't bring myself to post the shit. So I just have drafts of short stories and novels, that I work on editing but don't do anything with.

>>21059636
Yoooo is that the new slow-burn character driven horror novel by [No-Name Contemporary Author]? Man I just love his books. No jumpscares or cheap monster thrills for me

>>21059152
There's definitely a lot of &amp shit that the editor has tied into his real identity (I came across a lot of it after I found his personal email), but none of that has ever been a part of the /lit/-facing aspect of the project; as far as I've seen you won't find any of that stuff linked to or referenced in old threads. I think that end of it is effectively (fair) attempts at résumé-boosting, while the "meat" of the project is what you see on the website and in threads. Kind of distinct and non-interacting in a way, as ironic as that might be.

>>21057365
I have this problem too. My Adah story is already reaching a third of the way through

>>21060003
90k is fine for a self contained novel.

Is there a site for posting horror-based fiction? I have a story on RR but the site's userbase is mostly into fantasy/isekai it seems.

>>21059488
But you skipped loads of detail in your excerpt. Compared to the micromoment-to-micromement ever-changing scintillating flux of experience, what you wrote is a measly selection of isolated facts, specks plucked from the infinite pool. And why didn't you include the experiences of other people around the character, the city full of houses of other lives, the electricity buzzing through the cables beneath the city, the pressure fronts rolling overhead?

Or maybe the concept of 'the whole story' doesn't make any sense, because constructing a narrative is by definition never the same thing as perfectly reproducing life in all its infinite, non-linguistic, non-narrative, non-conceptual detail. As soon as you start writing a story, you're necessarily making selections and dealing in abstractions.

>>21060015
I want it to be a trilogy

>>21060394
I suppose you are correct about making abstract choices about what to include and not, but I'm not sure there is much I didn't include that wouldn't only need to be described once beforehand when there wasnt a word limitation. Like the wood finish desk, or color/size of the room, the unchanging smell.

But overall I don't feel I skipped too much detail for the moment I chose. In terms of before and after I left plenty not added in. But in terms of the character doing a specific shitpost and then watching YouTube I feel I didn't leave detail out really.

For not writing other people's experiences in that's actually a thought I have been thinking about. I write the long book focused on the main characters life and shorter novels where we focus on the other characters that interact with the main character and their thoughts of Anon.

>>21059105
Ask the page they stopped on.

Is writing a multiple-POV book in first person a good idea?
I feel like it would make giving the characters a distinct voice a bit easier.

>>21060707
I don't see how it would be either good or bad

>>21055885
JK. Saga of the Cosmic Heroes, Cosmic Saga Gaiden: Golden Shin

>>21060707
All 3 of my protags are written in first person, any non-protags get 3rd person pov. As long as you establish right off the bat who's perspective it is you'll probably be fine.

Oh god why did I waste three years of my life writing and rewriting this dreck nobody will ever read it or like it I should have gotten swole and laid instead.

>>21060986
post it here I'll read it

>>21060988
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/436962/a-hero-among-monsters/
The final chapter won’t post until 11/24.

>>21061002
I haven't been here in a long time; was always a little heartbroken when you removed it from RR. Any reason why?

>be me
>meet intelligent well-liked guy at university
>I like him a lot and he has big aspirations
>he wants to be a novelist
>see his writing
>it's terrible
>I put him on block and forget he existed
any1 ever do this?

>>21058707
That's fine. At least you're honest. Its ok though citing sources is academic bugman shit. I just choose to not be a slave.

>>21061015
I realized everyone on the RR forums was a retard and didn’t want to associate with them for a while. It’s back up there, though. Just lags a few chapters behind ScribbleHub.

>>21061031
I feel there's a little irony since Scribblehub is even more unfathomably irredeemable. Glad to see it back at least.

>>21061040
I’ve learned to not bother trying to engage people on the forums. They’re fairly stupid and believe they’re too good for things like outlines and revising.

>>21061051
Don't assume shared opinion based on a few bad eggs, there's no T'loran what everyone else thinks unless you ask

>>21061078
>there's no T'loran
>T'loran
Is.. this supposed to be southern slang?

>>21061023
That attitude is dumb. There are literal people that study shit you want to talk about throughout their lives. At this point you just want to rant for the sake of ranting

Redpill me on inciting incidents. My creative writing instructor said they should be as early as possible, ideally within the first chapter. Wouldn't it be better to give the audience a little bit of time to get to know the characters so you actually give a shit when something happens to them?

>>21061683
Would you watch a tv episode where the first episode had nothing to do with its plot hook and was just the characters fucking around for thirty minutes? They'd have to be damn good characters, and you'd probably feel a little betrayed when the later episodes deviate from what you liked at the beginning

>>21061097
It's actually the hero of a Vulcan parable about tempering one's expectations. Similar to "counting your chickens" on earth.

Despite what some may claim, Cameron from the movie Ferris Beuller does not do what he does out of mere cowardice, but out of a misplaced sense of nobility.

Wrote this today. I like it, but not sure how to end it: https://pastebin.com/WTGEGrwe

>>21061683
I'm writing a character story and thus the inciting incident doesn't come before the 3rd scene. In general your instructor is right, as a common amateur mistake is to have the main character decide on page 10 to finally do something about the status quo. At that point the reader has lost all interest.

Look at it this way. Imagine a murder mystery where the detective is just loafing around at the police office for 10 pages. And then, finally, the murder happens. Sounds boring? It is. You'd have to be a writing God to have 10 pages of interesting character build up with the detective doing nothing of importance.

Also important to note that a true inciting incident is not something her main character can just ignore, or walk away from. It radically changes everything. The hero is going to lose what he desires most if he doesn't act.

I have no more ideas to write any more stories.

>>21059507
I didn't anything was wrong with it, just an observation I made.

>>21061932
Are parables and allegory the same thing or is there a difference?

>>21061935
Its been awhile since I've seen the movie ill have to watch it again. Also weird question, why do so many movies throughout the 80s take place in Chicago?

>>21062001
Congrats, you're free

>>21061935
Haha I liked this idea

>>21061233
Why are you upset? Did I hit a nerve or something?

>>21061683
>Wouldn't it be better to give the audience a little bit of time to get to know the characters so you actually give a shit when something happens to them?
Yes, however you only need to let the readers begin to get to know them. It only takes a couple interactions to give the reader some idea of what a character is about, and you can flesh them out more after that.
>>21061706
IIRC every season of Fargo begins with an episode that is nothing but characters living their normal lives before things go to shit.

>>21062018
I'll grant that the Coen brothers do weird stuff, and it generally works for them somehow. They also actively spurn the three act structure. I would probably not recommend most writers take this approach unless they have a very strong idea of why and how they plan to break the template

>>21062034
Anon the Coen brothers didn't make Fargo the TV series they made Fargo the movie.

If people have difficulty visualizing an apple with their eyes closed, why shouldn't writers start writing more details and do more telling instead of showing?

>>21062039
Huh, I haven't actually watched the tv series and just assumed they were more involved. I maintain that it's best to follow the proven formulas until you know why they work and why you want to deviate. Chesterton's Fence and whatnot

>>21062044
They're like that because they didn't read growing up.

>>21062085
This saddens me.

The tin is lifting off the roof. The rain easily finds it's way under the sheets, along the beams and into my room. It pours onto the bed and onto the floor. There are only so many pots in the cupboard. I spread out my last dry sheet and breath in mold. The dog's been asking to go out for a week. She knows the room's a write off and sleeps in the kitchen. There's no heat in there. The only heater is in the bedroom. Rain sizzles on the elements but doesn't make steam like a sauna. This isn't sustainable.

How do I rid myself of French loanwords? They are STDs on the language.

>>21062161
Latinometer dot com

>>21062161
You mean you won't even use the word souvenir?

>>21061941
You need to do something with her perfect recall memory. Otherwise you should have just said she was extremely bright.

What follows is a tale of sordid political manuv....zzzzZZZZzzzz

>I ruled England for 70, now i'm reborn as a serf in a rpg?
Too soon?

>>21061051
>They’re fairly stupid and believe they’re too good for things like outlines and revising.
Why do people believe this? Everywhere I go they bring up this mentality among other things, and I get chastised for wanting them to do better than the bare minimum and sticking to what's popular. There's more than enough poorly written isekais.

>>21061706
>>21061994
>>21062018
I'm not saying the inciting incident shouldn't happen at the beginning of the story, but if you're writing a 300 page novel, you don't stick it on page 2. And I'm not saying need to get into Tolkien levels of worldbuilding, but can we at least establish something of the main character's world so we know why it's such a big deal that it's about to change?

I'm considering writing a tomboy FeMC in the same setting I used a male MC previously. What are some common pitfalls to keep an eye out for?

>>21062044
Because I don't like it when books tell me irrelevant details that I've already filled in. If the author says the curtains are red, but I already saw them as blue, and the detail is irrelevant to the story, they remain blue in my head. It's a waste of words and takes away the interactivity of reading.

>>21055879
While grammatically correct, my writing style is long-winded, clunky, and often times, awkward.
I want my prose to "flow" and be descriptive, while also being succinct, but I have no real idea for how to so. With that in mind, what books and/or authors should I study to improve my prose?

>>21062635
Hemingway was notorious for erasing over half of his written works before they resembled something he thought was good.

Tomorrow it begins. My mad goal to write 90k words for 4 separate pieces by the end of 2022.
This is where the texts are as of today and where they need to be by December 31st.
1. 22568 words, goal of 45068
2. 20014 words, goal of 42514
3. 1005 words, goal of 23505
4. 1029 words, goal of 23529
None of them will be finished by then, but that's not the point. The point is to see if I can pull it off. 1k words a day. No excuses.

>>21062635
Which of these do you like best?

>At the hour of dusk you sit at your foxhole and look out on a wide river turning pinkish red, and at the mountains beyond, and although in the morning you must cross the river and go into the mountains and do terrible things and maybe die, even so, you find yourself studying the fine colors on the river, you feel wonder and awe at the setting of the sun, and you are filled with a hard, aching love for how the world could be and always should be, but now is not.

>Come night, come darkness, for you cannot come too soon or stay too long by such a place as this! Come, straggling lights into the windows of the ugly houses; and you who do iniquity therein, do it at least with this dread scene shut out! Come, flame of gas, burning so sullenly above the iron gate, on which the poisoned air deposits its witch-ointment slimy to the touch! It is well that you should call to every passerby, "Look here!"

>Oh, grassy glades! oh, ever vernal endless landscapes in the soul; in ye,—though long parched by the dead drought of the earthy life,—in ye, men yet may roll, like young horses in new morning clover; and for some few fleeting moments, feel the cool dew of the life immortal on them. Would to God these blessed calms would last. But the mingled, mingling threads of life are woven by warp and woof: calms crossed by storms, a storm for every calm. There is no steady unretracing progress in this life; we do not advance through fixed gradations, and at the last one pause:—through infancy's unconscious spell, boyhood's thoughtless faith, adolescence' doubt (the common doom), then scepticism, then disbelief, resting at last in manhood's pondering repose of If. But once gone through, we trace the round again; and are infants, boys, and men, and Ifs eternally. Where lies the final harbor, whence we unmoor no more? In what rapt ether sails the world, of which the weariest will never weary? Where is the foundling's father hidden? Our souls are like those orphans whose unwedded mothers die in bearing them: the secret of our paternity lies in their grave, and we must there to learn it.

>You have to be an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy, with a bubble of hot poison in your loins and a super-voluptuous flame permanently aglow in your subtle spine (oh, how you have to cringe and hide!), in order to discern at once, by ineffable signs―the slightly feline outline of a cheekbone, the slenderness of a downy limb, and other indices which despair and shame and tears of tenderness forbid me to tabulate―the little deadly demon among the wholesome children; she stands unrecognized by them and unconscious herself of her fantastic power

>>21062791
1.3k words today
>non-pro tip:
Just rough draft the fuck out of your story then come back and refine it later.

>>21062034
Coen brothers strike me as Picaresque types

>>21062810
That's just the minimum goal anon.

>>21062791
I'll recommend having Saturday and Sunday off. Do something else than writing. Take a walk. Exercise. Meet friends and family.

Do something to recharge your batteries and you'll find your writing sharper than grinding 1k a day, every day.

>>21062395
>it's another cheap attempt to imitate House of Cards, but it stars a woman fighting the evil patriarchy, or a black person struggling against systemic racism

>>21062895
Book opens with character 1 using her rape accusation to exploit her rich ex for millions of dollars in settlement. She goes on to launch a campaign for congress.

Then we swap to person 2, the incumbent congresswoman, who uses her racecard (da black woman) to terrorize a mayor for not giving her extra campaign funds.

Conflict increases as person 1 and 2 goes to insane lengths to win the election.

>>21062924
As a satire, I'd actually read this.

>>21062798
4th, though that isn't entirely to do with the prose (it's still the best)
I found the subject matter of the other 3 dull

how do I improve my critiquing skills. I feel like I don't see things I need to see when I read, which seems like a critical flaw to have when you want to write

>>21062491
You write her as a him. Tomboy's still aren't boys, they'll think like women.

>>21061016
you sound gay

>>21062791
Stick with one story at a time

How do i clean draft my first boo
I don’t want to write garbage

Any tips?

>>21063252
That's dumb. What if you run into a dead end? You'll end up procrastinating and doing nothing instead of just moving on to another text, that's what.

>>21055879
Who read books in 2K22 ? Better writing a manga or a comic book, even poorly drawed it will always have more readers

>>21063331
Who reads book? Sanderson fans.

Today's update. I'm tempted to add adverbs if just for the cartoon snake character.
>https://pastebin.com/ERMvpXWh

Look at us.

Are we going to make it?

I recently read a book where a bulk of the story takes place during the construction of a transcontinental railway. I thought it was an interesting setting. The class struggles and power dynamics were compelling.

I would like to write a story with an interesting setting, So far the best I have is either the founding of a new city/settlement, or law enforcement of a trade route afflicted by various forms of highwaymen. these both feel pretty cookie cutter though.

Give me your bestselling settings.

>>21063528
I dunno, my sales are shit but my third book is almost ready to upload.

>>21063528
yes when I'm dead

/unreal/ press is doing another /wg/ critique episode.
Reply with shit you want me to read. I’ll actually edit the audio this time.

>>21063720
Is it live? When are you doing it?

>>21063528
Ain't dead yet.

>>21063528
Probably not. I don't know if it is cope, but I also kind of don't care.

Maybe I'll post some shit online and get like ten readers, but I'd be happy with that.

>>21063528
I seek comfort from the fact that even great writers have been rejected countless times

>>21063720
Feel free to boot me off if other anons submit, but I'll garuntee some amount of content. I'll send the link in the discord server. I sent it in to amp& to no response, but it was fun to write.

>>21063720
:^)

>>21063720
https://pastebin.com/LfvP7DA3

>>21063720
cool. gl bro

>>21063728
Not live because episodes work better with editing in post. That and I gotta bleep out hard Rs or YouTube tos gives me shit

>>21063749
how is that comforting? if even the greats barely squeaked through, what chances do you have?

>>21063915
But anon, I AM one of the greats. Is this not proven by the fact that I am oppressed by the philistine masses? Are not my ideas ahead of the curve, if not downright revolutionary? Is not my path paved with the bones of the long-forgotten whose ideas I have plundered from their nameless graves?
Who can deny me?

>>21063829
>I couldn't seem to care. A dead nigger
okay so far
>laying in his own blood
"laying" what in his own blood? you fucking retard, you illiterate. not reading another word from you.

>>21063920
you can't even write mock-self-aggrandizement that doesn't suck dick

>>21063930
>>21063951
>t.

>>21063951
And you can't even capitalize letters or use punctuation properly, so who's the real hack here?

>>21063993
Really nigga? That's the nitpick you choose?

>>21064088
NTA but you forgot the vocative comma

>>21064088
What's the matter? Can't defend yourself? Post your writing.

>>21063720
Sent on discord as well. Catmoe seems to be down and pastebin thinks everything I write is hatespeech

>>21055879
I couldn't hear him canter up to me at the stables before his tender nostrils huffed a sweet scent into my ear. I smiled and bowed my head a little, amused that he had gotten the jump on me so while also drifting into his sensitive charms. Then his tongue was there inside my ear and I groaned slightly, leaning into it with pleasure. My hand automatically reached back as I closed my eyes and I felt his neck beneath the soft fall of his mane and I pulled myself closer to him. Then suddenly I was whirled around and my eyes suddenly shot open as his nose met mine, his tongue instantly several inches deep in my throat and I was consumed with the taste of barley. His glorious eyes stared me down as I slid to my knees in surrender.

Continue?

:( I'm just writing by the seat of my pants. I thought I planned things out, but it's starting to take weird twists and turns.

>>21064398
Is this the gay assassin story? Bad, because we've already been introduced that he's the dominant one during sex.

>>21064460
I guess he could be an assassin. I could write that in if you want.

>>21064466
Oh nevermind, I thought you were were the anon writing about the twink gay assassin.

How much do you guys read?
I'm curious about the relationship between writing fiction and reading. Does a good writer absolutely HAVE to read a lot? I mean I know as a general rule they do, but is it really a requirement? Conversely, can you read so much that it hurts your writing? How much should I be reading? Does it matter?

>>21064976
reading is fertilizing the fields

writing is sowing

editing is harvest

>>21065005
If reading is so essential, how come Schopenhauer and Nietzsche both say it can ruin you?

>>21055879
Hey, question. I'm trying to basically say this
>You should avoid that thing at all costs, it seems to have a counter to everything we throw at it and it's really frustrating to fight back against.

>>21065027
Because they're retards.

>>21064976
As a science-fiction author, I count current event deep dives as part of my reading. As such, like 3-4 hours a day (including 20-50 pages of book reading plus audiobook time)

And before you think that doesn't count, I'll point out how insanely useful historical texts and biographies are to writing fantasy.

>inb4 genre fiction isn't real literature
If you're one of those people, please neck yourself.

>>21065085
Science fiction is based anon. But I am referring more to filling your head with the creative work of other people, rather than learning about stuff or obtaining information like current event deep dives. I feel like whenever I read someone else too much I can't help but emulate them when I write.
>>21065079
No

>>21065027
They may say that, but both Nietzsche and Schopenhauer read more and more deeply than any of us likely ever will.

>>21065027
Is everyone ignoring the part where he says you should read when your thoughts inevitably dry up?
This isn't a binary: yes read/no don't read statement.

>>21065128
You're definitely not wrong.
>>21065133
I know it's not a binary, but is it really ok to go a few months without reading if you consider yourself a writer?

How I can to improve my low english writing skills

>>21065159
Depends on what you're doing with your time and how it impacts your writing. Is your writing better or worse for it?

>>21056496
>>21065169

>>21065027
That quote doesn’t say don’t read. It says don’t let books act as a substitute for your own free thinking. Schopenhauer also thought that just about everyone was an idiot.

>>21064976
A lot. But I read primarily non fiction, so it shows up in my writing. It's great for story ideas

>>21065027
thankfully reading cannot do you any harm because you're too fucking retarded to even figure out what that quote is saying. you're safe

Guy writing a script for a toy stop motion series here.

Would it be a good idea to make a "pilot" episode starring none of the main characters of the main story? And not related to that, what about adding political satire that is closely related to the plot?
I fully intend to go ahead with the latter regardless of the answer but I'd rather know if I should be bracing for impact first.

>>21065159
>months without reading
Months is pretty extreme. A week or two between books is nothing to sweat and just a few hours of reading per week is fine, but if you aren't reading at all you get farther from the experience of a true reader so you can't empathize with what your readers will feel. Also you're missing a tremendous possible well of inspiration.

>>21065159
If you consider yourself a writer and you don't want anything affecting your style, it's perfectly okay never to read.

>>21064460
He was only dominant in so far as he was killing them but before he got to that point I would not say he was dominant

>>21064398
No it’s disgusting we know you’re talking about a horse perv

How do script writers write so many pages in less than 6 months?

>think of a cool scene for my story while listening to a song
>it makes zero fucking sense within the context of the story so far
>don't even try to make it work by writing out potential fixes or alternate takes
>just wait and a solution randomly hits me while brushing teeth three months later

This has happened to me three times now, unlimited power...

I went back and worked on my dialogue. Thoughts?

>>21065705
It's mostly empty space
Short lines
Of dialogue
Double
Spaced

>>21065780
Run on with the first sentence. Too many "action speech bubbles", grammar errors all over, and honestly the dialogue is stiff and explains too much. There's a guy holding a gun to the other guys neck. You think Walrus will be as calm as he is? Especially since he's a scientist not some super cop?

>>21062001
So you stopped living life, talking to people, and reading?
>>21062924
Sounds too much like real life.

>>21065826

My lazy explanation later would be that Walrus served in a draft which was why he was calm around the gun

what is it called when lets say a car needs to speed up towards a ramp so it rides away to get a "??????" so that it has a distance to reach the sufficient speed and make the jump ?

>>21065972
The car needs to get up to speed to clear the gap between ramp and landing?

>>21065972
Head start?

>>21065972
Running start?

>>21065972
The velocity? The acceleration?

>>21055885
MNM-DR
Dead Dog River
(typed into Neural Blender...from October of last year)

>>21063720

>>21059995
How’d you find his personal email anyway? Not sure if he ever linked the TikTok on /lit/ specifically, but he’s linked the Instagram and Twitter accounts on multiple occasions

What's the worst that could happen if I publish my novel under my poc girlfriends name? I'm in canada and they eat that shit up

>>21066649
she steals the rights and becomes a millionaire, then breaks up with you to please her Asian parents.

Currently writing a sci fi thing with a bit more aspiration than mere genre but the telepath in it is barely a telepath and it worries me some will be bothered by it.

>>21066894
Nothing i hate more than the writer giving characters interesting abilities yet they are still cucked and powerless to most events the story contains.

>>21067061
Would you rather prefer characters body slamming everyone? As if everyone were idiots?

>>21067070
Not into wrastling either thank you. I read for farcical emancipation, not mental entrapment.

>>21067061
But I having a serious problem here.
Telepathy is overpowered and interesting but there's nothing it couldn't solve even with a natural set of restrictions. I've been reading CIA remote viewing ventures and such and trying to piece a way in which I feel it could make for something interesting but not something where a detective novel should be over on the first page. I just can't crack it.

I'll never finish my story...

>>21067083
Simple, make it a issue of brain overtaxing/overheating or singular train of thought/focus.

e.g. brain turns to much if used too long or looking/focusing in one direction->gets blindsided by unnoticed/foreseen event/effect.

It can still be fallible without being weak and powerless.

>>21067102
>much=mush

>>21067089
You probably began writing without even knowing the ending. No wonder you're stuck. Read Truby.

>>21067083
>>21067102
Another possibility is to make it obvious or perhaps even scary to other characters when telepathy is being used.

>>21067123
Oh no i got the ending. The ending is simple. But getting there feels like it's taking forever.

>>21067132
Check out Jerry Jenkins and his ideas about the marathon of the middle.

>>21067128
>>21067102
I've been looking into conditions and the ways they could take a toll on the brain, like having boiling water poured into the skull if you venture way too in. Just a confusing experience of fever dreams.
I think I really need to look there. It is a useful thing but it really shouldn't be there.

The ways people would adapt, coming up with their own tricks or whatever. a well versed telepath would probably be a man of few words or maybe they need to be well versed in speech to try to incite the others brain to work with the, like fishing in shallow water.

I'm listening to Brand Sanderson's lectures.

how distracting are inserting actual symbols?

>>21067154
They're alright. I like it when he brings in his bird.

>>21062225
Memento
>is from the imperative form of meminisse, a Latin verb that literally means "to remember." (The term memento mori, meaning "a reminder of mortality," translates as "remember that you must die.")

VS

Souvenir
>First Known Use of souvenir is 1782

S**venir word is obnoxious and too trendy for my blood.