/lit/ - Literature

whats your work schedule for writing look like?

Wing I saw your ad. I'm still not buying it.

>>21679172
>AI can only reproduce formulaic trash, and even then it requires significant human intervention to make anything palatable
Oh? Does your seething opinion apply to OP picrel?

AI COULD NEVER REPLACE ME

>>21679274
It's got the typical coat of AI digital vaseline over everything. As typical of AI, it doesn't hold up even under cursory inspection.

Just like a tranny, AI generated shit can only ever match up to something of real substance at a glance and instantly falls apart if you take a closer look.

Why do you guys suck so much at writing? Genuine question. The writing I read from anons in this thread seems like it's written by people who have maybe read a dozen classic novels and didn't really engage with any of them. I've read multiple things so far that could be vastly improved if the anon just read a novel similar in style and theme to what he's trying to write and asked himself why the author write things a certain way

>>21679287
Because I only have a 4th grade grasp of the English language

>>21679286
Can you even explain what you're talking about? Or are you content to spew generalities and avoid specifics?
For the sake of argument, let's assume you're correct...do you think most people would care about your opinion of "digital Vaseline"?
Or will they just see an image that's good enough for its intended purpose?

>>21679315
Can you even explain what you're talking about? Or are you content to spew generalities and avoid specifics?
For the sake of argument, let's assume you're correct...do you think most people would care about your opinion of "rancid axe-wound"?
Or will they just see a "woman" that's good enough for its intended purpose?

retard

Started editing/draft phase of first chapter. Aliens are behind everything in my book although they don't make a full appearance their presence is acknowledged and hinted towards but I don't want it to be a full horror/science fiction and instead want the focus to be more on the strangeness/otherness with UFO alien encounters to be a big theme.

>>21679270
Jennifer Lepp's workflow looks like logging into Sudowrite, having it help her write her novel, releasing a new novel every 9 weeks, and pulling an income in the low 6 digits.

>>21679287
For me it's that I generally enjoy a bit of everything, write a bit of everything, and thus never settle into a defined style.
Jk, I'm simply retarded and have failed myself in keeping to do more than mindlessly reading. The image goes straight to my mind, the locomotive for doing so remaning a mystery.
Fuck, I really should start being more attentive of the prose, and not just what's going on in a scene.

Thoughts?


>Jon’s monitor kicked on with a flash, and as usual, a short advertisement played, only this time featuring a petite woman capering through a park with a Pepsi, wide-eyed and smiling with a comically enlarged mouth stretched to a nauseating intensity of feigned mirth. Jon gazed on in a neurotic conflict of disgust and attraction.

>“Every video will have a short advert play before we get to the goods. This gives you time to relax and prepare for the next one.”

>Jon rolled his chair closer to the desk, tossing his last cigarette into the small catchall afforded to him by Bernstein after an incident in which one of his still-lit cigarettes rolled off of his desk onto the carpet of their rental. Although Jon picked the material up from the smoking carpet stomped from fire, the whole thing gave Bernstein the fantods, spawning a whole lecture to not just Jon but the whole team about the importance of fire safety that threatened an all-out ban on cigarettes in the office that would have otherwise been passed if it were not for the receptionist putting up such fit while on speaker phone with someone whom she called her “bigtime daddy,” who kept saying he had to return to a meeting in some building outside of New Jersey for lunch with a well-known politician whom he never directly named. Some of the figures, like Karl, left the building for lunch before the madness ensued, but most of the researchers and twenty-odd participants cluttered around the tight office space orbiting around the foci of Jean, the receptionist, and Bernstein as she chased the old man to his office, extending out her phone to his grey wig as if caught in a new Olympic event in which a barber must not only give a haircut but do so while chasing after a performing sprinter. The whole event ended with a slam of a door and the drumming of Jean’s fist, but otherwise, Jon hadn’t heard anything about it since, besides coming in one morning to a new ceramic tray at home with his keyboard and mouse.

>“Jon, get ready. The video is about to start in five, four, three, two, one.”

>The first video featured a slightly overweight, Rubenesque woman strutting in a low-rent motel in even cheaper lingerie, chasing a leptosome figure over to the only bed in focus, which sank into a deep sag as the two piled on top of its spineless mattress. The room itself looked to have been last decorated in the late-80s with puke green carpet and absurdly garish bedspreads the color of regurgitated wine found in a sorority sister’s bathroom—inconsistent and mottled with discoloration—still to be complemented by once gold, now matte-tawny sconces on either side of the bed, an item the woman used for balance throughout the whole scene.

>>21679329
How could it be clear that the udder and tongue had been intricately cut out if the cow was nothing but a pile of bone, sinew, and cartilage, and the heifer was pulled inside out and someone played with it like a Slinky?
These two points would seem to contradict each other.

>>21679331
haha, you should do that too then

>>21679343
We all should.

>>21679329
I think you could use the word "was" less often, and trim some sentences down

Any tips on webnovel monetization?
Side stories as patreon content? I had people offer to pay me to write more but I doubt that a lot of people are just going to pay me without exclusive stuff in return. Don't want to wring people but I feel like earning some money from my work.

>>21679359
Advance chapters as patreon content.

>>21679362
Feels a bit cheap, no?

>>21679329
I personally would put the first exposition paragraph before the conversation between Tom and Jane. And I'll probably describe the organs being pulled out a bit more than just "someone pulled the heifer inside out." The scene is important, so I feel like it should slow down.

>>21679367
>>21679359
Perhaps release notes and scrapped text in intervals or after big arcs?

>>21679367
That's the most reasonable and common method. Webnovel (the site) in its entirety is built on readers paying to access further chapters, by comparison asking like 5-10usd for a month of advance content is a very good deal. It also works very well.

I need inspiration for some little British bully boys. Anyone know of some examples I should rip off?

>>21679321
OK, since you're so desperate to change the subject...
...can anyone ELSE explain what anon means by "digital Vaseline"?
Or did anon simply make a Freudian slip related to butt sex?

>>21679380
https://www.google.com/search?q=what+it's+like+to+be+bullied+in+Britain
Never mind being replaced by AI...you're going to be replaced by people that can use Google.

>>21679222
Please respond, I don't know how serializers plan their work out

>In her papa's shed in the pastures of Tørnsgaard she used to draw milk from the cows, and her hands still remembered pressing the udders and massaging the milk out. That was how her lungs felt now--as though they were being squeezed and milked, wrought between clenched hands.

This happened a while back but I want to vent.
>write something for a week or two to see how high I can go in trenidng with a mass-appeal story
>get bored and drop it after getting enough views to satisfy my ego
>forget about it and never log into the account I published it on
>check back on it a year later
>dozens of people asked what happened to me and to please continue
>someone picked it up and wrote multiple times what I did over months until they gave the story a conclusion because they "couldn't bear the thought of the characters just being forgotten"

I felt like shit when I saw how much people cared for the characters I made and then discarded. Gave me perspective on the responsibility I have as an author.

>>21679409
Post it

>>21679409
God I wish this happened to me

>>21679373
Might be a good idea.
>>21679374
Guess I'll do that in addition to other stuff then.

>>21679380
Not exactly British, but the schoolboys bullying Stephen Dedalus in Portrait of the Artist could get you started

>>21679380
>What is Lord Of The Flies
Fucking gen z retards i swear to christ.

>>21679359
Make a tip jar. That's it.

>>21679412
No, it's isekai cunny coom.
>>21679414
I haven't published since then because I always feel like I won't finish the story.

I guess I should just write stuff without
publishing and then upload with a huge backlog.

>>21679432
Holy based
Post it.
NOW

>>21679435
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/258584/reborn-as-a-little-girls-stuffed-animal--from-harmless-plush-toy-animal-to-dark-god-of-gluttony/

>join a d*scord event where people read their work aloud and then people critique
>everyone just says wow nice I liked it :)
when I posted my chapter here people just said I should write porn instead
there's no winning

>>21679447
the LINK I'm dying

>>21679447
I kneel. I want to know the secret of this prose.

>>21679447
>99k total views
Your ego is far too easily satisfied anon

>>21679451
Sure there is.
You win when you make enough money from writing to ditch your day job.

>>21679465
But writing is my day job.
Is there no escape?

>>21679463
seems solid to me
>>21679447
did you shill or did you just write and post?

>>21679476
SH is extremely horny, stuff like this is basically optimized for the target audience

>>21679447
dios mio...

>>21679463
I think my goal was to get on trending or something stupid like that. I think it had 20k views when I stopped l.
>>21679476
I don't think I did anything besides posting daily.

>>21679422
>names an extremely popular and well-known example rather than some obscure character from a niche webnovel about having sex with snake women
>standing assumption is that i was unfamiliar with the popular one
This site has gone downhill

>>21679447
Reading that link is the hardest I've laughed in over a week. What the hell were you writing, anon...

>>21679484
christ

>>21679472
Is what you're writing for your day job the same sort of thing you write on your own time?

>>21679447
Why even bother trying to write anything meaningful when cunny loli porn gets 99 gorillion views

I remember my artist friend seriously considering doing furry porn because no one would comission him for regular art but tons of internet pervs wanted him to draw furry in his style--this is the fate of all illustrators in this day and age. Is writing the same way? Are your options just to write porn or toil forever in irrelevant obscurity?

>>21679451
did anybody have a negative reaction to a book reading?

>>21679512
>alright, anyone want to start discussion?
>anyone...?
>ok, so next is ____

>>21679509
Write your meaningful stuff in-between the cunny. Like a poisoned treat except it's valuable literature.

>>21679509
99k views is basically nothing by WN standards, anon

>>21679447
HOLY BASED. please let me add this to the pastebin

>>21679526
Not sure what the pastebin is about, I come here once every 6 minths or so but go ahead.

>>21679533
its a pastebin of authors from here. you should come by more often

>>21679512
I did, in one of my college writing classes. (Just over 30 years ago.)
I couldn't understand the level of seethe I was getting, especially given how constructive everyone's criticism of the other stories were.
No one else in the class got that level of vitriol.
I haven't given two shits about criticism of my work ever since...so I guess there was a happy ending after all.

>>21679512
>be me
>100 years old
>still in second grade
>in the retard class
>everyone else is 90-100 years old
>nobody can fucking read
>even after 90 years in second grade
>teacher is an A.I. computer
>"Ok class, it's reading time."
>everyone starts screaming
>taking their clothes off
>running around
>start gay assfucking each other
>shit all over the plase from 90 years of gay ass fucking
>A.I. doesn't do anything
>a few guys are dead from AIDS
>bodies just on the floor and getting stale
>A.I. bot comes and cleans once a week
>free government meals 3 times a day
>school rated A+ for the most pride
>shit and cum out of my ass
>i'm wrestling some other guy
>tricking to get my dick inside him
>slippery fucker cause he's rubbed shit all over himself
>A.I. just flashing vowels on the screen
>we're all screaming
>when "a" comes on the screen
>the a turns green and makes a nice sound
>A.I says "Good job" and flashes a smiling face
>another bot comes in with the voting box
>gives us a metal e-stamp
>shoots metal wires around our hand
>forces the stamp into our hand
>we stamp the e-voting box
>"thank you" says the A.I.
>we don't even notice this shit
>some guys trying to fuck the voting robot
>it doesn't care
>just keeps collecting votes
>school funding bill gets passed
>trillions of dollars for schools
>nothing changes
>all the money goes to computers in charge
>we don't even know what money is
>we can't count
>just screaming all the time
>eating government food
>shitting it all over each other

Can't make this shit up

>>21679542
Why on you still on 4chan old man

>>21679509
>99k views
>a lot
It's not really that much on these big WN sites, and you have to take into account that the views for every chapter are added together. Xianxia stuff gets into the millions of views easily. The only metric that really matters is whether or not you're able to monetize those views

>Delete all the stupid video games that were soul sucking grinds
>Delete all the Discord channels that were shit anyway and no one was actually my friend

It's been the biggest help in my writing. Instead of chasing that endorphin rush now I write.

>>21679543
Who repairs the A.I. machines when the A.I.-repairing machines break down?
Shades of "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster.

>>21679447
>18+
What would happen if I didn't include that disclaimer?

>>21679545
It's how I learn about the younger generation.
And My God, you people are fscked.

>>21679542
what was the story about?

>>21679517
I hate that everybody is nice about everything, but also some people are autistic and don't know the difference between criticism and outright pissing on a piece of work
also feedback like "its good" is as horrible as complete silence

>>21679003
Another good article on AI writing:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-best-ai-story-generator-tools-free-paid-2022-eric-darnell

Any tips on how to write weird fiction?
In this day and age it seems like everything past ''le random'' era has been done.

How do I write weird fiction without seeming like some stupid Rick and Morty plotline?

>>21679556
Two NEET brothers that were tricked into fighting and killing each other by their older relative benefactor, who was sick of supporting them.

>>21679552
It got shadowbanned at some point, but maybe you'd get gotten faster?
I think making your loli 500 years old in the story is definitely safer than just a disclaimer like this if you want to publish cunny.

>>21679542
Probably because your work was glaringly superior to everyone else's

>>21679565
lol sounds normal, what was the feedback?

>>21679564
Interesting question.
Because I can't help but write weird fiction.
Even my attempts at normal stuff go off the rails.
But I'm naturally "weird", by other people's standards.
Personally, I think everyone else is weird.
Other than looking at what everyone else looks at and coming up with an interpretation that no one else seems to come up with, I'm not sure how to guide you.
Disclaimer: I am stone-cold sober...though I do like my caffeine.

>>21679536
Guess I'll post my next work here too once I publosh it and give you guys another giggle.

>>21679564
just write
if you aren't a beat sheet following drone you get called weird fiction
t. guy who writes normal stories but has normies call it weird fiction all the time

>>21679574
Holy shit, I can tell your writing is garbage already. What are you, 12 years old?
''LEL I'M WEIRD NO ONE GETS IT EVERYONE ELSE IS WEIRD LEL''

I've never cringed so hard in my entire life.

>>21679591
literacy is literally unironically FREE and you still made this post

>>21679447
How do I even fucking compete?

>>21679574
Wow you're THAT wacky AND stone-cold sober?
I wish I was as cool as you, maybe one day I'll get to where I'm naturally ''weird''.

>>21679338
Sentence too long.

>>21679574

>>21679570
I thought it was really nitpicky.
Forgive my memory lapses, but this was a long time ago.
I remember being criticized for the font I used for the title.
It kinda looked like this...
https://pe-images.s3.amazonaws.com/type/effects/perspective-shadow/fill-black.jpg
...but much lower-tech.
I remember when it came time to discuss my story with the class, and the teacher sighed and seemed reluctant to start the conversation.
I piped up that I usually write sci-fi, and her mocking response was "go back to writing sci-fi", to which the whole class giggled.
I remember one seething girl complained my characters were two-dimensional, but didn't explain why, or how she reached that conclusion.
At the end, when I explained my underlying idea, that I was trying to describe insanity, I got nothing but uneasy silence.
I wish I could remember more of their complaints, but given how other people's stories received constructive criticism, and I did that for others, I'm not sure what the deal was.
So you can imagine how little I care about the seething criticism my writing has received here. You amateur critics are 30 years too late.

>>21679591
I dunno, I thought I was channeling Gomez Addams with that viewpoint.

>>21679574
>Interesting question.
>Because I can't help but write weird fiction.
>Even my attempts at normal stuff go off the rails.
>But I'm naturally "weird", by other people's standards.
>Personally, I think everyone else is weird.
>Other than looking at what everyone else looks at and coming up with an interpretation that no one else seems to come up with, I'm not sure how to guide you.
>Disclaimer: I am stone-cold sober...though I do like my caffeine.

>>21679338
You're trying way too hard. You keep going for long sentences without having the ability to make them flow well, and many of your descriptions are excessively purple to the point that reading them makes me feel ill

>>21679619
Uh yeah, you nailed it buddy.

>Holy shit

>>21679603
I think the key is to genuinely not care what others think.
After all, most people are stupid, ignorant, lazy, dishonest, and cowardly, so why would I court their approval anyway?
My advice is to be rigorously iconoclastic.

>>21679409
same

At what point should I give up on my very first draft and rewrite it with a new direction? 10k words? 100k words? See how long I can ride it out for and get an ending?

>>21679629
I was being facetious, you moron.

>>21679632
Can the rewrite be a new book?
If not, rewrite it.
If so, tie up the original and make the new idea a different book.

>>21679621
Actually, I look perfectly normal.
I like to be able to blend in as a normie.
Then I open my mouth and it's all over.
>>21679625
I prefer the one from the 1964 TV series. See picrel.
He also passed for a normie until he opened his mouth.

>>21679633
Poor normie...not only is normal the best you'll ever be, but you're smug about it.
Enjoy being the sort of normie whose normalcy makes normality the norm.

if you think about it, I'm actually quite weird myself

>>21679601
It's not a competition. Writing isn't a zero-sum game.

>>21679638
>y-you're a normie! I'm weird!
>I don't even wash my anus! haha!
>Sometimes I say ''POTATO!'' for no reason! LEL RANDOM

Please go touch some grass you idiot.

>>21679643
come on anon don't chase him away
we've got a bonafide relic from 2012 here

>>21679643
I think we just learned something about you, anon.
And it's not complimentary.

I'm so weird, I can't help but write the weirdest fiction in the entire world.
My friends even say I'm weird, but guess what? I think THEY are weird! They don't understand how weirdly I understand reality and all my weird writing is very weird.
Sometimes I write things so weird I imagine myself as Gomez from the early Addams Family series in black and white. It makes me realize just how weird I am, and how normal other people are, who I think are actually weird, because I think I'm normal!

>>21679643
Shouting "potato" is for posers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-5lpCRxgiA

>>21679574
You are the reason /lit/ sucks now.

>>21679656
An amazingly normie viewpoint of what true weirdness is.
You're only embarrassing yourself.

>>21679664
This.
I live in backwoods Louisiana near a lake, but always heard ''KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD''.
I went there and it's just a normal big city with tons of homeless people and hookah bars.
Pathetic.

>>21679668
Yyyyep.
Normies ruin everything.
I'm not sure why they have to insist everyone be like them.
Maybe it's a mind-controlling parasitic infection, like toxoplasmosis.
But they sure don't tolerate any deviation from their norm, do they?
Give a normie an inch, and they think they're a ruler.

I want my book to bring god to tears

>>21679591
>>21679603
>>21679611
>>21679621
>>21679625
>>21679633
>>21679643
>>21679656
>>21679660
>coming to 4chan to defend normalcy
lolololololololololololol

>>21679676
The anon earlier in the thread likely already did that with his novel about reincarnating as a loli's teddy bear

I just bought 4chan ads and hope it sells 5 books.

>>21679686
Why buy ads when you can just shill in every single thread like Gardner

>>21679687
just to try it out. Amazingly I've gotten 10 clicks on the ad already.

>>21679564
Are you sure you want to write weird fiction?
Look at all the normie seething I just unleashed.
I can take the abuse, but can you?

Wrote this because I thought I had some energy, but I'm about to crash and sleep. Still would like to know how good of a hook you find it. Not sure if this is the kind of story that should be heavy prose or light and sarcastic.

Chapter 1

I stood outside my brother’s apartment building with my Mossberg 940 over my shoulder and tried to call him. After a moment of valiant struggling, my phone said it couldn’t get a signal. Not that I was in the boonies somewhere, I was on the outskirts of one of the biggest cities in my state. I thought maybe cell reception would improve when I got back to civilization, or what passed for it here but no such luck. Honestly, the whole place made me sick. My skin crawled just being here. There was just something wrong about a street lined with houses but no people.

There were half a dozen packages ripped open on the porch. I saw some books, a cheese grater, and clothes, but nothing useful. I ran my tongue over my teeth and pondered the door. The lock still worked, but the buzzer was dead. Knocking produced no response from inside and I wasn’t sure smashing the glass open was a good idea. Before doing anything rash, I took a step back and looked it over again. On the second story, I spotted a balcony with an open door.

Thankfully, I was traveling light so I was able to toss my coat up ahead of myself. The box of shells smacked the wood as I scrambled up. I had to stuff my gun through the railing slats and then brace myself against the brick wall so I could climb. I rolled over with a grunt and popped back to my feet. The barrel of my gun poked through the curtain first. I swept the steel across the ransacked room and didn’t see any movement but some fluttering of trash. I slipped back into my leather jacket before heading out the front door.

I rapped my knuckles on door 1A and glanced around. “Yo, Adam,” I shouted, smacking my fist on it some more. When I tried the handle, it popped open an inch only to stop on on a chain. I huffed and slammed my heel into the door. The chain didn’t break, but I ripped a chunk of wood from the frame, which was just as good.

>>21679766
I assume that's not the entire chapter.
So far, it has decent narrative drive.

>>21679780
Of course, just when I ran out of wakefulness and stopeed.

>>21679766
Is this the whole chapter? I've noticed that one problem everyone has on this board is that everyone's “chapters” are only, like, a page long. And it's not some innovative, creative use of pacing where the short chapters are intentional--it's glaringly obvious that it's always from a lack of attention span and dedication. A lot of people will tell you to ignore all the rules, but starting out with some restrictions on yourself can help you form a framework to hang your writing on. For chapters, I suggest sticking with the age-old average chapter length of about 4,000 words. Give it a shot.

The writing in this sample is okay, it's not terrible, except that it's super short like every other “chapter” people post on here. These aren't chapters unless you have the attention span of a 4-year-old iPad kid raised by a single mom.

Granted, you did say you were just casually banging this out before bed, but you should try putting effort into something and polishing it before sharing it for critique, because otherwise it's going to have obvious glaring flaws that (always) will be pointed out.

>>21679784
>>21679790
Got it, that's a relief.

>>21679795
I find it really weird you thought not even 400 words was a chapter. I was asking for feedback on the opening hook.

>>21679790
Even on royalroad the practical minimum is 1k words for a chapter, and even then that's solely for the purpose of keeping up a frequent update schedule. When such WNs get amazon releases they get longer, proper chapters.

i finished rewritting (half) of my story AGAIN. this time i feel a bit comfortable enough to share it here since i didn't 100% like the way events played out before. it probably wont any much attention or even be popular here compared to the stuff other anons written. i at least wanna put myself on the radar

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/43574/progressive-detective-the-q

>>21679797
Because I've seen tons of people here unironically post like 500-word snippets, call it the whole chapter, and not see anything wrong with that. Most of the people here probably have ADHD and don't have the patience to write an actual novel.

>>21679813
So do you have useful critique? Or not?

>>21679266
Paracelsus popularized the idea of each of the four elements having a type of being embodying it, but it's always bugged me how Fire has Salamanders as its embodiment, but the other elements get a thinking entity/race instead of animal, however mystical. Other than Djinn or Dragons, what would work well as a replacement for Salamanders for a fire-aspected being?

Also, what are some mystical creatures and beings that we can associate with each element in general? Particularly ones that are less obvious in their alignment or don't get used as often?

>>21679820
Fireflies

>>21679790
>everyone's “chapters” are only, like, a page long
On the other hand, that's the average length of a chapter in the Bible.
>age-old average chapter length of about 4,000 words
Not old enough, apparently.

>>21679820
>fire-aspected being
How about rednecks from South Carolina that can eat ghost peppers like popcorn?

>>21679820
Fire - Fireflies
Water - Dragonflies
Wind - Butterflies
Earth - Sandflies

>>21679819
nah I just wanna bitch sorry

>day of writing erotica
>writing session interrupted by cooming
I don't know if its because I am such a good writer or if this is normal

>>21679819
I mean, I can nitpick individual lines, but that's about it, because there's not enough content here for me to know anything about the plot, characters, pacing, etc. I can't comment on your "hook" because there's no hook in this sample.

It might seem like you had a hook because the MC has a gun, but nothing is really implied or teased, at least in this tiny sample. If it ended with the MC busting open the door and then finding a dead body, that would be a hook. But it just ends with him trying to open a door without us getting any insight into why. We don't need an explanation, just some foreshadowing or hook for the reader.

However, I don't actually recommend ending this scene with him finding a body or anything like that, because then your pacing would be way too fast, and while some people like that, it would come across as lazy and amateur-ish.

As for how certain lines can be improved...
>valiant sruggling" is a bit awkward, as is "my phone still said it couldn't get a signal." Should probably just read, "my phone still couldn't get a signal" or "I still couldn't get a signal."
> "I thought maybe cell reception would improve when I got back to civilization, or what passed for it here (needs comma here) but no such luck."
There isn't much to say because there isn't much to read; the prose isn't bad, but it's very mediocre. A lot of it feels very generic. Again, nothing really stands out as specifically "bad" or "awful," but there isn't really anything good either. (I suppose, all things considered, that's a good thing, because most first drafts are "bad" and at least your first few paragraphs are "ok," and with some tweaks can easily be improved drastically.)

>>21679837
this is not me replying, >>21679843 is

>>21679842
you're supposed to not coom so that you can keep channeling the sexual frustration into the erotica, anon

>>21679766
it feels like I'm reading from a list of things. Vary sentence length, maybe stop putting commas after every 4th word.
0 Soul

>>21679828
>>21679833
Do you have any suggestions that aren't puns?

>>21679851
I was thinking about typing up my own critique, but yeah it basically just lacks soul, artistry, and perhaps also personality. Anyone could have written it, there's nothing special about it. It's bland.

>>21679859
Do you have any creativity yourself?

>>21679843
I know there isn't anything about the total story plot yet, but I was aiming for "enough curiosity that you continue on to the next page"

>>21679877
Curiosity? No. The only reason I would probably continue reading to the next page is to try to justify reading the first page, because I rarely drop a book on the *very* first page; but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t drop it on the second or third.

>>21679859
Literally just look up existing elemental monsters. It's not hard, anon. Certainly easier than arguing with anons that will call you a fag and tell you to look it up. Fag.

>>21679859
Fire Camel
Water Hippo
Earth Zebra
Wind Elephant

>>21679747
You're a loser. Do not respond to me. You are embarrassing.

>>21679820
How about trees?

Oak = Earth
Saguaro Cactus = Fire
Kelp = Water
Dandelions = Wind

>>21679829
this may come as a shocker, but you're not writing the bible

>>21679820
How about Humans in a world of Lizardmen?

>Niggers = Wind
>A-RABS = Fire
>Wypipo = Water
>Changs = Earth

>>21679913
Their "elemental powers"
>Niggers = Run fast
>Towel Heads = Explosives
>Wypipo = Submissive
>Changs = Eats any animals

>>21679901
Normie. You will never write weird fiction.
Go back to Plebbit and whore yourself for updoots.

>>21679906
How do you know that for sure?
Maybe one of my projects is writing a new holy text, based on what's been revealed to me.
Maybe I'm writing it as a novel, so as to make the medicine go down smoother, as it were.
You know nothing about what I'm writing.

>>21679916
Pokémon Clover kind of did this.

>>21679895
Okay, I see that I should have asked about this in /sffg/, or at least phrased it differently.

>>21679932
/sffg/ would give you a far more hostile response and just told you to go back to /wg/
source: i tried that before

>>21679622
Noted

>>21679920
let me read the first page

Is it bad I perfer premade high fanasty worlds other then my own (Writing one is hard maybe some day though)

I like writing in the elder scrolls universe, but I question, is that bad? Using someone else's world?

>>21679968
pretty gay but if you enjoy it, keep going

>>21679968
it's not bad but it's not much effort to put your own spin on things you enjoy and ends up more fulfilling in the end
source: used to be the same and my own settings are just mashups of all my influences

>>21679968
building your own world and struggling with that void (what to include, what not to) is an intrinsic part of writing

>>21679968
its like riding a tricycle, sure you can ride but the moment you get on a bicycle you will fall and that's unavoidable

>>21679287
I am retarded and illiterate. I probably already made a mistake in this post.

>>21679287
have your tried writing? This sounds like it comes from someone who reads and doesn't write at all.

>>21679968
>is that bad?
Yeah. A lot of the draw of fantasy/sci-fi is the creation of your own world and the creativity that goes into that. What's the point if you're just using someone else's work? Why are you writing fantasy?

>>21679986
I'm an editor, and also write a lot of my own stuff. What about my post seemed off to you? Picking apart the structure of good writing is how good writers should and do improve. I'm simply questioning why it seems like nobody here does that. I constantly see people ask for critique on excerpts that they themselves would immediately know to be shit if they just read something in a similar style and seriously studied it

>>21679997
>Why do you guys suck so much at writing?
this part
it's a weird question to ask if you are an editor + someone who writes. It comes off like you read more then you write and are like "yea its super easy, all you have to do is write like those other guys and you'll make a good book."
and also, as an editor, you should know that most published books go through massive amounts of editing before they are even published, so its weird that you are asking why authors don't have some sort of magic sense that tells them what authors to read and how to figure things out every time they are stuck writing.

>>21679997
Nta. Can you tell me the secret to this mysterious concept of a "good flow"? I don't get it, nobody really explains it in technical detail. They say it's a skill you get years into writing, but that just sounds rearded. Where should I look for to even recognize a good sentence?

How's my opening? I know it's basically a "peaceful day and some shit happens" similar to LotR's. I tried adding a bit of lore with introducing new "technology" and a few other tidbits. I think it's better than starting straight into an action scene.

>>21680005
>bustling city
Cliche.

>>21680002
>and also, as an editor, you should know that most published books go through massive amounts of editing
That really depends. There are a decent amount of authors that don't need very much line-editing and have a very intuitive sense of what is good or bad at a sentence and paragraph level. A lot of editing for novels at a higher level is more focused on the structure of the novel. A lot of publishing companies these days will flat out refuse to work with you if your writing isn't already clean to begin with and requires serious work.

>it's a weird question to ask if you are an editor + someone who writes
Is it really a weird question to asked in a general focused on writing, on a board that's focused on literature? Assuming that the average poster here cares about literature and writing at a deep level, it is genuinely weird to me that the writing level is so low.

>it's weird that you are asking why authors don't have some sort of magic sense that tells them what authors to read and how to figure things out every time they are stuck writing
If you're even decently read, I don't think it should be hard to figure out what you should read when you're stuck on a certain element in your writing. And if you're not at that point where you have a general idea of what authors used what styles/literary techniques well, you should desperately be reading a lot more

>>21680022
I think you don't write and that impression has only deepened by you not rebuking my accusation
why not post some of your writing?

>>21680022
I personally want to try to emulate James Patterson. I love his fast to the point prose and direct clarity that leaves no interpretation. It's a perfect piece of writing.

>>21680024
>why not post some of your writing?
Because I'm not here for validation from anons. Whether or not you believe that I actually write isn't very important. It doesn't change the validity of anything I've said

>>21679287
big words
pyw, I have

>>21680036
you're not here for validation, post your shittiest writing if you want (at least 2000 words). I just want to see that you actually write
and it is kinda important because you started this by asking what about your post seemed off and I explained that you don't write. You are asking for an explanation for something that would be easily explained if you've spent longer then 1 month, maybe even a week, writing something/anything

>>21679287
Easy because nobody knows why they suck until it gets pointed out. That's why it's important for teachers to grade things properly for students. People learn best from their mistakes, not emulating someone.

I can write "The cat is orange." a billion times, but without someone to tell men "hey maybe you should use a metaphor instead of "orange", I will never learn.

>>21679850
super hard for me to do
something about the atmosphere makes it impossible to just write

>>21680076
I've written webnovels and even posted one here a couple years ago; but again, I'm not presently here for validation.

>Easy because nobody knows why they suck until it gets pointed out.
That's not really true. It can be hard to discern some small details on your own, but any good writer definitely knows what sentence structures are good, bad, and why. As well as having the ability to discern that their writing sounds off while reading it. The stuff I've read on here lately is heavily flawed on a structural level, without even going into small details. So, again, people should definitely be taking the time to gain an intuitive sense of writing quality

>>21680088
Write an outline and think the action through so the novelty of the story doesn't make you arroused. Honestly, when I wrote erotica as an exercise I barely got an occasional weak erection.

>>21680095
I already have a rough outline of what I'm writing, and the writing itself is pretty formulaic.
I think I may just be an amazing writer, or something

>>21680091
>any good writer definitely knows what sentence structures are good, bad, and why.
In order to get good you need to be bad first. Not everyone has latent talent in writing that'll rival Edgar Allan Poe. 99% of people are regular Joe's that read at a 5th grade level who's only writing experience are argumentative essays written back in high school. And today with the advent use of technology through copy and pasting and now chatgpt, writing as an artform is rare, similar to that of cursive and shorthand writing.

You're literally in a thread with people that are complete beginners, but do not have the resources or support to get better. The novels we read are royal road stories. Proof? Look at the writer's paste in. We don't know what good writing is for the 2nd decade in the 21st century

>>21680112
>We don't know what good writing is for the 2nd decade in the 21st century
kinda hits hard the more you think about it
after 900 years some guy writing a fanfic could be considered the William shakespeare of the 21st century while we all shit on his writing

>>21679266
Going off the OP image, what is key to remember when writing about pirates? Especially female ones?

>>21680119
The contribution this generation provides is Where the Crawdads Sing. Good story, but nowhere near the poetic prose of even The Color Purple. Our best seller is James Patterson, Alex Cross, and we have yet to have a book define this decade or even the last

>>21680123
Made for big barnacled captains

>>21680135
you need a couple more decades (maybe even centuries) for all the politics to fuck off before we decide the good books, I mean I would say that we can only look at books from the 80's maybe 90's

as a hypothetical would you guys ever publish something under someone else's name? Like let's say you get nothing from publishers but you're married to a woman of color and when you slap her name on things suddenly people want to talk. Assume in this scenario your wife is willing to play along, hypothetically.

>>21680112
I suppose that's a good point. I just think that people here should set a higher standard for themselves. There's an abundance of resources available to become a writer capable of writing quality work, even in the OP pastebin, so there's not really any excuse to constantly posting 8th grade level writing

>>21680142
if you are willing to let them take all the fame/money then go for it

>>21680147
>all the fame
kinda feeling this
>money
well in this hypothetical scenario we're married so joint finances, and mid list genre fiction wouldn't be anything serious to the money either of us make.

>>21680153
well if it becomes big and gets optioned to a movie/tv or if it become (highly unlikely) the next harry potter
you would feel pretty miffed because she will 100% leave you and she will 100% get all the fame, I think the possibility is none-zero it happens

>>21680146
I am SO curious about your writing

>>21680156
I really doubt this particular work will blow up, I mean there's always a chance but I'm taking a realistic view. Also
>she'll leave you and take the money
I really doubt she'd do that, but as a hypothetical she was already rich when we married and I was broke as shit and we have no prenup, so in this scenario I'm the gold digging bitch.

>>21680146
There isn't. We can hear, listen, and try as much as we want, but we don't have the "coaching" part of it to elevate us to the next level. We've all listened to Brandon Sanderson, all the YouTubers, read the books and guides, but now plateau and stuck. We have plenty of people here that wish to get better, but know no one that'll take the time to help them become better. Im not ever going to be John Steinbeck, and writing like him in 2023 would be considered bad.

>>21680179
I would never give another person anything I've worked on, not even my own mother.
Even if it is the 1800's slavery fiction I think you've written

>>21680160
Maybe I'll post the new webnovel I'm working on here sometime soon, but I'll leave whether or not it's mine as a mystery

>>21680185
do you not have something you worked on that you've dropped or couldn't find a way to make work?

>>21680184
>1800s slavery fiction
close but it's a swashbuckling fantasy adventure set in the British Raj with a white male protagonist and and Indian woman, apparently that's a lot more appealing to publishers when the Indian woman writes it, but I think I'm just going to say fuck it and not publish it.

>>21680190
if its interesting you should keep querying
it's hilarious how publishers supposedly like a book differently depending on who wrote it

>>21680183
It's not about writing like Steinbeck, it's understanding why Steinbeck wrote the way he did. Obviously completely emulating another author's style is bad and won't get you very far, but if you understand the decisions they made, you can apply that to your own writing. It's the exact same way artists learn how to paint well. They study the styles of the old masters. That doesn't mean that they paint that way when producing their own work, but if you asked them to produce a copy of a famous painting, they'd likely be able to pull it off fairly well.

>>21680200
well apparently a white man talking about a white male protagonist being seduced by a voluptuous Indian princess is cringe but the same fucking dialogue from an Indian woman is empowering. Fuck me right? Stephen King is full of shit when he says write what you know.

>>21680203
you should self-pub if you really want to. I could see a big market for indian women that like white men (which is probably why they were interested when they thought you were a woman)

>>21680187
I've dropped projects before, but it was usually due to a loss of interest in the story rather than difficulty in writing. Although, I do have a serious novel I've been considering for a while that I haven't started writing yet due to having a hard time figuring out how to structure it in a way that would be marketable, since it involves a lot of vignettes and a non-traditional plot structure

>>21680209
post one little tiny snippet

>>21679453
please respond

>>21679997
>I'm an editor,
Then you should now that people have a huge blind spot for their own works. It's easy to recognize other people's mistakes, but hard to see your own.

>>21680022
>Assuming that the average poster here cares about literature and writing at a deep level, it is genuinely weird to me that the writing level is so low.
You like art right? Just look at the Sistine chapel and paint like Michelangelo. Easy.

>>21680022
Honestly, I went to study prose and discovered that all your criticism doesn't hold up. You are blatantly wrong in your judgement, even if the text wasn't good either. I think you're a fucking troll.

>>21680142
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/59357120

>>21679266
How do I write decent dialogue?
Or well dialogue that sounds real and not pulled from cartoons.

>>21680496
You aren't supposed to write real dialogue, you're supposed to write literature dialogue. Not how people speak, but how people imagine speaking. Read dialogue in books, go through the analysis of it, account for character vocabulary and ideas, understand the misunderstanding and assume your character is speaking to the reader in a very elaborate mysterious manner.

Has anyone ever written a book about a giant underground terrarium?
Planning to combine my love of bunkers with my love of claustrophobia, and want to make sure Im being original.

>>21680528
Mostly I feel like my dialogue is extremely utilitarian, but I really don't know how to make it feel "good" so to speak.

>>21680596
Anon...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterranean_fiction

>>21680596
>>21680607
I swear, people here don’t bother to do even the most basic research anymore.

>>21680607
The only story on the list similar to the one Im developing is the City of Ember, which in and of itself is vastly different. So I guess Im good.
>>21680621
Just wanted to know of anything that would fit the specific criteria. Figured Googling would bring up niche or unknown titles so figured I may as well ask considering its only a 2 line post.

>>21680628
>Has anyone ever written a book about a giant underground terrarium?
>Figured Googling would bring up niche or unknown titles so figured
So instead of doing that? You decided to do this? Am I missing something or is there something you're leaving out?

>>21680607
Nice.

>>21679997
You write a lot of your own stuff, do you? Who writes the rest of it, then?
Haha, just messing with you, anon. Stay golden :^)
>>21679406
Wrought is too much.
Is this woman being strangled? Why is she thinking about udders and milk while she's dying/in distress? Why the superposition of a milking massage to the pain of having your chest crushed?
>>21679405
Google 'writing excuses planning a series'
>>21679877
Right now there isn't enough sentence length variation to make me want to continue. The scene is alluring in itself (man with gun breaks into apartment in eery empty street is good) but the comstant self-narration is tiring. Drop the 'honestly', drop the grunts, the tongue running over teeth. I would even drop the brother at the start and introduce it later, so it's ambiguous whether your guy has good intentions. Right now the story reads as a put-upon man being a hero in a post-apocalyptical USA, which is a bloodied, beaten down cliche.

>>21680792
>Is this woman being strangled? Why is she thinking about udders and milk while she's dying/in distress? Why the superposition of a milking massage to the pain of having your chest crushed?
Why are you retarded?

>>21680792
The context for this line is that she’s in an extremely cold environment and the cold has been burning and suffocating to breathe~

>>21680815
:^)
>>21680822
Not a feeling I associate with the word massage, so that choice of word seems strange. A massage is pleasing, the feeling constriction and lack of oxygen is not. But more than that, I would find a better comparison. The prose is not interesting enough on its own, so the passage really lives and dies by the poetical association, which, in my opinion, is flimsy.

>>21680022
Could you point at what we could do to begin the path of improvement? Is there a specific path we can follow, or is the secret to simply analyze good writing?

>>21680792
Thanks for putting it that way, anon, because it's a clear reminder that he's really not meant to be a hero. He's supposed to be a villain protaganist. I think I know how I want to redo it now.

>>21680146
>there's not really any excuse to constantly posting 8th grade level writing
A big factor in this is the constant churn of newbies ITT. Maybe half of posters are regulars who drift in and out of the general week-to-week, but the rest are people that just shat out their first 300 words and are desperate to get some kind of feedback/validation. Guys in this second group almost always stick around for a week and then vanish without a trace - I've read about a thousand "first chapters" but seen maybe four anons finish a project in the past year.

I want to write a novel but I'm genuinely worried that many of the characters would be too fucked up to ever get published

>>21681294
We only have one anon that finished. Wing's The Beautiful Kingdom. I remember early drafts of shit he posted in here. The other three are people that popped out of nowhere to sell their books, then they fucked off again.

>>21681328
I for one have been here for years and finished several projects. I just don't clamor for validation in /wg/ of all places, so I suspect that's a common sentiment among those in the author pastebin.

>>21681328
Krake has finished three books so far, fortysixtyfour has a fair number of finished works, and I finished books insofar as publishing arcs of Retribution Engine on amzn
I'm sure there are others

>>21681346
That's right forgot about krake and trailer trash. I take everything back.

>>21681346
That's about to be 4, I'm finishing up edits today.

How's the community in Scriblephile ?

How much Schopenhauer and Camus should I read before I can make the first part of my book truly PESSIMISTIC? How do I create an atmosphere of complete meaninglessness and existential fear? How do I make my ptotagonist convey this feeling?

>>21681374
You must dig deep inside your soul and dwell in the raw emotions that pester you. Take upon the presence of Satan itself and allow him to simmer your heart. With that you can finally melt the ice of feelings that you are trying to portray

>>21681444
I am quite positive. For me such feelings are almost forgotten. I have dire problems of other nature, but I solved that nihilistic fear and emptiness. Painting a picture of a nice and sweet solution is the theme. So I don't know how do I start at the opposite.

>>21681454
This you must cast yourself into the swamp of nothingness and wallow in the disease of starvation and misery.

>>21679958
OK, so, like anyway...
In the beginning, there was nothing! Not even a Hot Topic! You couldn't even get leg warmers for your yoga class! I'm like so sure.
But then God, he did something like totally awesome...he said "Let there be light, and stuff". And the sky was all bedazzled!
Then God was like "Oh, wow...totally awesome...praise me and stuff."

So like later, in the Garden of Eden, Eve was like "OMG lollersnakes!" And the snake was like "O hai thar."
Then Eve was like "LMAO, kewl fruit. I can has?" The snake was like "LOL...shur...wutevr."
Then Eve was all "nom nom nom" and Adam was like "WTF!"
Then God was like "Epic fail, GTFO". Adam was like all facepalm, and the snake went "LOL trolled".

Pretty soon, God was like "This place sucks! I'm gonna make a big flood and kill everyone!"
And Noah was all "Way to go, we're not even out of Genesis and you already wanna wipe us out? Take the L."
And God got all emo and was like "Shut up..."
Then God went "You need to build an ark, and get two of every animal."
Noah was like "Ya, as if. What about the animals that eat other animals? Who's gonna shovel all that poop? And what the heck is a cubit, anyway?"
Then God got all aggro and was up in Noah's face and was like "Don't sass me, Noah! 'Cause I'm, like, God, and I can like smite you and stuff!"
Noah was all "OK already! Don't get all medieval on my ass! Gaw! I can't even!"

>>21679968
Write in others' fantasy universes all you want, but unless you get permission from them, you'll never be able to publish it.
You'll have to post it for free on AO3.

>>21681474
Lingo is too '00's. Need to update the slang to '20's. Need some frfrfr no cap ya feel me?

>>21681495
I'm riding the wave of '80s nostalgia.

Will you read my detective fiction short story /lit/?

https://pastebin.com/QpqbgkQv

>indented lines are song lyrics
>tl;dr the guy that outlines corpses in chalk is a real job and he's desperate to prove himself

>>21681640
Don't have time to read it now but I chuckled at
>it felt a little more Christmassy somehow

>>21679453
>>21680295
I don't understand what you want to know.

>>21681640
the thing that annoys me the most is all the "just" and "really" and "quite" that take up space without adding anything
>Max never picked the music, this is just what happened to be playing at the moment.
>Max never picked the music—it happened to be playing at the moment.
>The man on the floor looked quite tired.
>The man on the floor looked tired.
>confirming that death really was back-breaking work after all
>confirming that death was back-breaking work after all
although "confirming" is weird word choice here too
>Most of the homicide dicks had already packed up, but Max’s work was just beginning.
>Most of the homicide dicks had already packed up, but that's when Max’s work began.
etc. etc.

>>21681328
>>21681344
Wing is unique in how open he is with sharing the entirety of his draft. I am someone who finished a long project and several small projects in the past year. Like many people I sometimes share a sample but then just go off an do my thing with it, many don't even do that.

>>21679968
Morrowind guy here - as someone who wrote a whole novel in set in elder scrolls that I'm now planning how to make my own setting I would say don't worry about it and just write, but do so very seriously/like a real project (unless you really do just want to mess around) and not a weird little 3 chapter whatever-the-fuck.

Making up fantasy settings is ridiculously easy, literally just change a few terms (The Empire -> the Empire of Marellia, Daedra -> Fire Realm Princes) and make it so people have to hold in farts to generate magic power or whatever.

>>21681328
I finished writing my novel, I’m in the editing phase and it’s almost ready to publish. I put the first two chapters up as a preview on my website.

>>21681982
>that blurb
anon i...

Is "source of impetus" a proper expression? Like "Institution X is the latest source of impetus for coordination between Y and Z."

>>21681982
Enid or onid? Looks good though

>>21682022
>I was thinking about butts again
>This wasn't to say that i was not thinking about breasts as well.
>I've always been a multi-tasker like that.
>Yet to say butts was my source of impetus would not have been a lie.

>>21680632
It takes significantly less time to post a question on /lit/ and check back for smug answers a half hour later than it does to look something up online and sift through all the information I'm presented with.

>>21679968
There's nothing unusual about that, big fantasy worlds like TES are a huge collaborative effort.

https://www.amazon.co.jp/史上最強の大賢者、転生先がぬいぐるみでも最強でした-1-GCノベルズ-ジャジャ丸/dp/4867161640
Is this what you ripped off of? Is this the secret sauce to success? Find the latest isekai Ln and rip off of the premise before it gets translated?

Any recommended books to read to learn how to get into writing the character’s thoughts? I’ve been mostly reading old novels where they barely show a glimpse of the character’s thoughts.

>>21682107
Hamlet. There's a very famous soliloquy

>>21681982
Not trying to be a crab, but...wouldn't morning dew become snow in deep mid-winter?

>>21682091
I assume you're replying to >>21679447, but since I don't speak Japanese, and Google Translate is failing to do anything useful, would you mind sharing what you know?

>>21681982
>The rest of the day flew by with merriment and good company, but it stood out in Enid’s memory as one of her most bitter-sweet.
Isn't this a spoiler that Enid lives to the end?

>>21682091
>>21682191
Publishing date: Juli 2021
Surely... a he didn't actually rip of a /wg/author...?
There's no way.

>>21682239
There's gotta be some weeb around here that can read Japanese & settle this one way or another.

I ought to write an isekai with a hilariously racist hidden message: ie. The Chinese are inhuman aliens that came down from the stars to destroy humanity, and see how long it’ll take for my readers to find it.

>>21682091
Huh, I don't think that was around when I wrote my WN. My inspirations were Kuro (manga) and Reincaranted as a Sword.

>>21682313
If theyre Japanese or Korean theyll eat it up like noodle with chopstick \_/

>>21681687
How did you write like that?

>>21679968
Nothing wrong with enjoying them but you should still stick with trying to make one if thats your goal rather than being dissuaded by the difficulty of it.

Also, TES was mostly written by one person. Michael Kirkbride took shrooms and read every book in the Seattle library on Hinduism and came up with nearly every piece of lore featured in Oblivion in one night.

>>21682239
Nah, by the time that was published it'd have already been vetted for at least a few months. I don't doubt the idea that there are JP lurkers, though.

>>21682374
Like what? I don't read a lot so I don't have much to compare it to.
MC's thoughts are narrated to the reader as if to address his conscious at most times, which I thought would be funny. Firstly because the subject matter is not socially acceptable so his thoughts justify his actions in the story, but also the existence if the novel on a meta level. It's also a veiled reference to "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one..."
... at least that's my best impression of what I'd say if it was my turn to analyse in literature class.
You just gotta think like a bit of a retard and jot down whatever dumb thoughts come to mind.

>>21682412
>>Like what? I don't read a lot so I don't have much to compare it to.
It's much easier to read compared to the bloated prose /lit/ shills and I wanted to know how to reach this level of mastery. I read too much and it's poisoned me.

>>21682432
I tried spending at most 45 minutes a day on writing it because I was sick of trying to figure out complicated sentences and that was how long my commute took. I guess the time limit helped with keeping the complexity of the sentences? Sorry to be of little help.

>>21682313
I'm gonna do the same but with a race of hand-rubbing inhumans who want nothing more than to enslave all other races because their god told them they were the chosen people, and to this end they disguise themselves as other races to infitlrate their organizations and subvert their societies from within

i'm gonna make a proper fantasy jew race is what i mean

Carnival is nice in a way. It gives me 4 days straight to do nothing but drink and write.

Medieval fantasy has been done to death, but litrpg, a novel take on the genre still has plenty of room left for originality.

It would be difficult to make a name for yourself with Space Opera Sci-Fi, as it would be hard to set yourself apart from the pack.

Cyberpunk probably has a lot of interesting stories left to tell, (even watching that show on netflix seemed like a good take)

Steampunk has barely had any classics or great novels at all to come out of it, an untapped treasure trove of sorts.

New Biopunk, like "Sisyphean", is truly mind-bending. It could burst suddenly from its shell and catch the world off-guard.


Retrofuturistic cyber matrix (like Tr0n), could definitely go places I think. Cyberpunk sometimes contains a virtual reality within it.

Grimdark fantasy probably has some untapped potential no doubt, it seems possible someone could really nail the lovecraftian horror vibe spot on.

Magical Realism is having the life sapped out of it currently, and it would be difficult to find some spark of creativity for it nowadays.

Lastly, there's like Hi-Tek High Fantasy, which is like super hero stuff, advanced technology with cosmic powers, it's probably all been done before at this point.

>>21682493
>Grimdark fantasy
Everyone is doing this right now. It's just written under the guise of smut

>>21682493
This post reads like AI.

>>21682521
AI wouldn't have such atrocious punctuation.

>>21682456
Star Trek already did this with the Ferengi.

>>21682493
>Medieval fantasy has been done to death
Assumedly, medieval fantasy means 12th century england plus magic.
Which is what it essentially is to everyone who isn't me.

>>21682528
Ferengi were too sympathetic.

>>21682217
Perhaps, but the stakes are more about stopping the Frost than whether she will live or die. That being said, the first two chapters are actually a flashback to her childhood, while she’s twenty the rest of the story. So it really only spoils that she lives to be at least 20, but not necessarily the end of the book, which I won’t spoil much about.

>>21682493
Don't worry I'm writing a fantasy book set in some pseudo Indo-greek buddhist kingdom with a mix of hellenistic, persian and Indian fantasy elements. It's a multi pov narrative and one subplot involves a crippled prince challenging the philosophy of buddhism.

>>21682569
Fair enough.

>>21679277
ugly k*d

>>21682578
That's my shit nigga
post it when you finish it

>>21679447
this anon should be flayed alive in my opinion

>>21682578
A toast to you.
And to any other finctionalized history rip-off writers.
I myself have a (rather shitty) story about late empire bizantium and anachronistic vikangz who some of the relics the city is supposed to have somewhere.

>>21682569
Of course shes not going to fucking die.
>Like any of you retards would actually be brave enough to kill of your main or likeable side characters.

GUYS I NEED YOU TO HURRY UP AND BUY A COUPLE OF FEDBOOK COPIES NOW PLEASE MY RANKING IS LOW I NEED BETTER NUMBERS BEFORE /WG/ ANON POSTS THE LEADERBOARD OH NO

Is there any word I can use in my story that fully encapsulates the pleasure you feel when you rip a really abrasive fart and the pure force of it scratches your itching haemorrhoids?

>>21682786
Eurphoria
Orgasm
ecstasy

>>21682786
Catharsis?

>>21682836
No

>>21682786
Fuck off GRR

>>21682854
Great answer. Gives me a lot to go on if I choose to try to help you further.

>>21679266
I have this idea for a book, but I don't know if it's good.

Title: "The Door to Another World"

Synopsis: In a small town secluded in Mexico, a group of friends, high school students, accidentally discovers a strange door in a near cave. They enter by it thinking that it could be fun, the door only leads to an empty forest on the other side, they decide to explore what is beyond the door. But what they find is a completely different world, full of strange creatures and like european landscapes.

As they explore this unknown world by 6 months thinking they are alone until one morning when come across with some human travelers who are being chased by criminals, and they decide to help them. However, this unexpected help leads the criminals to follow them through the door, thus reaching México.

The group realizes that the door is not just a simple passage, but has the potential to connect two completely different worlds. when both sides start a Magic battle.

Their group lose the Battle and almost die but are saved by The Cartel's intervention, so in the end they are forced to tell everything about the door to the new arrived.

The cartel now is looking to colonize the world on the other side of the door, as they believe that they could establish themselves without being pursued by the authorities and perhaps until create a new country.

The group of friends, along with the travelers found about it, so they must now find a way to close the door and prevent the carter from reaching their world and destroying it. But the task will not be easy, as the drug traffickers are preparing an expedition to the unknown world and are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it

In the end, the MC betray the group and the cartel kill everybody except by the traitor and one girl form the travelers, who MC always considered like beautiful, so she become MC's slave.

>rate/review my intro

There is a man in the corner of my room. He is wearing a suit and behind me and looking at me but I am not looking at him. He wears a smile and his small eyes focus on the back of my head, but I do not look at him.

My computer screen switches on. Many things greet me from the previous day. The most important one flashed red, burning my eyes and leaving me blinded; I clicked it to go away. ‘Make sure that you finish the Edit’ it said. A week had passed since the footage arrived in my inbox. I decide that I have to finish it today, I had to get rid of the man. My mouse hovers over the folder. I hesitate. The folder opens up to twenty different folders each with nonsensical titles like ‘my feelings’ or ‘a chair’.

A swirling hits my stomach. My body wants to throw up the undigested filth from yesterday as I feel him walk closer. I want to turn around, but my mind stops me as if the moment I did unimaginable terror will seize my heart.

>>21682944
who's the main audience?
who are you trying to reach?
are there any influences? (maybe narnia)
how interested are you in the story?
and (I think most importantly) who is the most interesting character in the story? (and why is it the MC?)

>>21682944
Just know that there are already plenty of books in the isekai genre.
The closest match I could think of to your book is "The Probability Broach" by L. Neil Smith.

>>21682968
Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I think he's from the CIA

>>21682996
>who's the main audience?
Adults and young adults
>who are you trying to reach?
I'm trying to make a deconstruction from the generic Isekai anime/manga.
>are there any influences? (maybe narnia)
Ironically Breaking bad and several History books (Aztec empire conquest)
>how interested are you in the story?
Untill now is only an idea actually, I'm trying to make a map of all the story.
>and (I think most importantly) who is the most interesting character in the story? (and why is it the MC?)

The MC isn't actually interesting, it's only a generic teenager without nothing special like most Isekai animes, but everybody else are interesting characters with a lot of potential that will have the bad luck of meet the MC.

My MC want to have everything without have or do anything special; women, money and power. He believes that the cartel and the door are his opportunity of have all it. The unique problem is that his friends, cartel members and every other male in the story are better persons/men that him. example: the travelers girl that he likes actually was interested in one of his friends, so he doesn't have opportunity or the social skill to make something about it, so he chooses betray his friends because in his mind they all (like everybody) hate him.

Basically he doesn't have social skills or the mental capacity to deal with reality, so he always choose to do terrible things to have it all.

The conquest of this new world actually help him with his main goal, so he ended like the average harem Isekai protagonist but now he is an actual monster.

>>21683147
>Decon-
Dropped

>>21683147
>The MC isn't actually interesting, it's only a generic teenager without nothing special like most Isekai animes, but everybody else are interesting characters with a lot of potential that will have the bad luck of meet the MC.
That don't sound right. You should still at least try to make the MC interesting, because that's all that matters. It isn't them being good or bad necessarily that makes a character interesting or not.

Dear Diary,

Today was a really embarrassing day for me. I was playing with my friends at school when they started to make funny faces and cover their noses. I couldn't understand why they were doing that until I realized that it was because of my feet. I felt so ashamed and wished I could disappear.

My mommy always tells me to wash my feet every day and wear clean socks, but sometimes I forget. Today was one of those days. I felt so bad that I decided to write a poem about it. Here it goes:

My feet are smelly and oh so bad,
I'm sorry for the stinky smell, it's really sad.
I promise to wash them every day,
So I can play with my friends and have fun in every way.

I hope that my feet will smell better tomorrow and that my friends will forgive me. I don't want to be known as the girl with the stinky feet. I will make sure to remember to wash them every day and wear clean socks.

Goodnight diary, see you tomorrow.

Love,
Lila

>>21682686
Oh, um... this is kind of awkward. It’s not “Grimdark” but some main/likeable side characters definitely do die.

>>21683166
>That don't sound right. You should still at least try to make the MC interesting, because that's all that matters. It isn't them being good or bad necessarily that makes a character interesting or not.

You have a good point anon, perhaps if I make him pathetic like >>21683171 and with a lot of psychological problems.

>>21683107
Brutal mogging

>>21683147
I really don't know how you might reach anyone, because people read isekais for wish fulfillment. A very specific kind of person tends to read isekais, which you might be spitting in the face of. In a way that I'm sure is probably going to be mean spirited as fuck.
And even if you get audience to not of said demographic to read your shit I doubt they'll be willing to slog through "awful man is awful and pathetic for 10 gorillion pages while having nothing engaging about him and that's the point"
Maybe pretentious artfags and people who want to seem like they are cool and in the intellectual vanguard?

>>21682053
That's really stupid.

>>21680013
>DUDE

How do I outline without over or underdoing it?

>>21683147
Sounds like another dull piece of westoid trash the isekai general on /a/ mocks. Why not try something that isn't full of spite instead?

>>21683340
Just do whatever works for you It's an outline. Here's mine and it's complete shit.

>>21680005
It’s all telling and no showing, anon. This opening would be 10x more engaging if it wasn’t you just telling the reader directly, “The people were happy and peaceful, the knights told stories about their exploits that no one could confirm or deny...”

Yes, “showing” things actually playing out does make the book longer, but most of these openings here suffer critically from being way too fast-paced anyway. I mentioned early in the thread that I think most of the people here have ADHD and don’t have the attention span to write an actual fleshed-out novel. If you have the patience for it, try writing out these sequences so that the things you’re telling the audience play out in a scene.

Not everything needs to be shown all the time, as there are situations and times where it’s better to tell, but generally speaking snippets like this indicate that the writer really just needs to show more.

>>21683279
>awful man is awful and pathetic for 10 gorillion pages while having nothing engaging about him and that's the point"

It's more like pathetic character (basically nice guy kind) try to make something good but ending be a monster, like Walter white in breaking bad.

Example: he never tried to kill everybody, but he doesn't wanted the door destroyed, so he betrayed his friends asking in exchange cartel forgiveness and join to them but their leader give a shit betraying his own word. But he noted MC attraction for the girl, he give her to MC like compensation.

>>21683342
Honestly that does sound kind of interesting.
I would've never thought of a story with the ynopsis of "Cyberpunk serial killer finds jesus"

>>21683341
>Why not try something that isn't full of spite instead?
Give ideas anon, it's easy to be critical.

>>21679270
Whenever i feel like it.

>>21683377
based 200 words a day man

>>21683358
That's interesting, I got some readers say a "show" was far too slow. Argued that we're introduced to Adah far too late in the story. Maybe I'll have her walk around and do something instead then go back to work sleeping.

>>21683369
Isekai but its a mormon missionary.
"I'm literally Lehi fr fr"

>>21683407
Nephi fuck.

>>21683407
Anon, I'm using history books from the conquest like reference, believe me it will also be a religious conquest

>>21683362
There's a character that's making point you are trying to get at (I think) in JK Haru is a Sex Worker in Another World, it's fine to have someone like that as a side character but I don't see it working as an MC. Subaru from Re:Zero had a similar phase but the point was that he got over it and learned not to be a retard.

>>21683369
>Think for me!
I think not.

>>21683341
>isekai general on /a/
I wouldn't ask for opinion from anyone from there. A writer needs to write for normal people.

I apologize in advance for being a tourist.

If you had to list the novels you feel are absolute must-reads for any aspiring writer, what would they be and why?

https://pastebin.com/2gt7VNHK

>>21683715
I tried. I can't read your fictionalized DnD campaign.

>>21683686
Here you go.

>>21683686
I'm going to include Scripture, novels, poetry, and plays:

The Holy Bible (NKJV)
Good places to start:
>Genesis
>Exodus
>Psalms
>Proverbs
>Ecclesiastes
>The Gospels
>Acts, Romans, Revelations

Novels:
>Don Quixote (Edith Grossman translation)
>Kristin Lavransdatter (Tiina Nunnally translation)
>The Count of Monte Cristo
>War and Peace
>Wuthering heights
>Crime and Punishment
>The Sun Also Rises
>Recollections of Joan of Arc
>The Screwtape Letters
>Tender is the Flesh
>Pride and Prejudice

Poetry / Epic Poems:
>The Divine Comedy
>Paradise Lost
>The Idylls of the King
>The Song of Roland
>The Odyssey
>The Iliad
>Canterbury Tales
>The Aenid (this one is incomplete and ends abruptly, but is excellent even though incomplete)
>The Lady of Shallot (this one is short)

For screenplays, start with Shakespeare's Hamlet before moving on to his other work.

>>21683974
This is bait.

>>21683974
As for "why," I could write a 50-page essay on each one of these, and I don't feel like writing a 1,400-page essay rn, so all I say is investigate these works with intellectual curiosity and you'll find something to delight in each one of them.

>>21683981
No, I'm being genuine here. Just to be clear, I'm not claiming everyone should read these *before* they attempt writing, but over the course of years these are the works that have been the most instrumental to my own development, and a good chunk of these are widely-accepted as must-reads, while a few of them are more obscure (for example, everyone knows Fitzgerald for The Great Gatsby, but Tender is the Flesh is better even though it never got as popular).

Or were you saying that I was replying to bait?

New thread >>21683996

>>21683998
I see, probably should have said that in the post. Seems like a decent list if you want to go into artsy/heavy prose.

I'm pretty sure that anon was asking about what an aspiring author should read before writing, to which the answer is absolutely nothing.
>>21683686
If you want to write, write. You can write amazing novels without having picked up a book in your life. It's not like art where there is not a single person who is good without practice.

>>21683974
I honestly need to study so much poetry and screenplay for the day I finish my first draft and start writing my novel for real (I'm doing my research in prose and gothic fiction all the time already). It's daunting, might take years. I don't know how to keep up with all of it.

>>21684024
Don't, just write. From how you're talking I already feel like my appeal is a lost cause, but I will make it anyway - You will waste your time with that mindset. Create something rather than "research" all day to "prepare" to finally write "for real".
The first thing you write is going to be shit no matter what. You're just procrastinating.

>>21684022
While I don't entirely disagree, I do want to personally enrich myself as a reader just given that some of the best writers I've known in my personal life were all avid readers as well. There's certainly something to be said for being literate in higher quality literature if you yourself want to write.

More than anything, I just want to engage with media that has a bit more meat than a lot of the films and non-novel writing I've been consuming lately, but given my lack of free time I want to prioritize reading things that could help me improve as a writer myself.