/lit/ - Literature

Don't let the crabs beat you down

>>21836961
>grounds keeping prose
what
gate?

ONE. NOTHING WRONG WITH ME.

>come up with cool angle to a fantasy story I'm writing
>Normally monsters roam wild in the world, some are dangerous but some are calm and can even be kept as pets
>Most monsters are similar to animals in our world
>There are scholars who dedicate themselves to studying the monsters
>Mc has a unique ability to communicate with monsters, so the scholars ask him help them by going on an adventure to try to tame some monsters they have little data about
>They give him a magic book to document his travels which will send the information directly to them back at the city.
>Boy learns to tame the monsters and is able to put them inside the book until he needs to summon them to aid himself.

>I was feeling super proud of my unique concept and was excited to get started.
>Take a step back
>Realize it's just pokemon without the gyms

>Fuck

Did some heavy duty editing after transcription. Recorded about 27k words and edited it down to about 20k over the weekend, gonna have to do another round of edits to make it better.
My brain is fucking fried.
some helpful brainpower tips for anons when you're doing heavy duty brainwork like writing and editing:
>get 8 hrs sleep
>eat fibrous fruit
>take frequent breaks where you do NOTHING except eating fruit, drinking water, stretching, and breathing deeply
>green tea > coffee since there are chemical compounds in tea that are better for reducing anxiety and helping you to more evenly approach your writing

>>21837060
I tried switching to tea, but it turns out I really need coffee to shit on a regular basis

I've had depression since I can remember (even when i was 8 i had suicidal ideation and predominantly depressive thoughts) and I'm fearing that it's actually hindering my writing ability by causing me to view everything through a distorted lens and be unable to (in writing) achieve certain other emotions or address certain situations (like familial love, friendship, or writing direct romance (nothing to do with inceldom. somehow i'm in a successful romantic relationship, but i can only show physical affection, not verbal. verbal makes me want to run away and hide.)) i have heavily avoidant tendancies and writing anything that's too direct makes me deeply uncomfortable. so for romance, maybe i can hint that they're getting closer, or write that they physically touch each other, but i can't do anything that feels too "close" or definite. i feel like a child who responds to overwhelming emotional stimulus by giggling or running away. and i fear this is having an impact on my writing ability for certain affected things, though they're at a minimum per the type of stories i want to write, it is still having a detrimental impact.

writing is the only thing i care about. how the fuck would i even assess this or correct it? don't say therapy because: avoidant. like extremely avoidant, i devolve into a noncommunicative autistic animal when pressed, complete dysfunction. i hate speaking out loud to anyone and prefer written communication at all times.

>>21837060
Transcribing is gay. Also, the correct way to handle writing is long spurts of staring at a screen, tap in a few paragraphs, then stop that, go back to looking at the screen again, and then finally write like six or seven pages before going to sleep at 5 AM and doing it all over again.

>>21837060
Tea doesn't do it for me. I need that coffee.
>>21837091
very accurate.

>>21837076
Hey anon. Sorry you're going through all that man, it sounds confusing as shit and difficult.
It also sounds like you're trying to force certain writing out of you when you're really not feeling it. You're actually beating yourself up for not being able to write inauthentically -- it's okay to write romantic moments in a way that makes emotional sense to you, even if it's different from others. Your characters are your own creation, they're going to act in a way that makes sense to you. Embrace it. Let them be different. It makes the people in the story special.
Therapy makes sense for some but obviously you're not into that. So maybe instead of seeking therapy watch some therapy videos and take some time for personal reflection, seeking to understand yourself and how to move forward. Writing with this aim will likely be more healing for you than trying to keep it mental.
Don't forget to eat right, exercise, and learn on youtube the natural ways to counter depression. Get sun. Be proactive.
GL anon

>you MUST write only when your mind and body are at their weakest
>you MUST do this without using modern tools in order to make sure it fucking SUCKS and that you SUFFER for a craft, you know, like Da Vinci did
>only then will you be able to write your novel in 3 years, because being able to complete anything quickly and efficiently is GAY and being a man means fucking sucking at the only thing that gives you joy, to the point where you die penniless and forgotten having only written 4 novels
okay man

>>21837130
yes

>>21837055
rewrite it so it's monster hunter

Wrote this. Not a fan of spooky genre, but took a stab at writing as a challange. Any feedback?
https://pastebin.com/B0Lk6A7T

“Oh don’t worry, I know what it does”.

The distinguished looking fellow in the top hat and black winter coat seemed at once incredulous, and subtly threatened. “I doubt very much that you do. It’s a genuine breakthrough. Unlike anything anybody else has ever invented, of the utmost importance-”

I interrupted him, only worsening his mood. “Utmost importance to the future, blah blah, yes I know. That’s what they all say. It’s a machine that makes copies of itself, isn’t it?”

Where before he looked ready to lay into me, he now appeared to me as a deer caught in the headlamps of a motor carriage. “Do...you mean to imply there have been inventors before me, who came to file a patent on a similar device?”

I retrieved a folder full of them from the back room. Such wonderfully detailed, intricate drawings. What a shame all that intelligence is put to such a terrible purpose.

“I don’t understand” he gasped. “Then why haven’t I heard of it? Why is such machinery not in common use?” I sighed, tucking the drawings back into the folder and laying it flat before meeting his gaze.

“You think you’re special, don’t you. There are scores of inventors like you, children of machinery. All you think about is cogs and pistons, gears and drive belts day in, day out. I would ask if you’re married but I’m sure I already know the answer.”

He sputtered, but did not contradict my assumption, so I continued. “It’s always the ones like you. Are there not enough pleasures in life to distract you from these….these machinations?” I swept his drawings off the desk. He hurriedly scooped them up, then held them defensively to his chest.

“You don’t understand!” he snapped. “This invention will change the world!” Of course I knew too well he was right. That’s why I pressed a concealed switch, locking the door he’d come in through as soon as I saw what device his patent application was for.

“We’ll see in a minute which one of us lacks in understanding. What do you know of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution?” Still eyeballing me warily, he recalled the basics of it admirably well. “And how did it all start? For evolution to occur there had to be some initial creature to begin evolving. The simplest possible form of life.”

I had his interest now, though he would not yet loosen his grip on those drawings. Not that it would make any difference. “What you’re describing is just a chemical reaction that makes copies of itself. No eyes, no mouth even, just the bare minimum needed for natural selection to act upon it. A chemical mechanism which self-replicates.”

The poor fellow’s eyes lit up, followed by a sudden look of concern as the larger implications began to dawn on him. “Then...what I’ve built is just the same thing on a much larger scale.” I nodded, adding “...and out of much more durable elements which can survive in space without any sort of protection I might add. That’s quite important. It’s how, just as life emerged from the sea onto land, it will next emerge from land into space.”

He murmured feverishly to himself, recalculating his worldview in light of all this. I didn’t wait for him to finish. “The best case scenario is that it only escapes your control long after humans are extinct. Usually contraptions like these are sent to mine asteroids. Ample unfiltered sunlight and raw materials, their ideal natural habitat! Sometimes it starts spreading while still on the planetary surface though, which gets...messy.”

He set his top hat down brim up on the desk and ran his fingers through his hair, eyes as wide as if he’d just seen the ghost of Christmas future. Which I suppose he did, after a fashion. “You know, you don’t have to rush straight to it every time.” I scolded. “Every time biological intelligence evolves, they have tedious, obsessive individuals like you.

Each of which thinks they are unique, an incomparable genius. But really, just a very sophisticated chemical reaction the only purpose of which is to perform mechanogenesis, so evolution can continue into space. Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to watch the same thing happen over and over?”

He looked up at me in sudden recognition. “Wait. What do you mean? How could you have seen this happen on other worlds?” His demeanor changed, now self assured, and he scoffed. “Have I been in the company of an opium addled fantasist all this time, hanging on your every demented word? If so, well done, but do not waste any more of my time.”

I began to unravel. He only looked baffled at first, unable to process what he was seeing until I unfurled my hood, twin venom glands pulsating as two of my six stinger-tipped tendrils prepared to strike. He just fell backwards and scrambled to get away, mouth visibly trying to form words but producing no audible emission.

You know, it doesn’t have to be like that. Machinery, I mean. The future doesn’t have to be cold, angular metal if you would just believe in biology. Learn to engineer your own genetic code and create a future in space for soft, warm, living, feeling organisms.

We did it. You could too, if you weren’t so damnably infatuated with machinery. What was so wrong with the age of humans, that you struggled all your life to hasten its end? Every time. I used to feel bad about this and try to talk them out of it, but by now I know how incurably single-minded children of the machine always are.”

>>21837109
Thanks, I'll think about your post. I'm just terrified that my writing is revealing more about my own personality defects than I intended, like people can see right through me, and that my potential is hindered because of my limited range.

My tendrils shot forth and penetrated his neck. He was paralyzed the instant the venom reached his brain. I busied myself wrapping his body up to be burnt, adding his drawings to my ever-growing collection.

After stashing the body in the back room for the time being and ensuring there were no remaining signs of a struggle, I restored my link to the brood and sent a series of thoughtforms to confirm that I’d bagged another. I expected only the usual warm feeling of approval from the brood mind, but instead I got a rapid sequence of blurry images.

Captured by probes investigating a newly discovered inhabited planet? Sure enough, there’s a pair of smokestacks below, and a set of immense interlocking gears driven by the combustion. The metal plague. At this early stage we might still strangle it in the crib. We might teach those lost, confused children of the machine the true path. The warm, living, feeling path.

“If not…” I muttered to myself, patting my still-bulging venom glands as my body folded back into its superficially human dimensions. After flipping over the sign and closing the blinds to turn away any further applicants in my absence, I began launch preparations.

Moar: linktr. ee/alexbeyman

>>21837130
Transcribing isn't a modern tool. Not by a long shot. I just think it's gay for the purpose of writing non-technical documents. Sucks the soul out of the process. What're you doing after all that stretching and meditation? Talking into your iPhone?

>>21837164
I like it, but I feel this shouldn't be chapter 1. Im not sure if it's victorian steampunk or futuristic. Needs a bit more scenary building

>>21837165
yep. transcribing is just for the shitty rough draft.
from there I get into the rewriting where the magic is. It's easier to edit a bad manuscript than it is to completely dream it up from scratch. Not that there isn't merit to it -- it's easier to have a smooth flow of ideas in the work if there's only one medium of transmission to page, but it's easier for me to think and speak than it is to think and type. I can have the 'whole' of a work and its most important ideas created in the narration, and then with rewriting I can introduce superficial stuff, aesthetic formatting, rewrite everything to sound better. It's more difficult in the 1st editing stage because I'm going from the chaos of dictated garbage to something legible, but from then on it's easier to make something of good quality in another typed draft.
I get you're concerned about soul but desu using a backlit screen and a word processor on your chinese factory laptop is already removing the 'soul' from the work. So too, writing on factory constructed notepads with your chinese pencil removes the 'soul' from the work.
So too then, the printing press removed the 'soul' from the hand copied books of the monks.
So too, the written word removed the 'soul' of an idea from the memorized plays of the greeks.
real soul comes from the heart of the author -- the ideas and the careful construction of the work in its entirety, the themes, emotions, characters that come from the author. It doesn't matter if it's written on sheepskin or if it's tooled into being -- that's an expression of the author as a product of his times as well.

>>21837188

Right you are. It isn't chapter 1, it's an epilogue to this: https://alexbeyman.substack.com/p/not-long-now

>>21837195
Jokes on you, I use my phone.

>>21837055
That's also just Monster Hunter: Stories, beat for beat

Gentle folk, children, come gather round. I’ll tell you the tale of the land underground. “What? A land underground? Do you know how you sound?” No doubt like the crazy old man of the town!

Yet it’s real as the eyebrows you raise at me now, as real as the dubious look on your face. It isn’t a vision, a myth or a ruse, but by my own blood, it’s an actual place.

Perhaps you have ventured once into the dark. Exploring some cavern, perhaps for a lark. But nary did you stay any longer than that, driven back to the sun by a shadow, or bat.

I tell you that if you’d continued below, you’d come across trees, rivers, mountains and snow. The darkness and rock walls give way to the light, a cavern so massive the roof’s beyond sight.

Where’s the light come from? Nobody knows. Nor, when night comes, do they know where it goes. In truth, though you doubt me, there’s an endless frontier, to be conquered by men whose hearts beat without fear.

You won’t be the first, nor will you be last. Heretics, exiled, or iconoclast. Banished from the surface world of sun, wind and sound, they venture below, to the land underground.

Overthrown kings, warlords or chiefs. At one time a hideout for assassins and thieves. All tried to lay claim to what’s under our feet. ‘Til the natives emerged, to feast on fresh meat.

The ruins of castles and forts testify to the desperate battles of eras gone by. One after the next, empires rose and fell, destroyed by unspeakable creatures from Hell.

They wait ‘till you’ve settled, invested it all. Committed yourself, thrown your hat o’er the wall. That way you won’t run, but instead stay and fight what’s been watching from shadows, beyond reach of the light.

This is how they feed. They have no need to hunt. Prey comes to them, an ingenious stunt. Driven by greed, and dreams of return, that the empire they’ll forge might one day surface to burn, rape and pillage the kingdom which banished them there, but that dream before long turns into a nightmare.

As soon as they’re settled, there’s no need to pretend, no need to hide, no disbelief to suspend. Gracefully, they emerge from the walls. Silently crawling through chambers and halls. Shifting their shape while your back is turned. Just the way to stalk humans, their ancestors learned.

There is no free land. Nowhere left you can go. No freedom from tyrants, above or below. Lest you ignore my warnings and set off for the cave, know that the land underground is a grave. Containing the corpses of millions of men, but also of kingdoms they failed to defend.

The ones waiting there I am sure will not starve. No shortage of men more ambitious than smart, will continue to feed them thanks in large part to man’s unjustified but unwavering perception that despite all who’ve died trying, he’ll be the exception.

So despite the grand tales and the dreams they inspire, balance that against everything dire I’ve told you about what waits to be found, by the fools who would seek out the land underground.

linktr. ee/alexbeyman

>Freezing wind biting at his ears, plumes of sand swirling around his legs, and a horizon of nothing but darkness were clear signs that he was right where he wanted to be and nowhere else he'd rather be.
R8 my opening line

I think I need to walk before I run. Every time I sit down and try to work on my novel I hate it, it feels like a mess, I become frustrated at every turn and my writing slows to nothing. I think I'm going to try some short stories instead until I figure out what I want to do or figure out what needs to change about my novel.

New thread already?
Anyway, please judge my Ace Combat rip-off plot.
https://pastebin.com/5z6V6Nwb

>>21837301
it's nonsense

>>21837301

Decently evocative, but "and nowhere else he'd rather be" is grammatically incorrect on top of being redundant. I am commenting mainly to counterbalance this numpty >>21837417
who offered no constructive criticism and instead made use of the magnificent capacity the internet gives us for communication, simply to reach out and be hurtful to a stranger without also being instructive or constructive.

>>21837426
oh, you want constructive criticism? fine. Your correct criticism that the second part is redundant (and nonsense) aside, I'd say it's not evocative precisely because what it does show is contradictory. it's windy but he's not outside, in fact it's so windy that there are plumes of sand blowing around his legs. plume I don't think it the right word given the size of a plume, maybe the mc is a giant, one of the original titans who created the world. but if that were the case then the 2nd part of the sentence would also be nonsense because being somewhere cold and dark is the opposite place a creator god would like to be. oh, but he likes nothingness you'd say. no, he hates nothingness, that's why he fills it.

>>21837442

Good! That's at least something of substance, lazybones. It seems I made you self conscious?

>>21837130

>Sunday smut writing went pretty wood.
>todays write went much smoother and serious.
I wonder if i should try my hand at a harem to make my action scenes bretter...

Is this thread just full of GPT-slop?

>>21837301
>, plumes of sand
I know what a plume of smoke is, because it can look like a feather, but plume of sand seems nonsensical.
> a horizon of nothing but darkness were clear signs
Conflicting meanings.
> right where he wanted to be and nowhere else he'd rather be.
Redundancy could be used for a rhetorical effect, but not with a pair of worn out cliches.

Overall, too wordy for too little impact.

>>21837412
What feedback do you want? It's not an excerpt of writing, just a wikipedia entry about a book you haven't written yet. What we think about the plot?

You raise the stakes too high. A war is significant enough on its own. Once you add doomsday shit, it becomes a corny final fantasy story.

>>21837195
>It's easier to edit a bad manuscript than it is to completely dream it up from scratch.
Hilariously false.
>it's easier for me to think and speak than it is to think and type
KEK, then why write, you brainlet.
>using mass produced implements removes soul
absolute retard, god I hope you don't actually publish and get paid for your shitty ideas

>>21837145
>>21837271
I don't know monster hunter but,

>FUCK!

>>21837055
Write it in the style of a (good) trsvelogue and I'll read it

>>21837858

>>21837426
>>21837442
>>21837834
Thanks for the replies guys

>>21837020
>Anyone who finds flaws in muh work is a crab
Fuck i hate nu-writers

Maybe you guys can’t help me with this but I don’t know where else to post. How to get better at translating Chinese modern (internet) fiction into English? I’ve read some Chinese novels in English translation, trying to study them, comparing to the original text, and it helped me improve a bit. But I feel that my translation still unsatisfactory and I don’t have time to read lots of books. The writing is not engaging, it doesn’t have the momentum of the original. Is there a book on English translation that can guide me or something?

>write a new story
>shy, canon homely girl (not human) who's actually beautiful but she doesn't know it
>gets on board of a ship, meets captain who's basically a more masculine Howl from Howl's moving castle
>they fall in love
in most of my story I even have a literal ballroom scene where she's all dressed up like a princess and waltzes with the dashing dude like in a fairytale
how is it possible that I'm writing essentially chick lit without the love triangle. I just self-insert within the dude getting with the girl
what is wrong with me, I'm a man, I shouldn't write this. I should write something edgy like a dude with a cursed sword in a dark wasteland

Writing routines/rituals?

I used to go out to a cafe and get coffee. But the local stuff is really strong, makes me stay up late, and when I'm tired the next day, I don't want to write.

>>21838686
Why didn't you go earlier?

>>21838722
No, it's that strong.

>>21838632
Seems based to me
Just write it well and so that the romance actually makes me feel something
Only retard brainlets think there are bad concepts and genres. There's only bad execution. If your story makes me feel like I'm a guy falling into an idyllic fairytale love it doesn't matter if it's corny as fuck

>>21838686
there's a billion different coffee orders you can get to reduce the amount of caffeine you're consuming

>>21838538
So one of the famous translators of french literature into english was a man named Stuart Gilbert. He was the first to translate Camus's The Plague. Since then a number of other translations have come out, and there has been some pushback on how Gilbert influenced the style and wordchoice based on his translation(s).
https://jimhamilton.info/2012/04/18/camuss-translator-on-translation/

As anyone who's played a machine translated game can tell you, literal direct translation is utterly inartful, at best, and ridiculous, at worst. So when you say your english translation is not engaging, there are two possible reasons. 1st, the source material is some dumbfuck chink insect babble and it is what it is. 2nd, you may be rigidly attempting to stay as close to that chink insect babble as possible, which makes the words coming out on the other end offensive to human ears when translated into english. I'd say utilize a little more poetry in your translation, even if it strays a touch, here and there.

>>21838746
I'm not asking for advice. I'm living abroad, it's the smallest size they have, and it's been the only place that I've found so far with a good atmosphere.

I'm asking, does anyone else have any routines they do before the write?

Can a bitter sperg that barely leaves his room and has little life experience be a good writer?
Asking for myself.

>>21838889
Sure

>>21838889
Some gayass madlad in my country wrote a novel about being holed up in his flat, masturbating to dudes, and it was picked up by a major publishing house and reviewed by literary magazines. Literally anything is possible.

>>21838686
>feel despair
>write some
>feel better
>be silly on the internet

>>21838740
Oh man it's all so sweet. I really love sweet romantic stuff. I'm not sure if chicks woud like thinks when they're so romantic and wholesome, AFAIK they like a little more drama. Also I don't know if they'd self-insert in a nonhuman chick.

>>21839009
Yeah sweet romance has my full approval. I'll read your shit, keep at it bro
Hope you have poetry in your diet. You can pull the romantic feelings out of the storytelling elements and events, but prose and atmosphere shouldn't be overlooked
Gl brah

Just a retard asking about tense again, if your story is in past tense, is it ever acceptable to go into present tense in parts that are told in 1st person when the pov character talks about a present condition? For example
>He doesn’t deserve/need/want this (the POV character narrating this about someone)
>I’m bad at this
>I hate/like/feel whatever
>I want/need/am going to
Should these be in past tense as well?

>>21838889
My spine fucked up when I was 15, I am a kissless virgin at 23.
I must believe that someone who hardly leaves his home other than family parties like birthdays or weddings can be a good writer.

Is it even possible to write with prose like Lovecraft today without people accusing you of abusing the thesaurus?

>>21839052
Yes?
Narrator is character. Relates present circumstances while telling story to audience. Sure.

>>21838939
kek, I do the same thing.

>>21838889
A lot of novels today feature war or battle written by writers who have experienced neither.
You can still read memoirs

>>21839041
What I want to do with this is drop the classic goal-oriented fantasy story, and just chronicle instead the happenings on board of this ship (an airship actually, I'm going full escapist Final Fantasy, I don't even care anymore). The world below is only described in passing and it's only hinted that something bad is brewing. Whenever the ship lands, there are people who take an oath to join it and factually abandon the world below. But the ship is also made of good people so it generally acts as a postive force, and the crew commits to helping the landlings when things get bad (they do get bad).
Our girl decides to board and obviously she struggles with her new life, there's much tough work to do and all that. She meets the crew members, who are all peculiar in their own ways becuase the oath is peculiar itself, and she meets the captain who's a strangely young man who's got his own mysteries about him but is well-respected by everyone. Who is this dashing man? She doesn't know, but she falls head over heels for him. Due to her non-human nature she provides something interesting to the ship that eventually opens up new opportunities, and she becomes a rather important asset. There are ups and downs and during all that, the dashing captain takes her under his wing and she slowly comes out of her shell. After something bad happens in a city the ship decides to intervene and they rescue a whole lot of people on board of the ship. While flying over the ocean they all decide to enact a local festival on board that the town dwellers normally celebrate, for the sake of morale. So he and our girl are sitting next to each other with their legs hanging over the bow, and during a show of fireworks over the clouds he kisses her and this is where I read the passage back to myself and go full Ryan Gosling
I have written a good chunk of it, I'm not sure if I want to turn this into a standard plot that picks up only in the second half or keep the whole thing suspended in the air above the wiles of the world. It would be much harder to write the second way but I feel it more, like a simple chronicle of a few years on board of a cool ship.
The girl is so sweet, I love her very much and I've been fantasizing about the scenes a lot

>>21839177
>I'm going full escapist Final Fantasy, I don't even care anymore
based
as for the rest of it, it's bog standard chick lit wish fulfillment - which isn't a bad thing. you have a huge market of potential readers and I wish you much success.

What do you do when you have an idea for a plot but struggle to find interesting ways to make the story get there?

>>21839234
you really need to give us some concrete context we can't help otherwise

>>21839207
>it's bog standard chick lit wish fulfillment
I know and it's really weird that I'm actually doing this thing that I associate with coldly pandering to a market, except in complete earnest and with all of my heart. All it's missing is a love triangle and I guess the male MC isn't an assertive asshole but more of a princely pure-hearted dude that builds a proper, healthy relationship with her. I know I'm doing this because I'm lovesick and I need romance in my life.

>>21839177
>What I want to do with this is drop the classic goal-oriented fantasy story
I am also doing this, and one of the two reviews I've gotten called the story meandering but it doesn't bother me.
The story starts with the main character as an infant and now 136 chapters in, he is 15 and I am nearly ready for another series of multiple month timeskips.
What I find somewhat interesting about the online novel format is how it lets me not worry about the length of a book since I have no worries about publishing.
If I were to rewrite the story I would start with the main character already being 20 and on the eve of a civil war because if you are buying a book you probably want a more self contained story instead of the story of a person and how he reached what would be a starting point for a novel.
>>21839234
I write, give it some time in my head, erase it if I don't like it, continue down that path if I do like it.
One night I wrote 4000 words, didn't like it, so I erased it all and changed the path.
At one point I got rid of probably 15 thousand words, multiple chapters.
I know where I want to go, but I have problems sometimes with the how of them reaching that place.
On the flip side, once I found that path I wanted I wrote 4000 words a day without having any issues.
>>21839277
Ha, I did the same thing once
Then I realized I didn't really like where that focus on romance that I have never experienced was leading me mentally and I scrapped that part of the story so I could instead project my own insecurities about loving another person on the main character instead.
I wish you all the best, because sincere writing is a good thing.

>Don't even like reading the romance parts of a book but all my stories slowly turn into romance ones over time.
>Want to write male main characters because there are too few male role models in stories today but can only come up with female ones.
>Can not come up with villians or story arcs ideas.
>Can't even come up with any good male characters. They tend to all be boring, but I can pump out dozens of ideas for interesting female characters.
>Finally come up with a male character who is a part of a lycanthrope family who turns into the first thing that bites them and idea devolves into him being a were-girl (dude is cursed to turn into a girl every full moon) but trannies ruined my willingness to write gender-bender comedies for me.
>can imagine indivual scenes in my head but come up blank whenever I have to type.
>Type about half a novel's worth of words and then get distracted typing out other story ideas leaving my novel half finished.
>Hate harem stories but somehow turn a story into a reverse harem.
brain is my own crab bucket.

>>21839297
>meandering
My hope is that because the ship is so interesting and filled with interesting people from different walks of life, the lack of a distinct goal won't be a problem. I've written a thing that was written in the format of an explorer's journal, and it wasn't a disaster, this one should be smooher. I enjoy it when the events of the world do not directly involve the characters, who are instead mere observers or people who simply got caught in these larger events but do not directly act within them. I like the smaller scale, how it shrinks everything down to a personal level that is more human than the usual fantasy epic, and how you can have characters express themselves instead of focusing on action.
>never experienced
I wish. I've experienced that kind of romance in my life and I miss it sorely. I miss the pure, whole-hearted love one can only experience in his youth and I especially wish it to continue once it's happened, and to have a happy ending. I miss the more genuine, innocent times of the past. Everything feels so corrupt nowadays, all I have left is this fantasy airship.
>online novel
I never thought about this. I'm not even sure if I'll publish it like I haven't published other things I've made. Where are you posting it?

>>21839357
I am on royalroad, I find that the site is less trash filled than scribblehub and that should hopefully help with visibility.
I thought about the site webnovel but I don't like their coin system for stories among other things.
Recently a story that I do enjoy (Supreme Magus) hasn't been updated because of something that happened between the author and the site which he isn't allowed to talk about.
In the past they removed the ability to gain these free daily coins on the desktop site.
Basically I think that the site is likely to fuck me over at some point and RR seems to not do that because they aren't monetized in the same way.

>>21838490
>Don't let the crabs beat you down
>Anyone who finds flaws in muh work is a crab
These two sentences share a single word anon.

>>21838490
You will never be a crab

>>21839357
>My hope is that because the ship is so interesting and filled with interesting people from different walks of life, the lack of a distinct goal won't be a problem.
It will be a problem.You need some goals or conflict, even if it is at a smaller personal scale.

How do I plan out the story? I only have basic details for the first part. If I don't have the entire fucking thing figured out from the beginning before I even start writing I am going to have a bunch of plot holes.

>>21839254
That's the bump bot. Don't bother answering vague one sentence questions.

>>21839611
plot is lame and gay anyway
the things that make a book good are the nuggets of beautiful prose that only come out when you start writing

>>21839611
Write the story, then edit it.
If you never write you never get better, as you write you can see what you want the story to be.
I rewrote plenty of my stuff because I thought something sounded cool and then later I realized how that cool thing would fuck up something else I wanted to do.
Your first draft is going to be shit, but you can fix that.
A story poorly written is worth infinitely more than one never written.

>>21837076
Just write the way you write. It will at least be different.

>>21839611
>I am going to have a bunch of plot holes
yes. drafting is much quicker than editing for this reason. editing is where your story really shines

>>21837301
Anon, these replies are dumb:
>>21837417
>>21837426
>>21837834
Those anons don't understand what you're doing. Plumes of sand is fine, but there needs to be more than one horizon--"were" reads bad. I'd write "was" instead and put "horizon" into plural. And to keep the rhythm going, you need an "and" before you write that plumes of sand had swirled.

https://pastebin.com/KMreNYuk

Didn't get any notes last thread so I'm reposting. Will be posting this on scribophile after this.

>>21837055
didnt you post this in the last thread or am I "off my meds" again

>>21839890
I don't think he posted it last thread, but I know he posted it at some point in another thread.

>>21837151
North isn't capitalized in English.
I don't get the thing about the sausage.
I think that's the first time I've seen someone actually use ellipses in a long time.

As far as "spooky" goes I don't think it really hit the mark. Maybe just that there's not enough tension build-up? But it just seems like the guy is going to work at his internship and it's mostly pretty normal, with occasional weird stuff, and at the end the twist shows up.
Writing quality otherwise is decent.

>>21839844
>"were" reads bad. I'd write "was" instead
A compound subject using 'and' is plural, and the verb 'were' agrees in number. 'Was' would be incorrect. I don't know how that could sound good to you.

>>21839865
Is this the same ending as before?

>>21839607
Yeah I meant conflict on a larger scale. I think there's plenty happening on a personal level.

>>21839865
>https://pastebin.com/KMreNYuk
good. keep writing. i didn't read it all because it's not to my personal taste but it is clearly good.

>>21840062
Not sure which you're referring to. If you read the previous thread version, then yes. If you read the version I first posted a few weeks ago (which was unfinished), then no. This one has an ending.

>>21840107
Thanks. Will do.

>>21837301
>were clear signs that... nowhere else he'd rather be.
I might be reading this wrong, but I think the line should be
>were clear signs that he was right where he wanted to be, and that there was nowhere else he'd rather be.
Though having written that, it still sounds wrong, because that would imply that the features themselves (wind, sand, horizon) evinced his subjective preference which is silly ('there being plumes of sand demonstrates that I want to be in location X rather than location Y'). The former half of the and is fine though. I think the best solution would be to have everything after the and be its own sentence, like
>were clear signs that he was right where he wanted to be. There was nowhere else in the world he'd rather be right now than this very spot.

>>21840177
Yeah, I didn't remember it having that ending when you were doom and glooming.

I like your writing style. So no complaints there.

I would say that the emotional climax seems to stutter a bit. There's his shock when he finds his dad has died, and a tense confrontation with the girl, but then things go back to normal. Then a second climax follows when the girl finds out the truth. Those could be combined into one moment (somehow, idk) for greater effect.

The Officer should be introduced earlier to build tension. Even if he's just mentioned or left in the shadows. His arrival halfway through feels abrupt.

The middle part, involving the letter intercepting and forgery, should be a little more stretched out. Maybe not in total number words, but to give the feel that it goes on for awhile in the story's timeline. A new status quo is set up on the lie and then smashed apart.

The discovery of the fiance lacks emphasis. It's buried in the middle of a paragraph in the middle of a longer sentence.

Overall, I expected something more uh... 'poignant', I guess. The tone felt like it was building to some grim and ambiguous ending.

>>21839890
Yes I did, and I will again.

>>21840497
Thanks for the notes, very helpful.

The officer is actually mentioned right in the beginning, end of the 4th paragraph. I intentionally left him alone until later to let the reader forget about him for a while, but he's there.

The rest of your notes are actually what I had in my original outline of the story and are planned in the rewrite (especially combining the two climaxes). I was wondering if the new status quo needed a scene instead of being summarized and it seems like it does. Likewise the discovery of the fiance by St John.

I was going for that ambiguous ending, something bittersweet and ironic. After all, by the time she finally reciprocates his feelings, he's been sent to fight in the Somme. If the story is about deception, by the end, she's basically deceiving herself.

>working on an extremely long fanfic
>want to do a slow-burn ship between the two main characters of it because they're adorable together
>it's a ship that everyone despises

I need feedback on this story that I am doing for fun. I feel like it's too short (this is the second chapter, just under 3 thousand words), because I don't like to write that kind of masturbatory filler descriptions, like:"And he felt the breeze against his long hair, gazing upon the shorud that laid ahead, not knowing where he was, being engulfed by the mist of the place, wondering what might lie there" (just a random example)

https://privatebin.net/?849d4bf72440fb55#4cAuoDebn2n8uATKSTE98B7E3Kpn7gUyYP1ttWUay653

I am currently writing the fourth chapter, but I think it will end up being too short. Now I can overextend the text to describe some dull things, but I don't think it will be that interesting, I rather jump into action, since the story is of a sword and sorcery type, and not something more elaborate.

>>21837076
There are better forms of "therapy" out there.
But the Powers That Be shit on them as hard as they can.

>>21840803
>shroud
Fixed. I'm almost sleeping.

What's the point in writing in past-tense?
As far as I can tell, present-tense is just better. Easier to use, more versatile, and it feels less dry.
I used to write in past tense, but the way I got a lot of my storywriting skill was by writing scenes for an author who did her story in present-tense. Once I got into the habit of present-tense I never looked back.

>>21840750
write it anyway anon. i wrote a fic for a non-canon pairing but you know, there are a lot of people who like it even if some are loud and salty about it. if you need more inspo, read the dead dove tagged.

>>21840037
It was originally a non horror story. I tried to shoehorn spooky elements for Tales.

>write
>use various lengths, commas, metaphors, similes, etc.
>editing
>99% of my sentences are simple noun verb subject sentences
>He walked through the streets like a cat stalking the rat.
>The man took out a knife and shivved the homeless bum minding his own business eating a sandwich.
>A drop of blood dripped from the tip of the blade and left a trail of red for any that cared to look.

Any tips on how to start with verbs first or even the subject first?

Do you plot out your stories or "garden" your way through them.
Ive been trying to plot a story out lately and am having a awful time with it. but when I garden i meander around and cant finish the story.
any advice?

>>21840975
i just garden it out. I didn't know the plot of my story until I was about 70k into it. Then I rewrote everything after learning the plot.

>>21840917
Half of this was written in past tense.

>>21840980
that might be what i have to do. seems like alot of work compared to plotting but if thats what i have to do itll have to be done.

>>21840917
I like present tense, but plenty of stories can benefit from being in past tense - or being mostly in past tense. its not a literary example, but the movie that just sprang to mind that utilizes this very effectively is The Usual Suspects. like, 95% of the story is past tense where they're flashing back from the police station in the present, and then you get such wonderful payoff at the ending as a result

>>21840917
they do different things
>>21840981
kek

>>21840917
Fuck you.
I just wrote 50k words in past tense and now I'm wonding if I made a mistake.

>>21841131
No. Past is fine and usually preferred

>>21838746
Good news! I think I found a place to get green tea that's nearby with good atmosphere! I'm sure you don't care, though. I'm ecstatic.

>>21841159
I have a place like that. real close. it's called my kitchen. if you don't like the ambiance of yours that's truly a shame. I recommend growing some potted flowers - and actually having plants inside your house tends to improve air quality

>>21841159
lately I like tea more than coffee

>>21841159
Starbucks?

>>21840750
I did the same, it was a ship that nobody really saw but me. What is it a fanfic of if you don't want to say which chars?

I type at Panera bread because I get unlimited iced tea refills with a nice air conditioned room.

>>21841213
I'm in a studio. I already spend enough time in my room. It's nice to get out.
>>21841218
I like the flavor and aroma of coffee, but it's too much caffeine
>>21841224
I'm living abroad. It's a shaved ice and gelato place that serves tea and coffee.

How do I find a publisher? Not a self publisher that doesn't give a shit about my book nor its promotion

i wrote a fantasy LN.
I posted it on RR Scribblehub and some other sites, but again, I have 0 promotion, Im just drowned out by all the other books the offers, I have 20 views in one day. Thats absolutely nothing. I published doujins before this and I managed to get decent amount of readers (50k+ plus) and republications on many websites, but I did some things to do that which I cant with this light novel

>>21840044
Yeah, it should read "horizons" in plural with a "were"

>>21837301
what were the clears signs that he was right where he wanted to be?

I work at an overnight gas station out in the middle of fucking nowhere, because nearly all gas sales are automated I have more than enough spare time to write on my craptop and all the free coffee I can drink in one shift
also because I'm literally the only one who bothers showing up for overnight shifts I've started making overtime
feelsgoodman

>>21841263
>LN
how many words, how many chapters, what's your blurb, what's your posting time?

>>21841285
well you see it's cold and windy and sandy and dark. sounds like the place to be

>>21841324
3deep5me

>>21841320
30k~ words for part one
16 chapters
awful timezone, Im in Japan.

not posting my blurb because I know it doesnt appeal to /wg/

>>21841352
>30k~ words
this is a big reason why. people on those sites expect a lot of words. a good portion of them won't read it if it's under 100k. that's just how they are

>>21841352
Post it. I'm always interested in reading LNs and doujins and stuff

>>21841263
>How do I find a publisher?
>I posted it on RR Scribblehub and some other sites
Nowhere, it's already published.

>>21840917
Present tense can be cool, but it's a lot more challenging than people think. Most can't use it right and the result is just clumsy.

>>21841352
>30k~ words for part one

That's barely a short story. Even most LNs have at least 50-60k

>>21840973
You can use hyperbaton, alternatively don't use sentences that short since you can use commas to space everything out better and break the flow of the overall sentence. A lot of the autism with sentence structure is realizing that it's even happening and that's something that you're more prone to as the writer.
>He walked through the streets like a cat stalking the rat.
He walked, the streets filled with people didn't hinder his hunt particularly, it was only a matter of time until he eventually caught his struggling prey.
>The man took out a knife and shivved the homeless bum minding his own business eating a sandwich.
Minding his own business was the last thing the bum did, with a knife the man had taken out of his pocket he shivved the homeless wretch.
>A drop of blood dripped from the tip of the blade and left a trail of red for any that cared to look.
Dripping from the tip, a trail of red drops was left behind by the blade; whether anyone cared to look was to the man, quite frankly, a question left up to those same crowds that he blended into. He would not be sticking around to know the answer either way.

>>21841225
Tensura fanfic, ship is Rimuru x Milim
>Rimuru looks young but is actually middle aged
>Milim looks young but is thousands of years old
>novel version of Milim is a fascinating character concept that's difficult to understand because she's full of contradictory traits; a genius who doesn't think, worshipped as a god yet severely neglected, the daughter of the world's creator yet known as The Destroyer, sadistic and violent yet affectionate and caring
>anime adaptation just makes her an annoying child
>people now think of her as an annoying child and thus you cannot ship her with a former middle aged man
Honestly half the reason I wanted to do this fanfic was just because no one's ever done Milim justice as a character, even the author of the novels barely made use of her past the 6th novel despite her becoming the ruler of a massive empire unifying the territories of multiple demon lords.
The shipping stuff was just an afterthought because romance is always my favourite part of any story so I thought I might as well

>>21841390
>Rimuru x Milim
>ship that everyone despises
what the fuck, it's one of the most popular ships

>>21841390
no shade on your fanfic, but I dislike that series because there's absolutely no stakes and no tension. the mc faces no challenges whatsoever and everything just falls over. a number of tranime are like that, too. the japs love em, because of wish fulfillment I guess, but I find em bland and boring. another example off the top of my head, GATE. really cool premise, the jap defense force has a gate connecting to a fantasy world. and then they just slaughter the fuck out of them zero percent chance of losing like all the "villains" are retard glass jawed bums

>>21839423
Just try and stop me snowflake

>>21841404
>GATE
thanks for reminding me of how goddamn disappointing that turned out to be

>>21841361
I have 20 views, so presumably they dont even get the chance to see the character count. I admit the cover page is not the most appealing (but it is attention grabbing)
I think personally theres just too many options
I checked the stories ranked near mine and some are 4 years old with 200 views. thats dogshit numbers, even if everyone of those 200 loved it youre almost going to have no publicity from it


>>21841376
>50k-60k
that's almost regular novel count. I read its usually 40k+
publisher word count is around 35k, so its just a short LN. I scrapped some parts because it took away from the overall storyline, her primary goal of escaping loses its impact if she were to get sidetracked constantly.

anyway thanks anyway, Ill try different methods

>>21841414
fucking hell I read pedestrian as "my fellow Palestinian" and now my sides are in orbit

>>21841404
I agree with you completely, Tensura's plot is garbage. I just like it for the worldbuilding and characters personally.
But that makes it perfect for fanfics that push the plot in a different direction.
Unfortunately the only good alternate-plot fanfic is Predator thus far. It's pretty cool though, it's a story where Tempest never gets founded because instead of meeting the goblins after leaving the cave, Rimuru follows the adventurer trio back to Blumund.
As for the fanfic I'm doing, it's a bit more similar to the canon plot, but still very different. The attempt to bribe Milim with honey fails and she conquers Tempest, making Rimuru her subordinate. And although Milim is pretty much unbeatable, the powers that be are *far* more wary of Tempest and put a lot more thought into how to deal with it.

>>21841403
Is it though? There's barely any fanfiction of it compared to the boring and overdone Rimuru x Ciel

>>21841420
>that's almost regular novel count. I read its usually 40k+
This is a common western misapprehension. Light novels aren't light novels because they have less words. It's typically because they use less kanji than regular novels and are easier to read for students. 300-400-page LNs are nothing particularly rare.

I have been trying to write a crossover fanfic between some popular online series and literary works like Moby Dick, and by God is it an effort.

>>21841404
>they just slaughter the fuck out of them zero percent chance of losing
Well, a modern army does have zero chance of losing against swords and shields

Tell me about the 4chan mandated loli character in your story Anon

>>21841532
I don't have one, I nearly made a character who was an eons old Fae that took on personalities, yet I decided that instead she would be an actual 14 year old girl with a Fae in her head.
Unless you mean just a young girl in general, in that case I have plenty of them but not in a sexual manner at all because I'm not that kind of degen.

>>21841532
I made them twins and the main characters

>been writing a novel for a competition since december, 16k words maximum
>it ends on the last day of march
>it's been going really well, proud of what I've written so far but feeling stressed about managing to make it before the deadline
>"i better check on the rules one last time so i dont mess anything up"
>the limit is 16k characters, not words
>im 26k characters in and the story is half finished if im being optimistic
I'm just gonna turn it in as a part 1 of 2 and hope for the best, it's gonna be a really grim story because it ends in the middle of the crisis but it's still good i think.

>>21841616
They're not going to even read it if you can't follow guidelines, retard

>>21840724
>I was going for that ambiguous ending, something bittersweet and ironic. After all, by the time she finally reciprocates his feelings, he's been sent to fight in the Somme. If the story is about deception, by the end, she's basically deceiving herself.
I must not have been reading closely enough; I interpreted the end as hopeful. I could tell that deception was the theme, but wasn't sure if it was the boy was getting some kind of karmic punishment for his lies, or if he was learning that real life was not as pure chess.

>>21837076
The only way to overcome it is by confronting it. Die in the story so you don't die in real life as you say. If you can manage to write about it who knows what you can accomplish in reality

>>21841634
It is within the guidelines retard, I'm cutting it down to 16 and sending that part in

>>21841273
The subject is freezing wind, plumes of sand, and a horizon. That's multiple things whether horizon is plural or not.

A dog, a cat, and a bird walk into a bar.

>>21841420
>I have 20 views, so presumably they dont even get the chance to see the character count. I admit the cover page is not the most appealing (but it is attention grabbing)
Readers on RR tend to avoid anything with anime covers. Calling it a light novel probably doesn't help either. Weeb stuff has the stigma of of the low quality fanfiction that swamps the site, so most will skip it automatically. They prefer the tropes of anime and cultivation to be repurposed into something more Western.

>>21841532
An immortal depressed tomboy loli who gets groomed by a MILF (mother figure) who works at the Big Evil Organization which has been making the loli's life shit. I self insert into the loli.

>>21841532
My 2nd MC will be introduced as a loli, probably around 10 or so years old. I don't actually intend to have her take the reins until she's a lot older though.

>>21839865
>https://pastebin.com/KMreNYuk
Pretty cool story. Didn't finish it through due to picrel

>>21841740
I swear I attached the image.

>>21841740
>>21841744
This is high level crabbery.

>>21841785
I think objecting to poor writing is rather reasonable.

>>21841532
the female mc in my fantasy romance dresses in male clothes which make her look like a teenage boy, does that count

I made one of the major characters speak in a made up ancient acent (for example are -> areth)
I now regret this decision because its tiring to write all the dialogue involving them

Learn from my mistake

>>21841812
I had characters use quaker speech several times in short stories, it's cute and I wish it was still the system used in English

>>21841224
NTA, but ick.
Starbucks isn't even coffee.
More like brewed charcoal.
That's why they have to gussy it up with so much cream, sugar, and chocolate.
Good beans, reverse-osmosis water, and a Pyrex glass stovetop percolator for the win!

>>21841744
What's this? I want to see my score

>>21841532
She's the childhood friend who MC is now taller than even though she's a few years older.

>>21841476
Hence why such a plot is mediocre.

>>21841744
It's a first draft mate...

What tool is that anyway? Seems like it might be useful, in either case.

>>21842115
It could have been awesome. Fantasy land has no defense against guns and bombs, the modern world has no defense against curses and spells. It could have shown two sides trying to deal with a wildly asymmetric conflict they don't understand. The fantasy side would lose hard on first meeting, but then switch to espionage using invisibility, teleportation, mind control, scrying, etc.

>>21842249
if both were available, people would use one to enhance the other

>>21842075
>>21842158
Prowritingaid free version. It has a buit-in "probramatic content" warning and other cringe nonsense, but you can turn them off in a few clicks.

>>21842504
As I suspected, it's AI garbage that tries to enforce a sixth grade reading level for YA audiences.

>>21842504
>Put my text in
>Helps fix comma usage
>Makes writing very simple
>Wants to change utilize to use all the time
>Doesn't take context into account
It's okay.

>>21842504
Oh, I for got to mention it can only detect 500 words at once all so. I just use the image for dramatic effect.
>>21842158
The writing just has a poor use of commas.

>>21842522
>>21842548
Well, there's a reason I didn't mention the name until you guys asked for it.

>Helps fix comma usage
>poor use of commas
usually removing commas fixes general issues with commas. either removing entirely, or adding periods after. people love commas so they put them everywhere; I speak from experience

>>21836961

Reposting like a fag:

Currently working on the first book of my trilogy, I’m a third through my next-to-last draft (it’s kind of a spy novel with a Persiaboo spin, I’ve posted here before for input which actually helped). I’ll definitely be reaching out, and I’ll try to support some of you guys.

I mainly have some marketing questions: > Is advertising on 4chan worth it?
> since the book involves some niche topics in Iranian studies, I’m actually considering reaching out to some academics and intellectuals from the field to help guide me along if they’re interested. If I follow the /lit/ alt-publishing route in conjunction with this path and mainstream advertising, would my work be stigmatized or cancelled if they found out?
> Where can I go to commission good illustrations? I’m looking for someone who can do Art Nouveau/Decadent style and I’m willing to drop up to $1k for a good cover with maybe a few other illustrations. I’d love to commission an anon but /ic/ seems lacking, thoughts?
> I’m looking to get at least 1-2k readers for this first book. How much marketing would be necessary to achieve this? Do I need to make a Twitter handle and interact on social media?

>>21842635
>it’s kind of a spy novel with a Persiaboo spin
what time period? historical fiction, alternate historical fiction, modern day
what's the general plot, and have you thought at all about your blurb? because it's a spy novel I assume it's a thriller. whatever genre it is will require you to tweak your marketing strategy
for art I'll sing the praises of stable diffusion. yeah, it's ai, but if you put the correct inputs and refine, refine, refine you can get it to spit out some really nice stuff

>>21837020
>I dont think anyone should feel good about pubic lice infestations anime poster.
>Maybe you should instead advise anons to seek medical assistance for sexually transmited parasites?
T. Literal Interpretation Of A Words Actual Meanting Chad.

She felt then that her divine gifts did little good in the end; for all her life she had been forced to lay bare the truth, unabridged and whole before others, but what good was this when she could still lie to herself and keep the truth concealed from her own thoughts?

It mattered little that others couldn't lie to her. She was still a liar, and one who was foolish enough to believe her own deception. She knew now that for all the heart's goodness, the heart was also easily-manipulated and deceitful, and she realized with humility and horror that she couldn't trust herself any longer.

>>21842635
I sold zero books advertising on 4chan. Tons of clicks and impressions though

It takes me a few hours to write a few hundred words. Why the fuck am I so slow? I never manage to write anything because I masturbate over every singe sentence and try to make it as good sounding as I can.

Does the Petals in the Hail writer still post here or did he drop off the internet?

>>21842635

> what time period? historical fiction, alternate historical fiction, modern day

Contemporary (the eve of Trump's election to now). Fictional plot and roman a clef character development interspersed with magical realism

> what's the general plot, and have you thought at all about your blurb?


A jaded junior analyst for the NSA radicalizes by lurking imageboards in his outside life. Wishing to do something about the state of things, he vacillates between becoming a lone wolf terrorist and suicidal thoughts while entertaining delusions of grandeur concerning his targets in Iran's illegal rave scene; he tries to live them out in the nearest large city to his duty station, where he loses himself further in debauchery and self-doubt and learns of a right-wing plot to test a new kind of suicide drone on American defense infrastructure in the event of war with Iran. Unraveling further and faced with getting kicked out of his job for looking bad at work, he reapplies himself and uncovers the secret workings of a covert sleeper operation which involves certain party organizers in Tehran. He completely separates from reality once he separates from the army after an evolving crisis give him the impression that war is imminent, and he uses his inside knowledge to smuggle himself into Iran to hijack the operation for his own fantastical ends. His actions set off an attempted color revolution in Iran which also sets off several separatist insurgencies, skyrocketing the character he devises into a polarizing memehood. While his former fellow soldiers try to sift through his budding legend to track him down, he emerges from hiding, crowns himself shah during a spate of major protest, and meets with the Supreme Leader, giving him a dead man's switch with his activity on the imageboards and information on the right-wing cell in exchange for safe passage home. The Supreme Leader hatches a plan to check the increasingly praetorian Revolutionary Guard which almost causes war between the US and Iran, triggering the right-wing cell into action; the media freaks out and imageboards suffer a major government crackdown as a result, and his agents bring the cell and a sizable group of other anons into the country, where his their experiences fighting the separatists transform them into a secret paramilitary with a syncretistic mythos. They sneak back into the West after further training, where they conduct a sabotage campaign against America's media conglomerates while the hunt for the analyst continues.


And not yet on the blurb, too much to do first lol. Good point on AI

> sup glowies, if you're reading this... that's all I'll say here :)

>>21842249
It's goddamn Narnia for Jap high schoolers, not Tom Clancy

>>21841697
>Readers on RR tend to avoid anything with anime covers

>source: my ass

>>21843075
The rest of the series aside (I never read past book 2) please don't insult The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by equating it with the slop that is GATE

>>21843140
I enjoyed Gate more than descriptions of the sort of marmalade beavers put on their friggin toast. Just because the slop is 80 years old, it doesn't suddenly become high art.

>>21843075
But it could have been. I mean the writer was a military sperg.

>>21838632
This reads like tripe straight from r/HFY

>>21840803
Can anyone give some feedback?

>>21841263
Aethon. They’ll likely reject it but it’s worth a shot, they publish 200 books a year, a mid major publisher at this point.

>>21843304
>genretrash writers actually
indistinguishable from wattpad

>>21843304
All the book covers on that site suck

>>21841675
It's
>A dog, and a cat, and birds walk into a bar.
because "horizons" sounds better in OP's sentence.

>>21843347
>>21843353
Yeah so you wrote genre trash. You wrote lowest common denominator filth. You are just a step above erotica writers, your fiction belongs in the trough. Aethon figured out a way to make a whole lot of money traditionally publishing slop like yours. So, you can understand that you’re a middling at best hack with no serious literary ambitions and pitch your book to Aethon, a partnership that would make you a good deal of money and certainly much more than someone of your intelligence is going to make on his own, or you can spend the next 2 years or so of your life complaining about the state of your writing career like the rest of the invalids that frequent this general.

I put you onto some game, put your pride aside because believe me you haven’t earned any. This is the best you can hope for, and is in fact far more than you deserve.

>>21843058
Posted his shit to shill for a few copies then fucked off

>>21843430
There’s no chance that retard sold a single copy. The sooner we start filtering incompetents like him the better this board will be. /lit/ deserves a better class of indie.

>>21843418
post your work

>>21843418
You sound like the literary equivalent of an incel.

>>21843457
/lit/cels... did we just lose?

>>21843457
>>21843453
I have blessed you with serious advice, the only you received; look at your other responses and see how they show a complete ignorance of the publishing market. Only I have given you an actionable answer. In a serious world, you would be on hands and knees, prostrated before me in a show of eternal gratitude. In today’s world, a consultation such as I have given you would be hidden behind a transaction, the price of which would never be recouped in the long years of your failed artistic “career”. Instead I gave you wisdom for free, I open you to an entire world you nor many others have fathomed. You spurn me because your self estimation once again rests above the world’s treatment of you.
You can’t even get 20 views on royal road. The attention I have given you today far outpaces that which you have garnered after months of slaving away at your cum covered keyboard. You should be sucking the skin of my cock in thanks.

>>21843500
Why is it that all insults from 4channers invariably become sexual? For as much people hate jews on this site for their sexual obsessions in media, you all seem equally preoccupied.

>>21843507
Bold to assume he isn't a Jew.
It is a lot like how /pol/ is full of Latin Americans and Indians.

>>21843500
>doesnt post credentials
why should i listen to anything you have to say

Let's say, hypothetically, that you wrote a story that if viewed from a certain way has strong anti-trans messaging. Messaging that was entirely unintentional and not realized until afterward. Now let's also say that I don't want to shoot my own legs off by saying it was intentional or "based". What would be the best way to handle someone inevitably pointing this snafu out?

Has anyone written anything halfway decent here?

>>21843543
>get JRK fuck-you money
>write novel boldfaced the troon is the villain, as they are in reality
>flip off haters and drink wine in a castle

though honestly i can't understand what the fuck you mean by your shitty retarded post. learn to speak before you want to write a novel to push a political agenda, you miserable retarded failure

>>21843543
That you did not intend for it, but once you noticed it you realized that removing or changing the story would interfere with your artistic integrity as well as the integrity of your story.
Some people might be upset, but I think most people, especially if they have time to become invested into it for other reasons, will see that you did not mean anything against trannies.
I have something like that, people can physically change the body with the right magic, but souls are born male or female and sexual organs have a magical component.
This means that even if you perfectly body swapped, you would need to change a persons soul on a deeper level if you wanted them to be able to reproduce.
Will this ever really matter in the story? Not really, but I've already set it up and I think the concept is neat.
>>21843564
Learn to read, his point is pretty clear to me.
He wrote something that could be seen as anti-tranny, but he did not mean it like that.
Now he wants to know how to avoid offending people since he doesn't want to go down the path of pretending that he is some based and redpilled author who did it on purpose.
>>21843560
I think Egregore is actually good.

>>21843524
Don’t. I recognize your posting style. You’ve been here for years. A complete failure. You don’t deserve my grace. Every few months I subject myself to this general just to see if there is any new talent. Every time it’s completely embarrassing. I believe wg is quicksand. One day soon you will beg me for succor. Beg. And when your last resort is closed to you you’ll remember the time you wasted this opportunity.

>>21843573
i have no idea if he was pro-tranny or anti-tranny, but i will say, i am certainly anti-tranny

>>21843595
yeah, this guy is definitely here all the time. he's the one who always aggressively posts "post your work" and won't address anything else you say, just keeps negging aggressively

he really needs therapy and a life

>>21843595
you dont recognize my posting style. you dont know who i am. and why do you keep coming back if you repeatedly are disappointed by the writers here? you have no one but yourself to blame at this point

>>21843595
>>21843604
If you can't post your work, but you also shit on another anon so strongly, then you are a faggot crab who has already been dragged to the bottom of the bucket.

>>21843595
Even knowing you're playing a character, this writing style is extremely cringe. Please stop. You can't write.

I think if a few people read my novel and deemed it an enjoyable 6/7 out of 10, that'd be beyond my expectations.

>>21843610
a person's point is true or false independently of your opinion on their own writing
all your bullshit does is stonewall a discussion and annoy everyone

>>21843640
there's a reason we don't let lay people give expert opinions in court. Without showing your credentials, your criticisms are meaningless. Not because being a bad writer necessarily makes your criticisms wrong, but because it calls into question the legitimacy and usefulness of your opinions.

>>21843573
>souls are born male or female
souls don't exist. you are your body and nothing more
>but what about trannies, then? huh? huh?
brain damage, molestation or other childhood trauma

>>21843683
You clearly read my post, but then you failed to understand I was talking about my story, not reality.

>>21843684
I did, you're right. Given the prevalence of religious texts in other areas of life I sincerely apologize for mistakenly thinking your fiction was more than fiction in your own mind. I'm sorry for insulting you by inadvertently putting forth the notion that you couldn't entertain an idea without actually believing it.

>>21843697
It's fine.
I know things take a turn for the wacky once you get into this topic.

>>21843288
I only have a cursory understanding of HFY and I really doubt it's anything like it.
You're probably right that it's tripe however. It's pure escapism

>>21843667
surely the ONLY reason someone might criticise you is that they just aren't as good an author
surely
it can't be that you just suck
oh no
they must be wrong
you're a genius
how dare they criticise you without giving you a chance to handwave them

>>21843728
>how dare they criticise you without giving you a chance to handwave them
no one can or would handwave you if you posted your work

>>21840581
maybe start actually writing instead of posting about wanting to write

>>21843614
Once again you’ve taken to pathetic ad hominem. I’m not playing a character. I’m calling you a pathetic and talentless faggot unironically. When someone like myself wastes his precious seconds consorting with you he should be thanked. You’ll tell your grandkids about the time I called you a bitch.

>>21843762
Aren’t you the dude writing a homosexual basketball bildungsroman, Sange or something?

>>21843737
You are the lowest person here. Again, I know you. Years of posting in this general and your steady practice hasn’t even given flavor to your sandbagging shitposts. When will you give up? Will I have to wait patiently until you drive the wrong way on the highway?

You are why this place is terrible, why it’s writers never improve. WG had no value because the talents are driven away by the endless hug boxing.

I will wait here for my thank you. I’ve given you a crumb of my knowledge but it’ll nourish you for years if only you’ll take it within you.

>>21843770
I am not known to you. If you think I’d débase myself by becoming a regular visitor to this digital sanatorium you’ve insulted me severely.

>>21843600
I'm anti tranny but pro shemale/femboy.

>>21843610
Stop calling people crabs. I offered you salvation. I offered you a ladder leading clearly out of this fetid pit. You wish to stay in the bucket, with the rest of the failures, the comfort of company over the pain of striving. This is your reward. Enjoy a tearless funeral.

>>21843783
understandable. a fetishist wearing fetish clothing is a 1000x healthier than trooning out

>>21840803
Simple prose and minimal descriptors are fine. Multiple easy-to-catch typos are not. Proofread your work, my man.

Trying to imitate the kind of thing Catch-22 does where they present this horrible idea and then just kind of wave it away with something bizarre or funny.


Terror creeps into every fiber of Tom's being and takes absolute control. Everything ceases to exist within and without, only a thousand needles stabbing into his mind at once.
The sun burned with fury on top of the sky, clouds of poisonous gas ffiltered through his window along with the heat. Tom rubbed his hands anxiously while his mind flooded with images of extreme cruelty.
Animals being devoured, bullets punching through skulls, knives undoing God's image with celerity and joy. He had been born into a world where life gives into death on every square centimeter of earth.
But then the phone in his shaky hand rings. Relief washes over him without even having to watch it. The world is still the same savage jungle, but he managed to reattain a feeling of normalcy, of stagnating peacefulness that is as fragile as crystal.
"Good God! I can go back to wasting my life now!" He says to himself as he puts the phone down, and his attention becomes defuse in pornographic distractions again, his sanity rettained.

>>21843944
Unfunny but I like the direction
Keep doing what you're doing til it works

Would you guys recommend any writing programs like Scrivener?

>>21844071
if you have money to burn. I use libreoffice. the word program for the document, and the excel program for my notes

>>21844126
I could pay for it no problem but I wonder if there's any advantage to those kinds of things vs. using documents and spreadsheets.

>>21844071
I use treeline it's pretty nice and free

>>21844149
Thanks, I'll check it out.

>Hunterkin
Is that like guys who wear camo and hang out at Cabela's but don't actually hunt?

>>21844173
kek.

>>21844149
>spends more time worldbuilding than writing the actual story
do you people actually do this

>>21844136
honestly I can't imagine there is, but some people like it. at the end of the day all the bells and whistles of some program don't amount to even a thimbleful of putting in the time actually drafting your story

>>21844175
fuck wrong varg reaction pic
meant to use this

>>21844173
>Is that like guys who wear camo and hang out at Cabela's but don't actually hunt?
I keked
>>21844175
nah I spend most of my time writing I just throw ideas out in my treeline as I go along so I don't forget shit

>>21844136
It depends on the scale of your work.
If everything can comfortably fit in one file, Scrivener won't do much for you.
But if you've got everything spread out across tens of files and you've got research notes too, Scrivener is a godsend.

I'd say Scrivener starts being worth the money if you plan to write something with more than 30,000 words.

>>21844136
>>21844126
>>21844071
you software enthusiasts, is there an actual thesaurus and English dictionary that you can store offline on your computer? surely in the modern world of the interwebs there is such a thing??? even better if CLI accessible

>>21844231
>30,000 words
is nothing. like, how many different files could you possibly be juggling at 30k words? maybe 300k words, and even then just learn how to organize better

>>21844149
this shit makes me wince. there's no better way to completely drain something of humanity than this sort of neatly organized wiki style worldbuilding
I have seen it countless times and not a single time the person doing it had a story to tell - not even one that was bad, literally no story at all

>>21844236
I may consult a thesaurus every now and then but I have a habit of creating words when I feel the need

>>21843944
Second attempt. I was in a rush and couldn't finish fleshing this out.

Terror creeps into every fiber of Tom's being and takes absolute control. Everything ceases to exist within and without, only a thousand needles stabbing into his mind at once.
The sun burned with fury on top of the sky, clouds of poisonous gas ffiltered through his window along with the heat. Tom rubbed his hands anxiously while his mind flooded with images of extreme cruelty.
Animals being devoured, bullets punching through skulls, knives undoing God's image with celerity and joy. He had been born into a world where life gives into death on every square centimeter, at every single attosecond.
But then the phone in his shaky hand rings. Relief washes over him as he reads a sentence, the only combination of words in existence that could save him from staying stranded forever on a bloody rock, all alone and yet surrounded by evil.
"Headin home", a text by his wife. Then, her satellital location.
Tom exhaled with relief. Nothing had changed, but he had managed to keep his sanity. His fragile as crystal sanity, wholly dependant on knowing that his wife was alive and free from any harm, at every single moment of the day.
"Thanks, be careful" he replies quickly, then puts the phone away. Sure, there was absolutely no way of telling if she would make it back home alive. At all. There simply was no way to know if she would be getting raped and killed, or horrifically mutilated in a traffic accident. Maybe someone would cough on her and a deadly virus would soon infest her lungs. Maybe she hadn't even writtem the message, and it was all part of a cruel joke by some sadist.
But that was just too crazy to fathom now that he had received the satellital location as well.
"Good God!" Tom says to himself as he puts the phone down, his mind no longer a hostage of terror. His thoughts slowly reverting back to their relaxed, directionless stagnatation. "Everything is still alright... everything is still okay. I better make sure to make every minute count."
Having succesfully retained his sanity for one more moment, Tom resumes his fourth masturbation session of the day.

>>21843981
Thanks. I actually have no idea how to be funny.
Recommend me some more funny books pls.

>Why yes, I want to write violent super-hero schlock, how could you tell?

Kelly heard the gurgled screams of the man standing a few feet from her as he fell to the ground, his innards spilling through a hole produced by blunt force trauma. Just a few moments later, Kelly saw the top of a man's head disappear into thin air. A beam of light flared into existence for what felt like a second, shooting through his skull and burning through every single molecule in the trayectory of said light.

She heard the precise moment a man behind them had shot at her. For a moment it felt as if she were actually hearing the bullet rip through the air. Seized by primeval terror, she turned around at an uncanny speed and held both of her hands out.

The bullet bounced off right in front of her. Several beams of white light shot from behind her and burned through the man's chest and face before he could pull the trigger a second time. She kept her hands up, petrified.

"Holy fuck!" Rosemary cried in ecstatic awe "Did you see that? He couldn't even touch us with a bullet! I didn't know we were this fast!" She squished the piece of intestine she had been holding onto, spilling blood and feces over her colorful dress. She grabbed Kelly by the shoulder and smeared her shoulder. She couldn't think, her breating became labored as the smell of death hit her sensitive nose.

Kelly tried to run away from the scene, but Rosemary gripped her so hard she felt her fingers burying into her flesh. Four men quickly descended from a parked car and took aim. Three were dead instantly, the fourth collapsed into the ground after having his upper torso mutilated. A single bullet bounced off from thin air.

The street lighted up. The building began collapsing as the light beams erased matter on their path. A cacophony of screams erupted from the wreckage. Rosemary overlooked the scene stupified.

"We need to get out of here!" Kelly screamed, her face pale as a sheet "Please! Let's go!"

"We're almost done, I promise!" Rosemary grabbed her by the hand and tried to drag her " Come on, come--"

"Let go of me!" panic became overwhelming, "I don't want to be here!"

"We're going to fucking die if we don't finish this!" Another cluster of beams rained upon what remained standing of the building. Kelly followed while Rosemary made her way towards something in the ruined building.
Rate and h8
Recommend books with good depictions of fantastic violence.

>>21844289
So just in this first part. I don't actually see anything happening - but Kelly does, so why not relay that?
>Kelly heard the gurgled screams of the man standing a few feet from her as he fell to the ground, his innards spilling through a hole produced by blunt force trauma. Just a few moments later, Kelly saw the top of a man's head disappear into thin air. A beam of light flared into existence for what felt like a second, shooting through his skull and burning through every single molecule in the trayectory of said light.
>Kelly heard
>Kelly saw
don't filter
>his innards spilling through a hole produced by blunt force trauma
spell out what that blunt force trauma was. if she knows it's blunt force trauma she saw it happen
> A beam of light flared into existence for what felt like a second
>for what felt like a second
for a second, or for a moment. not it felt like

>>21844289
also
>Four men quickly descended from a parked car and took aim.
these are some extremely suicidal mooks. what's up with that?

>>21844255
Same.
The one that comes to mind is ribbery, as in a banter.
I couldn't actually find if it was a real word or not, but it sounds fine to me and anyone who knows the term gentle ribbing would understand it.

>>21844289
and finally, my last meta nitpick
your characters seem very op. very op. you are seriously limiting the range your story can take by having them be so op right off the bat

>>21844399
Thanks for your thoughtful replies, anon.
I want to write a story about two very OP super heroines going on a rampage. I'm glad that despite the clunky nature of my writing I still managed to convey that.

Also, I was thinking of using this as the start of the story, just fucking handing out gore and flashy powers as a flashforward and then showing how it got to that point. I don't like it, but it worked for Breaking Bad.
>*record scratch*
>Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got here.

>>21844289
Dude your writing is so heavy down with cliche. Every sentence you have a well worn term that stirs nothing in the imagination besides some sort of reference cluster of all the times you’ve examined the phrase

Gurgled screams, disappears into thin air, the precise moment, seized by (fear), labored breathing.
Read more. Come back in a year. Honest advice.

>>21844495
Give me something good to read.
If it's a list I can complete in a year even better.
Don't give me meme books, be a man.

>>21844502
Gladly. What’s your taste? Any medium. I’ll try to find 15. Gonna throw in some craft books just to guide your study as pure osmosis can be a frustrating way to learn

>>21844492
>I want to write a story about two very OP super heroines going on a rampage
but why? that has no legs. and these 2 superheroines are clearly newbies given Kelly's reaction and the Romemary's dialogue. the last superhero story I read was Worm, which I dropped post time-skip, but I really enjoyed the story overall. I think the main problem I have is Rosemary is a lunatic, like total psycho, and she just got her powers. She's not human. Kelly is much more human, but they're both supremely op, which makes neither of them suitable as main characters.

>>21844516
I like everything. Right now I'm going through Elric of Melnibone books, Blood Meridian, Something Happened and re-reading Catch-22 and American Psycho. Trust me, I'm trying to learn from what I read, but I'm too new to writing.
What I really want to get good at conveying to a reader is:
>Gore and extreme violence
>Super powers, fantastic fight scenes
>Gunplay, shootouts
I have never read any books with any of these lol. Maybe only American Psycho and Blood Meridian for the violence, but I need something that adapts better to the kind of story I want to tell.
It's not even a dare or anything, if you can help me out then by all means.

>>21841532
I envisioned her as a loli, but after drawing her with budding tits and budding curves, I view her now as a young sexy hebe. She's now 11yo at the absolute youngest, prob 12-13 in actuality

>>21844535
I don't plan to make them too OP. Let's say I want to simulate the feeling of being the main character of an FPS or a GTA: you can easily kill dozens of dudes, but you can't just blink an make a small army disappear. I want them to rely on guns to survive because their powers need recharging, they need to work together because their powers compliment each other, shit like that.

The dynamic between the two characters is what you just described, an unhinged, domineering, self-righteous psycho tripping on power and a cowardly, meek person who doesn't know what to do and is trapped in a horrible situation. They both get powers one day and they both set out to do "the right thing". The characters being both mentally unprepared in their own ways to use their powers responsibly and the consequences of their actions is going to be the focus of the story.

>Worm
Sounds based, I'm going to check it out.

>>21844628
Good.
If I were you I'd tone down the first fight they have because half the fun of these stories for the reader is showing the characters learning their powers and getting stronger as the story goes. Mowing down people left and right in the opening scene without suffering some kind of failure or backlash or consequences I think will do a disservice. Another example My Hero Academia, the mc gets the supremely op strong power but it has a huge drawback he has to learn and mitigate. Something like that is bread and butter in these superhero stories.
>Worm
you're in for a treat it's genuinely great

>>21844545
Have you read Soon I Will Be Invincible? Seems right up your alley. Also the reason you can't find books like that is because such things are usually relegated to visual mediums like film and comics

>>21844545
https://aethonbooks.com/superhero/

>>21844149
based treeline fan!
i come up with the ideas for my works in totally random order
treeline lets me organize my muse's randomness

Last two chapters and with that I’m taking a break because I’ve been fucking with this book since I started writing it in May 2020. I need a break.

>>21843453
>post your work

>>21844827
Forgot the god damn fucking link.
https://pastebin.com/bXtp1vCw

>>21844827
You're not alone. I've been on mine since August 2019, the outline for it several years before that. The past couple months I've been knocking it out while doing my masters degree. Sleepless nights, soul-wrenching loneliness, the need to get over my indecision and leave something before death consuming me (at least my thirties anyway, I'll be 28 in a few days)... about 90,000 words in the unrefined draft, and I've only finished one short story and a shitty 5,000 word book of free verse in my life. Just hang in, anon

>>21844289
You are presenting everything every out of order. First she hears a scream, then the man gets injured. The guys head blows up, then the laser comes. It makes everything tangled and reduces impact. Just write in cause and effect order.

Too much filtering. Heard, saw, etc.

Weed out cliches. Thin air. pale as a sheet.

I can tell you're going for something impressionistic, with a series of disjointed images, but it's hard to understand what's actually happening. Can't tell where the lasers are coming from.

>>21844545
>I have never read any books with any of these lol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiator_(novel)

>>21844149
>genretoddler

>>21843438
I don't even think he was selling paperback.

>>21842697
Typical female character thinking. Turning a contraction of an STI by copulation with someone who has poor personal hygiene into something to live their best life about.

To this day, I am amused at the poorfag who declared you should be throwing away $50 a week and didn't understand how that line of thinking contributed to his economic hardship.

Make sure you spend your money wisely, /wg/.

>>21845005
You have to spend money to make money. Stay a wage slave, cuck!

>>21845005
goodness, what is this revisionist history? I recall people laughing at you because you declared having 50 dollars of disposable income every week to be some kind of extraordinary extravagance. did you take my advice and start picking up cans to supplement your income?

>>21844830

>>21844545

Try the Bhagavad Gita

Behold, the greatest story ever told... >>21845183

>>21844830
it gets worse every time I read it

>>21845191
lolsorandom

Do you name your chapters or not?

>>21845073
>revisionist
You say, as you revise it. Still not going to own up to your own self-admittance of being impoverished while you dispense advice that's going to keep people in it? Yes, fifty a week is absolutely an extravagance. That's a tank of gas, that's groceries, that's bills, that's healthcare, that's everything.
>>21845063
Spend, not throw it away.

>>21845267
I tried to at first, but then I realized that I would rather only name chapters when I feel like it.

>>21845191
i chuckled

>>21837195
Kinda based

>>21845191
smiled a little
cheeky and stupid but has a feel for dialogue

Why are there almost no collaboratively-written stories?
I read a fanfiction with three authors and it was the best fanfiction I've ever seen, it didn't feel like anything was missing or there were any weaknesses in the writing

>>21845380
because writers are all lazy fucks
I read the Thieves World series as a kid and loved it. collaborative stories can be fun, but no one wants to commit

>>21845380
the average /wg/ger is too autistic

>>21845380
writing around or with another person is hard.
I'm not even sure how you would do it outside of story lines that take place in parallel with one another and they converge before splitting off.

>have loads of physical and mental issues that make just about any job feel overwhelming
>still wish I could be a productive member of society
>writing is just about the one thing I can do well at and do for hours each day without exhausting myself, and I can keep it up for months with only occasional burnouts
>but writing is also a heavily oversaturated market so finding any modicum of success takes not just a lot of skill, but also knowing what people want and how to give it to them
I guess my life path is "become an amazing author or bust" then?
Still, the narrowness of my options is actually a relief in a way since it stops me from losing focus.

>>21844830
>He thought that maybe if he slapped her in the cheeks enough, that she would stop being so claustrophobic. It was a last ditch resort, which he was doing to calm down his hysterical girlfriend.

>Dazed from all of luke's slapping, Isabella stares her boyfriend in the eyes. "T-Thank you, Luke... you did it. You're the best boyfriend in the world. You've cured my claustrophobia..."

I have no longer have any idea what gardner's deal is. Does he do it on purpose? Is he trying to fill the funny-becasue-bad niche? Is he just organically shit and willfully ignorant of everyone calling him shit?
Maybe part of the charm is not knowing.

>>21845380
I'm trying to find people with collab with. Writers, artists, anyone, but i just end up getting ghosted when i pitch the idea. Worse part is that they say they're interested then don't reply to my DMs after a day

I need to leave to the void what is of the void and give the flesh what is of the flesh

>>21845492
Have you considered that maybe your idea just fucking sucks
I mean I don't know what it is but perhaps it's total doodoo garbage

>>21845380
Collaborative short stories and novellas were actually pretty popular back when pulp magazines were a common publication avenue for fiction authors.
If your favorite author was alive in the last hundred yeas, then they probably wrote for a magazine, and there's a good chance they have some little-known collaborations out there.

>>21845498
Im open to make something original or even just being an ideas guy for the other person. Im bending backwards trying to do whatever i can to lift both parties out of irrelevancy. Trying to get a fanbase is hard, it feels impossible, but it seems everyone wants to work alone and suffer for the small chance they might get noticed

>>21845528
cute loser
you shouldn't try to commit to this with randoms anyway. they'll bail on you midway through the project or otherwise make it an absolute hell
just keep it in the back pocket and try to meet decent people

>>21845380
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Trilogy

>>21845528
>just being an ideas guy for the other person.
So you offer to do the easy fun part and let them do the actual work? I wonder why they don't respond.

I want to edit some of my work, but I also don't want to get out of bed. I'm so comfy.

>>21845554
I make multiple offers. that's just one of them

>>21845479
I feel like I am schizophenic when I read posts like this.
I have been unable to do even light physical labor since I was 15.
I got past my depression (I put a lot of stock in my helpfulness as a man on my ability to help others) at 18.
Now I just rarely think about suicide very rarely if I go to long without doing anything I would call productive.
I hope you do well because it is pretty hellish to be stuck in a body that can't do what you want it to.
>>21845556
I write from my laptop.
Before my PC broke I still wrote from bed because my back is fucked.
>>21845560
What is the project? If it is realistic to do I would be willing to help since I have a lot of free time.

>>21845569
No project right now since i try to cater the project for the other person. if you just want to get a feel for what's it's like working together with me then i have a stupid fanfic i was writing in my free time, we could put some stupid ideas and whatnot in it, maybe get some views. Getting prepared to work with other people disorganizes me a bit since i have to think about how things should go

>>21845569
>lazy in bed anon
I have a raspberry pi hooked up to a tv my LL had installed when I moved in. I *could* write from bed, but it's like 10ft away from me and I'd have to yoink the mouse and keyboard from my PC. I had a laptop that broke.

I also sync my work on dropbox, so I can pull up my work on my phone and edit in the app or by hand with pen and paper. But holy shit, am I feeling lazy right now.

>>21836961
I'm writing a dream based off a nightmare I had and I feel the title is just ridiculous. Is it normal to have a working title before settling on the actual one after the story has been completed?

>>21845609
I still don't have a title for a short story I wrote eight months ago.

>>21837164
I would love to see a conversation between this guy and a cyborg transhumanist, maybe throw some sort of biological fundamentalist who's against modifying the natural form in any way.
It'd probably devolve into a memri tv style shouting match and brawl, and it's be amazing to read.

>>21845602
I use KDE connect to type on my computer from my phone over wifi.

>>21845651
Fuck, I ought to look into that. I've got kde installed now and I really like it.

>>21845602
I have my laptop set up on my desk, its about ten feet away too. I save all that I write on a floppy disk.

>>21845554
Are you implying that coming up ideas is more work than writing?
Surely not right?

>>21845380
The benefit of it is pretty questionable compared to the effort it takes to make it work.

Speaking of collaborations, I toyed with this idea of a web novel where the characters are playing a virtual reality MMO. In most stories like this, authors just seem to make up how the game works as they go, which results in a lot of asspulls, countless irrelevant, broken features, and cheap resolutions to conflicts.

So to make it more realistic, I wanted to design the gameplay first, all the character classes and skills they can have, so that there are clear, properly balanced limitations within which the story must happen. Then I thought I'd make whole thing available online, so that other people writing similar stories could use the ready system however they like, and maybe help define the classes and features.
So it's not really many authors writing the same story, but the same underlying system loosely connecting different stories. It should be only helpful if you don't have the time or imagination to flesh out the small details.
Does this seem interesting or just dumb waste of time?

May the new bread be with you.
>>21845727

>>21845670
>Are you implying that coming up ideas is more work than writing?
The opposite.

>>21845673
>a dumb waste of time?
unfortunately this. the reality is you can use an existing game's framework as a template for your own and you are seriously overlooking the benefit and utility that authorial asspulls allow. people read these stories for fun. following the rules 95% of the time keeps things grounded enough and the remaining 5% allows for rule of cool

>>21846987
I think the characters making clever use of the assets they have makes for far more entertaining stories than OH WOW LOOK AT THIS CHEAT POWER I HAD HIDDEN IN MY ASS THAT'S GREAT EXACTLY FOR THIS MOMENT, because I fucking stop reading right there. And I roll my eyes when I see the author explain his system that has glaringly obvious balance issues and loopholes for exploitation, but somehow only the MC noticed those.

Decided to finally start writing seriously for the first time today. Probably won't turn out good, probably won't be anything anyone wants to read but if I just let the story die in my head I just won't be able to live with myself.

Is the ability to write good prose a skill anyone can learn? Or is it a you know or you don't kind of thing? Any secrets to it or methods of learning it?

>>21847061
>And I roll my eyes when I see the author explain his system that has glaringly obvious balance issues and loopholes for exploitation, but somehow only the MC noticed those.
that's a separate issue entirely. if you're going to do unfair things, be unfair to your protag. suffering builds character