/lit/ - Literature

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
-Calvin Coolidge

Wrote 2000 words yesterday. Gonna write 2000 more today.

Now that my book is a failure, what should I do?

>>21973702
Give up.

>>21973702
Write another one that is better.
Why do you think it didn't work out?

>>21973702
Define "failure".
Herman Melville didn't become part of the Western canon until well after his death.
Franz Kafka was so unsuccessful during his life, he asked the executor of his will to destroy all his work. It's only because his executor didn't do that, that we know of his writing at all.
Philip K. Dick struggled throughout his life, only seeing real money after he sold the movie rights to "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep" (which became the movie "Blade Runner'), but sadly, he passed away before the movie was released.
>>21973710
Go straight to Hell, failed crab.

Any anons working on a short story? Like 2,500 words. Also post short story tips

>>21973720
Bad blurb instantly turned off people from reading it.

>>21973702
What's your book title?

>>21973723
Try to keep it to one theme and use one story thread: setting, idea, character or event. If you stick to one thread then you won't have to write so much, and can keep it focused and short.
For setting, you are exploring the changes being in and out of that setting.
For idea, you raise a question and provide some potential answers, perhaps even more questions.
For character, you explore something he believes, the belief is challenged and he we watch how he responds. A lot of literary fiction short stories are like this.
For event, explore the aftermath of an event and try to understand what it means.

If you are writing genre short stories, it may be better to focus on something other than the character. It could be an interesting fictional setting, a bizarre idea or event that would not happen in a normal story. Let the characters take a back seat, they are there to explore the theme.

Is it alright to post here if I am an uneducated, shit, writer?

>>21973760
Yes. We all started that way, but as president Coolidge said, it's important to not give up. Even after an abysmal failure

>>21973738
Why can't you change the blurb?
Did you print thousands copies of it already or something?

>>21973798
I changed it, but the damage has been done.

>>21973809
I don't understand, Did you only have one chance for attention from the public?
You come across as a mopey depressive.

You did write your 2000 daily words today, right /wg/?

>>21973843
it's 8 am

>>21973837
Of course. Everyone only has one shot at selling a product.

>>21973858
and?

Asian American History month is coming up in a few days. How do I shill the living shit out of this book?

>>21973863
I'm mostly deleting sentences today
does it count if I delete 2000 words

What's considered a "Failure" for a royalroad novel on a fresh account? 100 people clicked on my first chapter and 25 people are still reading it 6 chapters in.

>>21973871
If you don't have 1000 followers by the end of week 1

OP your image is ugly, its not your fault, please learn the fundamentals of art, it causes eye ache because its oversaturated, again not your fault, AI is like that, its prone to deepfrying images.

>>21973871
Real answer, you need to get ~100-200 followers in the first 2 weeks so that you hit Rising Stars (20k word minimum to appear). Otherwise it's dead in the water and discoverability shoots way, way down.
Assuming you're talking from a marketing/money-making perspective, of course.
Did you post all six chapters at once? If so, you failed to do your basic research & this story probably isn't taking off (I hope it does; just being honest with you). You need to post chapters daily for the first 2 weeks for your best shot to get the needed followers. Dumping them all then updating rarely isn't a good strategy for getting clicks (only discoverability is 'new updates' and 'new releases' when you're starting out).

>>21973859
That's not true at all.
Why do you think it's true?

>>21973723
Here's one I'm working on. (I've posted it before).
https://pastebin.com/kbDys4x3

>>21973868
Get a radio or podcast interview or something.

>>21973760
No, the /wg/ thread of 4channel.org/lit is reserved for educated professionals.

>>21973868
Find in-person events celebrating Asian American History month, and shill it there.
Bring copies of your book, sell them to people, rent a booth if necessary.
Certainly don't shill it here.

>>21973887
If I'm using AI to generate images, what does it matter if I learn the "fundamentals of art"?
Ultimately, you only have your opinion, not objective standards.
The image looks like typical cartoon coloring to me, and I like it that way.
Also, no one that prompts AI for images considers themselves an artist, so don't even bring up that strawman argument.

>>21973760
It seems like that's all we get here, so by all means, knock yourself out.

>>21973893
I only prewrote the first chapter so I this one is fucked then. I ended up spending a ton of time after the first couple of chapters world building in my notes so the upload pace was bad. I could probably start pumping out a chapter a day now, but I guess it's too late. It's fine though, I'm just doing it as a hobby anyways. kill me

>>21973859
John Kennedy Toole failed to sell his novel "A Confederacy Of Dunces".
He ended up stupidly killing himself over it.
His mother continued to try to sell his novel, finally succeeded 11 years after his death...and it won the Pulitzer that year.

I wrote this and posted it a couple months back: https://pastebin.com/EL5pDYrw

I was pretty happy with getting what felt to me like a satisfying plot into a ~1,600 word story - but I didn't get much feedback apart from a guy who said the narrator was annoying...

>>21973723
I wrote this and posted it a couple months back: https://pastebin.com/EL5pDYrw

I was pretty happy with getting what felt to me like a satisfying plot into a ~1,600 word story -- but I didn't get much feedback apart from a guy who said the narrator was annoying...

As for short story trips, I recommend starting stories on the train back from work and then fleshing them out in the evening once you've got home. Seems to work for me.

>>21973928
>my novel isn't even 1/100000000 as good as confederacy
What chance do I even have in this cutthroat hobby?

>>21973914
>If I'm using AI to generate images, what does it matter if I learn the "fundamentals of art"?
It's good to be able to notice when an image is not as good as it could be, so you can improve it. (This is a general principle. Doesn't matter if it's visual art or prose or computer programming or UX design.)
I don't know shit about fundamentals or color theory or whatever. But I do notice that the mouth stands out so little that it's easy to miss, despite its size. I notice that my eyes are drawn toward the purple in the bottom left even though there's nothing to look at there. If these things were fixed then the image would be more effective.
I know that people who are really good with AI art spend a lot of time touching up their images, erasing and inpainting, tweaking prompts, compositing, and so on. I don't know if they're "artists" but there are skills to acquire.

>>21973972
How much do you think JKT wrote before he wrote Confederacy? There are lots of things that never see the light of day. Time is still on your side, so write another story.

>>21973971
>>21973940
It's very good. Not really my thing (the whole literature as a quirky gf simulator is just dull to me) but I can easily see this being published in a magazine somewhere if you make them both women.

>>21973904
that's a great idea

>>21973972
What, you don't think you'll get better with practice?
Very few people write a successful first novel.
Go write something else.
Maybe, after you have a few novels under your belt, you'll know how to fix your earlier work.
Also...do you write short stories? That's a good way to get some practice. I write dozens...sometimes, even silly throwaway stories.
I don't get hung up on success. I just write.

>>21973993
That's very positive of you anon! Maybe I will send a short story to the Unreal guys

>>21973992
Happy to help.
And remember...even if your public shilling doesn't work this time...you'll gain a lot of experience doing this!
Nerds like us quite often have trouble speaking in public, but you'll never get better at it without practicing.
No one said success was easy, or that it happens the first time. Otherwise, we wouldn't have needed a space program; we could have just jumped to the moon on the first try.

>>21974004
Or post short stories in a fiction-related sub on Reddit, or make your own Substack...really, the possibilities are endless.

>>21974010
god I hate reddit. They complain 10x more than we do. And we're pretty crabby in the first place.

>>21973974
You are totally overthinking this.
I just wanted a fun image I could use to show in the catalog.
I'm not a graphical artist, and have no aspirations to be one.
But since you feel so strongly about it...why not touch up this image yourself, and post it here? If I like it, I'll save a copy of it.

‘Reborn as a Demonic Tree’ by XKARNATION has a patreon that makes 5,5 thousand dollars a month. How did he do it? How did he make a story about a fucking tree, growing almost passively at one spot, rooted in place, falling asleep for years at a time, into an enormous financial success?

First, this story has litrpg elements. For many that is going to be a huge turn off, but discarding it simply for that would be a huge mistake. Always consider the function of a story element: how are the litrpg elements used? To advance the plot in some ways. Whenever other humans characters aren’t on screen, the main character, a fucking evil tree, uses his abilities to explore the world, explore his magical abilities through tense fights and explore who he is, as a human turned tree. These three functions are the major pulls of a progression fantasy story.

Secondly, XKARNATION has from the very first page established other human characters that help to pull along the passive tree. The author decided the tree cannot easily talk to the others, cannot talk to the girl at all at the start, but the main heroine can talk incessantly to the tree. And she does. Over and over. Candidly confessing her hopes and dreams and weaknesses, her moral need shining through to the observant reader. What does the lack of dialogue between the actual tree and the heroine achieve? The reader gets to know this blonde girl rather easily, and we cheer for her, and at times she actually becomes a more important character than the actual tree, with our investment in her greater than whatever the protagonist is up to with his litrpg shenanigans. She becomes our main pull to the world. She becomes the reason why we want the tree to grow. She becomes the reason we want to explore the world. What more can a male audience want than for the hero to grow to protect this vulnerable yet feisty girl?

Thirdly, the story takes place inside an easily recognizable setting. The author sprinkles in cultivation tropes: an evil demonic sect, elders set on revenging talented juniors, assassination schemes, tense fights with life on the line, growing stronger through cultivation, using system to power up faster than everyone else, admiration directed at the hero for his power levels, evil cultivators vs suffering mortals, fierce rivals to clash with, sect politics and all kind of other tropes seen a million times. The point of all this is to point out how the execution of these story elements, while familiar, is done honestly, not merely inserted to pander to the cultivation audience.

>>21974016
Then feel free to suggest something other than Reddit.
A lot of the stories I post there have little impact, but some do really well.

>>21973989
Thanks man. I just realised that 'quirky gf sim' describes most of my recent output.

>>21974025
He also writes incredibly well. Look at his prose! His sentence structure, his clarity, and his flawlessness incorporating known words in the english language to his story. That's where we fail. We can't even string a sentence together without it sounding like we forced it out of our ass instead of our mouths.

The courtyard was desolate—a cold breeze rustled Ashlock's scarlet leaves as his mind slowly awoke from a long sleep. Ashlock jolted awake as a sound similar to a ding resounded in his head. In confusion, Ashlock read the string of words that materialized in his mind.
Idletree Daily Sign-In System

Day: 1050

Daily Credit: 1050

Sacrifice Credit: 6

[Sign in?]
"Sign in?" Ashlock stared at the question.

"Oh right, the system unlocked." Despite months passing, to Ashlock, it had felt like a short nap. "So my system is a sign-in system?" Ashlock had read many novels back on Earth, and a sign-in system was common.

They rewarded the system user for remaining in a certain location for a long time by providing escalating rewards with each passing day. Eventually, all these wastrel young masters that had been banished to the cold palace, never to be seen again, returned after a hundred years as an undisputed existence with enough wealth and power to rule a nation.

But Ashlock was a tree.

What use were weapons, cultivation pills, or immense wealth to a tree stuck in a courtyard? "Well, on the plus side, if the rewards increase over time, I can sleep away until I gain something useful to me… like maybe some new skills? Or a way to cultivate faster."

Ashlock accepted the fate that he would spend a lot of time talking to himself about various things; the question is, how long until he went mad? Maybe he was already mad. He had consumed humans for nutrition and hadn't batted an eye.

Seeing no harm in trusting the system, Ashlock decided to [Sign-In].

[Sign in successful, 1056 credits consumed…]

[Unlocked an A-grade skill: Eye of the Tree God]

"Eye of the Tree God?" Ashlock's brain buzzed as the darkness that shrouded him vanished, and his view range rapidly expanded in all directions.

"Ugh." Ashlock tried to close his eyes in a vain attempt to block out the world, but alas, he had no eyes. He could only suffer as his mind was overloaded with more visual stimuli than he had ever endured when he was human. Deciding there was no other way out from the onslaught, Ashlock chose the easy way out and fell asleep.

>>21973868
Twitter>>21973871

Anons, I'm currently planning out a story that focuses on a doctor (either in a fantasy setting or middle ages ish), but the doctor has psychosis where they occasionally experience hallucinations and delusions. Should I make this apparent and obvious from early on or should I sprinkle it in and make it seem like he could be mentally ill but the audience still isn't 100% sure?

>>21973893
>You need to post chapters daily for the first 2 weeks for your best shot to get the needed followers
I get the logic here, but wouldn't people get frustrated when you inevitably slow down the chapters? Or does that not matter compared to just getting that initial following, no matter what happens after.

>>21974020
I don't much mind that particular image and I didn't make that first post but "I use AI and therefore don't need to know how any of this works" makes me scream eternally, just out of principle. "I don't care about getting good at this" would have been a reasonable response

>>21974063
why do RR writers all include those line breaks between complete thoughts? This isn't supposed to be a snide remark, I'm legitimately curious if this is the proper way to format stories now. I only do line breaks for total scene transitions, and I'm wondering if this makes my text look too monolithic and unwieldy.

>>21974063
Honestly, I think this thread overrates the importance of sentence-level prose. The idea of a demon tree is funny. Seeing how someone can spin that out into a story is interesting. I don't read Royal Road type fiction, but I'd much rather read that than someone trying to emulate Dostoevsky. And if someone is inventive enough I can forgive them fumbling their semicolons.

>>21974155
I'm pretty sure it's because readers would be put off by big paragraphs. The line breaks 'ventilate the text', as they say. You don't have to commit to following a long line of thought through a whole paragraph - you just consume each bitesized sentence or two and move on to the next, like a chipper little pacman.

>>21974155
If I had to guess, it's because it's a carry over from asian web novels, which in turn is a carry over from their writings where each sentence is a line.

>>21974104
Well, most authors only change to 3-5 chapters weekly after the initial burst, so it's not that much of a slowdown. Plus it's the standard, so RR readers know to expect it.

>>21974183
Ooooooh, you referenced a video game from the 80s? You mentioned le pacman? Wow, you're so fucking witty. You should be a writer, Anon!

>>21974193
?

>>21974185
No, it's becoming popular in regular genre fiction too. I remember seeing a post comparing average paragraph lengths over the years and it's going down and down.
Makes sense. Social media & portable entertainment has fried people's attention spans. That carries even into being able to read a long paragraph.

>>21974193
If that's the best trolling you can do, then you should tuck your tail between your legs and leave here in humiliated embarrassment.
Look, we all know your recent birthday, and the total lack of accomplishment in your life in light of this milestone, has brought your bitterness to the surface. But we have nothing to do with that. Why make us suffer?

>>21974102
It's always better to err on the side of reader cleverness than stupidity. Give the reader clues and let them piece it together for themselves and they'll like it. If you can make them reach the wrong conclusion and then show how those same clues can lead to a completely different but equally plausible result, they'll love you for it.

>>21974155
Do you mean paragraph spacing, not short paragraphs? Anon, that's been the standard for web fiction forever. It's just better on the eyes. Books would do it too, but they have physical constraints, so use indents instead.

>>21974106
You're overthinking this too.
You've convinced me to deliberately look for AI images that violate "the fundamentals of art", just so I can make your pretentious ass seethe.
I never claimed to be able to draw, and don't care to spend my precious free time on it.

>>21974215
I actually remember reading in a craft book somewhere (might have been Swain's book) that shorter sentences and paragraphs give the illusion of fast-pacing (which is one of the reasons why dialogue seems to go by so quickly).

>>21974193
It was best image I could come up with on the spot. What would you have used instead?

>>21974228
>I don't care to spend my precious free time on it.
Which is why you should have said that instead of saying what you did say

>>21974231
Yeah, so short paragraphs = "faster pacing" = better on our weak attention spans. Hence its growing stylistic popularity.

>>21974236
I wasn't expecting some pseud to talk it to death.

If a bunch of people wake up, do I say "they begin their day" or "they begin their days"? The people are not connected to each other at all, so technically they each have their own day, but since there's only one "day", I'm leaning towards the former.

.I find this under his favorite tree after resting after his coup in the south. Fuck sake...I never see a warrior like that.

It came from aches and fire, and from this cinder and fire, burned from within almost all the accursed roots of the Annunaki aristocracy.

How a group of 5 bloodthirsty member assassins managed to infiltrate everywhere through the vulnerable outer branches of the family tree. The irony is that Gangraine was spread from within. 2 dormant hunters managed to harvest the blueprint of the internal and central organs for 4 years.

With no means of direct communication with them. It was necessary to use numerology to encrypt in data transfers concerning a list of municipality and mayor in debt of fraud, and another list of numbers with the coordinates of lawyers, false witnesses, evidence to invent or falsify.

Intercepted emails from several legal firms and politicians embezzling public affairs with taxes by transferring the legal budget to a numbered safe somewhere in a tax haven in the name of a company. In short, material for blackmail, we deciphered the documents of the spies and we discovered imprecise coordinates in certain places in the world.

I believe that the frequencies have a link with the coordinates, it remains to be confirmed, if this is the case, and that I synchronize perfectly the good frequencies with the GPS data. I might be able to find an entry. To be continued

Glory to the father of huntings and his trophies, Rest in Peace captain.

Wanna read the letter hunter ? Are u really ready for this. This is fucked up.

>>21974236
You're on a writing board, and some dude posted an AI image. Why the fuck did you assume they WANTED to get better at art? Weirdo

>>21974258
>If a bunch of people wake up, do I say "they begin their day" or "they begin their days"?


>GPT-4
Both phrases can be considered correct, but they convey slightly different nuances. When you say "they begin their day," you are using a collective singular noun, which implies that the group of people is starting the day as a unit or in a similar manner. On the other hand, when you say "they begin their days," you are using a plural noun, emphasizing the individuality of each person's experience as they start their day. Choose the phrase that best fits the context or meaning you want to convey.

>>21974264
AI schizos gonna schizo.

>>21973657
Thanking you kindly ser!
I will continue to have been using the Chat GPT you so generously provided.
That loo? I will be most certainly be pooing in it!
Please do not be thinking nothing of it!

>>21974264
>Why the fuck did you assume they WANTED to get better at art?
I didn't, I just think "I'm using AI therefore fundamentals are irrelevant" is really stupid
The very first guy with the unsolicited advice wasn't me

>>21974235
I wouldn't use a metaphor or an analogy, or an "image" I would talk straight and tell the truth. I would say that people like short sentences, they like broken up sentences, they like easy to read sentences, because there's too much content in the world for anyone to waste their time on some dense bullshit. A big paragraph has a higher chance of being trash than a short sentence, the more material there is, the more room for the writer to fuck up there is.

Write less, write better. The more you say the less interesting you are.

>>21974298
IDK anon, it seems to be the implication was 'knowing the fundamentals is irrelevant to me, so i don't care', not that fundamentals are irrelevant to everyone, including experienced artists. And that first statement is very true. If you're casually making AI pictures out of vague interest, then why tf are you gonna study composition, value, etc?

>>21974309
You forgot the last bit:
>and a nice, cozy unpaid job writing clickbait articles online awaits you

>>21974063
My attention span has greatly decreased over the years I have lived, thanks to the increasing prevalence of the Internet, but even this is far too short for me to parse. If the prose was like this for over 500 chapters, then I would and could end up reading the entire thing over the span of 5 hours, and would scant remember anything that happened at all; save for the premise, but that would be it.

>>21974309
NTA
"You don't have to commit to following a long line of thought through a whole paragraph - you just consume each bitesized sentence or two and move on to the next, like a chipper little pacman."
This is dense bullshit to you, huh? And any imagery that isn't clinically correct is bad?
You took longer to make your point than the other anon did, btw. Try being more concise.

>>21974227
Books read weirdly if there's a space between paragraphs.

If I were ever to write a Royal Road story, I’d try to subtly introduce reasons for hating the Chinese and promote genocidal policies much like how Chinese webnovels do. Then I’d make it a game to see how long it’d take for someone to figure out my story’s clearly anti-Chinese bias, and as a Chinaman, I’d reveal the truth of it by responding to my accusers in written Chinese.

>>21974314
The post really emphasized the AI part so I took it to be about that
IMO fundamentals play the same role for AI art as for photography or manual drawing or anything else. You're in your right to ignore them, particularly if you're just playing around for fun, but that's unrelated to the medium

>>21974376
Not to me, but I can understand why a switch-up in format bothers people. The disorientation will go away pretty fast, I assume.
If you plan on posting online, not having paragraph spacing will make people instantly click away. It's gross.

>>21974025
>it's the XKARN cultivation fanboy aka https://www.royalroad.com/profile/252421
The real Royal Road we know so far:
>>21958800
>>21963240
>>21963419
>>21963451
>>21966589
>>21967665
>>21967805
>>21968230
>>21968280
>Give up your dreams
>https://www.royalroad.com/forums/thread/126340
>Find "A gap in the market"
>Work it like a job
>Write brainless genre schlock
>Abandon your prose

>>21974397
But again, I don't think anon said fundamentals are irrelevant to the medium. Just him. And assuming otherwise is kind of psychotic from a dude posting an AI image on a writing board.

>>21974405
That's how I interpreted the phrase "If I'm using AI to generate images". Maybe that's not what they meant but calling it a "psychotic" reading is a bit much I think

How do I come up with a system for a progression fantasy?

>>21974420
Read translated Chinese webnovels, but not MTL, never MTL. It is a poison to your brain.

>>21974428
I know, but I didn't want to copy xianxia 1:1, nor have a litRPG system. I got stuck.

>>21974401
Lmao, if you don't want to write it, then don't write it. I didn't have to give up my dreams, I just pivoted the fantasy I already liked writing into something more marketable. The parts that matter to me are writing fun characters and stories, and I still get to do that.
IDK why I'm arguing with a mentally ill pseud who only writes for the aesthetic of being a ""writer"", though. I write a lot, every day, and have fun doing it, even if I shape my original ideas into something more marketable.
Just don't write fiction popular to wider audiences, anon. Nobody is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to. I have no problem writing low-brow schlock for a job. I write more serious stuff on the side.

>>21974434
Then you ought to play videogames. Believe it or not, many RPGs or even regular games can have great inspiration when it comes to writing systems or whatever, and I already the embryo of a story system derived from a favorite game of mine.

>>21974367
It's okay when I do it, bitxh.

>>21974447
That's just litRPG.

>>21974396
The problem with this is that actual chinks don't read RR. It's mostly just anime watching video game playing manchildren.

>>21973868
>Asian American History month is coming up in a few days. How do I shill the living shit out of this book?
Unironically, you should try to shill it to school boards as some kind of cultural enrichment thing. I doubt professional race-baiters would help, but you could probably reach out to some librarians and administrators, especially if you gave them a few free copies.

>>21974436
>I have no problem writing low-brow schlock for a job
As long as you do not continue to tout it and other similar works as things worthy of praise and adulation there is no issue.

>>21974479
Continue to? Never have. Don't really know many people who do. The kinds of people consuming trashy RR fiction know it's trashy. Nobody's going around and saying it's better than Dostoevsky or Joyce or whoever.
Though many would say they have more fun with power fantasies than those authors. Which is fine. Let people enjoy their McDonalds. I genuinely don't know why you care. Especially to the point of seething about it.

>>21973868
Has anyone read it here? I'm curious to see a review

>>21974500
Oh great your falling back to amnesic levels of denialist goal post moving again.
>"He also writes incredibly well. Look at his prose! His sentence structure, his clarity, and his flawlessness incorporating known words in the english language to his story. That's where we fail. We can't even string a sentence together without it sounding like we forced it out of our ass instead of our mouths."
Its ok to think things anon, just not to disown them when its argumentatively expedient.

>>21974397
Wow...SOMEONE woke up feeling pretentious this morning.
Me, I prefer to have a nice quiet relaxing Sunday before getting back to the grind.
Here, have another AI-generated image. Hope its artistic merit is fundamental enough for you or whatever. I just like it because it looks cool.
Maybe you can post an image you made that has all the proper artistic fundamentals so we can ponder it and yawn.

>>21974500
Anon is just jealous that your work is popular, so he has to seethe about its perceived deviations from his ideal.
Meanwhile, his litfic work is completely ignored and bores its writers to tears, and he can't cope.
Don't mind the crabs. They're utterly worthless.
"Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at a very small expence. The power of invention has been conferred by nature upon few, and the labour of learning those sciences which may by mere labour be obtained is too great to be willingly endured; but every man can exert such judgement as he has upon the works of others; and he whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of a Critick." -Samuel Johnson, "The Idler"

>>21974536
Okay, I understand now, you're one of the insane anons who don't realize that more than 2 people post on this board. Makes sense. You just come off as generally unwell.

>>21974536
What an oddly black-and-white viewpoint.
"I perceive deficiencies in this work, therefore one can never ever EVER say anything nice about it, or else you're a goalpost-mover, seethe seethe seethe!"
Maybe the problem is that you're a very unhappy person? Oh well...enjoy being miserable, if that's your thing.

>>21974564
"B-but if they're not the same Anonymous, why don't they change their handle?"
Kind of incredible, isn't it.
Oh well...he's not going to spoil my day.
I'm reading over a LitRPG I started writing a long time ago, to see if I can get into the mood to continue it.
The fact that this would make pretentious-art-fundamental-anon seethe is just the icing on the cake.

>>21974562
Oh great it's the crustacean obsessive again.
>>21974564
(you) will be able to move normally again one day r-right?
>>21974552
True, AI can be used to write the wrongs of the current woke wars.

>>21974552
>I just like it because it looks cool.
That's great, I'm happy for you. I also think it looks pretty cool.
I think it's okay to make low-effort things just because you feel like it, that's what I've been saying

>>21974594
Man I really love these kinds of vertical images where when you scroll down it gives the sensation of a camera panning down into the depths.

Chinese "literature" and anime have been a disaster for the /wg/

>>21974552
It's always funny when zoomers encounter something that's been around for years and think it's the hottest shit ever

>>21974603
I think they're more a symptom than a cause. The RR guy who posted a few threads ago had the correct perspective: people that consume this stuff lead pretty miserable lives, which is why they consume it in the first place. The conditions which led those lives are the problem, not the products which arise to meet their demand.

>>21974610
I would think the person posting on /wg/ furious that genre fiction exists is more miserable than people who enjoy said genre fiction (most readers, aka normal people).
4chan pseuds are not the people living happy, fulfilling lives, and the implication they are is pretty hilarious

>;ast I worked on my novel was in February 2022
What a piece of shit.

>>21974155
It makes the text easier to read on a phone.

>>21974627
Except I'm not talking about genre fiction in general but the genres of Chinese literature (i.e wuxia) and anime. Of which the users of 4chan are not a minority consumer. People who watch anime into adulthood and read litrpgs are definitely not "normal".

>>21974627
I feel legitimately sorry for all those people wasting their time and money on aimless, juvenile, badly written anime fanfictions, when there are tons of fantastic, gripping works of art out there that will not only let you have a great time reading them, but also make you a better person as a side effect. Many of them available for free.

>>21974661
Go ahead and name a few.

>>21974534
I have one coming in the mail next week. I already reviewed the first edition of Emily Project. I don't know how much Wing's prose has improved since then, but I believe in his ability to tell a moving story.

>>21974661
And you aren't wasting your time with any pointless, guilty pleasure pursuits either. You read 6 hours of literature after work every day and have 0 hobbies that don't enrich your life.
Right, anon?
Wait, what website are we on again?

>>21974644
IDK if LitRPG and wuxia is any less trashy than werewolf romances, repetitive thrillers, etc, which make up the bulk of the genre fiction market. They're all kind of equally bad, with zero artistic merit. What makes normal genre fiction better than number-go-up stories?

>>21974661
Most people are fine with the literary equivalent of drawing stick figures, as long as whatever the characters are doing is interesting. Also, not everyone is trying to draw deep moral or philosophical meanings from the content they consume.

>>21974608
>hottest shit ever
Logical fallacy: jumping to conclusions.
>zoomer
You're WAY off.
>>21974644
4chan was originally an anime board, and to a large degree, it still is. Were you unaware of this?
>>21974661
>jobless, responsibility-free NEET, sponging off his parents
Not everyone here has your pseudy lifestyle.

>>21974722
>Of which the users of 4chan are NOT a minority consumer.

>>21974722
fun fact: the very first board was originally titled "Anime/Random" for its first month, and /a/ was made months later.

Average chapter length in your current novel, NOW.

>>21974892
There are no chapters, it's all separated with ***

>>21974892
5000 words per chapter, 16 chapters. Has a brief epilogue. Aiming for roughly 80k words.

>>21974892
What, you failed to troll us with all your seething garbage above, so now you're resorting to this?
Guess what, pseud...people are different than you, and have no desire to conform to some arbitrary set of rules.
My chapters are exactly as long as they should be, to serve the flow of my writing.

>>21974892
Just over a thousand words.

>look at the word count for the notes doc on my novel
>40k words
Anons, don't be like me. Time to admit that I open up the supplementary documents more often than the actual story document. I could have finished this book a while ago.

>>21974892
2.5k for much of it, but many of my more recent chapters are 3k and above.

> be me
> currently making around $400 a month on Amazon
> all from porn shorts around 5000 words long

I think I can make it to $500 from erotica alone, but I'm fucking burned out and want to move to fantasy where I can make this a full-time thing. What would be the best way to go about this? My current idea is to post on RR first, then take it down to publish on Amazon later. I don't care what I write since this is just to supplement my income. I'm not against doing a litrpg or something similar.

>>21974892
They run 2-5k, average last time checked was like 3.6k

>>21975142
There's too much to go over in depth, and there's guides from much bigger names out there (Zogarth, etc).

However, to greatly summarize, you need to hit Rising Stars. To do so:
- On release:
- Good cover image
- Good summary + premise that RR likes
- Post 1/2 chapters a day for 2 weeks to get necessary followers and ratings

- Optional but very helpful:
- Buy advertisements at the 20k word mark to help get onto Rising Stars
- Network with other authors to get shoutouts
- Anything else that brings initial bursts of traffic to hit Rising Stars

Personally I didn't have to do any of the optional stuff. With good writing (web serial standards) and a summary that makes people want to click, you can hit Rising Stars without any extra help. Though ads make it easier if you have 50 bucks to throw their way (sounds like you do).

I'd do a write-up for long-term stuff, like running your Patreon and whatnot, but worry about getting onto Rising Stars and your first few 1000 followers first.

Personally, I suggest getting like 30 chapters of 1750-2250 words, then posting the first week twice a day, the second week once a day, and then evaluate if you made it. If not, drop the story and try again. If you genuinely have engaging writing, it shouldn't be that hard (I'm 2 for 2 pen names with 0 external help)

>>21973843
based
>>21974892
cringe

>>21974892
3.5k

>>21975181
I'm friends with a lot of webserial authors and have published on RR before, so the networking part isn't too much of a problem. Cover expenses and ads I'd rather wait for Amazon if possible. I've already accepted I'll be blowing $300+ just on a good cover.

The reason I want to take the RR route is that writing a full length novel will absolutely destroy my Amazon income (because I won't be publishing), so at least this way I can do some marketing first before publishing on Amazon.

I appreciate the advice, anon.

>>21975238
I just use AI novel covers, and so do most of rising stars. Save yourself that 300$ when you don't even know if it'll take off and just make a cover with Stable Diffusion.

And yeah, if you have bonus marketing via networking, then if you fail, it's because of writing quality and/or bad summary/title/cover (or maybe just unlucky?).

>>21975238
Also, though I don't do this, you could always just write the first 8 chapters (16k words) or so and see if you get ~50 followers with them in the first 4 days of posting. Just be ready to pump out chapters if it seems like it's taking off. It's pretty obvious if your story is hitting the vibe of RR (most stories just sit there at 0-5 followers for days; this means it won't be hitting rising stars).

>>21975257
AI covers all seem soulless to me. I’ve seen it done before here. But they appear artificial and lifeless to me. Even the childish F Gardner covers have soul to them by comparison. I hope this doesn’t come across as critical. But I can always seem to tell when something is AI.

>>21975284
It draws eyes and gets clicks, especially for 0$. I do agree it's soulless, but that doesn't matter from a marketing perspective. The typical reader just doesn't care.
But, of course, do what you want. I was just letting you know what the standard was (go look at Rising Stars, lol).

>>21975284
The chad Call of the Crocodile
Vs.
The soulless AI

Chad F Gardner can even shit out novels faster than any AI at the rate he’s going.

>>21975267

Short chapters seems like the way to go for sure. Managing a 2-3k chapter every two days is more than doable for me.

My biggest concern is I'm not really familiar with what is popular on RR, so I need to research and figure out what is worth posting there that also vibes with the Amazon market.

>>21975293
Yeah, and they are just as unreadable.

>>21975306
Yeah, picking the premise is the "magic sauce" so to say.

Though anything that's popular on RR will be popular on Amazon. Most LitRPG authors who make it big on RR are making more on Amazon than Patreon. So yeah, those 4k patreons are making another 4k+ via Kindle Unlimited, lmao. The money in the genre is insane.

>>21975316
I’ve seen a youtube video talking about Call of the Crocodile. The big twist seemed fucking ridiculous. But it otherwise had a coherent narrative.

For anyone who knows more about RR, would I fuck myself if I changed the title of my book? I've already got about 55k views and just under 100 followers.

>>21975332
Call of the Crocodile and the rest of Horror’s Call are essentially just over-glorified Goosebumps books for edgelords.

>>21975329
Is there an archetypal litrpg worth reading to understand the genre better?

Probably a good idea to just read what's in the rising star list

>>21975343
writers do it all the time to draw eyes. go for it if you need the attention

>>21975398
Honestly, I'm not that well read in LitRPG. I write it, but generally don't like reading it. I found success anyway, so it must not be crucial to be well-versed, lol.
That said, I read plenty of non-LitRPG web serials. I think Practical Guide to Evil, Worm, Worth the Candle, Katalepsis, and Wandering Inn were all good, and they gave me an understanding of what web serial readers like, and the format in general.
Wandering Inn and Worth the Candle are LitRPGs, but not really of the flavor found on Rising Stars. Wandering Inn is character focused without a big focus on progression, and WTC is ... more cerebral. And weird.
I guess if you want to write the most pandering fiction possible, then just go down the list of major Patreons. He Who Fights With Monsters and Primal Hunter make absurd money. So does Beware of Chicken (it was good/okay) and that recent demonic tree one, which I haven't read.

>>21975284
when you pay someone, they're just going to use AI and make a few touchups.

can I find friends on here? or does everyone not know each other

>>21975401
Not really to draw my attention, just that I finally thought of a better title. The current one was always intended to change, but I was more worried that weird algorithm things would happen.
>>21975446
That depends, what do you mean by friends? If you just want to talk I could give you my discord name, or there are 2 different discords that are for /wg/ which you could join.

>>21975443
But how's the result?

>>21973971
Beautiful written anon, top drawer stuff. How long did it take u to write? What was the inspiration? Please tell me more

>>21974258
I would say "each of them begin their day with a coffee" or whatever. Side note, I'm starting to get that thing where words start to look weird after you've written it so many times, "begin" feels like it's spelled wrong.

Give it to me straight, lads. Am I going to doom myself by making a story on RR that isn't progression or litRPG? Is urban fantasy still cool? And if RR isn't good for that, is there a community that's better suited for it?

>>21975472
if you like it, then it's worth $300. but for me, a $0 AI job with a good crop is usually enough. Canva does very well with AI generated art.

>>21975539
Better just to write
>Each began their day with a cup of coffee.

>>21975398
The ones this anon suggested >>21975437 are all good examples of varying levels of success in the genre but he missed giving you the rundown of what their stories are actually about:
>Practical guide to evil
Female MC joining 'Villans' in a fantasy world because lol. Slow progression.
>Wandering Inn
A stay at home moms power fantasy in a fantasy/lit-rpg setting. Slow progression.
>Worth a Candle
A guy moaping over his dead friend and getting stuck in a d&d campaign they made together. Middling progression
>Worm
A female superhero power fantasy with over explained dialogue. Many people claim its dark but is just edgy. Slow progression.
>He Who Fights With Monsters
Guy gets summoned into a lit-rpg/fantasy world where he mary sues everything while moaping about getting dumped by his girlfriend who then ran off to his brother. Slow progression - Takes four books to get past level 10
>Primal Hunter
Guy on the spectrum gets chucked into lit-rpg/tutorial with preloaded bullshit advantages - Middling progression.
>Beware of Chicken
Xinxia/cultivation parody where the MC is not a power hungry dick that starts strong but drops the soap by the second book to diverge into too many POV's. Middling progression.

Bear in mind this is all only worth aspiring to if your ok with your employers being literal demanding manchildren who do not enjoy challenging topics.

>>21975566
I see a lot of newer LITRPGs are now incorporating complete nonsense as their MC.
>Trees, Rocks, Guns, random inanimate objects.
It's all very isekai anime. I was once a middle aged salary man but I've been reborn as a slime! etc.

>>21975457
>discord
nice try tranny
as yet another reminder the unreal press discord recently imploded because they were doxxing people
>>21975446
If you want a friend buy a dog

I wrote 400 words today instead of my usual 10 and now I feel invincible

>>21975581
Right, I simply brought up the discord as an option. I don't participate in the bigger /wg/ one because I think it is a shitshow.
Some people don't mind it, but I don't want to stick around a bunch of schizos.

>>21975446
Let's all get relatively famous, have a photo op together and I'll take the /wg/ boys out for some bbq.

>>21975579
Passing novelty's at best after the premise wears off. I'm open to being proved wrong if the authors don't jump drop the fiction within 6 months of its creation, having watched fads come and go on the site i don't think i am.

>>21974396
I read RR frequently and would patreon this.
There is also another anon whos done something similar about jews in a fantasy setting. Though hes been a bit too covert about it and most of his readers don't get it.

>>21975597
sounds good, I don't want to get doxxed on discord anyway. I only write about comfy things

>>21975181
>(I'm 2 for 2 pen names with 0 external help)
Use a pen name sure but why not just one name? Seems like a bit of schizo move desu.

>>21973868
Have you considered hiring some "anti" shills? You dont want it to be tied back to yourself in any way, but having a few puff piece "racist online losers HATE this brave asian book!" is a good tactic. Outrage bait at least gets your name out there

>>21974396
>If I were ever to write a Royal Road story, I’d try to subtly introduce reasons for hating the Chinese and promote genocidal policies much like how Chinese webnovels do.
What form does it take in those novels?

>>21975652
Many frequently portray all westerners as greedy, lazy, abusive and just generally oafish.

>>21975666
art imitating life

>>21975639
One of the pen names is harem, which I don't want associated with my general audience pen name. It's not like multiple pseudonyms is a rare strat historically so idk why you jumped straight to schizo

>>21975675
I'm not saying there isnt a grain of truth to it but even when a wuxia/xianxia author's hero is righteous and just, he/she is simultaneously also wholesale stripping all the nearby land of worthwhile materials to further their 'cultivation'.

>>21975681
>multiple identities
>idk why you jumped straight to schizo
Anon i...

>>21975503
Thanks very much. I don't remember exactly how long it took, but it's probably longer than I would like to admit. I can write certain key chunks fairly quickly but stitching them together is a protracted slog. The inspiration was reading a bunch of Nabokov shorts and the strange topography of my uni's campus.

>>21975695
Have you heard of the concept of a persona? Do you act around your parents as you do around your closest friends? And do you act like you would with your closest friends as you would around a complete stranger? People consciously or not change how they act around people, it really isn't that strange. Is using a pen name at all a schizo delusion?
Also, NTA.

>>21975695
It's impolite to make fun of people with mental disorders, anon.

>>21973760
Alright?. It's practically a requirement.

"is the man watching you?" RadiantCutiePie asks on the IRC, eyes transfixed on the white and blue screen as she takes a sip of her latte milkshake.

She clicks to replay the last clip shared by JudeMan; a short recording of a pale man sitting in the middle of the forest and smiling at the camera, unmoving. The borders of the video are black, not because of a bad crop but because black tarp is laid on the ground and coming up to cover the recording device.

She swallows. An old friend invited her on a paranomal group discussion a week ago, and she had joined out of boredom. She has then spent the week interacting with absolute whackos who apparently believe in apparitions and egregors. She, of course, thinks they are crazy and does not believe in ghosts, nor spirits, nor anything at all.

Yet she was now following a summoning ritual on live feed, during a weekend night, instead of going out with her best friend Kaylee. Why? Because she was too bored to do anything else, and because going out with Kaylee didn't involve watching idiots do a live commentary as they tried to summon an ancient evil entity. She habitually watches cat videos before going to sleep when she's not going out, but recently found out her sense of entertainment was getting weirder. Hence her presence on "Helloweirdos IRC" tonight.

"I don't think so but I might be wrong," writes JudeMan, "It's too dark outside to tell for sure, and I can't check the camera yet as it would tickle its interest. I'm not the one sending the videos, it's just the algorithm for now. Alex, when are you coming? I'm freezing my balls off in the tent, and I'm terminating the ritual if you're not around in 10."

RadiantCutiePie, or Izzy, as she is named in real life, squints at the man smiling and sighs, "Shitty nerds, come on Alex, where the fuck are you? If that guy on the video isn't an actor paid to act like a creepy old man, or a lost creepy old man they coincidentally filmed there, Jude is about to get assraped by a demonic entity and there's nothing we can do!"

Somewhat realizing she's been on the edge of her seat for the past hour, she looks up and sighs again, "What am I doing with my life? I should just get to sleep, but... damn."

A clicking sound in her headphone jolts her out of her reverie. Something happening on the chat.

"Alex is writing a message..."

>>21975700
Is this your first short story? I've bookmarked ur pastebin and would be interested to read more

I have no problem writing, I just write to myself and basically write out my thoughts. Cathartic, but when I go to write anything else I can't help but to insert my thoughts. How do I write about someone else's thoughts? Even if I go to write something happening to someone else, fictional or otherwise, I end up thinking "yes, this is basically me" and write about myself. I don't want to seem self centered but I'm my only true friend. I have a terrible social anxiety, talking to others is dreadful only because I don't know what to do. How to consider others' thoughts or perspectives when writing? I actually made mild progress today on a short story but still couldn't help but self insert.

>>21975666
>>21975652
Many, many different forms. For example, in a Xianxia I once read, and I am the same Anon who has had to detox via reading moby dick after going on a 3 year MTL bender, the main character and human race was ethnically and culturally Chinese, and the demon race were poorly dressed over white people. They were animals who transformed into westerners, bearing western features and aspects of western culture, and that’s just one example. There are many stories where the Chinese civilization is taken to be human civilization, as in all other civilizations and races other than the Chinese don’t count, but that’s different. There are even stories where the entire premise consists of the MC committing genocide against the Japanese, Westerners, and everyone else non-Chinese except for the women, who they hoover up into their harem and unintentionally propagate the peoples who they have utterly erased through supernatural means.

>>21975958
You don't necessarily need experience talking to people, just use observation and imagination. I like to imagine dialogue between myself and a character and really try to test how he would act in each situation I want to put him in. Characters need to want different things, see his world another way, so not everyone character should agree but they don't have to be enemies either. Maybe one character is more prone to lying, or one is very interested in whether an idea can be patented, another has nervous mannerisms. All of them may have reasons for being this way, and you can make their behavior as multifaceted as you want.

>>21976138
It's nore like I want an omniscient third person style, to get into the heads of other characters, but I feel like I want them all to think the way I do. It's weird but I'm pretty new at this so maybe I'll grow out of it as I write more.

Please critique, I'm writing this for a 4chan contest on a certain general.

>>21976154
Just get more familiar with the creative process. It's not strange to feel lost at first because your mind is just not wired yet. Make more characters, make more scenes and make different kinds of scenes.

You will start to form more concrete impressions of characters in your head, because you will be familiar with the elements that make them resonate with you. For me, it is primarily their voice. There is a particular attitude and energy each character brings, and while it can very from scene to scene, there's something distinct about how each character goes about.

Hell yeah, niggers. I am doing some great progress. I am about to blow

>>21976188
This makes enough sense. I run into another problem completely though.
How to stop cringing at my own stuff? I can place it down and feel semi satisfied, and then if I try reading it I instantly think it's trash. I know editing will require work after, but it feels like the base prose isn't t interesting enough, or perhaps might be cliched or boring to someone else.

>>21976166
I'm not a poet, but a couple things stood out to me from my limited knowledge of poetry.

Line 3's "sunrise" and 14's "lilac" do not end with stressed syllables like all of the other lines. Is this intentional?
If you were to write "she looks at the sun rise" the last two syllables are stressed because they are separately emphasized words. When they are together as in "sunrise" only the first syllable is stressed, the second is unstressed. It is not pronounced like the word "arise" where the stress is on the end.

>>21976233
You won't finish if you aren't willing to cringe. You can refine cringe into something that is awesome. You are cringing because you are only giving the first impression, but there is truth in quickness. It's a good thing to write even if it surprises and embarrasses you, later you can reword it into something that you will be proud of if it fits the story, not all things will.

Even today I was drafting the last paragraph of chapter again after finishing the a draft of the entire novel. And I wrote a line that I didn't think I would ever write. I read it and reread it and thought, did I copy paste this from somewhere? I mean I'm easily impressed, but there comes a point where you may begin to astound yourself. But it will begin to happen naturally over time as your own voice takes over. For the time being you are keyboard-shy, and don't sound like your best self, the one that tells stories. Eventually you can strengthen the best parts of your voice.

>article I need is written in german in an italian academic journal published in 1971 and is unobtainium

you'd really fucking think academic research WOULD BE A PRIORITY TO PUBLISH AND ARCHIVE ONLINE instead of billions of terrabytes of pornography and social media posts
I hate humanity

You guys ever remove a character because they don't have that much impact on the larger plot, only to find yourself missing them? Since I'm trying to reduce my word count, I ended up removing one of my side characters while still acknowledging his existence so he can be introduced in the potential sequel where he has a larger role. I split his more important lines/scenes up between the other characters and for the first half of the book it worked well enough. Then in the second half, he has a few significant scenes that don't really work with anyone else, and it's stumped me for over a week.

>>21976337
There are other stories to write, put the guy in another one if he doesn't fit in the present. The least you could do is make an allusion, if not have the character make a brief cameo as allusion to future writing.

Bros, I'm trying to make sure my protagonist is an active character so it's not boring and yada yada blah blah. So I'm trying to make sure that each chapter they make a choice and do something that drives the plot forward. In the first chapter, they decide, "I want to do x" and they tell this to another character. And that character says, "You shouldn't do that because it will cause problems for other people." And my protagonist accepts this and agrees, but ultimately still decides to go through with it. The problem is the choice doesn't happen until a later chapter. Is this okay? Am I thinking about this too much? Am I retarded?

>Mark wakes up alone in his dingy studio apartment, feeling the effects of last night's mandatory team building event at a local bar hosted by DiversiCorp. He groans as he looks at his phone, seeing a text from Leah. "We need to talk. -L" is all it says. He doesn't bother replying. It's a typical weekday, and he needs to drag himself out of bed and head to work.

>>21976414
>He unlocks his phone and opens the text message from Leah again, a tightness forming in his stomach at the thought of what she wants to talk about. He quickly brushes the feeling aside, telling himself he'll deal with it later. For now, he needs to focus on getting ready for work.

>>21976389
I don't think it is an issue. But, you are free to put in some inner thought of his which implies or states that he doesn't actually plan to follow the other characters advice.

>>21976427
>Mark heads to the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face and try to shake off the remnants of last night's mandatory fun. He takes a look in the mirror and doesn't like what he sees. Dark circles under his eyes, a few stray hairs sticking up, and the beginnings of a beer gut forming. He quickly turns away, not wanting to dwell on his appearance any longer.
He grabs his work clothes and throws them on, trying to ignore the creeping feeling of dread that's been building since he woke up. He glances at the clock and realizes he's running late. He quickly gathers his things and heads out the door, ready to face another day of drudgery.

>>21976389
Don't overthink it. If I see a character deliberating and preparing to do something, that's an active character to me. He doesn't always have to be doing something. Your story needs scenes and sequels. Sometimes the action is wrestling with the dilemma of the action the character does in the next scene. Sometimes the scene is a reaction to the actions of the previous scene.

>>21976440
>As Mark approaches the subway station, he notices a group of teenagers hanging around the turnstiles. They are charging people an extra fee to get through the gates, and it's clear that they don't work for the MTA. Mark can see that the other commuters are paying up without complaint, but he resents being taken advantage of like this.
>The group of kids at the turnstile are three teenage boys, all wearing the same color baggy clothing and baseball caps. One has a gold chain around his neck, and a conspicuously angular bulge above his waistband. They are all black, and they stand in a menacing manner, blocking the turnstile and demanding extra money from passengers to let them through.
>"Hey, you trying to get through? That's gonna be an extra five bucks for you, white boy."

>>21976453
what should Mark do?

my retarded friend's working on a story. here's an excerpt:
"But this isn't part of your -- "

He twists his head, clenches his jaw. His neck is killing him, it must not have healed properly. Maybe they left a damn suture wrong in his chest, cause it really, really feels too tight right now. Somehow, she painted the walls an ugly shade of pink. No -- that's not right. She's a good girl. She's a good girl, and this hasn't happened before.

"It doesn't... look. You don't... just... this is important. And if something happens." He's trying not to shake. She keeps trying to lean closer to him and press her face; yes it's pretty -- YES, her eyes are nice, but she doesn't need to be so FUCKING CLOSE to him, he can't think straight having to feel her presence and smell that fucking floral perfume. He wants to kiss her. Kiss her. Choke her. You did it fine to the guard?

The cracking of bone. He deserves her. Let her do what she wants. It's more trouble than it's worth. It's --

"Stop! If something happens, that's my responsibility. It's not your concern. You're the one always going on about how bad things are. You're the one who always is bitching about... no, I'm sorry..."

But she's still not listening to him. She's just trying to hug him even tighter.

"Allen, you're really going to leave? You're not going to leave, that's bad, you said... you said you wouldn't leave? Allen?"
She's not even listening at all. She's like a stupid fucking bird. She's like a fucking child. Vert sits there for a moment, dumbfounded.

"What... whatever. I'm leaving. You just don't get it."

And as he tries to get up, she continues to cling onto him.

"No... Allen, stay, stay, please... please"

"I said I'm leaving."

He shakes himself harder, trying harder to get her to let go. He stands up and she stands with him, arm around his, like a fucking anglerfish.

"No! You can't leave! You can't! No, no, no -- "

Darkness. He can't see a thing and he is completely blind. The screaming in his ears, the text itself, the world itself is incoherent. Let him die. Let me die. Get the fuck out of my way and let me fucking die. Blood washing down the fucking eyes out the mouth, he feels the sword burning within him as the black veins pour out from his torn serrated wrist, the bandages unfurling, his hand throbbing. Tear down the sun on to the gasoline soaked landscape let it all burn let this thermobaric vaccuum heat suffocate this fucking stupid cunt can't even let him go marching to his death properly. This stupid fucking bitch. This
She's on the ground, clutching her face and he rushes over to comfort her.

"Why? Y-you promi-"

"I-I fucking told you to let me go! You... Lianne, oh fuck, what the fuck, are you alright?

>>21976477
Does he live in one of the majority of states that has permit-less open carry?
Then he shoots the bastards, and everyone else cheers him.
The next day, he buys a high-quality used car and never takes public transportation again.

>>21976481
nothing wrong with using an ellipses every now and then, but this violates good taste.
>y-you
>I-I
nothing wrong with a stutter, every now and then, but two people stuttering at each other makes my eyes roll
the conversation is interrupted literally every single line by internal monologue or action. it's really annoying to read and it doesn't feel like two people talking to each other as a result. please be kinder to the reader also and don't repeat dialogue so much. I get that in reao life people having arguments repeat themselves over and over, either because they get fixated on something or they're using it to think of the next thing they want to say without the other person getting a word in edgewise, but in written form it's aggravating

Oh, damn. I also make words on the computer.. What a coincidence to find this thread.

It's hard to make words that are stupid enough to express how stupid it is to make words. Feels like getting sick with being retarded trying to believe that writing is meaningful. I used to enjoy it but the gestpo censorship and banishment bullshit makes it so futile to try and care when you're not even allowed to write.

IDK how writers manage to suck that gestapo cock all day and not get tired of that shit.

>301
jesus wept

>>21976590
>over 300 images like that.

/wg/ needs to quarantine the Royal Retards into their own "general" thread. Shit's annoying. You post there, you're an amateur, and I don't care what few authors you pathetically hold up as "successful." They make less than a full-time McDonald's burger flipper because at least he has benefits. The wagie anon can then go home to write, too, and make money, kek. Royal Road is for needy wannabes. You can't convince me otherwise. Get your own general, retards.

>>21976651
Sad but true, i thought we could coexist but the level of their shitposting is reaching grounds keeping levels.

>>21976651
Good luck with that.
This board can't even contain the groundskeeping shill-spamming same-fagger.

Pseuds getting uppity again

I've been keeping a running tally of every semicolon used in every excerpt I've read from /wg/ over the past few months. So far only 18 of the 46 semicolons have been used correctly. I swear most of you are high school dropouts.

>>21976728
Semi-colons are great; readers don't actually know how they work either.

How's this idea?
>A skeleton goes on a quest to get a penis again so he can have sex.

>>21973641
Anyone here tried using the snowflake method for outlining? Did it work?

>>21976728
You could have spent that time writing

>>21976817
that sounds exactly like an anime that came out a few seasons ago.
Skeleton Man in non-Skeleton Land, or something like that
the girl in question is a big titty elf

>>21976728
Have you seen what passes for school these days?
All they learn is that they're "special" & everything is racist/sexist/white-supremacist/transphobic.

>>21976823
I'm in the middle of it for an upcoming project that I won't start drafting for a few months
so far so good, character arcs already feel more solid than most of my previous stories

>>21976728
I’ve been trying to learn how to use semicolons by aping writers who used them when they were commonplace. I’m not certain if the way they’re used now is the same as they were then.

>>21976965
I use them as a pause between two phrases that are intimately linked but need, the second sentence relating to the first, usually expanding the first idea, but the reason I do not use a comma is that it is the pause between the two. I want the first phrase firmly in the readers mind so what comes next makes sense. That’s a strict usage. Loose is just because it works best with prose rhythm.

>>21977004
Half of the misused semicolons are a result of this line of thought.

>>21977020
I expressed two thoughts. Which?

>>21977020
Your mom is a whore; accordingly, I will pay her nothing after I fuck her tonight.

>>21975977
Intredasting, thanks

>>21977024
Both are incorrect. A semicolon must separate two independent clauses. If you are replacing a comma with a semicolon then you are automatically using it incorrectly. It also has literally nothing to do with an implied “pause”.
The other main misuse of a semicolon I see is the lack of borrowed context.
Take this one for example. >>21977032
Technically correct but there’s too much context included. “Accordingly” is unnecessary and detracts from the intended effects of the semicolon. The semicolon tells us to look at the fact my mother is a whore. We look there for the answer as to why she will not be getting paid. In this situation you must choose between the semicolon and the word “accordingly”. Together they detract from one another.

Semicolons help a reader parse a list of stuff with a bunch of attached qualifications when it's all coming in one sentence. They approach being a strict requirement, in that case.

More as a matter of taste, they're useful for putting more of a break in between two related thoughts than a comma does, and less than a period does.

Two sentences can be clunky, or at least not smooth to read. I notice this most when I'm writing from inside a character's head.

>>21977060
The usage of semicolons in lists is a little more loose. None of the 48 I observed were used for lists.
Second point is incorrect and leads to many of the misuses.

>>21973843
O-of course I did!

>>21977056
>If you are replacing a comma with a semicolon then you are automatically using it incorrectly.
Not if the comma was used incorrectly to begin with

Can you also use a semicolon to connect two complex independent clauses?

Why do many well known authors, both in their domains and in literary canon, etc., use the semicolon along with a coordinating conjunction?

>>21977122
It’s possible to use it in combination with coordinating conjunctions. Certainly more difficult to do so but still possible. I’d need to see an example of what you’re talking about to say whether it works well or not.

>>21977056
>A semicolon must separate two independent clauses.
Is that all? It's very difficult to use them incorrectly if this is the only restriction on their use.

>>21977132
>It is a calm age; the game is practically over by then; and standing aside one begins to remember with a certain vividness what a fine fellow one used to be.

From Joseph Conrad’s short story, Inn of the Two Witches.

>>21977056
The independent clauses are relational. You’re leaving that part out. One clause relates to the other so closely that a period would make too distinct a break between them. Semi-colons are indeed used for pauses and breaks in prose rhythm, whether grammarians like it or not. Have been since their introduction and always will be. If any punctuation puts a break in a sequence of words, it matters to rhythm. In regard to the whore sentence, accordingly is a connective (and interrupter) that is in its correct form next to the semi-colon. The logical chain is: your mom is a whore, accordingly I will not pay her (what she expects as a whore), yet I will still fuck her (what she will not get paid for, fucking her twice over). It works, because “accordingly” indicates how all whores obviously out to be treated. Every anon knows this. Your assessment is incorrect.

>>21977135
The second clause has to be related in some way to the first, but it needs to be an independent enough clause that it wouldn't be more appropriate to create a new sentence or use a conjunction.

Sally decided to walk along Sunset Boulevard; she had time to kill.
The avocado didn't feel ripe enough; it was still too firm.
She was an awkward kisser; the opportunity to practice simply never came.

>>21977135
Yes, that is it. But keep in mind that semicolons are a tool. They are there for a reason. That reason is generally an implied relation that requests a deeper evaluation.

>>21977136
Wonderful usage of semicolons. I can tell immediately from the implied relations that the age has just recently seen some calm, our MC had some hand in this, and that it has made him a worse person for it. All of this could be lost simply by using full stops.
The coordinating conjunction in this does not distract. Were these arranged with full stops you could easily start that sentence with the coordinating conjunction.

>>21977141
That’s a fair enough interpretation. I initially saw “accordingly” and the semicolon pointing to the same question but that clarification makes it a good usage.
20/48.

>>21974715
>Also, not everyone is trying to draw deep moral or philosophical meanings from the content they consume.

That's the best part about good books. They don't even try to lecture you. You find meaning in them all on your own, because they speak to some deeper part in you that you didn't know before. Webfic audience (and authors) will never know that feel

>>21977150
Sally decided to walk along Sunset Boulevard. She had time to kill.

The avocado didn't feel ripe enough, because it was still too firm.

She was an awkward kisser, because the opportunity to practice simply never came.

>>21977180
This is why semicolons can't be overused, because they replace the conjunction in order to improve the flow or brevity of the sentence. You can replace any semicolon with but, because, and, or and still be correct

>>21977192
Are you retarded? Have you ever read a whole chapter that uses semi-colons instead of conjunctions and periods?

I participated in a writing contest and didn't win. Tips on how to deal with this shame?

Howdy, I have been doing a creative writing course and apart of the marking criteria is "Awesomeness". This means (according to the teachers) something that is inventive, creative, innovative, or thrilling.

I always get low marks on this and the final assessment is coming up.

Any tips on how to improve this?

>>21977172
He is not able to see the kindness of your words anon. Don't be too hard on him, life has yet to truly teach him his worth.

>>21977414
Write a strongly worded letter to the contest holders in which you question the quality of their judging

>>21977414
Almost all who participate don't win. That's perfectly normal. Rather, it's unnaturally rare to win anything.

But it could be worse. You could've submitted something so bad that not only is it shut out of the contest, the organizer even imposes a rule change for next year, just so they won't have to see anything like it again...

>>21977481
Is it genre that they expect? Hardly any new writer can check those boxes off when it comes to literature.

>>21977519
>You could've submitted something so bad that not only is it shut out of the contest, the organizer even imposes a rule change for next year, just so they won't have to see anything like it again...
Has this ever happened to anyone other than Neil Gaiman?

>>21973641
gross ai generated image

>>21977587
I don't really know or understand as it is supposed to be a foundation class. So I just assumed writing properly would be how this class grades things. Also the whole class gets the same prompts. So it is really hard for me to write something 'gripping' when the prompt is, in my opinion "lacking awesomeness".

>>21977641
Then how do the others do it? Have you seen their submissions?
The answer might be to use the prompt as nothing more than a jumpoff point and add your own ingredients.
Or to be more willing to take risks, to write strange but compelling things without being sure whether they'll work out.

>>21977641
I honestly hate the way they “teach” writing these days. They aren’t kidding when they say those that teach cannot do.
>>21977651
No, I do not advise this. In this social climate, taking risks is a great way to get canceled or black listed from publishing circles (kicked out of class and college). You write the wrong thing with the wrong message and you’re done.

>>21977670
I was thinking about going to a writing workshop at a nearby college just because it fairly high on list of things you can put on a writing resume. But the "class" is expensive and consists of sitting down to write and for local authors to review and improve your work.. I don't even really need the help writing, I just wanted to polish my resume and maybe oogle some college qts. Could just save my money and spend all that time writing, and that money on coffee.

>>21977670
I'm talking about the risk of writing something that you yourself don't like because you didn't nail the style you were going for or the plot doesn't hang together or it just doesn't work. I don't keep up with those norms but isn't that orthogonal to what you're talking about?

>>21977686
There is a lot you can learn from the right person. The problem is that you have to be able to trust that they know what they’re talking about. So many don’t. But luckily there are books that can give solid advice.
>>21977693
I can’t speak to not liking your own work. I meant more you subject matter, themes, and message. There are some short stories I won’t publish because their content would be “problematic.”

>>21974063
How do you think they got that much exposure to people if they write that well?

You can write as well as you want, but if no one wants to sub to your patreon, it's practically useless.

>>21977598
Me.

>>21974063
>"So my system is a sign-in system?" Ashlock had read many novels back on Earth, and a sign-in system was common.
The writing is incredibly dry and boring, and the author treats his reader like a retard. You'd think younger readers wouldn't touch this kind of slow, awkward rambling with a ten-foot pole, so what exactly makes it so successful? I just don't understand.

>>21977749
There is comfort in familiarity.

>>21977749
The problem is that pretentious people like us are completely out of touch with the common man.

>>21977749
Reading is an imaginative exercise and so writing, shitty or otherwise, that conjures up images can succeed. It’s just some of us are able and interested in reading complex works with sublime prose. So we see writing that’s shit and are repulsed. Regular people don’t have our scruples most of the time.

>>21977768
tfw writing for an audience of classics readers who will never read it because they're too busy reading classics
I don't think I could ever be happy with writing at the level needed to build up a real audience

>>21975926
If I ever get a story collection published, you've earned yourself a place in the acknowledgements, Encouraging Anon.

I haven't written many serious shorts that I'm happy with, but I've just added an old goofy Halloween story to the pastebin: https://pastebin.com/F9dv3RSR

>>21976728
>mfw I know my excerpts fall under the 18 correct ones

>>21973904
To be honest, we should have a general where we can shill our books

>>21977756
>>21977768
I'm really struggling to believe the "common man" finds familiarity and entertainment in what reads like a smart fridge installation manual machine-translated from mandarin chinese. Or do they?

>>21977840
They do. The audience for such material knows what they want and the author gives it to them. Such progression fantasy is about the progression and levelling, not the quality of the writing.

>>21977840
Why do you think the romance genre brings in a billion a year or more? What could they possibly have to say that hasn’t been said KEK but the readers come back and spend money.

>>21977056
Thank you for your service.
Guys, there really is no excuse for not taking a few minutes each week to read a grammar article until you've got all the basics down at least.

Bros, I drafted completely different events for the last 3 chapters of my story. Originally it had scifi horror elements from my first draft. Seeing as how the first chapter also had this and I cut it out (yet still canon), I had to align the ending in a way that is satisfactory for readers of spiritual fiction. I think I got this now, there's no writer's block left and I'm getting really consistent work done. I should be done before Summer. I wanna see my name in the pastebin this year.

>Want to start the youtube grind
>Want to discuss books I actually enjoy or are interesting
>The meta is to snap up the hottest recent release and get your hot take out there ASAP
>Most people who review older literature steal talking points from other reviews to make them seem more well read

So anyway, I'll be starting with Mishima and William Gibson, with a sprinkling of general discussion topics to pad the schedule because it's hard to do weekly videos about books written above a 5th grade level.

>>21978001
Are you going to be reviewing anything from /wg/?

>>21978001
why do youc are so much. the only things that will set you apart at this point is your production value and your personality. it's much harder to get a following nowadays. the meta isn't who's smarter it's how long you retain your viewers

>>21978021
No, but if a /wg/ author wants to come on and discuss an established book, whatever they took inspiration from for example, then I'd have them on.

>>21977875
Well, romance is easy to understand. Everyone wants to experience love. It's built in our biology. But I don't think it's quite the same with cultivation.

>>21978052
On the contrary! Self-improvement is very important to people.

>>21973641
Finally uploaded the prologue to Royal Road. It's a dark fantasy. I want to release a 3000-word chapter or two per week.
>>21973661
Well done. Consistency is key. I wrote some other 4000-word story today but it's very rough. It was very funny to write though, as it's a comedy of errors (of sorts) with lots of satire in it.
>>21973843
About 5000 words overall with some heavy editing. But I was very bored at work, which tends to make me write.

I need some advice for the struggles this type of character faces
>writing a few chapters on a succubus assassin
>shes beautiful and has eternal youth basically
>shes been a successful assassin for centuries
>her side gig is being an escort
>shes been a prostitute assassin since she was a child

Think of your most slutty friends. What are some problems they face? What are the things that think about or obsess over? What would they want to change?

all I could come up with was aging, but thats not really a problem for her, she enjoys casual sex and will never look old.

>TL;DR
what are the problems the typical turboslut faces other than a lack of money/aging and fading beauty

>>21978085
Right it feels great to get in the groove and have the wherewithal to push forward. For a long time I felt like the guy in O'Connor's "the Enduring Chill" (1958). I tell people I'm writing, think about the story but dont write it. I get mad when people ask me what I'm writing and if they can see it. I get mad if anyone unwittingly disagrees with the hypothesis of the writing. I keep piling on ideas to compensate and make it a better story so everyone will like the story, and me. I always felt there was something in my life I needed to address first before my story would work, and I'd keep looking for it. But the story never got written until I changed my attitude and just wrote it. I know I can finish it now.

>>21978187
Rather obvious, but love and jealousy. Promiscuous women tend to get jealous of other women who have stable and lengthy relationships. They don't all crave love as such, but are reminded of the lack of meaning in their own frivolous relationships when given the opportunity to compare them to healthier and happier ones. I'm not sure if your character would react like this, but I'd deem it plausable that she might hold a subconscious grudge against her friends who are loved and cared for more than she is. Something like
>I'm prettier than her
>I'm (or I look) younger than her
>I'm better than her
>Why is she happier than me?
I can see an internal struggle where she simultaneously views herself as superior to her peers because of her beauty and youth, yet (while she won't admit it to herself at the beginning) also views herself as inferior because of how she allows herself to be treated and how she is treated by men.

>>21978187
How about losers like me who want a hot prostitute gf (pure) pouting at her? Wanting to go on a date with her but she feels so damn insulted by it, not touched? To her it's like saying "if I see you more often and take you out to dinner can I have sex for free pleeease???" Either that or "Wow that sucks you need some kind of attachment first, I wish you luck finding a gf." That and jealous people calling her a slut online. Or fat, or whatever insults people like to throw at women to make them feel bad.

>>21978226
>O'Connor's "the Enduring Chill" (1958).
I need to read Flannery O'Connor, particularly because I had a "sort of" inspired novel around Southern Gothic themes with vernacular language and loser characters I was working on. Can you recommend any of her novels, or should I just read whatever?

>>21978243
O'Connor literally has two novels. Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away.
Get her Library of America collection, it's all her work in one book. She is primarily a short story author and got awards for it.
Start with the collection "A Good Man is Hard to Find" which is mostly biblical theology in southern gothic. "Everything that Rises must Converge" is also theological, but shares a lot of her feelings about integration in the South, and ultimately defers her own opinions to what God would want.
Wise Blood is chilling story about a cynic who loses his family, and after he returns from the military he becomes a preacher---for "the Church without Christ." If you are familiar with Christianity at all, this is really scary. There is a movie adaptation that you can find for free online that is fairly close, worth watching after you read it. I still need to read TVBIA.

>>21978233
Oh thats really good, completely skipped that, it'd make perfect sense for her

>>21978241
Thanks that could also work for a more comedic undertone

>>21976728
nigger; faggot

>>21978187
mainly that escorts don't enjoy sex anymore and it becomes just a job that they're good at. sluts are different from escorts, sluts have sex because they enjoy the novelty factor without necessarily getting paid, escorts do their job because it pays well. an escort would move onto stripping or being a private companion if it paid more. therefore an escort would probably not fall in love frequently and if she does it's for someone who was not seeking her attention in the first place

>>21978187
You have a wonderful range of fucked-up interpersonal dynamics to work with. Think of:
- People who don't want to pay (because they're cheapskates)
- People who don't want to pay (because they're disgusted with themselves and claim they "weren't thinking straight")
- People who don't just refuse to pay but get aggressive or violent about it (being an assassin surely changes the dynamic but it's still inconvenient and insulting)
- People who are just plain unpleasant but do bring the money
- People who fall in love with you
- ...and want you to go monogamous
- People you fall in love with
- ...and it's not reciprocated
- People who don't respect you in other contexts because they know you're a prostitute
I've only read a little about prostitution but I know there's a lot out there. Look for a memoir, a sex work subreddit or forum, something of that kind. Prostitutes themselves surely have better insights than 4chan posters with slutty friends.
This is about camwhoring rather than conventional prostitution but I remember it being really intriguing: https://aella.substack.com/p/maximizing-your-slut-impact-an-overly
A review of a biography with some interesting looks into 18th century English prostitution: https://thingofthings.substack.com/p/weird-people-of-history-samuel-derrick

>>21973661
I wrote 1,500 words yesterday, I feel entitled to not do any writing today.

>>21978484
>>21978187
Or read Esmenet/Achamian POV in Prince of Nothing.

>>21973702
It isn't a failure. You honed your skills to write and finish it. Hopefully, you can salvage and repurpose some of it into some new work.

Can you tell us a bit more about what happened?

>>21978187
kill yourself incel

>>21978561
not that anon but name calling is annoying and tiring. at least put some effort into saying why you disagree

>>21974661
Where can I find these free works of art that will change my life?

Is it normal to treat imagining as an actual exercise that you force yourself to do?

>>21974436
What do you write?
>I write more serious stuff on the side.
How do you have time?

>>21978187
I'd say give her a goal and large scale obstruction to that goal. Because she's a succubus I figure she's forced to live more on the outskirts of society, and turning tricks in some brothel in the bad part of town, and taking assassination jobs from wealthy and powerful and shady people all has risks. So make her tired of it all, tired of living where she's living, tired of servicing random johns - none of whom respect her - and tired of being at the beck and call of some crime lords who also look down on her, and probably require sexual favors from her as part of her work. So she wants to build something larger for herself, something with a little more legacy, something a little more respectable. Maybe she's hit the age where she wants to have a child, but in order to do so it requires magical power or something she doesn't have. Maybe it requires she fall in love.

So the oppositional force to her achieving her new goal - aside from the crime lords she works for not wanting her to move on - will be the good people of society not wanting a succubus to succeed. Maybe the basis is a religion, maybe it's an entire kingdom or empire, maybe it's a literal god - or all of the above.

>>21973871
>a fresh account?
Are you saying I should delete my old RR account I was planning on using?

>>21976310
Why would it be a priority when I can look at boobs, anon? Boobs are great.

>>21978359
>personally identifies with retards unable to master basic punctuation
>animeposter
Checks out

if i have a first draft of a chapter that is 5000 words where should i post it? it'll be up some time this week

i'm way too much of a pussy to show my writing here, even if it is still the first draft

>>21979081
for critique? pastebin. you can post it here, or whertever.
for actually posting for readers to read? you should draft far more than 1 chapter

>>21979100
I will personally read it if it's under a thousand words and give you my thoughts as well as constructive criticism with zero name-calling or abuse.

>anon, it's time for your seasonal /lit/ book reviews.
Yes honey.

>>21975553
Help please

>>21979561
>"I'P A T T H NG Y D!
Odd title, but it works.

>>21979560
urban fantasy is fine. one of the anons from this thread wrote a successful RR story Trailer Trash, which isn't fantasy at all, urban or normal and not litrpg. I guess you could categorize it as progression, but that would be literally every novel where there's some character growth. just write a good story and hopefully people like it.

>>21979575
>just write a good story
why would you tell me this

>>21979597
because you seem like a spastic fucking moron wringing your hands saying oh me oh my, whatever shall I do?
here's some advice, don't waste your time in this thread, or any other, until you've written your first chapter, at least 2k words, and have something tangible in hand to ask about

>>21979560
yes youre going to doom yourself. no there isnt a place suited for anything other than progression litrpg nonsense. youll just have to deal with the competition

>>21979561
Very cool anon. Mixtape Hyperborea is probably my next read also interested in your review of Hungry God as I have very strong but mixed opinions on it

>>21979661
I'll probably want to talk about Hungry God too. I read the first chapter of it when /wg/ got a preview for it last year. I really liked Eggplant because of it's big theme. I would have did the ending a bit differently, but I totally respect what O.N. did. I'm hoping he comes with a similar looming theme in this one.

>Come with me brothers and her'sters!
>Let us discuss great works of Tolstoy, Akhmatova or Chekov!
>Or we can even speak as common men do, about bears, handle bars...And stuff!
You doubt the voracity of my claims?
NO NEW BREAD FOR YOU!
>>21979660

Sein starrendes Auge zwischen den Vorhängen blickt auf eine junge Dame. Zum siebten Mal sieht er sie nun die Straße herabspazieren, dieses feine, feine Gesicht, diese helle, rosafarbene Kleidung, die blonden, strahlendblonden Haare. Ist sie schön?Ja, schön wie eine Blume, und er fragt sich, wieso ausgerechnet er denn keine Blumen pflücken darf? Ich rieche gerne an ihnen, so antwortet er, auf diese schwebende Frage in seinem Inneren. Er darf, niemand könnte es ihm verwehren, wenn er nur wollen würde, aber will er denn? Ein Menschenkörper aus dessem Hals eine Blume entwächst offenbart sich vor seinem inneren Auge. Hast du andererseits je etwas dümmeres gesehen, fragt er sich und fängt an laut zu kichern, die missgestaltete Menschenblume bedenkend, während sein Auge dem Gang der jungen Dame folgt.
Er sieht sie schlendernd, sorgenfrei, die etwa fünfzig Meter, die sein Ausguck ihm gewährt, passierend, und dann ist sie fort, doch sein Auge verharrt, haftet am Punkt ihres Verschwindens. Er schnuppert, doch riecht nur den Zigarettengestank und schüttelt den Kopf. Interessiert es denn überhaupt, ob sie Schön ist? Spürt er etwas? Regt sich etwas in seiner Seele? Er verharrt, den Asphalt fixierend und horcht in sich hinein. Hatte er sie denn überhaupt gesehen? Hatte er sie denn überhaupt bemerkt? Waren es wirklich sieben Male gewesen? Nennt er nicht alles was leicht und farbenfroh und weiblich ist, eine Blume und hat er je so etwas wie eine Begierde für diese vermeintlichen Blumen in sich gespürt? Liebt er nicht wirkliche Blumen und verachtet er nicht die Menschen? Eine ganze Minute verharrt er unbewegt, sein Blick wächst in die Leere hinein, bis er sich besinnt und triumphierend lächelt. "Diese *Blumen*", sagt er ironisierend und legt sich nun rücklings auf das Sofa auf dem er gekniet hatte. Liegend wiederholt er: "Diese *Blume*, diese *Blumen*... Was will ich von ihnen?...sollte man mich nicht an einen Pfahl binden und erschießen? Mit einem MG42? Wäre das nicht tausendfach schöner und würdiger?" Das Maschinengewehr rattert und zerfetzt seinen Körper, aber ist er nicht selbst der Schütze?
Er verharrt in Stille und kratzt in den spröden Haaren herum. Er duscht zu heiß.

So wie er sich fühlt, so leer, so befremdet von dieser lächerlichen Erscheinung, ist offensichtlich die Zeit für die nächste Zigarette gekommen. Es ist ein wenig früh, aber es sind besondere Umstände.
Ist es denn nicht respektlos, ist es nicht geradezu pervers, wie Frauen sich benehmen? Alles um der *Schönheit* willen... aber das Schöne, die Schönheit, diese Idee... es sind ja nur solcherlei Ideen... solche verfehlten Ideen, die man den Menschen in den Geist pflanzt, solche neurotischen Fehlbildungen, die der Mensch aus den Ursümpfen des Bewusstseins mitgeschleppt hat und sie dummerweise in seiner Kultur, in dem was man als Kultur bezeichnet, verewigt hat. Und dabei geht es nicht um eine Entzauberung der Welt, es geht ja nicht darum, dass man sagt, dass es keine Qualitäten gäbe oder nichts Erstrebenswertes, denn auch das widerspricht meinem Wesen und es widerspricht der menschlichen Natur, aber diese, diese bestimmte Idee der Schönheit... diese Idee der weiblichen, der menschlich-weiblichen Schönheit...
diese Idee der weiblichen Schönheit ist es in Wahrheit welche die Welt entzaubert. Wissen wir es nicht schon lange besser?
Und was tue ich dann überhaupt? Ein Menschliches Wesen, etwas so geschmackloses, mit etwas so schlichtem und eleganten wie einer Blume zu vergleichen? Was ist denn, abseits von jeglicher Abstraktion, das menschliche Paarungsverhalten, verglichen mit dem Paarungsverhalten der Blume? Beschreibt die Idee der weiblichen Idee etwas anderes? Mischen sich hierbei nicht Aberglaube und Begierde? Wieviele geschmacklosen Metaphern wurden hier doch versucht, wie oft hat man es versucht, die Blume auf das Niveau der Menschen zu senken, wo doch der reine Blick auf den konkreten Vorgang bereits alles offenbart und alle Hirngespinste widerlegt...
Er sieht ihr Gesicht vor Augen, ihre groteske Fröhlichkeit, ihre Wangen... Und dann alles das was folgt. Es ekelt ihn, es ärgert ihn. Die Augen haben sich verschlossen, er sieht sie vor sich stehend, lächelnd. Warum aber werde ich nicht an einen Pfahl gebunden und erschossen? Was für ein wirrer Haufen an dummen Gedanken tanzt auf meiner Nase herum, verdient das nicht etwa den Tod durch ein Erschießungskommando? Was für ein Unglück, als Mensch geboren zu sein, jammert es in seiner Seele, jammert der Überdrüß an sich selbst. Dann zählt er. Er zählt die Sekunden. Eins. Zwei. Drei. Vier. Fünf. Sechs. Sieben. Acht. Neun. Zehn... und atmet aus und atmet ein. Die Augen bleiben verschlossen und mit der Zeit beginnt er zu dösen. Seinen Zorn vergessend, träumend.

>>21977839
4chan denizens are shiftless NEETs without any money.
Also, "advertising/begging" is against the rules, and if it's reported enough, subject to deletion, and the user to banning.

Its been a while since I asked for advice. I've found my style.

>>21980421
Schizo fantasy?
Seems like an underserved market.
Go for it!

>>21980447
That's the goal, self referential schizo comedy. What did you think of it?

>>21980456
I thought it was a good start.
If you can keep up that pace, I'll be pleasantly amazed...and will totally buy a copy.

>>21978631
In your local library my man. Feel free to ask the staff for recommendations

>>21980831
Please don't, I've worked in three different libraries and the staff in all of them reads absolute trash just like everyone else