/lit/ - Literature

>discord

>One last thing--you cannot invent your own genre. Don't try. Don't even ask. For the love of all that is holy!
Sounds like a challenge to me

>>22564225
yeah, who the fuck says you can't invent your own genre? what you can't do is invent your own genre and expect to find an audience

Despite them being the same age, I write the protagonist and his buddy/sidekick/Watson as having the same relationship as an elder and younger brother.
The protagonist tries his best to get his buddy to stay on the right side of the law, attend school, and become a respectable member of society. He tries to protect him from his own screw ups, and sometimes with force.

And despite how much heartburn the other dude gives MC-kun, he genuinely does respect him, and even defers to him when things get serious.

Before you ask, yes. The other guy was raised without a father by his mother.

>>22564367
But I was gonna ask if they go gay

>>22564419
No, MC-kun is in a love...octagon, at this point. The friend is simping for a slave girl that kicked his ass.

There are no LGBT characters in my story or setting.

For the past two decades my life has been dictated by a simple, yet profound, idiom. Where exactly I heard it first, I can't recall. I doubt anyone can recognize the first time a specific phrase, which since has been used so often and has been so integral to their vocabulary and lives, entered their sphere of being- I certainly cannot; But what I do remember is the first time it ever meant something real to me. The 13th of October 19 years ago was cold and comfortable day. The wind-rocked and overcast afternoon was pleasant beyond belief. A colored leaf drifted along the Wisconsin hillside for miles only to end up floating through my window and landing on my coffee table before my half-asleep fireplace beside a cup of hot cocoa (my second that day) which rested on a coaster near a copy of Tolkien's "the Children of Húrin" that had been laid open to about the middle of the story. "Curious," I thought, "where have you come from?" I had not time to think anything else, for what followed the journeyman leaf set the course of my life forever. A strange moth appeared on my book and began to devour the page.
A turn of phrase, an expression, a proverb, a prophecy-
You are what you eat.

Rate n' hate
Would you read more?

>>22564459
>There are no LGBT characters in my story or setting.
I bet there are and they're just repressed.

>>22564232
Has anyone ever written a booke ENTIRELY in code?
So it's like a puzzle
Maybe each chapter has a different code, some chapters words are replaced, some chapters entirely letter jumbled, some chapters written in computer code and some as idk pictures or something
It could be a noir sytle mystery novel but from the perspective of a deranged skitzo killer leaving a diary

I'm currently writing a godfather parody about zoomers selling vapes in the school bathroom, you guys got any funny ideas?

>>22564608

>google "books written in code"
>search results: "how to get better at Java"
You'd think a company would get better at its one job over 20 years, not worse

>>22564596

>pose a thought
>have to sit through an ancient life story from Wisconsin, a weather report, and breakfast menu before we get to the point
I have no words to describe how much I hate this kind of writing.

>>22564600
No, none. And if you ask again, I'll add in a gay man who decides it was all just a phase and settles down with a wife and kids.

2 weeks on RR, 14 chapters

>all of a sudden I have access to illustrations I can just create myself

Wow. I feel for illustrators.

>>22564939
A week and a half on RR, 4 chapters.

>>22565011
Adapt or perish...you know, just like in every other field of human endeavor. If something can be automated, it will be automated. Hollywood writers just had a 3-month strike on this very subject.

>>22564747
Other than spoofing specific scenes/lines from The Godfather, you could:
- Have a divide between the nicotine dealers and the weed dealers, mirroring the mob's hesitancy to sell dope
- The loser gym teacher is in on this
- Running gag where the kid with Crohn's disease is constantly going to the bathroom to take smelly shits while the cool kids are trying to sell their dumb vapes
- Assuming your story follows the activities in the boys' room, tell us the bizarro situation in the girls' room from time to time. It would be a humorous foil.
- Rivalry with the theater kids who are selling cigarettes (perhaps gang warfare parallel?)
- Decide how close a parody this should be. Is The Godfather merely an inspiration, or a detailed template for your story? Have a clear notion of this before you write any more.

>>22565062
>should we automate all the hard manual labor and shitty jobs nobody wants to do?
>no, let's automate all the fun stuff everyone wants to do so that nobody needs to do it anymore
>but doesn't that mean nobody has fun and we'll be stuck doing the hard manual labor and shitty jobs we hate?
>adapt or perish

>>22565099
>- Running gag where the kid with Crohn's disease is constantly going to the bathroom to take smelly shits while the cool kids are trying to sell their dumb vapes
Dude that's fucking hilarious I'm putting it in for sure

>>22565140
>should
weak word. what should or shouldn’t happen is largely irrelevant to what will happen.

>>22565140
If it can be automated, it will be automated. "Should" is irrelevant if it saves time and money. Unless you're willing to go through all the hard work to make the world the way you think it ought to be, and have the drive and inventiveness to do so, you're just a pouting child.
>>22565210
THANK you.

I don't think AI is there yet for fiction, especially when its written in first person. It does do very well with settings

>>22565210
You either do what benefits you, or what benefits someone else. As long as you stubbornly refuse to act rationally, you only play into the pockets of people more intelligent than you. Then you come up with these juvenile copes to excuse why it had to happen

>>22565276
It does well with everything except the actual written text. The work you have to put in just to write exactly what you want, how you want it is almost bigger than if you actually just wrote it yourself.
I tried.

Have you tried making a scene from your book in Dalle yet? Here's a scene from my book.

I came up with a time travel story where the same person is in the same place at the same time at three different ages. The child doesn't know either of the others are the same person and is there because it's where chance led them. The the adult knows the child but not the old person and is there to take care of unfinished business, possibly at great cost. The old person knows everything and is there see destiny fulfilled.
They're all in a prison, but only the child version is truly a prisoners, since the other two know they are going to escape soon.

>>22564814
>If you ask me if one of my characters is repressed gay I'll make one of my characters a repressed gay
weird flex but ok

>AI
>AI
>AI
>Post
>AI
>AI
>Post
>AI
>AI
>AI
Do you fucks not get bored of this shit?

>>22565870
microsoft just released a new AI a few days ago, they'll get bored of it soon enough

>>22565870
No. AI is cool as hell and you're a snob if you turn your nose up at it.

>>22565884
Making dumb pictures with AI is not writing. This is the writing general, not the AI-generated images general.

>>22565011
Don't feel bad
There's a massive crossover between the "artists" seething about AI and the people who laugh at middle class workers and tell them to "learn to code" when they have their jobs taken away by automation and foreigners
They get what they deserve

>>22565852
Why is a child in prison?

>>22565929
Because of le ebil fantasy reasons

So it's true that there're indians out there being paid to spam ai for engagement after all. Probably going to take some weeks before they get tired of it this time, isn't it?

whats the lowert barrier of entry for writing? I have an ideal for a novel, kinda of a gay pulp gimmicky revenge story, should I just go right into it or do some writing exercises or short stories before taking up a big project?
how important is the mastery of language? many wirters just break all the rules but I figure you have to master them to break them
is it ok that my internal monologue just turns into whatever writer I'm currently reading?

>>22566056
Write it. Your first draft will most likely be shit. Once you read it over you will get an idea of what works and what doesn't. Then rewrite it if you don't absolutely hate it. Or write something else. As for the problem of imitating the voice of the author you're reading I have yet to find a solution for myself. But supposedly when you have been writing long enough you will develop your own style

>>22565894

I have made a very short version of what i've written so far. If anybody wants to read here you go. It's bad both gramatically and premise wise let me warn you. https://pastebin.com/pkeMJY0c

>>22566186
The word you're looking for is a "synopsis." And this is waaay too long to be a synopsis. Aim for 300-500 words.
>It's bad
Then why did you post it?

>>22566186
>It's bad both gramatically and premise wise
Well that's a great way to get people to read your work.

>>22566194
dont we just share what we write here and ask people's opinion... oh well i tried
>>22566195
there’s no such thing as bad publicity

>>22566198
My opinion is that it's bad. Partly because you write a bunch of words warning me it's bad, but mostly because it's bad.
Try next time. And read more.

>>22566201
*wrote
augh fuck I'm turning into an ESL

>>22566201
Is this the part where i pull an adam sandler and just change every negative thing about what i've written and post it again so you both find it funny and want to give it a second chance? thanks for giving your time anyway preciate it

>>22566213
No, this is the part where you switch off 4channel and open a book.

>>22565870
mommy?

>>22566198
>there’s no such thing as bad publicity
There is if you want people to read your work

I want to write a YA mystery; what kinds of crimes are small enough to pass under the radar of police but are still big enough to get a protagonist invested in solving the case?

>>22566365
Poop banditry

>>22566334
I mean if i didn't say i was an ESL most of people would just say your grammar sucks go read, i say i am esl and and i say it's a power fantasy since most people here hate it and i still get the same treatment, oh well. I like posting here since nobody even reads a man power fantasy mc in wattpad and i want to get back at writing again so it's a start. As an esl i have no chance other than wattpad.

>>22566375
Have you considered writing in your mother tongue? Creative writing is good English practice, so by all means more power to you but if you change your mind that is fine too.

>>22566375
I haven't used it so I can't vouch for its results, but Grammarly might help you

>>22566377
i already write in my mother tongue and share it in wattpad from time to time. i just post here a long synopsis in english and ask for peoples opinion if they care or not, like i said i dont have much place to ask for peoples opinion.

>>22566365
the classics are things like:
vandalism of cherished childhood location (arcade, movie theater, etc.) that has personal stakes
rich family basically owns the whole town and the cops are corrupt
somebody goes missing and the protagonist knows more about the case, but it's something they can't share with the police and must investigate themselves
somebody is putting pressure on a local business to sell its location
some destruction appears supernatural and cops are dismissive, putting it down to natural disaster

I'm completely in love withoby Dick.

This, coupled with a /gif/ thread i saw yesterday about weird marine animals inspired me into writing about the otherwordlyness of the sea in a style similar to Melville's. I'll see if i can finish my draft today and post it

dear writing jesus send words to my brain to my hands to my fingers to my keyboard give me strength to write this story

>>22566388
what's you ntive language?

I feel very tense when I write. I can get words down but it feels painful like I'm forcing it.

>>22566624
Not english. English actually isnt even my second language

>>22566678
For me I feel like an utter fool when trying to write. Like the act of writing is the most cringeworthy thing a person can do.

>>22566678
Writing shit down is basically forcing your mind to create. My guess is you just write what you dont want to. Change the subject

this nigga embarrassed to say his native language and expects to get any respect writing in it. Yu probably name your characters accounting for how they'll be translated into american names don't you you fag

>>22566789
Show me what you wrote today and you might get my respect. I bet the long ass synopsis i've written in bad english just under an hour is more than what you put on that blank page. I bet you think "oh but i am trying to write the next big thing so i need to think what i need to put in there!" or something like that and your soul immensely crushes you since you didn't put anything in there, yet again. You are going no place, sonny. Come on, just post what you did write today.

>>22564939
>>22565014
I've got you beat on views, 1k. No reviews yet meaning there's people who like reading the story but don't have an opinion

Might just buy an advert for the story since apparently organic growth doesn't happen on Royal Road anymore

>>22566823
> organic growth doesn't happen on Royal Road anymore
Which kind of defeats its original purpose and a reason to use it. If you have to now spend time and money to advertise and create a good cover to get noticed that would be better spent putting it on Amazon instead.

https://pastebin.com/U7Ktx9mp
critique welcomed (thumbs up/down on pastebin also welcomed)

>>22567068
you posted this before and nobody got it. you’ve made no changes iirc.

>>22566989
>>22566823

Organic growth still happens plenty on RoyalRoad if you write in genres that appeal to the audience there. If you don't do that, then organic growth was never really a thing in the first place. You see different litrpg/cultivation/progression-focused stories blowing up all the time.

If you're writing bland trad fantasy, that never had a place on RR in the first place. Not with any consistency, at least.

>>22567160
yea

>>22567169
care to explain what you’re going for? maybe someone can offer you some useful advice.

>>22567179
yea

i feel like i always have the urge to write but it takes forever to come up with a worthwhile idea that i actually enjoy enough to work on

my desire to write is outpacing my brain
I know what needs to happen in my next chapter but I don't know what the setting should be or the way the characters physically navigate through it or any of the details
I guess I just need to sit and think for a bit

>>22567167
>just write trash bro

etto what do you think of my next work Reborn as the Weakest Villainess Who Is Actually The Strongest ZeroMagi at Anti-Hero Academy: A Harem

how are people prolific when its so hard to come up with ideas

>>22567258
Where did I say that, you illiterate?

>>22567355
Did you know that you can take someone else's idea, alter it a bit from the beginning and by the end it's nothing like the other person's narrative.

how do you know if your religion idea is good or just gonna be smoothbrain retarded

>>22567396
Right here:
>if you write in genres that appeal to the audience there
>You see different litrpg/cultivation/progression-focused stories blowing up

>>22567695
>Sygnomegog

>>22567167
> If you're writing trad fantasy
So where is the best place for that kind of writing?

>>22567710
I briefly considered explaining why you're illiterate, but you probably wouldn't understand the explanation, either. A real catch-22.

>>22567695
First one is trash. Elf one is good.
>-ish
Stop it. Gnome. Dwarven. Elven. German things are german, not germanish.

I like the solipsist gnome religion but then the second part fucking sucks.

>>22567729
>I like the solipsist gnome religion but then the second part fucking sucks.
was just brainstorming about how esoteric abrahamic religion loves playing on inversion and stuff, thought i would think of something to play into that. i don't really like it either tho, it sounds dumb

>>22567740
Not everything has to be a flavor of Christianity. It can be weird enough to not be relatable and you can still kind of get it.
I get that gnomes are pricks and no one will like them, that's good.

So backstory is a former nobleman (John) was humiliated at a party by another noble (Blackmore)

The humiliated one eventually joins and becomes leader of a mercenary company, and Blackmore needs him to help defend his brand new keep, Hardmoor.
>"We thank you for coming on such short notice"
>I'm curious. Your family name is Blackmore, you named your keep Hardmoor....were you stuttering when you named this hold?
I'm wondering what other snipes and jabs he should try to get in while at least giving the pretense of negotiations.

>>22567757
I think the humiliated one would simply take his merc company and take his gay keep for himself.

>>22567772
Well, you could always do both, humiliate first and then take the keep after

>>22567772
being a feudal system doesn't that mean the guy above blackmor would push john's shit in?

>>22565929
Maybe Biblical reasons? Exodus 20.5 mentions punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation. This also happens in places like North Korea.

>>22567884
North Korea also has bunch of other interesting shit going on.

Like the use of unprocessed human shit for fertilizer that results in massive parasites in a lot of people. And people stealing feces from each other to make poop quotas for the government.

>>22567355
Not everyone has trouble coming up with ideas. I have a TreeLine document full of ideas. Every once in a while, when day-jobbery doesn't completely drain the life out of me, I write some of them. If you want to come up with ideas, just live life (i.e. get out of your mom's house every once in a while, freaking shutin).

>>22567695
Study religion?

So here's my idea.

A Prince goes on the hero's journey to bring back his waifu.

>>22568035
Is the waifu being gangraped during the journey and he finds her mentally broken like an NTR hentai girl?

>spend months or years learning about writing, reading interesting books, taking notes, brainstorming and planning ideas
time to never write

>>22567889
Stealing poop to meet quotas is such a weird idea you could never come up with it

>>22568041
Please treat your porn addiction

Ya'll should try making a picture book with the AI...

https://jason-bryan.com/smurfette-breaking-blue/

Fun new way of storytelling!

Since I have the day off, I'm going to write 350 words for all five stories I'm working on!

>>22567893
plenty of writers don't touch grass

>>22568152
no

Bros. What the actual fuck is with Gardner’s new video? This is hilariously schizo behavior.

>>22568041
Brain damage?

>>22568367
No one gives a shit, Frank

>>22566823
>>22566989
I just want a place where it's technically possible for people to read my story, and the posting form has proper formatting options. RR is pretty much the only option for that. Becoming an e-celebrity was not a real part of the plan.

Hello anons. I am trying to write a short story which includes a lot of action and combat scenes.
Whenever I try to write, it sounds quite boring. Any advice on how to write good action scenes?

>>22568562
Just make every character retarded like Gardner does.

>>22567068
kino...

>>22568367
>following the activity of schizos
This is hilariously schizo behavior.

>>22568175
>Born in Vancouver in the late 70’s
https://youtu.be/Msxsu448JmE?si=8mgOB5K2y7D19bhi&t=13

>>22568692
Damn

>>22568035
No idea is original, sure, but there are original combinations of ideas.

>>22568367
I love him. F Gardner is the Robbie Rotten of /lit/

>>22568720
He's more like this board's Chris-Chan

Does anybody have any recommendations for small magazines or sites that publish/host short stories? or maybe competitions? Google is way to overwhelming when it comes to results
At this point it's just about getting a name out there, so even if they don't pay, the exposure would be good for future recognition
UK based if that matters

>>22566186
This anon here again. This time i made it into a synopsis. Some of you guys were right it was too long. https://pastebin.com/66s9Zdv4 Please give it a go this time. I'd appreciate it.

I plan on making story evolve to something like a james bond book so any idea would be cool.

>>22568898
I still recommend you read a lot more books in English before you start seriously writing. This stuff is near-illegible.
Also, this still isn't a synopsis, aka treatment or summary. You're supposed to give an overview of the story's major plot points from beginning to end.
What you posted is an opening scene and a cliffhanger. Don't include stuff like dialogue and go easy on the backstory.

>>22566186
>https://pastebin.com/66s9Zdv4
I feel like the story starts without any opening scene of where this guy is or who he is. It opens with too much tell and not enough show.

>>22567695
>Eugenicist
>love nature

>>22567695
>Nihilism cult
>Amoral
>undefined culture
Seems like you need to do more research into what a religion is.

>>22567695
Religions are extremely complicated so it's not invalid to simply them in this way but you have to keep in mind that there are near-endless influences on a religion and near-endless influences a religion can have on an individual, and thus a group of individuals.
Unless your plan is to found a religion I say you focus less on the religions themselves and more on the influence the religions hold over your characters.

>>22568115
If only we could ship poop to North Korea...we could devastate the entire basis of their economy!

>>22568207
Writers that don't touch grass are going to produce boring, derivative work. Try getting out of your little room, and go live life, then tell me you don't have any ideas. Ugh. 4channers really are the worst...all the social impairment of nerds, and none of the brains.

>>22569103
There is nothing that can be gained from "touching grass" that can't instead be gained by reading more.

>>22569136
Books can only give knowledge. Wisdom is earned through experince.

>>22568999
Nice trips, i am not writing in english like i said earlier. I just wanted peoples opinion so i translated into english. You are right about summary part again which i at this point give up. So any idea for how can i turn this story that starts with forced romance into james bondesque story? Any idea what should i write or any good tropes i can look at? Also thanks for advice solid good advices you wrote that.
>>22569004
This is not how story starts or goes, i tried making a weird shorter version of what i am planning to write.

>>22569136
You can gain original knowledge and experience. You act as if there's nothing new under the sun.

>>22569136
your brain needs sensory stimulation
try to write a description of a sunset while locked in your room, then go try to write a description of a sunset while watching the sunset on the beach

Personally don't think it is too bad but I think people will see it as a DFW knock off in some areas

>>22568851

I found one a while ago called Neon and sent something off but they are uncertain about their future at the moment feels like it's much harder for us UK bros to look for places to submit too

>>22564608
that sounds like quite the challenge. far too much of a challenge honestly. i feel like that kind of book would have a very small audience

Is this good for 3 days on RR?

>>22568562
In action scenes, choose your words very carefully to maximize the effect on the reader. It's okay to take cues from movies and make it seem "cinematic". If you're at risk of dragging, intersperse some dialogue; keep it snappy. Maintain a brisk pace, avoid ambiguity, and make the outcome impactful.

What's a good way to post a chapter I've been working on? Pastebin keeps flagging it as offensive :(

>>22569570
Thanks, can you point out a few examples?

>>22569618
Use https://litterbox.catbox.moe/ if you're looking for feedback

>>22567695
All of these are shallow and horrible. Start from the beginning and familiarize yourself with what religions actually do.

>>22569749
Tysm anon.
Third draft of a first chapter I've been working on.
Be warned, it's kinda long.
https://litter.catbox.moe/as5l76.txt

do you have to be some sort of fucking idiot to actually attempt writing a novel? an actual moron fuck, who thinks they can spend maybe a year, of their limited years on earth, writing a shitty book? do they actually believe in their own success? is this the 'reality' you need to live in, to commit to something so idiotic?
or can i work another angle. like self-sabotage in the name of art
how do you acquire the mental to dedicate to something like this?

>>22569825
It only takes me 9 months to write a manuscript

>>22569825
Being a good writer helps

>>22569825
Same thing with people that make video games, statues, gardening etc. Just something to do.

>>22569825
Hey listen man it sounds like you would be better served doing drugs or having sex with prostitutes or anything else

>>22569830
impressive
>>22569833
oh, yea? statues?
>>22569832
>believe you are a good writer
ok.. got it
>>22569850
how many books have you written?

>>22569869
I'm 4chan's most famous author, F. Gardner.

Is 2k words too little or too much? I want to make it small enough that I can print a chapter in less than a day, but large enough to be appetizing.

>>22569916
Too little for what? daily web serial posting? Yes, 2000-2500 is the standard there. For an average novel? Depends on the genre. Context would be nice. Why does no one ever give context?

>>22569563
For something that should be popular on the site? Pretty terrible. Honestly, even for something that's not trendy there, it's pretty bad engagement. Though I think you knew that.

Think I'm nearly ready to send a couple pages to an editor but I'm scared bros...

>>22569563
book cover/name issue

>>22569945
Sankyuu, I'll go and make a better cover.

>>22569928
Editors are your frens, even if they think every you produce is trash

>>22564101

Hello, /wg/! Three quarters of my next-to-last draft is done, boys... I'm so ready for it to be over. It's more than 100,000 words long now so far (barring any further streamlining), and it's taken more than four grueling years to get to this point; I was 24 when I started, now I'm 28. Lots of loneliness and wasted nights in front of a white computer screen, but my obsession compels me to continue. I have to leave something more behind than a few anecdotes and a bullshit dissertation. For once, I'm somewhat proud of something I've done. I've never written a novel before, but I think I found my process:

> paragraph-level outline => set uniform word quota per paragraph (I think 300 words was my first limit lol, definitely not doing this step for future books) => start typing out a hodgepodge of pertinent phrases, words, and ideas that come to mind until each quota is filled (I call it "vomit") => retool paragraph number/length and chapter divisions into a more organic form as they start cohering with each other thematically => start interspersing repeating motifs and themes inside the existing text as I start sensing connections to further bring it all together => introduce more elements into the story as its world becomes fuller => refine the vomit into prose paragraph-by-paragraph => make stylistic edits to the prose to make it sound smoother => hunt for repetitive words/phrases and break them up

Once the next-to-last draft is completely finished, I'll orally narrate the book to myself chapter-by-chapter and clean up the overly-purple parts, then it should be done. I'd also like to put in some nice maps when I typeset the first edition, commissioning cover art and marketing will probably be challenging the first time around. I don't know if Kid Demiurge will ever gain a large readership, I figure the second book in the trilogy will be much more accessible to readers than this one (this process has helped me write a SHITTON of notes that will make the series much richer than I first anticipated).

Anyway, here's the first four chapters I shared with you guys several years back, much improved:

https://docdro.id/6Q4XHRa

tl;dr
As always, I do it for you faggots as much as myself, even if you despise me. Enjoy my spergy screed, thanks for the love and the hate and the valuable feedback you've given me (the more the merrier, hit me up if you want)

>>22569946
want me to take a crack at it?

I've got outside to get something to eat so i can watch a movie, i never realised at nights this place became a literal shithole, there are kids everywhere begging on the street, trying to sell handkerchiefs. a kid was nearly causing a traffic accident while trying to sell shit to the drivers. i walk a little and realise everywhere is filled with these kids and all of a sudden a gypsy comes to me and says "I am not a beggar please sir i have two kids at home can you buy me anything *points to the burger king across the street*" Now i know these fuckers are the ultimate liars so i just politely say no i can't and she tries to guilt trip me. Write a short story about what you might have done in a situation like this

>>22564101
here is moar appropriate picrel for /lit/

>>22568367
>>22568720
Kill yourself.

>>22569470

I wasn't too confident about how the second parahraph was reading so I went back and rewrote does it read better than original?

>The veil was actually her own choice and idea. At first, she initially wore black, but then she realised it was too depressing and decided to discard it in disgust after one day of careful consideration in front of her mirror arriving at the final conclusion thinking that it made her look like a spectre, she also wanted to put to rest the gossip she had overheard from people who thought that she was mourning the loss of something or had decided to convert and become Muslim. She then began to get more eccentric in her choices, showing her flare by wearing much more brighter and vibrant colours then eventually moved on to different logos of various companies that were interested in sponsoring her who had their own specially designed custom veils.

more dumb ideas
how do you do worldbuilding without going autistically overboard

>>22570384
View it the same as you would normal prose. If the reader gets bored during the first five percent of your world building, simplify it or drip feed it so that it is organic with the story.

World building, not world dumping.

>>22569201
>any idea for how can i turn this story that starts with forced romance into james bondesque story?
You need to do genre research. Pick up a book on genres like pic related, which teaches the common beats for the major genres. Also, read/watch/listen to everything you can in the "secret agent" genre.
One movie I'll recommend is American Ultra (2015). I haven't seen it so I don't know if it's good but from what I remember about the trailer it's very similar to the story you're going for (average joe schlub meets a girl and gets caught up in a government conspiracy)

foul greased epidermis. discolored swelling decayed droopy warped visage. fetid crown of oily scalp infested with void black contending clumps. decomposing meatvored gut exhales croaking malignant stink wafting between bleeding pus gums, chipped jagged enamel, drool moist lip orifice. benign cattle-like composure hunched neck, submitting via every micro-movement. all received sense inputs perceiving unthinking mechanical corruption of tender buried sentimentality. woodpeckers collectively jabbing your newborn daughter's fontanel. diseased heart, terminating cells, warping juiced fecal pores, invasive incision entering knotted shuddering seams. anticipation of end met with mocking asymptotic torture, forget defecation or urination or inhalation. unending limbo game run by your own shadow. the merciful reaper has now warped into an insectoid Daisy's Destructioner, life is everlasting. industrial vacuum suction on max increasing sucking your bunghole. dissasociate into the next hallucination, one where your contact with the other is facilitated through "discord"

how do you brainstorm ideas lit?

>>22570611
I come up with a vague and intriguing title like "Andromedan Gothic" and start writing to see if I can figure out what the story should be

What kind of writing is good to make money short term? Erotica is always on top on amazon but I suspect 99.999% of them never sell anything.

>>22570673
Write forged checks

>>22570611
Ideas are EASY...

Making money from being creative? Much harder!

>>22570675
I don't think anyone uses them anymore
>>22570611
everyone has a million ideas every day. Execution is what matters.

>>22570673
short term write furry porn and market
long term write something you enjoy that also intersects with some market for 2+ years (minimum)

>>22570673
Nothing will ruin your want to write or your motivation to write than writing something you do not enjoy for an audience you grow to hate
thats what a lot of these AI writers also seem to forget as they wash out in 1 month of doing something they hate

>>22569978
I got up to page 12. Your prose isn't too bad (you're showing off a bit too much with the word choices here and there imo) but I didn't grasp enough of a story by that page for it to hook me in its talons.
This is the sort of situation where I'd read the back cover or a Wikipedia synposis or watch YouTube book reports to get a sense of if the thing's worth working through. Obviously I can't do that with your manuscript.

>>22567807
Being a feudal system I think you'd find that might makes right.

>>22569978
I haven’t read the whole thing yet but I like it, anon. I can tell you put a lot of work into it, and I can tell you’re a good writer. I plan to read the whole thing (although I might not get to it tonight) and I’ll let you know my thoughts. You should unironically be proud of finishing a whole novel that is actually literature and not some porn or power fantasy weebshit. Thanks for sharing it.

>>22570692
what do you mean by market and stay in market for 2 years? popular genres?

>>22569978
I can tell you put in a lot of effort, but I can't get through it.
Most people think of complex books and they think of ulysses or maybe absalom! absalom! But in fact the most complex book ever written was written by an english professor in some no name university who's book title I cannot remember because I stopped reading in the first sentence. Point being give a book time to be complex instead of throwing it in someones face

>>22570688
you're retarded—brainstorming IS execution
you've posted this over and over again and it's painfully obvious that you've only just barely come up against the first wall of "oh, maybe this harder than I thought"
stop giving advice

>>22570932
I barely post on these threads, and it's the first time I said anything related to that. I just mean that coming up with your epic land and magic system is not good in and of itself.
>ve only just barely come up against the first wall of "oh, maybe this harder than I thought"
overcoming that wall is execution, not brainstorming.
>r word
No need to be crude my friend

>>22570953
brainstorming isn't daydreaming about what you're going to say on Conan when you hit it big. It's what you need to do when you write yourself into a corner or recognize a flaw in your narrative and need to find a way to solve the puzzle. You sit down and in a structured way try to promote creative exploration of a highly constrained space. It's one of the hardest things a writer needs to do and can't be dismissed as if these ideas are free rather than clawed out of your deep subconscious.

>>22570921
a market doesn't have to be popular it could be anything, look at amazon. There are self published cowboy thrillers, apocalypse survivals, power fantasies, etc. Pick one you enjoy and try to establish yourself, I just said two years because its impossible to give you a timeline if it will ever really work

>>22570976
personally my best ideas come out (haha) after a good masturbation session

>>22570976
and do you honestly believe that's what that anon was talking about when he asked "guys how do you get ideas"

>>22571022
thats what I meant

>>22570688
Both matter. There's no sense in playing favorites.

>first rating comes in
>one star
>refuses to elaborate
Reeeeeeeeeeee.

>>22571230
You got actually got a rating?

>>22571275
>>22571230
This, how the fuck did you even get a rating?
If you got 1 star you probably made someone read just enough to get kneejerk reaction to something. Did you write litRPG slop?

>>22571315
I just posted my story. I got some followers and favorites too but the one star is really messing with me

>>22571448
>>22571315
https://www.amazon.ca/Shitkickers-Jason-Bryan-ebook/dp/B0BZXY9HLV

Bro... it is even tough to get HATERS in 2023... books just are not cool at all.

You paint your skin black and mumble "nigger ho bitch" to a beat and you'd get 100k+ views on YouTube before your book would even get 100 reads.

>>22571455
Perhaps I really should take the visual novel pill, if even getting haters is a chore. Man I feel like a navel gazing asshole.

>>22571466
Just fucking START IT:

https://www.bing.com/images/create

If I can make a 161 slide "story" in 2 days, so can anyone on /lit/, let's actually be creative here.
>lit
NOBODY READS BOOKS. BOOKS ARE JUST NOT COOL. BOOKS ARE FUCKING LAME.
>old tech
You will never impress women or make money with a book in 2023.

>>22571230
I got my first 1 star rating today too. My others are only five stars thus far, but I think of it as my readers patronizing me more than theirs finding my novel an actual masterpiece. But man, what could possess someone to give out a 1 star? I would only use that rating for irredeemable low effort turds.

Also what with the schizo AI shill?

>>22571506
Post link

>>22571230
I got my first and only rating (five stars overall only) right after I submitted the first chapter. Not sure how that works. Maybe the staffer who accepted it gave it the rating.

>>22571478
>NOBODY READS BOOKS. BOOKS ARE JUST NOT COOL. BOOKS ARE FUCKING LAME.

>>22569825
It worked for Andy Weir.
>how do you acquire the mental
I think you're working at a disadvantage.

>>22571478
The point of writing a book is to get filmmakers interested in buying the rights to your work. Andy Weir became a multi-millionaire like that.

Guys, I need some advice; I'm reading 60-100 pages a day but not doing much writing, generously speaking, I'm writing 300 words or less a week. Should I continue focusing on reading or should I be focusing more on writing? As you can tell by my grammar, I have yet to really master the written word comfortable enough to trust myself to take on a large project.

>>22571630
film is a dying medium
you want video game companies to buy the rights

>>22571660
Is that even a thing?

>>22571680
The Witcher is the only real one that comes to mind, but clearly it's where you should focus your efforts

https://erikhoudini.com/houdini_blog/editorial/editorial_guidelines

surely someone here is unhinged enough to write for this

It's easy, looking at such a landscape as this, with all its nothing spread out to the farthest edges of nothing, to imagine yourself as the last living person left. Too easy. Too self-important, overwhelmingly melancholic. Too typical a notion to be true. Don’t you think so?

Imagine a luminous tapestry of silver threads, a gleaming, glowing network of souls emerging into a collective consciousness of brilliance. I think I can see it. It fills the sky. It hangs like wavering sword points on high.

Imagine a neuron falling silent, growing dim and fading into the primal darkness that rushes in when a thread snaps. Maybe patterns on the cortex are broken and they wink out. Maybe they don’t. Maybe they effortlessly rearrange or—God, oh, God, I pray not—maybe they don’t even notice.

Maybe the orphaned neuron is immersed and lost in a dream about himself, alone and damned, too busy, too sadly determined to realize he fell. Spellbound, defenseless, never to be saved. Unnoticed as he slips under the waves.

Isn’t that the sad part—that there’s no context at all? I think, I feel that too. Maybe. I don’t know.

>no, john, you are the demons

Cramming these guy's books ahead of the expo. My brain feels like it's going to burst.
Malcolm X would be ashamed. I put off reading his autobiography to cram the works of three old white dudes.
But I think I'm putting together what precisely the expo is. It's a cult. Worshipers at the altar of storytelling. I do believe it's gonna be kino.

>>22571767
>with a distinct leftist perspective.
>"The Queer Experience LARPing"
I'm gonna do it

Someone tell me what this mysterious prize is that the admin of the NaNoWriMo keeps hinting at. It’s freaking me out. He’s making it sound like we’re all going to be going crazy trying to win whatever this “prize” is.

Bit of a newfag to writing proper original work so got a few questions for you guys:

When describing a character for the first time, is it better to have a huge label rolling down on your face or carefully word out how they appear through the conversations and actions?

How long should a fantasy novel be? (And how much words per chapters?)

...Should I bother waiting for Nanowrimo or just write it now anyway?

>>22571928
It’s shaping up to be legendary. The server gives the impression that it’ll be like the /lit/ Academy Awards.

>>22571934
just write it now. nobody follows the Nanowrimo rules. They just copy and past it at 50k words.

>>22571945
>50k words
Sounds good to me

>>22571506
There's always THAT guy

>>22569563
>3 days on RR
>208 pages

too much, too fast

Should a person focus on one story at a time? I find it's good for my productivity to be able to jump to other things whenever my enthusiasm for one story fizzles out.

>>22572173
If you find something is good for your productivity, you should always do the opposite, this is only common sense.

>>22572189
This is my line of thinking also, since quality > quantity means that anything that results in quantity is bad for quality

>>22572173
>Should a person focus on one story at a time?
Yes.

>>22570571
Aight good advice once again. Thanks. Here's what i am planning to write from now on the next 3 or 4 chapters. https://pastebin.com/Vb5fTNPD
How is this for an action scene?

>>22567695
Why do the species all have one religion? I think it's infinitely more interesting if these people have different ethnicities with their own flavors of religions and even if those individual religions have conflicting sects
this shit always bugs me when I'm reading genre

>>22572519
You're not wrong but that requires effort and a competent author, the majority cba to spend the time and don't have to skill to do so. It's like sci-fi authors who send their character to the 'ice planet' or the 'jungle planet' as if real planets do not have variable climates and multiple differing terrains.

>>22572536
>It's like sci-fi authors who send their character to the 'ice planet' or the 'jungle planet' as if real planets do not have variable climates and multiple differing terrains.
Yeah that would be unrealistic as fuck

>>22572519
>>22572536
>>22572743
Tvtropes calls this "Planet of Hats" by the way

is /wg/ big on nanowrimo? it looks like its for kids; are you actually signed up, or just participating alongside?

>>22572769
it's for anybody anon, nothing wrong with going in if you want to

>>22572780
cool, i was going to give it a go either way

>>22572787
a lot of people limit themselves to what they think "society" thinks is alright (which is funny because most of the time it will be like one comment by some guy and others wouldn't care) but as long as you aren't entering into any scholarships for teenagers it should be fine.

>>22572743
Earth was a jungle planet until mankind started clear-cutting it & creating large deserts.

>>22572769
I have a fucking novel writing month every fucking month without any pleb circlejerk contests

>>22569923
Webnovel I'm posting on royal road.

>>22572865
>Mercury
The hot and cold one with nothing on it
>Venus
The really hot one that le spins backwards
>Earth
The one where all the plot happens
>Mars
The one with literally nothing going on
>Jupiter
The big one. All gas
>Saturn
The other one that's all gas, not quite so big and has a funny ring
>Uranus
The one that's all ice
>Neptune
The one that's all water/ice
>Pluto
The other ice one

Planet of Hats seems like a cliché but it's far more realistic than the alternative.

What's the best way to show subtle signs that two people love each other?

>>22569978
>nights in front of a white computer screen
Dark theme, bro. Save your eyes.

>>22573006
Have them predict each other's sentiments and needs. Informal language between the two of them, never any misunderstandings. Unspoken assumption of trust.

>>22570746

> you're showing off a bit too much with the word choices here and there imo
part of it is that, I think a lot of it's because I used a subtractive process to write paragraphs. Reciting it orally should fix a lot of the problems there, there are some overwrought metaphors that make the text a bit clumsy

>>22570858

Thanks for the effort, it's an honor to be worth any consideration. Funny enough, the series actually is about the main character's power fantasies. He isn't some seasoned secret agent with any type of prowess, but an entry-level cog in a machine he increasingly distrusts. Instead of being at the forefront of some moral movement or potent vengeance, he goes through a process of self-hatred and self-discovery. He ultimately decides to sublimate his selfish desire before pursing it, retreats into the world of his own delusion to obtain it, and assess if this journey reflects the reality of the wider world.

>>22570923

> But in fact the most complex book ever written was written by an english professor in some no name university who's book title I cannot remember because I stopped reading in the first sentence

Many, many such cases, probably. Many great writers suffer in silence

> I didn't grasp enough of a story by that page for it to hook me in its talons

I can see that. The book starts in media res, and the events of the first book mostly unfold in domino order. The first book is the background for the other two, an overview of the initial unrest in Iran and how the main character interacts with it to become "legend"; it builds the world in which they operate, so it introduces the world powers, political institutions, and military forces which make things happen. The second book will be much more personal, as half of it will be backstory of the main character and the other half what occurs after the first book

>>22573040

> Dark theme, bro. Save your eyes.
Gotta look into it

How likely is a scifi society that starts from just a few dozen astronauts who raise atleast another few dozen children to go back into the barbarism of man? They start from a modern, current european moral standard and conception of the world. Not necessarily human sacrifice, but that religious "insanity" that makes the world go forward. Do the astronauts conciously decide to raise the world on new principles, or are they maybe influenced by the sheer luck of finding a habitable, life-filled world that they can only really thank God for their luck? How much would some crazy ass psychadelics play into this? What real basis would they use? My idea was christian doctrine mixed with pagan principles of personifying nature and things, but in a way that doesn't take away the primacy of God. Maybe God is king, jesus his heir, and the other spirits his dukes, earls, and other lower titles.

>>22573219
also they only have a limited selection of books and 12 of them are the complete florentine codex with pictures. I want a really crazy nationalist ficiton that both makes complete sense but also makes no sense.

>>22573219
If you want your science to be realistic a few dozen is hugely under the standard estimate for a minimum viable population and would likely run into genetic inbreeding problems. But if you don't care about that and want to focus on the society instead then you do you.

>>22573231
Cloning machines with a way more varied gene pool. Scifi is just thinking of something enough so it can be plausible enough to make sense. I am shooting for hard scifi so i do look a lot more into it and there's no real reason to doubt it can be done. I avoid explaining scifi things because nobody cares how a phone works.

>>22573240
>Cloning machines
>varied gene pool
Do you not know what cloning means?

might start a serialised writing project. here is the potential start.


That wasn't supposed to be there.
Eric grabbed the red pack of chips. The bag was thin, crinkly, and made of foil. It felt half full. A smiling, cartoon cat held one potato slice high, wearing a big smile. The illustration of a chip was massive, foreshortened to be front and centre, and it sparkled with NOT SHOWN AT REAL SIZE seasoning that looked something like seaweed flakes.
That was reasonable, considering he was in a convenience store. That was perfectly reasonable considering he was in the back toward the sports drinks and the ATM, in the small section that housed all the chips and processed garbage foods. Not that the rest of the food in the convenience store wasn't also processed garbage food, this was just the worst of it. Everything about a red foil pack of potato chips being in that particular spot made sense, down to Eric himself in his embroidered baseball cap and employee vest, the one with the faded 3AM CENTRAL logo.
Everything about the situation was just the way it should be, except the text on the package was in a language Eric didn't recognise.
Eric was no sort of world traveller. He hadn't even left his small state. But he had passed world geography every year with at least a B and even finished year twelve with an A in all studies, pushing hard in the final sprint. The text was not a language he recognised, because it was not one that existed in any country on Earth.
Eric went toward the cash register, chip bag in hand. Someone was waiting to check out, one of the few post-midnight customers. Eric opened the bag and grabbed a chip. It was nothing like seaweed, but it was some sort of umami. He ate as he checked the customer out. The man wanted several muffins and a coffee. Eric scanned the items and then tapped the cash register screen several times with a potato-chip-greasy finger.
"Late night?" Eric asked, and the man with the muffins grunted, then grabbed his wares and departed, leaving only the woosh of the automatic doors. Eric polished off the bag, then wiped his hands on his employee vest.

Oh my god it's awful it's awful it's awfuuuuuuuuuuul

>>22573273
no and don't really care it just contains eggs and dna from like a million people which is more than enough to start a population. I just need a reason for the planet to have hundreds of millions of people within 200 years and that's good enough.

>1500 for dev edits
LOL is all art just made for nepotism?

>>22572506
At least comment what you guys think about the piece i wrote...a feedback would be cool(also literally the most shit anybody read that i wrote so far.)

>at 2.5 stars
>followers and favorites are still growing
Should I continue to update or am I at risk of becoming the Banana Cream Cake of Royal Road?

>>22573418
Keep going to whatever end

>>22573418
always finish what you started

>>22573418
wasn’t familiar with banana cream cake. neat.
rumors in the comments say the author has died. rip joe
anon, i hope to one day learn your name after you are dead and i am reading your low rated trash
we should all aspire to be a joe

>>22572506
Impossible to tell if this scene works outside of its context. Your English seems to be improving, though. See what happens when you put actual effort in?

>>22567167
>If you're writing bland trad fantasy, that never had a place on RR in the first place.
>Be me.
>40k words into a fantasy work I was planning to serialize.
T-There must be SOME succesful non-litRPG stuff on there, right? There has to be at least one, tell me there's at least one serial that doesn't use square brackets or whatever the fuck that Chinese shit does?

>>22573710
The only ones I can think of, and there aren't many, didn't start on RR. They built up an audience elsewhere first, typical on the authors own website.

>>22573091
>Many great writers suffer in silence
complex books are not great books, and their writers are not great either you missed my point in that your book sucks because you can't READ it

>>22573710
Why don't you go to the site and read the top stories? Maybe do some basic fucking research?

>>22570152
I hate it. This is what I would do:

>The veil was actually her own idea.

Replace idea with choice if you like. Both is unnecessary.

>At first, she wore black, but then she realised it was too depressing and decided to discard it after a day of careful consideration.

The mirror bit is obvious. No need for "at first" and "initially". Varying sentence length helps the longer ones not be as exhausting. At some point, the reader loses track of your point if you just write long sentence after long sentence.

>It made her look like a spectre and she wanted to put to rest the gossip she had overheard that she was mourning the loss of something or had decided to convert and become Muslim.

Again, trying to make it flow a little bit better. You could also get rid of the the final 'and' to make it "convert to Islam" instead. If you want to be verbose, "convert to a particularly stringent form of Islam".

>She began to get more eccentric in her choices, wearing much brighter and more vibrant colours, before eventually moving on to the logos of various companies who had specially designed custom veils for her at great expense.

Watch tenses and how the words sound together.

All together, it would look like this:

>The veil was actually her own idea. At first, she wore black, but then she realised it was too depressing and decided to discard it after a day of careful consideration. It made her look like a spectre, and she wanted to put to rest the gossip she had overheard that she was mourning the loss of something or had decided to convert and become Muslim. She began to get more eccentric in her choices, wearing much brighter and more vibrant colours, before eventually moving on to the logos of various companies who had specially designed custom veils for her at great expense.

>write a story for myself that I enjoy reading
>be really excited about it and tell friends and family
>am able to talk about it in a way that makes them curious and excited too
>story is arguably very edgy and probably won't fly with them
>don't even want to share it anonymously on 4chan
How do I write myself out of this loser hole?

comfy writing thread or hostile writing thread?

What happened to Jarod Michael Baldwin? Will he be making a return?

/wg/ is so depressing. We should bring back /crit/. It was comfy back in the day.

>>22564101
I'm finally finalizing the story I kept worldbuilding for decades since I was a wee lad and holy fuck, It's unbelievable how many twists and turns the story takes as you actually put it on paper. The super cool protag I imagined would defeat the big bad for so long instead dies of old age before he gets the time to shine, passing on the burden to his oracle. Such a bizarre thing that our mind is.

AI is pretty incredible

>>22574594
Be like me. Write something that you can't show anybody else at all until you finish the story and make it an essential subplot. After that change the subplot to something else. You will keep writing and the shame will make you stop when you want to show it to someone.

Fuck it >>22574594
I'll be a little less vague
It's a sci-fi adventure story which is probably at about a YA reading level in general. Silly cheesy fast paced adventure, but I've got some hard bloody monster/gore horror moments that probably push it out of YA territory into straight adult horror.
On top of the gore, there's some themes of mind control/hypnosis/memory manipulation/faulty perception of reality, which, I think, are the truly scary bits. I've managed to unnerve myself with that shit, so idk if readers will be able to stomach it.
Story tackles some edgy ideas like children being forced to undergo body modification surgeries by a cult: meant as direct commentary on modern social realities ... I suspect these scenes will offend someone. It's depicted as an evil thing perpetrated by antagonists; which could offend transgender political activist types, but then also merely depicting that kind of thing will probably be too much for very sensitive readers who are averse to imagining that kind of violence.
On the other end of the political (autism) spectrum I have a crossdresser and homosexuals as part of the cast of protagonists. So I've lost the right wing audience.
And I take some time to describe various women, their bodies, and their tits. So I've lost the prude audience.
I might have checked every box of what could possibly be considered politically or socially incorrect.

I think my biggest fear is actually that I've written "incel fiction". That someone might say that about the story. The main point of it is the protagonist being faced with challenges and appeals to his masculinity, sort of discovering himself, breaking out of the role people placed him into to be his own person: and the implication at the end of the story is that he (12yr old) meets and pursues a girl his age. Not in a pure romantic way, but in a pretty aggressive way.
The ending is actually a double entendre that also implies he might intend to kill this girl (for context: he's an assassin who's been ordered to kill her, and the ending leaves it open as to whether he follows his orders or intends to take her and run away from his handlers - actually it's sort of a harem ending where he has a love interest waiting for him either way, either this girl, or several other characters, depending on what he chooses).

I have some sense that 4channers might read all this and say "wow that story sounds based."
Maybe 4channers will read this and take exception to some of the ideas I've put on the table.
But at any rate I simply lack the confidence to show it to anyone.

I say it is "silly YA fiction" but I think there is a read of it where it's got some Clockwork Orange type social commentary undertones. It *is* a silly adventure story, but you're not necessarily supposed to think the characters are role models.
But even if my readers understood all that, I worry.
I sort of wish I could have written something normal.

>>22574594
>>22574787
Homo, my main character is literally a war criminal murderer.

>>22574787
You won't know how others will take it until you test the waters. Find some beta readers, share with a trusted friend or post excerpts anonymously online. Then again, if you wrote it for yourself feel free to keep it to yourself.

>>22574820
I think I do want to share it with people, ultimately, but it’s this catch 22 of like wanting people to enjoy the story, thinking about writing for others, even if it means editing things to make it “safer” vs. writing the stuff I really want to be writing, which seems dangerous.
I think I just feel out of touch.

>>22574787
i would read your story.

>>22574787
it’s probably tasteless for all the wrong reasons, but judging from what ive read from other anon (here and) on RR you are amongst peers
share
even if it’s unfairly shit on, it can be insightful

i think the last 3 RR series ive read from anons had rape in the first chapter

>>22569978
>>22573091
alright, anon. I finished the whole 111 pages. I really liked it. Chapters 3 and 4 were my favorites, but 1 and 2 were interesting and well written enough to keep me reading. I would absolutely read the rest of this book. I noticed a couple small mistakes that I couldn’t easily find scrolling back through it. I think there was a sentence that said someone was given enough cash to have two months worth of cash or something like that where you used a word twice incorrectly but that is a minor thing. I also for some reason really liked the sentence at the end of page 43 and onto page 44. my gay phone won’t let me copy and paste from your pdf so I screenshotted it. keep writing! and keep us updated.

Howdy. Do you guys think it's better to outline a long story (currently on page 2319) all the way before writing it, or kind of doing both at the same time? I've been doing the latter (sort of) and I've just realized that without a solid outline to follow, I kind of don't enjoy the process anymore. It's like I'm walking forward, but can't seem to figure out exactly where I'm going.

I'm gonna take some time and just outline as much as I can, just to see if I can answer the question for myself, but I'm curious about the thoughts of others.

>>22575344
I just outline shit in my head. I need to know what the fuck am I writing, but I don't write it down until I'm writing the first draft.

>>22574648
In your opinion what are the differences, and why was /crit/ better?

>>22575344

This is a good question, but a dangerous one.
You have to understand that every story requires an ending. This is not a mere game to you, is it?

Take this seriously and figure out what's going to happen. For the sake of your readers, and ME, who will surely try to read your work someday, ensure that your story has a point, a plot, a direction that it's heading.

>>22574658
Yeah, same for me. I don't have an example as specific as yours, but what I imagined I would have been able to fit into one book actually ended up requiring four, so now I'm (eventually) going to go back and see what changes I can make to maybe squeeze it into three?

>>22575356
Why do you call it a dangerous one? It's funny you say that because when I first began writing, I actually thought that having an outline was the dangerous move. I felt that it would have stifled my creativity, believe it or not. But now it seems more like a way to harness it, so I don't have this whacky mess all over the place.

And it does have all of those things. It's more that I figured the story would just go: 1-2-3-4-5. As I wrote and learned more about both the process and the story itself, I realized that it has to go: 1.1-1.2-1.3-etc. This is the reason I think I need to make the outline.

>>22575351
And do you outline the whole story before you begin writing at all, or just a few portions then proceed before stopping again to outline?

Sir, i'm not a english writer, i only write in portuguese. But i have experience enough to say that a story without outline is a life without a plan or a computer without a screen. You should be able to see through the story. Like if you were the god and already had a stablished path or way. Imagine a god without a plan?? Fucking caos!!!

>>22575373
I have rough idea how the story should go entirely in my head, and I outline inbetween scenes as I go.

Usually I have some very important key scenes thought out before I even start and think "oh yeah this would fit in great" as I think about it more later as I write.

What do you write on? Microsoft Word?

>>22575384
George RR Martin disagrees(and so does stephen king)

>>22575344
I like to write a story as it goes and when I'm a certain amount in I like to wrestle with it, fingers its couch, make it laugh a little, and then make it surrender to my writing prowess
spoken plainly: I write like 5k-10k and see were the story is going needs to go or what I see as interesting not interesting

>>22575425
George RoyalRoad Martin

The host of the server is Bozwell

to me, a writer is a wizard who summons fully formed human beings out of the abyss, and what those humans do is of little consequence except in how it informs their humanity
an outline is less successful in this task than a handful of test scenes just for the purpose of exploring the character

>>22575486
Some stories are plot-focused

>>22575420
Google docs
Libre office

I'm looking at schiverner though

>>22575498
and they are, necessarily, lame and gay as a result

>>22575477
Is it really? Why?

>>22575499
>schiverner
Never heard of it. Looks really cool. Too bad you have to pay for it.

you fuckers really dont know how to torrent software huh

>>22575477
Who? And what server? What are you even talking about?

>>22575521
I don't trust piratebay.

>>22575529
The /wg/ NaNoWriMo server.

>>22575516
It's only $60. But to be honest, libre office is enough for self publishing. You have the automatic hyphen, micro spacing and justify alignment

>>22575420

Does Microsoft Word have word completion or any other cool features that it didnt' have twenty years ago?

>>22575500
But not as phony as your characters

>>22575477
He keeps saying there is some major prize wtf. I’m going to consult Reddit and ask them to find out what it is.

>>22571620
>Andy
>>22571630
kek is all this hate just because of his shitty epic science book?

>>22575801
Call it shitty all you want, but it made him a multi-millionaire and let him quit his day job.

>>22575804
So you just mentioned him because he's not a "writer" but a regular working guy that wrote a bestseller out of nowhere?

if you want to quit your dayjob just write a litrpg morons its not that hard

this guy became a millionaire with his writing and you didn't

>>22575896
sounds like someone needs to get rid of all these gods and universes to put a stop to the circle of nonsense

>>22575539
It’s gotten terrifying. Is November going to turn into Saw or Squid Games?

Spill the beans OP. What’s the prize?

>>22575922
>>22575924
Horseshit nothingburger. The server jannie is a woman if you look at the wording. Her prize is probably going to be a gay facebook post.