/lit/ - Literature

>>6480459
I feel like I'm procrastinating my life away,
Sometimes I write so much I can't stop but then the majority of the time I can't write a single word and spend the entire day doing nothing,
Is there anyone else like that?

>>6480459
not time, but i try to write 500 words every day, and if i miss a day i make up the difference the next day

>>6480459
like 15 min max. I have found my flow, so I don't have to revisit every sentence and I only write half a page a day.

>>6480459
I feel bad when I'm writing because it distracts me from drawing.

>>6480459
Depends on the day. Sometimes several hours, sometimes less than a minute.

30 minutes to an hour. Without writing I wouldn't have a life. It's the only thing that calms the hate.

>homeschooled by mother, always emailed her my work
>never got formal penmanship education
>natural handwriting looks like garbled shorthand
I type at 130 WPM though. Wait for the tech revolution, let's see who's laughing then.
Usually get about a half-page of choppy poems and freewriting done every day.

I spend at least an hour. I like having an extremely well written book nearby as reference (currently "The Recognitions" and "Moby Dick") to compare my writing against, so I can tell myself "yeah you're still far from being good, but you'll get there. Keep fucking writing you smug shit"

>>6480459
Twenty minutes a week.

>>6480459
Since I write poetry, the actual writing part doesn't really consume a lot of time, but coming up with an interesting idea can take weeks

>>6480459
I feel bad when i'm writing because it means i'm not reading...

Nothing, I can never seem to start.

>>6480986
Interstesting, it's the other way around of me

>>6480788

I tend to write 2,000+ words like Stephen King, but I've never counted the time spent. I think I'd go insane adding up how much of my life I've written away.

>>6480812
Keep fucking writing you smug shit.

>>6481035
Do you want to write?

>>6482838
yee

I usually produce about 1500 words a day. Usually takes me a half hour to an hour. I really don't like to write more than that, writing when you're getting wore out always produces trash, and you don't even realize you're writing it until you read the shit later.

I say, in general, you should write every day. But if you're not feeling it, then don't write.

less than an hour, about 500 words.

>tfw your writing is open in another tab and you're procrastinating by going on /lit/

>>6480481

I wrote 500 words in three days

basically
Fuck off, you're writing trash!

I'm inconsistent as fuck. Sometimes three hours, sometimes five minutes; today I did close to an hour. Sometimes I focus on scene, sometimes word count. When I feel like I can't make something I just go back and revise what I have.
But it's mostly just hours procrastination and getting made at myself for not taking opportunity of the time I have.

>>6483218

>tfw low wc

>>6480459
I feel bad because between projects (a short story, re-writting a large chunk of my novel, whatever) I take a week long break and just chill out, recharge so to speak, do a heap of reading, work on my comics.
My biggest writting sin in that I handwrite everything and hate typing. The words flow better with pens and paper is all. I'm up to my third hand-written draft of my novel, it gets better every time, but damn I wanna hold a manuscript in my hands.Anyone here have this problem?

sometimes i'm writing though i won't just do it for no reason

When I can, I try and write something every day. I enjoy writing poetry (but I wouldn't call myself a poet until I have a pamphlet published at the very least) so even if it's simply a couple of lines or a long free verse piece, but because I'm at university my time is taken up by exams mostly at the moment.

I'm also trying to get into short story writing, but the story I'm working on hasn't had anything written on it for about two months now.

>>6480478
Everyone. Keep trying, building habits take time (months in my case, and I have only managed to reach 2000 words/week).
Keep track of every time you manage to write something (even if it is one sentence). This way you'll be able to see if you're doing better or not.
It is also important to not guilt yourself too much... If not, writing become an anxiety-ridden activity, and it hinders your progress. Remember you're doing this for yourself. Nobody is awaiting your writing. Take your time because it is all yours.

>>6483687
It's not really a problem...

Do any of you have a particular method?

I write whenever I feel like it, which is pretty often thankfully.

>no qualifications
>bad at getting close to people, its usually only a few months in any new environment before my facade wears thin and people start to make fun of our outright dislike me
>bad at holding down jobs as a result
>the only way I can escape the life of wage slavery is by becoming a writer
>been a neet on welfare for the past 3 months
>used to try and write 700+ words a day, then 500, now im lucky if I can get 200
>motivation is slowly draining away even though I'll be forced to go back into work sooner or later
>I've only got 30k words down, im planning on my book being ~100k, and it's going to need a shitload of editing

I have nothing to do all day, and I still never spend more than one hour writing. I wish I could be more motivated, but honestly, the fact that I've even come so far is a miracle by itself.

>>6481691
I think my biggest concern is that when i'm writing, i'm writing for other people not my self - in other words I already know the ideas and so on that i'm going to write about, because I have thought them through in order to write about them. On the other hand when i'm reading, even if the ideas themselves i'm well aquainted with, they come from a source outside myself and as such are inherently "new". It's good more people think like you than me though, or I would have nothing to read to begin with.

I have a procrastination problem.
>wake up at 6:00
>browse 4chan
>it's 23:31 now

Help.

Oh God...
Help.

>tfw spent half my life at university, studying all kinds of subjects, completed some, failed some, switched some
>keeping myself financially afloat at "data scientist", part-time at the local state funded research institute
>I look like wizard with bad beard growth potential and not enough money to replace worn clothes
>tfw stuck in procrastination beyond the levels of a hikki

I need to wake up.

Quality over quantity though... am I right guys?

All I know is right now, my passion for writing became more like an obligation. Counting the words I write only seems like counting calories on food. Though I hate my habit of being too particular on vocab just to sound intelligible.

>>6484164
If writing is all that keeps you going, be it the 200 words you a day or the 700 on a good day, you should definitely stick to it. It's better than if you don't at all. I'm in a similar way to you but I just keep writing, for both my sanity and just a stable motive of lifestyle.

>Oh man I'm so productive I better stop

>>6484164

HOW DO YOU WRITE THAT MANY WORDS ON ANYTHING

I wrote 4k words today, and I'm not fucking done.

>>6486488

I wrote 200 this week
What the hell do you people write about?

I finish the stories I want to tell completely, satisfiable in 400 word chapters which isn't even a short story

>>6480459

it depends. Sometimes if an idea strikes me I'll write a short story; or if a nice poem idea comes to me, and im feeling particularly eloquent, I'll write poetry. Mainly I write essays, but regardless of what I write I try not to write for writing's sake. Sure, some find that it helps them improve, but I feel as though anything I create at this point should be worthy of being showed to someone. I try not to write on something I don't consider genuinely interesting or of some value, minute as it may be.

>>6486444

Most writers who make a living from it write far more and spend hours doing it, you know.

>>6484164
The premise was too long-term.

700 words a day require 143 days to finish, no editing.
Now with 200 words a day it'll become a work that'll kill you.

>>6486590

That's not the point

>>6486565

why not publish a book of all your essays and poems?

>>6480459

I wrote two sentences yesterday.

So on average, about 2-5 minutes, I suppose

I write usually when I confront forms and ideas I disagree with. It's intellectual exercise, and helps me form my own opinions from getting feedback that may or may not have merit.

Then again, I'm not the fiction type.

This is my routine:
I practice a language for 45 minutes.
I read for 3 hours.
I write for an hour and a half.
I do this everyday.

>>6486609

most of my essays have been for school, and a lot of them are published in the university paper. my poetry is online but i havent been able to write anything decent in years, and now in hindsight my earlier work was far too adolescent. my essays are definitely my specialty; im really looking forward to writing my thesis (which i will publish)

>>6480812
I'm sorry but you won't "get there", never, at least not if your goal is The Recognitions or Moby Dick.

My writing habit:

>have an idea
>idea bounces around in my head hitting other ideas. concepts are mingled, characters transferred, themes absorbed
>eventually some days, weeks, months, or even years later I suddenly feel inspired.
>write up to sixteen hours a day in a frenzy which excludes everything else
>finish a few days later
>spend a month refining the finished product
>submit it somewhere or put it on Amazon

It works, but its shit. I've got a lit magazine emailing me asking for a submission for their end of year issue, because my last two got pretty good feedback. They're even offering me a three-digit flat fee PLUS the usual 12c per word, but I'm dry. They think I'm being precious and holding out for more money, but until that moment of inspiration comes, I just cannot write.

>>6484164
>its usually only a few months in any new environment before my facade wears thin and people start to make fun of our outright dislike me
Feels, bro. I know them.

>>6486008
Try eating a combination of espresso grounds and fresh jalapeño peppers, running barefoot through the wilderness, then sitting down to work.

>>6487648
Try >>6488350

~30k/month

I make the majority of my income writing in a fetish niche. Oftentimes end up getting busy with classwork until the last week and go nuts with like 4k/day to get it all done

>>6482838
Of course, I have lots of ideas but I can just never get the motivation to start. I just don't really know how to start I guess.

>>6480459
i write about 10 words a day in flat sentences
i read 50 pages a day

>>6487597

thanks for telling me mr. "I won't get there either"

>>6488395

> make the majority of my income writing in a fetish niche

Interested in this. How much do you make monthly off of it?

You said you write 30k a month, so I assume you're pumping out a couple 5k - 10k stories a month?

Do you write anything else?

>>6488857

I make about 1500 a month. Nothing glorious by any stretch, but it beats wage slaving at retial and covers my bills (I'm pursuing a degree)

I would like to eventually branch out into something that I can put my name on instead of my penname.

>>6489225
Do you use your real name? What if your mom finds out?

>>6489238

Like I said - I would like to branch out into something I can put my real name onto instead of using my pen name.

Meaning, all of my work is attributed to my pen name.

Honestly, I don't consider myself a very good writer by any stretch. I only started writing for the first time ever a couple years ago, and this year started going through random lit classics to try to become better read in general.

>>6489253
So you write erotica? 1500/month seems pretty great considering you're doing it part-time and doing what a lot of people do for free?

Most "actual" writers can't support themselves at all, either.

>>6489283

Yeah, the amount earned per hour worked ends up being pretty good. There's a cap to how much I can make though, and I think I'm at it.

I don't really want to disclose the specific niche because it's not particularly big and I could probably get found pretty quickly (not that it matters really)

For the most part I don't really explicitly write sex beyond when it crops up in the story itself, but yeah, I imagine the majority of readers are fapping.

About fifteen minutes, but that's due to depression. Nothing inspires me, and I hate forcing myself to write because it becomes painfully contrived.

>>6489295
But what does it matter if you're using a pen name? Share it. I want to fap too.

>>6480459

i write three hours a day, an hour at a time - an hour before work, an hour after, then an hour at night. it's a weird habit i've developed recently and probably won't continue that much longer. i'll probably just do longer blocks of time in the future.

i don't feel like i'm writing my life away because i've known, since getting out of high school, that my life would pretty much consist of throwing myself into producing something art related - be that music, visual art, or writing. so writing just happens to be that medium. in other words, i don't know how to live life but i know how to make things. i know how to write. if it was the other way around, i would do more of the life thing.

>>6489295
Where do you sell your stuff?
Amazon?

How did you get started?

>>6487597

I already did get there. Check out my opening sentence, you massive faggot:

Even I (you can call me ishmael), had enjoyed the watery part of the world, especially those areas where the ship can sink at that critical moment when the captain loses his sense of reality. But the foreign waters, bounded by whaling encyclopedias and preachers and retarded by the 14 tons of the whale's fury had rustled the shy countenance of the whale's penis, had it been discernible.

>>6489311

I'll just say that, if the metrics I have are to believed, if you're into this fetish, you've likely read one of my stories

>>6489311
This.

Also how to make sure your real name doesn't leak?

>>6489328

Multiple sources: patreon, commissions, smashwords

I got started by reading a lot of stories in the genre, then one day wanted to write my own. Audience kind of naturally appeared and grew over ~2 years

>>6489332
Impressive word-sorcery.

>>6489338

It's basically an online username far removed from my other online usernames, so there isn't much to go off of.

>>6489349
I don't read fetish stories but I would like to read yours for research purposes

>>6489295
I don't want to force you to disclose anything, but being a student myself and interested in writing and in BDSM, you lead a dream life for me.

It would be cool to know things like how you got started, what market there is, whether the people want smut or something vaguely intellectual/theoretical, etc.

I read anti gun porn. Because gunes is badd

>>6489362

they want smut dude, don't kid yourself

>>6489348

merci

>>6489362

My niche/market isn't nearly as big as BDSM. There's pros and cons. Being in a smaller market like mine, there's less competition and you can be more impressive even if your writing isn't that great. On the other hand, you're limited in terms of how much money you can make. BDSM and shit like that can rake it in (look at 50 shades)

I have written a couple pieces that could kind of pass as sci-fi (one in particular had no sex at all), though the actual prose itself is very amateur.

>>6489389
Now I'm imagining you writing about spaceships licking a planet's prostate but I still think you have a pretty cool life, thanks for the answers.

>>6489349
Well I mean when people transfer money to buy your work, or fund you via patreon or whatever, it'll be linked with your bank account, or not?

>>6489405

No problem anon. Just get out there and write something, doesn't matter if it sucks honestly. Getting that initial feedback can help push you to keep making more stuff and improving your craft.

As much as it might pain you to do so, consider using a site like deviantart in addition to other sites to post your stuff - DA gives you decent metrics on how many readers you have.

>>6489414

Sure, the people at patreon and other faceless companies know who I am (and I doubt a single living person there specifically cares), but my identity isn't revealed to the readers.