/lit/ - Literature

>>>/r9k/

>>7258367
I thought I was the only one.

Do not wait for anything, not even for yourself to change. Specially do not wait for yourself.

25 yo here

>>7258367
>age 25
>no novel written
>4 years goes by like absolutely nothing
You're going to look at the stuff you wrote at 21 and wonder what happened ;-;

>age 23
>published both Tundra books

heh, nothin personal

oh fuck, you're literally me

listen bro we'll make it, all we gotta do is finish writing and editing that book within 2 years

then spend the next year or 2 trying to get published

we still got time, at least you're not 24

>>7258367
>be 24
>writing constantly with path in mind
>will worry at 30 if nothings changed

OP here, i'm glad/not-glad to see that i'm not alone with this

which age is the limit age? that age when you must starting to think that your name is not going to be remembered

>>7258481
Cormac McCarthy is famous for books he's written and published during his retirement. Haruki Murakami started to write at age 29.

>>7258495
Lol, "Cormac McCarthy". I meant "Colum McCann".

>>7258367
likewise
I did write a book though. It's the published part that's tricky

fuck off dickhead grow a pair no one wants to hear the bullshit ramblings of a 21 year old

>>7258697
You are incorrect sir. People aged 17 - 20 will find his insights pithy and timely. Alas, those people do not buy books anymore.

>>7258367
Chill, OP. A lot of people don't publish or start writing until their 30s and up. Not to mention a lot of you write in 20s (unless you a rare prodigy) will be pretty crappy anyway.

Just keep writing. Try not to focus too much on being left behind. The fact that you even want to write and publish something at 21 is more than most. Also read Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird"...best book about overcoming your fear about writing.

>>7258507
Why is publishing tricky? Can you elaborate on your experience for those of us who will be doing this in the future?

I am 22.
I become 23 next March.
Should I be anxious or worry or anything?

>>7258718
it's not necessarily difficult, not the part that involves actually querying or finding people at least.
just time consuming. you wait for someone to get back to you on it then hope they like it and even if they do your book may not be what they're looking for.
you just have to find those people that will give you a shot while also having a book they think is marketable.

Why do years keep going by when I am always here, doing nothing?
Shouldn't they take some break to be fair?

>>7258733
>it's not necessarily difficult, not the part that involves actually querying or finding people at least.

I completely disagree, though it depends on what kind of book you wrote. I can't write anything "normal" so even finding anyone who'll actually give my books a chance is a challenge in and of itself.

>>7258367
>be me, in university, engineering master race.
>spend free time write fagging on /mlp/
>see this
>feel a little plebish.
>remember who gives a fuck writing is fun faggot.

The sooner you abandon your quest for glory (which, if you're slightly introspective you can see is nothing but sheer egoism), the sooner you can get to work.

Better to be good than great.

>>7258367
keep in mind that you could die tomorrow

>>7258367
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ray_Pollock

This story may be comforting to you, as would Bukowski

>>7259087
>>7258367
As a follow up to OP
A man is not born great he becomes great.
You either get busy living or get busy dying.
Get over yourself and write for fun with no intention of publication.
in the immortal words of mlg's everywhere.
GET GUD FAGGOT.

>>7259107
tl;dr

>truck driver and factory worker, uneducated till 50
>takes English coursework
>publishes amazing bizarre redneck gothic noire

>>7259115
>redneck Gothic noire
HOORRY SHIEEET

>>7259123
Devil all the Time
http://bookzz.org/book/1225342/cf6b17

>>7259123
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/books/review/the-devil-all-the-time-by-donald-ray-pollock-book-review.html

>>7258367
>18 years old
>wrote 3 short novels
>never showed them to anyone

>>7259188
trust me, keep it this way

>>7259188
>never showed them to anyone
publish them anonymously on a super critical site. That way you know if their shit or not. I bet they are shit if you haven't been given any criticism ever.

>DFW was 24 when Broom of the System was published
>Zadie Smith was 25 when White Teeth was published
>Marek Hlasko was 23 when Eighth Day of the Week was published
>F.S. Fitzgerald was 23 when This Side of Paradise was published
>Carson McCullers was 23 when The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was published
>Tao Lin was 24 when EEEEE EEE EEEE & Bed were published
>Italo Calvino was 23 when The Path to the Nest of the Spiders was published
>Kerouac was 20 when The Sea is My Brother was published
>Goethe was 25 when The Sorrows of Young Werther was published
>Musil was 25 when The Confusions of Young Torless was published
>Hemingway was 25 when In Our Time was published
>Tatsuhiko Takimoto was 24 when Welcome to the NHK was published
>Ryu Murakami was 24 when Almost Transparent Blue was published
>Garcia Marquez was 20 when Eyes of a Blue Dog was published
>Nietzsche was 18 when "Napoleon III as a President" was published
>Nietzsche was 18 when "Fate and History" was published
>Nietzsche was 18 when Free Will and Fate was published
>Nietzsche was 19 when "Can the Envious Ever Truly Be Happy?" was published
>Nietzsche was 20 when "On Tendencies" was published
>Nietzsche was 20 when "My Life" was published
>Saramago was 25 years old when Land of Sun was published
>Dickens was 24 when Sketches by Boz was published
>Dickens was 25 when The Pickwick Papers was published
>Huxley was 25 when Limbo was published
>James Joyce was 25 when Chamber Music was published
>Proust was 25 when Pleasures and Days was published
>Mishima was 23 when Confessions of a Mask was published
>Bret Easton Ellis was 21 when Less Than Zero was published
>Bret Easton Ellis was 23 when Rules of Attraction was published
>Kenzaburō Ōe was 23 when Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids was published
>Emile Zola was 24 when Contes à Ninon was published
>Balzac was 20 when Cromwell was published
>Baudelaire was 24 when Salon of 1845 was published
>Hitomi Kanehara was 20 when Snakes and Earrings was published
>Stig Dagerman was 23 when Ormen was published
>Strindberg was 22 when The Outlaw was published
>Ibsen was 22 when Catiline was published
>Milan Kundera was 24 when Man: A Wide Garden was published
>Adam Thirwell was 24 when Politics was published
>Ned Beaumann was 25 when Boxer, Beetle was published
>Norman Mailer was 25 when The Naked and the Dead was published
>Eleanor Catton was 22 when The Rehearsal was published
>Robert Walser was 23 when Schneewittchen was published
>Noah Cicero was 23 when The Human War was published
>Jorge Luis Borges was 24 when Fervor de Buenos Aires was published
>Tolstoy was 24 when Childhood was published
>Johan Harstad was 23 when Amublance was published
>Mira Gonzalez was 21 when i will never be beautiful enough for us to be beautiful together was published
>Mira Gonzalez was 23 when Collected Tweets was published
>Kim Insuk was 20 when Bloodline was published
>Evelyn Waugh was 25 when Decline and Fall was published
>Ben Brooks was 18 when Grow Up was published

>>7259284
All shit, not even kidding.

I still love you, even if you aren't a published authour.

>>7259284
These aren't even in their top 5 works.

>>7259115

is his book actually good?

>>7259343
That's not the point. Very few writers publish their greatest stuff early, the point is that they are published in the first place.

>>7259357
>>7259343

do any of you guys actually think you'll become great writers? please stop dreaming.

>>7259358
If nobody dreamed of becoming great writers, there would no longer be any great writers.

>>7259087
>>be me, in university, engineering master race.
>>spend free time write fagging on /mlp/
>>see this
>>feel a little plebish.
>>remember who gives a fuck writing is fun faggot.
>>master race
> spend time on /mlp/

Literally kill yourself, ponyfag.

>>7258765
This. I've written 3 novels and even though I really like how they came out, I knew even before trying to get published that it wasn't going to happen.

Some themes are just taboo.

>>7258367
you'll get over that when you're older and not a bitch anymore.

if you want to write bad enough you'll write. if not you won't. you don't wait for the right time. you have to cultivate a good creative work ethic otherwise you sit around and make shitty ass threads, bitch.

>>7258367
See you again when you're 27 and again when you're 30 and 40 and 50

>26 years old
>one novel written
>nobody wants to publish it
>a short story will be published in november
>in the middle of the second novel, having a writer's block
There is hope. Somewhere.

Funny, I was on /lit/ a lot for a few months this year, all that happened was I got way too anxious about not writing enough and became madly self-conscious about being NEET (and 26, and so on). Haven't been here in months and everything's fine, writing a lot (and better) - pretty much nothing has changed except I don't waste a bunch of time beating myself up because I haven't read Ulysses. This place can be pretty toxic lads, keep a level head.

>>7259742
Solid advice but you should also probably get a job

I had this fear when I was 22, then I realized I had written two novels and made like 10 games by 18. But I've actually lived a life now (at 25) I have something personal to write about.

>>7259841
>I've actually lived a life

*tips it*

>>7259087
God I hate you guys. I wish I could be an Engineer, a programmer, anything. An English degree isn't worth the fucking paper its written on.

>>7258719
I hope not because by the sound of things you're literally me

I just turned 24 and I only have a bunch of half finished rough drafts

>>7259109
If I could write fiction the way MLG edits video I could have a chance at true happiness.

>>7260698
But I am literally you. I made both those posts

>>7258367
Your fear is rooted in a meme and memes, my friend, are a spook.

>wrote a novel when 21
>sat on my hard drive for five years
>read through it recently
how could I ever have thought I might one day be a writer?

>>7259284
kerouac's sea is my brother was published in 2011, not when he was 20

kerouac's first novel was published when he was 28

>>7259284
joyce's chamber music is a slim collection of poems

dubliners wasn't published until he was 32

>>7260996
>>7261002
Just goes to show how retarded the memer who keeps posting that over and over is.

>>7259284
don delillo's first novel was published when was 35

cormac mccarthy's first novel: age 32

Don't worry you will never make a dent in my beloved cannon chan.

You have been visited by Cannon Senpai. Good luck and literary prowess will be given to you if you reply "Praise be to thy cannon. And "Thank you Cannon Senpai".

>>7259730
>tfw dont even know where to begin getting people to publish my stuff
who did you send your stuff to, and how?

>>7259599
Nah fam, your shit just bad.

>>7261002
Joyce was already getting recognition from W.B. Yeats -- an already well-established poet -- when he was 18.

>>7261026
>"Praise be to thy cannon. And "Thank you Cannon Senpai".

You should spend your youth studying. Not publishing.

First you inhale, then you exhale.

Go experience life, read the classics, get into the public mind, practice your craft and only then, start on your masterpiece.

>26 years old
>pathetic failure in every way

dang

>>7261035
Agents, indie publishers, journals/magazines/blogs (if you're trying to get individual short stories, poems, or essays published).

There are various databases that keep track of each of them.

>>7261345
Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?
I honestly feel so overwhelmed by all this. I have no idea where it would be good to get my poetry published, or what magazines or publishers are considered 'acceptable'.
I don't even know how getting some poems publised would help my career.

>>7261373
>implying he's gonna help who he sees as "competition"

>>7259284
Dante's first book, Vita Nouva, was published when he was 28.

>>7258367
Why? It's not like being a writer is at all realistically lucrative.

The only reason guys like King make shit tons of money is because they pump out the most common denominator pleasing fucking garbage at a monthly basis.

Most writers I've talked to say that it's a shit way of making a living.

Don't tell me it's not about money, because that'd be a fucking lie.

>>7261002
>i-it was just poetry, d-doesn't count!

Nice try loser. Joyce MADE IT and that's all that counts. 25 is the cut-off point for success.

>>7259284
I refuse to believe Mira Gonzalez is older than me.

>>7262461
the cut-off is really like 35. it's rare for a great writer to have published his first book after that age. but tons of greats were first published between 26 and 35.

what's a good site to publish your stuff and get valid criticism and not get plagiarized ?

>>7260805
No, I did

>>7262511
I'm 21 and spent three years (15-18) proverbially smashing my own face into notebooks, squeezing stories out of myself because goddammit I would be a published and acknowledged writer by 20 or id burn my brain out in the process.

I burned my brain out. I have hardly written in two years. And now that I've taken the hiatus I feel like I can really write something worth reading now.

Point is, don't rush. Your inspiration will come and it will be awesome. I feel mine right around the corner.

>>7263525
This. Back when I was 18 and getting a story done every week I realized they had nothing to them (plus I was 18 so they were shit). My best work has come from taking my time.

>>7258367
Follow Woolf's advice: practice experiment like craycray in your 20s, and don't publish anything before you're 30.

>>7260708
You're me. If you're busy working 12 hours a day on maths with barely the time to sleep anyway.

>>7259283
or publish them on fictionpress just for the thrill of seeing other people review your work from a somewhat autistic point of view without going full "ima lit critic" autism

>>7258367
>17
>Writting one full saga
>Afraid to show it to anyone

>>7263755
>>Afraid to show it to anyone
Good. Don't.

Laughing at all this premature anxiety. Most of us are in our 20s, if you don't write at 21 you'll write at 25 or 29, or maybe in your 30s, or maybe later. The age at which famous authors started writing/publishing is spread out across the entire human lifespan, you have nothing to be anxious about.

>>7259284
look up herman broch dumb nig

>>7258367
pynchon published his first novel when he was 27

and he has had over a fifty years long career so far

>>7259284
zadie smith is shit. broom of the system is fun and ambitious but ultimately shit in the grand scheme of things.
Kerouac is shit
Neitzsche was an other-human genius prodigy
Huxley is SHIT
Less than zero was clearly written by a teenager, even though I like it
Kundera was a genius
>mira fucking gonzales

the list goes on, dude, nice copypasta though

Also 25 years old is a fair age to be published by, most people realize they want to write by 19/20 and have 5 years to eek out their first collection of thought farts.
There seems to a sadistic pleasure people here take in revelling in mindless shit like this

>>7259358
don't listen to this insecure, sad shell of a human, keep dreaming big bros

Kafka wasn't published until he was 29

>>7264025
This was strangely comforting.

>>7258378
>21 years old

You don't have anything worth writing about...

>>7258495
I'd rather be a wage slave than a hack like McCarthy.

>>7264399
>zadie smith is shit

Oh god he read for plot.

>>7264666
Oh god he memes.

>>7264666
>le republican vs le silly democrat family war
>le marriage disapproval
she got published for being attactive

OP, don't compare yourself to other people. Just write and get critiqued and rewrite your fucking brains out. This is time you could spend writing.

>18
>not aspiring to be a writer
>made 4 albums and 2 EPs
>written a bunch of crappy text posts on tumblr
uh, i don't know why i'm posting this but hey i'm wasting my life too how are y'all?

>>7261776
>Don't tell me it's not about money, because that'd be a fucking lie.
And yet people bust a nut trying to do it when they know that even if they're relatively very successful they won't make any money, you fucking retard.

>>7258367
There's always time, i'm 25, just graduating in Sound Engineering, working on my final paper and planning on taking a masters degree and maybe a doctorate later, so i'll probably write a lot, but i've being planning on writing a horror book, just to see if i can translate any of the stuff that scares me into someone else's fear.

>>7264855
She got published because she has some of the most intoxicating modern prose.

>He lay in a prostrate cross, jew slack, arms splayed on either side like some fallen angel; scrunched up in each fist he held his army service medals (left) and his marriage license (right), for he had decided to take his mistakes with him.

>"That's what divorce is: taking things you no longer want from people you no longer love."

>But Archie did not pluck Clara Bowden from a vacuum. And it's about time people told the truth about beautiful women. They do not shimmer down staircases. They do not descend, as once supposed, from on high, attached to nothing other than wings."

>She discovered dope, forgot the staircase, and started taking the elevator.

>"He works," replied Alsana tersely. "And prays," she added, for the likes to show people her respectability, and besides she was really very traditional, very religious, lacking nothing except the faith."

>"Our children will be born of our actions. Our accidents will become their destinies. Oh, the actions will remain. It is a simple matter of what you will do when the chips are down, my friend. When the fat lady is singing. When the walls are falling in, and the sky is dark, and the ground is rumbling. In that moment our actions will define us. And it makes no difference whether you are being watched by Allah, Jesus, Buddha or whether you are not. On cold days a man can see his breath, on a hot day he can't. On both occasions, the man breathes."

>Around the beginning of this century, the Queen of Thailand was aboard a boat floating along with her many courtiers, manservants, maids, feet-bathers, and food-tasters, when suddenly the stern hit a wave and the queen was thrown overboard into the turquoise waters of the Nippon-Kai, where, despite her please for help, she drowned, for not one person on that boat went to her aid. Mysterious to the outside world, to the Thai the explanation was immediately clear: tradition demanded, as it does to this day, that no man or woman may touch the queen.

>If religion is the opiate of the people, tradition is an even more sinister analgesic, simply because it rarely appears sinister. If religion is a tight band, a throbbing vein, and a needle, tradition is a far homelier concoction: poppy seeds ground into tea; a sweet cocoa drink laced with cocaine; the kind of thing your grandmother might have made."

>>7259430
Haha. No that's bullshit. It's the "dream" that gets in the way of actually just writing. The problem with all this "follow your dreams" rhetoric is that it encourages you to ignore what you're capable of right now. It's too end-goal oriented

>>7264650
Pls explain how Cormac McCarthy is a hack, unless you just get your opinions from le ebin /mu/ official hack tier lists