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/lit/ - Literature

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1094468 No.1094468 [Reply] [Original]

WRITERFAGS, GET IN HERE.

I am so happy right now. The last time I wrote anything seriously was NaNo last year; since then, I've just been pretty much doodling with words, fucking around and not really writing on anything but just writing.

Well, today I get home from work and out of nowhere my Big Idea hits me. I wrote ~1000 words just now in like twenty minutes. I think I have something I want to finish.

discuss
What was it like when you got your big idea?
Did you finish? What happened to it?
and stuff like that.

tl;dr writerfag thread

picture unrelated

>> No.1094471

supply w/ dick

>> No.1094476

>>1094471
You would like me to supply dick? I don't understand. :(

>> No.1094481

>>1094476
no i supply the dick if you aint got it

>> No.1094484

>>1094481
I've got two, motherfucker.

>> No.1094485

good job OP, hope I'll know how it feels when I write my big thing

>> No.1094508

OP here. The following isn't a snippet from my Big Idea because that's not the kind of thing I feel like flashing around while I'm still developing it, but here is a sample of my style, something I just wrote:

When her parents, the King and Queen, had left the palace to prepare an upcoming feast and her brother, the Crown Prince Naaman Kruxx, had left to hunt the featured dishes of said feast, Princess Ynja was left in her castle home all alone.

As royalty, the Kruxx family were often quite busy with the exception of Ynja, who was twelve years old and far too young to be busy, although her time would someday surely come; until then, however, she occupied herself with the appropriate pursuits for a girl her age, who was alone, as I said, and fast approaching puberty.

>> No.1094510

>>1094508
This is some brother/sister fantasy smut I've been writing. I've showed snippets on here before and got generally good reactions. Just excuse my tendency to make a sentence last forever.

Also, pronounce Ynja like "Yin-yah."

>> No.1094515

>>1094508

Sounds like your typical run of the mill fantasy to me, but there isn't enough for me to properly judge.

>> No.1094520

>>1094515
I actually have a semi-detailed world built around some of the characters in this story, but it's also pretty typical in other ways. I'm not trying to be original though, I just enjoy writing fantasy smut. I'll get to the good part in a minute.

>> No.1094526

>>1094520

Fair enough. It's all good practice.

>> No.1094530

>>1094526
So why don't you talk about your masterpiece~~*~*~*~*~*~*

>> No.1094542

>>1094530

Mainly because I don't really have one. Just a random collection of stories I abandoned half way through for other ideas. I really suck at sticking to one concept.

Hopefully uni will fix that though.

>> No.1094547

IDK about that, until today I've barely been able to write anything except homework, and it just fucks with your brain so much you're tired and don't feel like writing anymore. At least that's how it goes with me. I'd also like to add that English 1010 and 1020 have done shit for my writing skills, it's all me. Jus sayin. :P

>> No.1094549

I've penned 20,000 words for my novel in the last week OP.

Like you, feels good man. Don't listen to the haters, keep at it.

>> No.1094552

>>1094549
If you were NaNo-ing, you'd be about 5k from being on-track -- that's a lot of words. Tell me bout it.

>> No.1094567

stop hogging your idea my nig
ideas are worthless
big idea or GTFO

>> No.1094572

>>1094567
Just because I know you're right, I'll give it to you as I have it: A guy (tentatively named Chris Something) gets hardcore dumped by his girlfriend (Zoe Something) -- fairly typical beginning, granted, but there's more to it than that and I'm working on the break-up scene to make it creative and harsh so that the reader feels it too. He decides to kill himself; he goes out and buys a gun, gets it home, and realizes the power he holds, basically, and decides to kill other people. The book will be him carrying a gun around and deciding who to kill as he goes about his business. I haven't decided much more beyond that, and I don't know how it will end just yet, but I fell in love with the idea, if I can do it right.

>> No.1094575

>>1094572

don't name a character zoe, that name is played the fuck out

>> No.1094584

Oh shit son, I forgot about NaNo. I need to spend the next two months mentally preparing myself to not puss out this time.

>What was it like when you got your big idea?
I get tons of big ideas, the biggest two being a heavily RPG inspired two part novel, a design document for a game based a thousand years earlier in the same setting, and a Silent Hill/Jacob's Ladder/Session 9/Asian Horror inspired horror novel that's probably better off as an adventure game.
>Did you finish? What happened to it?
Haha, no.
But I've kept the dream alive for about 7 and 6 years respectively.

>> No.1094585

>>1094575
Like I said, it's tentative. Aren't they all played outy though?

That's also why I like Ynja. I have a thing for making names with as few vowels as possible when writing for this fantasy thing. Also, there's a forest called the Godwood where my Cthulhu rip-off lives, whose name is Xtultux.

>> No.1094586

>>1094584
No way, OP here and I love writing Silent Hill kind of horror shit. Do it, brosef, you'd have at least a single reader.

>> No.1094587

Also, anyone try writing something really generic just to 'pop a cherry' so to speak?

I've got my big 'magnum opus' that I want to make perfect and am too much of a puss to really start writing, but I decided a year or two ago that I should just pull a George Lucas and write something templated to the Hero's Journey as a way to get over myself.

Of course, then I was too much of a puss to do that...

iammyownworstenemy.mkv

>> No.1094588

>>1094572

I think your biggest challenge will be getting the character right. I'd avoid making him an anti-hero, simply because they're over-used. Then again, he can't really be the "hero" either, because a guy who goes on a killing spree just for being dumped is clearly unlikable.

By all means go for it though. It could suck, but it could also be pretty good.

>> No.1094589

>>1094587
I did the same thing one time. Shit's too easy. Got bored before I even finished and started writing weird shit again. The Journey always makes it in there anyway, pretty much no matter what the hell you write.

>> No.1094591

>>1094587
As long as you're writing you'll be working that creative muscle. Shit, I had the worst writer's block for years and then started writing a journal/idea notebook and shit started working again. Do SOMETHING creative and it'll come together.

>> No.1094593

>>1094586
http://www.ashcroft.wikidot.com
In my plan of selfbetterment, /fit/ /fa/ and /lit/, I'll hopefully update that for the first time in years.
Though there are a few articles on my blog I need to get out...

esperism.blogspot.com

Whoo, whoring myself out, garblegobble slurp.

>> No.1094595

>>1094588
Trust me I'm bearing all that in mind. That's why most likely I don't think anyone will die at all -- it focuses on strictly the potential of his newfound power.

>> No.1094597

I'm kinda working on a generic sci-fi novel.
It's the age old "plucky humans fight huge grinning robots" idea, although it is intended as a bit of piss take.
You know, huge fucking space battles, physically impossible feats of strength, utter and complete disregard for collateral damage. That sort of shit.

>> No.1094598

>>1094593
OP here, dats OK because this is a writerfag thread. I'mma look at your stuff.

>> No.1094602

>>1094597
My fantasy thing began like that. I still think of it like the Yin to Terry Pratchett's Discworld Yang, in my head: a fantasy world that's totally postmodern and Americana, as opposed to being britfag humor.

This scifi epic have a name?

>> No.1094606

>>1094602

Balancing Acts

As of yet it only exists as a scribbled plotline and a prologue (since I'm working on a short story at the moment) but I'll probably get round to doing it in earnest fairly soon.

>> No.1094615

>>1094606
Do it. I've found that the trick, for me, to keep me writing, is not to think of what you're writing as a book that other people will read but a story that's arrived like a sort of revelation so you HAVE to write it down -- that way, it doesn't matter if it sucks and you hate it and want to stop, it isn't for anyone else and you HAVE to dammit.

That's how it works for me anyway.

>> No.1094618

>>1094591
My journal of ideas always ends up a list of stories I'd like to run, but never did more than a few sentences.

dramatic magicpunk setting where a young man rescues a girl who has no memory and turns out to be MAGIC! robot, globetrotting, RPGan, Big Baddan
Prehistory story of the above where a young demigod defeats PURE EVIL*
Woman wakes up from a crash with no memory, stumbles into abandoned town filled with METAPHYSICAL DEMONS based on the seven sins, holy shit crazy psychic girls
Guy wakes up with no memory, understands blatant Japanese fantasy counterpart conlang despite being blatant European fantasy counterpart, holy shit he's really the devil and got kicked out of Hell and needs to stop the apocalypse crazy psuedoChristianity, Metatron is a hot crazy bitch chained to a pillar and Jeshuah is a street urchin, what the fuck is this a manga?
Tens of thousands of ideas for World of Darkness games.
Mages pair up with spirits to fight evil spirits buddhist hungry ghost shit, stop watching anime it rots your brain
Ten billion ideas for the magicpunk setting.

>> No.1094620

>>1094618
Laura Croft archeologist in a fantasy world
Law and Order: Criminal Intent in a fantasy world.
Lupin in a fantasy world.
Slice of life high school story. In a fantasy world.
Elves. In space. Actually, funny story, this was the first place that my magic system debuted, and it's now one of the cores of the giant huge geofiction project that I sidetracked myself with.

I started the geofiction project as a sort of "maybe I should make the world before the story". Now I want my story to mention or go to everywhere on the map...

*Sidebar: Funny story, the pure evil's 'children' in a metaphorical and metaphysical sense, behemoths, creatures that look a bit like elephants without the ears and trunks, and with thicker tails, are in the fictional pop culture said to be afraid of mice, pretty much like elephants nowadays. Now, the real reason an elephant would be freaked out by a mouse is because mice are tiny and elephants are pretty blind, and having something you can't see running around your legs would freak you out. But, what with folklore, there's always a story instead of a rational reason. The demigod who defeated Bahamut was Gaetta the Rat. So the behemoths are afraid of rats, because The Rat defeated the Lord of Earth and Flame.
tl;dr: I created an epic story to explain why elephants are afraid of mice in the setting.

>> No.1094622

Man, my big idea came about a year back. It's basically a coming-of-age fantasy novel that started while I was watching Kuroshitsuji and spontaneously decided "I want to write a story with a Butler in it". It's completely unrelated to Kuro, though, and still largely embryonic. There are some themes I want going on, some characters, some ideas, but nothing I've actually set to paper yet. I'm hoping to be able to spend some time on it in a year or two after completing a few other projects.

I also have a second 'opus' planned, but that one's fanfiction with a swathe of autobiography. Basically projecting my character and some of the problems I faced onto another character... I doubt it would be much good, but I suppose it would provide fanservice to at least some people and.. I don't know, I guess it something I just want to get out of me. i've had the idea too long.

All that said, i've barely written at all in the last few years. I'm hoping to kick start with this year's Nano, since I actually have something planned with a plot and character development and all. here's hoping.

>> No.1094623

>>1094618
WRITE EM ALREADY JESUS WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU

>> No.1094633
File: 10 KB, 237x180, plasmid.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1094633

>>1094602
>Fantasy Americana
That sounds awesome. I almost don't want you to tell me more, because the image in my head is so cool.

I'm imagining a sort of traditional Coca-Cola advert with magic, and 1950s diners with wizards.

>> No.1094635

>>1094623
TOO MUCH OF A PUSS

I really do need to stop and start. Instead of stopping starting.

>> No.1094638

>>1094633
That's kind of it, but also with a more modern feel that goes along with it too, despite the setting. Angsty slacker characters, pseudo silver-and-gold capitalism, and good old American humor -- lots of poop jokes and whatnot.

There I told you more anyway. Also keeping Coca-Cola in mind. ;)

>> No.1094640

>>1094635
I don't understand how someone is too pussy to write. I could see insecure perhaps, or maybe that's the same thing. Nonetheless, man up, anon: your story MUST be told!

>> No.1094644

>>1094640
Not that anon but...

Sometimes even just sitting down to write can be incredibly difficult. And even if you manage to sit down, having anything that you write be any good at all is, again, unlikely. Better to take time about something and write it well, than try to rush it out and let it be any less good than it could have been. lots of great novels have taken years, even decades, to complete.


A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. ~Thomas Mann

>> No.1094654

>>1094644
That's a good quote. My problem has never been writing though: my problem is AFTER the writing I can't stand what I've written and I throw it away. I write a lot, almost every day, probably written several novels' worth up to this point, but I never keep anything. I'm trying to work on it. Some of it gets saved anyway because I'm lazy,

>> No.1094681

Zoe never blinked, even as she said it: "I don't love you, Christopher," she said, "I'm sorry. I never did."

Chris moved back and grimaced at the pain of the low emotional blow.

"What?" he asked her senselessly.

"When we 'make love,' as you call it -- although in my head I prefer to call it 'watching television,' sometimes; alternatively I call it 'reading,' 'watching the ceiling,' or just 'counting the number of times Chris has to stop before he blows too soon -- Just saying... But anyway, what I'm trying to say is I am very bored, Chris. Very bored. Honestly, it's almost like existential anguish being with you, I'm sorry. I simply don't enjoy your company."

"What...?" Chris repeated, absolutely dumbfounded, then stammering, "W-What am I d-doing... wrong?"

Zoe closed her eyes tightly and pinched hard in the bridge of her nose.

"Nothing, Christopher."


It could use some cleaning up and some more stuff to the scene, but I thought it was kind of cool.

>> No.1094684

>>1094681
I don't like Zoe's dialogue because it seems too rigid.

Alternately, she's a bitch.
Possibly both.

>> No.1094685

>>1094684
She's supposed to be a bitch. I'm trying to make her stuck-up and she's wordy because she thinks she's smart and way better than everybody especially Chris.

>> No.1094718

OP bump, page 2 is gay

>> No.1094732

The cavern must have been massive but Uthrang felt confined as some alien force was pressing against him from all sides. Fell energy surrounded him and he trembled violently with every step towards the compelling gleam in the distance. He noticed shapes dancing in the emerald flames – monstrous shapes, lost souls, legions of the damned. Uthrang could feel their silent agony and the dark hysteria poised in shadow beyond the faint light of the dead. Mad thoughts and vivid hallucinations rushed through the War-Dancer’s mind as he struggled to maintain his sanity. A miasma of beautiful hatred and intoxicating delusion strangled his thoughts and perverted his judgment.
The lidless vigil of countless eyes boring their ravenous gazes fueled Uthrang’s paranoia. Lies of The Promiser’s unholy song soothed the War-Dancer and beckoned him further – eroding reason with every step and supplanting dark influence with every verse.

Sort of a horror/fantasy story I'm working on.

>> No.1094743

>>1094732
OP here.

holy shit moar plz

>> No.1094750

>>1094743
As you wish

He halted at the last pillar and discovered a child with exceptionally pale skin, whiter hair that reached his waist, and lifeless green eyes sitting upon a high throne - made of flesh, bone, blood, reaching arms, and screaming skulls as the door before it - that could not have been of Uthrang’s world. He was garbed in dazzling light and seemed to glow as he sat atop the dark throne of corpses. Though he looked a young human perhaps eight or nine years old, the Sormanaur felt as if the child had preceded time itself. His face was the most divine thing Uthrang had ever seen and he felt compelled to die for him. The Thane-son was seized by a mad desire to kill himself but despaired at finding he had not the means to do so.

In those eyes Uthrang saw himself and Arnleif living eternally in happiness and the Sormanaur’s deliverance. The child did not move his mouth yet words of an incomprehensible language burrowed themselves into Uthrang’s psyche and shattered his concept of reality while promising him the world: An eon of peace and unbridled growth for Uthrang’s people, an Arcadia countless times more verdant than the Greenlands, and the final destruction of the Sormanaur’s enemies; for a kiss.

>> No.1094758

>>1094750
Can I just have the whole thing actually.

>> No.1094760

Stop plz

>> No.1094772

OP, you don't know how bad I feel.
I wrote 100,000 words and I thought, how awesome my novel is. So, I sent it to a publisher and he said he stoped reading at the 45th page cause it was horrible.
Yeah, that's fucking bad. I'm so wasted right now, thank god for José Cuevo.

>> No.1094775

>What was it like when you got your big idea?
I got it in the shower. I immediately rushed out of the shower and wrote it down before I forgot it.

>Did you finish? What happened to it?
Well, the aforementioned shower took place about half a year or so ago, and I'm still trying to work out all the details perfectly.

>> No.1094780

you're a pig

>> No.1094792

>>1094468
I got my big idea when I was about 15 (6 years ago now). I wrote the beginning and the end, decided it was shit and trashed the whole thing. I spent the past 6 years mulling it over and I had a flash of inspiration on the Moscow Metro that would make it work. I've done some extensive world-building, establishing history and writing character bios, and I've written a few thousand words of actual material. It's probably going to be in the region of a million words when complete, so a long way to go, but I'm happy so far with the way it's shaping up.

Thanks Lazar Kaganovich. I will probably dedicate it to him.

>> No.1094794

>>1094772

What was it about?

100,000 is quite a hefty novel. What was the idea you were working with?

>> No.1094807
File: 50 KB, 331x269, 1276930939327.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1094807

>>1094743
>>1094758
>mfw op doesn't say anything about my blog or wiki

>> No.1094810

>>1094772
OP here.

Fuck publishers.

If you think it's good, it's good. Maybe not as a popular novel, but as something you made that has value as something you accomplished that is creative. Even if you write like shit, how many people do you know who write anyway? You're a creative motherfucker, so flaunt it baby uh.

Also I'm gay lol and really high right now P;

>> No.1094812

>>1094807
Sorry. Refer to the last spoiler in my last post. I'm about to have to go to class but I promise I'll bookmark that shit and read it. I just forgot.

>> No.1094819

>>1094794
I was writing a fiction novel / thriller about a guy (a supermarket packer, I tried to get him a profession not so much usual) that has a paranoid crisis because he thinks he is being persecuted after a robber in his house that the thief left him some messages and he start finding notes about him everywhere and it goes like this ... there's a lot else of things but the center plot is this.
Sorry for my spelling, i'm a bit drunk.

>> No.1094827

>>1094819

I'd read that. Not just saying that to placate you, but I'd honestly give it a read. Try another publisher. Or, better yet, try agents.

I've been published a few times for Poetry and Short stories. It took a long time of being turned down before I finally got accepted and then an even longer period of time before I realized that agents will do the work for you. If the novel is impressive, someone will give it a try.

Drink yourself into despair tonight, but wake up tomorrow and try again. I promise you that it's not the end of the line. One douchebag editor does not an industry make.

>> No.1094830

>>1094772

I'm not saying it wasn't horrible, but if you got a publisher to read 45 pages of your unsolicited novel, that's not too shabby.

Did he actually say it was "horrible"? Or did he just imply that?

I've gotten my fair share of curt rejection note scribbles, but never so dickish as "it was horrible".

>> No.1094836

>>1094827
Hey thanks bro, that made me cheer up, really.
That's my first book so you can see i'm not that expert on the subject... but anyway, thanks. I will try that, seryously.
And, in case I get published, I'll write a dedication to you in the beginning of the book, how about :"Thanks to anonymous?" Lol, whatever, i'm just saying shit. But thanks a lot.

>> No.1094839

>>1094830
he implied
He said he couldn't read anymore of my stuff and he said to me I would be very lucky if i got published some day, so, that basically ruined my life.

>> No.1094851

>>1094772

Did you edit? I see a lot of people who will finish something and basically just run it through spell check (or not even that) and mail it directly to a publisher.

First drafts are basically brain dumps. Second drafts are where you turn a big pile of text into a novel. They are not optional.

Obviously I don't know what you did at all, but there you go.

>> No.1094855

>>1094851
yeah i did
i worked hard on that novel

>> No.1094864

>>1094855

Well, buck up. Pretty much nobody gets their first novel published. Most have at least a couple hidden in a drawer somewhere by the time they get so much as a sniff.

Just keep working on your craft and don't let some prick at some publisher stop you.

>> No.1094872

>>1094864
hey thanks a lot bro
g2g now, thanks man

>> No.1094885

>>1094772

You got an agent to read that many pages? That's actually very good news. Agents will read the query letter, and often not even bother with the manuscript at all if you haven't described a very sound, marketable novel. That agent most likely had dozens and dozens of would-be authors beating his door down to give him their manuscript, so if he spent time reading an entire partial manuscript (typically the first fifty pages), you must have something there, no agent has so much free time that they read fifty pages of shit instead of picking up one of the other promising manuscripts on their desk. Put it away for a few months, come back, rip it to bits and rewrite it. At 100,000 words, while it could genuinely be a sprawling, epic story, it's more likely to be a sprawling mess that needs to be cut down and condensed. That's fixable.

Anyway- my last Big Idea was earlier this year. I just had this image of my main character walking through London, so I got down on the floor and surrounded myself with notebooks for two days while I drew dozens of spider diagrams to thrash out the plot and supporting cast, then make sure I had plotted every last chapter, because I am not getting 70,000 words into another project and then realising it's not working.

I wrote it in six weeks in spring, sent out query letters in summer, and then decided it was shit and no agent would want to see it. I began heavily editing it, working in an entire new character and subplot.. then three agencies wrote back and asked to see the rest of the manuscript. After three weeks of non-stop editing, I put the book back together and sent it out at the end of August. I'm not expecting anywhere will take it, but hey, at least I know the premise and the first three chapters must be good. Now I just need to get the.. er, next twenty two chapters up to standard.

>> No.1094995

Ridgeway delved deep into his pocket, ripping out the contents as if disembowelling a denim creature full of lint and sand and brass. He fumbled with the brass, betrayed by his own sweat, and forced a few precious rounds into the antique rifle. Piece of shit, he thought.

With his back against the sun-bleached concrete he forced his fifth and final round into the internal magazine. A small shadow flicked past him, but Ridgeway didn't flinch. He closed the bolt as quietly as he could, and then poked a single eyeball around the corner.

Ridgeway drew back but not fast enough, as a bullet hammered into the pillar and sent chunks spinning into the sand. He clenched his dust-filled eye shut and ignored the pain, slipping out the rifle muzzle from behind his cover to return fire.

One shot, missed. He ejected the spent cartridge and grimaced. Four left.

Movement, at ground level this time. His vision was blurred but both eyes were open now as he fired. Did he hit?

Tiptoeing forwards to investigate he saw a smear of blood. Drawn closer by the scent of a hit he stopped, glanced over his shoulder and started to investigate. The blood was old. Weeks old. Cursing under his breath his guard was up again, as he stalked through this false hunting ground. His attention snapped to some sandbags and netting two dozen yards away, and then it struck him. A fraction of a second later it struck him literally: he saw the muzzle flash as thunder filled his ears.

He spiralled to earth like a burning aeroplane, the outrage and disbelief not letting him clutch the hole in his midsection. He heard that unmistakable sound of boots on rough sand as someone walked up to kick his rifle away.

A camera drone hovered above Ridgeway like an angel filming his last few moments, to be broadcast at prime time. He just wanted it over with. Death held no answers for him as, like all arena fighters, he had always known how he would die. To deafening applause.

>> No.1095005

>>1094995
Very nice. Good handle on atmosphere and word play, and the sentence structure and variation is spot on. Only comment I would make is the paragraphs are very short, looks too much like you're trying to get page length as opposed to carefully constructing your paragraphs. Minor point though, so keep on keeping on.

>> No.1095020

>>1095005

I think that's an issue of writing for 4chan and the web in general: the input field is much narrower than the output frame so it's hard to gauge.

I appreciate the feedback, though now that I'm re-reading it I'd certainly change the first sentence of the last paragraph. Not that anything will come of this, mind.

>> No.1095033

>>1095020
Tell me more about the premise. I'm presuming it revolves around something that is essentially like Unreal Tournament, but gritty and realistic rather than sleek and futuristic, yes?

>> No.1095092
File: 80 KB, 450x268, MY-HEAD-IS-FULL-OF-FUCK.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
1095092

This seems like the thread to post in with my problem:

I love to write poetry and I've always wanted to write prose, and did so when I was a child, but I have yet to compose prose that I view as anything worth keeping around, well, EVER. I get these big plot ideas, but then my characters are so flat and dialogue is so forced and generic that I hate the process of writing and give up, crumpling the last hour's work into a ball and tossing it into the garbage. What do? Any tips or insight?

Also, semi-related: do you write first drafts in pen or electronically?

>> No.1095112

>>1095033

The premise is something I like because it is very scaleable. It would work, at a basic level, in blockbuster action film or a mindless arcade game. There are many potential layers to it though, and with enough layers it could form a novel with real literary merit.

It would explore the "American dream" circa 2050 or later, the power of contracts/corporations and rebellion against them. The audience to this bloodsport would represent the human thirst for strife, as entertainment, as education and as vaccination. The protagonist, essentially a Spartacus but better armed, would represent a host of things including liberty, sacrifice and a "fuck you" attitude to authority.

I kept things pretty down to earth in this short bit, but if I were to write it properly then I would stretch out the sci-fi aspect and take us further into the future. To what ends I'm not so sure.

>> No.1095174

>>1095092

I had the same problem until very recently, when I sat down and tried to discern the difference between a good novel and a great novel.

What is the difference, fundamentally, between something like Pride and Prejudice (or Emma or a hundred others) and something like Twilight (and, unfortunately, a hundred others)?

They both have plots. They both have settings and characters. They can both be considered romance novels.

The key differences are these: the quality of writing and the quality of ideas.

Quality of writing just takes practice. Read a lot and write even more, it'll come.

Quality if ideas is what separates a good, plotted novel from a classic. What ideas will you make the reader consider? What attitudes of theirs will you challenge? It's about the purpose of the novel: what you hope to achieve.

The purpose of Twilight is for women to substitute themselves into the gormless protagonist and indulge in the honey-coated turd of a romance story. It is written badly either on purpose, to collect low hanging fruit on the boughs of idiocy as the author laughs on her way to the bank, or as the result of the author having suffered a major stroke. It's difficult to tell.

Now, consider the purpose of Pride and Prejudice, or a Dickens novel, or a Shakespeare play. I wrote an abusive paragraph on Twilight and I was being indulgent: there are volumes upon volumes written concerning the purpose and construction of each great novel. Libraries could be built to house only works written /in response/ to Shakespeare or Dickens or Hawthorne and many others.

Try some literary criticism, see someone deconstruct a great work so that you can see how it was put together. You can't deconstruct Twilight in the same way: there is no purchase for your tools, there is no substance behind the words on the page.