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/lit/ - Literature

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1180602 No.1180602 [Reply] [Original]

How do I become a writer?

>> No.1180612

Do a lot of writing, only read good books.

>> No.1180620

>>1180612
Okay, well where do I start? What do I write? Should I just jump into a novel (NaNoWriMo is starting next month)?

>> No.1180627

>>1180620

Write a novel. Don't do that scheme though. Novels are about RAAAAAAGE, and solitude. Reporting back to some kind of communtarian outline will make it harder for you to transcend and catch fire.

>> No.1180647
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1180647

>>1180627
>Novels are about RAAAAAAGE, and solitude.
Looks like someone is projecting.

>> No.1180668

>>1180647

The process is about that. Try writing a novel in the company of your bros, when the world is peachy.

You need to think the world should be changed - if only by one novel - in order to write at all. And you must write alone to do it reliably.

>> No.1180680

>>1180620
Nay, I recommend doing shorts first. I want to become a writer as well, and a few years ago I attempted to make my first major work out of impatience. I got to 70 000 words (in terms of story, this was 40% or so) when I realised that I had improved so much since the beginning that the first chapters now looked like unsalvageable crap to me, and it was a horrible feeling. I ended up scrapping the entire thing. Since then, I have been writing shorter works (2000 to 20000 words) and improved significantly.

>> No.1180682

>>1180668
Or you can stop being a pretentious faggot and write something entertaining and interesting
Either way goes

>> No.1180688

>>1180682

NO YOU PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT THAT ADVICE APPLIES FOR ALL WRITING. YOU CANNOT WRITE IN THE COMPANY OF OTHER PEOPLE AND YOU MUST THINK YOUR BOOK ADDS SOMETHING TO THE WORLD OR YOU WILL NOT FINISH IT.

>> No.1180696

>>1180688
nanowrimo doesn't make you write in the company of others, you still write alone

>> No.1180698

>>1180688
How many novels have you finished?

>> No.1180703

>>1180688
I agree that writing in the company of others isn't usually the best way to do things, but I think it's a very narrow point of view to think that everything should be written to push some thought down the reader's throat. Sometimes literature can be written just for the sake of it, or to invoke thought and emotion, or to simply be entertaining and beautiful. Trying to find a message in everything just seems forced to me.

>> No.1180705

>>1180698

THREE. You won't win, the advice I'm giving is CORRECT.

>> No.1180707

>>1180696

You have a support structure, you're doing it as some kind of thing for an imagined team of fellow participants.

Don't do it.

>> No.1180711

>>1180705
It may be in your case, but not everyone is you. Different people have different motivations. What works for some may not work for others.

>> No.1180712

>>1180703

That's not what I said. Read what I said, you begger for your own smothering. Why are you wasting my time expressing your flatulent opinions when you can't even READ?

>> No.1180715

>>1180705
Cool, what are the titles? Maybe I can find them at my library.

>> No.1180716

>>1180711

Fine. The OP will die never having written a novel. Because the fact is, there's practice that gets results and practice that doesn't. Shit is not clay.

>> No.1180718

>>1180716
>implying the NaNoWriMo contest hasn't produced several published novels, and hundreds more unpublished but finished novels

>> No.1180722

>>1180715

http://amzn.to/cUwd3j

This is the new one. BUY IT, don't be a fucking cheapskate when you're so generous with your unearned opinions.

>> No.1180725

>>1180718

ALL OF WHICH WERE


"bullshit"

>> No.1180728

>>1180712
>You need to think the world should be changed - if only by one novel - in order to write at all. And you must write alone to do it reliably.
That there sounds like you have to have a message to your readers. Also, you mad? If mister established writer is so worried about wasting time, maybe you shouldn't be on 4chan.

>> No.1180729
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1180729

>>1180722
>http://amzn.to/cUwd3j

>> No.1180732

>>1180722
>check link
>The Hobbit

10/10, you had me.

>> No.1180733

>>1180728

IT'S a vital research tool, and also invaluable for marketing.

>> No.1180740

>>1180732

Shouldn't be the fucken Hobbit if the link worked. OR ARE YOU ATTEMPTING HUMOR?

>>1180728

NO, THE BOOK ITSELF IS THE CHANGE, NOT ANY SUPPOSED MESSAGE.

>> No.1180741

>>1180733
Ooh, surely, research. That's what we all do here, right?

Honestly, you're coming across as pretty infantile to me.

>> No.1180745 [DELETED] 
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1180745

>mfw a self-appointed "writer" resorts to caps lock to get his point across.

also:A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others

-Faulkner

>> No.1180743

>>1180729

FUCK YOU, I'm trying to save a life here.

>> No.1180747

>>1180741

Whatever, even this is research.

>> No.1180748

Ignore this fool. He hasn't done shit.

>> No.1180749
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1180749

>>1180743
>save a life here
>here being 4chan

>> No.1180755

>>1180745

CAPSLOCK is part of the language of the place. Why would I waste time on TL;DRs about craft? The OP, or whoever is interfering now, wants people to think that writing is something you do so you have stuff to read at writing club. That shit is the death of literature. Write alone, and don't show it to people who'll praise you because they expect praise back.

If you want your book to just be a hobby like making wine or darning or shit, then whatever. I TRIED.

>> No.1180757

>>1180722
>http://amzn.to/cUwd3j
So you're Tao Lin?

>Gawker, who referred to him as "maybe perhaps the single most irritating person we've ever had to deal with,

I wonder why. You seem like such a nice guy.

>> No.1180761

>>1180748
Even if he had, just because he has written a few books doesn't mean he is the god of literature who knows what to do and what not to do better than everyone else in the world. The kid has just given himself the right to be arrogant since he, whoa, achieved something in life. He thinks his opinions are the only correct ones, but most things are relative to an extent. If someone thinks their way is the only way to write, they are wrong, no exceptions.

>> No.1180762

>>1180757

I ASSUME this is sarcasm, but I'm answering a serious question. You think I'm not nice? You have no basis for this.

>> No.1180768

OP here. What has this thread turned into.

I need another drink, brb.

>> No.1180770

>>1180761

HA, I love how before you were implying I'd written nothing, now you're calling me arrogant for advising from experience rather than pulling some coffee-clatch shit.

I said NOTHING of writing methods. I just said don't join 'gee let's write a book in a month' club, because that's not how you do it if you want to do it right, and I ASSUMED the OP wanted to do it right.

>> No.1180771
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1180771

how do i shot web?

>> No.1180776

>>1180768
I feel sorry for you, OP. Poor guy makes a thread about becoming a writer, only to find a mediocre writer fapping to himself furiously in said thread.

>> No.1180781

If you start writing instead of asking how to become a writer, you actually become a writer.
Funny, huh.

>> No.1180783

>>1180776
>mediocre writer

>implying this chink isn't rolling in money just from typing words at his computer desk
>implying you aren't jealous

>> No.1180785

>>1180781
Well then technically, we're all writers.

>> No.1180789

>>1180776

I'M ADVISING HIM CORRECTLY AND PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO START SHIT.

OP, ignore these people. Write a novel. Make it your own. Get out all the stuff you've never been able to say because it's not appropriate in conversation or people wouldn't listen and glazed over as you tried to make the connection. Put in the insane shit that would get you jailed or at least monitored if it emerged in your daily life. Put down when you feel weak. Or write about being strong and giving a girl endless orgasms. But don't write to a timetable given by someone else, don't get involved in "creative writing" scams that aren't about literature, and don't listen to people who say it's all relative. Everyone has their own means but some ideas SUCK ALL THE TIME. Writing clubs/groups/whatever are one of these.

>> No.1180797

>>1180783
Jealous of your boundless arrogance? Many people in this world get published and make money, that is no reason to be jealous. Those that get published, make money and remain humble, now that'd be admirable, but you are the complete opposite of those people. If something, I sincerely wish I will never be scum like you.

In any case, you have wasted enough of my precious time, and unlike you, I will actually leave this thread with dignity instead of whining post after post.

>> No.1180799

>>1180602
Have you tried writing?

>> No.1180800

I've said everything to OP that I can, so I'm leaving the thread now. If you're reading this, and you hadn't heard of me before, but now you're interested, here's my site http://heheheheheheheeheheheehehe.com/

peace

>> No.1180802

>>1180768
>I need another drink, brb.brb

Congratulations, OP. Alcoholism is the first step to becoming a writer.

>> No.1180804

>>1180797

You think I would address myself as a "chink"? Or did you just get BORED of waiting for me to respond so you could make your big departure.

Glad you're leaving the OP to take or leave my advice, WITHOUT INTERPOSING YOUR BULLSHIT.

peace

>> No.1180806 [DELETED] 

>>1180800

> mfw that's actually a real URL

>> No.1180807

>>1180789
>Get out all the stuff you've never been able to say because it's not appropriate in conversation or people wouldn't listen and glazed over as you tried to make the connection. Put in the insane shit that would get you jailed or at least monitored if it emerged in your daily life.

Not OP, but thanks. I had some ideas floating around but now I'm going to write about a fantasy world where orcs are coal black and are called niggers, ice-breathing dragons rape children before they eat them, and the Holocaust is proven to be a sham. There will be a rape in every chapter.

>> No.1180811

>>1180807

You could call it The Lord of the Rings.

>> No.1180815

OP, the first step is to find a way to support your own ass financially.

>> No.1180820

1) Do drugs
2) Marry ugly writer-chick
3) Do MOAR drugs!
4) Get beaten by a car
It was preparations. Now about writing^
1) Project yourself as a main hero
2) Every scene must be as disgusting as 5 minutes of watching Uwe Boll's movies
3) Add some homosex
4) Add some pedosex
5) Explain every plot hole with mystery and magikk

Now you're at least at a level of Stephen King!

>> No.1180821

>>1180820
>Now you're at least at a level of Tolkien!

Fixed.

>> No.1180823

the limited horizon displayed by angry chink is making me sick. it's like saying system of a down is the only type of music people should aspire to. what a jejune worldview.

>> No.1180826

I've met(kind of) Tao irl. This ain't him, he's kinda awkwards like me :)

>> No.1180828

>>1180823

Ha, look at the jerk trying to hide that he was born for the gassing!

>> No.1180829

just copy every captcha you get until you fill 500 pages, thats how James Joyce wrote Finnegans Wake

>> No.1180834

>>1180823
SOAD are pretty good bro. The singer is amazing.

>> No.1182320
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1182320

>>1180789

me, I just enjoy making things up.

>> No.1182329

>>1180826
Get the fuck out of here, Tao.

>> No.1182336

That's not Tao Lin who was posting before. I'm Tao Lin. Or rather I'm "Tao Lin". Please don't read my work.

>> No.1182338

I think Tao Lin proves that any moron who's aggressive enough to promote himself nonstop through social media can find someone to take him seriously as an "artist". Even if it is only in Seattle, and only done to annoy Gawker.

>> No.1182372

>>1180826

Now, have YOU, or has Tyondai Braxton. I do not forgive.

>> No.1182390

>>1180602
First things first; get yourself a nice bottle of scotch.

>> No.1182400

I would rather advance things as a writer, even if it means dying ignored, alone and disrespected.

I wouldn't want to live as a hack.

>> No.1182414

>>1182400

This. I mean, I could be content with continual sex at clubs and meaningless television watching but... no... I want... to... write...

So hard to resist...