Fess up, /lit/

[Anonymous No.12009925]

Confess your sins ITT. What have you done in your writing that you look down on in others? Either because it was convenient or because you didn't know any better?

>less retarded version of the author falls in love with manic pixie girl
>seven layers of plot armor for characters who should have had bad shit happen to them like 10 sentences in
>romantic and/or graphic sex scene for no reason except you wanting them to since they met
>mysterious open end (if done out of laziness/inability to come up with an epilogue)
>idiot savant saves the day
>tuff butch lesbian in boots forced to disney up for an event; looks absolutely stunning
>MC's rival seemingly too dumb to use cutlery yet comes up with the darndest schemes
>unexplained, arguably uncalled for deus ex machina
>in the same vein: magical realism used to explain shit out of nowhere in an otherwise unrelated story
>lurked tvtropes for ideas

[Anonymous No.12010038]

>>12009925
nuns in stockings are the best nuns

[Anonymous No.12010093]

>>12010038
I won't even try to deny that

[Anonymous No.12010126]

>>12009925

I had rough drafts of each section of a four-part novel. The whole thing had been done over four or five years in a very disorganized fashion. In an attempt to collect myself and see where the project actually was, as far as structure and work completed, I wrote a three page summary. As I reread the summary, I realized that my novel is structured almost exactly the same as The Sound and the Fury, except my first chapter is narrated by a child, my second chapter is more like Jason's chapter, the third chapter is a stream-of-consciousness similar to Quentin's, and I tacked on a fourth chapter narrated by the grandmother of the child.

I am currently attempting to retool the whole thing because it is quite obviously a subconscious ripoff. I read William Faulkner. I love William Faulkner. And I, sir, am no William Faulkner.

[Anonymous No.12010265]

>>12010126
well, if only the structure is similar, one could arguably let it be, coincidence. but I see what you mean, my so called masterpiece back in my teens was a subconscious ripoff of Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go (in structure like yours, but also a wee bit in setting which was even worse) and I hated myself for ages after finding out

[Anonymous No.12011780]

>>12009925
I am actually trying very hard not to use very obvious tropes in my writing.
The only real rules I have so far are:

1. The main character is still just a person, that person can get hurt either physically or mentally and should suffer because of that.
Being shot or seeing a dead body (for a regular person) is normally a horribly traumatic experience and regular people just shrugging off the fact that peoples heads are exploding in a gunfight is just silly.

2. Just because two people enjoy being with eachother doesn't mean they suddenly have sex in the next scene. This is double so for incest which I see way too much in books (maybe I've just had bad luck),. Most siblings wouldn't even want to see eachother naked, let alone have sex.

3. Everything that happens happens for a reason, if I can't explain (even as a single line in a previous chapter) why it happens I shouldn't put it in, because at that point I'm just pulling stuff out of my ass.

If any of /lit/'s more experienced writers wish to add to this I would greatly appreciate it.

[Anonymous No.12011802]

YOU BROKE THE UNSPOKEN RULES, MORON.

#1. YOU CONFESSED IN THE OP (A BIG NO NO)
#2. YOU POSTED A JEZEBEL

THIS ISNT A REAL CONFESSION THREAD. THIS IS A SHAM!
THE CONFESSIONS ARE HERBY INVALIDATED AND NULLIFIED, ALL FURTHER CONFESSIONS DO NOT COUNT.

[Anonymous No.12013193]

>>12011802
#1 none of us is without sin, not even myself
#2 she does not know of her faults, one should try to vigorously plunder her booty to absolve her from her lewdness

[Anonymous No.12013199]

I cannot focus on most short story collections
I usually just read the most famous stories and maybe skim a few others
I can easily read through a 700+ book without missing much, but short story collections just lose me all the time
Other than Carver, but I think that's cause of how easy they are

[Anonymous No.12013504]

>>12013199
Try Joy William's The Visiting Privilege and maybe Lost In The Funhouse by John Barth

[Anonymous No.12013584]

>>12009925
Been trying to write a deconstruction of the Hero's Journey. I had multiple rough drafts of the same story just being told differently with some changes, but with the same feeling of dissatisfaction no matter what I did. I have four current rough drafts that I like somewhat and have the potential to be a somewhat decent story. Its just whenever I read them, I just focus on the negative. Is thss normal or am I just overthinking this?

[Anonymous No.12013595]

Been trying to write a deconstruction of the Hero's Journey. I had multiple rough drafts of the same story just being told differently with some changes, but with the same feeling of dissatisfaction no matter what I did. I have four current rough drafts that I like somewhat and have the potential to be a somewhat decent story. Its just whenever I read them, I just focus on the negative. I k ow this isn't that type of thread, but I have to ask, am I just overthinking this? Or is this normal?

[Anonymous No.12013608]

>>12013504
>Lost In The Funhouse
based

>>12013595
both. some perfectionism is warranted, but by the general tone of your post I'll go ahead and assume you're too far into the deep end of it already. let it be for a month or two, focus on writing entirely unrelated shite just to clear your mind, then come back to it with a rational, fresh eye and read it only once, making a pro/con list as you go. flesh out the pros, amend the cons, then start writing off that rough draft.
I mutilated my 631 page magnum opus into an unrecognizable mess and finally deleted it because I couldn't stop overthinking. don't follow in my footsteps.

[Anonymous No.12013613]

>>12013608
what's your favorite fiction/lit book i'm curious

[Proud Social Justice Warrior !BgjMIiqmkk No.12013632]

self inserting myself into characters. I like myself so much I always want to express aspects of my life/personality.

[Anonymous No.12013638]

>>12013613
that's a trick question because my personal ranking is more of a genre-based mind map than a straight list. but for the sake of the argument, at gunpoint I'd choose Camus' Stranger, no bully pls

[Anonymous No.12013645]

Proust-esque masturbatory language

[Anonymous No.12013647]

>>12013632
do you at least have cool (or whack) traits that could be useful to them or interesting to the reader?

>>12013645
that's hardly a sin, just an unfortunate style choice. IF you can pull it off, otherwise it's pretty cringy yeah

[Anonymous No.12013661]

>>12013638
ok thanks

[Anonymous No.12013667]

>>12013632
this isn't necessarily a sin

[Anonymous No.12013670]

>>12013667
it is if you desperately try to cram yourself into every char possible to a point it ruins it, I've seen it happen. some author's inserts are fine and dandy yes

[Proud Social Justice Warrior !BgjMIiqmkk No.12013681]

>>12013647
ya im pretty cool. I'm like everyone else here except I'm an extrovert and I've trained myself not to be such a misanthropist. That's not so uncommon tho. I think what sets me apart is way too narcissistic to write about - even by my standards.

[Anonymous No.12013683]

is this the genre fiction thread?

[Anonymous No.12013688]

>>12013632
yeah it's a fine line between using your own experiences in order to formulate realistic characters with realistic emotional lives, and just inserting yourself into every single character because that's all you know
this is where wide life experience comes in, you gotta meet a lot of people, observe their habits, get to know them personally, so you have a rich bank of diverse experiences to draw upon

[Anonymous No.12013698]

>>12013683
reported for /b/ tier trolling

[Proud Social Justice Warrior !BgjMIiqmkk No.12013733]

>>12013688
even the wide life experiences can be biased. For example if you're writing about some people you met, you're influenced by the feelings you project on the other person. What people do with you isn't necessarily how they act with others. People open up to me heaps, but can be a totally different person in other's company. It's like that saying I heard somewhere, you only know 30% of the people's real personalities. It's very common for someone to reveal something about themselves, which completely changes your long term impressions of them.

[Anonymous No.12013851]

>>12013608
Thanks for the advice, anon.

May I ask what was your magnum opus about?

[Anonymous No.12013906]

>>12013851
low fantasy coming-of-age with gore and tits and a pretty dystopian second half
so, pretty shit, but it was _mine_ (or so I thought, re: >>12010265 lol)

[Anonymous No.12013909]

>>12009925
>no fat priest wojak
bad thread

[Anonymous No.12013911]

I’m sacrificing my schooling so I can write my novel.

[Anonymous No.12013915]

>>12013909
don't talk to me or my softcore nun fetish again, even if you're right

>>12013911
"Things That Will Not Work Out As Intended" for 500, Alex

[Anonymous No.12014853]

>>12013595
instead of doing a decon, just make a story that doesn´t involve a hero´s journey at all, that´s how i will make it when i become a filmmaker

[Anonymous No.12014882]

>>12013193
This isn't a fucking game.

[Anonymous No.12015338]

Is it wrong if I take ideas from other stories to incorporate them in mine (eventually everything is stolen from something).
I feel like a rude bastard for doing this though.

[Anonymous No.12015610]

>>12013733
that's true, but what's the solution? that's all we've got