/wg/-Writing General

[Anonymous No.18437631]

Any progress on your novels?

Previous thread:>>18422323

For Prose:
>The Art of Fiction
>Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)
>On Becoming A Novelist
>Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft
>How Fiction Works
>The Rhetoric of Fiction
>Steering the Craft
>On Writing, Borges

For Poetry:
>The Poetry Home Repair Manual
>Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry
>This Craft of Verse, Borges

Related Material:
>What Editors Do
>A Student's Introduction to English Grammar
>Garner's Modern English Usage

Suggested books on storytelling:
>The Weekend Novelist
>Aristotle's Poetics
>Hero With a Thousand Faces
>Romance the Beat

Suggested books on getting your fucking work done you lazy piece of shit:
>Deep Work
>Atomic Habits

Traditional publishing
> Formatting manuscript
https://blog.reedsy.com/manuscript-format/
> Write a query
https://www.janefriedman.com/query-letters/
> Track your query
https://querytracker.net/

Other Resources
>General grammar/syntax/editing help
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html
> When/where/how should I write?
https://jamesclear.com/daily-routines-writers
> What software should I write with?
https://self-publishingschool.com/book-writing-software-best/
> Amazon Publishing to make that KDP monie
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200635650
> Be like Charles Dickens and write serially
https://www.royalroad.com/
> Basic overview of the Screenplay format
https://screenwriting.info/

[Anonymous No.18437678]

Die in a fire, hololive cunt autist.

[Anonymous No.18437701]

>>18437678
B-b-b-based

[Anonymous No.18437789]

where do you guys submit short stories to?

[Anonymous No.18437796]

>>18437789
Journals. Don't let crabs fool you, it's really not that hard. I've been published and my writing is shit

[Anonymous No.18437806]

>>18437789
I should add, for years I have tried to submit exclusively to Australian publications... but I don't know. I don't want to be some /pol/ edge lord - and these are journals written by people who have accomplished what I'm trying to, so I'm not really in any place to judge. But they're all so fucking absorbed in social politics it really exhausts me. Every time a journal opens its submissions it's always with some theme requiring stories to be about gender or being an immigrant in Australia or voices of indigenous women blah blah whatever great, go for it, indigenous women should for sure write if they want to. But where do I submit just normal fucking stories that I have tried my best to write from the heart about love, death and family (yes me and every other cunt, it's nothing special). To boot, they all have a limit of 3,000 words usually, sometimes 5,000. So where do I submit longer pieces?? cause pretty much all my shit is about 11,000 when I finish up and is that really so bad? go through any short story collection worth a fuck and they're all that long.

[Anonymous No.18437812]

>>18437796
yeah I mean like what actual journals?

[Anonymous No.18437852]

12 am and 1.600 words in. Not enough. Not enough by a long shot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39IPxdALBKk

[Anonymous No.18437855]

>>18437806
why don't you write an outback story about a Aboriginal boy who learns how to use a boomerang and makes art with indigenous weaving and dances bangarra and who has a platypus sidekick? You'd get into all the Australian journals easy

[Anonymous No.18437857]

>>18437812
Do your own research you lazy dickhead

Here's 500, every one has different submission layouts, word counts, genre requirements, opening windows, etc. So go through and take notes and make a decision. If your manuscript isn't properly formatted (indents, margins etc) you risk it getting tossed before reading, so Google how to format manuscripts for submission

http://www.erikakrousewriter.com/erika-krouses-ocd-ranking-of-483-literary-magazines-for-short-fiction

[Anonymous No.18437860]

>>18437855
and he plays the digereedoo

[Anonymous No.18437867]

>>18437806
Also I will say that almost literally nowhere will post an 11k short story. The standard is 2k - 7.5k words, with the sweet spot being 3k-4k.

[Anonymous No.18437889]

A sonnet to /biz/:

Markets crash, though your value sideways stalk,
wavering between the bulls and the bears.
I do not think you low nor of high stock.
Merely, your song plucks tension in my fears.
The jittery lyre plays all my years
beseeching: "Buy her! You'll act! No more talk!"
Again, your movement sends me in career
ungainly, and, again, I have my doubts.
There is cycle in this. Immoderate
losses spurred by predatory thoughts.
Psychology that seems closer to fate.
Though unpersuasive, my heart brims its hopes.

Only the crescent-sickle, grinning moon
at the end, shall bring me my final sum.

[Anonymous No.18437908]

I've got another idea. Why not write a story about an Aboriginal boy who has adventures with his sidekicks who are a platypus, a kangaroo, a koala, a dingo, and an emu? Australian journals would love that

[Anonymous No.18437944]

>>18437855
Well I am Australian and not aboriginal. The thing I am struggling with is there really do not appear to be any respectable journals here. Really makes me depressed.

[Anonymous No.18437961]

>>18437944
What makes you think you have to exclusively submit to Australian journals?

[Anonymous No.18437977]

>>18437908
Call it Blinky Boong

[Anonymous No.18437981]

>>18437678
KEYED

[Anonymous No.18437983]

I just thought of a great Australian story idea and you don't even have to be Abo

A (Abo) boy throws his new boomerang but he isn't good at it and it doesn't come back to him. It lands next to a kangaroo
The kangaroo tries throwing it too, but it's not good at it and it lands near the koala
The koala tries throwing it but it lands next to an emu
Then it goes to a dingo
You can add other Australian animals too
In the end, the boomerang goes back to the kid. Wala, the boomerang worked

You're welcome for instant acceptance into the top Australian journal

[Anonymous No.18437985]

>>18437961
I write about/in small towns in West Queensland. Usually just about the retards that live there and the petty shit they get up to. I just don't feel like any of the journals here >>18437857 would pay them any attention, since I'm pretty sure it's very unrelatable for them. I talk about random places called Hughenden and Proserpine and these sound weird and grossly Australian even to me, which is why I want Australians to appreciate them... but Australian publications seem obsessed with trying to get their legitimacy from sleekly designed websites with commentary from ethnic females. Again, I really do not want to fixate on race cause all the best to them, but I feel like I have nowhere to go.

[Anonymous No.18437990]

>>18437983
Yes you are not wrong this would probably get accepted.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sZg2u3lGawM

[Anonymous No.18438009]

>>18437631
How important is anachronism in a fantasy ww1 setting?

[Anonymous No.18438016]

>>18437985
A cursory glance at any one of those journals would show a huge range of writing from authors all over the world, set in a vast range of different countries. You come across as defeatist. Also you do realise that even published short story writers receive on average 40-50 rejections until a piece is accepted?

Get a submittable account and set aside a few days to format and submit to 60 or 70 journals, if every single one rejects you then come and complain. It's a numbers game

[Anonymous No.18438060]

I've got another Australian story idea

A (Abo) boy has a crush on a (Abo) girl but he's sure that she doesn't know that he exists
She's a bangerra dancer and he decides to learn the digeredoo to accompany the dance class that she's in, or whatever instrument that is
He practices really hard and annoys his neighbors
Recital day and the girl dances and he plays accompaniment
It is success but girl doesn't talk to him
Dejected, he returns his rental digereedoo to the shop and he meets the girl by chance
She recognizes him from math class and she likes him too, although she didn't notice his digeredoo accompaniment
He realizes that he likes the instrument independently of the girl
Story ends with him giving a solo during a digeredoo concert and his new gf is in the audience clapping

You're welcome again

[Anonymous No.18438261]

Okay, so
> small settlement, western fantasy
> all the houses are made of metal
> the entire area is engulfed in flames and small meteors hit the ground everywhere
> this goes on for several hours
> there is a bunker with air vents and an escape route
Are the people inside okay or do they need to go to the bunker?

[Anonymous No.18438270]

>>18438261
What kind of metal? How well does it transfer heat? Will it melt? Will the smoke make people choke? Can the inhabitants use air magic or something to get fresh air or magic the smoke away?

[Anonymous No.18438290]

>>18438261
The houses would overheat and they would roast alive. Look up brazen bull

[Anonymous No.18438313]

>>18438290
That actually makes a lot of sense. Wtf were they thinking?

[Anonymous No.18438335]

>>18438290
>>18438261
They'll need to get to the bunker. It needs to be airtight, and doors need to be flame resistant. You have to factor in oxygen too

[Anonymous No.18438341]

>>18437857
the other retard isnt gonna use this but i will, thanks anon

[Anonymous No.18438488]

>>18438341
>>18438341
You're welcome anon. Quite a few stellar authors maintain that anyone can make it as long as they just graft for long enough and hard enough. Obviously you need some ability, but it's true. Try writing short stories continuously and submitting every single one that's even half-decent to 200-300 literary journals over and over again for years, sit down every single day and write eighty thousand words of a novel, then spend six months polishing it, send to beta readers and polish again, scrimp and save and pay for professional editorial services to get it marketable and then get rejected by 50 agents before one takes a chance, it gets published, a couple of positive reviews and it's forgotten, then start at the beginning and do it all over again.

If you have the drive, the obsession, the dedication, the work ethic, mental illness, whatever you want to call it, you can be a reasonably succdssful traditionally published author.

I recommend you look at lithub and the literary sections of national news sites, pick out recent reviews, and Google the authors. Literally every single one just grinds getting a handful of short stories published to boost their credentials then sends their novel manuscript off. And guess what? The bar isn't even that high. The writing being released now isn't even that good. Reading itself is a niche hobby. The number of people who buy books is lower, the number who are actually invested in literature and reading with a modicum of taste is lower still. How many people do you think have a plausible novel - length manuscript? If you can write 250 good words you just have to replicate that 250 times. Ge a fucking move on already so I can read some decent contemporary lit without waiting for McCarthy and Houllebecq to shit something out

[Anonymous No.18438495]

>>18438488
Whops shit fuck I fucked myself and accidentally posted my gf instead of pepe, how do I delete it on mobile?

[Anonymous No.18438546]

>>18438495
Could have been way worse.

[Anonymous No.18438551]

>>18438488
>>18438495

LMAOOOOO. Thanks for the advice and the fap material both, anon. I will be cumming to your girlfriend tonight

[Anonymous No.18438554]

>>18438488
Kino ass and feet my guy, you're a lucky man

[Anonymous No.18438577]

>>18438488
Normies get off my board REEEE

[Anonymous No.18438582]

>>18438551
postit

[Anonymous No.18438591]

>>18438551
>>18438488
Someone post the pic if they saved it, it's deleted

[Anonymous No.18438598]

>>18438591
Lurk more, asshat. Nothing on the internet is ever lost.

[Anonymous No.18438601]

>>18438495
Nice post, very motivating. When I get home I will check the archive and see what picture you posted and maybe cum to it. Thanks!

[Anonymous No.18438609]

>>18438582
>>18438591
It was nothing special, a view of an ass and soles over a shoulder. Quality wasn't amazing. I'm not really a feet guy and didn't find it worth saving. If you're that much of a degenerate you should be able to find it on the archive

[Anonymous No.18438611]

>>18438601
>>18438551
>make an effort post
>inadvertently cuck myself

You fuckers aren't worth the time. And no I'm not reposting it

[Anonymous No.18438618]

>>18438611
Unironically I did appreciate the effortpost. As a show of good faith, I will walk back on my previous statement. I promise you I won't cum to your gf. On all that is holy or otherwise, this I swear before mods and men, may the janny strike me down. Amen.

[Anonymous No.18438621]

>>18438609
I am a feet guy and I assure you those soles were fuckin' tasty. It also makes it much hotter that it's a private picture. Kind of feel like I'm raping anon's gf's feet.

[Anonymous No.18438623]

>>18438591

[Anonymous No.18438630]

>>18438623
Righty then, I'm off to cum

[Anonymous No.18438643]

>>18438488
I saved that picture and later tonight I'm going to print it off in high quality and cum all over it. I'll imagine I've blackmailed your gf into letting me cum on her nice feet and calves, and she'll be holding back tears and refusing to look me in the eye from the shame. Fuck I'm hard just thinking about it. Truly thanks for allowing me to capitalise on your mistake, the pleasure will be sensational.

[Anonymous No.18438646]

>>18438643
>coomer degenerate incel frequents reddit

Makes sense

[Anonymous No.18438681]

>>18438643
>>18438630
>>18438621
>>18438618
>>18438609
>>18438554
>>18438551
>>18438546
>>18438495

I find this extremely hot. Any anons who saw it, can you give a proper description? Was it as hot as people are making out? It's like a lost picture macguffin from a Borges story. Genuinely curious.

[Anonymous No.18438697]

>>18438681
>>/lit/thread/S18437631#p18437631

[Anonymous No.18438754]

>>18438697
Thanks Kanye, very cool!

[Anonymous No.18438830]

To steer the thread slightly from the coomer theme - anyone else took a while to realise how useless feedback from friends and family is, if they aren't readers/writers? I used to get really disheartened by negative feedback from family members in particular, but these are the same people now saying Joyce and Nabokov are boring and preferring to read cheap mass-market thrillers and detective stories. I'm sticking to proper beta readers and professional editors from now on.

>>18438488
Appreciate the advice, anon. Sorry you cucked yourself, pay no notice to the deviants.

[Anonymous No.18438871]

When I close my eyes, all I see are my sins played back to me. All I’ve seen, done and thought pushed as a still image in front of me. Willingly I indulge in them so this must be my punishment.
My worst enemy is myself and it’s a losing battle. Do I accept what I do, what I like, or do I reject it as degeneracy made from my hedonism. No good came from it so I will keep on rejecting it until it finally starves and dies. With it will go a part of me and I will be reborn once again. For the better? I hope.
It’s the theory of the Hole. I’m climbing the ladder again and again. When will this torment end? You can say it’s insanity. I am the one who keeps pushing himself off and the one who keeps climbing it. My only saviour is an outsider.
I hope it won’t rain.

[Anonymous No.18439130]

>go to r/writing because /wg/ has been unusually shit lately
>it's literally just people likewhoring with their disabilities, asking loaded questions about if it's even right for a white person to write a nonwhite character or some hiw
>99% is YA, the rest either fantasy or romance
Yeah I think I'll stay

[Anonymous No.18439336]

Keep pushing boys, keep pushing. Write another 250 words, and then another.

[Anonymous No.18439337]

>>18437631
How do I write fictional squad tactics and formations? My fictional squad consists of 8 total. 4 melee based squadmates armed with medieval weapons and a m1911s. The other 4 have a bolt action rifle guy, a submachine gun guy, a machine gun guy, and a sniper.

[Anonymous No.18439346]

>>18439337
Is this squad formation fine for travelling in safe areas?

[Anonymous No.18439357]

>>18439337
>How do I write fictional squad tactics and formations?
You don't. Why would you spend so many words on something so boring as where everyone is standing. Are you going for hyper-realism or what?

[Anonymous No.18439387]

>>18439357
I apologise for posting animeshit, but I went apeshit on the attack on titan recon squad tactics. I'm a total sucker for these kinda things. It made the manga feel a little more believable.

Because my story revolves around teenagers going to military school to become Huntresses. Huntresses are the only thing that can kill the Grimm which were invincible even to artillery. They are only killable by Huntresses. So basically Spartans from halo.

Here's the long range scouting formation. If that's your thing lol
https://attackontitan.fandom.com/wiki/Long-Distance_Enemy_Scouting_Formation

[Anonymous No.18439488]

>>18438830
No because I'm same enough not to share it with family. I had a few internet friends interested in reading it but I never asked then for feedback. I get next to none feedback regardless from my readers in general

>>18439337
>>18439346
Short answer: don't. Your readers will probably not even in the slightest give a shit about it.

[Anonymous No.18439512]

>>18439387
No worries, guy. I just don't know how you would do it. Finding believable formations will be the easy part. Writing and explaining them in a way that is enteresting ... pshaw. I love Rome Total War, but I wouldn't write a book about my siege formations. Literature just isn't made for this kind of stuff. Sometimes, describing the actions and locations of three or four people already gets difficult and bogs the whole thing down. If I were you, I would go for the postmodern approach and simply insert a diagram into the text.

[Anonymous No.18439515]

>>18439488
What if it's supplementary? It won't be a major part of the whole thing, since not everyone is as autistic about these things, but I'll leave a little treat for those tacticool kinds of people on the end of chapters or on the last few pages

[Anonymous No.18439520]

>>18439512
>If I were you, I would go for the postmodern approach and simply insert a diagram into the text.
That's actually a pretty good idea

[Anonymous No.18439540]

>>18439387
>Huntresses
>Grimm
sorry anon, rwby already did this

[Anonymous No.18439589]

>>18439540
Yep. I loved rwby and it's setting, but I didn't like how anime it was. Coupled with the fact that it wasn't clear if they aimed for a light-hearted cartoon show or a gritty anime.

So I just took the grit and went ham on it. I'm not planning on making this official tho. J

[Anonymous No.18439637]

>>18439130
Just checked it out too. One guy who has never been raped, beaten up, abused, tortured, killed someone, had loved ones murdered, war, mental illness, asked if it's ok to write about those things. Interestingly enough, one person said that he's not allowed to and gave reasons for it, but the mods deleted his response. Everyone else said, "go for it! don't write what you know heehee :3"

https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/nx3g6r/is_it_distasteful_or_insensitive_to_write_about/

[Anonymous No.18439890]

>>18439637
dont write what you know? isnt that against the principle of adding personal experience into your work

[Anonymous No.18439970]

>>18439890
Personal experience can't be that important. After all, most books are about wizards and goblins. We are pretty good liars. We are even better believers.

[Anonymous No.18439978]

>>18438488
Haha you're girly's ass is out and about.

[Anonymous No.18439986]

Do you ever get emotional at your own writing? I mean in the sort of way where you’re trying to convey or invoke particular feelings for the scene and you fall victim to it yourself as you’re putting it to paper. Sad parts that make you cry or funny bits that make you laugh, maybe it’s an intimate momement between characters and it arouses you.

[Anonymous No.18440008]

>>18438488
>>18438697

Anon, I just want you to know that six minutes ago I came to the sight of your girlfriend's ass and feet.

I don't know how many people have seen them. I don't know how long it has been since a man other than you has seen those parts of her naked.

I am a repulsive individual by most of society's standards. Overweight, short, plagued with halitosis, deeply racist and misogynistic. I have not washed my hair for a couple of days nor showered and my family members wrinkled their noses when I went down to the kitchen today. I have never had so much as a kiss from a woman.

Today, however, I asserted myself over you a little bit. I printed a big copy of that picture and touched my tongue to your girlfriend's ass. I imagined sucking those pretty toes and I came buckets.

She may not ever know it, but I have had her, even in such a small way. I have spurted my cum over her image. I will do so again.

[Anonymous No.18440020]

>>18439978
I looked it up on the warosu archive. His girly must be an unredeemable thot if she allowed someone to take not only a naked picture of herself, but naked footfag picture of herself, and let's him keep it on his phone where he can easily "accidentally" send to his friends and post on the internet

[Anonymous No.18440026]

>>18439970
How do I write on topics I know nothing about in a convincing way? How do I come up with made-up phenomena exclusive to my setting that seems plausible?

[Anonymous No.18440124]

>>18440020
Has you gf never sent you sexy pictures? Have you ever even had one or are you an incel like >>18440008

[Anonymous No.18440132]

>>18440008

[Anonymous No.18440155]

HELP WITH GRAMMER.

Should it be:
1. All the data for the models comes from...
2. All the data for the models come from...
???

The "data" is "it" right? So it should be alternative 1??

[Anonymous No.18440176]

>>18440124
No, and if a woman did, she'd be immediately removed from the gf/wife material list. The only thing she'd be good for is for casual sex and deliberate short term relationships

[Anonymous No.18440179]

>>18440008
expand this into a 10 page short horror story

[Anonymous No.18440209]

>>18440155
Data is plural, right? Like tigers or teachers or that's

All of the thots come from that one anon who simply had to post his naked gf on the writing thread

[Anonymous No.18440219]

>>18440209
*thots, not that's

[Anonymous No.18440231]

>>18440155
Data is plural and datum is singular. Just google this shit, Anon.

[Anonymous No.18440248]

>>18440155
Just say it out loud lul
Unless you’re some ignorant ebonics buck.

[Anonymous No.18440281]

>>18440231
>Just google this shit, Anon.
>Anon ever doing the bare minimum for their stories
I'm convinced the majority of them are mentally retarded and have trouble functioning in their day to day life given that they often ask retarded questions that can be answered by googling it.

[Anonymous No.18440304]

>>18440209
>>18440231
>>18440248
>>18440281
The spell checker says 2), but 1) sounds better imo. Some people have dyslexia ok? No need to be rude. Thanks for the help if you helped me.

[Anonymous No.18440327]

>>18440176
t. never had a gf

[Anonymous No.18440340]

>>18440304
>>18440248
Obviously the guy has a mental disability, sorry anon but dyslexia is a mental disability, but you can't rely 100% on what sounds right to be grammatically correct. In school they made us diagram sentences

[Anonymous No.18440348]

>>18440304
It's tough love, bud. Whenever an Anon calls you a faggot, insults you, or is really mean, they care about you.

[Anonymous No.18440354]

>>18440008
Reading this turned me on. What's this fetish called?

[Anonymous No.18440372]

>>18440348
>they care about you.
no

[Anonymous No.18440385]

>>18440354
dirty old bastard i guess

[Anonymous No.18440387]

>>18440372
They care enough to respond.

[Anonymous No.18440399]

>>18440387
Because it was a retarded question that anon could have solved by himself if he wasn't a lazy fuck.

[Anonymous No.18440406]

>>18440399
>Because it was a retarded question that anon could have solved by himself if he wasn't a lazy fuck.

[Anonymous No.18440411]

>>18437631
LOOK AT THAT GROSS USE OF PERSPECTIVE. THE GIRLS RIGHT ARM ISN"T EVEN ATTACHED AT THE SHOULDER. ITS SO FUCKING LONG. LOOK AT THAT ANGLE. ITS DISGUSTING. ANIME ARTISTS ARE SCUM. THEY ONLY KNOW HOW TO SYMBOL DRAW. THERE IS NO BASIS IN REAILITY FOR ANYTHING OUTSIDE IF WHAT THEY DIRECTLY STEAL FROM PORNOGRAPHY AND OTHER ILLUSTRATORS. NOTICE THE STRANGENESS OF THEIR FINGERS, HOW FACES ARE FLAT SURFACES NEAR OVERLY DETAILED DEPTH AND SHADOW OF HER BREASTS OR HAIR. LOOK HOW ONLY THAT WHICH THEY COPY DIRECTLY HAS ANY PROPER SENSE OF PROPORTION OR GRACE.

FUCK OP. FUCK HIS VTUBER TRASH ART. FUCK HIM AND THE HOLE HE CAME OUT OF. IM STILL MAD ABOUT THE FACT THE INSTRUMENTS WERENT PLUGGED IN. STILL MAD HOW SHITTY THE ART ALWAYS IS. IF THIS WAS POSTED ON /IC/ OP WOULD GET REPORTED SO MANY TIMES HIS WHOLE IP RANGE WOULD BE PERMA BANNED.

[Anonymous No.18440414]

>>18440406
>implying that anon looks that good

[Anonymous No.18440420]

>>18440399
I'm being autistic, but that's still caring, Anon.

[Anonymous No.18440433]

Have it ever happened to you of starting with webcomics on /co/ and ALWAYS ending up on microsoft word typing an illustrated novel? I don't... Of course not... It's faster than drawing every panel, stop laughing at me.

[Anonymous No.18440436]

>>18437852
4.300 words and my brain is fried. Goddamn you, Crichton, you and your 10.000 words.

[Anonymous No.18440447]

>>18440433
I wanna write screenplays and direct films but writing screenplays doesn't feel good enough

[Anonymous No.18440449]

>>18440436
I literally only manage 500 a day, count yourself lucky. My 500 are usually fairly clean though, so revisions take less time.

[Anonymous No.18440457]

>>18440447
What do you mean it doesn't feel good enough? I had to write a screenplay for a creative writing module in uni and honestly it was just as difficult as prose, the difficulties were just of a different nature.

[Anonymous No.18440489]

>>18440447
I also wanted to make short films... made by only 1 person, with literally no budget and living from that. How fun is life, huh.

[Anonymous No.18440492]

>>18440449
Are you turning enough hours in, son?

[Anonymous No.18440518]

>>18440492
I tend to put in around 2 or 3 hours, but admittedly I find myself procrastinating.

[Anonymous No.18440559]

>>18440008
>>18438697
>>18438681
>>18438643
>>18438630
>>18438621
>>18438618
>>18438611
>>18438495
This whole exchange is fucking hilarious. Never change, /lit/.

(yes, I too went on warosu and found the picture.)

[Anonymous No.18440588]

>>18440559
It's things like this that make it impossible for me to leave this hellhole.

[Anonymous No.18440599]

>>18440492
Hours?

[Anonymous No.18440617]

>>18440599
Jesus fucking Christ.

[Anonymous No.18440620]

>>18437678
Cope harder, anti.

[Anonymous No.18440629]

>>18440599
>>18440617
This unironically made me burst out laughing. Thank you, anons

[Anonymous No.18440642]

>>18440155
"All the data" should have been the giveaway.
It's number 2.

[Anonymous No.18440664]

With a roar and a shake of the jowls the man fell to the porch and shook and seized and rolled down the stile. He was famished and his blood sugar levels kept plummeting and plummeting the more he flailed in the throes of his grand mal seizure, according to my smartphone app that was connected via bluetooth to a needle in his vena cava. Unable to intervene, I simply dialed 911 and waited for the first responders to arrive; however, it seemed that a plainclothes doctor was among the passers-by and was already hard at work trying to revive the epileptic gentleman using smelling-salts. Angered, I tackled the upstart doctor and managed to wrestle away the container of smelling-salts. "You fool," I admonished him, "You have just interrupted a medical experiment; possibly the medical experiment of the century!"

Can I get some feedback on this passage?

[Anonymous No.18440685]

>>18440664
Too verbose. Is the type of seizure relevant to this passage?
Is it relevant where in his body the needle goes? Everything after that is fine.

[Anonymous No.18440706]

>>18440411
I'm an artlet but right arm is attached to the shoulder? I measured their arms and they're the same length too

[Anonymous No.18440716]

>>18440411
Cope.

[Anonymous No.18440740]

>>18440664
I like this. It reminds me of Elliott Roger's writing: melodramatic narration about mundane events

[Anonymous No.18440838]

>>18440664
Remove 'angered' and change 'I admonished him' to 'I shouted'

[Anonymous No.18440857]

>>18440685
Well I tried to channel the main character's voice, who is an autistic sociopathic doctor similar to Dr. House, and goes around inducing medical emergencies in his patients in order to "collect data". Anyway, here's the rest of the segment:

"A medical e-e-e-e-e-expurriment?" the heavily accented plainclothes doctor suddenly intoned. From the color of his skin, brown, and his profession, I surmised that he was of Indian extraction.

"You shouldn't be here, darkie," I said, invoking a racist slur despite my own egalitarianism in order to distract him from the medical emergency still transpiring near us, and which I had deliberately induced by emptying an ampule of insulin into the gentleman's morning coffee.

"You can't say that, no no no," he said and started bobbling his head in that manner in which Indians are wont to.

"Go back whence you came, we're fucking full up here in Australia." I said, suppressing a cackle at the sight of the doctor's glassy brown eyes like two large nacreous coconuts brimming over with tears. With a shaking hand, he withdrew a pair of reading glasses from a leather case and placed them on his ears.

"Dr. Josiah Merck?!"

What? How could this Indian doctor recognize me? Have I already acquired so much notoriety that random Indian doctors, whom I have little to no professional dealings with as a rule, can recognize me at a glance? It must have been my latest paper in The Lancet that propelled my celebrity so. Irregardless of how, I could doubtless not stick around after being recognized, and the first responders would be here soon enough; therefore I hightailed it. I had acquired the data I came for already and it was now just a matter of getting to the nearest McDonalds so I could upload it to my home server.

[Anonymous No.18440881]

>>18440857
Wouldn't he be focused more on the goals and results rather than the methods tied to those results. You're approaching an autist like a neurotypical.

[Anonymous No.18440882]

>>18440617
Dictionary?

[Anonymous No.18440974]

>>18440857
I've watched House and this isn't how House thinks at all. He makes rude remarks all the time but there's no way he would spend all this mental energy on it.

[Anonymous No.18441237]

>>18440974
And House isn't autistic. In fact, in one episode, he envies an autistic patient for being autistic.

[Anonymous No.18441313]

I wrote 22 pages today. My work is done. Goodbye. I will soon outpace and outrank you. Fuck your talent. Fuck your intelligence.

[Anonymous No.18441377]

>>18440974
>>18441237
The anon never watched house, why are you losing your head over it?

[Anonymous No.18441420]

>>18441313
Who's you? Is it me? My my, you're 10 million years too early to surpass me, junior!

[Anonymous No.18441451]

The sacred Chinese beads were still present in the pouch when I reached into it and pulled one out, yet, the moment I withdrew my hand, I was holding only thin air, and the contents of the pouch seemed similarly to have vanished.

"What on earth," I remarked to my wife, Kiyoko. "What foul magic is acting on these beads? It was to be a simple demonstration of probability, and now I seem a fool to all my students in the Zoom class."

Kiyoko blinked her large anime eyes and coolly said "There were no beads in the pouch. Furthermore, you have no students, you are not on Zoom, and there is no pouch, nor is there a Kiyoko; these are merely delusions in your head, even this sentence is merely a delusion echoing through the hallways of your retarded brain."

Slowly I blinked my large shocked eyes and wept, for I knew she was right. The world around me dissolved and dissipated, became porous like parting clouds, revealing a maroon room with padded walls. I realized that the "pouch" I had seen in my delusion was the pouch with which they covered my face before wheeling me in to the execution chamber, where I was scheduled to receive the lethal injection this evening for the crimes that I had committed in my insanity, which were so heinous even my insanity was no defense.

[Anonymous No.18441455]

Do you guys know any actual writing forums for advice and tips? One anon was talking about it.

[Anonymous No.18441556]

>>18441313
based and anime pilled

[Anonymous No.18441575]

>>18441455
Start with these two. They should offer you some helpful advice and tips.

https://www.writingforums.org/
https://www.writingforums.com/

[Anonymous No.18441661]

[Anonymous No.18441716]

>>18441377
He specifically said he was channeling House, how could he do that if he never watched the show?

[Anonymous No.18441906]

>>18441313
Wait this is a competition?

[Anonymous No.18441913]

>>18441716
Doesn’t look like it if he got it wrong.

[Anonymous No.18441937]

>>18441661
Gay as fuck.

[Anonymous No.18441944]

>>18441913
Hmm, maybe he watched some compilation clips on youtube, like House's best insults or funniest moments. That kind of thing would highlight House saying rude things, but it wouldn't showcase his deductive, or inductive? reasoning skills, medical knowledge, or abilities as a doctor

[Anonymous No.18441975]

>>18441944
Most likely. Clipfags are the worst.

[Anonymous No.18442028]

>>18441906
For some it is, for others, writing is just a fun hobby.

[Anonymous No.18442187]

>>18442028
Writing is more than a hobby. It’s a way of life, you think those so-called writers would ever reached the same height as the writers of old.

[Anonymous No.18442300]

>>18439130
It's so bafflingly bad. The questions you see here are so blown out of proportion and so common there that if I didn't know any better I would've thought people were just cheaply copying pasting questions from there. I really don't get it. Then again, I don' know what I was expecting here or there, or any writing discord I guess. It's all so tiresome and basically pissing in a sea of piss.

[Anonymous No.18442321]

>>18442300
Have you tried finding actual writing forums?

[Anonymous No.18442323]

>>18442321
/wg/ is a writing forum :^)

[Anonymous No.18442331]

>>18442300
To imagine that the way to get better at writing is to discuss it with brainlets online instead of you know, writing more is what's holding you idiots back. You don't get better at playing an instrument by talking about it, you don't get better at painting by talking about it neither. It's the same with writing.

[Anonymous No.18442363]

>>18442300
Why would you used 4chan of all places to seek help in writing.

[Anonymous No.18442439]

I managed to write a PDF story some time ago. Call it a novel if you want... But it's just Oc's doing weird shit during an adventure. If you like reading stories that looks like nonsense on the surface at first, this is for you. (I tried posting it here before and It was a disaster) Here's the direct link of my blog: https://nonegative9.wixsite.com/lambdafiv/written-stories
No, It's not a virus. Before you say anything.

[Anonymous No.18442464]

>>18442439
It’s a virus everyone.

[Anonymous No.18442647]

I nailed a paragraph down today. With a hammer and nail.
You know, part of me wants to get into archaeology to explore the world but I also feel like if I just randomly dig somewhere I'll find something if I go deep enough.

[Anonymous No.18443080]

>>18442439
it's like Chrischan wrote a story and drew crayon pictures to accompany it

[Anonymous No.18443084]

When is the right time to end a chapter? How should they end?

[Anonymous No.18443104]

>>18443080
I summon the dialogue puppy

> "That's it". Says the skeleton leader, at his workers ... "Either the pinata gets an entire

[Anonymous No.18443230]

>>18440664
I think it's pretty decent, but the specific use of "vena cava" feels a little out of place. It seems too ornate for sentance, more so than the rest of passage's "high" language.. if you get what I mean

[Anonymous No.18443301]

>>18440857
I like it. It can have a very unique sense of humor if you lean into the autism, but it can get boring if you lean too much. Walk the line autist-kun

[Anonymous No.18443540]

Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, I call upon you. Lend me your strength. Kierkegaard, Marx, Heidegger, Camus: allow me to borrow your fervor. For today I attempt that most vaunted of tasks: the practice of philosophy.

...I slammed shut my locker, the inside of which was adorned by printed out pictures of the great philosophers, a little too hard, causing my tinnitus to flare up as I whirled around on my heel and saw the school bully, Levin, flirting with my crush Darla. I went cross-eyed with rage. Immediately I marched up to Levin, who was dressed tackily in a red varsity jacket, but stopped just short of him, and instead of shoving or striking him I simply stood before him with my face twisted into the most wrathful expression I could muster, and transmitted negative energy.

He did not take notice of me at first. Then I interspersed my transmission with yelps, which, having Tourette's, I was able to get away with without arousing much attention; however, it aided in my transference of negative energy. I was visualizing all manner of harm befalling this Levin, imagined him crushed in an iron maiden, pecked to death by vultures, dissolved in a vat of hydrofluoric acid. The satisfaction I gleaned from seeing him die so gruesomely I concentrated at a point between my eyes and directed towards Levin as if in a beam, targeting his torso, his broad shoulders, his shapely swollen arms, and sinewy pectoral muscles. Immediately I realized I was gay and it was Levin that I had a crush on, and not, after all, Darla; but it was too late, he was already beginning to collapse under the glare of my negative energy beam, as the youth fled from his body, caved in his cheeks, the light left his eyes, and he was reduced to a pile of ash.

[Anonymous No.18443734]

>>18437631
Can we get a list going of books to avoid? I read The Hero by Lee Child and it was just a bunch of bullshit that gave me no more insight into crafting a protaganist than thinking of the common interpretation of the term in contrast to its origin. weak shit man, I'm never gonna read his fiction

[Anonymous No.18443745]

Anybody heard of Kindle Vella? It's launching in a few months:

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GR2L4AHPMQ44HNQ7

It basically seems like Amazon's going to let you release a story one chapter/section at a time, and promote each section as it appears. Like an old serial run in newspapers. Or, I guess, like fanfics are released, these days.

I'm really intrigued by it. I have some experience writing fanfics and I've developed a bit of intuitive skill at building hype for my stories by releasing the right chapter at the right time. This could be a way to get genuine readership, in a way that wouldn't be the case if I were just dumping my books on Amazon all at once.

[Anonymous No.18443757]

>>18443745
Too much content on websites like RR for Amazon to not take notice, and too much money spent on microtransactions to not try to commodify it. It really sounds like they wanted to buy out royal road but couldn't.

[Anonymous No.18443770]

Does the board still do /crit/? I glance over here now and again but I haven't seen one in some time.

[Anonymous No.18443782]

>>18443757
Hmm. Royal Road is definitely an option as well. I know they've been around for a while. I guess the question is, what will get more eyes on your work?

[Anonymous No.18443793]

>>18443745
Only for US and it has weird limitations. I personally have no interest in monetization. Also, what you described is literally just a webnovel

[Anonymous No.18443851]

>>18443793
The thing that Amazon provides is an audience. That's what we're all searching for, right? You can dump your novel anywhere, but how many people will actually read it? You've got to put it in the right place.

That's one of the appeals of traditional publishing, right? That the publisher makes sure that your novel actually gets seen, and actually gets promoted.

[Anonymous No.18443891]

>>18443851
The goal of any profession is to not have to do the business part of it. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, woodworkers, painters, musicians, and writers all just want to do the thing they are good at. No one wants to do sales any more than they have to. If amazon can provide that, then it sounds great.

The thing I’m excited about with this new amazon thing is figuring out how to best abuse the system. I read a bunch when I tried to write smut about how the algorithm and pay out were easily abused back in the day when kindle stuff first was starting out.

[Anonymous No.18444213]

>>18443770
the jannies kept deleting the /crit/ threads, pushing everyone into the new writing general /wg/

[Anonymous No.18444229]

>>18443745
Yes, current KDP uses can submit to Vella, but only other KDP users, ie beta users can read it. So far, the biggest consensus is that it costs too much to read a chapter ($). Amazon's biggest hurdle is to find the sweet spot in "credits", the standard token that people will use to pay for new chapters.

[Anonymous No.18444251]

>>18444229
*$1

[Anonymous No.18444300]

>>18443851
Amazon is so crowded, the chances of readers finding you are abysmal. If everyone gets promoted then who is actually seen?

[Anonymous No.18444306]

>>18444300
Amazon's algorithm is that they give you a free promotion for the first 3 months of publication. After that, they drop you in favor of the <3 month newbies, and after those 3 months they get dropped for the <3 month newbies, and so on.

[Anonymous No.18444377]

>>18437631
I wish to get some feedback about my (extremely) short story. Idea was quite cliched so it was good for practise story. Also it was originally not written in english so don't focus too much on grammar.
https://pastebin.com/EcPEMsNb

[Anonymous No.18444563]

>>18444377
it's a cool setup and actually more readable than a lot of the trite that is posted here since it wasn't navel gazing anxiety binging or some waifu fantasy.
I don't know how it would come off in your language and i don't really know specific advice to improve it, but it does feel a bit rushed.

>the moon illuminated the church almost as bright as the sun would

here's a good opportunity to use a metaphor, or perhaps just equate the lighting to dusk or a ghostly dawn or something similar.

Overall it was pleasant but i personally would've preferred them to be weirder than just eat human meat. That part actually made me lose interest. As soon as i read "eat the flesh of a son of god" or whatever i went "meh". I don't know how to make it more interesting but... a weirder take or stranger take would draw me in more. Also, you could start the story with talking to the hitchhiker. so start by
>hitch hiker is too talkative
>retrospective thought to "better than driving alone thinking about cigarette opportunities missed and needing to get away from things"
>coming to the village.

I would set it up like that. Overall the arc is good, and the idea is nice but i personally would change some things and also try to make the text more... i don't really know. SOmehow it feels a bit scattered. Like you haven't really decided on what perspective or style to use. Sorry for vague critique, gotta go get the laundry now. i'm a man, chill ur baguettes

[Anonymous No.18444564]

How do I stop being hyper obsessed with quality on a first draft? I end up taking 15 mins on a single sentence. The end result requires less polishing but if I cut bits out it's much more painful. But if I go quickly and know what I'm writing is shit it's off-putting.

[Anonymous No.18444581]

>>18444564
what do you want to write? do you have the idea fleshed out?
The general advice for this is go from start to end, be it a chapter or the whole shit, then review it. If you don't, you'll have spent hours on remaking things that you might have to change later on sincce you figured out some things need to connect earlier on and that you could have parallels to later events in the book.

First: what do you want to write? is it long or short?

[Anonymous No.18444642]

>>18444581
Short story. Aiming for 4-5k words. I know the beginning, end, and all the main story beats in between. It's just the actual writing part that I obsess over, instead of just letting all of it out and amending later.

[Anonymous No.18444651]

>>18444564
Force yourself to write 250 words in 15 minutes. Simple as.

[Anonymous No.18444656]

I think I'm going to start writing by hand. It's so much easier for some reason to organize my thoughts when I've got some physical papers out in front of me. Maybe it's because I basically grew up typing and have spent a majority of my life communicating through screens, but it feels like I can access my creativity in a different way when I put pen to paper. Anyone else feel similarly?

[Anonymous No.18444664]

>>18444651
Is that what you do?

[Anonymous No.18444715]

>>18444664
No, I write 300 words per 15 minutes (3 hours on workdays, 5 hours on weekends).

[Anonymous No.18444741]

>>18444563
Thanks for the analysis! I find this helpful and you clearly know your stuff.
This is my first fictional story so I am still testing and trying to find the style most suitable for me.Previously I have written only diary like stuff from travels.

It also was kinda rushed. I got this idea more than a year before writing it, when I was travelling in this kind of area (without cultists) with my friend and decided to make story out of it. Some months passed and I wrote short part one day and left it for several months more, partly because of lazy/busy and partly because I couldn't fill few blanks that I had in the story. Then I just chose a day and planned to do nothing but to work on this story, and wrote it.

[Anonymous No.18444816]

>>18444715
How much of that is quality though? Genuinely curious

[Anonymous No.18444826]

>>18444741
well i'd say you did well! Also, getting ideas from real happenings, be they self experienced or something you saw or read, is the best way to actually have something to write about, and is what differentiates people who should write from the people who shouldn't. (Them being the ones that like words and sentences but don't have anything to line them up about).

[Anonymous No.18444830]

>>18444816
Not him, but quality writing in terms of flow and structure? Almost zero percent chance that more than ten percent of it is good. But some people define quality in different ways. If you're all about muh story muh characters then the quality of your prose probably doesn't matter to you as long as it's not completely amateurish. Many, many writers are more than happy with readable, workmanlike prose which serves as a vehicle for what they see as quality. Others obsess over the prose itself.

[Anonymous No.18444837]

>>18444664
why doesn't he have any advice on how to deal with endings? xd xDddd

[Anonymous No.18444850]

>>18444830
This either/or is a false dichotomy though. Waldun peddles it too, ever since he realised he lacks the lyric ability. There's a difference between beautiful sentences and overwrought, purple prose. The best stories will have compelling arcs, themes, characters, structure but will be crafted using beautiful sentences. I have a real soft spot for Hemingway and have read everything by him but his sparse prose kept him from reaching the heights Joyce did (although lent itself well to his short stories, which outstrip his novels).

[Anonymous No.18444855]

>>18444837
>Dude just have him go back to the start of book 1 lmao

[Anonymous No.18444856]

>>18444826
Ah yes, a fellow TruWriter, I see! Me? Heh, I'm a lifelong diaperfur. Naturally, my fiction involves cumming in my fursuit and making stinky winky in my diaper. Tee hee! I'm glad you've got such a healthy respect for the all-important place that telling a story has in fiction. I too laugh down my stinky winky nosey wosey at those "writers" who don't KISS (keep it simple, stupid! haha) and can't kill their darlings. A writer is similar to a colon, when it comes down to it. As a colon pushes out a nicely formed, mealy turd, so does a writer exist to CREATE PRODUCT and expel it from the rectum. I'm glad we can see brown eye to brown eye on this totally holistic and definitely not completely made up litmus test by which all writers can be neatly separated into categories of the should's and should-not's.

[Anonymous No.18444862]

>>18444855
Made me chuckle. Yeah, i need to shitpost some more in /b/ now so i don't turn this into more of a shit show than it already is.

[Anonymous No.18444873]

>>18444850
Waldun is a hack careerist who makes money off the image of being a writer. I don't give a shit what you think I'm saying, but if you think there are similarities between what I'm saying and literally anything he says, you're wrong. Our goals are completely and diametrically opposed, and so the same must be our philosophies towards writing itself. Really, my post should be taken as a grudging allowance for the Stephen King school of dreck shoveling where word count is everything. To make it explicit, I am categorically not endorsing the act of shitting out as many words as your fingers can type and calling it writing.

[Anonymous No.18444876]

>>18444856
so much effort for so little gain. My point (which wasn't really clarified, so i'll give you that) is that there are tons of people out there who want to be something but are more interested in them being that thing than the subject that title is based on. Be it musician, artist, writer or whatever.

>i wanna write a book one day
>oh about what?
>i don't know... something. I want to be a writer.

This is the gist of a conversation i've had not too seldom, and let's not shit ourselves, there are tons of people out there who are like this.
And it seems i must've hit close to home considering your reply... sorry bro.

[Anonymous No.18444880]

>>18444876
No, I just gave you entirely too much credit and started boxing at shadows.

[Anonymous No.18444887]

>>18444856
you missed his point but i admittedly kek'd. here's your (You).

[Anonymous No.18444946]

>>18444816
The overall quality is pretty bad, but manageable. I don't write in english, otherwise I would post an excerpt.

[Anonymous No.18444995]

>>18444876
Lindsay Ellis also wrote a book just to say that she wrote a book

[Anonymous No.18445305]

Is this tight enough? (It's a translation)

The stranger reached into his travel bag and pulled out a hand-sized dictionary. Slowly he began to speak, flipping to a different page after each word:
"I'm looking for a man named Ben van Holm. Can you tell me where I can find him?" A polite smile tugged at his mustache.
The horse, which had been nibbling on a bale of hay, raised its head and whinnied. The stranger looked puzzled and began to leaf through his book.
"Could you say that again? I'm looking for a man..."

In the shade of a tree, two women sat on a bench and watched the man in foreign attire try to talk to the horse. There were three wicker baskets on the ground in front of them, one with potato peels and two with potatoes, peeled and unpeeled. The one said to the other:
"This fellow is nuts."
To which the other replied:
"Looks like it."

The horse had been joined by a police officer, who examined the stranger from top to bottom and then patted the horse on the back:
"I guess you can talk to horses, huh? Judging by your clothes, you're not from around here. Is there anything I can help you with?" The stranger had only understood every third word: "I can horses by you're around there can with?" He shrugged and smiled apologetically. At last he said, very slowly:
"I'm looking for a man named Ben van Holm."
The police officer's eyes widened.
"Ben van Holm? THE Ben van Holm?"
"Ben van Holm," repeated the stranger, pronouncing every syllable. He nodded eagerly.
"Wait here," the officer said, who was suddenly very excited and tried to translate what he had said to the stranger in sign language, before running hurriedly in the direction of the city. After a couple of steps, however, he returned, took the stranger by the hand and pulled him along with him.
"You'd better come with me after all. I'll take you to Alderman van Holm."
"van Holm," repeated the stranger, holding his pointed hat, which threatened to fly away in the running-wind.

"Look at that," said the one. "He nicked him."
To which the other replied:
"Looks like it."

[Anonymous No.18445530]

>>18444826
I definately agree, and have come to the same conclusion some time ago, but corona unfortunately blocked my planned trips to gain these experiences.

[Anonymous No.18446370]

>>18443080
sorry for the late answer, it's 2:15 PM and my internet just came back, yup pretty much what you said but that's the joke. It all comes around the edgy and the autistic things. And the dialogue was something like "That's it". Says the skeleton leader, at his workers ... "Either the pinata gets an entire family of batteries just like her or YOU will replace her position as energy pawns".

[Anonymous No.18446402]

Friends, I'm going to be a great writer. Come up with a stupid alias for me, please!

[Anonymous No.18446416]

>>18446402
Clive Queefel

[Anonymous No.18446477]

>>18444213
This never happened, schizo. They just died due to lack of activity.

[ICAMORUS No.18446488]

II
On Orion his hand.
On Antopia his will.
On Argum his hate.
Battle of transient white,
Flowers of garbed hem and cloth of vale.
Fear. Illuminated. Psion of war.
And so shall the pestilence of one's heart shall share among goats in beasts skin.

[Anonymous No.18446510]

>>18446402
https://blog.reedsy.com/pen-name-generator/?utf8=%E2%9C%93&letter=g&gender=Neutral&origin=English

Have fun. It's a pen name generator

[Anonymous No.18446516]

>>18446402
Richard Cleaner

[Anonymous No.18446607]

>>18443084
They should end at the parts which an amateur writer would feel compelled to force himself to write. Traveling, waiting, doing some form of maintenance work, or a conversation wherein one character is catching another up on events which the reader has already observed. You could probably think of counterpoints to each of these examples, for instance, one character might want to deceive another about prior events, in which case that conversation has narrative purpose and should be included. Or your character is in a race against time, in which case every step of their journey adds a degree of tension. But generally, if you're asking yourself "how can I make the next three pages seem interesting" it's probably fine to just end the scene and move on to the next event.

[Anonymous No.18446693]

>>18440857
>From the color of his skin, brown, and his profession, I surmised that he was of Indian extraction.
>Observing the four prongs protruding from the polished handle made of some kind of stain-resistant iron alloy, I rapidly surmised that I was looking at a fork.
>I looked at the patient lying in bed. Prominent breasts, high-pitched voice, and an obvious lack of muscle tone. I compiled the data and analyzed all the factors gained from my audiovisual assessment. This process took only a few nanoseconds: the patient was female.
>All around me people were emitting piercing screams and rapidly engaging in the process of locomotion towards some, as of yet, unknown destination. Carbon molecules mixed with the nitrogen-oxygen gas emulsion which had previously filled the hallway, slightly obscuring the intake capacity of my ocular nerves. The temperature of the room had increased substantially in the last twenty seconds, and now an alarm was ringing out. There could only be one cause to this confounding collation of data points. Something had combusted.

[Anonymous No.18446834]

In the following sentence, why is the extra "and" appropriate?

>He had asked his male cousin, the young son of his uncle, and his uncle for his father's sake, and three neighboring farmers who lived in the village with him.

i.e why isn't it:

>He had asked his male cousin, the young son of his uncle, his uncle for his father's sake, and three neighboring farmers who lived in the village with him.

Is it just a matter of maintaining the rhythm of the sentence or does it change the meaning as well?

[Anonymous No.18446887]

>>18444229
Hmm, that's a good point.

I've actually given some thought to just putting my story up on Substack. People are gravitating to Substack these days, it might be a good place for fiction.

[Anonymous No.18447374]

>>18437631
>For Prose:
>Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)
>a fucking book with a 27 word title that should use a comma but instead uses parentheses
>for prose
Jesus fucking christ

[Anonymous No.18447700]

>>18447374
welcome friend! This is the way it is here.

[Anonymous No.18447805]

>>18437631
>For Prose:
>>The Art of Fiction
There's like five books by different authors with this title. Which one should I read?

[Anonymous No.18447810]

>>18440436
why would you want to write like Crichton?

[Anonymous No.18447860]

>>18447810
I don't want to write like Crichton, but I admire his work ethic. That being said, I quite liked some of his books –––
Sitting at 4.600 right now, with 30 minutes left before I definitely have to go to bed –unless I want to oversleep and be late for work, which I'm considering, because fuck those fuckers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dxwZSQhiiY

[Anonymous No.18448409]

>>18446834
The 'and' distinguishes 'his uncle for his father's sake' from 'the young son of his uncle', who isn't a sixth member of the team but a description of his male cousin.

[Anonymous No.18448790]

>>18448409
Ah of course. Thanks.

[Anonymous No.18448865]

HOW DO I GET OFF MY BED AND FINISH EDITING MY STORY

[Anonymous No.18448902]

>me when I realise I'm shit at writing
>get back at it anyway

[Anonymous No.18448993]

Do you envision the "cinematography" of what you write? Like the "camera shots" of how the events are being "seen" by the reader? Do you try to transmit those in your writing or is it up to the audience to imagine it however they do?

[Anonymous No.18449069]

>>18447805
Think they are all just different editions, it’s a textbook.

[Anonymous No.18449073]

>>18447374
Not for prose really, but for story structure

[Anonymous No.18449075]

>>18447810
He doesn't have the most poetic prose, but you have to admit that his pacing is perfect.

[Anonymous No.18449105]

How would you improve videogame narratives and its writing?

[Anonymous No.18449124]

>>18448993
The human mind can only pay attention to one new thing at a time. It can be in context of many situations and perspectives at once, but you need to string their thoughts together coherently. How you direct attention is basically a camera shot, as long as you aren't trying to verbally describe a visual trick.

Imagine your character walks into a room and sees it's a bar. The bartender is a thick, muscular man in his mid twenties, gently polishing a spill off the counter. The bar smells like vomit. The bartender smile, a little slice of sparkling white meant just for you. A car alarm goes off outside, drowning out the looped dance music. The bartender asks, "what can I get you to drink?"

vs

A wailing car alarm chased the character inside the bar, drowning out the looped dance music within. It stank of sweat and vomit and spilled beer. The bartender was wiping down the counter, a thick and muscular man. He smiled, a slender arc of sparkling teeth as the character approached. "What can I get for you?" he asked.

[Anonymous No.18449132]

Today was another paragraph day, but that's not why I'm posting. I saw on my author dashboard that on the 6th someone read 8 pages of one of my books on a kindle (it doesn't tell me which one) so on the very, very slight chance that you are out here in the shadows with me I just want to say one thing.
Thank you for giving me a chance. I'd have thanked you sooner but Deathanon is a bit of a derp that doesn't check things everyday.
I always get so antsy when I get activity going on. I had a certain vision going into my series but I never know how they'll be interpreted or be seen by other people, but I hope they bring you some happiness.

[Anonymous No.18449457]

>>18448993
It's a given that your reader will imagine shit entirely differently. You should just provide them the tools to do so with.

[Anonymous No.18449519]

How do I stay focused while transcribing all the stuff I have in my head?
I'm about to take a break from "writing" to do something else but I want to leave things written down so I don't have to worry about remembering my stories while I'm doing something else.

[Anonymous No.18449538]

Feeling a bit lost and all over the place. What do you lean on to recenter yourself?

[Anonymous No.18449555]

>>18449538
By not posting on 4chan and continue writing.

[Anonymous No.18449746]

After seeing pictures like these, I have nothing but respect for self-published authors, they set for themselves a goal to write a book, stuck with it and now are socializing with like-minded individuals. They made it.

[Anonymous No.18449796]

>>18449746
Never understood the stigma of self-publishing, if people want to do it, let them do it.

[Anonymous No.18449848]

>>18449796
I always got the vibe that it was just bunch of snobbish assholes

[Anonymous No.18449887]

>>18449848
Meh, never understood why they would try and shit on some author's day for finishing their novels.

[Anonymous No.18449923]

>>18449887
Because a lot of them go around saying they are published authors. It has absolutely nothing to do with finishing their novels and everything to do with the quality of the novel itself. Before self publishing, the idea of being a published novelist came with a hidden value judgment: that in whatever way your novel was actually good enough to convince someone else to publish it. Self publishing acts as a shortcut to this "gravitas" of publishing and dilutes the accomplishment for people who not only "finish their novels," but have finished actually good novels.

This whole focus on just finishing the thing being some kind of accomplishment is the major objection I have. I make effortposts pretty much every night on 4chan and have for the past 13-14 years. If you collated all the words I've written into a "novel," I'd be able to join the lofty heights of the participation club.

I'm just not impressed by people who shit out 100k words of neophytic prose, self publish on Amazon, and expect dick rubs for """finishing their novel""". It means nothing.

[Anonymous No.18449958]

>>18449923
The only time I ever see this, is when one of them, makes claim they’re writting the new political book that will change everything.

[Anonymous No.18450014]

>>18444850
>Waldun
Literally who?

[Anonymous No.18450064]

>>18450014
Some nobody that attracts pseuds for some reason. Just ignore it.

[Anonymous No.18450104]

>>18450064
It honestly feels like every other week some new person becomes famous on /lit/ for no reason and people just shill them.

[Anonymous No.18450151]

>>18449923
Your favorite author had to deal with hundreds of rejections. Publishing houses do not deal with the quality of the work. They simply pick things they think will be successful in the marketplace.
There is no gravitas. Just people trying to tell a story.
Besides my friendly double spacer, if you just read the stuff that's already popular then you're just hopping from one bandwagon to the other. It's okay to form your own opinions.

[Anonymous No.18450164]

>>18450151
So what was the most rejected book?

[Anonymous No.18450195]

>>18440411
Based.

[Anonymous No.18450229]

>>18450151
Do people still think traditional publishing is some merit of quality?

[Anonymous No.18450261]

>>18450164
Dick Wimmer, Irish Wine: 162 rejections.
What I find interesting is the next most rejected is Chicken Soup for the Soul at 144 rejections. Those books are everywhere!
>>18450229
Traditional publishing gets you advertising and people to do your book cover etc. Hell even agents don't really read your book. You just email them the book title and open a query. If you expect a literary agent to know the ins and outs of every book they publish you're gonna be disappointed.
Traditional publishing to me is nice, but what do you always see people doing? Oh this book is bad, oh no THIS one is bad. Etc.
Most of those books are traditionally published. Those books get advertised and into the reader's hand so they have an opinion on the book, which is the strength of traditional publishing, but to say those books are good or bad is usually up to the one reading it. Not everyone likes every type of apple. It's just the way it is.
Yeah I'm sure it feels good to be able to say hey I'm traditionally published...but okay. Now what? Yay.

[Anonymous No.18450263]

>>18450229
The worst traditionally published novel is still better than the best self-published novel

[Anonymous No.18450272]

>>18437631
>Be me, writing an epic poem
>Writing in Old Norse meter (ljodahattr)
>20 pages in
>Realize that no one will buy my epic if I don't start publishing in journals
>Start frantically writing poetry
>5 poems per day, new submission every day to different poetry/literary journals
>Keep working on epic
>Writing has improved because of huge amount of practice
>Nearing the end of my poem on a massive invasion during a war
>Feel urge to go back and rewrite huge sections
Should I finish my first "chapter" (should be about 100-200 more lines or so) before going back to edit, or should I start editing before finishing the first "chapter"?

[Anonymous No.18450298]

>>18450261
>Traditional publishing gets you advertising and people to do your book cover etc.
Some of the more self-publish books do that as well, still don't see the merits of being traditionally publish, unless people still think being traditional published have some weight like it used to in the old days.

[Anonymous No.18450303]

>>18450272
You should finish your poem and fix every problem in your other drafts.

[Anonymous No.18450312]

>>18450298
an open secret is that traditional publishers will do fuck all for advertising and rely on authors to make their own newsletters, email lists, Twitter page, Instagram account, and book readings. Read up on accounts of first time published authors, a lot of them will say that the publishing house will send a short press release to the newspapers and wash their hands of their responsibility

[Anonymous No.18450314]

>>18450303
Do you mean I should finish the first part (on the invasion and beginning of the war) or finish the entire epic before going back to edit?

[Anonymous No.18450317]

>>18450314
Entire epic.

[Anonymous No.18450323]

>>18450317
Gotcha.
Time to get down to working again. Got my beers ready.

[Anonymous No.18450385]

Okay, I'm convinced that the only way to beat my total, years long procrastination is to write short stories. I've been trying to crack this murder-mystery novel open but I can't bring myself to write anything. I've researched the fuck out of it but just can't put words on the page. I think it must be an issue with fear but, knowing this, it seems the best way to beat it is to build my confidence with short stories.
Has anyone else had this problem?

[Anonymous No.18450411]

>>18437806
I once analysed the Australian literary journal landscape and you are 100% accurate that they are obsessed by these sorts of social issues. The sole exception is Quadrant, which is a Noah's Ark of right wing troglodytes bobbing around in the otherwise homogenous sea of dull social realism.

You should seriously consider if it's worth struggling to meet the standards of these journals. If they do not value the kind of stories you actually write regardless of quality, you have only a few choices:
>submit anyway
>change your writing so it reflects the content they want
>submit elsewhere

Personally I would question if it is worth bothering with them. It's your decision of course, but do you actually respect these journals and the authors who appear in them? Do they have cultural clout? Are they widely read, or at least read by literary folk you want to be known by? Would it lead to a literary career to appear in these journals? Are there alternative paths you could take?

You might want to consider finding ways to reach an audience who would appreciate your work, instead of bargaining with gatekeepers who - by the sounds of it - don't care for your work unless it includes certain themes. Even if this means creating your own platform... like a small website of your own to host your stories, an email list to keep in touch with readers... or self-publishing in some other way - you may find more success this way. Alternatively, the obvious choice is to look outside Australia for journals that accept international submissions. But honestly, this phenomenon is very common among literary journals these days. I think it is because the incentives of government arts grants and viral marketing tend to favour these sorts of topics.

[Anonymous No.18450473]

>>18450312
If some of the more recent books I've read are anything to go by, they also no longer provide proofreaders nor editors.

[Anonymous No.18450477]

>>18450385
Did you try to just write? Sit down and put down words for an hour or more? And do it daily, not as a challenge but as reward.

[Anonymous No.18450487]

>>18450477
I'm trying to use postpositive adjectives since it sounds better rhythmically

[Anonymous No.18450492]

>>18450385
You shouldn't be writing as a system, at least not until you develop some stronger concept. Short stories are great, but be sure to actually finish them.

[Anonymous No.18450499]

>>18450487
No, it sounds pretentious

[Anonymous No.18450503]

Can someone help me with blackification of vampire myths? I currently have
> kill Blackula with onyx stake, instead of a wooden stake
> wear South African geranium flowers, instead of garlic flowers

Vampires are burned by silver, but I want something more blacky. What is something is particularly African that can substitute for silver?

[Anonymous No.18450509]

>>18450487
So, what gives you problems is not writing the story itself, but failing to implement a stylistic choice. That sounds like a sculptor that can't get started because he wants all chips to be at specific angle from the start, instead of doing the rough work first.

[Anonymous No.18450510]

and I also have Black Jesus instead of regular Jesus

[Anonymous No.18450514]

>>18450499
>>18450509
You guys wouldn’t understand given that you read manga, light novels and watch anime.

[Anonymous No.18450517]

>>18450503
Vampirs turn into mosquitos instead of bats, because of africans forced into labor due to their malaria resistance.

[Anonymous No.18450521]

>>18450514
Well, continue daydreaming about being a writer, while I'll be actually writing my novel and eventually see it completed.

[Anonymous No.18450527]

>>18450503
The most steretypical african thing is probably blood diamonds. Or just use oxidized silver, it turns dark.

[Anonymous No.18450553]

>>18450517
interesting, I never knew about the malaria thing. But that makes sense
> Esposito also demonstrates the link between malaria and slavery using historical data from the official Louisiana slave records for 1719 to 1820. The records contain details for over 3000 slaves, including prices paid and birth place. The records show that higher prices were paid for Africans from more malaria-ridden regions where malarial resistance was greatest, results that remain unaffected even when controlling for a variety of other factors such as the size of the slave or their agricultural skills.

>>18450527
oh yes, I think blood diamonds will be perfect. That's very black and has negative connotations, so of course perfect African Count Blackula will be burned by it

[Anonymous No.18450554]

>>18450521
Being a writer is more than just writing, anon.

[Anonymous No.18450557]

>>18450554
Yes, but are you a writer if you do not write?

[Anonymous No.18450559]

>>18450557
Compare to you, an animefag? Yes.

[Anonymous No.18450587]

>>18450487
It's all so tiresome. it feels like I'm living in a simulations.

[Anonymous No.18450603]

>>18450521
You have to wonder if at some point, this is all just some big cope from them.

[Anonymous No.18450604]

>>18450603
It often feels like it.

[Anonymous No.18450621]

>>18450487
I refuse to believe this is actually real. This has to be shitpost. No fucking way are people worrying over something that inconsequential.

[Anonymous No.18450624]

>>18450621
The mind of the pseuds will astound you.

[Anonymous No.18450658]

>>18450263
No. Don’t be this delusional.

[Anonymous No.18450666]

Is bad prose on purpose okay? If you had a character orally tell a story, and their story was bad with redundancies (e.g. a dialogue scene between two characters and every line ends with "[character A/B] says" despite it being so obvious a three-year-old could follow along), is that good writing for portraying the character being a bad storyteller, or is still bad writing in the context of you as the author?
I'm not sure if "ironic shitposting is still shitposting" logic applies here, if it's bad form to make the reader read something poorly-written even if it's done so in-universe.

[Anonymous No.18450671]

>>18450666
Yeah, you're showing us that the character is a bad storyteller.

[Anonymous No.18450682]

>>18450559
>>18450557
>>18450603
>>18450604
>>18450621

Does the animefag actually roleplay as a caricaturized autist just to repeat the same self-promotional exchange about how only animefags write? Because this shit happens in every thread and it's balls-to-the-walls insane

[Anonymous No.18450686]

>>18450666
If it's boring, it's shit. Any other questions while I'm here?

[Anonymous No.18450689]

>>18450658
Name one (1) good self-published novel.
inb4 gardner shilling

[Anonymous No.18450692]

>>18450686
What are your thoughts on singular "they," Mr. Chad?

[Anonymous No.18450698]

>>18450682
What the fuck are you on about?

[Anonymous No.18450720]

>>18450692
Instead of "But a journalist should not be forced to reveal their sources" write: "But a male journalist should not be forced to reveal his sources."

[Anonymous No.18450721]

>>18450689
A self published book just won a Nebula award

https://nebulas.sfwa.org/nominated-work/a-wizards-guide-to-defensive-baking/

[Anonymous No.18450738]

>>18450698
Some pseuds no doubt. Just ignore him.

[Anonymous No.18450750]

>>18450721
>Author writes children's books and weird comics, and has won the Hugo, Sequoyah, and Ursa Major awards, as well as a half-dozen Junior Library Guild selections.
Not going to lie, but good on her. A shinning example on what to strive for.

[Anonymous No.18450762]

>>18450721
>Fourteen-year-old Mona isn’t like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can’t control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt’s bakery making gingerbread men dance.

>But Mona’s life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona’s city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona’s worries…
Anyone here could have written that. It doesn’t make it good just cause it won an award.

[Anonymous No.18450773]

>>18450750
The author has lots of traditionally published books, and she submitted Wizard's Guide to Baking everywhere, got rejected, people said it wasn't good enough. But she believed in its quality and published it herself

[Anonymous No.18450779]

>>18450762
What is For Whom the Bell Tolls but a story about a young American man who gets killed in the Spanish Civil War? Anyone could've written that

[Anonymous No.18450782]

>>18450773
Still doesn't change the fact that a self-publishing book won the award.

[Anonymous No.18450790]

>>18450782
Yeah, I mainly said that in response to earlier in the thread where people were martyring themselves over muh you must suffer rejection. Sometimes it's better to just do it yourself and skip the middleman, especially if you believe in the quality of your work

[Anonymous No.18450807]

>>18450779
>Anyone could've written that
Perhaps Hemingway got better in his later books. I could not see what the big deal was with his writing unless his style was innovative for the times in which he wrote. But it does genuinely feels like anyone else could have written it.

[Anonymous No.18450809]

>>18450762
Sounds fun, desu.

[Anonymous No.18450812]

>>18450790
Sorry for the misunderstanding. But I agree with you. I don't know why so many anons here keep sucking Publishers' dicks.

[Anonymous No.18450819]

>>18450807
Story is good and memorable. The prose is simple but I prefer it to long purple passages

[Anonymous No.18450820]

>>18450666
How is this a question? Of course writing in bad prose for the purpose to showing the reader that the character is a bad storyteller is justified.

[Anonymous No.18450833]

>>18450819
I prefer beige prose than purple prose myself.

[Anonymous No.18450834]

>>18450812
It's a holdover from the olden days where publishers were the gatekeepers. Back then, it was stupid too, but people had no choice in the matter. Now that print on demand and Amazon exist, why the hell would you beg these faggots to please please please deem your book worthy. Sure, send out to them if you want, but there's no need to get 200 rejections, stop at 20 or something

https://simonandschusterpublishing.com/simonandschuster/our-team.html

[Anonymous No.18450840]

>>18450834
It's a sentiment that I agree with wholeheartedly. I just wish a few anons here don't ridicule or talk shit about anons who decide to go the self-publish route.

[Anonymous No.18450849]

I can't even think of a story to write
so I am thinking either I can read more or go outside more to get more creative
but I have watched a lot of films and I can't even write one it's so frustuating
maybe I should write about shit personal to me and make a story out of that rather than writing for the sake of what will be considered the next masterpiece

[Anonymous No.18450857]

>>18450849
Are you taking requests? I went to read a Christmas story about someone who learns the true meaning of Christmas

[Anonymous No.18450858]

>>18450840
>few anons here don't ridicule or talk shit about anons who decide to go the self-publish route.
There’s always going be that here. Crabs in buckets and all that shit.

[Anonymous No.18450865]

>>18450849
>than writing for the sake of what will be considered the next masterpiece
Already NGMI

[Anonymous No.18450867]

>>18450858
>Crabs
This shit again.

[Anonymous No.18450880]

>>18450849
No no no no no no no. You have to sit down in front of the blank page and write. Put down any image that pops into your head. Try to turn that image into a scene, and that scene into a sequence. If you wait for your ideas, they wont come. You have to force them out of their holes. Accept that your story might turn out to be shit – thats okay. It will be shitty. But get your ideas out. What do you see? Shrubbery with little holes in it and nothing more. Right? In reality, its bunker full of japs, aka your brain full of ideas. You have to blast em out with a flamethrower. Take the pain my man. Dont turn your gaze away from that white nothing, bro.

[Anonymous No.18450881]

>>18450834
>https://simonandschusterpublishing.com/simonandschuster/our-team.html
Yeah, anons needs to wake up to this shit.

[Anonymous No.18450889]

>>18450880
But I’ll write one decent story than several shitty ones.

[Anonymous No.18450894]

>>18450867
On this thread, I've seen thethe crabs thing applied to anything
> I'm submitting to traditional publishing companies
> Hey, you should consider self publishing
> CRABS IN A BUCKET

> I'm self publishing my book
> Hey, you should try submitting to traditional publishing companies
> CRABS IN A BUCKET

[Anonymous No.18450908]

>>18450881
Oh vey, this girl helps decide whether your book can join the S&S team. She is very wise and can pick out quality, and definitely didn't get this job only because a family member worked there or some shit

> Tzipora Baitch, Assistant Editor
> Tzipora joined Simon & Schuster in 2019, following internships at Penguin Random House and Aevitas Creative Management. She loves to read broadly, but is particularly interested in narrative nonfiction, psychology, history, memoir, and literary fiction. She graduated summa cum laude from Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women with a double major in English and psychology. Tzipora assists Vice President and Executive Editor Eamon Dolan.

https://simonandschusterpublishing.com/simonandschuster/tzipora-baitch.html

[Anonymous No.18450914]

>>18450908
How isn’t nepotism punish in that industry?

[Anonymous No.18450915]

>>18450889
No you wont. First you will write nothing. Then, by pure chance, you will get an idea. You will try to turn that idea into a great stoy – and it will turn out shit. Oh well. Guess writing just isnt for me. Or: Shoot, now I will have to wait another month for the next idea to knock on my dorm. Fuck that mindset. I shit out twenty pages a day since mid may and I turned into a monster story teller from nothing bro. My mind is completely blank when I sit down. Some random image pops up, like a kid playing in a sandpit. A woman is watching the boy – not his mother. She is smiling, but in a sad way. Next thing I know, I am telling the backstory of this poor woman who lost her son two years ago yadayada. I wasted the last seven years thinking about writing the next great thing. Since last month, I feel, for the forst time, like a writer. Someone who writes, who can look a housebuilder in the eye and say: Yeah, I work my ass off. You dumb fucking autist.

[Anonymous No.18450916]

>>18450914
If nepotism is punish, then the entire system collapses.

[Anonymous No.18450919]

>>18450915
Anon, you need to calm down, you’re taking this too personally.

[Anonymous No.18450921]

>>18450916
Jesus Christ.

[Anonymous No.18450928]

>>18450908
Kek, they ain’t even hiding it at this point.

[Anonymous No.18450930]

>>18450915
Good mindset to have, congrats.

[Anonymous No.18450938]

>>18450908
How is this not demoralizing? Fucking hell. They’re gatekeeping the gatekeepers. Nothing but approved propaganda.

[Anonymous No.18450941]

>>18450938
Just don't bother with them and go your own way.

[Anonymous No.18450943]

>>18450941
How can I go my own way if they control everything?

[Anonymous No.18450945]

New thread
>>18450944

[Anonymous No.18450956]

>>18450943
They don't control Royal Road + Patreon ... yet

[Anonymous No.18450962]

>>18450956
Sooner or later they will fall.