/wg/ - Writing General

[Anonymous No.19223746]

Shut Up 'n Play Yer Guitar --I mean Write edition

Previous Thread: >>19211492

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
>Links: https://pastebin.com/i4RLYJEx (embed)

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

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 Dickens and write serially
https://www.royalroad.com/
> Basic overview of the Screenplay format
https://screenwriting.info/

[Anonymous No.19223769]

is being inspired by video games a bad thing?

[Anonymous No.19223779]

>>19223769
Depends on the video game to be honest but either way your influences shouldn’t be obvious in your final work.

[Anonymous No.19223781]

I've been working on a short story playing heavily with alliteration and rhyme. Once I've finished it, I'd like to post a few excerpts and get some hot takes.
All the while this is happening, I'm putting off writing on my actual two books which have long been delayed in finishing (I started them both around April last year). One is almost done at 70k, and one is half done at 70k.

[Anonymous No.19223787]

>>19223769
not at all
i like to keep track of my character's stats like it's an rpg so that readers will always be up to date on what each character is capable of. it's also fun to start character arcs with a chapter heading like "Quest Accepted: [quest goes here].

[Anonymous No.19223797]

>>19223779
undertale, for
>lightheartedness of having a child protagonist
>non human character designs
>character with some sort of major twist where they aren't at all what you think they are
>some sort of vauge reference to anhedonia
>chekhovs guns going off left right center if you experience the media a second time

>>19223787
I haven't the slightest idea on how to write litrpg or even if I should, do you have a good example of the genre?

[Anonymous No.19223799]

>>19223769
extremely bad and the amount of obviously RPG-inspired fantasy books out there only reminds me that modern mechanized farms literally sprinkle shit freshly collected from water treatment plants onto the food you and I eat every day

[Anonymous No.19223805]

>>19223781
Why not just write the whole thing in verse? Poetry is due for a neoclassical revival and you could take advantage of that if you already have an epic ready to go.

[Anonymous No.19223811]

>>19223797
>do you have a good example of the genre?
of course not lmao

[Anonymous No.19223815]

>>19223799
Wash your produce, man.
>>19223805
My one and only experience with verse is Gawain and the Green Knight and the subtleties of poetry are really fucking minute. I legitimately don't know if I have the chops to try something of that caliber; but maybe after posting an excerpt, I'll get similar feedback.
My goal was to try something more free flowing and musical than my usual style, and I have a lot of fun with it. It's very dreamy and fluid.

[Anonymous No.19223832]

>>19223797
The first 3 points you list are far from original ideas. You can pull that from 1/300th of all media so the video game question is kind of moot there. It just seems like you want to write undertale fan fiction more than anything but don’t really have anything new to bring to the table so you’re just gonna retell it with your own fur creatures.
The LITRPG question also tells me you don’t really know what you’re doing if you would even consider that for a second.

[Anonymous No.19223891]

>>19223832
oh great. thanks

[Anonymous No.19223902]

any thoughts on this shit
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A7xDXOgqMkbx1dOQOrFNDWVB5PRaOa0XauO3hLuXRmI/edit

[Anonymous No.19223956]

Here is a bit of wisdom I have learned about the craft: layers of superfluous detail matter just as much as a plot. Layering is important. When redrafting, it's important to always sprinkle in more, seemingly irrelevant but secretly illuminating details. These details don't necessarily add to the plot, but they contribute something extra. And that something extra is what will linger like an aroma in your reader's senses more so than the plot, which is nothing but a flavorless sequence of events. The details are the spice, the plot is just the meat and potatoes. Go back and make your characters think and do things that are irrelevant to the plot. After all real people are not mindless puppets following some coherent scheme as if they were following a railroad tracks. They stop to do irrelevant things. That's what makes them human. All those extra details will add up to make something special. Your readers will remember your characters not because they were puppets mechanically enslaved to a plot, but for what made them human, the little things they went out of their way to experience, think and feel that were not part of some design other than their own whims. Also, any room in any scene in any story would always be better and more lively if there was a flower pot in it, a particularly beautiful chair, a particular flash of sunlight color on the wall, rather than a hollow schematic skeleton of a room suited only to transmit plot.

[Anonymous No.19223965]

>>19223746
I am working on a story about a man who loses his virginity to a prostitute, this is what I have done. Please read it and tell me what you think, be as hard as you want.
>I was determined to lose my virginity before turning 20 years old, I haven’t had luck. Navigating the world with an unattractive face is a condemnation of shipwreck, a penalty that had been imposed on me since before my birth. The events that precede my existence consist in themselves a kind of tragedy. My parents were two individuals who barely found a way to reproduce, the lowest elements of their lineage. If you looked at their relatives you would see that there was no reason for them to be so disgustingly horrible. Otherwise they weren't doing so badly, they had modest successes and were moderately talented, but all the ladders wobble before the sexual hierarchy. Martyred by the cruelest of all whores, Mother Nature, all their actions implied an apology for their presence in the world, the shame of inhabiting absolutely undesirable bodies. Hypocritically, humanity, this cursed race that has no problem tearing each other apart, conspires to procure the best genes for the species, displaced and humiliated, those poor in genetic value have no choice but to get together. Thus, my parents were lucky and damned to meet, and they loved each other as much as you can love an ugly, that is, almost nothing. What cannot be denied is the love they devoted to the product of this reverse eugenics. The crave to access the paradise that they had been denied, blinded them to the impossibility of me being granted with a destiny other than theirs. For a moment they believed it, during my childhood, when life was still a promise, they believed it. But reality materialized at puberty, when my childish features degenerated into this mask of hopelessness that would drag on for a lifetime.

[Anonymous No.19223997]

>>19223769
The best written video game is equivalent to book written for retarded children who have been aborted. So being inspired by video games is a very, very bad thing unless your target market is barely literate.

[Anonymous No.19224014]

>>19223997
Psued who hasn’t experienced enough of either medium.

[Anonymous No.19224017]

>the want to write remains while depression symptoms keep getting stronger
>I have lost every want except to write
>have also lost the things that have inspired me
>can't generate new ideas, can't finish this outline, can't write
why is my life a shitty meme

[Anonymous No.19224018]

>>19223769
what do you think

[Anonymous No.19224023]

I know now that most of my dialogue comes from years of watching sitcoms and comedy movies. I always try to make my characters say something punchy and effervescent, get in quick jokes or jabs at the other person, and generally keep the tone of the conversation light. I recently started writing a character, the grounded, dry straight-man, kind of like Daria but with a lot less monotone, snide, quick-witted remarks. It's been helping me to reign in my characters so they don't become caricatures and stay on topic. I just hate that whenever I try to write a serious passage, I have these serious points I try to hit with the characters, but then I always try to fit a joke in there that completely deflates the situation. I'll have a married couple arguing, and then I'll have a storm of cats outside their window either fighting or mating and I already think it's too much. Then, I'll try to write a character who is going through an existential crisis or a crisis of morals/conscience, and it comes off sounding like an amateur film school kid aping the French New Wave movies. Is less more?

[Anonymous No.19224025]

>>19224018
my opinion is that video games tell very basic stories and that they can possibly be okay. but because I'm not widely read enough, maybe I'm wrong.

[Anonymous No.19224045]

>>19224017
I can't even sit down to write lately. I sit down and am overcome by anxiety just staring at the blank document.

[Anonymous No.19224048]

>>19223997
The strength of videogame storytelling isn't in the writing per se—it's in their ability to let the player insert himself into the game world and experience the story almost as though it were happening to him. Majora's Mask, for instance, has good storytelling though little in the way of what you might call "writing".

[Anonymous No.19224054]

>>19223769
My work is inspired by Metroid Prime and Pikmin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZGvBEDo5vk&t=191s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW-MEqhiGzc
What I want at this point is to make fantasy worlds with believable ecosystems, just like they pulled off
If it speaks to you, never apologize for it

[Anonymous No.19224130]

>First 100 pages of my story is done
>Took me like a year
>Realize it's mostly garbage that will be way too long to ever publish anyway
>Generic setting
>Generic story
>Still feel compelled to finish it to practice if nothing else

Fuck man, writing sucks. Oh well, guess I'll keep trucking along. Wish I didn't write at the speed of smell.

[Anonymous No.19224136]

>>19224014
It's OK that the most reading you ever did in your life was a Final Fantasy game. You don't need to remind us that you're an idiot, though.
>>19224048
So when you retards talk about your writing being inspired by games, what, you want to do some VR experience shit because you're not smart enough to actually write?
Why are you even here?

[Anonymous No.19224168]

>>19224136
If this is your best take on trolling I would hate to see your writing.

[Anonymous No.19224184]

>>19223769
Video games are different books but they're still mediums for telling a story either way, what you need to keep an eye out for is the similarities between them
Analyze how Undertale told its themes, brought out your emotions, the dialogue between characters. Look at the environments and think about what they were designed to invoke in your head. Video games tend to have a lot of unspoken details that the player has to respond to.
>>19224136
It's like watching a caveman scream at fire

[Anonymous No.19224194]

I'm an illiterate shit and was hoping someone here knew of a resource I can drop a paragraph into to check for punctual mistakes.

[Anonymous No.19224232]

>>19223902
I read a few lines and got bored, sorry mate. If you're going to open with a whole paragraph of "showing" at least make the prose interesting

[Anonymous No.19224235]

>>19224194
Word will inform you of missing commas.

[Anonymous No.19224252]

I have a problem were I try to imagine my audience/reader while I'm writing but I can't imagine anyone but myself, so I get depressed and give up writing for the day. Is this supposed to happen? what does it mean?

[Anonymous No.19224255]

>>19224252
So you're writing for yourself. What's the problem with that? If you were writing for anyone else, you'd be able to imagine anyone else.

[Anonymous No.19224256]

>>19224232
thanks for the feedback

[Anonymous No.19224266]

I'm so fresh out of ideas and have such a shitty track record of them that I'm thinking about just delving into starting fanfiction and writing them full time. Do you think there's any fanfiction writer that eventually reached into the better parts of writing with time and came out on the other side, or would I doom myself?

[Anonymous No.19224273]

>>19224266
There's nothing inherently wrong with writing fanfiction, it's just that 99% of fanfiction is produced by either children or people who, well, didn't have a shot to begin with.
At the end of the day it's just more writing, which is good, because writing is a skill that needs to be developed like any other. There's nothing inherently "corrupting" about fanfiction.

[Anonymous No.19224277]

>>19224252
The trick is to pick a specific person to think about. Imagining my grandma reading my book made me cut down on the cussing.

[Anonymous No.19224284]

If I try to write my opening as a detached visual vignette with no characters and only imagery, I lose any kind of narrative voice and end up just listing things present in the sequence, but if I try to integrate my main character's presence into what is now a fantasy sequence, it becomes a rambling mess of thoughts and feelings before I have any basis to establish what those are. Can't I just insert a random cat into this one too?

[Anonymous No.19224294]

>>19223769
Videogames generally excel at worldbuilding and character writing, but fall flat in most other areas. There's nothing wrong with being inspired by a videogame to write a story, or create a world, but pick up an actual book or two to learn what the medium you're going to be working in is actually good at. Don't write a videogame, because that's a fool's errand and will make for a shitty book.

>>19224136
>So when you retards talk about your writing being inspired by games, what, you want to do some VR experience shit because you're not smart enough to actually write?
Why are you even here?

I think it's more like people want to make their own videogame but that's too hard so they jump to making books because it's the medium that requires the least amount of buy-in. We have a whole generation of people who were raised almost exclusively on bottom of the barrel videogameshit so you get garbage that emulates it, like the isekai craze in Japan or LitRPG.

[Anonymous No.19224298]

you guys ever worry about retards trawling this thread looking to be "inspired" by your or other anons ideas?

[Anonymous No.19224299]

>>19224298
I worry about retards constantly antagonizing people with defeatism rather than actually trying to be helpful

[Anonymous No.19224302]

>>19224298
I've unironically stolen worldbuilding ideas from /tg/ before to use in stories so yes. But I am also incredibly fucking lazy and forgetful and nothing I make will ever actually come out in a meaningful capacity so that's probably also the case for people doing the same.

[Anonymous No.19224305]

>>19223902
This is... not very coherent. Like, I can barely tell what's supposed to be going on in your first few paragraphs. Even in just the first paragraph, there's three sentences where I can't tell what exactly you're trying to convey:
>The spotlight simmered his paper hands, taped together and pressing, holding, lifting slowly.
>And his expression lacked in almost its entirety, blinded out by the white permeating beam from above him.
>Somewhere within him, this is what his heartbeat prayed, or rather echoed, distantly in the subconscious tendency to want.
Pressing, holding, lifting what, exactly? His expression lacked what? And what is meant by the subconscious tendency to want?
You also do a lot of pointless repetition. Just in your first 4 or so paragraphs:
> His eyes were murky windows that wandered, wandered
> knew to know its place
>She gripped, held the thing
>The boy on stage continued to play the keys, fervently, fervently
>as the woman gripped the object’s wrist so tight and lifted, lifting until
>He could no longer stop his hands from playing a false false crescendo.
There are more instance of repetition in there, but I didn't bring them up here because they at least kinda work. These ones are just awkward all around.

[Anonymous No.19224306]

>>19224298
No, dumbass. If you think that you are the first person in six million years of human evolution to have an idea, you have sniffed far too many of your own farts and are starting to see colors.

[Anonymous No.19224315]

>>19224299
I don't usually come in here for that reason
>>19224306
see >>19224302
and i dont care if someone has or hasn't thought of the same thing as me as long as it hasn't been written yet, which it hasn't, so suck my whole dick and balls cunt

[Anonymous No.19224317]

>>19224255
I don't want to write to myself, I want to write to strangers who can connect with my writing. But I can't imagine any strangers. I think I haven't met enough people that read, so I have no imagination of them. This board doesn't help, feels like I'm talking to myself here too.

>>19224277
I've tried writting to some people I know, but knowing that they don't read books makes it feel pointless.

Most of my favourite books made me feel that the author wrote the book for me, he imagined me while he was writing it, and I want to do the same for other people but I'm afraid I don't have the imagination

[Anonymous No.19224326]

>>19224317
The author wasn't imagining you when he wrote it. In fact he was probably imagining himself, or more likely his children. Have children then write books for them.

[Anonymous No.19224334]

>>19224305
thanks for your feedback. it helps. it's a first draft, but since I can't really write at the moment, getting feedback might help. were there any parts you found interesting?

[Anonymous No.19224343]

https://lampbylit.com/magazine/how-to-write-books-using-artificial-intelligence/

[Anonymous No.19224348]

>>19224315
Every book in existence is just a ripoff of an oral tradition from before writing existed, so no matter what you write, it's already been done before.

[Anonymous No.19224369]

>>19223832
that's not fair. wanting chekhov's guns is a fair want. So is lightheartedness and the rest of what anon said. That doesn't ban them to undertale fanfiction land, it just makes them want that shit in their story.

[Anonymous No.19224391]

>>19224348
I don't care you fucking faggot, I'm gonna be the one to write it.

[Anonymous No.19224393]

>>19223832
He wasn't implying those ideas were original, they're just things he appreciates in Undertale
If it's what introduced him to those concepts, fine, we all have to start somewhere.
He also didn't imply that those points were something you could only take from a video game, just if it was wrong for him to do so, but of course not.
I get that you're trying to gatekeep this general by telling him he's fucked for being new at this, but that doesn't mean you're good at gatekeeping.

[Anonymous No.19224401]

>>19223902
>told you weeks ago not to use paper hands as a descriptor because of its distracting association with crypto nowadays
>still there
Nigger.

[Anonymous No.19224412]

>>19224401
i know i know. it's about time to edit. guess I was just looking for something good in there. I don't think I've written since last time lmao

[Anonymous No.19224426]

>>19224412
>I don't think I've written since last time lmao
I guess we really don't write..

[Anonymous No.19224430]

>>19224426
sucks. can't tell the good shit from the bad shit anymore. any idea what one does about that even?

[Anonymous No.19224445]

>>19224426
I write!
At least I do for a paragraph at a time before losing the plot and having to take a break not before hitting delete.

[Anonymous No.19224455]

>>19224426
>I guess we really don't write..
Was there any doubt? We drove away the actual writers because they wrote anime.

[Anonymous No.19224477]

>>19224455
I (>>19223902) don't write anime!
I just write kind of badly.

[Anonymous No.19224485]

>>19224455
Still wondering why we even call this the writing General when no one even writes anymore.

[Anonymous No.19224488]

A young lord is running away from home, but not before leaving a parting message. Tell me how cringe it is
>To my father, to the brave defenders of Manor Aldast and Parthurn’s peoples, to everyone who has given their hand in raising me. By the time you discover this, I will be long gone from the city. To where, exactly… of the places you often shun? Bastil, Cenirre, even Zheran…I plan to travel far and wide. I would advise against sending a garrison in pursuit, your people have done a poor job of securing allies there. But rest assured, your lordling will be well cared for. You’d be surprised where friends of mine may be.
But why must I embark? In truth, I do not yet know what it is I am searching for. It’s possible I never will. Must there be a reason? Consider the humble fish in his small pond. To us, he appears to be aimlessly wandering the same place again and again. But whenever he finishes his lap and turns his head, to him a fresh world has opened up once again. And that is what must separate us from fish. We cannot be content with reliving the same life again and again. I cannot be content with accepting my father’s place in life. When I discover what exactly distinguished myself from the animals…that is when I will return home.

[Anonymous No.19224494]

>>19224488
Just write.

[Anonymous No.19224521]

>>19224488
It's pretty good, the old ish english sounds believeable enough to me.

> Consider the humble fish in his small pond. To us, he appears to be aimlessly wandering the same place again and again. But whenever he finishes his lap and turns his head, to him a fresh world has opened up once again. And that is what must separate us from fish. We cannot be content with reliving the same life again and again.
definitely keep this part

[Anonymous No.19224527]

>>19224488
I'll agree, it's cringe.

[Anonymous No.19224569]

how do you guys even find ideas?

[Anonymous No.19224577]

>>19224569
Take an extra dose of melatonin when you sleep and write down everything you remember when you wake up

[Anonymous No.19224582]

>>19224569
Ideas? That implies we write.

[Anonymous No.19224583]

>>19224582
less internet complainey more story writey

[Anonymous No.19224584]

>>19224569
im really good at coming up with ideas. i think of cool things. i think of cool things all the time. it's just what i do.
i think about writing my ideas down a lot too. a lot of thinking being done around here.

[Anonymous No.19224585]

>>19224582
I'm trying but I'm overworked and immensely depressed
someone who doesn't enjoy things can't write for shit
>>19224583
actually this guy is write
>>19224584
good job now tell me your secrets

[Anonymous No.19224595]

>>19224494
>>19224582
>>19224584
Holy fuck why are you even here
Are you that salty people don't care for your vtubers

[Anonymous No.19224597]

>>19223965
Review my shit please

[Anonymous No.19224599]

>>19224597
wanna trade? i can't until tomorrow afternoon though >>19223902

[Anonymous No.19224600]

>>19224599
I read a few lines and got bored, sorry mate. If you're going to open with a whole paragraph of "showing" at least make the prose interesting

[Anonymous No.19224602]

>>19224569
Steal from le plebbit to sell on Amazon kde

[Anonymous No.19224604]

>>19224597
post your whiny rambling blogpost on /r9k/ where someone might care

[Anonymous No.19224608]

>>19223902
Reading anon...Will procastinate a few years and ill tell ya

[Anonymous No.19224609]

>>19224600
oh, right, that was you.
what you posted is interesting, but I honestly couldn't get myself to read the entire thing. I don't know if it was because of boredom or anything, but honestly it might have been because it does kind of read like a social media post.
>>19224608
thanks man see you in 2025

[Anonymous No.19224612]

>>19224585
Go experience a new piece of art and see if you can draw anything from it.
You won't find inspiration moping about.

[Anonymous No.19224616]

>>19224612
that's a good point.
anyone have anything that's inspired them recently in terms of their writing? I'd love to hear it.

[Anonymous No.19224617]

>>19224569
Adapt aesthetics/premise that appeals to you with themes and lessons you've learned from your life. Write a story about cowboys going on an adventure while struggling with the death of their dad

[Anonymous No.19224618]

>>19224617
i am but that just comes out as depressing
>a story about beings developed by humans with enough sentience to pass as humans, dealing with very human problems such as trauma and becoming more than just the culmination of their past, working to prevent themselves from becoming walking disasters or dangers

[Anonymous No.19224624]

>>19224618
then write a story about dark elves going on an adventure while struggling with the death of their pet cliff racer

[Anonymous No.19224625]

this is off topic but, I've been thinking about playing omori just for the story. Is it any good? preferably without spoiling it please

[Anonymous No.19224628]

>>19224618
>that just comes out as depressing
What's wrong with that? Is the better alternative to try and ape a happier premise that you don't truly understand or feel?
Write what you know, art is meant to be a reflection of the artist. You won't be able to bring out the potential of anything else.

[Anonymous No.19224631]

>>19224628
that's true. I guess I just tire of sadness. I want something happy. Guess that what drew me to undertale at all really, as an inspiration. It left me feeling happy as a medium. I want something to make people feel this as well, but without so much darkness to get there.

[Anonymous No.19224633]

>>19224631
no i didn't mean undertale is dark, I meant my idea is, like my idea does end happy and maybe gives you a bittersweet at the end but beh

[Anonymous No.19224636]

>>19224631
You've got the rest of your life to work towards that goal. If you want to create now, create art as you are now. Maybe getting this out in the world is the first step towards being the kind of person to make a lighter story.
And maybe once you've got the shell down, work out ways to sprinkle in those hopeful and happier things into the story, even if it's something small.

[Anonymous No.19224637]

>>19224616
Blacksouls 2 is what got me back in the mood.
Lures you in with promises of hentai and soulsborne and then assaults you with references to 19th and early 20th century literature and film.

>>19224625
It's just the average depressedboi RPGmaker game. It really falls apart in the ending and becomes a solid 3/10 story.

[Anonymous No.19224645]

>>19224616
I binged both seasons of Legend of the Galactic Heroes Gaiden back in September and that helped me come up with ideas for my next volume.

[Anonymous No.19224648]

>>19224636
you guys seem to be full of some good points. I'm glad I tried that in the outline, must be a smart idea then.
>>19224637
dang, that's what I was afraid of. guess watching a playthrough would be better then if it falls apart super hard and wouldnt neccesarily need a player's immersion to give you what it has
>>19224645
no clue what that is but sounds funny, I'll give it a shot

[Anonymous No.19224663]

>>19224648
You'll honestly be upset if you get invested and then have to deal with the twist. It's that dumb and unjustified.
I'd almost say it's not even worth experiencing because of it.

[Anonymous No.19224671]

>>19224663
damn, that's got to be fucked. how did it get so popular then? is the bar really that low now?

[Anonymous No.19224691]

>>19224585
>good job now tell me your secrets
My secrets? I don't know, I don't think I have any secrets. Thinking, it's just what I do. I'm good at thinking. Maybe you're asking what I think about? I think I can try to explain that.
Music is what I do when I'm not writing or thinking. >inb4 that's all the time lmao. But I haven't proper learned a song in who knows how many years. So I just improvise. Start with the root note. Then play a chord progression. Bam now you got the underlying rhythm around which you can improvise a brand new song. A brand new musical IDEA.
And so when I'm thinking about ideas, I start with some basic building blocks. Let's say I've got a viking warrior character. That's pretty cool on it's own, but he's got to have a reason to exist. That's the conflict. How does the viking warrior feel? Sometimes you've got to know the ending to know the conflict. So let's say I want a happy ending for the viking warrior. Alright nice, that tells me that the conflict should be something that results in happiness. And in order for the viking to become happy, he must start off sad. So just like that I know that the story I want to tell is about a viking warrior who goes on a journey to rescue his best friend from the evil anglo saxons who kidnapped him. And we'll say his best friend is a cute animal because I've never written a children's story and I'm feeling inclined to do so now.
Now as for the themes and the subtext? I don't have a clue about that until after I've written the story. I'll wait until the second draft to figure that out. Keep it simple to start that's what I always say.
That's how I think. That's how I think up new ideas. I know it doesn't make sense but you asked for my secrets. And I don't really have secrets, I just like to think. Just write what you're thinking, no matter what. No matter how stupid the idea sounds just write it down cause you can always change it when the story you want to tell becomes clearer.

[Anonymous No.19224697]

>>19224671
Empty style over substance sells. Look at steam charts for any game and you'll see only 20% of people actually finish each game. How far into the game do you think the people hyping up Omori got before they started shilling?

[Anonymous No.19224772]

>>19224691
I don't know how you get 60k-120k word into a work before knowing what your themes and subtext are supposed to be.
I try to have a grasp on those before I even start.

[Anonymous No.19224789]

>The sky is red. There is a meadow. The meadow is red because of the sun. There is a train track. On the train track is a train. The train carries memories. Waving from the caboose are two lovers. The lovers are skeletons. I wonder what this is foreshadowing?

There we go. My opening paragraph. Fuck trying to write illustrative prose. Only true facts from here on out.

[Anonymous No.19224815]

>>19224789
At least you're not writing anime.

[Anonymous No.19224818]

>>19224772
I figure them out along the way. Can't have themes when I don't even know what's happening. Can't have subtext before you have any text at all.
I used to freeze up, get real bad writers block, cause I was worried that the stuff I was putting on page wouldn't accurately reflect what I was thinking about. And I like to think, I have great thoughts. Get to work writing now, refine them when you have the whole picture spread out before you.

[Anonymous No.19224836]

>>19224818
Why not just write your entire book in Grug-speak first then make it pretty later? That's what I'm... going to get back to doing eventually.

[Anonymous No.19224993]

Writing prompt: A fisher enters a fish-market and finds to his astonishment that his head has gone from human to fish.

[Anonymous No.19224996]

>>19224993
What good will this do? Ain't no one going to write it.

[Anonymous No.19224999]

>>19224996
People here are starved for ideas, for one, and they lack motivation to write. Here you go, a silly idea that pleads for a writer.

[Anonymous No.19225000]

>>19224993
omg it's so kafka-esque

[Anonymous No.19225003]

>>19224999
>Here you go, a silly idea that pleads for a writer.
Sad it won't find any here.

[Anonymous No.19225201]

>>19223746
I've decided to write a more comedic story and I'm amazed by how easily my writing flows. Avoiding beautiful descriptions and just trying to be witty is coming so smoothly that I can't help wondering if I might not be fucking up without realizing it.

[Anonymous No.19225209]

>>19225201
Post an excerpt and let us decide.

[Anonymous No.19225350]

>>19224569
I sort of think on things and the idea mutate themselves into something. For example, I once bought two Pot Noodles and stacked them together. I then got an idea for a rocket grenade. Another would be a time I masturbated next to a river and watch the cum float away. I then thought of a culture that marked its borders by jacking into rivers.

[Anonymous No.19225428]

>>19224993
I MUST GET FISH
OH NO I AM FISH
I HAVE NO GILLS AND I MUST GLUB

[Anonymous No.19225437]

>>19225428
And some people here say we never write.

[Anonymous No.19225532]

>>19224455
The expulsion of anime to the Write What's On Your Mind thread was the best thing to ever happen to this general. Now instead of 220/320 posts whining about how hard their life is and how it's tangentially related to their writing, we have 60/320 posts and the rests are talking about writing craft and giving critiques. I don't get this "bro anime OPs were so good bro I miss them bro yeah bro it's just like that one time where I watched Your Name bro it made me tear up so much bro" from some of you fucking faggots. These threads have been cleaned up immensely after the blogposting and not-serious anime niggers mostly fucked off. We still have anime writers here but at least they're making an effort to improve.

[Anonymous No.19225546]

>>19224789
Hemingway would be proud. Half of his paragraphs read like this.

[Anonymous No.19225579]

>>19225532
From what I’ve read it’s the more traditional writing here that is the most self pitying projection.
The anime writers that are left here are either sick fetishists or 400k words deep into a totally original space opera.

[Anonymous No.19225601]

>>19224054
>Metroid Prime
Based. Used to sequence break it every year. If Metroid was a book, it'd be a great milieu story. Get on the planet, get out sometimes escaping destruction of said planet.

[Anonymous No.19225678]

>>19224569
Ask questions and answer them. You have unique word association so the more you ask questions on things you experience or know, it will synthesize cool things. Don't need drugsh. Don't need Walden pond.

[Anonymous No.19225941]

>>19225579
>400k words deep into a totally original space opera.
I'm not writing a space opera, though. I am writing a fantasy romance adventure.

[Anonymous No.19225964]

>>19225941
And are you 400k words deep in it?

[Anonymous No.19225975]

>realise this character would be way better used and more relevant during plot interactions if characterized as a woman
>if i turn him into a woman xhe will clash with the protagonist's romantic interest and inevitably create a love triangle
Fuck my draft is now halted indefinitely because i can't decide what to do.

[Anonymous No.19225985]

>>19224691
thanks for your secrets. seems like good places to begin when one's just been riding by the seat of their pants the whole time like I have
>>19225350
same. had a time where I stored all my disapproved items in glasses cases. thought that it might be like to live like that permanently, so came up with the idea for a wizard to have jars of active, destroyed spells he keeps in his home. if they break, it could be a fart, or it could be a grenade

[Anonymous No.19226096]

>>19225975
>if a female is near MC, they must want to fug
that's some light novel reasoning

[Anonymous No.19226135]

>>19225209
Okay, but it's in Spanish. Hopefully someone will be able to understand it:
Era una noche apacible. Me encontraba sentado sobre el colchón al que tenía pluriempleado de sofá y cama ante mi ordenador. Navegaba por Internet, saltando de página a página como el que ojea un libro sin prestar más de tres segundos de atención a un párrafo. Sentía el cerebro resecándoseme más deprisa que los ojos, pero estaba atrapado en ese ciclo vicioso de movimiento frenético y ausencia de pensamiento. Debí de leer algo desagradable o exasperante, porque solo una buena dosis de indignación sirve para darle un calambrazo a mi cerebro. Entonces me di cuenta (¡por fin!) de que no me estaba divirtiendo. Era sábado, apenas las once, y ya estaba harto de Internet. Tampoco tenía sueño. Qué aprieto más terrible. Contar las horas hasta el amanecer me produjo vértigo e inmediatamente el aburrimiento se me subió a las espaldas, espoleándome como a una bestia para que me pusiera en marcha y recurriera aquella distancia. Apagué la pantalla y comencé a darme vueltas en la cama como si quisiera zafarme, pero me tenía bien ensillado. Muchas veces, ante una idea extraña o ya de plano una locura suele decirse “debías estar muy aburrido, ¿no?”. Por fin, después de veinte años de mi vida lo entendí. Porque, surgido de la nada, sin precedente o presentación me sobrevino un deseo de vestirme, salir a la calle y ver dónde me deparaba la noche. No onions de negarme nada; me gusta presumir de que vivo como quiero. Y un poco contrariado por este extraño impulso, pero no por ello contrario a ello, me dije, ¿por qué no? Quien sabe, grandes historias han empezado con menos. Quizá esta sería la noche que me cambiaría la vida. Quizá conocería a mi futura mujer. ¡Quizá perdería la virginidad! Con esta última idea en la cabeza me empecé a poner los pantalones, esperando poder quitármelos antes de volver a casa. Ojeé mi armario en busca de algo más que llevar, algo presentable. Perchas, perchas desvergonzadamente desnudas. Ah, claro. Tenía la ropa justa para ir a clase, y ponía las lavadoras los domingos. Como no salía los findes de semana nunca me había topado con este problema. Cuernos. Donde muchos habrían desistido yo insistí y me justifiqué con una idea que había oído repetida muchas veces: “¡No hay mejor colonia que las feromonas masculinas!”. Puede que eso sólo se diga como una excusa para no ducharse todos los días, pero en ese momento era creyente. Busqué el balance entre asqueroso y sugerente y tomé la más limpia del montón. Me di cuenta entonces de que más me valía compensar un poco y me cambié por los únicos pantalones limpios que tenía. Estaban un poco gastados -eufemismo de rotos- pero en ese momento lo único que me preocupaba era la limpieza. Si quería mantener el delicado nivel de aroma a hombre que susurra en lugar de cantar no podía arriesgarme.

[Anonymous No.19226160]

>>19226135
Posting without the pointless spoiler tags.

>>Era una noche apacible. Me encontraba sentado sobre el colchón al que tenía pluriempleado de sofá y cama ante mi ordenador. Navegaba por Internet, saltando de página a página como el que ojea un libro sin prestar más de tres segundos de atención a un párrafo. Sentía el cerebro resecándoseme más deprisa que los ojos, pero estaba atrapado en ese ciclo vicioso de movimiento frenético y ausencia de pensamiento. Debí de leer algo desagradable o exasperante, porque solo una buena dosis de indignación sirve para darle un calambrazo a mi cerebro. Entonces me di cuenta (¡por fin!) de que no me estaba divirtiendo. Era sábado, apenas las once, y ya estaba harto de Internet. Tampoco tenía sueño. Qué aprieto más terrible. Contar las horas hasta el amanecer me produjo vértigo e inmediatamente el aburrimiento se me subió a las espaldas, espoleándome como a una bestia para que me pusiera en marcha y recurriera aquella distancia. Apagué la pantalla y comencé a darme vueltas en la cama como si quisiera zafarme, pero me tenía bien ensillado. Muchas veces, ante una idea extraña o ya de plano una locura suele decirse “debías estar muy aburrido, ¿no?”. Por fin, después de veinte años de mi vida lo entendí. Porque, surgido de la nada, sin precedente o presentación me sobrevino un deseo de vestirme, salir a la calle y ver dónde me deparaba la noche. No onions de negarme nada; me gusta presumir de que vivo como quiero. Y un poco contrariado por este extraño impulso, pero no por ello contrario a ello, me dije, ¿por qué no? Quien sabe, grandes historias han empezado con menos. Quizá esta sería la noche que me cambiaría la vida. Quizá conocería a mi futura mujer. ¡Quizá perdería la virginidad! Con esta última idea en la cabeza me empecé a poner los pantalones, esperando poder quitármelos antes de volver a casa. Ojeé mi armario en busca de algo más que llevar, algo presentable. Perchas, perchas desvergonzadamente desnudas. Ah, claro. Tenía la ropa justa para ir a clase, y ponía las lavadoras los domingos. Como no salía los findes de semana nunca me había topado con este problema. Cuernos. Donde muchos habrían desistido yo insistí y me justifiqué con una idea que había oído repetida muchas veces: “¡No hay mejor colonia que las feromonas masculinas!”. Puede que eso sólo se diga como una excusa para no ducharse todos los días, pero en ese momento era creyente. Busqué el balance entre asqueroso y sugerente y tomé la más limpia del montón. Me di cuenta entonces de que más me valía compensar un poco y me cambié por los únicos pantalones limpios que tenía. Estaban un poco gastados -eufemismo de rotos- pero en ese momento lo único que me preocupaba era la limpieza. Si quería mantener el delicado nivel de aroma a hombre que susurra en lugar de cantar no podía arriesgarme.

[Anonymous No.19226173]

>>19226135
>>19226160
And what translate spit out.

>>>>It was a peaceful night. I was sitting on the mattress that was moonlighting as a sofa and bed in front of my computer. He surfed the Internet, skipping from page to page like someone flipping through a book without paying more than three seconds of attention to a paragraph. My brain felt dry faster than my eyes, but I was caught in that vicious cycle of frenzied movement and thoughtlessness. I must have read something disgusting or infuriating, because only a good dose of outrage can give my brain a jolt. Then I realized (finally!) That I was not having fun. It was Saturday, barely eleven o'clock, and I was already fed up with the Internet. He wasn't sleepy either. What a terrible predicament. Counting the hours until dawn made me dizzy and boredom immediately rose up on my back, spurring me like a beast to get going and use that distance. I turned off the screen and started tossing and turning as if trying to get away, but I was well saddled up. Many times, faced with a strange or already crazy idea, it is often said “you must have been very bored, right?”. Finally, after twenty years of my life I understood. Because, out of nowhere, without precedent or presentation, a desire came over me to get dressed, go out and see where the night was in store for me. No onions of denying me anything; I like to show off that I live as I want. And a little upset by this strange impulse, but not contrary to it, I said to myself, why not? Who knows, great stories have started with less. Maybe this would be the night that would change my life. Perhaps I would meet my future wife. Maybe she would lose her virginity! With this last idea in mind, I started pulling on my pants, hoping I could take them off before heading home. I scanned my closet for something else to wear, something presentable. Hangers, shamelessly naked hangers. Oh, sure. I had just the right clothes to go to class, and I ran the washing machines on Sundays. Since I did not go out on weekends, I had never encountered this problem. Horns Where many would have given up, I insisted and justified myself with an idea that I had heard repeated many times: "There is no better cologne than male pheromones!" That may just be said as an excuse not to shower every day, but at the time I was a believer. I found the balance between disgusting and suggestive and took the cleanest of the pile. I realized then that I was better off compensating a bit and changed into the only clean pants I had. They were a bit worn - broken euphemism - but at the moment all I was worried about was cleanliness. If I wanted to maintain the delicate level of man scent whispering instead of singing I couldn't risk it.

[Anonymous No.19226177]

>>19226096
Problem is, said character is more important than the romantic interest due to he being the mc's best friend out of a rivalry friendship. If i repurposed him into a female, i would get even more utility and enjoyment out of it for sure, but then the original heroine would be completely overshadowed by this character's shtick with the mc and people would say: "why did the mc end up with character A instead of character B? Trashy author favoritism."
I can't just kick the original heroine out either because she has some innate plot relevance, but that only gets true development at the mid-late chapters

[Anonymous No.19226185]

>>19226160
The spoiler tag is a matter of courtesy; we are not supposed to post in other languages outside of English unless you're in /int/.

[Anonymous No.19226211]

>>19226160
Algunos detalles me han gustado pero este texto es muy aburrido. Intenta "mostrar" antes que contar, aunque suene a típico consejo fácil. Lo digo porque es aburrido leer tanto sin ningún tipo de acontecimiento. Entiendo que es un monólogo interno del personaje, pero siento que se extiende mucho... No tengas miedo de presentar la situación y arrancar. Lo digo concretamente por el inicio; podrías dejar claras muchas cosas de lo que acontece posteriormente en la primera linea. "Era una insoportable y aburrida noche de sábado, en el sofá que era mi cama frente al ordenador" es una frase que en castellano es válida (en inglés sería demasiado larga) y que sintetiza la escena rápidamente. Mantén la atención del lector ante todo. De todas formas falta algo más... me parece un buen comienzo y mi sincera enhorabuena por animarte a escribir algo y compartirlo, anon :) estaré un rato por aquí, yo conozco el mundo de la escritura, aunque no onions conocido.

[Anonymous No.19226231]

>>19226135
Me agrada

[Anonymous No.19226259]

>>19226177
can you make them siblings?
yes I'm aware that would make the situation hotter, but it would also give you plausible deniability.

[Anonymous No.19226265]

what do you think of my dumb short story?
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46540/a-happy-heart

[Anonymous No.19226315]

>>19226265
>>Royal Road® is the home of web novels and fan fictions! In our amazing community, you can find various talented individuals who write as a hobby or even professionally, artists who create art for them, and many, many readers who provide valuable feedback and encouragement.

[Anonymous No.19226316]

a simple book doesn't necessarily make it for children does it?
what makes something a children's book, really?

[Anonymous No.19226323]

>>19226315
hey man, better than wattpad. It's just nothing but porn, and I'm tired of posting google links.

[Anonymous No.19226325]

>>19226259
I like where you are going, yes this would work on the average plot but in mine the're already all distant relatives (however this fact is uknown to the trio for most of the story). Thank you for helping me rationalize, it led me to coming up with a fix that i would call beyond perfect only minutes ago.

[Anonymous No.19226347]

>>19226315
>the chad Royal Road serial litRPG writer that uses patreon to scam readers
>the virgin copyright-chained Amazon publisher living off crumbs and royalties

[Anonymous No.19226376]

>>19226231
>Me agrada
Thanks a lot, I appreciate it.
>>19226211
Damn it, I was hoping to make it fun. I do admit that I probably went on for a little too long; I really like to examine what my characters are thinking. I like what you think regarding that first line; I could summarize much more. Keep in mind this was a rough edit I cooked out a few hours ago. I was hoping to simply my style, because I tend to overwrite a lot. I guess even when trying I come across as too long winded. This is supposed to be a part of a short story, maybe it will improve when read in its entirety, or it might be worse. I'll finish it (maybe tomorrow, I have a few commitments today) and then I'll come back and share it. Hopefully you will still be here because I really like your input.
Muchas gracias también por haberte molestado en leerme y por tus palabras de ánimo. Ójala poder quedarme para hablar más contigo.

[Anonymous No.19226393]

>>19224597
It was fun to read but I don't knwo if you can sustain a story with that, will have to check how are the characters. The plot of losing the v-card to a prostitute sounds boring to me.

[Anonymous No.19226406]

>>19226177
How could anyone perceive it as favoritism, if the other character is more important to the plot than the love interest? Just keep MC's interactions with the other bitch professional, and make them clearly romantic with the other so people can understand where his feelings are and why.

[Anonymous No.19226416]

>>19225964
415,792 to be precise, well, before I add in a new chapter that will raise it to about 426-something.

[Anonymous No.19226424]

>>19226416

[Anonymous No.19226444]

>>19225579
>The anime writers that are left here are either sick fetishists
hey, I resemble that remark. and, in my opinion, my sick fetish is critical for the social commentary I'm making

[Anonymous No.19226454]

i dont have a thing for feet, but man, there sure are a lot of references to feet in the stuff i write

[Anonymous No.19226457]

>>19226444
I’m in the same boat so it’s okay anon, if you’re not copying me by using the exact same fetish of slavery and sadism that is.

[Anonymous No.19226458]

>>19226424
425,913, actually. Either way, I am happy because another one is done.

[Anonymous No.19226467]

>>19226454
You know of Sigmund Freud?

[Anonymous No.19226470]

>>19226467
Was he barefoot too?

[Anonymous No.19226485]

>>19226454
I’ve been subconsciously doing the same thing with hands. Accidentally created a running symbolism of the state of hands equally worth that I may need to scrub out as it’s getting excessive.

[Anonymous No.19226505]

>>19226467
You mean the famous projector?

[Anonymous No.19226515]

>>19226457
nah genderbending and mockery of religion, specifically abrahamic human sacrifice rituals designed to make humans less human. circumcision and abortion, mainly.

[Anonymous No.19226528]

>>19226505
Yeah; I haven't been to any cinemas as good as his. He really could get you immersed in the movie.

[Anonymous No.19226684]

>>19223956
Is this a reddit copypasta or something?

If it's real, you're only half right. Details about setting and preference are, in fact, necessary to add a sense of realism to your story. But just listing them off, no matter how personal or unique they are, will not suddenly make your story come to life. They need to be somewhat related to the plot, character motivation, and/or overall theme of the novel. No one is going to be charmed or fascinated by having your character take the time to feed his cat, jokingly chiding the cat for whining too much and thinking to himself about what cat food he uses and why he chose that brand and trying to decide whether or not he should wash the bowl today or if it can wait. To borrow a terrible and uncreative metaphor, you won't improve a meal simply by dumping more spice into it, especially if the meal is flawed from conception. The answer to the question of "What's wrong with my shrimp jello?" might not necessarily be "not enough garlic." Readers aren't puppets, mechanically enslaved to your prose, waiting for you to grab them by the jaw and drag them around to look at the neat collection of character sheets you've filled out. If the schematic skeleton of your story is weak and contrived, then it will not support the weight of too many details. Even in sci-fi and fantasy, where the reader actually wants to be immersed in an entirely new world, you don't see the same type of "tedious realism" as you do in beginning writer groups.

[Anonymous No.19226740]

>>19226684
I can confirm, once i read a novel that was regarded as a "slowburn" but holy shit the characters talked in detail about trivial matters (to the point that i slept twice while reading it) so i couldn't help but drop it.

[Anonymous No.19226789]

>>19226740
Slowburn is shitty buzzword that really means "boring and gay" these days. A good slowburn has subtle conflict and tension, not 5 pages of people talking about nothing at a pointless dinner.

[Anonymous No.19226818]

a good book

BUT MODERN

[Anonymous No.19226839]

>>19226818
Like, a modernist novel? Shouldn't you be writing post-modernist shit now? Or is it already post-post-modernism?

[Anonymous No.19226883]

>>19226839
nah like. age wise. as in after 2000s

[Anonymous No.19226885]

new to royal road and want to read good shit from there, post stuff

[Anonymous No.19226934]

>>19226885

[Anonymous No.19226942]

>>19226934
>My RR story got three matches with that

[Anonymous No.19227027]

Another melatonin dream, another horror story idea too disturbing for me to want to be caught dead having written down. If only I could go to sleep naturally so I could write about puppy dogs instead.

[Anonymous No.19227074]

https://pastebin.com/wfBnsDT8
can someone give me their opinion on this opening?

[Anonymous No.19227214]

>>19227074
the line about shoes seems a bit telly but other than that I don't see anything wrong with it

[Anonymous No.19227230]

>>19227074
Explanation heavy, I think. Also, the line about Knowing it had to do something with a green flash* before explaining what that *it* was.

[Anonymous No.19227265]

>>19223746
I'm not a born wordsmith - both in the sense that I do not have a knack for good prose, rhythm, wordplay, poetry, etc and that I do not have any interest in improving it. I'm not a good writer either, mainly because I'm not interested in events nor characters. I enjoy all of these aspects in a work of literature of course, but I don't feel in me the drive to pursue them. What I like are mostly concepts.
But still I need to write a story anyway, what writers should I learn from anons? What philosophical writers do you think have managed to compensate for their weaknesses and bring their strength of philosophy to the front while all other aspects are put to service that well? Or if nothing comes to mind, what works do you think have digestible philosophical prose that do not get too overbearing and too technical?

[Anonymous No.19227303]

I know this is like asking for the cure to cancer or water from the fountain of youth, but does anyone have a book recc that has honest to fuck good prose, but doesn't go over the top and has a satisfying plot?
I know we should write what we want, but honestly there has to be an example somewhere.

[Anonymous No.19227315]

>>19227303
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

[Anonymous No.19227329]

Why are these threads still here none of you retards can even write good

[Anonymous No.19227338]

>>19227329
Nooo you can't just heckin barginerino in here and say such a thing without showing your own work noooo

[Anonymous No.19227376]

>>19223746
>John ran toward the car. He wondered what had happened, why she'd slammed the brakes.
>John ran toward the car. What the hell? Why'd she slam the brakes?
I know this isn't good writing, but just for the example, is this now third person omniscient because I'm including what 'he wondered' - or does this still count as limited? The second example is free indirect speech, is that preferable? Are these both omniscient?

[Anonymous No.19227386]

>>19227329
slam my penis into the car door
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46539/into-the-water

[Anonymous No.19227393]

>>19227329
If we could write good here why would be wasting time with 4chan faggots when we could be publishing already?

[Anonymous No.19227408]

>>19227393
because people don't read good writing
if I could just get good writing anywhere I'd post on reddit or just google search for good books
but any time I do I get young adult garbage that is not worth reading

[Anonymous No.19227411]

>>19227393
Even if I was writing "good" I wouldn't want to publish commercially, I'd rather write the story I want to tell and not worry about something selling or not

[Anonymous No.19227412]

>>19227074
>https://pastebin.com/wfBnsDT8
Flat, distant, and vague.

Gene doesn't seem particularly distraught by his predicament. He's processing the weather, his choice of clothing, magic, and the hungry pursuit of a wolf all with the same level of emotion and impact. There is absolutely no tension in what should be a very tense scene. Before I get into the problems, I want to point out one thing you absolutely nailed: you conceived a scene with a perfect balance of "goal" and "ability" with the potential to achieve perfect suspense. Your protagonist is at a disadvantage against his foe, there is an obvious deadline for him to act with very clear and dire consequences for failing to act correctly, and despite his disadvantage, he still has resources to achieve success.

I posted earlier in this thread about details and immersion, about how you shouldn't just heap details onto a lifeless scene, and this excerpt is a good way to demonstrate what I mean. What we have here is what the other anon described as a "schematic skeleton" of a scene. We have a character, we have a conflict, we have a setting. But something is clearly missing. It doesn't quite get the heart thumping like a chase scene should, because of the quantity and level of detail you've provided.

Let's follow the other anon's advice and just add more and more specific details. What type of flora he's running through, he likes to research wolves in his spare time, what actual job he has and what city he actually lives in. Let's throw all that in. Now we have a scene which is incredibly specific but no more immersive or suspenseful than your version.

Now let's stop and think for a moment, and throw all that information in but in a way that is focused and relevant, which conveys the actual impression of a man suddenly running for his life. Confusion and analysis all at once. One minute he's looking at some landmark in his city, and the next minute he's looking at wilderness. This is very deep wilderness, and you can tell because you can't hear cars in the distance and there aren't any trails. It's unfamiliar because our protagonist is a bit of an amateur naturalist and doesn't recognize any of the trees. Now there's a wolf chasing him, but our protagonist knows there shouldn't be, because wolves avoid humans unless they're either rabid or really hungry. But "what should be" doesn't matter compared to "what is" and what is happening is that your protagonist is being chased by a wolf. It's cloudy so he can't see any good hiding places, because won't the wolf just follow his scent trail? Don't wolves run in packs? What if he's being herded into an ambush? He wants to look behind to see if the wolf is getting closer, but the hostile terrain demands complete focus Etc. etc.

The details you have provided in this excerpt make for excellent objective clarity. But objective clarity is what you want from a weather report, not a story. What you should strive for is subjective clarity.

[Anonymous No.19227427]

why do you guys support royal road if you seem to hate it? what do you even read on there? or do you shill it purely to promote your own work?

[Anonymous No.19227435]

>>19227427
I think the Jews and their economic warfare on the white race is the worst evil in the world, but that doesn't mean I don't have a bank account.

[Anonymous No.19227461]

>>19227427
It's a site for free stories and it's pretty user-friendly with its interface. Easy discoverability, I think it has one of the largest readerbases (something like over 100k ) so there's bound to be some readers who might like your fiction on it.

I'm following a bunch of anons' stories on it, and some other stories I think are hidden gems or things I've like to appreciate. One's a story I review swapped for (never did get my review though) and kept reading anyway because i liked the story.

[Anonymous No.19227473]

>>19227461
can you share some of the works you like? I can't find anything I like on there yet, so I'm thinking all the good stuff must be hidden away.

[Anonymous No.19227484]

>>19227473
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40361/erased
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/43377/the-way-of-wrought-earth-or-my-tale-of-rebirth
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/33024/a-fractured-song
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/41979/a-hero-among-monsters
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/33283/aoi
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/34777/hilda-finds-a-home

[Anonymous No.19227495]

>>19227484
Thanks bro

[Anonymous No.19227514]

>>19227484
>My work is not among those.
Feels bad man.

[Anonymous No.19227552]

>>19227303
Stoner

[Anonymous No.19227560]

>>19227412
Based effortposter (not the guy you’re replying to)

[Anonymous No.19227589]

>>19227435
On a similar note to your post i can't stop generating antisemitic subliminar remarks as my antagonists coincidentally happen to have hebrew/biblical names. Guess i should just change them to greek to avoid controversy.

[Anonymous No.19227695]

I don't want to quit my fulltime job but if I lost it, I'd be pretty relieved to just read and write all day for a year. I could lock my front door and not leave for 3 years if I had to. Maybe that time is coming soon.

[Anonymous No.19227827]

>>19227695
>I'd be pretty relieved to just read and write all day for a year.
You know you won't do both of these so why lie?

[Anonymous No.19227850]

>>19227827
I do write though, I posted a pastebin including first draft excerpts last month. I aim to get my 2nd draft done near end of the year.

[Anonymous No.19227877]

>studying Fitzgerald, Joyce, and Hemingway's lives and styles on a sleepy work afternoon
>learn Fitzgerald's wife Zelda tried to steal most of the material for Tender Is The Night
>in response, Hemingway told his editor that if he ever published books by his own wives, he would shoot him
I think I picked the right group of people to study.

[Anonymous No.19227879]

Do any of y'all have good resources on how to write poetry, for someone who's never really been able to?

[Anonymous No.19227894]

>>19227514
can you ahare some of yours? i wouldnt mind checking it out anon

[Anonymous No.19227946]

>>19227894
I don't really read on RR, so my list is short.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/30848/burning-stars-falling-skies
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/23547/a-super-robot-story
And there was a story about a blind girl gaining vision in a full immersion and some shady schemes by the company's AIs, but I didn't save it.

[Anonymous No.19227978]

>>19227376
I'm a big dummy but isn't an omniscient point of view contingent on more than one character? So add a Sally to the scene, pushing on the break, give us access to her thoughts and John's thoughts, and then it's omniscient.

[Anonymous No.19228183]

>>19227303
For prose nothing is comfier than The Hobbit for me. Tolkien has an incredible way of telling a simple tale with deceptively simple language, but the overall effect shows what a master of language he is. The comfy prose marries perfectly with the comfy plot.

Try 'I Am Legend' also, its very tightly written is very engaging but isn't overly flowery with word usage. It's a good example of how to tell a story and write an interesting character. It's not a 10/10, but it doesn't do a lot wrong either.

[Anonymous No.19228547]

>tfw finally finish a chapter after sleeping on it for 13 days
wew lad. The easy part is over, now to do it again for infinitely more days.

[Anonymous No.19228615]

>>19227879
>Do any of y'all have good resources on how to write poetry
Be a student and avid lover of English history.

[Anonymous No.19228618]

>>19228547
I slept on one for nearly half a year, don't worry. Once you get a daily routine going, it gets easier.

[Anonymous No.19228635]

>>19228618
>routine
I nap 3-6 times per day whenever I feel tired and cannot tell you what day it is without looking it up. The only time I see sunlight is when I order groceries.
Is it already over for me?

[Anonymous No.19228638]

>>19228547
god I wish that were me

[Anonymous No.19228845]

You dumb niggers can't write. You're too busy playing video games and jerking off to anime tiddies because you're faggots.

[Anonymous No.19228858]

>>19223746
>femoid edition
yuck
Anyway, I've started to write around 1000+ words a day for a while now and I'm wondering whether I should stick to a novel now. I have a novelette I'm working on (around 14000 words now) but I already got bored of the premise and there's many caveats and digressions.
>>19228845
Tnis is true.

[Anonymous No.19228865]

Ok, check this English translation (not made by me) of a short prose


Let me savour your pain. Let me savour your pain, for I know mine too well, it no longer sates me. You have never let me observe it, yet sometimes I sense it gurgling like the pipes in walls that I do not see, creaking like a screw in a cupboard that I never open. My suffering is rank by now, having the consistence of stale bread, the taste of rancid milk. Your disease for me is as the breeze of a foreign port where no mooring is possible, a strand of sea-shells and glass shards where I cut my feet as I catch the Sun. World unexplored, peopled by strange two-headed beasts, never wild, never tame, that maul me and lick me. Farther in, perhaps, inside the forest, I might wind up poisoned by the thorn of some exotic plant, but what do I care, if on your lips is the antidote to all my loneliness and in my chest is a wall that protects you? You always smile at everything, but with me you never weep. If every tooth shining in your mouth is a star in the constellation of your gaiety, your sickness that I do not know is a black hole that is unapparent, but, like a lens, reflects and distorts all the stars about it. Thus some idiot astrologer sees in your future more lights than really are there, not comprehending that all these rays are no more than countless reflections caused by an enormous affliction.
Even if I did know how to swim, I would drown, provided I was engulfed by that sea-monster whose name you never confess, and which lies in the depths of your belly.
Let me savour your pain. Let me savour your pain, for the gods feed solely on that.

[Anonymous No.19228868]

>>19228845
>You dumb niggers can't write
I can write, though. Well? Well.

>>19228635
Only if you give up, put some effort in, it'll get better. You can make it if you try.

[Anonymous No.19228870]

>>19228845
but i am writing

[Anonymous No.19228880]

>>19228845
i decided to merge my jacking off time and video game time to make room for writing. No more anime tiddies for me, unfortunately.

[Anonymous No.19228886]

>>19228845
Calm down angry little man, there's enough time in the day for all three.

[Anonymous No.19228909]

>>19224023
Saw a guy once saying that if you're sad you should write a happy song, so the ideas and the emotion balance each other out to give something with a little of both. As opposed to writing a sad song and it being melodramatic and cheesy. Dunno how true it is but it could be worth pondering.

[Anonymous No.19229061]

I'm thinking about submitting a non-fiction piece to this:
>https://passageprize.com/

Anybody else heard of this? I don't know much about the people involved.

[Anonymous No.19229070]

>>19229061
>https://passageprize.com

>Fiction Judge: Zero H.P. Lovecraft
>Poetry Judge: Curtis Yarvin

Just larder your submission with references to cancel culture (fiction) or "The Cathedral" (poetry), and you'll do fine.

[Anonymous No.19229115]

>>19228845
But I just finished writing a chapter.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/31062/saga-of-the-cosmic-heroes/chapter/766867/chapter-95-embers-of-ishtar-tomorrows-hope-yesterdays

[Anonymous No.19229122]

Anyone here ever wrote a drama? Thinking of trying my hand at a one-act play myself.

[Anonymous No.19229134]

>>19229122
I've always considered mine one. It's the story directly above your post. It's not a one-act though.

[Anonymous No.19229250]

>>19229115
Anime tidddies aren't big enough. Won't read.

[Anonymous No.19229270]

>>19229115
Anime tidddies are too big. Won't read

[Anonymous No.19229286]

>>19228870
Significant improvement from the last version. Keep at it, anon.

[Anonymous No.19229325]

>>19223769
Being inspired by anything is fine. Being inspired by the writing of a video game is a terrible idea because there's not a single video game that is well written. Legacy of Kain is the most well written one that I know of and it commands a good usage of dialog but the story is an absolute fucking mess.

[Anonymous No.19229333]

>>19223769
depends on if it inspires you to write or just inspires you to think about writing

[Anonymous No.19229425]

>>19227214
>>19227230
>>19227412
Thanks for feedback! (The guy you're replying to)

[Anonymous No.19229471]

>>19229134
when i mean drama i mean like a play, not like a series

[Anonymous No.19229541]

Have any of you ever tried just totally winging it any heading into a story with barely even characters figured out and definitely no ending in mind and in fact aiming to never end it

[Anonymous No.19229549]

>>19229541

Yeah. I didn't finish.

[Anonymous No.19229552]

>>19229541
>Do any of you have autism?
Perhaps

[Anonymous No.19229574]

>>19229541
Nope, I always have at least ideas in my head. However, it's virtually impossible for me to really make sense of anything unless I write shit down. No matter how much of a "pantser" you are, you need to make notes, I cannot imagine anyone can completely wing anything longer than a short story.

[Anonymous No.19229579]

>>19229552
It is nice that, every time I make the mistake of coming here, I get an immediate reminder that I meant to stay away because you’re all a bunch of retards.

[Anonymous No.19229646]

>>19229579
it's best if you don't come back if you are butthurt over a reply like that

[Anonymous No.19229657]

>>19229541
I did that for a farce comedy book I'm working on and it turned out just fine for a first draft.

[Anonymous No.19229662]

>>19229579
>I get an immediate reminder that I meant to stay away because you’re all a bunch of retards.
It's for the best. No one here even writes.

[Anonymous No.19229702]

>“Brutes.” Another elf said softly, seemingly unable to look up from her battered self.
>Probably unrehearsed and completely plausible. It’s still woefully unclear what would bring these girls outside of the safety of their plains, but for them to have ended up in a brute den is not only within reason but almost expected. Another scan of the girls in this new light would uncover one piece of very clear evidence to their story; their cunts were hanging out. Prolapsed so often and so severely that they had treated pushing their insides back inside as just another hygienic responsibility that could only be ignored. An unfortunate quark of brute males is their tendency to completely ruin any girl they hold captive. It’s not the size of their members, or even the frequency with which they relieve themselves, but the shape of their cocks that bring such devastation. The communal nature of brute breeding has led to a unique adaptation that takes the form of a bulbous head with the ability to inflate to near thrice its erect size. This acts near identically to the ‘knot’ you would find on common canines, but also allows the beast to forcefully dredge the previous mates semen out, both leading to an increased chance of passing on one's genes. Of course, the male isn’t the only member of the sex to have undergone an adaptation to the practices of group breeding. The females have developed notoriously resilient lower goods, something that, if you ignore the obvious fetishistic role a woman of such eclipsing size fulfils, is perhaps their only redeeming quality in this trade.
>To these girls, though, who possess neither the ability to conceive with the brutes nor the physical fortitude to bear these bestial orgies, their fate at these abhorrent evolutions must seem unnecessarily cruel. While I can absolutely provide true and honest condolences for their misfortune, it does not change one simple fact; they are near useless to me in this state or any state I could bring them to. I am many things, but I have never introduced myself as a miracle worker.
Bully me.

[Anonymous No.19229722]

>>19224054
based metroidchad

[Anonymous No.19229729]

>>19229702
>"Brutes could be here," I thought, "I've never been in this den before. There could be brutes anywhere."
thought that line was a bit on the nose

[Anonymous No.19229741]

>>19229702
Comedic

[Anonymous No.19229767]

>>19229541
I did that with a story I made to practice writing but I don't plan on ever publishing it

[Anonymous No.19229801]

Am I absolved for writing a self-insert character if he gruesomely dies relatively early on?

[Anonymous No.19229813]

>>19229801
Self-insert characters are not inherently bad, and yes that is one way to "correctly" do them.

[Anonymous No.19229816]

>>19229702
Writing is strong but holy shit pick a different subject.

[Anonymous No.19229825]

I've managed to cut 3k words of fluff now. I feel like I'm doing more rewriting than cutting though. Sometimes I just change the order of words in a sentence.
What if what I'm doing isn't improving my work after all?

[Anonymous No.19229826]

I want to write a book about lawyers that’s Kafka level depressingly hilariously absurd, but DFW level detail/footnotes/nauseously sincere.

I would read it. I doubt many others would. But it’s the book I wish I could read.

Will I kill myself or die of consumption before I write it?

[Anonymous No.19229851]

>>19224569
I read a lot during my late teens-early twenties and happen to remember a lot of random passages during my quiet thoughts. So I search out the passage that cam e up during my random thinking, dig into the author's life and thought, then fabricate a character or situation based around that specific passage and the research, emotion that came up with the momentary association. I consider it reverse engineering a structure, where the forms are already there but the links have to be discovered by my memory.
Also, get out and talk to people, meet people from different strands of life and make an effort to reach out to them; even if you fail completely and fall flat on your face, talk to others, they are your resource to tap into the limitless experience of mankind.
>>19228909
Thank you, I'll remember the lesson.

[Anonymous No.19229856]

Are inner dialogues a crutch? It seems like the ultimately “tell, not show” because if you can’t make a character’s motivations clear through their actions or words then what’s the point?

[Anonymous No.19229871]

>>19229826
>But it's the book I wish I could read.
That's the perfect reason to get started
>Will I kill myself
Yes but don't let that stop you

[Anonymous No.19229926]

>>19229856
"Show, don't tell" has always been a nothing tip for lazy writing teachers to fill a day and a half of class with. It's not worthless advice but it's just such an overcomplication of "Don't just say your character is sad" that in the end causes more harm than good. The fact that the rule is making you question whether internal monologues are bad is testament to just how damaging that simple rule is.
Every story has telling in it. Don't be distracting with it and don't be lazy with it and you're golden.

[Anonymous No.19229934]

>>19229871
Yeah. I think it may be my new project, and I think I can scrap bits from my older projects I never finished. Thanks anon.
>>19229856
The medium is the message, anon. Reading a book is the closest one can get to being another person. It’s a magical feeling, and one of the reasons why reading a book can be so painful and hard, yet more meaningful than any other consumable media. Even this post is kind of an internal monologue, just directed at you.

[Anonymous No.19229941]

>>19229286
Thanks dude. Means a lot that you thought to look for comparison. Yeah, it definitely needs more solid ground. Feels good editing it though.
>>19229333
in my case it inspires me with a mood. The mood of feeling safe, the mood of a happy home. After analysis I realize Undertale is VERY simple, but in my opinion, it did good to portray moods with a medium.
>>19229325
I agree, I don't think I've ever seen a vidya that had good writing on the tier of a book. However, I am super not-well-read in everything, including video games, so at this point I was almost fishing for games that DID have a good inspiration bucket for writers.
>>19229425
Any thoughts on that new redo above I made, or were you the guy from the first round? (or just sick of seeing that piece's ugly mug around here lmao)
>>19229851
I guess this one's the hardest part. Losing interest in life makes one loose an interest in the source of writing. After that it's only a matter of time before you run out of source material. Shenanigins always fades out though, so.

[Anonymous No.19229967]

>>19229926
Yeah but I mean what’s the point to wasting a paragraph explaining why, say, two characters want to fuck when you can get to the point and have them fuck. What inner thoughts could there possibly be related to thst?
“Hey,babe. Let’s fuck.”
“Okay.”
He puts his penis in her pussy.
There. It’d just make the characters seem insane to have them THINK about it.

[Anonymous No.19229987]

>>19223779
Disagree
There is a difference between plagiarism and synopticism of course, but authors like Cervantes, Joyce, and Melville wrote entire novels, essential to the literary canon, which completely refute your claim.

[Anonymous No.19230039]

>>19229967
This is what I mean by "Show don't tell" being too much of a general rule. That's not a "Show, don't tell" issue and in face it can point to another misunderstanding.
You seem to think the example of
>“Hey,babe. Let’s fuck.”
>He really want to fuck her
>He puts his penis in her pussy.
would be too much telling but in reality it's the exact same weight as before. Just saying "Yes" to the question "Want to fuck" is just telling that he wants to fuck, there is no description in it. Sure, a shitty teacher might not knock you for it but showing him saying yes was no more effective than telling us that he wanted to fuck her.
Pointing out that she hasn't shaved and smells like shit but it's your second anniversary so you're going to do it out obligation is way better than the first option even if it is telling.

[Anonymous No.19230042]

>>19229967
>Oh god does she like me? Is my hand in the right place. She’s not as pretty as the last girl, but maybe this one will stay around longer. Does she think I’m a lush? A man whore? Why does her apartment smell like wood chips at a farmers market? I’ve been jerking off too much, I bet I’m going to either cum right away or not at all and she’ll hate me for it. I can’t remember the last time I pleased a woman. Why do I have to please the woman. No one taught me this shit. Oh god it’s so hard to breathe while making out. My nose is all plugged up, will she notice? I wonder if she likes tongue. Of course she likes tongue. Everyone likes tongue. But am I using too much tongue? Is there such a thing as too much tongue? I should not have had that last shot of fernet. Am I going to remember this in the morning. She isn’t even wet. No wait, she is really wet. Why is it so dark in here. Does she hate her body as much as I hate mine? I guess it’s good it’s dark because she can’t see my belly. Will she expect me to be on top? My upper body strength isn’t what it used to be. I bet I can pull off that lazy side fuck and pass it off as wanting to be close to her face. I hope she doesn’t bend my dick if she’s on top. God that hurts. Okay it’s going in, hot damn that’s nice. She’s so pretty. God I want to cum inside her. I don’t want to be a dad though. Oh god. Oh god. Oh that’s nice.

Have you never had sex, anon?

[Anonymous No.19230055]

Anthony Burgess wrote A Clockwork Orange in three weeks. A significant portion of that novel consists of entirely new words, invented and deployed so intelligently and meticulously that it feels totally natural. It was iconic, spawning a film adaptation that has seen tribute in dozens of works since then. The Ludovico Technique has become cultural shorthand for brainwashing. He managed to craft a protagonist who is remorselessly sociopathic and yet strangely alluring. He achieved almost every writer's dream: pop culture influence and genuine artistic innovation. 63,687 words actually typed out, one after another. In three weeks.

And hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people try and fail to hack out 50,000 words for nanowrimo every year. There's a good chance you, reading this, haven't even produced that many in the last six months. What minor obstacle has prevented you from producing one full-length novella? Too busy slaving away at some soulless "job", pinching pennies for retirement? Joylessly masturbating in the dull blue light of your computer monitor? For me, it's my relentless commitment to perfection, it sometimes even stops me from getting started. But you probably have no real excuse.

[Anonymous No.19230063]

>>19230042
Yeah. But I’m not neurotic. Most people aren’t. They’re normal.

[Anonymous No.19230077]

>>19229967
>>19229856
Look at the anon who wrote an entire paragraph about animal cock above. That's an entire internal monologue of 90% telling but it works. Could he have walked into the cave and saw the girls getting deepdicked? Yeah but by telling in an internal monologue it shows that the POV has knowledge of the animals cocks and understands just how fucked the girls are.
Internal monologue and telling are just another tool. use them wrong and it will look bad, simple as.

[Anonymous No.19230082]

>>19230055
your excuse isn't much better dude, let's not pretend you have that much foresight

[Anonymous No.19230083]

>>19230055
Just like you I have no excuse. Thanks for a great analogy anon. Maybe it may help me in nanowrimo this year, even if I just do better than what I did last year that will make me happy.

[Anonymous No.19230090]

>>19230063
Oh so that’s not normal. Well I’m fucked, and not in the way I just tediously described. Heyyoooooo

[Anonymous No.19230107]

>>19230042
I read this in Michael Cera's voice.

[Anonymous No.19230177]

>>19230055
I wrote 92k words in the past 6 months. Then from April 2021 to October 2020 it was 125k. October to April 2020 it was 122k.

[Anonymous No.19230181]

>>19229541
Do you think I'm a mangaka or something, anon?

[Anonymous No.19230200]

Bumping because TayTay is a flawless blonde woman.

[Anonymous No.19230288]

>>19230200
Gay.
>>19230181
No. All the anime writers were kicked out.

[Anonymous No.19230317]

>>19230288
No, Anon. I'm afraid you are the gay.

[Anonymous No.19230366]

>>19228870

[Anonymous No.19230430]

>Struggle to force myself to write
>Even once I have put word to page, it's shit

How long do you try at something before you admit to yourself that you're just not cut out for it.

[Anonymous No.19230447]

I have finally snapped. I am going to write a isekai novel about Vlad the Impaler after his death being summoned to another world in order to kill the demon king and save humanity.

Will include
>Vlad impaling demons on spikes and placing their rotting corpses around human settlements to defend them from demonic incursions.
>Making the demons so fearful of him they run away back to the wastelands they came from.
>Vlad leading a army to wipe out the demons once and fall all in a brutal genocide.

I want to make Vlad a likable character who cruelly deals with demons in reverence of the god that summoned him to the fantasy world.

[Anonymous No.19230517]

>>19230447
So, you want to make him a fanatical believer that employs draconic measures against enemies, corruption and theft?

[Anonymous No.19230549]

>>19230447
Vlad the Impaler is such a shitty historic figure. Ottoman Muslims did the same to Christians, and then suddenly a king does the same to them and he gets infamous as brutal tyrant/dracula/etc for all eternity.

[Anonymous No.19230555]

>>19230447
Are you basing this on the actual historical character, or Coppola's movie?

[Anonymous No.19230563]

>>19230549
He was famous not just for doing that, but for continuing to do that until he died on battlefield.
He was even ousted twice, I think, and when Moldova's king, Stephan the Great, helped him return to the throne, he made the rebel nobles rebuild his post-siege castle with their own hands.

[Anonymous No.19230637]

>>19224569
By reading, playing shitty games and watching anime and sometimes Japanese shows. Generally getting into things outside of what I like helps me form new and creative ideas.

[Anonymous No.19230659]

im writing a confessional dialogue between a penitent and a pastor. is it alright if they refer to each other as "father" and "son" everytime they speak?

[Anonymous No.19230660]

>>19230659
Which denomination are they? If they're Catholic it's fine.

[Anonymous No.19230668]

>>19230660
i havent specified it but it has to be a denomination thats okay with masturbation (a few centuries ago)

[Anonymous No.19230675]

>>19230668
I know of no denomination that is "okay" with masturbation, though I do know that the Anglican's official position is that they have no position on masturbation.

[Anonymous No.19230692]

Writing a fanfiction of a show told in the limited perspective someone who is both an empath and a clarivoyant and should know everything about everyone but is autistic and doesn't ask any questions and trying to give even the others in the main ensemble cast any kind of depth
At this rate I'd rather go back to pretending I know latin and looking up every other word refusing to accept that it isn't basically Spanish

[Anonymous No.19230693]

>>19230675
Filthy perverts!
>>19230549
What if Vlad was black?

[Anonymous No.19230709]

>>19230692
There’s a reason Deanna Troi is absent is 70% of TNG plot lines. It’s incredibly difficult to write around a character like that.

[Anonymous No.19230721]

>>19230660
Do any others even do the confession hogwash? I think it's mostly a catholic thing

[Anonymous No.19230739]

>>19230659
Yes, that's how they do it normally. Bonus points if the pastor calls the penitent "figlio mio"

[Anonymous No.19230779]

No writing today because I finished my new chapter a day early. Feels bad man.

[Anonymous No.19230789]

>>19230430
>How long do you try at something before you admit to yourself that you're just not cut out for it.
Shut up. You can do it.

[Anonymous No.19230793]

Hoping for some feedback.

The rain rattled against the metal roof, turning into a roar as the sound echoed through the street below. One last thrash of a dying summer giving way to the frigged winds coming to sap what warmth was left. The entire city would soon be bathed in the deep blue of an endless polar night. This winter was going to be long, dark, and most of all, cold. Zehra burrowed her face into her coat, shivering at the mere thought.

[Anonymous No.19230916]

>>19230721
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confession_(religion)
Most protestants don't have confessions but Lutherans do. I can say as a Baptist, and I know for some older generations of Methodists and Presbyterians, "coming to the altar" is an implicit form of confession. It's not exactly traditional, it was something added on by certain evangelicals, forget the name of the preacher. During a service, people are asked to come to the altar, which is actually kneeling next to the steps near the podium where the preacher speaks. Sometimes they are left alone in silence, other times people join them to pray with them, sometimes the pastor takes a knee and talks with them. The confessing person doesn't have to tell anyone what they're going through, but sometimes they tell them instead of a confessing prayer to God. At the Baptist church I had been to, personal confession was strongly encourage before partaking in communion because of this verse: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2011%3A28-30&version=KJV

[Anonymous No.19230927]

>>19230430
I once talked to an artist who told me he told himself a long time ago that he sold his soul to the devil for his art, so every day he would draw something in his notebook. It might be the big project he was working on, or it might just be little squares and circles, but every day he got open that notebook and drew something. I try to emulate that now and you ought to, too.

[Anonymous No.19230945]

>>19230721
Orthodox do, if the guest wants to have a heartfelt talk.

[Anonymous No.19230949]

>>19230430
Self-hate is procrastination via negative reinforcement, let go of that to keep writing.

[Anonymous No.19230989]

>>19230916
I'm Lutheran though and never seen any sin-confessing.

[Anonymous No.19230994]

>>19230989
Your entire existence is sinful, heretic.

[Anonymous No.19231003]

>>19230555
It sounds like he's basing it entirely on his name

[Anonymous No.19231019]

>>19230447
Isn't this literally Hellsing?

[Anonymous No.19231053]

>>19230989
I was just saying there is a history of it. There are some Presbyterians that use candles a lot and recite prayers, but there are plenty that don't. There are lots of different Baptists too. If anything, anon can write about a church that is the way he wants it to be, hang a lantern on it to aconowledge its not normal, and give a reason why it came to be. Some churches don't allow mustaches because a preacher a few decades ago wanted to control how the men looked. Some churches split because someone wantes to play drums in the worship service.

[Anonymous No.19231071]

holy shit I'm just writing and it's working
im just writing oh god
im wriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiting

[Anonymous No.19231106]

I just remembered that Vlad III Dracula is historically canon Vlad II Dracul's son and that if I tried to do the Dracula 2000 twist that Dracula is actually Judas Iscariot in a work that doesn't suck it'd be such a massive plot hole that it'd bring it down to the same suck level.
What if I had Judas a separate but also vampire? What reason would the two ever have to meet? Maybe that's who Incognito was. But that's also dumb since Judas is older and should be a more powerful vampire than Vlad.

[Anonymous No.19231121]

>>19231106
Dracul means Dragon's son, as I remember, Vlad's real last name was Tepes. Also, he would kill Judas on sight for betraying Jesus, if they ever met.

[Anonymous No.19231208]

Current word count today: 3316. Most of it was shit but I'm proud of myself.

[Anonymous No.19231282]

>>19231208
I'm about 2000 words edited a day, need to get that number up. I now spend an hour a day stockpiling goods in case of hyperinflation. One more month and I'll have all I need for years.

[Anonymous No.19231286]

Has anyone done any deeper studies of linguistics and how it relates to writing good prose? I'm thinking of taking up my copy of Rhetoric again and rereading it.

[Anonymous No.19231517]

>>19231286
I'd like to study more about the language but for now I'm just gonna bee myself and sprinkle in literary devices I enjoy. Most of my reading now is non-fiction, not to see how people write but to have more to think about. After a while I may take the Bradbury approach of reading short stories, poems, and essays on a regular basis. Just one of each a day.

[Anonymous No.19231896]

>>19231517
I'm probably going to go back to Rhetoric and reread book 3 and notate it. I feel like I need to take more steps in bettering my specific writing and I might as well start at the language level.

[Anonymous No.19231901]

>>19231121
>Vlad's real last name was Tepes
Tepes means impaler. People at the time didn't really have surnames, nobles don't to this day.
The duke of Cambridge signature is just "william"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_William,_Duke_of_Cambridge#/media/File:SignatureOfWilliamDukeOfCambridge.png

[Anonymous No.19232115]

>write 30k first draft of a major act of my story
>recently developed my prose from amateur trash to okay-tier (pre-edit that'll fix it up)
>working on the prose in the second draft means it takes me about a week (around work) to finish redrafting a chapter

I think it's gonna be a long, long time, til the book is done for me again to find, I can start another book idea and roam; oh, oh, oh, I'm a writer man! Writing a book that is a tomb, writer man! And I think it's gonna take a long, long time.

[Anonymous No.19232306]

So I took a break from writing after finishing my first novel to do some AI research. Now I want to take a break from AI research to do some writing. What I want to write is a dialogue between two AIs that I believe are well within in the scope of near-future scifi. Given my CS background and recent research, it would be more "hard science" than most scifi, and probably also more philosophical than the average scifi reader wants. (I'm thinking of going so far as to cite papers in footnotes.) Do any of you have ideas on where I might publish a short story like that? Any magazines that are interested in that sort of thing?

[Anonymous No.19232356]

>>19232306
Don't repost your shit twice, you faggot. Nobody cares.

[Anonymous No.19232361]

>>19232306
>more philosophical than the average scifi reader wants.
Imagine thinking people want to read the philosophical musings of some of some unknown twat.

[Anonymous No.19232373]

>>19232356
>>19232361
Give me more (You)s.

[Anonymous No.19232499]

>>19232373
faggot

[Anonymous No.19232518]

>>19232306
What the fuck, are you asking for permission? Do we look like fucking Google? Write the shit first, then there'll be something to talk about.

[Anonymous No.19232520]

What has writing taught you about yourself? I often find out more things about my insecurities, worldview, interests, etc. This occurs in the moment and on reflection.

I'll start with one: I have a dislike of sad or otherwise negative endings. As a writer I'm only really interested in writing happy endings, even if bittersweet. A non-happy ending feels like an incomplete story to me.

[Anonymous No.19232546]

>>19232520
Darker stuff got boring. Also, I found out that I care less about medieval fantasy and prefer slice of life, although future is great too.

[Anonymous No.19232558]

>>19232518
No. I specifically asked for places that would be interested in publishing things like that so I could look at them and write targeting them.
>Write the shit first
Have you finished a novel, anon? I have no problem with writing.

[Anonymous No.19232572]

>>19232306
>(I'm thinking of going so far as to cite papers in footnotes.)
This totally breaks immersion

[Anonymous No.19232616]

>>19232572
Honestly, even if I did add footnotes, if I published in a magazine they'd be taken out anyways, so it'd be more for myself than anything. I'm more just trying to indicate that it wouldn't necessarily fit with a scifi publication that's tailored towards pulpy scifi (which I think is probably a majority of them.)

[Anonymous No.19232627]

>>19232558
>I have no problem with writing.
The fact that you're here already disproves that.

[Anonymous No.19232653]

>>19232627
>write 24/7 or you're not a writer
>do not visit websites
>do not have conversations
>do not experience things
>just write
Anyways, good luck with whatever it is you're working on. If you don't have any suggestions regarding the question I asked, that's okay. You don't have to reply to me.

[Anonymous No.19232740]

>>19232520
same.
main thing I've learned is that I like juxtaposing tragedy with happy things. probably as a cope. but it makes me feel the best so whatever.

[Anonymous No.19232974]

>>19232520
I refuse to be explicit about things that I find unsavory like mass murder, suicide and the like. I will tell about it, maybe allude to it, but I won't show it. I dont want to encourage the behavior. Nonetheless, I had to give pessimistic views a fair shot in the story or else I'd feel dishonest. It disgusts me to look at people as not morally gray, it may not be that way but its incredibly sanctimonious. So all the antagonists I've written so far are sympathetic in a way. I actually enjoy taking my personal feelings and tearing them to shreds in writing. It's because I'm sick of justifying myself. I'd rather be a fool than a sucker.

[Anonymous No.19233740]

>>19233736
>>19233736
>>19233736
New bread

[Anonymous No.19233832]

>>19224597
>Otherwise they weren't doing so badly, they had modest successes and were moderately talented, but all the ladders wobble before the sexual hierarchy. Martyred by the cruelest of all whores, Mother Nature, all their actions implied an apology for their presence in the world, the shame of inhabiting absolutely undesirable bodies.
This shit works well. It's strong in that it gives a clear view into something that's at the core of the character's personality.

[Anonymous No.19233895]

>>19223902
I've read through the thread so I know this is a first draft. I think a lot of the feedback you've received is spot on. I would reiterate that as a reader I am often confused about what it is you are describing, but I feel that you are close to describing it. Also the frequent word repetition is noticeable and pulls the reader out of the story.

>Samuel was worried. It had not worried him like this before, not even when he could hear the office in the hallway, or when he woke in the middle of the night to run water through his fingernails, avoiding the palms. It would echo in the bathroom. And even when he could memorize the patterns or words he heard, he was never this worried
This is great. I feel like I am with him there and completely understand what is happening. Keep it up

[Anonymous No.19234026]

>>19226265
engaging, but I have no idea what the fuck it was about

[Anonymous No.19234058]

>>19227386
>https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/46539/into-the-water
Fun read anon

[Anonymous No.19234253]

>>19230793
eh

[Anonymous No.19234413]

>>19233895
>>19234026
thanks anon. Yeah I gotta up the clarity. I hate saying things without the words being pretty. I suppose it's like making a bookshelf out of porcelain. Maybe pretty has it's place.
>>19234058
thanks man. that one I had fun making up woodland creatures into water beasts.