/wg/ - Writing General

[Anonymous No.19438007]

Marlon Brando Edition

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

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/

Previous thread
>>19416463

[Anonymous No.19438082]

Posting this again in the new thread:

Could I get some feedback on my writing? This was a free-write:


A man walked down a road. Dirt stuck to the soles of his feat and the hot road burned them. In the shimmer of the horizon in front of him a bus stop formed, he walked to it. Sitting at the bus stop in the desert was a beautiful woman. The woman was wearing a sleeveless thwab. She was an emerald amongst the sand, dust, and metal of the bus stop.

Hello, the man said. The woman did not respond. The woman did not move. She looked on to the boundary between land and sky, but the man could not tell what she was looking at. Her lips rested against each other in a slight pout, a diamond of separation right in the centre of them revealed white teeth. Her brow was furrowed, and her hand sat upon it. The man could not tell if she was squinting from the sun, or if she was lost in thought. Hello, he repeated. The woman lowered her hand and turned to face the man. Do you see that tower? No, the man replied. The woman placed her hand above the man’s brow. How about now? Yes, now I can see. I’m lost in that tower. I’m there and I haven’t quite found my way out. She lowered her hand and sat on the hot metal of the bus stop bench.

The man could still see the tower in the distance, even without the help of the woman. The tower was wide and seemed to be around five stories tall. It was a smooth sandstone-coloured structure and featureless except for a set of steps that spiralled around and up the tower. At the top were battlements surrounding a flagpole with a straight and rigid flag. The man imagined what God sees as he looks down on this tower: an ammonite shell, waiting to be buried by the sand.

The man turned to the woman and picked her up. He put her in his pocket and found himself at the bottom of the tower. It was two, maybe three times larger than he had thought. The man was able to see a window in the tower, a narrow slit, but he could not see inside it as it was too high. From the slit to the ground there was a streak of blood, as it poured. It pooled on the ground, under where the man stood and left the sand wet. The man walked around the tower, leaving bloody footprints as he searched for a door, but he could not see one. He started to climb the steps. The blood on his feet did not dry and did not run out as he marked every step.

At the top of the tower the man looked towards the horizon and saw water in every direction. The sun felt more intense, as if he had travelled above the atmosphere. He could not see the bus stop. The woman was no longer in his pocket. He looked up towards the sun but the sky around the flag was dark. An orb of light radiated from the centre of the azure flag. The man took the flag from the pole and put it in his pocket.

[Anonymous No.19438165]

As a westener, how do I write an Asian character inoffensively?

[Anonymous No.19438178]

Rejection #2 came in.

[Anonymous No.19438199]

>>19438165
Make he whistles really chinesey sounding music, and as he whistles he whistles grains of rice in peoples faces by accident

[Anonymous No.19438282]

>>19438178
I will not reject you!

[Anonymous No.19438306]

/wg/ does this have a plot hole in it?

>there's a company of knights seeking the grail
>a legend surfaces that the grail is actually in hell
>the leader of this company decides to take his two most trusted advisors on a quest into hell and leaves his deputy in his stead
>unbeknownst to him, one of his advisors is a rat bastard who woud rather give up on the grail and turn the knights into a mercenary company
>they go on the quest but its a complete disaster
>the grail reveals bringing it to earth will end the world, the leader is lost and presumed dead, the good advisor suffers a head wound and is so traumatized he drinks himself into a stupor to forget, and the rat bastard comes back to find the deputy won't abdicate
>in an attempt to discredit the old leader and thus his choice of deputy, the rat bastard lies that the rumor about the grail being in hell was an obvious deception to lure people in that no competent leader would have fallen for and gaslights and abuses the drunk to shut him up
>ultimately the company doesn't know what the truth is but decide to throw out the rat bastard, and declare a quest to hell off limits
>years later a farm boy has a vision of the grail in hell and joins the company to find it
>he learns from some fellow pages that the whole thing was a mysterious clusterfuck and that the leader wont allow it, even after the farm boy insists he saw it
>the drunk has a breakdown, confessing only that they did find it and refuses to talk
>eventually, the farm boy and pages decide to go on the quest themselves
>they seek out the rat bastard to learn the truth
>the bastard sticks to his story in an attempt to lure the pages to join his mercenary company
>in reality, all he wants is the farm boys magic sword and when they insist on seeing the quest through he tries to kill them and steal their belongings
>they defeat him, go on the quest and eventually learn the truth
>they can't take the grail back, but they manage to seal the only gate between hell and earth and go home alive

[Anonymous No.19438382]

>>19438282
Thank you fren. wagmi
If I get 500 rejections I will email 501 agents.

[Anonymous No.19438448]

>>19438306
Why doesn't he take his deputy? Surely he's the most trusted.

How does one of his most trusted advisors suddenly turn on him?

Hard to know if there's anything wrong with a plot point as vague as "the quest is a disaster".

>Leader is lost and presumed dead.
I'm guessing this is part of the general disaster?

>Suffers a head wound and drinks himself into a stupor to forget.
Why does he want to forget he has a head wound? And if you mean forget "the disaster", why can't he just forget because he actually has a headwound?

>Obvious deception to lure people in
Not so obvious if none of your knights who I assume are well versed in grail lore don't realise. Also, he try's to force the deputy to abdicate, and THEN tires to convince them with a lie? Surely after he tries to force the deputy to abdicate the other knights would realise he's a traitor?

>Declare a quest to hell off limits
I have no idea what this means

>he learns from some fellow pages that the whole thing was a mysterious clusterfuck and that the leader wont allow it, even after the farm boy insists he saw it
Literally makes no sense. Farm boy learns that there was a "disaster" and that the leader won't allow... something - I have no idea what 'it' is here.

What instigates the drunks breakdown? Seems to be quite random years after. Also, is he a drunk now after drinking himself into a stupor one time?

>All he wants is the farm boys magic sword
Ah yes, this magic sword we've all heard so much about up until now.

>They defeat him
Okay

>They manage to seal the only gate between hell and earth and go home alive
What's this gate? Why do they need to seal it? Is them going home alive challenged at this point?

It's very hard to find any plot holes in what is such a vague story.

[Anonymous No.19438566]

>>19438448
>Why doesn't he take his deputy? Surely he's the most trusted.
the deputy has the best leadership skills. The rat bastard is the best planner

>How does one of his most trusted advisors suddenly turn on him?
simple lust for power. the guy's a wolf in sheep's clothing who only shows his true colors when the chips are down

>why can't he just forget because he actually has a headwound?
he remembers bits and pieces, but the bits and pieces he remembers are traumatic enough that he doesn't want to think about them

>Surely after he tries to force the deputy to abdicate the other knights would realise he's a traitor?

>Also, he try's to force the deputy to abdicate, and THEN tires to convince them with a lie? Surely after he tries to force the deputy to abdicate the other knights would realise he's a traitor?
it was more like he came back, immediately assumed he was in charge and started giving orders before he'd told the full story, only to notice they were listening to the deputy's orders rather than his. He doesn't change his story because he hasn't told it yet

that said, they do realize he's an asshole, which is why they boot him

>I have no idea what this means
exactly what it sounds like. They don't know the full story because both the traitor and the drunk give unreliable stories, so the deputy decides to err on the side of caution and forbid anyone from going back to try and learn the truth

>What instigates the drunks breakdown? Seems to be quite random years after. Also, is he a drunk now after drinking himself into a stupor one time?
not "one time". he had a light drinking problem before the adventure but after the adventure it became significantly more serious as he tried to forget

>What instigates the drunks breakdown?
the farm boy asking

>Ah yes, this magic sword we've all heard so much about up until now.
there are multiple subplots, I'm only asking about the one that's relevant

[Anonymous No.19438638]

>>19438082
I actually like it. I do think some atyention should be paid to sentences like
>In the shimmer of the horizon in front of him a bus stop formed, he walked to it.
Where "bus stop" ruins the flow. Now why do I point that out, your surrealist style is interesting and needs to be mechanically proper so we know what you're doing exactly. You can misspell words on purpose but we should be able to intuit these so we can follow along.

Besides that it's missing a strong theme. I'm unaware if it's supposed to be funny or what have you which I should be able to follow along as well. I enjoyed it as it's a good style.

[Anonymous No.19438662]

What are some good ways to practice writing? I feel my writing isn't necessarily improving when I pursue personal projects

[Anonymous No.19438673]

>>19438662
You have to get to the point where opening one door opens a room w multiple doors and for that you need a foundation or to return a bit closer to it.
I tried a short story and had to revert to flash fiction to get away from plot and back towards my writing style.

[Anonymous No.19438696]

I can't decide whether to write or read for what's left of my time before going to bed. Help me, please.

[Anonymous No.19438739]

>>19438696
write us a story about the destruction of the tomb of eve

[Anonymous No.19438748]

>>19438165
Talk to Asians

[Anonymous No.19438759]

>>19438165
he's just like a normal human being except he has shit political takes and loves panda express

[Anonymous No.19438761]

>>19438165
If you aren't good at character archetypes then work on that first. You'd be surprised that Tolstoy's, Austen's characters are all one race but with *gasp* different personalities. It's almost like race is a modern invention and not even a good one.

[Anonymous No.19438772]

>>19438739
That's actually a really good premise. I'd have to do some reading before tackling the subject, but I just might. This would be the third /wg/ prompt I tackle. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll get to it eventually.

[Anonymous No.19438799]

>>19438662
The flash fiction thread.
1000 word stories that you have to base on a theme from the list of prompts people suggest in the thread.

It should be back soon I think, the OP making them is organising the 4th book right now.

[Anonymous No.19438836]

>been putting off any form of writing for months now
>blank pages are too intimidating
I'm never gonna make it

[Anonymous No.19438866]

>>19438638
What is it that makes 'bus stop' ruin the flow? Is it literally just the sounds of the words or am I misunderstanding what you're saying?

I guess with it being a free write the idea of a theme wasn't really ever in my head. It was more just exploring where this would go. I might try and expand it into a longer story and come up with something to link it all. When imagining the scene it was never really funny, definitely an odd kind of dreamscape - maybe even slightly pretentious.

Reading back, it could all be linked together from an environmental point of view so many when expanding it I could make that a theme.

I'm really glad you liked it though, thanks for taking the time to read.

[Anonymous No.19438868]

>>19438836
mental damning

[Anonymous No.19438893]

>>19438566
Why would he assume he's in charge when there's a deputy?

>so the deputy decides to err on the side of caution and forbid anyone from going back to try and learn the truth
But isn't it a big thing with Knights that they are honorable? I don't believe that a band of knights wouldn't go back to save their captain and other good men.

>What instigates the drunks breakdown?
>the farm boy asking
So in the years since, literally nobody has spoken to the drunk about the incident?

I'm being deliberately pedantic by the way, it just seems like the most helpful way to look for plot holes!

[Anonymous No.19438897]

>>19438836
500 words a day is all it takes to write a novel in one year my friend

[Anonymous No.19438909]

>>19438662
I'm doing Tim Claire's couch to 80k boot camp. It's just a free course on his website. It has a 10 minute writing exercise every day for 8 weeks and aims to make writing - even if it's bad writing - a habit.

[Anonymous No.19438911]

>>19438866
It's that the subject is two words. I think it's in the syntax used where "x formed" is supposed to be definitive. Now if it was reverse and you said "then there appeared a bus stop" I think it works.

The theme can be something minor or goofy, I get it was free-written but any piece of writing must be together. To remedy that, I think you should apply the free writing to a theme as you write it where the more you write the more a theme appears. That's how I decide my themes but you can't meaningfully write without a theme.

[Anonymous No.19438930]

>>19438911
I think I understand you, like syntactically "a crater formed" works better than "a gaping crater formed". I'll work on rewording that.

Could you give me an example of a theme you might consider before starting a free write? For instance, when rewriting this piece would it be enough to say "the theme is going to be environmental destruction", for instance?

[Anonymous No.19438949]

>>19438930
To be honest I write until complete absurdity sometimes. After the first few sentences I decide what I'm going to do and puzzle piece it there.
As far as mechanically I would have picked something based on the elements given. In my head I thought you were writing a metaphor on sex in a surreal manner so that's how I would've finished the whole bit. I couldn't follow the theme though.

[Anonymous No.19438963]

>>19438949
Okay interesting. So you think there would need to be some sort of more definitive ending that really ties together the theme?

[Anonymous No.19438964]

Make random short stories based on things you see around you

[Anonymous No.19438975]

>>19438930
>>19438949
Ig the "gaping crater formed" would be fine if the gaping was meant to slow the pace (as in an image of a gape between holes) but that's what I meant. The misspellings I couldn't tell if they were on purpose until I got to the women being put in the pocket and I had to rewrite my reply. That part to me was funny and I thought that might have been played w a bit but yeah I had to rewrite it and skip a lot of things because I wasn't entirely sure which parts were surreal and which weren't.

[Anonymous No.19438984]

>>19438975
I'm not sure what misspellings you're talking about to be honest.

[Anonymous No.19438985]

>>19438963
The ending follows from it. You should focus on being more mechanically pure and creative and you can stop whenever in my experience. I think too much emphasis is placed on "beginning-middle-ending" and that that doesn't cover the writing process properly and that some of those are covered w others.

[Anonymous No.19438991]

>>19438893
>Why would he assume he's in charge when there's a deputy?
the dude is a narcissist and has always been dismissive of the deputy

>But isn't it a big thing with Knights that they are honorable? I don't believe that a band of knights wouldn't go back to save their captain and other good men.
when the first party saw visions of the apocalypse, the visions featured the captain's grave. The bastard used that to insist that the captain was dead. The drunk on the other hand remembered that the date of death on the captain's grave was actually several years in the future, but because the bastard gaslighted him, his faulty memory and his unwillingness to think back he never spoke of it

>So in the years since, literally nobody has spoken to the drunk about the incident?
people have spoken to the drunk about it, but the drunk has had breakdowns before over it. Up until this point, nobody has insisted on actually going back

>I'm being deliberately pedantic by the way, it just seems like the most helpful way to look for plot holes!
Thanks anon. It's helping me organize my thoughts.

[Anonymous No.19438993]

>>19438985
I think this is all getting a little bit abstract for me to understand with the experience writing that I have.

[Anonymous No.19438995]

What software do you nerds use when writing?

[Anonymous No.19438998]

>>19438984
>Dirt stuck to the soles of his feat and the hot road burned them.
Feet* and the hot road burned what? The dirt or the soles of his feet? For the style you're using, which necessitates no ambiguity to express what it expresses, this is confusing.

[Anonymous No.19439003]

>>19438995
Google docs chads report in

[Anonymous No.19439008]

>>19438991
Do you have any idea how the quest goes wrong? That bit felt super vague and felt like a lot of story was missing.

[Anonymous No.19439016]

>>19439003
>Google
>chads

[Anonymous No.19439017]

>>19438995
software?

[Anonymous No.19439020]

I was thinking of narrating my flash fiction and uploading the audio to youtube. Has anyone done something similar? I was thinking it might be an interesting way to share some of my work. Do you guys think just audio would be fine or should I also use a picture or something? I don't want it to look tacky.

[Anonymous No.19439027]

>>19439020
If you can draw you should draw. It would be like a new genre for yt. If you can't draw then just narrating it is fine but you should try to maximize the medium. If you can somehow interact on yt w your flash fiction you may be better served.

[Anonymous No.19439032]

>>19438998
Oh damn how did I not catch that in any of my read-throughs. Were there any others?

I don't know if the sentence you quoted is that ambiguous because you wouldn't refer to dirt as 'them' even in a surrealist style.

[Anonymous No.19439037]

>>19439003
based
>>19439017
baseder

[Anonymous No.19439039]

>>19439027
I can't really draw and I'm worried my sorry attempts for artwork would undermine anything I'm writing.

Perhaps I could try doing some very simple flipbook style animations based around an object in the story.

[Anonymous No.19439049]

Well?

[Anonymous No.19439056]

>>19439032
The conversation they had came off a bit ambiguous too but I was already invested in that being an element of the story.

Maybe it's that it's written passively? I'm not sure exactly but it doesn't look like the best sentence for expressing what needs to be expressed. That being said it looks like your writing gets better as it goes along minus the theme and mechanism/creativity point.

[Anonymous No.19439059]

>>19439039
Hey if they're funny or something ppl will watch it

[Anonymous No.19439065]

>>19439008
the grail is in a stronghold that the knights tunnel under to reach. However, when they get there the grail itself prevents them from leaving with it and they're captured, since the duke of hell needs humans to even get near it. They manage to break out of his dungeon, but the captain stays behind to hold them off

notably, the bastard doesn't reveal to the other knights that they were captured or why, and the drunk remembers nothing between between seeing the visions and the escape as a result of the head wound. The pages only find out about it when they seek him out

[Anonymous No.19439067]

>>19439056
Okay that's fair enough. Thanks for the help, I'm still decently new to writing so all this is really helpful.

[Anonymous No.19439073]

The message from the dream conquered my memories, while not awake on the conscious plane, my brain eagerly waited for that promised signal, a device that would meet the start of the day, where the shades of the sky change their usual mist.
Altough the thundering alarm may crash into my ears, and my arms and legs scream to remain, by sheer force of will from the bed i arise, may the early sun blind my soul and meet my eyes, may i rise again tomorrow to carry the weight of my indolence, towards an endless change.
Rate.

[Anonymous No.19439074]

>>19439067
Yeah have fun man you seem to already have direction so it's already interesting to read your writing.

[Anonymous No.19439092]

>>19439017
My calligraphy is trash

[Anonymous No.19439176]

Do you guys ever get emotional when you write? I guess it's a good thing, but sometimes I get in the mind of my characters and they're going through something difficult or heartbreaking and I start to feel absolutely awful with the feeling persisting after I stop.

[Anonymous No.19439273]

>>19439176
Sounds like you're getting in the zone bub.

Yeah, it happens.

[Anonymous No.19439581]

would appreciate some feedback
it's long as fuck and its first 50k will be done in nine days
https://ghostbin.com/AIFhg

[Anonymous No.19439765]

>>19439176
yes though its funny cause every one of my characters would brutally kill me if given the chance and I just want to hug them

[Anonymous No.19439793]

>>19438995
neovim

[Anonymous No.19439828]

back in my day I was mercilessly critted for having anime and ya level writing, I come back here a year later and this place has undergone immense bimbofication and anime overhaul while I've done the exact opposite and have become a borderline pseud
I want to take the guise of genre fiction but actually make it heavily literary with only the genre fiction settings. Fucka magic sisstem, fucka female characters ever unless they're side entertainment, and fucka less than ten page chapter.
I kinda feel cheated desu what the fuck guys

[Anonymous No.19439861]

>>19439828
>listening to the pseuds to the point of becoming one
Literally ngmi.

[Anonymous No.19439865]

>>19439861
i said borderline you fucko
my writing is not pseud but it's close enough to get the best of both worlds

[Anonymous No.19439872]

>be you
>don't speak latin, ancient greek, classical chinese, and arabic

I'm sorry anon, you're ngmi

[Anonymous No.19439884]

>>19439865
>so pseud he thinks pseud is a scale
>so pseud he thinks being a "partial" pseud is a good thing
LITERALLY ngmi.

[Anonymous No.19439889]

>>19439884
that term is too undefined around here to have any real meaning

[Anonymous No.19439890]

>>19439865
>I am a special snowflake pseud
lol lmoa. post your writing. oh wait, I forgot, pseuds don't write.

[Anonymous No.19439897]

>>19439828
Same except I also write women chars.

[Anonymous No.19439907]

>>19439897
I mean women characters are okay, but I can't expect anyone to take me seriously if the main character is a woman.
Modern audiences will get the theme all wrong too.

[Anonymous No.19439968]

>>19439907
>Modern audiences will get the theme all wrong too.
Why would they get it wrong? Does having a woman protag make people think it's about women issues? I don't have any woman protags currently but a future outline does unless I focus on another perspective. I dealt with a theme of lost legacy with a childless man before but I wanted to use a mother to express it too mixed with other themes.

[Anonymous No.19439987]

>>19438995
Scrivener

[Anonymous No.19440015]

>>19438995
I used a pirated version of Scrivener but needed iCloud support so switched to Pages.

[Anonymous No.19440018]

>>19438007
Are killing game stories just cheap entertainment? Why do they get big in a short amount of time, but lose their popularity so fast?

[Anonymous No.19440040]

>>19440018
You can look at the track record of anime from the last 15 years to see it as an easy high stakes premise. That can easily turn to trash execution. All shows or books will eventually get passed on for the new shiny thing. Look at mirai nikki as evidence for that.

[Anonymous No.19440164]

How do I get over the idea/fact that someone, somewhere, might totally misinterpret or pervert what I write and talk about it right here on 4chan?

[Anonymous No.19440169]

>>19440164
who gives a big stinky doo doo

[Anonymous No.19440191]

>>19440164
there's no hope anon, sorry pal

[Anonymous No.19440206]

>>19440164
Rule 34 exists so you gotta come to terms with it.

[Anonymous No.19440211]

>>19440164
I've made it a rule not to listen to any American on my story about a slave owner. Nothing good can come of it.

[Anonymous No.19440316]

How do I get each voice of a character to be distinct enough? Like, the main character is no issue but dialogue is hard, I need tips on this

[Anonymous No.19440344]

>>19440316
Do you have an example of where you feel you are failing at voice? How do you expect this person to sound?

[Anonymous No.19440349]

>>19440344
Not him, but I don't. I hope to have the voice come to me and then it... doesn't.

[Anonymous No.19440356]

>>19440344
Writing a narcissist is easy, I can get that, the issue is the "straight man" to their egotistic ramblings, I wrote this character, the main one, as someone that uses flowery language and constant metaphors, it's borderline purple prose but it's done on purpose, I do hope I can shave something of it, I hope it works.
Now, the issue, again, comes from having someone stop their rambling on their tracks and play off them without being bland or boring.

[Anonymous No.19440386]

>>19440344
>>19440356
Cadence, writing down their dialogue, let alone capturing it and letting it develop into quirks and identities, that's the current obstacle. I fear the following scenarios, either someone doesn't match up and it comes across as graphomania, too much into the purple prose, or for example I overcorrect and everyone sounds the same. The small quirks that people carry when talking, I can't do that right now.

[Anonymous No.19440431]

>>19440349
>>19440356
>>19440386
Obviously both of you have the basics of the character laid out. For the second guy, the character is someone who would normally come off as bland and boring but has to object to the monologuing of the narcissist in a convincing manner. The problem isn't that your foil doesn't have a genuine voice, but that his genuine voice falls flat in the current scenario. It sounds like this needs to escalate to an outburst. Interrupt his 8th monologue with gunshot to the knee followed by your foils own surprise monologue about how much he hates monologues. Let it be an arc for him.
I have a similar situation in what I'm writing. Someone discovering a hiveminded creature and documenting the entire ordeal through plenty of internal monologue. Eventually he gets pulled into the hivemind and is told to shut the fuck up with all the monologuing since they can now hear his thoughts.

[Anonymous No.19440476]

>>19438178
I'm still at 5 rejections. No clue if I'll ever hear back from the other 10.

[Anonymous No.19440564]

>>19440316
if your characters aren't real apparent people then you need to work on imagining them better to begin with
>>19439176
if you haven't cried to your own writing then you haven't written anything worth reading

[Anonymous No.19440570]

>>19440564
>if your characters aren't real apparent people then you need to work on imagining them better to begin with
I might act them out like I'm on stage at times, it helps me come up with good stuff, I guess I'll act harder

[Anonymous No.19440574]

>every agent says they want writing that is "high concept"
>only take on cookie cutter YA and womens lit
what the fuck do they mean by this?
and when they say they want "distincive voice" they just mean a snarky bitchy protag so they themselves feel like less awful people right

[Anonymous No.19440587]

>>19440574
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_concept
>High concept is a type of artistic work that can be easily pitched with a succinctly stated premise
Sounds an awful lot like cookie cutter YA to me, dawg.

[Anonymous No.19440598]

>>19440587
>>19440574
High concept means the concept alone sells the work. Most YA shit is high concept for a very good reason, because you can't trust that the skill of the author will be any good.

Had Harry Potter been about an orphan at Stonehall written by Rowling no one would give a fuck. It was only when you said "ok so he's a wizard in a magic school" that anyone paid attention

[Anonymous No.19440650]

>>19438007
Someone I know wants to write a story.
The basic setup is
>Sun inexplicably got so hot for a period of time that humanity was forced underground to escape the heat
>80 years later, things have cooled down to more survivable conditions, although it’s been like this for years
>Problem is, the suns didn’t just bring along a heat wave, no. For whatever reason, it also bought a horrible transformation in those who looked directly at it. They turn into ever evolving, bioluminescent humanoids who’s sole purpose is to make more of themselves. And barring that, just kill those who resist
>Our heroes are 3 folk who venture across this land for whatever reason. A blind kid (Who can actually fight the creatures due to his blindness,) a mechanic girl, and a survivalist
She didn’t tell me much else besides some basic names, story beats and a route they generally go.

[Anonymous No.19440659]

Your book has just been published and is on shelves right now. On the front cover is a blurb that describes it as
>(insert name X here) meets (insert name Y here)!
Who are the two great creative minds that you channeled into your work?

[Anonymous No.19440663]

>>19440659
>William Burke meets William Burke

[Anonymous No.19440668]

>>19440659
Päätalo meets J.D. Salinger in a self-indulgent mess of juvenile narcissism and self-aggrandizing descriptions of a man's hard work!

[Anonymous No.19440676]

>>19440659
Paul Nielan and Jane Austen

[Anonymous No.19440682]

>>19440659
Marquis de Sade meets Charlie Kaufman

[Anonymous No.19440685]

>>19440682
I will now read your book

[Anonymous No.19440691]

>>19440587
>>19440598
so it's precisely the opposite of what you would assume (writing about higher concepts than just surface polish) and is actually literally only concerning an anime-sounding catchy premise that boils down to "if it isn't about pirates or ninjas then we won't publish it because according to our marketing specialists stories about pirates and ninjas sell the most copies". I want off this ride. Good thing the world is ending.

[Anonymous No.19440694]

>>19440659
who I think of:
>actual literary authors who made something worth reading decades later
who publishers will slap on the cover:
>2 YA books I have never heard of and would never read if I did

[Anonymous No.19440940]

"pursue my tertiary education focusing on software engineering"
is it focusing in, or focusing on?

[Anonymous No.19440959]

>names
I need help naming my male human delivery ship captain. What would be some good names for him?

[Anonymous No.19440968]

>>19440959
Frank

[Anonymous No.19440972]

>>19440959
Captain D. Liveryman

[Anonymous No.19441153]

>>19440691
Yeah, high concept and low concept sound stupid to me too and should be flipped, but it is what it is.

[Anonymous No.19441160]

How many publications should I submit to before giving up? I know the limit for novel queries is over 100, but what about for short stories?

[Anonymous No.19441193]

>>19441160
Post it here and let us read.

[Anonymous No.19441310]

So, high concept stories are like movies whose worth is already shown in the trailer.

[Anonymous No.19441325]

>>19441310
I'm 80% sure high concept was originally a hollywood term.

[Anonymous No.19441486]

>>19440650
These aren't story beats, this is a premise.

[Anonymous No.19441648]

Isn't self publishing basically admitting failure? You are not good enough to be traditionally published but also not patient enough to write a good enough book. I will never read a self published novel.

[Anonymous No.19441662]

>>19441648
Maybe(probably), but a lot of shit published today is dumbed down for the masses

[Anonymous No.19441663]

>>19438007
Is there a good place to post short stories?

[Anonymous No.19441673]

>>19441648
>"Oh no I hit the NYT best sellers list but I failed because I self-published"
said no one

[Anonymous No.19441749]

>>19441648
Not at all. If you can't get traditionally published it doesn't mean your book isn't good, it means your book isn't seen as potentially profitable.

[Anonymous No.19441751]

>>19441648
If you're churning out a Hunger Games ripoff then yes, you are a failure if you don't get published. If you're writing a genuine story that you've refused to make compromises on then no, you haven't failed because your goal was likely never to attract soulless bloodsuckers that throw pennies at you.

[Anonymous No.19441752]

>>19441663
You could post them here.

I genuinely think we should start narrating them and uploading them to youtube. We can make a /lit/ community of short story channels.

[Anonymous No.19441753]

>>19441648
Only for the pseuds.

[Anonymous No.19441765]

>>19440659
Post-singularity Scifi meets Southern Gothic.

[Anonymous No.19441790]

>>19441765
This sounds cool. Excerpt?

[Anonymous No.19441798]

>>19440663
Based Sweet Prudence and the Erotic Adventure of Bigfoot enjoyer.

>>19440676
>comparing yourself to Jane Austen
I didn't know Alexa Donne frequented /lit/.

>>19440682
I don't know how this would work but I genuinely want it.

>>19441765
Not what I asked for. Try again.

[Anonymous No.19441825]

>>19441798
Rainbow's End meets Wise Blood.

[Anonymous No.19441850]

>>19441752
Bruh I literally thought of doing that, idk why I haven't worked up the nuts and the passion to do so yet.

[Anonymous No.19441858]

>>19441850
I've recorded some audio but I don't know what to put as the video.

[Anonymous No.19441904]

>>19440659
tolkien meets carroll

[Anonymous No.19441907]

>>19440659
can't. im writing something brand new without plagiarizing other authors.

[Anonymous No.19441934]

https://ghostbin.com/27uVe
just trying to gauge if this is enjoyable so far to anyone
I know one anon seemed to like it, but I just want to check to make sure that wasn't an anomaly

[Anonymous No.19442055]

alright anons, I want a straight simple explanation. should be easy for good writers right?

What is pseud writing? What is anime writing? Is the between level considered good writing, are these two terms automatically opposites?
And just because fuck, post a published book you think is the example of how one should write. I'm super curious about how this general changed in the years I've been away.

[Anonymous No.19442058]

>>19440959
Chuck Noland, because that's who Tom Hanks played in Cast Away.

[Anonymous No.19442062]

>>19441160
If you get rejected even once, start again from scratch. If your work was good, publishers would be fighting over it rather than rejecting it.
t. someone who gave up

[Anonymous No.19442102]

>>19442055
I think pseud writing is when you focus on technical structure too much, like themes, messages, commentary, story arcs, etc. It'll look complex when planned, and if written by a great writer, could be given an essay assignment to bored students from a literature course. But, it'll either hiatus before done, or not many would actually care too looker deeper than the surface conflict you'll put it in.

As for anime, at worst it'll be a fanfic with original names, otherwise it'll heavily be inspired by whatever VN/LN/anime genres/subgenres, sometimes with focus on characters and events being cool for its own sake. It might not be shallow and have plenty of author's own ideas, but it's likely to read like it could be posted to syosetsu or made into web manga.

[Anonymous No.19442119]

>>19441858
A tasteful image that you feel evokes the mood or message you were attempting to convey would suffice, or you could just use some fucking meme lol. The audio quality would be more important imo.

[Anonymous No.19442209]

>>19442055
They're insults hurled at people to make them feel bad, they are not useful criticism and are not worth your time to consider.

There is no way one "should" write. That is limited thinking and limited thinking is for pseuds and anime writers.

[Anonymous No.19442224]

>>19441663
Self-publish on amazon. Theres a sub category for it>>19441749

[Anonymous No.19442237]

>>19442055
Pseud writing is writing I perceive as superior to my own. Anime writing is writing I perceive as inferior to my own.

[Anonymous No.19442299]

>>19442119
Don't I need to pay for the image or whatever?

[Anonymous No.19442310]

>>19440659
Mickey Spillane meets Nisioisin

[Anonymous No.19442416]

>>19442209
>>19442237
you guys are no help

[Anonymous No.19442435]

>>19442416
God helps those who help themselves. And God isn't here today. But I am.

[Anonymous No.19442507]

>>19441648
Depends. Lots of publishers just pump out similar books. If you visit a bookstore they probably have some popular best seller shelf and it's full of books like:
>The Man Who Kills
>The Man in Black Who Kills
>The Man in Black Coat Who Kills
>The Killed By a Man
>The Killed by a Man in Black
etc.

And then there's the best selling self-help
>How To Manage Your Time and Win the Day
>How To Manage Your Day and Win the Time
>12 Rules to Manage Your Time like A Billionaire
>12 Rules to Manage Your Day Like a Billionaire
etc.

Getting published is not always an achievement

[Anonymous No.19442587]

>>19438007
Any good books that can help one write in Celtic style poetry and Epic poetry?

[Anonymous No.19442604]

>>19441798
>Alexa Donne
Eat shit faggot, Austen is a fantastic author

[Anonymous No.19442671]

>>19441486
She has an entire document of story beats

[Anonymous No.19443171]

There's this story idea I really like but I realize I'm in no shape to write it. Is it possible to distill a novel into a short story? Is the process of N->SS easier or harder than the process of expanding a short story into a novel?

[Anonymous No.19443202]

>>19443171
they're two different forms of storytelling. save your novel ideas for novels and work on a short story idea if you want to write a short story.

[Anonymous No.19443208]

>>19440659
Tolkien meets Gibson.

[Anonymous No.19443414]

>>19443208
I'm the other tolkienfag, we should swap spit (crit)

[Anonymous No.19443564]

I've been writing this story for some time but I've realized it's badly written. Should I start again now or finish it before rewriting everything?

[Anonymous No.19443595]

>>19443564
You'll learn more from finishing one terrible story than starting a hundred great ones.

[Anonymous No.19443613]

>>19443595
Great quote! Thanks.

[Anonymous No.19443639]

I left this general a couple months ago because of how bad it became and I'm surprised to come back and find it even worse. Pseudposters have really ruined this place. I mean, I'm basically writing a YA Code Geass ripoff, but I kept getting called a pseud because I pushed for having standards.

[Anonymous No.19443857]

>>19443595
Literally the logic of all ways to improve things. Failure is what teaches us. It is how Alexander, Caeser and Napoleon all learned to be great. Tolkien did not sit down one day and make the best fantasy out there in terms of sales without failing. Keep on going and see it to the end and learn from it all.

As for me, I have written 2062 words today for my next chapter. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have Vampire Counts to genocide.

[Anonymous No.19443861]

>wrote ~4400 words on a bullshit story that I'll never publish last night in the space of a few hours
>have only managed ~2400 words on my actual novel that I plan to publish today so far

Why does it always slow to a crawl when the pressure is on?

[Anonymous No.19444007]

>>19438007
I've got to say, the "Story genius" recommendation although written by a woman and includes irritatingly modern woman things

>"A good story is like sex because we're biologically wired to like it, just like we're wired to enjoy a good story"

And referring to your protagonist as "her" instead of a neutral term like "they"

It does offer some great advice. Good rec.

[Anonymous No.19444048]

>>19443861
That's not slow

[Anonymous No.19444092]

>>19443639
This post helped make the general better.

[Anonymous No.19444193]

>>19442416
>>19443639

Don't listen to these pretentious losers. They're so caught up in their "themes" and "prose" that they forget to write an actual story. This is what happens when you only read academic literature and think that themeatical and intellectual importance is what makes people want to read a story ; as if anyone reads a story because they're interested on what the meaning of life is. They think they have to live up to this standard of intellectualism because their egos wont allow them to simply churn up a normal story. THEY HAVE TO come up with something utterly originally and annoyingly self important so it can pass their arbitrary idea of "Good writing." Ultimately though when they try to write they always say "It isn't intellectual enough" and never actually finish a story so they cope with shitting on stories with actual substance.

[Anonymous No.19444331]

>>19438007
Has anyone here written a work and got it published on a literary magazine? If so, what was the experience like?

[Anonymous No.19444417]

>>19444048
It is for me.

[Anonymous No.19444573]

>>19443639
how the fuck
A year ago I posted YA tier stuff and got told to fuck off by at least five people. This general must have gotten soft then. Almost makes me want to post the old work and experiment to see what people thing now.

[Anonymous No.19444700]

Recently my fiction, Saga of the Cosmic Heroes, surpassed 50k views on Royalroad all thanks to (You), so I wanted to commentate it with a milestone. We're all gonna make it bros.

[Anonymous No.19444820]

>>19444700
Grats bro. So when are you going to remove some of the earlier chapters, bundle them into like 2 books, and then throw them on Kindle Unlimited? As big an audience as RR has, and whatever else you're posting them on, kindle is way bigger. Think about it.

[Anonymous No.19444822]

>>19444007
I don't read books written by roastie whores

[Anonymous No.19444867]

>>19444820
I always considered stubs an abhorrently scummy practice. It'll be free forever pretty much.

[Anonymous No.19444915]

>>19444700
me on the left

[Anonymous No.19444933]

>>19444700
who actually reads royalroad? it's enough of a struggle to get normies to read normal books. selfpublished work from literal whos on a site no one has heard of by large...?

[Anonymous No.19444953]

>>19444933
It has a user base of like 200k users. Lots of people do I'd say.

[Anonymous No.19444959]

>>19444867
>an abhorrently scummy practice
How so? I can understand not wanting people to be confused by jumping in partway, but from what I recall from earlier threads you had reached an 'endpoint' for your particular story arc at chapter like 90 or whatever. The people who read RR are not the same people who read KU. You are putting your work in front of new people who may really want to read your story, and they will read it for free because they pay the amazon jew a monthly fee.

[Anonymous No.19445007]

Is writing song lyrics just like writing poetry? Any poets I should learn from that have a writing style that is particularly musical?
>inb4 why not ask /mu/?
The anons on /mu/ are barely intelligent enough to listen to music, let alone judge it critically or offer creative advice.

[Anonymous No.19445040]

I want to be come famous witter. How do make money?

[Anonymous No.19445043]

>>19445007
>Is writing song lyrics just like writing poetry?
yea

[Anonymous No.19445055]

>>19444953
anything worth reading there, or is it just "anime writing" and /sffg/ that was too lousy to get published?

if they had decent literary fiction i would read but what i'm expecting is fanfiction-quality OC

[Anonymous No.19445070]

>>19445055
no, nevermind, as expected, i went there and looked at popular and here are the results. it's just a trash collection bin for deranged coomers.

[Anonymous No.19445102]

>>19445070
here's more in popular. it's a collection of coomer anime writing slop. it's the deviantart of literature.

[Anonymous No.19445236]

>>19445102
>it's the deviantart of literature
you act as though you have never been on archive of our own

[Anonymous No.19445240]

>>19445070
>>19445102
let's see you're novel with millions of views?

[Anonymous No.19445246]

>>19445236
only for erotic fanfiction which i expect to be trash
why are there hundreds of thousands of people writing "anime writing'? are they all 15 year olds?

[Anonymous No.19445247]

>>19444573
Why are you letting /lit/ bully you?

[Anonymous No.19445253]

>>19445240
>let's see you're novel with millions of views?
>you're
exactly what i expect from a seething asspained anime writing coombrain.

[Anonymous No.19445254]

>>19444193
/lit/ finishes books while pseuds seethe

[Anonymous No.19445255]

>>19445253
how new are you

[Anonymous No.19445378]

>>19445254
Yeah but that’s anime writing so it doesn’t count.

[Anonymous No.19445385]

>>19445255
retard

[Anonymous No.19445498]

>>19445385
No u.

[Anonymous No.19445524]

>>19445247
trial through fire and I refuse to be burned

[Anonymous No.19445529]

>>19445254
Go away Jason.

[Anonymous No.19445760]

>>19442299
if you're just uploading it to youtube I wouldn't worry about it, especially if you're not making any money off of it.

[Anonymous No.19446026]

>>19441934
Well at least it's confusing.

[Anonymous No.19446056]

What's a good way to format internal thoughts? I got this couple in a love/hate relationship and sometimes they think things clear as dialogue without speaking it outload, but I didn't want to use quotation marks. Is italics good? I'm going to be careful not overdoing it.

[Anonymous No.19446076]

>>19446026
What about it was confusing?

[Anonymous No.19446099]

>>19446076
>“Well, you seem confused,” he said,
And he spoke the truth! But don't worry about it, it's 6:30 in the morning and I shouldn't be trying to read anything.

[Anonymous No.19446108]

>>19446099
lol. nice digits.

[Anonymous No.19446152]

>>19445524
And really, all this thread is good for is bullying and discouragement so there’s not reason not to at least let them try to harass you. It’d be rude not to.

[Anonymous No.19446174]

>>19446152
>there’s not reason not to
What a terrible way to word that.

[Anonymous No.19446243]

/wg/, is it weird to have a fully fleshed out understanding of your main characters fetishes?

I initially started out doing it as a joke but the main characters developed shit naturally

>>19440659
lewis carroll meets david wong

[Anonymous No.19446246]

>>19440659
Stephen King meets Jim Butcher.

[Anonymous No.19446279]

>>19446243
Trash mind produces thrash characters.

[Anonymous No.19446310]

>>19444193
Nobody does this retard get out of your head canon or coping or we tf it is lol

[Anonymous No.19446319]

>>19442055
I don't think pseud writing exists but obv better writing does. The "pseud/non pseud" distinction is an epistemological trap.

[Anonymous No.19446393]

A few years back a law-firm in my country saw an opportunity for profit by sending letters to people who had illegally downloaded films and demanded payments for them "or else". I was thinking of taking that event and writing a short story about it with a bunch of people gathering at an online forum to share their experiences and to get advice on how to deal with the dubiously legal blackmail.
Then it occurred to me that just because I thought this was interesting and spent a dozen hours following the story as it developed irl doesn't mean anyone else would want to read it.

[Anonymous No.19446671]

i wrote this spooky story for reddit NoSleep and they removed it. can you guys tell me what's wrong with it.

When I was a kid I lived in Lubbock Texas. There isn’t much out there, empty desert with windmills scattered around. There isn’t much to do either, so people naturally came up with ways to entertain themselves. I vividly remember camping out in the desert with my friends swapping spooky stories. Frederick Kleine-Bälle , my best friend, would always top the night off with his favorite urban legend; the story of Mr. Nesticular the testicular terror. As the story goes…

Back in the 1940s there was this war or something, and Mr. Nesticular, who won the Nobel prize in physics in 1935 for his famed volume of two spheres equation V=4/3 x π x r^3 x 2, was recruited to begin work on some sort of weapon to end the war. The weapon was some sort of device that omitted nuclear radiation. Mr. Nesticular for some reason decided to put his balls upon the weapon. His screams were heard from all over the military compound. “Ouch, my balls. Please help me, my balls they are hurt. Somebody save my balls” He apparently tried to run away from the weapon, but all it had done was nuclearly stretched his sack. Military police would later find writings in his journal that he wanted the enemy to be crushed underneath his balls.

When he woke up in the hospital the first thing he said was “My beautiful balls are they ok?” The doctor would inform him that his balls had grown to the size of two 15lbs bowling balls, his sack was stretched out to 3ft long. They estimated that he would have to either carry his balls in a bag to walk or wobble around for the rest of his life. The doctor informed him that they were also considering amputating his balls off. Mr. Nesticular never gave his answer to the doctor, and he disappeared from that hospital. A few weeks later he showed up in his home city, Lubbock. He would go around town, harassing all the men. Telling them to “BEHOLD THE POWER OF MY GARGANTUAN BALLS, CAN YOU NOT SEE THEIR PERFECTION, WHEN I SWING THEM IN THE AIR THEY OMIT A BEAUTIFUL WHIRRING NOISE, TAKE YOUR TINY BALLS OUT, LET ME SEE THEM. LET ME COMPARE!” Of course people were bothered by this, but they chalked it up to radiation poisoning effecting his brain. They should have locked him up right then and there, but they let him go.

1/2

[Anonymous No.19446678]

That night he went around town, breaking into three houses. He would wake up all the men of the houses and force them to compete in his sick comparison game. If their balls were smaller than his, he would pick up his hefty balls by the sack and swing them around. “MY BALLS ARE BIGGER” He would scream, before swinging his balls down upon their balls like a mace and crushing them. 4 hospitalizations, and 1 fatality. Local news was all the buzz about it, but it just wasn’t that interesting to the rest of the country.

Of course Frederick would always have to cap it off with an add-on that Mr. Nesticular somehow even survived lethal injection, that his balls absorbed his life force and allowed him to come back to Lubbock to haunt the city as a ghost. But I never really believed in urban legends.

Anyway I’m writing this because Fred passed away this past week and I was back in town for the funeral. I guess you don’t think about it when you’re really young but you will outlive some of your friends. Me and the guys took a nostalgia tour, going places we used to hangout. We stopped by the school, even saw a teacher we used to have a crush on. Then to top it off we spent the night camping and swapping spooky stories. We poured one out for Fred, and in remembrance I told the story of his favorite urban legend. I did however make sure to yell out how my balls were bigger than Mr. Nesticulars! It was nice getting to see friends I hadn’t in years, checking in with non-blood family as well.

That’s when I first saw him though, at the funeral. Out of the corner of my eye was a man in a grey trench coat, in-fact all of him looked gray… even his balls that were swinging back and forth in the wind were grey. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, and the man was gone. I thought I was losing it, I know it was Fred’s favorite story, but jeez.

2/3

[Anonymous No.19446683]

Then at the funeral after party (FAP) at Spanky’s I spilt some marinara on my shirt while eating fried cheese, so I went to the bathroom. There was a ceiling tile missing in the bathroom above the sink, and the light was flickering. As I was washing my shirt off, dabbing not wiping, the light flickered for a complete second. When it came back on, I looked in the mirror and to my horror dangling from the missing ceiling tile directly next to my head was a pair of massive, perfectly sphereical, vascular, hairless, musty, grey balls. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

By the time a waiter came in to check on me, they were gone. I left the FAP in a hurry and went straight back to my parents house. I thought I was losing it. URBAN LEGENDS AREN’T REAL. There was a knocking at the front door. I was about to go see who it was when I heard a thud. Then I heard the familiar creak of the front door swinging open. “Mom? Dad? Is that you?” I called out, but there was no response. I shut my door and locked it.

Then I heard the intruder start to make his way up the stairs. Step, step, thud. Step, step, thud. The familiar smell of ball sweat cascaded under the door. Step, step, thud. Step, step, thud. I rushed over to the window and began to open it. I realized I left the keys on my desk so I burst back to grab them. As soon as I got the keys I saw the shadows of feet underneath the door, as well as a large swaying shadow in between them. “SHOW ME YOUR BALLS, I BET MINE ARE BIGGER.” THUD. THUD. THUD. Mr. Nesticular was thrusting into the doors, trying to break it down with his massive balls. I practically dove out the window, adrenaline pulsed through my veins as I picked myself up from the fall and got in the car. As I pulled out of the driveway I could see him. A grey decaying old man standing in-front of the window, his balls swayed gently in the night breeze. I drove straight to the airport to get on a flight home asap. Beware of Mr. Nesticular, he will crush your balls.\

3/3

[Anonymous No.19446706]

>>19446393
Just hone your practice. You'll never please others or be a better writer by basing your thoughts on them fundamentally

[Anonymous No.19446817]

>>19446671
>>19446678
>>19446683
Reddit mods don’t like when you say nigger that many times.

[Anonymous No.19446939]

12,530 words left to go in my nanowrimo project. Probably four more writing days. Lost eight days to sickness. It was an idea I was kicking around for a while, I always thought nanowrimo was cringe but now I'm thinking it might actually be based. Even though it came out as melodramatic social commentary, pushing to hit 2600 words a day really forced me to consolidate and clarify a lot of themes and ideas I was kicking around in my mind. Didn't quite hit all the notes I had in mind, but in a few days I will have a manuscript which is arguably better than anything I might have written five years ago. It wasn't like I might not have written it if nanowrimo didn't exist, but I would say its an interesting challenge and a fantastic test of your skill as an author, because it isn't just a challenge to type 50,000 words of story. You have to finish it, like actually bring it to a conclusion that satisfies the beginning and middle. And that's a real test of whether you can string together character, setting, plot, dialogue, theme, all the moving parts of a novel on the fly. I'm guessing that's what actually causes most nanowrimoers (and most would-be novelists in general) to give up: not the physical effort of typing but a halfway point realization that no matter how infatuated they are with their idea, what they have produced so far is not worth finishing. Because I've had a shitload of false starts that came from cool ideas.

So I guess what I'm saying is that I've realized that nanowrimo is not the ticket to sudden literary brilliance that I've always thought delusional people to consider it, but rather it does serve as a great test. If the quality of your work hasn't destroyed your morale by the halfway point, then I would argue that you have potential as a writer.

[Anonymous No.19447020]

Why are there so many religitards on /lit/?

[Anonymous No.19447036]

I know this isn't for writers and you guys hate magic systems, so let's talk about mine and how shit it is (or am I unto something?)

>users can put spirits inside of them like it's Reverend Insanity and if their respective mana pools remain unused, they provide passive buffs to things such as strength and speed or shielding

>each spirit's mana dwindles, reducing the buffs, when you use an incantation for it to cast it's spell

>each spirit represents an intelligent entity with it's own unique language, but it's bestial brain is still somewhat separate, so it can learn new things an animal could and even reminisce on new experiences with it's higher mind, but it can't learn new languages or skills very easily. Every time it goes to sleep, any extra information you fed it is erased

>Each spirit has it's own language, some share a tongue and some share a 'similar' language like Norwegian through the norse world so you can kind of use a lot of spirits if you get creative. Some are vastly different, with an almost chinese or thai structure, so the type of magic you learn first will automatically predispose you into a 'class' unless you study many languages hard

>spell books and magic circles/runes are glorified instruction manuals teaching many common phrases for mages to use, with things like runic engravings being for your spirit to read since their programming resets daily so they might be able to keep remembering specific plans

>this means you have total control over how and where and when, say, a fire spirit's magic works for you. Maybe you'll tell it to erupt when things get close so it can be a shield or tell it to wait until an opponent shows a specific cue then fire, tl;dr if you know the language well enough you can tell it to do anything it's magic allows it to do provided mana is left

Idk, it seemed reasonably logical to me, and it's also probably pretty easy to hide as a soft system to keep Tolkenian wonder high while doing it too. Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.19447048]

>>19446671
>>19446678
>>19446683
so heckin epic XDDD "balls" lmao

[Anonymous No.19447086]

>>19447036
Just write.

[Anonymous No.19447093]

>>19447034
I was told to fuck off to this thread. That's my idea, any criticisms of it?

[Anonymous No.19447097]

>>19447093
Just write.

[Anonymous No.19447109]

>>19447036
Okay, but have you written anything?

[Anonymous No.19447112]

>>19447036 wtf did someone else post my shit. Goddammit.

[Anonymous No.19447119]

>>19447112
I know, it’s almost as if this is the writing general. Where such questions belong.

[Anonymous No.19447131]

>>19447109
I'm autistic enough about believability I may even end up removing magic entirely if it diverts the world away from a workable framework with enough of a real life historical analogue to validate the events of the story. Chances are I might write a book's worth of actual publishable story before I actually consider anything done or even in progress, severe 'tisms

I cannot get into anything if there's some kind of craft that practitioners couldn't believable take a lifetime learning. It makes no sense why say LotR or most mangashit takes a lifetime because none of the things described seem like they'd take a long time

[Anonymous No.19447133]

>>19447131
Just say no, you haven't written anything.

[Anonymous No.19447136]

>>19447112
Most people get bullied out of /wg/, you got bullied into. I don't know if that's a good sign or not.
Probably not because your idea is genuinely awful.

[Anonymous No.19447139]

>>19447136
Are you saying it is or isn't? I don't really mind, just asking

[Anonymous No.19447184]

>>19447136
oh i see. well, knowing why would help or what could improve, but that's better than nothing. thanks anyway!

[Anonymous No.19447336]

>>19447093
>>19447131
>>19447139
>>19447184
Are you an ESL?

[Anonymous No.19447355]

>>19447093
Why do you faggots always use /sffg/ as if it the writing general?

[Anonymous No.19447534]

>>19447093
Premises are useless to talk about because a good writer can make a good story out of anything and basically, /sffg/ was right to tell you to fuck off. I don't fucking care about your ideas if you don't have a story to back them up.

[Anonymous No.19447604]

>>19447093
>>19447036
Jesus Christ anon. Go back to Royal Road.

[Anonymous No.19447863]

>>19438007
I lean over the bridge. The lights from the train station jiggle in the ripples of the river below. The moon is missing. Behind me, as I look over the water, they rush home to numbered coffins, marching to the monotonous taps of the IC cards and the “30% off!” heels.
An old geezer hobbles over. He reeks of sake. He eyes me, playfully, not in a friendly way but as a bellicose little boy eyes his little sister’s little doll. He leans on the rails right beside me.
“You like Star Wars?” he says.
“Uh… sure.”
“You look like you like Sutah Woozu. You look like you love it!” The geezer cackles. “You’re everything that’s wrong with this country.” He wipes the snot above his lips with the back of his hand and snorts in the rest. “If you’re wife went off with another man, you’d probably try to stop her with the Foosu!” He guffaws, stops to visualise the scene in his head, me with my palm pointed at my wife’s back as she leaves me, and guffaws again.
“Hahaha. Very good, sir,” I say. “But you may have accosted the wrong man, sir. I am indeed a Star Wars fan, a fan of the Fett, even, but due to a lifelong cycle of toxic habits, I have never even held a proper conversation with a girl or woman, let alone their long-term affection. Being cheated on… to have something to be cheated out of… I sometimes wonder what that would feel like. Not as a fetish for cuckoldry but as an abstract notion I have not and likely never will encounter in reality. Perhaps it is for the best, of course, but it makes one wonder. Of those parallel universes, like a kaleidoscope of phantom women whom I have never met nor lost.”
“Huh?” the geezer says. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Just a joke. A funny little bit, is all.” I lean into his stinky little face. “Say, do you ever think about the people you have disappointed with your alcoholism?”

[Anonymous No.19447880]

I had a really slow day at work so I wrote 2300 words across three different texts. Feels good, man.

[Anonymous No.19447896]

Considering posting some serialised stuff to test the waters, what sites are best for it? Wattpad is the only one I know of

[Anonymous No.19448045]

>>19447896
Royal Road. Though they only like horrible fantasy and that horrible fantasy has to involve isekai and RPG mechanics or no one will read it.

[Anonymous No.19448118]

>>19438007
What's the key to a good killing game story?

[Anonymous No.19448363]

>>19447896
Royal Road is probably the biggest. Unless you risk going to webnovel

[Anonymous No.19448530]

>>19447036
so your idea for magic is fine. I'm not sure why they speak norwegian or chinese instead of a spirit language. but whatever.
the really intriguing story part of your idea is the fact that you have to enslave a spirit in order to use its magic, and when you do it gradually uses up its power and dies. and then you have to go and get a new one, I'm assuming. this would make spirit hunting/farming sort of important in your world, which would, you know, tie into the plot of your novel. I would assume. right?

[Anonymous No.19448941]

>>19448530
They use a spirit language, but they function very similarly to real ones so I used that as an example. If they run out, they mostly need to recharge, but they can be exhausted and killed in various ways I cba to get into. You also will want to switch various ones out and breed better ones

The thing i liked on paper about the idea is that, imagine you get attacked on all sides, you suddenly have to issue a ton of commands really fast and all have to fit exactly with as few words as possible as battles are fast.

I'm also thinking you could deploy certain spirits externally to do things like act as a camera or attack from elsewhere since their effective range is usually closer, but the problem then will be that they become vulnerable if spotted and can't fight back without your words

(they may be capable of hiding in the environment and being 'unseen' to someone not scanning as a magic user, somehow)

I wanted to work something in to do with dexterity

desu, I don't care what anyone in this thread thinks about writers making 'good' magic systems, as someone who has competed at a high level at something my biggest problem with my system or with any in literature is that 99% of them don't seem like things that'd take a lifetime to learn and wield skillfully.

It could be like Camus' The Stranger but the second someone does something in it or there's a judicial process we don't have in our world that makes no sense, the story is 0/10. If i'm writing according to convention there's no point to me, really

>ESL

no, phoneposting. pool's closed due to jannies

[Anonymous No.19448966]

>>19448941
So I mean I'll abscond from the sisyphean prospect of pretending this matters without a story anyway but I'm adding my biggest problem is that even with this, it would be somewhat easy to be decent at magic.

I want to think of something that makes it mad hard to learn, like tennis or chess in our world. In almost every story from LotR to HxH I dislike the magic system (I don't like mine either yet but) because they are executing and 'wielding' things with muscles you can't see. The rules in some are consistent but why is nen hard to wield? What took Gandalf so long, what feats of knowledgeability and dexterity must one accomplish to get there? I want something that feels almost like a sport, academic subject and martial art rolled up into one

And that's important to me because the second your story has anything easy or exploitable humans miss, it's just lying to make a plot

[Anonymous No.19449007]

>>19444700
How did you get your work to have a great amount of views? I was thinking of writing my own story and posting it on there, but I don't want to do it unless I have at least a few people resding my content and giving me feedback as I go.

[Anonymous No.19449015]

>>19438007
Guys, I really need some advice. I wish I had some friends or family to riff of off, unfortunately, I'm alone. Give me some criticism on this short excerpt from a story I'm writing. I'm stuck in the tenses. (Not a native speaker)

Where, one night, Gerard, a friend of his father’s, asked the barman how much a shop-window might cost. The barman, of course, being completely dumbfounded, blurted out a rough estimation. Gerard giving him a sly deviant nod, slid out a wallet from his suit’s inner-pocket. With his sausage fingers, he splayed out its leather, taking out a gigantic wad of cash. Whilst licking his finger — this seasoned money counting veteran, mumblingly whispering his numerals, tracking its increase with hawk-eyes — gently started flipping through his payday’s catalogue. This unsurprisingly turned some faces, attracting the attention of the entire patronage, sharing in the barman’s stupefied state. All of them wondering, as witnesses grew, what this hulk of a suited, fortune-stricken man was concocting, parading such an enormous sum. Gerard, unbothered, continued carefully putting down note, after note, eventually creating a more than sufficient stack. The barman had slowly watched it grow with glistening leer; yet, throughout the ordeal, remained completely perplexed as to Gerard’s intent. Gerard, now judging the barman to be satisfied, promptly demonstrated his ambition. A unanimous gasp, followed by chair-legs screeching, coaster-levelled tables wobbling, glasses clinging, so rapidly they stood up that in some it caused a sudden head-rush. With Gerard, the giant, making wood creak from stomping, picking up a barstool and like a child by his legs swinging, threw it like a discus straight through the window, shattered bits of glass scattered onto the startled, disgruntled pedestrians’ street. The barman absolutely furious was overshadowed by local’s collective howling, having witnessed the entire ordeal. Moods had to be calmed, the oblivious were informed, sharing in laughter, intermediaries performed between Gerard and the Barman, accusing him of having gone entirely mad. Gerard, who still could hardly contain his sniggering, his sides still in orbit, wiped away a single tear, came to his senses, exhaled and proclaimed:

NL “Sorry, maar dat heb ik nu toch wel echt altijd al eens willen doen.”
ENG “Sorry, but that is something, I’ve really, always wanted to do.”

[Anonymous No.19449046]

>>19449007
Lots and lots of persistence and lucking out with getting free shoutouts here and there. I'm writing on dante must die mode since I'm not writing a marketable genre (it's scifi space opera) and I refrain from taking out any form of ad anywhere.

[Anonymous No.19449094]

>>19449007
Not him, but my work got to 45k views because I kept updating while getting others to review it and therefore attract those who use reviewers as recommendation lists.
Although 2021 saw only one update, so the views mostly stopped. Hiatus tag is quite a turn off.

[Anonymous No.19449099]

>>19449015
Right off the bat your first sentence starts with a "where" but isn't a question. The "where" serves no purpose in this sentence, and there's some extra commas in it, too.
>One night Gerard, a friend of his father's, asked the barman how much a shop-window might cost.
The second sentence I'd write as
>The barman, dumbfounded, blurted out a rough estimation.
Then the third sentence.
>Gerard gave him a sly nod, slid out a wallet from his suit's inner pocket.
I could go over the rest in a similar manner but the main issue I'm seeing is superfluous words and extra commas that fracture the sentences unnecessarily. Also something like
>This unsurprisingly turned some faces
has a much feared adverb in it, just cut it and leave it as
>This turned some heads
Turning heads is the idiom in English, not turning faces.
I say all this as a non-native English speaker

[Anonymous No.19449139]

>>19449094
Also, having readers that actively comment on your stuff is very rare. It might get better if you get on front page lists like Rising Stars, or Trending, or whatever, but some of them will comment to get a reaction out of you.

[Anonymous No.19449140]

>>19449099
Thank you anon! I can definitely use some of your advice. Yet, most importantly, did you at least feel some tension, build-up or curiosity upon reading it? Otherwise I've completely failed and I have to return to the molding blocks.

[Anonymous No.19449287]

>>19438995
Tiddlywiki for reference info
OpenOffice for writing
Anyone using paid software or cloud memeshit is retarded.

[Anonymous No.19449316]

>>19448941
>The thing i liked on paper about the idea is that, imagine you get attacked on all sides, you suddenly have to issue a ton of commands really fast and all have to fit exactly with as few words as possible as battles are fast.
The reason battles are fast is because humans are fragile. If you are attacked on all sides, unless they are holding back because they merely want to capture you (very possible) you're dead.
>oh but I have a super special can't get hurt spirit
then why don't other people? or they have an incapacitate spirit that stuns you. The reality is that when you are attacked on all sides you have already lost. Preparation is 9/10ths of victory.
>you can deploy spirits
so they're like pokemans? enslaved but they like being enslaved. but they can't fight back without your words? so they don't have sentience but they do?
>recharging spirits, and apparently you can use multiple at once
I don't like it. It effectively means there is no cap on someone's power, unless spirits are super rare. Which it doesn't sound like they are.

[Anonymous No.19449358]

>>19449046
I appreciate the advice. Once I set up an account and whatnot I will give your stuff a look and leave a review!
>>19449094
>>19449139
Appreciate this too. Will take that into account once I give it a shot.

[Anonymous No.19449392]

>>19449316
The feedback earlier helped because now I'm thinking maybe they really should die permanently if you run out, necessitating someone actually fights very carefully with their resources and spread usage across other spells so they don't lose one

The idea was that they can do what they want but to move and act in our world they need magic commands. You could summon them and tell them to fight but they'd run out of power entirely pretty fast... Damn, I figured summoning them to fight would be more economical than that but given how quickly spells would have to run out for the entropy to scale properly, they'd probably run out mad fast, which I'm fine with

And yeah, magic users will above all else have to issue commands in advance so they can react and attack properly, which would take studying and planning; but I do want melee fighters to be strong because they can just keep their spirits unissued or unencoded so they get full buck from their powers

Also, magic users, due to using their spells will often have to stick in the back row because they are burning the mana of their spirits and losing their passive defense buffs, that is the idea. Mages have to be cunning to offset the fact being double tapped will kill them

[Anonymous No.19449405]

>>19449358
Also, my work is very far from the mainstream there, with no action, litrpg, fantasy, dungeon core, cultivation and whatever else. So, unless the portal fantasy/isekai tag carried the weight, it's possible even for sci fi slice of life to gain some traction.

[Anonymous No.19449428]

>>19449358
If you're giving out reviews I'll hop on that bandwagon at some point. I still owe JK a read and a review, but I need to finish drafting the last bit of my story. Thanksgiving weekend, I should make some decent progress. I have eleven days I need to cover still. So probably like 50k more words. The book keeps getting longer.

I'll echo what JK said. The most important thing to getting views is consistently putting out chapters. Draft enough up front so you have a decent backlog and so as to minimize potential retcons in the future.

[Anonymous No.19449588]

>>19444700
The front page and ranking lists are full of works that have millions, TENS OF MILLIONS of views. A few thousands feel like fucking nothing.

[Anonymous No.19449599]

>>19446683
>>19446678
>>19446671
Gj anon. Reddit has no taste, what'd you expect. Ending false flat though, just the last sentence. I'd also refrain from capitalisation.
>When it came back on, I looked in the mirror and to my horror dangling from the missing ceiling tile directly next to my head was a pair of massive, perfectly sphereical, vascular, hairless, musty, grey balls. I screamed at the top of my lungs.
kek'd
>As soon as I got the keys I saw the shadows of feet underneath the door, as well as a large swaying shadow in between them.
also kek'd

[Anonymous No.19449926]

>>19438082

Hey anonymous! We are 'feeding you back' some words and one idea that we wrote for you this evening. Greetings from us.

[Anonymous No.19449932]

Is there a better feeling than when you get into the zone? It just flows, as if you are living the story. Hours pass and in the end you are exhausted, panting, proud of yourself. Those are rare for me - and mostly the only things I believe to be well-written. How do I get into that state every time?

[Anonymous No.19449964]

>>19445254
>people still read?
>you most likely
Kek. That is enough to make me wanna read it.

[Anonymous No.19449974]

>>19449964
Go away Jason.

[Anonymous No.19449981]

>>19449974
I admire his willpower. I wish I could shill my novel here too and become a /lit/ personality, but it's not in English.

[Anonymous No.19450115]

What is with all the people writing isekais these days? All these people who decide to write after only watching anime and reading "light novels" for the past five years?

[Anonymous No.19450145]

>>19450115
To put it really, really simply it's the ultimate form of escapism in Japan. And that demand generates endless supply.

Recently Kadoawa announced they want to increase their output of isekai, too. Not just in Japan but overseas too.
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-11-02/kadokawa-anime-producers-want-isekai-to-take-over-the-world/.179109

Isekai has been around for centuries even in the West though with Dante, Narnia, and Alice in Wonderland (which the latter is/was huge in JP for some reason). It's nothing really new actually. People want escapism, so writers are more than happy to eat it up. It's literally free real estate.

But yeah, I don't think it's particularly popular as a whole, in the slightest, in the west as a whole—I'd say it's a drop in the bucket compared to the Jap market. I think there's like a handful of publishers who specialize in LN and those are mostly French I believe.

[Anonymous No.19450158]

>>19449316
This isn't something I added btw but I always intended for switching spirits to take a ton of vitality, so when you pick the ones you have equipped you are stuck with them for quite a while if you're in a dangerous situation

what else

The idea is that they're like humans in mental capacity; if you tell them to do something conditionally or keep watch for something, they will, but they don't have infinite memory. Think of it as like Gambits in FFXII mixed with materia in a sense, the conditions you set are very important

I was thinking you could install them in magic circles and have them carry out commands like I said, as apart from your body, which would make fights a little like chess sometimes; multiple units being put in places and made to do specific things, but then you lose their passive benefits and someone can permanently kill or disable the spirit if they sense where it is and attack it before it can sever it's link to the circle and go back to you. (maybe I'll have the mage have to do that consciously, to make it even riskier)

I haven't thought it all out yet but if I figure out the right set of rules it'd provide an explanation for why mages seem to know when intruders come by and can 'sense' things or scout with familiars, it also will make fights very trap heavy

Still has a lot of flaws I want to iron out, I feel like it's lacking a 'coordination' component like I wanted. I almost wished it could be tech heavy like playing an instrument, sport or videogame at high level

[Anonymous No.19450434]

I approach the man at his desk. As I peer over his shoulder he sweeps up his papers and turns to me.

Hello!
Do you know how scuba gear keeps your head from caving in?
I didn't know it did. Does it create a local pressure?
Ah yes! So you do know.
Apparently so. Are you working on scuba gear?
No, no, no. I'm going to invent the water pump!
Haven't those been invented already?
They have, but I'm going to invent the first one all over again!
So yours isn't the first?
No. No, I guess not. Perceptive one! You should put your talents towards inventing scuba gear!

I look down at the papers cradled in the mans arms.

Can I see some of your drawings?
No, no, no. No one is going to see these.
Until you're done, you mean?
No, never! Never ever!
But you'll need to show it to someone to get a patent or manufacture it, surely?
'Patent' assumes I want to sell it, and 'manufacture' assumes I want it made!
And you want... neither?
Absolutely.
You don't?
No, no, no.
Then... then why are you doing all this work?
Why wouldn't I? It's the first water pump after all!
Except it's not the first...
It's barely even a pump! Aren't you supposed to be off inventing some scuba gear?

[Anonymous No.19450483]

>>19450434
deviantart: the post

[Anonymous No.19450529]

>>19449588
why do people choose to read that kind of absolute garbage. i usually rant about how shitty modern publishing is but even the shittiest book of 2021 is still more readable than that trash.

[Anonymous No.19450566]

>>19450483
you're so cool

[Anonymous No.19450670]

What's a good podcast about writing? Anything but BrandoSando & Co.

[Anonymous No.19450730]

>>19450670
I don't know about a podcast, but some of the things said during this on-stage interview with David Foster Wallace will stick with me forever.

thttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfjjSj9coA0&t=1s

[Anonymous No.19450758]

>>19450670
I was about to recommend Writing Excuses but nevermind. I found it fairly useful but skipped sensitivity episodes. I would find one with more literary lean to it but I'm just reading books in spare time and podcasts only for the highway.

[Anonymous No.19450852]

>>19444700
Do you think commissioning art has helped your story be more successful? I have thought about it in the past but haven't done it. Posting stats

[Anonymous No.19450910]

>>19450852
not him but I'll venture to guess no
it is cool, though

[Anonymous No.19450947]

>>19450529
Part of it is because they're free and readily available. I'd also say that people really like RPG stats and escapism.

>>19450852
I'd say it has probably helped me a little in the way of getting engagements on Twitter whenever I might post art illustrations. The few times where I did do that saw huge engagements and impressions in contrast to tweets that only publish new chapters, it's pretty night and day in those cases. But advertising on the forums that it has art illustrations, not so much I'd say. Can be hard to say exactly on referrals though.

[Anonymous No.19451105]

Speaking of above, how does one do a believable magic system and make it work? The control medium makes no sense in 99% of cases

Any recommendations for a good magic system?

[Anonymous No.19451233]

>>19450566
you're the autist with the scuba suit fixation

[Anonymous No.19451246]

>>19451105
>a good magic system
A couple archetypes already exist.
4 elements optionally plus light and dark, with casters subdivided into one type or another.
Natural druidic type magic, making plants grow.
Clerical magic, literally asking gods to perform miracles.

As far as how magic is cast, you can do a will type system where you just concentrate extra hard. You can do gestures and speaking gobbledygook, with or without marital arts involved. You can do drawn runes.

As far as what magic costs to use, you can make spells cost energy, or maybe they require specially prepared spell components. Like in dnd casting a fireball requires bat guano, for example. It used to, at any rate.

I prefer systems that require preparation beforehand so as to minimize author asspulls.

[Anonymous No.19451325]

>>19451246
That's kind of what i was going for with the spirit system above, although the reception had me justifiably doubting it'd work as well as I thought. For example, if you have a spirit that can cast a muscle strength enhancing spell, you could tell it in advance to increase your power for 2-5 seconds when you click your thumb or change the cue entirely between encounters to disguise it, as well as set it to activate when grabbed. The idea was that it'd run out really fast if on all of the time

But it seems like it'd be too autistic or suck for some reason so maybe going full on capeshit is easier to grasp so I'd be making it hard on myself otherwise

My mind issue is that I don't know how magic takes years to learn in universe and what skills are required. I know nothing about basketball but I can tell why it'd take years of skill for example, for magic I never see a functional equivalent to that observation

[Anonymous No.19451601]

I know no one here writes, considering this is /wg/ and you guys drove out the only writers because they wrote anime or something, I'm just here to say I finish drafting my novel. Something you guys will never experience.

[Anonymous No.19451725]

>Finish a chapter after being stuck on it for months
>Nobody else gives a shit about my effort until I finish and publish it
>Feel like I have to churn out chapters as fast as possible so I can get to the validation part
This sucks

[Anonymous No.19451737]

>>19451725
yeah welcome to hell bud

[Anonymous No.19451805]

>>19446099
did you happen to get any further anon?
i really need to start learning if people are starting to give a shit about these characters or not
i got no gauge for reference, I don't know how I liked frodo and sam, shit just happened

[Anonymous No.19451933]

>>19451725
>external validation
that's where you fucked up
>Finish a chapter after being stuck on it for months
is all you should need to feel good. Good job anon.

[Anonymous No.19452004]

>>19438007
I'm working on a short text adventure but I don't have a "mystery" to solve yet. Why would someone attempt to burn down a scriptorium? Are there any short mysteries possibly involving arson that any can recommend to me? The genre is science fantasy so I have plenty of stuff to work with

[Anonymous No.19452008]

>>19452004
>genre fiction
discarded

[Anonymous No.19452111]

>>19451805
I don't really like the way Icarus talks. I don't know man, it's a big piece of text you just dumped on people without telling anyone what it is, not a lot of people are even going to read it.
What I will tell you is that toward the end there's this
>Samuel didn’t respond, outside of a quick “Hm” to more himself.
The order of words ought to be "more to himself", but even then the "more" is redundant.

[Anonymous No.19452134]

>>19452111
Thanks for the feedback. Icarus is probably the most debatable voice I have right now. Went at first for tryhard gentleman but now want to try for unhinged attempt at gentleman. Guess that's an answer for the rest of the book.

[Anonymous No.19452142]

How do you make a likable protagonist?

[Anonymous No.19452145]

>>19452142
relatability?

[Anonymous No.19452157]

>>19452142
Make them a woman, snarky and an unreliable narrator that sometimes lies as natural as they breath.

[Anonymous No.19452172]

>>19452145
>>19452157
So I should make my protagonist braindead?

[Anonymous No.19452245]

Color descriptions from random excepts because fuck

>He began to get himself up slowly as Samuel looked around. All about them was a green cavern, mossy with darkened life that dripped with water and stained with purple dust. Some plants reached so far as to touch the earth with the tips of their tendrils, some creating intricate caverns of webs above among the stalactite pillars, which varied in color, greatly shades of green. Some mightier ones glistened as if made of green blown glass, while smaller ones distantly sparkled as if they were made of pure jade rock.

>The sun was beginning to rise, but instead of covering the horizon in a bath of light, it seemed to only appear as a distant moon. The horizon was black, blacker than pitch to become a canvas for the city ahead. In it he saw drooping trees of green, ornate buildings of glass shaped like bowls. Some seemed like leaning vases, cracked teacups and ornate mugs.

>The floor was a carpeted green, much to the contrast of the outside world, and reached nearly his ankles, along with the tops of the first bricks that served to perimeter the house in an easy halfstep, half shelf area. On this floor shelf there were a number of perfectly clean, due to no doubt being habitually dusted, wooden figures of animals, people, boats and objects that belonged in the sky, such as planets and what Samuel guessed to be the sun. As he reached and began to fiddle with the brightly colored, wooden sun, he began to notice that everything in the room, save for the brick walls and occasional built-in shelves, was made of wood. Even the water basin in the far corner of the house that Samuel could see just down the hall seemed to be made of wood, although oiled with some sort of shiny resin.

>They moved out of the forest as the trees that overtowered them grew fewer and fewer. Finally Samuel could see the sky in this place, and that it glowed in a dark purple hue. It matched the grass in this field, which began to transition from a natural green into a faint purple. Without the sun, he felt as if he were underwater, skating along the sea floor, the horizons blending colors and hues together in a circle of tones. Even the air around him seemed hung in a purple haze, and he felt as if he could blow bubbles to its surface.

[Anonymous No.19452343]

Writing a morally corrupt demon lord for mainstream viewers is hard. He is suppose to represent atheism, and the rejection of traditional morals

[Anonymous No.19452349]

Outline down
Short story will be done in mere days

[Anonymous No.19452379]

>>19452349
Nevermind, I don't like my protag's name.
I need a good jewish name for a depressed 20 year old.

[Anonymous No.19452425]

>>19452379
Joachim

[Anonymous No.19452455]

>>19452379
B. Rosenberger Rosenberg.

[Anonymous No.19452537]

About two weeks ago I sent a requested synopsis to a publisher that asked for it and they said they'd get back to me with comments "by Friday." This Friday will be the third Friday since that reply. How long should I wait before sending a reply asking how everything's going? After several years, this is the first time a publisher hasn't rejected me before I even sent anything, and the first time one has seemed to show genuine interest, so I'm worried about blowing it with this one by seeming impatient.

[Anonymous No.19452560]

How do you write a likable female character? When I try to make her likable she feels unrealistic

Should all my female characters just be massive cunts?

[Anonymous No.19452574]

>>19452560
Just write her like you would any normal person regardless of their gender. You know that meme with japs drawing girls and calling them boys? Just do that but the opposite. Alternative third take; write the draft with her being a guy in mind, then revise all mentions of he/him bits into her/him. Bam. Easy.

[Anonymous No.19452703]

>>19452349
Usurous Coinblatt

[Anonymous No.19452759]

What power systems have /lit/ written before?

[Anonymous No.19452797]

>>19450730
Thanks, anon!
>>19450758
I said no Brando because his is fairly famous and I'm looking for more off beat stuff. I have the feeling that famous writers (or famous people of any denomination) get to coast on their fame, and muggles with a podcast need to work harder to stay relevant.
Wriing Excuses is still interesting, however.

[Anonymous No.19452882]

>>19451233
When you're mean and dismissive it just makes you seem cooler to everyone here

[Anonymous No.19453034]

>>19452882
>NOOO STOP BEING A MEANY AND CRITICIZING ME DON'T YOU KNOW WE'RE ON REDDIT REMEMBER THE HUMAN

[Anonymous No.19453071]

>>19453034
>blah blah blah reddit
You should probably go back there.

[Anonymous No.19453115]

>>19452882
Never gonna make it if you have this passive-aggressive femoid-tier response to some retard calling your writing Deviant Art. If you want my opinion on >>19450434 you're forcing whimsy and it comes off as pretentious. It's not ambiguous in a way that hooks me or makes me ask questions about the characters or what they're doing, it's just confusing and tediously drawn out. I won't criticise your style of not using speech marks since it makes the writer sound like a faggy schizo babbling to himself which you pull off easily, except you think 4chan is another padded cell you can wail and cry into like a little bitch after smearing shit all over our walls. All in all it comes off like you just wanted to brag about how knowledgeable you are in the subject rather than tell an interesting story, or any story at that since it just circles back so reading it is a waste of time. Plus I could be misinterpreting it but I'm pretty sure the reason that anon called you Deviant Art is because there's an infamous guy on DA obsessed with scuba gear, not because your writing blows, but you're so allergic to criticism and/or a newfag you got buttmad over his joke.

[Anonymous No.19453157]

Has masturbating ever helped you through a writer’s block?

[Anonymous No.19453174]

>>19452560
Copy la rachel sacred stones

[Anonymous No.19453208]

>>19453034
You offer nothing here. Nothing constructive, you just think being here means you need to act like an asshole. Leave your insecurities at the door.

>>19453115
It was a free write from like 5 minutes of effort. I don't care that it's shit.
>Allergic to critisim
>got buttmad
Jesus, one guy is an asshole, another is an asshole back and then everyone gets all pissy. What is wrong with this place.

[Anonymous No.19453230]

>>19452349
>outlining a short story

[Anonymous No.19453244]

>>19453208
You will never be a woman

[Anonymous No.19453329]

Anyone can recommend me a good plagiarism checker website? I need it for my thesis. Thank you

[Anonymous No.19453345]

>>19453208
>It was a free write from like 5 minutes of effort. I don't care that it's shit.
If you don't care, why did you come back hours later to continue replying to that dude? Why would you post your work here in the first place if you don't care for it being commented on?
>Leave your insecurities at the door.
Oh, nice projection, explains everything.

[Anonymous No.19453438]

>>19443564
Stories are told in the first draft, then made whole in the rewrite. Continue no matter how awful it might seem, it will come together in the end. No matter how awful you interpret it to be, there are valuable skills that you won't learn anywhere else if you don't progress past the beginning stage.

>>19443861
Don't expectyour novel to be complete any time soon. Writing it is one thing, while editing it is a whole different beast of it's own. 2400 words a day is a good pace, keep it up.

[Anonymous No.19453566]

>>19438007
UK fags, what are the best /lit/ unis I can go to for creative writing? is UEA good?

[Anonymous No.19453608]

>>19453345
I don't care if it's commented on, but if someone is an asshole I have every right to be an asshole back.

You're asking why I came back to comment, why are you getting worked up over something that doesn't even involve you?

[Anonymous No.19453675]

>>19453608
>You're asking why I came back to comment, why are you getting worked up over something that doesn't even involve you?
Fair point, though you're still a huge pussy.

[Anonymous No.19453708]

>>19453608
I don't know what it is with this indignation from new writers. Not everyone is going to be a fan and not everyone is going to give you honest feedback. Move on and stop being such a bitch about it.
We don't need another Steven Boswell here.

[Anonymous No.19453739]

>post story to reddit to fish crits
>only response is one that calls out grammar mistakes that aren't actually grammar mistakes
>says to simplify my descriptions, as if he doesn't have time to sit there, read them, and understand them
fucks sake I really am shored here aren't I

[Anonymous No.19453760]

Why did you let the flash fiction thread die anons?

[Anonymous No.19453767]

Are you going to let this one die too?

[Anonymous No.19453768]

>>19452245
I know it isn't much but are these at least pleasurable to read?
or maybe I just like books differently for descriptions or something and am fooling myself into believing that descriptions can even be pleasurable

[Anonymous No.19453770]

>>19453608
just kill yourself already and stop shitting up the thread trannoid

[Anonymous No.19453771]

>>19453760
>>19453767
why is flash fiction a separate thread? this place has such little activity in comparison to my other regulars that it wouldn't hurt

[Anonymous No.19453775]

Reply to my post or your fiction dies in her sleep tonight.

[Anonymous No.19453784]

>>19453775
I will finish and I will be published inshallah

[Anonymous No.19453789]

>>19453775
nigger

[Anonymous No.19453820]

Another 2k done, lads. Very happy with it.

[Anonymous No.19453826]

>>19453771
Good point anon
I guess it was just how it turned out

Flash Fiction OP, are you here right now?
What do you think about posting the flash links and prompts into the /wg/ to boost both threads and keep them more active?
I think this would be a good way to get more contributions and for the anons who post their stuff in /wg/ for critique to have a properly aimed practice outlet.

The flash fiction anthology is like the greatest thing on all of 4chan, it makes sense that it would be the backbone for /wg/ and it turn /wg/ becomes the backbone thread of /lit/.
Recently /wg/ has actually died off the catalogue and now /ffa/ has despite just returning.

[Anonymous No.19453831]

>>19453157
Masturbation is great if you find yourself too motivated and overly determined.

[Anonymous No.19453880]

>>19453873
>>19453873
>>19453873
>>19453873
>>19453873

NEW