/wg/ Writing General

[Anonymous No.20327443]

Cinco de Writingo Edition
Captcha: DJPAY

Previous thread: >>20318590

For General Writing
>The Rhetoric of Fiction, Booth
>Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Burroway
>Steering the Craft, Le Guin
>The Anatomy of Story, Truby
>How Fiction Works, Wood

YouTube Playlists for Writing
>https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTCv6n1whoI23GmdBZienRW0Q0nFCU_ay Robert Butler
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6HOdHEeosc Brandon Sanderson

Technical Aspects of Writing
>Garner's Modern English Usage, Garner
>What Editors Do: The Art, Craft, and Business of Book Editing, Ginna
>Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, Tufte

Books Analyzing Literature
>Poetics, Aristotle
>Hero With a Thousand Faces, Campbell
>The Art Of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives, Egri
>The Weekend Novelist, Ray

Traditional Publishing
>https://blog.reedsy.com/manuscript-form
>https://www.submittable.com/
>https://querytracker.net/
>https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/

Self Publishing Options
>https://archiveofourown.org/
>https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/
>https://www.kobo.com/us/en/p/writinglife
>https://www.royalroad.com/
>https://www.scribblehub.com/
>https://www.wattpad.com/

Self Publishing How-To
>https://selfpublishingwithdale.com/

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

Anime Writing (^･o･^)
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4on26mKakgs
>https://www.wikihow.com/Create-an-Anime-Story

/wg/ Authors and Flash Fiction Pastebin
>https://pastebin.com/ruwQj7xQ

[Anonymous No.20327451]

i'm finally making it bros! just got 500+ views on my novel, i can feel the success!

[Anonymous No.20327452]

Thread question:
Hard or soft taco? Give me at least 50 words why.

[Anonymous No.20327469]

Chapter 10 went up today.
https://www.scribblehub.com/read/436962-a-hero-among-monsters/chapter/482325/

[Anonymous No.20327478]

>>20327452
Soft. Hard hurts my gums. That's all the words you need.

[Anonymous No.20327482]

>>20327469
whats your valid read to views ratio? asking for a friend

[Anonymous No.20327489]

>>20327482
0:0

[Anonymous No.20327503]

>>20327482
0:0

[Anonymous No.20327508]

>>20327503
lol on scribble hub, wattpadd is shit for discovery

[Anonymous No.20327516]

>>20327508
Yeah but that one's funnier.

[Anonymous No.20327521]

>>20327516
Awesome!

[Anonymous No.20327529]

>>20327516
its a quantity game you change it to 3 times a week and you will start getting more and more views/valid reads

[Anonymous No.20327530]

>>20327346
>>20327316
>>20327355
>>20327358
Do I have to include a million fucking qualifiers in every piece of feedback I give. Giving constructive suggestions to you morons is the most thankless task imaginable.

The Sanderson video is question is literally him giving general technical advice - theories he even says aren't his own invention. Yes Sanderson makes YA crap. He's also made millions as an author so just MAYBE he has a small scrap of insight that a new writer could find useful.

[Anonymous No.20327539]

>>20327529
Yeah but I don’t write that fast.

[Anonymous No.20327548]

>>20327539
i don't know, I treat web publishing as a way to work out what works in plot and structure not to blast my best stuff.
how much do you write a week? Or a day?

[Anonymous No.20327551]

[Anonymous No.20327565]

>>20327530
Yes anon yes you do. People are thanking you, just not bothering to make a post stating so

[Anonymous No.20327598]

>>20327443
Uoooooooooohhhhh!
Now this is a cartel member I can get behind!
I wish this señorita cut off my dick and calls, sliced by nose and ears, cut my fingers, blowtorched my face, cut out my heart, showed it to me and ate it.
Uoooooohhhhh!

[Anonymous No.20327607]

>>20327598

[Anonymous No.20327628]

>>20327530
>so just MAYBE he has a small scrap of insight that a new writer could find useful
Nah

[Anonymous No.20327635]

>>20327452
Hard taco, the OG, the classic. You know what a soft taco is? A burrito. Now I've got nothing against burritos, I love me a stuffed burrito with rice and beans, shredded chicken or pork, sour cream, salsa and cheese. I love it. But we ain't here talking about burritos, burritos are a full meal, they ain't made for snacking. We're here talking about the originale, the classic hard taco: meat, veggies, some pico, a touch of sour cream, and that classic crunch. Get a couple different types of meat, a bunch of different veggies, some different salsas and then make yourself a whole assortment. Hard taco or soft taco, that ain't even a question. Hard taco. I ain't a faggot.

[Anonymous No.20327644]

>>20327452
Although I prefer the flavor and the crunch of a hard taco, I appreciate the convenience and self-contained cleanliness of eating a soft taco. Often the choice is dictated by what I'm going to be doing after eating; if I'm socializing, I'll opt for the soft taco, if I'm at home, I choose the hard taco.

[Anonymous No.20327661]

My story starts off with the protag running from a beastie with his teammates, the beastie ends up killing everyone but him and he survives by the skin of his teeth. In his culture death isn't seen as something to be grieved, but rather as a necessary 'final step' in everyone's journey. Question is, how do I convey that at the very start without jarring exposition, making the char look disconnected / emotionally dead or on the other extreme, melodramatic?

[Anonymous No.20327686]

I’ve lost all motivation to write again.
Fuck.

[Anonymous No.20327701]

>>20327530
I literally said sanderson understands the mechanical components very well and he explains it competently. I ain't sucking your dick any more than that.

[Anonymous No.20327709]

>>20327661
>everyone running like scared little girls
>ackshully, death is a final step in everyone's journey and not to be feared
maybe don't have them run and have them fight to the death instead. make his survival due to pure luck - he was knocked unconscious and the beast ate 2 or 3 of the others - and he feels ASHAMED he didn't die in battle

[Anonymous No.20327721]

>>20327452
I had a taco from a little shop in the shitty part of my city's downtown that showed me the light. The answer to the taco conundrum is this: it's both. Not both like you're gonna have two, but both like a taco that perfectly walks the line. Hard shell taco, soaked in sauce and oil. If it crunches, it's too hard. You want crispy. You want it to break with your bite with a nice fresh crack.

[Anonymous No.20327727]

>>20327686
Write about your lack of motivation!
Oh, and lay off the bong and the fapping.

[Anonymous No.20327734]

I only write well when I fap

[Anonymous No.20327756]

>>20327709
this guy gets it

[Anonymous No.20327774]

>>20327661
So, they're Klingons?

[Anonymous No.20327870]

>>20327452
The hell is wrong with all of you making this binary choice. The true visionary constructs the double decker taco, wrapping a bean-filled soft tortilla around the hard corn shell to get both the delightful crunch and the soft chew. You gain the advantages of both tacos with the flaws of neither.

[Anonymous No.20327891]

has anyone here posted on royalroad?
did you get worthwhile feedback?

[Anonymous No.20327902]

>>20327891
nah no one has

[Anonymous No.20327922]

>>20327891
yes
every now and then, more of an exception than the rule

[Anonymous No.20327933]

>>20327530
It's insane how much I didn't ask.

[Anonymous No.20327987]

I need a male’s perspective on the male protagonist for my short story. If a man went several billion years with no human companionship but finally found a human woman one day, would he try to rape her? Or would he respect her boundaries?

[Anonymous No.20327998]

>>20327987
Depends on man, and the woman.
Personally I'd rape her.

[Anonymous No.20328003]

>>20327987
A bilion years is far too long for any human to comprehend. People have trouble imagining what a thousand year life would feel like, much less a billion. In any case, depends on what kind of person he is I guess. Is he someone that would give in to primal instincts? Maybe he'd just be overjoyed to see and talk to another person?

[Anonymous No.20328041]

>>20327451
Congrats frend!
>>20327987
Like that other anon said, a billion years of far too long. Either way, he’d probably be afraid of her more than anything.

[Anonymous No.20328042]

>>20327987
>several billion years w/o human contact
he'd be more beast than man. he'd be balls deep in that cunt in 0.2 seconds once his initial shock wore off.

[Anonymous No.20328046]

>>20327998
>>20328003
He’s somewhere between feral and normal, with the loneliness and eternity driving him crazy but the aeons also giving him enough time to recover his sanity. He’s also stuck in his dick in a lot of non-human creatures because like I said no human companionship for ages.

>Personally I’d rape her
I’m scared but not surprised.

[Anonymous No.20328076]

>>20327891
Unless you're writing fantasy or isekai or litrpg you won't get any feedback

[Anonymous No.20328152]

If you're going to respond to someone's story with

>muh passive voice
or
>muh semicolons

do all of us a favour and skip it. Go to your library and read more books for adults until you understand. Thank you.

[Anonymous No.20328180]

>>20328152
Not that anon, but his use of semicolons were fucking abysmal. You cannot misuse three semicolons over the course of two sentences and expect people not to notice.

[Anonymous No.20328185]

>>20328180
I know it wasn't you, but then point out the correct usage, don't throw "don't use semicolons" like it's a universal rule or advice that should be listened to at all.

[Anonymous No.20328196]

>>20328185
semi colons should be used sparingly. alter your sentence structure if you are using semi colons even semi regularly.

[Anonymous No.20328200]

>>20328196
>semi colons should be used sparingly
Why, because they trigger you?
>alter your sentence structure if you are using periods even semi regularly
Do you realize how retarded you sound?

[Anonymous No.20328201]

>>20328046
>He’s also stuck in his dick in a lot of non-human creatures
Go on.

>>20328185
There’s a certain point where the advice needs to be “Just stop”. If you’re critiquing someone who doesn’t know what a semicolon is, then you’ve probably reached that point.

[Anonymous No.20328235]

>>20328152
I wasn't saying nobody on the wide earth should use semicolons. I was telling that anon that he needed to dial it back until he had the basics down.

I assumed it was obvious in the context but apparently I must include 20 bullet points of context/qualifications for every damn comment I make in this hive of pedantry. For the record I actually agree that passive voice isn't an issue (Pullum bro here)

>>20328196
Agree with this. Semicolons have legitimate uses but so often they're a dead giveaway of a noob of psued who are thinking about how they're a writer as they write rather than being focused on craft.

[Anonymous No.20328241]

>>20328235
It's funny because I don't think YOU understand the usage of semicolons.
>Semicolons have legitimate uses
No shit, like connecting two independent clauses. Meaning every two sentences separated by a period can be separated by a semicolon instead. ALL OF THEM.

[Anonymous No.20328269]

It's okay I have no clue how to use dashes.

[Anonymous No.20328276]

>>20328241
Dr. Bucksneed is that you???

Please share a sample where all the sentences are seperated by semicolons so I can laugh at you.

[Anonymous No.20328279]

>>20328241
The point of a semicolon over a period is that it allows you to imply a connection to the previous clause in much the same way a comma does.
>Many experiments beyond human comprehension were conducted here. Some still wander around.
Does not work as well as
>Many experiments beyond human comprehension were conducted here; some still wander around.

[Anonymous No.20328281]

>>20328276
I think I've made my point that your wry comment about "legitimate uses" is completely unfounded by grammar and totally founded by your biases.

[Anonymous No.20328284]

>>20328279
Zero grammatical basis for what you're saying. It does, at most, imply a shorter pause than a period but longer than a comma.

[Anonymous No.20328288]

>>20328284
Completely incorrect.

[Anonymous No.20328290]

>>20328288
Not an argument.

[Anonymous No.20328291]

>In rare instances, when a comma replaces a period (full stop) in a quotation, or when a quotation otherwise links two independent sentences:
>"I have no use for this," he said; "you are welcome to it."
>"Is this your book?" she asked; "I found it on the floor."
Ooooooh. Stylistically, I like this very much.

[Anonymous No.20328306]

>>20328284
lol

[Anonymous No.20328313]

Anons, anons!
Can't you see that this semicolon debate...
...IS TEARING US APART!!! NOOO!!!1!

[Anonymous No.20328315]

What makes these covers great?

[Anonymous No.20328329]

>>20328315
Oversaturated pastel colors? You got me.

[Anonymous No.20328333]

just did my 2k and feel like I just took the most massive shit

[Anonymous No.20328393]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DRlv01MC7xhMr06IDZ-Y1BBDQkuc7cdsb34GJe5JFwU/edit?usp=sharing

I spent most of today formatting earlier sections and trying to remove needless spaces between paragraphs or dialogue. I want the first leg of the story to reflect the sustained effort and the reward I think comes later in. I also have arrived at the perfect chain of events for the next act of the story.

[Anonymous No.20328421]

>>20328393
>I spent most of today formatting earlier sections and trying to remove needless spaces between paragraphs or dialogue
You mean like double spacing? You know you can get rid of those with a single "search and replace"?

[Anonymous No.20328427]

>>20328393
Pretty good. That said I didn't really feel that the line "I'm in Hell" is to be taken literally.

It reads like the girl just woke up from a three some with a massive hangover.

[Anonymous No.20328441]

>>20327891
I wouldn’t, here’s why.
>to make money you need to link a paypal or some other 3rd party donation app like patreon
>can’t collect any information on your readers to tel them when you release a book
>can’t publish work to royal road and a different place at the same time without getting banned from platform
I could go on, but it’s very niche and not worth your time for 99% of people in this thread.

[Anonymous No.20328450]

>>20327987
>billions of years of isolation
>not a literal God mentally.
He’d rape her if released after 5 years but after maybe 5000 he’d start thinking about the universe so much he’s solve any question we could think of.
Think of billions of years

[Anonymous No.20328466]

>>20328393
>My inner monologue reduced to little more than a dribble of fuckfuckfucks and shitshitshits
Is the narration not her inner monologue? So she's lying to us? Either actually show us her desperation and turn the prose into stream of consciousness desperation or embrace that she's telling this from some point in the future and switch to past tense.

[Anonymous No.20328493]

>>20327443
I'll be dropping some thrash I wrote and if you want you can read it if you do please tell me what I did good, what I did wrong and how can I improve. All advice and criticism are much appreciated.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-0-TNLxyEll5dqhKiuoZ3xP84XsF9etX/view?usp=sharing
can't submit PDFs here.
Pic is roughly something of an inspiration.

[Anonymous No.20328494]

>IMPROVE YOUR PROSE!!!!
>Okay...
>listen to Walden's video
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIiCWzEboh0
>good ideas
>The reviews about his book scorch him and telling him it's shit.

[Anonymous No.20328501]

>>20328493
Oh, fuck wrong picture.
I misclicked I was talking about this.

[Anonymous No.20328558]

>>20328493
You use commas when you shouldn't and don't use them when you should. You should google the rules of this. You double space. You mix tenses. You mispell words. You don't know how to format dialogue. You should google the rules of this. But the main problem is that it's boring. It's a loredump of boring exposition. Worldbuilding isn't interesting outside of your own head. Characters are, but the point of view is completely passive.

[Anonymous No.20328563]

>>20328441
So you're saying wattpad is better?

[Anonymous No.20328593]

>>20328563
wattpad is the absolute worst of the worst. there is no discoverability whatsoever

[Anonymous No.20328599]

>>20328494
Waldun is the Doug Walker of the literary world.
Practicing critique can teach you every little nuance there is to know, but if all you know is critique then you will flounder at the basics.
Other than a couple oopsies like having THUD in quotation of marks, he has fairly good grammar and his sentence structure isn’t unreadable. The issue is there was no one around to teach him not to be cringe incarnate.

[Anonymous No.20328643]

>>20328558
Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I am an ESLoid and iI do really need to learn how shit works. Worldbuilding isn't interesting outside of your own head. Characters are, but the point of view is completely passive.
But most earnestly, thanks for this. suggestion.
>Worldbuilding isn't interesting outside of your own head. Characters are, but the point of view is completely passive.
For some reason, it cleared something up. Mostly that iI could transform this into a guy telling a series of tales in which people actually do shit.
By the way, just a question because it isn't entirely clear to me. When you said "characters are" do you mean my characters were interesting or was it in a more general sense about characters being interesting.

[Anonymous No.20328838]

If there can never be any exposition how does anything ever get explained? Is it just the JJ Abrams mystery box these days?

[Anonymous No.20328840]

>>20328838
I alwys thought people's problem with exposition is that its not organic.

[Anonymous No.20328841]

>>20328838
Tut-tut-tut, anon! You've forgotten the most important writing advice of all: show, don't tell.

[Anonymous No.20328857]

I'm afraid to post my work

[Anonymous No.20328883]

>>20328857
Don’t be. The worst thing we’ll do is say that it’s shit and give you some ideas to improve if we can.

[Anonymous No.20328897]

>>20328857
It's okay anon, we don't know who you are. I promise.

[Anonymous No.20328902]

>>20328840
Even if it’s a perfectly reasonable place for someone to want to know what’s going on, the result is just an exposition dump.

[Anonymous No.20328911]

>>20328593
>>20328441
what do we use then

[Anonymous No.20328928]

Decided to give The 3 AM Epiphany a try.

>THE RELUCTANT I. Write a first-person story in which you use the first-person pronoun (I or me or my) only two times—but keep the I somehow important to the narrative you’re constructing. The point of this exercise is to imagine a narrator who is less interested in himself than in what he is observing. You can make your narrator someone who sees an interesting event in which he is not necessarily a participant. Or you can make him self-effacing, yet a major participant in the events related. It is very important in this exercise to make sure your reader is not surprised, forty or fifty words into the piece, to realize that this is a first-person narration. Show us quickly who is observing the scene. 600 words

I think the intention is to create a character who's concerned with others but I created a bit of a self-absorbed prick. Unedited. Feel free to shit on me.

[Anonymous No.20328941]

>>20328838
>What's that big metal eyeball-shaped thing on top of the palace, Warmaster?
>That's the Beam Lance, young heir. Using the power from our nuclear reactor, it can cut, melt or vaporize any material in visual range.
>Wow neat!
vs
>Down in the valley, a raid-band sped along toward the trade caravan, which had begun to circle and mount a defense.
>On scope, the tiny blot of marauders resolved into a line of shimcraft bikes and sleds, twenty or so, tearing across the fair terrain. A headcount at least four times the fleet—that caravan was doomed.
>The Warmaster thumbed comms at his lapel-
>"Lanceman, sweep those pirates, marking laser green to indicate. One-second pulse at fifteen percent power."
>At the operator's "Affirmative," the Lance jumped to life in its cradle- aperture fluttering and focusing- the terrible eye of some great brass god.
>One could almost feel the palace itself tense and then relax, as with a low hum and faint crackle, the raiders all but disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving only a stripe of glassed desert floor and one errant tire careening off without the rest of its vehicle.

[Anonymous No.20329067]

>1.2k today
I hope you chuds are going back and improving your flow of consciousness drivel.

[Anonymous No.20329080]

Writing exercise.

What are little things that people do/say in your real life/online life That you don't really notice unless its pointed out?

This is for character writing so you can flesh them out better so you can sense little mannerisms that make them more fleshed out

[Anonymous No.20329098]

>>20328313
We must remove the semicolons from our hearts!

[Anonymous No.20329167]

>>20329067
>flow of consciousness

[Anonymous No.20329176]

>>20328241
There's literally nothing wrong with using as many semicolons as you can carry.

Consider the following scene: you, a virgin; me, an intellectual; your mum, a cock-hungry whore; 14 stray dogs, her latest conquest; $200 in advertising revenue before it gets flagged and deleted, my fiendish goal.

[Anonymous No.20329261]

How do I keep a mystery story from getting boring in the middle?

There can be different clues that build up together into enabling the discovery of new clues that ultimately solve the mystery, but it just feels like empty exercises if there's no stronger narrative thread there. Is the middle just where you have to characterize and shit?

[Anonymous No.20329279]

>>20329261
Have a skeleton pop out.

[Anonymous No.20329330]

Anyone knows some simple text-editor that's a good alternative to the Notepad? I felt like upgrading.

[Anonymous No.20329567]

>>20328841
I will beat your knees backwards with a sledgehammer

[Anonymous No.20329583]

>>20329567
Even here you could've described the action happening instead of delivering exposition.

[Anonymous No.20329587]

>>20328941
The first one is unironically better

[Anonymous No.20329650]

>>20328421
I wanted to do things manually, there are some spots where it felt like a space was needed.
>>20328427
It's meant to be read/thought in a sort of incredulous tone. Like walking into your own apartment/house to find that everyone you know is there for an intervention. Maybe I need to do a better job conveying that emotion. I'm trying to tiptoe on the line between being nonchalant and having a mental breakdown.
>>20328466
You make a good point, but I truthfully wasn't sure how else to communicate that, I think I have some ideas though so I'll retool that sentence. Thank you Anon!

[Anonymous No.20329666]

>>20329583
WHAM
SLAM
BAM
CRACK, CRASH

[Anonymous No.20329679]

>>20329666
Thanks Satan, I always knew you were a good writer. Using all caps was a daring choice.

[Anonymous No.20329686]

>>20329666
The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The tiger is out

[Anonymous No.20329720]

>>20327661
Have a winding-down moment after all is done with, then have him confront their deaths as he would in his culture.

[Anonymous No.20329728]

>>20329587
There is something to be said for getting to the point sometimes. Unfortunately every time you do some faggot goes "SHOW, DON'T TELL!"

[Anonymous No.20329794]

>>20329728
>getting to the point sometimes
The problem is that most people dart around from point to point and never let the writing breathe. It's not cool right now to slow down and establish a mood. Genre fiction authors in particular have gone completely BING BING WAHOO and are pathological in their unwillingness to actually write. Point being, there is more than enough content in a trip to the corner store to write an excellent novel, if you're secure and confident enough to make it work. It reads like authorial insecurity to me when things are as terse and event-oriented as possible. It's like the author doesn't trust himself enough to settle down into the actual writing.

[Anonymous No.20329831]

>>20329794
Isn't this more a result of people calling anything that tries to establish a mood slow or boring?

[Anonymous No.20329845]

Can I post my story here?

[Anonymous No.20329858]

>>20329845
Only you know the answer to that

[Anonymous No.20329900]

>>20329845
Stop posting this inane fucking questions. Post your story or fuck off

[Anonymous No.20329907]

>>20328315
They reek of cheap perfume and cat pheromone.

>>20327452
The question is wrong because it conveniently neglects to mention the enigma of the taco kingdom, the Chalupa. Consider the fatalistic inertia of the hard-soft spectrum and how parallels the post-structuralist phenomena that coincided in the decline of eastern europe in the 20th century. Simply put, the Chalupa represents change. It is the transvaluation of taco.

[Anonymous No.20330008]

>>20329831
That's been the response here every time I've done it.

[Anonymous No.20330012]

>>20329907
>trans
YWNBAW

[Anonymous No.20330105]

>>20329176
if you use too many semi colons in fiction, your readers will stop reading and wonder why you use so many semi colons
in fiction, semi colons mostly go in dialog so that you can reflect the way people speak

[Anonymous No.20330115]

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C1EXYB9V5d6Tvq03bst9X4y9V3m5jV6If2htaiMr744/edit?usp=drivesdk

What do you guys think of my Chinaman story this far?

[Anonymous No.20330117]

>>20329261
act 2 is the meat of your story. it's what the reader signed up to read. it's where the story telling is
in the 2 act you can start by reflecting on what happened in the 1st act
then your character can start training, gathering allies, gathering stuff, etc
lots of failures in the 1st part of the second act
slowly your character gets better and better
in a mystery, this would be more like moving from the character doesn't have a clue to where the character has a very good idea of who done it.

[Anonymous No.20330126]

Can you guys give me some recommendation on well written, polished sci-fi? Specifically books that you guys think that can be easily learned from, a bit basic and play by the rules with nothing substantial to say is completely fine.

[Anonymous No.20330143]

>>20330126
Jon Scalzi, "Old Man's War"

[Anonymous No.20330209]

>>20330126
I really like "Starship Troopers". I picked up an old copy of it off a shelf when I was doing nightshift watch back in the military and had literally nothing else to do for eight hours. It was surprisingly well written.

[Anonymous No.20330257]

>>20330126
>well written, polished sci-fi
>play by the rules with nothing substantial to say is completely fine
You and me are complete opposites. I cannot stand anything “well written” with nothing to say while I’m perfectly okay with binging the entirety of George RR Martin’s Thousand Worlds despite the YA tier writing simply because each story has a satisfying message.

[Anonymous No.20330260]

>>20328441
>>20328911
The banning bit is neither here nor there. A workaround I've seen is to have your stuff already posted somewhere else, iterationally or in full. When you go to post on Royal Road, they link you to the ToS, where they say you have to detail where else your work can be found and provide proof of ownership. I've seen a ton of stuff on RR that exists elsewhere, doesn't seem like they instaban just like that.

>>20329794
>>20328941
I think there's a time and place for terseness, and a time and place for 'show-don't tell'. In a vaccum, of course the second one is better, but during a high-stakes / action scene or heated moment, I think calling things as they are and being brief actually helps ground the reader. Too many words and long sentences can distract from the tension of such situations. I'd even go so far as to say that a helthy mix of showing and telling is necessary in every peice of writing, since if you show too much but tell too little, it ends up feeling boring and purple, no matter how good the ideas are. On the flip side, just telling everything makes it seem lifeless and exposition-dumpy.

>>20329720
>>20327709
I ended up settling for a mix of these two. I had him live by having one of his friends rescue him, but also 'steal' his glorious death. I'm thinking of setting it up as the protag's motivation, to sort of carry on with his story and try to be a great whateverthefuck to honor that rescue. Thanks for the feedback!

[Anonymous No.20330261]

>>20329831
It's a multipronged issue, of course. But establishing a mood is probably the most distilled example of this problem. With a mood, you either set it via description, actions that don't necessarily "move the plot forward," or alternatively you just say that it was a dreary night, or that a character is sad, etc.

[Anonymous No.20330288]

>>20330143
>>20330209
Thanks guys.
>>20330257
It's mostly for learning, I wouldn't be looking for those kinds of writing if I was reading for fun (although the things I usually read are even worse than boring, polished writing).
I already have my messages, themes and ideas I want to gush out about, but I'm seriously struggling with executing a plot. Writing about moment to moment stuff like staking out, having trivial conversations, moving from point A to B, etc. Right now I'm just trying to copy as closely as possible the narrative beat of other stories when it comes to these parts, to get a sense of should I be constructing them going forward.

[Anonymous No.20330328]

>>20330260
>I'd even go so far as to say that a helthy mix of showing and telling is necessary in every peice of writing,
You don't have to go so far to say this. It should be a natural point of writing. Sometimes you show to slow down action or showcase deep character values and sometimes you tell to speed through time or set up situations.
I'm finding in my own writing that I have a lot of show and little tell, and so I went the complete opposite direction a few weeks back to try to balance it and now the second half of my book reads completely different from my first. Not to mention there STILL wasn't enough time to build good characterization for one of the characters because I'm telling two different stories at the same time.

[Anonymous No.20330349]

>>20330328
>it should be a natural point of writing
That's my point, it should. But so many people sperg out at the slightest bit of telling that I felt like it had to be said. And yeah, I feel you. First time I started writing my shit was really slow and way too verbose, characterization was there but the sentences were so long and the pace was so slow that I unintentionally killed any tension I tried to set up. I think that learning when to show and when to tell is just a function of experience, the more you write the more of a feel you get for when to use either or. Definitely was that way for me.

[Anonymous No.20330754]

What's more important themes or logic? is it a good idea to have a character take the action that makes the most sense for their character even if it's against the theme of the story?

[Anonymous No.20330759]

>>20330754
If your theme is important enough, a character whose personality works against the theme either works as a challenge to the theme's strength, or as somebody who has a flaw they need to grow out of.

[Anonymous No.20330783]

>>20330759
I honestly never cared about themes or messages in stories, but i've seen people defend completely retarded actions by characters simply because not doing them will be against the themes, so that made me think that i might be wrong and i should focus on them.

[Anonymous No.20330801]

>>20330783
I can see arguments for both. But justifying retarded actions because they're thematically consistent is just bad writing because you're purposefully changing character actions to railroad a theme. On the other hand, eschewing the theme for a character action is POTENTIALLY bad writing because you didn't plan adequately. But like anon said, you can have the action be contrary to the theme as a challenge to the theme or continuation of a growth arc that follows the theme.

[Anonymous No.20330826]

>>20330801
Alternatively, if it's a largely tertiary character, you can have them blatantly go against the theme to demonstrate not necessarily a challenge to the theme, but simply an alternate theme just for a bit. That's a bit much though.

[Anonymous No.20330828]

>>20330754
I think it depends how close we are to the character. Main characters should be logical/believable (even if irrational) to create a sense of verisimilitude. Minor characters can be much more symbolic/directly representing themes without being jarring.

Kind of reminds me of Tolkein's quote about how once the author becomes visible forcing the actions/cramming metaphors in the reader is ejected from the secondary story world and back into reality where they're just holding a book someone made up.

[Anonymous No.20330881]

>>20330801
i see, but let's say a story that has themes about pride being bad and it's a good thing to accept help from others, is it okay to have the prideful antagonist character who refuses help from others win because he's simply more powerful and smarter than the heroes and it's the only ending that makes sense?

[Anonymous No.20330890]

>>20330881
If the theme is about pride being bad and you're following through wiht that, a prideful but competent antagonist will be undone by his own pride, or some such.

[Anonymous No.20330945]

>>20330890
But doesn't that force people to never write any story where the villain wins unless they have edgy theme/message? in the story his pride caused him a lot of suffering and pain and even he knows it but he refuses to change, i don't think he needs to lose to show it.

[Anonymous No.20331011]

>>20330945
Well, no, you can have a villain win (though typically that doesn't happen much these days unless it's a pyrrhic victory), but your specific example is a villain winning even though it goes completely against the stated theme of your story, which is stupid.

[Anonymous No.20331033]

>>20330881
>>20330945
I see what you're going for. It can work. You're telling a story where the central theme is followed through, but the main antagonist refuses to acknowledge its message. He triumphs over the message, but the message still stands even though he won.
The villain can win but he doesn't have to win TOTALLY. He doesn't need to kill the entire world and sink it in lead. Let's say he wins the final battle in the book; he beat the heroes, they slink off to their caves and he laughs maniacally, the world is MINE! But now the hero has allies and a team together. They can regroup and prepare to start a longer conflict.
To carry through the theme requires a direct or indirect example. If the two in your example are linked, then it necessitates that pride has to be shaken off. If they are uncorrelated, you can show pride as the villain AND you can show that it's good to accept help from others, separately.

[Anonymous No.20331077]

Sirs I am in needful of short story ideas in the fantasy genre.
Pls be helpings me.

[Anonymous No.20331115]

>>20331033
When i got the idea for the story there wasn't really a theme or a message because i never really cared about it, pride was basically the biggest reason for the protagonist suffering and the reason he became the villain in the last 3rd of the story, i just went with it because from what i read it's important to people.

>The villain can win but he doesn't have to win TOTALLY
But that's exactly what i want, the main reason i wanted to write this is because i was tired of villain losing even though they either work harder towards their goals or are simply stronger, i also really don't want him to magically gets punished for no reason just because he's evil either.

I think a good compromise is he wins but his plan doesn't really solve the problem like he thought it was going to do but ultimately he's still the winner because he's the sole survivor.

[Anonymous No.20331161]

>>20331077
Goblin town has grown, has very much poo and is now in need of loo. Need dwarves to show magic building technique to construct the loo. Goblin and dwarves do not be getting along. Goblins need to sneak in and steal dwarven loo plans.

[Anonymous No.20331163]

>>20331115
then your theme isn't about pride, its about the value of perseverance
in all honesty though, forget your themes, write and interesting, engaging story and the themes will make themselves clear

[Anonymous No.20331358]

I have a book idea I want to write although I haven't written in a while. I was going to do some writing practice by doing some Reddit writing prompts but they're all just superhero sci-fi garbage and not in the style of my writing. Am I going to butcher my idea by writing it with no practice before hand? Part of me thinks I should just say fuck it and go for it.

[Anonymous No.20331388]

>>20331358
Write some basic flash fiction or short story stuff beforehand if you're that worried. Otherwise write the first few chapters of what you wanna write, and rewrite it if you're not happy, etc.

[Anonymous No.20331398]

>>20331388
I can't think of any other stories/short stories desu. But I have a burning desire to write my one novel idea that I have. I think it'll bomb as my first try but hey. It'll be practice.

[Anonymous No.20331447]

>>20331358
>>20331398
100% write what you're passionate about, but focus on getting critique/learning writing craft over "powering through" it which was my mistake early on.

Better off rewriting chapter 1 five times until it sings than you are churning out 10 chapters of drek.

[Anonymous No.20331467]

>>20331447
This anon is correct.

[Anonymous No.20331471]

>>20331358
>Am I going to butcher my idea by writing it with no practice before hand?
That's retarded. Your idea demands more than 10k words correct? You'll get back in the swing of things pretty quick and you will have to edit once you're done so any early tonal incongruity can be smoothed out later.

[Anonymous No.20331481]

Is it worth the effort to write a fan fiction, even if you think the story could be good? No, I don't think this could be divorced from the source material.

[Anonymous No.20331548]

I had an idea to have two protags from opposing factions. The idea is to build up tension and have them clash at the story's end, but both to be portrayed in a very human way. Both do bad shit, both do good shit, but whether it's seen as such depends on which one's the PoV char at the time. So no clear bad guy, just two people that have different ideals and perspectives. Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.20331561]

>>20331548
Very doable, but the unfortunate result is that, unless both protagonists wind up meeting in the middle, only one will really get a good ending if they're that opposed. Of course you can have it work out in a mixed way for both, or not at all, but it's incredibly doable. You can even make a lot of use of dramatic irony with Protag A trying to stop something from happening that Protag B has just finished, etc.

[Anonymous No.20331563]

>>20331548
As long as they're not from two different countries who are at war with each other, and as long as the clash at the end doesn't mean a literal fistfight or something, I'd say go for it that could be great.

[Anonymous No.20331658]

>>20331563
>>20331548
The idea is to have each of them represent a different ideal; both are explorers but go about interacting with the new world they both just so happen to have found. One faction is are viking-ish insofar that they don't really give a shit about who's there nor why, they're there for loot and glory, while the other wants to incorporate the natives into a bigger empire by way of peaceful negotiation and trade. The 'clash' is supposed to be both literal and figurative, where each of them is pressed to defend their ideals while fighting over this no man's land. What I wanted to do was have the vikingoid guys be seen as brutal boogeymen by the others, while vice versa, the peaceful ones are seen as opressive conquerors by the other faction. Got the idea based on feedback from a few threads back, I want the flipping perspectives to sort of show how each faction is seen by the other.

[Anonymous No.20331697]

>>20331658
Oh are you the guy who was talking about an ethnonationalist protagonist?

[Anonymous No.20331709]

>>20331697
Yup! Developed the idea a bit further and this is where I'm at right now.

[Anonymous No.20331716]

>>20331709
Definitely works better, because you can have two more morally dubious protagonists and either have one go up while the other goes down, or have both get worse and worse in conflict with each other on a path to mutual tragedy.

[Anonymous No.20331726]

>>20327987
Several billion years? There’s no difference at that point. He would’ve killed himself after a hundred.

[Anonymous No.20331790]

>>20331447
>Better off rewriting chapter 1 five time
After rewriting chapter 1 several times I actually butchered it and inserted its lines through out the novel in italics that can be pieced together. I had to do it. The first chapter is just too different (reads like a thriller when the rest is literary) and I tried to move it to a later section but I really don't like flashbacks and readers had a lot of frustration with the jarring change of tone.
I found it frustrating because people kept asking me to show the precipitating event and then feel awkward when I did. So instead I will just leave it as some forgotten nightmare that is only alluded to.

[Anonymous No.20331927]

>>20327443
>Renowned Germanic hero SEEDFEED also known by a shorter name embarks on a quest to discover where all the dark people come from. A TERRIBLE TRUTH awaits him after his travel across the SEA OF MELANIN. He learns that the most powerful wizarding word known to man, the fabled N-WORD, the mightisome word that has left massive craters over CHUCKLAND in the legendary N-WARS, eventually turned all those white wizards into BLACK RAPPERS! That's right, the more you say it, the blacker you become, and the blacker you become, the more you'll want to say it! That's why all those niggas say it all the fucking time! SEEDFEED stares into the abyss, will the abyss stare back at dat nigga??? DAAAYYMMMMMM

[Anonymous No.20331937]

>>20331716
Side note and just general question for the whole thread, what do you guys think about having pictures inside your book? I've got a character that's a hunter who likes to draw pictures of the various beasties he hunts down during his travels, and I wanna sort of incorporate that into the book both as a way of showing them what I want the thing to look like and giving extra worldbuilding, like showing the alphabet of the language Protag and co are speaking.

[Anonymous No.20331955]

Rate my novel kpg (at least the first 4 chapters plz)
https://www.scribblehub.com/series/467954/a-trillion-trillion-years/

[Anonymous No.20331966]

>>20331937
I think they're cool for some flavor, but less is probably more.

[Anonymous No.20331993]

>>20331927
>not including the illustrious and mysterious Dr. BUCKSNEED
ngmi

[Anonymous No.20332091]

Tell me how many books you wish to sell in a given time period and I’ll tell you roughly how much time you need to build an audience up for such a goal.

[Anonymous No.20332105]

>>20332091
one book in a lifetime

[Anonymous No.20332117]

>>20331993
This is the fantasy novel, that's for the herocape adventure, where our ORDINARY SALARYMAN by day Chuck Feedman, HEROIC VIGILANTE by night ONE-N MAN, entices our readers with OFF-THE-WALL BOMBASTICS, the highlight of every chapter being his signature attack, where he's seen vecuuming ENORMOUS AMOUNTS of the purest whitest, most OZONE-RICH air into his powerful NOSTRILS to then release it all in a magnificent, double-page spread N-WORD, to which nothing survives especially criminals.

[Anonymous No.20332120]

>>20332091
10,000+ a year

[Anonymous No.20332121]

>>20331481
What are the details? I hope so as I'm alzo pouring a lot of heart into a tie-in novel that I hope to pitch to the IP holder someday. They've put out novels before so not impossible. It's a longshot but if it doesn't pan out I can always just release it free as a loveletter to the community (and build up my meerkatability) or change a few names and pitch it as my own thing.

If nothing else it's good practice right?

[Anonymous No.20332122]

>>20332091
Go away Meerkater.

[Anonymous No.20332130]

https://pastebin.com/GdJcjKzB
hot off the presses chapter 24 you'll never convince me to stop

[Anonymous No.20332150]

>>20332091
two, one of them to my mum and one of them to your mum

[Anonymous No.20332156]

>>20331563
Why not either of these?

[Anonymous No.20332187]

>>20332105
All you need to do is call your mom to buy it.
>>20332120
Assuming a roughly equal split between ebooks and paperback, you’d need a Amazon best seller rank of at least 9,000 in each category of ebook and physical books.
This would equate to roughly 200 reviews in the first year and require building up an email list over at least 1-2 years before putting a book up for sale.
>>20332150
Call your mom AND your dad.

[Anonymous No.20332197]

writingexcuses.com
am i the only one who wishes that howard would STFU?

[Anonymous No.20332206]

>>20332197
I look forward to every time Howard speaks.

[Anonymous No.20332234]

>>20331937
They're fine here and there, and given you're going for them being diegetic that works just fine. Gives an idea of this character's drawing style, and what he focuses on, etc.

[Anonymous No.20332259]

>>20332130
This story should be wrapped up

[Anonymous No.20332277]

>>20332197
I've never heard of this website.

[Anonymous No.20332285]

>>20327530
>>20328200
>>20328276
>>20329067
>>20329567
>>20329900
seethe

[Anonymous No.20332286]

I'm feeling my characters and I'm sorta feeling my world but I'm not feeling the plot.

Should I try tossing them into a generic/stock plot and see how I feel about the "real" plot later?

[Anonymous No.20332301]

>>20328393
Didn't see anything added from before, so I have no new comments on the content.
You may want to consider using named styles, so you can change your paragraphs' formatting en masse.

[Anonymous No.20332331]

>>20329261
There's no reason not to have several climactic moments in your story. The last one should be bigger than the others, of course.
>>20329330
Notepad++?
>>20331548
So, John Woo's 1989 movie "The Killer"?

[Anonymous No.20332337]

>>20329330
ghostwriter

[Anonymous No.20332341]

>>20332286
Characters with different values naturally generate conflict which drives plot. You don't NEED keikaku planned out if you don't really want to, unless that's where you start.

[Anonymous No.20332358]

>>20332259
Based on what?

[Anonymous No.20332360]

I have 15 chapters that amount to 30k words. It's the complete first act of my webnovel. I'm a very slow writer because I draft, redraft, polish, etc until I'm happy enough with sharing it, and that's not going to change. It'll probably take me a few months to get out the next 30k / act.

What would be better? Releasing a chapter a week, or releasing a chapter every two days?

There is going to be a hiatus no matter what, and I do want to share the story instead of waiting for the first three acts to be done (so would be a 'book' of 90-100k by that time).

I'm not dead set on getting lots of readers, but of course having a handful of people looking forward to new chapters is my goal.

[Anonymous No.20332365]

>>20332360
the best would be to do as many chapter releases as will allow you time to create the next chapters

[Anonymous No.20332366]

>>20332130
They big wooden balls -> The big wooden balls
while crushed -> while she crushed ?
Maybe I'd be more interested if I saw chapters 1-23.

[Anonymous No.20332368]

>>20332360
You're more likely to get somewhere if you, say, have 2/3 of your story then and then are able to consistently post once a week while you finish the last third. If you think you can do that, at least. If not, yeah, just do your thing I guess.

[Anonymous No.20332371]

>>20332360
>hiatus no matter what
Don't do it. You can worry about a hiatus after you've generated a loyal reader base.

[Anonymous No.20332377]

>>20332371
Can you gain a loyal reader base off a chapter a week? I was thinking a different solution would be to post the first two chapters in the first week, then do a chapter a week after that. At least that way readers have more than just the first chapter to work with.

[Anonymous No.20332383]

>>20332377
>Can you gain a loyal reader base off a chapter a week?
Loyal? No.

[Anonymous No.20332425]

Woke up from an afternoon nap, sat down and wrote this loosely based on a dream I had. Thoughts?

https://pastebin.com/n2Ny6C6G

[Anonymous No.20332429]

>>20332377
Building a loyal fanbase is difficult.
You must find a way to be in front of them with your writing frequently.
Whether that is a new upcoming yearly book or with weekly posts online somewhere where you have a following.
You need a way of letting them know your writing is coming.

[Anonymous No.20332441]

>>20331955
I read the first 3 chapters.
There are a lot of punctuation errors.
Also, seems like teen-lit, which isn't really my genre.

[Anonymous No.20332465]

>>20332441
yea I didn't edit it when I first made it and I refuse to do so now
and I was kinda going for that harem teen genre, but maybe I made it a little to teen.

[Anonymous No.20332479]

>>20332425
The writing is decent, but nothing has happened yet.

[Anonymous No.20332482]

>>20332479
I haven't dreamt the rest yet, but point taken.

[Anonymous No.20332492]

>hey here is a dream I had and wrote in ten minutes, can someone please give me their constructive opinion?
>hey I wrote ten chapters of a fic about how my self-insert really wants to bang this cute girl, I didn't bother to edit it but I still want your constrcitive criticism
>hey here's a chapter I wrote without any real plan in mind, in fact I kind of hate it a lot, but yeah, read it, like, and subscribe

[Anonymous No.20332497]

>>20332492
>noooo you can't post writing

[Anonymous No.20332498]

>>20332492
I have 16 chapters...

[Anonymous No.20332508]

>muh plot
can you spell N-G-M-I?

[Anonymous No.20332533]

so when do we actually talk about writing?

[Anonymous No.20332551]

>>20332492
Welcome to /wg/, seether.

[Anonymous No.20332569]

>>20332492
>hey i'd like to whine about others posting their writing, but won't post any of my own
>>20332533
as soon as u write something

[Anonymous No.20332591]

>>20328279
>>Many experiments beyond human comprehension were conducted here. Some still wander around.
>Does not work as well as
>>Many experiments beyond human comprehension were conducted here; some still wander around.
I'm a semicolon defender but this isn't true. For profound statements like that, a period should be used in-between. Semicolons are for flow, not for emphasis.
Also I'd edit the last sentence to be a bit longer. "Around" is too vague in this context; "around" where?

[Anonymous No.20332594]

quick!
someone post their writing!

[Anonymous No.20332595]

>>20331955
>kpg

[Anonymous No.20332596]

>>20332595
oh no not here

[Anonymous No.20332597]

>>20332595
omo, very inspired by it yes
is it good?

[Anonymous No.20332601]

Waiting for royal road to accept my damn story then I can share it here.

[Anonymous No.20332611]

>>20332596
I won't do it again sorry

[Anonymous No.20332619]

>>20332492
>>hey I wrote ten chapters of a fic about how my self-insert really wants to bang this cute girl, I didn't bother to edit it but I still want your constrcitive criticism
he's just like me fr fr

[Anonymous No.20332623]

I don't refuse to edit it but I'm already 25 chapters+ into the story and going back will be a waste of time, I'd rather just do a rewrite when I release on kindle

[Anonymous No.20332694]

Well, I finished Portrait of the Artist. Time to write better prose.

[Anonymous No.20332702]

>>20332341
That's the key problem, I think. It all comes down to my characters and me trying to figure out a solution that makes none of them look too incompetent.

[Anonymous No.20332719]

>>20332591
>For profound statements like that, a period should be used in-between.
Incorrect in this case. The reason why a semicolon is better is because it allows you to borrow context from the previous clause, which in many cases can improve flow.
The reason
>Many experiments beyond human comprehension were conducted here. Some still wander around.
Does not work is because "some" is undefined and forms an incomplete thought in the sentence. It becomes especially confusing when you take into account that there is some wordplay going on to change the "experiments beyond human comprehension" from something that is conducted into something that is a noun.
If you wanted to use a period, you would need to word it like this.
>Many experiments beyond human comprehension were conducted here. Some of these experiments still wander around.
Keeping the semicolon allows you to borrow the context of the previous statement and makes "some" clear that it is still referring to the experiments, allowing you to drop the clarification.

>Also I'd edit the last sentence to be a bit longer. "Around" is too vague in this context; "around" where?
All it would take is one sentence beforehand showing that they are talking about a certain location. It does not need to be added to this excerpt specifically. Even with that, "wander around" is a perfectly fine verb and does not always need context to where they wander.

[Anonymous No.20332733]

>>20330115
Destined towards -> Destined for
The next semicolon should be a comma.
Buddah -> Buddha
Lots of other word-choice and punctuation issues.
Needs editing in general.
San Francisco first got electric streetlights in 1879, yet the protagonist came here to dig for gold? The gold rush ended in 1855...before the Civil War ended.
I commend you for your accurate depiction of the Irish at the time, though. A lot of people don't realize "black culture" was originally 19th century Irish culture.
Made it to page 18. Nothing much seems to be happening yet.

[Anonymous No.20332742]

>>20332611
Don't let them bully you.
Having said that, teen-lit doesn't seem to be popular here.

[Anonymous No.20332745]

>been reading Thomas Mann for the past year, just soaking up his manner of making the most minor events seem epic in proportion
>happen to be reading the H.T. Lowe Porter translations, which are a hundred years old and extremely antiquated
>literally so old that I'm expected to know what the fuck the word "pleonasm" means
>it's starting to reflect in my own writing
Anons how do you avoid mimicking whatever author(s) you're currently reading?

[Anonymous No.20332750]

>>20332742
>Don't let them bully you.
don't encourage yet another k pop general

[Anonymous No.20332755]

>>20332601
just post it on pastebin first

[Anonymous No.20332783]

>>20332750
You never know...maybe anon will make their money on k-pop, then pull a Todd Rundgren and crank out artistry for their remaining career.

[Anonymous No.20332785]

https://pastebin.com/bK37iyzK

Sharing.

[Anonymous No.20332804]

>>20332783
I feel like k-pop fanfic probably has a lot of $$$ in it
I don't know how much pull originals have in the market, and I plan to ruin all the girls anyway. So its not going to be your typical harem stuff cash-in

[Anonymous No.20332852]

>>20332745
If I wouldn't normally use that word in a conversation, I don't use it in my writing. The strangest word I can think of that I use in everyday speech is chicanery.

[Anonymous No.20332855]

>>20332852
I say shit like 'methinks' in real life, but I have autism so that probably explains it.

[Anonymous No.20332857]

>>20332623
isn't that just an edit?

[Anonymous No.20332858]

>>20332360
You've asked this before, I'll reiterate a little less nicely so hopefully you get it this time.

Your 30k words ain't shit. They aren't even a tiny little dollop of wet shit. Releasing it now would be shooting yourself in the foot. Because 30k words? They ain't shit. Write more before you even dream of releasing.

[Anonymous No.20332861]

>>20332857
yes, but I'd rather shoot my little dollop on scribble first then edit it

[Anonymous No.20332870]

>>20332733
thanks for the catches, and taking the time to read my story.
>San Francisco first got electric streetlights in 1879, yet the protagonist came here to dig for gold? The gold rush ended in 1855...before the Civil War ended.
I took A LOT of historical liberties. This will either kick me in the rear or readers won't care. I have no clue. I plan to put a disclaimer in the author's note when the first draft is finished. This does get addressed though, people keep telling him there's no gold.

[Anonymous No.20332874]

>>20332301
I've been working on the current chapter tonight, what I can't decide is how much ground I want to cover and how quickly I want to introduce the conflict.

As for the formatting, I'm really just doing the best I can to eyeball everything right now but I have no fucking clue what looks better or worse. Dialogue is the real motherfucker here, because it feels like such a big, unaesthetic wrench. Especially when there are large segments of it mostly uninterrupted.

[Anonymous No.20332895]

>>20332870
>people keep telling him there's no gold
Sure, but why would he think there was gold there at all?
Just old-timey lack of timely communication or something?

[Anonymous No.20332928]

>>20332895
Yep, he's from China, and recruiters often tricked illiterate farmers and girls to come to america to search for gold, only to toss them into farms, mines, and brothels.

[Anonymous No.20332937]

>>20332928
>he's from China
Dropped

[Anonymous No.20333008]

>1425 words so far tonight
>most of it is me rewriting an awful B arc into something I think is marginally better
Editing is not a grind or a slog tonight. More like I'm seeing the marble statue is waiting for me to coax out more and more, and if I keep chiseling I'll have a great story here. Hopefully it's not buried in mountains of dogshit.

[Anonymous No.20333013]

>>20332937
I didn't want to write about another super martial artist, or a Chinese-American secret gunslinger that manages to beat up every man that looks his way.

That said, I know this place hates it, but if I put a interracial or gay relationship in the story, I think I'll have a higher chance at a movie deal. But at the same time with all this backlash against woke culture, I think I should stay back from it as well.

[Anonymous No.20333027]

>>20333013
are you gay or in a interracial relationship? if not, don't do it.

[Anonymous No.20333030]

>>20332928
Ah, OK, then the gold-rush timeline mismatch doesn't matter.

[Anonymous No.20333074]

>>20333027
Yes, but I don't see how that's relevant...

[Anonymous No.20333092]

>>20333013
if the homosex fits, then go for it. Doesn't seem like it will. You already have all three characters indicate they like women. If you're going to do it, then you're going to have to rewrite everything.

[Anonymous No.20333158]

Is it even worth it to write fantasy shit anymore or is it too saturated? I know I shouldn't write with the intention of it ever being seen but there's something depressing about the idea of dumping my work into an ocean of a million other people's that's almost exactly the same.

[Anonymous No.20333177]

>>20333158
>an ocean of a million other people's that's almost exactly the same
Don't write the same old shit

[Anonymous No.20333184]

>>20333177
How could I possibly hope to do something that hasn't already been done to death in this genre?

[Anonymous No.20333185]

I don't read because I'm terrified enough of copying the last piece of media I consumed.

[Anonymous No.20333188]

>>20333158
It's always worth it to write fantasy shit.
I, for one, don't read anything else, and my love of novelty compels me to look for new stuff.

[Anonymous No.20333260]

>>20333184
By not being a bitch and doing it instead of worrying about whether you'll be able to or not

[Anonymous No.20333267]

>>20333158
I'm writing fantasy that is based. How many based fantasy stories are there? Not a lot. Therefore the market is not over-saturated.

[Anonymous No.20333342]

>>20333267
There's basically only Tolkien and the pringles guy, so you won't have a lot of competition.

[Anonymous No.20333350]

>>20333342
Pringles guy?

[Anonymous No.20333353]

>>20333350
gene wolfe

[Anonymous No.20333401]

>>20332852
This doesn't help when you talk like a thesaurus victim.

[Anonymous No.20333407]

It's 1500 years after a cataclysmic war left Earth a wasteland inhabited by Mad Max techno-barbarians. There are also humans living in space whose society is far more functional but equally strange in its own ways. The people from space occasionally come down to the surface with bewildering and miraculous technology which they trade away for whatever comparatively-meager goods the people of Earth can provide, but they do not further communicate with or otherwise aid the surface-dwellers.
What do people call these mysterious visitors who descend from their twinkling dwellings in the sky, and why are the visitors so generous?

[Anonymous No.20333415]

>>20333188
here's my shitty fantasy story that i've stepped away from for a bit.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11q39jdlnZxvZe5jRuz8bpfESLQikJDOnV5ixJSht7uE/edit?usp=sharing

[Anonymous No.20333487]

>>20332785

[Anonymous No.20333494]

>>20332855
Methinks nothoughts.

[Anonymous No.20333499]

>>20332785
haha holy fuck the mental image of the sleepwalking niglet just going Morph Ball mode and ZOOMING down the hill had me in actual tears

[Anonymous No.20334223]

Feels like 4chan is frozen in time.

[Anonymous No.20334268]

>>20333415
you should just publish on scribble/royal
this is better then 90% of stuff there

[Anonymous No.20334333]

Should I just give up writing before I start if I haven't read a book in over a decade?

[Anonymous No.20334365]

>>20334333
yes

[Anonymous No.20334370]

>>20334333
No, just read some books

[Anonymous No.20334414]

How am I supposed to write memorable appealing stories/likable characters if the stuff widely accepted as appealing doesn't appeal to me?

I'm writing a story for an indie RPG game and I thought I'd play the most acclaimed/popular/best selling story games to see how they do things, and there's basically nothing in them that I like in the least, I simply didn't connect to any of the characters or care about any of the stories. Meanwhile the game stories I did like ended up being the panned and complained about aspects of their games, which tells me if I just wrote whatever I had in mind in the first place, my story would be panned for the same reasons too, I'm not really doing anything drastically different to the point where I would have a reason to believe my story would get treated differently.

[Anonymous No.20334479]

I try to get steadily more terrifying and abstract as I go on with the stuff.

[Anonymous No.20334481]

>>20334479
how so?

[Anonymous No.20334486]

>>20328857
I'll share mine then, its still an early draft though. Dabble added some kind of sharing feature, been wanting to try it out. So go wild

https://share.dabblewriter.com/static/1cb78J89Dk1OvUdGOrGl2

[Anonymous No.20334498]

>>20334481
Start of the story;
>We had some genetic engineering fuckup that made a Kaiju
Later on;
>We got a signal from the 4th dimension that makes people turn into cult-like gatherings of madmen who fuse their bodies into disgusting, yet oddly majestic avatars for whatever is sending the signal out.
Stuff like that.

[Anonymous No.20334501]

>>20334498
Huh, I have a similar plot line to the second one in my story. Except, I imagine yours is more sci-fi then fantasy. Flesh cults are based nonetheless.

[Anonymous No.20334503]

>>20334268
It needs to be heavily edited. Doesn't help that my passion for the story has disappeared. It's too shit. The story of Adah Phenric (Schizophrenic) will never reach it's conclusion.

[Anonymous No.20334512]

>>20334501
And the scary part is that the "Signal" started taking effect much earlier in the story than we thought

[Anonymous No.20334519]

>>20334503
I just wanted to read the line where her brother's hot seed ran down her thighs.

[Anonymous No.20334522]

>>20334503
even better, you get some attention, the attention motivates you, then if it trully gets popular you shit out 20+ chapters to the conclusion of the story

[Anonymous No.20334523]

Sold six copies on Amazon of my eBook within the first week, frens! I didn't even pay to promote it, only promoted it on Facebook and Instagram with my regular posts. Very happy with the slow but sure process, frens.
Working on my second pay-to-read novel.
God bless you all, anons!

[Anonymous No.20334529]

>>20334519
Her brother is undead and the lich she killed in the beginning. She's a schizo.

[Anonymous No.20334533]

>>20334523
Yay. Post it here.

[Anonymous No.20334534]

>>20334533
I'm too nervous :(

[Anonymous No.20334539]

ok fuck it, here. everyone gimmie (you)s with links to your works so I can read them.
https://pastebin.com/jPTErygB

>>20334479
this is my favorite writing style.
>>20334486
is this good software?>>20333415
>>20333415
first paragraph seems disjointed, but damn son 50 pages I'll def check that out when I have a little more free time. Haven't read fantasy in ages.

[Anonymous No.20334549]

>>20334539
I also want to delve into themes like
>Loss of innocence
>Finding purpose
>Conflict

[Anonymous No.20334565]

>>20334539
Dabble has a lot going for it, it's good if you like to write on the go. Or need a place that isn't Google to store everything. I just wish they would hurry up and add publishing related stuff.

[Anonymous No.20334574]

>>20334486
Not bad. Not bad at all. I didn't really understand the beginning of the mystical blank setting, but its looking like it'll shape into something worthwhile.

[Anonymous No.20334594]

>>20334414
Being niche can be okay.
Which stories did you like? Which did you dislike?

[Anonymous No.20334598]

>>20334534
You might get more sales.
We can at least read the "Look inside" portion that Amazon offers and say what we think.
Speaking for myself...if I like it, I would appreciate a paperback option. I can only read Kindle e-books on Amazon's "cloud reader".

[Anonymous No.20334616]

>>20334539
>https://pastebin.com/jPTErygB
Very purple

[Anonymous No.20334625]

>>20334503
It's not even the first draft. Of course it's going to be shit.write it out edit then edit it again then a third time until it's readable. Then beta read, and edit another 2 times. Editing takes like 80% if the time to write a book

[Anonymous No.20334689]

Anyone use Amazon Ads for Kindle?
What was your experience?

[Anonymous No.20334699]

How do you guys come up with the summary for your listings?

[Anonymous No.20334778]

>>20334616
>his tiny digits
>His minuscule nostril

Yea a bit purple, but quality writing overall. If you already know it is purple then work on that

[Anonymous No.20334787]

>>20334598
It's okay, anon. I might share my second one, which I'm working on now, here. I've learnt how to format way better, and I'm positive my newer novel will be a lot more precise in terms of prose.

[Anonymous No.20334791]

>>20334689
I'd like to know this too, actually.

[Anonymous No.20334821]

I'm honestly curious how many stories were dropped. Untold and unfinished forevermore.

[Anonymous No.20334830]

>>20334574
The idea is that, this is the P
Sohere of Death. One step removed from the Abyss. Here is where the cultures, civilisations of old, reside. Their relics and stuff are scattered all over but it's mostly just endless wandering and nothing as far as the eye can see. You either reach "heaven" or get devoured by those that hunt the dead.

The idea is that Naoki got dragged back to the living world by his Symbiote, Sekai in its Mortan form.

[Anonymous No.20334833]

>>20334830
*Sphere of Death.
I have no clue how I managed to fuck that up.

[Anonymous No.20334836]

>>20334830
Too many words that need definitions. Remember, readers are morons that can't read your mind, so you're going to have to define things for us

[Anonymous No.20335060]

>>20334836
True, but I try and leave some things up to the readers speculations.

[Anonymous No.20335337]

>>20335060
That's likely to just frustrate them.

[Anonymous No.20335448]

>>20335060
Even shit like sphere of death needs to be defined

[Anonymous No.20335504]

>>20335337
>>20335448
Noted. I'll give it some thought

[Anonymous No.20335506]

>>20334836
>you're going to have to define things for us
Doesn't this fall under infodumping? I thought it was best to just let things become understandable over time via observation.

[Anonymous No.20335515]

>>20335506
That was the general idea, maybe I could change up the dialogue, and have it said more straight. Though I hoped the dialogue would at least imply that this place is some kind of path to the Afterlife.

[Anonymous No.20335546]

>>20335506
If you introduce terms before defining them, you'll leave the reader in a fog.
You need to figure out how to define your terms in a way that works naturally with the prose.
Info-dumping isn't a foregone conclusion.

[Anonymous No.20335577]

>>20335546
Giving a few undefined terms and then letting the action define them (with maybe further clarification down the line) is usually pretty solid, for example. Simply demonstrate, if you can.

[Anonymous No.20335587]

>>20335506
Info dumping isn't bad, as many people think it is especially in a fantasy setting. You just have to have something recognizable. Like saying the Frasieq's edge was sharper than any blade he held before. we now know what the hell the item is without a huge info dump.

[Anonymous No.20335731]

I just want you people to know, none of your books will be as successful as Call of the Crocodile

[Anonymous No.20335759]

>>20335731
seethe

[Anonymous No.20335984]

>>20334689
Great question, also curious what the ROI or cost per click was like.

[Anonymous No.20335993]

>>20335731
I forget the name of the author who wrote these books, but why would you publish such shit content back to back?
Now it’s attached to your name.

[Anonymous No.20336010]

>started a new book last night
>as I was reading it I was simultaneously analyzing the prose, noticing word-use that I liked / disliked and things that I would have described in more detail
Is this normal or am I just on the spectrum?
>captcha: WG YWN

[Anonymous No.20336014]

>>20335993
For the same reason Wing has a singing career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wing_(singer)

[Anonymous No.20336047]

>>20336010
>as I was reading a book I found myself reading the words within that book
>but you don't get it, I was, like, actually reading them
sounds fairly normal

[Anonymous No.20336194]

I need some advice concerning when to call a spade a spade. I want to call the humans in my story something else, but I'm afraid that it might cause reader confusion. I've pretty clearly outlined why that is later on in the story, and up until that point nobody refers to them as, nor really uses the word 'human' or derivative words like 'humanity' / 'mankind' etc, but I'm still on the fence about it. Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.20336206]

the new dr strange movie has a character called "america"
seems like a bad name for fiction
people will wonder about the name every time they hear it instead of watching the movie

[Anonymous No.20336216]

>>20336206
>the new dr strange movie has

[Anonymous No.20336409]

How do you write about inherently edgy stuff without coming off as edgy?

[Anonymous No.20336411]

I turned 30 this year. Is there a point of starting to write at this age? Does writing have a therapeutic effect on your soul?

[Anonymous No.20336451]

>>20336194
refer to them as whatever kingdom/state/empire they are in, so they'd be brits or romans or chinese, or whatever the names the countries in your world are called. alternatively, maybe all the humans worship the same god, so children of zeus, or something.

[Anonymous No.20336481]

>>20336451
Yeah, wanted to go with the latter. They're supposed to be the children of a specific god made in his likeness but are members of a bigger 'race' of god-made creatures, which is why I wanted to stay away from just calling them humans.

[Anonymous No.20336486]

>>20336411
Nope, historically all the best writers are in their teens and early twenties :-(

[Anonymous No.20336543]

Hey, so I didn't know where to put this, but I feel like it'll just get lost elsewhere and you can't bump things on /lit/ plus I don't know that its deserving of a thread, so I'll just ask here.

I'm working (s-sort of) on a sort of combination almost-post-apocalyptic cyberpunk superhero story thing where the main villain, and I don't care if you think this is retarded, is meant to be a villian-of-all-villians sort, forged from the human collective consciousness of what a true evil being would be, but its not really this consistent predictable thing as you might expect. Rather, he's a chaotic mess and what is doesn't really fit neatly into a category.

I wanted to try and make him inhuman, something that people could not predict and who sits himself apart from D3 personality types and standard human evils. But I'm wondering, how should I do this? Is this even possible?
I wanted to show how humans are faulted and that the one true thing to fear is that which we create in our minds... sort of thing... so, he would be a bad dude, but he would have something like empathy that he could utilize at will. He's not sloppy, he's patient... he doesn't let he doesn't have completely normal emotions to get in the way, yet he can also sense when he fucks up and doesn't take risks.

But then I'm wondering, would he really be so different from human evil? Isn't the bad thing itself what makes a person bad? Is that really not the self-destructive element in and of itself?

I think I need a goal, some sort of axis, to anchor him, some way of doing things that he must engage in and that doesn't detract from him being a crazy violent demi-god fucker.

Basically, I'm just wondering how can I set him apart? Besides having other immense powers, I want to really emphasis is inhumanity and his ability to do things without tiring the way normal humans do as something that sets him apart.

Ideas? Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.20336550]

All throughout my life, I've been a lover of all form of storytelling. Yet, whenever I had the assignment of creating something of my own, I go creatively bankrupt. At best I can copy others with some changes of my own. How do you guys even get creative and come up with ideas? Maybe I'm just not the creator type but an appreciator

[Anonymous No.20336590]

>>20336206
shit plot shit movie
no tension, I didn't care about the charcters, and every time they said America I was distracted about the fact that this was probably some allegory for racism

[Anonymous No.20336684]

>>20336543
>I think I need a goal, some sort of axis, to anchor him
this is more important than all that other bullshit. characters are defined by their goals. villains are moreso defined by them because their actions tend to negatively affect a lot of people and they set plots in motion as a result. giving your evil otherworlder a large, important, potentially worldshaping goal is much more important than showing he's the face of human folly, or whatever. you will eventually get to that message but he needs a reason to exist and do things in the first place

[Anonymous No.20336687]

>>20336411
What, you think life ends at 30? As if.
I have a much easier time writing now than I did in my 20s.
It seems life experience counts for a lot when you're trying to come up with ideas, as well as prose.

[Anonymous No.20336738]

>>20336543
Possibly pattern him after a lich?
One created by technology instead of magic?
His goal is to further his research into the outer limits of technology and personal power.
All people are simply resources for him to consume, no more than lab rats.

[Anonymous No.20336783]

I've done it bros. I've written the literary form of impressionism.

[Anonymous No.20336787]

>>20336783
>literary form of impressionism
pastebin it

[Anonymous No.20336790]

>>20336787
I can't it's going up on my website as my weekend flash fiction

[Anonymous No.20336809]

Don’t pants your themes you retards. If you don’t have a message or theme you are building towards throughout the entirety of your story, you are a shit writer.

[Anonymous No.20336816]

>>20336809
Post your writing.

[Anonymous No.20336820]

>>20336809
my theme is that having a haram is amazing~

[Anonymous No.20336923]

>>20336486
>>20336411
jk rowling wrote the first HP when she was 32. maybe thats not your definition of great but she is a billionaire

[Anonymous No.20336929]

>>20336816
Seethers don't write.

[Anonymous No.20336963]

>>20336783
So, " My Life" by Lyn Hejinian?

[Anonymous No.20336986]

>>20336411
It's never too late. I just turned 21, but even I've felt like I "missed out" on my chance to be a good writer. Last semester right on the cusp of new year's eve, one of my professors took a bit of a detour and talked to us about creative writing, about how he wanted to be a writer his whole life but always felt like he had missed the chance. And he kept putting it off because of that all the way up until he turned fifty, after which he went on to publish IIRC 4 books (?) that got some pretty solid success, guy's done book tours and been to talks and shit because of it. That's successful in my book. Appologies if this comes off as soi blogposting, but I just wanted to share something that inspired me, and I hope it can inspire you too.

[Anonymous No.20337007]

>>20336411
It's never too late to do anything. Just do it anon. You will regret if you don't. I'm sure you can become a good writer :D

[Anonymous No.20337012]

[Anonymous No.20337036]

>>20336986
21 is still young. You may not feel it but it's true. You have plenty of time.

[Anonymous No.20337048]

New thread >>20337043

[Anonymous No.20337269]

>>20329686
The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Crash
BASH
The tiger is out