/wg/ Writing General

[Anonymous No.20725660]

The "celebrate our novel authors" edition

Previous thread: >>20718046

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

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

Note to anyone posting a sample of your writing for critique:
>IF YOU HAVE NOT PERFORMED A CURSORY PROOFREAD, DO NOT EXPECT TO BE TREATED KINDLY. EDIT YOUR WORK FOR SPELLING AND GRAMMAR BEFORE POSTING.

Traditional Publishing
Pros:
>you get to focus mostly on writing
>you must write a proposal to the publishers and sell your story to them
>you make 10-15% profit max, but they also eat all the risk and the costs
>self publishing is basically like running your own company
>you only need to do some simple marketing and reach out to readers
Cons:
>you make 10-15% profit max
>self publishing you make 70%+
>they’ll still require you to do all the leg work of a self published author anyways

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
>risky, but much more profitable
>you must pay for everything yourself
>if you do, you will spend more time on running a business than writing, but can be worth it
>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

For advertising
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQygKqJVFXg

AI-generated book covers
>https://nightcafe.studio
>https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini
>https://app.wombo.art/
>https://penguin.jos.ht/
>https://beta.openai.com/playground

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

Other forums
>https://reddit.com/r/writing
>https://writing.stackexchange.com/

[Anonymous No.20725666]

>>20725660
No one writes in /wg/.

[Anonymous No.20725669]

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan 'Press On!' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
-Calvin Coolidge

[Anonymous No.20725672]

>>20725666
Speak for yourself, devil-tripled seether.

[Anonymous No.20725673]

>>20725666
I write, but not in /wg/. Technically true I guess.

[Anonymous No.20725702]

There better not be any abstractions in this thread...

[Anonymous No.20725709]

I just wanna write like Dean Koontz and buy an $11 million mansion. Is that really too much to ask?

[Anonymous No.20725715]

>>20725666
No one *reads. I thought I drove you off you baloneyheaded shoestring

[Anonymous No.20725718]

How do I get readers for my erotica on smashwords?

[Anonymous No.20725728]

>I literally write for free
Bros, I'm a fucking JANNY

[Anonymous No.20725731]

>>20725666
BUT THEY DO EDIT

[e-mail]

[Anonymous No.20725734]

>>20725728
No, surely there is some chance you could make money off of it right?
Either from a patreon or publishing, a janny does it for free for no possible payoff.

[Anonymous No.20725738]

>>20725731
For free right? Because that's what I would be willing to pay for your services. Nothing. Because that's what your services are worth. Nothing.

[Anonymous No.20725746]

>>20725734
how do you get followers on patreon? I wrote a short story, now what?

[Anonymous No.20725753]

>>20725746
>I wrote a short story, now what?
Now make it a good short story. If you can.

[Anonymous No.20725755]

>>20725731
How's the gambling addiction coming along? I just watched Phil Helmuth lose $500k on the Big Game.

[Anonymous No.20725759]

>>20725746
build up a following and then make a patreon and shill it on every story as a post chapter authors note, as with all creative ventures you might not get anything, or you might be able to start writing full time.
I am saying to get a following before making the patreon because you don't want to come off as desperate making one when you've only written one thing.
Best case would be someone asking you to make one.

[Anonymous No.20725762]

Here are a bunch of books that i wrote and had published via KDP. They just arrived today. Most of them are degenerative or schizophrenic, but a few of them are worth glancing through. I wrote them under pennames. It’s mostly philosophical works, but there are some novellas and even a stageplay. Really proud of these. Mostly was experimenting with the format and process. Really stoked to print my full length novel

[Anonymous No.20725797]

>>20725738
see attached and never post again

>>20725755
Fuck, I love Phil. Every time he rages, he was mathematically correct. The problem with poker is fish will punish you for playing correctly because they don't understand pot odds and ranges. Poor bastard.

Like I said, I am an AP video poker player and day trade also, but I lost money on slots because God wants me specifically dead

[Anonymous No.20725810]

>>20725738
I can't afford his services.... How do I get more than $400 so I can properly hire an editor?

[Anonymous No.20725818]

>>20725810
Is that you, my slant-eyed friend? We can work something out for whatever amount you can afford. I'm a pro gambler: I don't need the money!

[Anonymous No.20725827]

In order to revive /ffa/, we’re joining /wg/ for those who want to practice writing and discussing flash fiction!

How it works:
1. Choose a prompt (full list of unused prompts in following post)
2. Write a story 1,000 words or less based on the prompt
3. Post it in /wg/ with the words "for FFA" somewhere
4. Add a new prompt for the list

Anyone posting for the /ffa/ accepts that their work may be made available online (Creative Commons) or in print (available for purchase at lowest possible cost).

There’s only the lightest editing (typos, etc) so garbage-in garbage-out. While there are not quality/content requirements (aside from porn, extreme abuse or gore) that doesn’t guarantee all submissions get added.

Prior three volumes available for free (pdf, epub):
https://archive.org/details/@_lit_anthology

And print (low cost) here:
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/anonymous-/gifts-evil-and-good/paperback/product-mgwkgv.html
https://www.lulu.com/en/ca/shop/anonymous-/rags-and-bones/paperback/product-9d7gp2.html
https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/anonymous-/simian-deluxe/paperback/product-y6z687.html

[Anonymous No.20725829]

>>20725827
>prompt list
A closet full of skin suits
A dating app with extraordinary risks and rewards
The academy of Paranormal Life Coaching
This will be India in 5 minutes
A grizzled detective goes undercover on 4chan
You reap what you sow
"Please don't forget what I told you"
The location the GPS took them to seems to be a little off
A tapestry constantly being added to
Murder in the Cathedral's sanctuary
The cellar houses wine and... bodies?
Finding a one-of-a-kind book in the library stacks
A co-worker has a hidden talent
A shut-in decides to go trick-or-treating
A straight-laced man's unusual new hobby
Horrible timing for a pregnancy announcement
A game of twister at a nursing home
There is a ship museum in Utah
A librarian goes blind every Thursday
Someone crashes a child’s birthday party
POV of an alley cat in Istanbul
An unusual item at the bottom of the sea
Pina coladas and long walks in the rain
A gateway opens between hell and earth
a slasher villain's first date
An elevator that doesn't work
>A flooded castle, sinking into the mud (in progress)
Why robot teachers were discontinued
Marrying for revenge
Gender Selection Day
>The whales save themselves (reopened)
Elevators have been portals this entire time
Plants are proven to be sentient life forms
A lie is taken seriously, with far worse consequences than the truth
Japanese ghost fish
What lives beneath the moss
An embarrassing phobia
>Progress Report
Overall: 4 prompts completed, 1 in progress
Last Thread: 2 prompts completed, 1 reopened

[Anonymous No.20725831]

>>20725738
We know.
We've seen your books.
They show no signs of editing whatsover.

[Anonymous No.20725847]

>>20725829
"A gateway opens between hell and earth" is completed, should you choose to accept it...see >>20725632

[Anonymous No.20725859]

>>20725847
Hmm, don't know how that one slipped under my nose. I'll check it out, thanks for writing!

[Anonymous No.20725912]

Here the buildings were perfect blanched castles, as if sculpted from the most immaculate alabaster blocks of marble, decorated with baroque embellishments. The central castle bearing a twenty-foot tall door-shaped entrance with Roman columns symmetrically disposed at each side, and the symbolic guard of partially disrobed masculine figures from Greek mythology standing at the front. Standing behind one cushy carriage of red velvet seats and delicate wheels of thin frames, it was possible to look at the top of the castle and see, rising from behind it, the turquoise-green dome sitting atop of a church, contoured by golden adornments, and at its very top a gold-encrusted marian sculpture shining its glimmer against the sun. The image of the ivory cane in his hand felt as if it would naturally fit with the rest of the cityscape. White as the pale buildings around, it was a cylinder that had its entire body, top-to-bottom carved to an exhaustive level of detail, a replica of the column of Marcus Aurelius. Segmented into horizontal levels, depicting diminutive soldiers wearing ancient armor, shields and spears, horses, processions, battles, boards held above their heads on which seemingly important members of society stood, the occasional horse carriage above groups of walking men. Level after level of these images, every single man detailed in excruciating effort, possibly with some sort of needle-like chisel, all the way down the cane. He held it against the skies, one meter away from his face, among the buildings in his line of sight, and it fit like a glove. The paramount tower of massive historical importance to this here city of flawlessly chiseled palaces of white. Made of bodies and bodies that once built it, the very stem through which the blood of its history seemed to flow downwards into the earth and then, flow through the veins of all that was constructed there.

[Anonymous No.20725939]

>>20725797
>see attached and never post again
I'm not doing either of those things.

[Anonymous No.20725941]

>>20725831
Which one was your favorite?

[Anonymous No.20725943]

>>20725939
never getting published either kek

[Anonymous No.20725946]

>>20725943
I'm already published.

[Anonymous No.20725952]

>>20725946
where, youporn?

[Anonymous No.20725958]

>>20725952
A little indie publishing house called Penguin, doubt you've heard of them.

[Anonymous No.20725965]

>>20725958
yeah, I heard they were branching out into LGBTQ+ stories. congratulations!

[Anonymous No.20725972]

Can someone review my erotica short story?

[Anonymous No.20725977]

>>20725965
Yeah you should check it out, it's called "All The Letters of the Rainbow". Available now at a Barnes & Noble near you.

[Anonymous No.20725991]

>>20725762
Very nice, bruv. I've got four books on there, with another set for release next month. Keep it up. Also, has anyone read Weedman's work? That cover looks sensational.

[Anonymous No.20726021]

>>20725972
I will. Post it.

[Anonymous No.20726043]

>write novel about listless 30-year-old working in a boring government job
>most of reads like a manifesto

[Anonymous No.20726049]

>>20725818
I only have $50 dollars and that has to last me the rest of the week. I'm not getting enough hourly shifts and my wage-slave job.

[Anonymous No.20726077]

>>20726049
E-mail me your manuscript anyway and I'll edit between games of DOTA 2. If you like what I do with it, we can work out the money later.

[Anonymous No.20726087]

>>20725669
Basically true: most writers who put out a best seller have dozens upon dozens of works no one will know about without looking for them, if they can even be found.

[Anonymous No.20726089]

>>20725977
Are they still in business?
Why not put it on Amazon where someone might actually be able to find it?

[Anonymous No.20726091]

>>20726021
The book title is called "Cloning Mr Dickson: Nursing Dick (Cheating, Interracial, Ddlg)" on smashwords

Alternatively, could you point me to a discord for erotica authors or selfpublished authors?

I wish there was a very detailed formula on how to construct a scene. I mean, how do you justify every sentence in a scene? How do you know what description to add and how much etc

[Anonymous No.20726098]

>>20726091
I’m not reading cuckshit.

[Anonymous No.20726100]

>>20725941
The one with the sentence fragments, misplaced commas, possessives in the place of plurals, and inconsistent verb tenses.
I guess that doesn't really narrow it down, does it.

[Anonymous No.20726107]

>>20726100
Gotcha fag, I don't use commas.

[Anonymous No.20726125]

>>20726107
Of course not...you ran out of them.

[Anonymous No.20726144]

>>20726091
>ddlg
There's no character limit here, you can write out the whole word(s)

[Anonymous No.20726147]

>>20725660
>10 wg books
Make that 11 and add Faceless on there. Krake is too good an author to not be mentioned.

[Anonymous No.20726181]

>>20725660
>No one here reads my webnovel
>No one here follows my twitter nor my gettr
>No one listens to the unreal press podcast
>No one from the unreal bros nor neo-/lit/ has volunteered me
>I literally talk with these authors on discord and they never bring me up
>I've published two books and no one here knows because I don't self-shill

[Anonymous No.20726202]

>>20726043
This but I'm making mine a comedy in the vein of Catch-22

[Anonymous No.20726205]

>>20726181
I thought you wanted to be a writer.
Well, this is what being a writer is like.
Why do you think they have to have day jobs?
Even Frank Herbert had to work as a newspaper journalist.

[Anonymous No.20726208]

>>20726181
>>I've published two books and no one here knows because I don't self-shill
well we do now you fucking attention whore

[Anonymous No.20726218]

>>20725660
Most these covers are dogshit

What the fuck you fags are doing

[Anonymous No.20726222]

>>20726043
is there an issue?

[Anonymous No.20726256]

>>20726218
>Most these covers are dogshit
>Most
I'm curious anon, which ones did you think weren't dogshit? You're wrong, but still eager to hear your dogshit opinion.

[Anonymous No.20726265]

>>20726181
I listened to like five episodes of the unreal podcast last night and I wanna go on the show maybe when I have my next ebook published

[Anonymous No.20726277]

>>20726218
>What the fuck you fags are doing
Writing with proper sentence structure, for one thing.

[Anonymous No.20726285]

>>20726218
>Thinking a bunch of Neets have money or talent to buy a book cover

[Anonymous No.20726294]

random excerpt from my forthcoming novel based on a cross-country bicycle ride I did with my friends a few years ago. It's about masculinity and mental health, mostly:

At every roadside piss break, Emile jumps on the opportunity to ask me about school, and I pull out everything I can to avert the subject: this heat, this wind, these drivers, these damn birds, the dust in the air, how often we’ve got to spit just to clear our mouths, the neverending freight trains, the Calgary stampede and what it costs and whether it’s overrated, the forest fires we’ve been having lately, the conservative bumper stickers, the cows grazing, the Toronto Raptors, the Montréal Canadiens, the little bodies of water here and there and how one day they will be gone. Anything to take the analytical weight of my mistakes off myself and onto something innocent.


The latter half of the day is spent chasing Ben and Emile, who pull far enough ahead that I'm left to stew in my own anxiety. Passing a billboard of a waterpark resort, with children pictured splashing in the pool, reminds me of how differently I felt only hours ago, feeling joy and freedom upon hearing children playing in the park, and that the tension and unease felt in the present are the consequences of a single line of questioning that exploits a subject about which I feel inexplicably ashamed. The next moments are spent acknowledging this shame as shame without shaming the acknowledgement itself, but I’m unsure whether it's of any use.


I gain on them, eventually crawling up close enough to catch sight of the eagle feather dangling above Ben's rear tire. I had forgotten it was there. It’s wedged in good by the looks of it, tucked inside his rack and pinned between his fender and tent bag. It seems so precariously placed that it should’ve flown away by now.


Already the topography is drying out; the lush prairie fields are thinning into a rocky yellow grassland topped by grain farms and gutted hamlets.


I make the conscious decision to think the best of tonight. “Think positively,” I think, negatively, to myself. I had read about the psychological benefits of deliberate positive thinking before; Kid Cudi said it had changed his life. But I’ve always been skeptical of anything so seemingly simple; such a complex world deserved only complex solutions, so I thought. Without a reason for doing so, I repeat the mantra, “Think positively,” with less self-reproach each time, reminding myself that maintaining optimism and withholding self-judgment, no matter how contrived, is the only answer for helplessness, and that helplessness is only a learned despair. Rather than where I’ve been, I think about who I’m with, where I am, and where I’m going, and it feels like the only real good thing within my scope of action. I commit to this action and take my pledge like a pill, then pedal on; letting the time pass, anxiously, skeptically, as if waiting for drugs to kick in.

[Anonymous No.20726303]

>>20725660
I'd only buy Egregore if I saw these on a bookshelf or book fair table. The artist who did that is amazing.

[Anonymous No.20726306]

>>20726181
You are allowed to seethe. You can even shit and cum.
But never let that distract you from your goals.
Keep pressing on. You are going to make it.

[Anonymous No.20726526]

>>20726294
Pretty good, makes me want to read more.

[Anonymous No.20726546]

How would you guys write a battle or a fight scene? My only experience reading them is that one Halo novel that just describes them as "Master Chief walks into a room and BLAM BLAM, blasts that filthy alien scumbag into Swiss cheese. Then he throws a grenade and KABLAMO kills like 2, maybe 3, Grunts.".

[Anonymous No.20726557]

“This is specialist Meyer, there seems to have been an incident.”
Alarms blared in the background, so many in number that their purposes were indistinguishable. One by one, switches were thrown behind the camera, and the cacophony was brought to a manageable din. Finally, a gloved hand appeared in-frame, tapping a large red warning on a touchscreen that read “MASTER ALARM”.
In the silence that followed, Meyer’s breath licked at the microphone. Shuddering, adrenaline-filled huffs that betrayed his attempt at a professional demeanor. He drew in a long breath of precious atmosphere, and choked down his despair. The moment had passed, and now it was time to work the problem.
“We just finished the TMI-1 burn. I heard and felt a huge bang or explosion or something. I don’t know how bad it is, but I think the others, in my compartment at least, are dead.”
He brought the camera to an ovular porthole, washed in screaming white sunlight. As the brightness sensor adjusted, the extent of the damage became apparent. A million bits and pieces, ranging from man-sized chunks to imperceptible flecks, now spun and flashed outside the window. Had it not been for the circumstances, Meyer thought, the eerie ballet would have been astonishing. In this moment, however, it was a danse macabre.
“I have good reason to suspect that mainline comms are down.”
An S-Band antenna floated gaily past the porthole.
“I’m recording this so that if secondary comms come online, or still exist for that matter, this can be transmitted at a later point.”
Or if all else fails, the recovery team would have enough evidence for a thorough investigation. If it ended up being that a technician forgot a sponge somewhere in one of the millions of tubes that made up the Wonder, Meyer swore he would become that man’s personal poltergeist.
“My suit has inflated, so it’s going to be a little hard to move. I’m going to try and make it to the cockpit to get more information.”
With that, he tapped the “disconnect” button on his phone, and felt the headset inside his helmet buzz twice to let him know it was turning off. The ability to record both the internal voiceover from inside a helmet, and the external soft winds of the Martian environment with a commercial phone, was thought to be a public relations boon. Now, it would be driving the public relations disaster.
Meyer clipped his phone into the mount on his arm, and made his way over to the door. He tried to focus only on the blue anodized handrails, going arm over arm, praying he wouldn’t have to look at his crewmates. A red blob, viscera of some kind, was slowly tumbling at the edges of his vision. He felt his stomach fall another hundred feet, yet mustered some robotic will to keep moving to the door. He had to keep working the problem.

[Anonymous No.20726562]

>>20725939
>>20725943
>>20725946
>>20725952
>>20725958
>>20725965
Genuinely laughed at this retardation

[Anonymous No.20726568]

>>20726306
Who's the dude in pic, and why should I care?

[Anonymous No.20726600]

>>20726568
Dude, that's F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Go back under the rock from when you came.

[Anonymous No.20726667]

>>20726526
thanks brother :)

[Anonymous No.20726855]

>>20726546
I haven't written many fights, so I don't have many examples from my own work, and I don't feel like typing out an example, though someone did ask more or less the same question 5 or 6 thread back maybe?
this might also not be very good without some context, Samuel is a werewolf, this is from the perspective of one of the people who is hunting him.
It's past 2AM now, if this helps you're welcome, but I won't be replying for a while.

[Anonymous No.20726862]

/wg/, how do I know if I'm burned out?

[Anonymous No.20726922]

>>20726855
What the fuck are you doing with all those commas

[Anonymous No.20726942]

Day 42 editing
Chapter 50 done
5k+ word chapters taking a mental toll
Surely it will end soon?

[Anonymous No.20727082]

I'm interested in writing something that feels like an Arthurian legend. I've not read much from this style, so I've ordered a copy of Le Morte d'Arthur. Does anyone have any tips for writing in this style? Any hallmarks?

>>20726862
I don't think anyone can tell you that, you just kind of feel it.

[Anonymous No.20727093]

I’m starting to get weirdly annoyed whenever I write “__ of the __”. So I’m thinking of instead writing “__’s __” even if it feels strange.

[Anonymous No.20727154]

>>20727093
What the fuck is this, mad libs?

[Anonymous No.20727198]

>>20726942
Where you going to publish?
>>20725660
Which of these is best?

[Anonymous No.20727231]

After i finish this book I'm going to get into screenwriting for fun
Any tips?

[Anonymous No.20727254]

>>20727231
If you're doing it just for fun (if you're doing *anything* just for fun) I'd recommend not looking into too many tips just yet. Try and write something without knowing any tips, just have a go. It'll make any tips you do get more impactful, because you can implement them as a way to improve, rather than trying to remember them all before you start.

[Anonymous No.20727322]

>set writing goals for each month
>still have a week of July left and only 700 words away from hitting said goal
I'm doing it! I'm getting into the groove!

[Anonymous No.20727349]

>>20727154
No, Bigtard.

[Anonymous No.20727428]

>>20727322
Awesome

[Anonymous No.20727431]

>>20727198
unsure as of yet, though certainly not wattpad

[Anonymous No.20727510]

>>20726205
I know what the marketing and business life is like, pretty unpleasant. What gets me is the amount of people allegedly in this thread who personally know me and have never mentioned me for these kinds of lists.

[Anonymous No.20727569]

You ever have days you just sit down and churn out 10-20k words?
I'm gonna have that sort of day when I wake up

[Anonymous No.20727585]

>>20726181
I actually love Unreal and hope to be a guest one day after I publish. I know you like theology so I think it will be a good one. I'm not formally trained besides a discipleship and reading the bible a dozen times.

[Anonymous No.20727631]

>>20727585
Glad you're enjoying it, now go finish your book so you can get on the schedule.

[Anonymous No.20727646]

>>20727631
I've been working on it more recently. My timeline right now I will finish a 4th draft in a couple months, then it will be in limbo with beta readers, editors and the rest. Might not be in ink until next year.

[Anonymous No.20727743]

Where can I find a community of writers that isn't /wg/, RoyalRoad, Litopia, nor Fanfiction? I don't mind these, just trying to bridge out and see if I can find another place. I have an irl writing group but it's only once per month.

[Anonymous No.20727771]

>>20726098
but you browse 4chan?

[Anonymous No.20727842]

>>20727082
Arthurian legend is really complicated and filled with conflicting history. I think two good follow ups to Mallory are The Once and Future King and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. From there you can pick your poison from any of the old school French romances to modern interpretations depending on which character you want to focus on and who you want to see adventure.

[Anonymous No.20727856]

>>20725666
I don’t go to /wg/ but I do write. Just only my dreams and my thoughts

[Anonymous No.20727967]

>>20727743
Discord if you can get passed the gatekeepers of the good servers

[Anonymous No.20728110]

>>20726294
Well done. I like you’re style.

[Anonymous No.20728121]

>>20726294
Well done. I enjoy your writing style and would be willing to buy the book once you release it.

[Anonymous No.20728184]

>>20725660
bros is it bad if i end my fantasy story with a time loop?
im not writing the kind of story where i can end it with "and they live happily ever after the end"
by all means the MC of my story should die and i knew that since i started my story but now that im actually writing the ending i kinda dont want to kill him...
is it bad if i suddenly given him the power to "reset back time" thus making everything repeat again thereby trapping everyone in an endless loop?
there is magic in my setting but prior to this moment there was no indication that time magic was a thing and also there are no hints that the story is repeating itself. there are however a ton of hints throughout the story about how my character is definitely going to die in the end...
is this a cheap copout? i dont want to kill the MC but he deserves punishment so trapping in an endless loop seems like enough punishment to me...

[Anonymous No.20728240]

>>20728184
>i kinda dont want to kill him...
You might have to. That or go for something bittersweet. It could be exile, could be failure to get what he was after, I don't know.
>is this a cheap cop out?
if there's no hint of a possibility that a timeloop is occurring then yes it will probably make readers upset.

[Anonymous No.20728303]

>>20728184
I killed my MC halfway through the plot so yes, it is cheap and it'll piss people off if you don't provide any hints and especially if it's glaringly obvious you don't want to kill him just because you don't want to.

[Anonymous No.20728305]

>>20728184
>is it bad if i suddenly given him the power to "reset back time"
yeah, i think you should hint at his time travel powers at least. or maybe early on have him try a time travel spell and fail miserably at it.
then when he finally has to time travel at the end, there's some question if it'll work or not

[Anonymous No.20728313]

>>20727569
nope, never got to 10k
maybe i will one day
it takes me too long to figure out what i want to write and how i want to write it
the more i write the better i get, but progress is slow

[Anonymous No.20728383]

I'm in such a bad rut. How do I get through writer's block? I have it all in my head, all the character interactionds and words and all of that but I just can't put it to paper. I'm stuck in editing hell, everything I write feels poopy. Help. Please. I need it baaaaaaaaad.

[Anonymous No.20728392]

>>20728383
Close your browser and write.

[Anonymous No.20728412]

>>20728383
writing sprints might help
1. set a timer for 3 minutes
2. write like crazy while ignoring mistakes
3. write whatever pops into your head
4. at the end, count your words and write them down

https://thewritepractice.com/writing-sprints/

[Anonymous No.20728450]

>>20728392
That's the thing, I do. I sit and stare at the page and whatever I write just doesn't feel right. No distractions, not even music. I know I sound like a whingy excuse making faggot but this is the first time I've had a really bad rut.

>>20728412
That sounds great, I'll check it out right now. Cheers!

[Anonymous No.20728494]

>Hours of on-topic posts, no unhinged spam, not even a tripfag in sight

Guys, did we make it?

[Anonymous No.20728536]

>>20728494
No Boswell seething about Gardner and no Gardner seething about Boswell.
Things are looking up.

[Anonymous No.20728623]

>I can't find beta readers
>I have no interests from agents
>I can't afford to commission a book cover
>I have no money for an editor
>I can't pay for advertising
>I have no followers on social media
>I will never make it

[Anonymous No.20728646]

>>20728623
Write more. Day and night.

[Anonymous No.20728650]

>>20725731
Thank you to all potential clients who messaged me. Please do as instructed and send me the first few pages of your manuscript for free editing so we can proceed!

[Anonymous No.20728654]

>>20727428
Holocaust All Shitbulls

Did you know that, like a snake, a shitbull can still bite you hours after having its head cut off? Most people don’t know that about shitbulls. Most people don’t want to know that about shitbulls.
You see, shitbull lovers have this weird gaslighting campaign going twenty-four-seven about how sweet and innocent their choice breed of midget manglers are, posting pictures of their soon-to-be-mauled children reaching towards the fuck-off grin of what looks to be a recently subjugated demon.

Isn’t he cute? - My neighbor.
He’s so sweet with my kids! - My neighbor.
Blame the owner, not the breed! - My neighbor.

She even drove that little Honda toaster whatever its called around for a whole week with a bumper sticker that said like: I LOVE MY PITBULL on the back glass. This was AFTER the shitbull ripped her 3-year-old’s throat out. It took em near an hour to unclench the things jaw, meanwhile its chewing this kids arms down to nubs. Neighbor was collapsed out on the lawn making noises that sounded like she was trying to scream and puke at the same time.
I think they had to shoot the thing through the head.
A real closed casket affair. Nightmare. Was a cute kid too, she had just learned my name.
“What is REDACTED doing?” I would hear the little girl say as they walked past my open window, the shitbull anchoring the rear on a too-thin lead, swiveling its hamshank head around for something innocent to dismember.
Oh yeah, its called an Element. Honda Element. You can still see the residue from that sticker on her back window, glue-gobs in the vague shape of the dog that ate her kid. Kinda fucked up to think about. All that guilt in the rearview every time she backs out of a parking spot. I’d kill myself if I were her.

[Anonymous No.20728657]

>>20728623
go to the library and get Story by Robert McKee

[Anonymous No.20728669]

>>20728654
That was maybe a month ago, when the kid died, I mean. Since then I’ve learned a lot about shitbulls.
Week after the attack I learned that little morsel of info from the beginning about shitbulls still being able to bite with their heads cut off. Wild right?
So I had been walking around the neighborhood, up a few streets and back, looking for shitbulls. I wanted a little revenge for that girl. When BOOM, something like a mine cart full of gristle slammed into the fence I was walking past. No warning. No bark, no growl, nothing. Just slam, slam, SLAM. I could see its stupid eyes through the uprights, teeth bared, drool. Real spooky. The worst shit: in the same backyard was one of those little kid plastic swingset things. Fisher price, you know. Pair it with the purple dinosaur climbing toy.
So I called up my dentist assistant/dealer buddy, does the gas, anesthesiologist, and asked him what the best dope he could get me for some sleep. He said propofol, but that’s the gas, so I asked if he had anything in pills. He said ask around for some ambien. Easy enough, my mom’s had a bottomless prescription ever since dad had his feet cut off.
So I call up my mom, visit, give her a hug, etc, etc, slyly mention I’ve been having trouble sleeping and just like that I’m walking out the door with a little baggy of ambien.
Next up, I’m standing at the meat counter.
“How much for the chop there?” I said.
“2.99 a lb.”
“I get that. I want you to weigh it.”
“It’ll be three-thirty-eight.”
“I’ll take it.”
“Anything else?”
“You know what, yeah, throw a couple jalapeño cheddar brats in too.”
I almost walked out the store without charcoal and buns. But that was dinner for me and a midnight snack for the shitbull two streets up.

[Anonymous No.20728671]

What's a good Isekai I can watch right now?

[Anonymous No.20728675]

>>20727743
From the OP:

Other forums
>https://reddit.com/r/writing
>https://writing.stackexchange.com/

>>20728623
Write because you can't help but write.

[Anonymous No.20728676]

>>20728657
>>20728646
Neither of these solutions address the problem

[Anonymous No.20728677]

>>20728669
Fast forward to just after one-AM, I’ve got a belly full of bratwurst and a dripping handful of ambien frittata and I’m lurching through the alley dodging streetlights with a mask on, looking like a real dipshit. I get to the fence and WHAM, the shitbull is there, spit covered teeth sparkling at me. This fucker is silent. Just hot breath and a little scratch of dirt as it dug in for another lunge. WHAM. I waste no time and throw the meat over, hear it chewing, ripping the shoulder bone from the flesh, really enjoying its little shitbull life.
I duck back into the alley, dick around on my phone for a bit, walk back. It’s still upright, rigid, staring at my dumbass face pressed to the fence, but hey, it didn’t lunge at me.
I give it a few more minutes. Scroll through reddit a few times, watch a little anime, lose track of time. I get up at 1:45, walk back over to the fence and the shitbull is gone, out, sideways on the ground legs rigid, gone.
I found the latch, stepped in, all the while watching for motion detecting lights or whatever. I drug the near-dead thing through the backyard away from the windows, pulled the ball-peen I had stashed in my pocket and got to work cracking that shitbulls walnut brain. By the time I’ finished, little Diesel (I checked the tag) was a shitbull jello-salad from the neck up, and I’m dragging him back through the alley towards my house, mask on, sledding this shitbulls corpse around streetlights, looking like a real dipshit.
But I made it back with no problem, then the real fun began.

[Anonymous No.20728681]

>>20728676
If you keep going, things may change.

[Anonymous No.20728683]

>>20728676
have you read mckee? he could teach a dog to write shakespeare

[Anonymous No.20728684]

>>20728623
>Get a job
>Now no time to write
>Make time to write
>Only generate a paragraph a day.
>Maybe make it at 80
>Book is out of fashion or style by then
>Die
>Never made it

[Anonymous No.20728690]

>>20725731


>>20725818
>pro gambler
>>20725797
>The problem with poker is fish will punish you for playing correctly

Hope your theories on editing are not as bad as your theories on poker.
Yeah, you can get screwed by someone's bad play but you WANT to sit at the table with those people, because if you are following pot odds correctly and are skilled at estimating ranges you will come out ahead in the long run.
I see it all the time, people who know how to calculate the odds take a bad beat to a fish (or bad luck) and then get tilted and stop playing correctly but still insist they are good poker players.

Also any ninth grader can learn to calculate pot odds in about a week, the real skill comes from putting people on ranges.

>>20725818
>We can work something out for whatever amount you can afford. I'm a pro gambler: I don't need the money!

I was going to leave the other shit alone but here is where you became a con artist in my eyes.

Making money from poker is a fucking GRIND. The idea you have all this free time thanks to your poker playing so you have no problem working for free absolutely reeks of bullshit. I don't know what your game is exactly, but you are up to something here. That's obvious.

You are now coming off as the guy who wants to sell his $20,000 car for "whatever you can pay" because "it was my late father's and I want to get rid of it because seeing it makes me sad. I don't care about the money."

Again, don't know what the con is exactly, I'm sure if I went under covered and pretended to be a "fish" I would find out eventually.
At best, you'll get paid for a hacky editing job, at worst you are going to try to steal someone's personal information.

[Anonymous No.20728711]

>>20728676
JSYK even if you had an agent, beta readers, etc. You are too disconnected from high-placed intelligentsia to ever make it. Also, you are probably a straight white male, more strikes against you. Even if you did get an agent and a book deal 90% of debut novels have an advance of ~8-10k, and you wont sell enough to make your advance back, so the publishing house will drop you and it is difficult to get another agent.

I can't believe you want money from an industry that will never respect you. You've got these high-minded ideals based on outdated (50s-80s) publishing world when novellists were as big as movie stars.

These days, readership is down, and the only genre's actually selling well are romance and to a lesser extent suspense.

[Anonymous No.20728721]

>>20728677
I’ve got one of those dual headed sledgehammers and an old hacksaw dulled by my years of plumbing work. I figured, if a sledgehammer and hacksaw is good enough for cast-iron, its good enough to take apart a dead fucking shitbull.
I started with its legs, bringing the broad end of that hammer down in pulverizing arcs, beating its bones to splinters, then cut them free with a few passes of the hacksaw, tossed em all in my burn barrel.
Then came the head.
“This is for Natalie.” I said to its blown out, jam-filled eye sockets. It took me a few starts and stops to get the saw through the spine, I took a few breaks, scrolled through reddit, watched a bit more of that anime I started earlier in the alley. It’s the final season of Attack on Titan. If you know you know. But yeah, I made it through the spine, slipped as it drug through the final few millimeters of bone, and since I was putting my whole fat-ass weight on the back of that saw I fell down into that shitbull smear. Stood up dripping, I was covered with it, slinging slime from my fingertips as I wiped gore from my eyebrows.
But it was done.
I gave the head a nudge with my boot, and the fucking thing tried to bite me. Got a few teeth in my good work boots. Still kind of pissed about that. That brings me back to the beginning, prophecy regarding the severed head chomping down fulfilled, now you know how I know.

[Anonymous No.20728732]

>>20728721
And so I’m standing there in my backyard with three things on my mind, first, I’ve got a shitbull just waiting to chomp down on any toes I accidentally put in the line of fire. I found a stick, lodged it in the back of its throat and stepped back to admire the way the fucking thing still clenched and unclenched its jaw an hour after getting its brains beat in. Second, I’ve got a shitbull torso I don’t know what to do with, I can’t burn it, too much meat, I can’t run from it, it’d probably get aroused at my retreat and wiggle towards me trying to bite me with its sucking neck hole. Third, I was mulling over that burning question on every guys mind after taking the head off a shitbull with a rusty hacksaw:
What the fuck do I do now?
So I did what every guy does after taking the head off a shitbull with a rusty hacksaw: I paced a few steps back, got a running start and football punted that shitbull’s head clear over my backyard fence.
Fuck you diesel.
I knew I shoulda played football in highschool.

[Anonymous No.20728736]

>>20728732
Only problem, I kicked the thing too far and it landed on top of my next-door neighbors roof, rolled down and settled on top of her gutter guard she had spent so much money on last year getting installed. I don’t think it says anything about shitbull head damage anywhere in the 10year gutter guard guarantee. Actually, there’s probably a clause at the bottom if you read real close specifically about not covering damage from punted shitbull heads. And that poor old lady would have died coming out on her back porch looking up into that disgusting shitbull grin at 6am in the morning when she’s off to church or whatever it is 95 year old women get up to. Slot machines? Bridge? Quilting? Skip out for a malted down at the drugstore with her sweetheart Billy Johnson? Whatever.
So I get out my ladder at going on 2:30am. Im just-killed-a-dog tired and struggle lifting my fat calves up the rungs, but I make it, toss the head down and that’s pretty much my story on how I learned that shitbulls can still bite after getting their heads cut off.
Wild, right?
Only, that’s not really the end.
Laying there that night after digging the grave, showering, jerking it to Nier Automata 2b Futa porn, I got to thinking. Maybe one shitbull wasn’t enough to avenge little Natalie. Maybe my neighborhood wasn’t safe as long as there were shitbulls still pacing backyards waiting for helpless toddler-meat to fall out of open windows.
Maybe I needed to get a few more shitbulls.
Maybe, but I’d need a good nights sleep to think about it.

[Anonymous No.20728744]

>>20728623
>tfw can afford to pay for these things
>seven beta readers that I don't have to pay

[Anonymous No.20728745]

>>20728121
Thanks brother. Makes my day to read that.

[Anonymous No.20728753]

>>20727967
What are the good servers?

[Anonymous No.20728775]

>>20728536
There's only one Gardnerspam in /lit/ atm, so maybe he's having a timeout.

[Anonymous No.20728776]

>>20728753
Wouldn't you like to know

My server is invite only, you need someone to vouch for you.

[Anonymous No.20728786]

>>20728776
Why don't you vouch for me? I'm knocking on the door here.

[Anonymous No.20728794]

>>20728684
>>20728623
You will write even if you have a full time job.
You will find someone to help make your book a success, if you want it.
You will keep grinding away because you love your book and you love writing.
You will be a writer.
You will make it.

[Anonymous No.20728795]

>>20728776
if I gave you an excerpt of my writing here could we work something out?

[Anonymous No.20728812]

>>20728786
>>20728795
>Let me in
>I'm totally not a schizo who will spend all day talking about islam and homosexuality
>I'm not like all the other 4channers I swear

Go introduce yourself to bad communities and make friends, don't try to jump to the end.

[Anonymous No.20728814]

>>20728794
>Even if I self publish nobody will read it
>No idea how to shill on reddit
>Not even /wg/ will give it a chance
>It will be stuck in the Amazon void

[Anonymous No.20728816]

>>20728690
>Yeah, you can get screwed by someone's bad play but you WANT to sit at the table with those people, because if you are following pot odds correctly and are skilled at estimating ranges you will come out ahead in the long run.

We're talking about poker tournaments, not cash games, moron. If someone is loose in a cash game, you wait until you're in position with suited connectors and loot their mom's inheritance. If someone is bad in a TOURNAMENT, then you end up in a coinflip situation where you're ahead by 10 or 15% and could still bust out because some imbecile called with J9o.

>I don't know what your game is exactly, but you are up to something here. That's obvious.

I all-inned XRP at 17 cents and am waiting for the lawsuit to end, dipshit. Playing DOTA 2 and watching reruns of Twin Peaks will only go so far

[Anonymous No.20728817]

>>20728690
>pro gambler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf54-e54IBo

[Anonymous No.20728841]

>>20728812
What would it take for you to vouch for someone from /wg/?

[Anonymous No.20728851]

Egregore anon here.

How do I give you guys free copies?

[Anonymous No.20728854]

>>20728816
>I all-inned XRP at 17 cents and am waiting for the lawsuit to end, dipshit
Whatever that means.
So, you are in the middle of a lawsuit and have free time so are now editing for random anons? Any idea how fishy this sounds?
Either way, you don't strike me as someone who knows how to make an honest living.

>TOURNAMENT

So you got lucky in a tournament once and now and think you are a professional gambler. Tournaments are even more of a grind than cash, if you are doing it "professionally"

[Anonymous No.20728859]

>Whatever that means.

Is that you, Joan Donovan? Put the Big Mac down, your family is worried about you

[Anonymous No.20728869]

>>20728184
>i kinda dont want to kill him...
why? is he literally (You)?

[Anonymous No.20728872]

>>20728851
Make a goodreads page and see if you can do a giveaway. There's a chance someone not from here will sign up but that's okay. Best to do only the country you live in or postage might get too expensive.

[Anonymous No.20728874]

>>20728841
Publish a book and find me in one of the various /lit/ adjacent servers

[Anonymous No.20728892]

>>20728859
>Is that you, Joan Donovan? Put the Big Mac down, your family is worried about you
DEFLECTION!

You can't deny your story sounds suspicious.
Pro gambler who doesn't care about the money?
Now on 4chan where there is no accountability?
Offering things for free? (Or stupidly low prices)

Probably looking for someone who's as stupid as they are desperate. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy's name isn't even Matt, he probably lives in the middle east somewhere.
Good luck with your scam, Mahammad.

[Anonymous No.20728895]

>>20728816
>I all-inned XRP
lmao why would you brag about a thing like that. didn't even hit new ath this bullrun and the sec is fucking them hard. the few banks who tried their shit were bribed into trying it out, then said they weren't interested cuz it was too expensive. the founders shilled it as an investment, ie making it a security per the howey test, then dumped it on the open market on paypigs like you. it's all in the lawsuit go read it yourself. it's over.

[Anonymous No.20728902]

>>20728892
Post the first three pages of your shitty manuscript, and I'll edit them for free right now

[Anonymous No.20728905]

>>20728816
based xrp schizo. what's your target price? mine is 10-12USD

[Anonymous No.20728923]

>be me
>feel inadequate about my writing
>it's nothing compared to Shakespeare's and Joyce's
>I will never make it
>browse /wg/
>read samples writing of other anons
>mine is so much better
>instantly feel better

[Anonymous No.20728926]

>no marketing anon
>no author shit talk
>editor schizo now ruining the thread
will we never know peace?

[Anonymous No.20728932]

>>20728902
Here's some. Go ahead.

>I killed a little boy today. Held my hands around his throat, felt his blood pump hard against my thumbs. He wriggled and kicked and one of his knees caught me in the belly, a sharp lasso of pain. I Roared. I squeezed. Sweat made it slippy between our skins but I didn't let go, pressed and pressed until my nails were white. It was easier than I thought it would be. Didn't take long for him to stop kicking. When his face was the color of milk jelly I sat back on my heels and shook my hands. They had seized up. I put them on my own neck, above the place where the twin doorknob bones stick out. Blood pumped hard against my thumbs. I am here, I am here, I am here.
>I went to knock for Linda afterward, because it was hours before tea. We walked to the top of the hill and turned ourselves upside down against the handstand wall, gritting our palms with smoke ends and sparkles of glass. Our dresses fell over our faces. The wind blew cool on our legs. A woman ran past us, Donna's mommy, ran past with her fat breasts bumping up and down. Linda pushed herself off the wall to stand beside me, and we watched Donna's mommy run down the street together. She was making noises that sound like car howls. They ripped up the quiet of the afternoon.
>"What's she crying for?" asked Linda.
>"Don't know," I said.
>I knew.

[Anonymous No.20728940]

>>20728753
There are no good discord servers. For anything.

[Anonymous No.20728943]

>>20727856
Hank Hill must be Daria lol

[Anonymous No.20728950]

>>20728923
I don't even know if my writing is better or worse than other anons

[Anonymous No.20728953]

>>20728650
Nobody messaged you. Calling your bluff.

[Anonymous No.20729005]

>>20728953
I messaged him. He put the work in.
You can see the kinds of comments and suggestions he made in the comment history, just click comments then "resolved" since I've resolved most of them already.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YCX9LfFP414xZlbOU7VP_7lLoY3Z8gT3W5eX_O3L8kY/edit

>>20728892
>Good luck with your scam, Mahammad.

Definitely not a Mahammad. If he is then he'd be the most high effort Mahammad of all time. He did a good editing job with my emotionally gripping basketball drama, imo.

[Anonymous No.20729006]

>>20728950
I at least want to be as good or better than oggy for my first book. I think he did pretty good.

[Sange !Fde5Qjfb5g No.20729011]

>>20729005
Forgot trip. That's important.

[Anonymous No.20729023]

>>20729005
>I messaged him
That's what I said Sponge. Nobody.

[Anonymous No.20729025]

>>20728953
I did, but he's charging way too much for me. And editing for free the first 5 pages or then paying later is a well known marketing trap. I don't doubt his abilities or resume, but I honestly can't afford to pay for a book that won't even make me back $10. The investment isn't worth ot

[Anonymous No.20729028]

>>20729005
I don't see the comments. I swear I am getting less competent with computers with each passing day.

[Sange !Fde5Qjfb5g No.20729041]

>>20729028
Sorry "comment history" looks like a little speech bubble.
Or crtl-alt-shift-a

>>20729023
Hello, rape-anon.

[Anonymous No.20729044]

>>20726600
I read his wiki, and he literally copied and pasted dialogues from real life correspondence into his novels lmao. And what's worse is that the plot in the "Great Gatsby" seems to have originated not from him, but from a former lover. Forgive me for not knowing about this prodigy.

[Anonymous No.20729083]

>>20729044
>he literally copied and pasted dialogues from real life correspondence
I also do this into my notes and then see if there is anything cool to prune from it since I don't want to write autofiction. It's especially helpful for people with accents I'm not used to. Almost every day at work I make a note or two of something I hear someone say or see someone do.

[Anonymous No.20729097]

Do you ever set goals with characters?
For example, with the main villain of the story, I try to write a character who aims to make the reader just gawk at how much of an utter menace to society he is.

[Anonymous No.20729102]

>>20729044
The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

[Anonymous No.20729112]

>>20729102
Beee-you-tiful

[Anonymous No.20729126]

>>20728675
>Reddit
No thanks, faggot.

[Anonymous No.20729129]

>>20729097
I haven't looked at it that way but the more I read I think I know what you mean. There's a shape to some character arcs that just feels a certain way.
In one of my stories I'm hoping readers can appreciate the POV character's maturity but be appalled and confused by his actions. I want to establish him as this unreliable narrator and it's not clear whether he actually is honest or just an abusive liar, among a few other aspects. Ultimately I want him to represent what I think to be a new zeitgeist for the upcoming generation but I don't know how people will take it. Guess it depends on if I'm right or not.

[Anonymous No.20729132]

Am i allowed to post my wordpress here?
Check out the links, just a cursory start to a compilation of ideas

Does the series of concepts flow or contextualise each other? Can you intuit my intention or meaning?

What do you want to see in a guide about learning everything, academia, language, improvement, socialisation and seduction, finance and freedom

Anything that you have to offer that happens to be immensely useful or applicable?
Media you genuinely think could change lives?

[Anonymous No.20729136]

>>20729132
The opposite is true.

[Anonymous No.20729137]

>>20729132
https://twitter.com/EssentialIndiv/status/1551253094238801922?s=20&t=N3pH5jzw4nQN3Elvq2Dz_w

[Anonymous No.20729144]

>>20729136
Ah thanks, can i mention it in anyway?
Or am i limited to posting the content?

[Anonymous No.20729145]

>>20728851
Reviewfag here. I purchased the book, and I'm getting into it. I have problems with it, but without a doubt, it's the best /lit/ book I've read yet at this point. For future reference, it's a "stent," not a stint when you're talking about interventional radiology, vascular, cardiac catheterization, etc.

[Anonymous No.20729146]

>>20729097
Depends, does writing my MC in mind to make people cry count?

[Anonymous No.20729153]

>>20729145
Are you seriously going to read all the books posted?

[Anonymous No.20729154]

>>20729102
So uh, how is this a reply towards me?

[Anonymous No.20729156]

>>20729153
Yes

[Anonymous No.20729160]

>>20729041
It's entirely consensual when I fuck you Sponge. If it wasn't then why would you keep coming back for more?

[Anonymous No.20729161]

all of my writing can be found here:

>www.liamhuntwrites.com (general writing)
>www.goodperson.substack.com (international travel writing)

[Anonymous No.20729164]

>>20729126
What do you have against Reddit?
Even Moot says it's better than this cesspool.

[Anonymous No.20729165]

>>20729132
Because i can’t lose my link

Outline
History of everything
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/~cpd/history.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_history
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents/Outlines

Religious Doctrines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents/Outlines#Religion_and_belief_systems
https://biblesummary.info/
https://www.islamreligion.com/category/77/summary-of-quranic-chapters/
https://www.worldhistory.org/Bhagavad_Gita/#:~:text=The%20Gita%20is%20a%20dialogue,the%20Kauravas)%20and%20their%20allies.
https://www.krishna.com/info/bhagavad-gita-it-chapter-summary
Buddhism

Evolution and Dissection of Major Aspects of Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_technology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_technology#By_type
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffering
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pain_(philosophy)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivity_(philosophy)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjectivity

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation
https://psychology.fandom.com/wiki/Motivation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego
YouTube Channel Crawler
https://channelcrawler.com/eng/
The most interesting and useful youtube channels that I have found, that explain the human condition.
Johnny Harris – generalized journalism
https://www.youtube.com/c/johnnyharris
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell – Scientific and Philosophical Concepts and Essays
https://www.youtube.com/c/inanutshell
AfterSkool – Psychological and Philosophical Essays Concepts and Essays
https://www.youtube.com/c/AfterSkool
School of Life – Psychological and Self-Developmental Concepts and Essays
https://www.youtube.com/c/theschooloflifetv

[Anonymous No.20729168]

>>20729156
Pretty based. I haven't made the time to read much from here, but I guess I should read Eggplant since I know the guy.

[Anonymous No.20729177]

>>20729164
Maybe moot was joking, newfag? Are you trolling yourself? Moot knew that Futaba open source ran its course and sold this place to the gook. Now he’s living it up. Unlike you, who posts on Reddit!!!

[Anonymous No.20729180]

>>20729168
Yeah, I've heard Eggplant is good.

[Anonymous No.20729215]

I wonder if any anons that published their books ever come back here .

[Anonymous No.20729219]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQLDTBVU4TA
video about why querying an agent sucks so much right now
youtuber is also an editor for hire, but i bet she's expensive

[Anonymous No.20729242]

>>20729177
>maybe moot was joking
cope
>reddit
why not? my account hasn't been suspended

[Anonymous No.20729245]

>>20729146
Yes

[Anonymous No.20729254]

>>20729242
>why not?
Self-respect? Doesn't seem to be a problem for you though. Keep on keeping on anon.

[Anonymous No.20729260]

>>20729215
Shut up Gardner.

[Anonymous No.20729272]

>>20729245
Haha, I was half-joking with that response but considering his journey lets him see the world that he's supposed to end that kind of counts as 'making people cry'.

[Anonymous No.20729274]

>>20729168
You should. So far it's my favorite one here and I reviewed it myself.

[Anonymous No.20729294]

>Editing the start of my novel I shorten things up a lot but not sure if it made it better or worse. Brought it from 305 words to 192

It was not unusual for Hime’s mother to come home late, or on occasion, not at all. When rumors spread about a girl being found half-dead in the mountains it was no surprise that her mom texted her, saying she would be sleeping at the hospital that night.
Hime’s mother was Yuna Fugihara, the founder of, and head doctor for, the children's hospital on the north side of Kaamizu. It was a small forgotten town in the back pocket of Japan, where the mountains squeezed tightly around the many houses. It was once listed in a major publication as one of the top ten most beautiful places in the world, but as suddenly as it had seemed to be placed on the map it was once again forgotten.
Their small population meant that there were a proportionately small number of magic users, none of whom happened to be users of healing magic. Likewise, there were only a limited number of well-educated doctors, so they were often understaffed, and her mother tended to have more work than she could handle.
Healing magic was a rare gift, those possessing it usually found themselves living in much bigger cities like Tokyo and Osaka, or even moving to the western world. The same could be said for doctors. The reason, of course, was money.
Her mother would say that Kaamizu was rich in culture, which was a nice way of saying they were poor. As it turned out, culture could not exactly be traded for a nice car or even a bag of groceries, so naturally those with desirable skills would take the path which led to more money.
“That’s stupid,” Hime had complained once when she was much younger. “Someone should not even become a doctor in the first place if all they care about is the money!”
It was not unusual for Hime’s mother to come home late, or on occasion, not at all. When rumors spread about a girl being found half-dead in the mountains it was no surprise that her mom texted her, saying she would be sleeping at the hospital that night.
Hime’s mother was Yuna Fugihara, the founder and head doctor of the children's hospital on the north side of Kaamizu, a small forgotten town in the back pocket of Japan. Yuna would tell her daughter that Kaamizu was rich in culture, which was a nice way of saying they were poor.
As it turned out, culture could not exactly be traded for a nice car or even a bag of groceries, so naturally those with desirable skills, like medical degrees and those with the rare gift of healing magic usually found themselves living in much bigger cities like Tokyo and Osaka, or even moving to the western world. The reason, of course, was money.
“That’s stupid,” Hime had complained once when she was much younger. “Someone should not even become a doctor in the first place if all they care about is the money!”

[Anonymous No.20729300]

>Editing the start of my novel I shorten things up a lot but not sure if it made it better or worse. Brought it from 305 words to 192

It was not unusual for Hime’s mother to come home late, or on occasion, not at all. When rumors spread about a girl being found half-dead in the mountains it was no surprise that her mom texted her, saying she would be sleeping at the hospital that night.
Hime’s mother was Yuna Fugihara, the founder of, and head doctor for, the children's hospital on the north side of Kaamizu. It was a small forgotten town in the back pocket of Japan, where the mountains squeezed tightly around the many houses. It was once listed in a major publication as one of the top ten most beautiful places in the world, but as suddenly as it had seemed to be placed on the map it was once again forgotten.
Their small population meant that there were a proportionately small number of magic users, none of whom happened to be users of healing magic. Likewise, there were only a limited number of well-educated doctors, so they were often understaffed, and her mother tended to have more work than she could handle.
Healing magic was a rare gift, those possessing it usually found themselves living in much bigger cities like Tokyo and Osaka, or even moving to the western world. The same could be said for doctors. The reason, of course, was money.
Her mother would say that Kaamizu was rich in culture, which was a nice way of saying they were poor. As it turned out, culture could not exactly be traded for a nice car or even a bag of groceries, so naturally those with desirable skills would take the path which led to more money.
“That’s stupid,” Hime had complained once when she was much younger. “Someone should not even become a doctor in the first place if all they care about is the money!”

>edited VV

It was not unusual for Hime’s mother to come home late, or on occasion, not at all. When rumors spread about a girl being found half-dead in the mountains it was no surprise that her mom texted her, saying she would be sleeping at the hospital that night.
Hime’s mother was Yuna Fugihara, the founder and head doctor of the children's hospital on the north side of Kaamizu, a small forgotten town in the back pocket of Japan. Yuna would tell her daughter that Kaamizu was rich in culture, which was a nice way of saying they were poor.
As it turned out, culture could not exactly be traded for a nice car or even a bag of groceries, so naturally those with desirable skills, like medical degrees and those with the rare gift of healing magic usually found themselves living in much bigger cities like Tokyo and Osaka, or even moving to the western world. The reason, of course, was money.
“That’s stupid,” Hime had complained once when she was much younger. “Someone should not even become a doctor in the first place if all they care about is the money!”

[Anonymous No.20729303]

>>20729254
i've long assumed 4channers that bash reddit do so because their accounts were suspended during the big incel purge.
what's your reason?

[Anonymous No.20729320]

>>20729219
So she's saying that agents need you to have a professionally edited book before pitching it because traditional publishing editors are too busy? That can be over $3000 just for copyediting and proofreading on average. Christ almighty. Imagine if you didn't get a contract for another book you'd have to go through that bullshit all over again.

[Anonymous No.20729343]

You guys getting any money for this yet?… or are you doing it for free still?

[Anonymous No.20729349]

>>20729343
I will.

[Anonymous No.20729350]

>>20729303
Self-respect. Can you not fucking read or what? Oh right this is /lit/.

[Anonymous No.20729359]

>>20729303
You’re a good goy… have all my Reddit shekels!

[Anonymous No.20729365]

>>20729350
Anon you should preserve your self-respect by not replying to plebbit and plebbit enablers. At the very least it's low effort bait.

[Anonymous No.20729369]

>>20729349
That’s a no.

[Anonymous No.20729374]

>>20729365
Replying to reddithomos and trolls doesn't harm my self-respect.

[Anonymous No.20729422]

>>20728383
If you have writer's block that typically comes from not knowing the context of your story enough. You might have figured out the plot, and maybe even scenes. But do these things mesh together?

Ask yourself these three questions over and over and you'll not have writer's block.

1. What is my character's routine at this point in the story?
2. What is something unexpected/surprising/dramatic that happens to break up that routine?
3. What important choice does my character make in the aftermath of the turbulent thing that just happened?

If you already have the answers great, maybe try and use these three questions to bring about a structure. Keep asking the questions and you'll build the context you need for your story. Goodbye writer's block.

t. Wish Mountain author.

[Anonymous No.20729438]

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/54100/wish-mountain

Chapter sixteen is up. Also I don't think I have ever seen an increase in follows from posting in /wg/ so at this point it's just a habit.

First major act of the story is done (the children-centric part), next week the story is getting into vampire stuff with chapter 17.

[Anonymous No.20729489]

>>20729438
It's a meme that no one on /wg/ writes.
The truth is no one here reads.

[Anonymous No.20729501]

>>20729438
Can someone critique by erotica on smashwords? It is called Nursing Dick by jessicastone

someone critique pls

[Anonymous No.20729506]

>>20729343
I made about $80 on the Emily Project

[Anonymous No.20729529]

>>20729350
>self-respect
elaborate on how reddit and self-respect are somehow mutually exclusive

even gardner posts on reddit... https://reddit.com/comments/j7poea

[Anonymous No.20729574]

>>20728932
spent like five minutes, which is six more than you deserve

[Anonymous No.20729626]

>>20729506
Based.
That's 40 a month. Now you just need 100 novels and that will be 4000 a month.

[Anonymous No.20729629]

>>20729626
If the books are good, they should compound each other.

At least that's what I tell myself as I try to plot my trejectory

[Anonymous No.20729634]

>>20729626
But I haven't made a single sale since the release. It's not $40 a month. It's $80 total and no signs of selling another copy. I need to advertise better.

[Anonymous No.20729663]

>>20729574
Thumbs was better than sweaty skin. If you have your hands wrapped around someone's throat, pushing your thumbs into their neck, you'll feel their pulse only on their thumbs. Go ahead and try it on yourself and you'll see what I mean, then do us all a favor and don't stop squeezing.
"Murder was softer than I thought" wasn't great.
I am here, I am here, I am here. Should have been left alone.
Doing a handstand will affect a dress more than wind.
car howls should have actually been cat howls but that's my mistake.

You've proved you are at least literate so maybe you're not from the middle east, still believe you are a shit poker player, a crypto-fag who's probably losing his ass, and clearly can't get a real editing job. Possibly a scammer trying to hook in a few idiots on 4chan where you can't be traced.

[Anonymous No.20729664]

>>20729634
>It's not $40 a month. It's $80 total and no signs of selling another copy.
lmao

[I would really prefer if you would be quiet No.20729686]

>>20729663

>crypto-fag who's probably losing his ass

I would really prefer if you would be quiet

[Anonymous No.20729688]

>>20728851
where can I buy it?

[Anonymous No.20729701]

>>20729145
>stent not stint
Fuck. If you are compiling things could you send a list to [e-mail]

Ugly part of self pub - it is just me so shit slips by.
Beautiful part of self pub - shits easy to fix.
Looking forward to your review.

[Anonymous No.20729705]

>>20726922
Either I forgot to edit it afterwards to make it readable.
Or I was tired when I finished it and just thought it looked fine, I am going to go back to fix it.
That is a real mess.

[Anonymous No.20729706]

>>20729634
Better? I don’t think you’re advertising at that point desu.

[Anonymous No.20729709]

>>20729320
yeah, the more i look at the trad route of publishing, the more i think self publishing is the way to go.
if i had a book with a really great idea, and i knew i was an excellent writer, i might try trad.
also, the agent query process might be bad right now, but there are times when it's a lot easier.
like when "orbit" publisher started several years ago. they were buying everything.

[Anonymous No.20729716]

>>20729688
Amazon, it is in the OP Image.
I'm still trying to figure out how to get free copies to hand out. I don't have time to jump too many hurdles as I'm a stay-at-home dad of two, and I'd rather be writing if/when I get free time.

[Anonymous No.20729736]

>>20729706
I did try to engage people on Instagram and Twitter, I bought $20 worth of ads on Amazon, did the Kdp readings, shilled on here, discord, and reddit, nothing.

If anything I need to start entering into contests and get my name out there trying to win short stories. I'm going to try the nanonomi contest this November.

[Anonymous No.20729744]

question
if you're using a close 3rd person
you should never use "they".
like "they walked down the alley."
they being a group with 3 people.
it should be "sheelah walked down the alley."
even though sheelah has two people with her.
because you're in sheelah's head.
right?

[Anonymous No.20729772]

>>20729701
Everything will be in the review, but honestly, I don't think you have.much to worry about. My gripes are stylistic and thus subjective.

[Anonymous No.20729782]

>>20729709
Orbit publisher?

[Anonymous No.20729783]

>>20729744
>close 3rd person
They is fine. I feel like you are conflating close third with some of the restraints of first.

[Anonymous No.20729787]

>>20729736
Whats the size of your insta and twitter?
Also $20 on amazon was a crap shoot. Revisit whatever ad did bad, start from scratch, watch a few how to videos on ads, and boom, redone.
If you’re not selling a book a day something is terribly wrong, that’s only $5 a day MAXIMUM, probably closer to $1 a day.

[Anonymous No.20729800]

>TFW you finally know how to work with this short story
Have you ever listened to music to try and figure out a particular tone you want to take?

[Anonymous No.20729807]

>>20729787
I put my bids at $2. I think it's the cover and my blurb. I'll probably redo it.

[Anonymous No.20729819]

>>20729807
$2 bids are waaaay overbidding dude. I never bid more than 50 cents.
You need to watch some how tos

[Anonymous No.20729823]

>>20729819
Have a video?

[Anonymous No.20729831]

>>20729819
I also want to know your book title that you're able to sell a book a day. Are you a famous author?

[Anonymous No.20729841]

>>20729819
Also how are able to bid 50 cents when the minimum is $1 on Amazon.

[Anonymous No.20729852]

>>20729800
I have a playlist for each project, but for general project work and first drafts I just put on some music to push me forward.
First book is all nocturnes, but lots of different keys to take me through a range of emotion. I don't think it makes that much of difference but it can help me recall feelings sometimes.

[Anonymous No.20729854]

>>20729823
The self publishing show has a few dozen videos on advertising. Listen to them while driving or out for a run.
>>20729831
Sorry man, not attaching my name to this place, but 2 books and both sell in the top 30,000 of amazon. The best resources are all online for free and not behind a paywall, there’s no secret sauce, it’s just understanding basic bids, appeal, and allurement… as well as meta data and audience. It’ll take about a few hours to grasp the necessary basics to be able to run ads successfully.

[Anonymous No.20729868]

>>20729841
The ad minimum is not $1 per 1,000 views lmao.
Everything is measured in PPV (price per view) or PPC (price per click).

[Anonymous No.20729879]

>>20729852
Interesting, my collection is horrible because it's a bunch of music I know from elsewhere so it's a mess. In particular the stumbling block here was finding a suitable perspective to use and listening to this music gave me inspiration for the sole character of the story.

[Anonymous No.20729905]

>>20729854
Does sales rank tend to align with a particular number of unit sales? It's sometimes tough for me to look at a book and really understand how many people are reading it or buying it new. Best I got now is number of times people review it or the sales rank. I ask that because when editors and such tout the books they've edited in their portfolio it's hard for me to gauge how successful they really were.

[Anonymous No.20729919]

>>20729905
Sales rank is based on sales in the last 30 days.
Sales today matter the most, sales yesterday matter a little less, and sales two days ago matter even less until day 30.
Generally speaking if a book is in the top 100,000, they at least know what they’re doing.

[Anonymous No.20729927]

>>20729854
Could you (pretty please) condense a generalized ad strategy into bullet points? Trying to find this info online is navigating a minefield of buried paywalls.

[Anonymous No.20729938]

>>20729927
>figure out healthy bid prices (usually 40-70 cents per bid of 1,000 views)
>have some kind of pixel to track ad clicks before it gets behind Amazon’s side
>try no more than 2 ads at a time and keep track of ads
>whatever ad does better feed more money into as a limit of money to spend per day. I.e. $20 limit at a 50 cent bid means you’ll have a budget to get in front of 40,000 eyes before it stops for the day.
>if your ad bid isn’t high enough it won’t drain your money nor run your ad, increase bid next day
It really is just this.

[Anonymous No.20729943]

>>20729854
>Watch 2 videos
>Have people review your book early or on launch to game the algorithm
>Should get 50 reviews on day one
>More reviews lead to more sales
>More sales allow for more views
Yeah this is the problem already. even my friends and family aren't writing reviews. Oh well.

[Anonymous No.20729952]

>>20729854
>not attaching my name to this place
I found you on reddit

[Anonymous No.20729959]

>>20729044
...

[Anonymous No.20729985]

>>20729943
Having an existing audience is huge, yes, but that’s what your career is for.
Even 5 reviews is better than 0 reviews. I think of it logarithmically. 1,000 is twice as good as 100. 100 is twice as good as 10. 10 is twice as good as 1. 1 is infinitely better than 0.
Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews at rhe end of your book!

[Anonymous No.20730109]

>>20729985
I have, nobody wants to write them. Yes I've asked. Nobody bothers.

[Anonymous No.20730115]

>>20730109
Then the answer is obvious as an outside observer.
If you’re asking for reviews and they don’t want to five them, the reviews would be bad and they don’t want to hurt your feelings or damage their own credibility by lying to others.
Sorry.
Always next book or your next pen name.

[Anonymous No.20730163]

>>20730115
No I honestly think they didn't bother reading the book. They tell me in person what they think. I've gotten good and bad reviews. Literally people can't be assed to write a review.

[Anonymous No.20730196]

>>20726147
done

[Anonymous No.20730204]

>>20730163
This just isn’t true. Stop focusing on those people who won’t give you reviews and keep asking.
My only advice is that if you don’t ask, no one will do, but if you ask too much it really does look pathetic.
Keep a good image and make more content.

[Anonymous No.20730231]

>>20729854
Take anything you see on the self-publishing show with a big pinch of salt. The authors that are regularly featured as success stories (including the hosts) write in VERY popular genres.

One of the videos I took notes through had a featured offer that never mentioned she wrote fluff-filled smut, looked her up and had a facepalm moment.

These people are selling literary garbage to an insatiable market and claim they know the secrets to self-pubbing when it all boils down to genre and cover.

[Anonymous No.20730245]

>>20729854
Take anything you see on the self-publishing show with a big pinch of salt. The authors that are regularly featured as success stories (including the hosts) write in VERY popular genres.

One of the videos I took notes through had a featured author that never mentioned she wrote fluff-filled smut. Looked her up and had a facepalm moment.

These people are selling literary garbage to an insatiable market then claim they know the secrets to self-pubbing.

Genre/Cover/ads. That's it, that's all that matters.

[Anonymous No.20730250]

>>20730196
Personal opinion of how good the titles are at gaining my intrigue and teling me what to expect and how good the covers are in terms of quality.
Some of this shit looks REALLY self published, make sure to pay at least $50-100 on a decent cover, it’s your first impression with someone

[Anonymous No.20730254]

>>20730250
Forgot image.

[Anonymous No.20730274]

>>20730254
>Egregore
>Bad title bad cover
Welp. There goes the exorbitant amount of money I spent on the cover.

[Anonymous No.20730292]

>>20730274
I actually think Egregore's title and cover are cool. Eggplant is an indie ass title name but the cover itself looks nice in person, the lines on the grid pop out and there is this kind of filmgrain effect going on under it.

[Anonymous No.20730305]

>>20730292
Eggplant's cover is elegant, would be great to see in matte paperback.

[Anonymous No.20730319]

>>20729782
https://www.orbitbooks.net/
i think it's a "imprint" which means a publisher that belongs to a bigger publisher or something like that
i'm not sure who owns them now. there's a lot of ownership changes in the publishing business

[Anonymous No.20730332]

>>20730274
Sorry man, it just doesn’t convey the genre of the book beyond horror, nor is it eye catching.
Kind of just looks like a foreign word desu.

[Anonymous No.20730346]

>>20730319
Yeah, fuck that, I wouldn’t publish with this company. Either self publish or stick with the big 5 dude.

[Sange !Fde5Qjfb5g No.20730367]

Where can I post erotica?

[Anonymous No.20730395]

>>20727743
/TG/ /writing/

[Anonymous No.20730408]

>>20730274
Nah the cover is phenomenal, No idea why that anon dislikes it

[Anonymous No.20730433]

>>20730395
Thanks.

[Anonymous No.20730492]

>>20728671
https://youtu.be/BsYY0ReMGz0

[Anonymous No.20730541]

>>20730254
>"Seeds of Doubt" would have been stronger. The cover is not the worst by far.
>"The Emily Project" is shit all around.
>"Salvation of Peril Island" is generic. The cover has really good things going for it but needs a little fine tuning.
>"Son of the Sun" is a shit title. Cover isn't great.
>"The Mystery of the Real Live Dead Person" and "A Catalog of Haunted Houses" I'll agree with.
>"Eggplant" is a fucking retarded title but I don't hate the abstract cover.
>"Egregore" isn't a great title. The cover is absolute garbage.
>"Xenos Depths" is not a good title. The cover is kind of cool though.
>"Faceless" is not a particularly strong title. The cover has a lot going for it but the white is too much contrast.
That's everybody! ;)

[Anonymous No.20730543]

>>20730408
He has a point, honestly. I intended the title/cover to be aesthetic on the shelf. If you look at recent horror covers you'll understand why I did this. Unfortunately, most of these covers don't really reveal much about the story outside of minor details, same with mine.

[Anonymous No.20730548]

I fixed a lot of stuff. Including the chapter that had duplicated part of it. Not sure how I missed that. I'm almost done with the next chapter, should be up some time next week.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/44832/the-fall-years-roswell

[Anonymous No.20730550]

>>20730292
>indie ass
Shut up darky.

[Anonymous No.20730551]

>>20730541
Why do you think egregore has a bad cover? Be constructive.
I'm taking notes for my second book's release.

[Anonymous No.20730562]

>>20730551
Be mindful that (being gothic horror) the target audience for egregore is women.

[Anonymous No.20730575]

>>20730254
Man, I really feel compelled to do a study on cover design, but it's a daunting task.

I've got a few lessons learned, but not enough

[Anonymous No.20730585]

>>20730541
The original title to Faceless was Death of a Faceless Man, but that seemed to be a mouthful. X-less feels like it has potential as a motif, and I like Dateless as the title to the sequel

Perhaps mistakes were made however.

[Anonymous No.20730600]

>>20730541
>The cover is kind of cool though
I keep looking at it and I still don't know what I'm looking at. It looks dark and feel like I'm looking at a monster and a reflection of the moon in water or something.
>>20730543
It kind of reminds of me the grotesque coverarts Ligotti was getting on his rereleased stuff. I personally find them hard to look at but had a number of anons vehemntly disagree with me. Yours isn't that gross like his that have more definite shape, but still creepy kind of impressionism and the top right gives off madman's scrawlings vibe. Also reminds me of the coverart for the game Soma which freaked me out really bad when I first saw it. Go look it up if you haven't seen it, it's this heavily pixelated face split with a red light shining in the middle. Just looking at it stresses me out, it's uncanny.

[Anonymous No.20730629]

>>20730551
I'm happy to, Weedman.
The biggest problem is the top right corner, it's too dark and creates too much contrast which pulls the eye. We read images like we do words, for westerners that's left to right and top to bottom. The effect is that you kind of get stuck up in the corner where there's not really anything to look at.
Second biggest problem is the contrast of your title. If you did it in white like you did your name that would have gone a long way, but it should have been bigger and bolder. That is the single most important piece of information and you made it the same as the background. Poor choice. If there was less background in the bottom right that might have worked too.
The third thing I would have done is have more definition to the second pair of hands grasping her face, the blur kills it, you kind of stumble reading the image. You should immediately be able to tell what's going on there and save the abstraction for the edges to preserve focus.
The lowercase use of the font for your name is kind of compressed on the x-height which is not helpful for readability of a sketchy font.
Contrast and focus is the whole game here. Learn it.

[Anonymous No.20730672]

>>20730629
Thanks for the feedback. I can contact the artist and get my name/title redone to be more chunky/readable.

Would you recommend placing the title in the upper half of the image to eat up some of that attention afforded by the dark contrast? Maybe center the image of the woman a little?

I'm looking to minimize loss here, not replace the whole image.

Here is the full rez image. My (untrained) eye is pulled to the red in the center of her face.

[Anonymous No.20730674]

just came across these two agent list websites

https://querytracker.net/join.php
free but they want your email

https://www.manuscriptwishlist.com/
free. it has agents posting exactly the kind of book they would like to see show up in their slush pile

[Anonymous No.20730678]

>>20730674
These are so useful I'm surprised they arent in the OP.

[Anonymous No.20730713]

>>20730678
A lot of the OP info for months implied traditional publishing wasn't never worth it, now there are just prefaces for the cons. Probably why they weren't listed. On that second one I think I found 8 men editors actively looking for the genre I'm writing but there's also way more women. I think even the women could get excited about the female deuteragonist.
Also Reedsy is an easy way to find professional copyeditors but that's only if you're willing to burn the money. I wouldn't do that unless you're really sure that you want a polished story and/or confident you can make the money back in spades.

[Anonymous No.20730730]

>>20730713
>A lot of the OP info for months implied traditional publishing wasn't never worth it

It generally isn't. Trad pub gets you none of the benefits it used to. Publishers wont do much legwork for your book anymore and the advances are getting smaller every year.

[Anonymous No.20730742]

>he's not giving his fantasy places and characters retarded, hard to pronounce names that sound like a bunch of letters pulled at random and put together

NGMI

[Anonymous No.20730751]

>>20730585
>Death of a Faceless Man
"Faceless" is definitely stronger. I'm not sure what else you would have called it but it just feels stock. Don't do "Dateless" and don't get trapped trying to force everything into the mold of a motif. You're not Gardner, be proud of it.
>Perhaps mistakes were made however.
These are not professional covers but they aren't really terrible for self-publishing. You could have paid a pretty penny for "pro" art and still ended up with all of the same issues, which all in all are pretty minor in comparison to the others. Yours is one of the strongest. It conveys a lot about the setting and subject. I wish your title carried as much weight as the art.

>>20730600
>I keep looking at it and I still don't know what I'm looking at.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. You keep looking at it and looking for things in it, that's a win. The focal point is very simple and concise and easy to identify.

>>20730672
>Would you recommend placing the title in the upper half of the image to eat up some of that attention afforded by the dark contrast?
Not a terrible idea but you need to move the image down if you do. You can't block her face. Divide your cover into 9 equal parts, where the lines intersect is where you want the most information to be. Don't divide it in half with the title.
>I'm looking to minimize loss here, not replace the whole image.
Quick fix. Maybe bump the title down just a smidgen so you're not blocking as much of her hands and make the edges a little darker. Don't get rid of all the yellow tone because it's attention grabbing, but it's too much as is. This would help balance the dark right top corner too.
>My (untrained) eye is pulled to the red in the center of her face.
Faces are a huge grab. Her lips pull you down and that's great. Not the first thing I see though. I would back off the opacity on the overlayed lines just on the center of her face to make it an easier read from a thumb or from a distance. The art is nice, I'm not sure why they buried it.

[Anonymous No.20730760]

>>20730730
>the advances are getting smaller every year.
Is this because they expect less sales or because they are funneling it to women like Angie Thomas' 6 figure advance? I think Thomas did one or two self-pub novels before that which got barely any sales and then of course that is the book people want to read. I should calm down I really shouldn't be jealous.

[Anonymous No.20730777]

Hey /lit/, I wrote this book while I was posting here between 2018-2019. Then I edited it last year and put it out on Amazon but never promoted it. I hope you guys dig it:

>https://www.amazon.ca/-/fr/L-Lynch-ebook/dp/B09H7CZDPZ/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_fr_CA=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=3T35KW2GM3XRI&keywords=last+call+la+lynch&qid=1658704342&sprefix=last+call+la+lynch%2Caps%2C171&sr=8-1

My goal is to get on those charts you guys made with all the books written by /lit/tards

[Anonymous No.20730780]

>long, high effort, well thought out post
>someone calls me a schizoposter
How do I stop this from happening bros

[Anonymous No.20730804]

>>20730751
I think if it as a series motif. I've got Ship of Fuls coming on 8/1 (le epic sci fi misspelling so it doesnt directly overlap Tucker Carlson's book) third book will be titled Infinite Money Glitch, then my 4th release will be the sequel to Faceless

I really don't like fussing over titles. It's like naming my protaganists but worse.

[Anonymous No.20730815]

>>20730780
Kill anyone who does. Eventually there won’t be anyone left to make fun of us.

[Anonymous No.20730831]

>>20730780
Anon, you called yourself a schizo. Now go take your meds and then write.

[Anonymous No.20730838]

>>20730777
Need to get someone to make this look legit. I'm just doing this in paint.

[Anonymous No.20730840]

>>20730780
Well that is better than a Ritalin post.

[Anonymous No.20730843]

>>20730804
>Ship of Fuls
That's le terrible. Just based on the title alone I would skip it.
>Infinite Money Glitch
I don't know if it fits your subject or not but that's a lot better, definitely appealing to nerds and gets you thinking about how it plays out in the book.
>I really don't like fussing over titles.
I hear ya, good titles are hard and it's not really an exact science. Overthinking it can be just as bad. But to go through all the work of writing a novel and then to sell yourself short at the last minute is silly. It's the first impression you get to make, make it count.

[Anonymous No.20730882]

>>20730843
I will have to see what others say about my titles if I go traditionally published but a couple of them I have named from lines of poetry. Some poems just have this economy of words, flow and emphasis that is so amazing and I think can be great for titles at least in literary fiction. Lifting terms from ancient texts also I think hits really hard but I know some genres have different standards. If it depicts the general feel to the novel and hopefully the theme even the architecture of the story it should be pretty good.

[Anonymous No.20730885]

Non-anime "Isekai" stories? I want to write a utopian Isekai involving anons being taken to historical attempts at utopian projects.

[Anonymous No.20730907]

>>20730843
It's a reference to Plato

[Anonymous No.20730916]

Would you give a character a name and introduce them to the readers if they're going to obselete by the next chapter?

[Anonymous No.20730946]

>>20730882
>a couple of them I have named from lines of poetry.
A lazy tactic maybe but not a bad one.
>If it depicts the general feel to the novel and hopefully the theme
That's the game. Tell people enough about what they're getting into while still creating questions.

>>20730907
I'm aware. Your average sci-fi reader probably isn't. That's not the problem anyway.

[Anonymous No.20730998]

>>20730946
Well, hopefully soon I befriend someone better at marketing than myself. It's a growth plan, lots of steps and lots of things to get better at.

[Anonymous No.20731007]

>>20730998
Well we're not friends anon but I'm only critical because I want to see you grow. It's a never ending process if you're doing it right.

[Anonymous No.20731033]

How do I capture the feel of a woman's abundance of subcutaneous fat and elevated body temperature in words

[Anonymous No.20731035]

>>20731007
Well I hope you consider picking up a copy and giving it a try. Fellow by the name of Chris Dwi put up a good review to youtube of Faceless, Unreal Press interviewed me and that'll be coming out soon. I'm working some other angles to get on people's radars too, make a good impression and all that.

Got invited onto an author's podcast next friday to discuss modern pop culture, hopefully that goes great

[Anonymous No.20731036]

>>20730838
based. thanks.

[Anonymous No.20731052]

My writing is so bad

[Anonymous No.20731059]

>>20731052
It makes me sad

[Anonymous No.20731064]

>>20731052
Have you been studying craft? Could actually be a good thing if you feel like it's crap as it means you know where to work on it

[Anonymous No.20731070]

>>20731052
>>20731052
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91FQKciKfHI

[Anonymous No.20731113]

>>20731064
>>20731052
Well read my story then fuck face

Search "Nursing Dick" on smashwords

[Anonymous No.20731123]

>>20731033
"She was musical and apple-sweet. Her legs twitched a little as they lay across my live lap; I stroked them; there she lolled in the right-hand corner, almost asprawl, Lola the bobby-soxer, devouring her immemorial fruit, singing through its juice, losing her slipper, rubbing the heel of her slipperless foot in its sloppy anklet, against the pile of old magazines heaped on my left on the sofa — and every movement she made, every shuffle and ripple, helped me to conceal and improve a system of tactile correspondence between beast and beauty — between my gagged, bursting beast and the beauty of her dimpled body in its innocent cotton frock."

[Anonymous No.20731124]

>>20731052
Honestly my writing used to be terrible. When I was 17-18 I used to post my short stories on this board and I'd get roasted to no end. Even looking back on my work from ages 21-23, there were glimmers of quality work, but it was mostly bad. I'd stuck with the craft and now at 27 I'm looking at getting agented, a book deal is looking likely, and I've been published more times than I can count in reputable outlets. If you can acknowledge that you need to improve, you might make it. If you can't acknowledge that, you never will.

[Anonymous No.20731185]

>>20731123
not again gardner

[Anonymous No.20731199]

>>20731033
>And I remember how all that afternoon—Uncle Willy lived on a little quiet side street where the other houses were all little new ones that country people who had moved to town within the last fifteen years, like mail carriers and little storekeepers, lived—how all that afternoon mad-looking ladies with sun-bonnets on crooked came busting out of that little quiet street dragging the little children and the grown girls with them, heading for the mayor's office and Reverend Schultz's house, and how the young men and the boys that didn't work and some of the men that did would drive back and forth past Uncle Willy's house to look at her sitting on the porch smoking cigarettes and drinking something out of a glass; and how she came down town the next day to shop, in a black hat now and a red-and-white striped dress so that she looked like a great big stick of candy and three times as big as Uncle Willy now, walking along the street with men popping out of the stores when she passed like she was stepping on a line of spring triggers and both sides of her behind kind of pumping up and down inside the dress until somebody hollered, threw back his head and squalled: "YIPPEEE!" like that and she kind of twitched her behind without even stopping and then they hollered sure enough.

[Anonymous No.20731200]

>>20731185
Thats N. Avocado

[Anonymous No.20731208]

New thread >>20731203
but parting is such sweet sorrow...

[Anonymous No.20731232]

>>20731200
well thank you for coming out of the closet with that one.

[Anonymous No.20731237]

>>20731123
What did they mean by this

[Anonymous No.20731569]

>>20731237
This imageboard is for 18 and older

[Anonymous No.20731779]

>>20729422
I think this is good advice
I was down to a single chapter a day, taking hours to write, but now that I am at a point in the story where I have introduced characters and events that I had planned I have done 2 or more chapters these last couple days.
It's the parts connecting and building up to my larger plans that have taken the longest.
And your story has gone up my reading list, I'll get around to it slightly sooner.

[Anonymous No.20731902]

>>20729744
It's from one person's perspective, not strictly about one person. You can talk about a group, assuming the main character knows/perceives it.

[Anonymous No.20731932]

>>20730916
I don't except if its for a joke.
I named a character Newman, he was a soldier new to the location who gets himself killed.
In a more recent sidestory I didn't even name any of the characters, giving them generic titles, it was only 900 words and I haven't decided if I want to do anything else with them.

[Anonymous No.20732386]

>>20727431
NTA but what is the issue with Wattpad? What should I know about the other sites?