/wg/ Writing General

[Anonymous No.21466803]

"Otherworldly" Edition

Previous thread:
>>21445170

/wg/ AUTHORS & FLASH FICTION: https://pastebin.com/ruwQj7xQ
RESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS: https://pastebin.com/nFxdiQvC

Please limit excerpts to one post.
Give advice as much as you receive it to the best of your ability.
Follow prompts made below and discuss written works for practice; contribute and you shall receive.
If you have not performed a cursory proofread, do not expect to be treated kindly. Edit your work for spelling and grammar before posting.
Violent shills should be ignored and reported.

Simple guides on writing:
https://youtu.be/pHdzv1NfZRM
https://youtu.be/whPnobbck9s
https://youtu.be/YAKcbvioxFk

Thread theme:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqPeyBM5_qM

[Anonymous No.21466815]

Write a story based on this image.

[Anonymous No.21466864]

>>21466815
The boat rocked violently as the waves threw back and forth in the storm. What once had been the crew screamed, twisted and writhed incessantly taking progressively more horrific forms as the idiot creatures attempted to adapt to an environment they did not understand. As they degenrated from humanity their insticts replaced reason casing them to panic. Those unlucky once-men screamed and changed their features by the minute. Gargantuan predatory mouths emerged to release cries of absolute terror just to close moments later, insipient legs shot through the creatures skin just to fall off.
The members who retained their human forms long enough had a better fate. Though broken their minds could still think. But the irony of fate was that they could also remember what they did. Besides them, the headless corpse of what was the last human crewman sat inmobile, threatening to fall overboard.
A colossal wave engulfed the boat, tearing it apart and killing all of its accursed passengers.

[Anonymous No.21466866]

>day 1 of the year
>actually started novel
>detailed out events for chapter 1 and half of 2

[Anonymous No.21466900]

>>21466815
What a peculiar sight James brought us to see. I expected niggers, spics, and chinks, you know, the typical sort of circus acts you'll find in places far from the homeland. Instead, what we saw were women. Howling banshees that could shriek louder than any uppity negress. San Carlos was severely disappointed upon seeing whatever it was that James brought us to see. He expected a large boobed mamacita, and I did not blame him, for I too wanted to see the famed mammalries so rumored and praised by our Hispanic constituent. I watched him shake his head in disappointment, the kind that knew he was fleeced, not the kind where he felt he wasted his time. I watched him sulk away, prepared to join him, but halted any further steps; for the Chink that joined us, Sum Ting Wong would not let me leave. He nodded in approval looking at the woman before us. This pale, irritable, being that could not and would not stop harping about how worthless us men were. But Sum Ting Wong was enamored. The wrinkles and mouth of the woman seemed to have casted a spell that binded, or blinded his judgement and character. For a man that was well known for his sound judgements, meticulous calculations, and astute observations, it disappeared upon seeing her. As for myself, I could not decide in which ever way to move. For her appearance certainly was one of fine attraction, like a coat of wool so finely washed, but the horrid shrieks that accompanied her would repel ay further charm extruded from her.

But nonetheless, reason triumphed over emotion and I dragged Sum Ting Wong to join San Carlos away from such a dreck, leaving Pontaivious LeMar Cotton to the loving mercy we now aptly named a "White Woman".

[Anonymous No.21466947]

What a peculiar sight James brought us to see. I expected niggers, spics, and chinks, you know, the typical sort of circus acts you'll find in places far from the homeland. Instead, what we saw was a chimera of undefinable characteristics. No dictionary would have enough words to describe the creature before us. Howling banshees that could shriek louder than any uppity negress.

San Carlos was severely disappointed upon seeing whatever it was that James brought us to see. Just one look and his smiling face flipped to a frown. I believe he expected a large boobed mamacita; and I did not blame him, for I too wanted to see the famed mammalries so rumored and praised by our Hispanic constituent. I watched him shake his head in disappointment, the kind that knew he was fleeced, not the kind where he felt he wasted his time. Sulking away, I was prepared to join him, but was halted any further steps.

Our third companion, the Chink that joined us, Sum Ting Wong would not let me leave. He nodded in approval looking at the woman before us. This pale, irritable, being that could not and would not stop harping about how worthless us men were. But Sum Ting Wong was enamored. His large bright smile allowed him to ignore the crevasses formed on the creatures forehead, mouth, and sides of its eyes. For this monstrosity seemed to have casted a spell that binded, or blinded his judgement and character. For a man that was well known for his sound judgements, meticulous calculations, and astute observations, it disappeared upon seeing her. I warned him continuously that this object he so loved was only a fleeting feeling that would quickly shatter upon staying any longer. He would not believe me, but for his own good, force would be used to pry him away.

As for myself, I could not decide in which ever way to move. For her appearance certainly was one of fine attraction, like a coat of wool so finely washed, but the horrid shrieks that accompanied her would repel any further charm extruded from her.

Reason triumphed over emotion as I dragged Sum Ting Wong to join San Carlos away from such a dreck, leaving Pontaivious LeMar Cotton to the loving mercy we now aptly named a "White Woman".

[Anonymous No.21466950]

>>21466947
>>21466815

[Anonymous No.21466954]

https://pastebin.com/B5Dxh6sL

[Anonymous No.21467353]

>>21466866
>actually started novel
>detailed out events for chapter 1 and half of 2
so did you actually write some prose or did you just outline?

[Anonymous No.21467374]

>>21465865
>i have no clue what i'm doing or talking about but i have strong opinions regardless
>how do i do the thing about which i have no clue?
Writing has no "how-to" guide. Academia has been trying for literal decades to distill the art of writing into a series of steps and maxims. It can't be done. That's why you "just write." It's writing, not engineering. Your analytical brain has to take back seat to your intuition, and you have to feed your intuition by reading as widely and voraciously as you can.

[Anonymous No.21467520]

>>21466954
Too much description, not enough happening

[Anonymous No.21467561]

>>21466954
>The man of crystal has a peculiar appearance, as he has a crystal sword growing out of his chest and arms that never shatters or disappears. The cage that surrounds him is similar to a Victorian Era corset, placed on top of a woman with a fat lower body and a larger belly
Have you ever read a book before? Are you Jewish?

[Anonymous No.21467599]

This is the year lads, this is the year my writing journey begins. Just finished a 500 word exercise and made some coffee. I feel ALIVE.
https://youtu.be/JC_wGFGYkjs

[Anonymous No.21467663]

>>21467561
I used ChatGPT to rewrite it. I didn't think anyone would notice.

[Anonymous No.21467839]

I see now why people just have wars as the central conflict so often. That would be so much easier than the quicksand that is politics I've accidentally written myself into.

[Anonymous No.21467921]

What art some reasonable/realistic tracks that could be incorporated into a high school?

What I’m thinking is an arts track (writing, drawing, painting, acting, etc), humanities track (history, philosophy, social sciences), math track (physics, math, engineering), physical sciences and it’s applications track (bio, chem, healthcare).

Does this make sense? Am I missing something?

[Anonymous No.21468120]

>>21467839
If politics were a word, it should
be able to be erased by another
by any
by all

Don't be a fucking idiot.

-----‐--------------


The neighbours have a new dog
and its unforgiving barks have nowhere
to hide between the brick house
and the narrow garden's fence,

no way to find space among the cars
and lawnmowers only a block away
past the few trees left in this suburb
and the few children allowed to play.

At night I can't imagine the moon
being here, scared to light the confined
dog any more than the glimmers
of television light through a muted window

that it may remember how to hunt
when the branches hold no shelter
dried leaves on the cool moonlight earth
crack through the night, like you'd imagine

if the world was splitting in two

[Anonymous No.21468136]

>>21467921
you're absolutely not making sense. Do you mean theme? You seem very ESL.

[Anonymous No.21468194]

>>21467663
Does edits now?

[Anonymous No.21468195]

>>21468136
Themes? No.. school tracks. How would math be a theme?

[Anonymous No.21468206]

>>21467663
Explain your exact process.

[Anonymous No.21468209]

>>21468206
Why the fuck would you want to emulate that? It's the most boring, artless garbage I've ever read.

[Anonymous No.21468218]

>>21468209
Not to emulate. This shit is comedy gold.
I want to know the exact percentage of this schizo word vomit that is the fault of AI.

[Anonymous No.21468236]

[Anonymous No.21468237]

GPT4 soon, it's over scribblecucks

[Anonymous No.21468273]

>>21468237
Sure, if you have no imagination

What won't be affected by the incoming progress of AI? The church?

[Anonymous No.21468284]

>>21468273
I'm looking forward to the "knowledge industry" becoming mostly obsolete. Knowledge has been quasi-trivial for a decade or more. Watching the imminent, complete obsolescence of knowledge emerge is going to be thrilling. I'm personally not too worried about it because I don't respect knowledge, or know all that much anyway.

[Anonymous No.21468336]

I know that AI will never take over meaningful creative writing because a computer can't understand why I think it's funny when Asher Roth gets casually mentioned in conversation.

[Anonymous No.21468342]

>>21468336
Don't you think that's solipsistic? Other people don't truly understand why you feel something either, they only create their own models of it by reading your words. You are literally anonymous right now for example, might as well be AI.

[Anonymous No.21468512]

>>21466954
Your first two paragraphs make absolutely no sense. It's all tell but for whatever reason the structure of the house feels way too jumbled

[Anonymous No.21468606]

>>21468206
This is the original text:

https://controlc.com/4d3e4004

[Anonymous No.21468682]

>>21468606
Also, this something else.

https://controlc.com/04673cea6

[Anonymous No.21468803]

Chapter 2 is really more of an info dump on how the catacombs themselves were made while the main character thinks about their origin descending a bunch of ladders

[Anonymous No.21468907]

>>21468803
Don't do this. Have your MCs interact with your lore building.

Some shit like
>We ventured into the sewers, why? Who knows, some king, I believe his name was Julius the theirs, that's right Julius the Third, decided our shits on the streets was too much to bear. He ordered construction of these watery tombs after purchasing tons of luitian limestone ( lol limestone in a sewer) and ordered all the niggers in the land to begin digging. Tons of lives were lost, and we can still find some skills embedded into the walls, but our streets were clean of our shit. A fair trade scholars would argue --- deaths of a few thousand to save millions.

[Anonymous No.21469245]

>>21466803
Greeting fellow scribblers, i hope the new year finds you being productive

[Anonymous No.21469445]

>>21466803
What are some other types of magic that can be associated with each element? Water and Healing magic, like in picture related, is a no-brainer, but what else can we do for Water? What about Earth, Fire, and Air?

[Anonymous No.21469485]

>>21469445
Water can be malleable and shapeshift. It can be be erotic like the pulsating jets of pressure so frequently used on the pussies of teenage girls and middle aged women

[Anonymous No.21469486]

>>21469445
water is not healing magic, water is similar to fire in having utility, but ultimately being an infinitely destructive force

[Anonymous No.21469625]

Which is funnier when writing a comedic story? To have it written/narrated in a comedic fashion, or to write it normally but have all of the comedy happen due to circumstance.

[Anonymous No.21469634]

>>21469445
Potion-making seems like something obvious that would go well with Water magic. Not sure on the other elements though, sorry.

>>21469486
Alright, so what would you suggest for it then, or the other elements like Fire, Earth, and/or Air?

>>21469485
So shapeshifting magic for Water, what about the other elements?

[Anonymous No.21469708]

>>21469634
Do you need me to write this story for you? Use your imagination and do some mild research. Look at sailor moon's incredible magic system that blended Chinese classical elements, planets, Greek mythology, Roman constellation, and teenage girls.

You have to put in some work yourself. It's better for you to ask us "hey does this magic system work" than having us come up with one for you.

My magic system is just super Saiyans.

[Anonymous No.21469762]

I've starred at my work for too long, is
>trepid murmurs
right? Why does it sound wrong? Should it be trepidatious?

[Anonymous No.21469772]

>>21468907

Chapter 3 is more like that I felt like it was necessary to include some basic history for those who don't know the catacombs that well

[Anonymous No.21469926]

>>21469762
Trepid is correct. But I don't know, somehow "murmuring" doesn't seem like trepidant action to me. Maybe that's just me.

[Anonymous No.21470071]

>>21469445
>Water and Healing magic
You mean earth and healing magic
Or fire and healing magic
I think only air doesn't fit with healing

But rather than having this one element does this or that, have each individual element do basic element type stuff, but when you combine different elements in different ways you get other effects. Make it so people naturally are inclined to 2 elements, or in some rare cases 3, or for your super special chosen lad all 4. Tho I don't think making your MC good at all is necessarily good. He needs companions, after all. So shooting water or fire or wind or manipulating earth uses 1 school. Ice magic would be water + air. Blacksmithing type magic would be earth + fire. Healing can be fire or earth or water in different compositions. fire magic would be better for curing disease, earth magic would be better for regenerating tissue, water magic may be the binding agent for the others. illusions I'd figure would be air, but maybe air + fire. air + fire is probably also potent attack magic.
then on top of these elemental ones you can add secret stuff like void or light or who knows.

[Anonymous No.21470279]

>>21468342

[Anonymous No.21470472]

Is it weird that after my main character killed his best friend in self defense and his mom comes back and my main character has sex with her and has a baby?

[Anonymous No.21470497]

>>21470472
it's a bit odd because I'd imagine the mother should probably be older than child bearing age

[Anonymous No.21470514]

i can't even post in these threads anymore, all i get are bitter crabs trying to tear me down

[Anonymous No.21470522]

>>21470497
If they are young adults its possible (18 - 21)

Given she's around her late 30s to early 40s maybe even mid 40s

[Anonymous No.21470815]

>>21470472
Sounds like Bert's backstory from the TV show "Soap".
He killed a guy in self-defense, then married his widow.
>>21470514
Yeah, that never happens to writers in the real world...(rolls eyes)

[Anonymous No.21470818]

>>21470514
We're not crabs, its just your writing is really just crap.

[Anonymous No.21470822]

>>21470514
The worst crabs are the ones that don't even read the authors work.

[Anonymous No.21470852]

Are there any good guides on writing erotic scenes?
It seems like an overlooked subject

[Anonymous No.21470905]

>>21470852
Practice sexting with teenage girls. They're going to be your primary audience. Find what makes them horny. Now that said I hope you're also a teenager. Or read harlequin novels and 50 shades of gray and find out what makes them so desirable.

[Anonymous No.21470921]

Why is art so much better at depicting fantasy worlds than literature? What exactly is missing?

[Anonymous No.21470930]

>>21470921
It isn't that I can tell

[Anonymous No.21470947]

>>21468284
Fuck off with your intuition as the key to enlightenment.

Knowledge is just the accumulation of the past, and the understanding that most has been said before, and all knowledge is just there to be reassessed and scrutinised.

You're looking forward to a time of "one line wit as authenticity" when the sound of the words together will be more important that the integrity of the message?

The one unconquerable strength of words over music, as both can manipulate the emotions, is that words know how to stop

[Anonymous No.21470977]

>>21470930
Try conveying in words what this scene does visually. Even the books these things are from don't portray them as well as the art made of them.

[Anonymous No.21471006]

>>21470977
Try delivering an entire narrative with a picture though

[Anonymous No.21471048]

After almost 2 years of no progress, I'm editing my novel again. I don't think anything will come of finishing my second draft beyond my personal satisfaction. I'm taking it one chapter at a time. Baby stepsm

[Anonymous No.21471307]

>>21470514
Post your work. I’ll give you 1000 words of constructive feedback.

[Anonymous No.21471568]

>>21471307
Not that anon, but I need a reaction to this. I'm working a new chapter 1 for my sci-fi novel. This is just a first draft and I need to turn it over in my head and think about how to improve it.


“You’re just like your father, you know that?” His mother’s shadow darkened the display of his computer monitor. She stood with hands on hips, scowling at the social media feed he was scrolling through. They were in the common room of their homestead, but the other families were out—either at jobs or lost in VR. The room smelled of weak soup, the steam almost drawing out the scent of sweat and dust lurking beyond the kitchen. Everyone in the homestead knew it needed more cleaning, but always that it should be someone else. They all had excuses. His mother did batch cooking and kept the pans clean, so someone else should vacuum if no one was going to buy an automatic.

Kyte wasn’t going to vacuum because soon enough he would leave and it wouldn’t be his problem.

His mother said, “Computer, parental override, shut off.”

Kyte clicked his tongue as the computer locked up, saved, and booted off. Hitting the power button again would be useless until either his mother unlocked it, or he turned eighteen which was still a few weeks off. Of course, he’d have to actually be home after he turned eighteen, and in all likelihood, he would be drafted by then. She couldn’t turn everything off though. She had no power over his neural implant. “I passed my exams, didn’t I?” he asked as he focused his mind’s eye on the same social media feed.

[Anonymous No.21471581]

>>21470977
I think you're sort of elevating one aspect of the fantastic and then sayin that another medium is better at it and therefore better overall. I will say, fantasy writers of any era rarely go this hard on the weird and unsettling monsters. This is probably due to how granular the description would have to be, and how little that works in fiction.

The written word is superior at immersing the reader in an alien world.

[Anonymous No.21471668]

First for F. Gardner being more famous than you.
Buck Sneed.

[Anonymous No.21471673]

>>21470472
stop reading ntr

[Anonymous No.21471676]

>>21471568
I don't see anything particularly offensive here

[Anonymous No.21471692]

>>21470921
>>21470977
Depends on the author. Here's a depiction of a dragon by Bakker.

[Anonymous No.21471701]

>>21471692
That doesn't really describe a dragon though.

[Anonymous No.21471707]

>>21471668
But at what cost?

[Anonymous No.21471716]

>>21471701
It gives the main beats. A detailed description is unnecessary for this scene.

[Anonymous No.21471858]

My fantasy story is a fucking mess. The story feels like it's all over the place and I'm grabbing shit out of my ass and writing some bullshit to make it fit. Answers to mysteries are completely hamfisted, and the ending after everything gets solved is a rush to kill the bad guy. Is it normal to have 30 chapters getting to the big bad and him dying in 1?

[Anonymous No.21471866]

>>21471858
start by writing an outline

[Anonymous No.21471871]

>>21468120
Damn

[Anonymous No.21471885]

>>21471866
Oh the outline was done, then I found myself completely going off on the outline, things changing, characters seemingly going off to do different things, and realizing the MC kicking everyone's ass was stupid, so I had him lose a few fights, or have different conflicts that arise.

[Anonymous No.21472076]

What’s a good way to temporarily change your writing style other than reading more?

I want to write smut, but whenever I write creatively, it’s most comfortable for me to write in a decidedly 19th century style. While I’m sure that people might enjoy smut written as if it were a ghost story by M R James, I’m trying to branch out from what’s comfortable and learn more. I also can’t take my own work seriously if it’s smut written in a 19th century style.

[Anonymous No.21472131]

What are some books that helped you improve your story/essay writing?

[Anonymous No.21472308]

>>21471871
Thanks anon

[Anonymous No.21472324]

>>21470472
>my main character has sex with her and has a baby?
mom is futa?

[Anonymous No.21472352]

>>21468606
>It’s clear enough that this livid organism that’s become its home used to be an organic comet that fell and was claimed by this evil intestinal cadaverous worm.
>Of course.
The fuck am I reading?

[Anonymous No.21472398]

i'm writing vidya, and i've been thinking about adding a romance part to me game for the main character and others. thing is i can't really find anything online on how to write a good video game romance. should i just write it like any other romance, or should i take some precautions with it for the player's sake?

[Anonymous No.21472400]

>>21472398
This question is so incredibly broad and vague that an answer that has any meaning whatsoever is impossible.

[Anonymous No.21472679]

>>21471885
The whole point of doing an outline is that you notice and fix dumb things before you've wasted more time and effort writing your broken story

[Anonymous No.21472776]

>>21472131
This helped me avoid the basic mistakes that prevents the reader from engaging with my work.

[Anonymous No.21472791]

>>21471885
Then stop and redo your outline

[Anonymous No.21472851]

My book contains close to a hundred mentions of dogs but not a single thought of c*ts

[Anonymous No.21473070]

>>21471668
If I wanted "fame" (a term applied very fucking loosely here), I'd just spend a couple thousand dollars on 4chan ads and spend my entire day shilling myself and toggling airplane mode.

[Anonymous No.21473178]

>>21466803
In a setting that I'm working on, each of the races is aligned with two of the six elements of the setting (Water, Stone, Wind, Flame, Light, and Shadow), with some having one element be dominant over the other, and I'm trying to determine which existing common races would work best with which (besides some obvious ones, like Flame and Stone for Dwarves). I'm thinking that Goblins would be Flame, but then they don't have a second one, same for Water and Merfolk, Stone and Gnomes, and Air and Sylphs. To say nothing of Orcs, Trolls, Elves, Lizard-folk, lamias, Minotaurs, Centaurs, etc. I'm basically just throwing out race ideas because I'm still trying to decide which races to include (I'm obviously not listing the ones that I've gotten all figured out like humans), and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[Anonymous No.21473221]

>>21473178
My suggestion is to write first and worry about silly worldbuilding shit later.

[Anonymous No.21473254]

I'm curious how much 4chan ads cost. Worth buying for a month?

[Anonymous No.21473274]

>>21473178
As Adah anon, I'll let you know from experience, I tossed out like 90% of my world building because it got far too convoluted and ultimately pointless. When writing, I had a harpy, ghost, cat man that were all part of the party, but they Ultimately served no purpose than them just being a monster character. And nobody gave a shit that the bird man was eating worms while the cat man said something about it.

[Anonymous No.21473330]

>>21473178
Do whatever. Why can't you make the goblins have a water element? Or orcs be light and elves be shadow? You're the author, do what you want.

You should make orcs have water and stone. That way they'll have lots of fluids and be rock hard as they mate with elves I've watched enough hentai to know those two races, alongside teenage humans that they are meant to be together.

[Anonymous No.21473551]

>>21471568
A bit dry for my personal taste, but this passage tells your story clearly and there are no glaring errors that I can spot. Keep at it.

[Anonymous No.21473599]

>>21472076
The world doesn’t need more uninspired bargain bin smut. You’d be contributing to the epidemic of shlock that infects the industry. Dare to be unique. Take your work seriously. If you feel best writing smut (or anything else) in an unusual form, then do it. Make it interesting and have faith in your work. Otherwise, give up and work on something else because you’re NGMI.

[Anonymous No.21473619]

>>21473178
Why don’t you make something fucking original instead of being another shitty tolkien copycat or dime mythology puller? Draw from less common mythology. Draw from things you notice in your own life. What terrifies you? What fascinates you? Can these things be personified in a being? What sort of culture do these new peoples have? Come on, Anon. I know you have some better ideas than this. I believe in you.

[Anonymous No.21473637]

I wrote this story, inspired by a postcard of a sculpture (Untitled (for Francis) by Antony Gormley). The story is short so that I can eventually put it on the back of the postcard.

I would appreciate any thoughts/critique.

[Anonymous No.21473646]

>>21473254
At $20, you can usually buy out the ad space on multiple boards for a week. It probably won't get you much attention. Thanks to Gardner and his proteges, advertising on 4chan now signifies low-effort attention-seeking garbage. Running straight banner ads for a month got me about 20 'sales' (free downloads on KDP), but running ads in conjunction with a free kindle giveaway would get me between 20-60 in a single day. This has resulted in three reviews across Amazon and goodreads and probably zero mentions on 4chan. Mobile ads get way more engagement but make no real difference in sales or reviews or mentions. I believe so far I have made about $12 from sales, and most of those were paperback copies sold to people that I already know.

Is it worth buying for a month? If you have a solid source of income then $80 won't be much to you, but the new system they're using for ads has way less room for customization, so I don't particularly enjoy using it.

[Anonymous No.21473743]

What program(s) do you use to write?
Google Docs? Word? I know there is some other options, I don't know how good they are though.

[Anonymous No.21473825]

>>21473646
>Mobile ads get way more engagement but make no real difference in sales or reviews or mentions
This makes sense, I accidentally click mobile ads all the time because touch screen but don't have that problem on a laptop.
Care to share which book you advertised?

[Anonymous No.21473871]

>>21473825
It was these.

[Anonymous No.21474163]

I'm writing a self insert fantasy but I totally forgot about a list of potential jobbers the MC could kill and/or add to his harem
Is it too late to make one now?

[Anonymous No.21474169]

>>21473619
>Pushing multicult
Die.

[Anonymous No.21474191]

>>21473254
Why would you buy ads when you could unapologetically shill your story directly to readers?

[Anonymous No.21474236]

>>21474163
>making a list of mooks
why bother?
>is it too late?
only if your publisher hasn't started the print run

[Anonymous No.21474274]

>>21474236
I like to have a list I can reference instead of having the MC wander aimlessly with his harem

[Anonymous No.21474289]

What's a good writing app that syncs between mac and iOS, and that has a native dark mode?

[Anonymous No.21474339]

>>21474274
sounds like rather than creating a list of characters to kill you should invest in a larger overarching plot

[Anonymous No.21474370]

>>21474169
>multicult
Huh? I’m just telling him to make something original and do some world building for it. If you’re going to make a new and original fantasy race, they need to have a culture and other info laid out.

Just because a term like “culture” becomes a current year buzzword, that doesn’t mean that it loses its original meaning. Use some critical thinking, anon.

[Anonymous No.21474467]

>>21474339
That's already done but I don't have any small time jobbers

[Anonymous No.21474489]

>>21474467
>I don't have a list
who cares? I presume you already have existing "faceless" characters all over the place tho, from guards to barkeeps to whoever. just retool one of them. how many words in are you?

[Anonymous No.21474531]

>>21474489
you don't need a plot. Plotless stories are all the rage now. Now it's all about "arcs" and never ending traveling to fight the next bad guy

[Anonymous No.21474582]

>>21474531
I don't get how anyone can bring themselves to write something so empty and meaningless

[Anonymous No.21474608]

>>21474370
No, you're telling him to use other cultural influences instead of tried and true evropean influence.

[Anonymous No.21474688]

>>21474531
>plotless
>but there are arcs
synonyms are all the rage, too, it seems

[Anonymous No.21474700]

>>21474191
Shilling has gotten me about 10 requests for free copies, only two people actually responded with feedback.

[Anonymous No.21474769]

>''OK self, just write words! Just write anything! There is no such thing as writers block, just start typing!''
>Open up TikTok when pure literally gold doesn't come spewing forth from my conscious.

[Anonymous No.21474905]

>>21474769
delete the app, then

[Anonymous No.21474953]

how do you come up with ideas for full novels? the only writing that really comes out of me naturally is autofiction, weird diatribes, very bad smut, gore, etc. I have written 2 separate first drafts of different novel ideas but i got extremely bored with both after i finished a first draft and couldn't bring myself to edit them. one was a satire and the other was a thriller. i feel like i can never think of ideas that are commercially viable, or make sense as a "book idea"... any advice or other anons that have dealt with this issue?

[Anonymous No.21475022]

>>21474953
ideas aren't the problem, its more of what do you want to convey through the novel.
so here's an idea for a novel I thought of literally while reading your post.
this guy's mother dies and he's going to her funeral - there's been a number of books with this starting premise, The Stranger, for one, but in that novel the death of the mother isn't largely consequential except for how it reveals the character of the narrator. but we're not doing that. instead we're going to zoom in focus on this character as he makes the trip. turns out his father died like 5 years before and he has a few siblings. they have varying degrees of relationships. so he's thinking about all this stuff, more concerned about meeting with them again and reminiscing about his mother when the actual conflict of the novel appears. the inheritance. which he wasn't very interested in, but his siblings and their wives/husbands are. so it goes from a sad sort of family reunion to full on knives out squabbling.

Now, as far as this idea goes, what's important about it? Only that it serves to bring these characters together and creates a problem. The vast majority of the book will be their interactions and the MC thinking about how things were when they were growing up.

But that's all an idea has to be. It's a catalyst to bring characters with their own goals and motivations into conflict. It's the characters the reader cares about, not the window dressing so much.

[Anonymous No.21475082]

>>21474608
Do you have any idea just how many ancient, obscure, and extinct cultures exist in Europe that have gone completely untapped by artists and authors (in the west)? I’m not saying to turn to some poopoo culture in Africa or something, what i’m saying is to use something that hasn’t been done to death a hundred times over like Norse and Greek.

[Anonymous No.21475098]

>>21474905
This. If you have no self control or discipline, go cold turkey. If you can’t go cold turkey, reduce hours per week. If you can’t even do that, you’re NGMI.

[Anonymous No.21475102]

>>21466803
If you wanted to release a book for anyone who wants it what would you do? just post it on substack or a wordpress blog or soemthing?

[Anonymous No.21475107]

Is it worth it to shill a book even if you don't have a lot of confidence in it?

[Anonymous No.21475110]

>>21475102
Yea I'm probably gonna do substack, but not sure if it's the best option. I suppose you could do that AND Amazon or would Bezos take issue with it?

[Anonymous No.21475126]

>>21475110
no idea I've also looked into write.as since that allows long "posts" to be easily downloaded as an epub file

[Anonymous No.21475128]

>>21475107
Believe in yourself, anon. How else are supposed to grow?

[Anonymous No.21475163]

>>21475126
>write.as
That's a new one on me, interesting. What kind of book/story is it? Some platforms have a strong preference for certain genres

[Anonymous No.21475178]

Panch nodded and then began to twist his torso. An instant later he unleashed an array of slashes with only the fabric of his shirt; each doled out with a perfect finesse guided by a brawny core and sinewy shoulders. The bars of Stardock’s cell were like butter to those cotton knives.

[Anonymous No.21475209]

>>21475022
thanks this sounds like good advice. i guess i wonder though, how would you apply this to higher concept things like fantasy novels, or satires like 1984, or books like Gravity's Rainbow, Blood Meridian, etc.?

[Anonymous No.21475426]

>>21475128
I got other things in the pipeline that im more focused on and that i believe to be of higher quality

However i really want to publish something so yeah

[Anonymous No.21475438]

How do I keep going knowing I didn't research absolutely everything there is to know about a subject I'm featuring for a side character in my story? I feel awful not knowing the absolute best ins and outs and I don't know how other writers keep going...

[Anonymous No.21475445]

>>21475082
That's exactly what you're saying.

[Anonymous No.21475558]

>>21475209
>how would you apply this to other things
well if we wanted to make the novel a satire on the court system you have less introspection during the funeral and you have the majority of the action, so to speak, occur in the courtroom with lawyers filing proclamations and whatnot. this can be achieved by having the will be some convoluted gobbledygook that requires specific clauses and so it gets thrown to the courts. if you wanted it to be a action novel you make the will require a car race or something stupid. or - forget the will entirely - let's turn the concept into a mystery. the mother was murdered by means most foul and person who did it is in this room!

[Anonymous No.21475937]

>>21475445
>in Europe
You failed the reading comprehension test. Holy shit.

[Anonymous No.21476254]

>>21475107
ENGLAND
ENGLAND
ENGLAND

[Anonymous No.21476509]

join this writing discord https://discord.gg/BvwJjvcn

[Anonymous No.21476902]

Are character personality 180s ever a good thing? Not talking about arcs per se

I have a comic with two female side characters who are basically Velma and Daphne i.e. nerd vs Stacy, I thought I'd have a timeskip and subtly change them to gain each other's characterization in a way that makes sense, i.e. something happens that makes the Stacy withdraw and get nerdy while the nerd blossoms into a social butterfly smokeshow, but I feel like any potential fans would feel alienated by such a drastic change and like they lost what appealed to them in the first place. These would also be secondary to their main arcs, just a little flavor thing.

[Anonymous No.21476974]

>>21466803
What are some fantasy races that you wished got more focus beyond elves, dwarves, and orcs? And how would you put a new twist on them?

[Anonymous No.21477028]

>>21476509
>redditscord
nice try, troon

[Anonymous No.21477069]

I have a vague idea for a story but I don't know how to refine it. It's more like I have a general feeling and a fuzzy A plot but hashing it into a story feels monumental. Any tips to deal with this?

[Anonymous No.21477157]

>>21477069
Write a summary and continue writing longer and longer summaries.

[Anonymous No.21477188]

>>21476974
ratmen. no twist. no need for a twist. just more ratmen. i will read your book if there's ratmen.

[Anonymous No.21477194]

>>21477157
You know...

That doesn't sound half bad.

I keep hearing stories of writers Who start from the very beginning and just write all the way through to the end as if the whole thing played out in their mind and transferred to their fingertips. I never understood how anyone was able to do that but I always thought that was how stories were written

[Anonymous No.21477203]

Watching the 1939 movie of Wuthering Heights was the thing that convinced me that I don't want to see any on-screen adaptations of my books within my lifetime
Some faggot took one of the most based books ever written by a woman and turned it into a soapy love story
hoooooooooooly shit

[Anonymous No.21477289]

>>21466803
How do you write a story with good theme and morals when its very surreal and you are worried about the implied symbolism?

[Anonymous No.21477314]

>>21477194
>write from start to finish in one go
That's a lot of how my typical chapters end. But sometimes I'll write the opening paragraph or so, fiddle around, get a little further in, get lost, and then I'll jump to the pivotal moment of the chapter, write it out, and then connect the first part with the second one. Or even do a chapter in 3 parts and then connect them.

>>>21477188
>ratmen
my next book has ratmen. ratmen who worship yahweh and vampires (homosexual) who worship money.

[Anonymous No.21477316]

Working on this character based on the idea that we are tested and defined by what is denied to us. The story is such that she's essentially the unacknowledged daughter of the president of the United States. He hated her mother and refers to her conception as his biggest mistake. Said president has like 5 other children, and a is a christian, no affair having, goody two shoes type of guy. They have access to privilege which is denied to her, and because of it she becomes a really horrible person, but the reader is left wondering whether she would have turned out to be so awful regardless.

When the world is just shitting on a person at every turn, and they are constantly being refused what they desire, would you understand/support their bitterness?

[Anonymous No.21477364]

>>21477316
Yes. However if you want to make it questionable, make her thoughts and behaviors questionable. Would her reactions to her rejection be fair and appropriate given the injustice, or would she go beyond it? Perhaps do things that arent directly related to her rejection either.

In my opinion it would be a good idea to make the audience question whether shes unhappy with the rejection by her father or being denied the luxury of the White House.

[Anonymous No.21477373]

>>21477364
>In my opinion it would be a good idea to make the audience question whether shes unhappy with the rejection by her father or being denied the luxury of the White House.
I like this. But in a way, couldn't it be both? Think I might make it more the luxury thing because that might give the reader more mixed feelings.

[Anonymous No.21477380]

How do I properly write my "roastie" MC? I self censor too much

[Anonymous No.21477420]

[Anonymous No.21477424]

>>21477380
Don't try to be radical if you don't have the balls

[Anonymous No.21477433]

>>21477373
>I like this. But in a way, couldn't it be both?
Yes, thats how you get them to question it.
>>21477380
Quit self censoring and freely express yourself. Write the character realistically as to how YOU think she should be. Your story will never have sovl if you dont put passion into it.

Examine the traits of "roasties", their goals, and their sentiments and motivations and present them subversively if you dont want to be offensive.

[Anonymous No.21477468]

I finished my first draft.

[Anonymous No.21477473]

>>21477468
congrats bro

[Anonymous No.21477479]

>>21477188
i liked 'king rat' i think it was called, by the bald communist

[Anonymous No.21478016]

>>21477468
Time for your second draft anon as a break leading up to the third

[Anonymous No.21478060]

>>21475937
You're making a bullshit excuse when we all know what you really meant you liberal studies major.

[Anonymous No.21478092]

>>21477468
How many words?

[Anonymous No.21478094]

>>21477468
Cheers! I'll be joining you in a few weeks.

Going to revise right away or put it in a trunk for a month or something?

[Anonymous No.21478099]

>>21477380
Copy and paste from social media

[Anonymous No.21478112]

>>21478060
>we all know
NTA, but who's "we?" I try real hard to be apolitical, and from this vantage it's hilariously how gingerly people have to walk to avoid stepping on sore toes. Your reaction to what you think is "pushing multicult" (>>21474169) is on as much of a fair trigger as the people from Opposite Side who get outraged at the lack of exhibited groupthink when someone says negro or forgets to capitalize "black." Stop injecting politics into everything you see. You're not on /pol/.

[Anonymous No.21478117]

>>21478112
>hilariously
Hilarious
>fair trigger
Hair trigger. Fucking phone.

[Anonymous No.21478143]

Reading is gay.
Think about it. You wouldn't let another man into your asshole. Why would you let his thoughtdick into your brainhole?

I'm on the fence if writing is gay. I'm having a bit of a crisis of faith at the moment.

Unrelated, but holy fuck how did Lonesome Dove win a Pulitzer? It is a rambling mess so far. Someone tell me it gets better.

[Anonymous No.21478253]

guys, guys! my mom finished reading my draft in two days and she said it was really good! she even said she often forgot that it was i who wrote it. she also tells me i'm beautiful. she's lying right? right. oh well...

[Anonymous No.21478289]

>>21474769
>Open up TikTok
Holy shit get the fuck out of this website tourist faggot

[Anonymous No.21478310]

AAAAAAAAAAGHHH fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck
I can't stop overscoping. I CAN'T
the book JUST. KEEPS. GROWIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGGGGGG

[Anonymous No.21478356]

>>21478253
>she even said she often forgot that it was i who wrote it.
My dad said the same thing about one of my books. He also tells me that I remind him of Jeffrey Dahmer and I need to move out of his condo, so I think he's being honest.

[Anonymous No.21478425]

>>21468803
>felt like one of those weird underwater fish who lived at the very bottom of the ocean you see on those David Attenborough nature documentaries.
There are two different ways this sentence can be improved, and it depends on your goals with this story.

The first and easiest would be simplification. A person who has never seen a David Attenborough documentary before isn't going to be well-served by this simile. A person who has seen a David Attenborough documentary before will simply find it redundant. You needn't mention David Attenborough or documentaries at all.

The second would be through expansion. Take a moment to consider what it actually feels like to be a fish in the Marianas Trench and communicate those feelings directly to the reader through your narrator's perspective.
>felt like I had entered into a bigger predator's territory
Is a better example, but still far too vague to really communicate anything. The word predator could mean anything to anyone. For me, personally, it conjures an image of a lion, which doesn't suit your scene.

So the goal here is to make it more concrete through the manipulation of the abstract. We want to cultivate the actual feeling of being in a predator's domain while still accurately detailing the setting which our character is in. So, our character might think in terms of being 'swallowed' by the catacombs. That's still a bit cliche, but thinking in these terms would give a lot of life to this scene.

[Anonymous No.21478481]

>>21478112
>Draw from less common mythology
Stop being a weasel for once in your life JFC

[Anonymous No.21478492]

>start chapter 1
>prepare chapter 2
>Realize there's at least one potential chapter between those two, maybe more if I apply myself
Am I making it? Am I finally escaping the curse of sparse drafts?

[Anonymous No.21478496]

>>21476974
Giants.

[Anonymous No.21478514]

>>21478356
lol, don't eat him ok?

[Anonymous No.21478532]

>>21475438
Help

[Anonymous No.21478564]

>>21478481
Jesus, anon. There’s nothing wrong with trying to do something new and fresh while encouraging others to do the same. This doesn’t mean I’m trying to push some faggot ideology. How many Norse rip offs have you seen? If you’re going to go that way, then people would be better off just reading the sagas.

I’m working on a draft right now and I’m drawing primarily from an amalgam of obscure Celtic tribal lore and Slavic myths with a twist, as well as adding some ‘original’ ideas/races/characters of my own which I made from combining things I notice in my life. Creativity is not that complicated, and it’s the opposite of political bullshit.

[Anonymous No.21478587]

>>21478564
Fuck off, retard. Nobody fucking cares, stop trying to kneecap an anon who has better sense than you.

[Anonymous No.21478736]

>>21478310
This isn't as based as you think it is.

[Anonymous No.21478737]

>>21478587
>Tells an anon to try something different and to stand out
>This is kneecapping
What is wrong with you?

[Anonymous No.21478775]

>>21478737
Nobody gives a shit about the "difference" you push.

[Anonymous No.21478874]

How do I come up with names on the spot instead of Placeholder1, Placeholder2, etc.?

[Anonymous No.21478890]

>>21478874
Japanese video games

[Anonymous No.21478895]

>>21478890
I am incredibly jealous of Japan's ability to whip up new European-sounding names that would have been traditional had they existed 500 years ago
If only Nobunaga had survived...
How do I unlock this power?

[Anonymous No.21478909]

How do I properly portray a character who's discriminated against for multiple reasons? Do they stack or does the strongest debuff override the others?

[Anonymous No.21478915]

>>21478737
A lot is wrong with him, anon. He's one of those "I can only see things as they relate to my personal political ideology" guys. No matter what you do or say, he will continue insisting that you are a member of Other Tribe. He is literally incapable on a fundamental level of seeing things any other way.

[Anonymous No.21478923]

>>21478890
>Willie Dustice
I actually really like that

[Anonymous No.21478930]

>>21478895
Personally, I take generic first names and mix them with random syllables.
>Mark Lylen
>Tom Harsben
>Lucas Corster
>Leonard Tackens

[Anonymous No.21478932]

>two or three more chapters until I'm done with my Adah story!
>Needs an edit
Any tips on editing?

[Anonymous No.21478949]

>>21478923
For me it's Bobson Dugnutt

[Anonymous No.21478951]

Writing a short sci-fi story. Group of researchers discover fossils on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system, but after an ice-shelf collapses there's only one survivor, a technician, rather than a scientist. He return to base with the fossil sample and has big dreams of becoming famous as the first person to discover multicellular life outside the Sol system. His reveries are cut short when he receives a call on the radio from one of the other people, who also survived.
Paranoid that he'll lose the glory he thinks he deserves and suffering from minor brain damage he decides to murder the Other (as he calls him) survivor.
A deadly game between the two begins.

[Anonymous No.21478971]

I just finished writing a book. Also binding it myself and selling it via my own website.
I do have an ebook version on amazon, though.
Anyway, how can I use /lit/ to shill out my work and start building an audience and get sales?

[Anonymous No.21478984]

>>21478971
Contact the Unreal Press guys. They'll give you an interview.

[Anonymous No.21479022]

I have yet to see a modern-day flagellant or at least one of the ascetic kind, how could we fall so far from greatness?
I have lived long enough to think, to comprehend and to deduce. I have consumed enough culture to know, to speak and to believe. It is with great sadness, to see that most have not, to see that most are stuck in their mindless chase after worldly things.
Why is it that nowadays people do not seek fate? Why do they turn their eyes away from the things beyond? I am unable to see through that veil, even despite socializing as much as possible and “observing”, although that’s a pretty preposterous word, people around me I was only able to find them seeking material, worldly things. My colleagues, my acquaintances, even my friends, all want the same wealth and love. I despise wealth and love; I despise them and I curse every person who wants to “just live happily”. For that is not a life of a human, but it is a life of an animal and not even a very intelligent one at that.

[Anonymous No.21479024]

>>21478984
>We target literary and horror fiction, and poetry for publishing.
My book has some slight horror elements, but I wouldn't call it literary or horror fiction.
Not sure if they would be interested in the book itself. Perhaps if they have some interest in my process of printing and binding the books, because I do believe it's rare for authors to manufacture their own books.

[Anonymous No.21479032]

>>21479024
They're desperate enough to interview a tranny who thinks they're going to decapitate themselves, freeze the head and wake up in the body of a catgirl.
Don't worry about whether they'll want to talk to you, worry about whether you want to talk to them.

[Anonymous No.21479037]

>muh spirituality.
nigga just listen to music and stop writing books on how your crotch is astral projecting to my solar plexus.
>insert imagery of some weirdo meditating on a public sculpture or beam or just sitting on random shit thats high up

spirituality is a waste of time and writing about it is even more of a waste of time

do you like led zeppelin?

[Anonymous No.21479053]

>>21479032
I see, I'll consider it.
Thanks for the recommendation.

[Anonymous No.21479054]

>>21478425

Better?

[Anonymous No.21479068]

>>21479054
>"...get an idea of where everything was I felt like I was..."

[Anonymous No.21479072]

>Title I wanted to use for my book is already taken by a shitty self-pubbed litrpg
Damn, and I'm shit at coming up with titles.

[Anonymous No.21479086]

Guys I’ve given up. How do I copy F. Gardner’s unique style? I want to be famous too.

[Anonymous No.21479098]

>>21479086
Copy definitions from the dictionary and insert them every fourth line.

[Anonymous No.21479122]

>>21479086
copy someone who is successful

[Anonymous No.21479126]

>>21479086
There he saw a cat. It was a brown cat. A brown cat? There aren't any brown cats. thought Mike, thinking out loud to himself. He then sat to think some more.

[Anonymous No.21479151]

>>21479086
Call of the Metamorphosis by F. Gardner:
Gregor Samsa awoke from a night of uneasy dreams to discover that he had been transformed into a giant insect. Woah, he thought, those dreams made me feel weird. They were about strange stuff. But he had bigger problems than that! He had been transformed into a giant insect. He had insect arms, an insect body, and even two insect antennae. Unlike a normal insect, he was as large as a man. He was big enough to take up all the space in his bed without even trying. Even though he was as large as a man, he was definitely in an insect body.

"Woah," thought Gregor. "I need to lay off the DMT! It's making me hallucinate that I'm a giant insect."

Once again, he checked. He still had insect arms, insect legs, and two insect antennae. But how could he be an insect and also be as large as a man? How could an insect think human thoughts?

[Anonymous No.21479156]

How do you know when you’ve revised enough?

[Anonymous No.21479161]

>>21479156
When your editor tells you.

[Anonymous No.21479173]

Question.

Pretty much immediately in my story, the MC is lead to choose an item, out of several options, that they will carry throughout the story. Each item *could* be important to the MC, and no matter what are responsible for plotpoints down the line. Of course I already know what one they'll choose.
With that being said, my question is:

How much detail should I give about the items individually?
Considering it's the start of the story, a few paragraphs in, should I keep the descriptions very minimal--the bare amount of info needed to be vaguely recognizable when their plotpoint arises? Or, given their importance, is it okay to detail them a bit to highlight their importance?

[Anonymous No.21479179]

>>21479173
One sentence each

[Anonymous No.21479188]

>>21479122
He’s considered a genius here.

[Anonymous No.21479190]

>>21478099
>>21477424
>>21477433
Thanks for the advice, I'll get some balls and yeah I don't want to paint anything in a mean spirited way.

[Anonymous No.21479194]

>>21479179
That's actually more generous than I thought the answer would be. I can definitely get more than enough said with a sentence each. As of now, I have it all condensed into two sentences and it feels flat. Hence why I'm asking. Because I don't want to get overly descriptive right away

[Anonymous No.21479201]

>>21478016
Why not just revise the first draft? Is there no real difference between revising and redrafting?

[Anonymous No.21479205]

>>21478932
editing takes longer than the initial draft. if drafting is more like fun because you're still discovering the story, editing is definitely more like work. but like work its rewarding when things come together

[Anonymous No.21479216]

>>21479022
anti-humans espousing sentiments like this should be killed

[Anonymous No.21479220]

>>21479054
Not particularly. If I rewrote it myself:

>I slipped the manhole back into place, and the darkness swallowed us. I followed Mark's confident footprints down the ladder as the concrete overhead thrummed with the steady pulse of traffic. A hot burst of rancid air seethed throughout the catacombs, tickling the hairs on the back of my neck.

It's not perfect, but notice the usage of 'swallow', 'pulse', and 'seethed'. These are all words which refer to the actions of living organisms. By using them to refer to the environment, it gives a sense of life to the setting. This is what I meant by establishing the concrete through the abstract.

The concrete idea you wish to establish here is the setting of the catacombs. The abstract is the narrator's emotions in the catacombs, and why it makes him feel that way. If you don't feel like the scene deserves that level of description and subtext, that's totally fine, but if you're deadset on using the nature documentary simile, at the very least you could enrich the narrator's inner monologue by having him relate the actual experience of watching a documentary.

>I once saw a documentary about life in the Marianas Trench. It's so deep that light never reaches the bottom, and the fish that live there are forced to rely on scraps that drift down from the surface. The entire scene was illuminated by the light on the submersible they were using to film the footage, and I kept wondering what it must actually be like to live down there; after the submersible had left, and had taken the light with it, and the fish were alone in the darkness, drifting in isolation, wondering every instant if this was the moment when an unseen predator would launch itself from the darkness and snap its jaws around them.

Note that I used the word predator, which I said earlier was too vague. But once you've taken a moment to describe the environment, the range of possibilities is limited, and the mind automatically defaults to an anglerfish or something similar.

Really, what it comes down to is "show, don't tell." Show us why the narrator feels like the ladder is old, don't just just tell us he feels that way.

[Anonymous No.21479222]

>>21479072
who cares? use it anyway.

[Anonymous No.21479227]

>>21479072
I can’t imagine there aren’t any books with the same title. It happens with movies. Netflix just released White Noise (2022) which is completely different from White Noise (2005). Maybe you can add a secondary title so that instead of just being ENDGAME it’s ENDGAME: Edgelord’s Lament.

[Anonymous No.21479268]

>>21479222
>>21479227
It's a one-word title, and I don't want to be competing with other books on search results. A subtitle isn't the worst idea though, if I can think of something good.

[Anonymous No.21479286]

>>21479268
>one word
>only used by some shitty self pubbed litrpg
What's the title? Are you really going to be competing with a bunch of other stuff on search results?

[Anonymous No.21479444]

>>21479220

But the rest is fine right? I feel like a lot of the historical information is necessary for those who don't know a lot about the catacombs. I've never been down there myself but I'm interested a lot in the topic and I feel I could get a good story out of it since you really could do a lot with the concept.

[Anonymous No.21479570]

>>21479188
No he's not. He's meme'd for being shit and posting here to brag about his 30 book sales.

[Anonymous No.21479572]

>>21479194
Take that with a pinch of salt. It depends how many items there are. Don't give a sentence each if there are fucking loads and they're generic or easily described in a word.

[Anonymous No.21479673]

Guys, how do I overcome Gardner’s unprecedented fame? I feel like I’m living in his shadow after he completed Kant’s German Idealism in a single book, and discredited Hegel in his second. How am I supposed to overcome THAT?

[Anonymous No.21479812]

Guys, I need feedback for a short story I wrote few months ago. Please give it a read, it's about 20mins and give me honest critique. Many thanks

https://www.26reads.com/library/31438-expedition-to-the-north-pole/1

[Anonymous No.21479820]

>>21479812
nice job anon

[Anonymous No.21479849]

>wrestle with a certain part of the story
>doesnt fit in with the themes im going for
>get an epiphany to just cut it altogether and leave it for the next book in the series
>get a jolt of energy from the sheer novelty of cutting that part from my book
>get a shitton of new ideas
feeling good bros

[Anonymous No.21480020]

I thought I had the beginning and ending figured out, but then I realized I basically knew nothing about the beginning save for the first fucking chapter.

What do? Soldier on?

[Anonymous No.21480039]

>>21480020
Well it depends? Why did you spoil yourself the ending? If there is wiggle room to change the story while you're writing it, it might be worth soldiering on...

[Anonymous No.21480085]

>>21480020
give a quick rundown of your first chapter. or post it
you did actually write the chapter, right anon? its not just an outline, or a thought. right?

[Anonymous No.21480125]

>>21480039
What does the ending have to do with this?

[Anonymous No.21480325]

>>21480125
If you know the ending beforehand, it will be a slog to write the middle part. By keeping yourself open to a different ending than you envisioned you can leverage the unknown and effortlessly write by surprising yourself where the story will go, without the "soldier on" attitude. Kind of like, you are both the writer and the first reader of the story that unravels itself.

[Anonymous No.21480352]

>>21480325
I thought I knew what the ending was going to be when I started. And some of the middle markers too. And then I started writing and I hit some stuff but most stuff didn't quite happen how I first thought and the ending turned out totally different. So it's okay to have an idea for the ending when you start, but slavishly devoting yourself to reaching it will be a miserable experience

[Anonymous No.21480366]

>>21479032
They'll talk to you. Add your name to the /wg/ author pastebin and link your book.

[Anonymous No.21480400]

>>21480325
Again, what does that have to do with me realizing there was a lot more to the beginning than I realized in my initial outline? It's like a journey where you're driving down a road and you use Google maps, but Google maps is a piece of shit and sends you into oncoming traffic. It happens.

[Anonymous No.21480424]

>>21478971
link your book here and ill add it to the pastebin

[Anonymous No.21480456]

>have an idea for a serial
>realize this would be more work for a single story than I have ever undertaken before
How should I prepare for this? I was thinking of making the first arc relatively self contained and at least providing some kind of satisfactory ending in case of future burnout. Sound like a good idea?

[Anonymous No.21480465]

>>21480456
the further ahead you get the better
I'm talking like at least 100k words
at least
I think you should do it

[Anonymous No.21480507]

>>21479086
>>21479188
>>21479673
I see the house you lived in closed on December 12.
Did mommy and daddy take you with them?
Or did they finally cut your worthless seething schizo pseud NEET ass loose?

[Anonymous No.21481020]

>be me, working on end of my manuscript
>get neat idea
>add it to the inspiration file
>go back to the manuscript because writing is a business
>my inspiration file is now long enough to be sold as a book
>my manuscript isn't done
Who else here?

[Anonymous No.21481034]

>>21481020
Nope. I learned a long time ago that a 6/10 finished product will always be better than a 8/10 unfinished product.

[Anonymous No.21481302]

>>21481020
I liked Stephen Kings idea of never keeping an ideas journal because it sort of encourages the continuation of bad ideas, while good ideas will keep (at least) your interest.

[Anonymous No.21481331]

>>21466803
Chapter 3: Eschatology

When Mary Willhouby was seventeen, she thought to herself on what future historians might think about the post-industrial age, the era of Soft Death. She wondered how they might summarize the world once swollen with vigor and now weak and deflated from overstimulation driven to atrophy, she came back to one phrase in particular, recited by an anchor, well dressed and unemotional as he delivered a summary of the findings - the forensic evidence gathered from the ruins of a cult in Nevada. They were made sick by consuming, in large quantities, their own living flesh.

Fuels were burned, the land consumed, the skies filled with trinkets and with each year the ouroboros grew closer to its own head. Modern life became a lesson in eschatology, Greek, the study of end times. The industrial revolution had spawned doomsday cults before but the dogmatic religiosity of the era had them largely contained. The predicted rapture came and went, and then the Seventh Day Adventists with their righteous embarrassment, retired to their sitting rooms. The Jehovah's Witness took up croquet in the afternoon and forgot about their looming day of Armageddon which had converted so many with its dramatic pronouncements. The memory of bad predictions came and went with the casseroles and the Sunday picnics and the rumors of the Organist’s affair with the reverend’s daughter until all was much the same as it had always been.

Now, in the modern era, we had a new end. He was named Behemoth and under his auspice things were different. His name had always been rumored but his existence was new, incarnated only with the rites of Watt, Ford and Walton. Now, everyone knew him, recognized his face, his quantity, his effervescent need to consume, own and to be, and to be more. Behemoth was the face of our new eschatology, and we listened to his whispering in the dark like curious children gathered about the circus tiger’s circus after the show was all wrapped up. He told us many things, and tempted us with all our dreams come true should we only reach up and gently unlatch the cage.

And so in the dawning of the Information age we did, and the new eschatologists were born, and they did not lean to religious fervor - to thick and terrible piety in the face of such momentous ends - they leaned toward atomization, a pulling apart, a siloing of the self. They had seen the world bound up and they sought to save themselves, their own desires and their own wants. Like a mountaineer who sees the lead climber slip, humanity began cutting the ropes that bound them in a desperate attempt to save themselves from the fall.

But that was their great misconception: the fall was coming for everyone.

[Anonymous No.21481337]

>>21471568
Your writing is clear and perfectly fine. I need more story before I could give feedback

[Anonymous No.21481404]

I started writing too late today and I'm sleepy.

[Anonymous No.21481468]

Where can I find a forum to practice writing stories? English is my second language, so I'm struggling with the grammar and dialogue.

[Anonymous No.21481643]

How do I write without being super flowery? People seem to enjoy what I do but it doesnt really lend itself to longer stories.

[Anonymous No.21481932]

>>21471568
>His mother’s shadow darkened the display of his computer monitor
But monitors emit light, it can't be darkened by a shadow.
>but the other families were out
You mean family members or are there multiple families living under the same roof?
>knew it needed more cleaning, but always that it
The sentence structure gives the impression that they "always knew", which also implies there are things you only know sometimes, while I believe you were trying to say the cleaner was always supposed to be someone else.
>no one was going to buy an automatic
Automatic what? Readers may in this case infer the correct answer (robot cleaner?), but you shouldn't leave fragment sentences like this.
>computer locked up, saved, and booted off.
Saved what?

[Anonymous No.21481976]

>>21466803
Anyone else free write without planning? Is this a based or cringe move? Sometimes I think it's fun just kinda winging it as you go along. I can't plan characters in advance because I haven't gotten that far into the story yet to introduce new characters.

[Anonymous No.21481989]

>>21481976
I always have a little collection of ideas in my head about what I'm doing, where I'm going, etc., but it's way too constricting to me to write everything out and commit it to paper. Outlining also wastes time that could otherwise be spent writing.

[Anonymous No.21482095]

[Anonymous No.21482101]

>>21481932
>booted off.
lol

[Anonymous No.21482110]

>>21481331
>eschatology, Greek, the study of end times.
gross

[Anonymous No.21482148]

>>21481976
pretty based, in it lies the heart of creativity, but having a loose structure, theme, something that can guide the story is also important. as with everything in the world, true creativity lies in the balance of two opposites

[Anonymous No.21482210]

>>21478932
Read it out loud to yourself. Depending on who you are, it may be awkward at first, but do your best to read the story in an entertaining way, clear and easy to understand voice, to yourself. You'll pick up on little nuances your eyes may skim past, and it also forced you to slow down.

[Anonymous No.21482269]

>>21481932
What style books did you study?

[Anonymous No.21482280]

>>21481034
I'm not rewriting the manuscript, I just read a lot and come up with ideas I can't use in the current story such as "the macguffin teleports randomly around the world if someone other than the chosen one touches it" Obviously that's not a full story, it's a contrivance to justify why a magic sword or something wouldn't be locked up in an imperial armory. I don't even what story I could use that in, but it's got potential to give novelty to a fantasy story if combined with enough other ideas and elements.

[Anonymous No.21482606]

There are no female characters in my stories

[Anonymous No.21482619]

>>21482606
why

[Anonymous No.21482635]

>>21482619
I just never had a reason to include them

Didn't find it necessary or interesting

[Anonymous No.21482636]

>>21482606
Gay

[Anonymous No.21482641]

>>21482635
Do you write gay love novels or something?

[Anonymous No.21482659]

>>21482641
Yeah my writing has a lot of gay shit in it

I looked through my things again and I found one female character, a wife that cheats on her husband with an insect
monster

[Anonymous No.21482665]

>>21482659
Well whatever makes you happy, I guess.

[Anonymous No.21482689]

I'll start out by saying I'm agnostic, but I love putting religious imagery, particularly Christian imagery even in fantasy worlds that don't technicaly have Christianity as we know it.

Other than the imagery of angels/demons, and the usual stuff like crosses to represent sacrifice and selflesness, what're some interesting, lesser known Christian imagery I can add to my work?

[Anonymous No.21482713]

>>21482689
Twisted cross is a fan favorite

[Anonymous No.21482759]

>>21482269
the one called "common sense"

[Anonymous No.21482984]

>editing an old story into a novel
>chapter 1 and 2 all good, just superficial changes
>looking nice, this is easy
>gonna finish quick
>chapter 3 comes
>the whole thing starts to come apart
>chapters have scenes that have nothing to do with the plot or anything
>just massive waste of pages
>but cutting them completely will fuck up the pacing
>I'll probably have to rewrite the remaining 60% of the story from scratch
CUT MY LIFE
INTO PIECES

[Anonymous No.21483004]

>>21482984
I leave in pointless scenes sometimes for character building or just for fun.

[Anonymous No.21483075]

>>21482984
Every word should do one of three things, ideally the more the better: move the plot forward, expand on character, expand on the setting. If it doesn't move the story forward but it expands in character or the setting, then you can keep it.

[Anonymous No.21483079]

>>21483075
Fuck all of that. Every word should be well written. The rest is immaterial.

[Anonymous No.21483085]

>>21483079
Define well written.

[Anonymous No.21483095]

>>21483004
>for character building or just for fun

That must've been why I included them the first time, but now I can't help but find such scenes jarring waste of time. Like, you have a clear, smooth road from point A to point B and then somebody went and set up random sculptures here and there in the way for no other reason but because "they look nice". Will any of the readers actually find those scenes "fun" at all? No, most would probably want to keep driving to the destination without slowing down.

It's the plot that should build characters! Every part of the journey should be fun and give reader a sense of steadily getting somewhere. You need a really good reason to step away from the path. The method mustn't become the purpose.

[Anonymous No.21483186]

>>21483095
>Like, you have a clear, smooth road from point A to point B and then somebody went and set up random sculptures here and there in the way for no other reason but because "they look nice".
This is why I release companion books along with each entry in my series. A numbered "core" volume surrounded by a number of issues dedicated to character building, written in a way that my readers can still understand the core volumes even if they choose not to read them.

[Anonymous No.21483195]

Finally got back into writing after some months. Broke up and mother died, but now I'm feeling pretty motivated. It's as if the words flow naturally

[Anonymous No.21483256]

>>21473637
endings a bit shit

[Anonymous No.21483280]

>>21483095
It is, but I've read Sanderson and Martin and their writing have pointless scenes just to build characters or reinforce a point in the book.

[Anonymous No.21483512]

I'm writing and I can tell this isn't my voice. What do I do? Scrap the draft? Try to course correct and keep going and add more of my own voice to the story?

[Anonymous No.21483590]

>>21483085
You know it when you see it.

[Anonymous No.21483619]

Now that real life happened and I'm depressed again, I'm finally ready to resume editing. It wasn't working when I had hope.

[Anonymous No.21483732]

uhhhh ok don't freak out but it turns out that I lost my spark for coming up with new stories
I only managed to push out one cohesive well-thought out story and now for the last 3 years I can no longer come up with any narrative progressions or storylines, only elevator pitches

[Anonymous No.21483736]

>>21483280
Well, "too shit" is an altogether unknown concept in fantasy

[Anonymous No.21483794]

>>21483512
How much have you written to know what your voice is?

[Anonymous No.21483905]

I wish I was friends with other writers I respected, and who respected me.

[Anonymous No.21483934]

>>21483905
if you want a friend get a dog

[Anonymous No.21483975]

>>21483905
Pleased to meet you

[Anonymous No.21484013]

>got novel printed for personal use
>the service assigned me an ISBN
what the fuck do i do? i just wanted a paper copy

[Anonymous No.21484035]

>>21484013
too late you're fucked bro you're in the system they got their claws into you
IRS agents storming your location in
5...
4...
3...
2...
1...

[Anonymous No.21484084]

>>21483794
I know it's not as flat and dull as what I wrote last night. It gets the info across but it's so lifeless.

[Anonymous No.21484260]

>>21483934
or a girlfriend. mine reads my WIP manuscripts and gives me feedback, criticism, and dick sucks according to my need. to be fair, sometimes i need some criticism or feedback and she just sucks my dick instead, but it's hard to complain too much on that account.

[Anonymous No.21484346]

>>21484260
haha, that sucks, right

[Anonymous No.21484354]

>>21484346
like a fuckin dyson

[Anonymous No.21484396]

>get an idea i'm really excited about
>start writing it
>write for 3 days in a row, exceeding my word count each time
>start to lose interest
>get another idea that i'm really excited about
>push myself to finish the first idea even though it's a painful slog
>never want to look at it again so don't bother editing it
>start writing the new idea
>start to lose interest
>push myself to finish
>never want to look at it again so don't bother editing it
>rinse and repeat

why can't i stay interested in an idea? how do i stick to a fucking idea? i don't get how people spend years on single a creative project. how the fuck did jrr tolkein write lotr? how did grrm write game of thrones? how did any author write anything of worth that took longer than 4 days to finish???

[Anonymous No.21484415]

>>21484396
>even though it's a painful slog
maybe try reframing that. is it really that painful to spend time in your comfortable personal space writing? it's objectively not that painful at all -- you're not getting rusty nails pounded into your ballsack or having your fingernails pulled out with pliers. you could try respecting that "pain" less by reframing it in the context of what pain can actually be. might make it easier to just push through it every day.

[Anonymous No.21484430]

Oh boy my authors copy came!

[Anonymous No.21484439]

>>21484396
>only likes writing when the muse hits strong
writing is work, anon. I enjoy work a bunch of the time, but it definitely ain't all fun and games. and drafting is only the first part of writing. editing takes far, far longer.
basically stop being a bitch

[Anonymous No.21484445]

>>21484430
K.K. Wing
Kic Ken Wing?

[Anonymous No.21484461]

>>21484445
KeK, wg(an)on at first -> then needed a longer lasting name for serious writes and marketability. So K. K. Wing

[Anonymous No.21484498]

>>21484430
>Emily Project
>The story is a kind of coming-of-age novel about an incel that makes friends with a robot for a year. There is awkwardness, romance, cheesy humor...
>Nobody likes having their plans disrupted. Caleb's plan was simple, to live alone, collect toys, and be on the internet every waking moment, as he has done for the past thirty-three years. No dates, no friends, no experiences. Perfect.
>...Until the android Emily entered his life. With a new companion, although unconventional, Caleb learns a lesson he was never taught. To live, to laugh, and to love.

bro.

[Anonymous No.21484506]

>>21484498
Go buy it.

[Anonymous No.21484512]

>>21484506
Depends. Have you had sex? Sex with robot waifus does not count.

[Anonymous No.21484520]

>>21484512
I did after I wrote the book. It helped me make it.

[Anonymous No.21484526]

>>21484520
Alright, I'm not reading about an incel though. What's the new one about? Cover makes it look like historical.

[Anonymous No.21484545]

>>21484526
Historical fiction of a Chinaman coming to America after the Gold Rush but before the exclusion act. He seeks out the American dream.

[Anonymous No.21484548]

>>21478143
Read The prequels. skip the sequel

[Anonymous No.21484549]

>>21483590
Shit reply, lmao

[Anonymous No.21484552]

>>21484545
But not for sale yet. I need to finalize any other edits and start running a few reddit, Amazon, and 4chan ads

[Anonymous No.21484564]

>>21484545
I'd read that. honestly you could probably get that trad published.

[Anonymous No.21484576]

>>21484439
>>21484415
this helps. but like where is the reward? why am i spending so much time and energy and thought on something that doesn't bring me any joy, money, or satisfaction? i'm just writing because i told myself i should be a writer and that's what writers do and I keep having ideas for shit and wanting to write stuff down. but how the fuck do i ever know if it will pay off?? what is the pay off even? i feel like im just shitting stuff out that would be better left inside my head if i didn't obsessively ruminate over all of my constant anxieties, fears, etc. how do you find the drive or enjoyment out of an activity like this? like if at the end of my life i was just looking at the stacks of manuscripts that i'd written, would i have been happy with the hours and energy they represented? if not how the fuck do i figure out what will make me happy or at least not suicidal? i'm already in my 30s and besides temporary hits of dopamine from video games, tv, and porn i really can't figure it out (and don't come for me about dopamine fasting or fap addiction i have abstained from both for large periods of time and new anxieties rush in to replace these things, my baseline happiness does not improve) i run regularly too and eat healthy and usually get enough sleep

[Anonymous No.21484584]

>>21484549
Said as much as needed to be said. I've just had this discussion so many times that it's not really that interesting. The solution so the subjectivity of taste isn't to pretend it is somehow correct to constrict the scope of the discussion such that you can have arbitrary rules within an equally-arbitrary framework (rule #22 is that words should advance plot and characters and blah blah blah) -- it's to embrace subjectivity. Reject analysis and faux-intellectual parlor tricks resting on houses of cards. Trust your intuition as a well-read and tasteful reader. You know it when you see it.

[Anonymous No.21484587]

>>21484564
I'm trying the Coleen hoover route. Hopefully they notice me. And a lot of the agents rejected the manuscript. I probably don't write well enough

[Anonymous No.21484590]

>>21484576
writing is the reward. work without attachment to the results is what works for me, but i'm weird and detached enough for that to be satisfying. ultimately: who cares if it rewards you or not? if you sincerely enjoy the process (or enjoy the feeling of accomplishment following the process) then just do that. if you show up and do the work for long enough, you will improve. if you improve enough, you'll write something good; maybe better. write for the sake of the writing.

[Anonymous No.21484662]

>>21484396
I am very similar.

>write every single day
>2 hours minimum, usually 4 hours or more
>almost never finish everything
>almost always start writing something new each day
>focus on the feeling of writing from the unconscious flow
>feels great, has fantastically interesting and living results (I think)
>almost never finish anything
>if I do finish something, it's only a first draft that I never revise and edit

I did finish a novella this year doing the 'just push through it' thing, and I fucking hated it, and I hated what I had written. I'm writing a novel now. My method now, for this novel, is to have in mind my characters and the situation and to just write without thinking, without any sense of narrative or causality, and to just keep it interesting for myself, writing whatever the fuck I want as long as it is loosely related. I have given up the idea of writing from A to C in a straight line. I will write one million randomly ordered scenes if I have to in order to get a 100 page novella out of it.

In terms of how to stay interested? For me so far the only way to stay engaged with the same idea or scene or character is:

>never plot
>never think about the story unless you are writing it
>place no value on it whatsoever
>actively spit on your own work if you can
>focus on the feeling of writing versus what you are writing to determine the value of a writing session (must feel like flow/possession/channelling)
>if you think you know what your story is, you can no longer do that, you must change it on the fly in the next session and destroy that idea
>never ever think about the story unless you are actively writing it

[Anonymous No.21484712]

>>21484576
>where is the reward?
I really enjoy shaping my story and watching it take life. I even enjoy editing, even if I find it much less fun, generally, than drafting. When you finish a chapter with just the right amount of bang it's addictively amazing.

[Anonymous No.21484738]

>>21484662
oh and one more thing which helps me keep writing:

>never analyse what you write

Never look at your work and start trying to connect shit together analytically or psychologically "wow this is just like when I was at school and Biff ate my secret figs and told everyone it tasted like rotten fish and so that's why my character only eats fruit on weekends and why I can't look my boss in the eye after free apple Tuesdays".
For me when I write I can only work with surface details and make myself as shallow as possible so that my unconscious can be tricked into sticking its dick out a little. It's a big game of tricking the ego into fucking off and letting the big black pool bubble up and flow over. Analysis dried the pool up for me. Surface only. The more shallow it is the deeper it is, for me.

[Anonymous No.21484957]

How do you determine a subject? Just wait for a spark of inspiration?

[Anonymous No.21484963]

>>21484957
What?

[Anonymous No.21484991]

>>21484430
Do they put "not for resale" banners across the cover automatically, or did you have to ask for it?
My author copies didn't have that crap.

[Anonymous No.21485012]

New thread >>21485010

[Anonymous No.21485459]

>>21484991
I asked for it. It's my proof copies