/wg/ - Writing General

[Anonymous No.21783546]

The "big love" edition

Previous thread:
>>21775427

/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, and relentless shill-spammers, should be ignored and reported.

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

Thread theme
https://youtu.be/oqOp70ZQdkk

[Anonymous No.21783575]

It got the right number of fingers right this time, but it didn't connect her forearm to anything.

[Anonymous No.21783592]

>>21783546
I love it when my elf girls have patches of scales on their skin

[Anonymous No.21783606]

>>21783592
space elves are part lizard

[Anonymous No.21783608]

>>21783592
That’s her high tech sheer pants. It’s cold out so you can’t go around naked all the time.

[MWAHnon No.21783626]

shamelessly shilling my story:
>https://songoftheotherlings.carrd.co/
I still can't get to the end of the discussion but I want to finish it soon and start the fighting.

[Anonymous No.21783628]

>>21783546
>AIfag AND a Yurifag
What a shit start to a thread.

[Anonymous No.21783635]

>>21783626
Why the Y's? I don't get the intention.

[Anonymous No.21783636]

>>21783628
Everyone is using AI to make book covers now. Just a nice crop and add in a title and we have nice editions to our shelves

[Anonymous No.21783640]

>>21783636
Book covers should be plain, unless its fantasy or sci-fi meant for children.
Paper designed cover covers are acceptable.

[MWAHnon No.21783655]

>>21783635
The text is written by a group I want the reader to subconsciously otherize, it's written by people who "aren't human" in a time long passed.

[Anonymous No.21783660]

>>21783546
>ai generated OP pic
>no problemo
>ai generated text
>report it for fan-fiction! Jannies! don't even engage with him.
I'm still the only one enjoying this tastey hypocracy?

[Anonymous No.21783673]

>>21783660
Gonna go out on a limb and guess that you're the faggot who flooded one of the previous thread with AI-generated """"writing""""

[Anonymous No.21783699]

>>21783660
Good to see you're still posting in hopes of (you)s, keep it up!

[Anonymous No.21783715]

It's okay OP, I accept and support your sexuality.

[Anonymous No.21783991]

>>21783546
We're all gonna make it anons

[Anonymous No.21784039]

>>21783546
WOW I HAVE TO BE HORNY AND POST BOOBA COOMBAIT

[Anonymous No.21784047]

>>21783673
this shit needs to earn a permaban here and every other site. we have enough bloody spam on the internet without meat-users going out of their way to intentionally generate and post even more bot-babble. Just a reminder that Uncle Ted was right.

ao3 users are already begging for it to be banned preemptively

[Anonymous No.21784102]

>>21783546
>My editor and publisher both want me to remove the incest subtext from my novel
What do I do?

[Anonymous No.21784118]

>>21784102
>he wasn't stealthy enough with his subtext
psssh.........amateur......

[Anonymous No.21784146]

Just got the confirmation email from a local publisher. They want to feature me.

Three poems, no longer them 70 lines, can be already published work.

I'll be published along side 4 other poets, at least one of which i know to be good.

[Anonymous No.21784151]

>>21784102
do their bidding. You are now part of the machine. You made it. So don't fuck it up.

[Anonymous No.21784158]

>>21784146
nice :)

[Anonymous No.21784162]

>>21784146
awesome! congrats anon

[Anonymous No.21784207]

I got my review published. I tore some young adults novel a new asshole, for being corny, basic, badly written and cliché. They gave me an award and published me, just because of my audacity. As the old guy who gave me my award said: maybe it's because I'm from a different generation, but I couldn't imagine being this harsh.
The irony of it all is that my parents were respected, professional critics, and they say that my win is a fluke, and that my review sucked. The lesson here is that there is always a bigger critic out there.

[Anonymous No.21784247]

>>21784102
larp on twitter instead of here

[Anonymous No.21784253]

>>21784207
you can get publishing deals for leaving nasty, detailed reviews on crappy books? I've been doing it for free on goodreads this whole time.

[Anonymous No.21784380]

>write before work, 1500-2000 words
>write during lunch break, 1000-1500 words
>write sometime during the evening, 500-1000 words
It's nice getting 3k-4.5k words daily, isn't it?

[Anonymous No.21784394]

>>21784146
How did you manage it? Did you send them a sample?

[Anonymous No.21784483]

>>21784394
All the credit should go to my friend who saw them advertise on facebook and thought to tell me about it.
I sent them my substack (go two threads back if you care to see it) and i guess they liked what they saw. I had a brief interview, just making sure im a national, and asking if i was ready to appear on their podcast to discuss my work.

thats it. It's nice to think that the little blog i made to share with friends has gone this far. Honestly i can thank anons here for this as well, since having some traction on my work probably made it look more desirable.

Thanks guys.

[Anonymous No.21784510]

>>21784483
That's really cool. If you do that podcast you can share it here.

Congratulations on getting somewhere.

[Anonymous No.21784513]

>>21784483
gonna use your work as study material
grats brah

[Anonymous No.21784563]

>>21784510
God, just the thought makes me want to jump in a canal.
I am a terrible judge of my work tho, so maybe ill made a thread asking people to vote on what makes it in.

>>21784513
Sure, i only wish it was better. I have some cleaner work coming up.

[Anonymous No.21784575]

>>21784483
damn, we really are going to make it

[Anonymous No.21784598]

>Hallelujah Mountains
>Blackwater Bay
>Mines of Moria
How come these guys come up with such cool names but everything I come up with sounds retarded

[Anonymous No.21784602]

>>21784047
The OP pic has been ai generated for the last month, yet does not get you as passionate.

[Anonymous No.21784622]

>>21783546
In a story I’m working on, I plan for each character to have magic revolving around a different element, from Light and Shadow to earth, fire, water, and wind. The thing giving me trouble is that I’m planning on giving each element command over multiple secondary forms of magic, and I need some help fleshing out the list a bit. Some are easy, like Light and Illusion, but I could use an outside perspective on this, especially for less obvious associations. Also, since the idea was that the characters would be competing in a tournament, does anyone have any suggestions for creative ways that they could use these elements and secondary magics in a fight please?

[Anonymous No.21784635]

>>21784598
because they weren't mashing random words together

[Anonymous No.21784646]

>>21784622
what's the point of writing crap that's already been done ad nauseum?

[Anonymous No.21784654]

>>21784622
It's been 3 months+. And you're still asking the same questions. How the hell haven't you figured it all out yet.

[Anonymous No.21784655]

>>21784380
Post some of your writing :)

[Anonymous No.21784662]

>>21784655
It is smut and involves a dude that wants to bone his mom so no

[Anonymous No.21784743]

>>21784598
Trying too hard to make a cool name will just result in shit. A good name will usually just come to you when you're only half thinking about it.

[Anonymous No.21784746]

I am cooking on a really big story. It's a sci-fi, mecha war-story. The main thing I want is to have it all planned out from start to finish, before I start working on it.

[Anonymous No.21784786]

>>21784746
>The main thing I want is to have it all planned out from start to finish, before I start working on it.
literally, unironically, without a doubt, not gonna make it

[Anonymous No.21784790]

>>21784483
How many publishers did you try before landing on this one?

[Anonymous No.21784794]

>>21784746
Get the story beats down then start writing, doing a chapter synopsis before each new chapter, refering to your beat sheet. You can't
have everything planned until you begin working on it. You should have an evolving outline which adheres to your original vision, yet leaves space for and adapts to new ideas which will come to you as you write it. Don't get bogged down in the planning, the first draft is just the accumulation of ideas anyway, treat it as your outline.

[Anonymous No.21784800]

>>21784746
>The main thing I want is to have it all planned out from start to finish, before I start working on it.
I did this and ended up writing fuck all for three years. Don't.

[Anonymous No.21784810]

>>21784746
read the mechwarrior and gundam novels to get a good feel for the genre

[Anonymous No.21784818]

>>21784746
damn reading all the replies to this got my mind going. it's no wonder now why i don't have a book finished. fuck.

oh well, least i know better now. haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

[Anonymous No.21784852]

>>21784746
What's the story about?

[Anonymous No.21784861]

>>21784790
Keep in mind this is not my first time being published, though it is a first time for something that isnt a monthly mag.
When i started out i had a few years when nobody returned my emails. (and thank god, i was awful)

This time it went quite quickly. My first try was an imprint of a magazine i featured in, but they just said they dont except unsolicited manuscripts ( a polite way of telling me to fuck off) and this was my second attempt. Just a shot in the dark.

[Anonymous No.21785015]

>>21783546
I'm writing a fantasy story that's got a number of races one of which are a race of goat men (similar to the medieval depictions of baphomet), but I can't decide on a name for them.

They're going to have two names. One is an exonym given to them during a historic conquest by latin-speaking humans while the other is an endonym used almost exclusively by members of the race which still follow their traditional religion.

I've got a few ideas for names, but I just can't decide which ones to actually use. So I'm asking which ones sound better.

so the endonyms are:
>Pans
>Aegipans
>Panyrs

The exonyms are:
>Aegers
>Caprines

[Anonymous No.21785051]

>>21785015
>proper name for some goatmen
whatever, doesn't matter. the better question is what derogatory, slang name they're called by everyone else

[Anonymous No.21785056]

>>21785015
>so the endonyms are:
>[various permutations of Pan]
I'm not feeling any of these, connecting them to Pan just because they're all goat men makes the world feel less dynamic and more constructed. That's fine if that's what you're going for, but its not for me.

[Anonymous No.21785108]

I changed the vol. 3 cover and fixed the quadralogy mistake.

[Anonymous No.21785145]

>>21785108
the old cover was better

[Anonymous No.21785157]

>>21785145
The titty art is still there - right inside the book in fact, for the digital version. I'll also add it to the gallery that the QR code at the end of the book links to.

[Anonymous No.21785186]

>>21785108
why does she have 2 pupils in one eye?

[Anonymous No.21785207]

>>21785056
Pans were an actual part of greek mythology, being the children of Pan. Aegipan, depending on the account, was either Pan's father or his son, and it was sometimes used to refer to a race of Satyr-like men who lived supposedly lived in Libya. Panyr was my attempt at making a less confusing name than "Pan, the Race. Not be confused with Pan, the god"

In the same vein, the race in my setting worships Pan and believe themselves to be his real biological descendants.

There's also the connection between Pan and the European Christian depiction of Satan. My story heavily relies on this connection for its plot and one of the major characters.

[Anonymous No.21785219]

>>21785051
yeah, I'll probably need the goat-man equivalent of "nigger" as well, since race relations will be a plot point.
It'll probably be something to do with devils or demons on account of their appearance and historical association with witchcraft.

[Anonymous No.21785227]

>>21785186
She got lucky and only lost one eye instead of her head to an enemy sniper.

The solution to the loss of an eye is to enhance the other with a mutagenic injection which transforms it into a "Homunculus Eye", allowing it a vastly widened FOV, perfect focus in its entire FOV, and immunity to ocular degradation with age - it's basically a biologically perfect organ that doesn't age. The Homunculus Eye serum is extremely expensive and difficult to produce, and using the eye to its full extent is taxing both physically and due to sensory overload. The benefits of agelessness apply to other Homunculus Organs, but these are even rarer and more expensive.

Traditionally, the full procedure also entails the insertion of a Brass Eye into the empty socket, which is an arcane sigil at the end of a long spike that is hammered in throught he old ocular nerve's pathway. A Brass Eye's vision is objectively worse than a normal one's, but it confers sight beyond the physical, allowing one to see spirits and the like. Altogether, this allows the subject to not just regain normal sight but surpass human ocular capabilities by orders of magnitude, if the patient learns to use the new eyes properly. This character didn't go through the second half of the procedure and later replaced her missing eye with an ancient, highly-advanced prosthetic called a Philosopher's Eye, which is the left eye you see in the image.

[Anonymous No.21785234]

>>21785227
Note that the only reason she got that fancy eye enhancement to begin with was the fact she was a highly valuable soldier to her nation's military and thus warranted the expense. A soldier wouldn't have been able to afford or even access such a procedure at the time even with ten years' wages.

[Anonymous No.21785290]

>>21785207
so are both greek mythology and christianity "real" in this universe? Or just these particular elements?
In any event, geography usually controls over religion/ ancestry for naming, so I personally would want to have their name reflect either their environment, or their orientation with respect to another group of people (e.g. if they live nearby to another group of people, those other people might call them something like "neighbor folk" but in their own tongue instead of english, and the name would just stick due to repeated usage over hundreds of years)

[Anonymous No.21785317]

>>21785108
Much better

[Anonymous No.21785394]

>>21783546
What's with these AI images.

[Anonymous No.21785410]

>>21785290
>so are both greek mythology and christianity "real" in this universe?
Yes, in both senses of the word. Both Greek Mythology and Christianity are practiced religions, and both really happened in some form or another in the setting.

>geography based names
There's plenty of that in the setting too, but these ones are a special case. First of all, the exonym is invented by an ancient human empire which went around renaming everything for categorization's sake. So when they conquered the goat men, they just named them based on appearance. Which is where Aeger (romanized Greek word for goat) and Caprine (Latin for goat) come from. Even though the empire fell hundreds of years prior to the story, all the current human still nations larp as their successor. So they use their language (which is just latin under a different name) for administrative and scientific purposes.

The goat men historically were a nomadic people, and have been displaced so many times that they don't know their original home. Instead they're named after a patriarch, similar to the Israelites (being named after Israel, the biblical figure). In this case, they believe Pan to be both their patriarch and god, so they define themselves as the children of pan. Their name would reflect that.

[Anonymous No.21785461]

I don't know what I'm doing.

[Anonymous No.21785523]

>>21785461
it shows

[MWAHnon No.21785559]

what does it serve to create a substack blog?
are they actually good at getting attention?
how do I go about getting views?

[Anonymous No.21785693]

How would you go about finding a place to critique your work? I get that I can post excerpts here, but what if you wanted people to read pages and such? I have no friends, so that's not really a route for me...

[Anonymous No.21785701]

>>21784602
That's because AI-generated images tend to look really good, while AI-generated writing tends to be sub-normie conformist drivel.
>>21785394
They're cheap & they look really good?

[Anonymous No.21785717]

>>21785701
I think the problem lays with what you feed the AI, visual artists seem to be better at that than writers since, if you could write good prompts, you could just write a story anyway

[Anonymous No.21785722]

>>21785461
Take a week to read a few articles on writing craft, particularly one on independent vs dependent clauses, and one on dialogue grammar. Then edit your work, reading it out loud, before posting.

>>21785559
>are they actually good at getting attention?
There is some network effect, you can get other substacks to recommend you and shill on social media like everyone else.

>>21785693
I believe there is a section on Goodreads where people post asking for betareads/exchange with each other. Or form a critique group on a writing reddit/discord but be prepared to read garbage in exchange.

[Anonymous No.21785772]

>>21785722
Any links to a discord? Or should I just Google and hope for the best? You'd think /lit/ would have one.

[Anonymous No.21785831]

>>21784786
Why not?
>>21784794
Well, everything else I have written, was planned out 100% before I got to writing. I wrote out a short summary of each individual chapter first, and then started expanding on the chapters.
>>21784810
I will.
>>21784852
It's about humanity finding out that we are not alone in the universe, after an alien attack. All of humanity becomes united in the common goal of going out there in the galaxy, and colonizing it first. The main character is a double agent, who both does his best for the colonization effort, and secretly tries to sabotage it. His reasoning is that the original alien attack that set all of that into motion, was a setup, to greenlight a new era of violent expansion into the cosmos.

[Anonymous No.21785846]

Thoughts on this prose / maxim?
The /v/ermin are cumming and shidding their pants to it

[Anonymous No.21785869]

>>21785846
>and it is good
isn't that from the bible?
Anon probably just read the KJV and is mimicking it.

[Anonymous No.21785931]

>>21785846
my thoughts are you should go back and stay

[Anonymous No.21785945]

“I’m home.”
Jack’s mother turned from her telenovela. “Oh, mijo, you look cold!”
His father quipped. “Forgot to bring your jacket again, eh?”
“Yes.”
His mother demurred from her concern. “How was work?”
“Oh, the same as usual. Stayed late for that extra pay!”
Jack’s father groaned. “I wish that would’ve translated into a bigger check for us at the end of the month.”
Jack, smarting after that comment, drew a long sigh.
Jack’s mother shot back. “Well, we’re glad you’re with us here anyways. Away from those roommates, too. They were a bad influence on you!”
“No they weren’t, mom. But thanks for the welcome.” A silence fell as everyone returned to what they were doing. Jack took off his hat and coat, and looked longingly at the fridge, before turning back to face his mother.
“So. There’s a company sponsored mixer next week!”
Jack’s mother did not look up from her telenovela. “That’s nice, dear, you should go. You haven’t had many friendly outings since you moved here.”
“Well, I have no friends here.”
“That could change at the mixer! Go ahead, network a little! It’s important for your career…”
Jack cringed at the mention of career. A career supposed he had somehow managed to clear the hurdle of entry level jobs into something sustainable, something with more pay than a meager desk jockey. But Jack hadn’t gone into the trades, nor did he succeed at college. He felt like he was an abject failure, clinging onto whatever entry level work was thrown his way. Still, that was one step above the streets.
“I guess, but I wouldn’t really call it a career, mom…”
“Oh, then, what is it? Why are you working so late? Aren’t you going to get promoted?”
Explaining the situation to her in its entirety would take too much effort. Jack was exasperated by the conversation already. “Well, see, it’s not really a career, so much as I just want to get looked at for a promotion to get a raise in this mostly entry level work. It’s like being promoted to manager at McDonalds.”
Jack’s mom’s face fell flat. “Ah.”

Is the conversing awkward, or just boring? I really want to be boring for these first few pages before anything good happens. And yes, I'm the same poster from yesterday.

[Anonymous No.21785952]

>>21785945
>I really want to be boring for these first few pages before anything good happens
Why would you deliberately set out to do that?
You'll lose your reader.

[Anonymous No.21785985]

Do any of you read the works from those whose prose you wish to emulate before writing? It’s not the deep, analytical type of reading where you directly compare each line to the line you’ve written, although I’m not even sure if that’d still be considered reading, but a more intuitive yet deeper reading than you’d normally read for pleasure. For example, before sitting down and writing for practice, I’ve made it a habit of either reading one of CAS’ many works, or a short story by Lovecraft. I’ve noticed that my prose has grown similar Lovecraft/CAS, which I want because I’m working on a short story out of admiration for them. Is it strange to “charge” your writing by reading before the act?

[Anonymous No.21786012]

>>21785831
>after an alien attack
boooo mecha is more interesting when it's man against man

[Anonymous No.21786024]

>>21786012
In the grand scheme of things, it is a story about a man taking on mankind. Aliens serve that narrative.

[Anonymous No.21786027]

>>21785952
You know what, that's a good point. I still can't particularly think of a way to make a story about a loser not boring, though. The dullness of the story corresponds with the dullness of being a loser. The exciting bits should be when he has things to say about *why* he's a loser. Alternately, I could try and stick some humor in there, but that's not really my strong suit...

[Anonymous No.21786074]

>>21786027
Why make a story about a loser?
Who do you think will want to read that?
One big motivation to read fiction is escapism, i.e. living someone else's life, doing what you wished you could do but don't dare.

[Anonymous No.21786121]

>>21786074
I do

[Anonymous No.21786133]

>>21786074
Welcome to the NHK was decently popular. But you're probably right. I want to write about a loser largely because it's a lifestyle I'm familiar with. I have nothing else really to say. I guess I could write a YA novel or something, but again, not my strong suit. I was thinking fellow losers would read it, as well as people who were curious as to what being a loser looked like.

I am aware this Is pretty idealistic, yeah, but I can't see myself writing something else. I like realism, what can I say?

[Anonymous No.21786153]

>>21786133
The protagonist of Welcome To The NHK may have been a loser, but he wasn't boring.
There was the whole schizo "conspiracy" angle, plus a girl interjects herself into his life.

[Anonymous No.21786161]

>>21786133
Write about a loser alchemist that gets kicked out for being a useless NEET and has to apply his skillset to survive.

[Anonymous No.21786171]

>>21786024
>a man taking on mankind
So is he like a one man fighting machine, who stops the entire conquest on his own?

[Anonymous No.21786203]

>>21786153
This is true. Originally I had thought of there being a conspiracy of lizards to take over the world, but I thought that would be too hard to fit in. Loser meets waifu has already been done. But you're right, "Loser does things in a realistic fashion while maybe having some critiques of society/him being generally unsavory" only really carries a plot so far. Maybe a love interest is in order. Or a psychotic break. Who knows.

[Anonymous No.21786241]

>>21785945
You don't have the basics ready yet. You keep prefacing every dialogue with a gesture by the speaker just to avoid using ", she said." It stands out and irritatingly draws attention to itself. You do not understand how punctuation works or when you can end a sentence with ellipsis. Both times the action is paused for an internal monologue, the following dialogue summarizes that monologue and expresses it better, making them redundant. You say Jack can't explain the situation to her mom, and he proceeds to do just that.
All this said, I like Jack. I like that he's not extremely gloomy or serious. He carries himself with a levity I'd like to hang out around.
I was a neet for many years, and I disagree about losers being boring. Any routine kitchen conversation with anyone can be fascinating because human behaviour is a beautiful thing to observe and everyone speaks in unique, textured ways with quirks. Even if Jack is a loser, his parents don't have to be, so they could show a bit more pep in their gait.

[Anonymous No.21786287]

>>21783546
I'm thinking of having my MC be a necromancer. What are some good ways to justify them being, well, good? What about necromantic spells/powers I can give them besides raising zombies, summoning/communicating with spirits, self-revival, and inflicting necrotic damage on a foe?

[Anonymous No.21786289]

>>21786287
why don't you just go fuck off to /tg/?

[Anonymous No.21786292]

>>21786289
cope and seethe piss baby that post does belong in /wg/

[Anonymous No.21786295]

>>21786292
no one but you will ever read it, so why dont you just do whatever the fuck pleases your rat brain and your cock?

[Anonymous No.21786318]

>>21786287
Who the fuck knows. I wrote the cringiest fantasy story ever and too ashamed to post it even on royal road. i don't think it's good enough and people will laugh at how stupid it all is.

[Anonymous No.21786338]

>>21786318
post it

[Anonymous No.21786378]

>>21786287
Are you retarded? Are you dim? Why would you need any kind of justification?

[Anonymous No.21786379]

>>21784380
It’s smut, does not count

[Anonymous No.21786395]

>>21786338
https://pastebin.com/5cu0pYmM

here's the first chapter

[Anonymous No.21786452]

>>21786287
>necromancer
>but
> but but but
> le good!
just make it a le quirky, and le cute girl. she can do whatever the fuck she pleases and your dumbfuck simp readers will still suck the shit directly out of her asshole

[Anonymous No.21786453]

>>21786395
This is not the worst writing I've ever seen. You should unironically post to RR and try to get feedback

[Anonymous No.21786462]

>>21786395
you actually continued writing this? it's fun in a campy way. so long as you kept your tongue firmly in cheek I don't see why people wouldn't read it on RR

[Anonymous No.21786467]

I’m the esquire-wannabe fag, who posted earlier this week. Did I make it any better with these changes?

[Anonymous No.21786472]

>>21786462
On and off. I'm only at 70k words, but I don't think I can continue. It's just so stupid. And I can only write about Fight of the Week so often. Dude goes in, gets in a dumb fight. Wins, gets more power. His goddess gets angrier since he won't lose. Makes him take on stronger monsters/quests, he succeeds, Goddess gets angrier again.

It's so formulaic that even I grew tired of writing it. How do litrpg writers do it I have no fucking clue.

[Anonymous No.21786478]

>>21786472
sounds like you should have him break the formula. or have a different god come down and give him an offer - which his goddess gratefully accepts because it means she can nap once again, but then it blows up in her face.

[Anonymous No.21786484]

>>21786472
i know exactly what you mean. You have to be legit delusional to be one of the 'greats' of lit-rpg.

[Anonymous No.21786485]

>>21786472
He should fuck the goddess in the end, therefore beating her and becoming a god himself.

[Anonymous No.21786503]

>>21786171
>So is he like a one man fighting machine, who stops the entire conquest on his own?
Absolutely not. I want to subvert that as much as possible. The main character is a data analyst, who works for the intelligence section. He is a decent marksman, but he is not a good mecha pilot. His mission is to stop humanity from colonizing the galaxy. He does that by messing with information he has to pass along, creating situations where victory is impossible, and overall making sure that the whole operation does not go smoothly. However due to a blunder he made early, his superiors suspect that there is a saboteur on board, so the mc and his team get the task of finding out who it is.

[Anonymous No.21786556]

>>21786395
This isn't bad. It's unique that the hero and the villain are on the same side.

[Anonymous No.21786672]

>>21785945
>Is the conversing awkward, or just boring?
Both. You don't need so much crap in between the dialogue. Just let them talk. And only use quipped, demured, groaned, shot back very sparingly.

[Anonymous No.21786704]

>>21786467
I put some proof marks on your image. Look them up if you're not familiar. Overall, it's not great. You'll want to work on word choice and pacing. Keep it simple and steady. Read your writing aloud to yourself at a normal pace. Learn where to put a comma, and when a comma should be a full stop. Just because you pause when saying it doesn't exactly mean there should be a comma there.

A lot of your imagery and phrases are confusing and are written just plain oddly. It goes beyond simple word choice. Something particular with the last sentence in the image is that Lexi is stopped and not moving, but then it reads like you just skipped to her running. It's purple prose without any of the charming aspects it could have.

[Anonymous No.21786707]

[Anonymous No.21786835]

>>21783546
Should murder mysteries always have a big cast of characters? I'm editing my first draft, and it only has 5 characters including the protagonist. I'm worried such a small list of suspects would make it easy for the reader to single out the culprit. Currently considering on expanding the cast to a dozen characters.
Thoughts?

[Anonymous No.21786846]

>>21786472
You have to introduce some other plot before the fights get stale. Rival god, hidden conspiracy, rigged competition, returning demons, or whatever. Big plot should mirror some inner change within the main characters, such as goddess's lack of ambition.

[Anonymous No.21787195]

>>21786484
Like that systemic lands downy who tried to use the OP pic to shill his work a few threads back.
He couldn't defend the flaws pointed out in his work and when he said 'i'm making X amount per month so i must be a success', multiple instances of even more deranged and successful work were given.
Then the poor ass hat defaulted to the 'well what have you done' defense.

[Anonymous No.21787377]

>>21785945
Meandering. I like the closing line where he acts like a sperg and his mother has to mask herself
Realism doesn't mean you stop treating it like a narrative. Make sure all your lines are either doing something or developing something

[Anonymous No.21787380]

>>21783546
How do I introduce characters?

[Anonymous No.21787390]

>>21787380
Have another character tell the reader what they look like, what their goals are, what their personality is like, why the reader should care about them, etc etc. Better yet, just don't bother with introductions and just cram them into the story

[Anonymous No.21787393]

>>21787380
Just describe them

[Anonymous No.21787402]

>>21787390
I'm trying to come up with a way to cram them in but I don't know what they should be doing.

[Anonymous No.21787479]

>>21786203
>conspiracy of lizards
That'll work until the weather turns cold.
>>21786287
So...Dr. Strange? Or Dr. Orpheus from the Venture Bros?

[Anonymous No.21787495]

>>21787402
As funny as giving people bad advice is, it weighs on my conscience.
Don't do that. Readers register actions more intimately than words. As a crude example, if you need the reader to know this character is evil, have him kick a dog. It worked for all the schlock back in the day. Of course this approach isn't the cut and dry method of introducing a character. Get creative with it

[Anonymous No.21787772]

>>21787479
If lizardmen developed to the point of sapience and humanoid body plan there's no reason not to have them be warmblooded. Even if you want to, for some bizarre reason, make it biologically realistic, the Argentinian tegu does warm itself internally in cold times of year.

[Anonymous No.21787962]

>>21786835
If all the characters have plausible murder motivations five is plenty.

[Anonymous No.21788101]

>>21786704
Okay thanks for the feedback/edits. I’ll implement them and try to keep things as cogent as possible with the prose

[Anonymous No.21788178]

>>21786704
>Just because you pause when saying it doesn't exactly mean there should be a comma there.
When it comes to writing dialogue I'd disagree with this. If you want your reader to hear the pause you should use punctuation to create that effect.

[Anonymous No.21788180]

I wrote this small passage describing a rape scene. It is neither part of a story nor something I plan to expand on. I wrote it recently while being in a really dark place from which I'm trying to escape—these were kinda the things that I had on my mind. English is not my first language. It was inspired by a Hentai image I found on one of the Rule34 site.

"She lays aghast over the stained sheets of her bed. Streaks of semen and used condoms garnish her body, sticking on her underbelly and dripping out of her pussy. Her hands instinctively remain joint and above her head - just as they were disposed. The events of the previous hours return to her in a phantasmagoria: a large silhouette stands above her, an uncertain amount of appendages restrain her movements and keep her lying down, a swift succession of strokes and thrusts hammer against her gaped legs, a shadow approaches her face, a small slippery object quarters the insides of her mouth and intertwines with her tongue, white viscous flecks fly towards her and land on her chest.

Her body quivers and tears begin running down her eyes. A quiet whimper gradually transforms into an hyperventilating sob whose deafening sound fills every corner of the room - with nobody to hear it. While crying, she awakens from its petrified state and contorts madly as a deranged marionette, wallowing in the smears of semen and soiled tissue papers that surround the body from which she longs to escape. An inhuman shriek escapes her mouth and soars through the night, wiping out its stars and condemning the world to sunless skies.

The darkness that has been lurking since the beginning finally embraces her, creating a kaleidoscopic melange of semen, tears and shadows that quashes her surroundings."

[Anonymous No.21788388]

Is anyone else aware of Gene Wolfe's "best method of learning to write"?

in the afterword of The best of Gene Wolfe, he basically tells you to find a short story from an author you admire and read it over and over again until you know the story by heart. Then, you put it away and try to write it yourself from scratch. "you know the characters. you know what happens. you write it. make it as good as you can"

He goes on a few steps on how to do this but that's the gist of it.

[Anonymous No.21788399]

>>21788388
I only know about anime stories and JRPGs

[Anonymous No.21788439]

Rate

[Anonymous No.21788489]

>>21788439
It's really well-written. The story itself is interesting. It's pleasant to read and you do a really good job at conveying images and emotions.

Albeit not flowery at all, the word choice is nice and spot on.

[MWAHnon No.21788494]

>>21788399
>anime stories and JRPGs
NGMI

[Anonymous No.21788501]

My first draft is so bad I'll have to write everything from scratch. I can reuse some parts here or there, but the general structure is convoluted and boring. I'll reduce some characters by merging their conflicts and focusing on two protagonists only. Damn, this writing shit is hard as fuck.

[Anonymous No.21788585]

Any good recs for a short fantasy story? Preferably involving a wizard protagonist.

[Anonymous No.21788588]

>>21788489

I'm going to try and fix it up a little I like what I've wrote I just think it needs improvement in a few places. Otherwise it's not bad. Trying to go for a Kafkaesque nightmarish sort of thing with the ctiy and her hallucinations

[Anonymous No.21788593]

>>21788585
Harry Potter

[MWAHnon No.21788597]

>>21788585
not a book but listen to Fugitive Wizard for a good story about a wizard in four parts

[Anonymous No.21788626]

>Re-read my prose to edit and there are just entire sections of text that are fucking utter garbage.
>I use the wrong tenses, use the same word at the end of one sentence and immediately at the beginning of another in the same paragraph and other horrible mistakes.
>After a bit return to average prose.
Is this something that happens to you guys as well?

[Anonymous No.21788634]

>>21788626
All the time.

[Anonymous No.21788645]

>>21788634
That's actually kind of comforting. God bless editing I guess.

[Anonymous No.21788675]

>>21788588
>Otherwise it's not bad.
Definitely not bad at all.

>Trying to go for a Kafkaesque nightmarish sort of thing with the ctiy and her hallucinations.
I got a strong Thomas Ligotti vibe from it. Makes sense, considering he himself was heavily influenced by Kafka.

[Anonymous No.21788681]

>>21784207
Kek

[Anonymous No.21788752]

I wrote myself into a corner now I'm stuck.

[Anonymous No.21788766]

>>21788626
in boring passages i have to get through to do some necessary setup or transition crap, yeah

[Anonymous No.21788791]

>>21788752
Just paint over it
Time to edit bitch boy

[Anonymous No.21788829]

>>21788675

I've only ever read My Work is Not Yet Done but definitely got some good KAfka/Melville vibes from it. I'm going to refine it then maybe look for somewhere to send it, could you suggest any decent places for this type of short story?

[Anonymous No.21788895]

>>21788791
no

[Anonymous No.21788903]

>>21788829
>...could you suggest any decent places for this type of short story?
Sorry, I don't really know.

[Anonymous No.21788945]

>>21788439
It’s good anon but this is a pet peeve of mine
>Her memories were foggy and disjointed, like pieces of a puzzle that refused to fit together.
They should either be puzzle pieces that refuse to fit together or they should be foggy and disjointed. Don’t describe something twice. On the other hand
>The city seemed to stretch on endlessly, its twisted streets leading her deeper into an endless nightmare.
Doesn’t fall under that category (even though it may seem like it at first) because the leading her deeper part implies that she’s moving through the city, so it’s not like a static moment that’s being described twice. It’s moving the story forward.

[Anonymous No.21788947]

>>21786503
This sounds pretty interesting. So it's more of a mecha/spy novel?

[Anonymous No.21788955]

>>21788501
Keep going, anon. Dmmpt

[Anonymous No.21789005]

>>21788439
Too much filtering

[Anonymous No.21789140]

are there any good texts on crafting story not necessarily prose but crafting a tale in any medium? Im an artist but Id like to try my hand at writing and finding a way to combine the two and I thought starting off writing short fiction may be useful though the texts i've come across deal more with prose related issues than story.

[Anonymous No.21789216]

>>21789140
Story by Robert McKee is basically what you’re looking for.

[Anonymous No.21789302]

So I'm trying to write a scene where a lone character walking through unfamiliar woods slowly realizes they're likely to be stuck in there overnight as it grows closer to dusk then night. It's from 3PL perspective, and the character has virtually no survival skills at the time. I'm primarily trying to build a respectable level of unease in the reader, without droning on, until the climax of the scene. As it stands now it's too short and I feel it doesn't quite build tension as I'd like.

I'm mostly just looking for recommendations of books or excerpts/passages from books/stories that capture something similar, or even have a near identical scene in terms of what is trying to be achieved. At its core, I feel I'm trying to find a fine line between descriptive detail that isn't too purple while remaining necessary to achieve immersion, and avoid boredom, in an outwardly uneventful scene. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous No.21789314]

>>21789302
go innawoods for a night

[Anonymous No.21789363]

>>21788945
disagree
winding metaphors that are in themselves characterized are based

[Anonymous No.21789369]

>>21789302
Call of the Crocodile

[Anonymous No.21789393]

>>21789363
If by based you mean superfluous and forgettable. I think
>Her memories were jagged puzzle pieces that refused to fit together.
is a much more memorably sentence.

[Anonymous No.21789408]

>>21789369
F Gardner’s series is the best thing ever written from these generals. /wg/‘s claim to fame will be CotC.

[Anonymous No.21789411]

>>21789393
I'm not the writer and I don't think it's an effective metaphor, but saying that a writer shouldn't describe something twice seems like a weak, contemporarily constrained way of thinking

[Anonymous No.21789416]

>>21789408
Nobody likes your schlock, Frankie. Get back in your box, Frankie.

[Anonymous No.21789461]

>>21789411
Editing yourself more harshly and removing every single thing that the story can survive without is not weak but it is contemporary and also constraining. Those are both good things though.

[Anonymous No.21789471]

>>21789408
Call of the Crocodile technically already is what this place is known for. That’s because F Gardner has over a dozen fucking books and writes the weirdest stories he can think of. He’s genuinely talented.

[Anonymous No.21789478]

>>21789461
>removing every single thing that the story can survive without
it's a narrative, not a race
sightless reduction is cheap and minimalism is easy

[Anonymous No.21789515]

>>21789478
>minimalism is easy
You don’t write. I forget which famous writer it was who, in a letter to a friend, said he was sorry the letter was so long but he didn’t have the time to write a shorter one. Jotting down every thought that pops into your head is easy. Deleting 90% of what you write and then rewriting the remaining 10% ten more times is difficult. Good writing is distillation.

[Anonymous No.21789531]

>>21788903

Couldn't think of anywhere to send so tried my luck with the big boys like New Yorker will let you know if I get accepted

>>21788597
>>21788585

Jack Vance has some great short stories invlving wizard protagnoists no idea if you'd find them dated or not but for early fantasy/dying earth they are very good. I especially like Mazirian the Magician

[Anonymous No.21789536]

>>21789515
you don't write. minimalism is the contemporary voice and we tend to it naturally
narratives are constructs for ideas, and an idea's natural state is monadic. it's only through lots of work that a base idea becomes something nuanced and complex in the form of a story
I don't even dislike minimalism. it's just very cucked to limit oneself to low form "technical" advice because of current trends

[Anonymous No.21789541]

>>21789408
I thought CotC predated /wg/

[Anonymous No.21789604]

>>21789541
I think Call of the Crocodile and F Gardner’s early works are from around the same time. They definitely inspired much of the works from here. I don’t think there’s ever been another book series from /lit/ that has gotten as much mainstream attention.

[Anonymous No.21789650]

>>21789541
F. Gardner created /wg/

[Anonymous No.21789662]

>>21789302
HP Lovecraft the Outsider.
Jack London Call of the Wild

[Anonymous No.21789668]

>>21789536
tl;dr

[Anonymous No.21789738]

>Made the /wg/ virtual authors list
This is the greatest achievement of my life and I must keep going to make the actual authors list or I have no purpose and will cease to exist.

[Anonymous No.21789741]

>>21789668
kek
listen here you little shit

[Anonymous No.21789782]

>>21789738
Congratulations. You’re the next F Gardner.

[Anonymous No.21789808]

>>21789782
>Come to writing general
>Mad when people talk about writing
You do it to yourself.

[Anonymous No.21789975]

I have just started writing a novel again, this time I will finish it, just need to do the last 4 chapters.

[Anonymous No.21789999]

>>21789738
congrats, anon
>>21789975
good work, anon, keep going

[Anonymous No.21790016]

Question.
Writing in 1st person. Past tense. For this specific sentence should I say:
>I hated my parents because they were partially to blame for who I am
Or
>I hated my parents because they were partially to blame for who I was

The character is telling the story and he's still around when telling it so I thought I am would be appropriate but wouldn't that be mixing the tenses too much?

[Anonymous No.21790021]

>>21790016
Each conveys a different meaning. If this is near the beginning and the character meaningfully changes/turns things around over the course of the story, use was. If the character is who the character is, and the story is just simply told in the past tense, use am.

[Anonymous No.21790033]

>>21790021
I kinda want him to change as he tells the story. It's a type of recollection and bits and pieces he forgot come to him as he tells it. Eventually he's going to come to the part in his story where his life and outlook significantly changes. I feel it might be a bad idea though.

I haven't really gotten to that point but I'm leaning towards him coming to accept himself and thereby not depend too much on other's opinions of him

[Anonymous No.21790034]

>>21788388
I'll check this out, seems interesting. Thanks anon

[Anonymous No.21790051]

>>21789604
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. F Gardner’s books are the biggest reason Writing Generals have become a regular thing. 100% of the books in the /wg/ pastebin came out after Horror’s Call. F Gardner’s massive advertising campaign and all the threads resulted in other anons here wanting to aspire to writing their own book.
F Gardner is honestly a genius for thinking of writing a series of books and marketing it on 4chan. It literally wasn’t done before him which is bloody shocking. 4chan has been around for twenty years and somehow it wasn’t till Gardner that this happened.
I’ll give credit where it’s due. Gardner is the single most influential poster here and the progenitor of /wg/ literary works. He spawned what is probably the strangest literary movement of all time.
My biggest question regarding Gardner is why is Call of the Crocodile so much more popular than his other books? That book has become eternal. Is it really the best of the books F Gardner has authored?
Pic moderately related. Screencap of an old /wg/ classic.

[Anonymous No.21790097]

>/wg/ rule #1
No one here writes
>/wg/ rule #2
Every thread will eventually become about F Gardner

[Anonymous No.21790137]

>>21790097
Of course nobody in /wg/ writes, you can't be writing and be in /wg/ at the same time.

[Anonymous No.21790141]

>>21790097
>/wg/ rule #1
>No one here writes
True. I give up on my Adah book. No matter what I do it just seems to get worse.

[Anonymous No.21790147]

>>21790097
>No one here writes

Except F Gardner, obviously.

[Anonymous No.21790269]

https://www.amazon.com/Fedbook-John-Jay-Stancliff/dp/B0BRC7Z2Q9/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wASQxup4I0s
>>21790051
F Gardner's triumph is not in encouraging new others, but in convincing people that /lit/ and 4chan in general is a market worth catering to. Sadly, it results in many aspiring authors that would have otherwise honed their craft or at least tweaked major projects often after the submit/reject cycle, just sending the first draft raw onto Amazon.
It also results in dudes not exploring other avenues of publication after being rejected by hail mary tier agents/pubglishers, and thus very good books end up languishing.
Good news is that a creative community has finally sprung up on this board, and with our powers combined being an indie who writes like us will be viable.

[Anonymous No.21790274]

Cool to see /lit/ has embraced F Gardner so much. Seeing Call of the Crocodile mentioned here always gives me such a warm and fuzzy sense of community. It’s crazy how much Gardner’s books are posted.

[Anonymous No.21790291]

>>21790051
The most “shocking” thing about F Gardner is that he’s really fucking smart and fiercely antisemetic.

[Anonymous No.21790298]

>>21790291
Try to be more subtle with your narcissism next time, Frankie.

[Anonymous No.21790301]

>>21790291
The most shocking thing is him thinking his blatant shilling here equates to book sales. Everyone else is shitposting for the lulz.

[Anonymous No.21790339]

I wonder what could be happening in /wg/ right now?

[Anonymous No.21790368]

So if I win the competition and get published very early next year, do I report in and claim to be a /wg/ success?

[Anonymous No.21790375]

>>21790301
F Gardner’s in every discord server and never shills. Gardner mostly talks about flat earth.

[Anonymous No.21790399]

>>21788439
Too much happening and too little detail. I understand you are trying to establish a sense of mystery, but the dull prose and fast pace simply make it uninteresting to read

[Anonymous No.21790408]

Section of a short story I'm working on. First time I've done any writing, it's very difficult. Some of you have good advice and even though I think my work is weak, I hope to improve.

My idea is some dystopic Kafkaesque short story. I don't really expect anyone to see much of this early work but it makes sense to do short stories then try anything more advanced

[Anonymous No.21790456]

>>21790269
>the submit/reject cycle
trad publishing is a pipedream unless you're already sucessful. look at colleen hoover. a huge, huge success self publishing several books, which then caused the publishers to come to her. if people are putting out underedited/unpolished work out for consumption that's on them, not because they were rejected over and over by some fat jewess gatekeeper (pronouns zhe/ze)

[Anonymous No.21790467]

>>21790269
>the submit/reject cycle
It works. Just look at Frank Herbert. Dude got published by someone who prints car manuals.

[Anonymous No.21790489]

i have a dark fantasy story for a game i wanna make (read: will never ever make)

basically:
very large tower (tower of babel) emanating evil reality-dismantling energy controlled by a wizard (nimrod) at the top of the tower guarded by an evil demon (satan)
this wizard (nimrod) has made a deal with a demon (the devil) for infinite wisdom and in the process lost his mind and is convinced reality must be dismantled and an eternal state of abstract horror must replace it
inside this tower is pretty much every horror imaginable and to anyone who enters it's an eternal sentence of torment of varying levels and concepts (dante's inferno but not based on particular sins necessarily)
there is no entryway into this tower and to enter you must sacrifice yourself (isaac kind of) and spill your own blood onto a large stone slab set at the base of the tower atop a mountain
i want to make it so that the player can go to it right off the bat if they want like zelda (high-level monsters at the bottom of the mountain and increasing in difficulty as you go) but if the player decides to suicide and enter the tower before finding out how to defeat the wizard the game crashes and blue-screens your computer or something gimmicky like that
anyway the key to entering (and pretty much the entire point of the game aside from defeating le ebil wizard) is going on a journey to find an angel of light (michael) to accompany you through the tower. the angel is the one who slays you on the mountaintop slab (i thought that went kinda hard) and so your soul is then guarded by this angel in your journey through the tower which is the final dungeon
the pc's name will be wrath and he's mostly a silent protagonist he's also borderline retarded and is only good for violence, rarely interacts with anyone or anything otherwise, not in a stoic way but a brutish orc kind of way. he is wise, but not intelligent and is an irredeemable heathen who is going to hell when he dies

a moral that could be derived from this story would be that willpower and the human spirit alone is not enough to overcome true evil, and another would be that God uses the evil he allows to exist to his will, but neither of those morals were in mind when i made this plot i just thought all of it was cool and collided well with the dark fantasy theme

alright /lit/, i need to know whether this is something interesting worth pursuing or high school-tier pseudo-religious fanfiction LARP garbage
i'm going to keep writing it anyway

[Anonymous No.21790491]

>>21784483
Lucky.

[Anonymous No.21790512]

>>21790489
your story is whatever, it's like the diablo 1 storyline. if the gameplay is fun you'll have a good game. it not, it won't be. that's all there is to it.

[Anonymous No.21790522]

>>21789369
>>21789408
>>21789471
>>21789541
>>21789604
>>21789650
>>21789782
>>21790097
>>21790147
>>21790274
>>21790291
>>21790375
Just how stupid ARE you, Gardner?
You just finished getting your ass handed to you in another thread...
>>/lit/thread/S21768057#p21781519
...you even tried to delete your posts, to lessen the butthurt, but there they are, preserved for all to see.
No one talks about you but you.
You're not fooling anyone.
You are a sadcringe lolcow and a public masturbator.
Picrel is the house where you shot all your stupid videos.
But putting that image into Google "search by image" reveals it was sold on December 12.
Further Googling reveals your parents have new addresses, across the street from each other, in a nice-looking rural area, but your address hasn't updated.
Are you homeless? Couch surfing? Institutionalized? In hospice for alcohol-related multiple organ failure?
You like talking about yourself so much...why won't you talk about this?
>>21790051
>100% of the books in the /wg/ pastebin came out after Horror’s Call
No, you're pre-dated by "City Of Singles" by Jason Bryan.
You can't even claim to be first.
You're just another soulless copycat.

[Anonymous No.21790526]

Small question, but how is your experience with small publishers and how much does it cost? I think I might want to get one instead of Amazon for when I finish a full on book.

[Anonymous No.21790574]

>>21790489
i like the basic premise about the wizard losing his mind and all that. everything else was kind of hard to follow. seems like something that would be well suited for a darkest dungeon type game.

[Anonymous No.21790575]

>>21790051
you know, i'm actually the one who started /wg/

[Anonymous No.21790582]

>>21790526
Never publish with anyone who wants you to pay them. It's always a scam.

[Anonymous No.21790604]

>>21790574
the wizard isn't the "true" evil per se, his being acts as an earthly, mortal representative for satan, in the same way your character is driven as a representative of the angel of light, meaning that the real conflict is between the angel and satan and your fight to le save le world is merely a stand-in for the greater fight between good and evil
the tower thing is just a cheap tie-in between dante's inferno and needing an ultimate super final end-game dungeon, but i want that dungeon to change the entire experience of the game. i really want to make something disturbing out of it

[Anonymous No.21790734]

>write fantasy story
>has incest in it, but it's not erotica
>scared i can't post it anywhere now
how do I cop out of it?

[Anonymous No.21790739]

>>21790526
Publishers will pay you an advance and then usually pocket all of your profits until you've paid that advance off + other fees, depending on your contract.

[Anonymous No.21790743]

>>21790734
appeal to game of thrones fans

[Anonymous No.21790766]

>>21790734
add
>step-

[Anonymous No.21790821]

>>21790456
>>21790467
Trad publishing is not a pipe dream, big five, sure, but if you’re willing to leg it you can find worthwhile mid and small press publishing. There are definite drawbacks compared to high major publishers,
1. No fat advances, and I’m not saying small in comparison to the six figure deals from Simon and Schuster, but modest in comparison to the 2500 dollar advances. Apocalypse Party, publisher of BR Yeager, offers a 50 dollar advance, for instance. I’m of the opinion that if your advance can’t even cover a week’s groceries, just don’t fucking offer one.
2. Their reach is smaller. They don’t have the direct line to hundreds or thousands of reviewers that will soft shill your book, they don’t have contacts at the Paris Review who will give you an interview, they can’t get you on as many shelves(though more than you can).
That being said
That money and that reach still greatly outperforms what you personally will be able to garner. I know what you’re thinking “I’m built different”, you’re not. (Unless you’re a minor e celeb)

Speaking as someone who would really really benefit from /lit/ authors never learning about smaller publishers that take direct submissions, there are a plenty. All of them a bit clandestine though. You’re choices aren’t smashing against the big five brick wall, or throwing your shit haphazardly onto the net to sell 10 copies.
I always beg good writers to at least pitch/submit to smaller outfits before going self pub or giving their book to me

[Anonymous No.21790824]

>>21790739
doesn’t that mean that one chick who got a 100k advance for her plagiarized book won’t see a lick of profit until it’s made 100k in sales?

[Anonymous No.21790828]

>>21790824
I don't think she's all that worried given the 100k advance.

[Anonymous No.21790856]

>>21790821
Also, so many people don't even go through that cycle these days. They just assume they wont make it because they're the wrong category of person. It's a fundementally self defeating attitude, even if it is true, which it is not.
>>21790467
I still believe. Just find a publisher whose terms you find tolerable and query. What's the harm? The blows to your ego from being rejected will pale in comparison to seeing your title sell 10 copies lifetime. I've seen it! Or submit it to us when we get our novella operation up and running (Q4 2023)

[Anonymous No.21790861]

>>21790856

Meant for >>21790467

[Anonymous No.21790878]

>>21790582
>>21790739
Ok, thank you. Honestly sounds better than Amazon.

[Anonymous No.21790880]

>>21790734
Stick to your guns.

[Anonymous No.21790883]

>>21790856
i hope you guys are able to get good deals with book stores to sell the books we shit out.

[Anonymous No.21790906]

>>21790734
Keep it

[Anonymous No.21790910]

>>21790883
From my research, we're going to need to find a print service that isn't amazon. Then we offer books at wholesale prices to various bookstores with the expectation that if they don't sell they're allowed to strip their covers and return them to the print service at cost to us. Due to these economics my plan is to try to roll out to like ten independent bookstores in artsy cities/college towns. If emails don't work then we can hit the pavement, the benefit of having a "network". Small presses on twitter are very friendly and I'll ask em for help with this.
But I have no intention to publish non anthologies without better distribution capabilities than your typical selfpub(respectfully)

[Anonymous No.21790914]

>>21790856
>even if it is true, which it is not.
Fuck off, of course it's true. Tradpub is rotten to the core short of vanity presses and they're just a different kind of rotten. Even the publishers that can't afford to snub every white male author for not being the right flavor of mentally ill will just fuck you another way. You know it, I know it, everybody knows it.

Furthermore, the idea that the only alternative is trying to sell your shit independently is false. Yeah, I'm talking about Patreon, and I hold to it that it's an infinitely more realistic pathway to making money as an independent writer than tradpub OR amzn (and it doesn't lock you out of amzn later on).

[Anonymous No.21790916]

>>21790016
>they were partially to blame
partly

[Anonymous No.21790917]

>>21790734
write an entire chapter dedicated to their sloppy sex that ends with impregnation

[Anonymous No.21790931]

>>21786467
Way over descriptive

[Anonymous No.21790939]

>>21790141
Sorry to hear that. It was kinda janky. My only advice for you is to read Conan books.

[Anonymous No.21790941]

>>21786704
what kind of woman ass suggestions are these
>shoes?
are you retarded?

[Anonymous No.21790945]

>>21790914
It's just not true. You'll notice that i've never advocated for querying agents. That copypasta is my favourite thing to come out of /lit/. My advice is to never approach middlewomen with your non queer BIPOC transgressive literature, but also there are numerous small outfits which are not rotten which you can submit to directly. If you're commited to being an indie, please do some research. I'd love to see a /lit/ original finally outsell Mike Ma even if it's just for a week.
However, if you do the research you'll understand that if you aren't publishing erotica or like 2 other genres, you are pushing a boulder up a hill. It's pretty bleak.

[Anonymous No.21790972]

>>21790467
The 1960s might as well be the Jurassic era.

[Anonymous No.21790980]

Just found out what Royal Road was in a previous thread, so I thought about writing a story about this very strong wizard-judge, called the Barcas, who must retrieve this ancient divine artifact after it was stolen by a group of hereticals. It would be basically a action-adventure book, with gore and sex (but not too much of it, since Barcas is a serious man) and this kind of stuff which I saw it was popular in Royal Road.
This is the first chapter:

https://privatebin.net/?0f5e76fcabd5ac10#2bQEcVMtZVUnBU1bQMaMPxHd5AwwvxQZ71wFNiQcByhW

What you guys think? Too much exposition, retard descriptions and dialogue? It's something different that I'm writing for fun, while I am away from home.

[Anonymous No.21790986]

>>21786704
jesus every suggestion other than the objective grammar is terrible
>>21786467
I like the playful musicality. the aliteration feels insistent but that's kind of fun in its own idiotic way
keep the time title but remove "of"

[Anonymous No.21790988]

>>21790980
>those they dimmed necessary
deemed
also it could do well

[Anonymous No.21791012]

>>21790988
Kek, I don't have an auto-correct in the medium I'm writing in (my phone), so I make these stupid mistakes. I will correct everything in detail before putting it on RR. I also got a little anxious to ask for feedback here, since I don't use social media nor I want to show it to my friends yet.

[Anonymous No.21791019]

So I want to win that crime story, and I have been working hard to come up with a few crime story ideas. One that I came up with, deals with very new and modern day problems.

Basically the idea is about a vtuber getting killed, and an old detective investigating it. But he is so far out of the loop about people acting like cartoons on the webs, so he takes the case to his nephew, who is freshly out of the academy. His nephew knows a lot about that stuff, so they have to work together. While investigating the killing, a lot of modern problems get focused on. Mainly parasocialism, but also stalking, internet safety and etc.
But I also have doubts about this idea, since while it may help the novel to discuss something that hasn't been discussed much. But it also may be my undoing, since the judges may not understand it, and thus they may dismiss it.

[Anonymous No.21791027]

>>21791019
sounds legitimately interesting. even if you dont win id still like to read it

[Anonymous No.21791036]

>>21790980
>What you guys think? Too much exposition, retard descriptions and dialogue? It's something different that I'm writing for fun, while I am away from home.

You've got a w40k vibe that could do well on RR. They tend to like tough guy protagonists.

A little too much exposition with names and titles and so on. Leave somethings unexplained at first to create curiosity. Add details as you go. Most people can figure things out through context anyway.

It's overall a little too brief. It reads like a summary. You should tease out the interrogation scene and add more dialog.

[Anonymous No.21791044]

>>21791012
>I'm writing in (my phone)
that shit is hell, found myself trying it at work
I had to cave in and order a craptop I just can't write on a phone

[Anonymous No.21791050]

>>21791019
Sounds like an episode of Law and Order

[Anonymous No.21791064]

>>21791050
The Brothers Karamazov is also a law and order epsiode. Half investigation, half court room drama. But what matters is how it's done.

[Anonymous No.21791139]

my newest work

[Anonymous No.21791157]

>>21790575
F Gardner was the 1st in the sense that no one else bought ads for books before him on this site for their books. He directly advertised himself to 4chan. The term 4chan author did not exist before F Gardner. Unless you retroactively apply the term to other people like Mike Ma. So yes. Gardner did oddly influence /wg./ A lot of the books to come after Call of the Crocodile and Horror’s Call even used 4chan ads.

[Anonymous No.21791162]

>>21791139
Congratulations. Your the next F. Gardner.

[Anonymous No.21791186]

>>21790291
Calling it now. F Gardner is going to name the jew in his next youtube video.

[Anonymous No.21791209]

>26/42+1 chapters finished.
>Almost everything planned.
>Some dialogue and descriptions written in advance.
>Phone and desktop blown up with details and reminders and information.
>Realize that one of the two main characters I switch between gets far more dramatic development than the other.
Fuck man I don't want her to be seen as just as an accessory to the other guy. I need to come up with a good, solid way to demonstrate a character arc that results in greater flexibility in her way of thinking.

[Anonymous No.21791219]

>>21791157
/wg/ was never solely about some sperg spamming his crappy self-published schlock, stop jacking yourself off

[Anonymous No.21791225]

>>21791209
have you ever had a girlfriend?

[Anonymous No.21791228]

>>21791225
Yeah but those were a long ass time ago, why?

[Anonymous No.21791232]

>>21791219
Please stop shitting up this place. Gardnerposting has been going on for years. It will never stop. You are just as annoying as the people who complain about BanePosting on /tv./

[Anonymous No.21791234]

>>21791232
Neck yourself Frankie, nobody likes you, you're a fucking scourge on /lit/

[Anonymous No.21791237]

>>21791232
kill yourself. in every board there is always that one terminally online cancer cell who spams and spams until he ruins the experience for every other user and drives them away

[Anonymous No.21791238]

>>21791186

[Anonymous No.21791241]

>>21791232
It’s just one guy. He does this every time Call of the Crocodile or F Gardner are mentioned. Most of us here love F Gardner and Horror’s Call. F Gardner is probably the best horror writer currently out there.

[Anonymous No.21791243]

>>21791241
Kill yourself, Frankie.
No one talks about you but you.
You're not fooling anyone.
You are a sadcringe lolcow and a public masturbator.
Picrel>>21790522 is the house where you shot all your stupid videos.
But putting that image into Google "search by image" reveals it was sold on December 12.
Further Googling reveals your parents have new addresses, across the street from each other, in a nice-looking rural area, but your address hasn't updated.
Are you homeless? Couch surfing? Institutionalized? In hospice for alcohol-related multiple organ failure?
You like talking about yourself so much...why won't you talk about this?

[Anonymous No.21791247]

https://privatebin.net/?8c7d771210cbe0c6#Cp8Vjq1qrqECfvFfcXb6DFmDLTGU8GFA95gNdDCB5t8E

Am I trying too hard?

[Anonymous No.21791252]

>spend years thinking about how I am gonna be different from the other zoomers and write good, solid middlebrow fantasy /lit/ that avoids tropes and modern genres
>suddenly get inspired to write a portal fantasy
>the ideas keep flowing
>the concept is clean, simple and compelling and doesn't leave me feeling like I am trying to engineer a world-class dam
>I am going to write a fucking isekai
>me, the middlebrow enthusiast, who was celebrating the coming death of the genre as late as a week ago
it's over

[Anonymous No.21791255]

>>21791252
the "isekai" part of isekai is just another form of the other world part from the hero's journey. It's not some new thing.

[Anonymous No.21791256]

>>21791157
>>21791162
>>21791186
>>21791219
>>21791232
>>21791241

[Anonymous No.21791271]

>>21791247
why does he have bile and shit on his sword, is he using it as a toilet paper substitute?

[Anonymous No.21791272]

>>21791255
I've got a radical theory anon. The reason why isekai comes so easily to both readers and writers is because it is one way of circumventing the end of history. Whether a story is set in our world or a fantasy world, it is still subject to the conventions instilled in us by modern society.
Not in an isekai. There, the modern conventions are introduced in their pure form, only to be completely abandoned and replaced by something different - history begins anew, and the actions of individual men and women are suddenly invested with new meaning, contributing to the development of the world.
At least, this is my latest cope.

[Anonymous No.21791276]

>>21791252
Yeah that's because isekai is just that easy to write. It requires absolutely no thought or natural flow to the writing. It consists of easy infodumps and characters babysitting the transported characters, telling them everything they need to know.
It's fucking lazy and unsatisfying to read or watch.

[Anonymous No.21791282]

>>21791271
Slaughtering fantasy monsters isn't very clean.

[Anonymous No.21791284]

>>21791276
>Yeah that's because isekai is just that easy to write. It requires absolutely no thought or natural flow to the writing.
I agree with this.
>It consists of easy infodumps and characters babysitting the transported characters, telling them everything they need to know.
For this part, I can't quite agree. At least in my case, I was inspired by two works where the main characters receive very little to no guidance. The first one started as a survival journey and the whole first arc is trying not to get eaten by monsters or die from starvation in a desolate wasteland - that one was an isekai. The second one was an apocalyptic "system" story where the MC has to work with the people around him in an extremely dangerous environment without any help from anyone who understands what's going on (because no one does).

[Anonymous No.21791295]

>DON'T DO EXPOSITION IT'S BORING!
>try out dialogue
>DON'T DO DIALOGUE WE DON'T KNOW OR CARE WHO THE CHARACTERS ARE
>try out action
>DON'T DO ACTION! IT'S NOT APPROPRIATE UNTIL WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE READING!

I'm so confused.

[Anonymous No.21791309]

>>21791282
your character makes some very interesting traveling choices.
anyway I think it's a pretty well written piece for what it is, gets across the feeling of being tired from walking too far.
some of the mechanical details I take issue with but I digress.

[Anonymous No.21791314]

>>21791295
Trust your instincts and only use cookie-cutter advice as possible flaws to be aware of - if you are confident but also keep this stuff in mind, it can help you detect real problems with your work and help you address them. This type of advice shouldn't control your creative expression, however.
You are welcome.

[Anonymous No.21791317]

>>21791309
>I digress
No, you don't. I mean, it's just a rough draft/excerpt for the character, but I still wanna hear what you have to say. I don't write all that much.

[Anonymous No.21791340]

Does this encapsulate the idea of "onlyfans" and porn?

>“There’s hundreds like that.”
>I thought of her answer. Hundreds of men all willing to find a connection with another, yet, remain isolated to solve their predicament. No matter how much they try, providing tokens of appreciation to another, but failing in every regard to make a connection. Looking into the woman’s eyes I realized my quest to seek out the man was for naught. The answer was provided to me. It was given by a woman removed from society both by sickness and by profession. Yet, she found acceptance as well. To be ingrained into a culture of degeneracy and to find pleasure was in of itself a blessing.
>“Is this what you desire?”
>“Of course not! Who would want to dance for a bunch of perverts just for a few coins?”
>My thoughts were wrong. This was not acceptance. It was defeat. She entered a battle in which the victorious entrapped her soul to a lifeline of false love. The men around the room wanted a feeling reserved only for themselves. A selfish desire that pleasured their own souls and dismissive of the feelings from the other. What these men sought was an object, a painting, a fantasy of their own minds they so carefully constructed to be real.
>I bid the woman farewell and wandered the streets of Glamora once again. The large screen across the bridge displayed another advertisement. It featured two people, a woman with brown hair and green eyes in her undergarments touching a man in an equivalent dress. The two were slim in figure, and can only be described in the most conventional of terms as beautiful. A standard that all sought to become but would never meet; it was similar to the same fantasy desired by the people inside the dance room. A message for all — idealize the forms that we all should be.

[Anonymous No.21791342]

>>21790980
I can critique this through Google Docs, or some other means, if you'd be interested. There's too much to cover in a 4chan post.

[Anonymous No.21791359]

>>21791295
trying to please agents is always a catch 22. you're always damned if you do, damned if you don't, and their "advice" is always contradictory. they dont even know what they want, so they sure can't tell you

[Anonymous No.21791367]

>>21790939
I think my biggest problem is not being able to find anyone to give it a quick read and tell me the problems. Most people say "it's not the worst thing I've read."

and that's that. Sometimes I think I should just toss it on Royal Road and hope the users there will be my beta readers.

[Anonymous No.21791417]

>>21791317
it seems like your character is making his traveling harder than he has to, but that might well be in his character, they're just details which bother my autism a bit
things like wearing a full helm when there's no apparent combat; IRL knights would open or even wear them on their person during marches precisely because they weren't very comfortable and gave an awful field of view, or seemingly wearing chainmail with no cloth beneath it and of course not cleaning his sword which is very puzzling to me, especially since it is dirty enough to make him vomit
this may all be within character or for other reasons for which I am unawares
again my issues are with the mechanical, I actually quite enjoy the style especially in how you describe the feeling of a long march it evokes the proper sensation of it.

[Anonymous No.21791451]

>>21791417
I give my characters some liberties to keep the writing dark and gritty. I want the details of how viscious medieval fantasy combat can be.
For example, he's probably too exhausted to clean his sword. Maybe the fluids and remnants run into his sheath, or onto his body, and he is simply too tired to clean these things. Maybe he doesn't have the opportunity. He's venturing out into the wilderness, so he doesn't have a ton of water to wash off with.
I'd also really like the helmet to be a constant burden. I don't want to have a face to his name. He is a nobody, after all. Plus, the area he's in is sort of like a Zelda overworld, maybe? He has to be ready for anything and he has nowhere to put his helmet. He's grown use to it. He'd probably feel naked without it. Maybe it's like a drug. It makes him feel awful, but satisfies a horrible feeling of nakedness and vulnerability he has.
As for the character's hardships, you know the drill. The fate of the world is at stake. He has no choice. His experiences and trauma have esentially stripped him of his humanity, aside from his strive for purpose, which is the one thing he knows he has to hold on to. Maybe that's not so easily derived from the text, but once I flesh it out the intent will be there.
Just to say, all of the things you nitpicked were intentional choices that I'd like to keep one way or another. Thnaks for noticing the holes, I'll see if I can patch them up a bit. For now I'm gonna keep moving on with the story and worry about that later.
Good criticism. Thanks

[Anonymous No.21791459]

>>21791295
>>DON'T DRIVE BACKWARDS DOWN THE STREET!
>>step on the gas
>>DON'T DRIVE FAST IN THE SCHOOL PARKING LOT!
>>slam on the brakes
>>DON'T SLAM ON THE BRAKES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE HIGHWAY!
I'm so confused.

[Anonymous No.21791468]

>>21791252
Tropes and genres don't matter. Anything can be good if it's well written.

[Anonymous No.21791478]

>>21791247
Yes
It's fine to be edgy and gritty to set the tone, but there's no information about what's going on. Who is he? Where is he? What's he doing? There are no specific details, just abstractions.

[Anonymous No.21791484]

>>21791478
more to come in that style

[Anonymous No.21791560]

>>21790147
fr how does F Gardner write so many books? this one guy has written most of the books from 4chan and it’s ridiculous

[Anonymous No.21791567]

>>21791560
Clown world. “4chan books” basically just means Call of the Crocodile to most outsiders. Call of the Crocodile isn’t even the best F Gardner book. I read both Call of the Arcade and Jigoku and those two were superior to it.

[Anonymous No.21791574]

Threads fucked
>The kimono wearing grounds keeper of a self meerkating basement dweller is back.

[Anonymous No.21791575]

I wrote a character who works as sort of a saboteur, think CIA but in fantasy/medieval era, she does all sorts of horrible things.
She's also pro-slavery and has taken part in cannibalistic rituals willingly.
However she is a strong vegetarian and against animal abuse in all its forms.

Its a joy to write her, because she's pretty smart about most things but incredibly morally conflicted and illogical when it comes to her own actions

[Anonymous No.21791617]

>>21791575
Gardner-esque

[Anonymous No.21791650]

prose critique pls
>SIpping slowly from a glazed plastic cup at the window looking over streets and several stories he turned to admire the glint of the cup’s rippling sheen over the backdrop of office windows and beige brick facade. Reams of papersmell and ink, old coffee, alcoholic mouthwash, suit mothballs, and rust from the ceiling’s busted pipe. Harauanged across the office space in search of a corner bereft of the incessant telephone ringing. Now, in an alcove of red leather seat impressed under the window’s dome back near the secretary’s entrance the ringing finds itself to his ear through a more troubled path. Winding over conference rooms stacked neck deep in assemblies of the dead, over trader desks and security corners, splitting dimpled plastic watercoolers into hallways with actually dead faces smiling from behind borders and glass. But then there’s also the shining of the cup. Taking his brief moment of respite he turns the cup to admire the waving of the film’s radiance. Passing fingers over and behind to send eclipses through the clarity of the thing. Trying so desperately to keep his mind off of the pendulum above him. Missed trades, missed quotas, missed shorts. The cold hand of death finding itself clamped over his shoulder sending spikes of its cool eminence deep into his living flesh despite the fraying silk draped on it. He doesn't really care anymore. Job, no job. By now even the instillment of respect and company honor has betrayed him. He tried drugs. Cheap thrills in the muddy ambience of a hotel backlot, maybe a girl there to admire in the somnolence, turn his face from in orgasm and cringe. Afterimages of a cloudy retina registering movements of sheen before the hotness of the prick, the grip of the belt pantomiming its departure in a delayed forestallment. After evenings and evenings eventually coming to find himself getting quite sick of the stuff. Horrible bouts of belted illnesses making the thing’s relief a matter of debate. The whoring fell off too soon after. He feels himself drawing inward these days. External stimuli wracking impulses from front to back around the thunderstorm of his brain. Not this glare however. This glare being one of the first to not stoke his ire in some time now. Fascinating, it really is. The brightness of it radiating its translucence without giving it content. More truthfully the radiance endows the cup with a clarity of form. He can see in-and-through it. The clanging of ringing just fading deeper now with his increasing meditation on the cup. Nothing special about it really, just plastic. But now it has become more than plastic for him. A shield for lost memories costing him a great deal of strain to repress. He sees through them now, so clearly occupying every moment of his weakening cognition, but he cannot see them precisely because his seeing is predicated by it. Point pricks in darkness, needlesharp.

[Anonymous No.21791653]

>>21791650
Looks great. You’re the next F Gardner.

[Anonymous No.21791664]

>>21791653
>lul weird and bad
can you be constructive pls

[Anonymous No.21791681]

I cant figure out what to write about.

[Anonymous No.21791691]

>>21791664
F Gardner is great though.

[Anonymous No.21791694]

>>21791681
write about me.

>>21791650
seems pretentious. Its like you're adding word salads and overly detailed descriptions, for no reason other than to seem sophisticated. 0/10 for me. But most people love that shit so if your goal is to be successful Id say keep it up.

[Anonymous No.21791701]

>>21791238
Where did this “le F Gardner hates the jews!” meme suddenly come from?

[Anonymous No.21791763]

guys when you read about a female character how important is it that she is fuckable to you?
my story has 2 prominent female characters but one has a loli body type and I know thats not for everyone

although realistically men would fuck almost anything with a hole and pulse so maybe Im overthinking it

[Anonymous No.21791791]

>>21791650
What’s with all the alliteration

[Anonymous No.21791806]

>read anything schizo/angry/probelmatic e.g. Tropic of Capricorn
>feel an incredible sense of catharsis and understanding. Yes. THIS is what I feel day to day.
>weeks of resentment towards my peers, family, work, and my community
>try to write something similarly indicting
>of course it's some too edgy bullshit my diary desu tripe
>write a new story from the ground up
>sentimental, main character redeems himself through love and understanding, story flows much better than anything I have ever written
>gets picked up in the Chicago Quarterly Rev.
>still angry day to day
>read Miller, he STILL gets me more than anyone
what gives.... does anyone here successfully write from a part of yourself you associate with less?

[Anonymous No.21791811]

>>21791650
Look, I get it. You enjoyed the opening passage from Suttree. Clearly you understand what "style" is if you imitate someone else's. Now you need to develop your own. Look through this passage and find the stuff that is most your own and work with that. Drop the direct apeing of McCarthy, don't worry, your influences will always remain evident in your work.

[Anonymous No.21791816]

>>21791791
Trying to improve on my prose. Reading back over it some of the alliteration was unintentional, but most of it, I feel, gives the text an internal rhythm that drives the eye forward.

[Anonymous No.21791817]

>>21791650
Unreadable

[Anonymous No.21791818]

>>21791763
I wouldn't read anything by you, that's for sure.

[Anonymous No.21791829]

>>21791818
you just read my post

[Anonymous No.21791919]

>>21791816
Read more poetry

[Anonymous No.21792009]

>>21791342
I will post an updated version, based on what >>21791036 said.

[Anonymous No.21792113]

>>21791763
Fuckability for chicks helps with their likeability, you're right, but as long as your loli isn't directly described as hideous, she'll be received as normal. Ugliness is always highlighted for some distinct reason or another for readers to keep in mind, so if isn't touched upon, most guys will read about her without much regard for how hot she is. Also, post the descriptions you've got about her, my dick gets hard for /lit/ lolis.

[Anonymous No.21792215]

>>21783546
Is it a good idea to write something serious about zako?
If you don't know what zako is, it's a trope for disposable grunts in media, like stormtroopers or the Delmo Corps

[Anonymous No.21792220]

>>21792215
sure, why not. as long as you execute it well it'll be fine.

[Anonymous No.21792262]

>>21792215
I love that shit
and of course >>21792220 is always true

[Anonymous No.21792277]

does anyone know of a way to write men and women according to esoteric principles of the nature of men and women? astrology guides for personalization helps too, i know the hermetic principles have the gender of polarity, im not a woman and i know how vexxing and hard to understand these cunts are, so i dont want to wing it and just base this off my male logic wich is bound to be innacurate, and im not resorting to the cope move of
>lol just write them like men
so any sort of guide based off these principles would be helpful
yes i believe in this stuff i dont care to hear your criticism about how im a superstitious moron so please refrain from talking shit thanks

[Anonymous No.21792296]

>>21792277
Jack Nicholson's character in "As Good As It Gets" had a hilarious shorthand for writing women: "I start with a man, then I take away reason and accountability."
You could also read a relationship book like "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus".

[Anonymousn No.21792321]

>>21792277
DH Lawrence kind of does this but based on deep vibe-intuition rather than a system.

[Anonymous No.21792411]

>>21792215
Gallipoli

[Anonymous No.21792413]

>>21792113
she's got tanned skin, slender body but slightly plump thighs, long dark hair that splits into 2 large tails about 3/4ths the way down, she wears a very short feathery dress that just barely covers her undergarment but its longer on the backside because she's modest, wears snakeskins like panty hose so it looks like the snakes are devouring her legs and her bra is a piece of red cloth. She wears half of a broken monster skull as a hat and she has some armbands with feathers and and large gloves. It's supposed to be an intimidating style of dress but its kind of lewd

[Anonymous No.21792461]

>>21792277
I honestly don't even attempt to write women "realistically", I probably could but that'd be totally uninteresting. I prefer to write something compelling over something real. If I had my way, I'd always write some variation of one of these three tropes: an aloof, dignified lady, a sexy, angry retard, or an easy-going, horny badass. Incidentally, I find all three personality types both cool and arousing. Really, I think the main problem for male authors is that it's obvious they are salivating over their own characters - if you can remain rationally detached even when you are emotionally engaged, I think you're basically almost at the finish line.

[Anonymous No.21792492]

>>21792461
>I honestly don't even attempt to write women "realistically", I probably could but that'd be totally uninteresting. I prefer to write something compelling over something real.
i totally get that, i would try to base it off a realistic guiding system but then stylize it to suit my needs, its just that as far as i know men tend to write women as they wish they were and not as they actually are, wich is something i want to avoid doing, i want something not necessarily realistic but in a way that it remains faithful to the inherent nature of women wether stylized or otherwise
>Really, I think the main problem for male authors is that it's obvious they are salivating over their own characters
basically, you can always tell and its super cringeworthy, this is yet another thing i strongly want to avoid doing
>emotionally detached
yea good point, i was going to make it so the stories dont really try to nudge the audience into taking anyone's side and simply observe the events play out without too much bias towards any one character, but still theres the other issues i mentioned

[Anonymous No.21792557]

>>21792492
>i know men tend to write women as they wish they were and not as they actually are
here's the deal with women. they're physically weaker than men, and they're perfectly aware of this fact. they also know that men lust after them or want to protect them, and they're held to easier standards and given the benefit of the doubt by men because of this, but there's usually some sort of expectation required of them as a result. so when dealing with men, because they simply can't muscle their way through, the way they get what they want usually involves subterfuge or charm. their interactions with each other, on the other hand, are more varied. however they will usually default to social manipulation because that's the best way they have to deal with men, and it works.

[Anonymous No.21792567]

>>21792557
trust me you dont need to spoonfeed me on female behavior, but this sort of intuition is still no substitution for an organized behavioral model based on sex, guess i'll go searching online for a while

[Anonymous No.21792585]

>write what you know
>I only know loneliness and failure
>I'll never make it

[Anonymous No.21792601]

>>21792585
loneliness and failure are not bad things to write about. Granted, it will only reach a small audience, but with those it does reach, if done well, it can be an incredible story.

[Anonymous No.21792609]

>>21792492
>its just that as far as i know men tend to write women as they wish they were and not as they actually are, wich is something i want to avoid doing, i want something not necessarily realistic but in a way that it remains faithful to the inherent nature of women wether stylized or otherwise
I get that, I guess you've got a desire to represent the masculine and the feminine more so than men and women? In that case, that's fair - but if you're thinking that it is better to represent women *as they are*, then I will just ask - why? If you have a reason, cool. If you don't, you may have to consider other possibilities as well.
If you're more interested in the yin/yang type of stuff, you may benefit from reading various traditions and the way they characterise masculine/feminine differences - whether it's descriptions of yin/yang, moon/sun, water/fire, what have you - there's lots of symbolism that can offer support with this type of writing. But keep in mind that if you try to keep every character purely masculine or feminine, your work is going to be peculiar - not necessarily in a bad way, but it will stick out, especially today. Generally, most people are composite, and the average woman has masculine traits just like the average man has feminine traits.
>yea good point, i was going to make it so the stories dont really try to nudge the audience into taking anyone's side and simply observe the events play out without too much bias towards any one character, but still theres the other issues i mentioned
I said rationally detached and emotionally engaged. I was referring to the ability to write a scene with a compelling female character without allowing emotional longings to interfere with the quality of the writing and presentation. A lot of guys can't seem to do this but that's only because they don't even want to try imo.
>>21792585
Nah don't worry tons of losers make money off of writing about losers and sharing that writing with other losers.

[Anonymous No.21792761]

Im being published! Vote now to sabotage my career!

>>21792652

[Anonymous No.21792909]

Let us shake off the failure riddled crumbs of this bread brothers and shisters!
Surely this new bread cannot get any worse.
>>21792874

[Anonymous No.21793133]

>>21792413
That's a succubus right there, but yeah, I think it's only lolifags that'll find her lewd, although it really all depends on how she's featured in the story