/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2643964]

Hi /lit/,

Frenchfag here. Would you help a fellow out? I wrote a short story for a writing contest, but the vote system is just too lame... Would you care giving me 5 stars?

http://blog.letudiant.fr/concours-de-nouvelles-2012/2012/05/16/au-bord-du-gouffre/

I know this is a bit moronic. But I'll bump this thread with nice pictures. Peace.

[Anonymous No.2643966]

>>2643964
>but the vote system is just too lame

Do you mean people don't vote for you?

[Anonymous No.2643969]

>>2643966
It's a students contest, so every writer is just giving 1 out of 5 to each story he didn't write to make his own win, like a pubescent jerk. Mine was up for like 5 seconds before it got its first bad grade.

[Anonymous No.2643974]

>>2643969
Ah, I can imagine. Is not participating an option? I'll just give you 5 stars anyway

[Anonymous No.2643977]

>>2643974
>Is not participating an option?
If you're refering to me participating to this contest, well, it's just an exercise, I just don't want my short story to be "cyber-bullied"

Thanks.

[Anonymous No.2643989]

bump with a nice picture.

[Anonymous No.2644004]

Why the fuck not. I Got ya OP.

[Anonymous No.2644008]

Just voting for you before someone says "not your personal army". I don't like contests based on popularity.
In return for the votes, I'd like you to translate it to English. It's quite nice and people should know if they're voting for you for a positive reason.

>Ma famille est riche, mais leur argent ne m'a pas aidé dans mon impopularité.

[Anonymous No.2644011]

>>2644008
Well, I'd be glad to help you with French whatever the reason.
>My family is rich, but their money didn't help me with my (here the word I used in my text is affliction, like, a disease, but you used "impopularité" which means "unpopularity").
>>2644004
Cool, thanks man.

[Anonymous No.2644015]

>>2644008
I second this.

[Anonymous No.2644016]

>>2644008
Oh, I just realized you wanted me to translate the whole story. Well, it's a good idea and a good exercice. Let's go.

[Anonymous No.2644019]

>>2644011
I can read and understand French quite well and even write a little bit of it, as you've seen. The English is for the others at this board.
Doing it in parts keeps your thread alive and gives people a reason to vote for you aside from being irritated by the voting system.

[Anonymous No.2644017]

>>2644008
>Ma famille est riche, mais leur argent ne m'a pas aidé dans mon impopularité.
That was clever by the way. /lit/ seems to be a good board.

[Anonymous No.2644021]

I'll just copy and paste it onto a french to english translating website. I doubt it will have very much effect on the text.

[Anonymous No.2644022]

>>2644019
Sure, I'm a bit tired so I didn't understand your point right away. You're obviously right about that. Let's get this started. So I guess, about that:
>It's quite nice
Thanks mate!

[Anonymous No.2644024]

>>2644021
French is a quite subtle language, I'm going to translate it myself part by part as this other anon suggested, just wait for it.

[Anonymous No.2644030]

« Of all the adventures I could tell you about, I guess none of them will convince you that I'm in no way a thief... After all, you probably don't even speak my language. »

The natives were massing around me. The rumbling of their bare feet on the paved ground resonated like as many infernal percussions for my own requiem.

[(english is obviously not my native language uh) No.2644047]

In front of me, a few dozens of hainous faces and primitive weapons were repelling me farther and farther from the goal of my journey.

« ¿ Habláis español ? » I tried hopelessly. The cut obsidian blades darted me even more to my ruin.

[Anonymous No.2644060]

I confused the paragraphs order a bit, but whatever:

Behind me, the void ; the gaping mouth of a titanic well into the rock that was getting closer at each step.

[Anonymous No.2644068]

Better in French. The translation is good, but English just makes it look like an average fantasy.

[Anonymous No.2644073]

>>2644068
You know what? That's exactly what I just thought.

[God this is hard. No.2644092]

The cave's dome sent back to me the echo of their unintelligible whispers and the rustling produced by their pomp like a sanatorium cacophony.

[Anonymous No.2644106]

Anyone here? Nap Break.

[Anonymous No.2644267]

another small bump with a nice picture.

[it's awkward No.2644295]

I fought the impulse to cover my head or to bend in fear : Cowards didn't have their place in my family.

Soon, there were only a few feets left between the rift and the tips or the vindictive spears.

[Anonymous No.2644317]

>>2644267
If you know where that pic comes from, don't be shy about telling us.

[Anonymous No.2644345]

>>2644317
eh, sorry, I found it on /x/ a while ago. Maybe tineye will help you better than me.

[Anonymous No.2644349]

>>2644317

The picture is of Tolkien's Gondolin. Don't know for sure who painted it, but GIS suggests Ted Nasmith.

[Anonymous No.2644351]

J'ai bien aimé. 5 stars story, nigga!

[Anonymous No.2644352]

>>2644317
>Tuor Reaches the Hidden City of Gondolin, by Ted Nasmith

Apparently its based on a Tolkien city

[Anonymous No.2644358]

>>2644351
Merci copain!

[Anonymous No.2644371]

Well, if this kind of pictures appeal to you, I've got a lot of them from all over 4chan.

[Anonymous No.2644412]

Here, have another one.

[Anonymous No.2644477]

And look what I have here.

[Anonymous No.2644515]

If anyone want more of the translated story I can go back working on it.

[Anonymous No.2644519]

>>2643964

I hate cheaters, and I'm quite sure you tried this thing on some other boards, so I'm afraid I'll have to 1 star you.

Nothing personal.

[Anonymous No.2644528]

>>2644519
Well if you consider that the entire concept is stupid and that everyone is 1/5ing everyone, I'm not really cheating, just being smart. Plus, 1/5ing me gives me +1 vote anyway. So no hard feelings.

[Anonymous No.2644530]

>>2644519
Oh and, I didn't post this thread on any other board.

[Anonymous No.2644531]

That competition is flawed. Its safe to assume that cheating and whoring ones story will make it get a lot of votes, but that also means that cheaters and prostitutes will get fair amount of bad votes, so in the end they may have even less chance than fair people.

[Anonymous No.2644534]

I thought it was kind of dodgy OP. I'm not a native francophone though, so I gave you the benefit of the doubt and gave you 5 stars. Why do you want to win, or care about winning?

[Anonymous No.2644546]

>>2644531
The truth is, there are a lot of really bad stories, and nobody cares about this contest except for its participants...
>>2644534
We cool nigga. Thanks anyway. Well, I guess I was bored to death. And maybe I'm trying to force my luck to get published with something else. One can dream. If you catch my drift.

[Anonymous No.2644555]

>>2644528
It is cheating. Even if others are doing the same, it will still be a dishonorable and despicable act.

[Anonymous No.2644572]

>>2644555
Wait what, there is a vote button and the whole internet in front of it. It's not like I'm using a script or something. I'm quite confident that whoever is first in the current ranking just has a lot of friends. I'm too much of a social failure to go anywhere else than to 4chan in that kind of situation.

[Anonymous No.2644594]

>>2644572

Its a story contest.
In French.
You are advertising it on ENGLISH site.

If you'd advertise it on a French site, people could read other stories besides yours and decide by themselves on how high they'd vote each story. Right?

[Anonymous No.2644606]

>>2644594
Eh, not everyone on /lit/ is reading English only, I assume. Some of the niggas in this thread are good exemples. The first thing I said in OP was that I was French. If anyone who doesn't understand this language decides to click on a star and then gtfo who can say they aren't in their own right? I mean, if you're the same guy as before, you showed that penalizing me is also possible. It's tricky, but I don't see why there would even be rules against making an ad about it somewhere.

[Anonymous No.2644675]

>>2644594

You haven't answered my question. Why don't you advertise it on French sites? You'd get plenty of votes that way, and everyone of them could read what you and your peers wrote. Not as many free fives I guess, and maybe some of them would like your competitors also...

[Anonymous No.2644686]

>>2644675

>French sites
>Plenty of votes

There is the problem. There aren't any french website as active as 4chan where he could post this.

[Anonymous No.2644695]

Just a bit of bump.

[Anonymous No.2644705]

>>2644675
It's exactly as >>2644686 just said, I'm French and I don't know about any consistent French sites that are not full of retards or just some reactionary secret friends club. I think we French geeks tend to see the internet as English speaking, because we try not to go too much on our own shitty websites. Plus, online people tend to have a quite bad opinion of French speaking guys, mostly because we're often bad at any other language and temperamental/immature. That's just a lame cliché but still.

[Anonymous No.2644713]

>and maybe some of them would like your competitors also...
And I would even add that we're so bad at languages that even in our own one, we often suck. So believe me, you wouldn't actually want to read any of the other stories, with their grammar mistakes and everything. I guess French is THAT hard.

[Anonymous No.2644761]

Just another bump.

[Anonymous No.2645486]

One more time.

[Anonymous No.2645675]

And here I am again.

[Anonymous No.2645739]

Bump, I've read your story (I'm french). There are a few mistakes, but overall, it is quite good. It reads pretty much like Edgar Poe's short stories.

[Anonymous No.2645743]

Déjà vu.

[Anonymous No.2645747]

>>2645739
>tfw bumping at the same time as a compatriot
Thanks man, I know about the mistakes, I've made a corrected version for my archive but I had already sent this one.
I take that as a compliment, I often see my style as a bit "ampoulé" but I was strongly influenced by the XIXth century.

[Anonymous No.2645756]

>>2645739
What did you think of the other short stories? I find them all terrible, I feel like I lost what was left in me of faith in my fellow French young writers...

[Anonymous No.2645791]

it's not bad, good job OP... but seriously how many people that read french are on here? there's gotta be a french /lit/... don't you fags love books?

[Anonymous No.2645798]

>>2645791
I'd be glad if we did man. See >>2644686 and >>2644705

[Anonymous No.2645800]

>>2645791
And thanks by the way. Have another picture.

[Anonymous No.2645805]

Voted for you, OP, because there's nothing to lose for me.
Tell me, how do I get a French boyfriend?

[Anonymous No.2645806]

>>2645756

>>2645739 here. I haven't read the other stories yet, I know it will be terrible and reading this garbage will probably rustle my jimmies. On the other hand that's kinda motivating to see that we may have a chance to become famous writers considering the lack of talented young writers.

[Anonymous No.2645824]

>>2645806
So that means you're writing French too? Tell me a bit about you.
>>2645805
Are we talking about same-sex intercourse? Because I've got a bit of an experience in this domain. What do you want to know, exactly? And, why French?

[Anonymous No.2645826]

>I know it will be terrible and reading this garbage will probably rustle my jimmies.
You have no idea how rage-inducing they may be.

[Anonymous No.2645836]

>>2645824

I haven't written anything yet, however I plan to become a writer. I just want to read LOTS of books (classics and so on) before I start writing.

[Anonymous No.2645864]

>>2645836
Why don't you do both, progressively? That's why I'm doing.

[Anonymous No.2645871]

>>2645864
>why
meant what*, obviously

[Anonymous No.2645948]

May I bump you?

[Anonymous No.2645979]

Enough already with bumping. You are already in the lead, what else do you want?

[Anonymous No.2646122]

>>2645979
Dunno, the discussion was interesting so far.