/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.3663934]

Hey /lit/,

I am a young author. And I use that term loosely, considering that I have never written anything of substance.. I would like to change that, however, and write a novel by the end of my senior year (approx. 14 months.)

So I come here asking the great readers and Scholars of the internet for any advice on accomplishing this dream. Also, the things that you appreciate in a good book. And on the contrary, all the things that ruin a book for you.

Anything helps, even opinions.

[lazy No.3663936]

Subtly. Precision. And beautiful images.

At least for me.

[Anonymous No.3663938]

>>3663936
subtlety

[Anonymous No.3663945]

>>3663936
When you say subtlety, what do you mean?

[Anonymous No.3663947]

>>3663945
I mean when your provoking a reaction from the reader, it should be done subtly.

[Anonymous No.3663950]

>>3663945
Knowing when to spoonfed. Knowing when to take your time for those moments. Knowing when to let the story unfold.

[Anonymous No.3663956]

Write. Inspired or not, just write, or you never will. Also, fuck subtlety. You need to grab someone's attention from the get go, or nobody will care.

[Anonymous No.3663959]

>>3663956
That takes subtlety too, the lack of subtlety. Though before you worry about that skill, you must first write your story.

[Anonymous No.3663962]

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The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest. The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.

[Anonymous No.3663967]

>>3663934
Another thing, try not to focus on page numbers and words, don't think 'oh it should be x amount of pages long, because y book is'. Just write the story as you want it to be read, whether that's in 100 pages or 1000.

[Anonymous No.3663972]

if by senior year, you mean "senior year of high school" please let me give you this piece of advice: pfttt lmao faggot

[Anonymous No.3663976]

>>3663934

I suggest you find out what is the writer that you like the most in all the literary canon: find out who is the writer whose books you would like to have written. Is not easy to discover this ideal author, nor is it fast ... but eventually you will find out what author you admire the most.

After discovering this writer, read all his work. But do not just read his work: dissect it: find out what are the best books of literary criticism about his work (for best books of literary criticism I mean those books that analyze the techniques of the writer in question: books that deal with his construction of the characters; with the structure and sculpting of his chapters, paragraphs and sentences; with the way that he elaborates dialogues, performs as descriptions, and other technical aspects - do not waste time with books of literary criticism that want to reveal what the author meant with his work, or what is the philosophy behind his work – like Harold Bloom’s books - : What you must learn is the techniques): read all these books of literary criticism and discover the secrets of the style of your favorite writer.

When writing your first books, whenever you have questions about how to proceed, imitate your favorite writer: make him your model, your teacher, and try to reproduce his techniques. Gradually you will develop your own voice, your own style, but you do not need this to happen suddenly. The time will take care of that.

2 examples of this new-writer/old-writer relation: a) Keats and Shakespeare and b) Hemingway and Tolstoy.

[Anonymous No.3664008]

>>3663934

Start by writing short stories, novellas and the like. Don't think you can really come up with something
>substantial
the size of a novel. Start small and keep writing until it becomes second nature to you. Don't expect to acchieve anything overwhelming unless you have practiced to master the art for years. Don't expect anyone to read it, especially don't expect to be able to make a living from it.

Good luck, OP. Don't hurt yourself.

[Anonymous No.3664012]

>>3664008
>especially don't expect to be able to make a living from it.

A sad truth

[Anonymous No.3664026]

The three most important rules to writing, in order of importance:

1) Don't be boring
2) Show, don't tell
3) Write what you know

[Anonymous No.3664027]

We really need more lovecraft fanfics.

[Anonymous No.3664034]

Write every day, OP. Even if it's just 100 words a day, writing is like exercising a muscle or practicing a sport, you have to do it daily.

Aim for a goal of 1,000 words per day, that's a good pace when you're writing in your spare time.

[Anonymous No.3664044]

>>3664034

Please tell me more. Did your early days of writing were not as productive, but start becoming increasingly fruitful over time?

How do you overcome sleep and tiredness?

Over time did you get used to writing and working at a specific time? Did the sleepiness died away with training?

[Anonymous No.3664045]

okay. I've had three novels published and sold one that never got published. Here's how i do it.

get an idea.
develop a plot
create characters to be my protagonists/antagonists, etc.
outline the plot events. break the outline into chapters.--about thirty.
break the chapters down into scenes, like plays. one or two significant (to the plot) events per chapter.
put the outline up on the big bulletin board in the back of my writing room, divided into chapter sections.

write the scenes.

at the top of each chapter section i have a list of all the plot events that need to occur in that chapter. these can get moved around and do, constantly. I don't write any particular order, just whatever i feel like as the board fills up. I pin up the days work in the appropriate place as i finish it.

after I've got sixty or seventy percent of it done this way I take it all down, put it in order and fill in the gaps. Then I do a first deaft, let it sit for a few weeks while i work on other things, reread it while making notes, and write the second draft.

if i get ideas through the day or anything I write them on my notepad and at the end tear out the pages and put them up in the chapter sections. I do this through the entire drafting processs,.

[Anonymous No.3664054]

>>3664045

Do you live with literature money or do you have another job also?

[Anonymous No.3664060]

>>3664054
I teach. I only write a book every two years and my biggest advance was $33,000.00, so I can't really live on it yet.

[Anonymous No.3664063]

Just write. Don't worry about being good at it, because you will be terrible at first. Just. Write. Also, I hope that you read this in my voice. Cuntballs.

[Anonymous No.3664078]

>>3664060

How do you overcome sleep after the workday to write?

I am a lawyer, and whenever I sit down to write after working hours. But many days I feel sleepy and tired, and can not produce. It makes me very frustrated.

[Anonymous No.3664096]

>>3664078
disco nap! actually, unless there's a teacher's meeting I'm usually home by 4:30. I have a cup of coffee and churn out twenty or so pages (at the most) while I'm watching TV.

I get most of my writing done in the summer, however, and you're really sort of writing all day, since the scenarios you're working on are going through your head all the time, and you're scribbling them down throughout the day. by the time you get home and start writing it's often just a process of corellating and fleshing out your notes. I try not to write when I'm tired, and my best ideas aseem to come either when I'm exercising, or when I'm hungry.

[Anonymous No.3664118]

>>3664096
>while I'm watching TV

How do you manage to concentrate while watching TV?

[Anonymous No.3664134]

>>3664118
Don't know about that guy, but I've always done my best concentrating on general work when I have my TV on and some random show, preferably one without an important story to it (like a comedy show).

When I sit down to write properly though rather than fleshing out ideas and making extensive notes, I just put music on.

[Anonymous No.3664143]

>>3664118
yeah, i can't really concentrate on anything creative unless soemthing else is going on in the background. I usually put an old movie on and write while it plays. It keeps the annoying little kid oart of my mind occupied while the adult part gets some work done.

[Anonymous No.3664170]

>>3664118

It makes good background noise to help with work.

[Anonymous No.3664187]

Speaking of background noises, field recordings are great for that. I use this for those somber long writing nights especially with nature scenes in them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SY94KemG0E

[Anonymous No.3664253]

>>3664187
Thanks for the recommendation, it's beautiful.

[Anonymous No.3664782]

>>3663976
this

[Anonymous No.3664831]

>>3663934

Write and read write and read write and read. Seriously. There's no way around it. Just write and read and write.


Also, your work shouldn't take itself seriously. YOU should take WORKING ON IT seriously, but the prose shouldn't take itself seriously otherwise it will probably sound pretentious. Either way its going to be garbage at first, but you can imagine how much worse pretentious garbage is.