/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4168772]

"Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer." - Stephen King
Can you really call yourself a writer if you do not fulfill this?
Also, if the Paris Review is willing to interview this guy, why won't they interview Tao Lin?

[Anonymous No.4168781]

>implying steven king knows how to be a good writer
>reading paris review

Tao Lin sucks donkey dicks

[Anonymous No.4168786]

>>4168772

>King-brand writing advice

I will agree that good reading is essential to good writing, the idea that there's some magical number that applies to EVERY single person is just asinine

Also,

>Paris Review
>Credible

[Anonymous No.4168795]

This raises another question which I asked my girlfriend today:
"Would you rather have total underground recognition or one popular breakthrough?"

[Anonymous No.4168804]

>>4168795
What did yur mum say?

[Anonymous No.4168809]

I'd go for word count over some sort of duration. but King's general idea is right on track - good writing is just like good musicianship or good painting or proficiency at any other artistic medium...you need to practice at it. I'll try to get in 500-1000 words everyday.

[Anonymous No.4168836]

OP here I've written 2,181 words today.

[MrThrills !aAnvD.FqpM No.4168840]

Reading and writing is good, but why don't these bestseller authors ever mention the revision process?

That, I think, is what separates exceptional writers from the rest: to what degrees one is willing to reconstruct, butcher, and augment a work over endless drafts.

Oftentimes, the best works are those that have been refined so well, they seem to be entirely natural -- bursts of pure genius from the author. And those that don't recieve this nurturing seem lacking and underwhelming, and all the more disappointing, considering the author thought "Well, it could be better, but this is good enough for me."

>>4168795
Although your qtgf probably said the latter cuz she be slutty mang I like authors who strive for the former. Works that are aimed at a narrower audience will be held up to more detailed scrutiny than a work that is aimed at the general public. I want to reference Aristotle's Poetics so bad, but that would seem tryhard.

[Anonymous No.4168841]

>>4168795
one popular breakthrough any day of the week. critical acclaim and artistic fulfillment are nice, but give me the millions of dollars please.

[Anonymous No.4168842]

DFW wrote like an hour a day

[Anonymous No.4168855]

>>4168795
Total underground recognition. Money's nice, and so is fame, but ultimately the thing that makes life worthwhile is work, and having that work consistently read and enjoyed is better. So many authors ended up in the shit at the end of their lives.

[Anonymous No.4168877]

>>4168842
How the hell could he write IJ in three years going at that pace.

[Anonymous No.4168889]

>>4168840
fuck you, you don't know my girlfriend, she said she'd rather have underground recognition.

[Anonymous No.4168893]

>>4168877
He said in an interview with a stuffy guy in a suit on like CBS or something that he spent about an hour writing every day and about eight hours sweating about what he was going to write. The guy wrote full time, and he had the luxury to do so. He was a professor, you know.

[Anonymous No.4168895]

>>4168877
That's less than 1 page/hour. Definitely doable; he'd just have to have been persistent.

[Anonymous No.4168899]

>>4168795

A mild breakthrough with significant underground recognition.

[MrThrills !aAnvD.FqpM No.4168950]

>>4168889
Yeah, but everyone says that.

>>4168893
I've spoken to a few contemporary authors and poets, in craft talks, readings, and such, and they kind of say a similar thing: they spend a lot of time planning, with intense bursts of writing. I find myself doing that in my writing as well: a whole lot of daydreaming about the story.