/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.4216395]

Does anyone of you have some advice on how to be a good writer? I have seen some advice pictures on here with stuff steven king or hemmingway said about the subject matter, so if you got something like this, feel free to contribute.

Also english is not my mothertongue, so stfu about my bad writing.

[Anonymous No.4216404]

read lots of books, write lots of shit.

you have to write yourself out of mediocrity, so better start soon.

[Anonymous No.4216408]

[Anonymous No.4216417]

What constitutes good prose? I see a lot of people throwing the word around, but it seems like a meaningless buzzword people use when they can't think of / can't be bothered explaining a suitable criticism.

[Anonymous No.4216451]

>>4216417
it's preference but on /lit/ it's overblown purpley stuff like most modernist writers and nabokov

[Anonymous No.4216455]

>>4216417

Good prose is probably a very subjective term. But I can certainly distiguish a good novel from literary fastfood, like JK Rowling or Dan Brown. I know, there are probably many people that disagre with me on this one, but a author like Dostoyevsky for example has just so much more depth in his stories and I therefor value his works higher.

[Anonymous No.4216464]

If anyone on /lit/ knew how to be a good writer, they wouldn't be on /lit/.

[Anonymous No.4216479]

good prose is not subjective. if you are born with the gene that allows you adjudge art properly and you are verbally acute, you can spot it. if not, sorry.

tier one: joyce ulysses, nabokov lolita

[Anonymous No.4216537]

[Anonymous No.4216572]

>>4216455
Dostoe's prose isn't good.

[Anonymous No.4216585]

>>4216572

Well, there's a reason for why he is one of russias most famous authors.

[Anonymous No.4216603]

>>4216417
I don't think it's something you can simply explain or define. If you read of lot of good prose you will eventually start seeing the difference.

[Anonymous No.4216609]

Leaning with both his elbows on the balustrade of the verandah, he went on looking fixedly at the great river that flowed—indifferent and hurried—before his eyes. He liked to look at it about the time of sunset; perhaps because at that time the sinking sun would spread a glowing gold tinge on the waters of the Pantai, and Almayer’s thoughts were often busy with gold; gold he had failed to secure; gold the others had secured—dishonestly, of course—or gold he meant to secure yet, through his own honest exertions, for himself and Nina. He absorbed himself in his dream of wealth and power away from this coast where he had dwelt for so many years, forgetting the bitterness of toil and strife in the vision of a great and splendid reward.

This is objectively good prose. If you don't agree, you are objectively stupid.

[Anonymous No.4216765]

>>4216609
This is now a good prose thread.

[Anonymous No.4216768]

>>4216765
That was Youth with its reckless exuberance when all things were possible pursued by Age where we are now, looking back at what we destroyed, what we tore away from that self who could do more, and its work that's become my enemy because that's what I can tell you about, that Youth who could do anything.

[Anonymous No.4216782]

>>4216765
Yup. This.

"East of my home, the long ridge lies across the skyline like the low hull of a submarine. Above it, the eastern sky is bright with reflections of distant water, and there is a feeling of sails beyond land. Hill trees mass together in a dark-spired forest, but when I move towards them they slowly fan apart, the sky descends between, and they are solitary oaks and elms, each with its own wide territory of winter shadow. The calmness, the solitude of horizons lures me towards them, through them, and on to others. They layer the memory like strata."

It's from "The Peregrine", J.A Baker. It's non fiction, but it has some of the most beautiful prose in the English language.

[Anonymous No.4216820]

>>4216782
that's nice