/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.5479126]

>tfw I have an idea for pretty long, complex book
>tfw not sure if it's worth dedicating something like 4-5 years researching and writing considering current state of publishing industry and my lack of connections

/lit/ feel thread?

no plebs allowed

[Anonymous No.5479131]

Imagine if House of Leaves hadn't been published after 10 years of writing

[Anonymous No.5479156]

>>5479126
you should make art for your personal growth. getting published is secondary.

[RomanianRichard No.5479175]

>>5479156
This.

Been working on my novel for 3 years now, OP. I have plans to get the thing published, but finishing it for me comes first.

Pic related.

[Anonymous No.5479178]

>>5479126
> Worth
ah, a vague idea of spook

[Anonymous No.5479185]

>>5479175

what's with the celtic crosses? is your story about killing all niggers?

[Anonymous No.5479192]

>>5479126
What's wrong with the publishing industry? It has never been easier for a newbie to get his book published and distributed than now. Marketing might be a bitch though.

Anyway, who knows how the world looks like in 5years. maybe you have great connections then.
So, when you really have the passion, talent, and a great idea, start writing and don't cry "but if if if I only had could would it's all so sad feeeel"

[Anonymous No.5479201]

>>5479175
Is it jetpack/LARP shit?

[Anonymous No.5479207]

>>5479175
Looks impressive.

[Anonymous No.5479209]

>>5479192
lel that's so untrue

I'm an intern at a pretty big British publishers and most of the manuscripts our agents (i.e. the agents whose tastes "fit" what we usually publish) go straight into the trash. Google "super slush" and you'll see what I mean. If you're working class and aren't writing about how gritty your life has been then you have almost no chance of being published, as some middle-class journo writing about family tensions in Sussex, whose friends with the editor, is gonna get the nod ahead of you

[RomanianRichard No.5479219]

>>5479185
Nope, just the symbol I decided to use to reference that character throughout the outline.

You can see tiny versions of them beneath the focused section, detailing when each scene occurs alongside the main plot. Just an organizational tool.

>>5479201
Post apocalyptic renaissance with some sci-fi elements in there going over what lengths our current societal structure would have to undergo in order to reestablish itself in(hopefully) a more focused and productive state.

Takes a lot from Lewis Mumford and Joseph Campbell in terms of theming, and Orwell/Bradley/Wallace/MGS2 in terms of feel.

It's shit

[Anonymous No.5479223]

>>5479175
post results when finished

[Anonymous No.5479224]

>>5479126
>complex
I'm sure it is not complex at all, OP.

[RomanianRichard No.5479225]

>>5479219
what lengths of change***

[Anonymous No.5479233]

>>5479209
Sure, the traditional way is tough. But that has always been a tough, almost impossible. It didn't get worse recently.

What I meant is self-publishing. This wasn't even a realistic option 10 years ago. Now everyone can have their book publsihed and distributed.

[Anonymous No.5479238]

>>5479219
>Post apocalyptic renaissance
Would read

[RomanianRichard No.5479284]

>>5479223
Will do. I used to post excerpts here like a year or so ago, so it'll be nice to come back and let everyone know how it does(or if it does) when I get to harvesting a final draft out of it.

It'll be nice if I can come in with some good news that'll inspire you homos to do your dreams and all that.

Irregardless, I'm most excited to finish this story not because I want to get it published, but because I've brainstormed two new ideas for novels to write after this one, and I cannot wait to jump into them. Which I think is the mindset every writer should have. Maybe if John Kennedy Toole wrote something else after Confederacy of Dunces instead of spending the rest of his life pleading publishers to give it a chance on market, the fat ass wouldn't have killed himself.

>>5479238
Thanks. I'm happy with the world-building I've done and really like spending time with the characters and environment I created. Hoping other people dig it as well.

[Anonymous No.5479293]

>>5479219
How old are you?

[RomanianRichard No.5479325]

>>5479293
23.

Wondering if I've gone through the "will I finish this in time" crisis? Because I just finished with that near the end of this last year when all my stress and anxiety about not finishing this novel quickly enough culminated into my development/extreme exacerbation of Crohn's disease.

Spent a good two months bedridden and five days in the ER. Once I was back on my feet, it kinda hit me that you can't rush art so I stopped stressing about things and resigned myself to accepting that the book'll be done when it's done.

[Anonymous No.5479347]

>>5479224
I've been on /lit/ too long to have this post make me any more self-critical than I already am.

[Anonymous No.5479352]

>>5479233
Jesus christ why do so many delusional self-publish fags com e here? It's the cowards way out, and a guaranteed way to have your book read by nobody

[Anonymous No.5479380]

>>5479352
>It's the cowards way out
Yes goy traditional publishing is good.

[Anonymous No.5479386]

>>5479347
Two months is not long, newfag.

[Anonymous No.5479407]

>>5479352
So, you just got a great deal with some established publisher, or what's your point?

I know self-publishing needs lots of work and luck to achieve success, but at least it offers a small chance to get read by some and the possibility to establish yourself as a writer slowly.

But, if you have any better and less coward ideas how to find a publisher or even an agent, let me know. I think it's more delusive to think you can accomplish that

[Anonymous No.5479413]

>>5479386
Step aside folks, oldfag incoming.

[Anonymous No.5479448]

>>5479407
Try writing something good

[Anonymous No.5479456]

>>5479126
Put it on the back-burner, try to build up a solid portfolio of short stories or a draft of a shorter novel and see if you can attract the interest of a literary agent.

[Anonymous No.5479468]

>>5479219

> tfw

Well, if there's one thing you have is originality.

[Anonymous No.5479473]

>>5479126
Seriously: even if you _do_ manage to publish at a serious publisher, so what? Do you realize what they pay these days?

In 2014 you simply _cannot_ make a living writing novels, not unless you're Dan Brown or Rowling.

[Anonymous No.5479476]

>>5479219
Can you post something from it?

[Anonymous No.5479501]

>>5479448
Lamest reply ever.
Creating a masterpiece doesn't necessarily lead to recognition, as shitty stuff sometimes gets successful.
And, many great artists didn't get successful during their life but were discovered later just by luck.
Whatever, why I am wasting my time talking to some naive kid on an image board

[Anonymous No.5479517]

>>5479476
yeah post something please

[Anonymous No.5479557]

>>5479476
>>5479517
>>5479219
I am also curious to read some of it, Romanian Richard. Congrats on getting this far into it.

>>5479284
>Irregardless
Hmm...maybe don't post any of it.

[Anonymous No.5479589]

why give a shit if you can't live off of it? Live your life, write a fucking novel because you think it's good.

[Anonymous No.5480525]

>>5479325
You started at 20? Did you write anything before that? I've got an idea for a book layed out, but I'm not confident in writing it, given that I don't have any real experience with writing.

[Anonymous No.5480568]

>>5479209
>Google "super slush" and you'll see what I mean
>Inside th Super Slush Cup cubes is basically a concentrated salt water solution. It is not meant to be consumed, but it is also not harmful if it is

idgi

[Anonymous No.5480569]

why not try writing a good book instead. oh wait, that'd be too hard for a talentless hack.

[Anonymous No.5480573]

>>5479219
>It's shit
i'm surprised

[Anonymous No.5480583]

>>5480569
>long, complex books cannot be good

[Anonymous No.5480588]

>>5479473
It's not necessarily about pay, it could be about simply being read at all.

[Anonymous No.5480619]

>>5479219
Well, at least you know it's probably shit, so there might be a chance it isn't.

[Anonymous No.5480658]

>>5480583
The only long, complex novels which were actually good were written by a sixteenth-century noble, a nineteenth-century merchant marine, and a twentieth-century pervert. You're a twenty-first century nothing.

[Anonymous No.5480665]

>>5480658
>any of those
>complex

[Anonymous No.5480670]

>>5480583
not in your hands.

[Anonymous No.5480675]

>>5480665
Fine.
I amend my statement to, "there has never been a long, complex novel which has actually been good."

[Anonymous No.5480685]

>>5480670
>implying that's related to the point
>implying i'm op

[Anonymous No.5480702]

>>5480658
>don quixote
>16th century

[Anonymous No.5480715]

>>5480658
>Twenty-First Century Nothing

Pretty good title for a book.

[Anonymous No.5480755]

>>5480702
Cervantes lived mostly in the sixteenth century, and that's where Don Quixote is rooted.

[RomanianRichard No.5480837]

>>5479476
>>5479517
>>5479557
I will, but try not to expect too much, it's a bit difficult finding a small digestible standalone excerpt out of 200,000+ words to throw on /lit/. I've put stuff from the book that people have both hated and (I think unironically) enjoyed. I'll post up a short chapter that hits right after the novel's first act, and introduces a new character.

Just give me a sec to get it together here.

[RomanianRichard No.5480853]

>>5480525
I had started writing seriously right at the tail-end of high school.

As for not having enough experience though, don't worry so much about it. Your first book is probably going to be shit, everyone's is. I remember the first novel I tried to write was a space opera I trashed after about 25,000 words.

Starting to write a book isn't a commitment to finish it, it's simply an experiment to see if the content you wish to write is something you actually enjoy writing. You might start this book of yours and find out you hate it like I did.

It's better to do that, get this bad idea out of the way and move on to something with a bit more substance, then hang about on the same idea never doing anything(and thereby never growing as a writer) with it.

[Anonymous No.5480871]

I have a pretty /lit/ feel. I am 22 and not a native English speaker. My dream has always been to publish a book but I feel that I have started to late. Is there hope for me /lit/?

[Anonymous No.5480877]

>>5480871
hell no dude Wallace Stevens didn't start writing poetry until he was like 60

[RomanianRichard No.5480886]

Dull blueish-green lights that reminded him of neon vomit surrounded the perimeter of his apartment ceiling. Illuminating the small living space of his studio apartment with harsh light and oversaturated tones, the long bulbs always gave him the sneaking suspicion that perhaps his landlord had mistakenly rented him out a place that was actually sanctioned for an asylum patient rather than a tenant who consistently complied with his rental agreement.

He sat on the very edge of his worn to hell-and-back pleather couch, also blue-green, with his hands clasped tightly together in his lap and his bare feet tapping away at the stained linoleum floor of his whopping two-hundred-and-ninety-two square foot studio apartment. The linoleum tile ran across the entire expanse of his apartment's floor, and was segregated into tiny six inch bright yellow square pieces, inside of which had even tinier golden-brown diamonds. Which, contrasted against the lime green paint of the studio's walls, made him want to dry heave an interior designer who didn't construct roomscapes that pushed people into wanting to gouge their eyes out. His living space, which tripled as his bedroom and dining room, connected directly to his excuse of a kitchen which contained a stove, two sinks, refrigerator, a sparse collection of cabinets for storage, and some space for cutting up and preparing food. Something he avoided doing as he figured the less time he spent in this hellscape of clashing colors, the better.

On the floor, in the center of his apartment lay a lavishly designed red-and-brown oriental-style rug which he purchased three years back to cover some of the horrifically colored floor he had grown so much to hate. He absolutely loved the rug, and spent much time staring at the intricate details of the multi-colored fabric's curved shapes and lines which ran into and against each other in a wonderful display of rug design. To his right of the couch was the door that led into his apartment, and past that was his kitchen. Directly ahead of him and past the small coffee table he eats upon roughly once a day was his television set that was screwed tightly into the wall opposite of him and is owned by the leasor. Directly to the left of the TV was his pride and joy; a wooden, unlacquered, pale-brown, and crudely constructed bookshelf he had made himself--which was also bolted into the wall against his landlord's approval and for the very same reasons that the TV was. The bookshelf was overfilled with numerous Oldworld books, manuscripts, encyclopedias, and comic-book novels he had accrued into his collection over the years. Around the bookshelf's base and laid out haphazardly were less prized pieces of literature that he didn't deem to have enough sentimental value to uproot the place of more veteran and existentially thrilling endeavors. Finally, to his left was the studio's balcony, which towered twelve stories over the loud and bustling ground floor of the Manhattan Plate.

[RomanianRichard No.5480892]

>>5480886
Outside of the balcony's closed sliding door, flying cab-transports and personal-crafts would fly past and violently whip wind across his face, which deterred him from sitting out on in the open air unless it was very late at night and air traffic was regulated exclusively down to the lower levels of the Plate.

Adam Addison--whose legs were tapping with such increased speed and weight, that you could say he was practically stomping on the floor needed to soon cease, as the tenant below him was becoming increasingly irritated and getting dangerously close to coming up the stairs to give him what for--had his eyes trained on his television's set with the silent ferocity of a lioness hunting her prey. He strained his vision in what looked like an attempt to somehow see through the TV's screen, as if attempting to discern something that was hidden discreetly within the pixels of the LCD monitor. A thick vein on the right of his neck was beginning to bulge to a dangerous degree and his face was turning pink.

Shit, he finally concluded, his legs stopping their tapping with one last stomp and his lungs taking in a much needed breath. Pure, unadulterated, boring, putrid, shit. Plate television programming was the goddamn joke of the century and everyone watching was the punchline. You would think that in a society where sixty thousand plus people are claustrophobically confined on and under a massive floating Plate two miles in diameter, entertainment would be somewhat, y'know, entertaining. Far from it though, Adam realized. Day in, day out, programming consisted of nothing that resembled the emotional thrill he obtained from reading Oldworld narratives and stories. There was no escapism to be found in the rectangular slab of a monitor that shone bright lights and grandiose images into his dinky apartment's living space. Instead, only 'factual' programs that were meant to establish a sense of pride and raison d'être within the viewer's soul. Entertainment was action films of gallant heroes with rugged beards and strong arms keeping actors dressed up as Marks away from the Plate's surface with bullets and knives, it was documentaries about weathered grandfathers and grandmothers struggling to rebuild a new haven for humanity, or talk shows conversing amicably with NatGov and TECAP officials, and wondrous displays of what new life-actualizing and hardship-simplifying technologies that TECAP was currently developing in their massive R&D facility for general public usage. It was propaganda, Adam wanted to say. Propaganda the public gluttonously devoured and demanded more of.

[RomanianRichard No.5480900]

>>5480892
He didn't understand it. It wasn't a crippling majority of people that watched Plate television, but those who did were infatuated by it, wished and prayed that they could one day contribute their own righteous deeds in NatGov's name. Hoping to propel themselves into this new page of humanity's history books and be lauded amongst their peers and loved ones as 'Men of Action,' or 'Tools of Development.' Tools was right, Adam reflected with a scoff as he picked the TV's remote off the coffee table and clicked the power button down with his thumb.

Oldworld entertainment never made its way to public broadcasting. Not because it was prohibited, but because people hated seeing a past filled with sunshine, open fields, and questions of existence. It made people uneasy, the whole 'not-understanding-why-we're here' question. People of the Plate knew why they were here and alive and clear of NSPE Dilution. They were to make progress, contribute to the positive development of the human psyche. 'Evolution,' Adam recalled, 'the genetic progress of our species into bounds never foreseen by the world of Old.'

"Bullshit." Adam said to himself, standing up from the edge of his couch to stretch his arms out and twist his torso left to right like rubber band you twine between your fingers and then release. It didn't matter what harsh environment they were placed in, animals, humans, plants, whatever; they didn't evolve in the process of years or decades or even centuries; it took hundreds of thousands of millenia to witness notable changes. You can't submerge a lizard in a pool of water and expect it to grow gills, nature doesn't work like that. Nature is slow, and alternatively, man is impatient. Adam held the blasphemous belief that progress wasn't life's purpose, but the more he tried to explain his position on life to friends and colleagues, the more he began to think progress simply wasn't his purpose. His best friend, David Shills, humored the discussions, but never took them all that seriously.

[Anonymous No.5480902]

someone's hogging the descriptions like a motherfucker

[RomanianRichard No.5480906]

>>5480900
Content that the stretching he had done was enough to combat the atrophied sensation he felt in his arms and waist, Adam turned his eyes down towards his coffee table's surface and stared with content at the transparent orange glow gleaming off a bottle of pills. He'd gone a full four days without taking his prescribed medication and found himself quite liking where his mind was taking him since he began his bout of abstinence. He sniffed loudly and reached for the half-empty pack of cigarettes and lighter next to them instead.

But perhaps NatGov was pushing the human species to new evolutionary fronts, Adam debated with himself as he pushed the filter of an unsmoked fag under his upper lip and pulled on the handle of his balcony's sliding door, which pushed in a violent gust of wind and flapped the pages about of a number of books that littered his studio's floor. The men and women of the Plates were focused as one unified whole towards fulfilling this goal of progression that had been so glamorously painted for them by this magnanimous government. If they could all happily adjust to this new-aged way of thinking, why couldn't he? Was just a dud in the evolutionary chain? A member of his species that had not successfully adapted to the new a undeniably beneficial environment that surrounded his brothers and sisters, a member who could subsist but not pass on his mental traits of individualism and desire to live life rather than work within its confines? If NatGov was a machine and its conducive citizens were cogs, what was he? Adam covered the tip of his cigarette's end with his left palm and struggled for a moment to light it before finally succeeding and inhaling deeply of its toxic contents. He noted air traffic was slowly beginning to die down as transports passed his balcony in increments of a minute at a time. He watched as gray spindles of smoke would slowly rise from his cigarette's tip and paint vague images with their elongated forms in the air ahead of him before the buzzing of a vehicle's engine would emanate softly from outside his balcony's view and then snap by in a flash, whipping the fumes of his fag in a chaotic frenzy, taking a moment to be replaced anew.

[RomanianRichard No.5480912]

>>5480906
Scenes from Camus' L'etranger passed through his head. Meursault, the main character of the novel, was so outside the realm of his world's social norms that it eventually led to his demise. So alien and unrelatable to the men who were charged with passing ultimate judgement on the him, Meursault couldn't be seen for the honest and simple man he was. Ultimately, that's what felled Meursault; the simplicity in which he engaged life. He chose not to function in his society in a way that was deemed appropriate and necessary, he did not devote his focus on the details of life that were so revered and religiously respected by others. Was Adam this simple man? Was he to eventually fall into similar pitfalls that plagued Meursault? The thought of it all made his fingers tremble and the butt of his cigarette shake. The defining difference between him and the fictional character was the emotive force that burned violently within his soul. He felt things. Anger, envy, frustration, sadness, lust. He had opinions he stood by and wished to convey them to others with verbal force. Still, he worried that it wasn't emotions that NatGov and peers cherished, but progress and human development. Two cultural facets of the Plates that Adam was completely apathetic towards. Did this mean that he was living on borrowed time, surrounded by enemies he currently perceived as friends? Would he soon find himself wrapped up within a series of events out of his control that paint him as a monster for all the Plates to see? Adam took a long drag from his cigarette and flicked its filter with his thumb as he watched the moon's glow permeate through darkened clouds and the city's skyline.

[Anonymous No.5480937]

>>5480569
xD ebin

[RomanianRichard No.5480941]

>>5480912
And that's it. Chapter 24. Sorry for how much I put up. I'm really bad at choosing excerpts that can standalone, so I figured an entire chapter would by my best bet at things not coming off as misinterpreted or lacking.

Feel free to tear into it if it doesn't bore you to tears before finishing it. I'm always looking for critique no matter how sharp and cutting as it might be. I'm not the type to get insecure/upset over my work being blasted.

>>5480871
>22
>started too late
This is an American mentality and I'm not 100% sure where it comes from. That if you aren't groomed from an early age to be what you're going to be for the rest of your life, then you shouldn't bother doing it. Normal human beings don't function like that. People have to find out who they are and what they like before settling on a profession or a hobby. Yeah, sure, some find it quicker than others, but if you don't pursue the things that interest you because you believe it's too late for you, you're never gonna find any growth. You might as well oughta put a bullet in your head a twenty-five if you haven't found all the success you could've ever hoped for if that's the case.

[kitty !kitty/EnNg No.5481007]

>>5480941

>This is an American mentality and I'm not 100% sure where it comes from. That if you aren't groomed from an early age to be what you're going to be for the rest of your life, then you shouldn't bother doing it.

usa is a highly specialized country with ant queen obama at the head

[Anonymous No.5481093]

>>5479185
>what's with the celtic crosses? is your story about killing all niggers?
totally lost it

[Anonymous No.5482780]

>>5479175
Can you explain how you organized this (meaning pic). Is it what you have collected after three years or roughly what you had in mind at the beginning of the writing process.

[RomanianRichard No.5483985]

>>5482780
This is the relatively early stages of the writing process. I had written roughly 10k in words with only a vague mental outline set in mind before I sat down and realized I needed an outline that detailed total plot details and a majority of specific scenes leading up to the novel's proposed ending.

It was at 10k that I realized I really liked where things were going, and that if I really wanted this book done, that I'd need something I could continuously reference all along the way. It took me roughly 3-5 months to finish the outline(ie: everything you see in that photo)--I can't remember exactly the length, but it took me longer than I expected it would.

That's not to say that the totality of what the story is is found on my closet door. As I continued with my writing, characters were added, plot devices were further detailed, and the ending as a whole was more or less completely reworked. The story as a whole is vastly different than what's presented on this posterboard outline. What I haven't posted any pictures of are my four legal pads filled to the brim with worldcrafting, more in-depth outlines, and analyses that I've made of characters and the novel's environment.

Basically, a story is constantly shifting until it isn't, and I can't tell you how you'll write your story.The changes I made came to be because I thought they were necessary, and they were taken note of and documented in the way I documented them because those were the ways that felt most effective at the time.

A story shifts as you write it. How you will decide to adapt to that is up to you. Just trust yourself and don't worry about feeling like you have to completely restructure portions of your original ideas to fit the new ones you think are important to implement.