/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.5704534]

When do you know you have a good story idea?

[Anonymous No.5704753]

Your earlobes attach themselves to your jaw.

[Anonymous No.5704755]

>>5704753
This.

[Anonymous No.5704801]

When other people approve.

[Anonymous No.5704820]

>>5704801
>reluing on the validation of others

top pleb

[Anonymous No.5704821]

>>5704820
>reluing

[Anonymous No.5704825]

When thinking about the possibilities makes you smile with excitement

[Anonymous No.5704826]

when i've revised it multiple times and reached a satisfying level of thematic depth and complexity

[Anonymous No.5704856]

>>5704826
when i've revised it multiple times and reached a satisfying level of thematic depth and simplicity

[Anonymous No.5704879]

When the publisher's cheque clears.

[Anonymous No.5704909]

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don't do it.
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
if you're doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don't do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you're not ready.

don't be like so many writers,
don't be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don't be dull and boring and
pretentious, don't be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don't add to that.
don't do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don't do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don't do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

[Anonymous No.5704912]

>>5704909
>if you have to sit there and
>rewrite it again and again,
>don't do it.

ok, honestly, we're not even supposed to edit, bukowski? even kafka edited

[Anonymous No.5704918]

>>5704912
>paying attention to that metreless wank

"Don't do it outside of highly specialised circumstances which rarely obtain even among actual geniuses! It's true because it seems romantic if you don't think about it!"

Yeah, no.

[Anonymous No.5704940]

>>5704909
> don't edit it, rewrite it, show it to others for their feedback, do it for personal gain, or put any more effort into it than you feel like
> don't be like so many people who call themselves writers

lol

[Anonymous No.5704957]

>>5704909
shut the fuck up bukowski you fucking hack

go back to hopelessly imitating cèline

[Arturo Belano !8zm4peIWgM No.5704985]

>>5704909
The poem is pretty but is full of bullshit. Fine by me.

I think a story MAY be good when

1) challenges me in the middle or before the ending (it may alfo apply for any other part)

2) it doesnt stay the same as it came to me, but instead becomes something better or more round.

3) it survives the drunk editing i tend to do at 4am and almost always ends with draft on the trash bin

4) it survives the second draft

5) someone pays me for it (scholarship, magazine, award, etc)

[Anonymous No.5705125]

>>5704985
That girl's profile is horrendous.

[Anonymous No.5705134]

You don't. You just trust your instinct, clinch your teeth and hope for the best.