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/lit/ - Literature

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7100042 No.7100042 [Reply] [Original]

Hi.

I'm a dramatist (not a very good one, I guess) who was currently thinking in training his hand in writing a children's book. I would like to create something especial for my nephew, something new and fresh and offered firstly to him. I would also use the opportunity to take a break from my theater compositions, something that has been affecting my health (nervous problems). But there is one problem, a great problem: I don't have the gift of creating plots and stories. Of all the gifts that nature has denied me this is one of the most embarrassing and frustrating.

You guys must be wondering: "If the guy cant create plots, then how the hell does he write plays?". The fact is that for my theater plays I always used old plots from taken from movies and short stories, blending one with another and another and cooking it into something new. This method, however, is not being effective this time: the good books for children are often so idiosyncratic and unique that you simply cant really use them as source material.

I know the basics of drawing, so I could make the art of the book myself. The real problem here is plotting. I was wondering if you guys could give me some advices on how to start modeling ideas that are suitable to be refined and combined into young-people-literature material.

Thank you.

Pic: The kind of children's book that I would love to write, but who seems inaccessible to me.

>> No.7100061

Most of the subplots in Let Petit Prince had to do with the revealing of some inner flaw

>> No.7100084

>>7100042
Is Spanish your native language?
>Especial

>> No.7100106

>>7100042

OP here.

One idea I was pondering about was some form of a diary, a diary written by an animal.

The animal in question would be a Siberian Tiger. They are almost extint, and they are still being hunted and loosing territory.

I was wondering how an animal, with it's completely different psychology and personal history...how would a animal perceive the world of nature and the world of humans?

An example: let's suppose the tiger sees the human beings creating cats, and feeding them with meat of other animals. Then he would wonder: "What's this miniature version of myself? How does he trust human beings? And how could he gain their confidence, and even receive the fleshy salary and bloody payment of his meals? Was he like me originally? Did the tortures of a human routine make him shrink like that? Or perhaps he is only the gnome resulting from generations of tigers, like me, who have been living under the pathetic yoke of house-life servitude for several years?"

And things like that. But this is just a sketch, and frankly I don't know if it seems a good idea.

I would like to point out in the book the beauty of nature (mountains, woods, pines, snow, the four seasons), the feeling of loneliness, the fear that arises from outside threats, the joy of friendship and the loss of loved ones. Some sort or portrait of our own miseries, but experienced by another being, in a somewhat different form of consciousness.

I choose the Siberian Tiger because I love this animal with all my heart.

>> No.7100108

>>7100084
your pleb is showing mate

>> No.7100119

>>7100084

No, it's Portuguese. You almost got it :)

I find funny when Anons criticize my post for it's "big words", referring to the Latinate terms. They seem strange to Anglos, but to me they are very natural - they echo my own language with more precision.

>> No.7100137

>>7100106
You should write a children's book about how real the world is. Teach them what it means to see some shit, and discriptions are important.

>> No.7100147

>>7100106
>An example: let's suppose the tiger sees the human beings creating cats, and feeding them with meat of other animals. Then he would wonder: "What's this miniature version of myself? How does he trust human beings? And how could he gain their confidence, and even receive the fleshy salary and bloody payment of his meals? Was he like me originally? Did the tortures of a human routine make him shrink like that? Or perhaps he is only the gnome resulting from generations of tigers, like me, who have been living under the pathetic yoke of house-life servitude for several years?"

This sounds good to me, BUT

I think you want to make things less introspective and literal and more interactive and metaphorical

The tiger could go ahead and have a conversation with the cat, asking questions and receiving answers he didn't expect. And that can extend to other things as well. Personification works very well for this sort of thing, so rather than have the tiger think about mountain and seasons, I think you'd do well to turn the ideas you want to deal with into characters, and then have the tiger interact with them. Autumn could be encountered murdering spring (or evicting them from a house), loneliness could be a fish trapped in a pond whose exit stream has dried up, stuff like that. That's what the little prince did to avoid the plot being nothing but the airplane pilot navelgazing by himself.

>> No.7100162

>>7100147

You know, that's a really great advice. Thank you, thank you very much.

I don't have many pretentions with this project, for it will probably be made only for the children in my family, but still I would like to put all I can into it. I am not very gifted, but it is quite satisfying to change completely your style of writing and the genre on which you use to work.

I might use your suggestions if I eventually write this Tiger tale, if you don't mind.

>> No.7100181

>>7100162
I don't mind at all, if anyone on 4chan is inspired by anything I wrote and turns it into success, I would see that as proof my time here was more than just pissing into an ocean of piss

>> No.7100480

>>7100106
Sounds good. Some things I've come about that you might want to read on:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kholstomer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamiliarization

>> No.7100906

>>7100480

thak you very much

>> No.7100930

>>7100042
>I'm a dramatist
DRrrrrrrrOPPED

>> No.7100979

>>7100042
Read:
Aesop
Theophrastus' Characters
Phaedrus
Middle Ages Anon's Physiologus
La Fontaine
Grimm Brothers
Hans Christien Andersen

>> No.7101001

>>7100042
The Little Prince isn't meant to be read by children.