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/lit/ - Literature

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8189053 No.8189053 [Reply] [Original]

>wrote mostly poems this past semester
>want to get back into writing short stories
>don't really have any ideas or a large number of experiences to draw from

Few questions:
How do you practice if you're an anxious recluse who doesn't live rambunctiously like your peers? Do you study Tao Lin and learn how to write about mundane subject matter? Do you wait for more life experience to accumulate and focus on structure/style by writing about experiences you've already had?

It seems to me like writing about past experiences is a good way of practicing structure/style because it ignores the quality of the short story's ideas; I think it probably focuses your energy on *how* you relate a story rather than *what* you're relating.

>> No.8189070

Have you ever thought of reading poetry? And maybe literature? And getting ideas?

The fact you say study tao lin out of everyone is embarrassing.

>> No.8189074

>>8189053
>How do you practice if you're an anxious recluse who doesn't live rambunctiously like your peers?

you do the woody allen thing and write about the same few events a thousand times over

>It seems to me like writing about past experiences is a good way of practicing structure/style because it ignores the quality of the short story's ideas;

it is. also writing isn't about 'ideas', it's about words.

>> No.8189105

>>8189053
I think people here use the word "experiences" in too narrow of a sense. You don't need to go fight a war, fuck a bitch, and or have an orgy to find something interesting to write about.

Just pay close attention to what is happening around you and read interesting things.

It's the great the burden that many have to face I think. It isn't necessarily what you have experienced that is average. You just are.

>> No.8189108

>>8189070
Tao Lin writes about mundane life events. That's why I mentioned him. He's also a contemporary writer, which was another reason. Studying Bashō probably wouldn't be too helpful now would it?