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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 2.08 MB, 5090x3420, Aivazovsky painting The Ninth Wave from 1850.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8527454 No.8527454 [Reply] [Original]

What's the hardest thing for you to write?

For me it's dialogue and especially discussions that are supposed to have any sort of substance. Balancing what the characters say to avoid pretense, making the wrong not stupid and the right not superior (and censoring my own voice), and trying to lead the conversation forward in a natural sense. I find them all hard and together it's a real struggle.

>> No.8528005

Not getting too philosophical or emotinal about stuff. I can't be banal for the life of me.

>> No.8528038

Decent prose

>> No.8528045

Plot.

>Write for an hour
>End up with a quite readable couple of pages about a house
>Literally nothing happens

>> No.8528060

I can't plot a (non short) story or worldbuild for shit. I keep getting inspired by songs and TV shows and video games and coming up with half-formed ideas for stories (These stories always being either fantasy or sci fi or both).

I daydream up a shit ton of characters, and exciting moments, and funny moments, and yada yada, but then when I actually sit down and think "Okay, what the hell is the plot of my story? Why are some characters superhuman and some aren't for no currently explained reason? Does this take place on Earth or some other place that's like it? How can fight scenes take place in public but either they don't destroy anything or they do but nobody involved is responsible for property damage? Why don't the villains just hunt down the heroes and kill them? How do I can explain this plot element in a way that doesn't clash with the themes of the story? How do I connect this plot element to that plot element?".... and so on, and so forth.

>> No.8528092

descriptions

>> No.8528473

>>8528060
What's the problem exactly? Those are good questions, why don't you try answering them?

>> No.8528511

>>8527454
A conversation that moves.

Right now, I'm stuck in a scene where two people meet in a pedestrian crossing and then start walking together, then enter a building, enter an elevator, and finally go down a hall to a boardroom to where two others are waiting (and where more people will eventually join in).
Balancing their dialogue, descriptions of their location (first time this city's been used in the story), and their thoughts (first time these characters have been used in the story (others have mentioned them by name)) is a pretty fun struggle for me. Thank god it's just the rough draft.

>> No.8529281

>>8528511
third person? reminds me of Good Omens or Pulp Fiction kek

>> No.8529298

>>8527454
Phonaesthetics and poetic meters.

>>8528045
And this. Plot. I'm pretty articulate in writing but I can't write anything that isn't devoid of a remotely elaborate plot.

>> No.8529344
File: 77 KB, 637x926, ss+(2016-09-01+at+09.15.56).png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8529344

This piece was the most difficult for me to write. My head felt totally used up and worn out after I completed writing it. I didn't even think I was finished with it when I first completed it, then several days later after writing it I had returned to it and realized I had covered pretty much every thought that I wanted to cover, and there wasn't really any loose ends.

>> No.8529376

>>8527454
Descriptions of actions that don't just turn into he/she/it/name did x.

>> No.8530079
File: 3.50 MB, 2592x3888, 16-44-34-1165.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8530079

>>8527454
Ayy forget all that stuff, OP.

>> No.8530881

>>8528092
Less is more. Does the reader need to know her clear blue eyes contrast with her dark eyebrows? CUT IT OUT

>> No.8532383

>>8529376
It helps to write what happens when the action is taking place rather than describing the action, and letting the sentence that follows assume the action is done.. See example.

Instead of
>She picked up the phone and called. She hoped he wouldn't answer.
Use
>The phone was cold and hard. She hoped he wouldn't answer.

>> No.8532406

>>8528060
Maybe you should try to start from the world, and then look for the story that could happen there (keeping the general theme if you wish, but having the details imposed by the world)

>> No.8534011

>>8528005
that post is pretty banal

>> No.8534027

>>8534011
and there's something terribly sad about that

>> No.8534058

>>8529344
saved for cringe thread

>> No.8534185

Everything