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/lit/ - Literature

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Anonymous Fri May 19 20:14:37 2017 No.9527675 [Reply] [Original]

Okay /lit/, what's your best piece of writing advice?

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:17:59 2017 No.9527690 >>9527675 Why be different when you can be yourself

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:20:34 2017 No.9527705 If you don't like to have a lonely life, you're not an author

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:21:03 2017 No.9527706 don't listen to anyone on /lit/

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:25:00 2017 No.9527719 Read good literature. It tends to rub off on you.

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:33:07 2017 No.9527745 >>9527675 Write!

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:34:19 2017 No.9527752 >>9527719 Seconding this. Also don't be afraid to experiment with your style. You'll fail a bit, but it will be worthwhile in the end.

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:34:49 2017 No.9527754 >>9527675 Don't ask for advice.

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:35:26 2017 No.9527758 >>9527719 this

Anonymous Fri May 19 20:37:18 2017 No.9527766

"Show don't tell" is hands-down the worst writing advice anyone can receive. At best it's a red herring.
1. It's impossible to write without telling and I can't imagine a work in which there is no telling. It must read awfully.
2. It leads to Hemingway fetishization
3. 'Don't tell us how a character is feeling' is quite adequately covered by 'don't write like a retard'.

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:38:03 2017 No.9527772 >>9527675 practice writing is two pronged; what you want to say, and how you want to say it

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:39:00 2017 No.9527774 >>9527675 Most of what you write will be shit and that's normal.

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:39:29 2017 No.9527775 >>9527675 Read more than you write

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:47:07 2017 No.9527799 >>9527675 is it weird that your OP turns me on?

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 20:55:24 2017 No.9527835 File: 25 KB, 301x594, hemingway_hunk.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9527766 >not fetishizing Papa

>>	Anonymous Fri May 19 23:15:25 2017 No.9528207 Don't use adverbs liberally like a faggot

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 00:13:16 2017 No.9528350 Saying exactly what you mean > saying it in a pretty way.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 00:16:20 2017 No.9528357 File: 2.96 MB, 960x540, 1357773561127.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9527675 Karl Ove Knausgaard's "My Struggle V."

Anonymous Sat May 20 00:17:38 2017 No.9528360

From threads here, the points go to.
Write constantly
Keep all that you write, you can save a hundred hours by changing the words
After you write, seek ways to be recognized for that writing.
Ask those who notice you what you should write, and then ask a publisher.
Write that
Get published
Use money do be better writer
Repeat
Stop writing and be happy.

Anything anyone disagree's with here?

>>	Sage Sat May 20 00:36:58 2017 No.9528391 Don't, use, so, many commas. I swear that every new writer thinks that they absolutely need to add a comma every few words.

Anonymous Sat May 20 01:12:32 2017 No.9528520

Don't think so much. Just write. Sit down at your typewriter and let the Muse do her work. Get an oral fixation. Cigarettes work. If you're a health nut chew a pen. Whack off beforehand. We're sexual creatures, big sex apes, and we've always got wild vine-swinging sex on our dirty brains. Purge yourself of that horseshit! Nothing good was ever written with a god-damn boner. Vary your sentence length. Don't waste the reader's time. He spent $29.99 on your blasted hardcover debut novel about your trip to fucking Paris or whatever, and if you foul it up with a bunch of horny nonsense he's going to chuck the book at the wall and curse your name. Write with your head, not your pecker. It's ridiculous. If your smartphone is a problem, put it in another room.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 01:13:29 2017 No.9528526 File: 831 KB, 500x487, 1435810914432.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9528391

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 01:25:27 2017 No.9528572 >>9527719 Is this why I'm retarded? I post on r9k.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 01:48:16 2017 No.9528642 >>9528572 I'm afraid there's much more to it than that, anon.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 02:14:06 2017 No.9528698 dont take any advice by this guy >>9528520

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 02:20:32 2017 No.9528713 >>9528357 Why would you post a gif of an autistic child with his caretaker?

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 02:22:06 2017 No.9528717 File: 43 KB, 400x499, oh_honey_just_bee_yourself_by_jennydanko-da4ilj9.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 02:38:07 2017 No.9528758 >>9527675 Write according to what you, beyond your habitually dictated body-activities, would deign to do Don't discard, but transmute

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 02:52:04 2017 No.9528792 >>9527675 You can't possibly compare to the great writers that existed in the past. Don't try.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 02:54:49 2017 No.9528800 be literate

Anonymous Sat May 20 02:58:17 2017 No.9528804

Get acquainted with the grammar of the language you are writing in, specially if it's your mother tongue.

Read good authors that you like; learn from them, but do not imitate them in order to write like them.

Learn to discern the good from the bad, but do not dismiss the bad outright. You can even learn from it.

Try to turn things upside down; don't take your work for granted.

Do not be afraid to delete something just because you liked it.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 03:01:57 2017 No.9528812 >>9528360 >disagree's oh you gotta be kidding me

Anonymous Sat May 20 03:28:33 2017 No.9528871
File: 11 KB, 400x200, seven_rogers_03.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]

Stop thinking linearly.

You can make a novel out of scraps. Write interesting chunks of the narrative, describing scenes,characters and situations,and tie them all together in forging the first draft. Surprise yourself. Explore fearlessly and save all you write:what may not be useful now will be useful eventually, if only as a conceptual springboard. Getting those strange ideas onto paper is the point,because they do no good if they stay in your head.

Anonymous Sat May 20 03:36:26 2017 No.9528887

Take a lot of notes.

Fine, everyone makes fun of the moleskin fags, but seriously, you will come up with gold... sleep, and lose it if you do not write it down. I've come up with killer dialog only to have it fade and come out limp-dicked because I forgot to write down the original diamond hard dialog that I had.

Write down everything. Then cull it when you're distanced enough.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 08:05:22 2017 No.9529480 >>9527766 >3. 'Don't tell us how a character is feeling' is quite adequately covered by 'don't write like a retard'. This. The only advice people need to hear is "write well".

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 08:24:00 2017 No.9529508 >>9527799 you and me both pal

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 08:31:59 2017 No.9529528 >>9529480 Do you realize how circular this is? >you wanna write good? Well just write good bro

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 08:45:03 2017 No.9529558 File: 444 KB, 1024x652, neverforget.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9527835 Please, we know who is the true /fitlit/

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 08:56:17 2017 No.9529587 File: 9 KB, 480x360, ttj.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9529528

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 11:11:30 2017 No.9529977 >fitness and writing go hand in hand >can't concentrate on writing if you've been doing fuck all exercise for the past few days >daily masturbating will leave you unmotivated to write

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 11:15:57 2017 No.9529992 Don't try to make a living from your hobbies

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 11:20:17 2017 No.9530005 File: 91 KB, 518x714, 2e5ce350d8c91d652eee11ca9ee2d260.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google] >>9527705 All my favourite authors were depressed, killed themselves or suffered extreme hardship. Coincidence or cause and effect?.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 11:28:56 2017 No.9530017 just don't bother, try to live a happy life otherwise

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 12:07:03 2017 No.9530141 >>9528357 Im gonna need sauce on this. I'll paypal you $5 for it.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 12:09:52 2017 No.9530150 write. don't get too caught up in everything around it or you'll never end up actually writing enough.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 12:34:42 2017 No.9530243 >>9527675 >>9526637

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 12:51:04 2017 No.9530300 >>9527675 Never write a word you wouldn't speak.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 12:58:53 2017 No.9530331 I won a book of literary criticism at uni for a few verses I wrote, but I won't share it because I know some people lurk /lit/. Also, it was quite bad. I was lucky others were worse.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 12:59:59 2017 No.9530335 >>9530300 All of literature except Hemingway and Carver BTFO

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 13:00:02 2017 No.9530336 >>9530331 nice blog fuckfag kys

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 13:00:40 2017 No.9530338 >>9527675 writing is not editing dont be an assclown and write your shit for your own sake

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 13:00:51 2017 No.9530340 >>9530336 >kys One day when I am old and shriveled, don't worry.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 14:05:27 2017 No.9530592 >>9530338 >writing is not editing what was being communicated by this

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 14:09:57 2017 No.9530604 >>9528572 r9k is one of the most toxic, retarded, incel infested places on the internet. stop going there. they're all angry, miserable retards.

Anonymous Sat May 20 14:13:06 2017 No.9530620

>>9527675
Write everyday. Even if you only have 15 minutes. Do it everyday until it becomes habit. Once you turn it into a HABIT like smoking or fiddling with your keys, then you can take breaks.

Doing anything for 30 days straight will turn it into a habit (on average).

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 14:22:43 2017 No.9530666 If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.

>>	Anonymous Sat May 20 15:18:59 2017 No.9530880 Read The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. Very short and easy read with a lot of advice.

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