"Ozymandias" editionPrevious: >>24742684/wg/ AUTHORS & FLASH FICTION: https://pastebin.com/ruwQj7xQRESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS: https://pastebin.com/nFxdiQvCPlease limit excerpts to one post.Give advice as much as you receive it to the best of your ability.Follow prompts made below and discuss written works for practice; contribute and you shall receive.If you have not performed a cursory proofread, do not expect to be treated kindly. Edit your work for spelling and grammar before posting.Violent shills, relentless shill-spammers, and grounds keeping prose, should be ignored and reported.(And maybe double-space your WIPs to allow edits if you want 'em.)Simple guides on writing:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHdzv1NfZRMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whPnobbck9shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAKcbvioxFkThread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPlSH6n37ts
how does this sound for a story>young couple travels for business >they stop at a destination with their cruise>guy disappears>reluctantly she goes back to the next destitation, which is her home>she comes back and finds her boyfriend there but hes acting a little strange, says he got robbed and hit on the head pretty badly>they continue his business plans from home>one day her family is murdered>she clings onto him out of sadness>then one day he kills her and reveals he's a shapeshifter and her boyfriend died months agoIm not good at describing it in an exciting way, but does this sound like an interesting premise?
>>24754387>Im not good at describing it in an exciting waySorry to say, that's a real stumbling block for an aspiring writer.
>>24754387It could be. What is the shapeshifter's motivation?
>>24754394its one thing to write an interesting story and another to summarize it in a short green text, also Im lazy right now>>24754395it needs to kill to survive and by stealing the body of a wealthy traveling merchant its got the perfect life
>>24754399Why does it need to kill to survive? There's nothing wrong with the framework of your story, but the reveal will have to pack some sort of emotional punch, not just be "he's a bad guy".
>>24754387>skinwalkerAh.I was following you until the family got murdered. Why not kill "his" family because they noticed he was acting weird?And why even kill her? She should be the one living in fear and eventually try to kill him. I dunno, it isn't my story.
>>24754405its a shapeshifter, it thrives on life energy.>>24754415thats an interesting diversion. Ill add that in, first his own family is killed, then the girls family is killed thereafter so he inherits all the money. then he kills her because she figures it out
I'm writing a story about an assemblage of failing writers who convene periodically on an image board to carp about the state of literature and their unheralded talent. The latter, to their eyes, is an implacable result of the former. In fact they drone on this manner so inalterably that they never get a lick of work done. They create charts and consult manuals and draw up compacts all vis-a-vis writing, but the act itself repeatedly scares them off. They trick their brains into thinking this shop-talk, while inertial, is an indispensable piece of being an author. They don't bother reading novels because all contemporary fiction is tainted by the current political climate, which they baldly abhor. And yet the structure of their own work, when they finally bear down, could use the taming example of today's writers. The only writer whose work they draw on with reliability and whose fingerprints are abundantly evident in their pasted excerpts is HP Lovecraft, a byword for hacks everywhere. Figures.
>>24754442>it thrives on life energyThat's not an emotional gut punch. You need to build up to something more or you will irritate your reader. What you have so far is anime grade.>>24754448>failing writersDoes that imply they succeeded at one point, then? In any case, I'm going to go out on a limb & say you're not going to complete this story idea of yours.
>>24754463>I'm going to go out on a limb & say you're not going to complete this story idea of yours.i have a sneaking suspicion anon was making a veiled barb at certain posters on this very board & never had any intention of writing a story in the first place!
>>24754463What about "failing writers" implies success?
Are there any writers you feel are particularly good at teaching the reader about their settings magic or technology without directly explaining it?It's a skill I want to improve at.
>>24754472‘failing’ does hint at decline.
>>24754471Indeed. I was being sarcastic, as were you. Anon was trying to troll "bad writers", and ironically, did so badly.>>24754472You have to succeed before you can fail, otherwise you're a never-was, not a failure.
>>24754475I recently read what I consider to be a master class on that subject. Picrel is based around the concept of "bioelectric jade", and its effect is never spelled out directly, but through action and plot.
>>24754482>>24754477I don't think that's right, failing just means you're in the process of becoming a failure. You could have been failing from the outset.
>>24754494Thanks I'll check it out.
>>24754495true, yet ‘failing’ usually hints at decline even if technically it doesn’t have to. common interpretation.
>>24754495I think you need to accept that your attempt at trolling was just as bad, or worse, than the people you're trying to troll.
>>24754506I'm a different guy.
>>24754531Then the troll can respond and defend his underpowered trolling. I don't think he will, though.
>>24754540I'm the troll and the other guy's right. Also, you say underpowered but it drove a wave of replies, so I'd say it worked famously.
>>24754552‘a wave of replies’ might be overselling the facts.
>>24754376>OzymandiasNice. I just got done reading about him. He did nothing wrong btw.
how edgy can you be on page 1? i'm not trying to make any statement at all, just the audacity of introducing a protag in this way makes me laugh.
>>24754586You're severely limiting your audience by having your main character be a pedophile. And are you really interested in the sort of audience that would want to read about that?
>>24754601i'd never do it. i had the character pretty much formed before this opening para. the notion would never appear again in the story. if i knew he was a pedophile from of the off i'd have never been able to write him the way i did. it is funny though.
I found a pretty good explanation of anime's persistently bad writing. Consider it a list of things you should avoid, unless you're from Japan, I guess.https://www.japanpowered.com/anime-articles/animes-bad-story-telling-habits
>>24754624... the /wg/ population really is totally separate to the general /lit/ pop
>>24754655This thread started with an anon sharing an anime-tier story idea.
>>24754624>Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary: A Greatly Expanded And Much Improved Compendium of Movie Clichés, Stereotypes, Obligatory Scenes, Hackneyed Formulas, Conventions, and Outdated ArchetypesI was just reading this one for hollywood cliches>https://files.catbox.moe/huwtqg.epub
Nobody likes my story or characters... It's over. How should I kill myself? Gun, rope, or pills?
/wg/ really is a seat for deluded, no-hope writers to disguise their vast lack of talent. Underneath the earnest backslaps and reassurances, the recommendations and the guides, lurks the knowledge, common to all, that no one here writes anything of value. But without everyone playing along the forcefield of delusion would break down.
>>24754871obviously gun wtf
>>24754891This thread is mostly amateurs, and by being a crab, you're much worse than they are.
>>24754900is it the same one guy making the long-winded loathing polemics against the /wg/? i admire the bottomless wells of venom but i think he’s misfiring towards some of the more innocuous posters on this board.
>>24754871Maybe consider doing something else with your life? Why is writing something to kys over?
I‘d like to challenge myself and write a story based on random suggestions. Are there any good websites out there who do this?
>>24754907I don't know if it's the same anon, but it sure sounds like it.
>>24755041There's a card deck game for that.
>>24755060Oh, this looks really fun. Thanks!
>>24755061You're entirely welcome.
>>24754871How about you try writing a better story next time, instead?
>>24754891If you measure value only by what will sell in a bookstore, you’ve already murdered the art
>>24755083Personally, I'm hoping for a career like Todd Rundgren, who had two hit songs, made a lot of money from them, and spent the rest of his career churning our extremely noncommerical art.
>>24755072I see you didn't even try to provide him with good advice. What even is your purpose for coming here?
>>24755166He gave no information, the only advice we could give would be vague, basic, and unhelpful.
>>24755189So respond by trying to elicit more information. What are you, new at this? I hope you don't try to write mysteries.
>>24755214>mfw when someone posts a very soft-tough dig at someone else on 4chan.org
>>24755214I just didn't respond. I have better ways to waste time then joining in on a clear pity party attempt.
