"Learn how to write" editionPrevious: >>25416717/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.Discuss the written works below 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.Expect critique, not praise.Shitposters should be ignored and reported.>Beginner guides on writing:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHdzv1NfZRMhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whPnobbck9shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAKcbvioxFk>Intermediate guides on writing:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48654.Storyhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3097766-borges-on-writinghttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23056.Image_Music_Texthttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19173266.Write.Publish.Repeat>Advanced guide on writing:Just do it.
Stop putting that other link under the "advanced guide" section; it ruins it
>>25425952>>25425963I bet both of you use your pathetic sales numbers as credentials to stand above all the 0 copies moved books, then will incongruously seethe at all of the actually popular books selling 10000x moreWhich is it? Do sales and the reviews of cattle matter, or not?
>>25425994I've never discussed CC's sales, and Fiza Pathan is NOT cattle.
>Accidentally invented a new character mid story who doesn't fit in at all and would only be accommodated into the story with detoursYou have no fucking idea how often I fall for this shit.
>>25426005>I've never discussed CC's salesEasily inferred through public stats>Fiza Pathan is NOT cattleI clicked her goodreads profile... are you serious or shitposting? She's a paid reviewer shill with a bunch of personal flops
if we're talking amazon reviews, thanks to everyone (including /lit/) whose input contributed to the second edition of The Chemical Divorce. Bob was absolutely right that the initial version was too confusing for general audiences. hopefully people dig 2e even more
so wg has become a self promotion general?
>>25425963Yikes. You paid jeets for reviews?
>>25426092>>25426033I don't pay for reviews, you're thinking of the author A Maid in Four Parts and (probably) Boor
>>25425994nta but I do believe that cattle sales matter to the extent they measure what people are interested in if a technically atrocious story can still garner enough interest from the mindless masses that they enjoy it anyway. It's about understanding that you, as the author, still have obligations to the audience. Telling the story you want is only half of it, the other half is understanding how to deliver it to the audience so they can understand your vision and relate to it where possible.
>>25426104>I don't pay for reviews,All evidence suggests otherwise. You used a paid reviewer's review as credentials
>>25426065Not that I support it, but it's certainly no worse than the faggot who used to spam his "Call of" books while samefagging all the time. It would be nice if we could support each other's writing here in general terms given how cut-throat the industry is, but I guess people like that guy and this CC individual poison the well.
I don’t have an ending for this one yet, but it’s been on my mind a lot and I figured I’d post a brief outline. Help and feedback would be appreciated:So there's this guy who sees himself in everything. He read somewhere once that all conscious beings are just sensory appendages of the divine and it stuck with him, so when he goes out in his yard on a beautiful summer day and looks up at the sky, seeing himself in the clouds, he isn't surprised, and thinks it kind of rules. "There's me," he thinks, "we're the best. We're all there is, baby." He waves to it, thinking happy thoughts as it passes over him.He walks out onto his freshly-cut lawn enjoying the day, and spots this weird grey thing poking out of the grass. He goes over and gets on his hands and knees to inspect it, finding it to be a crusty, oddly shaped rock buried in the dirt, seemingly the tip of a large underground boulder. After a few seconds he realizes with great amusement that the rock looks exactly like him. The grass has grown around it in such a way that he sees it as spot-on just like his own long, unkempt head of hair, complete with beard. There's even a grass mustache draped over the deep stone crevice of its mouth. Delighted, he fashions it a little twig pipe, lights his own up, and they hang out smoking weed together and having a great time.Over the summer he and his rock become good friends. He feels a great sense of comradery with himself. No one understands you better than you do. He brings himself little offerings of beer and food, and tells himself all his problems. He listens dutifully. It's all going very smoothly until, like with all deepening relationships, the concern starts. He begins to worry about himself out there, buried in the lawn. Clearly someone put me there, and I want to get out. No one in their right mind would want to stay in the same place forever.The anxiety deepens as I begin having recurring nightmares of an endless summer sky. Trees. Clouds. Blue. The dreams last for what feels like years, completely unchanging until the alarm on his phone wakes me up.Anyway, that's all I have so far. I don't really know where it's going. I bought a shovel today though. At first I was worried that I could be wrong, but ultimately I know what I want, and that's to not be stuck in the fucking ground.
I disagree superman.I have done a lot of hard things in my life.Getting good at writing is pretty high up on the list of difficult, at least for me.If I had a lick of sense I would focus on a different hobby and stop this mental self harm.
>tfw write an anti-white novel>I also write anti-black, anti-Indian and anti-Jew in the same novel
>>25426461Okay, and, chinkcel?
>>25426255The end. That’s all you need to write my friend, don’t dig it up and continue the story. It would cheapen it.
>>25426467This website made me do it.
Should I write my fetish in my novel?
>>25426482Thanks and yeah, that's it lol. Thought it would be fun to format it as if it's someone pitching an unfinished outline. There's probably some grammatical and punctuation stuff to fix but otherwise I think it's done.
Conspicuous Cunt faggot is back talking shit lmaoyou can lie and try to review bomb Dark Triad all you want, nobody wants to read your reddit slop garbage opinions or your cucked story about le heckin cute e-girl. just kys already.
>>25426120Cope. I didn't pay for that review and I see no evidence Pathan has done any paid reviews.>>25426603My review of TDT isn't even that bad. IIRC I say the book turns fairly entertaining after the blah first couple chapters. I didn't even rate the book. But I guess since it's not the terse, bland, generic laudings the book got on Amazon, it's a "review bomb." Sorry ig. Anyway, I'd better get back to my currently thriving motion picture production career.
Is it okay to have nothing-really-happens chapters? I'm trying to write a sci-fi epic, but I'm so plot-obsessed that I don't really feel like my characters are coming through. I know in an ideal world I ought to combine the character stuff into the plot scenes, but are there scenes in books where no plot really happens at all? It seems counterintuitive to do so.
>>25426794noeven in nothing-really-happens chapters, something is actually happening. usually it's character development. or laying down plot Chekov's guns or red herrings. or depicting characters going after red herrings.
>>25425952>11 reviews 4.6/5The foids haven't found it yet.
>>25426794>I'm so plot-obsessed that I don't really feel like my characters are coming throughnearly all male SF writers write like thisJohnny Rico for example is so bland that he has been accused of being an in-universe propaganda poster child.Frank Herbert is a great counter-example, try to emulate him. (at least for the first book.)
>>25425946Why do I feel despair when I write? How do I ignore the voice that goes "your writing's shit" over and over again?
>>25426794any kind of chapter is fine if it's interesting enough.
>>25425946what kind of male slice-of-life novel do you think would sell nowadays? if only on a small scale?
>>25426788>Anyway, I'd better get back to my currently thriving motion picture production career.Yikes. I have no stake in what you're arguing in but this cringe got my attention. Are you a male adult film actor?
>>25426952>if only on a small scale?every kindPersonally, I think "a millennial has to come to terms with living in this shithole era, and that he'll probably never fulfil his dreams" is especially topical. Make it have a hopeful ending, please.
>>25426952I'd like to add that boomers got everything in the real world, and gen z is making bank online and digitally, and millennials are stuck seething in the middle is thematically important.
>>25426954no, but I hear his uncle works for Nintendo
>>25426954>Are you a male adult film actor?you wish I were
>>25426943Stop taking /wg/ posts at face value
I've had the itch recently to get back into writing stories, I always enjoyed it as a kid at school, but never kept up the habit, and went down the music route.Lately though, I've been toying around with a novel or short story concept based on those old Army Men toys/games. At its current stage it'll be a very black comedy, the bleakness and horrors of war meshes really to me when you contrast it with garden warfare and toys. I thought "Model Soldiers" would be a fitting name for it, quite romantic/heroic, and has a fun double meaning. At the moment I've only got a bit of a character sheet, and a couple of scene/plot ideas. It'll follow a single squad for most of it with a noob called Rook as the protag, but I'd like various chapters dedicated to different branches doing operations, on land, sea, or air. I guess slightly Band of Brothers inspired, with the focus shifting on various characters and their stories. I still need to figure out the main story beats, mostly a good premise to kick everything off, and hopefully it should come together *somewhat* easily once I have the time to work on it proper.
Finished my first manuscript, threw it into an epub, and sent it to a friend while I was still riding the high. Now I'm off the high and fucking panicking like I knew I would. Why does the thought of anyone ever reading my shit give me a heart attack? I do actually want to share it but the moment I do I get all in my head about it. Is something wrong with me?
>>25427058Fun ideaCheck out "I Declare War"https://youtu.be/YfEGoJh8FXQ?si=gPXeexpEbeMUU84CMaybe "Toy Soldiers" too.
>>25427066If it makes you feel any better the odds of anyone reading your work even your friend are extremely slim
>>25427075>not Small Soldiersnigga plz>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls5834hbssM>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul_HuCZxxNU>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmYSTObayoY>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sap6-BFEH8Q>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDO-U-oBkxM
>>25427082Sorry, I meant Small Soldiers.
>>25427066No, that's normal. Writing is an intimate process. The mortifying ordeal of being known, and all that.
>>25427078I can only fucking hope>>25427086So I'm not alone then? That's comforting at least. Currently trying to push myself into it in the hopes that pure exposure therapy will fix this.
>>25427037>>25426998In all seriousness, if you have a motion picture career mind giving us some insight onto how you got into that?
I DON'T USE FADEINI DON'T USE FINAL DRAFTI SET THE FORMAT OF MY SCRIPT WITH LIBRE OFFICEAND IF EVEN A SINGLE DETAIL IS WRONGI HAVE A MENTAL BREAKDOWN
An excerpt of the novella I spoke of in the previous thread. Any general thoughts on style, vividness, etc. are welcome. Some of this is first- and second-draft material, but for the sake of fairness, pretend it's never getting rewritten.
I feel so tired after writing 10 pages of my first book so far. It took like 5 hours to crank them out. Wtf.
>>25427452>Catches>Played>Present tense >Symbolism nonsense >A terrible metaphor Write a real story
>>25427580played obv breaks tense for a reason. & there was a terrible simile, i don’t think i used a metaphor. >Write a real storyi’ll do that. anything else?
>>25427452I read this in a pretty satirical, over-the-top tone. Is that the intent? Because otherwise, I can't take it seriously
74,000 words. Aiming for like 300,000 - 400,000 words. Oh my god, it's so much text!
>>25427624it is serious but everything is said with a halfway smirk.
>>25427630Ah. Well, I think you'd have a hard time convincing anyone you've written something of value if every 'impactful' line comes with an apologetic wink and a nod. It just looks like a weak attempt to dodge criticism
>>25427643haven’t you ever read brit lit?
>>25427644I have, but the wonky phrasing (like when it explains what the narrator means by a glass harmonica), the weird similes, and that corny ending give it an insanely satirical tone. I honestly can't see anyone taking this seriously, and even if they did, I doubt they'd walk away satisfied. Also, come on, you know how cliché it is to end a story with "this... is only the beginning!"?It's so on-the-nose that I thought you were making fun of this kind of prose.
>>25427662>I havedo you like iris murdoch? >the weird similessimiles plural? iirc there was one.
>>25427665>do you like iris murdoch?I've only read her one short story; it was alright, but none of her novels, sorry.>similes plural? iirc there was one.>[...] making everything a bit stagey, LIKE a bad play>[...] played out LIKE on a glass harmonica.>So now, leaving the rest unsaid, rising in air AS on a gander's wing, at a careless comma
>>25427691‘alright’ is improper english. but i’ll leave that aside for now.sorry! irc incorrectly. what about robert graves? just wondering.
>>25427452Chef’s kiss
>>25427452Why do you always post only the end? We have no way of knowing whether the ending is sarky or saccharine, perfect or symbolic (or any other of the diverse takes anons have shared with you, in this thread and others) because we have no context and no idea of what has led her to this conclusion. People sometimes post the outros of The Great Gatsby, The Road, The Dead, etc. because the story zooms out to encompass all humanity in a melancholic/hopeful/somber wide shot, plus the prose is pretty nice. Your prose isn't bad, but by zooming in on "her", who we don't know at all, whatever intended effect you're aiming for gets lost. Please post the opening or the whole thing. Keep on writing.
>>25427851yeah sure let me quickly post the whole thing.
>>25423997I also got brain fog after contracting COVID. (I never got the vaccine.) The brain fog could be inflammation. I cured it with glutathione. You can buy it on Amazon. By the end of the bottle (about 2 months), my brain fog was gone.
>>25424059Reading non-fiction is otherwise known as "research" and yes, it's vital.>>25424067No, AI doesn't democratize intelligence. It doesn't even make it more egalitarian. You still have to have intelligence to wield AI, otherwise it's just another voice ordering you around.>>25424266t. unemployed
>>25426552Yes and the sign of a good author is gaslighting everyone into thinking it's organically relevant to the plot.
>>25427452>>25427389If someone said something like this about my book I’d probably leave this board and never look back
>>25427452I like it.
>>25427662>to end a story with "this... is only the beginning!"?Come on you know how cliché it is to reply to a 4chan post with a strawman.
>>25427108In all seriousness, unfortunately, the specificity of the advice I can give you is severely limited due to anonymity. I'd be able to give you more specific advice if I knew things like your experience and your general location, things I encourage you not to post. All I can say is this: remain steadfast. Make it clear to the world what you are making yourself. Dig for opportunities; everyone's making stuff nowadays, odds are you already know a guy who knows a guy who knows this guy's cousin who knows this guy who can get your foot in the door of something. Just don't be Booring or desperate.We're all gonna make it.
>first person >Present tense>First paragraph is about crying/whining >Random curse words to be "expressive">Long ass description of a setting, flashback, or a dreamHoly fuck why is this style so popular?
>>25428369women
>>25428362
>>25427701I loved I, Claudius, though I haven't finished it yet. For all I know it could go to shit right at the end, but so far it's excellent.
What is the best font for writing and why is it Times New Roman?
>>25428698TKD&TNR
How am I going to write a fictional American town or city like Springfield on The Simpsons? I am South East Asian and my knowledge about America is limited.
>>25428706Write a hindooized version of America where John McHotdog shits on the street and rides on a train to get to his corporate office job.
>>25428706Dont
>>25428706Either write what you know, or do a lot of research until you know the subject well enough to write about it.
>>25428706Same way you write about anything else that you haven't directly experienced. Lots of research, more or less copying other stuff, or just making shit the fuck up confidently and letting any idiosyncrasies or things that are off seem fully intentional stylistic choices.
>tfw 4900+ words and counting
Spend the day world building and updating my lore sheet instead of writing again. Normally I keep most worldbuilding stuff in my head but had to finally stop putting off setting solid rules and write them down to keep them straight for how certain stuff worked otherwise I would have left way more work for myself in revisions to keep everything coherent. To use a film making exampleGood pre-production leads to less work during post-production. Will take a break to refresh my brain then get back to proper writing though. The drafting must go on!
>>25425951But don't you see? "Write, publish, repeat" is the most advanced writing advice there is. Unless you actually produce a tangible, finished work, you have no chance of selling it, or of gaining fans. No one has any idea what's going to succeed. And all the myriad steps of finishing a work tend to improve your skills. Complain all you want, but you can't deny the truth of this.
>>25428823Progress is progress.
>indie author posts a pic of his book to celebrate its success>no links, no begging to buy, nothing that violates rules>jannies delete it anywayperhaps they just need a good raping to the tune of "Singin' in the Rain?"
>>25429079forgot pic droogies.the jannies need to be raped.
>>25426255Is this clear enough btw? I showed it to a friend and he seemed confused by the pronoun changes. Asked if it was a mistake lol
>Want to write an intelligent villain>I myself am not intelligentHow obvious is it if I just make everyone around him retarded?
>>25428675>I loved I, Claudius, though I haven't finished itand you said i have wonky phrasing.
Occasionally I'll hear a song that suits one of my characters well and I'll imagine that song playing during the credits of the movie version of my story. Anyone else do this?
>>25429190Yeah, because how I talk on 4chan isn't how I write. Are you this pedantic in regular conversation too?
>>25429253you should write more or less how you talk.
>>25429305That one grammatical mistake happened because I was talking less. I repeat: are you this pedantic in regular conversation too?
>>25429318it’s not really a grammatical mistake just badly worded. now: will you lay your hand on your heart and swear to me that you’re not pedantic?
>>25429232I imagine the song playing during a shitty fan edit youtube video.
I'm writing a sci-fi epic, and the temptation is in me every so often just to add more perspectives and characters and glut the corners with lore and side-quests and so on, so I keep having to pause and remind myself that I'm not writing Game of Thrones in space.
>>25429356... But what if you did?
>>25429366What if I... did?
>>25429187Just make him do things that are or imply intelligence if you aren't confident you can make him say intelligent things. Like show the results, not the process. Since he isn't a POV character you wouldn't see the process unless the POV character is a detective or something.
>>25428706There is no universal shared experience for Americans and I don't necessarily agree with the "write what you know" advice.Just make it good and have real and interesting/fun characters, a lot of generic Americana type settings are intentionally vague about their exact location and in fact are a weird amalgam of places/inspirations. Everyone thinks 'Hey Arnold!' takes place in Brooklyn but it supposedly is in Washington (which doesn't make any sense to me either!) but it doesn't actually matter. If it's good, it's good.
>>25428662If you feel despair over generic motivational slogans that is a you problem
>>25429079I think if a thread gets reported enough the jannies will delete it even if it violates no rules and /lit/izens seem to despise the resident indie authors so they'll mass report any thread.
>>25429562
>>25429079>jannies delete itquite right imo. get it fucked off.
>>25429614If you wanted actual advice I could give you an email and we could take this off of 4chan so you could tell me about yourself and your goals. But you don't give a shit about getting advice while you have an excuse to wallow in despair.
>>25429623seethe
>>25429643 i’m an innocent bystander. no dog in this race. no real interest in getting into porn. was just reminded of this passage written by a very good poet who worked as a teacher. definitely a losing battle in the self-help/influencer economy, but a lost cause still deserves support.
>>25429699You're lying to yourself; your dog in this race is the side of self-aggrandizing despair. You tell yourself it's because you're a "hardened listener" as opposed to a "novice." But what you actually are is a negative nancy and probably self-defeating.
>>25429754if i was lying to myself i’d be more inclined to pedestrian inspirational hot air - the trek away from honesty. kingsley amis once wrote ‘one indispensable answer to an environment bristling with people and things one thought were bad was to go on finding out new ways in which one could think they were bad.’ the only way to recover your authenticity.
Here are some 4 pages I have recently written translated into english.Before this excerpt the main character has returned to her childhood tribe with remnants of her new family to get wife for her son. She has been kidnapped from the tribe by her husband long ago. In her absence her father (Negu) has died, her childhood friends have grown up. As they are leaving with the bride old and sickly shaman of the tribe (who has been with the tribe long before she was born, who was something akin to teacher to her and who is her uncle) collapses during coughing fit and they do not leave.This excerpt begins after that. In it the main female character has discussion with the shaman who awakes.This excerpt happens right before the final act of the novel, after it comes seeming catastrophe and then catharsis.The novel is family drama taking place on medieval steppe (century or such before genghis khan).
is anyone here working on an 'internet' book?
>>25429855i've been taking notes for a non-fiction one.
>>25429887well i actually wanted to talk about internet fiction, but still that's cool. about what specifically, if you don't mind sharing?
>>25429855Go to the web novel general
Can AI find stories I wrote in the past?Should I delete all smut stories?
>>25429991i don't think you should sell out anon, if you need to compromise yourself it's not worth it
