"JUST DO IT" edition

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>>24527892

/wg/ AUTHORS & FLASH FICTION: https://pastebin.com/ruwQj7xQ
RESOURCES & RECOMMENDATIONS: https://pastebin.com/nFxdiQvC

Please 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.)

The only useful guide on writing:
https://youtu.be/ZXsQAXx_ao0?si=0CLAC0fUVepdcghU

Thread theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-sfG8BV8wU

Last thread died the MOMENT before I posted a link

>>24537705
post it again

Here's a 1.9k word long excerpt of Chapter 9. I'd appreciate any feedback particularly on dialogue and prose and less on plot as it's taken literally right in the middle of dialogue with no added context.

https://medium.com/@panosfrag/chapter-9-excerpt-c7f9e9205022

Thanks in advance.

I will write the next great american novel
It will be a rambling characters stumbles through 2010s LA, and also the internet, at the same time
Every sentance will be wrought and overwrought with allusions and resonances to everything from ancient creation myth to medieval brewing recipes, to internet microceleb drama and youtube poops
Ik someone says this every thread
But by using ai research, it think itd be pretty easy

>>24537710
>Thread archived.
>You cannot reply anymore.

>>24537728
>bro thinks his knockoff of My First Book is gonna be the next great
o im laffin

>>24537726
Unfortunetely the term "commandoes" came up right away, which might have caused me to misjudge the rest of it, but it made me think of this video
https://youtu.be/4otR9gDHx1k?si=lgIZW69glbBok7rf

Which mainly pulls from Le Guins writing on tolkien and fantasy
But it seems from the rest of the dialogue you understand much of this already

>>24537741
I've actually never watched that video, will do that so I can understand where you're coming from

>>24537741
>50 minute vlog
not happening

Here’s a concise summary of the video:

---

** Key Insight: ‘Time’ as the Missing Element**
The presenter argues that while modern fantasy worlds are rich in magic, politics, and mythology, they often neglect the realistic portrayal of **time**—how it affects characters, societies, and story arcs.

**Main Points Covered:**

1. **Temporal Consequences in Other Genres**
Realistic progression of time—aging, seasons changing, time to recover from injuries—is central in other genres (e.g., sci-fi, drama), but less so in fantasy.

2. **Fantasy's ‘Time Freeze’ Effect**
Many fantasy books and shows seem to unfold over a short span, even when they imply long journeys or generational events. This can make the narrative feel *artificially compressed*.

3. **Character Development & Stakes**
When time doesn’t pass meaningfully, moments lose weight. There's no buildup—no gradual erosion of hope, mounting pressure, or the slow decay of relationships. Stakes can feel flat.

4. **World-Building Depth**
Seasons, cultural traditions tied to time, long-term consequences—all enhance world-building. Their absence can make settings feel less lived-in.

5. **Practical Advice for Writers**

* **Show the Passage of Time**: Use seasonal changes, aging, fatigue.
* **Track Timelines**: Let characters and political landscapes evolve.
* **Embed Time in Rituals/Traditions**: Festivals, harvests, anniversaries to root your story in a rhythm.

---

**Why This Matters:**
By integrating time more effectively, fantasy can gain emotional resonance and internal plausibility—making both characters and worlds feel more authentic and engaging.

Recently finished up a long novella just shy of 10k words. Now, however, every time I look over it and scan, although it reads fine, it just seems slightly off. The general shape of it isn't quite right, the paragraphs look kind of wonky, and the dialogue is either too dense or too brief. Is this normal? I can't exactly define what's wrong other than just to say the "shape" is off.

>>24537876
50k* not 10k. Boy, it's too hot to think

>>24537876
try changing the font size

>>24537862
Idk what ai did that but its not the video
Heres a summary of the section that i got the most out of
The core argument of the video, drawing heavily from Ursula K. Le Guin's essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie," centers on the "Poughkeepsie style" as the primary thing modern fantasy lacks.

### The Poughkeepsie Style: What It Is (39:13)

Le Guin, as explained by the speaker, argues that the "Poughkeepsie style" is a "fake plainness" in prose. It is:
Flat and inexact: The writing lacks depth and precision.
Specious directness: It appears straightforward but is vague.
Journalistic: It reads like something "meant to be written fast and read faster" (40:09), prioritizing quick consumption over imaginative depth.
Vague sensory cues: Descriptions of the environment are not truly felt, making the scenery seem "cardboard or plastic" (39:47).
Inappropriate tone: The overall tone is profoundly ill-suited to the fantastical subject matter (39:53).

The speaker argues that this style reflects a failure to take fantasy seriously (40:32), a reluctance to fully commit to the imaginative act of creating a secondary world. It also stems from the myth that "style doesn't matter" (42:51), which the video strongly refutes by stating that "the style... is the book" (41:24).

### Examples of the Poughkeepsie Style (18:37, 20:58)

The video provides examples of what Le Guin and the speaker consider the "Poughkeepsie style," often highlighting dialogue that feels too contemporary or "Earthly Specific."

Le Guin's Original Example (18:37):
Le Guin quotes a passage from a fantasy book, then demonstrates its "Poughkeepsie" nature by changing just a few words to make it sound like a conversation between a senator and a lobbyist in Washington D.C.:

Original Fantasy Quote: "Whether or not they succeed in the end will depend largely on Kelson's personal ability to manipulate the voting. 'Can he?' Morgan asked as the two clattered down a half flight of stairs and into the garden. 'I don't know, Alaric,' Nigel replied. 'He's good, damned good, but I just don't know. Besides, you saw the Key Council Lords, with Rollson dead and Bran Chorus practically making open accusations. Well, it doesn't look good. I could have told you that at Cardosa.'"
Poughkeepsie Transformation: Le Guin replaces "Key Council Lords" with "key committee chairman," "Rollson" with "Rollson," "Bran Chorus" with "Brian Chorus," and "Cardosa" with "Poughkeepsie" (19:35).
Critique: Le Guin argues that if a fantasy passage can be so easily transformed into a mundane Earthly conversation without losing its essence, then "something has gone wrong" (20:21). It means the prose lacks the "Elfland accent" (26:23) and that "Pegasus ain't got no wings" (21:39).

I wonder if I'm just not meant to write novels. I've been taking a little break from working on mine because the last couple of weeks have been a total slog, and I've been working on some short stories instead. Not only is the quality of writing more consistent, but I'm actually having fun writing again. I'm in way too deep to abandon the novel now (~110k words), but all I can think about is more short stories I wanna write.

>>24537909
Make a short story anthology set in the same world, it sounds like you might just get bored writing the same story for too long

Is this an innapropriate allusion?

>>24537878
>>24537878
50k is a short novel not a long novella i-m-o.
Anyway just sounds like you're going through intermediate blues after surpassing beginner's ecstasy. Now you realize your shit ain't so hot.
It's normal but there aren't any shortcuts. Just keep reading books and writing and you will improve, albiet not as quickly as previously.

I'm up to 60K words. We're on the last long stretch.

>>24538010
I'm trying to absorb this. I keep getting distracted by the commas. Not sure if it only seems that way because they're highlighted but it feels like there are too many.

>>24537741
Ackshually the term commando has roots in latin and isn't strictly contemporary

>But it seems from the rest of the dialogue you understand much of this already
Is that meant to say that the rest of the dialogue follows in the same tone or that the contemporary use of "commandoes" is an exception to the rest of the dialogue?

>>24537909
why do you think so many professional artists are known to be alcoholics or drug addicts
everyone gets creative burn out. forcing yourself to work on one project will tire you out and make you resent it
effective rest is a part of productivity. discipline is essential but a well disciplined person can allow themselves a vacation without fear of losing all productivity
give yourself a predefined time period where you don't write your main project. 2 weeks or a month maybe. write short stories, enjoy some reading, get into poetry, read some slop, play, have fun. keep in touch with the medium but do it on your terms. do not think about your project, do not work on your project
then come back focused and refreshed

>>24538247
I think most of it is good (the poughkeepsie test still might be interesting though)
Commander, ambassador are borderline, yes they are old but perhaps not appropriate

>>24538110
same. it's illegible to me.

>>24538010
Anything with that specificity i think is valuable
I dont know what parameters i would need to define it as appropriate or not

Just realized I've written myself into a corner. The protagonist is trapped in a room and I have no idea how they escape.
Pantsing is tough work.
Strike that. While writing this post I came up with a workable Deus Ex.
Pantsing is fun.

>>24537904
most of these points sound like qualities of poor writing rather than anything specific. this dichotomy between contemporary writing and classical storytelling seems pseudointellectual, especially knowing le guin would've been contemporaries with lord dunsany and tolkien who are widely considered some of the greatest fantasy writers of all time
I don't disagree that the spirit of whimsy and fantasy is not lauded, valued, or even present in 99% of fantasy stories, but that probably has more to do with the fact that most people are uninspired NPCs
everyone wants to assume that there is some great social decay localized to the period they live in but that's just normal human bias pointing to self centrism

>the myth that "style doesn't matter"
interesting that this was a common enough sentiment for her to bitch about. you hear this all the time nowadays and I assumed it was something local to our profit brain washed culture since people get so vehement about it. wonder if there have been tards throughout the ages saying that prose and style doesn't matter

>>24537904
This is such bullshit. Bresson levels of "I don't like it because that's not how I do it"

>>24538379
this is the vast majority of writing opinions and instructions

>>24538379
It makes sense to me. It's the big criticism of today's romantasy where you write a contemporary novel with modern diction and conversation and everything can be interchanged but the results remains the same.

I want prose to be ornate and the dialogue to be direct
winding, flowery dialogue is so corny

>>24538468
Dialogue without subtext is like sex without love

>>24537701 (OP)
Does anyone here know what the longest book series (2 or more entires) ever written is by word count? I'm sure it's technically that Loud House fanfic and its sequel but I was hoping maybe there's something longer that's less retarded. I'm hoping to beat whatever it is with my fanfic series idea but I want to be sure before I start writing it so I know how long to stretch the middle of the story.

>>24538110
>>24538331
You're right. I think if I tighten it up a bit, some of those clauses and commas will disappear.

>>24538338
I was thinking specifically of the Kreutzer Sonata bit and imagining some Karen going "What's that? Never heard of it."

>>24538523
complexity of syntax and word choice != subtext

>>24538468
>>24538523
What do guys think of this dialogue?

>Vehicle Autism
>In-Universe Justified Slavery
>Hard Magic System
>Orc City ass naming conventions
>Cease and Desist from the Edge chronicles

What else is my setting missing?

>>24538562
why would he admit it's a prostitute? if he's embarrassed he'll say "some girl I met at the Hooha Bar."

Then we the reader get to imply he got a hooker and he's into BDSM.

>>24537741
I remember downvoting that video earlier today due to it rambling, wasting my time, and haviing a click bait title for what was essentially just a midwit babbling and stalling for time to get more midroll ads.
Fuck that video and fuck you for posting it as a suggestion.

>>24538651
Being able to fuck the bunnys

>>24538683
dispute even one of the specific arguments

>>24538753
>Waste more time on a bad video and then pay me attention
Again, fuck you.
It takes the tard 20 minutes to get to his actual argument due to rambling about bullshit.

>>24538769
You could just extract his arguments with ai

>>24538774
I will use ai when it can suck my dick.

I just did it! Am I allowed to post an Amazon link?

>>24538834
Probably not.
Just post the title.

>>24538837
The Cenote’s Shard
I teased it in the last /wg/

>>24538838
>google it
>nothing comes up
this is a bad sign.

>>24538838
If you get it now though it won’t have the intro and table of contents and epilogue and afterward that I forgot to add to the manuscript when I first uploaded it. I recommend checking out the “Read sample” for now, the update will come out in a few days.

>>24538838
Legitimately looks interesting.
Hope it does well.
>>24538842
Google fucking sucks and has been utterly broken for years.
Just look on amazon directly like I did. It's the first result.

>>24538842
Bing and DuckDuckGo have it indexed already. It just went live today though so maybe Google is slow.
>>24538851
Thanks! Cheers

>>24538838
Good work Aaron. I'll be reading it after I get through my current read.
If you get it listed on Goodreads you might even see me write a review.

>>24538676
I like that. Good idea!

>>24538905
Lovely :)
Once the updates come out with the before and after sections I’ll figure out how to run a free giveaway for the full ebook (congruent with KDP’s terms) and then post about it here in a /wg/. Might not be next week though as I’ll be on vacation.

>>24538938
Oh but anyone who has Kindle Unlimited can borrow it now for free and read the whole thing except for the missing intro/TOC and epilogue/afterward

Only the fronts of our eyes between us
a glistening willow lattice of cystine shingles, wimbling like a songbirds tinny throat
Folds of skin on her face rolled over eachother like ducklings in a flood when she spoke
I saw her legs thrust her torso in arms towards the unlit ceiling of the bar, in cold faith
Her hair and her head martially respond, keeping in line with her neck like the partner of a syncronized swimmer
I saw her hands pull the sledge of her body behind them like eskimo dogs
Her nose, cutting course like a rudder
I saw a face that must have been mine in the shallow chalice of her collerbone
I saw these shapes stick together with frustrating precision and regularity
I saw her words, leading eachother one by one, in the tethered train of a roving kindergarten class
I saw the unglamorous band of her memories make them, with vibrating bone instruments, themselves tired of playing the same few grubby bars and county festivals
I saw her words trace themselves into the winged space between us, like a desperate stadium proposal
I saw them imbricate themselves midst the virgin reef of my memory
Flattening bush, twiring soil, salting swamps
Clamping angles around curves, drilling hills into valleys
I saw them, stiching rashly together into a curdled gimp of a figure, raggedy, then recoiling, disseminating, and attemping again to reform, limping desperately towards beauty
Hideous, studdering mangles of intent limbered forward
the cold crypt of reason, more than a few times, congealed before me, having escaped the thermal melee of speech
How graciously she prostrated herself at the heel of word and spoke
How ignorent was her minnowy tongue , shaping these molds like children do in an exercise book
Each was served with the invioable eyewarmth of a new cafe owner in the first months of her nuptial, who cooked and served everything by herself
They pressed, awkwardly in the fibrillous goosegullet of my thought, extruding blocky bulges out of the other side
Forcing, crude, artless reactions out of me

>GRRM talks about the complexity of tax systems
>hmmm
>write a scene discussing a tax system in my world
This has elevated my world building.

>>24539111
>he got spooked by world builders

>>24539111

>>24538938
Update: the changes went live already, ebook now includes all the front and back materials. I set a free download promotion for tomorrow through Sunday, grab it while it's free!
If I get a positive review I'll post a cute picture of my cat :3

>>24539136
>giving your shit away for free
Ew. If you do that, people won't value it.
t-b-h I was honestly considering promoting your giveaway on my social media but I better make sure there's nothing offensive to me in your book first.

>Ennui descended with alarming swiftness. The sole timepiece in the employee wing was affixed to the wall just opposite her locked portal. Barely five minutes post-waking, Kitty was certain ten had slipped by. Sixty minutes in, she was convinced it had been four hours. Ninety minutes later, she tallied seven. By that point, a scant six hundred sixty-six hours and change remained until her release. Do the arithmetic.
(not my text; rephrased by an LLM)
Can any math wiz here actually do the math? How much time did she think had passed?

>>24539115
You're wrong! It is an immersive experience to showcase how an Empire is created!

it's funny
I've had these broken characters in melancholic wastelands that have gone absolutely nowhere despite countless revisions and restarts
And only recently when I had the mind to invert the suffering to healing and redemption have I actually begun to earnestly write again in hopes of nurturing them back

something something projection and care of others versus love of the self yadda yadda

>>24539160
Visibility is the name of the game for now innit—
I can do another 2-day run sometime within the next 90 days after you (and others) have had a chance to read a good chunk of it.
It does have bits of violence and trauma that could be iffy for some readers, I tried to keep it filtered and palpable, not too graphic. Hope you like it!

>>24538938
>free giveaway for the full ebook (congruent with KDP’s terms)
what kind of terms do they hvae?

>>24539206
I dunno, stories about broken characters in melancholic wastelands going nowhere can be pretty cool
>Gormenghast
>The Catcher in the Rye
>Things Fall Apart
>Long Day's Journey Into Night

>>24539228
They’re staunch about exclusivity so I wasn’t sure how easy it was to do a free giveaway, but apparently I get allotted 5 days for that in every 90-day window that my book is enrolled in KDP Select so it was pretty easy to do. I did just submit another change because I had “lightning” spelled as “lighting” twice on the first page… so hopefully it’ll get approved again before I go to bed and I can relaunch the giveaway deal. If not I might run it Saturday through Monday instead.

>>24539224
>violence and trauma
I was thinking more like abject political platitudes

I need start writing again, evens I grab a sprite before hand, odds tea, zero water

>>24539243
based God keeping anon healthy

>>24539206
I'm happy that you're a happier person but I lament the loss of more angstslop
that shit is my bag

>>24539248
this except without the irony

>>24539238
>They’re staunch about exclusivity
That sucks

>>24539241
It’s somewhat critical of both sides of the war, more so of the Spanish, but it’s not a “colonists bad” book; both sides are shown to be complex and multipolar, with internally conflicting goals and methods. I don’t focus on the politics as much as on the interpersonal dynamics. It’s more about individuals finding agency.

>>24539272
>off-centerist
This is an abject political palititude.

>>24539224
I fucking hate this modern shit with trigger warnings and fear of offending people with graphic words. It pisses me off how weak people are when it deals with fiction. This shit isn't even bestgore videos. It's as if people cannot separate fiction from reality

>>24539289
I was going more for the general “violence is bad” and “empathy is good,” not any particular political stance. It could be read as left or right or center, I think it’s just good ethics. My worries around sensitivity were more about the portrayal of Mayans in the story being accurate and the possibility that the Spanish and/or Catholics might be insulted by my portrayal of the conquistadors.
>>24539300
I agree in spirit but I’m aiming at a younger audience that might be more sensitive—I don’t want them stopping halfway and never finishing it. Plus I put my real name to it and I don’t want someone egging my house because I unintentionally offended them.

I can't write for a moment because I have flu and sore throat.

I’m going to write my book I’m 1 day

>>24539342
Turmeric tea

That’s a phoneposting kind of typo

Bye until I fulfil my daily minimum word count

I should start a book publishing company.
One of the most jewish business models I've seen.

>Strong prose requires rhythm
>White boys have no rhythm
You see the problem?

Go to bed hungry and wake up with your heart beating and open your window the dark and cold and write in bed and catch the day before the day catches you and everything is turned to stone. I go bar and I go cafe but once the sun comes down something vital is lost and even good words becomes hollow. A man could write the some word a hundred times and end up with a hundred different words.

>>24539375
aaaand I'm back

>>24539542
Seems like this poster took a wrong turn on the way to the "write your thoughts" thread

I keep counting down the days between now and when I'll have a full draft if I keep up my daily minimum and it keeps getting closer because I keep going over. Right now it's in early August but I'm betting I'll have it before the month is out.

Man, I had a funny idea of just adding handwritten AI prompts into my work just to fuck with people. Like "I have rewritten this section to align more with Anon. A's style and made changes to include xyz", but it's just me handwriting it all. I don't know why, but that tickles me.

Chatgtp: The ultimate hype man

>>24540066
The toaster mogs you hard while pretending to be brownnosing, man I'd never recover

I just realised I hate writing stories after 14 years or doing it

>>24540076
Yeah, to be fair, I wouldn't expect you to "get it", some of us can't even imagine apples, but that's okay, anon. Enjoy your fantasy books :)

>>24540097
Get what? Share the excerpt

>>24540111
I was joking, anon. It was a Christmas joke. I will post it, but once the chapter's finished

Is it likely that a publisher instantly rejects my book if it has full paragraphs of quotes from other books at the start of some chapters? These quotes are relevant and I'd like to keep them, but they can be taken out. However, there's also a character who quotes almost an entire paragraph from a book translation. Would that fly with a publisher at all?

Finished the first act of a science fiction story at 42k words. Instead of just writing whatever comes to mind I actually outlined the whole story this time, but now that I've written Act I it feels very linear, and I want to expand outwards and write more scenes that convey a bit more about the characters involved, as many of them get introduced, maybe get some characterization at that point, and don't really get explored.

Is this a common writer thing where you feel like you're cutting out too much superfluous dialogue that would serve to enrich the characters? Should I go back and add more or just keep going and seal the deal?

>>24540351
I have the opposite flow, I start from a comprehensive outline and then struggle filling it in with dialogue. If your story is in third person you could bulk it out with narration instead, just describe your characters from a bird’s eye view

>>24540355
I've just never done it from an outline before, so it feels almost skeletal in comparison to my older stuff. Six chapters, each about 6-9k words--5 was 11,000 and 6 was 6,000 acting as a sort of winding up of act 1.

I'm trying to check to see what other books have done, it's occurred to me that I have no clear understanding of how long sci-fi books are. I consume them but I rarely notice the length because my job involves six hours of doing nothing every day.

>>24540012
>I'm not an LLMslopper, it's a joke!

>>24540670
And goes the joke thusly

I used to mock people writing on their phones, but after trying it for a week, it's become a lifesaver. Doesn't cause the same burning of fingers and joints as beating a keyboard does and I can get something done even on days when I normally couldn't.

>>24540759
at this point just learn how to user voice to text dictation

Ok fellas so I made a tiktok account to promote my book series… so now how do I make it go from 0 followers 0 likes and 24 views up to like a million+ of each..?

>>24539233
>>24539248
I think I just need to a bit of healing to understand how to not write the plot and characters into the (literal) ground. Especially when a cast of broken tragedies can get become fatiguing if there's no foil
fwiw there's still an underlying current, seeing as it takes place in a huge ass estate that's probably my subconscious ripping off Gormenghast

>>24540811
You’re missing a jester character to mock their suffering and cackle as everything crumbles

>>24540811
Anon is... is that Strahd's castle?

>>24539377
Just did the math. Unless you're publishing useless slop the optimal path is clear.

>>24540759
I honestly just can't do it, maybe I'm too old but I hate phone-typing. I can rattle out 90 words a minutes for hours at a time on a keyboard without feeling any different, but if I have to do phone text entry for more than five minutes I want to kill myself.

>>24540937
Nothing makes me feel more wrong than an LLM telling me I'm right

>>24540759
This. Writing under the covers in bed is so fucking comfy. Mobile's not so great for editing, though.

>>24540802
Hire a bunch of hot wannabe influencers to pose with it and praise it

>>24540991
In this case you can just do the calculations yourself.
You just need to calculate the expected value of both alternatives.
Fixed payout only makes sense if you think your work is good enough to be published by a publishing agency but not good to be able to convince readers to buy it directly for whatever reason.

>>24540973
is dictation any good for this?

>>24541022
I imagine it depends on your style. I probably couldn't because my written voice is very different from my speaking voice, but everyone is different.

https://briarfray.org/t/poetry-night/382?u=johnnymcivor

>>24541019
>just calculate the expected value bro
Yes, let me just plug in the numbers from my imaginary future success

>>24541287
I would've clicked your link and read your work had you, instead of posting a commerbait image as a cheap way to grab attention, posted literally any text introducing me to what I'd be reading.

>>24540973
A lot depends on the phone too. My previous smartphone was pretty small, the keys too tiny for my sausage fingers, and typing anything on it was torture. But I recently got a new one which has a bigger screen and there's dramatically less fuckery with it. Not to mention the processor is good enough to load docs without stuttering.

>>24541400
Anon’s point was that publishers won’t take anything less than gold, and if you’re writing gold, then you’re probably better off marketing it yourself for a 70% royalty. Traditional publishing only has the benefit of distribution and marketing, which you can get from third party agencies for only a 10-20% skim nowadays.

>>24541429
>publishers won’t take anything less than gold
So that's why they've published nothing but gold, huh? What a ridiculous notion.

>>24541435
They publish books that sell and earn profits. You haven’t yet. I’m sensing a lot of jelly

>>24541400
Do you think the EXPECTED value is calculated based on concrete sales instead of being a function of estimations? Are you literally retarded?

I will finish my book by the end of the month. I wrote 2,000 words yesterday, and 1,000 the day before. I know where I'm going.

>>24541479
I am placing the late chapter curse on you! You will not be able to finish because you either want to drag it out or cut it short but will remain indecisive between the two! Muahaha!

The only way to break this curse is to consume a minimum of 5 nuts or legumes within the next 18 hours.

>>24541524
can i do sunflower seeds. im allergic to nuts

>>24541526
What a roll of the dice
I’ll allow seeds

that—little—shatbot—is—raping—that—punctuation—to—death. imagine gen lamba opening ulysses to the 1st page and immediately dismiss it as ai slop

>>24541438
>They publish books that sell and earn profits
So that's why they've published nothing but books that sell and earn profits, huh?

>>24541442
Let me just put on my soothsayer goggles and "expect" the work's value

>>24541479
>I will finish my book by the end of the month
Based and same. How many words are you going for? I'm shooting for just under 100k

>>24541627
Hardly related but did anyone else use to use a regular dash- instead of an em dash—?
I wonder how much I'm still doing incorrectly. Working my way through a usage dictionary to find out.

>>24541627
I love em dashes and have used them since high school essays but suddenly they’re “ai slop” to these dumb zoomers

>>24541651
Use them loudly, use them proudly—disregard AI slop.

Got something a bit experimental for you guys. Is anyone interested in a 1k read? It's pretty self-indulgent, although I'm trying not to be.

https://rentry.co/waog6zo3

Let me know what you think. Whatever it is I'm trying to do isn't going to work without criticism, so say what you like

My main character is the son of two former military personal trying to work out the mystery behind a town he swears they lived in temporarily but they both gaslight him into thinking it never existed.
What route do I go in once he actually gets into the town what direction should I take it in. Do I go more supernatural or something inter dimensional maybe a little bit of both?

>>24541638
It's called gathering data and doing market research. Do you think people just start successful business blindly without having any idea about sales prospects? Fucking retard.

>>24541696
Reads like something writen by someone with graphomania or a markov chain babble, with hints of artistry in the form of repetition, rhyme and paradoxes. But doesn't seem to have much of point or direction, writing for the sake of writing.
It tries to be somewhere and nowhere at the same time, I guess.
So, what are you trying to do? If not avant-grade art, that is.

>>24541743
Thanks for the feedback, anon. I appreciate some input. I think what I'm trying to do is write a story with no characters. I'm trying to make you feel for the mountain in a weird way and maybe find something in yourself, too. It's supposed to feel a bit existential and a bit overwhelming, so I think the graphomania comment was spot on. UUUUH, it's nothing at all like what I usually write. I'm also trying to spread my wings a little into something completely new but it's hard finding your own path. Ultimately, I'm hoping for it to be a positive feeling towards the end. Did you get anything from it or no?

>>24541760
I think I felt rather comforted at the beginning? But I stopped feeling like that as it advanced, I guess the imagery was a little distressing?
>The parasitic trees don't even as to moan at the invasion.
This one felt ominous:
>We'll be home soon. Soon well be home. soon. soon.
Well, that was what I got from it, maybe other people will have different reactions to it (and if they do, it could be a sign that you wrote something great!)
Good luck with your writings.

>>24541740
>hmm yes the data shows this mainstream classic was a bestseller so my glib facsimile is sure to turn a profit

>>24541797
>hmmm sweetie this method doesn't work if I collect the wrong data
Amazing. You're literally too stupid to understand this.

>>24541797
>>24541809
I’m starting to think that having some business education should be a requirement for self-publishing

>>24541809
There is no "right data"
Things similar finding success in no way guarantee your own shit finding success
Not to mention pandering to the market is the mark of the lowest of hacks

>>24541991
How is expected values related at all with guarantees? Please go take a basic statistics course and stop embarrassing yourself.

>>24541814
A writer with a business education is like a surgeon with a film degree. It might not hurt, but it's also not gonna help.

>>24541998
Without guarantees expected value is no more useful than crossing your fingers for good luck.

I just want tO READ MY FINISHED DRAFT ALREADY AHH

>>24542000
I don’t think you need a degree per se but at least a 101 class where the dopey anon would’ve learned what predictive modeling is and how marketing mostly works

>>24542008
I have the attention to write but not to read what I’ve written… I just hope it’s good in hindsight

>>24542011
As useful to your writing goals as learning to read tea leaves or tarot cards.

>>24542019
If you’re writing something with no target audience, no idea who would read your book or why, you won’t get any readers or sales […]

>>24542024
>[…]
Are you quoting some guru who managed to scam you into reading their book?

most of you have more opinions on selling books than on the contents of them

>>24542027
I was emphasizing the fact that there is much more left to say on the matter but nothing more was necessary to adequately convey my point. Unsuccessful writers write for themselves, successful writers write for their readers.

>>24542030
most of these freaks care more about sales than the content of their books

>>24542031
What can I say other than you're wrong and that seeing things from this perspective leads down a dark and dreadful road?
Stop. Skirt-chasing. Success.

>>24542034
You could write a hundred disorienting rants about a mountain but that doesn’t mean anyone will want to read them. Spending your time and effort on something that nobody wants is a waste. You’re better off spending your time in a soup kitchen or laying bricks somewhere.

>>24542038
get a job

>>24542038
>You could write a hundred disorienting rants about a mountain but that doesn’t mean anyone will want to read them.
*blocks your path*

>>24542041
Single mom isn’t a job, Linda

Who here is making the next great classic?

>>24542059
...making?
I thought this was marketing strategies general

>>24542062
I thought this was uneducated people who think they should be writing a book instead of educating themselves first general

Marketing 101
Just reach out to your adoring fans and ask them to spread the word for you!
You... don't already have an audience? Oh... uh... maybe save up some cash and then figure out how to use social media ad managers...
...and then pray.

I keep reading my WIP up to the part I'm up to and getting upset it's not finished.

https://rentry.co/7k5th3pn
Feel free to comment on anything you like, writing, concepts, theming etc. I personally think the later ones are more well-rounded but I like stuff in the more single-note ones as well

We need a containment thread for the people who only want to talk about marketing

>>24542090
Just get it to “good enough” and then go back and make it better afterwards

>>24542132
in theory that would fall under the /biz/ board but the biz board is just all crypto tards trying to rug pull each other

>>24542096
before I read this and form an opinion it I need to know if it has a good ad campaign

>>24542158
The goodyear blimp should be broadcasting the url right now but nothing more than that

>>24542005
Would you rather take a 95% chance for 1,000,000 dollars or a 100% chance for 2$?

>>24542144
Ah but no, right now I think it's "really great." I'm hoping once I've got a full draft and I take a break from it I'll come back and sober up to how genuinely amazing it is

>>24541696
Interesting exercise to try and rewrite the first part

Nothing moves past the mountain. In the past they will and in the future there was still music and dancing and drowned Rockstars in Pools and Minefields Staring back at you. and there were quilts slung over knights crests and Sour Fruits with Pips spat into Snow and Water and Chickens in the Water and thinking creatures playing hook and ladder and Tools and Things, but now Nothing moved past the mountain, not the crows pronged calls, not the Water running off the Stars shining not the Chickens playing nor the Rafters rattling. At the end or a long journey it had yet to begun, the mountain rested in quiet beautiful night

>Yet another rejection

>>24540066
I hate when it does this.

>>24542356
>All these people getting rejections
>But nobody posts their books or excerpts

>>24542356
I am at 5 right now

>>24542368
I won't dump it straight in the thread but if you stick around till August I'll put up a Protonmail address you can reach out to get a Google Docs link to my WIP.

>>24542529
I'm up to something like 15 or 16 by now. My 1 acceptance and the many I will get in the future make it all worthwhile

My laptop needs LCD replacement. Looks like one week with no writing.....

>>24542680
You could use whatever device you used to type those words. You're just looking for an excuse to procrastinate.

>using "and/or"
>not using the much cleaner "..., or ..., or both"

My book 2 feels like I'm writing fanfiction of book 1 even though that doesn't make any sense

>>24542330
This is awesome! I originally tried to avoid human-centric nouns, but in your case, I think they worked well.

I just found out Fifty Shades of Grey was written on BlackBerry and most authors in Japan use their phones to write. If I knew about this I would never buy a laptop. There goes my mom's $2500.

>>24538010
It's fucking funny, if that helps.

>>24542901
>not using a typewriter
How uncultured

i keep running into this problem whenever i try and write something
>i write scene A
>i know what scene C is
>I do not know what scene B is.
I can't cut scene B out because going from A to C is too jarring

>>24543032
It's hard to find a typewritter

>>24543043
Have you tried backtracking from scene C instead of extrapolating from scene A? Either way I’d outline it first to be sure it makes sense at both ends

>>24539066
It’s TOO MUCH. Get a grip and come back down to earth lest your black effigies upon tacit lavender pixel quilt become the dying moans of a ghost heaving thought upon the bleak and cold electric realm beyond the black mirror.

>>24539321
>”ew! I don’t like how these words are making me feel!”

>>24542901
>>24543032
I've started unironically writing on a tablet and scanning it into Word. My have bad wrist pain and it really helps.

>>24543078
What chisel do you use?

the great evil in my stories are a metaphor for jews

>>24543078
I’ve tried that before but Latin letters are too hard to write so I had to learn cuneiform

>>24543195
My friend told me this long elaborate and very well crafted story he wants to write, a sci-fi narrative where a human group called “the evil ones” is kicked off the earth and have to go colonize another planet. The planet they settle on has two powerful factions (of aliens) that lived in peace. But the evil ones meddle and manipulate them into war, secretly helping both sides, so they could wipe out populations and take over the planet.

He swore up and down that it was NOT intentionally a rehash of the Israeli-Arab conflict

>>24543230
sounds like an interesting premise
Id read it

>>24542901
You can even buy small external keyboards for phones if you really want.
Why would you even buy a $2500 laptop just for writing?

had a nice dream. a complete narrative. woke up feeling great and soaking in the ideas and emotions of my dream, just like finishing a good book
gonna write it
I miss dreaming every night. I'd have thousands of short stories written if my brain would just do what everyone else's does

>>24543230
Did your friend drift away after you outed yourself as an anti-Semite like that?

>>24543454
>had a nice dream. a complete narrative
I don't think I've ever had this. My dreams always seem to end in the middle of things

>>24543454
>I miss dreaming every night. I'd have thousands of short stories written if my brain would just do what everyone else's does
1) go to sleep telling yourself that you'll remember your dreams
2) try as hard as you can to recall them as soon as you wake up
3) keep a diary near your bed to write them down
If you keep this up for a while, you'll start remembering more and more. I've done it on and off and I know it works, though I'm horribly inconsistent with it.

>>24543509
>how dare you notice our crimes!

>>24543529
>their imaginary crimes justify our real crimes!

>>24543537
Haven't you got a hospital or day care- uhhh I mean terrorist baby kidnapper gathering centre to obliterate moshe?

>>24543537
>writing general
>lit board
Maybe you should go write your own story about how the evil ones got kicked off earth for no reason whatsoever and are actually the victims and how those kids deserved to be slaughtered because the land they were living on was actually promised to the evil ones 2,000 years ago (according to them, but don’t you dare question it)

Thoughts on this char desc?

A SLAW of ears, fingers, nipples, and split ends spun out of her like mohawked corn kernals, or twigs from a wrapped christmas tree
Drank wine and tequila like a defrosted cavewoman peeling off rungs of an ice core pawing at her wedding ring
Always asking for plates she knew were off the menu at this hour
And wretchedly grabbing my arm "they dont have it anymore"
scooping her lower lip forward, forehead creasing like an arc of migrating geese
"The USL parley hit" (uzbek super league)
She got out of her seat and did a weak curtsey with the stumpy wings of her jacket

>>24543621
>>24543606
see>>24543537

>>24543668
Is your wife autistic by chance?

>>24543621
>Maybe you should go write
am I allowed to do this?
any self help books or youtube guides?
is this a popular trend right now?
is it a part of an effective marketing strategy?

>>24538010
nevertheless. It was hard to say but even now as Marion looked, bewildered, into her face, illuminated as it was by the icy light of the LEDs circling the booth, that it possessed an aura of mimckry
>mimickry
It's mimicry.

... and it made him think of a movie he had seen once, he thought, maybe, about those two vampires. They were actually Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie, if he remembered correctly, both of whom radiated a kind of unyielding extravagance, a death-til-us-part or even a beyond-the-grave kind of passion, mixing as they did amongst the living, living the Kreutzer Sonata *and*
>*and*
Cringe.
the Appassionata right up to the moment the blood bank ran out of Type A, and then a thousand years of aging hit them all at once, turning them into creaky, gropey, dusty mummies
>gropey
What?
and they would be this, locked in their sepulchres and horny as hell, for all eternity
>horny as hell
Jesus Christ, you are a bad writer.

>>24543721
schizophrenic post formatting

>>24543728
You don't take feedback very well.

>>24543740
I didn’t follow your post either. Use the >caret for quoting the text you’re responding to, then leave your response without carets.

>>24543740
>barely literate
>mentally ill
>offers vapid opinions as feedback
>argumentative and wants to chain reply
drop a kek and move on

>>24543747
I aced a literacy test in my country. You are just a bad writer.

>>24543745
You just write like shit and didn't realize I was transcribing it to mess with his copyright.

Agents changed the narrative about using AI because it takes them out of the job and nothing more.
>NOooo, you can't let ChatGPT spell correct and make grammar changes because it's no longer your work
>Instead, you need to pay me $1500+ to spellcorrect and make grammar changes!!
Fucking kys. I'm not saying generate text, or prompt it, but if you're just getting spellcheck on it, then who gives a fuck?

>>24543755
You can’t even follow who you’re replying to.
>to mess with his copyright
And you failed at trying to sabotage your fellow writer, which, btw, what a (((slimy))) move that was
>Your work is under copyright protection the moment it is created and fixed in a tangible form that it is perceptible either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. (copyright.gov)

I bet you wonder why people don’t return your texts and stopped inviting you to parties.

>>24543801
same for writers

>>24543802
don't engage with him on copyright
he's a known actor and total retard. probably genuinely mentally ill judging by how often and easily he gets confused and angry

>>24543740
That wasn't me. But thanks for the feedback.

>>24543802
>parentheses in 2025
Yeah. I'm Jewish. And proud, too.
>>24543810
In over-simplified terms this means the person/publisher that gets to publish the story first. If there are restrictions (First English Language, First Electronic, etc) then it is the first to publish to that particular subset. NOTE: Obviously unrestricted first rights are no longer available the moment a subset of those rights are sold.

These days, there are many ways to publish a story. It’s not always as clear-cut as appearing in a book or magazine. You have to think of publishing as distribution. There are some obvious situations that make it clear that the story has been published:

appearance in a book or magazine (print, audio, or digital formats)
money has changed hands (barter too) in exchange for a copy of the work
anyone using Google or another internet search tool can find the text of the story
Here are a few examples of situations where a story has been published:

it appears in a book, magazine, pamphlet, postcard, etc. (self-publishing and school journals included) that is freely available or sold
it appears on your website for visitors to read (no matter what size your audience is)
it appears on a publicly available website (like Wattpad or a forum, even one with membership restrictions)
it is distributed as a Patreon or Kickstarter reward (money has changed hands, no different than selling an ebook)

>Essentially, copyright is a broad legal protection, while first rights are a specific type of publishing right within that broader scope.
First rights are still related to copyright. So if I transcribe your stuff and post it on 4chan, it will be considered published (first rights used), and it fucks with the copyright.

How would you write a story where the main protagonist and antagonist are superintelligent AIs locked in a rivalry over whether humanity should survive or be destroyed?

>>24542096
Bump for this, I know it's genre stuff but I'd love some input

>the schizo who only values money and tries to drag everyone down is self admittedly jewish

>>24544006
I'm published. You're not.

I finished my first draft
what do I do now? How does a first draft become a second draft?

>>24543801
If an agent tells you that you need to pay anything up front, that's your cue to run screaming. An agent takes on a writer because they think the writer's work will sell, allowing them to take a cut of the profit. If they want your money first, they undoubtedly have no intention of helping sell your work.
Also, grammar is inseparable from style. So yes, if you get an LLM to fuck with it, it's not your text anymore.

>>24544027
I usually just make a copy of the file and name it second draft before I start heavy-duty editing (cuts, etc)

>>24544027
Print it out and go through with a red pen.
>>24544030
Don't bother. He's obviously a self-pubber or doesn't realize how the industry works.

>>24543740

>>24544040
I don't self-publish my stuff (that sells) on a basket weaving forum.

@24544047
lmao wtf is this schizo going off about

Does anyone here have genuine experience with literary agents? I struggle to see them as anything but marketability indicators, but I still want to reach out to some of them. I guess I'm just pretty bitter.

>>24544058
I. Am. Published. And. Don't. Do. Feedback. From. Gentiles.

>>24544061
You will never be a writer if you just self-publish. I've sent to plenty of agents and editors. The main thing is to remain professional and follow instructions / submission guidelines.

>>24544069
Well, many of my favorite authors struggled to get things published, tried unconventional methods and eventually died in poverty. I think I just dislike the fact that the commercial world is a kind of filter limiting the amount of topics and voices. I queried one novel without much success and I'm now writing another that is supposed to be more easily labeled and marketable.

>>24544063
meds now

>>24544096
I'm still more published than you are. It's hilarious how much you suck, or how unpalatable you are to the literary establishment (that only wants QUEER BIPOC voices).

>>24544104
are you aware of this double narrative you're presenting where you brag about being published and then talk about how shallow and worthless the publishing industry is

>>24544115
You need to learn to suck the right Jewish dick, goy.

>>24543810
just report him and move on

>>24544132
Filing a false report on 4chan is a bannable offence.

>>24543801
AI isn't going to replace literary agents, but it's definitely changing their job. They'll use AI tools to quickly sort through manuscripts, spot market trends, and handle tedious admin tasks, making their work more efficient. This frees them up to focus on the truly human aspects: deeply evaluating a manuscript's artistic merit, nurturing authors' careers, building strong relationships with publishers, and skillfully negotiating deals. However, agents will also face new challenges, like navigating the legal and ethical complexities of AI-generated content and ensuring transparency. Ultimately, the successful literary agent of the future will be someone who embraces AI as a powerful tool while emphasizing their irreplaceable human intuition, strategic thinking, and dedication to authentic storytelling.

>>24544178
heh

>>24544178
it's the logical conclusion of a system that maximizes profit. quite depressing, but this has already been in place for a while, with the capital working through individual agents whether they realized it or not. artists of all kinds learned to sneak interesting ideas into otherwise conventional genre work. it's always been an arms race, we just have to get smarter about it

Dear dairy, i wish for a place where writers, people WHO CARE DEEPLY ABOUT WORDS
Came to discuss words, sentances in terms of PURE AESTHETICS AND CRAFT
which words will weld in which order
Which ones sound nice, not as nice, etc
For the pure discussion of writing, where is the place for me? Oh? You dont know? Skip the cynical reply pls

bigbluebobsled@yahoo.com

Hallo Freund

Wenn du Deutsch sprichst (bevorzugterweise als Muttersprache) und auch auf dem Weg bist, Autor zu werden, würde ich mich freuen, wenn du mir schreiben würdest.

Ich bin auf der Suche nach jemandem, der Texte aus meinem Buch probelesen kann. Ich würde selbstverständlich im Gegenzug die Texte von dir lesen und kritisieren.

Neben E-Mail können wir auch über Telegram oder Discord kommunizieren.

Bis später, vielleicht

Ein Träumer

bigbluebobsled@yahoo.com

>>24544271
Litopia

>>24544271
here
you just have to ignore live-in thread schzos and passingby beginners
other options you have to cultivate yourself by meeting people and maiing your own circle

>>24543699
Shes a tarp a rain tarp

>>24544277
No one discusses craft here.

>>24544285
Then how am i gonna write thenext great american novel

>>24544291
Litopia

>>24544285
I've been working through a linguistics textbook, hoping to better understsnd syntax and apply an understanding of phonetics to write more beautiful phrases
I was reading narratology but since I was only finding overviews online and no actual primary material, I decided to shift my focus
I don't post much discussion because I'd rather study before I bring up talking points, but I'd join in an interesting discussion if it were brought up
what craft thoughts are on your mind anon?

>>24544311
What about repetition and difference when using phonemes to convey not only lexical meaning but rhythm and flow?

>>24544285
I think my interest in discussing it lessened as soon as I started perceiving form and substance as inseparable. I can't stand the way people discuss plot as separate from language, and this is just the other side of the same issue.

>>24544335
Read Kant.

>>24544328
repetition to deepen a point and difference to develop it by contrast. like anything
I think if you want a sonorous flow then the key is in understanding glides and being conscious of not only the accoustic relationship between phones, but also of the movements between them. for an effective staccato flow, it might be better to focus on rhythm, focusing on repeating similar phones while having a dynamic sentence structure to create push and pull in the phrase
I've intuites the second point on my own just through writing. I love using semicolon lists to try and convey a driving insistence and derive emotions from that. anxiety or tension or some such
I'm not there yet studies wise, but I'm interested in how these components contribute semantic interpretation and emotional evocation. everyone knows a good phrase when they see it, and they can tell you when it makes them feel something, but as a writer it's hard to predict those properties as you write. you (or I atleast) have to discover them as you write, and tease them out through editing

>>24544373
>I love using semicolon lists to try and convey a driving insistence and derive emotions from that. anxiety or tension or some such
I did this in a recent story where I had to list aspects of a battlefield. It's strange we had the same stylistic choice for a given effect, but maybe it means it is universal.

>>24544380
it's probably something intuitive to our times. I've seen semicolon lists used in winding ways (probably in victorian era novels, those autists loved their winding sentences) and it communicates a totally different effect

What are the elements that make a good book. Not even a classic, but just a good book.

>>24544817
the umbrella is so wide it feels pointless to try and narrow it down. some people consider a good book to be a page turner, by which metric pulp is king, some people consider a good book to be one that sells well, in which case romantasy is king, some people consider a good book to be one that's emotionally effecting

I have two ways of looking at it. there's the layer in which you evaluate the author's intent and the extent to which that's realized. determining an essence of a thing by its function. this brings the standard issue of subjectivity where some people are stupid and have stupid opinions
the second layer is evaluating how coherent the work is
https://www-archiv.fdm.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/node/69.html
basically coherence is how logically sound the connections between components are. a cowboy character will be in a wild west setting. the cowboy is rugged, the frontier is rugged. a high octane scene will have rapid, clipped prose. these elements are coherent. I think a good book ought to have thorough connections like these through out. not just linear connections but a web of connections with all elements deliberately communicating with each other
if you ignore the subjective layer then you get retards who say your story is bad because it's not what they would've written
if you ignore the coherence layer then you get retards who spew out poorly written drivel and say it's good because they decided it is
you need both evaluations to check out as good

I’d appreciate some feedback on a few short paragraphs I’ve written. I find it difficult to judge my own writing; I can tell I have plenty to learn and improve on in a technical sense, but I don’t know if where I am at is too childish, too pretentious, or what.

https://pastebin.com/NhgAurAn

Thanks in advance.

>>24545031
>Catching only the light of the constellations
What does this even mean?
Definition: a group of stars forming a recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a mythological figure.

Which mythological figure? Just say stars.

>>24545097
give your opinions on publishing and marketing strategy

>>24545100
>find the cutest girl you can, hopefully it's a JK, have her wear some skimpy clothes, jump up and down praising your book
seriously though. the biggest thing I learned about writing is how words need to make sense. You can't write
>The hare galloped between the vast open plains.

That's not a good sentence even though it's grammatically correct.

>>24545106
>vapid feedback
>it's you
literally every single time
leave some idiocy for the rest of us

>>24545108
>tell you what I think
>sperg out.

Go to chatgpt if you want someone sucking your dick with every word you write.

How do I make myself write?
I've been wanting to write again for nearly 2 years now and have barely made any progress towards that goal. I've only done one little drabble like 2 years ago and haven't done any exercises since then. I've been trying to get myself to write, but all of it looks too complicated and exhausting for me. I've tried multiple different strategies, but they never seem to work. I've tried forcing myself to write, but can only make myself write a couple of sentences for barely 30 seconds before stopping and looking at my phone again.

>novel supposed to have 10 parts
>thought it would be 100k words max
>middle of third part
>50k words
At this pace it will end with 200k words - ~150k after cutting later.
Is it that bad if I want to get published? It's not fantasy.

Did any of you go to the meetup? I was surprised by how many non-writers showed up.

>>24545166
How often do you read books?

>>24545178
Yeah, if you haven't been published before you might dissuade many with a manuscript much greater or less than around like 100K words (and you should expect to make cuts to that).

>>24544272
Mein Deutsch ist sehr schlecht aber viel Glück

>>24545211
Rarely, if ever. I can't make myself focus on a single paragraph for more than a minute, I can't make myself read a single story. Even when I try to get into the flow zone, my brain just wants me to finish everything as fast as possible. Nothing else has worked for me in regards to fixing this either.

>>24544817
>good prose
>good plot
>good (i.e. interesting) characters
>good prose
etc
If you want to ask what exactly constitutes these, that's anyone's guess.

>>24545225
Sounds like you might need medication. Ask your doctor. If you don't have one, maybe try to learn the value of being in the moment without thinking about before or later.

>>24545229
I'm on medication right now. 20 MG of adderall, 20 MG of paroxtine and thyroid medicine.

>>24545166
Alcohol

>>24545097
No, the whole passage is about people looking to the night sky for hope and guidance. I chose constellation to show the stars ordered by men into such concepts. It doesn’t matter what they are specifically, just that they are made by men for a certain purpose.

Honestly I’m looking for more general feedback. Are the sentences unwieldy, do they sound immature or lack clarity?

>>24545373
Heres some thoughts on the first part

Please, let the night be anything but black, let it be a bitter blue, or the narrowing tunnel of an alzheimers patients memory

Ice sheets? What ice sheets, where are they, this just needs a few words of grounding

I like this idea, i would write something like "the winds nested atop the ice like the still forms of deer in tall grass"

Im ok with this part
Debating whether to take out the 'those' before sleepless as its uncomfortable but also rhymes with souls

This is my first time writing on Google Docs and what can I say. It's better than WPS Office.

>>24545481
Care to share what ur working on?

>>24545166
Write on your phone, duh.

>>24545486
I'm not Chinese but I'm writing a Wuxia novel.

I have submitted a literal fanfiction to a publisher. More as a joke than anything. I didn't even change the character names, and I told them clearly it's fanfiction. But they said they'll read it. Wtf? It feels fucking embarrassing now lol

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/the-read-down/must-read-queer-writers-of-color/
Dive into these celebrated works by queer writers of color. These stories are told with unflinching honesty, powerful prose, and characters that you will absolutely fall in love with. It isn’t hard to see why these novels are read, reread, and cherished. And to find even more literature from queer voices, check out our curated collection.

Stop wasting your SFF stories by posting them on 4chan. Write a short story once a week or once a month and try your hand at making it as a writer. The chances are slim, but you will get paid if you send to these places. Don't look back once you make your first sale.

>Clarkesworld
https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/submissions/
1000-22000 words, no exceptions
12c (USD) per word. No horror but dark SF/F permitted.
No use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
No simultaneous submissions (do not send the story somewhere else).
Stories must be well-written, suitable for audio (since there are narrated audiobooks), and convenient for screen reading (so no weird formatting).
Rigor in science fiction is appreciated, but it does not need to be "hard."
There can't be any of the tropes listed on the site.

>Asimov's
https://www.asimovs.com/contact-us/writers-guidelines
up to 7500 words, at 10c per word (USD)
Character oriented stories, but there is also some poetry $1 per line
Absolutely no use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
No simultaneous submissions (do not send the story somewhere else).

>Fantasy & Science Fiction
https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/glines.htm
No simultaneous submissions (do not send somewhere else).
Up to 25,000 words in length. 8-12 c (USD) per word. You must read a sample of the magazine before sending.

>Interzone Digital
https://interzone.digital/submissions/
Simultaneous submissions accepted (you can send somewhere else).
Maximum of 5000 words. 1.5c (EURO) per word. Double-spaced and emailed.

>Amazing Stories
https://submission.amazingstoriesmag.com/guidelines/
$20 per story, $10 per flash (USD), and poetry also
No simultaneous submissions, no multiple submissions
1000 to 24,000 words

>Beneath Ceaseless Skies
https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/submissions/
Up to 15,000 words, 8c per word (USD)
Provides feedback on rejections
No use of Chat GPT nor AI allowed
Character-focused, adventure fantasy (no sci fi nor horror) that has a deep sense of world.

>The Dark Magazine
Horror magazine.
We pay 5 cents/word for original fiction up to 6,000 words on publication for first world rights; and 1 cent/word for reprint fiction up to 6,000 words on acceptance for nonexclusive reprint rights.
https://www.thedarkmagazine.com/submission-guidelines/

>Deadlands
The Deadlands seeks stories about death, usually horror but will take other genres; they pay pro rates, at 10¢/word for original fiction.
https://psychopomp.com/the-deadlands-guidelines/

>>24545538
In modern age the brave writer must complete their debut, transform their gender, harness their (dwindling) social marginalisation towards publication and conspicuousness, achieve renown, then detransition and live the rest of their life in sincerity before committing suicide at 48.

>>24545208
How was the meetup? How was the vibe, the dress-sense, the quality of conversation, the odour, the eye contact, and the sexual tension?

God I hate Sundays. In the morning I eyeball a certain quantity of Vyvanse into a bottle and spend the rest of the day orbiting between could-have-been, what-might-yet-be, and never-should-have-happened. I drove to the seaward hills but the wind gusted in huge circulations and stole all my energy away. Last night I read about the battle at Stalingrad and what combination of words can capture what that must have been like. Seven months of obliteration of which only men are insane or strong enough to endure. In coming years human errors in script may became a badge of pride as sign that no machine was used in its composition. The sun will die and you or I may achieve enlightenment yet the amount of the souls in the universe will stay exactly the same.

>>24546045
Very kino, now ask chatgpt to remove the gorillion errors

>>24545373
You have written four paragraphs of description and thought and if this is your intent the prose must be precise or hypnotic. To conjure an idea in the readers mind a single potent and original metaphor can suffice. Often times your sentences became unwieldy and verbs were weakened by preceding adjectives. Use Demas physicality to describe the surroundings. Let him shiver and plead and moan. Read the passage to yourself out loud and mark where the rhythm is broken. Save the adjectives for when the noun is not enough. "Serene canvas", as an example, is neither artful nor descriptive and please keep writing but keep reading and see how good writers know that simple words imbued with great intent are ultimately what move us.

>>24545496
I don't know how to make myself focus.

My proof copy came out awesome, first try—what a neat feeling.
Thanks to all who grabbed the ebook already! It’s still free until 11:59 PDT tonight for anyone else who wants it

Any anons keen to do a short (100-500 word) one-shot based on a prompt here in this thread?

in start of my story there is a weak kid in the sport team but as he is weak and can't perform well his teammates tell him to fuck off

is this a cliche start?

>>24546336
One shot. You’ve only got one shot at this. Don’t fuck it up.
Take your time. Take it easy. Slow and steady.
You’ve trained hard for this. You know exactly what to do. Exactly. Just need to remember.
Remember.
3mA on the multimeter. This one has to be it. Has to be.
Better be sure though.
6mA here. Shit.
Is there another capacitor somewhere feeding this? What the fuck?
Ok ok, don’t overthink it. Just figure it out.
Most important thing here is to stay calm. I said CALM. ZEN, find your ZEN.
Quit shaking like a little bitch. You signed up for this!
Had to be the big man.
Had to be the hero.
One shot, one shot.
Don’t fuck it up.
She’s waiting for you, not your ashes.
Don’t disappoint.
Ok. Steady. You got this.
You’ll be fine.
It’ll be fine.
I’ll be-

>>24546334
Congrats! Can't imagine a better feeling than holding your own book in physical form.
Is the "Not for Resale" printed over or just a wrapper?

>>24546467
It’s printed into the image, understandably. I sent in the paperback for review so it should be live within a day or two. Then I can order clean copies for just the print + shipping cost which is nice… I plan to give some to friends and plant some in free outdoor public libraries

>>24546334
Nice thumb, fatty.

>Just self-publish, that way you get to keep all the profit
AAAAACK

>>24546334
Good for you! I hope it sells a gorillion copies.

>>24546334
LETS GO

I still can't make myself write at all.

>>24546601
That's not self-publishing, so you actually just advanced the argument of the hypothetical person you're having a hypothetical arugment against.

>>24547308
Self-pub filth

>>24547290
So give up. You clearly don't want it. Just live your life.

>>24547364
This is what people have told me for literally everything I try doing

Im going to put on finnegans wake audiobook and drive around little small towns
In the meantime, comment on last nights writing nigs!


He kept pretty girls at around the 30 degree line of his periphery, and only looked close at the plain ones, if he could help it
Narrow sidewalks were difficult

"I like your shirt"
voiced a glass edged fiddle that
shone through the tops of her eyelids

"I like your anemone seastring bag, man"
He said, In a badly crumpled dylan

the night rolled sheets of wind down the street, like tight knuckled hotel beds
These winds were slowly whisking the thin plastic straw through his drink
"Behold, a perpetual motion machine", as he rewound the straw back towards his side

Her voice resisted direct focus, instead twisting and curling around him like magnetic field lines
Her thoughts were the cafe at a lulu lemon's idea of coffee

"Remember the flood", she said
The rooves and the balconies, which had been fletched with seaweed hula skirts
Her fingers, stale gummy worms, with lilac covid facemasks, minted against my palm

>>24547364
Oh for fuck's sake. Yeah I've heard this a million times for every single hobby I've ever tried. I like the idea of doing anything besides sitting in my room, laying in bed, jerking off and going to sleep or looking at my phone and staring at a wall while barely being able to get out of bed. Am I seriously raising the bar too high? Is that what you're telling me?
Then am I not interested in anything at all? Because this is what it's like for everything that I've ever tried doing even for non creative hobbies or just anything in general.
I have literally tried doing several artistic hobbies and gave up each of them immediately when I was a teenager.
>Gave up on Source Filmmaker
>Gave up on GameMaker
>Gave up on FireAlpaca
>Gave up on Photoshop
>Gave up on writing
I didn't know how any of them worked or what to do. I don't even know basic trig. Even when I look art guides, I literally cannot comprehend them or figure them out. I don't want to be stuck with no creativity or being unable to express myself. This is what it's like for literally everything I try doing. I'm not able to try and keep up with any hobby. Even writing, I do it sporadically and very rarely. Stop giving me this reductionist bullshit.

I'm not here to get attention, I'm not here because I "secretly don't like doing anything creative" I'm here because I want to fucking draw, write and make something. Now are you going to give me advice or not?

>>24547398
Work harder
Idiot

>>24547408
Every time I start a new hobby, I quickly get bored and stop.

>>24547398
Obviously, the problem is that you're putting too much pressure on yourself, dummy. I NEED TO WRITE RIGHT NOWWWW. How about, hehe, this next sentence will be a funny one. Oh, that's an interesting stanza idea, let me try it with xys for a change.
If, at the end of the day, you're writing for a hobby, then it matters nothing how well it's written, and you have complete freedom. ER-fucking-go, write, don't write, stop being a fag about it. If you don't enjoy it enough to write under zero pressure, then you don't have to—it isn't for you.

>>24547427
If I don't put pressure on myself to do something, then I'll never end up doing anything. Everything that I've ever done feels like work and isn't just something enjoyable for me to do as a passtime. I don't know what to do about it. Even for writing, I can barely get myself going.

>>24547418
Then push through the boredom?
Your brain gives you one impulse to dtop and you just listen? Do you have any personal agrncy at all?
If it's what you want to do then do it. You're programmed to desire pleasure and avoid displeasure. Get over yourself and assert some self control. If it becomes boring then tough, keep doing it. Have some faith in your conscious mind to be a better judge of how you should spend your time. Stop giving in to a feeling

>>24547474
I don't know how to get into that flow state like everybody else does on account of my ADHD.

>>24547442
>Howie
Oh, okay, you're right, I guess there's just nothing for it. Good luck with whatever.

>>24547590
Disabled people have to work harder
If you don't work harder then you'll end up and remain lesser to normal people
Work harder
Idiot

>>24547605
I can't make myself is the problem. I can only focus on things that are inherently stimulating like playing video games instead. What do I do? I can role-play just fine but not full on writing.

>>24547614
Work harder
>I can't
If it's an absolute truth then there's no point in trying. Stop arguing in defense of your deficiencies. You're supposed to argue against your flaws as a way to work against them, not align and work with them to keep yourself shitty
Either work harder, and push through discomfort and difficulty, or give up

>>24547630
My problem is that I can only do it in 30 second increments at most before getting bored and stopping.

>>24547694
You are being an obtuse little shit
My point is that you have to suck it up when you get bored. Stop stopping. Work through the boredom. You are doing the bare minimum and shocked when it's not enough

>>24547702
Because my brain doesn't give me the dopamine to do things. Last time I tried drawing or writing anything, I ended up taking a nap because of the mental exhaustion of trying to continue. Nothing I've ever taken, no amount of exercise, nothing has fixed this. I don't know what to do.

>>24547713
Do you think you're the only depressive ADHD retard? I'm the same way
Learn some mental skills and work on self management. That you argue for your flaws and hide behind them makes me think you're never going to change. You have to try, you have to be cognizant of your impulses, you have to actually push. Obviously it's going to suck ass, you're retarded and have a shittier brain than other people. You're disabled and are going to hobble instead of walk
Work harder. IDIOT

>>24547702
Just do it" doesn't work, it works for normal people that have brains which take the hint and start producing dopamine as they should. An ADHD person will try and it feels pointless, every signal in their body is telling them to stop and that it's not going to work and that they need to do something else that's much more important and worthwhile. If they're a masochist and particularly stubborn, they might force themselves to do it for 5-10 minutes before becoming so mentally exhausted they have to take a break with something their brain actually finds rewarding. A normal person might experience something similar, an initial hump of inertia before their brains take the hint and they get in the zone - this never happens to an ADHD person, no matter what trick you try.

>>24547729
>Learn some mental skills and work on self management. That you argue for your flaws and hide behind them makes me think you're never going to change. You have to try, you have to be cognizant of your impulses, you have to actually push.
Okay. Fucking how? That's all I want to know is how the fuck to do that? How do I make myself? How do I work on myself? What management skills do I learn? What things do you want me to try? Just saying this shit means nothing.

>>24547734
"Just do it" is quite literally the only thing that will work when nothing motivates. Being a depressive ADHD retard means never having a reward system you can rely on and any strategy you invent will quickly tire itself out and no longer feel rewarding. Constantly chasing new methodologies is going around the core issue which is that it's never going to be pleasant or easy so you have to push harder to have self control
This focus on getting in the zone is bizarre. It feels like putting focus on a pussy pedestal and mystifying it. Who cares what normies get? There is no solution other than to wrestle your thoughts, identify and push down impulses, and force yourself to focus. There is no life hack, there is no easy way out. Life is tiring and exhausting and sucks ass

>>24547751
Okay; so, for the fifty millionth time, what should I do or try? How do I force myself to stop giving up? Every time I try I just go "Eh, whatever" and then go back to laying in my bed on my phone.

>>24547743
Just do it you dumb fuck. Sit down and write. Right now. Type out whatever garbage
You're going to get intrusive thoughts telling you to do other shit. Don't engage with them and choke them down
Whenever I fall off the habit I start doing daily flash fictions. Shitting out whatever 500~ word vignette or story with no regard to vision or ambition, just forcing myself to do it
You will never change if you don't start engaging with your own impulses. If you don't pay attention to what you actually think and feel and learn to not let them just drag you around. It's going to be more work than it's for other people, it's going to be hard. The more you engage with the idea that there's some perfect strategy around the corner, the more you'll distance yourself from this raw point that your only option is to work harder, the more you'll procrastinate thinking for yourself and learning self control
Stop feeding into the rhetoric that makes you suck ass. It's one thing to have those thoughts and feelings inside of you, it's another to feed into them and defend them

>>24547760
Unironically stop masturbating, it messes with your brain chemistry to make everything else seem boring in comparison

I wrote 42 words today over my daily minimum so far

>>24547880
As a fapper I can confirm that this is bullshit and not the case.

>>24547886
Depends on how much you do it, if you have moderation it might be fine but it sounds like anon doesn't

>Still responding to Howie
Please, this cunt has shit up every board he's touched. He's moved here because you retards can't just ignore someone. Stop falling for it.

>>24547912
theory of mindbros, why don't other people hold the same knowledge I do?

>>24547912
He had his own thread and now he's jumped into this one. Report him for trolling.

>>24547765
I'm still struggling to do anything.

>>24546018
>vibe
chill
>dress-sense
boring
>quality of conversation
golden
>odour
not complaints
>eye contact
decent
>sexual tension
zero

>>24545178
The longer, the worse for you, but White Teeth and Cold Mountain were both debut novels that are 160K+. So it's possible

>>24538088
3 days later, it's 65K now.

>>24547765
You're oversimplification of complex neurological barriers doesn't work here.

>>24548261

>>24548341
>>24548341
>>24548341