"Point out the next great writer" edition

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>>24537701

/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.)

Simple guides on writing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHdzv1NfZRM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whPnobbck9s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAKcbvioxFk

Thread theme: https://youtu.be/YxEk44Zj5Kw?si=XqmCXHr0ULuk-VdZ

bigbluebobsled@yahoo.com

Zum wiederholten Male, Hallo

Da ich leider im bisherigen /wg/ niemanden finden konnte, erlaube ich mir, hier erneut meine Bitte vorzutragen:

Wenn du Deutsch sprichst (bevorzugterweise als Muttersprache) und wie meine Wenigkeit auf dem Weg bist, Autor zu werden, würde ich mich freuen, wenn du mir schreibest.

Ich bin auf der Suche nach jemandem, der Texte aus meinem Buch probelesen und bewerten 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

Anonymous

bigbluebobsled@yahoo.com

DO NOT respond to the germanfag, he is a groomer

>>24548564
Obviously I will not but I'm surprised at how much of that I can understand. I only started learning German this year.

You Will Never Be a Writer

>>24548588
>88
Based but also I am already a writer.

How many words per chapter?

>>24548667
'bout tree fiddy

>will reach 66600 words soon

>>24548588
You were supposed to say "author" idiot, becoming a writer's the easy part

I wrote, edited, and published a 5,000+ word story in under 24 hours.

>>24548694
But is it any good?

>>24548694
boobs

>>24548694
Post it coward

>The Cenote's Shard
More like The LLM's Slop

>>24548819
the zoomer is a piteous creature

>>24548819
You know those tools are barely better than flipping a coin and in some cases worse, right?

>>24548838
Dunno, seems consistent in my experience

>another book by "Aaron Hillyer" is entitled "The Disappearance of Literature"

Anyone here ever try to use a character editor like in a video game or something to try to visualize what you're writing about?

Hmm. This scene is two women talking about a third woman. Not even in a “doesn’t she have a nice hat” way but about the revolution she’s leading in a neighboring country, That’s some Bechdel test level stuff. Gonna’ have to redo this. Don’t want people getting the wrong idea about my writing.

>>24548829
>>24548819
>>24548838
>>24548843
outside observer but that shit very much reads like AI generated it. those tools aren't trustworthy but it doesnt pass the smell test either

>>24548564
Will he suck my dick?

>>24549499
Ja, als wäre es ein Lutscher

Holy shit guys I'm finally writing, I never thought I'd be able to write again. I'm so happy I could cry. I just want to sit down and write forever. I don't know if I should share anything I've got here yet, but I've already gotten multiple paragraphs down in less than an hour.

Did novelists of the 20th century write for liberation, so that we could have Numa Numa Yay and Big Chungus and Autotune and BBC and the Rizzler and Labubu? We're living in a world fertile with fictive conceits, no? At last we can call it an American culture and go back to work at the cheese packing factory. The heroes of the past shook the drapes of today, and Lo! Spiderman and Superman, as fresh as a sip of pre-war Coca Cola. Thanks 20th century writers, you saved us all!

I thought about writing a poem about the death of Enkidu, making it really lame and gay and then entering it into a contest hoping to win under the auspices of it seemingly being queer shit
Carry on

>>24549607
based

>>24549624
That epic is already gay. Being a remembered writer is nothing like becoming immortal.

>looking through the website of the one single agent from the writer's con who wasn't totally apprehensive of my work and me ...they were still apprehensive, just the least out of all
>their previously published titles contain almost no comparables to my book

You assholes bullied The Cenote's Shard off of Amazon

>>24549496
I agree that it soundsl ike AI. Is the book itself written by AI? Maybe the author can chime in.

Oh man, today is one of those days. I've got no energy for any project,s and I don't really want to edit anything either. Funny how that works.

>>24548341 (OP)
grammar question: if I'm writing a character exclaiming a question, do I put the ? before the ! ("What?!") or the ! before the ? ("What!?")?

>>24549986
It's a style issue not grammar. It's questionable whether you should use both at al (interrobang)l. I think most experts say you should just pick one symbol and not use both.

>>24549991
Thank you very much!

How does I learn too writ as good as AI?

This interview was quite insightful. Is he right about having filler words?

https://youtu.be/rdsE9XqB2bI?t=5039

>>531228776
>openly racist people
Doesn't exist. System detect mutes you before you get any filter words out. And I doubt the players who got muted for typing "suck my dick" are being punished the way as the ones who got muted for typing "NIGGER NIGGER CHICKEN DINNER".

I will write a fictional memoir.

If I have a story that I'm about to submit to a mag, could I post an email / discord here and have people beta-read it? Or is that retarded. I'm on the last draft, have cut it down to around 5,100 words, it's super tight, I think it's pretty good. I just want a last lookover before I send it off to the scifi / fantasy mags.

Laser elves tongue my anus in spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace

So, what's the correct order for someone looking to get trad published?

>Complete first draft
>Go through the entire novel again
>Complete second draft
>seek out a literary agent
>get in touch with a publisher
>they hire an editor to go through your second-third draft
>now it's publishable

Is that it? What about self-pub? When is it acceptable to hire your own editor? What about a proofreader and beta-readers? I'm confused about the whole process

>>24550176
Self published is all that but you do everything yourself. No agent or big company though. You're on your own to market and sell

>>24550211
What order would you want to get alpha/beta readers and then editors/proofreaders in? I'm going to assume proofreaders are there once you polish every aspect of your book like plot and sequencing

>>24550214
Alpha is first draft, beta is after your other drafts when you're ready to share your work.

>read contemporary fiction
>Everyone seems to write in first person

>>24550216
are those typically paid positions?

>protagonists are part of a rebel faction that operates in a colonial city set in a fictional
>one chapter takes place at a secretive council meeting
>introduce and describe like 10 characters at once as they enter the council room, most of them not mentioned before that

Is that a bad tactic? I know people don't prefer info/namedumps like that but I feel it makes the scene more lively if the readers know X, Y, Z etc are present at the council instead of just saying "welp, like 50 people were present but we're only going to focus on these two main characters you already know and one more lad"

>>24550241
>nootices

What do you think about limited third person POV?

Each chapter is told through a POV character and basically every description is an observation/feeling by them and every characterization of another person is also their opinion, meaning I've effectively described an unreliable narrator since me calling X character a massive flamboyant faggot is just my MC thinking so, and not necessarily an objective truth

I genuinely have trouble balancing between archaic and contemporary writing especially during dialogue

>>24550214
For me it's
>Draft Zero
The finished product once you're done with your very last chapter. By that point you should have kept notes and a to do list for whenever you're done. Typically at this point you have placeholder names, earlier chapters have different information than the later ones and the characterization is all over the place.
>First Draft
On one manuscript you try and patch the issues of Draft Zero and form a comprehensive story. Character arcs should be defined and by this point you should not have to add/cut too much
>Alpha readers
Readers of your first draft. General impressions and thoughts regarding plot and pacing
>Second draft
Taking all that into account.
>Beta readers
They are to review your more established manuscript and from there drafts 3-6 should arise. By the end, you should have a complete story from start to finish

This is typically when you employ a professional editor and then a line editor/proofreader. Extra points if your literary agent contacts a publisher which lets its editor have a final revision of your story

>>24549986
use ‽

My idea's for book's
>Ratcher in the Cry
>Rravity's Gainbow
>Doby Mick
Feedback now

>>24549991
>>24549996
>>24549986
Also keep in mind that if you follow to the T all of what "most experts" tell you to do you'll create the dullest slop ever conceived.
It's a style choice. Develop your own

>>24550310
I don't believe in getting this specific with POV. I'm good just sticking to either 3rd or 2nd or 1st. Sticking to anything more detailed just makes me feel trapped. For instance, right now I'm writing a novel in 3rd person, but with focus devoted almost entirely to the protagonist. But I'm not telling myself "oh no, I'm writing single-character protagonist-focused unreliable limited contained special particular 3rd person, so that means I can't jump into this other character's head for a paragraph or two." No. Smooth transitions between these perspectives are a matter of writing clear and precise prose, not developing some arbitrary "objective" logic about how you should tell your story.
But like most everything it's a style choice. You do you.

>>24550322
This is why I read a balance of new and archaic books

>>24550293
All it comes down to is if you can make it interesting. Impossible to tell if you can do that without seeing you do it.

>>24550211
>No agent or big company though. You're on your own to market
I've read that you're on your own to market with the big publishers, too. The secret to getting picked up by a trad publisher is to already have an audience you can market to at your disposal.
How do you acquire that audience in the first place, especially if you're someone who mostly just writes and doesn't do stuff like post on social media? Haha. Ahahaha. AHAHAHAHAHAHA

>>24550080
That's every memoir.

>>24549858
He ain't showing his face round these parts no more

>>24548341 (OP)
What's the most suitable AI model to give critiques to a fictional story?
I just finished my comic script and would like to have some feedbacks.
I do not have any friend nor family to show my work to.

>>24550607
>I do not have any friend
bro? I'm right here???

>>24550607
There are none. LLMs are word salad tossers. They'll just tell you whatever combination of words is statistically most likely to please you.
But if you drop a burner email I'm sure plenty of anons (including myself) would give it at least a skim and might give feedback.

Plotting is hard ngl

>>24550771
Plotting is the easiest part. Turning that into words without adding a bunch of filler is the hard part. Sometimes i just give up & write a screenplay instead. It's not like either one is going to go anywhere, so why not?

>>24550782
I love describing shit so I'm the opposite, plus needing to add filler is an issue with plotting I think.

>>24550782
>It's not like either one is going to go anywhere, so why not?
whenever a /swg/ (screenwriting general) thread gets posted on /tv/ there's that one retard who tells everybody they should be writing books instead, as if they have a better chance making it in publishing than cinema.
lol. lmao even

>>24550837
Yeah, it seems both are going nowhere fast. I just find screenplays easier to write than novels, because I don't have to come up with flowery descriptions, can limit wordplay to dialog, and can throw in a montage if I have no good idea for bridging major sections.

>>24550837
writing screenplays is nothing like writing a novel
totally different mediums

>>24550992
Perhaps, but so what? It's not like I can only write in one medium. I wouldn't be much of a writer if I was limited in such a way.

>>24550511
I think what I have in mind is fiction with autobiographical structure, themes and plot points, arc. Maybe not a memoir.

>>24550607
Claude is pretty good but expect nothing incredible. It's mostly good at analyzing passages

>>24549986
If I were you, ?!

>>24548678
I'm serious

Any other aspirings unintentionally funnelled themself into amphetamine addiction after associating it with protracted writing stints.

>>24549986
Gdocs grammar check wants me to always put the question mark first, but I determine the order based on "is the line intended primarily as a question (?) or as an exclamation (!)"

Is Google Docs better than Microsoft Word?

>>24551233
i heard that it chokes on large documents

>>24551273
it does
t. has written 100s of short stories and had to split them to different documents

>>24551233
Do you trust yourself to have nearly-continuous cloud backup for your files, including your book?
If not, you should

Fellas, I finished my book and it turned out so great that I've decided to never publish it. such knowledge should not be available to the public

>>24551398
somewhere, a profiteering grifter is howling in pain and boiling away into sulfuric slime because they saw this post

>>24551273
That's a problem with your PC not docs. My 15-year-old laptop shits itself if I try to load a doc longer than 5k words. Meanwhile, my newer phone can open the same doc instantly.

publishers reject me more often than a man who faces a lot of rejections
its not looking good bros
perhaps a few centuries from now when they dig up my SSD they'll truly appreciate my work

>>24551678
Do you have an agent, or are you going straight to publishers?

>>24551681
I go straight to publishers who accept author submissions

>>24551683
There's no harm in pinging a few agents about it. Conventional wisdom is that publishers pay a lot more attention to work that comes from an agent.

>>24551685
most want payment, but Ill give it a go

>>24551690
Agents will take a cut of your advance/earnings, don't contact any that want a flat fee. The whole reason publishers trust their recommendations is because the agent has a financial interest in the book being good if they're taking a cut.

>>24551678
/wg/'s finest metaphor

>>24551700
That's not a metaphor it's a simile

>>24550511
>even the dog wants a memoir
I'd read it

>>24551773
it's neither simile nor metaphor, as those need to compare unlike things. literal comparisons are just comparisons

Anyone heard from bicycle anon or bailbondsman originals anon? Those are the two I keep my weiner unmolested to read

>>24551887
bicycle anon? the travelogue leaf?

>>24551988
Mayhaps. He wrote about riding around on his bicycle in the mountains. I think maybe one time he got hit by a bus or something.

>>24549654
> First story of the world
> is gae.

>>24551887
Both gave up

>>24550506
>How do you acquire that audience in the first place, especially if you're someone who mostly just writes and doesn't do stuff like post on social media
It's over.

Just remember, Daniel Greene, couldn't get traditionally published.

Like it or not bros but some people are going to find success with AI written novels.
More advanced the models get more likely it will be.
People already read trash so there is no stopping it.

>>24552222
Not necessarily. AI is cannibalizing itself. With terabytes of jeets using AI to write their books, these jeets use those same books to train new models. It then becomes a very strange model which the probability of placing the next word is trained with illogical errors. It doesn't help language constantly changes and if these jeets can't keep up, well have a model that will soon write gibberish

[sad news] /wng/ - Web Novel General has failed as an expirement
>anons get together and create a collection of 4chan associated writers on Royal Road, to foster a community
>one of them (who posted in /wg/ for years) throughs a shitfit because a RR user gave him a one star review
>demands the thread help him by review bombing this person’s own work
>accuses everyone in the thread of being that RR user
>someone reported his account for spamming negative comments and linked the rentry listing all the 4chan authors
>now it seems like they all might get banned by association, since it’s easy to claim they review swapped to increase their rankings
Just stick to tradpub.

>>24552365
Over here we recently got a schizo who threw a fit at people ignoring the extract he posted and (perhaps even more unforgivably) giving someone else's work more praise than his.

Now he occasionally stops by to threaten everyone who posts extracts with the idea that their work is now unpublishable (lmao) and even reposts image/link based extracts in the thread to own the chuds because he thinks having posted a small extract of a previous version of your work will render you ineligible for publishing. Sounds like the /wng/ schizo is able to actually effect things though so condolences

>>24552384
Could be the same poster. FFFtranny used to be in this thread for years, I'm sure he still comes back

>>24552384
liable to be the same poster

/wng/ has three active threads on the catalog compared to /wg/'s measly one
confirmed better writers? why else?

>>24552365
I didn't swap, did give him a shout, have spoken with members rr mod team personally, I ain't scared of a ban, as I didn't manipulate a damn thing. I think with the level of advancement he got, he just wasn't ready enough for that kind of reception.

Review swaps don't do shit for rankings, at least not anymore. Half of the site is full of fake reviews, "you scratch my back, I scratch yours." Honestly, I hope he approaches everything better from here on out.

>>24552724
>constant derails, lolcow drama, and tourists coming in with vapid retarded questions
ahhh, just like /wg/ in its heyday
the apple truly doesn't fall far from the tree

>>24552435
>>24552487
It's 100% the same guy.
>>24551477
"Unpublishable" guy had a similar melty about RR being controlled by Israel if you check the archives.

>>24552900
is it the same guy who drops KEKs?
this guy might be the biggest contributor to shitting up /wg/. I'm pretty sure he gives the most feedback and most of them contain the dumbest shit I've ever seen (I'm not seething because he gave me a review. my last story nobody replied to)
>responsible for marketing theory derails
>responsible for publishing crab posts

>>24552939
One and the same.
>>24543386

>>24552939
Two weeks ago a schizophrenic in /Wng/ realized with his schizoscrying that there was a single ESL poster who was responsible for most crashouts on the board. He could be identified by his overuse of kek, bro, and his odd prose that makes it seem like he was from eastern Europe. This was linked to his RR account, kino-man, where he publishes a really, really bad story that he’s been shilling on here for at least two years.
Yesterday he got a bad review (which was fair and gave plently of feedback). FFFkekbro threw a gigantic shitfit and begged the thread to help him by giving him good reviews and giving the other person bad reviews. He accused half the thread of being responsible for an anonymous half star review, and now he’s in the dead autosaging thread replying to his own posts.

>>24552972
>>24553005
at last I truly see
thank you thread detectives
if anyone feels like compiling evidence of his behaviors it'd speed along his derail attempts to just post an image and tell people to ignore him

>>24553019
I can link specific posts if you want to make an image

>>24551233
Probably word, I don't use it though, I'm too cheap

>>24551273
I'm up to 60K+ words and it's doing fine on desktop but the mobile app is chugging

Today's been another day where I woke up dead sure I had 0 words in me yet still managed to fulfil my daily word count.
Remember anons: just do it.

>>24552724
>why else?
probably because ervery one of those OPs wanted to use it to promote their garbage

I'm finally on Chapter 10 of my book. 59K words writtne so far

>>24553198
Step it up, anon. I was already at chapter 15 by that word count

>>24553707
>>24553198
>60k words
>i have 20 chapters
Are my chapters too short?

>>24551217
it worked for PKD

>>24553719
No but you are. fuckin manlet

>>24551217
For me it's pot. Recently flushed my flower and dumped all my paraphernalia in a dramatic gesture. Next up is the nicotine vape

>>24551217
I've never needed anything else but caffeine. I don't do any recreational drugs or other kinds of pharmaceuticals, not even alcohol. I tend to daydream while doing mundane chores; that seems to help awaken the muse. Not sure what else to recommend other than rest and clean living.

i writed today

>>24554231
how many

>>24554253
Many.

>>24548341 (OP)
blehh, dont know if this is anything
https://pastebin.com/rm6FzqQz
https://pastebin.com/Nm72F80F
https://pastebin.com/5r8LyrhW
https://pastebin.com/8tXheJZx

>>24551217
Yep, same here. Currently on the comedown and want to kill myself.

>currently more than 70% of the way through my first novel
>did some calculations based on the average word count of chapters thus far, and it seems like the final page count will be around 400-500 pages
>this isn’t even due to the novel being some sprawling epic, but rather due to the fact that there’s ALOT of time spent with the characters’ internal monologues and psychoanalysing them

Would a publisher recoil at this length for a debut novel? I feel it’s necessary for the tone, atmosphere and plot, since it’s a slow burn story.

https://pastebin.com/Pvw0d9pk - minimalistic or just plain shit? also, thanks one of you for the Ubik recommendation, it's slowly rebuilding my vocabulary.

>>24554528
>ALOT of time spent with the characters’ internal monologues and psychoanalysing them

Literally NO ONE wants to read this.

>>24553759
If it killing him counts as "working" then yeah

>>24552724
>/wng/ has three active threads on the catalog compared to /wg/'s measly one
All of them are one schizo having a meltdown and arguing with everyone and they just keep baiting him

>>24554528
read the first one. pretty good. narrator came across as idealistic and hopeful. not sure if you should tone down the references or if including all of them are vital to what you're trying to do but from a basic reader's perspective consider cutting one or two of the references,

>>24554584
I think you replied to me by mistake.

>>24554554
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that no plot is happening. It’s just that the plot is tangled up with psychological reflection, which elongates it. I’m trying to avoid things halting for too long.

>>24554587
Seriously, don't underestimate your reader. Just tell the story and leave the analysis and explaining out of it. Don't tell how the characters feel and what they think, let it show through their deeds.

>>24554587
looks that way, well, meant for
>>24554481

>turn every character into vampires
>everyone will know read my book because it's the "right genre"

>turn every character into vampires
everyone will now read my book because it's a "marketable genre"

I don't know what kind of tone that I'm aiming for, and going through what I've written and what I plan to write going forward makes it obvious that it's all over the place.

>>24548341 (OP)
Are 'writing sketches' a thing? Calling them flash fiction would imply it bearing more thought and intention when it's more like the literary equivalent of doodling in class

>>24554916
vignettes
flash fiction can be doodle tier

>>24554691
My two favourite writers wrote potboilers: Thomas Pynchon and Iain Banks.

>>24554584
>>24554650
>main character comes across as idealistic and hopeful
perfect, that's exactly what i was going for.
overall, it's going to be a historical novel

>>24555453
no frills, no postmodern crap, no magical realism, just a baroque, and very romantic historical novel

>>24555453
Basically the mc is an early Enlightenment-era thinker and he's just so ahead of his time that he's attracted to and terrified of beautiful, intelligent women. And I have a whole family tree mapped out and the story is going to be told from the perspective of four total generations of Lucy men, spanning from the 18th century to reconstruction/the gilded age/turn of the century(?). And all the Lucy men are different, but all the women they fall in love with are the same, in a sense. In a way, they can't break the mother curse. But all the Lucy men are utterly romantic and utterly possessed by women. It's the one string thing them all together

>a tripfag walks into the thread

>>24554691
You're making me hopeful about my vampire novel. But I think you could have the most marketable book in the world and it won't mean shit if you don't actually have the backing to publish and market it

>>24555613
Vampires = Byronic heroes

>>24555592
don't mind him, it's just the resident crab that decided to get one

>>24555616
>a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection
Interesting. I don't think I've read any Lord Byron, where should I start?

>>24554481
>There is a fey scurrying of something somewhere around in here
garden path sentence ass opening
only read part 1. overall clean writing, not exceptional but fine. didn't pull me, likely more a personal taste issue than anything. a couple lines that are clumsy
>We met by candlelight, and spoke of architecture, brotherhood, and the dignity of labor.
>Inside was a room full of men, some noble, some bricklayers, all sworn to a truth higher than blood.
it might be the proximity of these two lines that made them stick out to me as strongly as they did. they feel hamfisted and desperate to convey the intellectual optimism and spirit of reform that you're going for
I do immediately feel the optimism in the character. the character's perspective of Locke's ideas are charming

>>24555653
Just read Pride and Prejudice and some of the Bronte Sister's works

>>24554587
>psychological reflection, which elongates it.
I'm basically go through my own manuscript and taking out almost all of this. If you think your final count will be 400-500 pages, once you have edited it, you should be able to take it down to 300-400 without losing the story.

>>24555671
yeah, i wanna take out all the references. i just want it to be implied that he's an Enlightenment-era thinker, but im not sure how to do that without giving him an actual backstory.
as for,
>There is a fey scurrying of something somewhere around in here...
it's a good opening line

>>24555780
I don't dislike the line but it is a garden path sentence. lots of people are going to not question the intent and just assume you can't construct a sentence

>>24554481
>I smiled and produced a small silver compass from my coat
What an odd thing to say

I have had this great problem in my plot, that is, I always planned to have 5 main characters, it feels silly to not have 5, because the entire book revolves around that number, from the lore, to the way the plot is structured, to more mundane events.

I had all of them pretty decently planned, except for one. A woman with the placeholder name K. K's problem was that she showed up too late into the story compared to everyone else, (basically she's 4th out of the 5 POV, starting at around 40% of the story) which bothered me as she is the only female adult with regular POV. then, when she showed up... I just didn't know what to do with her. I toyed with making her a spy, an assassin, a druggie, a nurse... I just didn't know what to get out of her.

I finally decided to bite the bullet and try to restructure the plot in a way that makes show up on chapter 2. I don't want to just give her the role of the #2 protagonist, who is now dragged down to #4, because at this point I might just genderswap him and call it a day. I have to use this opportunity to develop her while pickpocketing what I can use from before and implying his own side of the story.

Anyway that's why I haven't writted shit in these past weeks.

Pick unrelated.

>>24555812
you've never smiled and looked up at the sky? suit yourself..

>>24554481
I really like the detail that when your MC gets into architecture, he designs plans for "long, winding halls that went on and on, basements beneath basements, hidden compartments you would have to know a special code to reach." Very good touch. I'm excited to see where this goes. I know you've said you don't want to incorporate any magical elements or "postmodern crap," but it would be interesting that, if your MC were trying to build a house in the colonies in the 18th century, to try to take it in a House of Leaves or Thomas Ligotti sort of direction...

>>24551273
>>24553028
What can we use on mobile to write on the go when ideas come up?

>>24556079
Do you not use google docs for everything?

If I post the front cover of my book here for critique, will I be BRICKED?

>>24556164
there's a resident crab who will do what he can to mske sure you can get caught by plagiarism checkers, making you unpublishable

>>24548843
Top 10 human sentences.

>>24556178
Kek. Just learn how to write on your own. Like every other published writer.

>>24556194
I have the entire book done. I just want feedback on the cover. Or do you not believe in editors, either, you fucking faggot.

>>24556198
Get a beta reader dude.

>>24556194
go write your slop you retard

>>24556206
I’m a wordsmith.

>>24556194
That isn't how published writers work.

>>24556215
more like a turdsmith

>>24556267
Gene Wolfe said he never let anyone read his work until it was edited for the umpteenth time by himself and sent to an agent or magazine.

>>24556276
That's impossible, because he's literally me.

>>24556276
>b-but this one guy (says he) does it!!
Okay? lmao spaz

>>24556277
I doubt you polish your writing enough to be put in the same sentence as Gene Wolfe

>>24556281
Do you have any respect for the written word? Stop trying to streamline it. Stop trying to get a dopamine hit. Start thinking in solitude.

>post link to your work
>bait crab bucket into copy/pasting it into the thread
>report him for copyright violation
>email to 4chan staff and the archives to get them to take it down
>???
>profit

>>24556286
>nooo you have to write the way I SAY or else you're not respecting duh written word!!
Okay? lmao spaz

>>24556291
I can just host it all on my own website or spam it on another board you dont browse

>>24556297
>put it on your website
>make it even easier to track you down and sue you
Please do

>>24556297
you took your trip off kitten

>>24556285
Gene Wolfe himself said, in a letter response he gave me, that he wished he had a tenth of the skill and raw talent I had in my own writing. He said that Book of the New Sun is a pale imitation of my work, and he hopes it has a thousandth of the ennui and pathos that my work has. This was back in the 80's, btw.

>>24556302
You don’t have money for a lawyer.

>>24556306
Please test that hypothesis

>>24556314
You already threw away your first rights and serial rights by posting it here
https://www.penguin.co.uk/about/company-articles/book-advances-and-royalties

>>24556317
Okay? lmao spaz

>>24556323
You forfeited your serial rights before it even started.

>>24556340
see>>24556323

>>24556303
>>24555592
How to kill all tripfags:

>>24556356
What’s the point of writing if you’re not going to get paid for it?

is the chicago manual of style any good and which edition should I get if it is

>>24556443
It’s for people writing in History and Law journals. Why do you want it?

>>24556450
I had no idea

>>24556110
No. On PC I can transfer them to Word.
I suppose Docs and Drive are enough for ideas.

>>24555520
Interesting premise. Do you watch Deep Space Nine by any chance? Cardassian literature sort of shares that sentiment - just replace "all the women they fall in love with are the same" with "the values they choose to affirm/reaffirm are the same." Anyways, your premise sounds literary but the prose is actually bearable, so kudos.

>>24548341 (OP)
I'm writing a story where the protagonist in the year 2035 creates a device that allows him to travel backwards to 1953. He wants to warn the world of climate change, and will go back with viable plans for safe nuclear reactors and plans for far cleaner engines and power plants. However, he also wants to fuck with them, and is going to go back dressed up as an Adeptus Mechanicus, complete with mechanical arm, eye, and mask. All this is twofold: He gets to make them thing hes a cyborg, and he can point out that hes from the future because why else would he look like this?

>>24556841
Look up the story of John Titor for inspiration.

>>24556860
Oh I know that story. Yeah that was partially inspiration for me. You think he got the nuclear date wrong and meant for 2025 instead of 2015?

>>24556807
>has literary pretensions
>has no observations other than a comparison to star trek
hahahahahaha

>>24556864
Depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go. Titor could be referring to a "previous" 2015, before our Custodial overlords restored us from backup & let a new timeline go forward without the nuclear war.

Thoughts on this love letter?

To the romanian youtuber

your sheer, dainty voice, like the noble little chimes at the beginning of doris day's "keep smilin' , keep laughin''. I am in love with you. It is a small, naive love; sharp, but not deep. It shimmers, like sweeping convective pulses of heat from the tropics, in a band across my face, between my eyes and my mouth.

This love, like a 1950s architect with
suspenders and baggy, pinstriped trousers, works tirelessly into the night on thin, windowed sheets of paper; on plans for grand state hotels in galoshes, vaulted arcades, mausoleums with fossil fountains, and other absurdities.

I want to bring you into all the tiny details of the world which possess me. I do not know you well, only from a few minutes of a golgakov video, which is why I said I do not love you deeply, and I should not want to know you. I want to see you in flashes; Through the ivy gowned fence of a terrace cafe, between aching beams of coughing bookshelves. I want to be out walking in a park one day, and find you behind me, stuck onto the bottom of my shoe. I want to know things into you, without words, or else have a little language between us, like twins sometimes do.

I want to not see you, but for a smile, in the curving swoop of birds wings, or your hair cascading as coffee is poured.
I want to not touch you, but have my bones slowly curl in your direction, as the mast of a tree grows out of a cliff.

To be the finest of strangers. To scratch and knaw our own ways into the passing ribbon of time. Each street corner, the next scene in a play. A novel of history rests uncomfortably within everyone, we would be peeling its shell from each new person we meet.

To take roadtrips to nowhere. To visit dull, empty places, and inspire them to the cavalier bravado of their youth. It is not my choice to love you, but while I am it's thrall, I will be better for it.

>>24556890
I'm going off the assumption that the protagonist isn't aware of the Multiverse theory, or was in disbelief. When he returns back to 2035, he will learn that everything is entirely the same. You can only make small changes in time, big ones will require the stream of time to completely course correct itself. He will have created a new timeline where, in 1953, a masked, mechanical cyborg from the future came back to warn of heavy pollution, unchecked industry, and enviromental destruction while also sowing the seeds of friendship between the Soviet Union and the US:
>He gets an interview on the Ed Sullivan show after he arrives: Who wouldn't want interview the guy who appeared in a ball of light in the middle of downtown New York City, in full view of everyone on one summer day?
>The conversation begins light hearted but slowly takes a dark and sinister tone as he explains the reason for his visit.
>Brings out a backpack full of photos, charts, statitstics, everything you can think of, and says that if able, he will show it to the President and Premiere. Ed will scoff at the suggestion of a Soviet visit, but the protagonist will claim that "In my time, we're friends with the Soviets."
>They've absorbed some Capitalism, we've absorbed some Communism, its all fine. We've even got a giant space station in orbit we share. Etc. etc.
>When asked about his attire, he claims that the enviroment where he lives has become so toxic that this is required. When asked why he wears a glove on one arm, its because it holds his "Cybernetic appendage", and before showing it, asks the crowd if they want to see it. He then tells everyone with weak constitutions to turn away from their Television sets, before dramatically pulling off the glove, revealing a Terminator 2 style titanium arm from the elbow up.
>Spooks the shit out of Ed Sullivan along with the crowd.
>Thats when the episode abruptly ends.
Honestly I might make a microstory featuring just that segment.

>>24556807
The prose can be fixed. I can assure you, the premise is very literary..

>>24548341 (OP)
So I lost my creative flow for a few years now, i'm capable of writing entries in my journal, talking about the days or a day but I can't come up with poems like I use to, i'm beginning to be more interested in fiction regardless. Would you guys say just automatic writing/entries eventually lead to a book or poems? I saw tao lin on twitter say to just write a letter to a family member or friend of something you really want to tell them and that worked for me. Also the fact that Tai Pei and Less Than Zero were just generally compiled with a lot of notes/strings of text that both authors had to put together to make it a coherent story.

My question really is if I knack it and write everyday consistently, read too, will my poetry comeback? Maybe even a book could blossom from it?

I'm having a hard time keeping a consistent style also, i feel as im constantly parodying the last author read and I don't feel as if I have hatched my own prose style yet also.

>>24557400
write more, read more
play cultivates work in that it primes the mind on the subject and keeps it fresh. read what you find fun and take the pressure off writing
style is a derivative of personal perspective and values. read more, question and discuss what you read, interrogate the function of the line and meter. being drawn to writing in the last style you read isn't a bad thing. you're basically doing studies each time you do it. copying a style and to figure out what makes it work and its limitations is a thing people should do more
poetry is a bit different from prose but I think the process for getting back on the horse is the same. mentally immerse in it by giving time and energy to what you like about it
aim to cultivate yourself as a poet (or writer) then begin cultivating your writing itself after you're engaged and focused. focusing on results and outcomes (completing works, discovering your style, etc) before you have your momentum will just be distracting
>Would you guys say just automatic writing/entries eventually lead to a book or poems?
poems? sure. you'd have to be on a drug bender to put out a book this way. short stories maybe
still a fine thing to be doing if you enjoy it

>>24548341 (OP)
Can I get a critique?
Among the towns of Jutland, Viborg justly holds a high place. It is the seat of a bishopric; it has a handsome but almost entirely new cathedral, a charming garden, a lake of great beauty, and many storks. Near it is Hald, accounted one of the prettiest things in Denmark; and hard by is Finderup, where Marsk Stig murdered King Erik Glipping on St Cecilia’s Day, in the year 1286. Fifty-six blows of square-headed iron maces were traced on Erik’s skull when his tomb was opened in the seventeenth century. But I am not writing a guide-book.
There are good hotels in Viborg—Preisler’s and the Phœnix are all that can be desired. But my cousin, whose experiences I have to tell you now, went to the Golden Lion the first time that he visited Viborg. He has not been there since, and the following pages will, perhaps, explain the reason of his abstention.
The Golden Lion is one of the very few houses in the town that were not destroyed in the great fire of 1726, which practically demolished the cathedral, the Sognekirke, the Raadhuus, and so much else that was old and interesting. It is a great red-brick house—that is, the front is of brick, with corbie steps on the gables and a text over the door; but the courtyard into which the omnibus drives is of black and white wood and plaster.
The sun was declining in the heavens when my cousin walked up to the door, and the light smote full upon the imposing façade of the house. He was delighted with the old-fashioned aspect of the place, and promised himself a thoroughly satisfactory and amusing stay in an inn so typical of old Jutland.
It was not business in the ordinary sense of the word that had brought Mr Anderson to Viborg. He was engaged upon some researches into the Church history of Denmark, and it had come to his knowledge that in the Rigsarkiv of Viborg there were papers, saved from the fire, relating to the last days of Roman Catholicism in the country. He proposed, therefore, to spend a considerable time—perhaps as much as a fortnight or three weeks—in examining and copying these, and he hoped that the Golden Lion would be able to give him a room of sufficient size to serve alike as a bedroom and a study. His wishes were explained to the landlord, and, after a certain amount of thought, the latter suggested that perhaps it might be the best way for the gentleman to look at one or two of the larger rooms and pick one for himself. It seemed a good idea.
The top floor was soon rejected as entailing too much getting upstairs after the day’s work; the second floor contained no room of exactly the dimensions required; but on the first floor there was a choice of two or three rooms which would, so far as size went, suit admirably.

>>24548341 (OP)
A year or two ago, I wrote an outline of a story about some teens who get trapped in an eerie shopping mall with a backrooms sort of vibe. Weird shit starts to happen and they end up getting superpowers. It was total slop and I kinda hated it at the time, but today I rediscovered the outline while flipping through one of my folders and thought to myself "damn, I would actually read this." Maybe not as a novel but as a webcomic or possibly a short RPG maker game.

>>24557454
dislike it
>But I am not writing a guide-book.
this is a bit tacky and signals that contrary to the context loose history facts, there is a subject of import which will be the focus. nothing such follows
there is some promise that there is to be some intrigue
>But I am not writing a guide-book.
>It seemed a good idea.
both imply something of interest however nothing of interest is contained in this excerpt
I don't hate the prose style but a near total lack of anything to engage with or appreciate makes it feel draining to read. syntactically it's clear you're trying to keep it dynamic while maintaining a fairly strict voice. you don't completely fail at this. I think the issue has to do with the lack of any abstraction at all. in the absence of the narrative qualities of plot or drama or character (there is a character but we see little to nothing of his personality), I want to engage with emotional qualities. I want to appreciate metaphor or atmosphere or the musicality of excellent prose. this is absent
it's brisk enough that if you intend to follow up with something to engage with it's probably fine
I don't find this poorly written per se, just absent of anything to appreciate. the prose is a little stilted but not in a way that calls to itself, the scene is fine, the subjects are fine; nothing stands out as especially bad. I just don't think there's much reason to be sharing this excerpt because there doesn't seem to be anything contained in it to appreciate

>>24557489
Crab.

>>24557511
negative feedback is not being a crab. I'm not saying that the piece is worthless and that he should give up
by all means he should keep writing. I think an intrigue discovered in the hidden annals of religious history could be interesting

>>24557513
You’re a retard. It’s from MR James, the most respected ghost story writer in English.

>>24557516
makes sense. still reads dry
>w-wait you're supposed to kneel to my bait post
nah. it's a dry intro and all I said holds true. I have no doubt at all that there is an interesting story that follows. there's clearly competence demonstrated, the prose isn't strictly bad, just the subjects contained within are dry
>written early 1900s
yeah, that makes sense. that period when many people couldn't decide on whether to move on from the victorian style and joined the common voice with the winding structure of previous age novels resulted in passages like this
>the most respected ghost story writer in English
turn of the screw mogs btw

>>24557520
Still a retard who can’t tell his own shit slop from a master word smith.

>>24557460
i don't know that liminal spaces translate well to the page. maybe. not at least without leaning on a specific reference or trope or something. share so i can judge

>>24557525
my own shit slop? what are you talking about?
if you wish to make this comparative you can post your work and I'll readily post my own for comparison
you're a retard and your bait post didn't go how you'd hoped

>>24557532
Kek. A lion doesn’t concern himself with slop gong farmers such as you. You are illiterate.

IT'S UP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hXa1dF5P6I

>>24557534
>it's gong tard
lol
remember when you posted your isekai harem fantasy garbage and I pointed out everything wrong with it, and you proceeded to shit up the thread for the rest of the day? I started suspecting it was you when you dropped a nonsequiter crab accusation
you do this all the time. you're unable to hold a narrative through line in your mind and everything you write and post is colored by that. you constantly say things that are disconnected to previous points, you're unable to communicate an idea, you say straight up ESL shit like
>the most respected ghost story writer in English
shameful. stick to copy pasting and shitting up /wng/

>>24557538
Cringe

>>24557543
You’re mad.

>>24557547
bet
I'm gonna leave another .5 star on your slop btw
hope it drives you to the brink of suicide again

>>24557549
You retards can’t even pick out MR fucking James. It’s hopeless. Just give up.

>want to write a story about a mage
>20k words in, realize every chapter reads like an instruction manual/physics lecture
>magic is basically glorified puzzle solving and less like the flashy action it was supposed to be
>but if I don't explain the principles behind the spells, readers can't possibly tell what the fuck is going on
Is anyone out there autistic enough to read this?

>>24557570
yes. you just described an entire sub genre of litRPG
go to /wng/, you'll get more productive discussion on it there

>>24557577
I'm not writing litrpg though

>>24557570
>>24557585
honestly even if it's not litrpg it sounds like something that webnovel readers would be interested in

>>24557585
fair. you'd still get more insight there from here. sanderson normalized magic system autism as a vector of reader engagement but if you're truly a hardcore autist about it then you'd find far more examples of it as well as appreciators of it among the web novel community
I do think you'd get readers with hard magic system autism. I'm a slop reader myself and have seen a few stories get very popular with that exact pitch
you might even be just in time to be at the window of opportunity for such a thing. a lot of people are getting litRPG fatigue but still love magic systems
if you do go to /wng/ I can probably give you more advice

>>24557593
>>24557594
I thought slop audiences had the attention span of a goldfish and were allergic to Newton.

>>24557600
you have no clue how bad it gets man
I've read slop that is back to back 5k chapters of nonstop magic theorizing and talking on all sorts of fundamental forces
unsurprisingly, the people who love video games AND reading often have hyper analytical minds and love thinking about dumb shit to the finest minutiae

>>24557605
I'll take your word for it. I'm not sure I want to write for such audiences, though, so I'll have to reconsider my approach here

>>24557608
if you're intent on tradpub I suspect you have dour prospects. I'm not into contemporary trad fantasy at all but I've heard it's a very restrictive scene
fuck the audiences. if you've got a word in your heart then write that shit. there's plenty of brain dead idiots among sloppers but you could very well make some neuro-retarded magic system friends
anyways, to your people >>24556003

Okay. I'll bite.

What is this thread's purpose, and why does /lit/ allow it and its many incarnations to run rampant?

>>24557700
Just report these threads and move onto threads actually about literature
I put forward a motion to ban writing generals and writing threads from /lit/ because they shit up the board and add nothing of value to the discussion of literature:
https://strawpoll.com/bVg8BmJ7ByY

>>24557700

Is it like those shitty drawthreads they have on /b/, /i/, and /aco/, but for writing?

>>24557709
It’s for people who don’t read nor write

>24557710

Kay, but what <<is>> it?

>>24557713
Just the usual containment thread for people who ask others if they’d read their novel out of a desperate need for validation

>>24557700
kys tripfag tourist

>>24557700
Are you concerned that it's getting more attention than your busty boy threads?

>>24557803

HOW ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME AROUND ON EVERY BOARD I GO TO?!

>>24556901
This isn't a love letter its more like a creepy manifesto, or a spoken word poem. Love letters mention personal and specfic things, referencing real shared moments. God I hope this isn't actually written by an obsessed YouTube viewer

>>24557804
This thread has a bump limit, please quit wasting bumps with your idiotic tripfag posting

>>24557856

>Tripcode baaad....Tripcode....baad! You must join the amorphous blob of anons and stay in it!

>>24557865
nta but it’s actually important to remain anonymous. It is the literal essence of this website
Avatarfagging gets you banned for a reason. Tripcode is basically a bribe to be a fag
Im somewhat indifferent but you should understand

>>24557856
>Love letters mention personal and specfic things, referencing real shared moments.
t. hasn't read love letters
love letters very often are creepy manifestos. I've a collection of love letters through history and while some of them are sweet exchanges between long term partners, many of them are deranged, obsessive rants

>>24557880
I wrote a love letter to a girl I worked with and she thought I was insane. Then again I am actually insane and committed myself to a mental ward shortly after.

>Sent off manuscript
What am I supposed to do now? I can't change it much can I? Should I just start something else?

>>24548341 (OP)
After attempting to take up writing I have realized I can't actually build a scene very well, it's clunky.
Will "How Fiction Works" help me on this?
Also, do you guys reccomend any good English language novels that may serve as an example for me?
In the mean time I guess I'll try to re-read some of my favourite english short stories.

>>24558020
post an excerpt

>>24558020
Be cautious of reading "writing about writing". Rather recommend that you simply read good short stories. Read Hemingway and Mansfield and Chinua Achebe. Be aware of the quantity and combination of characters, plot threads, and themes, and when each are introduced, centralised, and concluded (if at all). There's no rules to this shit.

>>24557570
Quite honestly it sounds like you stand to get a cult following of VERY dedicated fans who want more hard SF in their fantasy
Good luck and Godspeed
>>24557934
Gratz!
Do the spiritual equivalent of going to Disneyland

>>24558036
Alright, I make no guarantees as to it being even legible. I'll post a paragraph, but I can post another longer one if you want.

He closed and locked the door, then took off his muddy shoes. His house was lightly furnished; the living room was adorned only by some folding chairs and a plastic table he had bought himself, strewn around were his few personal effects. Inside his room he had a camping bed with a blanket and pillow, a swivel chair next to his desk, on which sat his tools, his computer, and his dinner plate. Next to it was his trashcan, which he had to empty sometime; it was starting to overflow. Upstairs something broke and the neighbors began arguing again. Today it was two girls bickering indistinctly, some young boys were seemingly trying to calm them down. He felt pity for them.
>>24558039
Thank you!
Why Achebe, specifically? I'm just curious.
By the way, do you think Lovecraft, Arthur Machen, Saki, etc make good reading for this?

>>24557534
>lion
Indian detected

>>24558056
Guess I can write a standalone oneshot and see how it's received.

>>24557700
/wg/ is a containment thread, so that these discussions don't shit up the general.
>>24557705
Please don't. You don't know what you're doing.

>>24557934
Uh...you mean you're not working on several projects at once normally?

>>24558155
your sentence structure is a bit awkward and your word choice simple and direct. ESL?
I actually don't think this excerpt is awful. it is clunky but I can tell what you're going for. you're primarily using description as a means to inform. the details of the setting are an extension of the character and you use them to characterize. you demonstrate that you understand the basics of storytelling
I appreciated the irony of listing the evidence his pitiful qualities then having him pity someone else
your sentences are pretty repetitive. not terribly so, but note these lines and try saying them aloud
>He closed and locked the door
>then took off his muddy shoes
>His house was lightly furnished
>Next to it was his trashcan
>which he had to empty sometime
>it was starting to overflow
it almost scans as poetry. not because it's particularly sonorous or melodious, but because it's even in length and has a repetitive beat
this quality is felt through the whole paragraph, if to a lesser degree. it's syntactically and semantically repetitive. what you're saying and how you're saying it is repeated. it's not to an awful degree—I wouldn't consider your prose completely inert—but I think you would benefit from being more stylistically dynamic
that being said, I do appreciate the minimalism of not only the language but of the mode of storytelling. there is no metaphor. the psychic distance of the narrator is even, only closing for the end line. it's efficient and compliments your minimalist description. I can appreciate this but it is somewhat at ends with some of the sentence structure, which wants to extend with commas, and elaborate on statements which could be striking if left short
you seem to be aware that as a writer you want your words to be written with intent. you decide the details of the scene to make a statement on the character. push this line of thinking further and question how you can utilize not just the subjects, but how they're written and in what context they're placed. and not only to the end of narrative effects, but of experiential effects
a monadic statement after a long list will be punchy. a sequence of short sentences building on the same point will create urgency. etc, etc
if you want your writing to feel less clunky, I suggest pushing your writing to work outside of your comfort zone and habits. explore different intents and methods of realizing those intents. as you acquaint yourself with different approaches you'll be able to make your writing more dynamic
specifically, I think you should be aware of how you seem to want to use commas to extend a clause and elaborate on a point

consider reading writers who write briefly. I'd suggest Chekhov. Mccarthy would work. I suspect from how you want to structure the scene around the character that you might benefit from Flaubert, but it's hard to tell from just this
is there anything specific you feel your writing lacks? any effect or intent you'd like to push forward?

Dammit I can't write 2000 words per day

>>24558257
Just do writing sprints

I like the way Hugo does shorter chapters but loads of them. 365 chapters in 800 word peices

>>24551066
Is it genre fiction?

Remember this.

>>24548819
That’s just the Amazon listing description, yes I had Gemini write that, and it’s better than what I came up with. That’s not *in the book*
>24549858
Some of the dialogue was based on samples that I had Gemini generate, then reworded to my own style for flow, because I suck at coming up with dialogue on my own. The story and writing otherwise is my original work. Between some dialogue structuring and the Amazon listing wording and the cover background image made with Flux (and Photoshop), I’d say it’s about 5-10% AI-tainted overall.
>>24550538
No internet in the mountains.

I don’t get the rage at AIs, when used properly they’re fantastic. I could’ve paid for consultants and editors and artists and gotten roughly the same polish on it, but why would I when this was free? If it sells enough then maybe I’ll reinvest the proceeds into paying some smelly old man to redo all that work for me at some insane hourly rate..

>>24558285
>>24549858

I wrote several short stories but one is really good imo
everyone who'se read it says the same
yet publishers turn a blind eye to it
surprising sometimes
Its got a deep metaphor too, unique voice, etc.

>>24558304
Post it then.

>>24558336
no you guys will shit on it regardless and hurt my feelings

I'm trying to find a line editor to hire (for punching up prose, not proofing or copyediting), but looking through Reedsy and the EFA hasn't gone great so far. I'm willing to pay the premium for an actual ex-line editor from Tor or Orbit or such, but finding those people is hard
Anyone gone through this or have recommendations?

>>24558532
I used reedsy and there were loads of options iirc. Are you sure you've not got a weird ass filter on?

>>24558540
I only selected people with big 5 experience and 10+ years of experience, and the sample edits (not of my work; showcases from previous projects) were extremely unimpressive if not outright bad.
They're also quoting weirdly low at like 0.015c/w
I only filtered for "fantasy" and then various stuff like "Penguin" "tor" "orbit" "Hachette" and so on

>>24557710
Then it is like the drawthreads.
1% earnest people
99% trolls

>>24558544
>10+ years of experience
>for "fantasy"
Who else would you get with those parameters but autistic shut-ins?

>>24558854
>autistic shut-ins
I don't think people with decades-long fulltime careers are shut-ins anon. you're probably far more of a shut-in, and probably more autistic, if we're speaking from a statistical likelihood
anyway, i would expect people with so much experience in the publishing industry to be good at their job. i am finding out that's not the case

do you think history or philosophy provides greater inspiration for writing?

I wish I could come with a simple but interesting premise

>>24558991
most novels, to some extent, are copying and pasting from philosophy/history books

>>24558285
>Some of the dialogue was based on samples that I had Gemini generate, then reworded to my own style for flow,
Can you post a sample from inside your novel? Let's see how well that worked out.

>>24558304
>publishers turn a blind eye to it
I'm getting more and more convinced that you have to have the right resume for them to even read it.

>>24548667
Depends. By the end of a chapter, what do you want to accomplish? At what point do you want to start new chapters?
Break down the "stuff" that "happens" for a trend or conflict between *how* they work/fit on the page, and just stay consistent to that vision.
Read a book like Moby Dick with a million chapters, then read something just as long with 4 chapters. See what each style highlights and from there figure out what you want to highlight in your text via the pacing.

>>24558971
>I don't think people with decades-long fulltime careers are shut-ins anon.
Submitting line edits to strangers' slop for money while eternally online isn't a career.

>>24557489
>the issue has to do with the lack of any abstraction at all.
Thats exactly why its good

is it fine if I come up with my own idioms and expressions in my story? it's set in a fictional world.

Thoughts on the opening to my novel?
(Posted as an image bc 4chan thinks its spam )

Its starting from first principles, so the first syllables babies learn to say, and its gonna run into a montage translation of related scenes from the odyssey, noahs flood myth, ulysses, moby dick, and neon genesis evangelion using only the letter A

>>24559571
I think Aa-Aa could use one more Aa, reinforcing the idea that humans gravitate towards threes.

Things are really looking up for my book this month.

>>24559476
>big 5 experience
that means in person day job

The more you write, the easier it gets. Amazing

>>24559686
Sadly more likely a sign ur content is getting more formulaic

>>24549116
what do you mean by character editor? can you elaborate on what you mean exactly

>>24559686
>found his stride
nice
now don't fall off it. if you do, it'll all be over
keep moving or die

>>24558532
told ya bro
what you're after isn't really what the professional editor is for

>>24550080
tautology

>>24559744
I kind of assumed my favorite authors had their prose punched up and cleaned
It's all their own?

>>24559671
i feel ya anon

>>24559813
There is some guy on this thread who used to advertise his services. He seemed to do a good job.

>>24559937
mathewg or something like that. yeah, i remember him, i did think his provided samples were decent enough, but he was punching up truly awful shit. not hard to improve that. i wonder how he'd do with writing that isn't baby's-first
anyway, I can't hire him because I won't associate with 4chan

>>24552365
from what i have seen, anons have always been extremely willy nilly about tying each other's internet personas, and it has never gone well.

>>24559937
so/so. some people liked working with him, some people hated it
>>24559813
yeah, writers are responsible for style. editors correct errors and help you be more appealing to publishers
if you can use grammarly and aren't trying to kowtow to a publisher then you don't need a professional editor. you want writing peers to exchange critique with

>begin watching writing tip videos
>this gets suggested to me
This girl has really pretty eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U794i31e19s

>>24560232
I only watch writing tip videos made by men. I don't like the idea of a girl knowing more than me.

>>24557460
Short enough for an art book, with photography of the setting (or woodcuts/ink drawings)? There's almost nothing executing on the concept in any media to a high level.

just got rejected not because of the story but because they dont think theyd be able to market my book effectively as they are too small scale
thats a first

If anyone with an IQ bellow 140 can easily follow your work then it is automatically a bad work.

>>24560576
A fellow PHD alumni in Wortsalad from Deutschland?

>>24559683
All that means is they have no life beyond scrambling for their 0.015c per word.

>>24558544
>They're also quoting weirdly low at like 0.015c/w
If someone is offering to read and edit a 100-200k word novel for $15-30 I'd be quite surprised. Did you mean 1.5c/w?

>>24560764
Definitely a jeet using chatgpt. I've seen that little chessnut a bunch of times

>>24557705
Hello newfag. See >>24337195
>/lit/ is for the discussion of literature, specifically books (fiction & non-fiction), short stories, poetry, creative writing, etc.

>>24556901
>>24557856
>>24557880
I'm a little late on the reply, but on second thought i'd like to rework my cirticism. As far as 'love letters' go, it does contain some well thought out imagery that could be polished to sound a little less obtuse and probably be more endearing

as far as "will this actually make a girl like me, or make me think i'm an insane weirdo" It ls the latter

Is there anywhere on the internet that runs daily or weekly user-rated short story comps ? Or if there are any other websites that give feedback, inspire, etc.

Say youre the goddess of blood, whats a clever way you could defeat the god of death? you have a weapon that can absorb his soul but you need to weaken him first. you have virtually no limits to your army and whatnot

I already have an idea but perhaps one of you has another clever idea

>>24561067
This is the thread for people that are writing literature, not lowbrow garbage.

>>24561077
post your "highbrow" excellence then, Im interested

>>24561080
Lord Giovanni Ivenobrain, resplendent in the finest silks from the Orient, flopped haughtily into a large, cushioned, award-winning chair in the stately parlor. "Oh, woe is me!" he gasped. "It's so difficult being a rich, lazy layabout! Why, I don't know whether to play croquet or harass the milkmaid."
Lady Silentbottom looked on, her face an inscrutable puzzle of long-forgotten secrets. "I do so concur with your misery, Lord Ivenobrain," she pouted. "Why, I could just kill my handmaidens for being prettier than me. How dare they be ten years younger!" She straightened her blouse and set her face firmly. "I'll just have them apply more makeup to my face for the next hour. And meanwhile," she added, "why doesn't thou spanketh thy monkey in thy study, while perusing any number of ribald portraits by famous Baroque artists?"
Lord Ivenobrain slapped his crotch as he stood up. "By gum, I'll do just that! Until the morrow, Lady Silentbottom!"

>>24561097
youre joking or you dont know what highbrow means

>>24558237
Yeah, I am an ESL. Though I think I can hide it pretty well most of the time. Nowadays anyway.
>it almost scans as poetry.
In a sense, this almost feels like a compliment. Now that you point it out I'm starting to notice most of what I write aligns around that Metre of Monotony. And not always to the detriment of the prose, I think.
>and elaborate on statements which could be striking if left short
Yes. I do have the habit of attempting to cram as much information as possible in my descriptive paragraphs.
>explore different intents and methods of realizing those intents
What di you mean? I do not quite understand what you mean by intents here. What would be another intent?

>is there anything specific you feel your writing lacks? any effect or intent you'd like to push forward?
Fluidity, I guess. I guess I'd be happy if I was able to transmit emotions (like disgust or contempt or happiness or lovesickness) through writing. Or be able to communicate the mind of a character.
>>24560584
Also an esteemed professor of "Things In General" at Weissnichtwo University.

>>24561067
This is a more /tg/ Writing general than /lit/ writing general question. But I'll bite, what do you mean by clever? You could of course always trick him into weakening himself, that would be clever. Or she could lure the man into a trap. And what of the Lord is actually being weakened? His armies? Himself?
One can't give good suggestions without context.
Also learn how to write contractions, please.

>>24561140
>what do you mean by clever
an unobvious, creative way to defeat him
for example healing and reviving his undead armies so they become unusable. but I cant use that trick as the goddess of blood cant revive anyone in my lore

theyre mainly weakening the god of death himself, they can deal with his armies by matching them with their own

>>24560764
yes, and 15$ for a 100k manuscript done by industry pros is silly enough you had to have known what I meant, there was no ambiguity

Tell me why my ditty sucks.

He went for a walk one sunny day
Wrapped in indignity
Locking his door behind him,
Life's problems not for he

He came up on a woman
And being mugged was she
"Help, help, it's two versus one!"
She cried out to the street

"I do not see, I must confess"
"What that has to with me"
"I wish you luck, but I'll egress"
Was the reply from he

He continued his walk that sunny day
Doffing his hat at she
Her screams died out behind him,
Life's problems not for he

He came up on a riot next
Which seethed with mad frenzy
A few police were badly pressed
The rest was anarchy
"A terrible scene, I must confess,"
"But it's nothing to do with me,"
"In mine own safety I'll invest,"
Such were the thoughts of he

He continued his walk that sunny day
As blood ran down the street
The shouts died out behind him,
Life's problems not for he

He came up on a liar next
With a crowd bowed at their feet
They promised all a righteous quest
With eyes made black with greed

"A dangerous group, I must confess,"
"But who would listen to me?"
"I'll keep my cards pressed to my chest,"
Dolefully muttered he

He continued his walk that sunny day
As the crowd leapt to their feet
Revolution cried out behind him
Life's problems not for he
At last the sun was setting
And it was time to head for home
Where once he passed a city
He now walked by a hole

He found his door unlocked
And nothing was left inside
But rather than being shocked,
The man just sadly sighed

"It's rather a shame, I must confess"
"That there's nothing left for me,"
"But there wasn't a thing I could've done."
"Life's problems are not for me."

I am writing the incel novel of our time.

>>24561626
I'm writing the one of the time before or after you publish yours.

>>24561626
>>24561634
You guys will always end up rewriting either "My Twisted World" or "The Game"

>>24561677
Mine is more like a cross between Ready Player One and the Gospel of Mark

>>24561677
I'm aiming more for Les Misérables

>>24561682
>>24561697
sounds good, fellas. keep at it

I had an idea to update the structure of my novels and now I have two novels that are completely distinct except for the core message.