>Start writing
>Write around 200 words
>Look at what you wrote
>It's shit
>Lose momentum
How can I change this?
Use an app that locks you into continuing forward
Handwrite on tiny pages so you can't see what you already have
Stop being a pussy faggot
Idk just some options
Keep writing, don't look back until the editing process. Then, when you edit, whatever you find shitty you'll just trash and rewrite. You wrote 300 pages and 128 are shit? Trash 'em and rewrite.
>try to write as meticulously and thoughtfully as possible
>end up with perfect sentences and story that's moving along well
>tfw work at a terribly slow pace and can't get anything done in a reasonable amount of time this way
>try to let myself lose and get the words flow out
>get a great amount of work done
>tfw errors everywhere, story's messy as shit, and overall looks like the ramblings of a madman
>>7594482
>Look at what you wrote
Here's the prob.
Give up. If you aren't absolutely filled to the brim, and feel like you're going to explode or go crazy unless you write, then don't bother with it in the first place. If you're in love with some idea of the literary lifestyle, or of being a published author, and you're not writing because you absolutely feel like you _must_, and you might die if you don't, then don't write at all. What you produce will probably be pleasing to no one. Isn't the fact that you can't make it past 200 words proof that you're not a writer?
>You must be born to write. You can't teach someone to know how to use words effectively and beautifully. You can help people who can write to write more effectively and you can probably teach people a lot of little tips for writing a novel, but I don't think somebody who cannot write and does not care for words can ever be made into a writer. It just is not possible. Nobody could make me into a musician. Somebody might be able to teach me how to play the piano reasonably well after a lot of effort, but they can't make a musician out of me and you cannot make a writer, I do feel that very profoundly.
P. D. James
>>7594511
what bothers me is that there's advice that says, "don't write if you can't write!" but there's also a lot of advice that says, "if you don't want to write, write anyway!" so I don't know what to do.
>>7594511
I think that's dumb. All this copypasta spreads is the myth that writers are "unique animals who are totally artsy", people who are full of their "muse", not some everyday person, "pah!". I can see that "writers" love to spread it because it massages their ego and self-love.
The myth totally ignores that writing is hard, often unpleasant work, work you'd rather not do. It's a job you do by putting your ass down on the chair and forcing yourself to write, not because you feel that you "must". Do you think Stephen King published a bazillion books because he felt that he "must" write all that crap?
>>7594482
Everyone's first draft is shit. Stephen King? He shits out a first draft just like you. JK Rowling? She didn't write any of the Harry Potter books in one single, perfect, God's-gift-to-lit draft. Any writer you can think of always - always - writes a first draft that is complete and utter shit. If you can knock out a first draft, you're doing better than the people too afraid to do even that.
Nut the fuck up and keep going. You can always make your writing better via editing. But you won't have a goddamn thing to edit if you don't metaphorically bend over your keyboard and take a dump.
GET TO SHITTIN', SON.
>>7594550
this. 2bh
>>7594537
do. what. you. want.
>>7594537
Stop listening to these dumbshit quotes and just do whatever the fuck you want to do. None of these quotes are universal laws that must be followed.
>>7594550
I don't think Stephen King is the best example you could have chosen, but I agree with your sentiment.
outlining and revising
next question
>>7594537
Become a writer so you can make your own stupid quote significant.
>>7594823
You're right, I'm still writing for a dumb post like
>writer
>King
>choose one
>hurrdurr
>>7594482
don't read it until you're finished with it
>>7594762
>JK Rowling? She didn't write any of the Harry Potter books
Could have stopped right there.
If you look at what you just typed OP you'll see the problematic step:
>Look at what you wrote
You see that? Stop doing that. Problem solved.
>>7594482
Prior to writing, collect momenta.
Even if you lose one, there will still be plenty of momenta left to keep you going.
>>7594850
this.
I usually spend a few dozen hours planning things out, writing tangential essays that convey the point I'm trying to make, thinking about the structure of what I'm going to write, things like this. By the time I come to 'write', it's a done deal.
>>7594482
First drafts suck. That's true for everyone. Just write a shit load before you look back, and then go back and fix it.
>>7595169
If you have a sense of why things work aesthetically so you can aim for a target beyond "WOW it's so POPULAR and DEEP", I'd say you can do art.
You need that synesthetic salivation when things really click and work, and that chirp of curiosity as to why a particular device elicited a particular response within you.
You have to "see" a destination with your aesthetic eye to trudge towards and compare your work against.
Turn off your fucking computer.
Clear off your desk.
Grab a pen and pad of paper and get to work.
you sound like you don't know what you're doing, rewrite those 200 words until you feel like you do
>>7595169
In On Writing King does indeed say that you can't really teach taste, but he also says that you have to do the work, put your ass down and write as much as possible every day, I think the opposite of this whole "write only if you must" shtick
Have a clear meaning. Develop the idea in your mind before writing anything. Let the images and metaphors go wild. Search for something pure and true. When you can no longer stay still, your head about to implode, then you vomit it on the paper. It will be shit. Don't care about that. All writing is rewriting and that's just how it is.
>>7594502
>overall looks like the ramblings of a madman
10/10
>>7594482
I have a problem where I'm able to grind out 1000-2000 words at a time, but when I look over it, I get extremely self-conscious and start to wonder whether or not my story actually makes sense and whether or not the themes of my story are actually valid. I've written a couple of short stories, but I've never fully been able to flesh them out and completely finish this because of this insecurity.
>write intro
>finish
>look at it
I could've sworn it was longer when it was in my head
>>7594482
http://www.cherryh.com/www/craftofwriting.htm
You're welcome.
>get idea
>feel like I've never had such a good idea before
>think about it nonstop for two weeks
>sit down
>try to start it
>keep rewriting the first sentence over and over
>it's shit
>lose heart
>come back a week later
>600 words
>it's actually good
>think another two weeks
>come back
>1000 more words
>it's better and getting easier
>overflowing with ideas for it
>tfw gonna make it
Stop writing shit
>>7594482
I don't look at what I write until my writing quota is filled for the day. And even then I don't get rid of it until the entire story is done, where everything gets edited in the second draft. But I also spend a lot more time planning my stories and characters than most, so that might help.
>>7594485
Can you elaborate on said app?
>>7594511
>does not care for words
I care heavily for words, I love the written word possibly more than anything else in the world, but yet I do not write many myself, in the current moment.
>be me
>write 65 thousand words book
>"dayum im james royce. suck me orwell. im best writer"
>it's utter garbage which would not be tolerated even on an indian slums street
>send it to editor for miracle
>editor shits on it with me
>we laugh and throw the entire thing away
>mfw im unemployed
Help me, /lit/. I can't even look at that shit anymore. I feel ashamed when I read a single page.
Why?
>>7594482
whenever you get the urge to write, go suck some dick instead.
I lack the discipline though I love weaving narratives. I need help to get my act together
advice?
>>7597027
>Why?
Have you practised writing for at least 10 years?
If not then you're a scrub.
>>7597048
I haven't.
If you are this superior to a skrub I assume you could give me orientation on what to do.
I don't want an essay. I don't want you to do my job. Just give me a tip which is not the more of the same schizophrenic nonsense that writting teachers spout (learn how to enjoy writting, Jimmy).
I'm not doing this for money. I am doing this because I want to have something that was mine when I commit sudoku.
>>7597069
>If you are this superior to a skrub I assume you could give me orientation on what to do.
Practice writing for 10 years.
Pretty much anyone who was ever good at anything practices for at least 10 years before finding success. Even a 15 year old chess grand master starts playing chess at 5 years old.
>schizophrenic nonsense that writting teachers spout (learn how to enjoy writting, Jimmy).
Enjoying something tends to make it easier to practice. But mastery also sometimes leads to enjoyment.
>>7597042
Join the mainstream media.
>>7597079
Thanks.
Writing for me has been an exercise of stress tolerance. But sadly I don't have the ten years to give. I have barely 3. I never wrote anything regularly (I only wrote a few oneshot fanfictions and regular nonfictional work).
I swear my plots are not bad. But I can't enjoy them and it corrodes the quality of the literature. I'm currently writing a comedy and it drifts into a tragedy because my state of spirit is not in accordance to what I'm writing. I feel like a fraud.
I don't have ten years to give. I have 2 months.
Is there an example of a well-written fictional book or an example of book on writing which I can read to improve with theory and examplification?
>>7597081
mercy no
>>7597095
You could just write something that you think is cool, instead of trying to impress other people. Then people can find it after you die
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger
Why do you only have three years... or two months?
>>7597116
Rent money is ending.
Unemployed in a depressed country.
Depressed myself (which is worse).
Struggling everyday to leave bed.
Dropped off college.
Low IQ scab. Can only repeat and apply what more intelligent folks make.
>>7597124
Sounds like you've got a lot of good writing material coming up.
>>7597129
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger
I know it is irony.
I wish I was good of sketching and collage to be like Darger.
World is too full of depressed leute and not enough actual talent to express these sorrows. I fear I'll be just a no one who passed without giving anything good to the world.
>>7597042
Have you managed to finish a novel?
It's important to do it just so you know you can.
When I write my first one I was damn sure I could make a second of greater quality in less time. It did a world of difference.
I wrote my second one in a third of the time that the first took of my everyday.
You'll only know if you are a disciplined writer once you have a standard to which you can compare how dilligent your writing habits have been.
Hard to tell you this but without standards your lack of discipline is a thought you have used to define yourself. Let's hope it is just language used without responsibility and not truth.
>>7594862
>It has to be outside of the mainstream sphere to be good.
I bet you use words like pleb unironically
>>7594502
>tfw you're the opposite of this
>tfw you can only write when 'inspired'
>tfw you try to force it, everything comes out un-salvageable garbage.
>>7594482
Get a real job, mommy and daddy are starting to worry
>>7597152
>Hard to tell you this but without standards your lack of discipline is a thought you have used to define yourself. Let's hope it is just language used without responsibility and not truth.
dang, nope I haven't finished my first novel. I haven't planned arcs, or proper conclusions and development. I'm a real novice coming to all this with mild ambitions, but a real want and like for creating stories. I'm just unprincipled
>>7597565
That's actually really funny, anon
>Be OP
>Be frustrated for a week with writing etc.
>Make this thread
>Try to write today on paper with stopping myself without stopping to look/correct as told
>Write a bunch
>Decide not to be a pussybitch and pass it to the comp to wordcount
>It's 1500 words
Doumo arigatou, minna-san.
>>7594511
The key to this is that you have to accept, deep in your bones, that you'll never be successful. Know that it's not going to work, know that you'll be working a day job for your whole life and just be in that headspace for weeks. Try not to think about writing. If you forget about it then it wasn't for you. If you find yourself still despite your intent, thinking of stories and scenes and characters that you want to write. Then go back to writing. Because the assumptions you had were, statistically speaking, probably right. Odds are you won't be a success. Odds are you'll never even be published. But now it won't matter because now you know why you're actually doing it. Because you want to write.
This is the point where you have to pick up some discipline. Now you know you truly want to write just for the joy of writing. But that joy is elusive, it takes real work and effort to keep coming back to the chore of churning out those words just for those bursts of joy when it actually works or when you've finished something. You have to discipline yourself to write often even when you don't feel like it, and you have to do it just because you want to be better than you were.
And after all that, after you've accepted your drive and learned to discipline it, then you actually have a shot at being a success. The odds are still against if, but now there's a chance. Only because you accept that it doesn't matter whether there's a chance or not.
Every time I write, I write for 2 hours, and then I feel so tired and exhausted, and out of ideas. How can I write more? 2 hours will take me years until I finish a novel.
This is going to sound dumb and maybe even juvenile, but try to have fun with it. People forget that it's fun to write and create, even with all the mindfuckery and self doubt.
If you're like most people, you feel excited as hell when you first think of an idea, and while it is still swimming in your head, you're having fun unraveling it, and thinking of the possibilities.
Some years ago my best friend and I wrote a comic book together (just wrote it, was planning on looking for an artist later). It was honestly some of the most fun I have ever had. I would think of the story all day and we would meet at our local coffee house at night, sorting it out, writing it. It was a blast.
Yeah, yeah, writing is all tragic and maybe the most depressed people full of anguish make the best "art"...but I have been homeless, addicted to crack and oxy's and all that shit. I dont feel very inspired when I think back on those times.
When I relax and have fun, have fun in the process, in the creation, I work better. And that is the point. The brickwall will come. The struggle to get your words out will come. But have fun with it, sorting out the puzzle.
Just my two cents.
If you sit down and don't write a load of shit then you are sitting on a miracle. If you want to write something of length, you should expect to rewrite half of it three or four times.
If you are sitting down with an idea the primary goal is to get the idea down. That is all you need to worry about.
>>7594482
This is why I like to plan ahead and structure beforehand.
Don't review your work after 200 words. Review your work after 200 pages. How many words per page is up to you. Proofread accordingly and compare your work to somebody you respect.
>>7594482
i'm going to guess you're a beginning writer making beginner mistakes.
>don't try to sound poetic or smart.
the first leads to purple prose, the second to vocabulary no one actually uses outside of academia or history
>as others have said, revise later
>try plotting/outlining first so that you know where you're going
>read books on writing
>try imitating other writers
>a rough draft is exploration, not set in stone. play instead of work.
write
revise
write
revise
write
