Writers: the leaves are falling and nanowrimo is in the air. Are you working on a new project or red educating yourself to an old one? Tell me what you're putting your energy into.
Post more pics schizophrenia-kun
Is that from Sun Kil Moons new album?
>>7327720
>tfw no Kozelek bf
>>7327720
ga...s.oooo.llliiinene.e...e.
>>7327734
Gasoline-kun used to come to my house a-and
knock on my door
My mom would answer and say "what you want boy?"
And he'd say "can I tell you about my 9-novel series sci-fi space opera?"
My mom would say I ain't in to that, and send him home
And shut the door and from the basement I would laugh
While Gas-kun went on down the street smiling and glowing
Like he'd just had Ron L. Hubbard's autograph
GAS-O-LINE, GAS-O-LINE
He wanted to be published like everyone else
GAS-O-LINE, GAS-O-LINE, GAS-O-LINE
He had dreams like anyone else
>>7327563
I really want to participate but I am at 0 words. I plan on doing some serious advance this weekend although knowing me it's hard to tell if I'll surpass even 5000 words. Am I fucked?College fucked my shit up, this month is loaded but I can still get time.
>>7327783
5000 words is a lot more than a bunch of other people will have. Make that 5k your minimum and report back.
>>7327757
Nigga, that's the dumbest shit I've heard all week. Stop jacking off to Naruto, it's making you goofy.
>>7327563
Really like that photo of yours.
My novel reached 46k this week. Been working on it since July. I couldn't manage to write 50k in a month because of my job.
So....after you grease that pete's fifth you're going to write a better query, right?
>>7327563
I have 3 ideas for short stories that I've been meaning to write since the beginning of the year. Problem: My writing sounds like a vapid sophomore high schooler trying to sound smart
How fix this
>>7328022
Despite my relative youth I am a veteran of the creative arts in terms of my capacity to comprehend the artistic process and the stages every good artist seemingly has to go through to reach the position of casual superiority I currently occupy.
It goes like this:
1. X is shy, withdrawn, but desperate to have his worth validated by those who have either rejected him or, as is more likely the case, he has rejected.
2. X begins writing poetry and song lyrics. They appear highly emotional but due to his youth their articulation is very poor and most are borrowed emotions vicariously expressed.
3. X sticks with it, and having read a few more books but is still desperate to impress and attain validation. He reads over his old poems and lyrics and is embarrassed by their simplicity and sentimentality. In response he writes very sober, prolix stories in which nothing much happens using as many obscure and lengthy words he can find.
4. X realizes that the literature that appeals to him most is written in a way where thought and feeling is expressed in a way that is not overly clever or obfuscatory, but whose apparent simplicity actually implies a great depth of thought and emotional intensity from the author.
5. X thinks of a handful of phrases, sentences, descriptions that he is convinced he has invented and which seem to him to be highly accurate articulations of his own emotions, or novel and interesting ways of describing something, or meaningful variations of phrases he has heard countless times in their standard form.
6. X begins to gather these snippets while continuing to read and underline similar phrases in books etc which strike his now sensitive capacity to identify genuine expressions of true emotions and feelings.
7. Slowly, and with great struggle and effort, X writes more and more until he has something he is proud of and value worth he is unwilling to deny.
>>7328015
Yup
>>7328057
Dude you're more stiff than my dick at a pirate convention.
You write until you aren't shit. Then you write more.
>>7328086
>hur dur
Keep spouting the same old garbage axioms you pathetic infant. See where it gets you.
I've been writing a lot of short works with a common theme, mostly related to the relationships formed between manufacturers and consumers. My excerpts have gone over well on here, which is encouraging.
The next step is putting them all together under a single umbrella story. I doubt it will be something I'll have for nanowrimo, but the event has certainly got me thinking more about this idea.
>>7328091
Alright, then.
Don't write. Remain shit.
Better?
Waiting for some things to be published, I've got a couple of short stories that are nearly finished. I was going to entirely rewrite one of them but I'm not sure about that now as the feedback has been so positive on the current version. I'll probably just get drunk instead.
>>7328100
Nice dubs. Stay at it. Make the conscious decision to put writing before frivolities.
>>7328119
Where's the feedback coming from? Because if it's a group of friend I got some news for you.
>>7328057
I don't clearly see the link between how to improve one's writing and this hero's journey of artistic development, but I appreciate the sentiment anyway anon
>>7328086
This is what I've always heard, but I hate my writing and myself to the point where I don't do this. Is it that simple? Just...literally write shit? No discernible goal in mind, just write? very spoopy
>>7328159
Yeah. Too many people want to build learning how to write up to a point that it seems inaccessible but in all reality the starting point is realizing that you just need to go at it. Write until you know what you want to write about, write until you do it good, and then write some more. Make sure you read a lot of horrible writing too so you know when your's is horrible.
>>7328174
This guy gets it
>>7328022
Graduate high school.
>>7328132
Yes, it's from the same group of friends who said that my previous stuff was good enough to get published.
>>7328022
I had this problem for a long time. A lot of it is just reading + writing your way into having something real to say and being able to say it, but try giving yourself a substantial goal, like 5 stories, a novella, etc, writing under the following restrictions:
1. Restrict yourself to simple and straightforward similes and metaphors, and short, detailed, and literal descriptions. For metaphors and similes, things like, her dress was as yellow as a papaya, or her dress was bright yellow and wrinkled.
2. Restrict yourself to grammatical sentences with no more then two dependent clauses. (Things attached through "which" or things inserted like "the cat, fat and black, stepped slowly across the fence.")
3. Write around one idea that is relatively clear in your mind if you're going to write about an idea. Keep the story strongly focused on the idea. Take a look at the following stories for models:
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/11/14/miracle-polish
http://engl210-deykute.wikispaces.umb.edu/file/view/omelas.pdf
https://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/soi.aspx
4. If you're going to write more thematically, about an emotional struggle, stick to a single or a couple related struggles, and, more importantly, a consistent, single tone. Don't try to write the ironical dark comedy until you can sustain both a dark story and a comic one successfully. Here are some example stories for you:
http://www.eldritchpress.org/ac/jr/197.htm
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/08/08/what-have-you-done
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~hyper/POE/telltale.html
>>7328354
Unless those friends are published authors, be ready to be disappointed.
>>7327996
Good job, bro.
Yeah I try Nanowrimo every year, but I teach so November is one of the busiest months of the year for me. I could be researching and writing, but I have a pile of shit to grade in front of me right now.
>>7328411
You think I should be ready to be disappointed when the stuff that they said was good enough to publish, that was then subsequently published, is what, retroactively de-published? Do you have a time machine?
>>7327563
I don't know why... but this picture really makes me feel. Something.
>>7328439
Congrats on the pubs. To be fair, "waiting to be published" for most writers on /lit/ would mean they have a story pending rejection from the NYer.
The priority for friends, generally, is the relationship and not your writing. Only friendships based on writing are going to be truly accurate pictures. If you have publishable work - and I do, like you - my confidence is a much more accurate predictor. My friends will always just say "this is cool" with maybe "I didn't understand some bits."
I'm currently doing NaNoWriMo.
I've long wanted to use my home city of Columbus, Ohio, and it's recently flourishing arts culture, as a backdrop with which to criticize Millennial values.
The story starts as a mildly surreal and eclectic coming of age story as the protagonist finds his life disrupted by girl who appears from nowhere. Shortly after they meet, she disappears and may or may not have stolen his brain. After a doctor's visit to confirm his brain is gone, he returns home with a new prescription for Xanax. He finds a strange man waiting for him in his apartment.
From there the story slowly breaks down into a surreal nightmare of shitty art, conspiracy theories, and self obliteration.
I primarily want to use this story to comment on the dark side of the democratization of art, the superficial nature of modern art culture, the extreme yet flimsy ideologies that many Millennial use to define themselves, the false identity assigned to Millennials from members of other generations, and the pain of a generation of people who all want to be famous and prosperous learning that in all likelihood they will not succeed.
I'm kinda making my own rules for how I want to handle this. I'm only aiming for 100 pages, so 25k words instead on 50k. I'll go farther if I can, but my minimum is 25k.
I just want to have fun with it and try something new. I've never written with a deadline so this will help my process. My stories are also usually pretty grounded so I'm excited to try something a little crazier. If it is good, great, but even if it sucks I'll learn something.
>>7328483
I'm gonna level with you and say it sounds like you're trying too hard to be profound. Just focus on writing a good story and let the other stuff come naturally.
>>7328498
Honestly that's pretty much what I'm doing. I'm not outlining it or anything except for going one chapter at a time. Alot of what i wrote up there is still soupy in my mind, a bunch of unrefined ideas that may or may not make it in.
My primary goal is to enjoy myself writing it and if I can wrestle some kind thematic through-line out of it I'll be really happy. I'm not gonna beholden myself all of that, but I would like to have some of it come through.
>>7328474
Yes, I should have been clearer in my original post. I do go out of my way to find people who know what they're talking about and will give a more honest, critical response.
>>7328057
>Despite my relative youth I am a veteran of the creative arts
this legit made me lol
I'm doing NaNoWriMo. I have about 5000 words. I'm writing a kind of picaresque, so it's more a collection of stories that happen in one timeframe that I'm going to try to tie together. I've also written about the same characters before, a number of which are just based on friends or people I know. So, nothing too challenging or stressful.
I wish it happened at a different time of year - both school and work are really busy for me. All I can do is eliminate what little socializing I do on weekends.
Is there a place on the site we could connect with other /lit/ posters for critiques and stuff? I haven't really checked it out much.
why don't you drop the sci-fi shit and write a book about a 30ish loser who works in a diesel shed and faps all day?
>>7328911
Science fiction and fantasy are the heart in a heartless world.
>>7328915
Yes. Yes they are
>>7327563
not really, kind of want to keep working on my poetry, but kind of can't be assed.
>>7328483
>oldest millenials are maybe 25
>seeking to define millenial values
I was going to criticize but I guess rushing to get things done before we're 30 is a millennial value in itself.
>>7330338
I like you Gas-kun.
I've been honing my craft over at /tg/ on a quest in order to force my productivity up and I'm still floundering. My word count is around 6k, 4k of which I poured out on day 1.
But I think tomorrow will go well. Which is why I will sleep now.
>>7330526
[citation provided]
http://www.forbes.com/30under30/#/
>>7327563
Drinking
>>7327563
>november
>all those leaves still
>>7330542
They'll be gone soon.
>>7327563
I'm halfheartidly working on my second book, while working my ass off writing a query for my first book.
Somebody told me that writing a good query is harder than actually writing the book, they weren't fucking joking.
>>7331309
I paid a professional to help me with mine
I'm writing a short story for my sister to show her how much of a huge bitch she can sometimes be in order to quell a family argument between her and my cousins. I plan to have it done by Christmas, partly so it can be a gift, but also so that she can understand some of her problems by the time we have to see our relatives again.
It's definitely the most interesting project I've set up for myself.
>>7332321
Yeah i know, and you got ripped off.
