Any advice for someone whos attempting thier first novel?
pic unrelated
>>7390050
Write about gorillas or catuses.
juz do it
>>7390050
It will be shit. Accept this fact now to save the disappointment later.
>>7390053
This desu
It will suck.
Writing a novel is long, arduous, thankless work and at the end of it you'll look back and marvel at how much time you wasted on that turgid pile of garbage.
Then you'll start revising. Cutting clumsy lines. Reworking dialogue. Rearranging the structure. And that will suck less than writing the first draft.
And you'll keep editing. You'll winnow away every fleck of purple prose. You'll hack away at long rambling passages until you get your point across in a paragraph or two. Your characters will begin to take shape. The plot will smooth out.
By the second or third round of revision you'll start thinking you actually have something worthwhile on your hands. You might even show it to a friend or two. Of course, the very instant you give a copy to someone else you'll immediately notice every shitty mistake you missed and you'll wonder, since it's still this shitty after two or three edits, if you ever had anything worth saying at all. You'll doubt the past few months of your life. You'll doubt your talent. You'll doubt your abilities to even string together a single coherent sentence.
And you'll edit some more. And you'll start to like it again. It will never be perfect. Nobody ever publishes exactly what they had in their head when they started. Go back to it in a few years and another mess of errors will crop up and you'll kick yourself for missing them then. But you'll remember the mistakes. You'll avoid them in future writing. You'll move on.
tl;dr: It's gonna suck and that's okay.
>>7390058
OP here, not going to go into detail about the plot, but I believe its worth my time! I know its not gonna be the next LOTR or GOT, but at the same time I still think it could be great!
>>7390096
Why is it fucking always genre fags who make this thread.
>>7390058
Brett Easton Ellis is an edgelord and was published with his first novel at 21.
Hurts, doesn't it?
>>7390096
Anon, anon, anon. Unless you are particularly talented, your first attempts at writing will be shit. Like anything else writing is a skill that takes significant practice to get good at.
What are your reading habits? What do you read?
>>7390104
He is unusually talented/dedicated.
>>7390131
First time I've seen this posted here. Rightfully so.
>>7390100
/thread
>>7390050
>thier
get better at proofreading
It takes years (5-6) of solid, continuous writing to develop your own style and not suck. But pick a direction and go. Put aside all the little distractions like vidya and a well rounded social life and you'll get there. It's an art and a craft and not everyone is cut out for it. It takes time and effort to create something people will enjoy and pay money for. I've written 12 books and each one is like a child to me. It's so worth it to run to the printer, print the work in its entirety and drop it 6 inches off a tables surface. That "thump" is like a birth ft that something you crafted in your head has been made tangible. It's worth the effort. Pick a direction and make a promise to yourself to stick with it. There will be times you'll want to give up. Don't. Come up with an idea, draft a simple summary and go. Half the joy is rebuilding it and reshaping it to be more than what you had planned.
>>7390123
>What are your reading habits? What do you read?
a lot of stephen king, some fantasy novels such as the sword of shannara, and autobiographies would be the main stuff!
>>7390104
what's an edge lord?
>>7390220
Okay, then my second bit of advice to you would be to expand your reading horizons. Read Shakespeare, read Homer, read Joyce, read philosophy, read poetry, read the classics. Even if this doesn't particularly appeal to you, or you want to focus on writing genre fiction, reading widely, and, more importantly, reading that which is well written will improve your writing ability immeasurably.
This, along with five years(+) worth of writing, will get you to a stage where you have developed your own style and are able to produce things of worth [read: aren't entirely shit].
Also, having a deep understanding of punctuation and grammar (language) is crucial to being able to write well. So I would suggest you look into improving that as well.
>>7390050
As bukowski said, drink wine, it doesn't work with whiskey, vodka, or any other alcohol, just wine
>>7390137
He can write better than you can, my good friend.
>>7390240
hello there newfag, welcom to 4chan! now GTFO
>>7390261
Ok?
>>7390279
have an upboat for your funny comment :D
>>7390333
>>7390279
i dun goofed
Butters took credit for one of the greatest novels of our generation. Pic was related most definitely.
>>7390050
Look up ira glass on youtube talking about writing. I would find it myself but fuck you.
>>7390185
This anon knows the truth.
basics for beginners
1. don't use big/fancy words trying to look smart or poetic.
don't use accents to give your characters voices
2. read books on writing
3. writing is a skill developed by discipline. make time to write.
4. find a critique group.
friends give bad/useless crit.
>>7390050
>Write everyday. No exceptions. No excuses.
>Your first book isn't going to be all that good. That doesn't mean you shouldn't write it, but don't go killing yourself trying to make it amazing, either. Get through it. You'll learn more actually writing than you ever could reading about writing.
>Don't go back and read it until you're DONE. Everyone's different but myself and a few other writers have agreed that this strategy tends to be helpful, since it helps you just get the stupid thing on paper, instead of obsessing over making the first section read well. Besides, you won't know exactly HOW to revise until you get to the end.
>When you do finish your first draft, put it away for a month or so before you read through it.
>>7390096
>throwing LOTR and GOT into the same bag
I mean, GOT is fun and all, but come on.
>>7392774
why wouldn't you just write the whole story that you've got already instead of planning for a sequel?
i dunno, OP. I haven't read a book with a sequel since I was like 9.
But you gotta figure this stuff out for yourself.
Certain things will work for you, certain things won't.
Write everyday. Start projects and finish them.
Eventually, you'll get good.
>>7392805
So, just write it all out, even if it comes to something mad like 300k+ words, and then cut it into books?
Or write "a book" then go straight into the sequel
>>7392815
Yeah, see that's the kind of thinking you want to avoid.
You're writing a story. Not a book. Not a series.
A story. That comes first. Tell a story. Make it interesting.
When you get to the end of the story, you'll know. If you have more to say after that end (which is very possible), then you can worry about a sequel.
Stop thinking about if you're going to sell this book. About if you're going to become successful. Don't even think about people reading it.
Just write the story.
>>7392839
I want to tell a story, it's more that i get super autistic and want to make sure that not doing anything wrong. I'd hate to have a pretty good story at say 90k words, but then the publsiher wants to sell my book 70k in because it's a good break.
Whether or not it gets a physical publish, or even is successful does matter - but not as much as getting my story told.
>>7392856
if your books are publishable, they will still require revision. that's what editors are for, to tell you what to change.
>>7392873
Ah ok.
Well looks like fun times ahead
I guess that once i've finished and revisied it personally, i should look for an agent? Or try and sell it to a publisher on my own?
>>7392879
there are more agents than publishers but you'll need to research which ones specialize in your style & genre
>>7392913
Ok, thanks for your time and advice anon
Now i need to get this written
>>7392916
go kick some ass
