How am I supposed to write if I have neither "lived" nor have had any experiences worth writing about?
You are not supposed to write anything.
>>7858929
This is sorta true. If you want to write but have nothing to write about then you don't really want to write at all; you want to be a writer.
Datura or DPH.
>>7858934
neat gif
>>7858926
Practice the mechanics of writing daily. When you have something that feels worth writing, write a full story. Shop your stories to journals.
Only you know when you've got something worth writing. Other people will judge whether it's relatable or worth publishing. It's 1/2 skill and 1/2 crapshoot.
Write a short story about those big titties
>>7858933
>If you want to write but have nothing to write about then you don't really want to write at all; you want to be a writer.
I'll admit, I would like to be a writer. I have always loved reading and I greatly admire authors, but it's hard to wring anything worth writing about out of my existence as a 21 year old Canadian who has lived with his parents his whole life and worked a repetitive job.
>>7858963
Your writing should be shaped by your existence, not based on it. So you live a kind of normal life, no crazy drug binges or weird experiences; write around that. Write about what you imagine those crazy drug binges and weird experiences are like - write about soldiers or cyborg detectives or melancholy 1940s jazz musicians. Anything. If you want to be a writer you're going to need an imagination.
>>7858926
make shit up. i've never been to another planet but that doesn't stop me from writing sf porn.
Assimilate the entire Western canon.
>>7858926
>How am I supposed to write if I have neither "lived" nor have had any experiences worth writing about?
TFW you ask yourself: "What are so many talented and successful writers recluses?"
>>7858926
Write anyways. Look how praised DFW is.
>>7858926
Live in your mind
What's an experience worth writing about? A big adventure? A solid discipline? Exciting personal relationships? Important social changes? Grand emotions?
First, tell me, are any of these worthy something that has already been written? Are you basing that worth on those other stories? Then, aren't you an imitator? But the thing that made those stories great was that they weren't imitations, that they made echoes. Yet those stories weren't the first stories either. Was Homer not an imitator, or at least one of a line?
Now, look around you. What do you see? Think well, because it's all that matters. If you look at a chair, what do you see? A mass produced commodity? A dead tree? The realization of an idea? Unresponsive matter or a part of your consciousness? Something to impose your will on or an unbearabe otherness? A sign or a sight?
If you can answer any of this on any level, you have something to say.
>>7859457
Thanks for this post, and thanks everyone else. This has given me more confidence. I welcome further posts as I think my feeling is a common paralysis.
>>7859457
I'm not OP
nonetheless, good post
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
>>7858963
Write about the people you see around you, try and see their life and all the intricacies inside it
The world needs ditchdiggers.
>>7858963
My advice is to get out in the world and have experiences, even with an imagination I found it hard to wrote until I went out on my own, had crazy experiences, was poor and starving, had crazy nights with girls and new friends, and eventually did some really crazy shit and wound up on probation with nothing to do besides eat, sleep, work, and write
>>7858926
Just make shit up. That's what writers do.
>>7858926
Go and seek out experiences, travel, join the UN, learn from writers like George Orwell for example he lived in Parisian ghettos for years,tried homelessness in England , worked in Burma and fought in a war
Don't just around and complain
Jokes on you OP, I'm writing a Mangum Opus about my adventures shitposting on the 4chan
>>7858926
That's a terrific realization that you've stumbled upon. An epiphany. You're already ahead of many aspiring, beginner writers.
But I do believe you have enough inside you to get started already. Just have to mine it. A few tips:
1. Read a couple of craft books. "Zen and the Art of Writing" by Ray Bradbury. "The Art of Fiction" by Ayn Rand. "On Writing" by Steven King.
Consider their ideas critically. Look for other craft books. One absolute must-have is "The Art of the Short Story" by Gioia. It take you through all of the short-fiction cannon, and each story includes a bio of the author and an essay or interview by the author about the craft itself. I can't recommend this book enough.
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Short-Story-Dana-Gioia/dp/0321363639/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1459166055&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Art+of+the+Short+Story&linkCode=ll1&tag=ddrtrailogfro-20&linkId=7683792d61054d18c597cdaedd6c6839
2. Read a lot of news. Think about people or incidents that have stuck with you for some reason and try to understand why. This is your material.
3. Begin to ask 'what if?' This question is at the root of imagination and creation. Take small what if's. And use that to start your writing process.
4. Write small, both in length and scope. Start with single-scenes. Limit yourself to a thousand words and two or three characters. Here's a prompt: write about the last meal you shared with someone else, but imagine something was burnt. Think the story through in your head and outline it before you start to put pen to page; understand it well upstairs. A lot will change as you write it - that's okay - but start with a plan, an outline.
Good luck.
Simple, refer to pic.
I'm neither gay nor have I lost a lover. Doesn't take me more than 4 hours to come up with a tragic gay love story, though.
>>7860201
Thanks
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>>7858926
When you're a young man you should spend your time living. Writing should be for your mid-30's and upwards.
bu,mp
>>7860843
I think this guy's trying to tell us something
>>7861025
I think it's kafka related
>>7860843
this wall of text is actually quite pleasing to look at
>>7858926
Just read more OP. See what makes other stories interesting.
>>7860843
The way this monolithic post is slightly fucked at the bottom is Kafkaesque
start an anime blog
>>7858934
terrifying gif
You just make something up
>>7861161
Try being voluntarily homeless for a while
>>7861161
fall in love
>>7861422
dating is extremely expensive when your feminist girlfriend makes you pay for everything
>>7861425
>falling in love = dating
Get out, normie
>>7861161
I don't think craziness is required. Just something with a depth of meaning. Even a hike can provide one with meaning. Our insistence upon spectacles and danger is a product of our shortened attention spans and weak self-images fostered by the myth of the truly 'living' Others.
>>7861454
thanks
>>7860201
What would you say to a person who thinks he doesn't have any right to make pronouncements on life due to his being young/relatively sheltered?
Emily Bronte was extremely sheltered and used her imagination to write Wuthering Heights. Why can't you? You have even more access to the outside world through TV, film and the Internet.
a rich internal life can compensate for experiences but if all you're doing is consuming pleb tier media with zero analysis, you're going to have to change that.
>>7858926
get addicted to vidya and/or hard drugs, go to rehab, relapse, go back to rehab and write about your experience
>>7861241
>>7862288
Not him but I think you're looking at things from a bad perspective. Thinking that if you just live a little, do this or do that, then I'll finally understand the world and can write that down!
It's easy to assume from all the fantastic literature out there that the Author all had it figured out. But I'm telling you that's not the case, they're just as clueless about all this as you and me. Just write something, anything. Things don't stick around because they're right and explain a life well lived properly, they stick because they resonant with something in the reader. That's my 2 cents anyway
It isn't about what you write, it's about how you write it.
>>7858926
Even the most boring story can be interesting if it's told well
Thanks everyone, your answers have helped a lot. I welcome further replies and accounts of how people have found the courage to validate themselves enough to consider their thoughts worthy of print.
>>7858926
start now
>>7862484
Prose b4 hoes
>>7858926
Write outsider fiction.
Suddenly your shitty life living alone in an apartment for 30 years is worth reading about, with magical realism.
>>7858934
Do NOT do Datura
Datura induces delirium and hallucinations on par with having schizophrenia, Alzheimers and meth combined.
There was a group of 4 who did Datura at TSU:
"4 kids at Texas State university made tea from some of the datura that grows around campus. various reports from others were pieced together to make sense of what happened next. the four were seen in the common room of the dorm playing a loud and lively game of cards, without cards. this led into them taking turns jumping off the table face-first into the ground. 2 split off and survived the night in their room without only minor incident. Another chewed his tongue up and was found bloody in the elevator and taken to the hospital. The last girl broke off from the group and tried to make it to the Square (where the bars are), crawling the whole way, about a mile, on asphalt. She had ripped all the skin off her hands and knees and was picked up by the police.
She never returned from that trip. She is still held in a mental asylum for treatment."
Never
>>7863358
>stupid people do stupid things on drugs
Color me shocked.
>>7863395
>le straight edge guy xD
>>7863406
>le degenerate DUDE WEED LMAO xD guy
>>7863358
I read a fucking funny trip report about Datura that was written in fucked up language because the guy was permanently fucked up afterwards.
Him and his friends did it and were just gone for like 2 days.
He said when they came to their senses the apartment was trashed, shit was smeared on the walls, the cats were no where to be found (and they never returned so they don't know what happened to them) and nearly everything in the house was broken.
The TV was laying in the middle of the floor with slices of bread arranged in a circle on top of it lol.
>>7863358
Eh,
I've done large dose benadryl once. Delerium is intense, but it isn't as scary as it sounds.
>>7863415
>I read a fucking funny trip report about Datura that was written in fucked up language because the guy was permanently fucked up afterwards.
DUDE
>>7863420
datura is not benadryl you worthless mong
>>7863436
le drug patrician xd
>>7863440
knowledge of mindaltering chemicals is useful for those looking to engage creatively; your 21st chromosome is in triplicate, to be perfectly frank, my family
>>7863420
large dose of benny? jesus, why would you? stick to a solid 100-200mg and put some asmr on instead you fuck. it'll be the most relaxing thing you'll ever experience. any higher than 400 and you're just being stupid.
>>7863445
DUDE
Enough about the drugs, no one wants to read the prattling on of gullible people seduced into believing the novelty of their psychoactive-addled brain farts
>>7858979
Then he'd just be full of shit too
>>7861161
You can literally travel to another country and live in it for a pretty extended amount of time for $5,000. If you can't make $5000 in a few months, you haven't worked enough to write.
>>7863526
I'm going to go ahead and add that a few STDs and drinking binges later, you will have something to write about, even if it's not your STDs or alcoholism.
>>7858926
Gonna need a source on those udders
>>7861161
You can join the UN, that's what I'm going to do
>>7863978
Globalist scum detected
>7860201
Post the epub for "The Art of the Short Story" senpai senpai
>>7861148
Surprisingly so, yes
Whatever you do, do not go to /r/writingprompts ever.
I've read a lot of amateur fiction writing and the issues they have is almost categorically never, 'you've not had enough life experience to write about this.'
The biggest problem for any beginner is going to be actually writing a fucking story. It seems simple. Introduce a character, set up a conflict, make something happen, then resolve it.
But you won't do it at first. Nobody seems to. I think the problem is that you need to actually start thinking in stories and looking at how stories are told. And it's only once you've started writing that you'll really think of stories to tell.
The only experience you need it to write. Life experience doesn't matter. You always have a perspective on something. If you've never been a father then you've been a son. If you've never had love then you've been lonely.
More importantly you can't be where you are right now again. You can't write about being 21 when you are 50. You can then only write about having been 21. So waiting for something magical to happen that will make you good at the craft of writing is just insane. For many reasons.
>>7858926
Have you never felt anything either? You could think of writing a story as a celebration of your most memorable feelings.
>>7867780
That's right. Feelings, not experiences.
Your experience ain't cool enough? Design a different experience around the same feelings.
>>7867762
>You can't write about being 21 when you are 50.
fullretard.jpg
fake it till you make it
>>7858933
I disagree. writing is a craft. if people wait until they have something to write about then nothing will ever get written.
if someone wants to write they will write. even if it's shitty and the scenes seem meaningless. eventually something will happen if you want it bad enough and stick with it.
>>7858926
>>7867762
This is an excellent point that OP should think about. Structure is the formative element of fiction, and content is secondary to it. The story isn't made by the characters or incidents, but by the fact that there are characters who experience incidents in a certain way. You gotta look at it like that to understand fiction, and (i've never tried to write) I assume the writer should consciously know that too.
>>7858949
this desu
>>7858926
Just think a lot, about everything. And I mean everything. Through time, through space, backwards and forwards; just think. You don't need to have experienced to know. We evolved logic through experience (proved empirically by sections of humanity dying off if their internal model doesn't match reality).
Food for thought. I wish I could go into detail.
>>7858926
OP if you've ever had your heart broken or had a major disappointment then just use those feelings in your writing and tie them into a characters extreme situation and boom, bestseller.
![shortstory[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/SRzzM2t.jpg "shortstory[1].jpg")
>>7860201
>>7867718
Seconded. Please?
>>7868474
Can't find it anywhere and I'm a pretty prolific lit pirate
![clever-thank-you-card[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/FbZh1nx.jpg "clever-thank-you-card[1].jpg")
>>7869313
Thanks for trying. Anyone else?
Go experience something.
You know how much shit I've done to write this BDSM erotica I'm writing?
Protip: EL James never got belted for her work. Fuck that bitch.
>>7860849
>Huuuuu u should spend ur time liviiiiuuubf
Fuck you Anon, go ruin your liver and leave writing for the rest of us
>>7869487
>NO MOM I'M NOT READY TO MOVE OUT OF THE BASEMENT. I'M AN AUTHOR.
>>7860843
Why have I been scrolling up and down this post for ten minutes?
>>7863358
>4 kids
>they all take it
>no sitters
I'm so surprised that they got fucked up
>>7868332
>characters who experience incidents in a certain way
Is this just your retarded, roundabout way of saying feelings?
>>7869599
Dubs
OP should remember that Emily Dickinson essentially lived in her fucking bedroom for twenty years and still wrote everything she wrote.
Wallace Stevens was a pretty boring normie type who managed a dull insurance firm for most of his life too. You don't need to become a heroin addict, join a revolution or revel in a three-day Bacchanalian extravaganza in Tijuana to write good stuff.
>>7863358
There's plenty of people and cultures who use datura who aren't 4 kids.
>>7863358
unironic 'reefer madness' right here?
Author here (only one book so far). The main thing you need is the drive to start, and the determination to finish. As people have already mentioned, there are authors with plenty of life experience, and authors with little/no life experience.
I've had people mention to me that they've "thought about writing" or "planning to do a book one day" and although I never say anything to their faces, these attitudes are useless. The main difference between someone who aspires to be a writer and someone who is one is that the latter gets cracking.
And if you aim to be published, well, we can't all be Paolini and get published because our parents know people. True, simple poor luck can get you rejected dozens of times by publishers. But if you have something worth publishing, sooner or later someone will look at this and go "yeah why not".
Good luck, anon.
>>7870210
there are a few, and if you're from those cultures you know enough to disregard
it's e t r e m e l y unethical to advocate datura use without padding it in 10000 warnings of gruesome death
it's seriously not something to fuck around with
>>7870383
When do you know your book has reached its penultimate form?
I've written a novella and a short story, but I keep editing and I keep finding more aspects to change.
The mood is one of frustration, and yes, a little confusion.
Hell, writing a book is easy, editing is hard m8
>>7870383
Thanks
>>7863445
>your 21st chromosome is in triplicate
using this later
>>7867762
>You can't write about being 21 when you are 50.
you should read the mezzanine
>>7870432
>penultimate
ULTIMATE
YOU MEAN
ULTIMATE
FUCK
>>7870432
Sorry for the late reply. I'd say that I stop changing, rewriting and editing a book when I start to realise that it's the most minor trivial stuff that I'm changing. I ask myself "will any reader even notice, or care?" If I start trying to justify it by saying "well, maybe someone will..." then I know I'm just making excuses. No book is ever perfect and as such no book is ever truly complete.
Editing is tricky, but it's trickier if you get sucked into obsessing over every detail. I ask myself "but is this actually important?" and "will a change actually have impact?" By forcing myself to consider any paragraph or chapter from this perspective, I can usually let go of trivial things.
That said, I think most authors (or at least myself) are obsessive to a degree. Letting go of even a minor detail is sometimes beyond me, a certain passage or even a sentence is too personally appealing for me not to change and rewrite a dozen times.
I don't have a definitive answer here, I'm afraid. Just don't get bogged down to the degree where the book has been 95% done for months but you still keep changing small things, even if it is never published, push yourself to say "it isn't perfect, but it is done."
>>7869580
Visually pleasing
>>7860172
tfw recite my 4chan musings as "just stuff I watch on channel 4."
>>7858926
How can I fuck those titties?
>>7872280
Lol how can you "fuck" tits, its not like they have holes
>>7859457
>sit at table
>wait
>wait
>die
>>7873726
Same way you fuck a pillow.
>>7859457
that was beautiful my man
>>7873927
cut a hole in it?
>>7862288
>What would you say to a person who thinks he doesn't have any right to make pronouncements on life due to his being young/relatively sheltered?
Don't make pronouncements on life. Just tell a story. It's an art form.
I can't remember who said it: "We are all born artist. The challenge is remaining one."
And choose to live a less sheltered life. Many of my decisions are made on the basis of what will or will not make a good story.
>>7867718
>>7868474
Writers ought not steal from each other. It's a mere $10 shipped for a used copy. Just fucking buy it.
Here's some patronage:
To the next five people who post an email address, I will buy and have shipped to you a free copy.
>>7867762
I've read a ton of shitty stories in workshops for students in undergrad, grad, and that I've run myself.
I can trace the problem simply to not having read enough. There's a ratio floating around of 100 to 1; you need to have read about one-hundred times more than you've written.
The surest sign of a shitty writer is they take what they think is the easy route and go straight to "screenplays" and write in the dramatic form.
>>7873726
You slide your meat betwixed them.
>>7870992
No, it doesn't reach its ULTIMATE form until it's published. There's such a thing as a professional editor.
>>7875774
> I run writing workshops
> undergrad
> grad
> independently
> people don't read enough
> spells an archaic word wrong
Not a big deal but fuck you
>>7875762
[email protected]
Thank you anon!
>>7858934
Holy shit that's exactly what faces look like on acid.
I'm stuck between drawing and writing, so I keep thinking "I'm not good/wise enough yet" twice over.
Drawing a "graphic novel" seems a cowardly way out, unless I make it significantly surreal and symbolic. Yet if I focus on writing I'll have to do more reading, more heavy literature, for which I hardly have time these days. Clearly, I should've specialized years ago.
How do I make up my mind?
>>7869313
What sites do you recommend? Any good sites for finding stuff that is in lancuages that aren't English, namely Spanish?
>>7876458
lemonparty.org is pretty decent. Or duolingo.
>>7876490
>lemonparty.org
I asked for books, not nostalgia.
>>7876458
Gen.lib.rus.ec is one of the best, start there
As for other language resources I can't help with that because I only speak standard English and African American Vernacular English
>>7876551
Fanks thamily.
The most difficult thing for me is writing scenes that don't feel shitty and awkward. I can write up a plotline, flesh out characters and events that I want to happen, do all sorts of prep work that SHOULD make the writing easier, but once I actually start writing it feels so fucking clumsy. I end up getting so mad and frustrated and depresses that I stop writing. I always go into it with no expectations, full well knowing that it will be bad, but that doesn't help at all.
It's incredibly frustrating and it's wearing on my mental health.
>>7876975
When you're writing just keep going until you actually can't write anymore. Remember you can correct and rewrite later, don't think of it as the final product but as raw material.
>>7877014
I know that, but somehow I still can't. It'd like there's someone else inside me, shackling my hands so I can't write, even though that's the only thing I want to do with my life.
It's to the point where I set up an appointment with a therapist in one final attempt to alleviate myself of my crippling anxiety and negativity.
>>7877028
Hmm... Try writing short then, one sentence at a time.
I've been frustrated with not knowing what to write about for short stories lately.
Ironically, my social anxiety has made interacting with others very difficult. At the same time, getting my characters to interact is equally difficult. I've found that I usually write internal monologues more often than anything else. Doesn't bode well for my writing "career," I guess.
>>7877028
>It'd like there's someone else inside me, shackling my hands so I can't write, even though that's the only thing I want to do with my life.
That person is yourself. You are too embarrassed to fail in front of yourself. The idea of writing trite dialogue or wasting time on what turns out to be purple prose frightens you so much that you would prefer not to even try.
Respect yourself and enjoy the opportunity to notice your failures and improve upon them.
>>7858926
by going outside and fucking experiencing life obviously. stop being such a coward, embrace virtue, and love endlessly. this is the only way to truly grow.
>>7858926
>ctrl f
>no proust
Guy was a shut in who crushed on a neighbor girl and was a total mama's boy.
You can write, you just have nothing to say, which isn't a bad thing. Not everyone should be a writer. That is why we have so much garbage nowadays.
You'll find your thing, writing just might not be it.
>>7860843
Were you aware how beautiful this would turn out?
>>7877337
I know that, fampai. I've tried so hard to turn off the overly critical voice in my head, but I haven't had any success. I don't have any expectations when I write, I just go at it with the intent to write something and hopefully improve myself, but it always ends so poorly and it puts me off from writing for days, or even weeks.
It's like I have no control over my own thoughts or emotions.
>>7877352
>proust
>crushed on a neighbor girl
where are you getting that, I was under the impression that he used to frequent gay brothels and bathhouses between refusing to get a job and getting into screaming fights with his parents
then again my sources are pretty iffy
>>7877366
You're correct.
>>7877361
>It's like I have no control over my own thoughts or emotions.
check out Neuro-linguistic programming. it's basically all about how language programs patterns of thought, and its promise is that with practice, you can avoid negative thought patterns and program yourself to think empowering thoughts. might sound like wishywashy Oprah-tier stuff, but it can help you get rid of limiting beliefs like "i have no control over my own thoughts or emotions"
>>7858926
Stop trying to write about your thoughts.
Instead try and write about what you observe in the world.
If you focus inward you'll become entangled in your thoughts.
If you push your perception outwards you can create a framework to put your thoughts on.
>>7877380
I'll have a look into it, Felipe. I've also heard about hypnotism (the medical kind, not the mystic shit) being able to help reprogram thoughts and the like. Hopefully either one will be able to help me.
Would anyone happen to know of any good books to improve wording and clarity of thought? I feel that I have a really hard time expressing myself decently. I read books and marvel at how well decent writers to word things, and how I would have never thought to word it like that.
>>7858934
DPH is benadryl right?
I dropped large doses when I was a teen. I've got chronic heart problems now as a result. Haven't done drugs since I was 19.
I could probably write about it -- deleriants or whatever DPH and co. qualify as are a largely untapped subject.
I never experienced spiders, even with my largest dose of 1450, but boy do I have stories.
>>7877715
tell me about benadryl
>>7877719
Crazy, stupid shit. First time I did it I was bummed over a girl who I fucked my chances with and I didn't have weed. I took a low dose, maybe 300mg. Felt like I smoked weed but I had this weird phlegmy feeling in my throat. Decided to take a nap. Woke up with my shoelaces off my shoes and binding my hands instead.
Second time I was also bummed out. 800mg. Talked to my dead mother. Shoved fingers down my throat to try and throw up. Went outside and talked to a gruff redneck -- imaginary, of course. Found bread smeared with peanut butter in a cabinet a couple days after the trip, the knife in a bottle of water. Pam (the cooking stuff) was sprayed on my wall.
Benadryl induces temporary memory loss. The most interesting effect of the high comes after, piecing together what you did during it.
A lot of people see spiders.
>>7877734
(continued)
Tried jerking off on a 950mfg dose. Impossible. I decided to write instead. Everything I typed out looked like shit to me but I did it anyway. I wrote an entire short story - at least, I remember writing one. The day after I couldn't find it anywhere.
Benadryl fucks up your vision, blurs it, sort of. Everything is out of focus. It is not fun, but it shaped who I am today in an odd way (beyond the chronic heart problems).
I'd try it once. Don't do it near family. You WILL act weird and probably end up in a hospital. You will have conversations with people that aren't there and you'll be looking for things that don't exist.
>>7860201
Actually a good post, thank you.
>>7877830
Same here, except for the details of dry throat and heart racing the rest of it is horseshit.
>>7876117
Your file name is an anagram for Bernie Sanders.
>>7870383
How does publishing work? Do you have to pay to get it printed or do they do it for you?
>>7875762
[email protected]
I'm skeptical you're being serious, but if you are, you have the gratitude of an overworked student.
>>7860201
While not ironic or dismissive, this is probably the worst advice in the thread. Books on writing fiction by fiction writers do not have any insight to offer on the mechanics of success in fiction. What the have to offer is what those authors' other books do: a fictional narrative.
The rest of the advice in this post will lead you to a neutered style conveying uninteresting plot for plot's sake. Wow, imagine something was burnt at the last meal you shared, what a stunning Inciting Incident.
Unsarcastically, if you write in complete violation of and opposition to the advice offered here, you might end up with something good.
>>7862288
You're not supposed to assert anything. You're a witness, a historian. The writer's job is to find moments of truth and artfully convey them to the reader. It's the same as painting a landscape or taking a photo. What truth you find will be subject to interpretation by the reader, as everything else in life is a matter of perspective. Don't teach, show.
