Hey lit. I'm about to start writing and I want to know what you guys think of my project. Here's a summary!
(Book name at the moment is Letters To The Future, but i might change that)
Charles is a mess. He has good ideas but no time to write them out. His roommate is an insufferable narcissist. His ex-girlfriend is his only real friend, but nobody believes that they aren't still together. His family is annoying and unsupportive. At the moment, Charles is having a hard time trying to find the motivation to do anything. Out of sheet boredom, he writes a letter to his future self. The next morning, after rebooting his computer, Charles is surprised to say the least when he finds a response waiting for him.
Anyone interested? I will elaborate on the minutia of the story if anyone wants.
Telling us about the story will release the same chemicals in your brain that drive you to write it, so don't talk about it until you've finished.
Whether or not it's any interesting to read depends on how you write it, plot summaries are generally uninspiring.
>>7993248
>Anyone interested?
Nah not really.
>>7993255
Thanks for the frank speech, it's what I come here for. Perhaps I should elaborate, do you think the story is interesting enough to be a full novel? Does the prompt itself have the potential, or should I just wait and stick it in with some other short stories?
sounds like a cliche ridden high concept made for tv movie
no thanks
hint: you'll never be a writer if you're not already a reader. it just doesn't work like that.
>Would you read it?
no. though odds are chunks of it i already have. a hundred times.
>>7993268
The value of the story really lies in how it's written. Two authors can write from the same prompt and come up with wildly different things. That you don't seem to understand this and the way your prompt is written; like a bad voiceover for a romcom movie trailer, I would recommend sticking with practising on shorter pieces until you figure out what you're doing.
>>7993292
good point. i'd read this as written by borges.
>>7993291
Thanks for the frank advice. I realize it's a pretty short summary, and kind of a cringey one. The actual story would be based around the main character trying to change his future, while also figuring out how to deal with the butterfly effect. The novel is supposed to be about how you aren't supposed to mess with time, and how seemingly small events can affect us far in the future.
>you can't be a writer without being a reader
If like to civilly state that you are correct, however I have been reading since I was six years old and go through as many books as I can get my hands on. This is only my second time writing, however.
>>7993248
yeah another damaged teenage with no friends but somehow manage to get a girlfriend. Real logic. Real story. Just dumb the shit and stop writing.
>>7993339
Of all things to criticise, that's the bit you took umbrage with? Wow.
>>7993292
You're right, thanks for the advice. I really have no idea how to write a summary, I'm pretty new at writing and I just wanted to see if this was an idea that anyone would be interested in.
>>7993339
>teenage
Where did OP say that?
>no friends
Where did OP say that?
>girlfriend
Ex-girlfriend you mean?
Did you even read the post?
>>7993346
If you write it well, people will be interested. If you don't, they won't. It's hard to make any real judgement from a summary unless you already know the author's style or that of the genre. Good luck.
>>7993356
Thanks again for the advice, I'll keep it in mind.
>>7993248
There's a spark of something really cool here, I think. But only if you take the present-Charles future-Charles relationship to some interesting, unexpected places. Don't just make it a wiser, older version of the character lecturing the younger version into changing his ways and overcoming his current issues.
>>7993345
this is a sign you can't be a writer. Being a writer is all about structuring your story, making it sound as less nonsense as possible. You don't put in the hard work to avoid this kind of crumby detail, your story's gonna be shit, I assure you that witless being.
>>7993362
Any thoughts on what that might look like? That's one of the things id like to work on but I'm at a loss of how to put a fresh spin on "future person contacts their past self"
>>7993365
OP here, the dude who commented that wasn't me. Thanks for the advice, though.
>>7993371
That is literally the job of you as a writer.
Just make sure you don't take the easy way out and make this communication through time a device to push forward a conventional relationship story. If that's what you want to write (perhaps signalled by your establishing of Charles' relationships which seem entirely superfluous to the core concept) the titular letters to the future are themselves superfluous.
If you want to do something interesting with the concept couch the conflicts and thematic content specifically in the passage of time, aging, time travel, fate, interdimensionality ETC. otherwise you're just writing a catchy hook to sell a different story
>>7993365
you're a fucking retard
1) you're complaining about something he never suggested
2) your criticism is based entirely in the assumption of a specific kind of realist style
3) if you seriously believe what you are saying you have absolutely no understanding of the arts
>>7993386
I seriously don't want this to be a romance. I'm even content with cutting his ex out of the book if it saves me from devoting time to their relationship. The only thing that character is supposed to be there for is as his female friend.
>>7993365
There are plenty of people whose partners or ex-partners are their only friend, if you can't imagine how that would happen then I weep for your imagination and you're in no position to be telling anyone else how to write. Pathetic /r9k/ self-pitying bullshit that can't see past the search for a boyfriend-free girl.
>>7993395
relationship is not necessarily a romance and the element of romance is not necessarily a problem, human relationships, indeed romantic relationships are a key part of human life, and one of the first things the average person would think of inquiring about when speaking to their future self
you should only - if trying to write a story specifically ABOUT the implications of communication with a future self - stray from (i'm not accusing you here, only suggesting) the communication with charles' future self becoming a device to push forward something entirely irrelevant to the core concerns of charles' communication with a future self, whether those concerns are scientific, philosophical in an epistemological or existential, or just kind of life advice sort of way
Aight rate my plot /lit/
>it's a series of tom and jerry esque epics in which one man continuously ruins the life of another man through force and persuasion. At the end of each life, the gods come and have a laugh at the ruined man, who screams "I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, YOU FUCKING RAT", before a trap door opens, dropping both of them into the next life.
>>7993413
now this i would read. literary slapstick is absolute highest of the arts and the premise has potential for good theology and religious allusion
>>7993409
One of the ways it could be played is a sort of 'time-loop' idea, where future Charles responds to present Charles with something like "I'm going to give you the same advice I got 15 years ago" but that sort of thing easily becomes cheesy and/or cliche.
>>7993418
Thanks anon.
In one of them, the pair plan a revolution to bring down a corrupt king and install rule of law. But at the last minute Jerry sells out Tom for a million dollars. While Tom's being crucified for treason he shouts out "JERRY YOU BASTARD, WHAT HAPPENED TO DIVINE RIGHTS"
At which point Jerry smiles and states "Divine law is a meme. I hope this has been educational!"
>>7993413
7/10 has potential. Bonus points if their names are Thomas and Jerry.
>>7993425
my question would be 'to what end'?
complexity is not depth. if you have ever seen the movie 'primer' you have there a good example of a completely empty film that tried to prop itself up on a labyrinthian structure serving only to alienate the viewer and keep them from seeing its essentially empty core
a time loop could be interesting, but make sure it is building to a greater intellectual or aesthetic truth
>>7993428
anon, write this. self publish in amazon. if you write novella length or longer with the quality of these posts i promise i will buy a copy,
>>7993433
Thanks, good advice. I guess the main point is to actually have meaning in the story, and not have it be just a shitty grab for readers by having a somewhat interesting hook with no depth.
>>7993435
Thanks anon. I'll be back.
>>7993466
and if you're roberto pinchas, i'll buy two copies
>>7993469
>roberto pinchas
I don't know this nigga. Where do I start with him?
One last thing I'm gonna do, at the end of every life Thomas has to write the lesson on a chalk board one hundred times
>Human rights are literal memes
>Human rights are literal memes
>Human rights are literal memes
>Human rights are literal memes
>Human rights are literal memes
>>7993472
he's a self publishing /lit/ author
>>7993474
>Tao Lin On A Tricycle
I don't know why, but that title cracks me up anon
>>7993478
well no kidding it aint mine
>>7993392
You retard shit, are you blind or what? Were you born with testicles in your eye holes. Read the 1st post again you illiterate shit.
Go suck on your "art". Clearly you have never written any decent thing in your miserable life of a witless being. Write a novel or two then come back here and tell me that I have been fucking right all along, you little greenhorn shit.
>>7993375
ok, sorry.
>>7993397
First off, fuck you.
Second off, give me the fucking number by "plenty of people whose...shit...and...shit". Without a proof, your statement'd better rest in the cesspool with its master.
Logic is my friend here, and logic is your fucking enemy. You can't form a romance relationship if you don't make it to friendship first. It's just fucking common sense in case you don't know. Yeah, you don't fucking know. Not a fucking clue.
A fucker who can't make friends will likely (underlined "likely") never have a romance relationship. DO you study statistic, bitch? Do you? I bet you don't 'cause you're no writer. Writer needs to study statistic to get a sense of reality. Yeah, there are case when a girl who's so fucking ugly or desperated that she pairs up with a fucking pedo-weirdo like you. Tell you fucking what, it is the minor in the whole damn fucking population of 7 billion fuckers. You write about a normal dude, you stick with the image of the majority. That's why "Ghost world" is so fucking perfect. 'Course, you don't know what I'm talking about, cause your so fucking pathetic.
I bet you get a boner when you read Lolita.
And lastly. Don't challenge the god, you midget bitch.
>>7993942
>worshiping """realism"""
wew lad
>>7993942
>You can't form a romance relationship if you don't make it to friendship first.
Is that what you tell yourself each time you're friendzoned?
>>7993971
Do you know why your wife sleeps with your neighbor? Because you forget to be her friend before fucking her? lil bitches.
And i'm not your friendzon neighbor so, I don't fuck your wife, don't blame me, you shit head, dickless.
>>7993256
/thread
>author writes about an author with writer's block
get the fuck outta here
Read more to get a better understanding of cliches then you'll be able to avoid them
What you wrote is trash
>>7994367
>wah wah muh realism
>spouts a bunch of made up shit
It's truly remarkable how lost you are.
>>7993248
I hate things that rely on one quirky gimmick but are otherwise mundane, mundane doesn't mean bad though.
If it was in a developed cyberpunk setting then I might be interested. Or maybe some 17th century occult setting. Or maybe something like being john malkovich, where it isn't just the one thing but everything is a bit off.
I think i've seen a lot of variations of that plot. Usually it's a character writing to someone else in the future, not themselves, but I'm sure that's been done too.
Doesn't seem anything more to the story besides that. Keep in mind, banal, unoriginal shit like this does sell if done well enough. Just make a simple plot twist like he becomes transgendered in the future, and you'll be gold.
