How's that epic novel coming, /tg/?
>>47818541
Turns out the real money's in far-out porn.
Writing the blurb is harder than the actual novel.
>>47818782
So you finished the novel, but can't summarize it?
>>47818852
Yeah. Not so much that I can't summarize it, but that I don't want to spoil too much and still have to explain what it will be about.
>>47818909
Just leave out the spoilers, what are you left with?
>>47818541
Ha. I can't even work up the balls to write campaign notes. What makes you think I can write a novel?
>>47818947
Everything except the conflict.
>>47818541
Filling out a fantasy setting without using the standard fantasy races is quite a task.
Hard mode for only having a limited number of humans at my disposal.
>>47818541
It's not even a novel, it's just a short story, and I can't start it because every time I think about it my crippling self esteem issues stop me dead in my tracks and I go play videogames.
>>47819040
So the cast and characters and setting are spoilers? How does that work?
>>47819117
Drink while writing. Works for many writers.
>>47819150
Medical problems and fears prevent that.
>>47819134
Let's say there is this standard big, dark secret the MC uncovers as the main plot. I fear that saying that he betrays everyone because of it and will be hunted by his former comrades and friends is too much of a big spoiler.
>>47819271
You can spill the beans on here instead of dancing around the subject. I guarantee you nobody gives a shit about spoilers for a book they'll never read.
>>47818558
This guy knows what's up.
>>47819271
Be ambiguous about it. "But not everything is what it seems - a dark secret which may change all what protagonist believes in will dictate the course which life will now take"
I'm on my fourth one. Currently approaching publishers with my agent.
>>47819271
You don't have to do that, or rather not directly.
Like:
"Protagonist is a whatever who lives in the beseiged city of wherever under attack from the hordes of evil because of the great macguffin war of '95. He joins an elite team of dudes alongside the beautiful yet deadly Sexygirl and the cool and snarky Lancerguy. But as Protagonist fights and travels throughout the world of Phat Earth he stumbles upon a dark secret, and soon the very foundations of his reality start to crumble. Who can Protagonist trust? Will he face Mortal Kombat: Annihilation?"
Just allude to shit in the story without spoiling it. You don't have to use too many specifics in the blurb, it's more for emotive, wishy-washy language to grab the reader with promises of adventure or suspense or romance or whatever you're trying to write.
Joke's on you, OP. I gave up writing years ago.
>>47819286
>I guarantee you nobody gives a shit about spoilers for a book they'll never read.
I just took a look at my book shelf and books at amazon. None of those blurbs really sold me the story, it must have always been reviews and opinions of friends.
>>47819325
>>47819374
Yeah, I try too much to write a summary.
Thanks guys.
Anyone else doing the Bard thing? I submitted mine today, took a lot more work than I thought it did for the tiny wordcount.
>>47819236
420 BLAZE IT FAGGOT.
I'm here to help
I'm at the early stage of world-building.
I've finished the cosmology and a world-map and i'm in the process of creating the world history.
>>47820267
That's not a novel you're writing.
Submitting a microstory tonight to that new lit mag advertising on tg
And then Im going to finish rewriting my short story about an AI waifu and Im pretty confident I can get that published somewhere.
And by then my writing guru will have finished reading my novel and I can put the last tweak in and send that out.
>>47818541
> epic
nigga I'm starting with a short story and working up from there
Anyone who tries to start with an epic is fucking Christopher Paolini. You've got a 30% chance it'll catch and you'll make some quick dosh, but it'll fizzle out quick and your rep will be ruined by a shitty movie adaptation.
>>47819814
Fuck.
Well time to start writing that naval not-arabia adaptation of the hobbit and beauty and the beast.
>>47818541
It's not.
Likelihood of publishing in the genre isn't that hot so I'm trying my hand at other stuff.
Helps that my love of fantasy is basically enjoyment of really normal D&D-style stuff so there's nothing I could write, no matter how cleverly I may do it (assuming it's clever at all as I don't judge my own writing beyond a purely technical standpoint) there's no way anybody would care or show much interest.
I am thinking about writing a novel about a gorilla who is a detective.
>>47818782
>Writing the blurb is harder than the actual novel.
Aahahahahahaha THIS.
As for my novel, lets see: I've got 590 words so far. Then I popped into Google Earth to try and pick a small town in northern Greece to set the initial location, then I found some amazing old British military map from 1940 that I could overlay on the terrain to see which villages were around when the story's set and which ones weren't, and after spending all night exploring the terrain of Thrace from space and realizing I really need to plug my joystick in again and go flying around in Flight Sim X or something to get a feel for the area, I remembered that the next scene requires a trendy little outdoor bistro-style restaurant, which a tiny-ass village of a few hundred people probably won't have, in 1935 OR 2016. Then I laid awake all night debating whether or not to move the initial location of the character's airbase north-east to the area around Serres; which has the combination of flatlands-leading-up-to-mountains I want that is thematically/practically perfect for the story. (Serres is on a fertile farmland plain and the city's literally at the base of a mountain.) But Thessaloniki was the beating heart of the political conflict shenanigans ripping through Greece in the mid-1930s and is just generally a more cosmopolitan, joyous multiethnic clusterfuck at the time, which I want.
Then there's the matter of distance. Thessoloniki is only 40 nautical miles from the Bulgarian border, which is fuckin peanuts even to 1930s aircraft, so anywhere in northern Greece works vis a vis getting my character's asses into the furball anywhere in the Balkans I want. But the logistics of distance on the ground in the 1930s are quite the opposite; vehicles (and roads) were a hell of a lot less developed, so even commutes we'd consider short in the 'States take a while in Greece. Especially when you're driving through switchbacks that climb mountains.
590 words. HELP
>>47819732
What Bard thing?
>>47819117
>It's not even a novel, it's just a short story, and I can't start it because every time I think about it my crippling self esteem issues stop me dead in my tracks and I go play videogames.
I laughed a lot, because I've written like 400,000 words of fiction over the last few years and this STILL happens to me, like, you don't even know.
I am fully aware of the irony when I say this, but, I'm saying it; "considering the above, don't let that stop you." That crippling self-hate will always be with you. It's the mark of a true writer, not the roadblock to being one. Every writer ever has had to find some way to put a gun to his theoretical head to keep himself writing. I swear to god, it's true. Even the ones who are taken by a Fit Of Passion when The Muse shows up have to find a way to keep laboring on things after she's dumped you in the morning without even staying for coffee.
Writing is torture. Writing is nightmare. Writing is the punishment a useless pile of shit like you deserves. Don't fight it, anon. Accept your fate.
>>47820589
>Anyone who tries to start with an epic is fucking Christopher Paolini. You've got a 30% chance it'll catch and you'll make some quick dosh, but it'll fizzle out quick and your rep will be ruined by a shitty movie adaptation.
More likely it won't sell at all and the manuscript will be forgotten as a mistake, but it will provide the practice and experience to do the job properly the second time around.
HUZZAH
>>47820659
Disconnect from the internet while writing. Do research at other times.
>>47820736
>Disconnect from the internet while writing. Do research at other times.
That is... actually... that's actually a good idea. Full disconnect; turn off the wireless, unplug the ethernet; forced isolation. Because otherwise I'll go running to the internet every time instead of sitting down and strangling that fucking story into submission.
So that's what I'm gonna do. That is, as soon as I figure out what I'm doing with the timeline and all. Cira 1933-1934 is perfect vis a vis political tensions in the Balkans, but the aircraft I want to feature only flew in 1935-1936 for the most part; worse, it'd be ideal for them to be older aircraft to justify private mercenaries owning them (aircraft generations were as short as four years back then, so it's not terribly strange, but the onset of WWII puts a hard cap on things.) So do I just shrug and go with something like surplus Vought FUs for their aircraft, or do I nudge/tweak the history a bit to get the Grumman F3F out one or two years early so they can have F2Fs (or even F3Fs sold as export fighters)?
WHAT HAVE I DONE
>>47820620
Is it like some kind of weird Cyberpunk story where there are genetically-engineered animal people? Does nobody know he's a gorilla? Is it some kind of Zootopia dealie?
Please write this book. This is one of the first genuinely intriguing ideas I've heard in these "how's your novel coming" threads.
If any of you are having problems with worldbuilding or creating lots of characters, consider writing fanfiction as practice. Half the work's already done for you.
>>47821227
>consider writing fanfiction as practice
Fuck that. I hear this argument all the time. You know what's better practice at writing characters? Writing your own characters.
Same with world building. You're never going to learn how to create a simple, consistent setting if you don't actually try your hand at it.
Fan fiction is bottom of the barrel for creative growth.
>>47821267
Nigga, everyone's gotta start somewhere. The #1 most difficult thing is GETTING WORDS ON THE GOD DAMNED PAGE. Every other element of "The Craft" starts with GETTING WORDS ON THE GOD DAMNED PAGE. Every writer worth a damn can confirm this. It's just the nature of the beast.
Far as I've seen, you can talk about the storytelling techniques till the cows come home, but at the end of the day, a person's either a writer, or they're not a writer. There's a vast gulf between someone who has the innate potential, and someone that doesn't; vast enough that even when they're both rough and newbie as hell you can tell the difference. And while some of that does manifest as technical skill (the actual art and science of assembling sentences in proper, pleasing ways,) I think that's largely because any good writer is by necessity also a voracious reader, and they just learn how sentences work via osmosis, without needing a single day of formal instruction in it. Even if you're a brilliant writer in the technical sense, that doesn't mean you'll be a good novelist - there's tons of talented op-ed columnists, journalists, nonfiction authors and the like who can't pen a novel (or did at some point, and accomplished nothing more than proving why they shouldn't.) At the end of the day, a writer is someone who has stories to tell; who has story ideas, even very vague ones, that simply haunt them till they get themselves written. It's almost *impossible* for such a person to be incapable of creating characters - they might need lots of practice, but they will create them, because characters are the heart of any story - even when the character is a mountain, or a seagull, or some damn thing.
>>47821267
>>47821442
So sure, you hold that skipping fanfiction will jump-start gettin gud. Well, now I'll remind you of my thesis; the #1 hardest thing about writing is WRITING. Like that guy upthread talking about his crippling self-criticism that drives him to abandon even short story attempts in favor of just playing vidya. THAT is the biggest problem. Not "character development." Or any other damned theoretical OR technical challenge of writing - it's just getting and keeping the motivation to keep vomiting your Id onto the page. Even if nobody else will see it, you will see it. There's a reason people tend to feel guilty after jerking off, and it's not just residual Christian guilt. And writing pretty much is jerking off, when you get right down to it. That's a hard thing to overcome.
Anything that lowers the barriers of entry to writing is a good thing. Fanfiction is the gateway drug to fiction writing. Anyone who ever had any potential to do their own writing in the first place will eventually abandon it, unable to resist creating their own worlds and storylines.
And, before we forget, some of the most famous literary works of all time were fucking fanfiction. What do you think The Aeneid was? Virgil wrote a fucking continuation fanfic for the Illiad. And don't get me fucking started on the Divine Comedy. Holy shit. It's a SELF-INSERT fanfiction that Dante used to flame dozens of people he didn't like in real life. He was the literal image of a modern day sperglord; even his friend said he'd be willing to throw rocks at kids if they disagreed with his theories. And he gets a pass, because it's fucking fantastic.
So fuck off with your fiction shaming; I sexually identify as a book, etc.
>>47821442
I have no idea what this has to do with fan fiction.
I'm having crippling psychological issues that result in me not be able to put in any effort into anything important. I've even dropped out of uni because of my inability to actually do any work.
Any attempts to start writing are similarly affected.
>>47821548
>I have no idea what this has to do with fan fiction.
tl;dr writing fanfic is beneficial to newbies, not harmful, for Reasons just listed.
>>47821568
>I'm having crippling psychological issues that result in me not be able to put in any effort into anything important.
Yeah, speaking of fanfiction? Case in point. I started writing fanfiction in college; touhou shit, horrid, terrible, *shit.* And it was so easy, right? Because it wasn't important. So I was able to stay up till 4AM laboring on it, because it was fun, and if I ever got tired and decided I wanted to bail, I totally could.
Now, years later, I'm sitting here laboring on my first novel because after years of writing fanfiction at the expense of pursuing real career opportunities, I have no career and I am good at writing fiction. I TRAPPED MYSELF.
When I say fanfiction's a gateway drug, I mean it's a fucking GATEWAY DRUG
>>47821577
And I argue no matter the benefit of writing fan fiction, you should never encourage it because nine times out of ten it'll just stagnate your writing.
Fanfiction isn't *the* gateway drug to writing. It's a potential one, and most of the time it fails at that. Fanfiction.net is filled with the "works" of hundreds of would-be writers who were told some shitty Zutarra shipfic makes them creative.
What could work as humans (jack-of all trades) without making it elf-like (because then elves would be a majority), animal-like or overly alien? I got orcs already as the meatheads.
I've written 568 pages but my writing is way too autistic to ever publish. I plan to leave it behind when I die, maybe someone will read it. But honestly it doesn't really matter that much. I've only covered about 5% of the plot, too, so chances are I'll never finish it while it stretches into more than a million words.
More payoff in bombs.
You could write the best novel in the world and still end up having no one read it.
Make a great bomb though?
Everyone notices that shit.
>>47821596
>>47821531
I think you have the right idea.The best practise for writing is writing. And all writers started horrible.
But there is a point to step out of fanfiction. You might get some terrible writing habiots through it that won't translate well into other works.
>>47821596
>>47821652
Hah. I have getaway drugs (like this site) to get away from WRITING FANFICTION.
I've written three novels and enough odds and ends for two more. I hate them all and none of them are published. I'm working on a fourth.
The general thought is it is about toxic affection between a noble woman and an artisan she press ganged into her service, with the artisan realizing he loves her despite the monster she is. It focuses on their relationship, the stresses of court and expectations for the noble woman and the lengths she is pushed to with the artisan in utter fear having been forced into a shadow war he didn't know existed and his mere survival proving to the noble woman he can handle more dangerous tasks.
It has quite a lot of body horror as the only non humans (a parasite that attaches to humans in infancy and creates a controlled host you can't separate) and the mysticism both have it. The mysticism relies on metaphysical parasite that upon your death, or in a moment of weakness, will try and wrest control of your body. They do things for the person to feed, a contract, and may withhold power in a time of need if it is in their interest. A malignant entity growing on the side of the nobility fighting their own shadow war.
The story follows the noble woman leaving for court in a religious city state far away and the dangers of their maneuvering.
>>47821662
> 568 pages
> 5% of the plot
Jesus. Not trying to act disparaging here, but how much of it is aimed at worldbuilding?
You know, if there's any advice I can give to this thread, it's this: don't get so hung up on that epic trilogy/series you think will be totally awesome. Table it for now. Come up with a fresh idea and play with that. Maybe just a "one-shot" novel. Segregated from your other stuff.
Then once you've cut your teeth a little, go back to that older idea. You'll be wiser for the experience.
>>47821694
What do you dislike about your works? Maybe you could do a couple of editing passes or rewrites to bring them up to your standards?
>>47821652
>because nine times out of ten it'll just stagnate your writing.
That's bullshit. Nothing can "stagnate" you, because at the heart of anyone with any talent for writing whatsoever is someone who wants to tell a story, and no matter how good or expansive the setting is, sooner or later it's going to come up short. You're not going to be irrevocably tainted because you wrote fanfiction. It can't "poison your mind."
>would-be writers who were told some shitty Zutarra shipfic makes them creative.
Bullshit, they were never "would-be writers" if the praise of internet people can convince them to rest on their meager laurels. I wrote/write fanfiction, a lot of it, and it's pretty fucking popular by fanfiction standards, too. And people have been telling me for years that I should totally go pro, bro. And the #1 reason I didn't until now was, I just didn't believe I was really good enough. To paraphrase that old bash.org quote, "I'm not really going to be a novelist, it just sounds better than 'autistic retard lost in own fantasy world.'" Writers spend all day making up conversations between their imaginary friends. Writers are, by definition, fucking insane. This kind of thing does not attract the most mentally balanced people to begin with, which is why so many writers tend to be the victims of crippling self-doubt. If a bunch of fucking retards on FF.net going ZOMG UR SLASHFIC IS TEH BEST THING EVAR!!1! is enough to make someone "stagnate" then they never, ever had the potential to be a "real" writer.
For YEARS I was That Guy, with the first half-page of a few shitty half-thought out short stories or even just scenes sitting in a single miserable Word document. I would go three months between actual attempts to write. Fanfiction was "easy," it lured me in. Everything was already set up for me to play with, all I had to do was sit down and clink the dolls together while making machine-gun noises with my mouth. And now? I'm writing a novel.
>>47821662
>I've only covered about 5% of the plot, too, so chances are I'll never finish it while it stretches into more than a million words.
Most writers have to write a shitfuckton before they even start to git gud. It's hard fucking work. 538 pages is pretty good, considering the average novel is 300ish or so. That's almost two novels. A lot of authors say you need to write two or three shit novels before you even have a chance, so you're most of the way there already.
The key is to not get hung up on those pages. You can delete them tomorrow, and not a single minute spent on them would have been wasted. It was all practice. Remember that.
>>47821671
>I think you have the right idea.The best practise for writing is writing. And all writers started horrible.
This.
>>47821671
>But there is a point to step out of fanfiction.
Also this.
>You might get some terrible writing habiots through it that won't translate well into other works.
Not terribly hard to fix, thankfully, especially if you read a lot.
>>47821741
I hate them after editing. They are products of youthful naivety and an inability to understand human interaction. I would like to think I have come a long way since then, but I thought the same at the beginning of the third book. Likely I will think it again at the end of this. It does not matter greatly, hopefully once luck will find me and I will write something good. This far it is mostly drivel.
>>47821772
You're really using a lot of pretty words and long sentences to say "I wrote fan fiction and it turns out I'm an awesome writer!" Which, frankly, makes me not want to actually read your stuff.
You can argue all you want fan fiction is a good way to start. Maybe it is. But I'll never encourage any aspiring writer to do that. Not when coming up with something truly their own is an option.
>>47821654
Pls respond.
The NOT!Humans are supposed to be race vastly populating mostly the plains/riversides (where orcs live as well, thus wars over land) and maybe coasts, but then they fuck up so badly that they lose huge percent of their population.
In theory I could just put in normal humans with slight difference, but that would be lazy.
>>47821929
I think orcs are lazy as well. Tolkien species are a cop out.
In my case it's an epic CRPG, and it's sloooowwww.
>>47821652
>And I argue no matter the benefit of writing fan fiction, you should never encourage it because nine times out of ten it'll just stagnate your writing.
Look, pretty much every artist starts off copying another artist. The painting masters started by trying to reproduce the works of previous masters, illustrators studies illustrators, sculptors studied sculptors, actors studied actors, and in the end writers end up studying writing.
If you get stuck writing shitty fanfiction, you're a loser and fanfiction itself isn't the root cause, you are. Yes, fanfiction.net is a wretched hive of scum and villiany, but these are starting "works," mostly done by teenagers, a first step into committing preverbial pen to paper, and first steps are near universally terrible misteps. There's, few and far between, fanfiction that's actually good, occasionally stuff that might as well be a book in its own right. Rare though it is, it's not an exception to the rule of writing, it's merely a representative of the filter all art has: those who only dabble are washed out of the escalating entry levels, and those with talent or commitment to craft rise up, forming a pyramid of quality, with the base layer being your average terrible fanfiction.
I'd actually argue that fanfiction itself is an important step for writers because it could be considered an act of experimentation or protest. Perhaps the first step for writers is seeing how things could have been done differently, and creating a new story based off of that, seeing clearly in their mind's eye how interactions between preformed characters might have gone differently, and changing the narrative accordingly. It'd be like getting mad at a child stacking wooden blocks because he didn't chip and chisel those blocks by hand.
And beside these points, the worst of the fanfiction is paraded around most often, and most often fanfiction itself is simply mediocre or hilariously stupid rather than cancerous.
>>47821937
They would be asexual and in good terms with dwarves. Might cut them out or leave as minor species/race if they turn out to not be interesting enough.
>>47821841
Are you satisfied with the improvements you've made or are you disappointed the result isn't good?
Have you done everything you can short of doing full rewrite or scrapping the thing for your newest work (which I gather you hate least)?
Do you have someone to share the writing with to get an outside opinion (not saying I volunteer, just someone whose opinion you value)? I think you should value your work based on reader enjoyment more.
>>47821848
>You're really using a lot of pretty words and long sentences to say "I wrote fan fiction and it turns out I'm an awesome writer!"
Yeah, after literally calling myself an insane sperg lunatic that makes up conversations between imaginary people and who identifies strongly with someone else who suffers from crippling self-doubt, that's definitely the right conclusion, "he's bragging about how awesome he is." Ayep, that fits.
>Which, frankly, makes me not want to actually read your stuff.
Because I clearly give a fuck about your approval and was seeking it, amirite?
>But I'll never encourage any aspiring writer to do that. Not when coming up with something truly their own is an option.
You have no fucking idea how hard that is, do you? You have absolutely no concept of just how difficult that can be. The most difficult part of a novel to write - as any author can tell you - is the middle, because *that's where you have the most freedom.* Everyone here probably played Diablo 2. Everyone here probably stuffed their stash and that fucking Horadric Cube to the brim and probably lugged around twelve huge-ass charms for the cumulative little bonuses they gave. Anyone who plays games knows how devilishly difficult Making Choices can be, and for a writer, they're even harder, because every choice affects every choice that comes after it.
Unless you've actually written fiction, you really have no place telling others how to do it. You don't need to be a carpenter to appreciate the beauty or craftsmanship of a nice cabinet. But if someone asks for advice in how to build one, then the non-carpenters in the room should probably keep their yaps closed.
>>47821841
>They are products of youthful naivety and an inability to understand human interaction.
Kek'd hard because I understand this exact thing. It's hard to write when you're young. I look at me at age 18 and realize just how much shit about people and such I... just didn't know yet.
>>47821975
>Do you have someone to share the writing with to get an outside opinion (not saying I volunteer, just someone whose opinion you value)? I think you should value your work based on reader enjoyment more.
I have been told by friends and family that the writing is wonderful. When I was younger I nearly had a publishing deal. While I do not believe their lying I simply believe they are wrong. Reader enjoyment, while important, is something that is a poor lens to view works through. People enjoy every manner of things, high quality or not.
>Have you done everything you can short of doing full rewrite or scrapping the thing for your newest work (which I gather you hate least)?
Hate the last or simply have not had my doubt bear fruit yet, it is hard to say.
>Are you satisfied with the improvements you've made or are you disappointed the result isn't good?
It is hard to see improvements to regression without an objective point of view. I do not have one and I recognize I do not have one. However I do believe my ability to see interactions, to draw narrative threads, and to breath life into something has improved somewhat. When I look back things simply seem cold and lifeless, scenery on sheet metal. None of the visceral senses one has are there, the feelings of one in the world. I was telling a story from the point of view of a man behind a screen, look onto a scene rather than giving a reader a feeling of being in a scene.
>>47822032
Mainly I have learned that disgust and some amount of self loathing are very powerful artistic emotions, however irrational they may be.
>>47821973
And more mundane than evil.
>>47821973
>>47822128
Again, why call them orcs? Why strip away what makes an orc and orc. You aren't "reinventing", you are treading ground that had been gone over a thousand times. Branch out.
>>47818541
Not well.
I practice often though. I write random shit, I contribute to the story threads held here on Fridays but if I'm not able to finish what I want in one go I usually end up hating what I've written too much to finish it.
I just don't like my prose and I don't understand how people can manage to get all that description and details in their writing.
Still I've made leaps and bounds in terms of ability. I'm still not good but I'm not as shit as I used to be.
Probably going to start trying to write up at least short stories about the stuff I want to eventually expand into full length novels.
>>47818541
I'm just writing porn man.
>>47822170
I'm not creative when it comes to names, true, and I have to work on it.
On other hand you can call dwarves Duergars, but they will be still dwarves.
>>47822015
>Unless you've actually written fiction, you really have no place telling others how to do it
>But if someone asks for advice in how to build one, then the non-carpenters in the room should probably keep their yaps closed.
Big fucking leaps to assume someone never wrote fiction. We've all written this stuff. I've got my own stories saved on my computer and I contribute to the storythread regularly. This thread and /tg/ in general is full of writers. You don't get to tout on about "yeah I've written fanfic and now I'm writing a novel" and then talk to down to everyone else like you're part of some special club of experts. Get off your dick.
>You have no fucking idea how hard that is, do you?
Yeah, being creative is hard. No one argues that. What's your point? That people should be uncreative and write fan fiction just because creativity is hard? If you'd stopped with "people should write what they like" then I'd have no issue.
What I have issue with is someone giving writers the wrong idea and telling them stealing other people's works is the best--or even a better--way of getting into writing. It's one way, and it's a far cry from the best.
>>47821720
None. Or basically none. I don't do straightforward exposition. "Is" and "was" are my enemies.
The plot stretches over three generations of the same family fighting the same war. My outline is 49 pages.
How do you handle the self doubt that you cant trust yourself when your gut is saying "wow man, thats actually pretty good"
What if my novel sounds like shit summarized because its driven by five different interwoven and backstabbing forces that all makes sense in the span of 300 pages but at under a page its just a tangled mess?
>>47822122
I suggest finding an acquaintance, distant friend or a friend of a friend to read and evaluate your work, so that they are less "gentle" and more objective due to any personal connection to you as a friend. Maybe find a few different ones, if possible. When you ask them to read it, actually tell them that you are not happy with them (but don't focus on the dislike too much, that may lead to overcompensating in the opposite direction) and wish to improve, so that their nitpicking senses are turned on (if they turn off partway through, it may be a good sign as they may be too immersed to actually nitpick) and ask for their opinion every couple of chapters.
This may require a lot of work to arrange (even impossible at your current situation, IDK), and some getting over any inhibitions about "publishing" it (even if to only a few), but I think it'd be worth it if improvement is your focus.
I think you are correct when you say you will dislike your next work after you finish it as well, but at some point you should stop giving fucks. Publishing under a pseudonym helps, so if you are ever satisfied with a work you can publish without all the baggage of the previous works weighing it down. Clean slate and all that, no possibility of bad rep or bias due to familiarity with your other works.
Besides, published stuff will get even more criticism (mostly not helpful, but hey, it's something) to help you improve.
This happens all the time even to famous writers: The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett is often recommended to skip because he hadn't gotten into his groove yet. So the only difference between you and them is whether the book is published.
>>47822393
I'm gonna be honest. Likely you're including massive amounts of uninteresting and unfun to read sections. A narrative should not go on for 12000 pages. There is no reason for it.
I mean, you have no ambitions of publishing, so it isn't a problem, but likely you've made a very uninteresting read.
And if you have already gone three generation at 5%, what? Do you plan on 60 generations?
Even a war lasting enough time for three generations is next to impossible for a nation in any time period to support.
Anyway though. Again, not a problem because you have no publishing ambitions, but still.
>>47818541
I don't know if I'd call it epic, but it's coming along slowly. Ive got the world built, the outline done and a test chapter or two written up to feel out the style I want to use. Things arent likely to progress from there until the end of the summer but I'm plugging away at it as I can.
How good are these titles
Crowned In Lightning
Of Heart And State
Talons Of Empire
>>47822553
Terrible, the lot of them.
>>47822553
The second one is meh. Put a "the" in the third one.
>>47822553
They're alright. I won't lie though, they're be almost invisible on a Fantasy shelf.
But they're not particularly pretentious, which is good.
I really want to write but something has been coming up practically daily now for like a week or so? I simply don't have time. And when I do, usually at the evening or something, I am so tired I have hard time keeping my thoughts coherent. Its actually pretty annoying.
>mfw I started planning my novel in middle school
>mfw i'm 30 now and i just have pages of random scenes that aren't linked in any way
It's never gonna happen I think.
>>47822593
That's called making excuses. You are making excuses.
>>47822580
The first one's the only one I'm really set on, since it refers to a specific moment during the climax. The other two could easily change if I found better ones.
>>47822607
I fucking wish. Then I could sit down and write. Before this weird rush began, I could write 1-3 pages a day. Now it just stopped.
>>47822681
Then don't write. Really you only have a responsibility to yourself. Complaining does not make time, you do.
>>47822697
I honestly am not sure what you are trying to imply here.
>>47818558
Oh man, I came up with so many names for porn parodies today!
Casual encounters of the third kind
Bill in Ted: excellent adventure
Bill in Ted: bogus journey
Event Whore-izon
>>47819814
God damnit.
It wasn't even meant to be a novel. Just I've worked on this setting for so long, and groups have fallen by the wayside so often a novel is the only thing I can think of doing with it.
>writing story
>suddenly plot point seems contrived because the characters interactions will take them another direction
>a direction which breaks the story entirely
F U C K
>>47822476
Pretty much. This story gives me major feels and that why I write it. But No one else will ever feel that sane attachment. I feel like I'm writing it to have a record. Rather than to entertain people. Which is dumb as hell but it's the only motivation I can find to write.
I identify with Henry Darger. The story I am writing is pretty similar, minus the pedophile stuff.
>>47819271
lolwut
If the main character discovering a secret is the whole plot, how is that a spoiler? That sounds like the Inciting Incident which sets the whole story in motion, and something that you'd be expected to include in the back-of-the-book blurb. Refusing to share basic information like that is ridiculous.
On the other hand, if it's the Big Secret that the whole plot has been building up to reveal, then sure, don't share. Just tell us where the story starts, and what sets off the main conflict. You don't have to tell us how your story ends, only how it begins.
>>47822776
Who are the main characters, what are their goals, what's stopping them from achieving their goals?
>>47818558
> want to make extra side money writing niche fetish pieces because people pay through the nose for niche fetish material
> can't even write vanilla sex well
>write smut well
>no motivation to whore myself out to get exposure, thus money
I just dont know man. It would be easy money but I just cant get myself to do it.
>>47823048
>typing out my explanation to you
>figure out a solution by myself
THANKS ANYWAY BRO
>>47823117
You can mostly avoid writing sex at all with certain fetishes. In fact, most vanilla sex I've read in erotica is described in such an over-the-top way I barely notice. You're catering to sexual fantasies, IDEAS of what is hot. You don't need realism in the act of sex itself.
If you don't mind my magical realm this is one story that as far as I remember doesn't have sex until the end
http://www.mcstories.com/BimboEyes/BimboEyes.html
>>47823193
Write it under a pen name.
Or just incorporate it into your stories. Molly Millions graphically fucks Case in Neuromancer within a day of meeting him.
>>47823309
Pen name is one idea, atleast. I think its more about personal motivation problem though. Not many choices with that than just fix it myself.
The current novel I am writing tries to steer away from erotic writing, since usually my style is colorful in the sense that I dont shy away from telling if someone looks sexy or some events are sexual. Maybe the next one I can relax a bit and let the fucks come if they do.
But even with this story I couldn't avoid describing how one lady had giant jugs. I guess thats almost like a trademark of mine at this point.
>>47820543
What's the lit mag you're talking about?
>>47818541
I got like 14ish chapters done, have an idea how to get to the point where I need it to be at but it's gonna feel like a drunken stumble to that point.
>>47820659
Yikes.
Nice thread. But is it really /tg/ related?
I'm half way through the rough draft of chapter 2.
>>47818541
It's not. I always preferred to write sci-fi. But I saw the Warcraft movie tonight and damned if that didn't put me in the mood for some high fantasy shenanigans.
>>47824077
/lit/ has a reputation that makes us avoid it.
Is my story going to suck if I dont seperate it to chapters? Its going to be a novella, not outright novel.
>>47819732
I just submitted a moment ago!
Hit it kind of lucky on one of my microstories, wrote three of them and only one turned out good. One's okay, if you're listening to Gwyn, Lord of Cinder's song. Third needs to be a full short story.
>>47819814
I don't write novels though
>>47824189
They don't need to be named and numbered, but pauses are good.
>>47824273
Wont basic formatting give plenty of pauses?
>>47824289
Yes and no. Chapter breaks give longer pauses, places to take a break and are better for major scene transitions.
>>47824325
Fair enough I guess. I just write so I dont understand this sort of stuff.
>>47824361
>I just write so I dont understand this sort of stuff.
I'm literally pulling things that make sense to me out of my ass, so take it with a grain of salt.
>>47821079
I think it'd be more interesting if he didn't even try to justify it. He's a gorilla and everyone's cool with it. Let the reader ponder it.
>>47818541
Never, okay?? I blew my creative wad on worldbuilding and characters, but I can't tell a decent story for shit!
>>47818541
I realised I was literally just rewriting Steven Erikson's work except vastly worse and torched the entire thing.
>>47818541
I've been procrastinating for the past 10 years and I have ideas for at least 9 different series/universes. What do you think?
>>47824530
That's called laziness.
>>47824458
Man I have been on that boat for fucking years.
I write good characters and character interaction but that is literally all I'm good at. I can't even worldbuild, and no matter how hard I try I never get any better.
>>47823391
How does one write smut well? I'm not especially interested in sex personally, but I like the idea of making some side cash.
>>47822382
>Big fucking leaps to assume someone never wrote fiction.
Yes, because that's exactly what I said. "You have clearly never written fiction."
Except, wait, no, that's not what I said at all. I said "UNLESS," one of those tricky conditional words. And yet here you are, getting all huffy and indignant about my terrible inflated writer ego. When someone lunges at the faintest ghost of a strawman so eagerly, you gotta wonder.
>What I have issue with is someone giving writers the wrong idea and telling them stealing other people's works is the best--or even a better--way of getting into writing.
Well everybody stand the fuck back, this guy who posts short stories on /tg/ is gonna lecture us all on the OBJECTIVE TRUTHS OF WRITING [DRAMATIC GUITAR RIFF]
>It's one way, and it's a far cry from the best.
Well that's a very nice opinion you've got there. My opinion is, you're wrong, for reasons already elucidated.
>>47824611
I wouldnt be able to tell you. I just have have ten years of experience in writing it and somewhere along the line I became good at it.
I have the ideas constantly rolling around in my head. However, when it comes down to trying to write them down, they begin to sound tacky or they don't come at all.
Does anyone have this sort of problem or used to have this problem? How did you work past it?
>>47824645
In that case, would you be willing to post some of your more vanilla stuff, as an example?
>>47818541
I wrote two games instead. Narrative is hard, potential narrative is easy.
>>47824679
>tacky
Always remember that everything has been written already in some way. At the end it comes down to execution.
>>47824688
Sorry, I unfortunately don't have any on hand for sharing. Long story.
>>47824733
That's a shame. Swing by the/d/ writethread sometime, anyway.
>>47824730
That's what I'm afraid of. I feel like the execution of my ideas would just turn out bad.
>>47824764
I've been thinking but I usually just forget to. Perhaps unconciously on purpose as I wish to write stuff other than straight up porn.
>>47824779
There is only one way to make them good. Practise writing!
>>47822476
>And if you have already gone three generation at 5%, what? Do you plan on 60 generations?
And I should add, that I've only written 5% of the plot. The entire plot is the three generations of them. It's just that the plot is so large I'm having trouble writing all of it. But I can't really get rid of the excess so I'll probably skate over large portions of the story that don't really have any plot value.
>>47821810
>Most writers have to write a shitfuckton before they even start to git gud. It's hard fucking work. 538 pages is pretty good, considering the average novel is 300ish or so. That's almost two novels. A lot of authors say you need to write two or three shit novels before you even have a chance, so you're most of the way there already.
I agree, it feels odd to scroll back to someplace 200 pages in that I wrote 4 years ago and look at how much the writing sucks, purple as a plum and incredibly longwinded. I've tried to adopt a hemingway-tier simplicity since, saving one or two nice pretty words to spice things up, but it's hard to do and requires extensive editing.
>Have a setting thought up
>Want to write
>Not autistic enough to do pure worldbuilding.
Do I just write short stories taking place in the setting to establish canon and leave it at that?
>>47825115
>Do I just write short stories taking place in the setting to establish canon and leave it at that?
It's been done before. Go for it.
>>47825115
Pure worldbuilding stops you from writing a story. It's a good thing to have some frame to work on, but personally I come up with the details while writing.
>>47825115
It's been done before and it's what I'm planning to do.
Gave up on it.
Just like the RPG vidya game.
And the other games.
And the FLGS.
And the other business.
And the degree in programming.
And in having a gaming group, ever again.
Or ever having a dream of any sort, ever again.
Basically, I'm just going through the motions at this point.
>>47825166
Not if you interweave stories as part of the worldbuilding and make full versions of them on top of writing the main worldbuilding document
Tolkien had a special brand of autism and the world is all the better for it
>>47825343
>internet explorer
>>47825379
>random picture grabbed off google
>>47825357
Not everyone is Tolkien. I heard about enough anons around here that got stuck in worldbuilding, still thinking about that one dynasty in a far away kingdom the heros would never visit and its then thousand generations doing nothing of importance for the story.
>>47825435
>>random picture grabbed off google
>>47825470
How do you worldbuild if I can ask?
>>47818541
Still working on the ending as I don't like it despite having already have came up with it. So I might scrap the ending for a new one or modify it until I like it.
I just don't know which.
>>47819814
oh fuck you goddamn it.
I need to remember to save that and look at it whenever i am stuck.
>>47822776
But anon that is when things actually get interesting!
>>47824458
>>47824549
Ever thought about working together with other people?
>>47819091
Nigga, you need to read more mythology and folklore. The standard fantasy races are just composites lifted from different myths. Study that shit well enough, and you can make your own composites that are just as good.
>>47818541
Probably never going to happen.
I'm honestly aiming more for non shit pulp fiction at this point.
>>47825832
I will not propose this as the best way to do it, but for muh settan I concentrated a lot on the gods and what they did at certain aeons, incorporating their actions to the worlds history. I did this because I'm very interested in gods and mythologies around them. This formed a general myth for the races of my world. From there on I concentrate on a few races, cultures and nations to be the center of the stories, for the most time. Informations about what's outside slips in often enough and makes the world seem bigger, without the need to get into detail about them. I usually have some rough idea of them, and that's enough until they are the center of some story.
>>47826061
Oh, that's pretty cool. What's your story about?
>>47818541
Maybe 20 years from now I'll have something noteworthy to write. Been studying the role of religions and faith in the development of medicine, technology, science, literature etc., give me a decade or two and I might have enough material to write a fantasy novel about it.
>>47818541
Much like life, I've mostly given up on it.
>>47818541
Gave up on it when I was like 16. I have more fun at the table anyway. The things I like would not sell as a book, but my friends happen to like it so it makes good table chemistry.
Good enough.
>>47826131
One guy that believes so much in this one righteous, chivalric god of war that he can invocate him and kick ass. Until he finds out that the god of the dead did some dickish stuff in the past which dooms all souls, and from there on it becomes a mess.
>>47826288
How far are you in the story?
>>47826351
Done. I'll probably release it in one or two days on amazon.Not in english
>>47826400
Well that's good, shit man I gotta work on my crappy """"novel""" about some guy who's trying to help some girl out with conquering her world.
>>47826436
>about some guy who's trying to help some girl out with conquering her world.
That sounds pretty interesting. Why is she trying to conquer the world?
>>47818541
Not well, though my setting is ironed and fleshed out very, very well. I lack a decent plot, as I feel all my twists or ideas are worn out.
Tyrant King attempting to use his citizens' life to fuel an attempt at immortality? Meh
War between two countries that are both being fed bits and scraps of technology and magic from an outside source that's using them for field testing? It's been done.
Thankfully though, my massive amount of notes allow me to easily throw together campaigns, using bits and pieces.
>>47820730
You do realize I said you had a 30% chance right?
Meaning that it's a 70% chance you wouldn't?
>>47819150
I might actually try that. I know that any time I get tired or sleep deprived, I churn out ideas at an exceedingly fast rate.
>>47826509
Because she wants to redeem her family name, her great-grandfather created this not!cocaine that was used to do fire related magic before both the Empire and the merchants went to war over it. And from the resulting war caused her great family line to dwindle to now her and the two brothers that don't want anything to do with conquering.
>>47826671
Why would it redeem her family name by conquering the world?
>>47826741
Because the family owned for a long ass time, until her great-grandpa thought it would of been fun to try to bullshit both sides and got killed for it.
>>47826805
I guess redeem herself means taking control and restore what was rightful hers? What her great-grandpa made sounds kinda lolsorandom, I don't really get why he would do that.
>>47826895
Drug trade got to him. He thought he could carve out his own empire and got killed for the effort.
>>47826931
Okay, what would be they MCs motivation for helping her? I don't see it here.
>>47827087
>what would be they MCs motivation for helping her?
He's doing it because he wants power, so the best way for him is to leech off of her, help her rise to power, and remove her and install himself.
>>47827142
I have to be honest about this. If all your charatcers are doing things for selfish reasons, no reader will sympathize with them and thus not be engaged in the story.
Because that's what I got from what you told me so far.
>>47827255
>Because that's what I got from what you told me so far.
Well the guy gets whisked away, forced to go join her so he's trying to make the best of it by trying to warm up to her. It sounds awful but it's how happening.
>>47827339
>It sounds awful but it's how happening.
Then do your best, everything you write will make you a better writer.
>>47826519
It's not what cliches you use, it's how you use them. Take the parts you have and think about how to interpret them differently or combine them in unexpected ways.
>>47828338
Well, I've got some ideas on it, but I just get so bogged down.
Right now I only really have time to jot down world building notes and quick little sketches of characters on break at work. Which works for a bit, but I feel like I've built so much world in my worlds that I don't have any room for a cohesive plot.
I'm honestly thinking of just saying, "fuck it" running a solo campaign for DnD using the setting and characters, letting rolls determine outcomes, and then writing a story based off of that.
>>47828567
If you have characters then they'd have motivations, though. What sort of people would the main "group" be, if that's applicable?
>>47828567
All you have to do is think about two characters who want different things and make those things conflicting. That's all any plot really is.
And I've been writing since I was sixteen and I go through ideas like toilet paper, but my current one is sort of /tg/ - a fantasy setting where people turn into flesh-eating giants when they get older, where church-led hunters mercy-kill the elderly before - or sometimes after - they can change. It's a way of writing a society that screws with both our traditional respect for the elderly and our tendency to treat them really badly despite that. Early days but it's going well, about 8,000 words in a week so far.
>>47819814
but anon, i don't write porn
>>47824116
That shit looks tight, maybe I'll submit something.
Pretty good. I'm novelizing a Call of Cthulhu one shot I designed.
A burned out teacher, a struggling artist, and a rock star on the verge of a breakdown are snowed in at a hotel in the Rockies when a mysterious illness begins to strike down the guests. To save their friends they must delve into the hotel's troubled past and confront an evil that threatens to consume the world.
>>47818541
Two chapters, just little over 1000 words in counting.
It's not a lot because I've been juggling writing with studying for professional license exams, which are a brutal drain on my schedule.
Writing is fun though, and it does help relieve the stress of studying.
The story is basically Suicide Squad with infamous folklore ghosts btw.
>>47818541
142 pages, 70,000~ words.
It's ok.
>>47830036
Oh yeah, Cthulhu is public domain isn't it, you can just use the mythos stuff for your own books?
>>47830163
what the fuck kind of formatting are you using? 70k words should be 300 ish
>>47830271
... Microsoft Word, A4 Pages, Paragraphs a maximum of 140-ish words.
... Have I really fucked up that bad?
>>47830317
google manuscript formatting
>>47830317
IIRC you should set it to A3 for a rougly book-sized page.
>>47818541
Well I'm a pretty shit writer, so there is one issue.
Another is that I have absolutely no idea how to start it and I've chosen a weird ass format to do it in.
Basically I want to do a bunch of short stories in a shared universe. I wouldn't even call them short stories. They're kind if SOL stuff except with jobs that sometimes involve violence.
I don't know if I should take a bit of time to introduce the main character of each of the stories or do something to some of the stuff I've written for the Storythreads and just jump in and say fuck it.
>>47830256
In both the scenarios I write and in my fiction I tend to shy away from the established mythos. I don't know who own the copyright on mythos stuff but I think relying on the canon takes something away from the story.
>>47818541
Been working on the worldbuilding for a long time now. I feel like my original vision is getting kinda muddled by a year or so of rebuilding the world and making it not as shitty.
Also, I might just change things up soon again. I've basically got a Tolkien/Jordan esque single-continent world figured out, but I'm also beginning to feel like that might be really overused. So I may or may not split everything up into four or so landmasses and throw some oceans into the mix.
Or maybe not. I dunno. I can sure as fuck tell you I haven't done any actual writing, despite knowing exactly how I want the story to play out.
>>47830332
>>47830354
Thank you, wise anons.
It also isn't finished yet, if it means anything - I'm really just writing as I go.
>>47830473
Just be aware that the average sci-fi or fantasy book tends to be between 90k-110k words. If it goes past that you may need to think about splitting it up somehow.
>>47830523
Of course; looking over it, I can already see where things could be - or should be - cut down or removed entirely.
But, again, I'm just going to write until it's done, before I start worrying about splitting it up, or anything like that.
>>47830366
>Basically I want to do a bunch of short stories in a shared universe. I wouldn't even call them short stories. They're kind if SOL stuff except with jobs that sometimes involve violence.
A lot of people here seem to be doing that.
I'll bite what's the story about?
It's not going well because the hardest part is making unique but distinctive names without sounding like I'm copying either lord of the rings or a song of ice and fire
>>47831249
Near future Sci Fi. The protagonists are all members of a companies security force.
There's no real overeaching plot or message in the stories. It's mostly just a case by case basis looking at each of the men as individuals.
I actually wrote a bit this week but like I said I slowed down because while I have a middle and end for the first story I'm struggling with how to begin it so I keep rewriting or deleting stuff.
>>47831303
Pick a semi obscure European country or language!
I lifted all the names for one of my culture out of medieval Lithuanian/Lettigalian names I found playing CK2.
>>47831303
>or a song of ice and fire
This is my problem. Fucking GRRM really took that type of naming convention for his own these days, and any attempt to do something similar will be accused of ripping him off. He wasn't even the first to do it.
Short stories are better. I can focus on what I really want to write about, instead of bothering with in-depth world-building, keeping characters consistent or inventing some long-running plot. And you can write down the whole thing during a break at work or during lazy hours with no patients, which for me is pretty much all the time I've got outside of weekends for writing anything at all.
>>47831303
Random name generator themed with names based on region X. Something like this: http://fantasynamegenerators.com/north-european-town-names.php
Seriously, names are the least important things to bother with.
>>47832386
Yeah but to be fair, LOTR took a lot of old Gaelic or Yiddish for Dwarven names and spelling and shit like that iirc, which shows because Tolkien was like a scholar of old language and shit
ASoIaF just took the most modern but still antiquated naming schemes to the point where you can't really use them without the comparison
I doubt the average book reader really thinks about it though
>>47818541
>cant think of a title
>Start to feel cringy half way through writing it
>Always stuck going back and editing parts I've already done
>Can't muster up the motivation to finish it
>Lose hope and abandon it to the dark corners of my hard drive for months each time
Fuck me
>>47832923
That's normal though. You're supposed to go over it again and again in order to cull, polish and shape your work until you're at a point where you feel like you can't push it any more. Not to when you feel satisfied, you'll never feel satisfied, that's just part of the method.
>>47818541
I need something to motivate me to write it.
>>47820589
first book is never meant to be good
>>47818541
It isn't coming along because I am not Spanish, Anglo or Chinese.
Writting is waste of time for me s I cannot turn it into profit due to low readerbase.
I know my beginning, middle, and end. I even have about 13 major scenes written out. It's stringing the big parts together that I have trouble with.
The "main" conflict in the epic fantasy sense is preventing a cult from sacrificing a young prince to open a portal to the underworld. God it sounds so basic when I put it like that. I swear there's a semi-interesting twist on what the underworld and the portal itself is.
I say "main" in quotes because the traditional epic fantasy quest part takes a backseat to the conflict between the two main characters, the paladin on the quest to save the prince, and her prisoner, "The Bandit King," whom she believes to be the man responsible for the destruction of her village, death of her family, and abuse of her by a group of bandits.
And no, they don't fall in love. This isn't a romance novel.
>>47833676
So write in English.
>>47818558
I get distracted too easily, what do?
>>47833726
Self imposed isolation.
>>47833722
Who will publish me?
You need to be Kundera or somebody likethat to pull it off.
>>47833786
Write some free ebooks/web serials to gather interest, then approach some publishers, perhaps international/foreign ones.
How the FUCK do you pace a book? I'm always struggling between scenes going by too fast because I just don't have anything more to add to them and forcing myself to put in meaningless filler to make the story seem bigger than it actually is.
And I can't just ignore it and let it naturally solve itself, trust me I've tried but I've got some OCD type obsession with it.
>>47833985
What do you mean by filler?
>>47834012
Pointless descriptions and character interactions that don't add anything interesting or important.
Like four whole paragraphs devoted to describing how mundane and completely normal the weather is. Or a conversation about how much apples cost with them subsequently buying apples and then eating them taking up two pages.
>>47834048
That's all stupid shit, shorten or remove it. If you're worried about things going to fast, then write out a rough synopsis of what needs to happen in the story, A to B to C to D, and then group the different segments into chapters. If any of the events are too big and long then give them a chapter to themselves.
Once you string it all together you'll get an idea of your story's structure and you can make any changes you need to in order to make it more well-paced.
About as well as can be expected anon.
>>47833985
Write all of it and afterwards see what's really needed and what's not.
Deleting entire scenes that you made the effort to write can be painful, but it's something a writer should be able to do.
>>47834048
You don't pace by filling your pages with pointless descriptions and character interaction. You pace by filling your pages with useful descriptions and character descriptions.
Write your plot in its entirety and see where you're at. If it has all blown by too fast, pace it by inventing a false lead which leads your characters down the wrong path for a while, or put in some new sub-characters who will go on adventures and enhance the overarching plot.
>>47826591
That's a stupidly high chance. Something like one in a thousand manuscripts get published.
>>47830354
A3 is huge, twice the size of a regular piece of paper.
>>47834764
My bad, I meant A5. You also have to fiddle with the page margins as well, but it's roughly what you want apparently.
>>47834764
I reckon he meant A5 - which still isn't quite right.
>>47831303
I have some for you
Cocksuckus
Seamenus
Faggotia
Analin
>>47828853
Well, for the main group, I'm thinking of having a varied group. All with different motivations. I may revive some old characters that I liked over the years.
>>47829831
I just suck at making plot I guess. Any time I think of motivations, like "I want to revive this ancient elder god" or something like that, I keep getting bogged down in trying to figure out how why they'd be stupid enough to allow that information to slip out into the rest of the world.
I might do something with the old 'Chosen Hero' trope.
Started working on what is essentially a Japanese setting version of Game of Thrones. It will be a weeaboo piece of crap, Lian Hearn inspired book.
>>47834859
Something like L5R?
>>47834859
Kill yourself fucking homonigger.
>>47834879
No.
>>47834883
Stop flirting and get back to writing your book instead.
>>47834896
>No.
What's the difference?
>>47834911
Having an understanding of real life feudal Japan as opposed to making shit up.
>>47834859
So is it just Japanese-style country with lots of betrayals or like, white people samurai with knight armor and zweihander-katanas?
>>47834922
Ah, so you're actually basing the setting on feudal Japan and adding GoT elements instead of the other way around. Cool beans.
>>47834928
>or like, white people samurai with knight armor and zweihander-katanas
Y'know, that wasn't entirely impossible. Nobunaga had a hard on for European arms and armour and other warlords imported European armour as well. There's a specific kind of Japanese helmet based on the sort worn by the Portuguese that was popular for a while in the Sengoku period. Nobunaga also kept a fair amount of foreigners in his correspondence, Jesuit missionaries primarily. A lot of his overtures towards westerners, like permitting Christianity into the areas he controlled and taking on a Jesuit servant into his entourage, was a calculated way to increase his local prestige and accumulate more of that good European arms and armour.
I wouldn't be shocked if he would have feigned conversion to Christianity so that he could style himself as a Japanese 'Protector of the Faith' and in an effort to beef up his international pull (and become a psuedo-overlord of all nominally Christian Japanese), even though Nobunaga was in a very thorough way an atheist.
>>47834978
Do you think if Nobunaga had the means and didn't die in that fire he could have conquered beyond Japan, or was Japan's technology and resources just too poor at the time?
>There's a specific kind of Japanese helmet based on the sort worn by the Portuguese that was popular for a while in the Sengoku period.
That sounds really cool, anywhere I can see it online?
>>47834928
Zweihander katana is called a fucking messer
>>47835001
It's called an odachi or nodachi. I've never heard of a langes messer that's used wih both hands.
>>47834820
>I just suck at making plot I guess. Any time I think of motivations, like "I want to revive this ancient elder god" or something like that, I keep getting bogged down in trying to figure out how why they'd be stupid enough to allow that information to slip out into the rest of the world.
Because the character can't do it alone. They need help from others. The more people involved in a plot, the harder it becomes to keep it secret. Bribery, blackmail and outright murder can only cover up so much, and the latter can cause more problems than it solves.
Little writing protip: the easiest way to avoid any single character being "overpowered", is to divide their skills and talents among multiple characters working together. That way you've got potential for conflict between the group-members, and the inherent weakness of coordinating multiple people to get things done, that other characters can exploit.
Another protip: life is chaotic, and even the best-laid plans gang aft agley. Even if a character plans out an operation with absolute care, they will never be able to cover every angle. Maybe they set out to steal a priceless artifact from a museum, and so painstakingly examine the guard's shifts, the building's blueprints, the procedures for moving artifacts from storage onto the museum floor, and so on. Then they launch the heist in the dead of night, and pull it off perfectly.
But unbeknownst to them, they were watched by a man in an alley across the street. The man was late commuting home, and stepped into the alley to take a piss, just as the thieves arrived. The man saw the thieves in their balaclavas, loading an artifact into the back of a van, and clocked their van's number-plate. Later, when the news got out that there had been a robbery, the man contacts the police, giving them a lead.
That's a simple scenario, and it's admittedly very unlikely. But it's not impossible, and is perfectly fine as the lead-in to your plot.
>>47834998
>or was Japan's technology and resources just too poor at the time?
Ming China and Joseon Korea were too strong, and the Philippines were in the middle of being taken over by the Spanish (many Japanese Christians actually settled in the Philippines after the banning of the religion, fun fact).
So I'd say emphatically no, expansion wasn't possible. I think even a guy like Nobunaga would have been too busy keeping Japan unified to do anything else, as well as ensure that his descendants maintained their supremacy, remember the Toyotomi didn't last long even though they 'won' the civil war. If he had invaded Korea it would have gone the same way it had in OTL, initial success but no long term viability.
He'd also be busy making sure the Europeans didn't fuck him in the arse long term too. Europeans were always poisonous friends to Asian leaders. They sold guns, armour and science, in return they started dicking around in the political landscape and demanding various concessions that weren't good for the local power structure..
Japan could have ended up as much a European colony as any other Asian state if not for the ban on Europeans. In some ways it was a sensible policy.
>>47835036
Kriegsmesser
>>47834978
Sounds like Nobunaga and Kojima have much in common.
Help me
Its not that Im not writing, its that Im only writing smut rps on f-list.
I mean, Im writing interesting scenarios...
>>47818541
I have problems settling on a project. I don't know how passionate I am about what I'm writing, and that leaves me doubting it. As it stands, I fluctuate between a handful of works while reminiscing about other works that would've been great if I stuck with them.
I've written an entire novel and sent it to an agent in the past, he told me it could be "the next Hunger Games," and he wanted to set it up with a publisher immediately, but I fucking hate the Hunger Games and realized I'd written YA trash, so I took back the offer and I've been resenting my work for three years now.
>>47835994
Wow I'm pretty jealous that someone actually wanted to publish something you wrote. I've ever had that feeling.
Almost done. A few more chapters and it should be good for editing.
>>47818541
I think I'm coming off my half-year hiatus!
>>47829898
That's where the money is, fool.
>>47835994
Hahaha.
Do you have any idea how lucky you were to get offered a publication deal? You're a self-sabotaging idiot, and you're absolutely right to feel bad.
>>47835994
That's not a bad thing, anon. You shot yourself in the foot. YA stuff when it hits is a critical hit. Look at Hunger Games, Harry Potter, even fucking Twilight, all aimed at teenage audiences and everyone knows about them.
At least you didn't have someone say "Good to have LGBT representation" and proceed to completely retcon a minor detail about a character and meticulously erase every reference.
>>47836610
>>47836644
I'd never stain myself with the YA tag. It's such a fucking trash genre.
>>47837685
You're fucking trash for running away from a chance to break into a difficult industry to break into. People in this thread would kill to have gotten the offer you did. Frankly your posts are insulting to everyone here.
>>47837685
How about you write your epic, and then mail it to every publisher at once, and then fucking kill yourself before it gets to them? Garunteed every one of them will take a look at it.
Make a spectacle of it, get some news coverage.
Tear off all your wallpaper if you have any and hand write all of your edits on the walls until you're satisfied. Make sure you blow your brains out such that it covers the ending.
>>47837685
If you are an amateur writer with no published works, no genre can possibly be beneath you.
You can't start at the top.
>>47837781
Alternatively I could keep working my decent job and writing on the side while I try to create something I consider worthwhile.
