What's your writing process like? What are you working on now?
No.5383
Anonymous
2025-06-05 20:21:46
making this thread procrastinating finishing this short story btw
I'm waiting until I'm 35 to start
No.5386
Anonymous
2025-06-06 05:26:53
Something bad happens to me, I feel tragic, I write in my journal about what happened and how it made me feel, then I feel bad that what wrote is neither tragic nor romantic enough so and I become a bit bold
No.5387
Anonymous
2025-06-06 05:27:59
And dramatise my journal posts to make them more interesting (I hit post before I was finished fuck my life)
I have a directory on my computer that I backup regularly with all of my "notes". My notes can be anything from random scenes I've written, articles I've completed, or stories. My process is chaotic, if a piece I'm writing it large enough then my note seems to grow into several. Within a note I segment out parts that I rearrange as I see fit. I want a better system but this is fine -- any other system I look up seems to be for people who don't actually write.
What's the antidote to hating whatever you write? I know this is relatively common.
No.5395
Anonymous
2025-06-06 17:28:09
>>5393
write, write, write until you write something you don't hate. don't worry though, if you look at it too long you'll hate that too
write, write, write until you write something you don't hate. don't worry though, if you look at it too long you'll hate that too
No.5396
Anonymous
2025-06-06 17:39:37
Yeah I swing between a major superiority complex w my writing to hating absolutely everything I've ever made. It's pretty unavoidable.
Trying to get into writing fiction even though I concentrated in nonfic in undergrad. It's a challenge but I find there's more room, if that makes sense.
Trying to get into writing fiction even though I concentrated in nonfic in undergrad. It's a challenge but I find there's more room, if that makes sense.
No.5398
Anonymous
2025-06-06 23:46:53
Currently writing a political manifesto which I think will take the world by storm, and herald a new era of history.
>>5393
Time + keep writing. Five to ten years from now, it will look fine to you with only a few adjustments. I have a purgatory folder for these somewhat finished but hated pieces.
Time + keep writing. Five to ten years from now, it will look fine to you with only a few adjustments. I have a purgatory folder for these somewhat finished but hated pieces.
Yes. I write both poetry (sometimes verse, sometimes blank) and prose, but the latter is usually essays. I write mostly when I have inspiration, so for two or three days I'll really dedicate myself to an idea that comes to me, or a phrase, or something like that, but I'm trying to modify this. I end up with works I'm generally pleased with, but they are infrequent and I can end up with a lot of half finished works I grow uninterested in. I'd like to dedicate myself more to like an hour a day of just sitting down and trying to hone in the writing, instead of only writing when the mood strikes.
Like a cliché, I'm realizing I need to know why I write before I can (properly) write.
Do you have some resources/suggestions on the matter? I have a small collection of quotes, but I'd like to go a bit deeper. Journaling dug up some threads I probably need to keep chasing, but I'd like paper companions.
>I’m pretty lonely most of the time, and fiction’s one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved. Drugs, movies where stuff blows up, loud parties—all these chase loneliness away by making me forget my name’s Dave and I live in a one-by-one box of bone no other party can penetrate or know. Fiction, poetry, music, really deep serious sex, and, in various ways, religion—these are the places (for me) where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated. In lots of ways it’s all there is.
>David Foster Wallace, itv Elle 1996
Do you have some resources/suggestions on the matter? I have a small collection of quotes, but I'd like to go a bit deeper. Journaling dug up some threads I probably need to keep chasing, but I'd like paper companions.
>I’m pretty lonely most of the time, and fiction’s one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved. Drugs, movies where stuff blows up, loud parties—all these chase loneliness away by making me forget my name’s Dave and I live in a one-by-one box of bone no other party can penetrate or know. Fiction, poetry, music, really deep serious sex, and, in various ways, religion—these are the places (for me) where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated. In lots of ways it’s all there is.
>David Foster Wallace, itv Elle 1996
>>5407
Writers writing about writing reminds me of movie directors making movies about Hollywood or directing, some of it is profound and interesting, but it mostly feels like the creator jerking off.
Nevertheless, I think Nietzsche and Schopenhauer's work on the Apollonian and Dionysian is very interesting and indispensable for understanding a more "prima" why to art. In the same vein, Plato (especially the art focused dialogues, like the Symposium).
Writing specifically, I think Walt Whitman has some interesting poems on poetry writing, if abstract. For prose, nothing comes to mind immediately, but maybe Tolstoy and Woolf have something? The former definitely writes about why one writes in the end of War and Peace, and Woolf has a couple essays worth investigating, though I think her work is very largely reflective on writing itself.
Writers writing about writing reminds me of movie directors making movies about Hollywood or directing, some of it is profound and interesting, but it mostly feels like the creator jerking off.
Nevertheless, I think Nietzsche and Schopenhauer's work on the Apollonian and Dionysian is very interesting and indispensable for understanding a more "prima" why to art. In the same vein, Plato (especially the art focused dialogues, like the Symposium).
Writing specifically, I think Walt Whitman has some interesting poems on poetry writing, if abstract. For prose, nothing comes to mind immediately, but maybe Tolstoy and Woolf have something? The former definitely writes about why one writes in the end of War and Peace, and Woolf has a couple essays worth investigating, though I think her work is very largely reflective on writing itself.
No.5416
Anonymous
2025-06-07 19:25:31
>>5388
Lol I also have one huge notes folder and a large poetry doc. I try to periodically cull things from it that are bad or that I won't ever bother finishing, but its still almost untenably long.
Lol I also have one huge notes folder and a large poetry doc. I try to periodically cull things from it that are bad or that I won't ever bother finishing, but its still almost untenably long.
>>5410
True, it's often over-indulgent, but I'm suspecting artist ego feeds what is there to indulge a necessity (answer the question), rather than the question being itself an indulgence.
Thanks, I'll check it out.
True, it's often over-indulgent, but I'm suspecting artist ego feeds what is there to indulge a necessity (answer the question), rather than the question being itself an indulgence.
Thanks, I'll check it out.
No.5455
Anonymous
2025-06-08 11:28:05
>>5432
I'll admit to being harsh, because I do think questioning the medium within itself can be very productive. See: Hollywood Boulevard, one of the greatest movies of all time, which directly addresses acting within the fame industry. Probably, to create something that questions the thing it is within is to walk the line which suspends disbelief. When it comes close to self indulgence and we roll our eyes, it's because we no longer allow the writer to be anything except a neurotic expending energy on something rather pointless. Or a director loving his fame and money.
I'll admit to being harsh, because I do think questioning the medium within itself can be very productive. See: Hollywood Boulevard, one of the greatest movies of all time, which directly addresses acting within the fame industry. Probably, to create something that questions the thing it is within is to walk the line which suspends disbelief. When it comes close to self indulgence and we roll our eyes, it's because we no longer allow the writer to be anything except a neurotic expending energy on something rather pointless. Or a director loving his fame and money.
>>5393
In becoming more objective, for me I think it's been through reading and judging writing of varying levels of quality, especially in trying to understand the author's intent behind each piece and how well it was realised. Then you apply that to your own work. My writing more recently has been much more focused on the conceptual level because of this, and I think that's helped me improve a lot. When I have a clear idea of what I'm trying to present or express, I can inspect and see what contributes to that. You can identify elements as flawed or superfluous rather than bad.
Another important thing I think is to finish things. Of course an idea isn't used up after you've written it once, but calling pieces completed has always helped me feel more objective in my appraisal of them. There's no telling yourself that it's part of a larger thing you haven't finished yet and that the vital components will come to you later.
Low-stakes avenues to share my work have also bolstered my confidence a lot and brought me above the default-bad mindset. The avenues for have been posting things to /lit/ (/crit/ and & especially), and then some local literary open-mics. Even if the feedback is limited, I feel more objective after sharing a piece; maybe it's about the brief state of vulnerability and a heightened critical perception.
Also this >>5400.
In becoming more objective, for me I think it's been through reading and judging writing of varying levels of quality, especially in trying to understand the author's intent behind each piece and how well it was realised. Then you apply that to your own work. My writing more recently has been much more focused on the conceptual level because of this, and I think that's helped me improve a lot. When I have a clear idea of what I'm trying to present or express, I can inspect and see what contributes to that. You can identify elements as flawed or superfluous rather than bad.
Another important thing I think is to finish things. Of course an idea isn't used up after you've written it once, but calling pieces completed has always helped me feel more objective in my appraisal of them. There's no telling yourself that it's part of a larger thing you haven't finished yet and that the vital components will come to you later.
Low-stakes avenues to share my work have also bolstered my confidence a lot and brought me above the default-bad mindset. The avenues for have been posting things to /lit/ (/crit/ and & especially), and then some local literary open-mics. Even if the feedback is limited, I feel more objective after sharing a piece; maybe it's about the brief state of vulnerability and a heightened critical perception.
Also this >>5400.
>>5467
cont.
Pic related is the last thing I wrote, specifically for one of a series of literary open-mics. Read it last Tuesday. And here's a recording I just made of it, since it was written to be read aloud:
https://vocaroo.com/1uOhG8psA6ds
I've been using the series as an exercise because it applies some constraints (time-/length-limit, a month between readings) and forces me to call a piece complete each month with the added gravity of presenting the work. Trying to make something that truly reaches a conclusion within a limited frame is very different from the short fragments I used to write, even if the lengths aren't so different; writing with the focus on speaking it is also fun, though I'd always read my own works to myself as a habit. So far I've done four of these. Reading to a crowd was new to me at the start, but it's fun. I like listening too, and generally there are at least a few good pieces each time.
This one I have particular issues with, mostly in that I intended for there to be more, but had to keep it trim due to the time limit (5 minutes, which I definitely went over while live despite my fast practice runs). I wanted to make the reversions to memories clearer, and meant to have a third overt memory sequence. It's also very front-loaded, and doesn't do a lot to develop things later. The last line was an addition post-reading, and I feel done with it now.
cont.
Pic related is the last thing I wrote, specifically for one of a series of literary open-mics. Read it last Tuesday. And here's a recording I just made of it, since it was written to be read aloud:
https://vocaroo.com/1uOhG8psA6ds
I've been using the series as an exercise because it applies some constraints (time-/length-limit, a month between readings) and forces me to call a piece complete each month with the added gravity of presenting the work. Trying to make something that truly reaches a conclusion within a limited frame is very different from the short fragments I used to write, even if the lengths aren't so different; writing with the focus on speaking it is also fun, though I'd always read my own works to myself as a habit. So far I've done four of these. Reading to a crowd was new to me at the start, but it's fun. I like listening too, and generally there are at least a few good pieces each time.
This one I have particular issues with, mostly in that I intended for there to be more, but had to keep it trim due to the time limit (5 minutes, which I definitely went over while live despite my fast practice runs). I wanted to make the reversions to memories clearer, and meant to have a third overt memory sequence. It's also very front-loaded, and doesn't do a lot to develop things later. The last line was an addition post-reading, and I feel done with it now.
What's the crowd like at an open mic? I guess it depends on the area and space, but I've always avoided them out of fear of them being mostly theater kids. Is the main benefit mostly shaking off the fear of presenting your work, or is there good social cooperation and comparison occurring?
No.5475
Anonymous
2025-06-09 01:58:51
>>5473
You should properly link to posts when you reply. The linear imageboard format gets confusing if you don't do that. Type two chevrons and the post number.
It's not theatre kids, though I wouldn't know what to say are the demographics of the crowds. It varies per night. Most of the readings are pretty informal, a smattering of confessional stuff, some comedic stuff. It's mostly people who float around in the local literary scene, like people involved in the local magazines. Mostly people writing for fun, though you'll also see people who've won prizes and grants (often as invited readers). Mostly mid-/late-twenties, but it swings up or down of that. This is only one reading series in my city, and the crowd is different at others. The only way you'll find out is by showing up.
There's a benefit in shaking off the fear, yeah, but it's also valuable to just hear an "I liked that," and to see what the reception is to different pieces of work. The first one I read at someone came up to me after to say she really liked a sort of shift in perspective, which hadn't been an intentional thing on my part, but none the less made me more mindful of that effect in the future. They're attended by people who like to read and write, so it benefits you to talk to them.
You should properly link to posts when you reply. The linear imageboard format gets confusing if you don't do that. Type two chevrons and the post number.
It's not theatre kids, though I wouldn't know what to say are the demographics of the crowds. It varies per night. Most of the readings are pretty informal, a smattering of confessional stuff, some comedic stuff. It's mostly people who float around in the local literary scene, like people involved in the local magazines. Mostly people writing for fun, though you'll also see people who've won prizes and grants (often as invited readers). Mostly mid-/late-twenties, but it swings up or down of that. This is only one reading series in my city, and the crowd is different at others. The only way you'll find out is by showing up.
There's a benefit in shaking off the fear, yeah, but it's also valuable to just hear an "I liked that," and to see what the reception is to different pieces of work. The first one I read at someone came up to me after to say she really liked a sort of shift in perspective, which hadn't been an intentional thing on my part, but none the less made me more mindful of that effect in the future. They're attended by people who like to read and write, so it benefits you to talk to them.
Sounds interesting, maybe I'll have to attend one. Reading aloud is one of my weaker points. I publish in a local "arts magazine" (it's somewhere between zine and magazine in form), which is a good motivator to make more and not be too insular.
No.5486
Anonymous
2025-06-09 11:32:30
No.5488
Anonymous
2025-06-09 11:35:41
No
No.5490
Anonymous
2025-06-09 11:36:16
Seems apparent if you are replying to me
No.5492
Anonymous
2025-06-09 12:15:56
It's apparent and you are completely new to imageboards retard
No.5493
Anonymous
2025-06-09 12:22:22
Not new and you're gay and retarded
No.5494
Anonymous
2025-06-09 12:22:50
Why didn't you reply to me I don't know who you're talking to
No.5495
Anonymous
2025-06-09 12:24:07
Anyway, stop derailing this thread, friend ㅤꨄ︎
>>5471
cont.
>What's your writing process like?
With the last four pieces I've completed, I've generally spent a lot of time thinking in advance, and have re-used a lot of old ideas that I'd already written about to varying degrees. The first three came out nearly spontaneously (in terms of the actual writing) if after some false starts, and were edited only in fairly minor ways.
With the piece I posted, I pared down the idea for something I'd meant to be much longer (which I'd sporadically written a number of vignettes from), and tried to focus closely on what I was trying to express (really: what feeling or idea I was preoccupied with at the time) and the set of symbols I'd use to do it. I had a structure in my mind that I slowly stitched together, with the two memory sequences being mechanisms both to broaden the concept and to emphasise the explicit narrative. This was probably the most deliberately I've approached a piece of writing, at least out of the recent four, but in each I've started from a set of ideas that I attempted to connect.
When I'm reading is when I'm most often inspired. When I feel really taken with an author's style, the urge comes on and often the words for what I want to write will start coming out clear. Sometimes it's just pastiche (e.g., a rip-off), but it's fun, and it feels like a good exercise. Speedboat by Renata Adler was novel I finished just before the piece I posted, and probably had an influence on the disparate sequences, but it was when I started re-reading Divorcing by Susan Taubes, right at the start of it, that it became clear that I'd use the memories to stitch the structure together.
cont.
>What's your writing process like?
With the last four pieces I've completed, I've generally spent a lot of time thinking in advance, and have re-used a lot of old ideas that I'd already written about to varying degrees. The first three came out nearly spontaneously (in terms of the actual writing) if after some false starts, and were edited only in fairly minor ways.
With the piece I posted, I pared down the idea for something I'd meant to be much longer (which I'd sporadically written a number of vignettes from), and tried to focus closely on what I was trying to express (really: what feeling or idea I was preoccupied with at the time) and the set of symbols I'd use to do it. I had a structure in my mind that I slowly stitched together, with the two memory sequences being mechanisms both to broaden the concept and to emphasise the explicit narrative. This was probably the most deliberately I've approached a piece of writing, at least out of the recent four, but in each I've started from a set of ideas that I attempted to connect.
When I'm reading is when I'm most often inspired. When I feel really taken with an author's style, the urge comes on and often the words for what I want to write will start coming out clear. Sometimes it's just pastiche (e.g., a rip-off), but it's fun, and it feels like a good exercise. Speedboat by Renata Adler was novel I finished just before the piece I posted, and probably had an influence on the disparate sequences, but it was when I started re-reading Divorcing by Susan Taubes, right at the start of it, that it became clear that I'd use the memories to stitch the structure together.
>>5401
>I write mostly when I have inspiration
You can mine for inspiration if you approach things like reading or observation with an active intent. And spending more time trying to deliberately settle on ideas might help you expand them into things that aren't depleted so easily.
>a lot of half finished works I grow uninterested in
Have you considered giving yourself a target length and a limit? That way you're not just writing until you run out of steam, but trying to successfully portray your idea with limited means.
Do you already journal? Inspired or not, if you write more you'll have to accept writing things you don't end up liking or which are mundane, and a journal can encompass practice of the latter type.
On intentional observation and to a lesser extent keeping a journal: I spoke to someone who reviews grant applications and stuff from (predominantly visual) artists, and he told me that as artists mature he notices them shift from being defined by their subjects to being defined by their perspectives. In my much more limited experience, I think there can also be a change from producing works with a hyper-focus that relies on a specific audience's commonality with the work, to producing works that make the fundamental concepts accessible to any audience.
>I write mostly when I have inspiration
You can mine for inspiration if you approach things like reading or observation with an active intent. And spending more time trying to deliberately settle on ideas might help you expand them into things that aren't depleted so easily.
>a lot of half finished works I grow uninterested in
Have you considered giving yourself a target length and a limit? That way you're not just writing until you run out of steam, but trying to successfully portray your idea with limited means.
Do you already journal? Inspired or not, if you write more you'll have to accept writing things you don't end up liking or which are mundane, and a journal can encompass practice of the latter type.
On intentional observation and to a lesser extent keeping a journal: I spoke to someone who reviews grant applications and stuff from (predominantly visual) artists, and he told me that as artists mature he notices them shift from being defined by their subjects to being defined by their perspectives. In my much more limited experience, I think there can also be a change from producing works with a hyper-focus that relies on a specific audience's commonality with the work, to producing works that make the fundamental concepts accessible to any audience.
>>5559
>as artists mature he notices them shift from being defined by their subjects to being defined by their perspectives.
Beautiful words anon.
>as artists mature he notices them shift from being defined by their subjects to being defined by their perspectives.
Beautiful words anon.
No.5561
Anonymous
2025-06-13 00:27:37
>>5560
They're not mine. That's close to exactly how it was described to me by this other guy, and it felt like a fuller vision of what I'd been trying to figure out about artistic maturation.
They're not mine. That's close to exactly how it was described to me by this other guy, and it felt like a fuller vision of what I'd been trying to figure out about artistic maturation.
>>5384
Hopefully I start around then as well! I've always read a decent amount, but have gotten way more committed to it this year. I've been having fun writing reviews of books, movies, Google Maps locations, etc. - with an eye toward literary merit. Looking forward to the inspiration for a larger writing project to coalesce.
Hopefully I start around then as well! I've always read a decent amount, but have gotten way more committed to it this year. I've been having fun writing reviews of books, movies, Google Maps locations, etc. - with an eye toward literary merit. Looking forward to the inspiration for a larger writing project to coalesce.
No.5593
Anonymous
2025-06-13 18:30:02
>>5562
>Fung Shing Chinese Restaurant, 3.5 stars
>The strange and miserable atmosphere made by the red stain-marked wall-to-wall carpeting, plinking oriental notes, and fish tank of ambling half-turned floaters, is part of the charm of this fine Chinese eatery. I found myself transported to the Chinese slums of my city as they must have existed a century ago, they themselves a tether to the crowded backwards streets of herbalists, inns, and opium dens in the homeland.
>So too were the emaciated Chinese cooks and waiters a glimpse to another time---and a jewel amidst it all! The plump and friendly waitress with broken English I watched from across the room, hoping she might alight upon my table with her tender hands---oh! Her struggling English, my trying to clarify, our amiability, the mixing of our giggling laughter and what might come of it if she were to chance upon my table and I didn't have matters to tend to this evening...
>The duck: good, a tad salty.
>Dumplings: in quality, standard fare, but, in quantity, a deal if ever there was one.
>Do order the chow mein with mushrooms.
>I will return most certainly.
>Sincerely,
>Anon
There's a reason I use Rateyourmusic for the charts and the lists but try to look at the reviews as little as I can.
>Fung Shing Chinese Restaurant, 3.5 stars
>The strange and miserable atmosphere made by the red stain-marked wall-to-wall carpeting, plinking oriental notes, and fish tank of ambling half-turned floaters, is part of the charm of this fine Chinese eatery. I found myself transported to the Chinese slums of my city as they must have existed a century ago, they themselves a tether to the crowded backwards streets of herbalists, inns, and opium dens in the homeland.
>So too were the emaciated Chinese cooks and waiters a glimpse to another time---and a jewel amidst it all! The plump and friendly waitress with broken English I watched from across the room, hoping she might alight upon my table with her tender hands---oh! Her struggling English, my trying to clarify, our amiability, the mixing of our giggling laughter and what might come of it if she were to chance upon my table and I didn't have matters to tend to this evening...
>The duck: good, a tad salty.
>Dumplings: in quality, standard fare, but, in quantity, a deal if ever there was one.
>Do order the chow mein with mushrooms.
>I will return most certainly.
>Sincerely,
>Anon
There's a reason I use Rateyourmusic for the charts and the lists but try to look at the reviews as little as I can.
David Lynch said that great art doesn't come from suffering, and that nearly all the good stuff comes from healthy people. Looking at the world, I can't help but agree. There's a sort of natural joie de vivre to most artists, as if they produce art like beavers do dams or birds do nests. When I make art, it's as if I'm slicing pieces of myself off by knife, and it's always painful. Maybe Van Gogh found reprieve from his suffering in art, but for me, art is the suffering. I wonder if that means I'll never be great.
No.5623
Anonymous
2025-06-14 15:05:55
>>5594
>for me, art is the suffering. I wonder if that means I'll never be great.
If you write because you're obsessed with your own suffering and not because you enjoy writing, then I wouldn't guess that your writing is very good. But I think it'd be more useful to ask piece by piece the purpose of what you're doing rather than deferring to some other artist's purpose or ethos.
Do you write explicitly about yourself or about things that have happened to you, or what's the actual subject of your writing? Do you have any pieces you'd share?
>for me, art is the suffering. I wonder if that means I'll never be great.
If you write because you're obsessed with your own suffering and not because you enjoy writing, then I wouldn't guess that your writing is very good. But I think it'd be more useful to ask piece by piece the purpose of what you're doing rather than deferring to some other artist's purpose or ethos.
Do you write explicitly about yourself or about things that have happened to you, or what's the actual subject of your writing? Do you have any pieces you'd share?
>>5382 (OP)
We already have /WG/ as a containment thread, thank you very much.
We already have /WG/ as a containment thread, thank you very much.
>>5748
This thread has specific questions posed. /wg/ was made by and quickly abandoned by /lit/ refugees in the image of their own long-abused generalist shitheap.
More people should post work their though. It's hard to take someone seriously if they don't show what the product of their method is.
This thread has specific questions posed. /wg/ was made by and quickly abandoned by /lit/ refugees in the image of their own long-abused generalist shitheap.
More people should post work their though. It's hard to take someone seriously if they don't show what the product of their method is.
No.6011
Anonymous
2025-06-30 12:47:36
>>5559
I keep a notebook around to jot down ideas in, not a continual journal. I find myself abandoning it if it's a diary.
I try sometimes to give myself a limit and or target, and occasionally a constraint like verse structure.
I think it's not the writing that ceases to satisfy me, but I start growing tired of the idea and think it's a bad one the longer I'm tied to it.
I keep a notebook around to jot down ideas in, not a continual journal. I find myself abandoning it if it's a diary.
I try sometimes to give myself a limit and or target, and occasionally a constraint like verse structure.
I think it's not the writing that ceases to satisfy me, but I start growing tired of the idea and think it's a bad one the longer I'm tied to it.
I have just noticed I only write in genres I do not know that well (probably why I rarely finish, it always feels impossible to find a way out). I enjoy reading genres I know, but writing them is boring.
Maybe pain and difficulty is the point?
Maybe pain and difficulty is the point?
>>6195
Maybe it's influence from movies. Almost all movies are genre movies, even the classics, and in the modern age we get a lot of influence from movies on what makes a story a story.
A nice experiment is to try to picture a scene you'd want to write in your head, and see if you picture it as it would appear in a movie, with movie framing and cuts. If you picture a scene as a movie you could have trouble writing it because literature struggles with crowds and movement in a way movies don't.
Anyways maybe just try writing a basic outline, then deviate when needed, and then also just steal a ton from books you've read. Like steal their structures, plots, characters, scenes, dialogue. Go in intending to steal and you'll see that you end up changing it. A pretense to originality can hold you back imo.
Maybe it's influence from movies. Almost all movies are genre movies, even the classics, and in the modern age we get a lot of influence from movies on what makes a story a story.
A nice experiment is to try to picture a scene you'd want to write in your head, and see if you picture it as it would appear in a movie, with movie framing and cuts. If you picture a scene as a movie you could have trouble writing it because literature struggles with crowds and movement in a way movies don't.
Anyways maybe just try writing a basic outline, then deviate when needed, and then also just steal a ton from books you've read. Like steal their structures, plots, characters, scenes, dialogue. Go in intending to steal and you'll see that you end up changing it. A pretense to originality can hold you back imo.
No.6216
Anonymous
2025-07-09 02:09:55
Any frenchies here would care to share their thoughts on a small excerpt I came up with yesterday, I really want to form a coherent continuity but it seems almost impossible and all I'm resorting to is these tiny pseudo-pynchonian sequences.
>>6573
You need to work on your French imo: lots of anglicisms, and not the charming type, it gets in the way. That said, a tool like Language Tool (I think you can try it free), Antidote (best but paid) would be enough to clean up your texts.
You need to work on your French imo: lots of anglicisms, and not the charming type, it gets in the way. That said, a tool like Language Tool (I think you can try it free), Antidote (best but paid) would be enough to clean up your texts.
No.6628
Anonymous
2025-07-29 05:21:57
>>6626
Appreciate the feedback man !
Appreciate the feedback man !
i write stream-of-consciousness-esque. just sit down at my typewriter or laptop, sometimes pen and paper, and write what i feel like. usually i write some sort of institutional satire. i like to structure on-the-fly. once i've reached the conclusion of my writing, i circle back, read what i wrote to make minor edits, and figure it's good enough. usually it takes me about an hour and a half to write a quick story, double or triple that for a decent-sized short story. horrible at writing long-term work though, i like to write things out in one burst.
right now i'm writing an ivory-towered college kid's journey across america with a dark satire hilt. i grew up in rural america and went to school with coastal elites. oftentimes i find myself bridging the gap between the two groups as some sort of intermediary. this work, i hope, is able to do just that through the power of storytelling.
right now i'm writing an ivory-towered college kid's journey across america with a dark satire hilt. i grew up in rural america and went to school with coastal elites. oftentimes i find myself bridging the gap between the two groups as some sort of intermediary. this work, i hope, is able to do just that through the power of storytelling.
>>6810
lots of great novels have been written with qwerty keyboards. you find that 'cringe'? let's see your bibliography. otherwise, you're just being a poseur
lots of great novels have been written with qwerty keyboards. you find that 'cringe'? let's see your bibliography. otherwise, you're just being a poseur
>>6801
i write the same way. btw ur story about the ivory towered college kid sounds pretty good. id love to read it. would u post it here?
i write the same way. btw ur story about the ivory towered college kid sounds pretty good. id love to read it. would u post it here?
>>6823
No one in the year of our Lord 2025 uses a typewriter to do any kind of serious writing.
No one in the year of our Lord 2025 uses a typewriter to do any kind of serious writing.
No.6865
Anonymous
2025-08-09 12:45:34
>>6863
Well, there are some modern electronic variants which are basically glorified printers with a keyboard, technically speaking. Though I do suspect that the bulk of "serious" writing was done in Google Docs or on mushy chicklet keys, agh
Well, there are some modern electronic variants which are basically glorified printers with a keyboard, technically speaking. Though I do suspect that the bulk of "serious" writing was done in Google Docs or on mushy chicklet keys, agh
No.6866
Anonymous
2025-08-09 12:47:48
>>6863
You say that because you haven't tried it. It's distraction-free, the noise is pleasant. Most important: the text physically exists a bit more than bits.
You say that because you haven't tried it. It's distraction-free, the noise is pleasant. Most important: the text physically exists a bit more than bits.
r/redscarepod losers from back in the day will remember a prolific poster who was some sort of professional author in his 60s or some shit. Poor guy really wasted his time in that place more than any of the rest of us just based on sheer importance. Anyway, he almost lost his ENTIRE FUCKING WRITTEN COLLECTION when his one Windows laptop shit the bed. I offered him, for free, to set up a backup on a hard drive and to fix the laptop, if that's all it takes for this poor guy to lose his entire bibliography, jesus christ. And he didn't even respond to me or really approach the topic with any kind of seriousness beyond clownish bewilderment that sometimes technology just fucks up. Just had to get that pointless story off my chest before this whole thing disappears into internet oral history folklore
I just fire up chatgpt
No.6887
Anonymous
2025-08-09 17:39:00
I like to write brain dumps. If feels like a stunted, stuttering form of meditation. Gets you to notice your thoughts, but only the ones you can notice often enough to get down with physical typing. In actual meditation you can get fast enough to notice all of them, but they come much too fast for even the fastest typist. There's probably something going on with the activation of a different region of the brain, too, but I am not schooled in neuroscience enough to know about that. In any event it's another helpful tool in the awareness toolbox.
No.6911
Anonymous
2025-08-10 12:05:29
>>6897
>No offense, but entrusting your whole life of writing to a lone microsoft laptop is as reckless as entrusting it to some shadow behind a reddit account promising free repairs and back-up.
Lots of normies are making money hand over fist using A.I.
>No offense, but entrusting your whole life of writing to a lone microsoft laptop is as reckless as entrusting it to some shadow behind a reddit account promising free repairs and back-up.
Lots of normies are making money hand over fist using A.I.
No.6912
Anonymous
2025-08-10 12:21:53
>>6849
thanks! i'll post the first page. i haven't had a chance to do a pass-over since i haven't finished yet so keep in mind this is only a first draft.
thanks! i'll post the first page. i haven't had a chance to do a pass-over since i haven't finished yet so keep in mind this is only a first draft.
Fictioncels, how do you improve your storytelling? I'd like to be better at making characters and plot, because everytime I give it a try it feels stupid to me.
>>7500
Have you tried to ignore the feeling ans see where that gets you anyway?
Have you tried to ignore the feeling ans see where that gets you anyway?
>>7504
Yeah, that's what I'm doing at the moment. Trying to cultivate an hour or two of writing a day, focusing on just a random story idea that came to me. I was just curious if anyone had any processes or thoughts on the topic.
Yeah, that's what I'm doing at the moment. Trying to cultivate an hour or two of writing a day, focusing on just a random story idea that came to me. I was just curious if anyone had any processes or thoughts on the topic.
I don't think you need to get into any of that shit to get to the good parts of writing, unless it is your goal in life to be successful at it after leaving your definition of success to others. It's a bit like meditating for the goal of being worshiped over how cool and enlightened you are. Just sit. Just write.
If you want to be a better writer you just need to:
Write more
Read more
Live more
Write more
Read more
Live more
>>7512
Like >>7517 said, read/live/write more.
Live more: in my diary, I now force myself to describe an event/scene/scenery from the day to practice observation and writing (inspired by this article on Woolf's diary https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2023/07/virginia-woolfs-diaries-review)
Read more: if I like one scene I read, I imitate it. Right now I'm in the planning stage of a story, and I'm trying different points of view of the same scene, just to see what would better fit the story. I draw inspiration from this or that book to check what effect it produces and what I am able to replicate (or not).
Write more: well, this one is straightforward. Every mundane writing can become Writing practice if you treat it as part of a story (diary, e-mails, texts, dream journal, postcard etc.)
Also, coffee.
Like >>7517 said, read/live/write more.
Live more: in my diary, I now force myself to describe an event/scene/scenery from the day to practice observation and writing (inspired by this article on Woolf's diary https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2023/07/virginia-woolfs-diaries-review)
Read more: if I like one scene I read, I imitate it. Right now I'm in the planning stage of a story, and I'm trying different points of view of the same scene, just to see what would better fit the story. I draw inspiration from this or that book to check what effect it produces and what I am able to replicate (or not).
Write more: well, this one is straightforward. Every mundane writing can become Writing practice if you treat it as part of a story (diary, e-mails, texts, dream journal, postcard etc.)
Also, coffee.
No.7526
Anonymous
2025-09-22 10:34:01
>>7524
brb making coffee
brb making coffee
>>7514
>>7517
Ultimately, I agree that writing better is founded on writing more. I don't think considering different techniques is bad, though.
>>7524
I should probably keep a diary, just to have a reason to jot down words everyday. For some reason, I just stopped because it felt pointless. Or got bored, I suppose.
I like the idea of changing points of view. When I write, I'll often do a rough draft, or just get the idea on the page, and then rewrite it, often from a different perspective, until I like the way it sounds best.
I'm sipping some coffee at a local cafe right now. Love the stuff. I think it gives me low iron though. If I don't rein in my consumption, I'll often just drink it all day long.
>>7517
Ultimately, I agree that writing better is founded on writing more. I don't think considering different techniques is bad, though.
>>7524
I should probably keep a diary, just to have a reason to jot down words everyday. For some reason, I just stopped because it felt pointless. Or got bored, I suppose.
I like the idea of changing points of view. When I write, I'll often do a rough draft, or just get the idea on the page, and then rewrite it, often from a different perspective, until I like the way it sounds best.
I'm sipping some coffee at a local cafe right now. Love the stuff. I think it gives me low iron though. If I don't rein in my consumption, I'll often just drink it all day long.
>>7533
>I don't think considering different techniques is bad, though.
It is not. However, many people focus way too much on fancy techniques or are looking for the "secret sauce" and they end up losing their time chasing something that does not exist or will not have an effect on them because they neglected the basics.
>I don't think considering different techniques is bad, though.
It is not. However, many people focus way too much on fancy techniques or are looking for the "secret sauce" and they end up losing their time chasing something that does not exist or will not have an effect on them because they neglected the basics.
No.7536
Anonymous
2025-09-23 11:05:38
>>7535
Yeah, that's true. When I write more, I find myself rethinking phrasing and how things sound, and ergo making the writing better, moreso than if I try to abstractly try to think of what sounds best.
By the basics, do you just mean having a practice or habit of writing?
Yeah, that's true. When I write more, I find myself rethinking phrasing and how things sound, and ergo making the writing better, moreso than if I try to abstractly try to think of what sounds best.
By the basics, do you just mean having a practice or habit of writing?
>do you just mean having a practice or habit of writing?
That's the most important yes, but also observation (both in text and in life) and a habit of reading constantly and variedly. You'll see some of this people watching videos about the technical aspects of writing, but when you ask them to show you their practice they go "ummm I feel I dont have enough theorical knowledge for that" and when you ask them "what have you read lately?" They either answer they haven't read in months or they only read one gender (the one they write in)
There's also an obsession with efficiency to the point they refuse to do anything until they learn the %1000 efficient, most easy and quick method there is
That's the most important yes, but also observation (both in text and in life) and a habit of reading constantly and variedly. You'll see some of this people watching videos about the technical aspects of writing, but when you ask them to show you their practice they go "ummm I feel I dont have enough theorical knowledge for that" and when you ask them "what have you read lately?" They either answer they haven't read in months or they only read one gender (the one they write in)
There's also an obsession with efficiency to the point they refuse to do anything until they learn the %1000 efficient, most easy and quick method there is
>>7539
I definitely fell into that mentality when I was in school. I think it comes from a tendency to reject oneself, or a desire to see your own work as well as you need your favorite, without wanting to see the embarrassing bad stuff in-between. But like most tendencies to regress into ones self, I think it's narcissistic, i.e., I don't want someone else to break my delusion of grandeur.
I definitely fell into that mentality when I was in school. I think it comes from a tendency to reject oneself, or a desire to see your own work as well as you need your favorite, without wanting to see the embarrassing bad stuff in-between. But like most tendencies to regress into ones self, I think it's narcissistic, i.e., I don't want someone else to break my delusion of grandeur.
>>7542
Yup, one of the toughest pills to swallow is that, unless you are a one in a lifetime prodigy (and chances are you're not) you must be willing to be bad in order to become good.
And that even if you do work hard, you may never became someone great.
Yup, one of the toughest pills to swallow is that, unless you are a one in a lifetime prodigy (and chances are you're not) you must be willing to be bad in order to become good.
And that even if you do work hard, you may never became someone great.
No.7567
Anonymous
2025-09-25 11:53:37
>>7559
I found the argument compelling in Ranciere's The Ignorant Schoolmaster that prodigies are not so much separated from the rest of us mainly because of their superior ability to do a certain task (though certainly that plays a part), but that they are thoroughly dedicated to practicing and doing that skill, so as to be not distracted by mistakes, other priorities, ego, etc. It makes sense to me because most people in the tier of prodigies have a compulsion to do their task. So, they are basically just always doing it or thinking about it.
Your last sentence is the devil on my shoulder though. I guess you just have to make amends with art for pleasure, rather than trying to play the greatness lottery.
I found the argument compelling in Ranciere's The Ignorant Schoolmaster that prodigies are not so much separated from the rest of us mainly because of their superior ability to do a certain task (though certainly that plays a part), but that they are thoroughly dedicated to practicing and doing that skill, so as to be not distracted by mistakes, other priorities, ego, etc. It makes sense to me because most people in the tier of prodigies have a compulsion to do their task. So, they are basically just always doing it or thinking about it.
Your last sentence is the devil on my shoulder though. I guess you just have to make amends with art for pleasure, rather than trying to play the greatness lottery.
Honestly bro I just want to write erotic literature.
>>7594
I tried, thinking it would be easy, it wasn't. Not enough gooning in my soul I suspect.
I tried, thinking it would be easy, it wasn't. Not enough gooning in my soul I suspect.
No.7596
Anonymous
2025-09-29 11:50:39
>>7595
I find it easy to write smut in fanfiction but hard with original settings/characters.
I find it easy to write smut in fanfiction but hard with original settings/characters.
I got published a few times in the local (distributed by) hobo newspaper. Short pieces about local museums. Yet to impress any girls with it.
How do you keep track of your endgoal?
Do you even have a goal in mind for what you're writing?
I've seen that some write some sort of statement before going in, and regularly go back to it not to lose track.
Do you even have a goal in mind for what you're writing?
I've seen that some write some sort of statement before going in, and regularly go back to it not to lose track.
No.7745
Anonymous
2025-10-12 04:40:07
>>7702
My only goal is to tell whatever story pops up in my mind
My only goal is to tell whatever story pops up in my mind
No.7754
Anonymous
2025-10-14 14:12:08
>>7702
I don't, which is why I have such trouble sticking with one project. It starts changing, so I then cannot figure out an ending, and decide it's not worth it. I think a solution would be just to stick with something that called you to action, and continually reread it, and reevaluate where it's going. I don't have a great answer though.
I don't, which is why I have such trouble sticking with one project. It starts changing, so I then cannot figure out an ending, and decide it's not worth it. I think a solution would be just to stick with something that called you to action, and continually reread it, and reevaluate where it's going. I don't have a great answer though.
No.7757
Anonymous
2025-10-14 18:51:20
>>7689
A hobo newspaper sounds interesting. What other kind of things are there?
A hobo newspaper sounds interesting. What other kind of things are there?