Writing Discussion Thread

>How's your writing going?
>Are you improving?
>Are you feeling the same dread I am that all your hard work to improve only highlights the severe lack of talent you have?
>what's your emotional state when writing?

My writing is going pretty well, overall. I actually just finished up a novel (albeit a fantasy novel) recently, and I also just recently got an essay accepted to a journal. Things are going well, but they could always be better. So I suppose that's the answer to the "are you improving" question, also. In addition, I'm experimenting with my prose again, trying to develop a style that will fit the satiric literary novel I'm planning to write.

I am actually incredibly arrogant and believe I am destined to go down in history as a great writer. Or, not "destined," but I know I have the talent and I'm determined to triumph. My goal is for my writing to be read a thousand years from now. I want to be in the Western Canon; I'll settle for nothing less.

Generally I enjoy writing. I often write deliberately, choosing words carefully to meet my overall prose style. It's fun to put words together to form sentences; they feel like puzzle pieces to me.

i'm horriblons

What's the fantasy book about? You can be general if you wish to remain user.

>kys plz

It's about a demigoddess who is informed by Baldr, the Norse god, that she must defend the natural created order of the cosmos from permanent disruption by the Roman Empire. I have five books planned out, and the book I just finished was the second of them. I'll probably hold off on writing the third one until I can get an agent for the series.

I had an idea that was vague until I thought about it some and then it became lofty. I took that reshaped idea and considered if it fit with the original idea, and I now think it needs a new home. I'm working on developing a new home for this idea that will allow it to express itself in multiple ways, a new home that will also let me try my hand at things like characterization and plot mechanics that I have no experience. I've created a challenge for myself.

I haven't written anything yet, but this feels like good progress none the less.

>haven't written anything yet

Writers write mate.

huh?

I really can only write "well" when I feel absolutely miserable. Which is actually pretty often.

Is this a bad thing? Everytime I try to write when I feel fine nothing comes out.

Also everytime I try to work on an idea I always hate everything I write and end up giving up. I've stuck with the current one for a while though, but I still feel like its just the worst.

development and research are all part of common writing methods, but you are right. I ought to try and jump into "Something" once without any idea, just to see what comes from it. Could be a cool experiment.

I've had a period where I feel I've atrophied from working on some short film scripts and freelance erotica while ignoring my own ideas, a situation which has been compounded by me getting laid off and dislocated, and currently in the few precious private moments I have, I've squeezed out some independent erotica, some experiments, and finally a new story, but I feel that I've lost a little of my touch, and I pray (ironically) that it won't take long to regain it once I'm on my feet again.

I got a job recently and started budgeting my time, and now I actually have set days where I work on my writing and as a result I'm making a lot of progress compared to when I was unemployed and just wrote whenever I felt like it (because "when I felt like it" usually meant "when there's no other hobbies I feel like doing," which was rarely).

I am the same. I am also pretty "fine" throughout the summer, so it gets kind of scary to me in a similar way it sounds. I kind of hate the summer, and always forget about how fineness drives me a little crazy.

I don't write much anymore.
If you need to write to improve then I suppose not.
Lack of talent and disconnection to my audience.
Unhealthy. Distressed but not so desperate that I approve just anything. Distant.

I've written 60 pages of my diary in 5 months, yet my book is nowhere near complete.

I've rewritten the introduction at least 10 times now, and I'm never satisfied. The ideia is great, it's original, so I'm afraid it won't be good enough.

I did that for my first (and so far only) novel. I liked the writing process, but you have to do more editing that way.

>
>>I have five books planned out, and the book I just finished was the second of them. I'll probably hold off on writing the third one until I can get an agent for the series.

Sample (first few pages? ) from book one please?

I've been world building for 16 years.

Zero actual content written.

I'm at a part where a character has to make a few comments about how hard it is to be a man and I'm making myself cringe out of my skin. I'm honestly so stuck, especially because the character is kinda based on me, and the emotional, irrational thoughts that have floated through my mind at some time or another before being dismissed.

Not that I don't think it's hard, I just don't think there's a point talking about it. Men are disposable by nature. You can't fight nature. It seems equivalent to bitching about the wage gap. Hmm hurr maybe men are better workers by nature? I blame all of our present-day social ills on overpopulation. Men and women are the same as we ever were.

Nevertheless, I think men's disposability is at the core of men's resentment of trans women, which is relevant to my story.

>>How's your writing going?
Pretty meh. I just finished a novella and sent it to my girlfriend. She read it relatively fast, but she's depressed as fuck and stopped on the last 10 pages for now. I noticed the ending may not fit because, although I was attached to those characters, the reader wasn't with them for as long as me, so there goes emotional&sad big finish, I think. She said the beginning wasn't very good, but she enjoyed the middle. We'll talk again soon.

No more ideas on what to write. I have a spark of another novella, but I'm trying to let it flourish as Stephen King once said it's best to do, so I just wrote the name I thought and am letting the ideas come naturally.

>>Are you improving?
Every time I finish a story (let's say my latest novel) I think it is great, I'm the new Shakespeare and I'll go down in history with Machado de Assis by my side, but then I read a small portion of what I wrote and I think it's shit. The book is always great before the editing but after the writing. After the editing, it's mostly just "okay, some may like". That goes for the novella I sent to my girl, it had a pretty interesting concept, but now it's just... Normal. Not bad, not "beginner", just the same as everything else.

>>Are you feeling the same dread I am that all your hard work to improve only highlights the severe lack of talent you have?
I'm with on this one. I think I'm fucking great, amazing, for some reason. The problem comes when rereading, although sometimes I read something quite old and am happy with the results, impressed even.

>>what's your emotional state when writing?
I don't even know.

Also disposable socially (think of wars, men are the ones that go fight it by law). You may find some things to complain about if you watch The Red Pill. You may be labeled an MRA if you write it, though.

How do you start writing?

I've been doing little writing outside of my twice a month writer's group because: depression, exhaustion, caregiving, the basic chores of life.

I'm improving but slowly as fuck because I don't put in the time.

I know I have talent with prose. Two of my main characters are good. Other characters and the plot need more complexity.

I'm pretty happy when I write because I've added depth to my story.

I'm an outliner. Most of my current writing is expanding on a character, a plot point, etc. Dialogue, action, and description spontaneously result but I'm more focused on improving the ideas. I've written 25k of actual story.

I don’t really keep writing. I just write when I fancy, with lots of stories abandoned at one chapter floating around. Just started a kinda sarcastic dystopian novel, hope I get past the first chapter.

This is actually something I really wanna do. I’ve just started my world building, and want to keep on evolving the world, with actual writing never happening.

>Every time I finish a story (let's say my latest novel) I think it is great, I'm the new Shakespeare and I'll go down in history with Machado de Assis by my side, but then I read a small portion of what I wrote and I think it's shit.

I know this feel inside out, man.

Hmm, do you have an email address? I could send you the whole thing, and even the sequel, if you're interested.

Almost finished a paper I've been putting off/struggling with.

>>How's your writing going?
Good
>>Are you improving?
always
>>Are you feeling the same dread I am that all your hard work to improve only highlights the severe lack of talent you have?
No.
>what's your emotional state when writing?
I'm happy.

Coming on really nicely.
I was worried the characters would be a bit thin but they're fleshing themselves out. One background character is crawling out of the chorus and becoming someone in their own right, it's very satisfying.

>It's great, I write 1 short story per week, per Ray Bradbury's advice
>It's improving because I rigorously criticize my story from the previous week, see where it was weak, and consciously improve upon these things each week, not making the same mistake twice
>I'm not feeling this dread because I know I'll never be as good as Proust/Joyce, so there's no point worrying about talent, and I just enjoy myself
>Writing puts me in a flow state, a meditative trance, I love it. Sometimes I secretly wish I could move to a cabin in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and just write and read and enjoy the beauty of nature.

Lame! Get out of here, loser.

In regards to the world-building, it honestly feels like I'm writing the Bible at this point. I keep trying to rework everything in the world for some originality but I can't figure out anything novel, that isn't also garbage, to make this world different than anyone else's work.

I don't even want to write anything great immediately, I just want to get to a point where I can shit out a story JUST so I can have some writing practice. Coming up with a story with characters, a them at its crux, and an arc is quite difficult for me.

Can anyone offer some advice? I'm a student and love to write, but I rarely find myself equipped with a vision for the ideas I come up with, everything seems cheap or not there yet and so I hardly have much experience to work from. I'm unemployed and out of school atm, so I feel like it's just me and the solipsistic world of my head and my apartment, no exterior characters no interactions and no stories to tell :(