How is your novel coming along, Veeky Forums?

you're gonna make it too user

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>I need to decide her hair color next.
No you don't. Unless it's relevant to the story or characterization in some way, don't describe your character's arbitrary features - at least not until their personality is developed, and try only to reveal physical characteristics through the eyes of others. Let your reader visualize, don't bore them with
>her hair was red and her eyes were blue and her cheek bones were high and

This poster speaks the truth. Avoid generic introductions, especially:

>[CHARACTER NAME] [VERBED], [THOUGHT/SPEECH].

Followed by either:

>[BORING DESCRIPTION OF IMMEDIATE SETTING]
or
>[IRRELEVANT CHECKLIST OF PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES]

That's how probably 95% of bad narratives begin.

Just a brief reading of Kafka and anyone can tell he had mental issues. Not surprised he kept this mopy attitude personally.

My fictionalized memoir of my travels through the western US in 2015 is at 33 000 words.

My next adventure should provide at least 100 000 worth.

>anime fanfic = 35k (+ca1,5k a day)
>crossover fanfic = 30k
>novel 1 = 10k haven't written anything in months
>novel 2 = 10k haven't written anything in weeks
life is a fucking nightmare
why am I like this?

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>first novel 94k, wrote in 6-8 months, self published, wasn't great but better than expected, mostly a trial run.
>second novel 100k, taken 3 years, prose reached new heights, finishing up editing, think it's the big one boys.

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That picture and the fact that Pepe doesn’t cum in the brownie mix before giving it to Wojak surprisingly touched me.

When can I buy.

>got 40k words in
>caved to the desire to go back and do a little proofreading
>realized the entire thing was hot garbage and abandoned it
That was two years ago now and I can't find the motivation to try and salvage it. Probably better to just let it lie.

Been working on the outline for my next work since then but I'm feeling less optimistic about it.

>You have to dive down and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you.
I loved this bit.

First draft will be done in the next few weeks

still working on that outline, but it'll be done eventually
anyone got any good adventure movies/shows i can binge for ideas? preferrably animated, but they don't need to be.

What is the second novel about?

And then you realize that Kafka was a depressed insomaniac with daddy issues and a boring job whos writing got published after his death by a "friend", even though he asked said friend to burn it all.

Teehee! Writing is le so le romantic xD! Totally not a neutered corporate controlled dead art form!

same. it's just so wholesome.

Yeah. Writing is a dumb sockpuppet unlike all those art forms that are immune to power. :^)

Why are you on this board? Serious question

for the Veeky Forums humor threads

based

Sounds exactly like it was written by a mind polluted by movies and pop culture

It’s actually quite down to earth as it’s not a love story but in fact a coming of age story for two people on the cusp of maturity. Miles realizes he can’t sit around getting blasted with his friends and listening to Nitzer Ebb all his life and Annabelle learns the world has changed during the 100 years she’s been asleep and can never go back to anything resembling normalcy as she copes with the reality of being one of the undead. I think it’s coming together nicely.

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What anime?

Hitman Reborn for 35k, and Beelzebub x Naruto for 30k. I don't even like Naruto. It just fuckin' happened.

>try to create an outline
>spend weeks polishing it
>start losing interest because I'm not actually writing anything
>can't start writing because the outline isn't finished
>never satisfied with outline
>quit

>try to just dive right in, start writing, and make everything up as I go
>hit a roadblock after a few days
>know idea how to continue
>quit

Are you

I hope you let us idiots look over your first draft. I hear unconstructive criticism is invaluable.

I'm not currently writing a novel

I certainly hope that’s the case.

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if criticism was valuable to you, you would have grown up from posting anime a long time ago

Rather well. My agent has found a publisher. What’s interesting is I’ve gotten a $300,000 advance on the first novel and a contract to write three more “works,” however they must be published as continuing “volumes” using the same premise, characters, storylines, etc. I wanted to be done with this fucking book once and for all, but now I feel I’m stuck in these golden handcuffs for a long, long time.

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Wrote 20k words, feel like most of it is shit. Uncertain whether I should go back and edit or proceed.

what do you get if you complete all 3

$750k

what about a % of sales, and other rights? sounds like they're trying to rip you off

it's an edited version of the original

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A small amount. I took what I could get though, because I pitched it as a memoir even though I made everything up. The idea started as an “alternate memoir,” about a life I could have lived given different decisions had been made. When nobody bit, I revised slightly and played it off as if everything had happened. Since I’m worried I’ll turn into the next Million Little Pieces Guy, I wanted money in the bank as soon as possible.

>I made everything up.

seems like it

Just act like a hermit and don't talk to people about it. Nobody can ride your ass if you never make a statement.
If it does come out, nobody will give a shit if you don't go on the daily show and oprah.

EXactly

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or just use a pseudonym

Proceed until it's done. Don't make my mistake (), going back will just solidify your belief that it's terrible and make you want to give up. Keep going until you're finished, then fix it.

I mean, yeah, that's a given.
What's the book version of a mockumentary?

The problem is I failed to do this. I was on a tight deadline and honestly forgot. It’s a bit more complicated than just using a pseudonym, too. I would have had to file paperwork with the US Copyright office and all that. Boy, I really wish I had.

>her
Sorry, but I won't even give it a chance.

Eek boppa derkel, check out the guy who’s going to get laid in college.

>Eek boppa derkel
am I having a stroke?

As usual I'm cursed by the allure of world-building.

300k of background notes to 10k of story

What type of ebonics is this?

Especially fapfics for some reason. I don't actually need the writer to describe their waifu, I can imagine an attractive girl without much help, thanks.

Ever considered writing RPG sourcebooks?

I feel that the only thing I can be certain that writing does to me is stray me away from having a normal and comfy life. With all the time I spend writing and studying the authors I'm interested in I could easily get a load of experience to land a programming job and then go ahead towards the family life. But I am afraid that all these years of lonely living and sticking to my own interests have made me incompatible with that and I will eventually reach a point where I regret each day my decision to go on that path.
On the other hand I can't possibly see any other outcome of the literary lifestyle than loneliness, alcoholism and suicide in my forties. There's no way that the weird and depressing shit I'm writing will ever attract anything else.
So I am stuck between assured self-destruction and lying to myself hoping that I will eventually start to believe in that lie.

That’s a lot of money user. You’d better hold onto it for your inevitable legal battle with the publisher.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=o_CyMqQBO8w

Every time I get the nerve to sit down and start something, I realize I'm an amateur with no real direction or inspiration.

I'd rather write a screenplay but the barrier of entry is much, much higher.

Gosh, you're right. I won't go back now. I'll proceed and finish this first draft.

>I realize I'm an amateur with no real direction or inspiration.

how do you function in daily life with that mentality? how did you even make this post in the first place, you're only an amateur shitposter after all

are you some kind of an invertebrate with professional caretakers to sustain your daily life?

Actually, I'm an expert shitposter

>Start writing
>get 20-50k words in a week
>get another "great" idea
>start writing
>repeat ad infinitum

Just as well. My ideas and writing is hot trash anyway.

that's just the dunning-kruger talking

Only 10,000 hours to mastery, right?

>Every time I get the nerve to sit down and start something, I realize I'm an amateur with no real direction or inspiration.
I'm going to tell you one of the single most important lessons I've learnt, user:
Mantras build glass walls.

You're worried you suck? Just repeat "it doesn't matter/it doesn't matter/it doesn't matter" over and over again until the voice in your head just gives up. Oh, it'll still be there, waiting for you to drop your guard, but it gets easier every time and easier to ignore every time. Shove it all behind a glass wall.

Why, I live every waking moment viscerally aware of the kind of existential terror that has broken stronger men than me writhing behind the glass wall, and I'm almost a functional human being anyway.

some people can spend their entire life doing something and never improve, just look at the sonichu comics - two decades and still at the exact same kindergarten level

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Just do what all modern novels do and string them together with a series of tangential connections

What will the title be so I'll know what to look for in a few months.

>Just repeat "it doesn't matter/it doesn't matter/it doesn't matter" over and over again until the voice in your head just gives up.

you actually need some willpower to repeat that ad infinitum, and if you have that drive you also have the drive to overcome stress - it's just a placebo

for me it's almost as if I'm trying to lose weight, jojo effect but for everything I try to do
it's going good for a few days, then it goes to shit and I stop, then again I rebound and again sooner or later I give out

>even though he asked said friend to burn it all.

why didn't kafka burn it all himself?

he secretly wished the friend published it

yeah but he's autistic so

Yeah, definitely. Brod even told Kafka he would not fulfill his wish, and Kafka just stood there, rifling through his trouser pockets, as if looking for his keys or something.

a non autist on Veeky Forums?

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>for me it's almost as if I'm trying to lose weight, jojo effect but for everything I try to do
>it's going good for a few days, then it goes to shit and I stop, then again I rebound and again sooner or later I give out
I spent 6 months living like a world class athlete, despite school. I'm talking measuring every calorie, going to the gym without fail every second day (even after having surgery), charting my weight loss / muscle gain. It wasn't even hard. I lost 30kg. Then I stopped going. Gained it all back. Wanted to go back, gym is closed. Now I'm an alcoholic and I hate myself. And I hate myself more because I KNOW I can do it. I've DONE it. So what's the fucking problem NOW?

I just feel like I don't read enough to justify my desire to write, I just don't get how the process works aside from spilling my guts on a page.

I'm gonna be honest, I don't understand the problem.
then read more, I guess.

there is something that I started doing that might work: my diary desu

I started a text file where I outlined all the things that I should/could be doing, and also made a plan of what an ideal day would look like
then every day I noted down all that I did on that day, how much time I've wasted, and wrote all the quotes and thoughts that I don't want to lose

the idea is to be as truthful with yourself as possible, and to stare at that truth every day
I don't mean to torment yourself about your current state, but to count only the actions that you did/did not do
being truthful also means living in the present moment, not running from it but rather embracing it and trying to experience all that there is - I do not mean in the stupid adolescent way, but rather in the way of noticing everything your senses detect, your every thought and so on - this sort of vipassanesque thing is when for me the time slows down the most and I feel sorta happy

Pretty good, but I'm struggling to find good feedback for the work in progress, and starting to realize that comic fiction has a very small market. Most people involved in fiction are either humorless pseuds, or too conventional for my weird sense of humor.

>comic fiction has a very small market.
>what is Pratchett

How do I start?
I legitimately just can't think of anything interesting enough to turn into a narrative. I've written a few short stories when the ideas come to me, but they're like three pages each, essentially just quick looks at scenes. When I know what I want to say the writing comes easily and when polished seems good, but I generally feel like I lack anything worth saying.

what is your IQ

Tentatively: Monsters.

An alliteration to the despicable people in the book, fangs or not

is tentatively part of the title

108

youtu.be/g0yq5uGUDus?t=8m38s

1 1/2 chapters so far, destroying myself on the inside and out trying to depict a white woman named Betty who has a drinking problem but is a brilliant journalist

>comic fiction
comedy and drama are the two founding genres of everything, you spaz.

I don't know, I've never bothered testing it. When I was in 1st grade I tested into "target," one-day-a-week advanced shit, and a friend recently claimed those were IQ tests, but that's the only one I've ever taken and I don't know my score. is some other ass.

Almost, you read a Rick and Morty reference.

82k words
already have the outline and plot points until the end, which is pretty close, but I realized everything I've ever wrote is garbage so I gave up and got a job

"So then there's this white girl named Betty who is a brilliant journalist but also an alcoholic. More on her later."

no need to thank me

Could you please recommend some recent titles?