How's that epic novel coming, Veeky Forums?

How's that epic novel coming, Veeky Forums?

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Turns out the real money's in far-out porn.

Writing the blurb is harder than the actual novel.

So you finished the novel, but can't summarize it?

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.

Just leave out the spoilers, what are you left with?

Ha. I can't even work up the balls to write campaign notes. What makes you think I can write a novel?

Everything except the conflict.

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.

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.

So the cast and characters and setting are spoilers? How does that work?

Drink while writing. Works for many writers.

Medical problems and fears prevent that.

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.

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.

This guy knows what's up.

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.

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.

>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.

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.

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.

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.

> 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.

Fuck.

Well time to start writing that naval not-arabia adaptation of the hobbit and beauty and the beast.

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.

>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

What Bard thing?

>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, user. Accept your fate.

>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

Disconnect from the internet while writing. Do research at other times.

>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

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.

>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.

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.

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.

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.

>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.

>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

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.

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.

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.

> 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.

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?

>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.

>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.

>I think you have the right idea.The best practise for writing is writing. And all writers started horrible.

This.

>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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

>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.

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.

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.

>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.

>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.

>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.


Mainly I have learned that disgust and some amount of self loathing are very powerful artistic emotions, however irrational they may be.

And more mundane than evil.

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.

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.

I'm just writing porn man.

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.

>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 Veeky Forums 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.

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?

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.

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.

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

Terrible, the lot of them.

The second one is meh. Put a "the" in the third one.

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.

That's called making excuses. You are making excuses.

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.

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.

Then don't write. Really you only have a responsibility to yourself. Complaining does not make time, you do.

I honestly am not sure what you are trying to imply here.

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

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

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.

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.

Who are the main characters, what are their goals, what's stopping them from achieving their goals?

> 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.

>typing out my explanation to you
>figure out a solution by myself

THANKS ANYWAY BRO

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

mcstories.com/BimboEyes/BimboEyes.html