I'm 20 and want to write a semi auto-biographical novella detailing the process of misunderstanding how to interact with University society and being in a melancholic slump to pulling oneself out and finding ways to make Uni a more tolerable experience.Something in the style of say "Nausea" where the protagonist just wanders around making observations. I think it'd be funny and potentially relevant to a lot of people I know so it'd be nice to do for writing's sake. But I feel like as a 20 year old I'm not experienced or well read enough to produce any sort of novella or novel. Short stories sure but I feel like I ought to be older before trying something of greater length. What do you guys think? How have you felt in regards to confidence in writing in relation to your age and how experience you feel?
What age did you first feel confident in writing your novel?
just write it, how else are you going to get experience?
Good point. I need to stop being afraid of being shit because I'm always gonna be shit and get a little better with each effort presumably.
where you from brotha
>mfw never
You will just end up with a pretentious self-absorbed mess that no one wants to read.
>it's another melancholy "post modern" novel where the author self inserts his life
what the fuck is this
What are you
GO AWAY
Haha it's more of a "how to stop alienating yourself from others and make your environment a less exhausting" but I could see how it'd be perceived as such. It probably will be, but I think it'll be fun to write.
New York!
Trap or trans?
here is the best advice you will ever get: Don't write about self absorbed mopey bullshit with a redemption arc where you have "le existential problem and realise you just gotta be urself" it's been done a million times by better writers than you can ever hope to be. Write about what you think about, and i'm not talking about the surface things like "lol uni is hard and shit and I can't get gurls to lyk me" or "man Im so bummed that girl went drinking with chad when we were suppose to study together". What do you really think about way down inside when you are by yourself? What sick disgusting things do you fantasise about? what runs through your head that you never want anybody to know about? Write fiction with characters who explore what you don't usually like confronting, do you ever wish you could just grab some woman who did wrong by you by the throat and poke her in the eye until she is begging you to stop? do you ever think disgusting things about the people around you? Why do you feel certain ways when you think certain things? how do you rationalise your faults to yourself. Write characters in short fiction first that confront these basic things. Do not be too wordy, but do not be to avant-garde and minimal. Do not let characters explain their actions, show patterns of behaviour as to why they do them, write about what they are thinking but do not go into too much detail. Some good collections to get some influence from
Raymond Carver's Beginners, this is the unedited manuscript that Lish eventually chopped and edited to What we talk when we talk about love, red this version too and compare how the stories originally were from Carvers own hand to the end result and what Lish honed in on and chose to fixate on in the final version. While you're at it, read the Cathedral collection and Will you please be quite please?
Lydia Davis, get "the collected stories of Lydia Davis" don't read it all but read the stories that grab your attention, learn from what she chooses to focus on in a short narrative.
Richard Brautigan's revenge of the lawn is another classic short fiction collection that you need to read.
Salinger's Nine Stories is another essential you MUST read along with the ones mentioned above. Go and buy all of this stuff now, read bits and pieces from each as they are all short fiction collections.
Thank you a lot. This is very good advice and I agree with it but I think people are misinterpreting the character I plan to write based on the triteness of the idea. I'm not trying to write "the r9k misanthrope talks about how he hates everyone and cant get along" but actually more along the lines of what you described. This is really good advice and does build upon the base of what I planned and I'm thankful for it. Again, I am not worried aboutbeing derivative of those who came before me and did it better as this is more so for the purpose of finding my voice, learning to write, etc. I'm not trying to get this published its being done just so I can put my toes in the water. I was having anxiety about starting it at such a young age but I'm starting to think I shouldn't. Thank you again.
And thank you for those references I'll check them out.
Warms me to get constructive criticism on this board where most people are solely berated.
Trap or trans?
>How have you felt in regards to confidence in writing in relation to your age
It decreases by the day, I'm afraid and/or happy to say
You need to write a bunch of shit before you'll write any not-shit
I wrote my first book when I was 13 and now every time I remember it I cringe so hard it warps space-time around me. But writing that gave me experience and prepared me for better things later on.
Your book sounds like shit and I would never read it, but you should write it anyway so that maybe, some day, you'll write something good.
Thank you!
Yes, these posts have helped me get over that anxiety of being shit to myself. Ok I understand now. Thank you.
Whatever you do, do not become a part of that New York liberal lit douche circle that is Tao Lin and his "contemporaries". Get some life experience too, this is going to mean stepping outside of your comfort zone and talking to people you normally wouldn't. Try to talk to people you would not usually give the time of day, if you have anxiety about this, get over it. Talk some of the biggest "losers" you possibly can and try and find out how they tick and what you have in common with them, because you actually will find you have things in common. Talk to women you do not in anyway find attractive and slowly open up to them, do not care what others think about this. Also, when you write, I know this will be hrd, but try not to get caught up in theoretical post-modern pontificating, the world doesn't need another writer talking about how the media and the television and social media and the shopping malls are rotting our brain. Demonstrate it through characterisation. Do not explicitly ruminate on the "nature" of the society, just write about people existing within in and try not to make it too obvious like "Clara sat on twitter and scrolled for 3 hours while her boyfriend sat on the couch and watched porn". For example, instead, write a sincere account with these themes in the periphery, write a short story about a woman who constantly wants to do things and a partner who is getting sick of it, build the tension around the absurdity and mystery of why it is bothering him so much and how it is creating a strain on the relationship because nothing seems to be good enough or nothing seems to be making her happy, then at the end have him look at her computer only to discover an ceaseless stream of bookmarks and tags and pictures of other people looking happy doing these things or some bullshit like that and end on a deadpan note. Just experiment, you will eventually find something that works. But you have to get out there and emotionally wreck yourself first and try to genuinely care about other people and their perspectives and how they effect you and others around you. Observe how people talk when they are with certain people vs when you talk to them alone etc.
Thank you! I agree that this is very important. I had no intention of offering a condescending critique on society. More so why the people in Uni are so funny to me / hard to integrate with. It's hard to convey exactly what I want to do but your advice seems very poignant to it so thank you again. I feel as though my idea is coming off as more serious than I intend it to be. It's more so the absurdity of Uni society and how one enters it without losing their head. It's not trying to belittle or debase anyone it's all meant to be in humor and to denigrate the misanthrope trope.
Tatami Galaxy already did it
I think you should probably look into reading Robert Cormier's "The Chocolate War" it seems like it might help you in regards to the whole absurdity of campus life aspect.
Let's put it this way:
You're 20. You don't have shit to say worth listening to.
sorry OP, but you'll never understand your university experience until you get some distance.
this
>I'm 20
The image gave me pause, but I stopped reading right here. Grow the fuck up and give me something new to experience, user.
Me again. That is to say, user (who I presume is female), go and experience something. Don't listen to the faggots on this board. Spend your time doing something besides seeking approval. You are young, with all the time in the world, and you are your own experiement. Do, then write. These meager words should be the very bottom layer of nearly forgotten ashes when you are writing to print.
I agree with this as well. But I would like to poke fun at it while I'm still here.
I keep repeating this but I'll say it again: The idea being derivative is not my concern. I didn't come up one day and say "wow here's a unique and fresh idea, lets write about my uni exprience thats never been done before". I'm saying that I had anxiety about writing because I feel incompetent due to my age. The best advice in this thread has shown me that I shouldn't care because these things are about growth anyway.
I'm not writing this thinking "they'll never see this coming!". I just wanted people's opinion regarding the process of writing shit to not writing shit. Advice regarding what to do with the plot has just been a plus but it wasn't the purpose of this post.
Kill yourself my man
Thank you! I actually do have a decent amount of experiences in life I'm not some recluse NEET who's just confined to their campus. Most of my weekends are spent inebriated in the city through a variety of substance (degenerate yes I know) and a bunch of other funny predicaments.
>degenerate
>junkie
>shitty writer
>narcissist
>snowflake
I'm sure you'll do great at whatever you put your mind to
Thank you! I guess different agrees of self-awareness can't really be conveyed through anonymous posts to strangers. That's ok though, fortunately I've gotten a lot of worthwhile advice in spite of it.
That's a start and your muscular quads are witness. Best of luck to you user.
FWIW, I am 15 years ahead of you with lots of booze soaked army service, debauchery and shitty writing done. I'm just getting to exploring the saints of the 20th century western canon and quite certain they would be frog posters today as well as frog eaters.
Didn't mean to be rude, just don't undercut your own experience in favor of what people telling you what you *should* experience. Give me your take, it is your history you are a living after all.
Many of the greats of the past wrote their first published novels in their early 20s
Not rude at all, thank you I appreciate everything you've said.
I think a lot of people in this thread didn't really understand my intentions with this post and are projecting their own insecurities / grievances with aspiring writers onto me which is ok.
Thank you for being helpful and thanks to all who actually understood what I said.
O shit dis gud niga
This a gem my nigga well done
Random question : are you dyspraxic
Trust me, you're not who you think you are.
Ironically you've misread most of the criticism ITT in much the same way you accuse them of misreading you. Write your shitty book and then step off your campus and suffer for a few years. Join the military, or just work in hard manual labor. But whatever you do, and this is very important, do NOT (You) me you pretentious, egotistical child.
>"xD don't worry I'm self aware ;)))"
stop posting
>20
>auto-biographical
but you're not interesting, you haven't done anything interesting and probably never will
>criticism focusing on how the idea isn't original and has been done before by better authors
>expressing lack of concern for being trite is missing the point
Criticism about it being uninteresting is irrelevant as this is not something I plan on publishing. Unless you think criticizing the poor concept / low marketing potential of an unpublished first novella is worthwhile then sure.
If you can prove how I'm missing the point then by all means go ahead. But, you probably wont reply since you didn't want the (you)
Sorry bud. I do appreciate those who actually contributed constructively to the thread.
Maybe you aren't as good as reading things as you think :^)
what university do you go to dog
Here's some hard advice- don't do this. why? Well because it's a shit idea for many already previously stated responses. Now that isn't to say stop writing, but if you start off writing shit your pens still going to smell like that same bacteria infested shit next time you start.
Take your experience and translate it into someone else's experience. Someone/something completely unlike you. This is a lot harder, but have faith- 50℅ of writing is just staring at the screen.
...
>novel
>not writing short stories
>Something in the style of say "Nausea" where the protagonist just wanders around making observations.
You're just going to come off as pretentious and emo.
writing something like Nausea is difficult since Satre was a seasoned writer and could capture existential horrors better than most people can.