Tell me about that story you haven't been writing. What's stopping you from putting pen to paper?

I've never written a book before.
Also, my book premise is really good, but I think I'm too immature to actually make it good and not become silly.

I find it hard to write anything that i could see people enjoying. Plus, original ideas are difficult to find

I vomit bunnies. It was manageable when it was only 1-2 a month, but now I vomit bunnies everyday. They wreak havoc in my apartment, chew up my books, and are impossible to keep hidden. All my time is spent caring for them and feeding them. They are up all night. I wish I could just kill them, but when I see the small fluffy bunny still wet from saliva and stomach acid in my hand, I can't bring myself to it.

I want to write in spanish but I don't know spanish

Don't be a perfectionist

>Don't know if I should use a black woman name as my pen name though
Why would you do that?

I made the mistake of using present tense when I am terrible at it. Present tense is a fucking tyrant, every other sentence you have to switch to past tense because most dialogue involves something that happens in the past; it requires a deft hand to know when to shift. I'll get in a groove and write a few hundred words and realize oh shit I've just written in the wrong tense again, so if and when I finally compile this bloated monstrosity I'm either going to have to rewrite all the past tense missteps, or give up and rewrite all the present tense, and even if I stick with present tense I'd have to rewrite it anyway because it reads like shit.

I just finished this Sunday my new anthology of tales. I've been reading and correcting this past days and I hate it already.

Please keep going.

I have a story, it's about my favourite musician, I'd post the beginning here but I don't know if it's that good..

This is really directed at anybody, but what are some good books written in present tense?

Infinite Meme

Trading 15-18h of my time every day at a dead end/minimum wage job I'm overqualified for.

I literally eat and sleep to work to continue eating and sleeping and working in the hope that the "future" won't be so damn bleak, eg by not having to eat and sleep to work.

>keep telling myself I'm only going to save up X000$ before quitting and starting the life I want, writing in some hovel in another country
>keep telling myself it's not a pipe dream and I'm not deluding myself into being a normalfag drone
>I doubt I'm not a normalfag drone already

im nervous

I don't know how to start, I don't even know how to take notes properly. I don't think this craft is for me..

Why do you want to write in spanish though?

What's stopping you from saving up the funds, user

I want you to be a cool writer out in the Peruvian Jungle or something. You have literally no reason not to pursue this goal

>What's stopping you from putting pen to paper?
chronic illness

I'm getting a shit load of work done with modafinil.

It's not great work; I overuse some words and skip around because I'm thinking too far ahead so I forget to include important information needed for it to make sense to anyone else, but I'll get that later in the edit. Wordcount going up nicely.

Write high, edit sober.

I'm writing a lesbian coming of age travelogue under a vaguely jewish name so have at it

I'm on Chapter 6. I'm taking a little break for now, though. Writing some poetry to put the story in perspective for myself.

Well, had you read it for yourself you would realise it doesn't take a perfectionist to consider it's shit.

I have so many ideas that I never know wat to choose.

I'm thinking of doing a short story anthology set in one world.

>Tell me about that story you haven't been writing.

it's about the ennui and emptiness in the life of a millenial

>What's stopping you from putting pen to paper?

i never learned how to read or write

Julio please don't do anything stupid

My problem is I can come up with characters, setting, and a basic plot, but when it comes to how the plot actually plays out I'm hopeless. I just end up writing about aesthetics instead of meaningful events. Does anyone know a good way to break this cycle?

I'm not sure what you mean by writing about aesthetics instead of meaningful events.

Would you read this:

A man loses his arm in a factory accident. He gets a prosthetic substitution and slowly recovers. While unemployed hanging in the local drinking spot, he sees the factory owner, follows him and kills him in his aptmnt thank to his prosthetic arm.

A police detective investigates the crime, he is a gambler and heavily in debt, his mind is elsewhere, he bungles the whole investigation, and tries to frame a small fish for the crime so that he can extort him money.

The final scene is that the killer and the cop meet as they are seeking audience to this local crime boss (who lives in a lavish palace full of animals just roaming around), the first to seek protection the other to payback part of his debt.

The style would be similar to that of Bolano.

You're never going to write it because you just got the endorphin release from giving us the plot.

That's such a great story, probably my favourite by him. I love the ability he has for taking a surreal premise and turning it into a powerful, human story.
I recommend Autopista Sur in the same vein, also by him.

Like I get too caught up in the composition of the scene rather than what happens between the characters.

sounds really interesting. what country will it take place? A South American country could be interesting.

Why is the composition more interesting to you?

Do you not find the characters engaging?

You may just have to bite the bullet, and write through the boring parts.

Yes I was thinking something in south america. Ive been going there lately because I'm helping out a friend of mine who is a film maker. May be going in Venezuela soon, so if I get out of there alive I will start it.

I always felt insecure because I felt it too sci-fi an dangling in the air plot wise...

I want to write a story about making a huge water reservoir out of the moon, then it gets a bacteria infection that becomes sentient.

I haven't written it because I apparently had a stroke when I did nitrous for like three weeks straight, so the left side of my body isn't working great.

Is there any way you could use the composition of the scene to communicate what's happening to the characters? Imagine your story as a collection of freeze frames or comic book panels that when viewed in the right order tell the story. Remember that the preceding and following scenes can inform each other; for example you don't have to show a couple arguing, breaking up, one of them walking out the door; you can show a heated argument then one of them alone. The happening is implicit.

Lack of time, motivation, self discipline, and I'm a bad writer.

It's ambitious for sure, but I believe you can do it. Being in Venezuela will definitely help you get a feel for the setting, and hopefully give inspiration. Try to get stuff down on paper while you're there. You don't have to use it, but you'll be glad you have it.
I haven't read that one yet. Currently working my way through his short stories and it's been a great experience. Good taste mon negre !

Always nice to see some Cortázar appreciation on this board. Keep classing the place up user, and enjoy your reading.

I'm more of a musician than a writer, so I tend to value atmosphere and feeling more than characters and plot. It's something I'm trying to get better at. Figuring out how to use character actions and dialogue to advance a plot is what I would like to practice.
Hmm, that sounds like it could work. I guess my problem is that I see the panels in my head and I get caught up in describing how they look so I forget that each panel needs a point to work towards the greater whole of the plot. Maybe I'm afraid of being too vague too.

I'm skeptical of my ability to realistically depict a female character, or any character that isn't some version of myself.

Also I'm an extreme shut in who only socializes via Veeky Forums. It's difficult to write dialogue with that background.

During midnight a newly selfdeclared lesbian finds the ghost of her ex bf in the bus stop. He died before her coming out.

He is still drunk, as he was when he had the accident, she is not sure if thee ghost is the product of her mind of real.

Is part of a novel.

Or real

Lack of drive, I'm probably not cut out to be a writer

Not gonna lie mate, sounds pretty shit

are there dark elves

seems like it needs dark elves

I think it could work well. Just build the panels around some clues that a reader can use to infer what's happening. Find a beta reader to help you. It doesn't matter if they don't understand or notice the more subtle clues, so long as when you go through it with them afterwards and explain what your intention was they agree that it works, if you follow me.

It probably is, its only purpose is to make evident someone is not a reliable narrator

It's coming out great. I wish I could share some of it with the world before it's even done, but you know what they say about shameless capitalists on the internet...

I want to write it, but every time I try and explain my story to my friends and family they look at me blankly. If I can't even get the people that are obliged to support me on side then why even bother?

Too depressed. Probably not depressed: too self loathing and depreciating

Started a poetry collection in 10th grade with some false hopes of going to some ivy and becoming an English professor

Got some Cs and Bs because I slipped and am about to go off to my small state school. No will to write anymore, will probably just join the military and hope I get shot

Holding off, though. Maybe grad school will be shinier

This was me before I spent the year after graduating high school as a heavy drug addict living in a small trailer in the middle of the San Bernardino desert. I rose from the ashes and am now have a 4.0 gpa in community college and will transfer, hopefully, to a good college. My writing is also doing very well. There's always hope user - I did not expect to survive, but here I am.

There's one question I have for all of you. Could you do, could you live without writing? If the answer is yes, then don't write

So because I wouldn't keel over and die if I didn't write, like 100% of the population, I shouldn't?

No, that's not the point at all
If it's just a hobby, like volleyball or bowling or gardening, you'll never achieve the kind of authenticity/your writing will never be as pervasive as that of a person who CAN'T stop writing, who can't go without it

I am fairly sure that having hypergraphia doesn't mean what you write is of interest.

self-hatred. i think nobody wants my writing and i surely don't want them myself

Not enough life experience to make it believable.