I figure out I may as well ask this here. /lit/ is about consuming

>>2881566
Why do you want to be a writer?

>>2881584
because I like to write?

why do you want to learn drawing and painting?

same deal.

>>2881587
Good. You're already a writer then. Why do you like to write? What do you write?

Well, I can't be sure it's the same. I'm not the same as most of the people here. They're very young, they don't have much to say yet, they want to make money and they seek validation. I'm the opposite. I mostly lurk here. I already find you interesting because you're posting on the wrong board in hopes of finding something. That's more creative than most. Hey, so ask me something. I'm bored and lonely and you have my attention.

>>2881566
/lit/ has critique threads every now and then that you can post in.
Someone posted something similar to this a few months ago, so I'll just tell you mostly what I did them.
You just gotta read a lot, write a lot, and get other people to read your drafts. The more you write, the more material you have to improve from. Reading good writers of the kind of stuff you wanna write (and other stuff too) help improve your writing as well.
Improving at writing is a lot of trial and error, similar to art. You'll cringe a lot at your past stuff as you go on and that's part of the process.
Just keep writing and reading. That's the most important part.

>>2881566
why dont you start by reading a lot first

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Write a short novel right now.

>>2881566
just start reading a lot of older novels, before mobiles and internet domination had an adverse effect on vocabulary (90s and older)

Primarily an artist here, but i've done some writing in the past. I read this book http://libgen.io/book/index.php?md5=5C5CF944F533D82C343059D6DB9ED243

There's a lot of useful advice here. Advice needs to be applied to your writing process. First you should create a daily writing habit. You practice writing, try to learn good habits and get rid of bad habits through writing the kind of stories you want to write.

Read the entire book once and then go through it again slowly, applying the advice until you've internalized and understood it all. There are other writing books out there so if his process doesn't sit well with you, you should look for a different book.

But essentially, advice is worthless if it's not something you utilize. You need advice and methodologies to become a part of you; they are your toolbox and you never forget what's in it unless you deem something ineffective.

Feedback is crucial to improving. A way to get feedback is by writing a story, waiting 3 weeks without looking at it at all, and then judging your work/editing/revising. You'll be able to view it objectively, thus giving you direct feedback. Show it to a friend with good taste. Don't be critical when revising, be practical about how you can make it better.

It's difficult to write good stories while focusing too much on rules while doing so; artists dont measure proportion when they draw from imagination, they draw freely and then use proportional knowledge to fix the drawing if it looks weird after having already drawn. Write freely, revise later, or you'll wind up with stiff writing and what not. You can't be concerned with everything that is worth your concern. Just transfer your mind onto the paper the best you can, let the juice flow.

See? They're pretty much all going to tell you to grind at the craft. That stuff just comes to most in time if they're not completely inept. Tell me what and why you want to write, OP. Tell me a story about you.

>>2881647
I dunno, I've always wanted to be an artists.

I learned about drawing, music, writing.

But I've learned I simply should focus on something, so I wanna focus on writing, because is easy to make, so at least I have no literal excuses over not practicing and gettting gud.

I wanted to make games, but I've given up on that dream and rather focus on just one craft.

Currently trying to change my major from CS to literature, because I've found I dislike math and I wouldn't like to spend my live doing programming, even if It pays much more than writing.

So far still trying to figure out my live, I'm a 27 year old loser, but I've would like to spend time grinding at least one skill and hope to get good when I finish college.

Why I want to write?
I like storytelling, I would love to write scripts, but I think writing literature is an easier job than trying to sell a movie.

I want to write because I'm trying to play it safe after being a failure at everything.

But I know I must grind, so I've started to translate poetry from english to my native tacospeak.

hope to get gud at least at writing.

DUDE, WRITING EXCUSES IS WHERE IT'S AT. I like to listen to Writing Excuses while I draw, and it's my favorite resource for writing. They're all professional authors--I actually started listening because Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors. They give out solid writing advice outside of the usual "just read~" and really break into things like story beats, structure, and prose. I've learned way more from them than I ever did from King's On Writing (which is always recommended for learning how to write, but is highly overrated imo). If you're a fan of any of the authors, they do this thing called "Project in Depth" where they basically just describe their thought process for like an hour--it's basically every aspiring author's wet dream. Strunk and White is an obligatory recommendation even if it gets pretty dry.

>>2881679
I kinda disagree with the whole grinding thing. Yeah, you gotta know how to write, and that's going to involve some practice. The important thing is you have something to say. Look around. Do something interesting. Talk to people. Listen to people's stories. Losers are fascinating people. Life is your wellspring. Don't specialize. The world is too full of boring fucking specialists.

>>2881694
I dunno, I want to learn more and write stories about black people.

At first It started as a joke to troll pol when I try to defend black people against their racism, but the more I did, the more I had to research on black history, and eventually, I learned to like black people.

So I want to write about black people.

>>2881683
If you think about it overrated materials sort of have this cycle of becoming even more overrated because people like me wind up reading it (i'm the one who posted it earlier) and having read nothing else, spread it more.

I'll check out those 'Writing Excuses' guys for sure. Sounds pretty good really.

>>2881697
That in itself sounds like an interesting story to me.

>>2881697
You think having someone who isn't black writing about black people isn't cultural appropriation?

>>2881732
You think artists give a shit about "cultural appropriation'?
This thread is starting to go down the rabbit hole.

>>2881734
Well apparently they give a shit about people taking note of demographic statistics enough to make it an issue, it doesn't seem like that far a stretch. I just find it funny that yet another non black person will be writing up fantasies of black people.

>>2881739
You should write a story about this. OP would be a fantastic character. I'll write a story about you writing a story about him. I'm gonna call it The Neverending Shitpost. We're all part of it now.

>>2881761
Mate its been an ongoing project for ten years now.

>>2881732
I'm brown as fuck, so don't try to white guilt me faggot.

I'm a spic in tacolandia, so I don't give a fuck about american politics.

>>2881813
So what you're saying is, you are ass ravaged over getting blown the fuck out of western society, and have taken to writing black history fan fiction as a means to compensate?

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>>2881852
>fan fiction
why pol always talk of what they don't know.

blacks have had kingdoms, libraries, schools, writing systems of their own and other shit.

not my fault pol never research the topic.

>>2881622
>>2881629
This
READ

>>2881860
You are wanting to write stories revolving around black history, correct? This means you would be writing fiction, as in, a fictional narrative, set in an approximation of black historical settings, correct?

So you are writing black history fan fiction, correct?

>>2881866
I do hope to write good shit, as you know fan fiction equates with poor writing.

historical drama isn't fan fiction.

Watch a lot of films and write poetry. But mostly grind.

Reading novels and short stories is good, but the structure of a novel isn't really that clear because they're so long.

Understanding film is great because it's show don't tell, this event cause the next one, etc etc.

Writing poetry is good if you keep away from free verse because it's fucking hard to do right and that's a good challenge.

Don't worry about ideas and observing conversations and all that bollocks. The reality is, ideas are fucking cheap. You can come up with ten ideas right now that would make great novels but it wouldn't matter if you didn't write them. If you can't come up with ten ideas on the spot, don't even bother pursuing it.

I paint in my free time and study literature and creative writing. The creative process is not at all similar. You have to think completely differently. Writing, you're mostly just thinking and not looking. If I think while I paint, I can't fucking paint.

Probably the easiest way to write something good, is to fucking sit down and write the whole thing out. Then go back over each sentence and try to convey the same detail with the shortest sentences possible. When you can delete a sentence completely that's even better.

>>2881867
The audience will be the judge of that ;)

>>2881868
are translations a good writing exercise?

>>2881869
I'm not planning on writing something to publish but after five years from now.

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>>2881566
>get bullied off of /lit/
>come here instead
I don't think you understand where you are.

>>2881873
I couldn't say, but it well might be.
I tried learning toki pona as an exercise to improve my writing, it didn't really help. Probably just my lack of dedication to it though.

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>>2881566
>/v/ knows about game development.

>>2881860
Fake and gay.

>>2881860
A lot of people aren't aware of how sophisticated and cool those ancient Ife sculptures were. That's high level art culture.

>>2881587
I want to be a drawer (kek) because I have a clear goal in mind

having that goal, I know what fundamentals I have to grind

just wanting to write, without knowing what kind of story you like to tell, what kind of mood you like to describe, what kind of characters and background you want to reveal, you won't get far

just like you said, writing is like drawing, and all beginners here are asked why do they want to draw / paint?

>>2881566
Think a lot
Be aware of everything around you've concious in your day to day and see things from as many perspectives as possible in situations where it's easy to be absorbed in the self
Keep a lik notebook to write in
That should get you some interesting material

>>2881707
Yeah, but don't feel too bad about it. King's On Writing and similar materials are kind of like a gateway drug to writing. Like I wouldn't be writing so much if I never picked up a copy of On Writing when I was younger.