So how's that novel coming along, /lit/?

>>8833259
DELETE THIS

>>8833259
Not bad. It's not going as smoothly as my first two, but it's coming along. I have other idea for while might come for the fourth, but nothing is solid yet.

>>8833259
Terribly, I gave up before I started

>>8833270
It's really not that difficult. You just need to find the situation/scenario/character(s) that most motivates you.

I'm taking a break during finals, but I hope to get started on it again soon.

My current issue is that the characters have a large stretch at the start of the novel where they don't really do much. Things passively happen to them. I'm going to rewrite my premise a bit to remove this, I think.

Halfway through I noticed, that I sound like a pretentious teen.

>>8833305
Fuck it; may as well keep going.

>>8833305
All that means is that you should market the book to pretentious teens. Do you know how much money those little shits spend on books?

>>8833259
going ok

it's derivative trash though, and one of those fashionable, sprawling, digressive 700+ page novel about too many things at once in a vain attempt to capture or anticipate the quote "zeitgeist" unquote. central themes: the ecological apocalypse and economic apocalypse, and no one giving a rat's ass about anything in particular, or just raging at shadows

i hope i die before i finish it

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>>8833259
ok. broke the 80k barrier this weekend which is about where i want it lengthwise. going to do lots of editing in the coming weeks

>>8833259

About 20% through. I've gotten stuck lately but I'm trying to just read 20 pages a day to get going again

>>8833259
Can't hook an agent, I've been rejected about eight times.

>>8833392
It has been frustrating at times. Things have slowed down for the last year. Found it really difficult to close up the second act without it seeming like rampant plot-armour. I went back and screwed around with my premise and now things seem to flow a bit better. But I've powered through And I hope to have a full first draft by the end of March.

>>8833370
>quote "zeitgeist" unquote
lol

>>8833456
Oops meant to link to OP.

>>8833444
You could always try self publishing on Amazon or CreateSpace. I know it's a crapshoot, but if you're confident in your book then you could give it a try.

>>8823634 also has a few decent ideas in it, if that's the way you want to go about it.

>>8833496
Thanks for the advice anon

Lmao

>>8833259
Enabling myself into a break/writing block. I have everything all outlined out, maybe 30-40 pages left at most, 50 maybe, but I'm just not feeling it. I keep telling myself it's shit because it's a horror that takes kind of an abrupt turn towards supernatural that im not sure flows very well in its transition. Plus I feel like the main character, essentially a god at the point where I've stopped and will be at the end, is coming off too edgy though he's somewhat supposed to be considering he's mind manipulating an entire continent and has no human empathy because he isn't human to begin with. It feels like he's granted to be an edgy John Doe character but it's coming off a bit....overzealous. So I'm stopping for now

>>8833370
>i hope i die before i finish it

You are a true artiste

>>8833745
Plus I'm using the phrase, "frozen in fear" too much, as well with substituting synonyms. Anyone have any alternative suggestions?

>>8833756
paralyzed with terror

>>8833756
petrified by fright

>>8833761
>>8833763
Paralyzed feels more rolling off the tongue than petrified tho I'd probably use petrified more in a passing. Thanks desu.

>>8833756
Scared stiff

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Thanks for asking, OP. It's coming along well. I've been writing it for about nine months now and I've decided to get most of this done before the new year. I've finally come to the point of "for better or worse, this is the last revision." I've re-done chapter 1-10 about four times and 11-15 two times. I'm procrastinating before finishing the last bit on chapter 6 today. So it's about 25000 / 65000 words finished.

It's the first time I've ever finished a book, and it's the first time I've gone back to what I've written and thought to myself: This is good. I like this. I want to read this. I think it has a good shot at being published. I'm very excited and very afraid. It's gonna be so fucking nice when it's done.

I'm trying to find an agent for it but the publishing industry is 90% female and my novel isn't about the wonders of feminism or how great life is in NYC so it's a bit of a struggle.

>>8833777
lucky seven trips confer good fortune

witnessed. good luck, anon.

>>8833756
scared like a statue

>>8833756
>>8833761
Quaking unnervingly in anticipation of terrible events to transpire.

>>8833792
dunno if that was post-ironic or not but I'm stealing it

>>8833756
paraplegic with anxiety

>>8833780
>publishing industry is 90% female

Don't tell me this is true pls. Then I will never publish my book filled with raep

>>8833812
Not only are the majority of publishing employees female, you can be assured that any males are some combination of Jewish, homosexual, or nu-male. I'd bet good money that fucking Blood Meridian couldn't get published in 2016.

>>8833828
God damn man, truly sad times we live in

>>8833828
>majority
>90%
same thing amirite

>>8833756
having the howling fantods

>>8833848
I don't understand this. Pls elaborate.

>>8833812
>Then I will never publish my book filled with raep
just add a lot of sexual undertones and bored housewives will eat it up

>>8833884
>sexual
I'm kind of a retard. I meant like fetishistic rape fantasy stuff

>>8833856
that's not what the howling fantods means

>>8833900
I literally asked DFW on his Twitter about that five minutes ago, and he said it was a totally valid way of using it.

>>8833812
You can put raep in it. It's just has to be male on male. Or you could call it a "romance" novel.

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>>8833884
this

How hard is it to write a novel? You just picture a guy in your head and describe what's going on. It's simple.

>>8835602
Yes, in theory. But it's all about prose and insight really. If you have intoxicating prose and sharp insights without being too edgy or faux philosophical you can quite literally write a story about anything.

>>8835602
That's how you write a novel. Not necessarily how you write a GOOD novel

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I think I have the prolog done........

>>8833745
wanna know more.

Working on revising it to the final form. About a third of the way through revision, then I send it through my editor.

Decided to take the reason of the holiday season off to spend with family, then I'll pick it back up after the new year.

I'm from maritime Canada, there's almost no market for literary fiction from these parts. If it's not a Southern Ontario Gothic, no one's buying.

However, there's quite a bit of interest in poetry from these parts. So what I mean to say is that I'm not working on a novel but a collection of poetry to be published by the end of 2017.

>>8836648
*Southern Ontario Gothic or shitty historical fiction

>>8833797
Jesus

>>8833790
Thanks!

>>8833259
Its coming, just recently started, got 10 pages done so far

>>8833756
f00kin' still like me mom's corpse

>>8833780
>Wrote a Female protagonist to deceive people into thinking its about muh female empowerment.
What are my chances

>>8835781
I can't I'm shy desu.

>>8836947
If you're going to go though the effort of doing a British/Irish accent then it should be 'mum' you fucking newfag plebian trash. Get the fuck off this board until you can write well enough so the people here, actual aritisans of the craft of writing, don't have to suffer through your mongoloid dribblings that you think are profoundly worth mentioning.

>>8836707
Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment.

>>8836648
Hey, fellow Maritimer, awesome!

>>8837171
In the case of it being an Irish accent it would be 'Mam'. 'Mum' is very English.

>>8833259
have serius troubles in the orthography side.... and dont have money for inverst. so... slow but at the 20 or 24 meaby its will be up in amazon. :) for 6 dollars.

>>8837555
what a steal

>>8837228
It was fantasic, made my pussy quiver a bit by its fascination. But unfortunately i don't write like a British autist so I probably won't use that one.

I think my novel has the potential to be really good, but the one-line synopsis I give people generally doesn't do it justice. At the very least, it's been less than appealing to a good portion of the people I told.

How can I fix this problem?

>>8833444
Eight times is nothing -- keep trying.

Currently querying agents myself, getting nothing despite the fact that this is a much superior book than others that I have gotten partial/full requests for AND I now have a publication credit to my name.

Life is strange, truly.

>>8837820
play up the parts you really enjoy. I had a similar problem when explaining the premise of my story, because it's a very clear-cut, hero's journey sort of affair. So I started playing around with how I presented the information and landed on, what I've found to be, the most engaging version of events.

For Example:
>A young man discovers a plot to destroy the world, so he gathers his friends and fights to stop the ultimate evil.
That's similar to what I led with. Not very engaging, is it? But it is the most honest explanation of the premise. I went back and thought about what the most entertaining aspects of my characters and premise were and focussed on them. I ended up with...
>A priest, a professional alcoholic and a serial killer explore the post-post-apocalypse in search of their old mentor, all on the word of a notoriously unreliable cat.
I can tell you, right off the bat, that 2 of those elements play no major part in the actual story. But it intrigues people. they want to know why people are trusting a talking cat. They want to know what connection a priest, murderer and alcoholic could have to each other. And, in my humble opinion, that's what you want to do. Grab their attention.

>>8837913
So, maybe something like this?

>An ambitious young man must help a dragon from another world navigate politics, late night talk shows, and international diplomacy as he tries to prepare Earth for an incoming forced migration of several million other dragons.

Is that even remotely okay?

>>8838094
Yes, that's pretty good. You get right to the point of interest. Some dude is now basically the PR-guy for a Dragon. That's the kind of thing that gets someone to read a more detailed premise.

Play around with it a little, too. I went through dozens of different iterations before I settled on exactly what I wanted. Like you might try leaving out the part about another world, seeing as you've already laid the dragon down as a point of interest. that's just one example. You know your work better than anyone so you need to find the parts that you think are really going to hook readers.

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Here's the thing. I got the plot all detailed out. I've got about +500k words already written. I've got a solid idea for the ending. Here's the thing. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO START IT. (Pic related as main character)

I'm not nearly creative enough to write a novel that isn't fanfiction.net level of cringe.

>>8838181
>500K words

Bro, that's not a novel. That's half a fucking series.

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>>8838196
Whatever. Point being is I can get some actual start with this thing if I could START IT

>>8838181
I'm not a huge fan of it, but you could always try starting somewhere else in the story. Say, in the middle of a particularly exciting scene, or one where things have gone disastrously. Then you can back-peddle to an earlier point and gloss over the actual beginning of the story because it's no longer necessary.

>>8838208
It's probably some weeb animu bullshit.

>>8833828
This man speaks the truth, unfortunately. But that can't stop us from trying. I always tell myself that art has always flourished under repression. The difference now is that you're free to write anal fisting scenes but can't be quite as CANDID, let's say, as Hemingway was when he wrote about the blacks.

>>8838217
I've tried that, anon. I always get closer and closer to it, but it just never clicks. I'm not good at writing intros I suppose. I'll give it a 14th go, but I ain't looking forward to it.

>>8838219
It takes some inspiration from animu bullshit, I'll admit, but I try my best to stay as far away from it as I can. Besides, I don't think I could handle the edge.

>>8838155
Awesome, thanks!

Now I just have to work through a bunch of annoying plotting issues I've been running into and I should be theoretically good to go.

>>8838226
Perhaps you should confide in someone else. A friend or colleague that you know is enthusiastic about the genre you're writing. Perhaps they can provide better feedback and suggest solutions better tailored to your story.

>>8838356
Best of luck, anon.

>>8837171
>actual aritisans of the craft of writing

W E W
E
W

I'm shit at writing synopsis/back covers for my stories.

> Elias was an outcast from his culture, a giant amongst the slender, agile elves. He was sent to stay with the short lived humans of the north, away from the kingdom of elves. While away, he remained outside of the political and military strife that grew in his homeland, until one day he finds that someone wants him dead. Now, he can either confront his enemies or withdraw even further from the land and people of his birth.

I'm 17k words in so far. Have the outline finished but I keep going back and changing things.

It's basically a medieval supernatural buddy cop story.

>>8833259
Working on my essay. Don't have time for my novel...I write one small page, like notepad-small ones now and then though

>>8838469
Alright, a couple of things strike me immediately. You are giving us a lot of information, but not necessarily the right information.

Things we need to know
>Elias is an Elf
>He is forced to live with humans
>his homeland is fucked
>Someone from home wants him dead

Things we don't need to know (we'll learn them if we read the book.)
>He isn't involved in the problems at home (implied already by banishment)
>his homeland's problems are politically motivated (leave the issues at home as vague as possible)
>He may decide to run away rather than confront his attackers (giving away early character development)

Focus less on telling us the broader setting and more on Elias. We're following him.

Just off the top of my head...
>Elias hasn't seen his home in many years. As much as he was shunned by his kin, he is no less an outsider here, living with humans. Elves aren't very popular among mortals, after all. As war ravages his homeland, Elias finds himself drawn into old feuds he thought he had escaped when he discovers that he has a price on his head. Someone is trying to kill him and he has no idea why...

Now some of that may be incorrect, I plugged a couple of holes in order to make it flow better. Note that you get much less information about the broader while still establishing the core essentials: Fantasy setting, Elves are separate to humans, someone wants Elias dead. Work on it and I'm sure you can make something better than my example.

>>8838613
I dig it. Thanks for the pointers.

>>8838645
Its cool

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>>8833259

triggered.

TRIGGERED.

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I finished Chapter One and didn't hate how it came out. So I think I'm doing pretty good, can't wait until pic related in a week though

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It goes well, thanks, anon! 40,000 words in now. I'm writing a story about an alternate history where tanks are anthromorphised as sexy girls in love with their commanders Kancolle-style, that covers wars from WW2 to the present day all through the perspective of famous tanks - the first Chinese tank, a Churchill in the 1942 North Africa campaign, a Soviet tank in Vietnam, an American Abrams in the Gulf War, etc. It's really fun to take such a terrible idea and try to write it as seriously and artistically as possible.

I've always told myself that I'd like to write a book, however I feel like I've convinced myself this because I fancy the appearance of being an author rather than writing because I feel an obligation to. I don't know why, but I see myself as a phony when I try to.

Aside from that, I have nothing to right about, I don't know anything that motivates me or any extraordinary experience for my life to draw from.

I'm just an average guy who wants to validate his ego through pursuing authorship because he thinks it'll make him sound more interesting.

>>8840881
Write about that.

I based my main character off myself (extremely, painfully obviously), and now I'm terrified to have him do anything interesting because people might thing it's wish-fulfillment.

I should just get over it, right? It is okay to base characters off yourself?

>>8840966
Shit.....


thanks anon

>>8833259
I realised that I was more interested in the technical side of writing than in actually being artistic. So I'm focusing on non-fiction writing from now on.

Wrote four this year. I'm pretty satisfied. I'll just chill now for the rest of the year.

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I let this new job eat into all my time, so now I'm trying to curve-stomp some bad habits and get back on track.

Got two books read in the last three days, but I got two more to go, then various ones I just read a chapter out of once in a while, then more on my next list of reads. It's giving me ideas again, and pointing me towards where I was going wrong, but the fact of the matter is, I haven't wrote a goddamn word in almost two weeks, and it's really eating at me.

Whenever I bring up my documents to start writing, I get that overwhelmed feeling like when you were a kid and had to start a test. I might just have to sit down with a cup of coffee after work (even though I'll probably be fucking exhausted) and start editing stuff. That usually gets me going a bit...hopefully.

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>mfw been thinking about making a full on anime fantasy novel and see how it goes

>>8837753
Haha well I'm quite proud of Newfoundland's British heritage, and have watched much British television and a fair few British movies, so though it's something of a back-handed compliment, I will accept it graciously. Thank you.

Also, yeah, I may or may not be autistic, I have no fucking idea, but chances are, yeah, there's something wrong with my brain. It kinda sucks, but sometimes I think it's interesting. I hate how I sometimes wake myself up from talking in my sleep though.

>>8842030
It will probably go poorly.