what red flags signal that an author has no discernible talent?

They aren't a white man

Posting on /lit/

picture of authors face on cover

Tries to tell the reader how to feel instead of showing them things and allowing them to arrive at that feeling themselves

If we're talking about 'discernable talent', you don't need our preconceptions - you can discern for yourself.

>>9079513
dumb

>>9079525
arguable but probably false since I post here (and you too anon)

>>9079573
usually a good indicator

>>9079575
true

>>9079583
and in short: this. Only your ability to discern talent can inform you of a writer's talent or the lack thereof. However, people generally find it difficult to see what's right in front of their eyes, so you may be missing every red flag or seeing ones that don't exist. Good thing the term 'red flag' is a *spook*

or is it

idk

>>9079575
Can you provide an example of this?

Title is a Shakespeare reference.

If it's not written by Shakespeare.

>>9079670
lolcastic

>>9079494

Conversational language, like "but still,".

>>9079610
ignore him, he's in his first year reading for literature and has just heard of "show don't tell"

>>9080035
Verily, for one may very well say that writing, as of its essence, is the exercise of diction, exaulted in fiction, and hitherto must pride itself in placing its pristine prose above the vulgar vulgus and common parlance of the vulgi. For the tuantum truants are too preoccupied with the taunt and taint of a woman's taint, too enamoured by the warm fleshy rose of her neither regions, to task to teach themselves to understand the finer, refined language of literature. Alak, 'tis as a great Pollack once spake, "look not into the fleshy abyss, lest thought mind become but a fleshy abyss." ''Tis henceforth for this very reason that I've reasoned, and I assure you good sir, by my own design, to ner' let my mind nor head wander, and preserved my virginial purity for the whole score and seven years of my life. Ay ''tis true that the price of greatness beath loneliness.

>>9079494
They are a white male.

>>9079610
Read Flaubert

>>9079494
They detach themselves from having a human voice and write long, brilliant sentences that don't bleed into each other, much like David Foster Wallace.

>>9080317
lmfao

psueds btfo

Gimmicks regarding form

If you can't discern any talent

Using anything other than "said" or "asked" for dialogue tags. That includes unnecessary adverbs.
If you need to include shit like "he insisted broodingly" after dialogue to convey that your character is brooding, you're doing it wrong.

>>9080596
>using dialogue attributions at all
plebeian

>>9080596
inserting beats into the dialogue is the best way to convey emotion
"i'm a real emotional, the realest nigga in the cut," Tyreezy said, sighing and then looking away.

>>9080555
butsome of his essays are good

>>9080564
this is the lamest example of samefagging I've ever seen

plz prove me wrong

>>9080596

This is ass-backwards, you numb faggot nigger: utilizing generic terms such as 'said' and 'asked' is a marker of mediocrity and unimaginativeness (which is why Rolling so repetitiously vulgarizes her dialogue); dialogic meta-description should enhance your work by conveying what would otherwise have been conveyed visually in a visual work whilst on economizing implicit description within your dialogue. Basically, you are profoundly erroneous and are likely contriving an excuse for (and fallacious intellectualization of) your own literary languorousness and mediocrity.

There is dialogue

Their name is 'David Foster Wallace'

>>9079494
Endorsed by /lit/

>>9080317
good post

>>9080564
>btfo
encourages people to disregard your opinion

>>9080555
Good Old Neon though

>>9079494
If they're atheist.