How's your novel coming along, /lit/?

its shit

>>9363830
Why?

Struggling to get the ideas down on the page quite as well as I envisioned them but I'm getting there and it's great. Which is probably a bad sign. But I'm having a lot of fun. Which is a good sign.

I keep telling myself that one of the short-story projects I start will surely evolve into something bigger, but they don't, they usually end up as a handful of vaguely connected pieces that end mid-action or mid-sentence or end too quickly and don't have enough meat on them to be interesting

The thought of setting out to write something larger terrifies me

>>9363794
i'm in the brainstorming stage right now. Trying to write a medieval fantasy story, but not a cliched genre fiction novel. Feel it's going well and all, just need to work out some minor details and then move onto the outlining process.

>>9363794
>novel
>not short stories

Pleb detected

actually not bad

I scribbled a surprisingly coherent outline the other day and have managed to tidy up my mess of a WIP in scrivener. I can probably start bashing out chapters fairly soon.

>>9363794
What I have
>Main Character
>Premise
>Tons of lore
>Several events, moments and monologues
>General structure

What I need
>elements of three or so languages for naming purposes only (so it bare minimum when it comes to languages)
>dialogue
>a sea of side characters
>a way to differentiate my dialogue properly. I'm in trouble if they all talk alike.
>excel calendar to avoid plot holes
>a way to convey one of my more abstract plot points without it being too over the top or convoluted or simplistic
>an interesting twist or two - but it will be related to characters so I'm not too worried.
>schedule for myself so that it will be done

>>9363928
That structure might actually work better. I could focus on many other things, but on the other hand, I'd have to map the interconnections and that would be a chore.

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>>9363794
Pretty good! Had two slow days though, only around 1700-1800 words or so in the past 48 hours. Like usual, I'm feeling like I'm not sure if I've gone in the right direction for this, but sticking with it anyways. It's a sequel to this book, which is the second in the series. So once this one is finished I'll be the happy author of a trilogy! Still a long ways to go yet though, I think. Been getting relatively steady sales for over two weeks now, and very much looking forward to doing my third promotion, tough the last one was pretty small; first book went free for 2-3 days or so. Told /lit/ about it, and wrote a guest article on a blog. Ended up giving away something like 90 or so eReader copies, so I'd call that a success. Hopefully the people who got it liked it or are liking it.

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>almost done a cold war weird fiction short story
>can not think of an ending I don't absolutely hate

I really don't want to shelf it but every ending I try to write up just comes out so uninspired and safe.

>>9364156
Mirror it with the end of the real Cold War.

>>9364156
mirror it with the beginning of the cold war to make it seem like everything they did was futile to send a message

>>9364156
>it was all a dream

>>9363794
>Killing me won't end this.
>Well... it's a start.
I tried google, but I can't find what the text is a reference too. Does anyone know?

I am still as of yet able to experience the necessary feelings and events I am writing about, and to fake them won't produce genuine emotion so I can't fake it

>>9364180

I used to read word up magazine.

>>9363794
I've written 2 and put them on amazon, and I have no clue what I'm supposed to do next aside from write the next one.

They sold basically nothing because I don't know how to tell people about them. I don't have any outlets for self promotion. All I really know how to do is the writing part (and even that is questionable because I have no second opinions).

>>9364320
Post and I shall read

>>9364320
Promote them here

I have 8 pages and a ton of ideas, that's it

>>9364280
On the contrary, you can write about disingenuous people because it's fiction. Not everyone wants to read about 'real' people, real people are boring. Look at how people behave in movies- they're emotionally overcharged and act like the world is ending.

>>9364358
I mean emotion and feeling though. If I want to write about losing my gf to some african buck then I wanna know what it feels like to better translate that pain to words

>>9364320
Post 'em, asshole. At least say what they're about

>>9363850
lovely.

>>9364012
>names

Scandinavian (Nordic), English, African, Asian, Spanish!

LATIN

>>9364619
Both are genre fiction, the first one is werewolf porn, the second one is post apocalypse monster fest.

I didn't post them because I'm pretty sure any of you can already come to a conclusion from this.

As much as I probably should try to self promote as often as I can, when I think about doing it here, I get a vague sensation of sticking my dick into a bear trap. I know you know what I mean.

>>9364654
>Not writing meaningless and meandering esoteric slop with hamfisted and poorly understood rightwing philosophy.
You ain't gonna make it here bro

>>9364643
fuck the latin meme across all literature.

>>9364669
My primary inspiration for writing is bashing things I don't like. Having my books hated would provide more inspiration, but only if it was good hate, not just directionless trolling. I'd rather see how I fucked up telling a story, rather than having my grammar and punctuation picked apart by failed English majors who are now bagging groceries and considering suicide. No offense or nothin, I don't mean you guys (well maybe one or two of you).

Although sometimes I think being directly insulted is good for me, because every writer needs criticism, even unfair criticism. Wading into trolling is probably the closest any of us get to being in war, something to clarify a sense of purpose, even though having a sense of purpose is total faggot shit. Unsheathing our mental katanas with a dark chortle, if you will.

So here's the werewolf porn one. It's practically a big autistic furry porn fanfic, which is the least likely to be enjoyed here.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CW30O9O

Unless I was supposed to link a pdf, I dunno. I'm sure you can get the idea of the whole thing from the preview.

Nearly finished the first in my YA trilogy which hopefully will redpill a generation of teenage girls in the UK/Australia/Canada/NewZealand on how based the british empire was and how hating johnny foreigner (especially yanks) is a good thing

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>>9363794
it's not so bad

>>9363794
Just started sending out query letters to agents.

>>9363794
25k words so far and almost half the story. Is that good?

>>9364993
>Stephen King's On Writing
Fuck me, guilt as charged.

>>9364993
The only one that applies to me is that I did have to google "how to self publish" the first time so I could be taken directly to the exact amazon page. And I'm broke. Nothing else though. In fact I feel like being broke precludes the Panera. Panera is more like a treat at this point (not going to bother putting "treat" in the necessary amount of quote marks) for when I have a lot of money and I want a chicken salad sandwich. And I'd never write inside the place.

>three hours later
>200 words
What do?

>>9365094
I've never started writing any story without knowing how it would end. After that, I figure out some general ideas of how some characters would get to that end, and from there it leads me to the beginning. I make sure to flood a txt file with notes and ideas over the months. Then when the notes are enough to make a synopsis, I start typing out what the beginning is like, I don't bother to proofread or pay attention, I just type it right out. After a couple chapters I'll go back and usually see what a giant fucking mess the beginning is, and rewrite the entire thing, though not discarding it, simply refining the wording so it's more coherent, less faggy or pretentious or whatever other self doubts, the important thing is to save the self doubts for your proofing, not your initial draft.

>>9363794
I need a geography expert to help me design the world atm, anyone here?

Anyone have any tips for getting more words per hour?

https://thisblogisaploy.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-i-went-from-writing-2000-words-day.html
This is a pretty good blog post on this topic if anyone is interested. Here's the basic point:
>If you want to write faster, the first step is to know what you're writing before you write it. I'm not even talking about macro plot stuff, I mean working out the back and forth exchanges of an argument between characters, blocking out fights, writing up fast descriptions. Writing this stuff out in words you actually want other people to read, especially if you're making everything up as you go along, takes FOREVER. It's horribly inefficient and when you get yourself in a dead end, you end up trashing hundreds, sometimes thousands of words to get out.

Have any of you found a way to write more words per hour?

>>9364124
>Ended up giving away something like 90 or so eReader copies, so I'd call that a success
I hope you're making sure each of those people give you a review on Amazon.

it isn't, failure to write turned me into a philosophyfag

being a philosophyfag turned me into a wagecuck

being a wagecuck turned me into a misanthrope

i hate life, memes are all i have now

never should have started down the path in the first place, i used to enjoy existence

just kick me in the balls desu senpai. light your boot on fire and kick me in the nuts

>>9365346
Writing isn't a race. If you're even paying attention to your words per hour, you're doing it all wrong.

>>9363794
I finished two unpublished ones. Writing a third now.

>>9365384
You must be writing literature. I am writing genre fiction so I can get paid, mate.

>>9365346
I count myself happy if I get out two thousand a day and as long as it feels fresh and inspired.

>>9365409
How much time at the keyboard exactly is "a day"?

>>9365418
3-4 hours after work. Though after I wake up is always easier and better as my mind is fresher.

>>9365405
Well alright you got me.

Assuming you actually are getting paid, because if you're not getting money directly, then that's just sad.

>>9365436
I'm making a couple grand per month writing hucow erotica. I'm working on my first full-length porn novel though.

>>9365436
Why is it sad to do something you love, even if you're not getting paid for it?

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>>9365459
It's sad to rush yourself if you're not getting paid.

If you're trying to figure out how to write MORE in a day than you already are, that precludes letting it come naturally, which precludes it being merely about doing what you love. If I love injecting opium into my eyeball, I don't try to shoot my entire stash in at once so I can get it all done with. That's not loving it more, that's loving it less, unless you love death (and want to embrace it).

>>9365480
You can write something entirely to genre that you don't love and complete it very fast just for practice. I've never written a novel before, but I want to do 50k words in two weeks. I don't love what I am writing and it is entirely to genre. It might not even sell shit, but it's a learning experience. Editing, managing time, making a cover, etc.

Remember that actually finishing what you start is harder than starting. If you float aimlessly waiting to let it come "naturally", you'll have nothing to show. You'll whine about how you're the "real" writer while the guy who self-published on Amazon and sold 3,000 copies at $2.99 each ($2.09 royalties) gets to brag that his two-week novel made $6k while he fucks the prom queen.

>>9365507
I don't have a problem with writing fast, just about trying to write faster and faster like it's a race.

That's my approach though. The thing I fear the most is rushing a book out and later noticing all sorts of errors or muddled sentences that I could've tweaked. I have to proof an entire book beginning to end at least five times, and I refuse to burn myself out by forcing myself to do proofing like I'm pointing a gun at my own head, so I let it sit for a few weeks sometimes so I can get back to it with a clear head and better focus.

As far as people who get halfway through and stop, that's their problem. Sometimes to really be a writer, you have to have more drive than talent or skill. I don't really have any of those, but I've figured out how to persevere, so I've been able to fail at failing, I like to think of it as meta failure.

I've written the novel and am currently working on its sequel. Still trying to find an agent for the first novel.

I have the Tolkien problem, in that I can't stop worldbuilding long enough to write a novel, and I haven't yet found a story in my world that could be expanded out into a book or series.

I have the notes that could be the Silmarillion, but history textbooks only sell to chumps.

>>9365557
Maybe you should focus on the story first? You can sell you world book after you achieved success and people are already invested.

>>9365610

>Maybe you should focus on the story that you don't have

Gee, Doc

>>9365557
I have the same problem except I've got a vague idea for a long plot with at least several main characters, but can't stop worldbuilding to actually write it.

>>9365651
You're welcome. Dedicate it to me.

>>9365663
>>9365651
It's already dedicated to me.

>>9365663

Do you want to read about a paranoid wizard-king who builds a mecha powered by the souls of his subjects and uses it to try and kill the shepherd of the dead, and gets tossed headfirst, mecha and all, into the gate through which all ghosts must pass?

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>>9365094

>>9365692
As I read through you sentence I kept waiting for a plot twist like:
>...and gets tossed headfirst, mecha and all, into the gaping vagina of a shota addicted succubus.

>>9365706

There aren't any shota addicted succubi, but there IS a big creepy goddess that lives underground and sees through the eyes of literally every single spider.

>>9365713
That will have to do. Maker sure she has spider vagina though.

>>9365720

It's pretty much assumed that she's more or less constantly absentmindedly masturbating, much like a NEET with a dedicated monitor for hentai.

>>9365736
Use that exact metaphor and I personally guarantee you will be the next GRRM.

>>9365742

And the brother of the shepherd of the dead, whose job is to send the seeds of souls to all newborn life, does so by machine-gun whacking them off a tee with a golf club from a mountaintop, even though golf hasn't been invented in the universe they currently inhabit. He hates his job.

>>9365758
GRRM and Terry Pratchett work separately, not together.

>>9365773

Spiders have TEN LEGS

>>9364993
>Writing in public

>>9365692
nice morrowind ripoff

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>>9365359
Actually, it seems as though I haven't yet gotten a review from someone who got a free copy. I've done two promotions, must have given away over 200 copies of my first 3 books, but I've only gotten 3 Amazon reviews. 1 was before I did any promotion, and 2 are from paperback versions which aren't part of Kindle's promotional things. I do have a fair few reviews on Goodreads though, so perhaps some of those are from free eReader books. It might be possible that Amazon doesn't allow reviews from people who got the eReader thing for free, because then literally anyone could get a review if they just catch it while it's on a promotion and then could simply leave a 1-star without even reading it. You know, trolling; something of a common occurance online.

Ultimately though, even if I NEVER get a review from someone who gets one of my books for free, it's ok. People are reading my stuff, and if they like it they might share it with friends, it gets my stuff out there and gets exposure. I have been consistently getting a sale every 1-2 days for quite some time now, and I entirely thank those free promotions for it; it gets my books out there, makes them known. Hell, I've even had free versions being downloaded in Brazil, UK, Italy, Denmark, Australia, and Japan! Now THAT is fucking cool! So yeah, I'm not overly worried about reviews. I just love the idea of people reading my stuff all over the place, and also like that my rate of sales are slowly but steadily increasing.

Pic related is my first book, and is quite consistently remaining my best-selling book, even when taking free copies out of the question. The sequel was selling really good for almost a week after release but things have slowed down. Should ramp up once I get my next promotion on the go, I think. Cheers!

>>9366511

Do you live off of your writing?

>>9365507
This.
Also writing is not reading.
It's hard work. You can love the creation but the creation g process actually take effort.

>>9366819
>he's literally a homeless guy in a homeless shelter. at least that's what he says. he's always shilling on /lit/

>>9366888

Huh

I just lurk here from time to time when I need some new recommendations

>>9366888
didnt mean to greentext that

>>9366511
Just to get a feel for what is possible, what magnitude of sales are you getting?

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>>9366511
Damn, below 10k in your niche. Your sales must be decent.

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>>9366819
Not yet, no, but i think in 1-2 years I should be making enough to where I make a living from it. I've already made almost $50 last month which is a GREAT start for a first-time author.

>>9366888
Can't deny it. I do shill fairly regularly but I like to think I'm not too obnoxious about it, and I'm often doing promotions to let people get free copies of my books and I'm also going to learn how to do Kindle Countdown discounts as well so at least it's not all take/take/take, y'know? As for homeless shelter, I'm proud to say that I moved out yesterday. Got myself a room I'm renting now. Got my resumes ready to hand out once I get a lay of the land and pick out some places I'd like to live at, going to keep writing all the while, and basically just looking to make enough money to pay the rent, keep fed, and of course enjoy the occasional drink (or 20) every now and then. Also, nice trips.

>>9367196
They say that self-published authors don't usually make even $100 in their first year, and to be fair from October-February I made barely ANYTHING. It was March 13th that it started to pick up and it's been going pretty good ever since, my first promotion was March 14th so I definitely think that's been helping. During my promotions my sales increase a fair bit, typically over $2 a day, but now that it's been a while since my last promotion I'm at roughly a sale every 1-2 days. In the past week I've gotten 5 sales, but they're all one of my $0.99 books which earns me $0.35 US for each sale, so literally less than $2.00 US in the past week.

>>9367207
Huh, not sure when you took that pic. I just took a screen cap, check it out. It's my best-selling book, but nowhere near making a living from it yet, but I'm positive it will come however. Ohhhh, as for your screen cap, I assume it's from paperback sales instead of kindle sales. Nah, paperback is VERY slow; all the money is in kindle sales. I've gotten as high as the top 68,000 or so books on Kindle, which is not bad, but with sales only once a day or every other day, it's hard to even approach the top 50,000. I think the big money is around the top 10,000, but still, not going to look a gift horse in the mouth; I'm lucky to be making this much, but I'll keep going, keep self-publishing, and things will improve in time. For the most part it seems people are enjoying my books!

>>9363794
Nothing I'll ever write will be "good" by /lit standards or my own. But it's getting to the point where I'll be comfortable letting other people read my shit.

>>9367347
>They say that self-published authors don't usually make even $100 in their first year
It depends on the genre. If you write a novel about billionaire bdsm, give out free copies to people in exchange for reviews, build up a mailing list, etc, you can make a decent living grinding out a 40k-60k novel every 2-3 weeks.

Btw, there's no reason to ever price your books at $0.99 unless it's a novella or less in length.

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>>9367207
Check this one out though in pic related; I'm quite proud of it. See, in the sequel to LatD I introduce a gay character so I went ahead and added it to the LGBT genre. Clearly there's not many LGBT Horror books, but also it helps that I was averaging one sale a day for my first 6 days of its release which is quite good! Price is at $2.99, and unlike the 35% royalty you get with pricing your book at $0.99 or $1.99, at $2.99 and higher you get 70% royalty which is something you can't even get CLOSE to with traditional publishing! So for each $2.99 book I sold, I got $2.05. A sale a day for 6 days, that's over $12 US, which is probably around $17 Canadian for less than a week. Pretty incredible stuff, especially considering most self-published authors don't even manage that in two whole months!

Oh yeah, as for that 1 review I had for LatD:DD, that's a review that was initially on my first LatD. See, for SOME reason, Amazon though that LatD and LatD:DD were different editions of the same book. Eventually I got their attention and had them separated because they're different books with Living amongst the Dead: Dark Days being my first sequel. Well, they did manage to separate them, but when they did they took took one of my reviews for the first book and put it with the second. Everything is fixed now, but yeah, there had been some confusion early on. I don't think there's any reviews for the sequel yet, though someone I met online who is, and it's odd to say, a fan of my books, read it and said he loved it just as much as the first, or possibly even more. He wasn't a huge fan of the smut in my first book, and there was FAR less in the sequel, and he liked that.

I didn't dial down the sex for him though; if you read it you'll see there's a VERY legitimate reason why. So far in the third there's not much yet either but once everything is back on track and figured out I think it'll make a return. I do quite enjoy including some naughtiness in my writing.

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>>9367371
I know, I'm making less money by having most of my books at $0.99, but I really want to encourage people to get it even if I'm only getting pennies. If that first book is good, then they will want to read more, and my sequel is currently $2.99 where I make more money.

As for the book every 2-3 weeks, I've been doing pretty good with that. My first book I wrote in only a week or so, then spent a couple months editing it only to find out that there were grammatical issues that I didn't even know about. Spent a lot of time in January-February fixing the book... I hate editing... but anyways in March I self-published a novelette, a novella, and a novel, in that order. Pretty good, huh! The novella drama I wrote is pretty good I think though I'm still a little skeptical of the ending. The 'fan' I mentioned really liked it though, which was really surprising; I'm pretty sure drama isn't his kind of thing! To be fair though, I wrote most of that novel (LatD:DD which is my 5th and most recent book) in late August and early September RIGHT after writing the first book. Eventually after about 64,000 words I told myself to stop bloody writing and do some editing to get that first book self-published! Did so, and it wasn't until I think March 19th, several months later, that I finally got around to working on that sequel I started in August. The day I finished editing it and refreshing myself on it is the day I started writing, and that day I wrote something like 7,000-8,000 words or so I think which ended up being the ending, and I think it worked out alright.

A little factoid; this is the novelette I wrote, a little action of 16,500 words. The firearms on the cover are actual firearms that I owned before. I took that picture around 2011 or so I think, even posted it on /k/ a few times. Never even considered at the time that I might use it as a book cover someday lol Funny how things turn out, but yeah, that's a 1941 M1 Rifle, 1941 SVT-40, and a 1942 No.4 Lee Enfield. Fantastic history, and all three of them are fantastic firearms. The bolt-action Lee Enfield there is the same basic style of rifle that Richard uses in the Living amongst the Dead series. Even had a bayonet to go with it. Hopefully I'll get it back someday. Good times, and damn good rifles.

>>9367408
Your output is pretty impressive. What is your writing process like? How much detail do you put in your outline?

Your covers need work, btw. Think about hiring someone on fiverr. You're probably losing sales from their amateur quality.

Currently 25% through editing the final draft. Had an Editor take a Look and there is Some Worth in it. I am mainly cutting fluff and enhance style.
Theben the time Arrives to collect rejection letters.

>>9367408
How do you stop masturbating long enough to finish a novel?

I'm currently in the Never Ever stage, because I'm a college student with dreams of one day publishing on the side without the talent or money to actually achieve print.
So I'm mostly just thinking up ideas for the book that will never get written to keep my shitty dream alive. Current idea is a story about a guy who dies and finds out that the afterlife is filled with a council of gods nobody ever even thought of, and they've all got their own idea as to what they should do with him.

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>>9367439
My writing process? Pretty damn simple; I get an idea and I see where it takes me. I've wanted to write a really realistic and nitty-gritty zombie survival novel for YEARS and finally decided to give it a go last August. I then immediately started working on a sequel. Ultimately left the sequel alone in September, got my first book self-published in October, then tried out a sort of erotica which I self-published in early November (easily my worst-selling book thus far), and sadly didn't do too much in December as I recall but then for much of January-February I edited a sort of 'revised edition' of the first book (LatD) to fix the final grammatical errors that I know of. A retired English teacher who is a traditionally-published author had great things to say about my writing, even said that my stuff seems better written than some traditionally-published stuff he's seen before! Really encouraged me to try traditional-publishing, which I'm dabbling in but my focus is on self-publishing.

>Detail in outline
I tried an outline before with my drama; "Another One please, to Dull the Pain", yeah I know, quite a melodramatic title. It's fitting though. I am DEFINITELY more of a 'Discovery Writer' though. I just get an idea and start writing. As I write, it even surprises me at times in regards to how things go, and I've had a couple instances where I was somewhat stuck but then when I got an idea it just seemed to interesting or even perfect that I chill goes up my spine. VERY exciting stuff, I love that exhilarating feeling!

>Covers need work
Yes they do; I use CreateSpace's free Cover Creator. I might look into fiverr once I'm a bit more financially situated, and I also know where I can get pre-made covers which is helpful. For now though I'm basically broke so I'm making due with what I got. Still, very valid point, and something I do intend to look into eventually. I am indeed probably losing sales from them, especially "When her No means Yes". I mean, who wants to walk around with a book that has pic related for its cover? Yeesh... still, I love the sexual nature of it. It's no mystery however as to why I've gotten no paperback sales of that book though lol Paperback sales in general is very slow though; eReader/Kindle is the biggest source of sales/income. KENP/KU is very good as well, even though I've taken a noticable dive in page reads recently. Seems like it's only during promotions where it spikes up nicely to 100-400 page reads a day. Averages to be half a cent per page, so 100 pages is 50 cents and 400 pages is about 2 dollars. Not bad, really! So far in April though I've only been getting about 2-9 page reads a day. That's around 1-4 US pennies a day. Still, it's something! It sort of confirms that out there, somewhere, someone is reading something I've written almost every single day. I still can't believe that people have downloaded my books in US, UK, Canada, Brazil, Denmark, Italy, Japan, and Australia. Just incredible...

>>9367502
Do not insult my abilities in multitasking, sir...

>>9367502
Writing has not affected my masturbation habits

>>9367546

Masturbation habits have ravaged my writing

>finish third novel (never submitted anything to an agent)
>print it
>have no friends to beta read for me
>ask boss if he could do me a favor and read the first 10 pages or so
>he says yes, I set it on his desk
>expect him to read it during shift because he's always bored and has nothing to do
>peek in his office now and then, he hasn't touched the pages, they're under some other junk on the desk
>he spends shift walking around like he always does, leaning here and there looking bored
>end of shift
>go in his office and take my pages back
>feel like committing suicide
>next day
>"why did you take your story back? I thought you wanted me to read it"
>brain crashes, can't reply, awkward stare
>he says nevermind

Will there ever be an escape from this suffering? Similar happened with my first novel.
>finish rough draft
>have no friends
>ask mom to read it
>give her manuscript
>two weeks later she returns it
>"did you like it?"
>she doesn't really reply, just changes the subject
>never hear about it again
>haven't told her about anything else I've written

To be fair the first one sucked. tfw no friends who read books.

>>9367577
I had nobody to read my stuff either for the most part. I came up with a basic idea for Firearm Valhalla in probably December or January or something, didn't get around to actually starting it in early March. Anyways, I did copy/paste the start of Firearm Valhalla here on /lit/ even though it's a book that was more or less with /k/ in mind. To my pleasant surprise, those who responded to it said it was quite interesting and made them want to read more of it! That kind of encouragement is a lot of help, but anon you can also check out CreateSpace. Even if you don't want to self-publish, you can go on their forum and they can potentially help out in providing feedback.

If you go to Goodreads and poke about you might be able to find a similar thing but I've never personally checked. There might be no forums or otherwise services there for people to give your book a little read. You could also try doing it here on /lit/ though take anything you might hear with a grain of salt. There's also a /wfg/ (writefag general) thread on /k/ if your writing happens to be /k/-related, meaning weapons-related. Quite friendly people over there, I must say. Of course there's the occasional asshole but you'll find those everywhere.

If you want, you can do what I did and just self-publish it anyways. Do a free promotion, tell /lit/ about it in a thread, beg and plead with them to read a bit and let you know what they think right there in the thread if they get the chance... yeah, that sounds like a decent idea, no?

>>9367639
>Fuck it, I'll give a few of the first paragraphs of Firearm Valhalla here. It really was a nice surprise to hear perfect strangers say that the start of my book made them intrigued enough to want to read more.

With a grunt of annoyance, he lay himself down on the ridge of a cliff, left arm reaching forward for the smooth wooden stock of his decades-old rifle to rest on. Cli-click, click-click-click… click. A final adjustment of the elevation knob of the rear sight brought it up a ways, and then down a fraction. A distant scream, high-pitched, had ruined the pleasant day he’d been having. A bright blue-sapphire eye peered through the ring of an aperture rear sight, focusing on the tip of the front sight a couple feet away from it, and one final click switched off the safety. A good 200m or so, he wagered. Down in a valley slightly off to the right of where his lookout faced, he aimed for the side-long silhouette of a man’s head. A dreadfully difficult shot to be sure, but not impossible. It was the man who had her upper body pinned down, the man who’d ripped her shirt open, the one who laughed and grinned as his pal presently forced himself on her.

WHOCK! Breathing heavily, the second man’s laughing and grunting stopped, his long greasy hair framing a fat and harshly scarred face waved about as he looked around, panic setting in quite quickly needless to say. The skinnier of the two crumpled over a little to the side, part of his body landing on the exposed female. A modest entry wound under one shoulder, with a terrifying exit wound under the other.

“Two-fifty, maybe…” he grunted, steadying the front sight on the easier target. Perhaps three hundred if the bullet dropped that much more than expected… really got to figure out a better way of judging distance. Once again, the man was felled before the victim even heard the shots. Pushing the stinking, unwashed rapist off of her, screaming in panic as the blood oozing from his chest smeared on her pale flesh, she ran. Something was picked up off the grass as she went, and he did not stop her. She clutched her ripped, ragged clothing to her body, wishing to keep covered even on the escape. Fall was pushing into Winter after all.

One of the casing of .30-06 had ejected from the semi-auto rifle just over to the side, rolling down to a dip in the rocky surface. The other had likely ended up tossing itself off the edge of the cliff. Fuck it. Following a brief trail through the woods, he pocketed the incredibly light NAS3 casing. Shell Shock Technologies sure did make a mint off their new design once it started getting accepted by Militaries. Couldn’t make enough of them! Too bad everything had to go to shit. Taking a left once meeting a wooden cabin that had been serving as his home, the blonde stranger headed on down to the scene of the crime, trudging along trees and rocks that were all too familiar.

>Don't want to spam; won't post more unless requested.

>>9367639

I've posted little bits on /lit/ before, but I'll just wait and see what an agent says. I have a list, I just need to actually send the emails. Agents say you should have had beta readers, but isn't the typical author a friendless demi-neet? It's just a depressing situation. Even if you know someone who reads, it's likely norra roberts or twilight or steven king tier shit.

>>9367646
2/k/4me.

Seasons are not capitalized, and blonde is the female term, blond for males.

>>9364993
On Writing is a good book though

>>9367673
Blonde is a noun.
"Look at that blonde over there."

Blond is an adjective.
"Her hair is blond."

>>9367673
Beta readers would be great, yeah, but I don't have any of those yet. I'm quickly making friends in this new city, though not really any readers, per se. Well, not many of them. Those friends who like to read, I'm not yet ready to ask them to beta-read my stuff. As for NEET, yeah I'm technically still that, but I've got my resumes and the stores are nearby. I expect to be employed within the week.

Fair points, I didn't know the bit about blond/blonde, and I also do tend to capitalize seasons. I also used to capitalize east/west/north/south as well as morning/noon/afternoon/evening, so clearly I used to have quite an issue with capitalization and still sort of do. Still, I don't think it's much of an issue to be perfectly honest. So far in the book I'm working on now I believe I've got the seasons capitalized. Maybe sometime I'll use the search thing to bring up all cases of Spring/Summer/Autumn/Winter and have them 'uncapitalized' as it were, but I really don't see that as being a big deal. I'm truly interested now in regards to if anyone ever tried a tally of random people to see if they think the seasons are capitalized or not. I bet most people would think they are.

Thanks for the tips, and no worries on it being a bit too weapon-heavy. I even put in the Dedication section that it's "To my fellow Kommandos (The type is intentional)" or something like that. Didn't want to make it TOO obviously with /k/ommandos, but it's in there none the less. Been frequenting /k/ off and on for many years. So far been a '/l/itizen' for... oh... probably over half a year by now?

This thread makes me feel weird, because the only people who seem to be really writing are just writing shite that they don't really care about, in a month's work, and self-publishing it on amazon. Meanwhile I'm putting my heart and soul into this one thing that's the culmination of years of ideas, research and work. Maybe I'm a fool for putting all my eggs in this basket, but ...
I don't know, man.

>>9368162
If it's really good you'll be able to get it published, Anon. You can do it.

>>9368172
Thanks. I'm not too worried about getting my shit published the "proper" way, passing the gatekeepers, I think I'm just a bit disappointed that even on /lit/ of all places the other writers are just writing genre trash to make some money. They might be better than gaskun, but still.

>>9365856
i dont understand how people can do this. if anything just take notes in a small notepad, that way you look like you're running errands or something.

>>9368162
write some essays or short stories while you do that.

>>9368310
Solid advice, I have been doing so.

>>9368277
I think you're confusing "working as a writer" with "being someone who floats aimlessly hoping he'll strike it big one day." There's a difference.

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Wait, there's actually losers here who are writing a novel? I was hoping it was just a meme that people were playing along with but turns out this board is full of unironic posers. Why aren't you doing something better with your life?

>>9368502
>Why aren't you doing something better with your life?
Pray tell, pepe-poster, what is something worthwhile to spend your time on?

>>9363794
Fairly well actually. I've been reading through personal accounts of people who've been gaslighted to get some details right, but overall I'm happy with where I'm at.

How do I get pace right? Every chapter must advance the plot at least a little?

>>9368770
The plot should determine the chapters, not the other way around.
Describe the plot in a series of isolated sentences, and assign each sentence a chapter. The middle chapter should represent a shift in balance or a turning point.

I'm 140 words into my novel.

ugh dont ask me this
i want to be writing but i'm in classes, finals incoming
and i just end up watching anime or reading manga instead of writing in my free time

>>9364361
Omg hahaha fucking cuck

>>9367577
Give someone more than a day to read it for the love of fuck.

It's always best to get your first book out of the way, move on to the next ones. Personally I feel that your first "book" should be something you have no true affection for, something you intentionally put little effort into, but then you show it to no one.

This is my first idea I am thinking about seriously enough to possibly make into a novel. I started by trying to write a short story (was terrible, a lot of "he said, she said" bullshit) and started expanding on the themes, jotting down dialogue and the character's (my) ideas and worldview, creating a plot that could cover a few hundred pages... Once I start trying to actually flesh it out into chapters I'll worry about style. The idea may well turn out to be a dud, but it's a start.

>>9367577
>feel like committing suicide
>next day
>"why did you take your story back? I thought you wanted me to read it"
>brain crashes, can't reply, awkward stare
Maybe stop being massively autistic.