/lit/ - Literature

REPOST because tired as fuck and accidentally posted earlier copy.

The darkness of night blankets a monochromatic metropolis. Its architecture is abstract and modern. And its atmosphere is empty and cold.

The roads are barren, and street lights turn on and off in cycling effect. Alleyways are filled with transients, minds consumed by synthetic psychostimulants.

Highrise complexes are packed with worker drones that run on a fuel mix of left wing philosophy, and genetically modified food.

Concrete buildings stretch as far as the eye can see.

Welcome to hell.

Wanted by the federal police for thought crimes, you have been forced into hiding in a rundown apartment complex in the worst section of the metropolis.

Booming ghetto music shakes flaking paint from your dilapidated apartment walls and keeps you awake, while gunshots and blood curdling screams fill you with fear.

Lost in paranoia, you peer out your window at the street below like a schizophrenic.

Hours pass. Nothing happens. Eventually hunger pains drive you to a convenience store located on the ground floor of the complex, where you purchase a cheap, nasty meal.

You hurry back to your room as quickly as possible, darting through musty halls inhabited by scruffy criminals and rotting drug addicts.

Once inside, you take a seat and question your entire life. What you could have done differently?

Suddenly you are interrupted. Someone is knocking on your door. You freeze, careful not to utter a sound.

They knock again. You tiptoe to the door, and slowly bring your eye to the peephole. It's the federal police, and they're dressed in tactical assault uniform, brandishing automatic rifles.

>>9133

Where are your paragraphs, motherfucker?

>>9133

Way too descriptive. Too many inconsequential facts that have nothing to do with 'you' running away from thought police.

>>9132

> The darkness of night blankets a monochromatic metropolis. Its architecture is abstract and modern. And its atmosphere is empty and cold.

As an exercise, you should remove every adverb and adjective from your story.

>>9132

It's wordy. There's good vocabulary, but doesn't have any importance to what's going on half the time. Try removing those bulkier sentences, trim some of the fat to have leaner descriptions.

Also what's the process of finishing a story and getting it published? What're the steps in between that authors should know about?

>>8846

Just check Baen books for a general format. I think publishers have their own format that you need to follow. I didn't explore too much on trad pub because I'm testing the waters for self-pub. With that said, there might be some traditionally published anon that can give you insight.

>besides bad grammar and punctuation, what other mistakes do these people look for?

if it's going to sell. That's my two cents anyways.

>>8847

>Also what's the process of finishing a story and getting it published? What're the steps in between that authors should know about?

you can just search it on the internet.

Ask them for their format. They are all quite different. Some of them will send you a LaTeX file.

As a newbie writer writing a series and targetting traditional publishers – preferably the big six – should I make my first novel a standalone or should I have a cliffhanger?

Or should I just write both?

>>9117

nvm, I'm going for a standalone instead and focus on that one book until an agent bites.

>>9065

Not working for me either, sorry, m8.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/293930007/Hypersphere#scribd

http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/anonymous/hypersphere/paperback/product-22517627.html

(Coupon code LULURC for 20% off and free shipping)

>>9126

>scribd

This is worse than the awful, shitty-on-purpose writing. Have a mirror:

https://a.pomf.cat/rfuyki.pdf

What will your story do that all those others didn't?

Think about that.

>>9103

Alright, thanks. Yeah, At least I'm aware of the fact that this has been done before, not trying to claim this is uncharted territory or groundbreaking but has been fun to write, and since it takes place inside a game, at least there is room to toy around with and get imaginative.

>>9104

That's what I am trying to do, as tired as the idea of "we're trapped inside a virtual world" might be, I am toying around with different ideas so it doesn't fall into the same traps of blandness that other interpretations of this idea have fallen into.

>>9120

Right, will try to make it have a distinct flavor from stories who also use this setting. At the very least, it doesn't have a "ugh, I work alone" edgy tween for a protagonist, so I have that going for me.

>>9112

To be fair, an MMO makes a lot of sense if you wanted to enclose a large group of people into a game who were all playing it at the same time. What can I tell you? As overdone as this concept might be, there are some things that were done right, like the MMO setting, but I feel like there have been very few stories who handled the execution of it well, and end up being a generic tale of action/fantasy with a video game skin painted on top of it.

>>9069

>What sort of credentials does she have?

She is a graphic artist by default. I think she works at a small comapny, but I don't really know. She is really busy

>Does she have interest on the genre you're writing?

No idea…

> she's focused on your work because you're her only client as a side-job

I don't know… Seems like so, but it took her 2 years to do it.

Also she is working in my native language, which is not English, so I'm afraid she can't help you

If you can't edit your own novel to make sure there are no grammar mistakes, you aren't ready to write professionally yet. Yes, there are people who can get published without knowing how to write in english, but you shouldn't try to be like them. They are the cancer killing commercial fiction.

You should look for an agent who will handle these things for you after you have been writing for a few years, but not before.

>>9077

After 3 reads, some parts of your own work becomes so tedious to read again, that you don't even notice the fairly obvious mistakes in it… At least that happened to me.

Also it's nice to have someone with a different prespective than your own to read your sentences

>>9070

I see. Thanks for the input. Anyways, I decided to go trad pub after careful research. I'll self-publish out of desperation, though.

>>9077

>>9079

Noted. I already have an outline how to do quality checks on my piece. Obviously, the chef needs to check if the food is good for consumption first. That includes sugar and spice and everything the grammar nazi hates.

>>9079

>it's nice to have someone with a difference perspective than your own

This is a point that >>9077 is missing, namely that a good editor does a lot more than just checking for errors in spelling and grammar (although finding those is important). Working with a good editor can be really helpful in bringing out the strengths of a story. Especially with a longer work (like a full novel) it's almost impossible to look at it with anything like the view that a new reader will have after writing and rewriting it. A good editor can help point out which characters or scenes work in the story and which don't, or which avenues that the story doesn't really explore but which might be more compelling than the ones that are already there. Obviously an editor isn't the only person who can do that (which is why most novels have a long list of 'thanks to all the people who read drafts' at the beginning), but that's one of the big advantages of having a good editor.

can't you find some cheap used grammar and see if you like it better.

if you ask me latin is simpler to learn than greek. but maybe that's just me.

Buy a used Latin or Greek textbook. When I studied Greek I used An Introduction to Ancient Greek by CAE Luschnig. For Latin I used Jones and Sidewell's Reading Latin published by Cambridge. If you're going to go with Greek, I'd recommend Luschnig, the text is pretty easy to follow. The Jones and Sidwell wasn't the best, but I don't have any experience with other textbooks so look around before buying one. As for difficulty, they're quite similar in their differences from English. The main difference is Greek has three "voices" for verbs while Latin only has two, Latin has five cases for nouns while Greek only has four (and also has the dual). Also, Greek has an article which can make it easier to identify the form of a noun. I wouldn't worry about the difficulty of either though. If your intention is to read ancient texts in the original, then you should choose the language that best fits what you want to read. So your case, Greek.

>>9074

>Greek has three voices; Latin has two

What? Latin also has middle voice for some words—deponent verbs.

>>9039

What backstory are we talking about? Does it include rape?

>she wants this to become a Manga

Sounds expensive. Maybe she can get some discounts by exchanging favors with an artist?

…

Anyway, descriptions and background surveys of a potential story mean nothing. It's all in the execution. Has she written anything? Howsoever much the story may appear to suck on the surface, it's a useful exercise if she learns to properly handle technique via actual writing.

let her play sengoku rance.

>>9054

> It's all in the execution

honestly, this.

not saying your friend will pull it off, obviously.

>>9039

>ans she wants this to become a Manga -_-

So what? She can do what she wants. Japan produces hills of terrible Doujinshi every year.

>that catcher in the rye analysis

>>7557

I like it

>>7557

So, when's the next one coming out? I love these magazines.

>the catcher in the rye "analysis"

He's just taking quotes out of context and saying they're sexual because they sound sexual out of context.

"I could hardly wait to get to the park to see if old Phoebe was around so that I could give it to her"

He's talking about the record he got for her in this paragraph.

"She didn't want to take it, but I made her"

Because she knew it meant he was leaving, so he made her take the hunting hat

The pinching is the only part that implies anything sexual, and that could just be brother-sister weirdness.

The amount of attention he pays to her clothes and body is because he can't relate to her anymore. The entire book is about how he feels out of place and alone in growing up. He pays lots of attention to Phoebe because not only do they have a good relationship, but because she now represents the childhood innocence that he has lost.

Issue 10000 is good. Nothing else to say. Just keep making your magazine nigger.

>>8996

anything by paulo coelho.;^)

>>9003

hue

>>6884

I'm curious, how do you determine if the book is god-tier/okay-tier/shit-tier? Subjective? The only thing I've read completely on those tiers was A Game of Thrones. I'm currently reading the blade itself and mistborn, though. I've read the first Wheel of Time/Malazan but I only read up to a third of the book before dropping it.

I'm writing a fantasy and I want to know the criteria.

>Entry Level

>LOTR

I doubt they're entry level.

>>9014

The criteria is the audience you are writing to.

As you have noted, the problem with these charts is a lack of context and explanation. Without knowing anything else about that chart I would assume it came from halfchan. For a time, halfchan held a hard core of university level undergraduate to postgraduate English studies types. The emphasis they strove to impose – heavy in philosophy, mazy pomo, and deeply literary – does make sense; though, to a more typical reader it comes across as arbitrary snobbery. The list may also be a counter reaction to a specific type of "invasive" poster of the time. School's out – summertime! – etc.

Without knowing all this it's hard to interpret.

The Hobbit seems spot on. The next two are iffy. The Silmarillion is a bizarre choice. That's more of a "loves me some biblical chronicles and can't get enough Tolkien" tier. I wouldn't dare to recommend it as an introduction to the fantasy genera. In context though I suppose …

For my own self a critical selection criteria is the series. I hate them. One well executed novel is all I am asking for. Even an average writer can pull this off from time to time. Even a well honed talented genius may not have what it takes to sustain a series.

>>9055

>As you have noted, the problem with these charts is a lack of context and explanation.

It seems so. The first thing I did when I saw the thread was to CTRL+F fantasy, and that was the only image/recommendations I've seen.

>Summer is here

possibly

>For my own self a critical selection criteria is the series. I hate them.

yeah, that's why it would be best to describe the reason why it was on the list if we're going to create one in the future.

>One well executed novel is all I am asking for

now I'm curious about your criteria. Audience sympathizing with the protagonist throughout the novel would be one of my criteria (i.e. hating what he hates, cheering after an obstacle was cleared, etc.). That's for something with a good vs. evil plot, though. Doesn't consider the antagonist side pov.

soo. it's an actual person…

>>9037

>It's neither. It's an allegory about how rulecucks punish any dissent.

You're not making any sense.

>>9042

It's neither fiction or real. It's a warning to those who do as Adam, who tried to excuse himself. Evil does not allow excuses.

>>9043

Ah, I was confused because I thought you were replying to >>9031 instead of >>9025.

>>9044

>>9026 instead of >>9025

I can't delete posts because my cookies self destruct and I don't remember passwords.

>>9016

>When God warns them not to eat of the tree, its a form of foreshadowing.

no. it's a simple warning followed by the respective punishment.

and the idea of wading through the tropes of tv tropes on this does not agree with me at all.

>>8937

LOL

The whole Jamowitz/McInerney/Ellis era was like that. I blame Judy Blume.

>>8872

>The Bone Season

>not about the adventures of a resurrected skellingkton

What a shame

this series.

it's really just porn. only less honest about it than 50 shades, which i haven't read but i've seen how it was publicized.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQM0avkWqGI

>>9002

Which series?

You have pleb taste, fam. Go back to Dan Brown if you can't handle Tolstoy.

>>8327

What translation, anon? I suggest mandelbaum.

Here are some sites that are very helpful.

http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/

http://www.worldofdante.org/

Really though, it does get easier to understand. The first couple cantos read quite a bit differently from the rest of the Commedia, so it DOES get easier to understand.

Don't give up anon. If you're ever having trouble with a Canto, I can break it down for you. I have a ton of notes on the Divine Comedy, separated by chapter, so feel free to cling onto me like Dante clings onto Virgil if you want an explanation.

>>8966

wow I repeated the same phrase after I put down those links

I just woke up, so forgive me

>>8378

This

Read the rest of the Divine Comedy. Don't just stop at the inferno.

>>8329

>beatrice is just a memory

Wait until you get to the end of purgatorio, scrub

But yeah OP, a TON of stuff in the Commedia is allegorical.

Also, it REALLY helps to look up the names of everyone Dante encounters. Knowing their history makes you appreciate the text more and gives it a lot more context.

It's NOT a work of literature you can read passively, but do not let that discourage you.

http://www.bookzz.org/

You're welcome.

>>6497

Oops, been running on coffee all day (no proper sleep). The site I've linked does not host audio books nonetheless contains a fucking wealth of literature; perfect for poorbies and cheap-skates alike.

Bumping, I'm trying to find an obscure fantasy book series but I've only got one of the books found and need to find the other two. Though I refuse to pay full price for something nearly a decade old

The major search sites are making a it a problem to find pirated stuff these days but there are still plenty of torrent sites and direct download blogs out there. Also STD IRC.

I'd post a request on the major torrent sites. People get a huge kick out of sharing stuff they enjoyed, you might get lucky.

>>9010

What exactly are you looking for?

>>9011

Essentially the entirety of the Dragonlance books, including the side ones like The Minotaur Wars and Ogre Titans. It's getting ridiculous finding these