/lit/ - Literature

go full tao lin and write about nothing

>>>/improve/

but how I do it:

start out small, I started with 10 min on something and I'm free to do whatever after that

increase those minutes when you feel confident/if you're keep doing it

>How do you stay focused when working on your book?

Slanted for a certain kind of writing, still here is some bits of advise:

1. You're trying to write a masterpiece instead of a plain short story or novel. Knock it the fuck off with that attitude. Focus on the story and write that with the tools you have a firm grasp on, instead.

2. You can't focus because there is a more interesting scene or chapter competing for your attention. Fine. Write that instead. Get it out of your system.

3. You need scheduling pressure. Being paid to be doing it works wonders. Make a commitment to a writer's group, chase some fans if you can, make a commitment to them.

>>8352

Okay, I need a fan base.

>>8352

>1. You're trying to write a masterpiece instead of a plain short story or novel. Knock it the fuck off with that attitude. Focus on the story and write that with the tools you have a firm grasp on, instead.

>2. You can't focus because there is a more interesting scene or chapter competing for your attention. Fine. Write that instead. Get it out of your system.

These tips are curing my writing related ailments rather quickly. Certain scenes in my story are very vivid in my brain, so writing them both (1) gets them out of my system, as you said, and (2) helps me develop the voice of my characters. It's one thing to know your characters do something, and another thing to actually write about them doing it. This helps when writing more 'boring' scenes with the characters (though, frankly, if a scene is that boring to write consider whether the scene deserves to be written in the first place).

As for the first one, absolutely true. You are writing a first draft. Just get the words on the paper. You'll have to rewrite it anyway. If you're writing fantasy, by the way, quit trying to use 'middle ages vernacular,' as you can add that in on your multiple rewrites if you feel it is necessary (this alone saved my novel, as I stopped writing for over a month due to how tedious it was getting).

>>8342

I usually get high/drunk and type away because I feel like my life is amounting to nothing.

>>8342

i could tell you how i found motivation, but i have the feeling that it's the kind of thing that worked for me because of my specific situation.

>>8353

Yeah, good luck with that.

You have to be passionate about what you're writing. Writing should be fun, something you look forward to doing. It'll make writing easier and often better. I ain't writing a book, but I'm doing a CYOA for /monster/ that's closer to classic novel-style CYOA, and despite the extra work I don't struggle to find motivation because I like writing it.

>>8352 is also pretty good advice.

Roald Dahl had the same problem, he said the hardest part of writing was motivating yourself to do it (which he hated). Maybe he later wrote about how he got past it.

>>8362

Not the OP, but still curious. How?

Just start writing. Starting is the hardest part, continuing to write is easy.

>>8351

How much can someone research in 10 minutes?

>>8386

You don't need to do research for every single scene you write.

>>8383

well, it's not related to writing but to find motivation in general. so it might even be less useful to anyone itt.

but basically, i went backpacking alone in clapistan for a little more than two months.

to put it in a little context (and this might get a little confusing because i suck at recapping), i was more than a year out of a situation that exhausted in every possible way, even affecting my health.working with my family had squeezed me dry.

i really couldn't see, or rather feel, like there was a concrete chance of positive change.

i was never the suicidal kind of guy, but i really stopped caring about my well being.

i don't know how the idea dawned in my head, probably a defense mechanism, but i decided to make this trip.

i even went as far as letting everyone i know what i meant to do. i've always been a fearful kind of guy, afraid to fail, to fuck up and i still am, in a way, so i thought that spending my word around like that would help pushing me, since i care about my word.

in the two months or so before departure i would sometimes find myself thinking like a mantra "what the fuck am i going to do?what the fuck am i going to do?"

>>8394

anyway, i finally leave. btw i'd like to point out that this trip was not a gift. i alone paid for it.

working with my family really paid little, very little. but it meant working most of the day all week so i never had much time to spend money and i've always had been a frugal kind of guy. if you give me something to eat, a place to sleep and a library card, i'm happy. and i was lucky to find a friend who understands what kind of person i am. and i think the fact that i was well on my way to wizardon is also a factor. and i've always been a saver. you could say that i still had my first communion money.

what can i say about the trip? it was the first time i actually travelled, and it showed.

measuring my american trip by any mean you would measure a vacation you would say that it sucked big time. due to my inexperience money became an issue pretty soon. i slept in a bus station more than once, to give you an idea.

i walked around a lot. i blistered my feet and burned myself in the sun a lot.

i've always been a lonely person so i thought being alone would not have been an issue. yet i felt alone and alienated in a way i didn't think possible.

what i can't complain about is the people i met.

with really two exceptions i met pretty great people and i was the object of some…spontaneous kindness that i really didn't expect.

i kept meeting the american side of the family in the new york and boston area for the very last week. i didn't want to abuse the hospitality and i wanted this trip to be "mine" ,if it makes sense to you. i did well.

their hospitality really blew me away. i felt like a foreing dignitary and surrounded by people who cared about me.

i was really schooled in hospitality, but i don't think i could have taken more than that before feeling a moocher.

>>8387

You mean you don't need to research filler? Why would you write that?

>>8388

Impressive, very nice.

>>8395

i lived this trip in a way , as "atoning for my sins".

somehow,i came back with very little patience for the things that hurt me, with a sense of purpose, with the willingness and the need to improve myself and my situation. and i made some substantial changes in my life. especially with the help of part of my family, even from people i didn't think would care about me.

i don't know what happened in my mind, maybe you writers, engineers of the human soul, as stalin said, can't put it togheter.

and this pretty much it.

one other thing that really helped me, feel free to laugh, was /pol/.

if you see some very combative post defending /pol/ , especially in this board, that's probably me.

the chans and /pol/ really meant a lot to me.

finding an environment where what i have to say matters as much as everyone else and where, despite what people say, you "win" an argument, by researching a subject better than your counterpart, and when you"lose" you have the luck to be confronted with something that can get you closer to some kind of truth if you are willing to take the burn, really meant a lot to me.

and i really liked old /lit/ because i had never had much chances to discuss literature and history and philosophy like that ,before.

too bad people there didn't seem to be able to take a joke.

despite the small numbers i like it here better.

and that's sort of my story.

i wish i could have said i had adventures and something more entertaining…

>>8396

fuck, what did I say?

What I meant was that only filler and form don't need research, but what's important does.

>>8400

Research is a poor substitute for experience.

>>8401

Research is often not available, for example in history and fantasy.

hotwheels fix your shit

>>8403

Direct experience, not research

I want to write a novel eventually, only having the attention span to scribble down vignettes puts a dampener on things though. I could just throw them all together for a test; loosely connected over-arching plot here we come!

>>8445

Most people's first novel is trash in the same way most people lose their first fight. You might as well get it over with.

>>8445

This is exactly my situation. I've been trying to make my page-long prose portions relate in some way but it probably wouldn't work right.