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Becoming the writer I want to be

Discussion in 'Self Improvement' started by Anakin66, Feb 24, 2020.

  1. AtomicTango

    AtomicTango Fapstronaut

    I read a LOT of long books, to the extent my definition of what "long" is is probably skewed, but I'm starting to develop the feeling that if a book is more than 500 pages it needs to be really really good to justify being that long. I recently read a book that was 800+ and you could have probably cut out 50 of those pages and not lost much, but at the same time the book was really good. I also recently read a book that was only 480 ish pages, yet it took me nearly as long to read and was extremely dull and drawn out. I think what it comes down to is the writers ability to make you care about whats happening, and their ability to pace their story in such a way that it flows at a good click without being too slow or too hectic.

    Its this thinking thats influenced me wanting my book to be 300-400 pages, leaning towards the higher end. Part of me would love to churn out a book thats significantly longer than that, and I'm not saying that wont happen if my outline changes, but as it stands I've gone over my outline many times and I've never been able to rationalise it being longer without ruining the pacing.
     
    Anakin66 likes this.
  2. AtomicTango

    AtomicTango Fapstronaut

    Decided to start writing the first draft today, to put it off any longer would be to waste time. I got off to a great start, writing 1200 ish words.
     
    Anakin66 likes this.
  3. If you write strictly in run on sentences, which each sentence is in the quote,

    I can't see how you could AVOID writing a 500+ page book...

    But who will read it?
     
  4. AtomicTango

    AtomicTango Fapstronaut

    Not sure how else to respond to this other than the way I write a random post on an internet forum is hardly reflective of how I write in other areas.
     
    Anakin66 likes this.
  5. AtomicTango

    AtomicTango Fapstronaut

    Had another productive morning, wrote around 700 words.
     
    Anakin66 likes this.
  6. Yeah I get it.
     
  7. Anakin66

    Anakin66 Fapstronaut

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    That's great progress. Keep up the good work!

    I'm about 90 % complete with my report (2400 words). Been at it all weekend and yesterday.
     
  8. Anakin66

    Anakin66 Fapstronaut

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    Using word counts is a strategy to help with motivation. It's basis is to establish a benchmark for consistency. It is by no means a standard for quality. I think we are all aware that an elegantly written paragraph is much more enjoyable to read than a page of incoherent babble.

    I don't think anyone goes to the library with the intention of reading a stack of encyclopedia. By nature, those are reference books that one would use to search for a particular subject or topic, before the internet of course. Contrast your example with the Harry Potter series. Lots of thick books, yet widely read from all corners of the world.
     
  9. Anakin66

    Anakin66 Fapstronaut

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    Writing online posts are by no means a basis to evaluate one's writing ability. I've seen famous authors make errors on Twitter and Facebook before.

    Just because you are intimidated by a 500+ pages book means others are. I know lots of readaholics who would make it their mission to finish such a book.
     
  10. Yes, but everyone's book is a reference book, of any subject.

    A Harry Potter book is a reference book about the world of Harry Potter told through a narrative.

    I started reading Infinite Jest.

    What a bomb.

    About 20 pages in, I have to read about a football kicker with a roach problem.

    I'm thinking, is this going anywhere?

    If they are going to submerge me into a world,

    the plot is what keeps me there.

    That's why I don't read fantasy.

    All curtains and no view.

    Also, I'm a Christian and we don't read about demons and magic.

    All that is part of the occult, which condemns a person

    into the pit of hell for eternity.

    And, I also don't feel like I missed out on any entertainment value, either.
     
  11. AtomicTango

    AtomicTango Fapstronaut

    Great stuff, keep it up. I'm aiming for between 500 and 1000 words a day, which is achievable for me but not burnout level taxing. Its a fine balancing act between writing enough that I feel like I'm making tangible progress and not writing so much I start to hate what I'm doing.
     
    Anakin66 likes this.
  12. AtomicTango

    AtomicTango Fapstronaut

    If anything my writing style shifts depending on what I am writing. I've written short stories that are very punchy with little description, I've written stuff that attempts to emulate other authors (I recently wrote a Lovecraft style story as a challenge to myself and that was fun), my current novel is perhaps something different from any of those things.

    I also want to bring up the run on sentence thing, as I knew I was forgetting something before but I remember it now. It was that a lot of famous authors use run on sentences for effect even if they are technically grammatically incorrect. For example, Cormac McCarthy, often regarded as one of the best living american novelists, wrote this famous passage in his masterpiece, Blood Meridian;

    "A legion of horribles, hundreds in number, half naked or clad in costumes attic or biblical or wardrobed out of a fevered dream with the skins of animals and silk finery and pieces of uniform still tracked with the blood of prior owners, coats of slain dragoons, frogged and braided cavalry jackets, one in a stovepipe hat and one with an umbrella and one in white stockings and a bloodstained wedding veil and some in headgear or cranefeathers or rawhide helmets that bore the horns of bull or buffalo and one in a pigeontailed coat worn backwards and otherwise naked and one in the armor of a Spanish conquistador, the breastplate and pauldrons deeply dented with old blows of mace or sabre done in another country by men whose very bones were dust and many with their braids spliced up with the hair of other beasts until they trailed upon the ground and their horses' ears and tails worked with bits of brightly colored cloth and one whose horse's whole head was painted crimson red and all the horsemen's faces gaudy and grotesque with daubings like a company of mounted clowns, death hilarious, all howling in a barbarous tongue and riding down upon them like a horde from a hell more horrible yet than the brimstone land of Christian reckoning, screeching and yammering and clothed in smoke like those vaporous beings in regions beyond right knowing where the eye wanders and the lip jerks and drools."

    This is all a run on sentence, yet is judged by critics and scholars as being one of his most famous and well written passages, in a book that is regularly in the top 100 novels of the 20th century. Cormacs work in general is an example of defying writing conventions, because he rarely uses all but the most basic of punctuation, and he doesnt structure his dialogue or paragraphs in the way most English teachers say you "have to", and yet he is still considered one of the best.
     
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  13. AtomicTango

    AtomicTango Fapstronaut

    Got very invested in what I was writing this morning, got 1100 words done. I'm having a lot of fun doing this!
     
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  14. Kvath

    Kvath Fapstronaut

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    What's up people? I'm falling short in the writing department this couple of days but I have everything set up and will start writing today, and each day after that, one short writing a day. I have a small pocket notebook which fits around 50 words per page. I'll keep you updated.

    I've been thinking I could create a cheap website and start posting all of my writings in there. My impostor syndrome kicks me in the balls anytime I think about doing it, but I think that's a great idea... do you think I should do it? I would like to know what you guys think
     
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  15. longas

    longas New Fapstronaut

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    Keep going!
     
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  16. Anakin66

    Anakin66 Fapstronaut

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    Makes it all the more worthwhile eh?
     
  17. Anakin66

    Anakin66 Fapstronaut

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    Sounds like a great idea indeed. I would love to read what you are writing. There are lots of online resources available to get started. Go for it!
     
  18. Anakin66

    Anakin66 Fapstronaut

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    Sorry to burst your bubble, but demons and "magic" are central tenets of Christianity.


    Clearly you are arguing at surface resolution. Harry potter is fiction, an encyclopedia is a collection of facts. They have different purposes. Would you sit and read an encyclopedia from front to back expecting a juicy plotline?

    Coming back to your original argument, that voluminous works doesn't necessarily reflect quality, I totally agree. But, on the other hand, one can produce quality works of literature in many volumes. As I stated earlier, we use word count here as a motivational tool, and as a measure to build consistency to have a tangible writing output.

    Btw, there are strong biblical parallels between Harry Potter and Christ the saviour. You are indeed missing out on an important lesson even by your religious teachings.
     
  19. AtomicTango

    AtomicTango Fapstronaut

    It definitely does, I just got done with another 1500 words.
     
  20. Kvath

    Kvath Fapstronaut

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    I'll make the website and start curating all of my writings. Everything's in spanish though, so I'll install an automatic translator so you guys can read it. I'll keep you updated. Thanks for the encouragement :)
     
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