Weekly out-of-character thread

[u/AutoModerator]

Talk about writing unironically, vent about other writing forums, or discuss whatever you like here.

New to the community? Start with the wiki.

Also, you can post links to your writing here, if you really want to. But only here! This is the only place in the subreddit where self-promotion is permitted.

[u/IronbarBooks]

I've probably ranted about this before, but...

I can understand that the majority of Redditors who post their work for critique are not interested in reading - that "being a writer" is their route to fame and fortune, perhaps through adaptation to more interesting media, like anime or film. I can understand that this accounts for their inability to spell or punctuate, or construct a sentence, as well as for the endless "How do I write X?" questions.

I get that.

What I can't understand, and had never seen before I came to Reddit, is their inability to write two consecutive sentences in the same tense. EVERY SINGLE STORY goes, "He walks up the lane. It was a long way. When he got to the top he looks around."

These people speak. They hold conversations. How is it that as soon as they sit down to write, they become unable to distinguish between now and then? What mental process is taking place there?

[u/NamoReviews → u/IronbarBooks]

I think you answered your own question.

It is, in part, because they don't read at all. You become a lot better at picking up on these things if you've read some books.

Beyond that? I guess it's simply from laziness. Or not caring. I say this because I've seen a million writing related arguments in my time where someone doesn't brag about the quality of their novel, but the quality of their idea. You've probably seen this on some threads. Someone wants help but won't disclose anything that would let someone help because "you'll steal my epic one of a kind movie deal idea!"

Then their idea is just a carbon copy of the biggest story driven game or most popular seasonal anime, but it's set in their home country.

[u/Shieldbreaker24 → u/IronbarBooks]

It was a mess. It is probably because of their childhood traumas? What happened.

[u/Shartcastic → u/IronbarBooks]

People switch tenses all the time when talking, that's why they fuck it up. They don't think of how writing and speaking have different rules. They just write it how they would say it. 

[u/Unit-Expensive → u/IronbarBooks]

it's what happens when they can't use ai

[u/Masochisticism]

It's now becoming a weekly trend that people use this thread for self-promo. Reporting the posts doesn't seem to get them removed, so I have to conclude that they're wanted here, on some level.

It remains difficult for me to understand why indie writers are so insistent on shitting up their own spaces by advertising to other writers instead of a broader reading public. Maybe it's because they already know they'll be banished if they try to market in reader spaces? Anyway, it's also a swift road to this thread becoming unusable garbage if it becomes accepted practice to self-promote in it.

There's a reason a lot of subs have strict self-promotion rules: Because they become a jungle of "Buy my [product]!" posts and threads, and little actual content. There's nowhere to escape the marketing, and apparently no one with enough of a spine to tell the marketers to stop infesting every possible space, in subs that don't have these rules. You might think that a parody sub wouldn't need self-promo rules, but it seems to me that this one now does.

[u/Shartcastic → u/Masochisticism]

Did you read the actual post? It says self promotion is allowed here and the only place it's allowed on the sub. 

[u/Shieldbreaker24]

Hey jerks. Shameless self-promo incoming.

Free novel. Rest of the series is in progress. Hope you enjoy it. Don’t be shy about mocking it if you don’t. We’re all friends here.

[u/master6494]

Oof, this place is going downhill. Five top level comments and three are self promos.

Shoo, go away.

Anyway, since I haven't commented here in like half a year, let's talk about strategies to go through a block. I'm currently writing a sorta-absurd comedy (think John Dies at the End or Tales of the Gas Station), and I struggled through the last few chapters because I was feeling moody and could only write idiotic contemplations on life instead of something funny.

So I went back to a previous project (dark fantasy, sue me), and wrote a depressing and horror-lite story to get out of the funk. It worked like a charm, allowing me to get back to the comedy with new energy, and get a nice grim short story to edit in a month or so and see if any magazine wants it.

What are your strategies? Do you get a book on the same/different genre? Watch a cool movie to steal ideas from? Shit on the dumbasses over at r/writing?

Do they work?

[u/Pokejedservo]

Alright then *cracks fingers* The name is Pokejedservo and you can find my written handiwork at either one of these sites at...

DeviantArt

Archive Of Our Own

I used to be a writer at Fanfiction.net until they did their "No Script Format" rule back in the early 2000s now I only occasionally lurk there.

[u/PTLacy]

Did someone say self-promo?

Hells yeah!

Go read my blog, From The Smallest Desk. Maybe you're interested in the James Cameron movie nobody ever talks about, or how Jodie Foster came to totally shit up a Dennis Hopper movie, or if The 13th Warrior deserves being the biggest bomb ever.

It's free, now and forever. Updates Wednesdays and Saturdays at 12:00 Central European time.