Something you 100% believe in author do but dont admit

[TASTYLEADPAINT]

I'll go first: 80% of 'plot twists/foreshadowing' is just authors reusing fan theories.

This really.

 

[AmbreaTaddy]

Write to reach a word count, so add paragraphs that are absolutly useless for the story and might be redundant. Or add fluff that is absolutly useless for the scene, but they miss 500 words to reach their goal of 2k words per chapter

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

Write spicy chapters between two of the characters you secretly ship, and then delete them before your readers can see it and you bring dishonor on yourself, your family, and your cow. What is wrong with you? Your parents are right to be ashamed.

 

[gaylolis]

i feel authors actually hate reading a lot more than regular readers

 

[ResidentDeviant]

This really.

Hmm... I've got this idea, but that theory sounds much better. Lemme grab that.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Successful authors usually have a team of people to help produce and publish the book with enough money and market backing to sell well.

 

[AmbreaTaddy]

Successful authors usually have a team of people to help produce and publish the book with enough money and market backing to sell well.

True. And less than 20% of published authors (who have a book selling in bookstores, not the online ones) earn enough to make a living. The others have a second job (source)

 

[Deleted member 266]

team of people

That's how I think about James Patterson.

He has a farm somewhere, and everyones is called James Patterson with a number and there are 50 or 80 of them.

Every now and then a JP will go present their book to James Patterson #1. If he likes it, it gets published. If not, they get rejected and their James Patterson rank drops, if it too low they are fired from the James Patterson ranch, and they don't get to be James Patterson anymore.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

That's how I think about James Patterson.

James Patterson does absolutely none of his own writing. At best, he might come up with the initial idea for a book before passing it along to one of his "co-authors." That's why each book in his longer series feels so vastly different and disconnected from each other. They were all written by a different "co-author" with their own style and ideas for where the series should go.

I used to be a fan of him in high school when Maximum Ride was really big, but then I made the mistake of meeting him. He was supposed to hold a conference to teach young writers how to become successful professional authors like him, but literally all he wanted to talk about was how many books he had for sale. "You need to buy them. All of them. If you don't have your own money, tell your parents to buy them for you. Ask for them for Christmas or birthday presents if you have to. Tell your friends to buy them too. If they won't, buy a second copy and give it to them." I tried to ask something about how he made himself write on days he didn't feel like writing, and he interrupted me to say "I don't write. Next question!" He's one of the biggest creeps I've ever met.

It also didn't hurt that I tried to go back and read Maximum Ride ten years or so later, and found out it was one of the most badly written books I've ever touched. I've seen fanfics written by middle schoolers with more skill than these hacks.

 

[Tyranomaster]

The majority of people who "write" and want to "be writers", especially within online writing spaces, don't treat it seriously enough, and that's why they fail. Whenever I see someone ask a question that has been asked and answered a dozen times, I think to myself, "This person will probably never make it because they aren't willing to put in the effort."

 

[AmbreaTaddy]

The majority of people who "write" and want to "be writers", especially within online writing spaces, don't treat it seriously enough, and that's why they fail. Whenever I see someone ask a question that has been asked and answered a dozen times, I think to myself, "This person will probably never make it because they aren't willing to put in the effort."

Or they want to do it for the money. Like, they haven't finished 3 chapters yet, and they ask how to set up a Patreon. Buddy, even people who've writing for years have a hard time earning enough to make a living

 

[CharlesEBrown]

James Patterson does absolutely none of his own writing. At best, he might come up with the initial idea for a book before passing it along to one of his "co-authors." That's why each book in his longer series feels so vastly different and disconnected from each other. They were all written by a different "co-author" with their own style and ideas for where the series should go.

There are about five or six "big name" authors like this - had one book that was moderately successful after a publishing house passed it over to a co-author to finish, and used that to build a "stable" of authors to write "his" books, morphing into a powerhouse. Tom Clancy was this way, IIRC. Supposedly they come up with a core idea, either alone, with a "celebrity co-writer" or with a group of writers around them, send the idea out to their "farm" of up-and-comers to write, edit a few chapters, make sure the final project is readable, and send it off to the publisher.

It also didn't hurt that I tried to go back and read Maximum Ride ten years or so later, and found out it was one of the most badly written books I've ever touched. I've seen fanfics written by middle schoolers with more skill than these hacks.

I liked the first one, despite a few hiccups. The second was better written but just not as fun. Then it morphed into a "save the world from corporate raiders forcing climate change" manifesto instead of a fun coming-of-age-with-superpowers-in-a-world-of-mostly-hostile-normals series and just killed my interest. Each book did feel written by a different person but edited by someone to try and make them a little consistent.

 

[ThisAdamGuy]

save the world from corporate raiders forcing climate change

Even as a fifteen year old, that threw me for a loop. They spent the whole series talking about how Max was created to save the world, and the end result of that is that she's...supposed to hold a bunch of anti-global warming rallies? And they needed a bunch of human/bird mutants to do that for clearly self-evident reasons, of course. I also vaguely remember Max raising an army of civilian kids and telling them to storm a highly militarized government facility full of people who have made it abundantly clear they have no qualms about killing innocent people if they're so much as a minor inconvenience.

Yeah, the farther you get in that series, the weirder it gets.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Even as a fifteen year old, that threw me for a loop. They spent the whole series talking about how Max was created to save the world, and the end result of that is that she's...supposed to hold a bunch of anti-global warming rallies? And they needed a bunch of human/bird mutants to do that for clearly self-evident reasons, of course. I also vaguely remember Max raising an army of civilian kids and telling them to storm a highly militarized government facility full of people who have made it abundantly clear they have no qualms about killing innocent people if they're so much as a minor inconvenience.

You made it one book farther than I did, then. Or that was in one of the two spin-off novels featuring the other bird-mutants (which I also ignored)

 

[Deleted member 266]

That's how I think about James Patterson.

He has a farm somewhere, and everyones is called James Patterson with a number and there are 50 or 80 of them.

Every now and then a JP will go present their book to James Patterson #1. If he likes it, it gets published. If not, they get rejected and their James Patterson rank drops, if it too low they are fired from the James Patterson ranch, and they don't get to be James Patterson anymore.

There is also a fight club, and when he is bored he hunts them for sport.

 

[TreasureHouse]

Inside every good murderhobo fantasy writer there is a romantic smutty author waiting to bloom.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Pretend like they have any idea what's going on, yet stumble into greatness. Cursed with forever writing gold, yet they don't even realize it themselves. Or that might be only my great self.

 

[l8rose]

I'll go first: 80% of 'plot twists/foreshadowing' is just authors reusing fan theories.

I admit to this! Well, to a certain degree anyway. Fan theories about a few things in one of my fanfictions inspired chapters from other character's PoVs and had me swapping out characters for plot points instead of using the ones I was going to. Kind of like a "huh... that makes more sense" after it gets pointed out.

Write spicy chapters between two of the characters you secretly ship, and then delete them before your readers can see it and you bring dishonor on yourself, your family, and your cow. What is wrong with you? Your parents are right to be ashamed.

What do you mean "delete"? Not that... I've done that...




And I 100% believe that anyone who says they plan out their story to the nth degree and that it's never changed from that plan is lying.

 

[Nolff]

Notice: I am just a victim-nya.I have reincarnated countless times and being a duck is just kind mid,however, that doesn't mean I'm not absolute-nya.

nya? A cat will awalys be a cat. You think you can become a duck, just because you jumped into the river of reincarnation?

Both of you are foolish to assume you are eternal in this internet era.

 

[lambenttyto]

I watched a writing advice video talking about how you should tackle themes by thinking of them as one single question instead of a more broad idea, which pissed me the hell off. A lot of the stories I love don't fit into that.

And don't forget other craft nonsense, like "Writing is rewriting." Nonsense.