No.14227
How do you make sure your writing doesn't come off as pretentious?
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No.14228
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No.14235
>>14227
What I think you need to do is not being be a smug fuck. Fedora fuckers are generally full of themselves, even when they try to play coy. What you want to avoid is parading your speculative ideas as if they were hard facts and make fun of everything else because "it's silly to me" or other bullshit reason. That's - in my opinion - the first facet of pretentiousness.
The second facet is a more angsty one, where you try to be "deep" while being surface level thinker, blow your simple conflicts out of proportions with "no guyz this scene is actually really meaningful because that character is sad" while not even thinking about writing something actually deep.
I think a lot of pretentiousness in writing comes from poeple wanting to be grand meaningful writers right away without knowing the basic about their craft. Learn how to write a scene, how to construct a plot and connect it with characters, learn about themes and narrative.
Could you tell me why do you ask? Currently reading a pretentious book or being afraid of writing one?
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No.14243
>>14235
>Could you tell me why do you ask? Currently reading a pretentious book or being afraid of writing one?
Afraid of writing one. I'm writing a story that essentially came from my subconscious. It has a strange, dream-like, quality to it, but some parts I don't fully understand and they can come off as trying to be deep for the sake of being deep. I'm afraid of removing them, though, because I don't want to mess with the story's integrity and have it lose that dream-like quality that comes from originating in the subconscious.
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No.14244
Realize that being pretentious is actually the final redpill.
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No.14245
>>14243
That's good you're concerned about it. When you insert elements that even you, the author, don't understand, you run a great risk of coming off as pretentious. Like a puzzle, you must understand where all the pieces of your story fit - that's the basics of writing.
A couple of my stories come from subconsciousness as well, so I know how you must feel. But you have to remember two things: first, your story changes as you edit it. The final draft will always be different from the raw block of words that it was in the beginning. Don't be afraid to change some of the details/plot points because what matters most is the good of your story. You can always store the cut content away in a different folder, to be used in another story. You can create two folders for your story: the first is the story, the second is filled with all the cut content you didn't want to throw out, be it entire events or just parts of sentences. This way you won't waste time stressing over changing things too much.
The second is getting to know your story. If you don't understand those events, try to understand them, try to give them meaning. Dream-like stories are generally packed with symbolism and things subliminal. Try to give those events symbolic meaning.
Giving an example from my own pocket: I was recently inspired to write a story about a man on a boat who drowned someone. After chaotically planning out the plot I began researching symbolic meaning of the key images appearing throughout the story. Sea, for example (and deep waters in general) is linked to dark parts of our minds that we have no control over, but also to intuition and - to some extent - unrealized potential. This way I figured out the themes and main focus of my story.
I think pretentiousness comes from people who have ideas, but no will or curiosity to actually discover the potential of their own ideas. This way writers hold themselves back. If you as an author are not curious of your own story, you will never make your readers curious.
>>14244
If you want your stories to be just propaganda pieces, then sure, go ahead.
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No.14246
>>14245
Something that's pretentious is not necessarily propagandic, for pretension is merely faking knowledge, ability, etc. It's a distortion of you and your essence.
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No.14250
>>14227
Don't unironically allude to greater depths than you can substantiate
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No.14262
How do you make sure your poetry doesn't come off as pretentious?
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No.14263
>>14227
To address your question very literally: To be pretentious is to pretend that you're saying more than you really are - to proclaim a bunch of ideas without having any idea what they really mean or how (if at all) they actually fit into what you're writing. Keep your themes in mind as you write, take note of exactly what you're doing to express the themes you mean to express, and - and this'd be the key, really - overall make sure that your work demonstrates its themes rather than just proclaiming them.
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No.14264
>>14244
Right, because from a work that proclaims everything you could derive anything. Except that mankind's ability to link ideas - to derive one idea from another - is infinite, and from any work whatsoever you truly could derive - however tenuously so - any idea whatsoever. What's left, given that, is the depth to which an idea derived from a work can actually be related back to that work - the level to which that idea can actually be seen throughout that work. "Pretension," now - unless you've just come up with your own word that you'd just call "pretension" - is the absence in a work of the ability that a work's author would seemingly wish to have found in that work to relate ideas derived from that work back to that work on any significant level. I don't need to explain the issue with that, surely.
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No.14309
>>14227
Just to add to the already sufficient advice provided in this thread. Do not allow audience response or presumed audience response to dictate you in your writing completely. Of course, a certain degree of attention should be given to presenting your work in a cohesive way that actually makes logical sense and has some sort of consistency in tone, theme and style. However, to allow your concerns on whether your audience will appreciate or criticize each portion you include will lead you to make choices that will compromise and dilute your writing. At the end of the day your work is your own, and the foremost though in your evaluation of it should be whether it is perfect within your own eyes rather than the eyes of a passing critic or humble reader. As long as you have respect for your own work and hold it to a high standard of your own creation then the various issued will be kneaded out via your own criticisms and endeavors to create the perfect work you initially envisioned.
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No.14328
Oddly enough most of the anon's ITT come off as pretentious to me. Also >>14245
>Muh symbolism
Read: http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Symbols.html
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No.14330
>>14328
That's because you're a stupid cocksucker.
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No.14346
the best part about literature is that it's always pretentious dude
Unless you're writing a fanfiction then there's no escape, maybe children's books too
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No.14360
Don't use too many fancy words. I can spot instantly when author tries too hard by using rare words in place they don't fit.
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No.14378
>>14262
avoid overuse of alliteration, don't force rhymes in poems, use abstract nouns in moderation.
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No.14393
>>14227
FAPE HAS ARE D HAS POSSIB;ELY :D
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No.14517
>>14227
Only use big words when you need them, meditate regularly to keep the ego on the back burner, prioritize fun.
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No.14536
Don't lecture the reader. If you want to present your opinions, let them leak out through the characters or be part of the story.
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No.17097
>Scared of composing one. I'm documenting a story that came from my subconscious. It has a weird, dream-like rate, but some regions I don't fully comprehend can come off as attempting to be profound for the sake of living in-depth.
- Why not use some essay grader service for such types of writings like https://edubirdie.com/essay-grader or give some relative to look at your work and give feedback?
>I'm afraid of drawing them because I don't enjoy messing with the story's innocence and having it lose that dream-like rate forming in the subconscious.
- Yeah, you are right; sometimes, original stories have weird taste, so to be sure, better to validate writing on real readers.
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