Who are you envious of?

[Kimikimidoll]

This can go either very right, or very, very wrong. I don't care either way.

What I meant by the title is this: we all have something another has. How well we hide it or deal with it is another matter, but whatev, that's not the point. Everyone wants something.

Since this is the Author's board and all, the something is being limited to writing skills. Plot, language, characterization, wording, ideas, readership, sheer number of published works, perfect grammar, whatever.

So I call upon all of you to get off your high horses and say something nice about another author, either here on Lit or outside. It's the season to be grateful or whatever, so it's a way of telling another person, "Hey, you, you have this thing; I wish I did, but instead, you do, you lucky bastard. Be grateful while I slowly creep my way ahead..."

If it's too complex for you to understand just answer the above question, but pertaining to writing skills only. (otherwise we'll have a humungo list of stuff)

Let me start: I'm envious of Sir Terry Pratchett's way of wording things. This is what I mean:

When the first explorers from the warm lands around the Circle Sea travelled into the chilly hinterland they filled in the blank spaces on their maps by grabbing the nearest native, pointing at some distant landmark, speaking very clearly in a loud voice, and writing down whatever the bemused man told them. Thus were immortalised in generations of atlases such geographical oddities as Just A Mountain, I Don't Know, What? and, of course, Your Finger You Fool.

Hope you guys get the picture.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

GLYNNDAH comes to mind. She seems to intuitively know how to twirl a plot to get a confounded outcome, that is the ending is clever, plausible, and unexpected. Most writers cant do it. And I like her female characters. Theyre evil with hearts of gold.

 

[CyranoJ]

So I call upon all of you to get off your high horses and say something nice about another author, either here on Lit or outside.

Off-Lit: David Foster Wallace. For basically everything from his sense of the absurd and comic timing to his dizzying command of voice, pacing, characterization and an elegant way with language that can somehow make excess look like minimalism. I literally keep a copy of Infinite Jest at my bedside and re-read passages of it the way some people do with the Bible.

On-Lit: "AMoveableBeast." I actually think there are a number of genuinely impressive writers here, but this is one of the first Lit names who comes to mind for me in terms of just outright jaw-dropping, print-worthy "I wish I'd written that " prose. Some of his offerings in Erotic Horror would -- but for some of the spicier content that suits them to Lit -- be fully at home in a professionally published horror anthology.

 

[KindofHere]

..............

 

[Hypoxia]

Bad grammar. Should be, "Of whom are you envious?"

Me, I envy any who've been published. Even Clive Cussler.

Writing is a dirty business. Go fully-armed.

 

[Kimikimidoll]

Bad grammar. Should be, "Of whom are you envious?"

Me, I envy any who've been published. Even Clive Cussler.

Writing is a dirty business. Go fully-armed.

It sounds better that way to me.
I like how you envy.

 

[SamScribble]

It sounds better that way to me.
I like how you envy.

And if we are going to be picky, a preposition is something we should never end a sentence with.

Keep up the good work, Kimi.

 

[AlliaPotestas]

Off lit, difficult decision but at this moment in time I'll go for Katherine Dunn's cult classic Geek Love: "There are parts of Texas where a fly lives ten thousand years and a man can't die soon enough. Time gets strange there from too much sky, too many miles from crack to crease in the flat surface of the land.”

On lit, Hispet21, because I am loving the Rebellious Slave series

 

[Nezhul]

Off lit - I'll have to say Wildbow, the guy who wrote Worm. I really like the writing and characterization, the worldbuilding especially.

On lit - I have to admit I read less than 10 stories. Other people's erotic writing doesn't interest me much. So I'm not qualified to judge.

 

[Kimikimidoll]

On lit - I have to admit I read less than 10 stories. Other people's erotic writing doesn't interest me much. So I'm not qualified to judge.

My brother <3

 

[MindsMirror]

On Lit: DreamCloud - He should be published (if he isn't).
Off Lit: Tolkien - Essentially invented the entire sub genre of high fantasy.
-MM

 

[Nezhul]

My brother <3

heh.

I actually thought of Pratchett too first =)
But as much as I love his writing, I aspire to write in a slightly different genre and his style does not suit it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Tolkien - Essentially invented the entire sub genre of high fantasy.
-MM

Ah, no. Several others before JRR. These come to mind:

William Morris - Well at the World's End published 1896.
E.R Eddison - The Worm Ouroboros published 1923.
David Lindsay - Voyage to Arcturus published 1920.
William Hope Hodgson - The Night Land published 1912 (gives Mordor a run for its money - and the hero keeps the rescued frail in line by whipping her - something JRR never quite got around to doing).
The whole Arthurian Cycle....
The old Norse Elda Edda (a major influence on Tolkein and acknowledged by him as such - some poems attributed as early as the tenth century CE).
Even my old favourite "Titus Groan" - the first of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy - was published in 1946 (after The Hobbit but before LOTR). His Fuschia in her red dress is a beautiful heart break (wouldn't be allowed on Lit though, she's only sixteen in the first book, in her late thirties in the second).

Tolkien might have popularised the genre, he didn't invent it. Mythic fantasy and faery worlds have been around since mankind first started writing songs and poems down. There be many dragons on maps long before Smaug...

Back on topic: envy? No one. Admiration? Several, even some from around here....

In real life - John Banville writes the best sentences, China Mieville writes great fucked up city scapes, and his The City and The City is worth a read at any time (especially if Orwellian Kafkaesque LA Confidential noir is your thing).

 

[NicoleZ]

Envy and jealousy are like Siamese twins; born from the realisation of your own shortcomings and inseparable except with the greatest of difficulties, so why should you envy someone their skill and success? I'm sure you meant "wish you were as good as X" or "had her/his ____" ?

On Lit, there are elements of close to every story that I have read that make me smile and say to myself "that was well done!". (Yes, even the stories of those whom I do not see eye-to-eye with.) But from there to say "I wish I could ___ just as well as X"? No, not really because what works for one person does not automatically work for someone else - just imagine if Terry Pratchett had written "The Lord of the Rings", Tanith Lee the "Discworld" series or Marion Zimmer Bradley "The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?!?

 

[Kimikimidoll]

Envy and jealousy are like Siamese twins; born from the realisation of your own shortcomings and inseparable except with the greatest of difficulties, so why should you envy someone their skill and success? I'm sure you meant "wish you were as good as X" or "had her/his ____" ?

I'm a bile spitting bitch that's why, but I have to be nice and put on a smile.

 

[hylas_]

No specific names from me:

On Lit: Being honest? I'm a bit jealous of writers who have 4.5+ ratings on most of their stories. I mean, I don't care that much. I'm just a little jealous

Off Lit: Anybody who can write (good) genre fiction. I love fantasy and sci-fi. I read/watch a lot of it. I love coming up with worlds and high-concepts. But I'm somehow unable to actually produce a story. It's weird.

 

[NicoleZ]

I'm a bile spitting bitch that's why, but I have to be nice and put on a smile.

You, me and a strap on. Would that put a smile on? Or do we need the paddles too? :caning:

(Sorry, I just couldn't resist )

 

[Kimikimidoll]

You, me and a strap on. Would that put a smile on? Or do we need the paddles too? :caning:

(Sorry, I just couldn't resist )

Oooh, thank you for getting them hon, now if you'd just bend over... XD

 

[ElectricBlue]

You, me and a strap on. Would that put a smile on? Or do we need the paddles too? :caning:

(Sorry, I just couldn't resist )

Down the corridor and turn right, there's a room there looks over the fire escape - no view out the window, but you won't care about that. You won't disturb the other guests.

The key's in the door, complimentary chocolates on the pillow. Late checkout, eleven o'clock....

 

[NicoleZ]

Oooh, thank you for getting them hon, now if you'd just bend over... XD

Mmm... I'm really going to enjoy this.

 

[NicoleZ]

Down the corridor and turn right, there's a room there looks over the fire escape - no view out the window, but you won't care about that. You won't disturb the other guests.

The key's in the door, complimentary chocolates on the pillow. Late checkout, eleven o'clock....

You want to join us girls? No worries cobber! Kimi dear, you did remember to bring the knebel, did you? Or do we use the strap-on, turned backwards? Arrgh! Men! Why are they always such a bother?

 

[Kimikimidoll]

You want to join us girls? No worries cobber! Kimi dear, you did remember to bring the knebel, did you? Or do we use the strap-on, turned backwards? Arrgh! Men! Why are they always such a bother?

ugh, no clue, and they say we mess things up... *shakes head sadly*

 

[sr71plt]

Outside of Literotica, I admire Graham Greene and John LaCarré, have written realistic espionage fluidly and engaging as I would like to write it and Lawrence Durrell, for his ability to weave subplots over a series of books. Most recently I have been impressed with Louise Penny, and noted such on the forum, for being able to weave plot, subplot, characterization, mystery, and emotion together so well. She, like Durrell, provides a richer read across her series, although each book stands on its own.

I don’t read much on Literotica, so it would be unfair to pick anyone out I’d like to be able to write like—other than I have edited for both dr_mabeuse (Elliot Mabeuse in the marketplace. https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=159353&page=submissions) and Varian_P (Varian Krylov in the marketplace. https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=394802&page=submissions) and both are excellent writers, worthy of being admired.

 

[MindsMirror]

Ah, no. Several others before JRR. These come to mind:

Fair enough. He is oft credited with it and in our opinion outshines all of those with the depth of research and creativity that he built into the back story of his world without any intent of publishing.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I wish I could be funny like Terry Pratchett. He was freakiqng amazing, from puns to hilarious situational comedy to brilliant, poignant dialogue. And still clever, intelligent and witty.

I miss him. *sniff*

Since I suck at being funny, I'll continue writing violent, dark and creepy shit instead