Dude! Take heart. I’m currently reading a book written entirely in run-on sentences, published last year by Penguin, and the writer’s famous and probably wealthy. So the answer is yes, yes you can write whatever you want, and someone will publish it. Of course, this book has a political message, but it’s really interesting so far if you can somehow ignore these god-awful freakin’ sentences.
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that too, honestly. can i write? sources indicate not.
hm, maybe i am just being allergic to spicy today. how unfortunate 
sssksjjsns w h a t
i thought you just typed in the code and your font got bigger.
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See for yourself
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So you are telling me that I can have all the literacy of the person who wrote “suddenly I could touch me” and still write lit fic?
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Nope! Litfic isn’t what people around here seem to think it is. It’s not the opposite of genre fiction – it comes in every genre that commercial fiction does. Litfic is defined by the depth, and it’s unlikely that someone illiterate can write a book with any depth to it.
However! If you have all the literacy of the person who wrote “suddenly I could touch me” and you want to write a book that gets published, you’ll likely be successful if you’re persistent, lucky, and maybe know a popular influencer. (>‿◠)
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Need to rewrite the lyrics to the “Everything is Awesome” to “Everything’s Offensive”.
But then, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that everything is offensive after the “Me Generation” . If everything is about the self, and you teach the following generations that it’s all self, and they try to take on rebelling against that notion without being taught older ideological forms of selflessness, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that “my offense” is greater than “your freedom”, especially when I can be offended for someone else’s sake.
Not that there aren’t genuine things to be offended by, by a long shot. It’s just when you’re rebelling against the previous generations rebellion, and they are doing the same, it’s a long convoy of the telephone game, and we’ve long forgotten the purpose.
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There’s always self publishing.The industry can’t bring me down or tell me what to do. And I plan to do it right. My stories will be edited and refined. And have decent covers. I’m not expecting to be the next best thing in publishing. Or anything like that. Just want to get my passions and works out there without censorship.
I think that people are brainwashed into thinking that the Big Five companies are the end all and be all of writing and what gets published but they’re not. Yes publishing companies work for a lot of genre fiction but if you think outside of the box, there are alternatives.
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If it’s defined by its depth then why is Less litfic? It’s as deep as a puddle.
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Everyone is self defeating. And I don’t care if everything’s offensive. Censoring art isn’t letting it tell its truth, and the message swap out. Self publish or nothing, if things are going that way.
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I know it’s classified as litfic on Amazon, but the reviews are correct – it’s been miscategorized. It’s actually just a gay romance beach read, and how it won a Pulitzer I’ll never know. But how Confederacy of Dunces won a Pulitzer I’ll never know either, and I actually liked both of these books even though they’re both pretty shallow. But miscategorization is a thing. It happens all the time on Amazon, even with Big Five books, so I wouldn’t believe what the categories say when it conflicts with what I see with my own eyes. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
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Generally speaking, writing is all about finding your voice and allowing you the freedom to write whatever you want to write. If you want to write about dragon or fairy porn, you can write about dragon and fairy porn. If you want to write about a sadistic serial killing child, you can write about that. If you want to write a memoir of your day to day life, you can do that. If you want to write about an animal like a dog or a cat and their daily lifestyle, you can do that too. Unicorn battles, ghostly children, diary series of your life, torturing your bully, whatever it is that will make you happy… you can have at it.
There is no rule, no guideline, no policy that states you cannot write these. Even if you write a homophobic, transphobic, sexist, racist, white supremacist like book… you have the right as a human being to write these things.
But… if and or when you share such things for others to read, you have to be aware of the backlash, the cancel culture, the feedback, the unsolicited advice from everyone that comes across it. People will nitpick until their eyes bleed. People will scream at you until their vocal cords break. People will rant and rage and do whatever the hell they wanna do to make sure people don’t ever read your book again. On one hand, this can be overwhelming. But at the end of the day, they’re readers and their opinion—no matter how crappy it may be—depend on the future of your storytelling, specifically if you want a future in publishing. So if you get mad at a reader, don’t approach them. Don’t publicly humiliate them because you’re only going to humiliate yourself.
If you want to write about what you want to write about, you can. But keep in mind: you’re writing toward an audience who has big opinions and loud voices. It’s best to have sensitivity readers, to write about things that aren’t harmful to others, to research your work thoroughly. Otherwise, you can face the consequences.
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Respectfully, I disagree with what you’re saying.
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Isn’t that only for trad pub though?
I can understand if you want to publish through a publishing house, you’re kind of stuck with following what they want which might not be what you want.
But if you go the self-pub route, you can do what you want to an extent (because as @AMMeyers said, you have to be careful with what you write if you’re going to share it with others).
BUT
if you want to make a living out of it, writing what you want through self-pub might not pay your bills 
You can do it, no one is stopping you, but you might not have a big audience because you’ll still have to write what many people would like to read if you want to live off of writing. So, even self-pub faces a problem.
When you want to make good money out of writing what you want, you might still face the same problem you do with trad pub.
What do you think?
@JohnnyTuturro thoughts?
Adding:
Not to say there aren’t self-pub books that hit a niche and do really well. You have to find the niche though.
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Totally agree. For this generation, while a lot of it is understandable, some of it is really minor stupid things that makes you just look at the person like “are you okay?”
Yes
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Honestly, this is why I self published. I know I won’t get a proper publisher because all my stuff is apparently offensive for whatever reason (even when it’s not), but it’s my story and I’m the one telling it so I’m doing it my way. So long as you don’t speak for others (without their permission) or specifically set out to target and harm others for race/religion/gender/etc reasons, you should be allowed to tell your own story without everyone going “well you’re WRONG and that’s offensive to ME.” Really, it’s just annoying
Eg, just because my MC is Black doesn’t mean I’m trying to speak on behalf of people who are Black. My MC just happens to be Black.
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Why I do see where you’re coming from, the publishing and author world can be rather snobbish (especially depending on which genre you write it), I do believe the only “rule” to follow is “you must know the rules to break the rules”. You don’t “need” to be anything, but spurning writing techniques is throwing a huge amount of weaponry from your arsenal.
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To kind of play devil’s advocate, and be fair, there are reasons why certain things are “censored” or written a certain way. It’s fine to put your own twist to things, and ofc there’s never going to be a consensus on the “right way” to represent/do something. But taking into account the feelings/preceptive of those you’re writing about (even if it’s personal to you) is, imo, very important if you’re going to be publishing to a wide audience.
Otherwise, you could potentially be producing damaging material that does more harm than good.
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Self publishing is pretty much selling out though. It’s what you do if you’re not good enough to get through the query process. It’s like a last resort sort of thing. It’s losing, basically. There’s not much hope either way.
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Personally, I don’t see it as a last resort or something you do when you’re not good enough. I know many self-pub authors that are doing pretty well. I think it’s another option. It’s not losing. It’s being able to publish what you want in the way you want to. But that’s just my perspective 
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As long as you have expectations and are happy with them, that’s all that matters. As long as you know they aren’t going to pick up your work. And you want to write what you want. Some people just can’t see that, and they bust their guts trying to get famous when realistically, it will never happen for them on the scale that they want it to happen.
Yes, of course. Wattpad has kinda put me off publishing anything serious on their website because of those Novel HD thieves, but I do dabble on there for experimentation. I always have copyright on those ideas are mine, though and proof that I came up with them first. I think that every author should do that.
Nothing is keeping me from what I want to write, but I am frustrated with people who think that they have to write a certain way, to appease publishers when the market is already saturated with the same thing; sure, if you wanna go down the published route and that direction, you can write within the genre, but please make it unique; make your characters interesting, make the plots a bit unexpected, and make it your own voice. Don’t copy everyone else to a tee. They are themselves, and you are yourself.
Pretty much all of the “lit fic” stories that I have picked up have all been pretentious in some way, and the author is trying to trick people into thinking that “pretentious = deep” when that’s not always the case. And I don’t want to be gaslit into thinking that things are deep because they are pretentiously intellectual, and have run-on sentences that never seem to have an end in sight, ones that never seem to tickle the void of destruction even slightly; and ones that never get sucked into eternal destruction…
… If you know what I’m saying? 
Yes, the media definitely is guilty of that. I would honestly rather, at this point, have no rep than rep that is done terribly/stereotypically. And the fact that they get praised for virtue signaling is insulting and annoying. It seems like, in this day and age that mediocrity really does get praised. It’s annoying.
Yes, exactly. It annoys me when they can’t let rep be natural. They have to ANNOUNCE IT, and that annoys people when it’s all about the character’s identity, and not tackling things naturally. It makes people lose trust in the media production companies and not want to watch their stuff anymore.
Yeah, other stories shouldn’t ride of the main genre-defining hit story’s success. The Hunger Games is The Hunger Games and it came out at the right time, and people enjoyed reading it. It was “lightning in a bottle” and Suzanne Collins was the one who captured it at the time. Of course, you can write Dystopians, but don’t try and be “the next” anything. You become the hit success by pushing boundaries, and writing things in such a way that people want to read it, and discuss it.
People shouldn’t be sheep and saturate the market. And like you said, it doesn’t leave any wiggle room for anyone looking to try out something different. And that is unfair, and it sucks for the people who can’t break the mold. Publishers will also be against them doing anything different because Hunger Games clones are what they are expecting and maybe won’t give anything else a chance.
And it’s fine, haha. I think you understood me well enough 
Yeah, a minimal structure is one thing, but a complex structure where you do Math equations for each chapter is ridiculous. Having something to keep you on track is perfectly fine. But not overcomplicating things and making a big deal out of it and losing the flow of the story. That’s dumb. I would also run out of a room shrieking if that happened, lol.
Yes, keeping track is important but not overdoing it, you know?
Yes, of course. Saturation is a big issue. No one is that unique. People should just focus on writing something good first and foremost, above being unique.
Yes, exactly. No one is always smart or a genius. And having people underestimate you is fun tbh. And yes, over-engineering overcomplicated stores that would have been amazing with more character moments a d world building rather than just straight up plot. It frustrates me at times. Exactly, novels do change, according to the audience and the writer … there is no one size fits all formula, is there?
Yes, I agree 100%. You will never please everyone all of the time anyway.
The premise of his book reminds me of this movie from the 70s, but only in a dystopian setting. And obviously different sentiments.
I’ve heard of Mohsin Hamid before, and I may check him out in the future, but just not right now. I have a bazillion other stories to read now.
Freedom of speech, definitely is important and so is finding your voice. You can write whatever you want to yes and that’s covered by law definitely but I agree with your point that you will receive backlash if it is derogatory. And yes, if you put it in the public domain, it will be under public scrutiny. People can say whatever they want about your book. People will cancel you, if they think it’s ‘wrong’ what you write about, and they are welcome to that opinion.
Yes, try not to offend your readers if you want to go to the publishing route, and try to make money because your potential audience will be turned off you. And they won’t want to buy your writing. It won’t be a feasible way to make money, and do something you enjoy (to an extent).
And yes, on the topic of reviewers approaching readers in reviewing spaces. Many booktubers do advise against that. You don’t want to end up in another sort of Lauren Hough like situation. She really got called out for turning against other people, and the reviews she got really weren’t harsh. They were genuinely pretty good. She was just being entitled, and it kinda ruined her credibility in the eyes of people, I think, and alienated her potential audience when people saw what she was doing.
Yes, and a lot of people will be prepared to help you if you need to them to read things for you, and help your story be the best it can be. And researching goes a long way in making things more authentic, and in helping you get the rep right for your audience.
Thank for you being respectful, I appreciate that. 
Yeah, if you are going to do the self pub route, I think that you still need to put in the effort and have standards for your book. Yes, you can have more freedom on the subject matter, and the structure but it still needs to be readable, and a good quality story. You can’t just chuck anything at the public, and expect it to sell well. It still needs edited, a nice cover, good characters and some beta/sensitivity readers. Oh, and some form of promotion as well.
I think that self publishing is possible but I agree. You need to realistic. You need to definitely find your book’s niche or USP (unique selling point) like you said. And not alienate your audience. And I agree that the audience usually is nowhere near as much as trad pub, usually and you don’t get paid near enough but trad pub still has it’s issues, like the current Harper Collins scenario.
At the end of the day, you need to pick the best medium for your book, and write what you want for yourself first and foremost. If you do want to publicly publish it, yes, it will need cleaned up, but you still need to keep the essence of what makes your work special, imo. You can’t just be super formulaic and write say, “the next Hunger Games” or “Red, White and Royal Blue” and instantly expect the success of those authors in an already saturated market, imo.
Yes, you can write genre fiction like those stories, but it still needs something unique that catches the eye of the audience, or the publishers. It can’t all be boring and dry. It needs you to bring it to life, still, if you get me? The audience needs something to cling to and characters to root for, no matter if it’s trad or self published. They need to remember it and be hooked in.
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