One should read more fiction = "buy my ebook." Nah I'd rather stick to one greatly written classic than read about a sentient cookie and a glass of milk named Winston becoming BFFs because they realize they'll both end up in the same place anyway. NYT best seller, lit fic category, penned by a british man who came from a long line of readers/writers.
Do you read Fiction?
- Thread starter badgerjelly
- Start date
A sentient cookie and a glass of milk named Winston? That appeals to me in a Brautiganian sort of way. After all, it's important to entertain all kinds of views, as weird as possible. That's what makes someone a good writer. 
After all, it's important to entertain all kinds of views, as weird as possible. That's what makes someone a good writer.
Also artificial stimulants.
Also mentioning "The King" makes one seem lowbrow and un-literary, so continue to do so at your own peril. Not saying I agree or disagree with that assertion, just...you've been warned.
Why are you antagonizing me?
I dont know what circles you roll in...
But the people I know on here dont book-shame, genre-shame, or author-shame.
Just sayin
Well, ftr I was being kinda sarcastic because I'm a King fan, but certain litfic types like to bash him to sound elitist.
He's a troll who thinks he's charming. He's got the first part down. I'm holding out hope that he's harmless and may have something to contribute before we swing the ban-hammer. Am I being foolish in my hope @Schism ?
I think it’s really important to read fiction if you want to write fiction well. It’s part of practice, and honestly, I do mean this kindly, how can you expect people to read something you wouldn’t pick up yourself?
Quite beyond anything else, ideas and genres are always growing and changing. Without engaging with books, you’re missing out on opportunities to grow as a person, which can help your writing massively.
Ah - I’ll amend my previous reply. If you mostly write non-fiction and occasionally poetry, you should be reading things from those forms. Fiction isn’t necessary if you don’t write fiction HOWEVER I still think you could be missing out on some things you might love.
Well to be fair, I never claimed to be charming.
Secondly, I'm not quite sure what I said that was considered antagonistic. Re: Stephen King is often perceived as lowbrow by the upper crust. And I made it a point in my earlier post that I didn't necessarily agree or disagree with this.
For the record, I don't have ill intent. Just playing around and offering a 'devil's advocate' approach.
I do write fiction. I do write poetry. I have not read a novel cover-to-cover for maybe a decade now. I very rarely read poetry outside of this forum.
I think some experiences may be more formative than others, and perhaps age is a factor here. A book loved at seven years old may shape one’s perception profoundly, versus, say, a book you read now. So, perhaps you've already been influenced by your prior reading.
Likely so.
The biggest influence in my life has been trying to write about a world I created. As it turns out it is not really anything to do with writing a story it is my own personal mythos and has led me to research and learn about all manner of things.
I do read fiction. Reading it is important to me for many reasons, but I read it because I enjoy it. I also read non-fiction. I don't think forcing yourself to read something you have no interest is necessarily beneficial, unless you're doing so to gain specific knowledge and that is the benefit. If it's something you want to write, I would hope it would interest you though.
I've read somewhere Will Self told new adult writer to stop reading fiction.
But,
Like it or not so long as one's online, one is consuming narrative one way or another, and personally I like the one I read having sieved first with custom made LLM called perspective, molded with meta tool from personal point of view, and stamped with a big warning that it's a work of fiction.
But,
Like it or not so long as one's online, one is consuming narrative one way or another, and personally I like the one I read having sieved first with custom made LLM called perspective, molded with meta tool from personal point of view, and stamped with a big warning that it's a work of fiction.
There are some writers who accidentally internalize voice to the point that they mimic it unintentionally. It's a real thing. There was a book I was editing years ago and it was going along just fine and then completely changed. Like an entirely different writer was writing it. If it had been during the time when AI was a thing, I probably would have suspected they used it to be honest. But no, they had spent every waking moment they weren't writing devouring a popular series at the time and that was the result. They had to shelve it for 6 months, and then rewrite everything they'd written during that time because it was a jarring change. They stopped reading fiction in their genre and adjacent genres. I wouldn't say this is common though.
Similar threads
