"ohh ya im a writer"

>"ohh ya im a writer"
>oh really? cool - what type of stuff do you read?
>"you know its funny but I don't really read books, just write"
why the fuck is this allowed

>>"ohh ya im a writer"
>>oh really? cool - what type of stuff do you write?
>>"..."

It's not.

>go out this party
>full of snobby artsy hipster types
>Writer enters
>Everyone on this guys dick
>End up sharing a cab with him
>tells me hes going to Rome for inspiration to write his next novel
>'oh that's cool man, so what do you read?'
>'I dont read'
> 'what do you do for inspiration?'
>'I just write, i dont really read. I like movies and music though'

I couldnt understand how a writer doesn't read. Then again, I have no idea what the qualitu of his writing is like. Was a nice guy overall but had his name tattooed on himself.

Also met two other writers after that who dont have time to read.

Descartes did this.

To write one must prefer it to almost everything else. Still sounds like bull, though. They are just critting each other five stars for books they haven't read? Fakes.

>I want all of my work to be derivative and unoriginal because I'm a flaming faggot who can't think of and understand how to employ ideas and literary devices unless someone else uses them

>had his name tattooed on himself.
seriously. you don't need to know any more

You're fucking retarded kill yourself

ANXIETY OF INFLUENCE

>no arguments

>I'm too much of an impressionable idiot to read and can't stop myself from plagiarizing others

Wow

>hipster party
>curly haired girls, weird dresses, dudes with beards, like right fucking deep into the whole aesthetic
>talkin pic related
>speaking with a guy whose first thing about himself is that he's a writer
>kinda shook a bit since I have low key been getting rejected from mags since 2012
>gently try to breach a conversation about some lit but trying not to be a pseud and fit in or whatever
>"yeah I'm currently re-reading No Country for Old Men for the third time"
>proceeds to lay out his own idea for a novel that is just no country for old men except in Australia and the assassin is an aboriginal
>hasn't started it
>hasn't been published
>doesn't write short stories
>"well I've started it but I'm trying to perfect the first chapter before I go on"
>"had the idea since high school"

These people are just major posers. I mean I wouldn't dream of calling myself a writer and this guy has had a single idea since he was a teenager.

The influences can be small and pernicious, and exist beneath your conscious observations. They can worm their way into your prose, your characters and even the ideas your story is built around.
And if you're not going to take anything from the books you read, there's no point reading.

>don't read
>don't realize your idea has been done before and possibly executed better
>all could've been avoided if you read

My 20 Year Old Little Brother: The Post

He's literally only ever read The Inheritance Cycle, Lord of The Rings, 1984 and some manga. He tells people he's well-read but he told me the other day he's finding The Trial (I bought it for him last christmas with some Dostoevsky) very difficult and not very "fun."

Just Google it

> Writers who don't read

This is a major sin. All the successful writers say you need to read as much as you can. All of the literary greats read as much as they could.

Why the fuck do people not read enough?

>He's honest about findng a piece of literature hard to get through and writes because he enjoys it
Yeah sounds like a real dick

> perfect the first chapter before I go on

These people need to take a class or something. This is not an efficient way of writing, re-writing and re-drafting. You'll get nowhere because you'll always be stuck on the first fucking chapter. Everyone knows you need a detailed outline and that the first draft needs to be shit that's thrown onto paper so the next draft is tidying up what works and fixing up what doesn't.

I didn't call him a dick. He probably should read more though. I told him that The Trial isn't necessarily something he should read for story but something that's more oppressive where the protagonist really is helpless. I'm fine if people are just starting to get into the classics and find it difficult - I was like that too - but it bugs me when people claim to be writers when they don't read and haven't finished a first draft of anything.