In order to become a great writer, does one have to be eccentric?

No. Two words : Robert Musil.

>implying someone who thinks of himself as a completely insignificant vacuum is mentally normal
moderate egoism is the evolutionary norm m8.

Not really. Although it's an oversimplification, good writers read and write a lot. Also, having autism and a super edgy substance abuse problem helps.

Nope. One has to accumulate a wealth of knowledge and/or experience with which to draw upon for inspiration.

It helps

Hemingway was the first writer to come to mind when I read eccentric. Bull fights, wars, chilling in Cuba, boxing....read a Wikipedia page man

I think he just means do they wear funny hats and get off on farts

Wallace Stevens seems to be exactly as normal as he is excellent.

just meditate until you get schizophrenia, god might help you with your canon too.
>works.
humanity was always meant to be a culture machine.

pic related: i post about the one true god of my canon on /x/ sometimes, and it gets noticed by crazies :3

>Fitzgerald
>normie

Holy shit you're retarded, the man was a loon.

You just need to be unspooked.

Two hours of focused writing every day isn't enough for you?

I used to laugh at cargo cults until I began reading posts like this

Other people work from 9 to 19 so yeah, that isn't that much dedication at all.

look how far being eccentric got John Green

>hemingway
>tolstoy
>normies

lol
Hemingway literally went insane and shot himself in the fucking head with a shotgun and Tolstoy had a religious cult living on his property worshipping him

Some work a lot and produce little. "Working" isn't just sitting in a desk writing. I expect the writer to have also a non-specialised side that knows what's going on around him, that has the habit of experiencing and exploring much, the habit of observing and speculating, and of talking or listening to many in order to know in what state the language is in.

Hemingway believed he was being spied by the goverment, that sound like tinfoil hat, and turns out he was right.
A lot of people were spied at the time due to fear of the comunists.

>(of a person or their behavior) unconventional and slightly strange.

Technically yes but when I think of eccentric I think of cults and believeing in a hollow earth, lizard people, getting off on fart.

Hemingway simply was someone who wasnt afraid of living life to the fullest.

don't post here again, you're intolerable.

You know nothing about these guys.

'No.'
But any great writer can spot anyone's peculiar traits and eccentricities in a split second.

So you also have to be pretentious and lazy in your free time, kind of checks out. I seriously think that this artsy pedestal many writers put themselves on is a big joke. There's nothing fundamentally superior to hiding academic riddles in your fiction, literature isn't just about mind games.

>"an artist must approach his work in the spirit of the criminal about to commit a crime."

"This artsy pedestal" is not the effect of an alert and experienced social consciousness. If anything it's the opposite.

Knowing what's up isn't a matter of being "pretentious and lazy." It's a matter of responsibility, both as an artist and as an individual.

I speak of a "non-specialist side" and you read "mind games" and "academic riddles." Point is, if you spend that much time writing, and ignore all the rest, you'll experience a great closure. You might achieve 'creative genius', as the myth goes, but it'll be a very private-only kind of genius. You'll have nothing to report to your "fellow citizens", in the words of T.S. Eliot. Maybe you'll even have a poorer perceptual life than they do, though you may be more technically advanced, within your own idiosyncratic standards.

If that is what you want, I cannot speak against it, but then it doesn't make sense to discuss the habits of other writers, since it's only about you. And in any case, you'll more likely be closer, in effect, to what you abhor than otherwise.

Lol xd this is sooo us writers are sooo zany

You made a good point about being a writer, but the line between ambition and indulgence is often very blurred. I view being a great writer as constantly challenging yourself about your methods and views, being open and observing, so I do agree with you.

just you askin that question makes u seem boring

I would imagine most writers come across as eccentric to most people, and that this is not usually intentional on the writer's part.

I know you were just meming, but are there any famous authors that were actually autistic?

Yeah, creative writing is vastly different from selling shitty printers on the phone.

Do you write at all?

i think you just need to find a nice spot where your work is respected by academia, the public, and yourself. unfortunately, you are probably going to be selling out one way or another if you want to make a career out of it. and even then, its not like its a sure thing. chances are you are probably not even half as smart or clever as you think you are

>Hemingway literally went insane

Wasn't he always mentally ill? I thought he had bipolar disorder (which he self-medicated with alcohol, which definitely doesn't help).

Nobody said anything about that, but what is keeping someone that's really dedicated from investing more time? Inspiration? Like that would come so easy that you can write daily anyways. Get your head out of your ass and admit that writing isn't some superior mental acrobatics that can only be performed with 20 hours of rest every day, that's just a lazy thing to do.

I agree that 2 hours a day is likely too little, but it's unrealistic to expect writers to work 10 hours a day the way people at other jobs often do. Writing is not just about "getting the job done." It's about doing the job well, beautiful. It's always quality over quantity.

From what I've read, it sounds like most full-time writers write for about 5 hours a day (usually in the mornings) which sounds reasonable to me.

Yeah, that's more about it, I'd imagine there's always a lot of work put into research and correcting your draft so I guess some writers even have it pretty hard.

According to the internet 99% of humanity has autism/ADD/ADHD/OCD/SAD/othermemesickness, so yes.

no but one initially does have to be eclectic

You have to deviate from the norm in order to do something the norm does not do. Beyond that it's all a bit vague.

Actually I think it was some sort of hereditary degenerative disorder. Same diff though.

If you are seriously trying to write then I think you should optimally try and explore different lifestyles.

I'm a clean cut college kid from a rich family in the south. I want to be a better writer. What do i do? I live in a two bedroom apartment alone and do drugs all day while watching HBO. As I do this I keep two or three notebooks open to record different streams of thought. I also spend my afternoons in bed reading and napping.

I wake up at 6 am every day and go to bed at around 1 or 2 the next morning. I didn't start doing these things because I wanted to write, but these are things I started doing as I began to take my writing more seriously. In truth, there is no answer to your question. Everyone is eccentric. A lot of people can write. Few people are truly good at writing. So who knows

>watches the electric Jew and shitposts all day

This is why you-- and the rest of milennials, for that matter-- will never become a writer.

Kys.

I watch TV because guess what's on there? Stories. I try to drown myself in plots and themes and characters. I usually just use on demand services to watch my favorites (Sopranos, Mad Men, etc). My lifestyle also affords me a lot of time to write because I'm not out working some bullshit jobs. But i have contemplated killing myself. It's an idea that I keep in my back pocket just in case.

>I didn't start doing these things because I wanted to write, but these are things I started doing as I began to take my writing more seriously.

Actually makes sense

>I watch TV because guess what's on there? Stories. I try to drown myself in plots and themes and characters.

No. This is why you READ, not watch television. Just fuck off, casual.

But I read too. TV is something you can keep on in the background without paying attention to. I'm not some retarded fuck who can't write unless the room is silent.

So you sublimated your boring life, with an equally dull, vapid and hedonistic lifestyle that will yield no literary prowess. Good to know.

Here's the way I see it. I'm in school. I'm getting a degree. I will be fine. I'm not relying on my writing to ever make me money. Would I like to be published one day? Yeah. But I also wish my cock was a foot long. This is a hobby. I enjoy doing it and would keep doing it even if a future of any literary acclaim was patently impossible. I play golf for fun and I know that I will never be on Tour. Golf is still fun for me.

I'm simply balancing what I enjoy and what I need to do to get along in the world. Hell, I even have plans for after college that have absolutely nothing to do with writing.

Uh Hemingway killed himself, which while i guess is pretty banal in the grand scheme of things, should rule you out from being considered a normie

fitzgerald is crazy--read the crack up

tolstoy certainly didn't seem to think of himself in that way, if his self-portrait in anna karenina is anything to go by

ironically pynchon i know the least about biographically but come on

>But I also wish my cock was a foot long

Really? I think that would kind of suck. No girl could fit you.
>inb4 OP's asshole

I get most my ideas from fear factor reruns i write the Most nasty stuff dude!!!! TV is good for your brain

>watching HBO
>renting an apartment
>some kind of deviant lifestyle

sure buddy

i don't technically rent it since my parents pay for it.

kek capitalism really is cancer

>I watch TV because guess what's on there? Stories. I try to drown myself in plots and themes and characters
Don't do that you fool. Stories come from new experiences and will only occur to you during those experiences or in the times when your brain is idle. The more you watch TV the less you'll be able to break away from other people's preconceptions about how stories should be told and the less time you'll have to think of things yourself. Didn't you notice that all your best ideas come when you're trying to sleep? It's because you're not distracted by anything. Instead of watching TV, try spending some time just laying in bed during the day thinking about nothing in particular, just your stories.

wow even worse.

:^)

When I wrote my first two novel manuscripts I wrote 16 hours a day.

No, you have to be good at writing.

Were they any good?

>Baby still lives off his parents
>stays home and watch TV all day
>DIfferent lifestyles

don't mind me, I'm just another post

>muh gold stars

Yeah, they need time to 'grow'. I find that taking time off to go for a walk helps me figure out what to do with a story, usually it's pretty satisfying. When you sit with your work until you get that 'aha!' feelings I think at the very least you are satisfied, which is important for keeping writing.

...and everybody took it, incredible

Doesn't he post a video about himself and his fans every like week or so to the internet (later to be watched by millions of people). That's a bit eccentric in my opinion.

Shit sorry I misread your post