/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.6378377]

Should one have a well-experienced life to become a skilled novelist?

[Anonymous No.6378380]

>>6378377
neh.

[Anonymous No.6378396]

>>6378377
yes, unless you possess the skills to emotionally and intellectually comprehend the experiences of others, their tragedies and dramas.
Then you need the skills to turn this into good story, syntax and vocabulary.

[Anonymous No.6378406]

i think trauma of some kind would be important. But we're all probably a bit traumatized, i think it just takes a certain sensitivity (empathy) that writers usually have.

[Shitposting Ironically No.6378414]

Nah, writing is so easy basically anyone can do it.

For reference, watch the film "Almost Famous"

[Anonymous No.6378417]

depends on the topic
for instance, don't write about war or prison unless you do one or the other

[Anonymous No.6378422]

The entire culture around the "writing life" and being a "novelist" is asinine. Anybody worth a shit does many things in life. To devote all of one's efforts to this idea of a Bohemian existence is indicative of boorishness in the first place, if your ambition stops at "being a successful writer" then you will probably never actually be a successful writer, assuming your definition of success involves all the vain stuff involved with that term, like literary prestige, legacy, etc.

Will Self wrote a pretty good article about how the glorified novelist as an archetype is itself dying and "serious" literature is in the process of relegation to esoteric interests al a classical music, too lazy to google it, but it's worth a read if you drink the Kool-Aid of author worship. Assuming you can tolerate Will Self for several paragraphs.

[Anonymous No.6378424]

Skilled? No.

Interesting? It helps.

[Anonymous No.6378431]

>>6378377
Yes, but only "well-experienced" in the broadest sense. Take someone like Pynchon. In order for him to be able to write the novels he does, he has to have ridiculous amounts of knowledge about the world and the talent to convey that knowledge. I would call his books something that call from the more traditional idea of well-experienced.

If you take someone like Nietzsche though (and as far as I'm concerned Nietzsche is a great writer as well as philosopher and that the two can go hand-in-hand), most of the significant experiences he had that makes him worth reading are his internal ones. Taken at face value his life isn't very interesting, but he as a person is.

[Anonymous No.6378433]

you're always going write best when you're writing about something you know

[Anonymous No.6378456]

>>6378406
All trauma grants is a deeply engrained and intense emotional experience, you can get the same from concious obvservation of life; being a drugged out molestation victim is not mandatory for writing good fiction

[Anonymous No.6378480]

No, just read plenty of Huffington Post, thoroughly browse Google Earth, argue with fellow neets on 4chan and learn deductive reasoning through YouTube tutorials. Essentially the same thing as living.