/lit/ - Literature

Force him to read some classics.

If hes 18 and still into that shit he's fucked. Just hope he sells a lot of books I guess

>>7896685
We bought him some for his 18th birthday (he's nearing 19 now) that were very easily accessible and suited his interests but he never actually read them. I don't really understand it myself, honestly: if you want to be a writer, wouldn't you also want to read good books?

>>7896662
>some YA sci-fi thing about discrimination against aliens
Oosh.

>>7896662
If he's writing YA then there's no reason for him to read classics. Have him read John Green or watch popular shonen anime.

Tell him to never send out his first draft. First drafts are always shit and they'll get you nowhere on their own.

>>7896703
> implying YA authors don't read classics

JK Rowling keeps talking about how much she loves classic english literature and it kinda shows in her work. Never dismiss classics, even if you plan on writing lowest common denominator tripe.

>>7896731
this. even shitty authors are fairly well read. writing is a hard thing to do, you gotta AIM ABOVE THE MARK TO HIT THE MARK.

if theres no interest in "the classics" it means he has no interest in human beings which means he'll never be able to create a book. for example "discrimination against aliens" is torn right out of real life, the most obvious scifi cliche probably possible at this point

An author who doesn't want to read makes no logical sense.

Your brother was posting on /r/books two days ago

>>7896731
so much this

>>7896731
Tell that to the genius who wrote Sword Art Online.

>>7896837
There's a difference between writing a real book and being the author of a "mindfulness" colouring book, anon.

>>7896696
Your brother thinks that the books he reads are good. Don't go to him and say the books you read are should read this instead. Make him think that the books you gave him are as good as he thinks sci-fi is.

>>7896662
>he loves Eragon
Jesus Christ what the fuck?
That shit would be acceptable if he was 13, not 18.

>>7896696
Your brother doesn't want to be a writer. He wants to be considered a writer. Why should he try to get better?

>>7896759
>if theres no interest in "the classics" it means he has no interest in human beings which means he'll never be able to create a book.
This.
At least, he won't be able to create a GOOD book. Novels talk about human beings, their nature, fears, hopes, etc. Maybe they use magic wands, dragons or IA to do it, but they always talk about human beings.
Literature is masturbation. And that's how it should be.

>>7896853
> Make him think that the books you gave him are as good as he thinks sci-fi is

This is what I've tried but I can't do any more than that. I personally hope he'll gradually become more curious in reading like I did (and maybe he'll then try more classics) but I'm not sure.

> have a younger brother, about 16-17
> his book shelf is just novelisations of video games
> he takes my copy of Gravity's Rainbow
> try searching for it, find it on his shelf
> ask why he took it
> "it's big and makes my shelf look nicer"

Little brothers are fucking idiots, no way around it, OP.

see
>>7894144

>>7896662
Sad as it is to say, our advice would be wasted on him. If he manages to get published he might be reasonably successful though.

>>7896880
On the contrary, I'm a little brother myself and I have a whole collection of books (including Gravity's Rainbow) that I've read and my older brother (who's something of a STEMlord) would never touch.

>>7896662
>mfw your brother makes billions writing about racist japanese cancer dragons while I starve in poverty trying to publish my magnum opus
>mfw I don't have a face because I shot it off

you could give him some literary science fiction
examples of sci-fi novels being taught in uni lit courses include
philip k. dick - time out of joint
william gibson - pattern recognition
Haruki Murakami - hard-boiled wonderland

>>7896822
why were you on r/books, faggot?

>>7896662
Non-contributory post coming through. I just want to say that I'm the same age as your brother and that his favorite novel was my favorite novel at age 12. My existence feels validated.

>>7896662
>>7896686
>>7896859
>>7898720
>tfw 29 and the Inheritance cycle is my favorite series

>>7896840
I hate Sword Art Online, but it is not manga, it is a light novel that has less pictures in it than A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Not excusing the shit story that it is, of course.

>>7896880
I keep asking my older brother if he wants to read my books but he's too busy. I can always hear youtube video game commentary when I walk past his room.

Protip

People will and prefer to develop on their own, if you're constantly trying to force someone down a certain path unsolicited they will resist and resent you for it one way or another.

I feel like eighteen really isn't that old when we talk about good contemporary novelists. He still has a lot of time to acquire a palette for classical literature. If you want to give him the best advice, it would be to pick up a second or third language in the meantime. If his university offers Latin classes, he should capitalize on those. I know that sounds pretty obscure, but it really does make someone a better writer, if they ever choose to pursue the craft seriously. It will give him a better conception of language and only improve his diction/grammar in a way to define him individualistically from other authors. I remember that age for me was full of large, ambiguous hopes; but, now that I'm older, I've grown more reasonable and honest.

He'll be fine. Try to turn him onto Robinson Crusoe or something for starters.

>>7898555
might try this actually, I'd hope he'd want to try out some genuine science fiction if he was interested in writing it.

>>7899089
I'm not trying to control what he does by any means, but I want to help him out more. I'm not going out my way to force him to read things he won't like, but if I find a book that I think he'll be interested in (either in narrative, characters, theme, prose, etc - based on the things he currently reads and writers) then I'll probably pick it up for him.

>>7899089
This is true. The key is tricking them into thinking that they came up with the idea.

>>7896662

>reads and studies YA lit
>knows how to follow the formula and target the YA audience perfectly
>writes book series, sells a lot, becomes famous, makes even more money from the royalties from the movie adaptations

or

>gets into /lit/erature
>writes pretentious pieces of shit that can't get published
>dies poor and lonely, deluded he's suffering for le art

>>7900340
I don't think you realise how many hacks that publishers need to brush off with their syfy channel tier YA fiction trash.

>>7900348

Better chance than if he wrote "literary fiction". Seriously you're leading him towards a lifetime of disappointment with that shit.

>>7900357
Not even OP, anon, just saying that YA fiction isn't the easy cash cow people think it is.

>>7900357
i never said my brother isn't allowed to write YA fiction (maybe I wasn't too clear about it in my post), but that i want to try and help him improve his work any way i can, but the only thing i can suggest is for him to try and read as much as he can as many authors say that's one of the better ways to improve your work.

i probably poorly phrased it in my post, that's my bad, but all I'm trying to do is help him out.

>>7900340
> implying YA authors aren't generally well-read

See: >>7896731

Also, future reference: Neil Gaiman is a hack but he's a very well-read hack.

>>7900340
>writes book series, sells a lot, becomes famous, makes even more money from the royalties from the movie adaptations
Because no one has ever thought of that before

>>7900379

I don't know that I'd necessarily consider him a hack, he's not a terrible writer from a technical standpoint.

His problem is that all of his books are by Neil Gaiman. All of his characters are Neil Gaiman. They have settings full of Neil Gaiman animals and trees. Neil Gaiman Neil Gaiman. Neil Gaiman.

For a lot of people there's some appeal to that, I guess. For me, the true mark of a good storyteller is to give no indication of the man behind the curtain.

Dan Simmons did an absolutely fantastic job of this with the Hyperion Cantos, for example.

>>7900643

Speaking of which, if your brother is into Sci-Fi, get him to read the Hyperion Cantos.

If he enjoys it he will almost certainly be more interested in the classics afterward.

This probably wouldn't work that well, but it seems like he has a problem with abstraction. From the sound of it, he's going to be harping on whatever everyone is supposed to be caring about, which is fine for him, but he should be able to take it further. Aliens being discriminated against- that's only like one off from the news. What he needs is three or four bullshit ideas he can throw together.

What if they were aliens that migrate from planet to planet, all in an effort to save the species from the harmful environments that nurtured them. The kicker is that this is all to get these lifeforms in a deep freeze environment, so that they can be better acclimated to the diets of the aliens. One of these aliens didn't quite expect to become enamored with our customs though, and so hell bent on saving them that it would risk it all on a suicide mission to end the horrible alien practice.

Pitch him some shitty idea like that and see where he gets with it. You can't just be shoving "good" shit and expect it to stick; even if it does it will be years from now before it sinks in. If he's into sci-fi, why don't you give him Dick or Vonnegut? Breakfast of Champions or anything with Trout as a focus would sober any would-be writer.