Is it possible for a person who doesn't read much to write well?

>>8468468
>inb4 "i just started my first literature class and I think it would be really cool if I became a writer"

nigga read some books the writing comes along

>>8468468
Possible? Yes. Can you do it? No.

>>8468468
Every time I see a fat sow like this I am reminded that plenty of men still love this kind of pussy, maybe even prefer it. I would be interested in knowing why. Just imagine the smell rising from the folds of this fat broad. I'm not talking about all overweight women, I mean bona fide skanks.

As for the topic, it is possible to have good ideas and good imagination, and be illiterate. You need some literacy to write, and some reading is necessary to attain it.

After a certain point of literacy, the necessary of reading while writing is debatable. I recall crime author James Ellroy avoids reading books in order to avoid copy the ideas of others unknowingly.

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Absolutely goddamned not. Let me tell an angry story for a moment.

I met a guy in my english courses in college and he seemed pretty alright. Wasn't too smart, a bit of an underachiever, but there was nothing outwardly wrong about him. Was out at a thing recently and saw him and some other people, and they invited me to hang out with them. Sure. When they saw I had a book they ask what it was (If on a Winter's night a traveler) and I try to explain it to them. The response is unanimously "durrr, that sounds boring, how can you read that?" I ask what they read, and all three of them tell me they don't. Main guy even tells me, with pride creeping into his voice, he's never actually read a book, and that when he has to he uses summaries online.

So why're you an english major?

"Because I'm going to be a novelist"

>mfw

Found out I was in a creative writing class with him the next week, and the first thing he turns in is irredeemable trash. For example, there's a rape scene that begings "Let me tell you today was no good, life literally fucked me in the ass." Meant to be taken ENTIRELY seriously. A major plot point is Donald Trump's ethnic cleansing campaign too. We critiqued him in class and he had the smug look of a dog who'd managed to eat his own shit before anyone could stop him. Afterwards, during the period in which he could ask us questions, he instead tried to justify and defend his work by saying, "What I'm doing here is incredibly difficult and ambitious, so I'm sure you can overlook some minor flaws in this first draft."

I nearly went ape. This is why english is a barista's degree.

>>8468544
I find Calvino pretentious, but I do feel your pain

>Trump
>Gay rape
Is this guy 14?

>>8468578
Not liking Calvino is still good, it shows you're at least familiar with him and generates conversation. Much better than not knowing him at all.

>>8468468
No. The only possible exception is if you've read basically the entire canon already. At that point basically all you could do is reread or pick up something newly published and hope it isn't bad, except it is.

>>8468544
I enjoyed this post.

Is creative writing class an american thing or other country have this course in there university? I never saw that in france. Might be usefull cause reading is good but you also need practice and technic.

>>8468728
I think it's solely an American thing. Pretty much all foreign writers with a CW degree have to come to America to get one.

The quality of writing from the people who get them vary, but they're, in a large part, mostly all similar. I don't know if the degree trains them to write the same, or if colleges that offer the degree all want the same thing, but it's drearily homogenous.

I'm sick of all popular creative writing being "slight elements of magical realism and also cursing". Aimee Bender, George Saunders, and Junot Diaz might as well all be the same person.

>>8468699
Glad someone got some enjoyment out of it. This is my second creative writing class (I'm doing both as electives for my english major) and I thought it'd be vastly better than the first because it's a 500 (graduate) level. Nope, it's just as bad.

The justifications and defenses people have about their terrible writing are really incredible. I've never even gotten good criticism from someone in one of these classes, their "critiques" consist of correcting minor spelling errors and saying "I don't get it".

I didn't start reading until recently, and I've still seen my work improve at a dramatic rate.