Do I need to read boring canon shit if I want to write to entertain?

>>8518764

>uses question marks on sentences that are not questions

Just dropping in to tell you to KYS.

>>8518764
>read?
no. if you want to know how shit a writer you are, then yes.

>pop?
above

>plot?
not if the plot has a point. otherwise, it doesn't matter.

if you think it will be boring, it will, because you will make it boring. don't bother, you will be better for not having read it.

go back to /co/ or reddit or wherever you came from and stay there.

ignorance is bliss.

>>8518764
>Do I need to read boring canon shit if I want to write to entertain?

You should read anything you can. /lit/ is phenomenally far up its ass in terms of what it calls "required reading," but every good writer knows that you can learn something about writing from consuming any work no matter its medium. Should you still read "boring canon shit?" Absolutely. Every aspiring writer should read Faulkner and Joyce.

>There's nothing wrong with writing for the plot.

Your question and this assertion don't have anything to do with each other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

>>8518764
Not at all. Literature is 99% meme. I read more poorly written fanfic than literature and it's genuinely entertaining. If the plot is good then everything else is just decoration.

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>>8518764
You're not going to "make it"

Go ahead and try writing, just do it for fun. Don't make anyone read it.

>>8518764
>ends a declarative sentence with a question mark.

You shouldn't be writing at all.

>>8518764
Most canonised literature is far from boring, about as far as you could get. It's exciting and entertaining.

But no, don't read something if you hate it. But if you really gave the canon a decent chance, you'd probably find you can't go back to genre fiction (because genre fiction is boring as fuck)

Read what you want to write. Most genre writers are pretty well read in canon lit though.

But if you want to write canon style lit, read it. If you don't, then read something else.

Personally, I write a lot better when I read a lot, but if you think you have the talent to write good plots already, go ahead. no one is stopping you

>>8518764
>There's nothing wrong with writing for the plot.
There is if you don't understand the role style plays in EVERY work, which you probably don't judging by this idiotic sentence. There's no such thing as writing or reading "for the plot". Plot is one of the many elements that make up a story, it's not an end in itself. Part of the reason there's so much dull and stupid self-published crap out there is because of people who fail to understand that.

>>8518764
Yes you do, what is classical music but applied music theory; you can't reliably make hits without understanding which melodies and rhythms move crowds.

Start with the Greeks, especially Euripides.

>>8518764

All I have are my childhood inspirations and a desire to pass that inspiration on to the future, but it is fun to read stuff and think about why it works or why it doesn't work for you. Then it's helpful to compare your verdict to other people's. Do they make better sense of the work than you? How is their review wrong?

I guess writing plots can be satisfying, but I would be careful, because it's like making a really slow Rube Goldberg machine. It could be the coolest thing ever, but people are just going to get bored with it because it's moving so slow and they have no emotional investment in it.

It turns out that boring canon shit often is super entertaining in my experience. No one ever talks about hilarious Brothers Karamazov is, but it is, as well as being very gripping.

>>8518764
sauce me up on that anime hunny and I'll tell you

>>8521703
lol

David Foster Wallace read the entire Western Canon by the time he was 23. There is no excuse OP

>>8518764
>canon
>shit
>boring
People who think this are either 16 years old or have never made any real attempt to read canonical literature, there is no exception.

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>>8518764

>canon
>shit
>boring

Sir, please, leave this board. Thank you.

>>8521788
>sir
you can leave this board too captain reddit

>>8518764
You must read to develop your taste and your technique. Might as well read the best of the best there is to read.

>>8518764
>I don't think you need to know about classical music if you want to be a pop song writer?

You do.

/lit/ confirmed full of plebs when nobody here knows the most basic shit about music theory

>>8518764
You will never amount to anything as a writer.