Young writers
On this community I've seen quite a few reviews/rants that start out with, "I heard that the author was 16, so..."
Understanding that there are counterarguments to any review and there is someone out there who likes even the worst books, could it be safe to say that hearing that the author isn't even old enough to drink (by United States standards) is a pretty good indication that he or she probably doesn't know how to write (at least well)?
Or, another way of tackling the issue is, is there any book written by someone 18 or under that you know of that you would look me in the eye and say, "This book is good" without having to explain anything like, "...considering the writer's age," or "...if you look at it from the perspective of who wrote it" or "...compared to some things I've read"?
For some clarification, I had wanted to read some Christopher Paolini until I heard from enough people I respect that they weren't very well-written, and then learned he was only like 16 when he wrote Eragon. So I've simply not gotten the opportunity yet to have read one of these books written by an adolescent myself, and as such still want to reserve judgment. However, I think it's somewhat reasonable to expect age and maturity to play into someone's writing.
On another side, I think it's worth acknowledging that young writers have a marketable quality, which makes it relatively unfair for other, older writers, but from the opposite side, sort of shows something not often acknowledged about young writers: many mature and adult writers' writing sucks too, even sometimes from simple lack of experience writing, but those writers do not get published because they do not at least have the audience interest of, "Wow, and she completed her first novel when she was only.... 36!" As much as these things shouldn't really matter to us as audience, JK Rowling was the waitress scribbling away on restaurant napkins, Stephanie Meyer was the Mormon housewife who suddenly woke up from a dream with inspiration, Paolini was the teenager who actually sat himself down long enough to focus (and had publisher parents, which helped). None of those statements in any way dictate the level of quality of the books (after all, Harry Potter is awesome, Twilight sucks, and Eragon gets mixed reviews), but the point is that sometimes the story behind the authorship of a book sells the book more than the story the book actually contains.
Anyway, back to square one, has anybody under the age of 18 ever written a book worth a damn?
[Edit: Okay actually I thought of something else. When I was thirteen I wrote an entire 400 page (single spaced!) novel that I essentially threw away once I acknowledged to myself that I had basically just played copy and paste on scenes from The Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time, Magic: the Gathering, and of course Lord of the Rings. This was about two years before I had ever heard of "fanfic", of which my response was, "What, there are communities for that? I used to do that on my free time, but I wouldn't share it with anybody!"
Well, so, how much does fanfic play into contemporary publishing standards and the idea of what could or may be saleable? Despite the fact that fanfic has been getting shit from people since its very inception, it still has a strong following of devoted writers and readers. Obviously fanfic at some point indicates a market, so do you think these young writers come mostly from that market or its more of an isolated phenomenon?]
--PolarisDiB
Understanding that there are counterarguments to any review and there is someone out there who likes even the worst books, could it be safe to say that hearing that the author isn't even old enough to drink (by United States standards) is a pretty good indication that he or she probably doesn't know how to write (at least well)?
Or, another way of tackling the issue is, is there any book written by someone 18 or under that you know of that you would look me in the eye and say, "This book is good" without having to explain anything like, "...considering the writer's age," or "...if you look at it from the perspective of who wrote it" or "...compared to some things I've read"?
For some clarification, I had wanted to read some Christopher Paolini until I heard from enough people I respect that they weren't very well-written, and then learned he was only like 16 when he wrote Eragon. So I've simply not gotten the opportunity yet to have read one of these books written by an adolescent myself, and as such still want to reserve judgment. However, I think it's somewhat reasonable to expect age and maturity to play into someone's writing.
On another side, I think it's worth acknowledging that young writers have a marketable quality, which makes it relatively unfair for other, older writers, but from the opposite side, sort of shows something not often acknowledged about young writers: many mature and adult writers' writing sucks too, even sometimes from simple lack of experience writing, but those writers do not get published because they do not at least have the audience interest of, "Wow, and she completed her first novel when she was only.... 36!" As much as these things shouldn't really matter to us as audience, JK Rowling was the waitress scribbling away on restaurant napkins, Stephanie Meyer was the Mormon housewife who suddenly woke up from a dream with inspiration, Paolini was the teenager who actually sat himself down long enough to focus (and had publisher parents, which helped). None of those statements in any way dictate the level of quality of the books (after all, Harry Potter is awesome, Twilight sucks, and Eragon gets mixed reviews), but the point is that sometimes the story behind the authorship of a book sells the book more than the story the book actually contains.
Anyway, back to square one, has anybody under the age of 18 ever written a book worth a damn?
[Edit: Okay actually I thought of something else. When I was thirteen I wrote an entire 400 page (single spaced!) novel that I essentially threw away once I acknowledged to myself that I had basically just played copy and paste on scenes from The Legend of Zelda: the Ocarina of Time, Magic: the Gathering, and of course Lord of the Rings. This was about two years before I had ever heard of "fanfic", of which my response was, "What, there are communities for that? I used to do that on my free time, but I wouldn't share it with anybody!"
Well, so, how much does fanfic play into contemporary publishing standards and the idea of what could or may be saleable? Despite the fact that fanfic has been getting shit from people since its very inception, it still has a strong following of devoted writers and readers. Obviously fanfic at some point indicates a market, so do you think these young writers come mostly from that market or its more of an isolated phenomenon?]
--PolarisDiB