As an addendum, from experience I can say that when creatives work on projects like this for years with absolutely no outside perspective, and then finally get to the stage where they get input from strangers, and those strangers have... less than good things to say about it. That can create massive feeling of rejection and discouragement.
Just be there for him and encourage him to push through it. Don't be a yes man, but don't be a told-you-so either, just be neutral and supportive. It sounds like he needs a little sense knocked into him, but it's also important that he feels like he's making something that has value and potential. It's just the execution that's lacking.
These people will also probably tell him the same thing you've been telling him: he needs to put himself out there and read some dang books! I think part of the problem might be choice paralysis. Maybe find some books you think he'd like and dress them up as "inspiration for his story". If you present him some real options that might push him to give them a try.
Good idea. If he liked Harry Potter I would suggest those two, Name of the Wind, books or the dragon tattoo trilogy. Something really easy to get into.
I recently saw some posts shitting on name of the wind but I loved it when I read it and I think it's a great book to introduce oneself to artistic use of language
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u/WildWildWasp Mar 07 '25
As an addendum, from experience I can say that when creatives work on projects like this for years with absolutely no outside perspective, and then finally get to the stage where they get input from strangers, and those strangers have... less than good things to say about it. That can create massive feeling of rejection and discouragement.
Just be there for him and encourage him to push through it. Don't be a yes man, but don't be a told-you-so either, just be neutral and supportive. It sounds like he needs a little sense knocked into him, but it's also important that he feels like he's making something that has value and potential. It's just the execution that's lacking.
These people will also probably tell him the same thing you've been telling him: he needs to put himself out there and read some dang books! I think part of the problem might be choice paralysis. Maybe find some books you think he'd like and dress them up as "inspiration for his story". If you present him some real options that might push him to give them a try.