Tuesday, September 06, 2011

On reading

Finished reading Stephen King's On Writing. It's an excellent book, part personal memoir, part writing manual. It gave me a lot to think about with my own fiction, gave me some good laughs too. In it I found numerous helpful tips, probably the most useful was also quite simple, something I completely lost sight of since I started writing my own novel. He says if you want to be a good writer not only should you write a lot but also read a lot. I've been so obsessed with my book I haven't read anyone else's in nearly nine months. Sure I've read lots of blogs and countless news articles too, but absolutely no fiction since December of last year. I'm taking what Mr. King taught me with his book and will be applying it to my own. Hopefully Joshua will be better for it.

2 comments:

Kim said...

I find that if all I do is work on the book then I burn up with it and over think it. I still make time for reading. I am a quick reader so a few days of a nice book gives me just the break I crave before I tackle things again, or I read during my mommy duties of kids and such and then writer after the little one is in bed!

Wilson said...

Just discovered your own sites through the link. Very good! I’ve added you to my list. Unfortunately I’m not a fast reader but I’ve started again and will finish when I can!