...or so my WriteOn Joliet co-leader Tom Hernandez likes to say.
Yesterday, I wrote about my lack of formula in my writings and felt my ability to write a good story came from an instinctive sense.
Today I'm going to retract that, just a bit.
I do believe all of us are born with certain talents and abilities and that we must exercise them to develop them to the highest degree.
Reading A LOT is one way to exercise them.
No revelation, right?
Not to me either, until this happened to me.
Over the past year, Rebekah has been rereading some of her favorite childhood novels: The "Little House" series, "Five Little Peppers," etc.
So for her birthday, thanks to internet shopping, I gifted her with some of my favorite novels from my own preteen years.
A few weeks later, when she had only one or two left, I sort of remembered one I had forgotten, the name eluding me, the plot more clear.
We searched by keywords and found it. A week later, it arrived, a surprise for me from Timothy. Happy at meeting this long-lost friend, I flipped through its pages. Then came the second surprise.
I could have written it.
I'm not saying I'm as skilled as that author (Yes, I've read all about her, thanks, once again, to the internet). But the structure of the sentences, the story flow, the rhythm, beat, and cadence, even word choice: all these together sounded as if I'd written the story.
Writers: I don't know how much outstanding reading is required to become an outstanding writer. I'm a slow learner, so perhaps far less than I require. But perhaps the most surest way to recreate a certain style of writing, while making it your own, is to read, reread, and reread, the books in your genre, the books that delight you, and make you want to share them with others, even decades after you've last read them.
Now I'm inspired to reread more my childhood favorites, if only to see how much good writing I've absorbed, to sift through layers of story lines and character development and track my writing heritage, one born, not of bone, blood, and DNA, but of the skill and imagination of authors who've gone before me, but left their good writing for me and others to enjoy, to imitate.
Yesterday, I wrote about my lack of formula in my writings and felt my ability to write a good story came from an instinctive sense.
Today I'm going to retract that, just a bit.
I do believe all of us are born with certain talents and abilities and that we must exercise them to develop them to the highest degree.
Reading A LOT is one way to exercise them.
No revelation, right?
Not to me either, until this happened to me.
Over the past year, Rebekah has been rereading some of her favorite childhood novels: The "Little House" series, "Five Little Peppers," etc.
So for her birthday, thanks to internet shopping, I gifted her with some of my favorite novels from my own preteen years.
A few weeks later, when she had only one or two left, I sort of remembered one I had forgotten, the name eluding me, the plot more clear.
We searched by keywords and found it. A week later, it arrived, a surprise for me from Timothy. Happy at meeting this long-lost friend, I flipped through its pages. Then came the second surprise.
I could have written it.
I'm not saying I'm as skilled as that author (Yes, I've read all about her, thanks, once again, to the internet). But the structure of the sentences, the story flow, the rhythm, beat, and cadence, even word choice: all these together sounded as if I'd written the story.
Writers: I don't know how much outstanding reading is required to become an outstanding writer. I'm a slow learner, so perhaps far less than I require. But perhaps the most surest way to recreate a certain style of writing, while making it your own, is to read, reread, and reread, the books in your genre, the books that delight you, and make you want to share them with others, even decades after you've last read them.
Now I'm inspired to reread more my childhood favorites, if only to see how much good writing I've absorbed, to sift through layers of story lines and character development and track my writing heritage, one born, not of bone, blood, and DNA, but of the skill and imagination of authors who've gone before me, but left their good writing for me and others to enjoy, to imitate.
Illustration by Kathleen Rose Van Pelt for "Bryony."
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