posted
I have noticed that when I am in the middle of a good book, I have trouble trouble getting into writing. Likewise, when I am in the middle of writing something fun, I don't like to pick up a book. It's like I have two modes, reading and writing, and they are mutually exclusive. Anyone else have this issue or is it just me?
Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Nope. I try to restrain my reading when I write so I don't end up sleeping two hours a night, but I can read and write at the same time without problems.
Posts: 121 | Registered: May 2002
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posted
The only connection I've noticed between writing and reading is that as my skill s as a writer grow, I get increasingly frustrated with poorly written stuff.
[This message has been edited by Eric Sherman (edited June 08, 2004).]
posted
I try to avoid reading just before I write... generally because I would otherwise continue reading right through the time I wanted to write in.
I have also had trouble in the past writing after I've been reading... I'm thinking about the story I'm reading, and it distracts me from my own story.
posted
Yeah! But only if it's a good book. But then if it's a good book I can get it read in a day or two and get right back to writing having learned something about good writing from someone who is already in the business (published I mean).
Now lousy books are another matter. I can switch back and forth with no problem and often am inspired to write because I look at the tripe on the page and think: "Wow! This crap is getting published! Certainly there's hope for me!"
posted
Yeah, lousy books inspire me to put the book down and go do something else...especially write my own books!
I was reading one the other day, though, that was really lousy for about the first quarter. I figured it wa sa safe book...read for a half hour's distraction if I needed to clear my head and then get back to work. Unfortunately, about a quarter to a third ot the way through, it started getting good. Ah well...
posted
I've read a few like that too. Dang, just when I thought this was going to be the worst book I've ever read...
But I have to read a stinker once in a while, just to give my self-esteem a boost. Any recommendations? Is there a more appropriate word to use than 'recommendations?' That might be a good thread--'What's the worst book you've ever read.' But then there seem to be so many out there it might be difficult to nail down just one...or ten...or a hundred.
posted
I don't have much of a problem with this, perhaps because (A) I read during the day, (B) I have a 50-page quota for reading which I hold to pretty well, and (C) I write after everybody goes to bed.
I have found that bad books do NOT inspire me to write. They do the oppisite, in fact, and make me want to quit.
I've also discovered that whatever genre I'm writing, that's the genre I have to read. That's probably because reading is my creative food and drink. If I try to read another genre than what my WIP is, I start getting ideas for a story in that genre and, strangely, loose interest in the story I'm working on.
posted
"I've also discovered that whatever genre I'm writing, that's the genre I have to read. That's probably because reading is my creative food and drink."
Oh i get it! So your reading is your food and drink, and your writing is...what comes out afterwards! Good analogy! <grin>
[This message has been edited by Eric Sherman (edited June 08, 2004).]
posted
I actually made a rule that I CAN'T read whatever genre I'm currently writing, because I start unconsciously stealing crap from the book I'm reading.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Two places to get inspiration from other authors.
1) Author reads; admires; says wow. I can't even begin to compare, but this person, this writer, has inspired me to work hard and do my best.
2) Author reads; suffers; says wow. This stuff is crap. I bet trained monkeys write better than this. Do they pay trained monkeys? Would they pay me? If they're publishing this, I bet they would.
posted
I need bad books to inspire me to write, it's the whole, if this guy is published perhaps I have a shot. Good books dishearten me, I pale in comparison to this guy, so I have to rush through good books and then get back to writing. But I guess I should always be bettering myself, and get myself better than those good books.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
One of my favorite bits of inspiration comes from Dan Simmons, who says:
quote:The biggest problem I find with young would-be writers is the limited scope of their . . . ambition . . . [they] doom themselves by looking at the lowest common denominator of writing in the genre they’ve staked out and proclaiming—“I can write better than that!” Well, so what? Better than crap is still crap in all too many cases. Unask the question, as the Zen teacher would say. The question is not “Who can you write as well as?” but “Who is the best writer you could never hope to equal?” That’s the writer you need to aspire to being, to hope to compete with even though you know that hope is doomed to failure. (Hemingway’s notebooks and letters are filled with boxing metaphors—“Today I took on Tolstoy and went three rounds with him!”) No one will ever be a great writer by thinking that he can someday write as well as, say, Stephen King or Dan Simmons.
I read this after I realized that bad novels make me want to quit--not before--and so it was a good confirmation that I wasn't that odd.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited June 09, 2004).]
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Striving to be great and seeing that you are at least better than some are not mutually exclusive concepts. While it is a terrible thing to only look at the lowest common denominator and think, "I can do better." it is demoralizing to only look at the best and think, "I have soooo far to go." My thoughts are akin to OSC's advice, you must simultaneously believe that you are the best writer in the world and the worst writer in the wrld. I'm afraid that I will always compare my work to published pieces, for better and for worse. I will take pleasure in my successes compared to those that are less, and use those that are better as a road map for my own improvement. I believe the two together make for a healthy combination.
Posts: 3567 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I find the biggest problem for me is my writing style and language suddenly start matching what I read. Oh, and I get really, really distracted and just start inhaling books instead of writing!
This is also true of these posts! I've enjoyed reading them and find many quite useful and insightful.
quote:My thoughts are akin to OSC's advice, you must simultaneously believe that you are the best writer in the world and the worst writer in the world.
If this is helpful to you, then great. I've heard it before (probably from OSC), and try as I might I could never see myself in this way. I'm at where I'm at, which is better than some and worse than others.
I think Simmons' point was that aspiring writers should be more inspired by greatness than by mediocrity. Look at young athletes, say, young baseball players. They all want to be the next A-Rod or Barry Bonds, the next Roger Clemens or Randy Johnson. They all dream of hitting the walk-off home run that wins Game 7 of the World Series; they all dream of pitching the perfect game. They see the greatest in the game, and that's what they inspire to.
But writers--and I see this all too often on this board--seem to hold their work out and say, with fear and trembling, "Did I pass?" "Is it okay?" Few, it seems to me, have any concept of what it means to have goals and aspirations, and almost fewer still have confidence in their abilities . . . both their actual abilities as well as their latent and potential abilities. I don't know why this is, except perhaps they're deluded by the notion that writing has more to do with talent than hard work.
I do think we should take our cue from athletes--to strive for our personal best--and, like most athletes, we never reach it. Roger Clemens, at 41 years old, is 9-0 on the season, and if you ask him if he's pitched the best he can he'd say no. And that's what keeps him going. I don't think he gives a shit about how he ranks among other pitchers; he cares about two things: competing with himself, and going down in history as one of the best of all time.
That, it seems to me, is Simmons' point. Stop settling just to be mediocre, because that won't get you anywhere. Sure, you might get a novel or two published, but who wants just that? No writer wants an ephemeral career that vaporizes within a few years. The only way not to have that kind of career is to stop striving to be "just good enough" and start striving to be one of the best.
There. I'm done. I'm getting down from my platform.
Christine, this rant wasn't directed at you, so please don't take it that way.
[This message has been edited by Balthasar (edited June 09, 2004).]
posted
Wow I had it totally wrong, I wanted to write like Hemmingway, sell like Tolstoy, and recive the acclaim of Bob. (bob being the crazy guy on the street, sorry King's oppinion is too well thought of.)
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I would kill myself before I ever wrote ANYTHING like Hemingway. I wouldn't mind having his critical acclaim, though (as much as I don't understand where it came from).
I want to write as deep as Henry James, with characters as engaging as OSCs, with the clarity and eloquency of Twain, and of course sell like King.
Also, with as many giant, blockbuster movie adaptations as King.
posted
Just refound a great quote from William Faulkner:
quote:Read, read, read. Read everything--trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write.
Every book I read is a schoolroom these days. Every book helps me improve my writing. Every book, good or bad, inspires me to try to be better.
Incidently, for the first time ever I read a really bad novel -- Tom Piccirilli's The Night Class, winner of the Bram Stoker Award in 2002 (why he won, I don't know) -- that actually increased my hope and inspiried me to work harder.
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