Reading for Writers

Well, another week has passed, yet to put pen to paper, but progress has still been made.  I've tidied and sorted the mess of papers on my writing desk - an adorable little acquisition from TradeMe that used to be a church organ - and pulled out all my WIP notebooks, to decide which story to work on.

Most if not all the novel writing books, creative fiction workshops, and magazine articles tell you that you must read to be a writer.  Read read read.  All genres, to really decide what you like to read, therefore you will write something that you'd enjoy to read yourself - and the theory therefore is that it will be a worthy manuscript and potentially publishable.

So, dear reader, I have been reading voraciously. Having just finished the published series of A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones) by George R R Martin, I felt the need to read something a little lighter, of a different time period, and completely different genre.  I picked up Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn and read it during a brief sojourn to Queenstown.  It had me gripped from cover to cover, and the very clever Ms Flynn had me guessing from page 1.  Next on the list was Wool, by Hugh Howey.  I had actually gone to a little library event he held at Takapuna Library a few months ago, and fell in love with this gorgeous American who charmed all the little ladies in attendance.


I can not recommend this book to those who have impatience as a strong virtue.  It was extremely hard to put down, and could easily have been read in 1-3 sittings.  Strong dystopian theme, extremely well written, fascinating characters and just well, super enjoyed.  Can't wait to read the next book, Shift, in this trilogy.  

And here's a picture of about 50% of our fiction bookshelf, mostly of books to be read.


So, I have a bit of catching up to do!

Next time we'll chat about the audiobooks I've been reading (oops, listening to!), and most important, what story WIP I've chosen and how that's getting on.

Happy Sunday!




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