I love writing. Whether or not I’m any good at it is subjective. For me, writing is therapy. It’s my own little world, where I can hide out in. When I’ve had a bad day at work, or when my life feels like it’s out of my control, I can sit down at my computer, or I can pull out a notebook, and bliss out into my own little self-created world. Best of all, when I’ve had a “good day” of writing, it’s almost as if I’ve taken a mini vacation.
Unfortunately, as much as I enjoy writing, sometimes it can feel as though I’ve put myself into an emotional wood chipper. I’ve written things that have left me sobbing. These stories may or may not ever end up in a reader’s hands, because there’s too much of me on the pages. When I’ve had to do a lot of “hard” writing, I find it may take several days before I can go back to what I’ve been working on.
I was reading On Writing by Stephen King this past week. I was reminded of the importance of being an avid reader, as well as being an avid writer. In his book, Stephen King claims to read approximately 70-80 books in a year. He reads about 2-3 books a week; in addition to the hours he spends writing books of his own. It may seem like a simple thing, but for me, it was a revelation.
I’m still very green as a writer. I have a LOT to learn as a writer, but I adore reading. I’ve decided to give myself the same challenge. I plan on recording the books that I’ve read in a year’s time, beginning with the first day of spring. I’m curious as to the effect it will have on my own work. I’m hoping that it will help me keep my stories fresh, so I don’t burn myself out, and forget how much fun it is to tell my stories. As much as I enjoy creating stories to share, I need to keep filling my own literary cup too!
JULI HOFFMAN 
Hi Julie,
Finally got caught up with your blog! I’m not going to comment on each post, even though I did read all of them! OH, and I do love me a good vampire story!
About the reading: When I first started writing, I found it difficult to read a lot. I felt like it was going to either influence me too much, or give me the feeling of being so inadequate a writer that I’d give up! (especially when reading my favorite authors).
However…I do now agree with your statement! And I like the way you put it too: “filling up my own literary cup”. I am challenging myself to read two books a month and one of them must be a “classic”. When I was not involved in writing, blogging, facebooking and twittering, I was able to read a lot more…but this is about all I will be able to fit in these days. And I am so glad I have forced myself to do this! I started reading Jane Eyre a few weeks back…and found I LOVE it! (Never thought I’d really like the “classics” this much!)
I am looking forward to reading your vampire novels! Will you be posting any excerpts? I’m thinking of posting a poem from my novel on the Writer’s Circle to see if anyone thinks it’s any good! *biting nails*
And now I must think about what my blog will be tomorrow…(I am only doing one a week for now)
Have a great weekend!
Sharon 🙂
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Thanks Sharon, I finished reading Jane Eyre a few weeks ago and was also surprised how much I enjoyed Charlotte Bronte’s story. I just started reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I’m really enjoying it so far.
I do plan on posting exerpts from my story soon, although “soon” is a fluid concept around my house. LOL I’m excited/nervous as I plan on launching the first book from my series this summer. The second one is already written, but needs editing. Outlines and excerpts have been written for six more books and I wrote a novella during 2010 NaNoWriMo based off of one of my minor charactes that’s also finished but needs editing.
The first book in The Williamson Vampires Series was actually finished last year, but after NaNoWriMo, I decided to take the first story in a slightly different direction. The ending is the same, and the begining changed only slightly, but the journey in the middle needed some major rewrites. I drug my feet at first, but I’m so glad I made the changes that I did. I think it’s difficult, as the writer, to look at your own work objectively and make major cuts/changes.
Have a great weekend!
Juli
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