Once upon a time, I wrote stories. Most of them were creative non-fiction… stories from my childhood where my sister and I are the heroes and we battle such menacing foes as fish, boredom and misclassified birds. The point of all these ramblings is that I enjoy writing. I also enjoy reading. I mainly read fantasy and fiction. My theory is that it would be difficult to write in those genres without blatantly copying the authors I like. I feel like I would be totally stealing ideas from other authors. This is why I write creative non-fiction. I already know the stories, and I know that no one else has written them.
This last November, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Austin’s Comic Convention. Gosh, I love that place. Anyway, one of the artists in attendance was Peter S. Beagle. Now, some of you may not know who that is. He is one of the authors that piqued my interest in fantasy books. That particular day, I got to the Con fairly early and was able to have a good chat with him about several things that I’ve always wanted to ask authors I admire. He gave me a lot of good advice and was extremely conversational and easy to talk to. I’m going to share with you something he told me.
This last November, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend Austin’s Comic Convention. Gosh, I love that place. Anyway, one of the artists in attendance was Peter S. Beagle. Now, some of you may not know who that is. He is one of the authors that piqued my interest in fantasy books. That particular day, I got to the Con fairly early and was able to have a good chat with him about several things that I’ve always wanted to ask authors I admire. He gave me a lot of good advice and was extremely conversational and easy to talk to. I’m going to share with you something he told me.
I told him my theory about writing in the genres that I enjoy reading. He laughed at me, not in derision, but how someone laughs at an innocent misunderstanding. He picked up a copy of “The Last Unicorn” (the book that first hooked me) and said, “I can tell you all of the authors I was thinking of while I wrote this book.” For the life of me, I can’t remember any of them, but he told me that authors mimic the styles they enjoy and that is a wonderful place to start. After that, when you finally get into the groove of writing, your own style starts to show itself.
With this sage advice in mind, we come to my Pre-New-Year’s Resolution. I really need to get back into the habit of writing. I have written anything (besides blogs) in a long, long time. So, my goal is to write 1,000 words a day. This doesn’t include my blog entries which will let you know how horribly I am doing at this endeavor. For the record, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I’ve written a lot, and I feel like the thoughts in my head are finally coming together in a way that makes sense. At the moment, I am struggling at 963 words. That’s mostly because I was supposed to be in bed 3 hours ago. Fail.
Alright, I made it to 1,014 words. Need to go to bed. We’ll see how tomorrow goes. Wish me luck in my insanity!
With this sage advice in mind, we come to my Pre-New-Year’s Resolution. I really need to get back into the habit of writing. I have written anything (besides blogs) in a long, long time. So, my goal is to write 1,000 words a day. This doesn’t include my blog entries which will let you know how horribly I am doing at this endeavor. For the record, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I’ve written a lot, and I feel like the thoughts in my head are finally coming together in a way that makes sense. At the moment, I am struggling at 963 words. That’s mostly because I was supposed to be in bed 3 hours ago. Fail.
Alright, I made it to 1,014 words. Need to go to bed. We’ll see how tomorrow goes. Wish me luck in my insanity!
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