I have a hard time reading fiction.
One of the common pieces of advice given to aspiring fiction writers involves reading, a near-voracious appetite for fiction. The practice is meant to expand horizons and provide hints to the many ways words can convey messages. Down the line, the aspiring writer can eventually, after much practice, forge a personal style.
Growing up, non-fiction was my apple. To be more precise, those thick hard-bound encyclopedia volumes were some of my best friends when I was a kid. I was hardly exposed to fiction so I never developed a taste for it. Now that I'm determined to be a writer, I've begun to take the hard road by reading as much fiction as I'm able to.
My cousin, ten years my junior, loves books. She started out at a young age with Sweet Valley High and Mills & Boon, then graduated to the heavyweights while finishing a Lieterature degree. She'd lend her books to me so I could share in the joy. After some time, I was able to finish Paolo Coelho's The Alchemist, Jeff Noon's Pixel Juice and Automatic Alice, and Jostein Gaarder's Vita Brevis, with varying degrees of difficulty.
It was the rich and playful Pixel Juice that made me decide to continue my education from square one--short fiction. For the past year, I've been regularly scouring the Web for stories posted online. After I choose a few selections (based purely on the titles and the first few sentences), I download and print them for later enjoyment. Reading time would take place whenever free time makes it appropriate and conducive.
Right now, I'm more receptive to fiction. My comprehension skills have improved a tad, and I believe I have greater insight on the different ways stories are told. But I've got a long way to go. Reading should be as much a habit as writing. I want to reach a point where I can put down "reading" in a hobbies-and-interests inquiry and actually mean it.
As for reinforcing my writing habit, there's this blog to help me. I think that counts for something.
OK, it’s not as snappy as ‘New Year, New You’, but we all know those grand
commitments to massive ‘to do’ lists don’t work anyway, don’t we?
So let’s try...
1 day ago
7 comments:
Welcome to the weird and whacky world of bloggers and especially bloggers who want to be writers.
Reading is a key to writing well. I wish you the best of luck with it. I also found reading a tad hard at first. I stopped reading fiction for fun when I came to highschool, and then my English teacher two years ago, encouraged us to read for fun to improve our vocab. I inevitably came up with ideas for my own stories when I did this. At first, reading was a struggle, it's hard for me to maintain concentration, but as time goes on, it's getting better.
I never expected anyone to drop by this early. :-)
Thanks, Benjamin, and I wish you the best as well!
Well, did you apply to blogexplosion? I know an admin there, and she gave me the URL as she was approving blogs, because we were talking about writing blog. I blogrolled you for more hits too!
As a matter of fact, I have! :-) It's just been approved.
I visited your site, but I couldn't find a Comment link or a tag board. Pretty neat stuff you got there.
And thanks for the blogroll!
It sounds like you're off to a grand start to your quest. The world needs as many talented, motivated, interesting writers as it can find and I hope that your enthusiasm doesn't flag in this often-frustrating (but ultimately wonderfully rewarding) calling of ours.
Thanks, Michael, for the encouragement. :-) And for visiting this humble blog.
The comment links are just below the post headlines.
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