Two posts
ago, I listed four quotes that completely apply to me in terms of writing.
Simply listing them here on the blog apparently wasn't enough for my feverish
little brain, though. I kept thinking about them for days and nights and those
life-preventing times called the working hours. So finally, I wrote my thoughts
down, because that always helps me muddle through things.
Here are my
thoughts on quote number two:
Reading
usually precedes writing and the impulse to write is almost always fired by
reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a
writer.
Susan
Sontag
It's true.
I get inspired to write by reading other people's writing. If I'm really
enjoying a story, the urge to write something of my own itches in my
fingertips. Solutions to problems in a story I'm working on spring to mind as
if they've always been there and only needed to be unlocked. By reading.
Yet this
all happens on an unconscious level, because I'm completely immersed in the
world and characters I'm reading about. I'm not consciously trying to work out
my own story-problems, or fervently trying to come up with new ideas. They just
suddenly pop into mind, nudged to the forefront by something in the book I'm
reading. Sometimes I get all excited about the idea, but if the book is that
good I keep reading and later have to dig deep in my memory to find that idea
again.
Not all of
them are useful, but even the useless ones often bump me onto the right path.
Some of them are downright crazy, and these are my favorites because they tend
to be different and fresh, even if they aren't always useful, either.
