Inspiration Part II:

I just finished reading Stephen King’s book On Writing and I have to say it was pretty good. I noticed as I read it that many of the little sayings you hear from other established authors were repeated. It seems the mantra of the writing world is, “Write, write, and then write some more.” What I found really fascinating was the idea that a writer should, “Read, read and then read some more.” In most books on the art of writing you rarely see this spoken about. Yet, as I surf through author blogs many of them are avid readers as well. They soak up the art form from every angle they can. This idea really struck home for me because I love to read. I tackle book after book and while I may not hit the 70 or 80 books a year that Mr. King does I come pretty close. The logic is so clear that I can’t believe it doesn’t come up more often. How can one pursue the art form if one doesn’t know what the art form is supposed to look like? My boss is a perfect example of this. Her memo’s and emails are horrific. They’re bossy, rude, and lack personality. There is a use of words so far above her regular vocabulary often times the memo/email doesn’t even make sense. Sometimes it’s a struggle just to get through one of them and get any sort of meaning and not be insulted. She doesn’t read. She hates it. It shows. So now I have an excuse for all of my reading (and the money I spend on both new and used books…I’m doing research!)

What I found even more interesting was that I don’t even really like Stephen King’s books but I know he is a sort of god of writing. I mean look at his success. He started out writing for adult magazines and now he’s created some of the most influential books of our time. I’m sure some of his work is even required reading at a few colleges. So as I read On Writing I knew of books like Carrie and The Green Mile but I’ve never read them. In fact the only books of his that I’ve read are The Stand (which was awesome), and The Gunslinger which was not as good as I had hope it would be from the title. I still found myself, however, being inspired by his words. I saw how his tenacity, his knowledge had led him to where he is now. I found similarities between him and me. We both started writing young. He started with original ideas and I did not. He had the support of his mom and shared his work. I did not. I was so absorbed with being cool that I rarely if ever shared any of what I worked on. I had an English teacher that supported me and I just threw away the two notebooks from that class. Both had poorly written Star Trek stuff in them. His success, however, gives me hope that at 36 perhaps I still have a shot. If I stick with what I’m passionate about and keep pushing forward in the face of self-doubt that perhaps I’ll succeed where in the past I’ve failed. I feel empowered to keep pushing forward with my work even when I think it’s not that good.