Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Reference Books

I never thought about needing reference books for writing before a few months ago. I reread certain books that struck me as fantastic, and that was about it. But recently, I've been buying several resources to help with the writing craft.

So now that I have these touted books on how to write better, I find myself in a quandary. I'm only allotted so much free time in a given day to write/read/edit/blog/email/etc. I find the motivation is around 20% or lower to read books that don't disengage me from my life as I know it. By this, I mean, books that don't have a plot and characters (i.e., these self-help writing books!). When I do put aside my computer from writing, I want to read books that make me laugh with a character that did something I totally would have done! Self-Editing for the Fiction Writer just doesn't cut it when I'm in that sort of mood.

So I'm realizing the sacrifice that is needed here. In order to make my writing time that much more valuable - to write more quality stuff in the time I have - I'm going to have to sacrifice some of that time to begin with. Ah. There in lies the rub.

1 comments:

PatriciaW said...

Jeannie, I try to read 1 or 2 of these a year. That's it. There's just too much advice to synthesize and apply to my writing if I try to do more. And, I'd rather write. I learn so much by interacting with fellow writers like you.