Reindeers Remix
It's been stuck in my head all week.
I came across a quote from Roy Peter Clark the other day that I keep coming back to. "Everyone should read, we say, but we act as if only those with special talent should write." One of the most helpful things for me to remember when I'm writing and start feeling down about my work is that while it may never become a national best-seller, someone out there will enjoy it. It may become someone's favorite book. I think this quote applies in a similar sense.
The best thing for writers to do in order to improve, by general consensus, is to read. So if we're encouraging everyone to read, why shouldn't we encourage everyone to write? We're all unique individuals and as such we all relate to different things. I'm not a huge fan of non-fiction pieces - for the most part I prefer to stick myself firmly in genre fiction, but there are people, and I know a few, who are just drawn to non-fiction pieces. If you're not comfortable writing whatever genre you may see as being the most popular or hip, who cares? Not everyone likes reading those books! Whatever your preferred genre/style, there is at least someone, maybe many someones, out there that are wandering bookstore shelves wishing that there was an author who wrote the way you write. So write the way you write!
Right now I'm discovering how I write action scenes. I've never really done one before - my personal tendency to avoid confrontation bleeds over into my stories - so this is pretty new territory for me. Which means I've been over thinking things and muttering "dur dur dur" under my breath a lot. Seriously.
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