What does it mean to be a writer?
Is it the same as what it means for you to be a writer? What is expected of you?
“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.”
• Stephen King, On Writing
From Writer's Digest
“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might has well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”
J.K.Rowling
Write what it is you want to read is a great start.
So what are you reading?
How to make reading a habit.
Start with topic or genres that you love
Use websites to help you
- WhatShouldIReadNext.com: start with an author or book you love, click the closest match from the list that pops up, and then this site will generate a list of books you’ll probably like based on your initial author/title. Pretty cool.
- GoodReads: This is social networking for readers. Join (you can use your Facebook credentials) and then find friends and see what they’re reading, find interest-based groups, search book lists, or join a discussion.
- BookBrowse.com: The “Read Alikes” service here is similar to WhatShouldIReadNext but the lists of comparable books is handpicked by other readers.
- WhichBook: Choose your book by mood or other fun factors, like Happy or Sad, Beautiful or Disgusting, Conventional or Unusual.
Use books lists
- Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels (Board List and Reader’s List)
- Modern Library’s 100 Best Nonfiction (Board List and Reader’s List)
- The 100 Best Business Books of All Time
- Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
- 25 Recommendations for Life-Changing Biographies
- Telegraph’s 110 Best Books List, divided into genres
- The 50 Best Food Memoirs
- Ultimate Travel Library: Around the World in 80+ Books
- 50 Essential Mystery Novels
You can skim a book to know if you want to take the dive
“First, you do not know whether you want to read the book. You do not know whether it deserves an analytical reading. But you suspect that it does, or at least that it contains both information and insights that would be valuable to you if you could dig them out. Second, let us assume—and this is very often the case—that you have only a limited time in which to find all this out. In this case, what you must do is skim the book, or, as some prefer to say, pre-read it. Skimming or pre-reading is the first sublevel of inspectional reading. Your main aim is to discover whether the book requires a more careful reading. Secondly, skimming can tell you lots of other things about the book, even if you decide not to read it again with more care.”
Use the 50-page rule
If you are not into it by the 50th page there is no sin in saying that this book is not for you.
Start a reading notebook
It could be a Pinterest board, a note on Facebook, a list on your phone, a folder of photos, your GoodReads account etc.
Make the time to read. Make it important. Make it a priority.
- Read in the bathroom
- Read in line
- Read while you are waiting for . . . anything
- Read before you go to bed
- Read in a favorite chair on a rainy day
- Read outside on a sunny day
Find your reading spot
- Make it comfortable
- Where you cannot be disturbed
- Turn off your phone
- Have a good light
- Have some tea or some other beverage of your choice
- Maybe eat the food you might be reading about
- Read with someone else who appreciates reading (fun to read to each other)
Don't forget about audio books!
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