cj Sez: I just finished critiquing a new writer’s first few chapters and was reminded of my first efforts in creating a story or a poem people might read and enjoy.
Authors are real people, with real insecurities and ambitions, just like the reader audiences they hope to reach. Writers may have vivid imaginations but transcribing that into well-written, well-researched stories takes skill. Like all skills, from learning to feed ourselves to walking and talking, learning how to write the story a reader can escape into takes practice and instruction, not always in a classroom…it’s why writers must be readers, too, with an emphasis on “must.”
As an author, I want to write the best and truest stories I can. I want the facts, the dialogue, and the emotions to ring true. To help me do that, I read the stories that are wonderful examples of “how to,” as well as the stories that are wonderful examples of “how not to.” As a reader, if I don’t like something about the story, I put it down and pick up another book. Sometimes it takes a concerted effort to separate the writer-editor in me from the reader and continue reading. I’m not always successful.
I have acquired a lot of to-be-read stories, most of them are just for the pleasure of reading—the most recent on my Kindle being a reprint of Dashiell Hammett’s “Crooked Souls,” first published in 1923. What’s in your TBR stack or Kindle library of stories?
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Son’s photo of an Orchard Oriole, taken on Dauphin Island, AL.
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“Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.” —E. B. White
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News of my newly released books:
Ebooks ON SALE NOW . . . $1.99 until June 30.
Buy Death on the Yampa at https://books2read.com/u/bxe1AP
The paperback of a homegrown-terrorist adventure in Death on the Yampa is available on Amazon: Buy Paperback Yampa
The paperback of the international thriller The Dawgstar is available here: Amazon Buy Now
Reviews are encouraged and would be much appreciated.
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That’s it for today’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping on,
and I’ll try to do the same.
cj
P.S. TO ORDER my books or any book of your choice on-line and
support an indie bookstore, contact The Haunted Bookshop here: https://www.thehauntedbookshopmobile.com/contact-us
If you’d like me to autograph or personalize it for you, be sure to tell them.
The Haunted Bookshop has re-opened to limited hours (and they have an awesome bookstore kitty, Mr. Bingley), so if you’re in the Mobile area, you can stop and shop, too.
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