Hello Again, I'm Back and I Have Brought My Kindle

I've decided to revive my book blog, in a slightly different direction.

Now I have gotten very into reading books on my Kindle.  I don't even have a Kindle actually.  I have a Kindle Reader on my phone, which came pre-loaded on it.  I didn't intend on using it.  I mostly bought books used from used book stores or thrift stores.  I borrowed books from the library.  I also used a book swap service online.

I like to read science fiction and fantasy novels, which frequently come in series.  So I would buy or borrow the first book in a series, take it home and devour it, and then want to read more.  But I was at home, either not wanting to go out or the library and stores were shut.  Then I realized I had this little device that I carried around with me all the time, a magic book obtaining from home device.  Oh dear.  All the first books I bought on my Kindle were second and third books in sci-fi series!

I loved the fact that I could have books that I carried around with me all the time.  I'm a real estate agent, and that means a lot of waiting for people at properties.  Now I always had something to read.  I also liked the fact that I could read in bed without a light on.  I was hooked.

My little habit started adding up though and  I was spending a lot of money buying books.  Previously the majority of the books I bought were under three dollars.  Many of the books were a dollar.  Books from the library are free, unless you forget to return them.  Now I was buying new series books at 7.99.  I'm a very fast reader and the money was starting to add up - 79.00 for ten books!

I discovered that there were a lot of other Kindle books that were cheaper.  Much cheaper.  Some were even free - as cheap as a library book which would never have fines.  There was page after page of fantasy novels by unknown authors.  But isn't every author an unknown before you have heard of them?  So I jumped right in.  Most of the fiction books I buy are 2.99 or under.  

So I have decided to start writing about books again.  This blog will focus on books that are on the Kindle, but I will also write about other books and media.

Thanks for reading my blog, it is nice to be back.

If You Can Talk, you can write

I hate to write! I love thinking about writing, talking about what I'm going to write, and telling people that I am a writer. But actually sitting down and producing anything? I never really did. The hardest thing about writing, really, is starting to write. Sure, I had good ideas and a notebook to keep them in. I had a good writing style, a word processor, and a copy of writer's market. When I took a writing class and was forced to write, other people loved my writing and encouraged me. Still, I did not write.

Just because I was not writing, doesn't mean I stopped reading about it. I love reading how to write books how to write mysteries, how get your work published, how to break into magazine writing. There are thousands of writing books out there. If you spend a lot of time reading them, you won't have time or energy to write. I didn't. One day I read a book about writing that was different. It was the last one I ever read. After that I started writing.

The name of this book is If You Can Talk, You Can Write. It's written by Joel Saltzman.

The main premise is that anyone can write. The important thing is just to keep the words coming out. Even if what you are saying is garbage. If you can't think of anything to write, write something anyway. You could write a description of what your kitchen sink looks like, or what you wore to school in third grade. The act of putting words on paper leads you to what you want to write about.

However, if you leave your writing in that form, it is going to sound like self indulgent garbage. The other half of the equation is edit, edit, edit. But don't edit until you get to the end. If you keep editing as you go (like I used to) it's hard to get anywhere. Write the whole thing through. Then let it sit and go back and edit. Think of the writing as the big picture, and the editing as the little details. Once you get out what you want to say, you can go back and tweak it. If you keep going back and messing around with what you wrote in the last sentence, it's difficult to get any momentum going.

One problem I had with my writing was excessive use of the word "I". Much of my writing is based on my personal experiences. The word does tend to pop up when you are writing about yourself. I would obsess over finding ways to say what I wanted, without using the dreaded word. That made my writing jerky and awkward.

Now I just write, not worrying about making the perfect sentence every time. I say what I want and then edit it later. A lot of my sentences get deleted in the final editing process. Why waste time making each sentence perfect when there's a good chance it won't be in the final version anyway?

If you are a frustrated writer, I recommend getting this book and reading it. It really does make you feel like writing. Also, it's quite entertaining to read. The writer uses a good mix of examples, amusing stories and quizzes to explain why his method works.

Here are a few other things that have helped me write more.

1. Don't tell anyone about what you are writing. I used to love to talk about the book I was working on. The problem was, it was all talk. There was no writing. Telling people what I wanted to write took away my need to write it. So if you want to write, shut up and write!

2. Find a situation where you must produce writing. Try a creative writing class or a writer's group. If I have a deadline to meet, that makes me write. The more I write, the more I get in the habit of writing on a regular basis. Telling myself I'm going to post in my blog every day helps too.

3. Remember that your writing will improve with practice. The more you write, the better you get. This is something I have a hard time remembering, but it's true. I read something I wrote and I swear it sounds like it was written by a precocious eight year old (an an annoying one at that). But I just have to keep on going and editing.

How I Write

This is the method that seems to be helping me procrastinate less about writing blog posts. I write in bed in my notebook, by hand. I cross out stuff, write little notes in the margins, and sometimes draw things. Then later I sit down at a computer to transcribe what I wrote.

That is, I start to transcribe, and then I find that I actually don't even look at the notes once I get going, I just write it. It usually comes out better than the notes. The first draft is really a rehearsal.

I'm thinking of going to a cafe to write, or just to sit outside somewhere now that the weather is warm.

Writing does get easier when you do it more often and make it a habit, kind of like going to the gym is now a habit for me.

I also joined this group through another blog called Fess Up Friday where you write about what you wrote that week. It's just kind of nice to know there are other writers out there struggling with the same things. So I will see how it goes.

My goal is to write in this blog and in my art blog every day this week.

I've wanted to start a book review blog for a long time. In fact I had written a bunch of book reviews because I didn't want to start out a blog with one measly review and keep adding to it. And you know what? I lost them in a computer incident. So every time I would start thinking about writing a book blog I would think about my lost work and feel mournful, and do something else. So now I have decided to just do it.