How I Became a Writer- Part 1- Reading
Welcome! I'm Fred and I'm becoming an author. It's a little strange to say that, but here we are.
How did I get here? Part one of how one becomes a writer. First, read a lot. To sum it up, I will quote Harper Lee. “I never loved reading until I feared I would lose it. One does not love breathing.”
I've always been an avid reader. My mom read a lot, so I imagine that I started hearing her read to my brothers and sister before I was even born. Then she read to me. I "learned" to read in first grade via Mrs. Magnuson at Excelsior (MN) Elementary School. And I read a lot. A LOT!
I was a geek, I'll freely admit that. I didn't fit in and didn't have a lot of friends, so I sought out the world of books. Mostly I read biographies from the school library. I found (and still find) history fascinating. If I ever went back to college it would be to study history.
I read James Herriot, and Farley Mowat. The Bobbsey Twins, Encyclopedia Brown, The Great Brain series. When I got older it was Louis L'Amour and Peter Benchley. I will say that "Jaws" is only case where I can say the movie is actually better than the book.
And I read what I consider to be my "favorite" book- To Kill a Mockingbird. Some might call it cliché, but screw 'em. I love it. Not just the message, but Harper Lee's words and descriptions touched me.
Eventually I went off to college and stopped reading for pleasure. Too much reading for class I guess. Tom Clancy got me back into reading. He would later (I'll write more about it) greatly influence my writing style.
Mostly I got back into reading historical non-fiction. Untold history like "The Girls of Atomic City" or "Devil in the White City." Of course, I love the Harry Potter series. And the brilliant "World War Z" by Max Brooks, but non-fiction was 95% of what I read.
I also made it one of my "things" to read some of the classics. I finally read "Moby Dick," which was very challenging. I've also read some Dickens, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and more. The writing is very different. Not to say it's good or bad, just different, from a different time.
In late 2016, after a long (years!) thought process, I decided to try writing a fiction novel. It dawned on me that I would have to read more fiction. I have more work to do, but I started reading Minnesota authors like William Kent Krueger, Mindy Mejia, Allen Eskens and more. Not that I limit myself to just Minnesota, but that's where I started.
I confess that I read books differently now, both fiction and non-fiction. It's more than just the content, but I look at style and word choice. Stuff that (hopefully) will make me a better writer.
How did I get here? Part one of how one becomes a writer. First, read a lot. To sum it up, I will quote Harper Lee. “I never loved reading until I feared I would lose it. One does not love breathing.”
I've always been an avid reader. My mom read a lot, so I imagine that I started hearing her read to my brothers and sister before I was even born. Then she read to me. I "learned" to read in first grade via Mrs. Magnuson at Excelsior (MN) Elementary School. And I read a lot. A LOT!
I was a geek, I'll freely admit that. I didn't fit in and didn't have a lot of friends, so I sought out the world of books. Mostly I read biographies from the school library. I found (and still find) history fascinating. If I ever went back to college it would be to study history.
I read James Herriot, and Farley Mowat. The Bobbsey Twins, Encyclopedia Brown, The Great Brain series. When I got older it was Louis L'Amour and Peter Benchley. I will say that "Jaws" is only case where I can say the movie is actually better than the book.
And I read what I consider to be my "favorite" book- To Kill a Mockingbird. Some might call it cliché, but screw 'em. I love it. Not just the message, but Harper Lee's words and descriptions touched me.
Eventually I went off to college and stopped reading for pleasure. Too much reading for class I guess. Tom Clancy got me back into reading. He would later (I'll write more about it) greatly influence my writing style.
Mostly I got back into reading historical non-fiction. Untold history like "The Girls of Atomic City" or "Devil in the White City." Of course, I love the Harry Potter series. And the brilliant "World War Z" by Max Brooks, but non-fiction was 95% of what I read.
I also made it one of my "things" to read some of the classics. I finally read "Moby Dick," which was very challenging. I've also read some Dickens, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and more. The writing is very different. Not to say it's good or bad, just different, from a different time.
In late 2016, after a long (years!) thought process, I decided to try writing a fiction novel. It dawned on me that I would have to read more fiction. I have more work to do, but I started reading Minnesota authors like William Kent Krueger, Mindy Mejia, Allen Eskens and more. Not that I limit myself to just Minnesota, but that's where I started.
I confess that I read books differently now, both fiction and non-fiction. It's more than just the content, but I look at style and word choice. Stuff that (hopefully) will make me a better writer.
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