Why I read books about writing

Lots of writers advise other writers to stop reading books on writing and just crack on with the writing. But I love to read books on writing. I love to see how other writers work and I like to find out new things to try.

My husband has been a coarse fisherman for more than fifty years. He learned to fish at his father’s knee and is now a very experienced match angler. Yet he still loves to watch vlogs from other match anglers, sharing their own hints, tips and secrets. He’ll watch around a dozen a week.

He’s not afraid to see how others do it and try new methods out for himself. Some he’ll adopt, some he’ll cast aside – (ha ha ha – “cast”, do you see what I did there?). But most of all he enjoys to see other fishermen catching fish (and throwing them back, before anyone jumps on me here).

The last two books I’ve read and reviewed, How to Write a Mystery Without Plotting it to Death and Start Writing Your Book Today, are just two reasons I continue to read books on writing. And this week I’ll be skimming them again, taking notes and implementing the advice they share.

I’m currently working on several projects. I’m usually always working on short material so I have something to keep sending out during long periods of otherwise non-income-generation. Last week I found out I’d sold another short story, to a favourite market, and it’s spurred me on to polish a few more and get them out there.

Longer material includes:

  • researching a contracted history book about a major chocolate manufacturer
  • editing a novel, Catch the Rainbow
  • planning a new series of cosy mysteries
  • writing the first draft of a new Marcie Craig story, The Beast Within
  • (when I completely run out of inspiration) writing a category romance by the seat of my pants

I really enjoy the variety, and when I run out of steam on one, I have plenty of other material to work with until the muse returns. And when I’m not writing or editing, I’m publishing.

This very morning, for example, after finally convincing Smashwords to finally change my profile name (it’s only taken 2½ years!), after bringing all of my books out of Kindle Select (so they’re no longer exclusive to Amazon), I was able to publish my first book on Smashwords by Diane Wordsworth. The link’s here if you’re interested.  😉

This means I’m very busy for a lot of the time. But I’m still very happy to try out methods and suggestions and apply any tips and tricks.

Why do you read books about writing?

2 thoughts on “Why I read books about writing

  1. Agree with Carol. Every writing book will contain some hidden gem of advice, even if the rest of the book is average or familiar advice. And that’ll make its reading worthwhile. The insight it offers into how other writers write is invaluable.

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