Ian Dawson's Blog - Posts Tagged "biography"
Are You a Writer Who Reads?
I love to read. If I see a book I think I would enjoy, I either buy it or add it to my wish list. My coworker buys me books for my birthday and Christmas. If there’s a topic I want to learn more about, I don’t Google it; I try and find a book about the topic instead. Reading has always played a significant role in my life and my education post-school, and it’s an activity that I enjoy.
One of my favorite authors, Stephen King, has said: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” I have a feeling King knows what he’s talking about.
If you’re a writer, I encourage you to take the time to read. Not books about writing, which I'll talk about next week, but a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books.
Read Outside Your Genre
If you are an author who writes primarily in a specific genre – Young Adult, Romance, Thriller, Mystery, etc. – I encourage you to read novels that aren’t from your chosen realm. While it’s essential to know and understand your genre’s tropes, themes, and other elements, it’s equally important to see how different genres work within their various story conventions to see what you can learn. You can often glean some new bit of story structure or character development idea from a novel outside your chosen area of expertise.
Read Different Authors
We often get comfy with a couple authors we enjoy and stick with them. Dare to pick authors you may not be familiar with and read their works as well. Your favorite author isn’t going anywhere.
Read Books from Other Decades
We are creatures of habit. Most of the time, if it’s a book that’s a current best-seller, or one on display at Target, it’s the book we grab to read. However, it’s also important to delve into the past and read authors whose work lives long after their passing. The classics have inspired authors for generations, and by looking at these works, you can learn new aspects of storytelling that you can possibly apply to your work.
Read History, Autobiographies, and Biographies
The real world can offer up some great story ideas, and you can learn a thing or two along the way. Real human beings, human behavior, and human drama can sometimes be more engaging and fascinating than fiction, and these types of books can give you a fresh perspective on topics you think you know about.
Read to Learn
As you read, observe how the author crafts their chapters, characters, and story arcs. Look at how they format certain things. For example, I’ve seen text messaging and phone calls formatted in many different ways in novels, depending on the author.
If you found yourself up until 3 in the morning not wanting to put the books down, ask yourself why? What was it about the story, the characters, or the pacing that made you have to keep reading? These are elements you can analyze and apply to your work as well.
Always Go with Variety
If you’ve plotted out your 2021 reading list, consider adding books and authors you usually wouldn’t read. Maybe an author whose work you don’t enjoy, or one whose opinions bother you. Look at them less as annoying reading assignments and more like learning opportunities. Each book you open can inform your own writing methodology and how you create your worlds and story.
And all you need to do is turn to Chapter One and start reading.
As a writer, how do you decide what books to read? Leave a comment and let me know!
One of my favorite authors, Stephen King, has said: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” I have a feeling King knows what he’s talking about.
If you’re a writer, I encourage you to take the time to read. Not books about writing, which I'll talk about next week, but a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books.
Read Outside Your Genre
If you are an author who writes primarily in a specific genre – Young Adult, Romance, Thriller, Mystery, etc. – I encourage you to read novels that aren’t from your chosen realm. While it’s essential to know and understand your genre’s tropes, themes, and other elements, it’s equally important to see how different genres work within their various story conventions to see what you can learn. You can often glean some new bit of story structure or character development idea from a novel outside your chosen area of expertise.
Read Different Authors
We often get comfy with a couple authors we enjoy and stick with them. Dare to pick authors you may not be familiar with and read their works as well. Your favorite author isn’t going anywhere.
Read Books from Other Decades
We are creatures of habit. Most of the time, if it’s a book that’s a current best-seller, or one on display at Target, it’s the book we grab to read. However, it’s also important to delve into the past and read authors whose work lives long after their passing. The classics have inspired authors for generations, and by looking at these works, you can learn new aspects of storytelling that you can possibly apply to your work.
Read History, Autobiographies, and Biographies
The real world can offer up some great story ideas, and you can learn a thing or two along the way. Real human beings, human behavior, and human drama can sometimes be more engaging and fascinating than fiction, and these types of books can give you a fresh perspective on topics you think you know about.
Read to Learn
As you read, observe how the author crafts their chapters, characters, and story arcs. Look at how they format certain things. For example, I’ve seen text messaging and phone calls formatted in many different ways in novels, depending on the author.
If you found yourself up until 3 in the morning not wanting to put the books down, ask yourself why? What was it about the story, the characters, or the pacing that made you have to keep reading? These are elements you can analyze and apply to your work as well.
Always Go with Variety
If you’ve plotted out your 2021 reading list, consider adding books and authors you usually wouldn’t read. Maybe an author whose work you don’t enjoy, or one whose opinions bother you. Look at them less as annoying reading assignments and more like learning opportunities. Each book you open can inform your own writing methodology and how you create your worlds and story.
And all you need to do is turn to Chapter One and start reading.
As a writer, how do you decide what books to read? Leave a comment and let me know!
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (the first half)
If you enjoy in-depth biographical sketches of historic figures, look no further than Ron Chernow’s latest book about American author, speaker, and humorist Mark Twain. As a fan of detailed biographies that present a warts-and-all approach to their subjects, Mark Twain delivers these aspects of the author’s life with incredible insight and contemporary perspective.
More than just the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s life and the historical events he lived through make this a well-rounded and eye-opening book.
At 1033 pages of text, Chernow leaves no stone unturned as he examines the life, career, successes, and failures of one of the heavyweights in American literature. I was especially fascinated by the amount of correspondence that was saved, archived, and available from dozens of sources that allowed Chernow to deliver the events in Twain’s life through the words of the author and those around him.
Throughout the first half of the book, Chernow examines Twain’s evolving attitudes and perspectives on race and racism in America and around the world. A product of the pre-Civil War South, Twain’s views on Blacks, Native Americans, the Chinese, and other minority groups did show significant positive change over his decades of life experience. Still, many feel that his writings and novels keep him mired in the bigotry of his past.
This is exemplified in the book’s analysis of Twain’s most well-known work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and its depiction of Huck’s Black companion, Jim, and the use of the N-word. Chernow provides historical context, Twain’s own opinions and views on the book as he wrote it, and the controversy and subsequent book bans associated with the novel, including its ban from schools during Twain’s lifetime.
One of the many reasons I prefer biographies like this is that they don’t portray the subject as a hero or a villain; instead, they present them as human. Twain was a product of his time, but he was also a man who was willing to adapt his ways and views as the world around him changed. As a world traveler, he was exposed to a variety of cultures, languages, and religions that most in America at this time would never experience.
Around the 550-page mark, we join Twain on a worldwide speaking tour with his loving, patient wife and his daughters as he struggles to dig himself out of a financial mess that threatens his livelihood and family legacy. I’m excited to see what the second half of Mark Twain by Ron Chernow has to offer.
If you’re looking for a solid reading experience about one of America’s most popular literary icons, I highly recommend Mark Twain by Ron Chernow.
More than just the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain’s life and the historical events he lived through make this a well-rounded and eye-opening book.
At 1033 pages of text, Chernow leaves no stone unturned as he examines the life, career, successes, and failures of one of the heavyweights in American literature. I was especially fascinated by the amount of correspondence that was saved, archived, and available from dozens of sources that allowed Chernow to deliver the events in Twain’s life through the words of the author and those around him.
Throughout the first half of the book, Chernow examines Twain’s evolving attitudes and perspectives on race and racism in America and around the world. A product of the pre-Civil War South, Twain’s views on Blacks, Native Americans, the Chinese, and other minority groups did show significant positive change over his decades of life experience. Still, many feel that his writings and novels keep him mired in the bigotry of his past.
This is exemplified in the book’s analysis of Twain’s most well-known work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and its depiction of Huck’s Black companion, Jim, and the use of the N-word. Chernow provides historical context, Twain’s own opinions and views on the book as he wrote it, and the controversy and subsequent book bans associated with the novel, including its ban from schools during Twain’s lifetime.
One of the many reasons I prefer biographies like this is that they don’t portray the subject as a hero or a villain; instead, they present them as human. Twain was a product of his time, but he was also a man who was willing to adapt his ways and views as the world around him changed. As a world traveler, he was exposed to a variety of cultures, languages, and religions that most in America at this time would never experience.
Around the 550-page mark, we join Twain on a worldwide speaking tour with his loving, patient wife and his daughters as he struggles to dig himself out of a financial mess that threatens his livelihood and family legacy. I’m excited to see what the second half of Mark Twain by Ron Chernow has to offer.
If you’re looking for a solid reading experience about one of America’s most popular literary icons, I highly recommend Mark Twain by Ron Chernow.
Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (the Second Half)
As the years rolled by in Mark Twain’s life, he had what I can only describe as a late-life crisis. Following a series of personal and financial tragedies, Twain made a conscious decision to shut out any real-world responsibility, foisting it upon a woman who would be both his interim savior and his ultimate downfall.
Author Ron Chernow delivers a highly detailed account of one of Twain’s odd interests later in life: his fixation on pre-teen girls. While it’s alluded to in the first half of the biography, it’s during the second half that Twain’s obsessive interest in a slew of young girls is explored, analyzed, and explained to the best anyone could, given the situation.
It’s an aspect of Twain’s life that passive fans of this work know about, but the crazy part is that thanks to hundreds of letters between Twain and these girls, we can witness and attempt to unravel the reasons why he became so hyper-focused on them during the twilight years of his life.
Reading about his predilection for young girls is disturbing, and it should be noted that while some found his behavior charming, others – including his two daughters – found the whole situation odd and unsettling. Even given the time period and his level of celebrity, his persistence with these girls and even having them stay for weeks at his home is enough to make anyone take a step back and wonder what Twain was thinking.
Was this an old man trying to recapture his youth? Was this an attempt by Twain to manufacture grandchildren from fans of his work who were children? Chernow makes a valid point during his analysis that Twain was only interested in corresponding with and having young girls sleep over at his home; young boys were never mentioned or even part of the equation.
While Twain’s relationship with race and race relations will always be at the forefront of our discourse about him, this aspect of his life toward the end is worth learning about and trying to understand (and, personally, I think it’s REALLY creepy).
Aside from this, much of the latter half of Twain’s life plays out like a soap opera, with betrayals, double-crosses, lies, lawsuits, and deaths, along with a few international trips and Twain’s inevitable realization that his end was drawing near.
When I read biographies about figures who have passed long ago, I’m always waiting for the significant turning point in the subject’s life that signals that they are on a downhill slope toward the end. With Twain, so many tragic events transpired over his final years that it can be a challenge to pinpoint where things truly began to go south for him.
Ultimately, his lifelong smoking habit did him in, which makes me wonder if he hadn’t been a smoker, how much longer he might have lived.
Chernow does a superb job meticulously researching and decoding the man whose books would define American Literature for generations. This was no easy task to undertake, given the thousands of letters, articles, books, essays, and other media that have painted varying portraits of Mark Twain for decades.
I do feel that the author delivered a thorough and in-depth look at the man behind the mythic figure that existed even before he died in 1910. In the Acknowledgments section, we get to see just how extensive the research was, and how many places and people Ron Chernow interacted with to make this a strong and effective biographical sketch of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain.
I really enjoyed Mark Twain. It was the first biography I’ve read by Ron Chernow, and I know it will not be the last. I highly recommend Mark Twain by Ron Chernow.
Check out this interview with Ron Chernow at the link below:
https://youtu.be/VGtQgA9UROU?si=ZBmQu...
Author Ron Chernow delivers a highly detailed account of one of Twain’s odd interests later in life: his fixation on pre-teen girls. While it’s alluded to in the first half of the biography, it’s during the second half that Twain’s obsessive interest in a slew of young girls is explored, analyzed, and explained to the best anyone could, given the situation.
It’s an aspect of Twain’s life that passive fans of this work know about, but the crazy part is that thanks to hundreds of letters between Twain and these girls, we can witness and attempt to unravel the reasons why he became so hyper-focused on them during the twilight years of his life.
Reading about his predilection for young girls is disturbing, and it should be noted that while some found his behavior charming, others – including his two daughters – found the whole situation odd and unsettling. Even given the time period and his level of celebrity, his persistence with these girls and even having them stay for weeks at his home is enough to make anyone take a step back and wonder what Twain was thinking.
Was this an old man trying to recapture his youth? Was this an attempt by Twain to manufacture grandchildren from fans of his work who were children? Chernow makes a valid point during his analysis that Twain was only interested in corresponding with and having young girls sleep over at his home; young boys were never mentioned or even part of the equation.
While Twain’s relationship with race and race relations will always be at the forefront of our discourse about him, this aspect of his life toward the end is worth learning about and trying to understand (and, personally, I think it’s REALLY creepy).
Aside from this, much of the latter half of Twain’s life plays out like a soap opera, with betrayals, double-crosses, lies, lawsuits, and deaths, along with a few international trips and Twain’s inevitable realization that his end was drawing near.
When I read biographies about figures who have passed long ago, I’m always waiting for the significant turning point in the subject’s life that signals that they are on a downhill slope toward the end. With Twain, so many tragic events transpired over his final years that it can be a challenge to pinpoint where things truly began to go south for him.
Ultimately, his lifelong smoking habit did him in, which makes me wonder if he hadn’t been a smoker, how much longer he might have lived.
Chernow does a superb job meticulously researching and decoding the man whose books would define American Literature for generations. This was no easy task to undertake, given the thousands of letters, articles, books, essays, and other media that have painted varying portraits of Mark Twain for decades.
I do feel that the author delivered a thorough and in-depth look at the man behind the mythic figure that existed even before he died in 1910. In the Acknowledgments section, we get to see just how extensive the research was, and how many places and people Ron Chernow interacted with to make this a strong and effective biographical sketch of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain.
I really enjoyed Mark Twain. It was the first biography I’ve read by Ron Chernow, and I know it will not be the last. I highly recommend Mark Twain by Ron Chernow.
Check out this interview with Ron Chernow at the link below:
https://youtu.be/VGtQgA9UROU?si=ZBmQu...
