Get Lit At the Beach

I’m taking off my writer hat for the weekend and putting on my reader’s hat. I’m attending the second annual, Get Lit at the Beach presented by the Tolovanna Arts Colony in Cannon Beach. I’ll be listening to writers such as Chelsea Cain, Garth Stein, Terry Brooks, and more.

I’ve taught workshops for the Tolovanna Arts Colony and I’ll be volunteering at Get Lit at the Beach on Friday night.

But this weekend is not about being a writer, most of all, I’m looking forward to being a reader.

I was a reader before I was a writer, and when I am feeling drained as a writer, I go back to being a reader. It is true that being a writer has made me a little bit more critical as a reader. When a plot isn’t going well, I can figure out why. When a character doesn’t ring true, I feel it. When a book needed just one more pass at revision, I can tell.

But, reading still has the ability to take me into a different world for a few hours. Reading a good book still has the ability to make me forget my own writing for a few hours. And being a reader helps me see why something I’m doing as  writer is not working.

I’m not sure I could have become a writer without being a reader first. And sometimes, it’s nice to become that reader and leave the writer behind–for just a weekend.

Here’s a picture of Cannon Beach as it looked when I arrived…