READ! WRITE! REPEAT!

Hey everybody, I know it’s been a while since I did a blog post. I apologize for my absence, but I have recently fallen victim to the artist curse. The artist curse is of course the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day. That is just not enough time!

In the past few months, I have been working on a new novel, several short stories, a few nonfiction ebooks, designing a few websites, writing songs, recording demos, and rehearsing with my new band Downshift 50. I’ve also been trying to read everything I can get my hands on. I’ve been struggling with keeping up this frantic pace while still trying to be a good and attentive husband to my wonderful wife.

But I am going to try to keep up with this blog and post regularly for the remainder of the year. I have discovered in my artistic endeavors and my voracious reading many wonderful things that will help you my loyal fans and fellow authors.

So now that I’ve put your mind to ease to let you know I haven’t been hit by a bus or anything, we can get down to business.

Read. Write. Repeat. That is the answer to the question most frequently asked of myself and most authors. The question-How do I become a writer?

I’m not sure one becomes a writer.I feel most writers are born and not made. Writing is hard work. It is tedious. It is lonely. It is boring alot of the time. And it is aggravating on so many levels that Dante himself would say “fuck this! I’m getting a law degree.”

Certain people are born with this urge to pour their thoughts, feelings, wishes, dreams, desires, wants, and unfulfilled yearnings onto print. It is the same need that made Michaelangelo spend hours meticulously chipping away at clay and marble. It is very much the same need that propelled Arnold Schwarzenegger to spend countless hours, days, and years lifting heavy weights until he often passed out or vomited (I’m not sure which happened first).

This need is deep inside all scribes. It doesn’t matter what you write. The format, the style, the pictures you paint with your words or how you package them to a reader, the need is the same. It is a burning desire. You can’t cage it. You cant’ ignore it. And you must feed it.

Friends and family don’t understand this need at first. They call it an obsession-and it is. They call it abnormal-and it is! They call you sick, demented, and say you need help-and you do! Except there is nothing that can be done. They eventually know that when you get the look in your eyes, that glazed expression when an idea hits you that must be given voice, they know that you are essentially no longer in the same realm of existence.

If you do not have this need, if writing is just something that you think would be fun or a good way to make a living then I urge you not to bother. Most writers barely scrape by financially, and while the dawn of the internet has given most writers a fighting chance to get their work out there and find an audience, it is very hard work if you are seeking financial reward. You must do it for the love and no other reason.

Now with that being said, there are only 3 things you must do to improve your writing. READ!WRITE!REPEAT. That is it. There is no other secret. You must read everything you can get your hands on that interest you (and even things that don’t). This is the best way to find your own writing style. You must first learn language and how stories are put together. As you read widely and study different authors and writing styles, you will see the difference between good writing and bad writing. You will also notice your vocabulary expanding and your writing style being influenced directly by what you read. Do not fight this.. you want to be your own writer with a distinctive voice, but this comes about by becoming an amalgam of many different voices put together in a strange melting pot with your own personality stirring things up. That is how new ground is broken and new paths are carved.

Good writing is writing that effectively communicates and conveys emotion from the soul of the writer to you. It is something that is shared between reader and writer. It is a private little world. The words have a beautiful cadence and rhythm to them as the dance around the themes, allowing you to embrace the impact of the feelings of the writer. You just can’t do that through a movie or tv. With those mediums you only see what the director shows you. It is something you watch, not something that is occurring within you. With the printed page you are being guided step by step through this journey that the author has laid out for you. You are seeing things as the author intended and imagination is not limited. Even with all the technological improvements in the film industry, limitations still exists. This is not true in literature. The sky is far below the limit there. What your mind can concieve, the reader can experience with you.

So there you have it: The big mystery to improving as a writer. I don’t think there is any other way and most writers who have been writing and publishing for 30 years will tell you they don’t consider themselves experts. Writing is one of those beautiful things that no one can ever master. But the more you do, the better you get.

Until next time friends,

J.T.

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