Intimidation & Motivation

Reading stories that overwhelm me with awe both intimidate and motivate me. Intimidate because that’s a level of skill I aspire to and have not reached; motivate because the only way I may someday get there is by writing my ass off.

Stories like that, I sometimes piggyback ideas from. Working my way through an amazing anthology (Magic City Recent Spells, edited by Paula Guran, for anyone who’s interested – and trust me, you’re interested) has made my creative brain come alive. Ideas and concepts flying at me left, right, and center.

My writer brain hasn’t bee this happy-active in a long while.

Breathtaking stories do this to me. They’re a kind of challenge, and I have trouble backing down from a challenge.

The motivation, thankfully, outweighs the intimidation. I want to surround myself with great stories. There’s the maxim to write what you want to read, but the inverse of that tends also to be true: read what you want to write.

And plenty else, besides. Of course.

So this anthology is my first book recommendation of the year, for anyone who enjoys urban fantasy. What have you read and fallen in love with lately?

The post Intimidation & Motivation appeared first on Anxiety Ink.