And help raise your own writing bar
Absorb from previous published work
See reading as a writer’s perk
You need to know what went before
To know what your own work is for.
Every writer urges others to read as widely as you can so I will too! I pick up structure, dialogue technique, style and all kinds of things just by reading for myself how other authors handle these things. I try to read books, magazines, online stories - it gives a good flavour of what’s already out there.
The art of writing a fine line
Is making it appear just fine
For the character you portray
Showing themselves in some way
Whether they know it or not
Do we always know that what
We say gives ourselves away?
I’ve always loved stories where you can tell so much about a character in the way that they act, in their manner of speaking (it often gives away more than you think) and what they don’t realise they give away yet others do. For me it shows the story is alive… It reads well and true. We give ourselves away more often than we realise.