Ask the Author: P.K. Abbot
Answered Questions (2)
P.K. Abbot
Since I am a fairly new writer myself, I am not going to pontificate on what an aspiring writer should do, but I will tell you what works best for me.
I find it essential to just keep pluggin' away at being a writer. In a nutshell, I read as much as I can and I write as much as I can. I write 4 to 6 hours every day, and I read a minimum of 80 pages every evening.
I am not talking about reading how-to books on writing. I am talking about reading mostly fiction or books in a particular genre of writing. This type of reading serves as my "how-to" reading. Reading a good book by a skilled writer allows me to learn why the writer developed a chapter in a certain way at that particular point in his book and also how he used narration, description, and dialog to achieve his goals.
If you follow my suggestions on reading, be sure that you also write as often as possible -- ideally at the same time every day, so that it becomes a habit. Apply the techniques that you learned from your reading to your own writing -- to express your own unique ideas in interesting, coherent, clear, and concise writing.
If you still feel a need to study "how-to" books on writing, I would recommend only two:
"Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction" by Patricia Highsmith
"On Writing" by Stephen King
You can pick up some pointers from these books, but in essence these writers will tell you to write as often as you can and to read as much as you can.
Oh, and just keep at it.
I find it essential to just keep pluggin' away at being a writer. In a nutshell, I read as much as I can and I write as much as I can. I write 4 to 6 hours every day, and I read a minimum of 80 pages every evening.
I am not talking about reading how-to books on writing. I am talking about reading mostly fiction or books in a particular genre of writing. This type of reading serves as my "how-to" reading. Reading a good book by a skilled writer allows me to learn why the writer developed a chapter in a certain way at that particular point in his book and also how he used narration, description, and dialog to achieve his goals.
If you follow my suggestions on reading, be sure that you also write as often as possible -- ideally at the same time every day, so that it becomes a habit. Apply the techniques that you learned from your reading to your own writing -- to express your own unique ideas in interesting, coherent, clear, and concise writing.
If you still feel a need to study "how-to" books on writing, I would recommend only two:
"Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction" by Patricia Highsmith
"On Writing" by Stephen King
You can pick up some pointers from these books, but in essence these writers will tell you to write as often as you can and to read as much as you can.
Oh, and just keep at it.
P.K. Abbot
Aside from the obvious perk of being able to go to work in my pajamas every morning, I most enjoy being able to get that important idea of mine onto paper in a coherent form and in an interesting and entertaining tale. I would write for that reason alone, but when someone takes the trouble to tell me how much he or she enjoyed reading my book...well, that's just the icing on the cake.
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