The Shape of Today

Reading to Write

One of the numerous things affected by the pandemic is our library system's courier service. Putting a book on hold from another library used to take a week or two; now it can take months due to shutdowns, quarantine procedures, and staffing challenges.

When I stumbled across a Stephen King book called Secret Windows, I was surprised because I'd thought it was a work of fiction...a novella published on its own. This isn't the case. It seems to be a companion volume to On Writing that I somehow missed entirely. Naturally I put a hold on it, some weeks ago now. It's on its way from Warner-Robins, which means God knows when it will show up. In the meantime, I've re-read On Writing and found that many of my writing habits need to be modified, if I'm serious about the craft. I knew this in the back of my mind, but getting reminded of it in the middle of NaNoWriMo is of course a much-needed shot in the arm.

Mostly it's made me realize that the project that probably needs the most attention is my "Crown Jewel", my oldest writing project. It occurred to me the other night that I'm cluttering it up way too much with stuff it doesn't need, so I plan to go in and trim some of that fat. The characters are there (a couple need some tweaking), the location is there, the situation is there. I'm going to trust to Sai King's anti-outlining admonitions and just let the story itself take off.

Oh, and naturally the King also reminded me that a writer reads. Always. I've finished On Writing (for the third time), but while waiting for my traveling book I picked up Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle, which I think I may have read as a teenager. No matter; it's an excellent ride so far, and I'm trying to make a habit of studying how Follett manages his language, his characters, and his story. These are things I need to keep an eye on no matter what I'm reading.