All About the Writing

First Meets and Meeting Ideas

I love having the chance to do guest posts. Here are a couple that I've done or am doing:

1. "So How Did You Two Meet?" -- One of my favorite parts of a romance is when the hero and heroine first meet. I've talked a little about this at Babs Book Bistro, as part of her 2nd Blogoversary Celebration, and shared the moment when Gabriel and Marissa meet in Lord Midnight. There were a lot of authors and bloggers participating, so check out their posts too.
2. "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?" -- This is always a fascinating topic, and I'm on writer Josee Renard's website describing how the ideas for Lord Midnight and Summer Lovin' came into being. Stop by and join in the discussion!

Today I Am A Reader

When I was younger, I never thought of reading as a guilty pleasure.

It was pretty darn close to a right, one of those "we hold these truths to be self-evident" kinds of things. I would spend the entire summer reading, laying a blanket on the grass outside, and immersing myself in the biggest, thickest books I could find, to ensure I wouldn't finish them too soon.

June would turn into July while I worried whether Scarlett would ever quit chasing that mealy-mouthed Ashley and figure out it was Rhett Butler she should devote her energies to. I never noticed the searing heat of summer since I had to fret about the Count of Monte Cristo escaping in time to exact his revenge. I even began to look forward to school starting up again, so I could have two libraries at my disposal, ensuring I would never run out of reading material.

And yet now, when I've declared myself a writer, and one of the job prerequisites is to read, and to read constantly, I feel as if I'm doing something slightly wrong when I want to spend an entire day consumed by a book.

So what is the source of the conflict here?

It stems from the fact that the most important job requirement of a writer is to write. Whenever I want to read instead, the good ole "I should be writing" mantra jumps up and stares me dead in the eye, daring me to argue with it.

And I can't.

No matter what is going on in my life, no matter what other obligations I have to meet, I always feel like I should be writing—because I know there is never enough time to write all the stories I have inside me. Taking time away from writing, in order to spend time with another writer's stories, almost makes me feel like I'm cheating on my characters.

Yet reading is an essential part of the writing process. It's an enjoyable way to absorb lessons about the writing craft, without our even being conscious of it. It connects us to other writers who have struggled to provide the best book they can, for our reading enjoyment.

I'm always inspired when I finish reading a book. I end up recharged and raring to return to my stories and my characters. Wonderful things happen to my WIPs after I've refueled with words written by somebody else. My delight with the written word, something that can get overlooked when I'm frazzled by a work-in-progress, is instantaneously revived.

I remind myself that reading is what started me on the path to writing in the first place.

And when I think of it that way, reading no longer seems like an indulgence, or something to feel guilty about. It is a luxurious necessity.