With Valentine's Day tomorrow, I thought it would be appropriate to ask - what's near and dear to your heart as a writer and a reader?
I'll go first -
As a writer, I think the writing itself is IT, I mean no matter what the outside world gives you from publication to wonderful reviews to great royalties to a cool new cover, none of that is going to matter if you're not feeling the writing itself. And what part of writing makes the heart beat faster? For me it's writing words that feel RIGHT. That you fall in love with. That are YOURS.
As a reader, it's pretty much the same thing for me, it's the writing, baby. It's reading words that strike a sharp chord, that make muse-music. All the critical acclaim, all the fascinating subject matter in the world won't do it for me unless the words I'm reading makes me fall in love.
Now it can be any kind of fiction or non-fiction, it can be any point of view, any setting, any muse magic at all - there's no reason to the rhyme that grabs your heart, your soul, your mind. It just does. And once it does, you're in love.
So - this Valentine's Day - I hope you'll write something you love and read something you love; I hope someone will read you and love you, I hope you'll share something you've read that you love with someone else.
Isn't that better than chocolates, flowers, jewelry?
And while we're there on those traditional Valentine's gifts - I've always been a big fan of dark chocolate, but what is up with 98% cacao stuff anyway - too much of a good thing, no? The bitter shouldn't really outweight the sweet, shold it? And have you heard about the six foot tall roses? they're all stem. Who wants more THORNS? I'll leave jewelry alone, but then I've never been very big on it. I focus on silver rings that I wear all the time, one for my kids, one for my wedding, one for my writing, one for luck. Diamonds for me are not forever but for losing in the gym.
Happy Valentine's Day!!!
Genie
FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW (with a nice, sexy, Valentine's red cover) is out NOW!
5 comments:
It's definitely the writing. I used to think I hated books based on characters rather than plot, until I read George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. I then realized that I had never read a book that was character driven and still delicious.
You're right Genie, it is the writing. There is something magical about getting lost in your work. I also love it when I go back and read something I wrote and find symbols that I didn't even know I'd written in the scene. I always wonder if it was an accident or if subconsciously I knew I needed it.
The writing, yes, yes, yes. Sometimes I read over something I've written and I get chills - not because it's the best thing I've ever read, but because those words came out of me. And at the risk of sounding arrogant (which I'm really not) sometimes it is the best thing I've ever read. And if I can do this and eat dark chocolate at the same time, then all is right with the world (until I turn on the 6:00 news, but that's another story).
It's the writing for me as a reader -- when I read a book that grabs me and won't let go, or which inspires me, or just makes me love the characters or plot, that's the best thing I can ask for. Megan Hart's DIRTY is doing that for me at the moment.
As a writer, it's more the sharing of the work than the work itself. While I agree that when writing's going well and the words are working, it's the best, those moments aren't the norm, at least not for me. They are a treat when they happen, tho.
But when the book is done, and I have the cover, and it goes out into the world, that's the ticket. Having readers email just knowing someone enjoyed it, somewhere out there. Just writing them and having them sit on my computer isn't enough for me. I'm a social creature at heart, and I need to share my writing, and that's the key for me. So it's readers and editors and whoever else reads my work and enjoys it, whether I hear about it or not. Maybe someone has a good conversation with a friend over coffee about my book, and that's a thing I like to think about.
Happy Valentine's,
Sam
This fascinates me - the whole thing, like Christie said, about did I really know I was saying that? I think it's a tribute to our unconscious - who knows what we're really capable of (Nancy, ignore the news, or that will go in a negative direction).
I love reading your comments -
Genie
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