Dance With Strangers

One thing will make you a better writer, besides actually writing, and that is reading. I’ve been trying to read a new book each week, which certainly has been difficult given the recent work schedule, speaking schedule and holiday schedule. Although I may be falling behind my goal of four books in December I have finished three and each really made me thing more intensely about my own writing.

The books were vastly different reads. I started with Barbra Kingsolver’s The Lacuna: A Novel, where the first person memoir aspect, mixed with third person recapturing can often challenge the reader. As with some challenging writing, if you stick with the author the payoff can be hugely entertaining and in this case moving. After finishing, as I do with every book finished, I reread the first fifty pages. In this case, I found myself learning more about the lead character, specifically about their relationships with people of prominence and how that altered his own life’s success. After digesting the novel and looking back at my 2009 writings it was obvious that I had started to get lazy in my layering approach for writing. This isn’t simply a call to have longer posts, but to write more stories that take the reader into the mindset of what I’m trying to convey.

After Kingslover I moved to one of my favorite authors, Chuck Klosterman and Eating the Dinosaur. Klosterman is a critic at heart, and all great critics, no matter their genre, can ask questions. Throughout each of his book, but I think most notably this latest collection, Klosterman comes at the reader with questions they probably thought of in some form or another, or at least it feels that way when you read it on the page for the first time. The whole book is a critical examination of various topics ranging from Kurt Cobain, ABBA, “the wildcat” and how Barack Obama is responsible for a thirst for Pepsi. The opinions can at one time be hilarious (Pepsi and Mad Men) and in the next moment infuriating (Kurt Cobain and Branch Davidians). But no matter what is written, it is done with zero hint of remorse nor apology. Too often in 2009 I didn’t write many of the posts that perhaps I wanted to write because it might have offended some folks, but when I did they were my most read and most commented posts. No more apologies.

Finally, I just finished Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. Everyone should read this book and I’m glad that I read it now this “late” in my own life. Reading it forces you to think about the world, and your existence within its confines, differently. Hawking is a certifiable genius and examines aspects of the world that should not be visited casually. Throughout he not only introduces serious theories around quantum physics, but does it in a way that allows anyone to understand. That, in itself, is an accomplishment, but what I find the most compelling and helpful for my own writing, is that he does it without demeaning the reader. All too often, when I re-read my work from 2009, I over explain simple concepts, which I think can frustrate the reader.

Reading makes me a better writer. What makes you a better writer?