Writing: 'READ'

Yesterday night, finally, after lets say a fair while of reading the thirteen hundred word book on and off, I finished Stephen King's IT, and closed the book to rest my eyes.
It is a book that feels, although it doesn't read as such, epic. About the misadventures of a band of kids self titled 'the losers club' and pennywise the clown who stalks the town, the story stretches over two periods twenty eight years apart and is based around the murders of kids, who pennywise is killing. What follows is the kids banding together as companion to build dams, build club houses, try and kill pennywise and more. Together, it threads into a fantastic story that catches the whole of the town the book is set in - Derry - into its circumference.

Then this morning, ripping my way through Devil May Care (a James bond novel) you just get to appreciate a sense of scale, in the book world anyway.
Different books, different genres, different style of writing, different everything - but IT is still light years ahead, in my opinion anyway. King's rounding of the characters is staggering - if they were crystals they would have too many facets to mention - and they can roll anywhere. Devil May Care, being a Bond book, in general you know what will happen - Bond saves the day, as always and always will - but in IT you don't know, you don't truly know until it happens who wins - IT or the losers club. In this, it is an absolute rollercoaster ride to the ghost train through the shabby dark that is devil may care. Although I may be biased - I owe King alot up to this stage in my as yet un-birthed writing career.

The first books I read for a while in sixth form were King's Dark Tower series. If IT is imaginative, then Dark Tower is on another scale altogether, and yet the imagination is kept in check with a methodical knitting of the pieces - and you still have no idea what is going to happen next. I like to think I took inspiration from this when I started to write three years ago.

But the most important thing Stephen King did for me was give me a kick up the arse.
Last year I was reading his book 'on writing' from the library, tearing through it with some enthusiasm - I wanted to know how I could become better, and I still want to become as good as if not better then him. An ultimate, unrealistic ambition in all likelyhood, but still...worth a shot. It was then that I read one of the quotes that stuck with me forever. He talked about people who said they didn't read much, or didn't have the time, and then he delivered the blow, saying simply this:

'If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Its that simple.'
Theres something about seeing doom in the pages you are reading that makes you get up to embark upon this sensation normal people call reading.

I don't read as much as I should, or at least I didn't. The one book I read last year was 'Demon Apocalypse' and others of the series, amounting to about three books over an entire year. Not exactly great. The reason was, I think, because i saw reviews like, for example 'an unparalleled author of his genre.' or 'a cracking rollercoater ride of thrills' from start to end.
Not because I hate the authors, oh no. Its because I wanted to be better, and something in those reviews was a barrier, like I never could. I'm a drop in the ocean compared to the thousands of other authors out there trying to make it, and the thought is daunting. Daunting indeed.

But if you want to make it, and everyone tells me this, from Stephen King to the evil cat that patrols campus demanding meals off students, READ. Digest, and adjust, and keep working. On the back of a book written about his life is says that Stephen King has become the author he has through 'peerless imagination and work ethic.' thats not true - he needed much more then that in my opinion. But having those two assets is far from a bad start.

Its a bit short today, but thats all I feel like writing. There'll be a short story soon, since I have to write one for English, and also another bit about football if you are interested. Meanwhile, go get IT, the book by King. If you can chew your way through its 1350 plus pages, you wont regret it.

Till next time, cheerio from Crash.