If you have any interest in writing, you know one piece of advice you hear a lot is to read as much as possible. By reading other writers works, you get an idea of what writing styles you like, what kind of plots your interested in, and what a published piece of work (at least if you’re reading published pieces that have been through many stages of editing) is like at the end of the whole process. This is especially important when you’re first starting out and your own writing still needs to be more developed.
Another reason you should read a lot as a writer is to learn to critically think through a piece of work, even if it’s already published. If you can go through a piece and pick out parts that make the plot drag, or why a character seems so one dimensional, it will make it easier to find similar mistakes in your own writing. Which is why I want to start doing book reviews; I am stuck at this current stage of editing (basically I added a bunch of things, but now I’m not sure what I want to do, add more or work on the actual writing itself), so I figure by dissecting other pieces of writing, I’ll be able to edit my writing better than I can now (and it might give me ideas as to what I should do next).
Now you may be wondering, why exactly am I announcing that I want to make book reviews?
Why didn’t I just post one today instead of writing this piece?
Well, let me tell you that… I actually was going to do one for this week, but when I finished writing the first draft yesterday, I realized there was more I wanted to add and I couldn’t do it all in one day.
Also, I am starting a new job soon! Woohoo! As exciting as this is, I had a bunch of paperwork to fill out before my orientation this week, along with other things I wanted to finish before I start working.
Plus, I have a weird head cold where my nose is constantly congested and runny so I have to blow it every five minutes, which makes it hard to write a review that is as well thought out as I would like.
So, in other words, I’m going to post the book review next week. Now that I gave you my list of reasons (or excuses, depends on how you want to look at it), I hope you understand why… I guess that was part of the point of this piece…
Anyways, I think I’ve rambled on for long enough… so, thanks for reading, and I’ll see ya in the next post!
Erin 🙂
Twitter: @ENordhof
Prose: https://theprose.com/ennord
Eclectic Erin 
reading is so helpful for writing! one of my favorite writing challenges in my HS creative writing courses was to write in the voice of our favorite author. it’s a challenge! and it changes the way you read them, so maybe be careful with it.
i want to write book reviews too! and i’m also trying to start a blog (and an entire content creation business) so i understand the pain of trying to sit down and focus on something that is fun but also work. you can do it!
great posts, keep up the good work!
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Yeah that’s true, it can be challenging too because when you are devloping your own voice, you don’t want to end up just sounding like you’re copying the author. But that sounds like a cool assignment, I wish I had more creative writing classes available at my high school!
Thank you for the kind words 🙂 also if you have your blog up already, you should send me a link, I’d love to check it out! Or when you do start posting, let me know!
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