My bookcase has a shelf that is packed and stacked with books on writing. I’ve counted over fifty volumes, all ordered alphabetically. (Okay, okay, by now you know I’m not a neatnik so just ignore the occasional ones that are out of place.) The collection is punctuated with titles by authorities such as Berg, Cameron, George, Geraghty, two Goldbergs, King, Lamott, Maass, Morrell, Mayer, Stein, Swain, Watts, Yolen and Zinsser – each one a well-read trove. Sometimes too well read.
I love to read but reading can become an obstacle to my writing… a convenient excuse to avoid facing the blank page. I don’t usually recognize it as such because I’m intent on studying technique, learning by example or instruction from successful authors.
In a writer’s world there’s a time for learning and a time for utilizing the knowledge. If I wait to write until I think I’ve learned all there is to know, my storytelling skills will stagnate. I need to be able to get stories out of my head and onto a page. When I’m reading I’m not writing. There has to be a balance between the amount of time I spend engrossed in someone else’s story and the time I spend producing my own. Finding it requires self-discipline. Yuck! That’s such an unpopular concept, but if I expect to accumulate 90,000 words and eventually call myself a published novelist I’m going to have to put down the books and get back to work.
(I’ve been talking to myself here but if any of it sounds familiar, feel free to take the applicable bits with you.)
Posted by Carol J. Garvin 
