Tag: Fiona Walker

What should I read?

June 23, 2010

I noticed there was a question from Nathan Bransford’s blog in the last week or so, asking writers whether they read only the genre in which they write?

It seemed some did, some didn’t.

I read a lot, not as much as I want as I seem to fall asleep by the second para of the page on any given night, but I love to read.  Once when I was a reader I read for pleasure totally.  Now I find my pleasure is overshadowed by a questioning mind: why did the author do that there, how do they accomplish that, why that word and not another.  And look, there is an adverb and wow!, an exclamation mark, lots of them!  And ooh-er, an edit blooper.

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A flash of inspiration . . .

February 11, 2010

Inspiration is, to an artist, the air we breathe.  It sustains us, suffusing us with ideas.  I’ve talked before about the things that inspire me to write a story . . . a piece of stitching, a paperweight, a length of cloth, a pocket globe.  Once in the distant past it was a tiny brass ball I found in my grandfather’s tool shed (which I’ve since lost, but imagine the quidditch snitch and you can see what I mean). Heavens’ knows what Pa’s little brass ball was.  Whatever it was, more than anything it was inspiration.

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