Reading and writing go together
Published by on December 31st, 2007
To write one has to read - or so one is told in countless how-to’s on becoming an author. But an aspect from my past has all too frequently held me back from exploring other writers too much.
As an freelance illustrator trying to survive in the pre-computer age 1980s of the design and advertising industries, versatility was critical. If you could turn your hand to a broad spectrum of styles, then you could grab a greater opportunity for work, particularly through illustration agents. Clients would frequently give a brief along the lines of “We want a drawing of an American Football player in the same style as this …” at which point some existing illustrator’s work would be slid across the desk. This bred an instinctive need to be adaptable - at least within the boundaries defined by my own skillset - and a motivation to not develop my own definitive style. The problem with this now, is that my initial explorations into writing suffered from the residue of that mindset: if I read a book and very much liked it, I would instinctively try to emulate the writing style as a means to make progress. The next book comes along, so my style changed. You get the picture.
Despite having pretty much got this idea out of my system these days - in both writing and my art - these early stages in “proper” writing are littered with concerns about whether my writing is good enough or the particular style in which TableRappers is written, is viable as an end product.
I have just started reading The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by G.W. Dahlquist (a gift from jEN - thank you). The story plays out in a pseudo Victorian time, a setting immediately apparent not by the descriptions or dialogue, but the writing style itself. This was very encouraging as that is precisely what I have done - instinctively more than by design - with the TableRappers stories, even from the very start several years ago. Not only that but the style has many parallels with my own writing and, despite Dahlquist clearly being a more experienced writer overall, there are huge similarities with my work. When you know that Dahlquist landed an astonishing $2million advance for this, first, book, you can understand that it is an immense confidence boost about whether I can make my book work.
Feet back on the ground. The realities of publishing are, of course, very different and I have no disillusions about the reality of what I am attempting to achieve. But the potential is there regardless, and the discovery of the above book has given me great encouragement that I am heading in the right direction with the project. Saying that, however, I would not change how the writing is being done as it quite simply feels right for this project. 2008 is feeling good already.
