READING WITHOUT REGRET
Between the ages of twenty-four and sixty, I spent roughly twenty years studying at university. Every time I walk into my writing and music studio, the degrees hanging beside the door remind me of that chapter of my life.
While I’m proud of all I achieved, looking back over those years, my love for reading fiction was hijacked by my love for researching.
This week I finished reading what I think is a beautifully written book – Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. A big shout out to Sallianne for recommending it to me.
From the first paragraph to the final page, I found myself wondering how many lessons in story, character, structure, plot, and writing style I'd missed by spending decades reading almost everything except fiction.
No regrets
Don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets and who I am now is the result of all that I’ve experienced in the past.
Reading fiction brings me so much joy and now that I’m having a crack at writing an Australian historical fiction novel, that’s bringing me even more joy than I could ever have imagined.
As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve fallen in love with the characters I’ve created in The Catalina. That’s something very special and even as I’m typing now, I can’t wipe the smile off my face and the joy that I feel.
But back to Theo of Golden. The author writes in a style completely different from my own. So different, in fact, that I found myself wondering whether I should change the way I write.
After finishing it, I found myself thinking of two other novels with equally beautiful writing styles, both very different from my own.
The two books were: Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens and A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
All three authors have a magical way of weaving black-and-white words into breathtaking, colour-filled visions, flicking a switch in my imagination and bringing their worlds and characters vividly to life.
I know I can't change the decades I spent researching instead of reading fiction. But my rekindled joy in reading character-driven novels is opening doors for me to learn from great storytellers, and to keep developing my own unique voice and writing style.
