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Notes From an Amateur Writer #51

This Blog series is an exercise in creative writing. Sometimes expressed in short story form, sometimes as a journal, or just my thoughts written down. It is a nursery of sorts for the stories that are on their way, or yet to be written.

This is post 22 in Hive account@dragosroua's January 30 day writing challenge.

Some of the Books That I am Reading

I finished last year strongly in terms of my reading commitment. I had set a challenge of 25 books for the year, and having not really started the challenge until about May, I completed the 25th book in the final week of the year. I upped the challenge to 50 for this year. Almost one book a week, which will be difficult judging by one of the current novels I am reading. However fortunately this one is the exception when it comes to length, as it is almost three novels in one, I believe. So all up so far this year I have completed three books, and am currently reading through several more.

Completed Books 2018

The Girl Who Played With Fire – Steig Larrson
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest – Steig Larrson
The Courage to be Disliked – Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

Currently Reading

1Q84 – Haruki Murakami (as suggested by Hive account@dailyrunner )
All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
A Collapse of Horses – Brian Evenson (also suggested by someone at Steemit, but I've lost the name)
The Novel Writing Blueprint – Jill Harris
The First 20 Hours – How to Learn Anything Fast – Josh Kaufman
The Switch – Elmore Leonard
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared – Jonas Jonasson
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell

Coming Up

The Writer's Guide to Beginnings – Paula Munier
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace (as suggested by Hive account@rarebooksleuth )
How to Write a Damn Good Thriller – James N. Frey
Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
Reading a Writer's Mind – Exploring Short Fiction – Linda Acaster
Creating Imaginary Worlds – The 12 Rules – Charles Christian

There is a lot of reading on that list, with both novels and writing-skills related books in there also. I tend to go through spurts, so perhaps I will struggle at times, but mostly I think I should get through the above, plus perhaps a few new ones that I add along the way in the next few months. The one I am currently reading – 1Q84 – is the challenge, as it is a large novel. But thoroughly intriguing. I love the idea, and the further I get into the story the more I struggle to put it down. Proof to me that I am onto a winner with this one. Very happy to have received this recommendation. You can expect a book review post from me on this one (and possible all the above – at least the novels) at some point after I complete it.

The challenge for me is allocating time to write more stories. I have plenty of ideas, but so far I have been spending my writing time mostly on the posts I create here. I love to do that, so it isn't a burden, but at each step in this journey I am learning the importance of planning my time a little bit better than I used to. I don't always like to be rigidly structured, but some form of time management wouldn't hurt, especially if it means I get more time to be creative.

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