I Want to Share a Secret

IT by Stephen King

He is one of the wealthiest and most famous authors of our time, he has seen his works adapted for both the big and small screen and has authored close to a hundred works. You can guarantee that fledgling writers will at some point have come across his work, held up as a shining example of modern literature. And, though he is mostly associated with the genre of horror he has also penned works that show his versatility and that have demonstrated he is just a damned good storyteller.

Oh, and, I have read about five of his novels...

Yeah. I couldn't really believe that I had read so few of Stephen King's novels either. To make things worse, I read most of those years ago when I was a teenager ,and I haven't sought to discover more of  his literary output in the intervening years which see me creeping towards old-fartdom. I do not know why, of all the things that I became excited about as an adolescent, I didn't ride a wave of joy and pleasure when reading Stephen King's novels and make much more of a dent in the list of his works available to me as a reader...

Why am I saying this now, at the age of thirty-*cough, cough*?

Well, I recently immersed myself in his novel, IT. This is probably because of the film series which, based on the 1986 novel, concluded last year and had caught my eye when I saw it advertised. I mean, Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise is striking enough to stick around in the mind for a while...

Coming back to Stephen King's works I rediscovered just how great the man is at crafting a story, creating characters that are fleshed out and believable and a world in which the reader can immerse themselves. He does what all great writers achieve, which is to create his stories so well that the readers can become lost in them. There are no irritants such as poor dialogue or information dumps to wade through that get in the way of the story. And, at close to around 1,070 pages, in my opinion, it is a very good thing that it never felt like a chore to read any of this book.

I have since purchased a few more of Mr. King's novels and intend to discover more of his books because I have some catching up to do. I let them go as a teenager and I don't think I should have. The stories are really well written, the characters are so well created that you could swear they are real and the stories stick with you after the book is finished. Also, perhaps most importantly, when I read a Stephen King book, I can tell that there is something there underneath the story, something about being human, something good.

I will be reading the novels I have yet to read and re-reading the ones I read years ago very soon.

Oh, by the way, if you really want to know something surprising, I have never even held a Harry Potter book in my hands. Not once!

Available to purchase here (Disclosure: if you make a purchase through links in this blog, I may earn a commission from the seller, but that does not influence the contents of this blog).

Who Wants To Be A Writer?

The Five-Minute Writer by Margaret Geraghty

Margaret Geraghty has been inspiring students of the written word for over twenty years. She has run writing workshops, written for magazines (Writing Magazine and Writers' News) and authored books detailing techniques on how to characters, dialogues and plots. As if that weren't enough, she also has a degree in psychology which probably comes in handy when discussing the development of characters and their motivations and driving force.

Her book, The Five-Minute Writer, was gifted to me by a family member because it is well known amongst those close to me that I have a keen interest in prose and poetry, both as a fan and intrepid (though, as yet, unpublished) creator. The purpose of the book is to inspire you to write, as simple as that.

Each chapter discusses a writing-related topic - how to describe details and peculiarities, naming characters, and how to find triggers for writing, amongst many other topics - and each chapter ends with an exercise that, as the title of the book suggests, should take five minutes (or so) each. The idea being, I suppose, that it is better to spend at least five minutes a day, rather that no time at all, contemplating and considering one's writing. 

As somebody interested in writing, someone who has hopes of seeing some of his literary pursuits in print some day, I welcome any and all endeavours that may lead to an inspiration to write. And, having said that, I have nothing but praise for Margaret Geraghty's book and am glad I spent time reading it and undertaking the exercises therein. It has lead to my having a file on my laptop that is absolutely full (well, perhaps not absolutely full, but more than enough to be going on with) of ideas for short stories, a novel, poetry, articles etc. And, since the purpose of the book is to inspire, I can only say that, in my opinion, the author has done exactly as she set out to do and done so very well indeed.

I would recommend this book to any and all aspiring writers and, if this book is anything to go by, think it shall probably worth the time to check out other books by the same author ( More Five-Minute Writing and The Novelist's Guide).

Available for purchase here (Disclosure: if you purchase through links in this blog, I may earn a commission, but that does not influence the contents of this blog).