Recently I’ve been reading:

Teach Yourself Creative Writing & Teach Yourself: Writing a Novel & Stephen King: On Writing & Eats Shoots and Leaves

I’ve also been sneaking pages to read from:

How I write: The Secret Lives of Authors & Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings

And I’m planning on reading:

By Cunning and Craft & Print Is Dead: Books in our Digital Age

All this is a result of me feeling (and to some degree ‘being’) dumb. Before I wrote my book, I didn’t have any knowledge at all. I didn’t even read any books. The thing that carried me through the whole process was enthusiasm, and loads of it! That was great for the first draft, but for the second its not so good. Now I need, and I mean ‘need’ to know what I’m doing. I can’t continue writing with colourful enthusiasm. I must learn what is right in order to write further. This is personal requirement, its how I operate best. I need to know the building blocks of writing, so I can be content that I’ve ticked box ‘A’ and crossed box ‘B’, dotted all my I’s and crossed all my T’s. I need to do this and be sure of what I’m doing because I’m a nervous writer and an unconfident one at that. This is also why I dread anyone I know reading my work unless I’m really happy with it. Once I know I’ve done the best I can with the knowledge I’ve got, then I can relax, think ‘fuck it, I’m happy’ and chill. Its only with that mentality can I really let go of the document and accept any criticisms that come my way.

I’m sure once I’ve completed this first written process, and had (hopefully) some positive feedback, writing will be a much more open and sharing process.