To read, or not to read, that is the question.

June 12, 2013 / Lisa / 2 Comments

A few weeks ago a friend put me onto some Stephen King quotes about writing.

I found them very interesting, but one of them gave me an idea.

I’m a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, most fiction. I don’t read in order to study the craft; I read because I like to read.

This got me thinking – how many books do I read in a year? Definitely not 70 or 80. I’m actually quite slack on reading. Or at least have been.

However, since I got my kindle, and have a half hour train ride morning and night, I have been reading so much more lately. I’ve even begun reading in the half hour before I go to sleep again.

I really do like to read, I’ve always been quite an avid reader. And in order to be a good writer, you should read, because you learn a lot from it, so says Stephen King* again.

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.

So my idea is to a) keep track of the books I am reading and b) aim to read about 70 or 80 books this year.

Now, I know I probably won’t get there simply because I do have a 9 to 5 job, unlike Stephen King, but you have to start somewhere.

I’m going to set up a “Book Index” like my recipes index to keep track of the books I’ve read and the ones I want to read this year. I’ll also try to incorporate my Goodreads account somehow, as I have it, yet barely use it.

And maybe, just maybe, if I read more, I might be inspired to write more.

*Note to self: read more Stephen King.

My precious.

June 12, 2013 / Lisa / 2 Comments

For the last six months I have been coveting one of Coach’s legacy leather duffle bags in tourmaline.

In fact, it is this one right here:

I even blogged about how much I wanted it back in January.

And now I have it:

To be quite honest, half of the allure was actually getting the dust cover and massive carry bag as well.

I’m a sucker for dust covers and massive carry bags.

Having been using the bag for the last couple of days, I’m more in love with it than when I was just staring at pretty pictures. I can definitely see this bag being with me for, well, the rest of my life. It is made of leather, after all, ensuring some level of quality.

So, yay for my first designer, and leather, handbag!

Side note: I’ve also got my eye on a couple of other things at Coach in the same colour – a wallet and a legacy leather swingpack. Although it will possible take me another six months to get one of them, if at all. Cause, goddamn, I have expensive tastes.

Fall Out Boy saved rock and roll*

June 7, 2013 / Lisa

It has taken me a while, but I’ve finally gotten around to listing to the new Fall Out Boy album ‘Save Rock and Roll’ and I am addicted!

Even though it was released back in April and I downloaded it from iTunes immediately, it has taken me till now to actually listen to it properly. It has been on repeat for the last two days.

I’m already pulling lyrics out because they just stand out to me.

Case and point:

I may have also created this in photoshop and then instagramed that shit.**

I think my favourite song on the album is Just One Yesterday (feat. Foxes).

I’d trade all my tomorrows for just one yesterday.

Another lyric I love is this one from Save Rock and Roll:

I need more dreams and less life and I need that dark in a little more light. I cried tears you’ll never see, so fuck you, you can go cry me an ocean and leave me be.

And Elton John is in on this – HOW FREAKING COOL.

I also really love what they did with the videos – watch them all!

So yes, I’m horribly addicted to Fall Out Boy again.*** If you have not listened to the album or any of their past work, seriously, just do it.

*See what I did there?
**I’m fine with it.
***Well played, dudes, well played.

Questions of Morality

June 1, 2013 / Lisa

Last weekend I attended one seminar as part of Sydney Writer’s Festival. I really wanted to go to a few more, but there were so many people there – you needed to queue for an hour beforehand to get into them. Maybe next year I will go to a few of the paid ones to make sure I get a seat – most of the ones I wanted to go to were free with no bookings. My bad.

The one seminar I did manage to attend was Questions of Morality.

I found the panel really interesting and some of the things they said have made me want to get over some of the qualms I have about writing fiction.

A few of the things I picked up from the seminar include:

choose to be good, or a good writer
all good literature is immoral in a way
be true to your own story
people like stories of transgression – we like the dark and the deep. That type of literature is part of the experience
proceed until apprehended
if all your family were dead, it would be easier to write
a writer in the family is hell for all families
if you really want to get something off your chest, you write a novel.

Some books that I aim to read because of what came up in this seminar are Mein Kamph (Karl Ove Knausgaard recommended this for every writer), American Psycho and some Ayn Rand. I’m also keen to read some of Krissy Kneen’s work, some of the examples she provided about her own work piqued my interest in a ‘how do you write that’ and ‘how does that even work’ kind of way. Especially something about a pony beastiallity scene. That just makes you go WFT?!

Maybe if I follow some of these ‘tips’, I might overcome some of my apprehension of, not only writing, but also letting people read my fictional writing. Only good things could happen, right?