Inspiration
by
, 04-17-2008 at 02:06 PM (3398 Views)
I had a few minutes to kill, so I went to Barnes & Noble. They have many books, but there weren't many that I am interested in reading; although there was a display of romances that looked like they had interesting themes, but that isn't my style. I wandered around for about half an hour and read a chapter in one book. There were a few other books that I might have bought, if I didn't have a stack already to be read.
One thing that I missed were the books by me. I haven't sold a single story yet, much less a novel, and the non-fiction book that I have outlined wouldn't sell, because it is too contrary to too many wildly accepted belies. I have to get one of the novel finished (I'm only working on two), or well enough along so I could say where it will end. I have written a few hundred more words, and I have a short term goal in mind.
It is written that James Fennimore Cooper was inspired to write after reading a novel that he didn't like. He said that he could do better. I don't know what novel drove him to try, but must have been mighty bad, if Cooper wrote a better novel.
I almost forgot one of the more inspiring things that I have ever read about writing: Maybe You Should Write a Book. It is a book about the advantages of writing by an editor who was hoping to encourage people to write something publishable for him to publish. It wasn't quite that cynical, but he bemoaned the lack of good manuscripts and celebrated how ell good ones could do.
And here's something for the other side of the Cooper versus Twain debate. http://openlettersmonthly.com/issue/...rary-defenses/