Sometimes work gets in the way of life. Although I manage to write for a few minutes every day, sometimes I’m so distracted that the words are sluggish, like heavily polluted water. At such times, I rely on other authors to help me through. I recently read Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train . I wasn’t sure what to expect because I try not to read reviews before I start a book. To be honest, I don’t often read bestsellers. Still, as I’ve come to realize, if I want people to read what I write, I have to write like what people read. It’s no accident, I suppose, that my favorite writers are often people who’ve struggled while they were alive. Struggled either making it in general, or struggled to be recognized in their writing. Ignored by the mainstream, they became classics after they died. The Girl on the Train is a fast read, and the story is well told. Rachel makes a great unreliable narrator. Still, I had the sense, ...
Blog of a struggling writer.