Month: August 2019

What I read when I’m writing

What I read when I’m writing

sandybarker

The-more-that-you-read-the-more-things-you-will-know-Dr.-Seuss-book-quote-540x671

One of the questions I see most often in the writing community is ‘How do I get back into writing?’ This question might be posed because the writer has suffered a bought of what they call ‘writer’s block’, or because they’ve had a break from writing.

No matter the reason, I always respond with the same advice: read.

Reading is a writer’s best friend. It exercises the brain, it gives you room to play, or escape, or explore. It allows you to immerse yourself in a world of someone else’s creation. It lets you live vicariously through characters that other writers have painstakingly crafted. It will lead by example, showing you how to write and ,sometimes, how not to write.

Reading is a writer’s fuel.

Since January, I have written 100K words across two books and multiple blog posts. I have edited my first (published) book and I am about to start editing my second book, which will be published next March/April. Throughout the first half of the year, I have also read voraciously.

So, what does a writer of RomComs read? Here’s my reading list since January (in no particular order):

  • The Lost Man (Jane Harper)
  • The Little Theatre on the Seafront (Katie Ginger)
  • Wildflower Park (Bella Osborn)
  • The Day We Met (Roxie Cooper)
  • The Woman I Was Before (Kerry Fisher)
  • The French Photographer (Natasha Lester)
  • Summer at the Cornish Cafe (Phillipa Ashley)
  • One Summer in Italy (Sue Moorcroft)
  • One Summer’s Night (Kiley Dunbar)
  • The Secret Cove in Croatia (Julie Caplin)
  • The Unlikely Life of Maisie Meadows (Jenni Keer)
  • The Rose Result (Graeme Simsion)
  • Coming Home to Holly Close Farm (Julie Houston)
  • Instructions for Falling in Love Again (Lucy Mitchell)
  • There She Goes (Lynne Shelby)
  • Lessons in Love (Belinda Missen)
  • An Impossible Thing Called Love (Belinda Missen)
  • Esteban and Marialena (Eve Corso)
  • The Sins of the Sire (Emily Royal)
  • The Man I Fell in Love With (Kate Field)
  • Summer on the Italian Lakes (Lucy Coleman)
  • The Year of Starting Over (Karen King)
  • Louis and Louise (Julie Cohen)
  • Her Brooding Scottish Heir (Ella Hayes)
  • The Last Dance (Aimee Brown)

I am currently reading The Strawberry Thief (Joanne Harris) and next up is the thriller Never Have I Ever (Joshilyn Jackson).

Just read…