Words of Inspiration

There are some that believe that as a writer you shouldn't read anybody else's work for fear of it tainting your style, or that you may inadvertantly plagiarise another writer's words, thoughts or mannerisms.

Personally I think this is, if you'll excuse my French, a load of bollocks.

I love to read, and when I find somebody's writings that I love, whether they are a successful novelist, or an anonymous blogger, then I drink those words in like a hit of pure oxygen and let them permeate my entire being.

Reading provides me with such inspiration. Sometimes this is because I read something and think that I could have written it so much better, and this spurs me on to do just that, to be the best writer that I can. Other times a piece of writing may move me, or make me laugh, or cry, or happy, sad, angry or any one of the myriad emotions that I feel on a daily basis, and that is the most wonderful feeling. Plus, again, it spurs me on to want to evoke these emotions in others, in those who take the time to read my musings, my fiction, my unique perspective on things that only I will ever have.

Sometimes these feelings, these emotions can manifest in the unlikliest of places. I remember reading Stephen King's Cujo many years ago and being profoundly moved by, of all things, the death of the rabid Saint Bernard. This dog was technically the villain of the piece, and in lesser hands I'd have been cheering when the woman trapped in the car finally escaped with her young son. In King's hands, though, I felt the confusion, the involuntary loss of control, the agony of having a disease, in this case Rabies, take you over and change you into a monster, and I was genuinely moved when this dog was finally beaten to death, moreso actually than the death of the young boy that also occurred at the end of the novel. How's that for perverse, eh?

The ability to instill such emotions through just the power of words is a real gift, and not many writers can successfully so this. It'll probably sound conceited that I hope I can ultimately be one of them, and believe that I can, but there you go, the writer's ego in full force! I wrote in an earlier blog that I don't do this for fame, fortune, or even recognition per se; I do it because I can't not do it, but equally I would like to think that occasionally my words will make a reader pause for a moment and feel genuine emotion, whether it be sadness, happiness, or even outrage if I'm in a particularly Devil's Advocate kind of mood and have been aiming to push buttons.

Ultimately I know that reading other writer's work helps me to improve, by inspiring me to be as good as, if not better, than they are. That said, I don't see fellow writers as competition. Quite the opposite, in fact. We are all cursed, or blessed depending on your point of view, with this compulsion to vomit our thoughts, fears, fantasies and memories onto the page, in the hope that it will mean something, to someone, somewhere.

Thank you for reading, and have an inspiring day.