It’s common in popular culture to claim that someone is ruining their legacy.
Category: Writing
I know what you’re thinking.
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”
— Stephen King
Everyone, it seems, wants to be a writer these days (present company included).
The advances in technology over the past two decades has flattened the publishing world to the point that anyone can share their thoughts on a blog, microblog, whatever. You can even publish an entire book – either paperback or ebook – for free.
But just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean that you should do it. And not everyone should write a book. There are plenty of people who I’d put into that category, but there is one group I’d place at the top of the list above all others: those that do not read.
In order to be successful in any field or endeavor, it is imperative to know what you’re doing. You can’t teach a physics class if you don’t understand physics and you can’t be an accountant if you’ve never studied accounting. Similarly, you can’t realistically expect to write a book if you don’t read books, but it seems like people really want to skip this vital step.
While it is impossible to overstate the power of reading, in my experience there are four distinct ways in which reading helps writing. After all, if you don’t read books, why would you be so conceited to believe that others should read yours?
Categories
My Very Best Writing from 2016
2016 was my first full year with my own site.
Not coincidentally it is also the first year since 2012 in which I did not publish a book.
Categories
On Writer’s Block
Categories
I Miss the Old Medium
“Few men have virtue enough to withstand the highest bidder.”
– George Washington
I miss the old Medium.
My baby turns four years-old today. No, not my daughter, though she does turn 4 next month. Today, we celebrate my other, first baby.
Last year, Ta-Nehisi Coates, a national correspondent for The Atlantic and a celebrated writer on race in the United States, published Between the World and Me, a book that is presented as a letter to his teenage son about being a black man in America.
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Self-Publish Your Book in 2016
When someone learns that my books are self-published, they often sneer as if they don’t exist at all.
Oh, so you’re not really published. Your books aren’t, like, real.
No? If you type my name into the search bar at the top of the Amazon page, you’ll find a list of all eight of my books, ready to be ordered in physical or electronic format, just like J.K. Rowling or Ryan Holiday or James Patterson.
Categories
My Very Best Writing from 2015
Overall, 2015 was probably my best year as a writer. A lot of great things happened.
The Passion of Christopher Pierznik 