Melissa's Myths for Mondays

Myth # 2

Real Writers Don’t Need to Read Books About Writing

When I want to learn to do something, the first thing I always do is grab a book. I wanted to learn to knit, I grabbed a book, easy peasy. I wanted to learn about orangutans, I picked up a book. But because I believed that writing was a God given talent, I echewed books about writing. Why on earth would someone read about writing. Surely you can’t “learn to write” from reading a book. If I’m a writer I can write, and I don’t need no stinkin’ book. If I have to resort to a book to become a writer, then I’d failed.

Well clearly that was rediculous. Sure I could write a book, nothing to it. But to become a better writer, I needed to read a lot of books on craft. And I’m still reading them, and re-reading them.

Do you have any favorite books on the craft of writing?

Melissa's Myths for Mondays

Myth # 1

Writers Are Born Not Made
I used to believe all writers were born, not made. That anyone who had written an interesting book must have exited the womb with that story in their head just waiting to be spit up. And that God would have endowed them with a preternatural gift for punctuation and spelling to support their talent.

Since He clearly skipped over me when it came to punctuation and spelling (along with other things which shall remain nameless), I decided that writing was not meant to be. It took me almost forty years to realize that writing is about more than comma placement.

What, if anything kept you from making the leap into writing?