As I sat down attempting to write my first book, I was unprepared for how hard it would be. I never really dreamt about writing a book, but as several ideas came to my head I decided to put them down on paper and create a story that would hopefully entertain the masses. I am no great literary bird, but even I can tell that Danielle Steel novels are too black and white, that the way certain authors play with words makes all the difference, turning a seemingly boring story into an enthralling masterpiece or turning an interesting idea into a cliched, uninteresting read.
So far, I have come to the conclusion that the type of books you read TRULY to influence your writing style. For the past four years I have read the odd best selling novel, but for the most part the books that I read in bulk – and these are a guilty pleasure – are Harlequin novels. Yes, those cheesy TRULY BLACK AND WHITE novels where the characters were perfect individuals, their characters rarely being BUILT along the course of the book but merely described up front, taking away the magic of the story. THAT is what my writing style has become, and today, I wish I had listened to my mother when she warned me not to read too many of those if I wasn’t balancing them out with some of the ‘classics’ or any other well written literature.
So today, I have to start out from scratch. From the BBC list of a 100 books everyone should have read, I have read only three – Harry Potter and Twilight being two of them.
So I’m going to be spending my evenings with Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte and Charles Dickens, rather than the Tycoon from Mikanos or the Italian Billionaire.
