Step 5: Read More

It sort of goes without saying that if you want to be a professional writer, you have to read a lot. How can you know what reads well if you don't invest some time doing the research? All that aside, I have not been the best reader as of late. It wasn't always that way for me; scores of books lined the shelves of my childhood home, and a brief dalliance with a voracious reader in my twenties introduced me to the masterful works of Frank Herbert, Michael Moorcock, and Robert Heinlein. Ultimately, my glory years of reading were triggered by the appearance of this book in my hands:

A Star Wars literary masterpiece. /sarcasm

I should back up a bit. When I was twelve, my dad took me to see the Star Wars: Special Edition re-release. Before I entered the theater, I thought I was just going to watch some dumb movie from the 70's. I knew all of the pop culture references, and had even perfected my seven-foot-two-asthmatic-ass Darth Vader impression. After I left the theater... well, let's just say I was a changed person.

We had an old VHS copy of A New Hope that my parents had taped from a TV airing in the 80's (I know this because I can still sing the jingle of the Toyota commercial interspersed throughout the breaks), and I watched it obsessively. I would pop the tape in as I got ready for school, and resume watching it when I got home in the afternoons. When the credits rolled, I'd rewind it and immediately start playing it again.  My mother, worried about her daughter's compulsive addiction, spotted The Crystal Star at a book store and bought it for me in hopes that reading about Star Wars would be more productive than me turning into a boob-tube zombie.

Suddenly, on that summer day in 1997, I was introduced to the world of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Fifteen years later, I had read nearly every piece of Star Wars literature and comic book that was available.  I'll save my feelings about the EU reboot for another post, but suffice to say, I can thank Star Wars for my interest in science fiction and reading in general.

Great for my nerd cred; less so for my social standing in high school.

I credit my writing style to my favorite Star Wars EU author, the illustrious Aaron Allston, who sadly passed away a few years ago from complications with diabetes and a pesky lack of health insurance (the Affordable Care Act would be implemented a little too late for Allston, but hopefully future authors won't have to -literally- suffer for their art). My personal favorite of his books (and my favorite Star Wars novel in general), Starfighters of Adumar, didn't even feature any of the "Big Three", which just goes to show that even the most minor of characters can be used to tell a compelling story.

Yub Yub, Commander.

When Episode VII was announced and Troy Denning had impaled my heart on a spear, I lost interest in reading for a long time. My go-to source for escapism had evaporated, and I had a hard time finding a good replacement. I think I can count on both hands the number of novels I've read in the past five years; I picked up some bestsellers, and revisited some classics, but nothing aside from A Song of Ice and Fire really and truly grabbed me.

And we all know how well that worked out.

I read The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green...

Accurate.

I reread To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee...

Atticus Finch at peak DILF.

...in preparation for the release of Go Set a Watchman...

If racist Clint Eastwood things you're a bigot, you might want to tone down the KKK references.

I read Fair and Tender Ladies, by Lee Smith...

It's sort of like that.

...and All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr...

Another priceless gem, lost at sea for stupid reasons.

...until finally I bought Anna and The French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins, which is what I'm currently reading right now. I picked it up because the title popped up several times in my search for "Best Young Adult Romances", which is in the same vein of what my book is about.  So far, it's pretty cute, and Perkins' writing style is easygoing and delightful. However, I can't help but balk a little at the new-girl-attracts-the-attention-of-the-most-popular-guy-in-school trope. It's not that I'm against the idea, per se--I mean, what nerdy girl doesn't want to catch the eye of Hottie McHotterson?--and I even use the scenario to set my own story in a way, but gosh if it hasn't been done a hundred times.

Then again, what use would we have for classic South Park gifs?

I'm not finished with the book yet, so it may still surprise me. And even if it doesn't, I always enjoy a nice feel-good story.  We read to escape the reality of our lives--lives which don't always result in fairy-tale endings. There's certainly something to be said about an emotional tear-jerker, but generally speaking, I don't go out of my way to punish myself with the literary equivalent of being run over by a bus.

I'm looking at you, Nicholas Sparks.