Writers are great procrastinators in that there’s usually something more exciting to do than sitting in a room all by yourself tapping away. For me it’s reading. It doesn’t matter to me a jot if it’s Kindle or paper but I am pretty much book obsessed.
So should I just jack in the writing thing in altogether and drown in someone else’s words? It would be so much easier except that, in truth there are too many books out there. As a writer I know the competition to find eyes for my words is enormous but as a reader there are just too many good books to choose from.
Conceptually this is a huge personal issue. I need books in my life in the same way people need air to breathe. But if I was on a desert island I wouldn’t want to choose one book, I’d have to go for either a whole library or unlimited paper and pencils so I could write my own. That’s why I like writing. I like the power to dream up that story that is unravelling in my head like raffia around an Easter bonnet. There are three such stories currently all vying for pole position and the reason, at the moment I’m not going to give up. It’s not that I’m stubborn but you’d have greater luck with getting a donkey to change its ways. It’s not that I think my writing is good as, like most artists self-doubt is the watchword. It just that I have a dream, three dreams and until my head is completely empty of the words pummelling the inside of my head I’m going to continue…
Jenny O'Brien HQ 