How can you be a writer if you don't read much? in Whey and Sonic Screwdrivers.

I’ve been asked this a lot.

I’m literate, in that I can read, that’s not an issue. I just find it difficult to “read” books for pleasure. And somehow there’s an elite attitude of “Well, gosh, I’m better than you because I READ LOTS OF BOOKS.”

Yeah, you sound like someone judging us for not knowing how to use stone tablets. Useful? Yes. Necessary? Well, no.

Thing is, we can get information in a metric gluteal ton these days. I watch movies. I watch series. I watch reviews of movies. I can not state just how much youtube I watch. Listening and watching things on how to write, how to lift. Hockey highlights. Reactions and thoughts to works I enjoy.

I didn’t learn about Chekhov’s Gun in a book. I learned about it online.

Moreover, listening to audiobooks is a perfectly valid way to enjoy a book. (Not mine; just giving a shout-out.)

I’m not writing it out, but let me rehash a thought I had earlier for my nanonovel. A take on the classic Big Sausage Pizza Delivery Guy Porno. Two girls order a pizza with Extra Sausage. Delivery guy arrives. There is a pizza. There is long, thick sausage on it. First twist:

He randomly has Extra Thick Sausage in his pants. As in, in his pockets. The girls play it straight and are impressed by his sausages.

Second twist: when he goes to unzip his pants, they’re horrified, kick him in the balls, and get him out of their doorway.

Punch line..... Maybe one of them says “Why do guys with big sausages have to be such colossal dicks?”

Last image… one of them biting their teeth into one of the links of big, thick sausage.

I don’t know. Because of my depression I downplay myself. I feel like scenes like that write themselves, yet… Not everyone can? Not everyone can just play it out in their head.

So… as a veteran of NaNoWriMo, you can see why I have zero anxiety over hitting wordcount next month. And. I still don’t fully know what I’m going to write. That’s half the fun. Discovering the scenes as they happen. It’s like the story was there, I just had to find it.

Like the sculptor who claims the finished statue was there all along, they simply unveiled the rock covering it.

Fun fact: I tried outlining for NaNoWriMo one year. It was to be my BIGGAYDAN novel. I had 30 chapters planned, one chapter per quota. What happened? All my creativity was gone. It was too rigid.

I don’t fully know what I’m going to write for my novel any more than you know what entry you’re going to post tomorrow.