Easy Writing/Easy Reading #MFRWAuthor

I think it was Paul Gillette who first introduced me to the concept of “Easy Writing is

Obligatory New Mexico Sky Photo

Hard Reading; Easy Reading is Hard Writing’ during a weekend workshop. I remember him attributing the quote to a famous writer but of course don’t remember which writer he mentioned! When I shared the quote recently I thought I’d just check out who said what, when. Well, that’s an interesting question. It seems that’s a very old quote, attributed to a plethora of writers More detail here if you’re interested in the extensive history.

This concept comes up far too often these days when we read books from some prolific authors. Not all of them, of course. Many have spent years honing their craft, and well formed sentences flow through their fingers. They have put in the hours to learn to write clear sentences and they live by the rule of BICHOK. Butt In Chair Hands On Keyboard.

If you want to write books, you sit down and write. If you want to write good books, you sit down and write the very best book you can. In response to the recent plagiarisms of good writer’s books, one of our very best explained how she has written and continues to write good books How Nora Roberts Does It She says it clearly enough any of us should be able to follow her precepts even if we can’t keep up with her schedule.

I’ve been on a reading binge…okay a reading glut. Most of these books are by great authors I’ve only recently discovered. There are a lot of new authors publishing. Once in a while I will take a chance on someone new, and be delighted. Some of them need to slow down, read over their book, have someone else read over their work, and not hit that publish button quite so fast? There is so much good, but so much could also be a bit better with more polish.

Hard writing absolutely makes for easy reading. Practice might not make perfect but it does make for better. Speaking of practice, Fire Dragon and I are off to a Rally trial. I have not put in the practice to make us perfect but we’ll keep working on it.

Rally, FD, not Agility. Let’s try for just a bit more precision