what i've learned about writing

I was 15 when I discovered I wanted to be a writer. That night, I went home and wrote a story about a family in the American Revolutionary War. It wasn't a great story, of course - but it wasn't bad.

I wrote plenty of bad stories after that. I still write bad stories sometimes now.

More on that in a moment...

6 simple questions: steve himmer

Welcome to "this side" of 6 Simple Questions

Steve Himmer is…

The editor of Necessary Fiction, whose debut novel, The Bee-Loud Glade, is the enchanting and ponderous story of a man who has been hired as a decorative hermit. Tom McCarthy (whose novel C, by the way, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize) called The Bee-Loud Glade "An allegorical novel that seems eerily contemporary. Thoreau meets Ballard, meets Huysmans and many more." And I call the book just downright fun and enlightening reading.

what i've learned about reading

Most established writers will tell you that the most important thing for you to do as an aspiring author is read. All the time. But you rarely come across any elaboration on this point.

Quite frankly, if you are an aspiring author, you should not require elaboration on this point. When you hear an author tell you that the best thing you can do is "read all the time," this should brighten your life like a thousand-watt bulb. If you want to be an author, you should want to be a reader.

If you want to be an author, you should love reading already.

But I'll elaborate anyway, because I've learned a few things myself...