Surprising Tidbits I've Learned About Writing…and Reading

My earliest stumble jockeyed around trying to figure out what an audience was, and how to build one.

The answer may seem like a benign wonderment, however I’m not wholly convinced I share in this visual alone. You know the picture. The one where we make a film... manage to have it shown in a theatre... where it gets listed on a billboard with other films showing that evening… and whaala, people show up and there’s our audience.

Building a loyal following is an act, and art much appreciated.

The passive voice terminology put me on another learning curve. Once I understood the term, I kind of fought (in my mind at least) against the association with ‘frequently’ using this voice. Like who wants to be a weak writer?

Later I learned how to write assertive without monopolizing topics by asserting I was the absolute authority.  Note: this is not to be confused with topics where I’m inserting humor. Occasionally I do stray down erroneous corridors hoping to enthuse readers with my electrifying humor.

And this one, I should have known better, being a reader myself. Readers, particularly avid readers are smart, which amazes me when I catch this emblem being taken for granted.

It as well was surprising to learn the many reasons why authors adopted pen names for their work, and double that surprise coming across stigmas associated with authors writing across genres. No wonder why others weren’t already working this strategy.

The Zhivago Affair tipped me onto an aspect of Fiction I casually discounted. Kind of reminded me of back in the day when I couldn’t understand why someone would try to be Batman for real. Fiction seemed easier to take like a grain of salt, while non-fiction proved more influential, despite sometimes even looking at non-fiction with one brow raised.

But this one is the real juicer, what inspired this post. Somewhere here recently, as near as the other day, though I don’t recall exactly where, I happened to read that there are people pretending to have read books they never read.

I’ve heard of browsers and skimmers, but really? Why would anyone pretend to have read a whole book they never read?