Focus Blue
Aug 26, 2017 · 2 min read

I don’t read books to become a good writer. I read them because I want to enjoy reading the story. There is quite the difference between reading for enjoyment and reading to study how the author writes and what the author wants the reader to understand ….and a whole lot of other similar reasons. I had enough classes decades ago in college studying various authors. To be honest I really didn’t like those classes.

If I want to write a book then yes reading the books of others would help, but so would critical analysis of the structure needed to write a book. But I do short reports and comments for the most part and I have zip interest in ever writing a book nor face the battle of the world of publishing where one gets paid for writing a book and royalties from the sales of it .

Now and then I write a blog (I have several of those) or article for a blog platform as I have here on Medium. I am also published in a magazine in Europe. And I’ve been paid well for providing technical reports by clients.

However, to do all that I’d have say it was my career in product development (hardware) and reading tons of databooks, trade and technical journals, and bunches of sites on the Net enabled me to write and at times write well enough to be published, paid or not, and to write for clients, paid or not. Reading books is not the only method for getting good at writing. In fact, I find I learn far more about writing by spending time editing. And even with all the editing in the world I attempt to do I am always stumped by how much I still missed and then have to fix.

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    Focus Blue

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    Love Seattle, write comedy, do road trips, cook, love my girl, listen to techno, fine dining, cheap eats, email: jk3tree@gmail.com