The best advice is not to write what you know, it's to write what you like. Write the kind of story you like best-write the story you want to read.
Thank you, school.
You made me despise reading.
Okay, joking aside, I can say that school greatly influenced my lengthy reading retirement.
I wasn't a massive fan of the assigned books we had every year. It was always the classics (I did read them for the record, and there are some exceptions I love). Classics are certainly worth reading, and their influence on subsequent works is undeniable.
But I'm going to be honest and confess that I don't typically read most classics for pleasure.
After about 18 years of assigned readings, I grew tired of reading. I read maybe one or two books a year (not including Japanese Manga or comic books).
Bring on 2021!
I had been away from reading for a long time, so I decided to start again. So, I went looking on the internet for book recommendations. However, after browsing a few websites, I learned that many of the recommendations were divided into two categories: "pretentious" books and popular novels that would appeal to a larger audience. Unfortunately, this meant that the majority of the books I read throughout school made the list.
Okay, fair enough, but where are all of my manga readers?
Where are the other readers like me who didn't care for this year's supposed book of the year?
And what are you reading just for fun?
I'm going to credit content creator, Ali Abdaal, for inspiring me. He discussed books on his channels that I'd never heard of before but which sounded fascinating. Watching his channel was really beneficial in terms of getting me to look up different books and restarting my reading habit (Check out his youtube channel).
I discovered the author, Austin Kleon, and his book "Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative" after watching Ali Abdaal's channel. And I'm not kidding when I say that this book changed my life. For one, this book encouraged me to rediscover my love for books. And two: one of the ten ideas outlined in the book is to avoid being satisfied with others' work and going beyond it to create what you want to see.
...do the work you want to see done.
As a result, this turned into my incredible journey that started this blog.
