Cathy C. Hall Writes

If you want to be a writer, you’ve got to be a reader.

Yes, I know you know that. But are you reading? Not the newspaper, or the magazines in the checkout aisle, or the cereal box on the breakfast table. I’m sure those all make for mighty interesting reading. But what you’ve got to read is mighty fine books.

And what I’ve found today is the Goodreads Choice Awards over at Goodreads.

It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to be bothered with posting all the books you’ve read on Goodreads. Or that you don’t care about the really cool Goodreads widgets. Or that you might get sucked into playing that books trivia game and have a screaming hissy fit because you miss three questions in a row that, really, you knew but didn’t go with your gut first answer. Ahem.

No, writers. What matters is what you’ll find at Goodreads that’s going to help you become the best writer you can be.

You’re going to find lists of books. And with the Goodreads Choice Awards, you’re going to find 15 excellent, current books in each of 30 categories. You’ll find the best humor books (Want to write humorous essays? Check ’em out). You’ll find the best of the year’s memoir (Got a life story? Check those out.) You’ll find the best non-fiction (Thinking of a proposal? Look into what’s out there.). And you’ll find the best in fiction, from horror to historical, graphic novels to romance, picture books to paranormal fantasy.

So, off you go, writer. Goodreads is a mighty fine place to start finding, well, good reads. And if you’re like me, you’ve got an awful lot of reading to catch up on!

So, I know that hordes of writers are out there, busily pounding out their 1,569 words today so they can make their National Novel Writing Month goal of 50,000 words. Kudos to y’all!

And kudos to all y’all who may be a NaNo writer like me. Maybe you’ll make 45,000 words. Maybe you’ll forget to actually sign up. Maybe you’ll manage to pound out only 1500 words. Doesn’t make you any less of a writer. (It does, however, leave you with an awful lot of manuscript to finish.) You might be the kind of writer who could use a little extra inspiration and some serious writerly advice. Go here.

Or maybe you’re skipping Nano this year in favor of something different. Maybe, like me, you’ve signed up for Picture Book Idea Month. Because, honestly, who can’t come up with an idea a day? Kudos to y’all! But maybe, inexplicably, your ideas sort of sputter out on the third day, along with your kudos. You might be the kind of writer who could use some extra inspiration and some wonderful writerly advice. Go here.

Okay, yes, it’s the same writerly advice and inspiration. Because it doesn’t matter what you write. It only matters that you write. At least, if you were born to write. And kudos to my writer buddy, Kara Bietz, for sharing that little nugget of writer gold.