Reading and Writing-

A long time ago a friend advised me to read a great deal, if I wished to write well. Good advice. I believe my long history of being a reader has helped me write well.

What one reads can also be important. The influence creates a shape for the mind, which is expressed in writing. For example, I read a great deal of science fiction in my youth. I also had an unusual affection for the writings of Charles Dickens. The combined influence had an unexpected affect on my report writing as a correctional officer. It took many years to adjust my writing to conform to police format writing. Charles Dickens would not have been able to write a good crime report, though his story on the matter would probably have been superb.

As the fantasy genre developed, I came to read a bit more of that. I am old enough to have seen the genre develop, from infancy. I also enjoyed the horror genre. Lovecraft was an early favorite. All of those interesting words! I have to expect that such an influence also impacted my professional law enforcement writing. Ah, my poor supervisors. They enjoyed my reports, but they just had to beat that wordiness out of me. Short sentences, just the facts.

My most recent reading has lead me here. Create Your Own Website, by Scott Mitchell. It is a very basic book. When searching for a book to help me with this subject, I first looked at high-end materials. Even though I have been using computers for many years, I had to admit that I really knew nothing on this subject. So, lowering my sights to a beginners book, I chose this one.

What I like about Mitchell's book is the challenge to do six easy projects associated with sharing information on the Internet. This blog is the first of those projects.

Working around the idea of reading, writing, and influence, I have to recognize that my report writing for law enforcement has influenced my other work. I am currently going over my drawer full of short stories, preparing to post them here. I am having to clean them up a bit, based on what I have learned in writing crime and incident reports.

I hope to meld the styles; my ancient propencity for wordiness and convoluted sentences, and the turse style of crime reports. Should be interesting. Stay tuned.