If You’re a Writer, You Should Read These Three Books

When people ask me, “How did you learn to write?” I have to travel back five years, to when I started reading self-help books and writing summaries on my blog.

I wrote with full confidence, but unfortunately, there were no readers. In the initial stage of a writer’s journey, there needs to be some motivation. If you can’t find even a single reader, no matter how strong you are mentally, you’ll eventually quit.

The same thing happened to me. Within a few months, I quit.

What hurt me most was paying for the website for two years, only to quit in six months without earning a single cent.

Though I quit writing, I kept reading non-fiction books. One day, I came across a book that was recommended as a must-read for creators.

I bought the book and completed it in one sitting. Then I ordered the other two books by the same author and finished both over the next two days.

After reading these books, I started writing again and stopped caring about the results.

I hear you! What are the three books? I won’t make you wait any longer.

Austin Kleon’s Keep Going, Show Your Work!, and Steal Like an Artist.

Let me give you a quick summary of these books, so you can decide if they’re worth reading.

Show Your Work

When I look back and think about why I quit my blog, I realize I believed no one was reading my stories because I was an amateur.

When this book taught me that being an amateur is not a bad thing, it hit me hard, and I reconsidered my writing career.

How is being an amateur a good thing?

When you see yourself as an amateur, you have nothing to lose. You can try different things, as there’s no one to comment on your early work yet.

If you consider yourself a writer, start sharing your work. There’s no one waiting to criticize you. Try multiple things. You never know what you’ll continue with.

Steel Like an Artist

“Am I creative?”

“Without being creative, how could I bring an audience? So why waste time?”

If you think like this, then this book will change you.

I often thought that originality defines great creators. How do they come up with that kind of creativity?

After reading this book, I understood that nothing is original.

Yes, no work is entirely original; it’s a mix of old inspirations.

Take any work you love. It must be inspired by something else.

But there is a thin line between copying and being inspired. You can take ideas from what you love, but with your own creativity, you should produce your work.

So, there is nothing wrong with taking inspiration.

Even to write this article, I got inspired by reading a similar article about writing.

Read more, take one idea, and create something from it.

Keep Going

I kept my favourite book for last.

I don’t know how many times I’ve reread this book. If not the full book, I would at least read a few chapters.

Like the other two books, this one is also an easy read. And not just for creators, you should read this book to keep going in life.

My favourite quote is, “Every day is a new day for wise men.” This quote is beautifully explained by Austin Kleon using an example from the movie Groundhog Day.

For those who don’t know about the movie: Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a weatherman who is selfish and doesn’t respect others. He is forced to cover the story of Groundhog Day in the small town of Punxsutawney. There, he gets stuck in a time loop, waking up every morning on February 2nd.

How he breaks the time loop and moves to the next day is the most interesting part of the story.

Like this movie, we often get stuck in life, reliving the same day again and again, doing the same work without any interest.

To move forward in life, you must answer this question:

“What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?”

Remember, there is no end.

Even after writing a bestselling book, you have to start from zero again.

So live each day and focus on giving your best today, without thinking too much about the future or the final result.

I’ve read a lot of books on writing, and what I learned is that before you dive into the technical side, you should start showing your work daily. I hope these three books help you do that, just as they helped me

Thank you!

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For fictional stories, check this out: https://medium.com/fiction-world