Stuck for what to write?  Wondering where to get a new idea?  I was looking at this website earlier: http://languageisavirus.com/ and I wanted to pass it on to you.  Sometimes just roaming around on the internet can be inspiring!

I’ve just read and loved YA novel If I Stay by Gayle Forman.  Simple and clear, sad and compelling.  Just the sort of novel I enjoy reading.  I’m in a writing phase where I’m reading everything I can, getting ideas and inspiration from books around me.  I finished Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen the other day and am starting Alice Hoffman’s The Story Sisters now.  Books are the galleries of the mind – and for a writer thinking about what to work on next they are like visiting rooms full of paintings.

Gayle Forman says: Such is the wonderous magic of writing.  There’s a wall.  And then, suddenly, there’s a door.

I like that.

It’s been a slow writing week for me which means I’ve read as much as I possibly can.  I have a new eBook which took a novel to get used to but is now an essential part of my writing toolkit.  Stephen King talks about writing toolkits in his wonderful memoir On Writing (which I recommend to every emerging writer).  It’s something I keep in mind when I get a new tool like an eReader.  Every writer needs to read books and so a Kobo (or whatever) gives me an easy way to read a book everyday whilst I’m travelling.  So far this week, I’ve been to Minneapolis, Kansas City, Chigaco, Miami and I’m now in Austin.  It’s impossible to write when moving around so much, but it is possible to read heaps.  And because reading helps me think about the book I’m going to start working on next then I’ll happily add my Kobo to my toolkit.

There are other crucial tools for writers – vocabulary, grammar, storyline, characters, style, voice – but making time for reading is the best way to inspire your work.  An eReader is as well designed as a book made of paper but it is a useful tool.  One I’m glad to have.