Books that changed my writing

You can listen to the audio version of this post below.

This is a part of the October blog challenge. You can find the other posts here.

As a continuation of the Books that changed my life, today I want to tell you about  one of the books that changed my writing, and my approach to some of my writing projects - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

This was one of our book club choices a couple of years ago, and reading brought me so much joy, as it brought together a few of my favourite things - letters between friends, a book club, and stories about wonderful characters set against the backdrop of a true event - the occupation of the Channel Islands by the German army during World War II.

In addition to being a wonderful book, this book was like receiving a permission slip for my own writing.

I have always loved writing, and when I was younger, I always imagined writing the types of books I was reading at the time - epic fantasies that a reader could get lost in. As I got older however, aside from the occasional essay written for English, most of my writing was for school. This continued into university, and the only reprieve I got was the letters I wrote to my friends. 

Yes. I first used the internet when I was at university (I am THAT age) which means that when I arrived in England half a world away from my friends, we would write actual letters to one another to stay in touch, and this continued even after I got my first email address. Once I got my email address, I would still write long form letters, and email them to my friends. 

I loved writing letters. My friends and I wrote them all through university (in fact we still write them to this day), and when I started to travel, I would send long letters to my friends and family about the places I was visiting, and eventually started to add photos when I got a digital camera. For me it was like creating my own little newsletter - long before I even knew what they were.

Fast forward to a few years ago, when the desire to write a book returned to me stronger than ever, and I decided to give into it. Despite the fact that I had always wanted to write fiction, the truth is - I was a bit afraid. Over the years, I had started a few fiction books, and they remained unfinished on my computer. I felt as if I didn’t have any good ideas, or enough talent to write an incredible book, and so I had largely given up on the idea of writing books, and focused on other things in life. But when the call came, I answered it, this time writing a non-fiction book - Everything is a Thing (which you can grab here on my website!). 

Publishing that book proved something about myself that I had been waiting my whole life for - that I could write a book. So once I had done it, I only had one question - could I write a fiction book? Around the time I was asking this question, I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. And one thing about it that fascinated me was that it was an epistolary novel - it was a book where the story was told entirely through the letters written from various characters to one another. 

I had never read a book like that before.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, and how easily I followed the story written in that way. It also reminded me of the letters my best friend and I used to write and then email to one another for many years, and then to our friends as we travelled around the world. It was the first time I came across the term “epistolary novel” and I wasn’t sure a book that was entirely composed of letters would tell a story as well as traditionally written narrative. But I’ll admit, it was superb.

And it had a big impact on my writing. It reminded me that there are many ways to tell a story. It inspired me to have fun when I wrote, and combined  with the newfound confidence from completing my first book, I decided to try an entirely different type of fiction book to what I ever thought I would write - and I wrote “Lessons in Love”. This is a novel where the story was told partly through letters, emails and text messages between the characters, although it also had a fair amount of written narrative as well. 

Writing it brought back memories of the letters I used to write to my best friend when we were at university, and allowed me to live out my dream of running an advice column! Writing it was the most fun I’d had in a LONG time. I felt as if I could unleash my creativity in new ways and my writing got a new lease of life. It brought so much fun to my writing, and convinced me that there is no wrong way to write your story.

I recently read this quote by Stephen King:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”

This is something that I absolutely agree with. The more I write, the more I read, and the more I read, the more I write. Over the past few years, I have found enjoyment in a diverse range of books in many different genres. I have found inspiration in these books. Reading sparks ideas for me and teaches me so much about writing and about the world. Reading inspires me to keep writing.

What inspires you? When have you received an unexpected permission slip in life? And what is one book that changed your life? Let me know in the comments!

And I send you big love from a small island.

PS the photo above is of a birthday card I received from a friend last year. Yes - we still send each other mail.