Practice by copying

Dean Koontz one of the great names in writing wrote Life Expectancy in 2004, I think I bought this book around 2006--I may already have said my memory is not all that great?--I loved the story and his writing.

I read it without expectations, it was a chance buy a gamble on my part because I did not know who Dean Koontz was at that time. Now I feel a bit stupid because he writes in the genre I like to read, so missing a author like him is something to be ashamed off.

The story and writing in itself will not please or entertain everybody, for those used to Mr. Koontz writing can compare to his other books and deem this one, one of the lesser. For me it was my first and I liked it.

If you look at the picture I guess you noticed the wear on my copy. After I finished reading it, my wife , who doesn't read much, flipped through it on a chance occasion and got hooked. It's the first time I saw her actually read.

She told a nephew of hers about this book and he came visit one day and borrowed it--My wife had not yet finished reading--after a few weeks or be it months he returned it. By that time the book was well read and to make matters worse we lost it.

On one of the many cleaning sessions we finally found it, tucked away somewhere . My wife wants to finish reading it, but at present time can't make time for it in the meantime I use it for practice.

When I start writing about something I like, I tend to go on and on about the subject. What I want to tell about, beside loving Life Expectancy, is that a way to practice ones skill in writing is by copying the work of a successful author.

By writing down the finalized words, sentences, paragraphs of a published book, you will get a better picture of how and why certain sentences are written. You get many examples how things can be done or can go wrong. You even may find errors kept in the book after editing, showing that even the great authors and their army of editors can leave one or more mistakes in.

Many people now a days only type, we tend not to practice our hand writing skill. By writing with ink and paper we train our softer motor skills and stimulate our brain. I hope that soon my hand will get used to it and stops aching after a few lines of text.

By coping the whole book one can learn the flow of another writer and hopefully integrate some of it into ones own writing.

At the moment I am copying Life Expectancy (By hand) and The gunslinger (By typing). So far I improved my spelling and to better structure my sentences, but I still am not there yet. By keep practicing I hope to improve in the long run.

We each can learn from those whose skill are farther than our own, and they themselves should keep learning cause even in those who know less there is some lessons to be had.






Disclaimer: All copies made by me will be discarded after finished practicing .