umm... Hi. I'll just be honest - today I started writing after a longish battle with a bout of depression. For years I have wanted to be creative in all different ways... With music, with video, with programming. None of it "worked" though. it seems that writing really calms me, makes everything seem ok. I don't feel angry or stressed or confused. I feel like I am comfortable and basicly like I have a voice (on the page.... ). I wish i took writing more seriously sooner, it seems kinda obvious now becuase ive kept a diary since i was 16/17 (im 24 now) and it always helped me out. Sometimes though i'd feel nervous to go back to writing in the diary because it felt like I was cheating or something. I just felt scared to dare write to get over my problems - what if i write about something that is too scary? Too real... anyhoo.. I feel kinda excited for the first time in a while. I have a place to have fun and play. I feel like i actually understand the landscape of creativity i am able to enter. It's fun. Though I need some help... I need to learn how to write with actual decent technique and ya know, I need to write comprehensively and accurately and i need to follow patterns and rules and just you know... i want to write in a way that can be enjoyed and easily digested and appricated by anyone who reads it that the writing is intended for. I want to write clearly and concisely etc.etc. etc. etc. I wont bore you with all the details./.. here is my question: What are some of the most well-renowned and best-written books that I could (and should) read? Im thinking tonality of the book, settings/characters. whatever. books (or better yet - stories) that stand out because they are doing something which is universally appriciated and understood. I want to know the best of the best. I can think iof some of the top of my head - once i have heard mentioned in TV shows and the like... but yeah, any recommendations of "must-read" for anyone that wants to write. would be great! (i just lost *this* paragraph so Ill just say THANK-YOU and move on.,..)
Read what you want and like to read. Write what you like to write. Write the book you want to read. Technique? It is just bunch of toolboxes. Pick the tools you like to use.