A friend who works down London way came up to Shields for a flying visit.
"Here, Pete - have a read of this and tell me what you think." And he gave me a book, entitled 'The Damned Utd'. The story of Brian Clough's 49 days in charge of Leeds United, written from the point of view of Cloughie himself. I couldn't resist.
The book was a great read. I can recommend it to anyone - and it's a must-read for anyone with an interest in football.
The problem was that I picked up some of the writer's style and transferred it to my own. The effect was poor when mixed with my own, and that was what caused me to become angry with myself after reading the second chapter of my latest work.
I can read newspapers, magazines, teletext, trawl the internet and even critique stuff without being affected in a literary sense. Anything in book-form and I'm immediately affected by it.
One for the men in white coats! I won't do that again.
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4 comments:
I read an article on this very phenomenon the other day. I'll try and dig it out.
However, rest assured that it's natural. The writer also suggested that it's important.
I'd suggest that anything that keeps our writing fresh is a good thing.
Should be interesting to find out what causes this. You could be right that these things can keep your writing fresh - the unravelling had me thinking a bit. Just I'd rather it hadn't happened to me in the first place. Seems I'm right not to read stuff while I'm writing.
Yup, it happens to me too, which is why for the duration of writing a manuscript I try not to read any fiction. I can never completely hold out though. It's okay to be influenced, just keep it down to a tiny thing. A tiny thing can be absorbed into the whole and actually improve it. Being overwhelmed is the problem.
You're right, Maria. I think a book about Cloughie was always going to hold more for me than most books. It was such great read, and I probably was overwhelmed in the short term. I should have known. I'm over it now - Chapter 2 has been restored.
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