...Is truly the sincerest form of flattery As a writer, I find myself greatly influenced by other writers, their ideas and story lines and style. Indeed, I seldom finish a book without taking note of a certain wordplay or beautiful and unique way of expressing an idea and adapting that into my own writing. I am not talking about lifting a sentence or paragraph and writing as if were my own. Rather, sometimes a word expressed that is better than my own, or the description of a sunset or a sunrise that puts a new perspective for me.
Recently I finished "A Beautiful Land" by Susan Beth Miller and "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand" by Helen Simonson and now am reading "The Dutch House" by Ann Patchett, good reads by good authors all of whom we can learn something from. And I find daily inspiration and excellent writing in the Bible whose authors know something about putting one word after the other.
But perhaps the favorite line I have read, and indeed a sentence I embrace constantly, is the utterance by Jack Reacher in the Lee Child books. "When in doubt, go left."
