It isn’t new advice. Those of us who write hear it all the time. Everyone from the masters, like Stephen King, to the person sitting next to us in a craft workshop repeat it constantly: Writers need to read.

While at RWA’s National Conference in NYC a couple of weeks ago, I attended a workshop that theorized that you can also gleen insight to the craft by watching tv. (Not that all tv sets a standard that we should reach for…but that you could learn about the craft from dissecting the format and the writing).

I would add the same applies to movies. I know that when I sit in a theater, I spend just as much time studying the format as I do the story.

The all-too-common problem becomes making the time to attend to our every day responsibilities, chase the dream by keeping out butt in a chair and writing AND finding the time to study or craft.

To that end, I’m giving myself an accountability check point via this blog.  Tune in on Fridays, beginning this week for a new (hopefully not limited) feature Entitled What I Read/Watched. It will highlight a particular passage from a book or a scene from a TV show or movie that not only entertained, but taught me something about the craft.

Until then…