I've been reading lately

That's the title of a blog I follow, actually my favorite blog that I follow, though I'd be the first to admit that I don't follow a LOT of blogs. Mostly just a few friends' blogs and a couple of others. But this one I love: http://ivebeenreadinglately.blogspot.com/ I think of Levi, the blogger, as sort of like me, except much smarter and much more literate, and with NO TODDLER TWINS. He even refers to his significant other as "rocketlass." I agree with practically everything Levi says about books I've read, and thus I use him for recommendations, confident that much of what he likes, I'll like too.

Anyway, for the past few days I've been reading something that Levi didn't recommend, Stephen King's On Writing (though Levi does enjoy Stephen King's novels). I've been wanting to read this for a while, but didn't want to pay full price for it -- I figure Stephen King has PLENTY of money and doesn't need mine too. Finally last week I found it at Red Rock Books, so I've been dipping into it ever since.

It has some good stuff, some not so good. I get so tired of people telling other people that they shouldn't use the passive voice. As one of my grad school professors used to say, English NEEDS the passive. It has a purpose, otherwise it wouldn't be part of the language. You use the passive when the patient is more important than the agent. In the sentence, "Mary was bitten by a black widow spider," Mary is more important to us than the spider, whose name we don't know, who probably didn't even HAVE a name. Just a dumb spider. The sentence is NOT any better when written "A black widow spider, who shall remain nameless, bit Mary." It's just not. OK, anyway...

I was more taken with his recommendations on work schedules. King says, "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." By "a lot" he means four to six hours a day, every day. He goes on to describe his own schedule: writing in the morning, naps and letters in the afternoon, reading and family in the evening.

No mention of when you're supposed to do the laundry. Or make dinner. Or wipe bottoms and clean potties. His kids are grown, of course, but I kind of wonder whether maybe Tabitha didn't do most of the work when they were little.

I've been doing pretty well with my own schedule recently, spending 2 hours 4 days a week on my writing, and maybe an hour in the evenings on my reading. More than that, and we'd have to eat out every night.

Someday when I'm a millionaire we can hire a cook and a laundress. (The kids'll be grown by then, so no need for a nanny.) Until then, I think I'm doing OK.