Fall For the Book - Benjamin Percy

First off, I went into the reading completely blind-sided. I had never read a book by Percy or had I ever heard of him. I was determined that I would just go to this so that I could get it over with. He began by giving a small introduction of himself. I remember him saying that he was often inspired by Stephen King and his voice had a horror tone to it. I just knew I would not like this, I'm into love stories and happy stories, not creepy ones. So, he began talking about the process of writing the book and what I remember the most is him saying, "Writing is rewriting." At this point, I looked up and he had my full attention. Deep down, I have a strong passion for writing, but I often feel like I have writer's block and cannot fully form my ideas the way I would like to. He told us that he wrote over 750 pages for 250 page novel. His editor made him rewrite time over time and the procedure became overwhelming so he had to take a five month break after writing the novel. He started reading his novel, and automatically I was mesmerized. The voice that once sounded horrid fit the personality of the character very well and then he started reading about another character, he changed his voice once again. Through his reading, I sensed his passion for writing. At the end of the reading he told us that he never imagined being a writer, he studied archaeology in college. He started writing poems for his girlfriend, now wife, and she told him one day that he should really be a writer. Percy said since then those words have been his biggest motivation. It was an experience to remember.