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Monday, July 22, 2019

Honing The Writing Craft


“I went into journalism to learn the craft of writing and to get close to the world I wanted to write about - police and criminals, the criminal justice system.   I still look at a newspaper as the center of a community.  It's one of the tent poles of the community, and that's not going to be replaced by web sites and blogs.” – Michael Connelly

Connelly, born on this date in 1956, decided to become a writer after discovering the crime mysteries of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida.  Majoring in journalism and minoring in creative writing, he excelled at both.  He started his career as a newspaper reporter, working in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale and specializing in the crime beat, of course – Chandler’s influence shining through.
 
Eventually he landed at the Los Angeles Times and then started writing creatively in what would make him a household name – mystery and crime fiction.   I was first drawn to Connelly’s writing because of his “newspaper style” – concise, to the point, and riveting.  When I read Blood Work, one of the cleverest ideas for a mystery I’d seen, I was really hooked.  

Translated into 39 languages, his books have garnered every major award for mystery and crime writing, and he has served as President of the Mystery Writers of America.  
Besides being a journalist, Connelly said a great incubator for being a writer is simply to BE a writer.  “You need to write.  Even if it's just one paragraph, write every single day."

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