Inheritance

The wait is finally over! I decided to wait to publish my blog post for tonight because of the release of Inheritance! I went to Christopher Paolini's book signing at the Barnes and Noble in Union Square. There were so many people there, it was insane. I captured a few photos, but completely forgot to take some close-ups when I was actually at the table because I was just so excited. I am absolutely thrilled to read the book. I'm practicing my self-control, and 70 pages in, I put the book down so that I could write you this blog post and proceed to finish my homework. This was the first book signing I've been to, and it was great. He signed everyone's books (and there were a couple hundred people there), answered questions, and did a short reading. He read a line or two from each one of the books, and his favorite line from Brisingr is "Die, you puny human!" which I found to be quite amusing. He is very quirky and he liked my poncho! During the Q and A section of the signing, someone asked him what advice he would give to blooming writers. (I took notes.) His advice was really inspiring, and I found it applicable to most career fields - not just in the literary arts.

Christopher Paolini to aspiring authors:

1. Read everything you can get your hands on.

2. Write consistently. Write everyday, and write with variety. Monotony gets boring.

3. Learn everything about the language in which you're writing. (except he said 'learn everything about the language you're writing in', which is incorrect grammar because you should never end a sentence with a preposition. I found it really funny that this was the one sentence that shouldn't have been incorrectly stated.)

4. Find someone to help edit your work.

5. Don't give up. (Along with this, he said to be certain to have fun and write about something that interests you as a person. Since there are 7 billion people on this planet, what you write about has to interest at least one other person in the world)

This was rather inspiring to me. The rest of his speech was interesting and kind of humorous, and he thanked all the people that helped him get where he's at today. But I loved this particular piece of advice, because it's relative to all aspects of our lives. We should be striving to live for something that interests us, to work consistently but with variety, to find someone who will help edit and sharpen our character, to learn the best and most concise communication skills possible and most of all to never give up. The book is dedicated to his family, but also to "the dreamers of dreams: the many artists, musicians, and storytellers who have made this journey possible." Beautiful.