Thursday, June 30, 2011
I'm Not Reading Lately
And I’m not sure I know why.
I think it’s about being stuck between edits… I’m waiting for the next round and just holding off on reading. Save for my older MSS, sitting around on my computer. I keep thinking about… “Oh, yeah…that scene…I’d like to read that again…” And I dig it out of the archives, start reading and then find myself on a ‘reading myself’ bender.
And it’s not bad…nothing I’d shoot off to my editor without some major revisions, but it ain’t bad. It’s a bit sweet to find I impress myself here and there, especially with emotionally impactful scenes. Nice!
And I do learn a lot with reading my old stuff. How far I’ve come. How much therapy writing has been to me over the last ten years. My, the things I did to people I found frustrating in these books! And to myself as a character. (I’m one who admits, I am always writing about some aspect of myself.) So, it isn’t wasted time. But wow, I have a lot of old stories sitting around!
Too many late nights captivated by my own prose can't be good for a person...can it? I tell you, it's hard on the eyes. Not doing a hell of a lot for my love life, either. Sigh.
But other than my own stuff? I’m just not reading. I have a list of books need to get at the e-store, even some just sitting there, unread. Part of it is trying to stay away from eating out in an effort to eat healtier. If I don’t eat out, I don’t haul out my reader during lunch. And once I’m home? Well, there’s television to watch…all those wonderful summer series. I mean Burn Notice is back on! And In Plain Sight! And Drop Dead Diva…and TeenNick is playing Buffy, the Vampire Slayer from the beginning! (I found out how to use my DVR and now I’m buried with things to watch. Curse you DVR!)
I know. What is going on with me?
But I’ll be reading more soon! The newest Jim Butcher is due out! At the end of July.
Honestly, I’m not sure why this happens! Perhaps I just don’t want to start something I’ll feel driven to put down once the next round of edits arrives? I have round two for The Chameleon Goggles coming up and the same for a short I wrote for Decadent called Something Different. (I can’t wait to see the cover for this one. It’s a contemporary short, very sweet. I was requested to write this one, so I was super flattered to be part of the One Night Stand series from Decadent!)
Plus, I did decide one of my old MS deserves an edit so I can send it to my agent. (Remember my blathering about The Alien Library? We’ll see if Saritza can sell it!) So, I’m working those from the notes my editor has sent me about the things I do that I didn’t think I did.
(We recently had an e-mail discussion about how many uses of the word was is excessive, for example. I also have an obvious fondness of the words turn, look, see – in all of their many forms. And I like to start sentences with the word and.
Oops.)
I do seem a bit fixated on looking for those things in what I read lately… Hmmmm! It’s my editor’s fault?
I’m not really reading right now. I know I should. I know that it will wake my brain up and keep me fired, with new ideas and words and… But geez, my brain is just so blank lately! Editing brain is a whole ‘nother beast compared to writer brain!
Really!
Anyone else have periods of no reading in their life?
I think it’s about being stuck between edits… I’m waiting for the next round and just holding off on reading. Save for my older MSS, sitting around on my computer. I keep thinking about… “Oh, yeah…that scene…I’d like to read that again…” And I dig it out of the archives, start reading and then find myself on a ‘reading myself’ bender.
And it’s not bad…nothing I’d shoot off to my editor without some major revisions, but it ain’t bad. It’s a bit sweet to find I impress myself here and there, especially with emotionally impactful scenes. Nice!
And I do learn a lot with reading my old stuff. How far I’ve come. How much therapy writing has been to me over the last ten years. My, the things I did to people I found frustrating in these books! And to myself as a character. (I’m one who admits, I am always writing about some aspect of myself.) So, it isn’t wasted time. But wow, I have a lot of old stories sitting around!
Too many late nights captivated by my own prose can't be good for a person...can it? I tell you, it's hard on the eyes. Not doing a hell of a lot for my love life, either. Sigh.But other than my own stuff? I’m just not reading. I have a list of books need to get at the e-store, even some just sitting there, unread. Part of it is trying to stay away from eating out in an effort to eat healtier. If I don’t eat out, I don’t haul out my reader during lunch. And once I’m home? Well, there’s television to watch…all those wonderful summer series. I mean Burn Notice is back on! And In Plain Sight! And Drop Dead Diva…and TeenNick is playing Buffy, the Vampire Slayer from the beginning! (I found out how to use my DVR and now I’m buried with things to watch. Curse you DVR!)
I know. What is going on with me?
But I’ll be reading more soon! The newest Jim Butcher is due out! At the end of July.
Honestly, I’m not sure why this happens! Perhaps I just don’t want to start something I’ll feel driven to put down once the next round of edits arrives? I have round two for The Chameleon Goggles coming up and the same for a short I wrote for Decadent called Something Different. (I can’t wait to see the cover for this one. It’s a contemporary short, very sweet. I was requested to write this one, so I was super flattered to be part of the One Night Stand series from Decadent!)
Plus, I did decide one of my old MS deserves an edit so I can send it to my agent. (Remember my blathering about The Alien Library? We’ll see if Saritza can sell it!) So, I’m working those from the notes my editor has sent me about the things I do that I didn’t think I did.
(We recently had an e-mail discussion about how many uses of the word was is excessive, for example. I also have an obvious fondness of the words turn, look, see – in all of their many forms. And I like to start sentences with the word and.
Oops.)
I do seem a bit fixated on looking for those things in what I read lately… Hmmmm! It’s my editor’s fault?
I’m not really reading right now. I know I should. I know that it will wake my brain up and keep me fired, with new ideas and words and… But geez, my brain is just so blank lately! Editing brain is a whole ‘nother beast compared to writer brain!
Really!
Anyone else have periods of no reading in their life?
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38 comments:
I definitely have periods of not reading. But they aren't replaced with anything else. Most of the time, if I'm not reading, I'm writing. I don't watch TV.
My problem is that I want to read so many books that it's overwhelming. So when I sit down to read, I have to prioritize. What book do I want to read the most? My TBR pile/ebook to buy list is gigantic. But if I want to write, I need to put it above all the other "fun" things out there.
But I let myself read now and again. I just read Smooth Talking Stranger by Lisa Kleypas.
I do need to catch up on the most recent releases in the Historical genre. Scoop out what's selling right now.
Oh, Marn. I just bought Smooth Talking Stranger. I haven't read it yet, but I don't know why I waited so long. Still, it was one of those things where I had to say--I don't have time to read all three books in that little trilogy. Can I pick up just the one, get through it, and not have it turn into a week-long reading bender? I'll give it a shot.
I don't ever not read. Sometimes I don't read as much as other times, but I usually fit reading time into my schedule every day, even if it's only that last ten minutes after crawling into bed before I realize I'm just too wiped.
I have periods when I read less than usual, depending on what else is going on in my life, but I can't remember ever going through a period when I didn't read at all. Right now I have four deadlines between July 9 and August 15, and so I'm reading less than a book a day. But once the deadlines are past, I'll make up for it. I'll probably read two or three a day for a week or so. Of course, a lifetime of reading for classes has made me a very fast reader, and I rarely watch TV. My problem is making sure I don't read when I should be writing. The temptation to do that is an ongoing struggle. Reading is so much easier.
Since I got serious about my novels I've cut way back on reading fiction, and I never read romance while working on a manuscript.
Part of the reason is that my memory is a bit flaky and I fear that I'll use some phrase or concept I've read elsewhere without realizing it came from someone else's book.
The other is that if I read something really good it will make me want to give up writing. I made the mistake last year of leafing through my old Laura Kinsales to see how she wrote her sex scenes--only to lose myself in prose so brilliantly constructed it made me wonder how I had had the temerity to call myself a romance novelist.
So now when I'm working on my own books, I read biography, history, travel and a bit of science. Some is for research--I must read 20 books for every little fact that manages to slip into my books despite my editor's vigilant efforts to keep my books from reading like historical novels. But much of what I read is completely irrelevant and just adds to the fund of useless knowledge I've spent a lifetime acquiring.
But much of what I read is completely irrelevant and just adds to the fund of useless knowledge I’ve spent a lifetime acquiring.
Hi Jenny! *waves*
I don't like to think of it of a fund of useless knowledge.... I like to see it as adding to my value as a Trivial Pursuit partner. :)
Oh, and when I answer the questions while watching Jeopardy--sometimes before the panelists--it gives me that little jolt of satisfaction.
I can rather see how you'd want to keep in the mind of your own book--and losing yourself in other writing will pull you out of your story and the loose ends you need to tie up, et al. Plus you may worry that whatever you're reading may find itself in the edits of your work, since whatever we see, read, eat, et al, tends to end up on the page anyway.
The only times I don't read is if I get burnt out on my normal genres. Like I'll go through periods where I flat out won't read historical romances because I get pissed off within 15 pages of the start. So I end up watching TV or sulking, or perhaps rereading books I've read before. Now to get around that, I tend to vary my selection from the library. *LOL* I have a literary book, a historical book, a couple historical romances, a contemporary romance, a cookbook, a writing book, and something else altogether. (No mystery, no sci-fi, sorry.)
I don't read as much either. Most of the things I read now are "work-related", for the Heroes and Heartbreakers blog posts (working on 4 of them right now!)
And I'm like Jenny--I am afraid I'll inadvertently pick up something while reading, so I tend to read things I don't write, which is romantic suspense. LOL I really like it, but I may be running out of stories to read.
Which reminds me -- I've got some library books to return today before my tweetup. . .
Marn - It's been years since I've been on such a reading drought. Last time it really bothered me until I figured out I wasn't reading because my eyes were bothering me. Got new glasses and viola! I wanted to read again.
Not the case this time! I'm just not that interested in reading what is out there!
Bugs me...I know there is good stuff but can't work up any enthusiasm to start anything.
JK - Could be why I'm not reading...the fear of committment. I don't want to start something that will just overwhelm me? I can't recall the last time...no, wait...I can! I got lost in Simon R. Green's Nightside series last year at sometime. Read nine books before I hit the proverbial have-to-wait-for-him-to-write-more issue.
I mean, usually, I just pick up a cozy mystery and read...I have books sitting around from RT I haven't tackled yet!
Maybe I need a reading intervention...
Janga - Makes sense. Maybe the reason I'm reading my older MSS only is because they are easy. I know what is going on and don't have to think a whole lot?
Maybe it's a thinking thing and not just a reading thing?
I know I'm trying to move more and reading isn't really a moving thing... Though TV watching isn't exactly an aerobic activity...
Maybe I should do what Scape does and try out some audio books...
Jenny - Wow, that is a lot of research reading. My research reading consists of short dashes into Wikipedia and scanning through indexes.
I'm not what you'd call an historically accurate writer.
Shut up, crew!
I do know what you mean. I went through a phase where I would buy authors I loved and then let the books sit... I was scared of them. Scared they'd intimidate me or fill me with envy. And that is a possibility! Which is why I normally read cozy mysteries, which I don't write...to avoid that tinging my life with green phase...
But that isn't it...I don't think. Food for thought, though! Maybe it is!
Marn - Ah, yes! That spice cabinet full of stuff I never cook with! I used to be good with trivial pursuit and Jeopardy...then my memory turned to mush. (I blame hormones.) And now I'm sit, knowing I used to know that!
Hel - Yer being kind this morning! I'm working on not muddying me head and keeping into my own worlds... I like that!
I'm not sure that is the key, but I like it anyway!
See, mysterey is usually my go-to genre. Silly mystery, generally. I even know of a few out there I'd normally just stack on the counter and read in an afternoon...but nope. Just can't work up the energy to start them...
Sigh.
Donna - At least you're reading tweets...
And I generally don't read what I write, at all. It's rare that I dive into paranormal or scifi... I read so much of that when younger I think my well is still full...
See, I see many of the others are worried about reading other people's work and it end up being in their own work. I mean, I guess it happened to Cassie Edwards--but I think she was reading research books...
I don't know, I think our personal filters twist whatever we're reading, and even if we do bring something similar to our books (a fun cliche, a similar character), we've given it our own twist. *shrugs* But apparently I've been wrong a lot this morning, so what's one more? *LOL*
I don't worry so much about bringing someone else's idea to my writing, but I have been hit by the envy bug so bad it shoved me into a sort of writer's block.
The first few Kim Harrison's had me bummed out for days! Just kept shaking me head and mumbling about how I could have done this if I'd gotten off my butt and written my ideas down...
That sort of thing.
An envy thing... ;-)
And yer never wrong! Just maybe not right for the particular time?
I do go through periods when I really don't want to read anything. It's usually when I feel overloaded with books waiting to be reviewed for my blog.
I find that the only thing that works for me then is either reading an old favorite, switching to a new genre, or reading a novella.
In fact, I hadn't read a book in over a week - GASP - which is hella long time for me and then decided to read Unlocked by Courtney Milan. Short and full of goodness. Totally "unlocked" my reading slump.
Hellie was wrong. This once.
:)
I'm not reading much either. Though I did finish reading something last weekend. First book I'd read in at least a month or more. I have so many TBR books in my house and on my eReader it's criminal. Embarrasing even.
I dont' worry about things slipping into my work, but I have experienced that envy thing. That turns to exactly what Jenny says, me questioning where the heck I get the nerve to think I can do this.
But I'm opposite of everyone else in that I can't read out of my genre when I'm writing. Okay, I don't read paras ever and RS would work, but I can't read Historicals. If I do, my characters suddenly start sounding as if they're all auditioning for a role in a Jane Austen book.
I can't even wrap my head around Janga's comment. I can barely read a book in a month and she's reading three a day.
Scape - I have been leaning toward shorter stuff. Maybe it's the "not feeling overwhelmed" thing Chance mentions. Quick fixes that at least keep my head in the words.
Lately I'm trying to write more, which requires pulling myself away from the TV. I do the JK trick of reading those last 15 mins before falling out at night, but that's it. (Which explains why it takes me a month.)
Scape - I could really see where feeling a bit overwhelmed by the need-to-read-for-the-blog could stifle the impulse to read for just fun. Would make me want to just run away.
At NASCAR last weekend, my sis asked if I was feeling okay, as I was a bit subdued...and it occured me...as a writer, it's really difficult to leave the day job behind. It follows me...laptop in the car, reminding me of stories untold and plots left tangled... Turns it into work, a bit.
Okay, Hels was wrong. Just this once!
I can see the concern of reading a historical and suddenly your fishing boat captain sounds like an English naval officer during the wars with Napoleon. Bad. Very, very bad.
I can remember going on benders and reading two, three books a day. But it's been a long time. Wait. I might have done that with the Nightside books. But they are a bit short... ;-)
Right now, I'd be happy to finish the short story I started two lunches ago!
And envy...so terribly evil. Not the feeling of it, but how it can shut me down! I don't waste time feeling bad about how I feel... ;-)
And if I start something in the last 15 minutes before I turn out the lights? The lights don't go out until I finish... Hence, I've had three 2am bedtimes this last week...reading my own stuff! Which I know how it ends!
ARGH!
I was half wrong. I agree (finally) they go in that order, but I'm not agreeing about it not being secondary. I agree it's important, but it's still secondary.
Is not!
*runs away*
I love it...agree to disagree sailors!
Let's mediate this with some rum! Get drunk enough and it don't matter!
You have NO idea how much I want that rum today. The real thing. Seriously. A 3-day weekend could not have come at a better time.
In the middle of summer is a good time for a three day weekend. And maybe I'll read on the drive to the family party on Saturday...
Time to hop in the shower... Now, I left the rum out...so have fun!
Ahhhhh! Fresh and clean with shampood hair...now, I need to buy a bathing suit. Shame to waste all the good feelings I had...but I need one.
I'll be popping in and out all day as I try to decipher the mystery of not-reading!
I'm bathingsuit shopping tonight too. Should go beautifully considering the mood I'm in.
Boy, we're having fun now, Bo'sun!
I got a swimsuit a couple weeks ago (still no swimming functions!), but it was an exercise in demoralization. I felt like I was trying to wrestle my ass into a garden hose, and looked that attractive when I got done.
Did I sound smug? I didn't mean to. If I had the work and family responsibilities that some of you have, i'd be reading a lot less. But I limit the free lance work to six hours a day unless I'm really pushing the limit on a deadline, and the grands' visits are mostly weekends, so I have more free time than most of you. And, as I said, I do read fast. I can read most Books, genre fiction at least, in a couple of hours. I read more slowly if I'm reviewing the book or if I need to analyze it for some reason.
I'm with Hellie on the reading filter. Sometimes I consciously study how particular writers accomplish certain things, and I'm as vulnerable to the debilitating envy attacks as anyone. But I'm confident enough of my own voice and style that I don't worry about unconscious plagiarism--confident that they are mine, that is, not confident of their worth . I have many insecurities about their value.
Well, I have a suit. It isn't fab, but it isn't bad. Black and white... Honestly, July 1st is late in the season to find a suit!?
Janga, no you didn't sound smug at all! I remember when I read like that on a regular basis and it's wonderful when you can do that!
My sis wondered if I stayed with my own writing to keep true to my voice...it's possible... I don't consciously study how other writers write, I'm just not able to pull myself from a story enough to do that!
And now, I'm going to name this blog since I evidently didn't when I posted... LOL!
Bathing suits?! Eeek. I didn't know we had to have bathing suits.
*jumps overboard*
The thought of shopping for a bathing suit makes these revisions seem easy by comparison. LOL
Well, my brother is very open-minded, but skinny dipping with the entire family is a bit beyond him. And me.
And my one piece is such a pain to manage when wet and needing to use the little girl's room...so I decided to find a new one.
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