Memorable quote:
“Sometimes it can be destructive to read while you’re trying to write.”
I hate how true this is. I hate it because I love reading. I mean I love reading. I get snippy if I go periods of time without reading. (And by “periods of time” I mean a week…maybe.) It’s one of the easiest ways to let my mind soar and it’s my favorite pastime and I get bored if I don’t.
But during the camps this year I barely read. I remember in April, I would use the book I was reading as a ‘reward’ for hitting my daily goal. I didn’t intend to use it this way, but I was having this super hard time finding motivation to write, so I picked out one of my favorite books and told myself if I hit my word count goal, I could stop writing and start reading. And I used that method for the three days I was reading that book. I tried to continue it, but Nano is intensive and reading would be sporadic when I was writing.
The destructive part comes when I’m so engrossed in the book, I don’t want to write. Period. Or I’ll get sucked in by an author’s voice that my writing will switch gears suddenly and things change up to almost mimic what I’ve been reading. While this is the first draft and those issues will be edited out and smoothed over, it’s still frustrating to look back and see that I went way off into left field because what I was reading was nothing like what I was writing, so things got jumbled.
I have to be more intent with the books I decide to read while writing. I can’t not read, that doesn’t work for me. But I can cull my available books to better help me focus toward what I want to write. It’s definitely something to revisit when I start writing again.
Photo by Paul Schafer on Unsplash.
Nikki Bradley 