Reading Routine Reinvestigated

I've been trying to juggle too many reading projects at once. I was trying to juggle fiction, nonfiction, and a writing nonfiction books. I simply can't do it. Between the OCD and ADD, I'm too afraid to even begin; when I do I bounce amongst them so much that I can't retain anything. Therefore, I have implemented a new plan. I will try to read one book at a time, and try to read it within three days. I've been googling reading speeds and how quickly I should be able to finish a book. If I read 250 words (about 1 page) per minute, then I should be able to get through a 500 page book in about 8 hours. If 1.5 minutes per page, then 12 hours, which is doable. I will read parts of one writing nonfiction book when I need a break from the fiction.

Most of the fiction I will be reading will be science fiction or techno-thriller from which I may be able to get techniques and ideas for my current WIP.

As Thomas Edison said:

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."

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Writing Begets Writing

“Writing only leads to more writing” - Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette 

A simple yet powerful quote.  The good news is that it really works. I was doing some freewriting when suddenly this “eureka” moment seized me. The writing felt like water gushing from a spring. I thought, “why not a post about how writing begets writing?”

You may be able to speed this moment along by switching up your routine, too. You could be writing a post and then you get another “ah ha” moment and the solution to your plot hole occurs. Or you feel a need for catharsis, and begin journaling. I believe you don’t have to resort to waiting for the “ah ha” moment either. Just simply “mixing it up” or employing several types of writing (essay, blog post, journaling, fiction) can inform your subconscious of the unmet needs that the other types of writing can gift you with. While you are toiling away at one piece of writing, your subconscious is also working. You may never know when that moment will come, so you have to be prepared to wrangle that thought before it slips away.

And it doesn’t matter if you think the writing sucks. Just do it. You will get better over time. But the only way is to apply the BIC principle (butt-in-chair) and start banging out or scribbling down the words. As Dennis Palumbo says in this article, “Every hour you spend writing is an hour NOT spent fretting about your writing. Every day you produce pages is a day you DIDN'T spend sitting at a coffee shop, bitching about not producing any pages.”

I’ll finalize with this quote from Sharon O’Brien, “Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn’t wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to find out what I was going to say.” - The International Thesaurus of Quotations