For the time being, I’ve put my Patreon on hiatus. I want to make big changes to it, which means starting from scratch over there.
One of the things that I’ve been doing for years on my Patreon is, every Thursday morning, writing what I called “A Peek Behind the Curtain” – which was a look at the life of a fulltime writer.
Because I was doing those peeks, I found myself not blogging. Seems as though I only have space for one blog and one newsletter per week.
So instead of writing a peek this morning, I’m over here, writing a blog post.
Now, I do not promise to write every Thursday. My goal is to just post more regularly.
For this week, well, I’ve been thinking recently about some of the advice that I’ve received over the years, both the good advice as well as the bad.
I had a pair of mentors tell me in no uncertain terms that I HAD to read in a specific manner, that is, to read through a piece completely and enjoy it as a reader. Only when I was finished could I go back, reread the piece, and interrogate the text.
Quite frankly, this was horrible advice for me. This isn’t how I read. In particular, I rarely go back and reread a text. That doesn’t bring me joy.
I didn’t know enough to discard this advice, and as a result, I stopped reading for pleasure for years.
How do I read? I do read either a section or a chapter as a reader, thoroughly enjoying the text. I’m not reading with critical voice.
However, once I finish a chunk of whatever I’m reading, then I close the book and I think about it. I think about what the writer has been doing (if they’re doing something interesting, or even something wrong). I may at that point go back and reread a part that intrigued me.
Once I’ve finished thinking about the story, I’ll open the book back up and move forward, enjoying it as a reader again. But I don’t have to get all the way through the book before I start thinking about it. No, stopping regularly to think is actually part of the process for me.
Possibly other people cannot do this. Perhaps once they start thinking about the text and taking it apart, they can’t put that aside and just enjoy what they’re reading again. I can, and quite frankly, I need to. It’s how I read as a writer.
I’m not going to go further into this now, as I still have too many thinky thoughts about it. But I will say that while I’m reading my current book, I am thinking a lot about what’s satisfying in it. With the current book, it’s by an author that I adore, and I’m finding that part of what makes this book satisfying for me is the author’s style of writing. I don’t think that a reader who’s new to this author would find this book as satisfying as I do. But more on that later.
I’m going to leave you with a couple of things.
One, for the writers out there, go read this post on creating more demand for your books by Becca Syme.
The other—are you reading for pleasure? If so, how do you read? Are there any particular nuances to your reading style? Tell me about them!