Reading as Research

Listening to: The Starting Line, "Direction"

First off, thanks to everyone for the big congrats and everything. It's been a heck of a week...still looking around myself in pure amazement from time to time.

So I just finished, around 2:30 a.m., Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments Series. I finished Book II on the way to the in-laws on Wednesday, and Thursday morning I made The Husband take me to a bookstore to get Book III.

Okay, I was gonna be laying by the pool all day, I needed something to read. Never mind that my mother-in-law has like a living room full of books.

Plus, you know, I could potentially be writing sequels/a trilogy/more than one book in a world before I'm forced to move on to another world and other characters, sometime in the near future. So it's RESEARCH.

You know what I love about writing? Aside from, you know, everything. I love that reading is research. And NO, that's not just a cop-out to get my husband to leave me alone when I'm reading or make him go get me the next book in a series when I'm hooked. It really is. I almost always "read like a writer", as the creative writing profs put it in college--with an eye toward characterization, plotting, dialogue, description, symbolism, etc. Even as I'm following the story and getting caught up in the plot, a part of my brain is working to notice other things. It's not really something I can control anymore--the writer part of my brain kind of took everything else over a few years ago.

Every so often I mourn this habit, as I love nothing more than getting so sucked into a book that I forget everything else around me. You know, when someone interrupts your reading, and it's like waking up from an incredible dream--you have to re-orient yourself to your surroundings, figure out what time of day it is, and probably throw something at the person who interrupted you? But if a book is really good, like crazy good, it can still happen.

Mortal Instruments did that to me several times, which is why I re-read the first one--I wanted to read it with an eye toward style and plotting and all that technical stuff. The first time, I just got sucked in, occasionally stepping out to wonder how, exactly, she'd done it. Since I want to do that with storytelling, I have to figure it out, y'know?

It's still the most incredible thing to me, that this thing I've done since I was tiny, this thing I've never been able to help doing, could be a part of my job. I always hated it when I was little or in my teens, and I'd be reading, and my parents would force me to get my nose out of the book and socialize or do chores.*

MWA HA HA! I say to them now. Just TRY and stop me from reading. I have the world's best excuse now. "But I'm working!"

And speaking of which, since I spent yesterday at the in-laws, reading and getting a tan...it's time to get back to work. The actual writing work, not the reading work. I can only use the "But it' work!" excuse for so long, you know.


*My parents have multiple pictures of me reading on vacations, on holidays, etc. They'd turn the camera toward me and be like, "Oh, and here's a picture of Kristy doing what she always does, but in a different place/on Christmas Eve!"

Reading Like a Writer

There was a discussion about this on a writers' board I frequent, and I was discussing it with a friend recently, too, so it got me thinking about my reading style.

Writing, it seems, is one of those things that follows you everywhere you go. My writer-brain is always on, picking up interesting bits of conversation around me and turning them into stories, trying to find the perfect words to describe that sunset. And if I'm waist-deep in a new novel, like I am now, then it's even worse. Sometimes I can't shut it off at night, no matter how hard I try. My brain keeps trying to work out that plot point, I think of something I wrote that day and how it can be improved, or those characters keep talking in my head.

No, I'm not crazy. I'm a writer.

The writer-brain, especially lately, continues whirring along when I read. Even if I'm sucked into a novel, even if it's a my-God-this-is-so-good-I-want-to-superglue-it-to-my-hands novel, the writer-brain won't quit. I find that part of my brain noting the structure--pacing, POV, etc.--and drooling over great similes and fantastic description.

Does this bother me?

Not really. I kind of enjoy it, actually. First of all, it makes me feel like I'm working even when I'm not. I can read for pleasure all day, and when I close the book I feel like I've accomplished something.

Second of all, it makes me feel smart. I might not actually be smart, and I'm sure there are many things my writer-brain is still missing, but I feel more intelligent if I'm picking things up as I read. I probably didn't start reading like this until midway through college. Before that, when people would point out some aspect of a novel or short story, I would feel stupid that I hadn't noticed it. And somehow, my brain trained itself to start noticing without any serious effort on my part.

The friend I was talking to about this last week said he hoped he never got that way. "I never want to be unable to read for pleasure," he said. "The very idea terrifies me." And that's all well and good, and sure, there's a part of me that misses being able to get sucked so far into a book that I don't notice how the writer is doing it.

But for the most part, it makes the reading more pleasurable for me. I feel like I'm getting entertainment and education at the same time, and damn, that's nice. Even crappy books that I want to throw against the wall, I feel good about because I noticed what made it crappy, instead of having some vague idea that it was bad but being unable to articulate it.

All in all, it's a "to each his own" kind of thing.

And now I suppose I should do that other writerly thing and actually, you know...write.

Doing the Happy Dance!

Just got Pretties and Specials from the nice mail-lady. Ever since I finished Uglies two weeks ago, I've barely been able to contain myself. If you write YA--or even if you just enjoy a ripping good read-- and you haven't read these books, well...FOR GOD'S SAKE, WHY?! Get thee to a bookstore!

Now, the only downside here is that I just started critting a story for my new CP--we're trying each other out. I'm only about halfway done with it, and I cannot start reading Pretties until I finish. Cannot. Will not.

But...it's so tempting...right there next to me on the table...calling my name...beckoning to me..."Read me, Kristy...you know you want to...."

No! I will not! Besides, we're driving down to Virginia this week, and I need to save at least some reading material for the ride.

*whispers forlornly*: So pretty...have waited so long...just a few pages, while I take a break from critting....

Yes. I do have a problem. And no, I don't need help.

Back to work.