Today, I’m proud to present guest blogger, Julie Anne Lindsey. Julie Anne Lindsey is a Midwestern wife, a homeschooling mother of 3, and an all around caffeine addict. She’s also an unpublished author blogging her journey to publication at Musings from the Slush Pile, where she shares writing tips, author interviews, personal experience, and opening chapters from her works. Welcome Julie.
Reading is Like Eating Chocolate and Losing Weight
Writing is a “Binge/Purge Situation.” Some of you may prefer the feast/famine expression, but either will work.
As people with lives outside of writing, we’re limited on the time needed to pursue our dream of publication. For this reason, writing becomes a push (it aside) and pull (it back in front of you) part of life.
When you do have time, what do you attend to first? Aspiring writers do so much more than just write. We plot and scheme, then write and edit. We offer pages up to betas (dedicated readers) and make changes. We offer to beta for others. We read countless agent and editor blogs, books on writing, and take courses to learn and hone our craft.
Writers are blogging and jumping feet-first into social media, hoping to establish a web-presence. Some of us even do our share of guest blogs. We want to meet other writers, unite and network. It takes a real time commitment to stay on top of such an ever-changing industry.
There’s almost no time left to read or write. We have to prioritize the time in between our real lives.
So, how is the time best spent when we have so little of it? I find that the first thing I drop is reading. In fact reading is my biggest binge/purge situation. I will devour a novel a day for weeks on end and then, nothing for two or three months. I try to write every day, but there isn’t always time left over to read.
Reading is more important to writers than some realize. I was guilty of that train of thought for a long time. I’ve always read because I love words, but I didn’t consider how it affected my writing, or what my work would be like without it until my betas began comparing my prose to some of my favorite authors.
Reading is research and refinement and inspiration. It makes sense that we pick up our favorite phrases, new words, or mimic voices that speak to us. I’m inspired by reading. I know exactly what I love and why I love it, then I apply those concepts to my work and it shows.
Additionally, if you’re not reading in your genre then you can’t know what’s selling. You’re missing an incredible opportunity to learn. Those books have sturdy hard covers at the library for a reason. An editor bought them. Something inside was “right.”
So, if you’re like me and are in the famine part of your reading cycle, take a minute to look at the new releases getting all the buzz then go pick them up. Enjoy the ride then take a little something you can use with you.
To a writer, reading is the equivalent of eating chocolate to lose weight. Where else can you get such enjoyment and self improvement all in one?
Thanks Julie. I love how you compare reading to eating chocolate and losing weight.
No reading famine here.
I know what you mean not having a lot of time to read. Also when writing it carries you to another realm and you love it so much there, you don't eat. Its like a diet, and it helps you to get thin. Theirs gotta be something good about that.
Oh how true is that! You are absolutely right of course, for all those reasons you cite, reading is frequently knocked from the bottom of my priority list too. I'm inspired to read tonight though. I just have to submit a short story to a competition and then…
Hi Dorothy! Hi Jackie! Thanks for your comments! I've read seven books since the first and on Sunday I finally returned to writing. I have so many things going around in my mind, I should be good for a while LOL!
*WAVING* Hello! Well I read a ton…but then I don't write so I guess that's why I read so much lol. However, reading still gets knocked to the bottom of my list most days. By the time the evening gets around Im to tired to do much of anything sometimes. Even reading is hard when you're exhausted.
Nikki! You should write what you read! Hubs would appreciate the research and I've had a glimpse at your work. You could do some damage if you set your mind to writing!
Yes, reading is a very important part of a blogger's or writer's life. But as you say, 'where's the time?'
For me, saving time to devote to reading, got a shot in the arm when Santa brought me a "Nook" reader.
Now, all I have to do is to schedule in the time (between writing assignments) to learn how to use my new "Nook" and eventually get a book downloaded!
The 'time squeeze' never ceases, but none-the-less, once bitten by the writing bug, we do continue to write. bernadine
LOL Ahhhh the Nook… I've been on the fence over those for ages. I'm such a reading addict, I may never write again with all those books at my fingertips!