Not reading during your WIP?

sassandgroove · Jul 21, 2009

maestrowork said:
I will, but I have a TBR list a mile long and right now I'm not reading anything since I'm working on my WIP.

I think 2012 sounds like a good year to start reading again...

Ok Ray said this in a Harry Potter thread and since it is off topic I am starting a new one.

I want to ask a question to Ray and anyone else like him.

HOw can you- as a writer- not read while you are working on a project?

I get inspired, jazzed, excited by good books and they make me want to write more and try harder.

For example, I decided to listen to "Shopgirl" by Steve Martin on audio book (I like to get those for my drive to work.) the other day, and in the first 20 minutes, I knew what wasn't working in my current project and got all jazzed to reboot it and I've been working on it again and I like it a lot better now and feel I can move forward with it now. I also netflixed (and may buy) the movie and bougt the book which I am now reading.

Back several years ago when I was in a dry spell, I read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and after I finished I read the introduction (i know) and was so jazzed I danced around my apartment and couldn't sleep so I got out a pad and started writing again.

So how and/or why do you not read while you are working on a project. I just don't get it.

backslashbaby · Jul 21, 2009

I can't read, say, satire, while I'm writing satire. I pick up too much of the voice. I can read dissimilar things, and it does help spark my creativity.

KTC · Jul 21, 2009

I read every single day. I don't see writing and reading as relating in any way...in this respect. I know I grow as a writer by reading...but I separate what I'm writing from what I reading without a problem. Not a day goes by that I am not reading. Not a day goes by that I am not writing.

ShebaJones · Jul 21, 2009

As a newb still trying to find my own voice, I have a hard time reading someone else's distinctive voice while I'm writing. Whatever I write after reading will come out flavored by the other author.

I hope it'll be different when I'm more practiced.

Gatita · Jul 21, 2009

I have a hard time reading similar works while I'm writing because I get distracted.

Good books inspire me and then I want to try everything they're doing with structure, POV, etc. aggghhhh!!!

So I watch movies during the intense writing times.

I do write every day for my job, but that's different.

Kathleen42 · Jul 21, 2009

I've never not read while writing. I don't read quite as much when I'm writing but that's just because of the time factor.

Occasionally, though, reading something really great in the genre that I'm working in will result in lots of second guessing,

ChaosTitan · Jul 21, 2009

Since I always have a WIP going in some form or another, I'd never pick up another novel again if I didn't read while writing. I try hard to fit in at least one book a week, sometimes two in a good week. And yes, I read heavily in the same genre in which I write.

As writers, we all work a little differently. However, for me, books and words are my lifeblood as a writer. They're my writer's food. If I'm not eating, how can I expect to produce words of my own?

thethinker42 · Jul 21, 2009

If I'm knee deep in a WIP (which I usually am), I admittedly don't read as much as I'd like. It's not any kind of preference or "rule"...if anything, my eyes are just too damned tired. I've been trying to read more lately...need to get the library on base, since the bookstore sucks.

But it's mostly just a fatigue thing.

Claudia Gray · Jul 21, 2009

I read, but I make it a point to read things outside the genre I'm working in. While I'm knee-deep into writing a YA novel, I read more nonfiction, or stick to thrillers, Agatha Christie, etc. -- things very unlike my work. Then, when I'm taking a break between books and/or working on a concept for an adult book, I catch up on my YA. This gives me the necessary distance to focus on my own work and avoid "style bleed", but means I never have to stop reading.

AuburnAssassin · Jul 21, 2009

I have to read, if only to take a break from myself.

blacbird · Jul 21, 2009

If you're deeply engaged in a particular genre of writing, I can seen not reading stuff related to that genre while you're writing. I can also see why you might want to read the schidt out of stuff in that genre.

But I'd wholeheartedly recommend reading stuff unrelated to the genre you're writing in. I can't imagine a benefit to be obtained by taking a sabbatical from reading.

caw

Exir · Jul 21, 2009

A lot of my inspiration comes from stories where I imagined one outcome, and the actual outcome was quite different.

If I thought my original imagined ending was better, I go from there. Of course, after messing around with the idea, the finished product has very few similarities with the inspiration. (For example, my WIP of two and a half years is inspired by a novel set in WWII. My WIP is a contemporary story set in China, and has nothing to do with the WWII novel plotwise. The only thing they share is a quirky secondary character -- which I have now decided to cut.)

Maiah · Jul 21, 2009

I have a tendency to be influenced by the style of the book I'm reading while I'm writing my own story. I suppose I'm just the impressionable type.

Shadow_Ferret · Jul 21, 2009

blacbird said:
I can't imagine a benefit to be obtained by taking a sabbatical from reading.

caw

QFT.

I read slow. I write slow. If I avoided either while doing the other, I'd never accomplish anything.

Topaz044 · Jul 21, 2009

For me I think it's the same idea as working in a fast food restaurant and not wanting to eat fast food.

icerose · Jul 21, 2009

I tend to not read as much, simply because what free time I have goes into my writing, especially when I'm hot to trot over something I'm writing. However, I try to read a few books each and every month, sometimes I'm better than other times. But not reading? That's like sentencing myself to a black hole.

trocadero · Jul 21, 2009

I've dedicated this week to writing, so I'm not indulging in the kind of reading I usually do since I'm a binge reader by nature. I'm that kind of writer too, I guess, and chocolate eater, now I think of it. What I do have is a pile of books by the loo (don't tell anyone) and my bedside, and I like to pick them up and have a quick snack by reading random pages. I've already read them all, but I like to do a quick compare with that author's voice, or characters, or whatever sticks out in that piece, and mine. I've currently got John Green, JK Rowling and Margaret Atwood in the pile. We're reading Book 7 of HP together as a family at night, too.

Namatu · Jul 22, 2009

The only problem I run into when I'm writing is that if I find myself also reading a good book, I feel compelled to finish the book first. Otherwise I'll be too distracted to write.

That's what I tell myself. It's a good procrastination technique. When I really don't want to allow myself even a vague possibility of an excuse, I won't start a new book.

CaroGirl · Jul 22, 2009

I have different places and times of day for writing and reading. They're totally separate activities for me, yet reading a great book can influence (I hope positively) my writing. I read on the bus and at night in bed. I write in the mornings (at weekends) and in the evenings, and always in my office at the computer. Though one can influence the other, neither interferes with the other. I could never stop reading.

Phaeal · Jul 22, 2009

Nah, I read constantly, since I've taught myself to read and walk at the same time. So whenever I'm ambulatory, I'm reading. I can also read while hanging out in the kitchen watching the pots. And then there's the good old bathroom. Gotta keep a library in there, right?

I don't read during my writing hours. Except for my own writing, of course.

Reading inspires rather than inhibits me, so I see no reason to avoid it.

scarletpeaches · Jul 22, 2009

sassandgroove said:
HOw can you- as a writer- not read while you are working on a project?

So how and/or why do you not read while you are working on a project. I just don't get it.

Because I'm too busy writing.

scarletpeaches · Jul 22, 2009

blacbird said:
If you're deeply engaged in a particular genre of writing, I can seen not reading stuff related to that genre while you're writing. I can also see why you might want to read the schidt out of stuff in that genre.

But I'd wholeheartedly recommend reading stuff unrelated to the genre you're writing in. I can't imagine a benefit to be obtained by taking a sabbatical from reading.

caw

For me it's not a sabbatical. That suggests deliberation. It's something that happens naturally.

At the moment my brain is occupied by my male MC and I haven't finished a book in FOUR WEEKS.

There. I said it out loud. It embarrasses me, but these past few months I've never been as productive writing-wise, so there's a pay off. I'm getting so much more written these days.

lucidzfl · Jul 22, 2009

I am with scarlet. I just do not have a lot of spare time. (Not that you'd know it.)

When I do get spare time, and I have a choice between reading or writing, I write.

I wish that wasn't the case but it is.

scarletpeaches · Jul 22, 2009

I lose the thread easily if I take a break from my novel, so I give it every spare moment I have.

I read on the bus, in waiting rooms and so on, but not with the hours-long dedication I used to.

Next year, that will change. This has been a writing year. I want next year to have a more respectable 'read' list.

Mr Flibble · Jul 22, 2009

If I didn't read when I had a WIP on the go, I'd never read. That wouldn't be good.

That said I don't whizz through the books like I used to, simply because I don't have time ( and also cos I review them now so I have to think about things rather than just read)

Good job I ~~can't~~don't write in the bath really. I did try once ( and I do scribble the odd note occasionally) but the paper gets all soggy. Now bathtime is reading time.

Not reading during your WIP?

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