Do you ever get tired of not reading your own book?

Status
Not open for further replies.

toriej

Registered
Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Sometimes I just get so bored with books for different reasons, this one is too cheery, that one the dialogue is too forced. I finally realized I want to read my own work in progress. Not much seems to stand a chance in my mind. ;) Guess that isn't a good question more of a yes or no. Sorry. :)
 

Silver-Midnight

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2011
Messages
4,910
Reaction score
279
Location
rising from the depths of a cup of coffee
I don't think I'm tired of reading my own work. I kind of don't look forward to it actually. (I typically end up spotting mistakes--spelling, grammar, bad dialogue, and etc.). That's just me though. If anything, I'm more so frustrated because I feel like I should be working harder (writing more and more); this little voice in the back of my head constantly tells me I should be(or need be) getting ready to publish although I don't think I'm at that stage in my writing yet. That's just me though. :tongue
 

quicklime

all out of fucks to give
Banned
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Messages
8,967
Reaction score
2,074
Location
wisconsin
no.

If you can't find something you like, you aren't looking very far. Worse, if you can't find something you like, because none stacks up to yours, I fear you have a terminal case of rose-colored glasses.

There IS a cure.....subbing a few chapters in QLH brings one back to earth fast enough you need protective shielding to keep from incinerating on the way down....:evil


anyway, to answer your question again, "no." The Portrait of Dorian Gray made me wish I had Wilde's sharp, ironic wit. Agyar made me want Brust's subtlety. Bag Of Bones and Duma Key made me want King's grasp of slow, gothic tension. As did Rebecca.

I've found inspiration all over the map.
 

toriej

Registered
Joined
Jun 6, 2012
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
Maybe get tired of not reading it was the wrong way to say it. I wish I could read my story for the first time not knowing what will happen.
 

quicklime

all out of fucks to give
Banned
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Messages
8,967
Reaction score
2,074
Location
wisconsin
I guess I'm too analytical....never worried about reading it with virgin eyes. I never thought of tasting my food or wine from a "virgin" perspective either I guess....the analytical in me....
 

JMC2009

Your friendly neighborhood Chat Op
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
Messages
1,698
Reaction score
316
Location
Kansas
I'm not sure you're asking the question you mean to ask, which is why it's not a good one. Not to put words in you're mouth, but maybe you're wanting to ask "What, if anything, about reading others' work motivates you to work on you're own?" or possibly "Do you find yourself thinking about how you'd write the story you read?"

I try to study others' books as I read them. I'll pick up a best seller and as I read through it try and figure out why it's a best seller, and then I apply that to my own writing (if appropriate). Or, if I hear about a book that is popular, but for the wrong reasons (aka a lot of people bought it but they don't like it) I do the same thing - I try to figure out why it's not working. What I dont like is when I'm reading something I'm really not enjoying but I didn't pick it up to study. Then I annoy myself trying not to ready for the red pen. Then I want to work on my own stuff because I'm sitting there thinking, "If this can get published, surely mine can"

However, I still have those books that I really enjoy. While its hard to put them down sometimes, they also inspire me to work on my own stuff. I want to be able to provide readers with the same enjoyment that I'm getting out of reading this wonderful book.

But I have to agree with Quick Lime; I can enjoy others' stories because I know that there's many (many many many many x 1000) stories that are <u> at least </u> as good as mine and many more that are 1000 times better. If you're not finding these and reading them, you're not learning anything about your craft. If you're not finding these, either you need to really step back and take a critical look at your stuff, or you need to get some book recommendations (I believe there's a library here on AW...).

Personally, I am a chronic reader of Janet (Stephanie Plum series), Nevada Barr (Anna Pigeon series), Vince Flynn (Mitch Rapp series) and Patricia Briggs (Mercedes Thompson series)
 

Beachgirl

Not easily managed
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
3,848
Reaction score
232
Location
On a beach, of course.
Maybe get tired of not reading it was the wrong way to say it. I wish I could read my story for the first time not knowing what will happen.

That's the fun part about writing it in the first place - the surprises that hit you along the way. Once you're done with the first draft you need to switch to editing mode and realize that knowing the ending is a crucial part of editing. Without that knowledge, you would have no way to judge whether your story is moving in the correct direction. Did you leave out important information? Did you change a detail or plot point along the say and forget to go back and clean up clues or buildup?

I find that once I'm done and I walk away for a while, I can pick it back up to read and be surprised all over again.
 

JMC2009

Your friendly neighborhood Chat Op
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 16, 2010
Messages
1,698
Reaction score
316
Location
Kansas
Maybe get tired of not reading it was the wrong way to say it. I wish I could read my story for the first time not knowing what will happen.

Took me too long to type out my other reply on my phone and didn't see this -

Don't worry. Finish what you're writing, start and get a ways into a couple of new projects and the details of your first thing will be foggy enough it'll almost be like reading it for the first time. :).

Says she who has the memory of a goldfish
 

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
15,472
Reaction score
767
Location
Missouri
It makes sense that you'd want to read your WIP. Why would you write it if you didn't like the story? I read a quote (I think in someone's signature) that if there's a book you want to read but can't find, you should write that book. Maybe that's what you've done.
 

Susan Coffin

Tell it like it Is
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 24, 2007
Messages
8,049
Reaction score
770
Location
Clearlake Park, CA
Website
www.strokingthepen.com
Welcome, Torie!

I never get bored reading books. I read everything from Nathaniel Hawthorne to Stephen King, from Dean Koontz to Lillian Jackson Braun, and all the in-between books. Give me a book and I'm happy.

Sure, I don't mind reading my own work in progress, but I do it after the draft is done while I'm editing. I think every serious writer has read their work in progress many times.

However, I don't understand what you mean by this:

I finally realized I want to read my own work in progress. Not much seems to stand a chance in my mind. ;)

Do you mean this as a comparison of other books with yours, and yours is the best in your mind? Or, not as good as other books? :) I would love to hear more of where you are coming from.
 

Silver-Midnight

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 19, 2011
Messages
4,910
Reaction score
279
Location
rising from the depths of a cup of coffee
There IS a cure.....subbing a few chapters in QLH brings one back to earth fast enough you need protective shielding to keep from incinerating on the way down....:evil

:roll:

I try to study others' books as I read them. I'll pick up a best seller and as I read through it try and figure out why it's a best seller, and then I apply that to my own writing (if appropriate). Or, if I hear about a book that is popular, but for the wrong reasons (aka a lot of people bought it but they don't like it) I do the same thing - I try to figure out why it's not working. What I dont like is when I'm reading something I'm really not enjoying but I didn't pick it up to study. Then I annoy myself trying not to ready for the red pen. Then I want to work on my own stuff because I'm sitting there thinking, "If this can get published, surely mine can"

However, I still have those books that I really enjoy. While its hard to put them down sometimes, they also inspire me to work on my own stuff. I want to be able to provide readers with the same enjoyment that I'm getting out of reading this wonderful book.

This. I agree with a lot of this.


And if you need book recommendations there is a Book Club here and you also look around GoodReads. That might help you find something you like.
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
Sometimes I just get so bored with books for different reasons, this one is too cheery, that one the dialogue is too forced. I finally realized I want to read my own work in progress. Not much seems to stand a chance in my mind. ;) Guess that isn't a good question more of a yes or no. Sorry. :)
Yes, although mainly I want to read the ones I haven't planned out yet, since they are still mysterious. I do enjoy reading the things I wrote years ago though, those are the ones that are all edited to my satisfaction and they become a surprising again as I forget the details. But yeah, at the book store I get quite frustrated sometimes when I can so clearly envision a hypothetical book I want to read, but it's not there on the shelf because no one has written it yet. Makes me feel like whining, why do I have to write it? I just want to read it.
 

sunandshadow

Impractical Fantasy Animal
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
4,827
Reaction score
336
Location
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website
home.comcast.net
Do you mean this as a comparison of other books with yours, and yours is the best in your mind? Or, not as good as other books? :) I would love to hear more of where you are coming from.
Not the OP, but I'd answer this question like this: Mine aren't "the best" in some objective sense, but mine are the most relevant to me, the most finely tuned to my interests and desires and concerns.
 

gothicangel

Toughen up.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 29, 2008
Messages
7,907
Reaction score
691
Location
North of the Wall
I've abandoned the last three books I've tried reading, but that was down to getting 100-ish pages in, and the book not holding my interest enough to continue. I've never abandoned one in favour of re-reading my own work.

I take breaks between drafts because I do need to break away from the book. The WIP I'm giving a spit-n-polish to right now, I never want to see the damn thing again. Or at least I can hold it in my hands as a published book.

But isn't that why we write our books? Because we want to read something that doesn't exist on the market?
 

katci13

creative genie
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 11, 2012
Messages
1,374
Reaction score
119
Location
tennessee
I've never thought about it, but no. And I'm actually always finding things in my draft that surprise me. Then I start feeling like a genius because I did something cool and didn't even realize it! (Although I don't know why I think that's good thing.)

But even if I don't see much that surprises me, I thoroughly enjoy sitting back and reading my own work. It makes me laugh. (Again, don't know why I think that's a good thing.) But I figure if I can be this entertained and I know what happens, then someone else is sure to be entertained as well.
 

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
May 9, 2005
Messages
16,768
Reaction score
4,663
Location
Scotland
I wish you would either introduce yourself via a post in the New Members Forum or fill up your profile. :Hug2:

Maybe get tired of not reading it was the wrong way to say it. I wish I could read my story for the first time not knowing what will happen.
 

Phaeal

Whatever I did, I didn't do it.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2008
Messages
9,232
Reaction score
1,897
Location
Providence, RI
It's a good thing to write exactly the book YOU'D love to read. Unless your goal is large-scale publication, and your taste is highly esoteric. ;)

I'm blessed with a liking for many genres, so I have little problem finding other books to read. I think of this as a Darwinian advantage -- an omnivorous species has a better chance of survival than a species that can eat only the metafictional mid-life crises of semiotics professors named Claude.

:D
 

bearilou

DenturePunk writer
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
6,004
Reaction score
1,233
Location
yawping barbarically over the roofs of the world
Maybe get tired of not reading it was the wrong way to say it. I wish I could read my story for the first time not knowing what will happen.

yanno, I had a response (below) typed out and then read this response to quick.

Now, I'm not sure my comment is relevant. But I typed it out so I'm posting it, darn it.



I went through a period (of years) where nothing I found to read was interesting or engaging. I was bored. Bored bored bored. All I wanted to do was read writing/read a book that was like what I was writing. Nothing seemed to fit. Nothing was even sort of close.

So, I quit trying so hard. And quit beating myself up if I started something and then grew bored with it, putting it aside. Eventually, I hit on a 'genre'* that I just sucked up like a Hoover, grabbed everything I could put my hands on and was finally able to get back to the point I was finding stuff I was interested in reading.

...like all those books I bought and were first bored by them.

I don't know what happened. It was like this switch. So I kind of get what you're talking about, I think. Honestly, I just kept pushing forward until I was able to get over the bump.


*Warhammer tie-in books
 

Jamesaritchie

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Messages
27,863
Reaction score
2,311
I don't read my own work unless forced to do so. When I finish writing a page, I've also finished reading it. I won't read it again until I do a quick pass for types, clunky dialogue, and checking sentence structure when the thing is finished.

There are thousands of wonderful novels waiting to be read, and I won't get through a fraction of them before I die. My own writing is already in my head, I remember it well, so I have neither the need nor the desire to read any of it again unless doing so is business related.
 

Katrina S. Forest

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 24, 2009
Messages
2,053
Reaction score
280
Website
katrinasforest.com
bearilou, that was my experience almost verbatim in high school and college. My high school self 1) did not yet have a strong grasp on what books I really liked, making it hard to select my next read and 2) gave up reading a book way too quickly. If I read something I didn't like, rather than sticking with it, I passed it off as a badly-written book and moved on to the next thing.

toriej, I'm not saying force yourself through something that's driving you insane, but read widely and start off the book assuming the author has some skill. Especially if it's a book that has a lot of positive reviews. Something you think sounds like weak writing might have a very good reason for being there. For example, if a character's speech sounds forced, it might be because the character is worried about something and rather than telling you that, the author is showing you through the awkward way he/she speaks.

Audiobooks were a great help to me, too. A good narrator can really bring out the best in a book. If you look on Audible, you can see ratings for a book's narrator as well as the book itself.

Now, all that said, I'm just curious. What genre do you write?
 

ladyleeona

fluently sarcastic grandma offender
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 3, 2010
Messages
932
Reaction score
138
Location
wherever the Jose is.
I've abandoned the last three books I've tried reading, but that was down to getting 100-ish pages in, and the book not holding my interest enough to continue. I've never abandoned one in favour of re-reading my own work.

I take breaks between drafts because I do need to break away from the book. The WIP I'm giving a spit-n-polish to right now, I never want to see the damn thing again. Or at least I can hold it in my hands as a published book.

But isn't that why we write our books? Because we want to read something that doesn't exist on the market?

Bold mine.

That's definitely how I feel--I hate my damn manuscript more than anything. I'd rather read an author whose books I hate than open the file one more time.

I know its got some good stuff in it, but all I see are the faults. Love the idea, hate the execution, etc. So no, I'd much rather read somebody else's books.
 

Little Anonymous Me

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 24, 2012
Messages
5,191
Reaction score
1,184
Location
Florida
S I finally realized I want to read my own work in progress. Not much seems to stand a chance in my mind.


I suffer from a version of this, so I believe I know what you are talking about. It generally strikes me when I've been a bit lazy in the progress department. I'll try to read a book I love. It bores me. I'll try another. Same thing. Or worse, I'll start nitpicking it to shreds. This is when I know my writer brain is taking revenge against my laziness. It's sort of like...if I'm going to be lazy, I'm not going to let myself enjoy it, and I find myself being forced to work (whether I want to or not! ;))

I've found it isn't me being desperate to read my manuscript, or a raging case of narcissism...just a raging case of writing addiction that makes me twitchy and irritable. And I happen to take it out on the innocent books around me.:Shrug:

I seriously hope that made sense.:e2paperba
 

Pevsis

Registered
Joined
Jun 26, 2012
Messages
34
Reaction score
1
I'm with gothicangel. I get tired of reading my own books really fast. But there's always more books out there to read, so I'm never bored with those.
 

buz

edits all posts at least four times
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 11, 2011
Messages
5,147
Reaction score
2,040
Bold mine.

That's definitely how I feel--I hate my damn manuscript more than anything. I'd rather read an author whose books I hate than open the file one more time.

I know its got some good stuff in it, but all I see are the faults. Love the idea, hate the execution, etc. So no, I'd much rather read somebody else's books.

Me too. :D I "finished" mine about a month ago and I haven't looked at it since. Now I'm worrying that it's not actually finished and maybe I missed something. (I went over and over and over it, and I know I was sure it was done back then, but I was so sick of it--something could've gotten past me--or maybe I was too close to see that the whole thing is horrible...) Couldn't hurt to take another look, right...?

Can't make myself do it. It's still too soon.

I have way more books on my to-read list than I have time for...:D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.