Yes always to boundaries! Also, not finishing that new popular book! I did finish one, and I admit I loved parts of it, but did I like it all overall? I still don't know. Another new popular book everyone else loves, but I got 100 pages in, and I thought, nope! Get back to work! Turns out I get more writing done when I read the less popular books I enjoy more. Turns out it feels good to go against the grain a little. Enjoy your working vacation!
Thanks Jami, you confirmed my instinct today when I cancelled my Sunday yoga to spend my day putting my longhand scenes into the computer. So far, so good. I hope your week brings you joy!
With my most recent novel, I told my team that I didn't want to see any reviews, even good ones, because of how much they had gotten in my head in the past, and it helped so much not to have to deal with that. Good luck with the new one!
I really appreciated two things you said in this post, in particular: one is about reviews and how they affect the creative process, the other is about what we choose to read and how that affects it as well. Basically, both are other people's words, and we're trying to find our own here, aren't we? That doesn't mean shutting out the world but just choosing carefully during the incubation times, being super discriminating. I often read poetry before I sit down to write, because it has some kind of different energy that doesn't tend to sap my own imaginative process. And if I read fiction to get unstuck, it's curated. I am not sure I ever need disturbing literature, even if everyone else is raving about it, during my writing--I am already disturbed enough by the story in my head, perhaps? (Disturbed as is set off balance or shaken up or made angry or vengeful. Got enough of that in the characters, usually.) So thanks for that reminder. As to reviews, I'm cultivating my *own* opinion, searching for my own truth, when I'm deep in the writing. So tempting, though, when there's a book out there and still alive in the media. My latest was a finalist in a good contest and didn't win, and I couldn't help but read about it and notice the small dip in spirits after--which affects the writing. Enjoy your time on the shore and may Leo enjoy his pontoon ride as well!
Yes always to boundaries! Also, not finishing that new popular book! I did finish one, and I admit I loved parts of it, but did I like it all overall? I still don't know. Another new popular book everyone else loves, but I got 100 pages in, and I thought, nope! Get back to work! Turns out I get more writing done when I read the less popular books I enjoy more. Turns out it feels good to go against the grain a little. Enjoy your working vacation!
I feel like I know exactly which books you're talking about and I agree completely.
Thanks Jami, you confirmed my instinct today when I cancelled my Sunday yoga to spend my day putting my longhand scenes into the computer. So far, so good. I hope your week brings you joy!
With my most recent novel, I told my team that I didn't want to see any reviews, even good ones, because of how much they had gotten in my head in the past, and it helped so much not to have to deal with that. Good luck with the new one!
I really appreciated two things you said in this post, in particular: one is about reviews and how they affect the creative process, the other is about what we choose to read and how that affects it as well. Basically, both are other people's words, and we're trying to find our own here, aren't we? That doesn't mean shutting out the world but just choosing carefully during the incubation times, being super discriminating. I often read poetry before I sit down to write, because it has some kind of different energy that doesn't tend to sap my own imaginative process. And if I read fiction to get unstuck, it's curated. I am not sure I ever need disturbing literature, even if everyone else is raving about it, during my writing--I am already disturbed enough by the story in my head, perhaps? (Disturbed as is set off balance or shaken up or made angry or vengeful. Got enough of that in the characters, usually.) So thanks for that reminder. As to reviews, I'm cultivating my *own* opinion, searching for my own truth, when I'm deep in the writing. So tempting, though, when there's a book out there and still alive in the media. My latest was a finalist in a good contest and didn't win, and I couldn't help but read about it and notice the small dip in spirits after--which affects the writing. Enjoy your time on the shore and may Leo enjoy his pontoon ride as well!