As I’m sure you’re aware, today’s (or tomorrow’s) date is the 30th of November. And I’m sure you’ll suspect correctly that I haven’t written one damned word of my National Novel Writing Month project.
It’s the same old excuses – been busy at work, haven’t got time, illness, stupid wedding, blah blah blah. It was just really bad timing. But on the upside I’ve written 5000 words on a procedural manual for work, other things for work and a few blog posts so it hasn’t been all bad. I spend all day writing emails, invitations, briefs, manuals, blogging, Facebooking, Twittering – I still write. But has the brevity of such formats so fried my brain that I can’t write anything long anymore? Or am I just lazy?
It’s probably a bit of both. I was never good at writing long things anyway. Plus, the idea has been swirling around in my head for years and years, and I’m starting to forget a lot of the finer details. I might need to have it surgically removed. But when should you let an idea go? This one is obviously persistent – is it worth giving it an airing, building the new wisdom and insight of the intervening years into the framework, or is it a wisp of a dream that should be finally laid to rest?
I think the crux of the problem is that I don’t read as much as I used to. Nowhere near as much. Reading and writing are like an iceberg – your 10% of writing at the top needs to come from 90% of reading under the water. The more you read, the better a writer you are. As I got out of my teens I found that fiction didn’t engage me so much anymore. I found that I was reading books that were great at the beginning and utterly underwhelming at the end. I’m not sure what genre I wanted to read (I’m still not sure). My family reads lots of thriller/crime books, which I don’t enjoy. I’ve moved to non-fiction and haven’t really looked back.
But I still love the magic of stories and storytelling. I love the idea that someone builds worlds completely in their head, and makes these imaginary people and places come to life, or uses their imagination to extrapolate on and explore real people, places and times (which ties into my love of history and mythology). Reading was a big part of my household from an early age. I could read before I learned to speak. My ancestors had a long and proud oral storytelling tradition, most of which has been lost in subsequent invasions.
I want to love fiction again. I received an e-Reader for my birthday, which is great. I’ve been working my way through the public domain classics, most of which have been extremely underwhelming (except for Sherlock Holmes – I didn’t expect it to be so brilliant!). I wonder if it’s the fact that I’m looking at it through modern eyes. I would like to read more horror and sci-fi – I’ve never experienced these genres in the written word so I would like to see how they work. Futuristic worlds and the thrill of the scare are so audio-visual to me.
So, darling readers – I’m leaving this in your capable hands. And it doesn’t have to be books – online sources are great too. Project Gutenberg, blogs, websites, anything! Any recommendations highly appreciated.
And so, to give you a better idea of what I like to read, here’s a list of 10 books I quite like. I can’t even produce a list of my top 10 favourite books ever, because there’s only a handful of books that I truly cherish. Here they are, in no particular order:
1. Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
2. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien
4. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
5. Offbeat Bride by Ariel Meadow Stallings
6. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
7. The Pythons by Monty Python
8. Zombie CSU by Jonathan Maberry
9. Stargazing by Peter Hill
10. On Writing by Stephen King
rhombusflair 
I failed on NaNoWriMo, too. This was my first failure, as it was the first year I’d ever heard of it (where have I been this whole time)? College responsibilities got too overwhelming for me to feasibly finish 1,667 words a day that weren’t written for a class assignment. So I commiserate with you. Silly novels!
As far as books go, have you ever read any Jonathan Safran Foer? I know he’s one of those “popular authors” these days but I particularly love what he does with literature. He’s written three works of fiction, and his latest, “Tree Of Codes” is a die-cut version of “Street of Crocodiles” by Bruno Schulz. I’m reading it right now, and it. Is. Incredible. It’s like a book adventure. If you have read him, I’m curious as to what you think–I like picking people’s brains about literature I enjoy, especially people with differing opinions.
I know how you feel – one of my jobs at work is to write summaries of the proceedings of our events, and today we had a five hour seminar! Doing a large amount of writing that wasn’t work related just wasn’t possible at the moment. I’ve known about NaNo for about ten years (ulp!) but I’ve never tried. This year was the first year I even thought about attempting it, and it was just that – a thought!
Thanks for the recommendation – I’ve heard a lot about his writing but never checked it out.
If you want to get swept up in a really well set up world. I recommend Frank Herbert’s Dune. Also give some of theses a go http://spontaneityreview.blogspot.com/
You’re so funny. I was reading the reply, not taking notice of the details, thinking, ‘That sounds familia- WAIT A MINUTE.’
Sure I’ll read Dune. Once you’ve finished it. Maybe for our five year wedding anniversary.
Aha, another Bryson fan! :) I “failed” NaNo too, but it was an interesting learning experience–I wrote about 125,000 words in November, and maybe 3,000 of those were actually fiction, so no novel to turn in. Decided fiction isn’t my venue–but like you, I’m glad there are other people out there to write it so I can read it! :)
I love Bryson! I went to a signing of his a few years ago, smashing guy but we talked about the weather, of all things! Total fail on my part.
Novel writing isn’t my forte, I usually write much shorter stories. I have a lot of trouble sustaining a plot for that long. This zombie story I mentioned has been in my head for so long and I wanted to try writing it, but my work just got in the way (although I’ve just been laid off so we might see about that one!).
I love escaping into someone else’s world. It’s such a fascinating thing, the skill that’s needed to convey a whole world with people and sometimes places that purely exist in someone’s head.