Books: readers vs readers/writers

I’ve had some interesting chats to a couple of people lately about books – the books we love, the books we can reread without getting halfway through and putting them down again, books that we outgrew – and I started wondering if there was a difference between people who write, and people who don’t.

When I first read a book I’m happy to let myself enjoy it, throw myself in and make a few allowances along the way should I need to for the story. But lately I’ve been finding that books I thought I loved, thought were amazing, aren’t really all that flash on second reading. Now, I don’t normally re-read books (perhaps this is why? I like to keep the idea of wonderful writing alive in my head?), but I have been making a point of flicking through some of my old favourites to see who has stood the test of time.

As a writer, I think I read in a different way now (slightly, anyway), even from a few years ago. If a book is badly written or is ridiculous (in a bad way) then chances are very high I’m not going to spend time on it – unless of course I’m trying to get to the bottom of why it’s so damn popular. But if it’s a reasonably well written and the story is engaging I’ll finish it. I don’t have the highest standards, but I’ve been putting down a lot more books lately than I used to.

There are a few novels that have fallen out of grace simply because as an older reader, a more experienced person, I crave slightly more intricate story lines. As a writer who is working on her craft, I’m more likely to notice clumsy word choices, head hopping and other things which detract from a story.

Do you find this? Do you have non writer friends who can re-read novels constantly and never get sick of them or pick up on the faults? I do, and I scratch my head sometimes wondering how they can do it over and over again. It might not be a difference between readers and reader/writers at all, it might just be the kind of person I am, but so much is lost from a novel when I read it a second or third time – or at least, the ones I have tried anyway, I’m obviously consuming a lot of ‘read once’ novels!

I did however start reading a series again recently and am so pleased that it’s just as good this time around. The writing is still solid, the story line captivating and I’m pretty sure I’ll be working my way through the three trilogies I have.

Unless of course you want to tell me what I could read instead?

What has stood the test of time for you? Are there novels you’d recommend that writers read as wonderful examples of writing? Are there things you thought you loved but have since found lacking?

I’ve never been so happy to feel like crap

This morning I threw up into the waste disposal unit. And then I smiled.

I’d been worried since my tummy bug cleared up and I wasn’t feeling so rotten, but now it’s all on, full force, and I couldn’t be happier. The worse I feel, the better I feel, and while I know there isn’t necessarily a direct correlation between number of pregnancy symptoms and health of the baby, it’s just comforting to know that hormones are flooding my body and doing their thing.

Also, we had the scan this afternoon and I am 7 weeks along, pretty much bang on the money where I thought I was (I sat in the Dr’s office a week ago and told  her that I thought I was 6 weeks pregnant). She put my EDD at the 2nd, the scan puts it at the 6th, either way, I was right We saw the heart beating, 146, lovely number. So relieved that everything looks good at the moment, it’s solidified everything for me and I feel like now I can move forward.

With the writing? Heh, I would like to think so, but my brain won’t stop making lists. I need to plaster that hole in the toilet wall, wash it all down, undercoat it, paint it. There is a lot of weeding and gardening to get done. I need to finally get around to stripping the last remnants of wallpaper in our room and get that painted too, rearrange the furniture in there for maximized winter baby occupancy (I have a layout in mind, it’s just a matter of doing it, but I guess I should put the new carpet in there as well after I’ve done the painting right? lol). Anyway, you get the idea…

Ah, new life is bliss, and that new life is inside me. Bliss.

 

Ug, maybe I can’t do it

NaNoWriMo that is. I’ve totally fallen off the wagon, writing only one day in the last week! Everything is messy here, everyone has been sick and I’m so tired, most of the weekend was spent out of the house and there just seems to be no time at all.

Or rather, when the baby sleeps, there are other demands on my time.

I do want to write, and I intend to get back into it today, but I think I’m officially declaring that ‘winning’ NaNoWriMo is no longer my intention. I’m not going to kill myself to reach the 50,000 word mark. Instead I’m just going to enjoy writing as much as I can, when I do get the chance.

And sleep when I need to.

I’ve noticed over this last week that I’ve been feeling more introverted. I’m using the net less, blogging less, checking into the various forums I’m a member of less, I’ve barely twittered in days and force myself to check in but usually end up closing tweetdeck without looking through the backlog or tweeting myself. This seems to be a natural part of the pregnancy process for me, a retraction of the ethereal threads of myself so that I can focus the energy where it really needs to be. On the baby. On Ivy. On Lauren. That’s really my world right now. Getting through each day and enjoying the children I have in the world while I grow the child in my womb.

The writing is still going to happen. Just not as quickly.

And tomorrow afternoon we get to find out when baby is due

Re-envisioning

I had a creative writing lecturer who was adamant that the second draft of a story be pretty much completely different. Revision, he said, was another way to say ‘re-envision’ which meant you pulled out the core elements of the story, twisted them up and plopped them down on the page again. In his mind, this version of the story would always be better.

While I don’t agree that this is always the case, I did learn that it’s a good to let some things not make it to the second draft, that you sometimes need to tackle things from a different angle and see where they take you. You don’t have to keep all the elements you began with in order to make a story better. Some things are simply not meant to be in that particular story, or your story might be better suited to some drastic changes.

I’m making changes.

I didn’t write yesterday, I ended up falling asleep with Lauren in the afternoon and when I woke up because the dog was whining to get inside, she woke up too and wouldn’t go to sleep unless I held her. So I did. Last night I was just too tired, tiredness pervades me right now. As it will for the next few weeks no doubt!

The upshot of falling asleep at 8.30pm is that there is more time for dreaming, and last night I had a really intriguing one. It highlighted for me all the things that were missing in my novel and when I woke up this morning I felt like I had a fresh new perspective on it. I may not even be halfway through the novel, but this newer, sleeker vision I have for it is more fun, and most importantly – more entertaining. I felt like the book was missing something but I couldn’t put my finger on it, well, now I know and I’m looking forward to getting into it again. Goodness knows I have a lot of catching up to do!

I’d love to go back and make changes, but for now I’ll have to settle for this re-envisioning of the way forward, and if I end up having time, I can go back and find the places where things need to be added.

In other news: I have a dating scan booked for Tuesday afternoon and am looking forward to finding out how far along I actually am. Lauren and I both have colds, Hubby is feeling a little under the weather too and Ivy has birthday parties to go to both days this weekend! That girls end of year social calendar is looking pretty full, she has way more of a social life than we do!

I can still do this

So, I’ve had three days off writing… I just have not been in the right place to get anything done and when I tried last night all I wanted to do was sleep! Yesterday afternoon when I normally would have written I slept, because I was up most of the night with a sick baby.

I’m way behind where I should be with NaNo, but the story has been the furthest thing from my thoughts which are naturally consumed with baby stuff and all the things that need doing between now and then.

Today though, I need to get back in the game. I need to put my head down and get back into the story, three days away is far too much, and I’m going to have to write 2k a day every day for the rest of the month in order to make it. I had hoped that nothing big would come up until later on, but I knew November would throw me a curve ball – it always does!

Ops I did it again…

Well, for those of you who haven’t heard it before now – I’m having another baby!

Totally out of the blue, unplanned, accidental, was totally not expecting it, but I’m very happy and hubby is slowly getting over the shock of it.

I did suspect something was up when I went off coffee, but… well, there are so many reasons why I shouldn’t have been able to get pregnant, none of them really matter though because I AM.

Took a test yesterday, saw the Dr today… see my midwife again for the first visit in a month. Man, how surreal is that?

I guess I’m still in shock too. I had wanted to wait til Lauren was 2 before trying for another, and hubby was pretty adamant there wasn’t going to be another. 2 under 2? eek.

My writing is bound to take a bit of a hit as well… I think the first trimester I was pretty ill and exhausted and did very little, but bounced back after that. I will have to try and make the most of the time I have left because I have a feeling that my hands are going to be very full for the next couple of years!

Wow, just wow… another baby. So exciting!

All the entries are in

for the searchterm challenge, you should definitely go here and vote! Well, read the stories first of course, there are some good ones!

Merrilee won last time and hopes to retain her crown this round, but we’ll have to wait til the 15th of the month before we find out who the winner is.

Well done to everyone who put an entry in (I did in the end, I’m sure some of you can probably guess which is mine lol but no telling!) it was a lot of fun to take part in, and I’ll be pimping the next round to see if we can get some more people involved.

Have you got any wacky searchterms showing up on your blog?

Squee!

Maybe a day off was exactly what I needed, because I wrote just over 4,500 words yesterday!

Feeling so thrilled about it as well, loving the direction Chasing Ascension is taking and I managed to write a first draft for the search term challenge as well, though whether it’s actually good enough to put forward I’m not sure yet! I felt so on fire with the writing stuff yesterday that I was tempted to push on, to really make my word count rocket, but I knew that the payoff would be feeling exhausted this morning and probably not writing a thing.

It’s way better to pace yourself and go the distance than to go hard and burn yourself out. Well, in my opinion anyway, a lot of people seem to enjoy writing in fits and starts, but I’m really happy with the steady pace I’ve set. And hey, I’m tired enough on a normal day as it is, don’t want to make it any harder on myself!

Anyway, just a quick writing update, I’ve gotta have a coffee or something (apparently I can drink it again now, I just don’t crave it…) to kick start myself this morning. Am really looking forward to getting stuck into the writing later though!

P.S: absolute cuteness is Ivy reading books to Lauren. She’s been such a great big sister the last few days, really stepping up and helping me out by reading the occasional story. She finally gets that just because she can’t read the words, doesn’t mean she can’t tell a story about whats happening in the pictures! I can see her creativity blooming there as she weaves tales for Lauren, sometimes very similar to the original story, sometimes completely different. Beautiful.

A day off writing

I didn’t write a word yesterday… initially I thought that I might put something together for A.M.Harte’’s searchterm writing challenge, but no ideas are jumping up and down and my brain is pretty fried.

If you haven’t yet put an entry in, there is still time! Check out the first stories up here and here, both well worth reading.

Anyways, evidence that my brain was fried came in three parts: a) I had to spell my name three times to get it right. My own name… b) I put the garlic bread into the oven with the plastic wrap still on it (thankfully I checked it before it got too hot and managed to salvage the bread and not wreck the oven!) and c) I then tried to wash the frying pan with olive oil instead of dish washing liquid…

We won’t mention the fact that I couldn’t even follow simple instructions off the back of the curry packet, because hey, I always seem to mess up the curry and no it’s not to spite my husband who is the biggest curry lover in the house. I’ve actually grown to like them too.

Hah, I started this post three hours ago and am only now getting a chance to post it… might as well sign off. I MAY have an idea finally for the writing challenge, but we’ll see if I get the time to write it now!

Parenting stuff: sleep overs

Now… whose got kids? I really need some help sorting out the thoughts in my brain right now. Ivy has been obsessing about ’sleep over’s lately. Of course they sound fun and she probably gets the basic concept of them, but I know very well that she has a hard time even staying at Nana’s house over night – she spends most of it awake, asking what the different noises are in the house, and being worried about stuff. This is a house she goes to every week, staying with a person she sees at least once a week and adores.

So, I worry that she’s not ready for a sleep over and I’ve told her that when she gets to the point where she can have a sleep over at Nana’s without any problems, then we’ll consider letting her have a sleep over at someone else’s house. She’s not letting it drop though, all of her friends seem to be talking about sleep overs, its the buzz of the daycare or something.

My gut reaction to all of this is NO. Just no, no I do not want to think about this. But then, that stems from things that have happened to me, things that you never want your own child to have to go through and deal with. Things you just want to keep them safe from for their whole lives even if it means they miss out on stuff.

But, I don’t want her to miss out on stuff…. so my second response is that I really think she should be quite familiar with the house/family she would stay over night with, and that as a parent I would want to know the family quite well too. I’d want to know what they do, who they are, what their lifestyle is like. Is that too much? Do I get a ‘paranoid mum’ badge for that? Or is that not enough? At this stage… well, I guess I could say there are very few people I would feel safe letting her stay over with. Those include my mother, my father, the in laws, my brother and a couple of my best friends. Am I letting my personal history get in the way of her life? Or am I justified in wanting to keep my baby safe?

Anyways, give me your opinions please! At what age do you think kids should start having sleep overs? Do you think it’s important that your child has spent at least some time at the house before the sleep over? How well should you know the family they are going to be staying with? What precautions would you take?

Thanks