OMG Reading!!
I know who is going to kick me for this post but here goes, nonetheless.
I forgot how much I love reading. How did that happen?
See, there's two kinds of reading, especially at LSS. There's the browsing to make sure you don't miss anything good (this is most of the reading) and then there's the immersion into a story that takes your breath away and inspires you to think or feel or emote (this is most of the reading I miss out on doing).
I'd say most of the latter kind of reading I've been doing of late is with works I am going to publish this year. And that's great - you should love the work you print and you should love them because you will read them each, oh like, 8 times in the next month. But if that's all you read, you have no context within which your publishing sits. And ... you miss out on reading good stuff. For fun. And for inspiration.
Yesterday my brain was not fit for finescale thinking. That's what I call the brain power required for balancing finances, proof reading, figuring out the kind of rewrites a story needs, problem solving - critical thinking at a magnified power. I couldn't even sew; I switched to knitting socks instead. So I read. And I read a lot at the former kind - lots and lots of average stuff that I skimmed just to check I didn't need to allocate time to read in depth. Good notching up numbers in the LSS spreadsheet kinda reading.
But then, I made a point of reading a few stories that I knew needed brainspace and time allocated to them for immersion and engagement. I put the laptop away and I read a few short stories from an actual print copy, for fun, before bedtime.
And I LOVED it! I need to remember to do that regularly. It's fun! How did I forget this?
I forgot how much I love reading. How did that happen?
See, there's two kinds of reading, especially at LSS. There's the browsing to make sure you don't miss anything good (this is most of the reading) and then there's the immersion into a story that takes your breath away and inspires you to think or feel or emote (this is most of the reading I miss out on doing).
I'd say most of the latter kind of reading I've been doing of late is with works I am going to publish this year. And that's great - you should love the work you print and you should love them because you will read them each, oh like, 8 times in the next month. But if that's all you read, you have no context within which your publishing sits. And ... you miss out on reading good stuff. For fun. And for inspiration.
Yesterday my brain was not fit for finescale thinking. That's what I call the brain power required for balancing finances, proof reading, figuring out the kind of rewrites a story needs, problem solving - critical thinking at a magnified power. I couldn't even sew; I switched to knitting socks instead. So I read. And I read a lot at the former kind - lots and lots of average stuff that I skimmed just to check I didn't need to allocate time to read in depth. Good notching up numbers in the LSS spreadsheet kinda reading.
But then, I made a point of reading a few stories that I knew needed brainspace and time allocated to them for immersion and engagement. I put the laptop away and I read a few short stories from an actual print copy, for fun, before bedtime.
And I LOVED it! I need to remember to do that regularly. It's fun! How did I forget this?