October 28, 2019
We’ve talked about writer’s block. Have you ever gotten reader’s block?
My first thought when I saw this question was that surely it was a typo. So was my second. Then I thought more and asked, is it really a thing? Reader’s Block?
I don’t try to hide the fact that I read. A lot. When I was a kid, I read everything that I could get my hands on, including the back of cereal boxes. I don’t read as much now, but I still love me a good story.
But there have been times when, for one reason or another, I didn’t read for a long stretch of time. (I define that as a month or two in terms of reading!) Perhaps I was too busy with work. Or family things. Or so wrapped up in my own writing that I didn’t want to spare the time to read someone else’s. Or I didn’t have time to get to the library and didn’t feel like re-reading any of my old favorites. (This was before ebooks, folks!)
And, I am sad to admit, there has been a time or two when I sour on
Image by Gerhard Gellinger from Pixabay
whatever book I’m reading and I simply stop. Then, because I have this need to finish every book I start, I just don’t. Start reading a different book, that is. I feel guilty about the one I didn’t finish. Until I can forgive myself and push past the shame of abandoning a story, I can’t move on.
There’s also the issue of editing mode. When I’m in the middle of editing my own work, it’s hard to turn that inner editor off. It makes it difficult to simply enjoy a story and not pick it over looking for faults.
How do I overcome it? Time. The answer is always time (unless it’s 42.) Since reading is an addiction, I always come back to it.
So, yes, I have experienced reader’s block, at least the way I choose to define it. How about you? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments.
As usual, now I’m off to check out the other writers on this blog hop and find out if they’ve experienced reader’s block. And if you are looking for a good book to break yours, I’d appreciate it if you would check out my stories. You can read all about them elsewhere on this website.
October 28, 2019
We’ve talked about writer’s block. Have you ever gotten reader’s block?
Rules:
1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.
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I’m certainly a lot more critical of grammar and format now that I write my own novels, and a lot more able to push through any blocks
Doesn’t it drive you crazy when you read a book by some big-name author and all you can see is their mistakes?
Especially when I’m told that only self-pubbed authors have mistakes in their books. Mind you, I can correct it and have a new version uploaded in ten minutes.
I read a lot of classics when I was a kid because my father and mother both graduated high school in a time when most people stopped in the 8th grade and they had to read classics to graduate and they were determined that I should. At least once a week one of them would ask me what book was I reading from their extensive library and then they’d quiz me on the details (from memory … so daunting). They didn’t care if I was reading other books too, but I’d better be reading something “worthwhile” and I had about a week (sometimes two for larger books) to finish it before the quiz was due.
So, a downside (upside?) was that I read a lot of well-written books with perfect grammar and punctuation (Big 5, after all, and some had been published for centuries). Then I was a journalism major and reporter and we always acted as editor for each other before it went to the real editor who could fire you. So, the first time I read an indie pub that had spelling and grammar errors was a painful experience for me. I still notice them now, but if I’m reading for pleasure I can now move on without it driving me crazy. Still — I was mortified when my husband’s father read “Hullabaloo on Main Street” and pointed out a grammatical error that’s been on display for two years for everyone to read. It’s just so hard to see mistakes and not correct them. At least I can correct my own, but I doubt Neil Gaiman will open my email.
It can be an interesting (and saddening) experience to read some of the classics, not for the story, but for an insight to societal norms of the times, especially in regards to things like treatment of women, “servant” classes, and non-white people.
That’s true. I can remember discussing racism with my dad when I read Huck Finn in the 5th or 6th grade. Fairbanks Alaska was a pretty color-blind place. It’s why my parents seperately moved to Alaska (he with his Creole first wife and my mother being part Indian, a state that had outlawed discrimination in the 1940s was attractive to them). In the 1970s, my stepdad’s boss was black and nobody seemed to notice. My dad was business agent for the culinary union local and he was dispatching anyone who could do the job to the oil industry jobs. He started getting calls from the national union saying “Why are you dispatching blacks (they were mostly concerned about blacks, but also Indians). Those are ‘white’ jobs.” Dad kept dispatching them. Then the pipeline construction hit and people didn’t care because we needed the workers, but the thing was — Alaskan companies already didn’t care because we’d been desegregated for 25 years already. So, my first recognition of inequality was Mark Twain.
I recently picked up a 1960’s (yellow cover) edition of a Nancy Drew mystery and was taken back by the casual racism and stereotypical portrayal of African-American characters.
I remember reading Nancy Drew, but I don’t remember that. I believe it because it was a product of the times and I don’t think people were even aware of their bigotry until it was pointed out to them. A couple of older friends of mine who are both from the South and have been friends for half a center (one black and one white) have explained to the young folk of our church that they were just fine growing up in seperate communities not knowing any different but the world they lived in. Callie didn’t think she was being mean with some of her attitudes toward white people and her husband remembers her as a girl who would “mix with blacks.” She was very progressive for her era and culture. Mary said they heard about lynching and the like in other communities, but most white folks were nice to her and her family and neighbors. The Civil Rights movement made both of them reevaluate their views on race. They both moved here to Fairbanks with husband who were in the military and Callie thought “Well, this is the way folks should always have treated black people” and Mary thought “Wow, I can be ‘friends’ with white people here?” Every now and then, something will slip out of Callie’s mouth that is a remnant of growing up white in the South and Mary always forgives her, because MARY says, “She (Callie) didn’t know any better for 20 years and I something think thinks about white people that aren’t true or even nice too.”
Knowing those two old ladies, now in their mid-80s, has been an education. They’ve been friends for so long that they’re just really honest with one another and that teaches those around them (like me) ways to thinking that unfortunately, the “angry minority lobby” doesn’t appreciate.