Generally I get inspiration to write from reading, but this year that hasn’t happened as much.
I have been doing a lot of reading, and not so much writing lately. My Nano attempt for fiction was a bust after 12,000 words and I switched to a non-fiction project that I did finish. Yes, it’s progress and I’m proud that my self-editing guide is done and about to be released, but it wasn’t really the writing I had planned to do.
Due to the several developmental editing clients I have taken on, and the fact that it is the start of judging season (I’m on the panels for two separate award programs), I have been doing a LOT of reading. I have also been able to read some stories simply for pleasure. So my Goodreads account has been getting a bit of a workout.
While the GR challenge reports I “won” this year (reading 26 books out of a 24 goal), I know that I read at least twice that many books. After going through the list on GR, I manually added some that hadn’t auto-added. I realized, too, that I don’t often pull books directly from the Zon any more. I tend to get them from other places, and usually in EPUB format instead of MOBI. I don’t have a Kindle. I have a battery-worn nook, but even then, I tend to read on my IceCream app on my laptop or my iBooks app on my phone. And I tend to mix in a lot of downloaded fanfiction.
On the other hand, the stories I’m trying to write seem to be so different from anything I’m reading, I think I’m paralyzed a bit out of fear that few people will be interested in them compared to these other books.
But I am looking toward 2023 and finding writing inspiration again.
What do you think?
Lara Zielinsky 