I just read a few posts on Goodreads that asked authors to comment on whether or not they read when they write. As an author -and I can’t tell you how much it tickles me to be able to write that word in reference to myself – I was interested to read the answers and gratified to learn that I was not alone.
I am a read-a-holic. I confess it here and now and make no apologies for it. If the necessities of life would stop interfering -you know, those pesky things like food, laundry, bathing, work and sleep, I would gladly read three books a day and have, in the past before I began writing, read at least one per day. Now, not so much. And I miss it. Oh, how I miss it.
There just aren’t enough hours in the day for me to work, write, do my share at home, and read as much as I would like, but there is another, more worrisome reason why I avoid some books while I write my own. I am afraid of unconsciously stealing ideas from others, particularly since, as I’ve stated before, my plots evolve as I write. So I first must limit what I allow myself to read. If I’m writing PNR (Paranormal Romance), I’ll read contemporary and vice versa and I’ll even go so far as to indulge my life long love of police procedurals and espionage which usually have little to do with love.
There are only so many plots to be written and as someone much cleverer than I once said, “There are no new stories to be told.” But I for one, want my stories to be mine and while the basic plots may be as old as time, the fun is in the telling of it. The joy is in the journey, not the destination.
So I’ll continue to limit my reading to my lunch hour and an hour or so before I go to bed while I write my latest tale (The Alpha’s Choice), but when I’m finished with my first draft, I’ll set it aside and read, read, read, until my eyes burn from my head. And when I’m full to bursting with other authors words, I’ll go back to writing more of my own.
