Oh, man…guys. This was the weekend I *needed*. Holy moly.
I read. I finished my book today. It was crap…but I learned a lot from it anyway. I’m researching, you see…getting the lay of the land. Figuring out what people are reading out there, you know? Of course you do. You guys are all smarty pants. Well, it’s taken me a hot second to catch on, okay? But here we are. Finally reading.
What did I learn from this: a lot of readers out there don’t care about conventionally GOOD writing. Prose, at least. I don’t mean writing as a whole, I mean polished prose. A lot *do*, don’t get it twisted…but a lot DON’T. They just want a story that’s exciting. And dramatic. Polished prose be damned. What that means for me? I don’t really know, to be honest. The kind of writing in this book I just read isn’t my thing. It’s too shallow…I like something deeper. And again, please don’t misunderstand me – by “shallow” and “deep” I don’t mean “stupid” and “smart.” It has nothing to do with intelligence. It’s an aesthetic. Simply the manner in which entertainment is being delivered. Some readers want to be able to rip through prose and get right to the next plot point. That’s not me. I like my stories to be about something else in addition to the plot.
So…where does that leave me? Somewhere in between, I think. I need to learn BOTH how to express my bigger ideas and trim down my prose so that it moves along. But, and I think this is what I really learned…my reader is always going to be the person who likes the deeper prose. Not literary. God no. That’s also not me. But, not this totally stripped down prose either. And, I have hope that there are plenty of those kinds of readers.
It feels good to read. I’m enjoying myself, even if the books I’ve read so far haven’t quite been my cup of tea. And I really do mean the spirit of that metaphor – notice that I’m not naming this author by name, nor their book. I have no desire to make a judgement call outright that this book was a pile…it simply wasn’t for me. It was written for a different person. I still found a lot to admire, albeit from afar.
Anywho…it’s almost 11 and I still have to take a shower, so I’m going to end it here. But I’m already 40% into the next read, and I’m realizing that if enact this read-every-day plan, even if it’s only for an hour (I want it to be two, but there may not be enough hours in the day for that)…I can read a shit-ton of books. Maybe two or three a week…if they’re mostly short ones 😛
But, this is one of the last TWO steps to making this whole Ira-is-an-author thing real: 1) read moar. The other one, 2) deliberate practice. That second piece there is going to take some critical thinking. Exercises it seems I can find aplenty…but I need someone to read and EVALUATE those exercises, offer FEEDBACK. And someone who’s more educated and accomplished than I am. Not a peer. THAT is going to take some time and persistence, methinks. Something to ponder on.
But, hey…at least I’ve started on step 1 🙂
Tonight’s artwork is a John Berkey that I haven’t seen before. I LOVE HIM.