UPCOMING CLASSES
📚 Book Club for Writers meets this Sunday, October 29 at 1PM EST! If you’re a paid subscriber, the Zoom link will land in your inbox tomorrow.
📓 If you’re in Jacksonville, FL: I’m teaching a class on Novel Revision Tactics on Tuesday, November 14 at 6:30 PM at the Beaches Branch Library. It’s free!
👩💻 Online classes will return in early 2024. Watch the newsletter for announcements.
I am one of the world’s greatest sleepers.
If you suffer from insomnia, I hate to break this to you, but: it usually takes me less than a minute to fall asleep at night. 💤
The downside? I fall asleep during almost every movie and show, which is why I’m always behind on the latest TV trends.
I still haven’t gotten through the first episode of Succession without conking out.
As one of the world’s greatest sleepers, I can never read more than 1-2 pages before bed. And I’ve certainly never been the type to curl up with a good book on a rainy Sunday afternoon—not unless I want to also take a nap.
I’ve always been self-conscious of my inability to spend hours (or even 15 minutes) sitting still with a book. After all, I’m a writer! That’s what writers are supposed to do! My writer friends read so much more than I do, and they’re so fast at it!
In 2019, I tortured myself by participating in my first Goodreads reading challenge, hoping it would make me read more, and I wrote about how I’ll never do a reading challenge again. I spent a lot of that year falling asleep with a book in my lap and feeling guilty about it. And feeling guilty about falling asleep rather than doing something quote-unquote “productive” is an unwelcome remnant from the girlboss era.
I even bought a Kindle, thinking that maybe if I had a rectangle of light blaring into my eyeballs while I was reading, I might stay awake. But that didn’t work. I’d fall asleep with the Kindle in my lap, too. The battery was always dead by the morning.
Audiobooks had never been any better at keeping me awake. Not with that slow, gentle drone of a narrator’s voice. But during the pandemic, I gave audiobooks another try. I found that, if I increased the narration speed to 1.25x, then to 1.5x, then to 1.75, easing my way up to anywhere between 2.0x and 2.25x, I was paying attention. I was present for every word of the book. And, miraculously, I was AWAKE.
Suddenly, I was reading more. And it might sound crazy to those of you who can’t stand the thought of a sped-up audiobook, but I was really loving my reading life.
But even as I’ve embraced my audiobook preferences, I’ve still never been able to maintain a steady reading rhythm. I’ll have months of sprinting through books followed by months where I barely read a thing.
This month, I’ve barely read a thing.
When I’m deep into a writing project, books have a tendency to intimidate me rather than inspire me. As I read, I’ll start thinking, “I’ll never write anything as interesting or smart or funny as this.” My doubt gets in the way of my enjoyment of the book. So I’ll set it down and return to my own project.
This feeling got really intense for me when I was querying agents a month ago. I had the brilliant idea to catch up on the books certain agents had sold. All in the name of research, I told myself. Due diligence, etc.
But reading those books only made me question the done-ness of my own. I thought, “There’s no way my book is as good as this. Should I just quit?”
The moment I returned those books to the library, that feeling went away.
Nowadays, I’m back to craving inspiration. I want to read again. But days will go by without me cracking a single book or opening my Libby app on my phone. I make the time to read and never actually do it.
I ended up doing what always works for me whenever I want to get back on track with something. I joined an accountability group. In this case, it’s a group that Chelsea Hodson is running: two nights plus one afternoon per week through the beginning of December. Technically, it’s a writing group, not a reading group, and everyone else in the group has set lofty goals for themselves: finish writing a novel draft! Write three essays before the end of the year! Me? I showed up on the first day and said, “I’m just here to read,” which felt a little decadent. But the decadence of it makes me commit to it more.
We met for the first time last week. With set-aside, held-accountable time for reading, I finished reading a whole book, and it wasn’t even an audiobook.
This week, I’ve finished one book and am about to finish another.
I’m back in my reading rhythm. I just needed to incorporate some structure to get there. And I think that’s what I’m always trying to say whenever I talk about accountability: if there’s something manageable that we can add to our routines that will help us move toward healthy habits we genuinely want to incorporate, why wouldn’t we add it on?
BOOK CLUB MEETS THIS SUNDAY
This Sunday, October 29 at 1PM EST, my Book Club for Writers will meet on Zoom to discuss Refuse to Be Done, Matt Bell’s book on drafting and revision.
If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll receiving an email with the Zoom link tomorrow!
HOW DO I JOIN THE BOOK CLUB?
Even if you don’t end up finishing Matt Bell’s book in time for Sunday’s discussion, there will be something for you at this meeting. So join us! Become a paid newsletter subscriber to join. Can’t make it live? Our recorded discussion will be available for paid subscribers to watch later.
Subscribe for the month for just $5, or save 27% and subscribe for the whole year. Subscription prices are going up in 2024, so if you want to join, there’s never been a better time!