So I'm supposed to be doing reading deprivation this week to show myself what I do when I am given a significant chunk of time back.
What have I learned that I do with that "extra" time? Watch movies and read.
Yes. That's it. When I deprive myself of reading I binge read. I didn't even make it a whole week before I sat down on my couch and tried to start reading every book on the side table at once. I kid you not. I opened one book then thought of the book beneath it in the stack -- I'll read one chapter from that! I thought. It's non-fiction and sectioned, so once I'm done with the section I can pick up this novel again. All the while I had a book lying open but face down on my lap to mark my page in that text.
My binge burned me out pretty quickly and I didn't finish a section from any of those books but I did read at least a few pages of all of them -- some more than others. My lesson learned: reading deprivation makes me kinda kooky and spastic.
Still chugging along on the summer novel. Progress has been stop and go this past week as I'm still trying to recover from a trip home to visit family which broke my writing routine. Now the novel is in difficult territory. I have to find a way to transition and raise the stakes again while letting my heroine grow. She's been fairly traumatized so far and I need to give her a little bit of time to breathe and start to feel secure before I traumatize her again ... but at the same time I don't want to let the story flat line. Perhaps this would be a good time to "grow" the characters surrounding her.
