... All's Quiet on the Mailbox Front ...
March 4, 1999
6:02 a.m.
For me, reading, and the pleasure I get from it, all boils down to available time slots. A novel takes 5-10 hours. I don't have many 5-10 hours time slots available. A novella takes me an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Novelettes, maybe 45 minutes. A short story I can cram into 15-30 minutes. So, I read a lot of short stories, a few novelettes, an occasional novella, and not a whole lot of anything else. I do start a lot of novels. But I just don't finish very many of them anymore. But when I do ... well, it brings back to me all the reasons I write. I don't finish books I don't like, you see. So if I finish one, it's likely to leave me drained and replenished at the same time. A good story is like chilled water. You drink it in, and it fills you, but you leave it wanting more. The Sparrow was a book like that for me. As was Katie Waitman's The Merro Tree, as was our own Stephen Leigh's Dark Water's Embrace. Those are, by the way, the only three books of fiction that I have finished in the past, what, year and a half? (At least that I can remember off the top of my head . . . there has probably been another one or two, but I can't remember them this early in the morning.) I used to read a lot. And, obviously, I loved it. But now I have other things I focus my energy into, and I just don't have time. Maybe when I'm down to working just one job, that will change. Listless sigh. When I wasn't writing, I know I never really noticed a poorly written book. By poorly written, I'm talking about all the things Kurt and a few others have discussed in their journals. I only knew whether I liked it or not. I only knew if it was a good story with characters and situations that I liked. My dad reminds me of this these days when he talks to me about books. "This one is really well-written," he'll say. And it took me some time to figure out that he meant it was a really intricate story with characters that spoke to him in realistic ways. But writing changes a person. It has to. The first thing it changes is perception, sensitivity to the world outside of whatever your normal boundaries are. For me, that meant about anything other than me! Then it changes priorities, and schedules, and all sorts of other things, relationships. Especially relationships. Somewhere along the path, though, it changes our definition of "well-written." This is good for the writer in us, bad for the reader. Or is it? I've only read three novels this past year and a half or so. Why? Because I only had the time slots for three. If I had time for ten, I would have read ten. I only had enough real time for three, but they were three damned good novels. Science fiction authors spend a lot of time asking "what if" questions. So, what if I went into a second occupation that wasn't writing? What if I were an engineer/landscaper, or just took such a large promotion that I had to work 80 hours a week just to feel I was earning my salary? What if I then only had time slots for three novels every two years, but wasn't armed with this defense mechanism of not finishing things that I felt weren't written well? Yes, I pay a price for it. But all in all, I'm glad for my new understanding of how paragraphs and sentences, and words are "supposed" to go together to make stories that are comprised of interesting characters and fascinating situations. And with books out there like The Sparrow, The Merro Tree, and Dark Water's Embrace, I get the best of both worlds.   Have a great day, eh?  Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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"But somewhere along the line, that changed. I changed..." Kurt Roth in his journal entry of 3/2/99. |
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