The downside of reading a great book

Image courtesy of FreeImages.com/ramzi hashisho

Recently, I went through a reading slump. For some reason, the books I read just didn't appeal to me. Although they received good reviews, I found them sort of ... blah. I struggled to finish some of them, and, in a couple of cases, I put them down for good, which is rare because I seldom DNF books. It didn't matter what the genre was. It didn't matter what time of day or day of week I read the books. Fortunately, after two or three weeks, I started enjoying reading again.

The reason for my book slump? I read a really good book right before it. It may seem ironic that a great book could lessen my enjoyment of reading, but it did because the books I read after it paled in comparison. The authors of the subsequent books couldn't capture the same magic that the great book did. I kept wanting to feel what I felt when reading the great book, and I was disappointed when I didn't. I know that this is unfair to the books I read immediately after the great book, but I also didn't believe that I should stop reading. What got me out of the slump was getting used to the writing level of the majority of the books on the market again.

I just need to recognize that I will come across a great book once in a while, and while that experience may diminish my fondness for the next few books after it, it doesn't mean that the subsequent books are bad. It just means that they aren't as great as the gem I read before them.

As an author, my experience also makes me nervous about when readers read my books. What if my book is the one they pick up right after they've read what they consider to be a great book? How will my book stack up in comparison? Perhaps I can now chalk up bad reviews to the fact that the readers just finished what, in their minds, was a great book. Yeah, I'm sure that's the reason.

Re-reading

I tend to watch my favorite movies over and over again. I don't remember how many times I've seen the original Star Wars Trilogy, "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "The Matrix," "The Princess Bride," or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." I know I've done so enough times to easily recite lines from those movies (much to my wife's chagrin).

It got me wondering why I don't do that with my favorite books. It's rare for me to read a book twice, even one that I love. I've read my favorite YA book, The Hunger Games, three times, but once was for "research" while working on one of my own novels. Even thrice is a rare exception for me. How many times have I seen "Star Wars: A New Hope"? Must be at least ten times by now.

So I'm going to make it a point to re-read more of my favorite books. If re-reading a favorite book is nearly as satisfying as watching a favorite movie, then it will be time well spent.

Everything sounds brilliant at 2:00 am

I'm one of those people who have vivid dreams and remember them after waking up. My dreams have often been creative fuel for the stories I write. Back before I published my first novel, I wrote a lot of short stories, and I estimate that more than a third of those story ideas originated from dreams. (For me, dreams work better for short stories than for novels because the events in my dreams aren't expansive enough to fill a novel.)

Unfortunately, I also suffer from insomnia in that I wake up several times in the middle of the night. In a perverse way, my insomnia helps my creativity because, while I'm lying awake in bed, I'll hash out a dream I just had. However, the downside of doing so in the middle of the night is that my brain isn't awake enough to filter content correctly. I can't count the number of times I've woken up at 2:00 am thinking that a dream was the greatest thing since the story-telling equivalent of sliced bread. But frankly, those dreams often weren't as good as I thought they were. There's something about the half-conscious state I'm in that makes me think that bad ideas are good.

If an idea passes my 2:00-am-half-brain-dead test, I'll log it in my journal for further consideration. I'll then read through my journal in the future, when I'm fully awake. I don't know how many times I've asked myself why I thought some of my dream-inspired ideas were any good to begin with. Thankfully, I'll catch those not-so-good ideas before they turn into stories that I subject my readers to.

Except for this blog post, which came to me at 2:00 am one night.

Fixing my lack of writing

In early December, I published a post about how to sustain a writing routine. I should've known that was going to jinx me because I've hardly written anything new since. Sure, the last two weeks of December were taken up by the holidays, and 2016 has resulted in even more work at my day job, but those are just excuses.

Writing is still important to me, and I want to find a way of getting back in the habit of doing it somewhat regularly. This week, I embarked on what I hope will become a new habit. I take the train to work every day, and I've been spending that time reading. However, the train is too crowded for me to use my laptop, and there's no wifi, so I don't work or write during my commute.

Yesterday, I brought an 80-page composition notebook with me and wrote a quick short story that covered the front and back of one page. It wasn't a great story by any means, but it was good for loosening my "writing muscles." With an 80-page notebook, I can write twice a week for the rest of the year to fill it. That's my plan for the remainder of 2016. Let's hope I do a better job of sticking to it.

Release announcement: All That Remains of Me

The day has finally arrived! Today is the official release date for my latest novel, All That Remains of Me.

You can purchase the e-book edition now for the special introductory price of 99 cents! The price will go up soon, so act quickly.

• Amazon
• Smashwords
• Barnes & Noble
• Kobo
• iTunes

During a routine drive to dinner with her parents, sixteen-year-old Annie Walker’s car is struck by a pickup truck. The resulting accident kills her parents and leaves Annie unconscious. When she wakes up, she thinks she’s in a hospital, but the truth is far stranger. Annie has been downloaded into a computer program called PATTIE.

With the help of PATTIE’s brilliant programmer, Eric, Annie struggles to come to terms with her new existence. She also finds that being inside a computer has both advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, the disadvantages can kill her.

A Spoonful of Stories

A few years ago, I had an idea to write a collection of flash fiction. I was fond of the format where an entire story can be told in 1,000 words or less. However, like some of my other writing ideas, this one was set aside in favor of more promising ones.

This year, I'm resurrecting the idea and posting the stories to Wattpad under a project called "A Spoonful of Stories." There will be 26 works of flash fiction in all, where the title of each story features alliteration using a letter of the alphabet (e.g., the first story is titled "An Armful of Armadillos"). Some of these short stories have been on my hard drive for years, and some will be newly written just for "A Spoonful of Stories." My goal is to post a new work of flash fiction every month.

I hope you'll like reading them!

Cover reveal and pre-order announcement: All That Remains of Me

Check out the cover for my new YA sci-fi novel, All That Remains of Me!

The book is now available for pre-order on the following sites for the special introductory price of 99 cents! After the official release date of February 10, the price will go up, so request your pre-order now.

• Amazon
• Smashwords
• Barnes & Noble
• Kobo
• iTunes

During a routine drive to dinner with her parents, sixteen-year-old Annie Walker’s car is struck by a pickup truck. The resulting accident kills her parents and leaves Annie unconscious. When she wakes up, she thinks she’s in a hospital, but the truth is far stranger. Annie has been downloaded into a computer program called PATTIE.

With the help of PATTIE’s brilliant programmer, Eric, Annie struggles to come to terms with her new existence. She also finds that being inside a computer has both advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, the disadvantages can kill her.