Branching Out
Has someone ever recommended a book to you, or you see a book in one of those 'Must Read' lists? So you do a little research into the book and find that it is simply not your style, or you just know you won't enjoy it.
Have you ever asked yourself why?
Most people have a specific genre or storyline that draws their attention so they don't branch out and try new things because they just KNOW they're not going to like it.
While this is true for my writing (I really enjoy writing dystopian or post-apocolyptic stories) it's not true for my reading.
If someone recommends a book to me I will put it on my "to read" list. (I use GoodReads to help me keep track.)
It wasn't always like this. I didn't just pick up any book that someone handed to me. I was very much into fiction and adventure. Love stories be damned. Historical fiction?! History is boring! Biographies? Pssh please, that might as well be history! Give me a whole new universe with magic and adventure (put please no talking animals. That's just TOO out there)!
I'm not sure at what point I stopped thinking like this. My 'read' list is now full of extraordinary books that I loved that don't fall into the same categories.
For instance I am currently reading Middlesex. A Fictional novel about a hermaphrodite with a telling genetic secret.
I am also reading Patient Zero, another fiction. A (possible) virus used as a bioweapon by terrorists that animates the dead.
By reading two books as different as these two it is easy to keep them separate and not confuse the two.
But, that's not why I bring this up. The other day I was editing one of my good friend's stories. Just the first four chapters. As I started it was clear that this was not something I would normally pick up (Elves, dwarves and dragons are not something that usually peaks my interest. Sorry friend!)
Still, I decided that I had already committed to reading it so I was going to.
It took three sentences and reading it was no longer something I HAD to do. It was a story I wanted to keep reading, the characters were developed and interesting the story line was intriguing and I continued to enjoy it the more I read. I realized I had not actually edited anything throughout the prologue or chapter 1. So I had to go back and re-read to edit it, which I was not opposed to.
I found myself invested in the story and what happens to the characters. I even yelled at one of them.
This was a story I thought I would be uninterested in (again, sorry!) which turned out was the opposite. I look forward to reading the rest of it and finding out what happens.
It showed me that even though I think I may read every sort of story out there, there is always another genre, always something new to try.
Eventually, maybe I will try to expand my writing genres but, currently unpublished, I will stick to what I know. Monsters and the inevitable end of mankind.
Have you ever asked yourself why?
Most people have a specific genre or storyline that draws their attention so they don't branch out and try new things because they just KNOW they're not going to like it.
While this is true for my writing (I really enjoy writing dystopian or post-apocolyptic stories) it's not true for my reading.
If someone recommends a book to me I will put it on my "to read" list. (I use GoodReads to help me keep track.)
It wasn't always like this. I didn't just pick up any book that someone handed to me. I was very much into fiction and adventure. Love stories be damned. Historical fiction?! History is boring! Biographies? Pssh please, that might as well be history! Give me a whole new universe with magic and adventure (put please no talking animals. That's just TOO out there)!
I'm not sure at what point I stopped thinking like this. My 'read' list is now full of extraordinary books that I loved that don't fall into the same categories.
For instance I am currently reading Middlesex. A Fictional novel about a hermaphrodite with a telling genetic secret.
I am also reading Patient Zero, another fiction. A (possible) virus used as a bioweapon by terrorists that animates the dead.
By reading two books as different as these two it is easy to keep them separate and not confuse the two.
But, that's not why I bring this up. The other day I was editing one of my good friend's stories. Just the first four chapters. As I started it was clear that this was not something I would normally pick up (Elves, dwarves and dragons are not something that usually peaks my interest. Sorry friend!)
Still, I decided that I had already committed to reading it so I was going to.
It took three sentences and reading it was no longer something I HAD to do. It was a story I wanted to keep reading, the characters were developed and interesting the story line was intriguing and I continued to enjoy it the more I read. I realized I had not actually edited anything throughout the prologue or chapter 1. So I had to go back and re-read to edit it, which I was not opposed to.
I found myself invested in the story and what happens to the characters. I even yelled at one of them.
This was a story I thought I would be uninterested in (again, sorry!) which turned out was the opposite. I look forward to reading the rest of it and finding out what happens.
It showed me that even though I think I may read every sort of story out there, there is always another genre, always something new to try.
Eventually, maybe I will try to expand my writing genres but, currently unpublished, I will stick to what I know. Monsters and the inevitable end of mankind.
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