Hi there, sorry it has taken me so long to reply. Thanks for such a lovely comment. I really feel your pain. I have been teaching myself to read like a writer instead of reading for pleasure and I do find that it now takes a REALLY good book to stop me analysing and just dive into the story for the sake of the story. I actually went back on what I said in this post and ended up reading the same genre when I was writing, partly because the writing takes me so god damn long I can’t bear to be away from my fave genre for so long! But I feel your pain on the comparison thing too – I get that so often – I always think I’ll never be as good. It’s awful and you’re so right it IS maddening!

thanks again for stopping by

I knew to improve my writing it was imperative that I start reading again, but I had the damnedest time getting into reading again. I’d spent months before I ever picked up the metaphorical pen again trying to bridge the gap between reader sensibility/experience and writer sensibility/experience that had always left me horribly dissatisfied with whatever I wrote (another reason I also tended to stop writing after a while). So when I started reading again — or trying to — I distracted myself so much with analyzing, trying to solve this eternal mystery, it that I couldn’t really get into any story. If I *did* manage to start to appreciate someone else’s work and start to feel even a little inspired by it, I’d get impatient with myself and think, “Hey, why am I doing this instead of writing?” or I’d quickly crash, thinking, “Shit, why can’t I write something that could compete with this?”

It was maddening, and it took re-reading a very long series by a well-known author that I figured would be a sure-enough thing in terms of my enjoyment that it could withstand all my writing neurosis. I felt I could reforge something of my old enjoyment of reading if I could just reconnect with it again. Sure enough, it did the trick, and all of that nagging stuff eventually burned itself out. I did eventually finish the first draft of my first novel, and these days I can study, analyze, and appreciate as necessary, and none of those functions get in the way of each other anymore.

I love when that happens – when you’re reading a completely random book and you come out the other side having learnt loads! BEST books ever :D.

It’s funny, but since I wrote this post, I have actually continued to read books AND in the same genre. It appears I can’t take my own advice!

Ok perhaps that was a poor question, maybe I should ask what do you write, (other than what I’ve seen like your challenge entries and blogs) ?

I’m not sure how to answer your question, Sacha, as I’m not really married to any genre at present. I just write what I like, and I enjoy experimenting. My husband says that it is something I need to address. He is always telling me to stick with one genre. Sigh… he is probably right. One day I will have to figure out which genre I most enjoy. Right now, I’m having fun.

I’m so glad you decided to follow me – and I appreciate your lovely comments. 🙂

Thank you, love! It means the world. x

Of course different strategies will work for different people – hopefully I alluded to that in the post :s – wow that’s a lot of novels im still just writing my first one.

So here’s what I mean, if I was writing a YA fantasy novel I would read YA romance or horror or mystery I would just steer clear of fantasy for a few months whilst writing. But that’s me. And writing my first novel is taking a long time too ive had breaks from writing where I’ve gone back and read fantasy. So it’s not like ive throw my genre away. Plus I read an awful lot before I picked up my pen. Congrats on writing so many novels. What an inspiration you are 🙂 have a fab weekend and thank you again for stopping by.

I see what you mean there – but then, I think different strategies work for different people, so there’s that, too. 🙂 I write pretty much everything YA. My first two novels were fantasy, second was a contemporary, third was a horror… the list goes on! It would be so hard for me to divorce myself from such a widespread genre, even just for six months.