4 Easy Steps to Take Charge of Your To-Be-Read Pile

Step 1: Throw out all the books I didn't write.

Problem solved.

In seriousness, though, readers have to-be-read piles. In what sense would we be readers if we didn't? And, if you're anything like me, your to-be-read pile is so large that you hide from it and read Harry Potter for the twentieth time rather than tackle the ever-mounting stack of literature threatening to topple down upon you.

Breathe. As much as I like Harry Potter... 

(and I do like it)...

we can't just go back to Hogwarts constantly. Or Westeros. Or Narnia, Panem, Cloral, and Wonderland. It just doesn't work that way. We need to grow and expand our minds, and the best way we as readers know to do that is to read. Read different things.

But fear not. It's not as hard as you think. It just takes a small amount of work on your part, and soon that to-be-read pile will slowly shrink down to something manageable.

Step 1 (The Actual Step 1): Don't stress about time. You probably have books that are a couple years old, and you just know that you need to read them, and you know that you should really read them before the half-dozen you just bought today, even though you really want to read your new books.

Breathe. Remember that. Just breathe. If you own a book, that means you own it. Plain and simple. You can read your personal books whenever and however you want. Reverse alphabetical order by the author's middle name? Absolutely fine. The order you buy books in doesn't have anything to do with the order you read them in. We do this for entertainment above anything else. So read what you think is going to entertain you today, not what's been on the shelf the longest.

Step 2: Library/borrowed books have a time limit. It really is something to remember. While I think Step 1 is more important, it's pretty vital to remember Step 2 as well. Books you borrow are like dear old friends who live across the country. You can only enjoy their company for a little while before they have to go back home. Still always read the book that claws for your attention the most, but if you have a library book or a book on loan from someone else versus a book that is wholly yours, at least consider whizzing through the borrowed book first.

Step 3: Remember whose to-be-read pile this is. It's not your neighbor's, or the Internet's, or mine or The New York Times' or Levar Burton's or anyone else's but your own. You don’t have to read anything you don't want to, no matter what anyone or anything might tell you. Tried Shakespeare? Good. Didn't like it? Good. Don't proceed to add 'The Complete Unabridged Works of William Shakespeare' to your pile. You won't get to it, and it's just going to add to your guilt. Focus on things you want to read.

Already have books that have been recommended, but just don't hold your interest? Purge them. Get them out of that pile. Sell them, donate them, keep them, use them to perform interpretive dance. Hell, send them my way, if you want to. I can always use more books. Just get them out of there. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks and read what you want and only what you want.

Step 4: Find time to read. This is the final step, and I'd say it's far and away the most important step. You have to find time to go through your pile. After all, you can't very well expect it to go down if you never touch it. So make time to get some reading done, realize how much time you actually have, and work with that. Don't get hard on yourself if it takes you a month or more to finish Les Miserables when you only have 10-15 minutes a day.

If you don't think you can make time to read, you're wrong. Audio books on the commute to work or in the shower. A book for bathroom breaks and lunch breaks and ankle breaks… wait. Back that one up. Don't break your ankle just to find more time to read. You have time. Heck, you just spent time reading this blog post, didn't you? And tomorrow, you'll have those five minutes extra to read your book.

Just do me a favor and read. It's good for us authors, and it's good for the world as a whole. After all: more art is a never a bad thing. But mostly, it's good for you. And that's what really counts.

Voss

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Well, it's officially the middle of week three, and the same thing that always happens is…happening…

I'm lacking the motivation to write. It happens pretty much one day, every time, and then I'm over it. Instead of writing, I'm sitting around talking about Trockenbeerenauslese with an invisible audience, waiting for some rejection/acceptance letters to come rolling in any second now—but I'm not writing.

I know—bad novelist…whatever—I quite need this break, however, as much as I should be writing. Maybe I'll call my friends—they probably miss me…maybe. I could write another song. Make some fudge…maybe truffles, if I feel like going to town.

Or I could ignore my NaNo novel for a day and let it stew there on my hard drive for a bit. I have other writing projects I'm working on, and probably some semblance of a social life I can try to salvage before the month is out…does this sound like Week Two? Don't be surprised—Week-Two-it is normally hits me a little after the middle of the month during NaNo, but I also have a two or three day cushion right now, so I can afford myself the break…right?

For everyone out there in the same spot: you're not alone. The elusive motivation disease is running rampant, I promise, and there's no cure but time—at least one day so you can fall back in love with the whole thing—but no more than two. It's a good rule straight from No Plot? No Problem! If you stop writing that NaNo novel for more than two days, there's no guarantee that you will ever be able to pick it back up, and the whole thing may well float into the endless abyss of lost ideas to mingle with that toaster/flashlight/shotgun you knew was such a good idea…although that one may be better off in the abyss.

For now, join me in the reveling misery of lacking motivation—it's okay. Curl up with an encyclopedia of culinary knowledge and a cup of spiked coffee and let yourself fly to worlds known, but never experienced—or something to that effect. Either way, make this one day count for a lot—the rest of the month is still ahead.

Voss

Romance Writer's Handbook

Everyone that writes loves to find resources of some kind--and a lot of times that's a book on writing. Anyone that finds and read these books usually has a favorite, too. A lot of people swear by "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White. My favorite is "Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card (I might have the title a little off, but by God I know where to find it in my library!).

Everyone also has a real favorite. It's that one that you may or may not ever share with anyone, either because you want to hog the glory of the book all to yourself, or you're slightly embarrassed to admit that it is your favorite. Either way, I'm coming clean about it here and now.

Just let me stand up.

*Ahem* Hello, my name's Voss Foster, and I'm in love with "The Romance Writer's Handbook" by Rebecca Vinyard.

You're surprised, right? You should be. Okay, so I have romance threads in everything...every time...almost without fail...but that doesn't mean anything!

In honesty, the reason I love Vinyard's book is the fact that it's not just for romance. It has a bit for everything. From brilliant plotting advice to publishing tips and, yes, romance specific bits--what do you expect, it's a book on how to write romance novels for Christ's sake.

Now, I can't actually post any of her brilliance here for copyright purposes, but I can send you this lovely link to the site she started for romance writer's back when the internet was still run on brontosaurus oil and slave labor. I don't think it's quite as brilliant as "The Romance Writer's Handbook", but then again I don't really think anything is--at least nothing in the writing aid vein of books, articles, websites, and magazines out there.

Okay, I'll share a bit of wisdom I got from it...but just a few words.

"You can fix it."

I agree with the book--writer's need that phrase places across their homes. Painted on murals above their computers. Tattooed on their inner eyelids in glow-in-the-dark ink so they can read it every night before they go to bed. As an emergency fixer to pull out when writing starts to overwhelm.

"You can fix it."

I'll let you discover the rest of this fabulosity on your own--and give you a Purchase Link to get it from Amazon.com. Right now, you can get it for under three bucks a copy, so what's stopping you, really? Not that I have any room to talk...I haven't bought my own copy yet either...bad writer, bad!

Sadly I have to go.

"Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say goodnight 'til it be 'morrow."

Peace,
Voss

A Seed with Dissociative Personality Disorder

Or, in other words, a crazy little seed.

Now I know that people tire of hearing it--every author says it--but it's true: Ideas come from everywhere. It's not really the best advice for one reason--they give you no tools to access the amazing potential of "everywhere". Some people don't need to be given these tools because, in a combination of luck and practice, they have these tools ingrained. These are those people that give these wild sounding answers about getting ideas for a tribe from this really cool looking beaded necklace.

I don't know if anyone wants them, but I'll lay down a mediocre attempt to give y'all these tools.

First: you have to stop punching your muse in the face. Really, that's what happens. Muses, resilient little things that they are, will constantly yell things at you. Of course you need to filter it, but you may want to try seeing just where that idea tries to go. I once got a complete plot (yet to be written) from an apple. Just an apple. I let my mind run around and *poof* I ended up with a world and a storyline with bunches of subplots all in about half an hour. An apple. Follow the lines--it works.

Second: do not fear encyclopedias. All of these connections that lead into plot and story seeds (or at least a lot of them) come from what you learn through research. I go back to the apple, because I think about apples a lot. When i think apple, the first thing that pops into my mind is Aphrodite. Why? Apples are traditionally held as sacred to Aphrodite. From there, the world opens up to you. Along with cold hard facts, you also need those unique connections, like ravens and foot diseases. I have this in my mind thanks to my grandmother and a series of complex stories. Suffice it to say, without numerous connections like those in your head, pulling story bits out of thin air is going to be considerably more difficult.

That's it. That's how you do it. Have connections and start listening to your muse.

Voss