What We're Writing Week: Julia Slowly Staggers To A Stop

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: No, it's NOT done yet, dear readers. This is absolutely the worst part of the book for me - the ending. I swear, if I could just publish manuscripts that were 5/8 done and crowdsource the endings, I'd get books out - gosh, who knows, maybe every three years instead of four!

My issue with getting over the finish line is partly me, and partly the nature of the genre. For me - honestly, I don't know. I always slow down here, and we know, I'm not that fast to begins with.

 Psychological barriers to completion? Fear of success or failure? Not wanting to let go? I've done a lot over the past years to improve my scheduling and organization; maybe now it's time for therapy.

The nature of the genre is such that the end of any sort of crime fiction is usually 1) the high point of action and 2) has to tie all the threads together. For the first, well, I'm known for my action sequences. I like them. The readers seem to like them. But they are HARD! Making sure the reader knows who is doing what, where in space and when in a sequence of events... sometimes it feels more like planning a multi-person jaunt through an unfamiliar city via public transportation.

As for tying the threads together - I can only point out I have more than one unfinished piece of very elaborate needlepoint. Oh, I just LOVE adding more and more and more threads. Figuring out what to DO with them... not so much.

However, I am progressing. In fact, if I didn't write such #$%& long books,  I'd be done now, or close to it. Alas, I don't seem to have any more control over the length of my stories than I do anything else. Truly, writing is a mysterious process. 

This is the place where I would usually put some hopefully interesting question that would stimulate lots and lots of backblog comments. Instead, I have a favor to ask. Will you, dear readers, be my accountability partners? I'm highly motivated by guilt (if you had met my mother, you'd understand)  so if one of you asks "Julia, have you written today" EVERY DAY until I finish, I'll be too embarrassed not to write. Don't all do it, for goodness sake, that would be a nightmare. Just one person.

TIA, Julia

To Finish or Not To Finish (the Book You're Reading)

INGRID THOFT

My mom and I have an ongoing debate, and I’m sure all of you fall clearly on side or the other.  If I start reading a book, and it doesn’t capture my attention, I stop reading.  My mom, on the other hand, feels obligated to finish.  This is generally true even if she’s reading the book for her own pleasure, not for her book group.  Perhaps it’s her Yankee stick-to-it-ness (which I thought I shared, but maybe not?) that compels her to finish what she started.  More likely, she’s always hopeful that the book will improve, and it will all pay off in the end.

I used to be more patient with my reading materials, but once I experienced the trials and tribulations of trying to get published, I became more demanding.  When I first submitted my work to agents, I was rejected many times.  Rejection is part of the deal if you want to get published, but rejection is often based on a query letter—just a few short paragraphs.  If I were lucky, an agent might request five pages or even a chapter, but I learned that the decision to accept or reject was swift and unequivocal.  Eventually, I landed an agent and a publishing contract and a new attitude when reading other writers’ books.  Hook me right away or I throw you back into the sea of words.

Does this seem harsh?  Impatient?  Perhaps, but I’ve decided that my time is too precious to spend it reading books that don’t delight me or engage me from page one.  My decision to stop reading isn’t necessarily an indictment of the book.  There are prize-winning, critically acclaimed books that didn’t strike my fancy, and I chalk that up to personal preference.  For example, I think I may be the only person on planet Earth who didn’t love “Memoirs of a Geisha.”

A couple of years ago, when I was visiting a book club, one of the members shared her formula for deciding when to keep reading and when to stop.  She suggested you subtract your age from 100, and the answer is the number of pages you should read a book before calling it quits.  This makes sense to me; the older we get, the less time we have to spend on books that are unsatisfying.

What do you think?  Do you feel obligated to keep reading?  Do you have a formula for determining how many pages you’ll read before putting down a book for good?  Does it depend on what type of book it is?

Karen B. you won Friday's giveaway from Chevy Stevens!  Leave your email address in the comments so we can get a book to you!