What are you reading?

[pjthompson]

I ran across an old reading meme and decided to do it again. Because life is short and why not waste time? (Although I don't believe reading or talking about reading is ever wasting time.)

Question: Do you have a regular place you read? What books are currently waiting there?          

Nan by Elizabeth Kingston
A novella set in the world of her medieval romance trilogy which I devoured in a month. Well-written and with incredibly dimensional and nuanced characters, these are books I will hold on to: The King’s Man; Fair, Bright, and Terrible; and Desire Lines. (I hope there will be more!)

The 37th Parallel by Ben Mezrich
A Hellier inspired purchase. So, you know, paranormal non-fiction.

Fairies: A Guide to Celtic Fair Folk by Morgan Daimler
Research reading for the current WIP, concise and easy to read.

Tarot for Writers by Corinne Kenner
Using tarot for world-building, character, and writing prompts. I haven’t gotten very far into it and I’m not sure it will be completely useful for the way I write but whatever.

The Archetype of Initiation by Robert L. Moore
A Jungian approach and quite fascinating. Also inspired by Hellier.

The Underworld Initiation by R.J. Stewart
Because one cannot have too many books on initiation, right? More of a mythological/psychic approach.

I’m actively reading all of these except the last, cycling them in and out. I think reading both books on initiation simultaneously might get confusing, so I’m saving Stewart’s book.

Comments

[green_knight]

Tarot for Writers by Corinne Kenner

Ooooh, say a bit more? This is a book on my wishlist and I don't know whether it'll be useful at all, so I'd love to hear what does and doesn't work for you.

(I have managed to find a copy of the Wizards Tarot, so I know I like her general approach - it's a bit too steeped in astrology for my taste, but otherwise nice.)

[pjthompson]

I'm a pantser not a plotter, so I'm not sure how that will work. Characters usually come to me first and the plot builds around them. So I have to play with the book more and see how it goes. really, I'm just scratching the surface with his book so far so I will definitely do a write-up once I know a little better how it works for me.

[green_knight]

I can wait. I'm a pretty extreme pantser, and I don't want to design plots either, but I am looking for ways to break out of stuckness. Sometimes the words don't flow, and I need more tools to poke at the problem and rattle things loose.

One thing I've used Tarot for – which I wouldn't do with real people – is to find out what attitude other people have towards my protagonists. I'm bad at fleshing out minor characters (I have a lot of them; I tend towards ensemble casts) and thinking about other people's motivations is work I don't always put in, so that's been a useful exercise for me.

[pjthompson]

I'm just starting the character section tonight. (You inspired me.) Do I'll let you know.

Techniques for getting unstuck would be very helpful.

[green_knight]

I'll see whether I can get a post on getting unstuck together tomorrow, because in some ways I think it ties in with the idea of 'going deeper' - just letting things sit and wait for inspiration (or write on a different project etc) sometimes works, but I don't think it's the best solution all of the time. (Sometimes, it's what I need, just to give a project room to breathe, but there's a reason I have so many UFOs on my hard drive, and only one or two are projects that ought to have been abandoned.) I want to finish books instead of starting new ones.

[pjthompson]

I definitely understand that. My current project was stuck for about a week (more like two if I'm honest) and the problem was that I had to go deeper inside myself and figure out why I was resisting. I finally figured out it was because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to carry off the central idea and the story was right at that tipping point where I would have to dive into that. So I had to get over myself and just tell myself to write and that I would figure it out as I go. it's moving again. almost always when I'm stuck it turns out to be something like that, but that might not be at all helpful for you.

And here's a synchronicity you might appreciate. I just finished reading the sentence, "Don Quixote's foil was Sancho Panza," when your last reply came through and I saw the icon image on your post.