reading books and becoming unsure about writing

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I read around 4 books this month (reading more even now), and it made me realize how unsure I am to write my short story: After We Met. This must be the reason, I thought, why I haven’t even written a word of it. Meanwhile CampNaNo is near its end. (My goal by the way is to read 36 books this year, at least 3 a month. I’m ahead as it is. 👍😊)

During the month of April, I read more than my quota of 3 books because I hadn’t read much the previous month. I’d been plagued by stresses then, not that I’m not now. The only real difference is, I got a new headphone that’s wireless which meant I could listen anywhere at anytime. That meant, I had no real excuse NOT to listen to audiobooks courtesy of my local library. (Or make the excuse that my eyes, after a day’s work, is too tired.)

The library is a friend after all.

Reading through one magical adventure after another, interesting or not, I realized how unsure I was to write my own magical adventure/s.

There are about two things I learned after this realization.

My realizations after reading.

One, I really like writing stories in the point of view of a ‘new adult’ (18-30 years old), but maybe younger wouldn’t be so bad to try writing. Two, I have a certain threshold for cringe, cross it, and there’s no turning back.

The first discovery was a nice discovery as I had a story I was hovering over for the past half decade that I may just change up. Or maybe another story.

The second was more for my taste in books.

I can’t stand fictional stories promising to be about magical adventures, but only hovered around “how adults think kids fall in love”. They say write what you know, for the most part. I know crushes. I know how it is to be foolish when having a crush and certain books just miss the mark for me. But this is subjective and quite irrelevant… at least I thought so.

It’s such a personal experience that it doesn’t seem like a good point to start with when it comes to recommending books. Yet, Goodreads is riddled with reviews of personal feelings. I didn’t understand why though. I would rather they explained why they were put off. Give me some grammatical reasons. Plot holes. Failure to create a relatable character or a character arc. The setting sucks? Okay. The attempt to incorporate Russian ‘flavor’ into the story, sure, I’ll take it. But to say “I just don’t like how s/he writes” as a justification not to read a book is… so strange.

Which is how I came to that second realization. It was a personal cringe meter.

So, I leave you with a question.

Why do people write reviews so close to their emotions as a way to judge?

My recommendations from what I read this month.

The links are Amazon Affiliate links to the audiobooks BUT these were all totally available to me for free through the Libby App (accessible to US residents if you have a library card). Yay libraries!

If you’re interested in what I am currently reading: check it out here. I am definitely continuing with the two series I recommended by the way. 😁