My Brain On Books XXXIV - Reverse Thon
I am reading for The Office of Letters and Lights the folks who bring us NaNoWriMo today as I love what they are doing for literacy with their Young Writer's Programs and because I've participated in NaNo every year since 2004. I have been blessed to have it in my life and would like to give something back if only kudos and link love. I'm putting this plug at the top in hopes some who stop by will check out their site and see all the great things they do to foster love of reading and writing and story in kids.
This post will be organized like a blog inside a blog with recent updates stacked atop previous ones. I may be posting some updates on Twitter @Joystory and the Joystory fb fanpage. But this is where I do anything more than a line or two. Including mini-challenges that don't require a separate post..
Be sure and see my tribute poem to Dewey and the Thon she birthed at the bottom of this post
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| Meet My Reading Buddies: Grace and Jolly They are my sleep buddies and live on my bed but today they join me on my beanbag reading nest |
5:22 PM Saturday - Reading My Own Stories
That was a surreal experience. I targeted the two stories that were the inception of the storyworld. They both can stand alone but are intended as chapters one and three of the novel The Substance of Things Hoped For. Combined the reach close to 30,000 words. The first is 6K and the second is over 20K. And yeah with only one hour I made it only thru the first and about 4K into the second.
I'm not sure how completely I succeeded in this experiment in disassociation, of stepping outside the creator, writer and editor of these stories in an attempt to encounter them as I would any story. But I find it a good sign that I reached that coveted immersive state in which it feels more like a dream and when it is over you don't want to wake up. I woke up wanting more and felt sad knowing the 'more' existed only as outlines, musings. character sketches and scrambled rough drafts of scenes out of order. But that feeling also feels like hope. The kind of hope that can motivate.
Here are links to the opening scenes to the two stories I'm referring to:
Of Cats and Claws and Curiosities: Part One
Making Ragdoll Babies and Million Dollar Maybes: Part One
The links for continuing each story if motivated to do so are provided in the posts.
Well that wraps up the 2023 Reverse Thon for me. Now I need to write my Sunday checkin post for ROW80.
That was a surreal experience. I targeted the two stories that were the inception of the storyworld. They both can stand alone but are intended as chapters one and three of the novel The Substance of Things Hoped For. Combined the reach close to 30,000 words. The first is 6K and the second is over 20K. And yeah with only one hour I made it only thru the first and about 4K into the second.
I'm not sure how completely I succeeded in this experiment in disassociation, of stepping outside the creator, writer and editor of these stories in an attempt to encounter them as I would any story. But I find it a good sign that I reached that coveted immersive state in which it feels more like a dream and when it is over you don't want to wake up. I woke up wanting more and felt sad knowing the 'more' existed only as outlines, musings. character sketches and scrambled rough drafts of scenes out of order. But that feeling also feels like hope. The kind of hope that can motivate.
Here are links to the opening scenes to the two stories I'm referring to:
Of Cats and Claws and Curiosities: Part One
Making Ragdoll Babies and Million Dollar Maybes: Part One
The links for continuing each story if motivated to do so are provided in the posts.
Well that wraps up the 2023 Reverse Thon for me. Now I need to write my Sunday checkin post for ROW80.
3:11 PM Saturday - The Last NF of the Day
Just spent half an hour listening to two chapters in Becoming Heroines by Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin. Not the official audible version in which she is reading it herself but listening to the Kindle robot. That's the one I listed in the intro meme as the NF I was most looking forward to reading. And I almost forgot. Well, not forgot. I kept putting it off because I wanted to be more alert. This is a book I've been advancing my bookmark through slowly over more than a year because there is so much to digest in each chapter. I'm finding it helpful in two profound ways. The first is the one most likely intended by the author. Which is to develop transformative insights into one's own history (especially surrounding trauma) and distilling from them profound lessons that can be applied going forward toward creating the WHO you were meant to be.
The second way I find this book helpful is probably unintended by the author but it feels natural to me to take the insights about character, motivation and choice at the heart of her advice and apply it to the characters that walk on the stage of my stories. Especially the women and girls but even the males who have been subjected to trauma inflicted by those who use and abuse their power.
This book is helping me understand what makes me tick and that influences how I think about my storyworld characters and their motivations.
Well there is only an hour left now and I've decided that is not enough time to devote to the novel I listed in the Intro Meme as the fiction I was most excited to read for the thon. The Catholic School by Edoardo Albenati is one of those bricks. It is over 1200 pages. The midpoint of the thon was when I intended to settle in with it. After I finished the Romcom. But I spent the middle 8 hours struggling to stay awake, succumbing to sleep and then swamped by sleep brain so it never felt like a good time to tackle a very serious minded novel. And now there isn't enough time as I can't afford to get sucked in too much past 5 as I need to write the final update and then write the Sunday check-in post for ROW80.
So instead I'm spending the last hour with my own stories. Not in the electronic files tho but with handful of completed short stories in hard copy most of which are intended as chapters in one of the novels in my Fruits of the Spirit storyworld. I am going to try to encounter them as a reader instead of as writer or editor. I want to get a sense of how they live in the storyverse. I don't know how much sense that makes as I'm really struggling to put into words what I'm about to try to do: To read my stories as a reader and connoisseur of stories.
1:44 PM Saturday - It Was More Than a Nap.
I slept for 5.5 hours from 4:30 until 10. I was slow to wake up and getting back to the reading was more important to me than updating this. I did a bit of browsing in several NF but I didn't stick with any long enough to read a whole chapter so I'll not bother listing them. I guess I was looking for one that was compatible with my morning mind which is still a little bit dreamy and distractible. A novel might have actually worked better for that. A lightweight novel. But that is what I spent the whole first ten hours with yesterday and I was hoping for more meaty stuff today.
Well I finally settled on How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermasnon. I guess since it is written a bit like a parable it reads more like a story than a typical how to. And I think I'm finding useful suggestions for my own project for Camp NaNo that involves creating a story bible for the storyworld I've set two dozen stories in. Well actually it will be more helpful in the next step after the story bible is created and I'm ready to address the plot issues and story arcs. But Ingermason's method does talk a lot about the character sketches which are one of the main sections of the story bible and now I have a clearer idea of what kind of info I need to include in those sketches.
Not sure what I'm going to pick up next. I'm hankering for another novel but If I go that route I'll probably stick with it until the end. Not that that is a bad thing. It is just that I was hoping to advance my bookmarks in several NF books. I had a blast doing that in over 20 NF in the April Thon. But it seems I'm just not in much of a NF frame of mind today.
I probably won't update again until 5. This eats into reading time. So the mystery of what I spend the last three hours reading won't be revealed until after the finish line.
So instead I'm spending the last hour with my own stories. Not in the electronic files tho but with handful of completed short stories in hard copy most of which are intended as chapters in one of the novels in my Fruits of the Spirit storyworld. I am going to try to encounter them as a reader instead of as writer or editor. I want to get a sense of how they live in the storyverse. I don't know how much sense that makes as I'm really struggling to put into words what I'm about to try to do: To read my stories as a reader and connoisseur of stories.
1:44 PM Saturday - It Was More Than a Nap.
I slept for 5.5 hours from 4:30 until 10. I was slow to wake up and getting back to the reading was more important to me than updating this. I did a bit of browsing in several NF but I didn't stick with any long enough to read a whole chapter so I'll not bother listing them. I guess I was looking for one that was compatible with my morning mind which is still a little bit dreamy and distractible. A novel might have actually worked better for that. A lightweight novel. But that is what I spent the whole first ten hours with yesterday and I was hoping for more meaty stuff today.
Well I finally settled on How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermasnon. I guess since it is written a bit like a parable it reads more like a story than a typical how to. And I think I'm finding useful suggestions for my own project for Camp NaNo that involves creating a story bible for the storyworld I've set two dozen stories in. Well actually it will be more helpful in the next step after the story bible is created and I'm ready to address the plot issues and story arcs. But Ingermason's method does talk a lot about the character sketches which are one of the main sections of the story bible and now I have a clearer idea of what kind of info I need to include in those sketches.
Not sure what I'm going to pick up next. I'm hankering for another novel but If I go that route I'll probably stick with it until the end. Not that that is a bad thing. It is just that I was hoping to advance my bookmarks in several NF books. I had a blast doing that in over 20 NF in the April Thon. But it seems I'm just not in much of a NF frame of mind today.
I probably won't update again until 5. This eats into reading time. So the mystery of what I spend the last three hours reading won't be revealed until after the finish line.
3:55 AM - Finished First Book about 2:30...
Then read a chapter in a Libby book that was due in ten hours and put it on hold and returned it early. That was Quantum Supremacy by Michio Kaku. I may have to re-read that chapter when I get my next turn in several weeks. Sigh. I'm fading. Have been awake for 28 hours. I think I need to listen to my body and take a nap. The law of diminishing returns is in effect. The longer I read the slower I read. The last 30% of that novel took twice as long as the first 30% even tho I listened to the whole thing being read to me by the robot at 2X. I was just unable to sustain it without getting up and moving around frequently to stave of the drowse. I think I also need to pay attention to the fact this has stopped being fun. I am hoping that I will wake up refreshed enough to continue when my normal 8:44 alarm goes off.
11:22 PM - Still With First Book. Now at 60%
I think I'm in it for the finish line. I don't do one sitting reads very often anymore. I guess I should let the robot read to me more often. At least in books where language usage, diction and perfect pronunciation are not crucial to a meaningful encounter with the story. I'm am not just sitting there passively though. I am actually following along with my eye altho imperfectly. But unlike when I'm reading with only my eye I do not backtrack. Something about this exercise has increased my reading speed when I do turn the robot off. For awhile I am reading much faster than normal. Tho not nearly to the level of the 2X natural human speaking that I am listening now.
I was hoping while doing the 8:22 update that I would be finished with the book by midnight but I ended up dealing with a pesky computer glitch that prevented me from accessing my files so I could upload the bookcover. So I didn't get back to the book until after 9 after initiating a restart and walking away. I didn't place the book cover until just before starting this update. But the first thing I did after sitting down here and getting back on the desktop was to delete 90% of my downloads file and empty my recycle. I have a sneaking suspicion I'm running out of storage space on this 7 year old laptop. Tending to that needs to go near the top of my priority list. Just not this weekend, Please!
Well.... Back to the story.
8:22 PM - 3 Hour Sprint!
So I just now came up for air. I've been reading the novel I started with the whole 3 hours. Rather I've been letting the Kindle robot read to me at 2X because my caregiver put my dinner plate in my hand as she walked out the door at 5. Crab melts. Yum!
The Book? The Overdue Life of Amy Byler.by Kelly Harm. I needed an easy read (as compared to Tolstory say, or David Foster Wallace) for the first one and wanted a Romcom and what better for a read-a-thon than a novel featuring a school librarian as a protagonist? I've had this borrowed from Prime Reads for months and am now wondering what took me so long? It is laugh out loud funny. And I'm nearly at 40% after 3 hours.
The Book? The Overdue Life of Amy Byler.by Kelly Harm. I needed an easy read (as compared to Tolstory say, or David Foster Wallace) for the first one and wanted a Romcom and what better for a read-a-thon than a novel featuring a school librarian as a protagonist? I've had this borrowed from Prime Reads for months and am now wondering what took me so long? It is laugh out loud funny. And I'm nearly at 40% after 3 hours.
4:44 PM - Intro Meme I'm setting this to go live at 4:44 PM but it may be well into hour 2 before I check in again. I'll be joining the first sprint with my first pick sitting in my beanbag chair nursing a Kombucha and eating a sweet or salty treat.
1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
Kelso Washington USA. Across the Cowlitz river from Longview where I grew up and had been living with my elderly mother between January 2013 and late July 2021. I moved into my 400 square foot efficiency unit in late July 2021. This post was a photo essay of my new space.
So this is my sixth thon in my own home, counting the Reverse Thon in August 2021. I completely spaced out the August Reverse Thon last year and was so sad when I realized it.
2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
Non-Fiction: Becoming Heroines by Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin
Fiction: The Catholic School by Edorado Albernati
3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
i'm having real trouble picking a fav because for the first time in years I got to go shopping for my thon snacks and I really went a bit over the top, getting both sweet and salty snackies as well some healthy treats like fresh fruits. But it is intended to last past the October thon into the holidays tho (except for the fresh fruit of course). But if I HAVE to choose--I guess the first fresh watermelon of the year.
4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
- Widowed September 2020 It still smarts at unexpected moments. But at least it is usually only several times a month now instead of constantly. But September brought it back to several times a day. September was his birthday and the anniversary of his Mom's and my Dad's deaths as well as his. So it was still a rough patch two years out.
- Living alone for the first time ever. Just passed the 2nd anniversary of move in day.
- Legally blind with RP aka tunnel vision. Have only a sliver of vision left in center of right eye. The rest is shadows and shimmers.
- Have struggled with mood disorder of Anxiety and Depression since grade school
- Diagnosed with high functioning autism in 2015. In my 50s!
- Have a caregiver who comes in five days a week to help with chores and errands I can't do alone.
- I proved during this move that I have more volume in fiber art supplies than in clothes by at least thee times.
- I probably have double the volume of clothes in tree-books but since I still haven't got them all moved over I can't be sure.
5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
This is my 34th thon so there aren't many variations I haven't tried. Reverse Thons are especially challenging for me as it starts many hours after my last sleep and this time I woke at midnight after only 5 hours and couldn't get back to sleep before it was time to prep for my day of appointments and chores.
Doing anything but especially reading or writing for a full 24 hours used to be my superpower but not so much anymore. Now that I'm in my mid sixties the price I pay for that self abuse is significant as all my systems are less forgiving.
Also hope to do a better job than in the past of staying hydrated and getting up to move regularly.
I may be reading more than usual with my LOC talking book machine and BARD my library of congress talking book android ap as I am working a crochet project with an early July deadline: two lacey baby blankets for a set of twin girls and don't want to loose two days effort. This was from the last Thon and still holds as I'm about 3/4 on each and the Twin's were born on July 1st.
And for this thon I"m going to spend at least one hour reading my own stories as part of my Camp NaNo and ROW80 fullfillment so I don't have to mark a task as undone on my goals list. ROW80 is a writer's accountability community that gives you a NaNo like challenge and accountability community year around. Definitly worth checking out if you are a writer as well as a reader.
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Ode to Dewey by Joy Renee We Miss You Dewey |
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