When you’re reading something you don’t love, do you stick it out?

I’m reading a novel I don’t love but it held my interest to the halfway point.

Image via Stencil App

I talk about it a bit more in the Story Story publication here, but it’s Javier Marias’s first novel, I read some enthusiastic reviews, and so I’m loathe to bail on it.

Come to think of it, a lot of reviews focused more on what a great writer he is, rather than how entertaining the books are. I wish there was a way to know when “great writer” was mathematically equal to “entertaining writing,” and when it was approximately equal (which is kind of an oxymoron but “approximately equal” is a thing in math (I think)).

The Week in Creativity

I skipped the past two Weeks in Creativity because I was travelling. I still write when I travel, but I have to really fight to carve out the time and space.

Last week, while I was in Florida with my wife, visiting our kid, I purposely chose to work on the story design for a new project. That means lots of thinking about the story, writing notes by hand, and developing those notes into a full-on story project exploration.

By the way, “Story Project Exploration” is a thing I learned from a teacher and I’m hoping to share it with you soon. It really helps get things started.

This past week, I was playing catch up with my other newsletters, and working on some training courses in creativity.

I also read a lot during the trip, which was another specific choice to make it easier to do my writing thing on the road.

Here’s what I loved reading

I loved I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloan Crosley. It’s funny personal essays. She’s awesome.

I read an entire volume of the journal Story. I wasn’t knocked on my ass by any of the stories within, but what do I know.

And I started Voyage Along the Horizon. To hear more about it, check out my Story Story.

Thanks for reading, and here’s to happy writing!

All the best,

Mickey