Two of the Three R's go Hand in Hand

As some of you know, I have been in a heck of a reading slump.  I started a book at the end of January (2 months ago at the time of this writing) and I am not finished yet.  This is pretty unusual for me but it's not the first time its happened.

I read all the time, and once every so often my desire to read wanes slightly and I find myself getting wrapped up in something else.  It's usually for only a few weeks and then I'm back to devouring books as voraciously as ever before.  I am currently in that state.  I blame you, Hellfire!

I joined the Goodreads Reading Challenge this year, as I did last year.  Last year I came out ahead of my goal which was pretty awesome.  If you haven't guessed by now I am a bit of an over achiever.  This year I knew I was going to be putting a lot of effort into writing so I backed down my commitment.

Thanks to this slump I'm currently 3 books behind on making my goal.  This is a new state for me, I spent all of 2012 ahead of the game so I'm pretty sure Goodreads was worried.  They were likely wondering if I had been kidnapped or if all my books had perished in a fire.

Well I didn't notice it until very recently but I started a different slump around the same time.  I noticed that my writing was suffering as well.

I wasn't as motivated to write.  When I would sit down I was distracted by Facebook and shoes and I noticed I was only getting about a page or two in a night when, before that, I was getting 5-10.

Not only did going to the Boston Author Event get me motivated to write again it got me reading again too.  I wasn't worried about my desire to read coming back.  I knew it would and I will still most likely end up ahead on my reading goal.

I have read countless interviews and how-to articles and books that all say if you want to be a good writer you have to be a reader.

And that really resonated with me.  I did read a lot.  So I didn't really give it a second thought when I started my slump.  What I realized is that, for me, reading is a very important part of my writing process.

Some interviews of authors tell stories of alternating between reading books and writing.  Others say that they have to read 20-30 pages of a book before each and every time they sit down to write.

I think I might be in the group that needs the latter.  It really gets the creative juices flowing and gets me really excited to see how my story is going to play out on paper.

When my reading when on hiatus, so did my writing.  Now that I have my motivation back to read I noticed the motivation to write is stronger and so is the caliber of my work.

So chalk this one up to lessons learned along the way!

Now I know.

What about you?