Jessica Titone's Blog - Posts Tagged "crazy-talk"
The Challenge
Pssst, come in closer. I’m going to tell you a secret. Ready? Here it is:
I don’t know how to do things in moderation.
This is definitely not a secret to anyone who knows me or has watched me throw myself headlong into any and every new venture. Most of the time, this tactic has not worked out for me. I’ve crashed and burned more than I care to remember. I’m going to choose to ignore all of that, because I’ve got a new idea for a project and I think my moderation deficit could work to my advantage.
2016 was a bad year for me. From the news and social media, I’m going to venture to say that it was a bad year for most every human alive on the planet. So, when 2017 rolled around I vowed (or resolved, if you may) to make it a better year. Actually, what I think I said then was, “I am gonna finally turn my life around!” But, yeah…you know.
One of my resolutions was to be serious about my writing. A few months later, I also tacked on that I would read more. As reading tends to beget writing, it just made sense. My mom ego did that then where it loudly moaned, “BUT WHEN WILL WE FIND THE TIME? THERE IS NO TIME!” I told it to hush and then quietly looked for ways to make it work. One step in the right direction was getting the Kindle app on my phone. As the phone goes everywhere with me, I could maximize the downtime spent pumping gas, eating lunch, or waiting in the checkout line by reading. It worked. In fact, it worked so fabulously that the gears in my mind started turning at an alarming speed. When they’re going that fast, you know you’re in for danger. My danger came in the form of a goal – an absurd goal – but the logic behind it was flawless.
I rationalized that if more reading equaled more writing, could even more reading somehow lead to words just spilling out of me faster than I could type them. I’m talking 1k words per day kind of writing. Or 10 pages per day, a la Stephen King. Okay, so 10 pages a day is crazy talk. Don’t make the mom inside of me remind you of how much time we don’t have. But really, if I read enough, could the writing come more easily? I bargained that it would.
So, I set a yearly reading goal. I set that thing at 100 books read in 2017. I was proud for a moment. Then terrified. But now, I’m mostly okay. My book tracker will remind you that I’m 15 books behind. In all seriousness, I didn’t really start reading like a crazy person until late February, so I think I can make up for lost time. Also, I’ve pretty much dropped TV which was a main glutton for my time. To up the ante, I added an addendum to my goal. I would read 100 books this year, but I would try to get them all for free. How the hell am I going to do that, you wonder? My handy dandy library card. ARC’s. Trading my soul for book reviews. That kind of thing. Also working gloriously, if you’re wondering.
I’m going to be writing reviews for all of these books as well. And working on writing my second novel Remember what I said about moderation? Yeah. 100 books, gotten for free, and reviewed. Wheeeeee!
If you’d like to follow me in my journey or team up with me to chase your own goal, feel free to friend or follow me. If you want to see me fail miserably because you’re one of those people who gawks at car crashes, that’s cool too. I’d love some words of encouragement and some great book recommendations.
I don’t know how to do things in moderation.
This is definitely not a secret to anyone who knows me or has watched me throw myself headlong into any and every new venture. Most of the time, this tactic has not worked out for me. I’ve crashed and burned more than I care to remember. I’m going to choose to ignore all of that, because I’ve got a new idea for a project and I think my moderation deficit could work to my advantage.
2016 was a bad year for me. From the news and social media, I’m going to venture to say that it was a bad year for most every human alive on the planet. So, when 2017 rolled around I vowed (or resolved, if you may) to make it a better year. Actually, what I think I said then was, “I am gonna finally turn my life around!” But, yeah…you know.
One of my resolutions was to be serious about my writing. A few months later, I also tacked on that I would read more. As reading tends to beget writing, it just made sense. My mom ego did that then where it loudly moaned, “BUT WHEN WILL WE FIND THE TIME? THERE IS NO TIME!” I told it to hush and then quietly looked for ways to make it work. One step in the right direction was getting the Kindle app on my phone. As the phone goes everywhere with me, I could maximize the downtime spent pumping gas, eating lunch, or waiting in the checkout line by reading. It worked. In fact, it worked so fabulously that the gears in my mind started turning at an alarming speed. When they’re going that fast, you know you’re in for danger. My danger came in the form of a goal – an absurd goal – but the logic behind it was flawless.
I rationalized that if more reading equaled more writing, could even more reading somehow lead to words just spilling out of me faster than I could type them. I’m talking 1k words per day kind of writing. Or 10 pages per day, a la Stephen King. Okay, so 10 pages a day is crazy talk. Don’t make the mom inside of me remind you of how much time we don’t have. But really, if I read enough, could the writing come more easily? I bargained that it would.
So, I set a yearly reading goal. I set that thing at 100 books read in 2017. I was proud for a moment. Then terrified. But now, I’m mostly okay. My book tracker will remind you that I’m 15 books behind. In all seriousness, I didn’t really start reading like a crazy person until late February, so I think I can make up for lost time. Also, I’ve pretty much dropped TV which was a main glutton for my time. To up the ante, I added an addendum to my goal. I would read 100 books this year, but I would try to get them all for free. How the hell am I going to do that, you wonder? My handy dandy library card. ARC’s. Trading my soul for book reviews. That kind of thing. Also working gloriously, if you’re wondering.
I’m going to be writing reviews for all of these books as well. And working on writing my second novel Remember what I said about moderation? Yeah. 100 books, gotten for free, and reviewed. Wheeeeee!
If you’d like to follow me in my journey or team up with me to chase your own goal, feel free to friend or follow me. If you want to see me fail miserably because you’re one of those people who gawks at car crashes, that’s cool too. I’d love some words of encouragement and some great book recommendations.
