Reading Assumptions
Are you a one-book-at-a-time reader? Or do you have multiple stories on the go? For most of my life, I’ve been a strict one-book-at-time reader. I always feared I’d forget too much of the story if a book sat half-read for too long. Of course, if my interest waned in a book and I hadn’t yet pulled the plug on it, then my reading habits waned. I would be stuck in reading purgatory: I wasn’t yet ready to give up on a book, yet not able to pick up a new one.
Then I got into ebooks. Print is and will always be my favourite. I could heat our house for a whole winter, should I ever have to burn my book collection for fuel. (Of course I’d freeze to death first!) But suddenly, with reading apps on my phone, I could squeeze in a few extra minutes of reading when I was out and about. But I wasn’t about to pay for a digital copy of my print books, so I started to buy different ebooks. And now I’m a book juggling fiend!
It’s taught me a lot about assumptions—about myself. I was adamantly opposed to reading on a screen. I would scoff at the idea of reading more than one book. Yet, when I let go of ingrained notions of “who I was”, I benefited.
Consider doing the same thing. Question your own assumptions about who you are as a reader and a writer. It’s what we expect of our characters; you deserve no less.