Reading vs. Writing: The Epic Battle

Have you ever found that you have something you want to write, say a piece of a bigger story you are still thinking over, but you also have a book or ten you want to read?  I find that I run into that very conundrum all the time!  I tend to have any number of stories churning in my mind at any given moment, and yet if I don't feel like I have a place to go with any of them just yet I become one of the easiest people in the world to distract.  Books tend to be my main distraction, and since I have something of a problem where I collect them, the distraction is no small one.  What kinds of books you ask?  Oh, all kinds!  I don't like to limit my collection to any particular genre or topic.

However, I have found that I tend to go through phases where I collect books on specific things.  I am currently on something of a Sherlock Holmes kick where I am not only reading the original series by Conan Doyle, but have also expanded to include books by other authors where Holmes is a key player in the stories though maybe not the main character.  One such series would be the Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King.  They take place once Holmes has retired.  He meets Miss Russell quite by chance, and they form an unlikely friendship as they solve crimes together across the 13 or so books Ms. King has published thus far.


I have gone through other phases, as well, though they haven't always been limited to fiction.  I went through rather extended periods of fixating on the Plantagenets (ranging from the reign of Henry II through Richard I and concluding with John I) and World War I (primarily the first six weeks). 

The former began as a result of my reading Pamela Kaufman's Shield of Three Lions and its sequel, Banners of Gold.  I loved how she described the time period and the people, and while I wasn't crazy about her heroine, I loved the world that she inhabited.  So, I started collecting books on the time period and the prominent figures of the day.  I collected history books as well as other works of fiction, but the historical texts far outweighed the others, and I began to get immersed in the time period.  As a result, I started writing my first novel based on the same time period, but with drastically different characters and interactions.  That is the book (or book series) that is closet to my heart, and the one that is going to take the longest for me to finish. 




In regards to the latter obsession, I studied the first six weeks of WWI in college as a series of independent studies with one of my favorite professors.  I have an alarming number of books, none of them fiction, on everything related to those first six weeks (or as I like to refer to it: the days of the Schlieffen Plan!! see map below) and a few that talk about the greater war.  I studied the battles, the leaders, the plans, the theories behind the plans, the scholarly debate currently in existence, and any number of other things related to that period in history.  Consequently, I bought books to help me in my studies, and my professor even gave me a few to help me on my journey to obsessing over a six week period that took place nearly 100 years ago.  Ironically, I haven't written anything on this particular period of time.  However, in the last couple of years, I have started to toy with the idea of having a story based not only in the first six weeks, but that was weaved throughout the larger war.  Who knows how that will go?  But it's always fun to think about it, and even jot down a few ideas here and there.




Apart from those rather focused batches of books, I have accumulated a wide array of historical fiction generally dealing with Europe (especially England) and a number of nonfiction books on some of the larger conflicts (be it wars or political) that have taken place in the last 100 years or so.  I've also started to branch out into reading (and buying) science fiction and the occasional fantasy novel.  Ender's Game was a bit of a game changer for me.  I loved it, and I never thought I would enjoy reading about anything in space.  Angelfall was another one that got me thinking about stories beyond mere mortals.  And both of them got me thinking and writing about topics I never would have imagined had I not read books that painted pictures of other worlds (though both were based on Earth) so well.  Hopefully through more reading, even if it is a result of distraction, my writing will one day be able to contribute to opening the eyes of other hopeful writers out there who are waiting to get their inspiration, too.
 

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