I’ve changed since I became a writer.
My greatest relaxation has always been reading. Every summer, I’d have stacks of books I had looked forward to reading all school year. I read incredibly fast, so I could polish off a dozen in the matter of a couple of weeks. I could sink into the story and lose myself for a little while. With two kids at home, that ability was a luxury.
Once I started writing, I lost that ability. I can’t just read. I critique. Please don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I think I’m a better writer than those women. I’m not that egotistical. It’s just that I see things I might do differently. And I anticipate plots, sometimes seeing where a story is going so early that the book is no longer enjoyable. I also cannot let a typo slide. My little green pen is with me whenever I read, and I have to mark the errors. My father-in-law warned me that would happen.
My son and I have always enjoyed movies, almost every weekend we’d see something. In some ways, I have the same problems with those stories. KJ and I went to see “Spiderman 3″ yesterday. I spent most of the movie thinking, “I knew that would happen,” or “I cannot believe they resorted to that cliche!” I need fresh. I need unpredictable. Unfortunately, those qualities seem to be hard to come by.
I only hope my stories don’t leave a reader as cold as some books/movies leave me. I want readers to anticipate turning each page and be a little surprised at what happens when they do. I want my readers to love the heroes, flawed though they may be. And I want readers to see the heroines as gutsy, real women. I also want my stories to evolve as I evolve as a writer.
My mother-in-law likes to ask which of my stories is my favorite. Because I’m always changing, so does my answer.