by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
I have a real problem with consuming, rather than producing, media. They say if you have time to write, you have time to read and I totally agree with that. It’s just I’m so wrapped up in writing novels that it’s a real struggle to actually consume someone else’s creativity.
But, I’m not getting any younger.
I really find myself thinking about that a lot these days. I think about my mortality all the fucking time. I need to hurry up and get something, anything done that I can query ASAP. But part of that process has to be consuming other people’s media.
I can’t just daydream all the time. I have to force myself to consume other media to get a sense of what modern audiences want, if nothing else. I can’t just keep rereading “The Girl Who Played With Fire” over and over again — that was some time ago and audiences have moved on.
And, in all honesty, if I had understood how long ago that was, I probably would have made some fundimental changes to the structure of the novel I’m working on. But, alas, I wanted my first novel to be “an old brown shoe” for anyone who had read Stieg Larsson’s stuff so, here we are.
But the fact remains — I have to force — FORCE — myself to consume media, as much as I just don’t want to. I have to fit some time in my schedule to watch or read something I’m not involved in.
I don’t quite know when I’m going to do it. Maybe in the evenings? That seems like a good time. Anyway, my life may be thrown up in the air soon, so probably need to kind of enjoy having a normal life while I still can.
