How to Avoid Book Rut

Non-Fic Nourishment

People seem to think they must choose genres like labels and only read books that represent who they are or what they're interested in. I think writers tend to get themselves stuck into certain ruts, too, and forget that creativity is a limitless opportunity.

Ruts are for roads, not for lives.

Just as our bodies need a variety of food to grow and stay healthy, our brains need variety, too. That's why narrowing your reading list by writing genres, or worse, dividing it by fiction and non-fiction, is a sure way to eventually feel bored or unsatisfied.

This summer on vacation I left all of my writing tools behind, threw a romance on my Kindle, and headed off to relax. My son had different ideas. He spent a great deal of his time with his nose in a book. A non-fiction book, too, but that's how he rolls.

After a rather pleasant discussion in which I learned his read was historical and about pirates, I was hooked, and I spent my vacation reading Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates. Afterward, I felt smarter, enlightened, and ready to get busy on some upcoming writing projects. I also bought myself a copy of the book and sent it to dear old Dad, who exchanges interesting non-fiction books with me.

I loved this book. It's an amazing and interesting near-forgotten piece of history.

Adding non-fiction research and publishing to my repertoire the past two years has been an interesting experience. I've learned how to switch back and forth between voices and writing styles. I've also had the opportunity to improve my research skills, as well as my abilities to organize myself in advance for bibliographies and citations. It's a learning curve, but I'm happy to be on it, because I'm moving forward.

As I finish up my current fiction project this fall, I feel even more confident about the backstory and facts in my next manuscript -- and it's a fantasy. I'm doing better filing sources and keeping up with research links so I can back up what I say I know. Outside the office, I keep a thick, non-fiction book in my car to read while on the run (A Demand of Blood: The Cherokee War of 1776), besides the romance novels piled up in my Kindle. Yay!

I'm still reading this book. It's deep, heart-wrenching, and well researched.

So here's a thought: add a little spice to your reading or writing by forcing yourself to pick up books in different genres. Try to keep both fiction and non-fiction on hand to choose from. It works for me. I'm finding that my brain appreciates a little break from alternate realities some days. All it takes is just a good old dose of some non-fic nourishment.

Stay balanced,
~Danielle Thorne~
www.daniellethorne.com