Are you intentional?

Sunrise at Flahertys
We are having spring in February here in Indiana. Not sure how long it's going to last, but this week is looking pretty good! It is a time of hopefulness for Good Things to Happen and I'm pinning my wish-I-may, wish-I-might thoughts on that.

How are you all coming on your reading for the year? I finished Number 13 this week, a Maggie Osborne re-release, The Bride of Willow Creek, which was every bit as good this time as it was the first time I read it. Right now I'm reading an ARC by a good friend with an excellent voice and enjoying it a lot. Kristina Knight's Famous in a Small Town, the first book in the Slippery Rock Series, is available for pre-order and so worth the wait. I've also read wonderful new releases by Kristan Higgins and Mary Balogh.

I'm not ready to call 2017 a success--there have already been too many bumps in my personal road for that--but I'm grateful to Curtiss Ann Matlock for issuing the reading challenge. I have been more intentional in my reading than I have been in several years. Not every book has been a winner--there are a few I didn't even list because I didn't make it past the first couple of chapters--and I've listed a couple that I only read half or three-quarters of simply because sometimes the books are too long for my taste.

There is a question for you, by the way, in case you thought I might let a week go by without asking you one. Do you prefer long books or short ones? When I was young, I loved long ones. I have no idea how many times I read Gone With the Wind, most of Kathleen Woodiwiss's offerings, and some others, but now I like short ones. I love novellas, although I seldom read all the stories in the boxed sets we find on every shopping corner at Amazon. I think it's funny-peculiar that I read a gazillion series romances in my younger days, went almost entirely to single-title for a good many years, and have returned in large part to series, or at least series-length.

I just read back over this post, mumbling, "Geez, Liz, did say anything?" Well, I did, although it was kind of lost in there. It was the word intentional. 

We talk a lot about writing, about scheduling it or not, about writing every day or not, about (on bad days) whether we are really writers or just hacks with computers. (I may have made that last thing up, but doesn't it look writerly?) I sometimes get discouraged because I don't stick with my schedule or make my goals. I know Nan and Margie do this sometimes and I imagine Kristi, Ava, and Jana do, too. But the truth is, just as the the reading challenge has made me into an intentional reader, we are all intentional writers. If we don't make the goals or stay in our chairs until time to leave them, we are no less intentional than if we punched clocks at our office doors.

Yeah, I'm good with that. How about you?

Have a good week!

Liz


We hope you visit us on the web. I'm not going to list all our links here, but just in case you wanted to give us a hello at Amazon, here we are.

Kristina KnightLiz Flaherty, Nan Reinhardt, Ava Cuvay, Jana RichardsMargie Senechal's internet home is here on Word Wranglers, for which we are all most grateful!


Comments

  1. I have finished my RITA books, so am back to writing (yay on both accounts). However I have to sai I'm probably an unintentional writer... I grab time to write when I can, but those are too random to consider intentional. Happy week, Liz!

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    1. I think that's still intentional. Writing is still on the agenda--its place still get shuffled around.

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  2. Intentional is a good word--I've gotten distracted from my every-morning writing goal because of personal circumstances, but I'm here today and hope to be here again tomorrow--so yeah, intentional, even if I don't always get things done. Reading goal is coming along--I've got 11 titles so far and frankly, I'm counting the books I'm editing for clients because...well, because they are books and I am reading them. ;-)

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    1. They count, for sure. Like you, there's too much personal stuff going on to stay with an every-day promise, but we are going forward!

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  3. I'm very intentional. I know I have very few hours outside of teaching to get words down, so I plan them and use them to the best of my ability.
    With reading, I'm very unintentional:) if I think I HAVE to read something, I'll dread it. And, I like shorter books.

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    1. I admire that...what, dedication. I didn't have it when I had kids in school. I'd have 10K weekends, then go two weeks and only write 30 words I ended up deleting. I had the intentional going on, but goals (and social life anywhere but bleachers, BTW) were off the burner. However, it was the intentional that made me know I'd write books when I could. Thanks for coming by, A.D.

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  4. There are days that the best of my intentions...just don't happen. I've learned to live with that, and to make up the words (written or read) later.

    I like long books, short books, medium length...I did recently finish a book that I thought was too long and it made me wonder - what was I missing that everyone else seemed to be...not?

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    1. I think that a lot. Even on books I really like, I often skim several chapters somewhere between the middle and the end. I'm like you, too, i wondering what I'm missing.

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    2. PS: I'm thrilled that you're enjoying the Savannah and Collin!

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  5. Since I read mostly on the Kindle, I don't realize how long a book is. Lol but, I think optimum length is somewhere between short and long.

    I just finished Sophie Kinsella's My Not-So-Perfect Life. Which was great as always and I think puts me at ten books for the year. Going to start Kristi's today.

    I'd like to more intentional about my writing. Someday...

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  6. Am I intentional? Well ... I don't mean to be ... :-)

    I don't worry about the length of a book when I first pick it up--I figure I like the description and opening, or I don't. However, there are those times when I deliberately pick a short one because I know I'll have limited time, or a long one because I'm headed to a location where I'll have plenty of reading time.

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    1. Lol. Pre-Kindle, I used to buy a long book for a long plane ride. I never finished it--there was just too much to look at! A woman I met on a plane ripped out all the pages she'd read on that particular leg of a flight so she'd have less to carry. I couldn't have DONE that, but I thought it was interesting.

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