The Trouble with Being a Writer
... is that it can get in the way of being a reader.
Before I became a professional writer, I was a voracious reader. Once I got my nose into a novel, I was hard-pressed to put it down. I gobbled it up and it gobbled me. I couldn't read fast enough and the books couldn't be fat enough. I hated to see the pages dwindling away. I was so involved with the story that I didn't want it to end.
I still love reading, and I usually have several novels on the go at one time, but it's not the same as it was before I made my living as a writer. In those days I would open a book, look at that first sentence, and will the story to take me prisoner and carry me away. Though the reader in me still wants that to happen, the writer sits back and critiques. I don't want it to be that way, but it is.
Take the novel I am currently reading, The Triumph of the Sun. I am thoroughly enjoying the book, but instead of thrilling to every twist and turn Wilbur Smith throws into the story, I find myself analyzing his writing. For instance, at an early point in the story, Smith relayed the fact that if the Nile water isn't boiled before drinking, cholera can result. So, when the maidservant becomes distracted and leaves a pitcher of unboiled water, along with drinking glasses, on the foyer table, I instantly know someone is going to drink the water. Any reader with their eyes open would pick up on that. It's called foreshadowing, and the writer intentionally puts it there for readers to get the hint. It's meant to build suspense.
Fine. But here's where the writer in me gets carried away. I'm not satisfied with a simple "Aha!". No. I have to try to figure out which of the characters is going to drink the tainted water. David Benbrook and his young twin daughters, Amber and Saffron are out in the garden shooting down a carrier pigeon, so I know it will be one of them. David? No. There's no point. It wouldn't advance the story. Saffron? No. She is in love with Ryder Courtney, and there is no other rival on that front. So it has to be Amber. Yes. She swears a love for Penrod Ballantyne, and though she is just a child, she has already saved his life twice. However, Ballantyne is physically attracted to Saffron's older sister, Rebecca, who is enamoured with him as well. Yes! It has to be Amber who drinks the water.
I am correct. However, she doesn't die as I thought she would, so my mind instantly starts wondering where Smith is going to take the plotline now.
It's an interesting exercise, but it robs me of that total absorption I used to experience when I read.
Sometimes I wish I could shut the writer off, but so far, no luck.