Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Stuffing Myself on Story

The City of Davis has been renovating our public library. For close to a year, the library has been housed in temporary quarters in what used to be an inline skating rink. It's time to move back. They are closing the library for two months to make the move.

Two months! Two months with no library! When I saw the sign posted on the library door, I almost couldn't breathe. How could I live without the library for two entire months? From October 4 to December 2. No library.

So people wouldn't have to drive all over the place to return books, due dates from books checked out at the end of September were going to be in early December. There were signs up around the library encouraging patrons to check out lots of and lots of stuff so the library wouldn't have to move it.

I panicked. I checked out armloads of books. Pretty much everything they would let me take. Fiction. Non-fiction. Books on CD.

Now I'm freaking out. My TBR pile towers next to my bed and I'm reading reading reading as fast as I can because they're so much of it! How will I ever get it all read? I've got a book in the car, a book by the bed, a book in the bathroom, a book in the living room. I've got an audio book on my iPod and a book on CD in my car. Everywhere I go, someone is telling me a story. My ever so helpful and logical boyfriend keeps pointing out that I checked all these books out so I'd have enough to tide me over until December, but somehow that isn't helping. I feel compelled to get it all read and listened to right now.

It's actually kind of fun, but there is no silence in my life right now. If I'm awake, there's a story happening and I'm beginning to realize how much of my own storytelling happens in those odd moments when there is silence. Not necessarily when I'm settled down with pen and paper or computer, but when I'm washing the dishes or driving or working out and letting my mind focus on something other than a story is when a lot of my big story realizations come.

So is story gluttony a problem? Do I need to join a support group?

5 comments:

Kristen Painter said...

Wow, I'm a little jealous of you right now. Until I turn my WIP in to my editor, I'm not really reading anything. But after that? Oh yeah, I'm going to read a big ole stack of books.

And even tho you have a lot on your TBR pile, I bet there's room for one more. I'm thinking something steampunk... ;o)

Stephanie Doyle said...

Story gluttony is NOT problem. Every time I lay on my couch on the weekend and read and read and read... I think to myself... I'm a writer. Technically it's part of my job. So really I'm not reading and relaxing I'm working.

Hehe hehe...I can justify anything.

Maureen McGowan said...

I hear you, Eileen. I do think we need those quiet moments to foster creativity.

Molly always talks about working out story problems while she's running, or pushing her kids in the stroller. Last weekend I spent a good while watching my 2 1/2 year old nephew push pretty red maple leaves around a park with a stick. "Raking," I assume. As awesome and captivating as that was... I think I figured out how to fix the first act of my WIP, too. :)

But enjoy your stories! And if you don't finish them in time? Who cares? Check them out again. That's the beauty of libraries.

Eileen said...

Hmmm. Steampunk, Kristen? I've heard Ms. Bramble and the Leviathan is an excellent choice in that genre! :-)

Molly O'Keefe said...

EIleen - I can't wait to hear what's born from all this stuffing you're doing. That next big moment of silence...watch out!! You'll have to tell us what's been good with what you've read!!

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