I CAN’T … Please Don’t Make Me!

Merry Christmas!

Okay, since reading seems to be on my mind this week, I’m going to stick with the theme. Because I keep hearing authors talking about their reading habits and how they walk away from them when they’re in the middle of a manuscript.

Whaaaaat???
 

I’ve always read books, but never in my life (before now) have I been addicted to reading. Yeah, I said it. I’m a BOOK JUNKIE! I go everywhere with a book. If I think I’m going to have more than two minutes of down time … I read. Oddly enough I don’t have any gadgets that make reading books in odd places easier. No e-reader, no phone with apps … nothing. So it’s me and the book in my purse. And it doesn’t matter what size (or what’s on the cover) I read only one book at a time and it goes everywhere with me. I feel lost without a book close at hand.

So, here’s the part that I can’t even imagine. Walking away from reading while in the middle of a new story. *gulp* Or at the very least not picking up a story in the genre I’m writing until it’s finished.

But … but … I’m always working on a story. (Either typing or thinking about it.) And the story always involves a love story. And since I’ve already established I LOVE reading romance and action and paranormal and that’s the type of stories I write, it would follow that if I didn’t read at all or even in the genre I’m writing, then I’d NEVER get to read what I love. How could I possibly do that? How do other writers manage to do it?

I understand the idea behind it. Writers don’t want the flavor of the story they’re reading to leak into their own stories. I get that I really do, but when I sit down to write I don’t hear other authors in my head … I hear me … or actually, my characters. That’s what I see and hear. I don’t think the “voice” of other authors bleeds into my manuscripts.

So what about you authors? Have you found your voice waffling because you’re reading? Do you walk away from the genre you love while you’re writing?

And readers … do you ever pick up books in the same genre by different authors and find they sound the same?