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| Me (on the right) on an awesome run. Photo Credit: Mike Foley |
The start of your chapter is kind of like starting the morning on a big beautiful powdery mountain. (Yay!! It's so fluffy, I'm so excited!!)
If you do a couple of green, easy runs, you'll be able to go for a little longer, take a couple more runs, right? But, if you start the day off doing super hard double black diamonds, you get really, really tired, really, really fast.
When talking to my good friend today (see photo credit), we discussed the way we read books. I told him that I have a tendency to read from chapter to chapter. I hate stopping mid-chapter, and will usually push myself to make it all the way to the end, no matter how tired I am.
It turns out, he does too.
If there is a really long chapter (30+ pages), we'll usually duck out for the night. If it's like a 4-10 page chapter, we'll stay in. When finished, I go through, flip the next couple pages and if it's another 4-10 page chapter, well, I'll read that one, too.
Moral? Long chapters are like starting the day off with a double black diamond. When you stand at the top, it's really steep and you wonder, "Do I really want to do this?" You open up the book to where you last left off, flip through the pages, and think..maybe I'll read this tomorrow...
Instead, if you stick to the green runs, the 4-10 page chapters, your reader (if they're anything like my friend and me) will stand at the top of the mountain and say, "Yep, I'm going balls out."
Happy Monday!
Great observation!
ReplyDeleteI actually do this, too (my upper limit is usually 15 though). Totally get what you're saying. Long chapters, even if they're AWESOME, when you're just looking at page count, seem daunting. Hope you're having a great week :)
Ninja Girl
You know, I really like to stop at a chapter break. I -like- to, and I used to really work to make that happen, but I've kind of loosened up about it. I think it's having kids and having to be able to stop anything at any time. However, no one else in my family is like that. My wife and oldest son will stop in the middle of a sentence, and it doesn't bother them at all. My younger son, at least, wants to stop at the end of a page. Maybe, my daughter is going to end up like me.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. I try my very hardest to stop at the end of a chapter. There have been nights though, when my bloke has come to bed and found me fast asleep, open book still in hand. I don't always make it to the end :-)
ReplyDeleteOMG, you guys rock. These comments totally made my morning today.
ReplyDelete@NinjaGirl, My upper limit is realistically more like 10. After that....I'm usually like "Umm...do I really...maybe tomorrow...maybe next week...?" Or I find somewhere else I can break at. I have too much ADD for a long chapter :)
@Andrew, STOPS IN THE MIDDLE OF A SENTENCE!! I'm impressed, and slightly jealous. I wish I could do that!! That's amazing!
@Sarah, I've had that happen too..or fallen asleep on my computer (I also try to write in chapters....). We all have our goals, though :)