A Reading Journey: The First Steps

You have decided you want to play the piano. Step one, learn to read sheet music and identify notes that correspond to the keys. You have decided to become a carpenter. Step one, identify how to use a hammer, sandpaper, chisels. You have decided to become a gymnast. Step one, gain the ability to do one pushup. You have decided to ... etc...

We all know the adage, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” This is no different. I want to be an author, tell stories that people consume and love, and I can take them on a journey. When I first started many years ago, I sat down to write massive, epic, world-spanning masterpieces through a number of books. I was wrong. I tried to take the journey of a thousand miles in one step.

I backed off and learned how to write one decent book. To do that I had to learn how to write one decent short story. I had to back down to where I could step onto the treadmill and not get spit out the back.

Reading is no different. You have decided you want to read Wuthering Heights, or some other piece of literature, but you have not read anything since high school, and reluctantly even then. If you start at the hardest end goal, you will almost certainly fail. That will make you feel like this was silly, and you can’t admit to anyone you tried and the whole idea dies. Don’t do that.

Start where you are.

Literature, deep, life-changing literature, can be found at every size and level.

“Baby shoes, for sale, never worn.”

This is probably the most famous six-word story ever written, usually attributed to Ernest Hemingway as a bar bet, but most likely not his at all. (Not the point.) The point is, that is a short story which is real, and worthy of time. It begs the question, why were they not worn? Our mind fills in the answers and none of them are very good. It’s inherently filled with the drama of human existence. Short isn’t bad, but short can be consumable.

Stories climb a ladder: Dribbles (50 words), drabbles (100 words), flash fiction (<1000 words), short stories (<5000 words ish...), long short stories (10,000 words), short novellas (<15,000 words), novellas (20,000 words), short novels (60,000 words), and epics (120,000 words). And of course, Brandon Sanderson. (300,000 words or more.)

Length is not the only judgment of complexity available.

The older authors are more important than ever.

Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace is ~560,000–590,000 words (depending on translation)Anna Karenina is ~345,000–360,000 wordsThe Death of Ivan Ilyich is ~25,000–30,000 words

They are widely varying in length and all of them are very dense writing and hard to read.

People say genre fiction is easier, but it’s not always true. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror can all hit pretty hard, and be difficult reads.

Usually, if you have not read much of late and want to get back into hard things, first you need to find the entry point on the ladder.

Think:

• A hard short story

• A fun light short novel

• A short story collection

For most people who want this reading superpower the hardest part is staying in the reading. To sit and read, with no music or low music, no phone, no TV, no anything but you and the book, for an hour is a massive ask. Attention span is the world’s greatest currency these days, which is why reading trains you to reclaim your attention.

On this reading journey you have decided to take, step one:

1) Find a place with no other inputs.

You don’t need a large space. Face a chair into a corner of a room. Sit on your bed where there is no TV, and leave your phone somewhere else. I mean off, and in a different room. You will feel the desire to go to it and check whatever you check. Don’t. Here’s how, as part of step 2:

2) Resist the urge to check your phone, go near your computer, or in some other way distract yourself from the reading five times.

Time to power down

What you are practicing is strength of will and attention. I don’t care about the duration yet. Or the content. You must decide you will read as long as you can while enjoying and striving and making progress 5–7 times. 5 minutes? Fine. 10? Fine. An hour? You’re impressive, but the important part is to start carving out the idea that reading is a habit, and it is yours. You will be training your mind to work in a new way. Slow it down, consume what you decide to consume, not what the algorithm tells you, and learn.

3) Get the book physically.

Do not use an eBook, or an audiobook for this. Let me be clear, those are super valid consumption methods for literature. I don’t prefer e-readers and digital print. I certainly have consumed audiobooks, but in this case we are retraining our brains and resetting to the factory defaults. A book, which nobody can take, which doesn’t put up ads, and doesn’t distract you by its existence is the way to go. For short stories in science fiction and fantasy my number one recommendation is here:

• https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/

$10.00 a month for 20,000 words of reading. The cost of two cups of coffee at Starbucks, 1 if you live in a city! Their cover art is beautiful, and the print quality is great.

Dribbles and drabbles? (100 words or less)

• https://www.vineleavespress.com/50-give-or-take.html

Short doesn’t mean bad.

Find poems, find other short stories. Write me with a genre, I’ll find you a site or magazine.

4) Get someone you trust to tell about it.

Every journey in life needs company. The older I get the more convinced I am we all need more help than we thought. If you want to resume a journey of controlling your own mind, reading amazing books, feeding your starving brain (and if all you consume is internet slop, it is starving), you need help.

Tell a friend... we'll wait.

Ideal: Someone else who will read with you, and will stick with it.

Someone who is wishy-washy and drops out may cause you to drop out too, so be careful in your choices. However, someone who is there to listen? Also priceless. A best friend who will listen to you talk about what you read is amazing. When I tell my wife about books I read, they become more real to me. We talk about goods and bads, and why, and it is just wonderful. They can keep you accountable, and you can frankly... kind of brag! It’s fun to have read a book and learned something. Your friend may not even fully understand at first, but they will start to almost envy you a little if you stick with it.

That’s your first steps.

Find your place, find your piece, find your partner, and find your pentad of days (5 days... sorry the alliteration of “p,” overtook me...) and get started. I’ll be back with more soon.

Next: Ramping up, and building habit