Over winter break, I really want to get back into reading. I didn’t have much time to read anything for fun for about the last three weeks of the semester, so I figured I would keep track of what I’ve read since I’ve been home. Also, I always think it’s interesting to see how various authors influence your own writing. I wonder if the following books are inspiring what I’ve written, even subconsciously.

The Liar by Stephen Fry

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

I also intend to finally get around to reading the Lord of the Rings series (I know, I’ve only seen the movies and read The Hobbit! How embarrassing!) as well as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.

Also, I’ve been listening to the following songs on repeat for inspiration, all of which I highly recommend:

“Gun” – Emiliana Torrini

“Dirty Paws” – Of Monsters and Men

“The Lobster Quadrille” – Franz Ferdinand

“Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above” – CSS

“Radioactive” – Imagine Dragons

Writing dialogue is always difficult, especially for someone who more prefers introspective writing like me. There’s the problem of making it sound like everyday speech (made more difficult when you’re writing something set in a different time period), and then there’s the problem of keeping individual characters’ voices distinct and interesting.

That said, I’ve completed one conversation (!) for a novel that I’m thinking of turning into an eventual graduate thesis. I would say I’d make it my IS, but it requires a LOT of research, and I don’t think I can finish it in one school year. If you’re wondering, the conversation is about the concept of an outsider within society–who decides who is outside and who is inside and why. It also touches on class and race in 1919, the year my novel is set in.

On top of that, I’ve written a couple random essays (I don’t know what else to call them) that are really more like a stream of thoughts from my head on various subjects. I don’t know what I’ll do with them, or even if I’ll ever use them in my future writings, but it always feels good to get these things out on paper (or rather, on Microsoft Word) so they aren’t cluttering up my brain.

I haven’t really set a word count goal, because once it’s out there, I would feel pressured to meet it, and I know I never would. I don’t want to disappoint myself–or anybody else who might be reading this.