Battery Recharge

A few months ago, I received a piece of fan mail from another author, which is always a thrill.  She wrote to tell me that on finishing her own novel, she read mine, and that the reading of my novel helped her to recharge her writer batteries.  I was deeply moved by this because I knew exactly what she meant.

As a working, published writer, I write almost every day.  Part of me needs to do this; I feel oddly cranky and unmoved if I’m not writing.  And partly, you know, it’s my job.  If I don’t keep deeply involved with my book on a daily basis, the harder it is to maintain the momentum of a novel. And, the delicate balance I strike between mother and writer starts to tip.  So I am quite diligent about the hours I have to work.  In the life of the mommy-writer, it’s use ‘em or lose ‘em.

I also read every day.  A lot of this reading is not for love.  A lot of it is sifting through galleys sent to me for blurb requests, studying texts I’m reading for research, or slogging through books I think I should be reading for one reason or another.  But every once in a blue moon, I pick up something and I am swept away, transported.  My critical mind is silenced and I am a reader again. I am wrapped up in someone else’s characters, lulled by someone else’s prose. Any writer will tell you that she was an avid, rapt reader before she ever dreamed of putting pen to paper.  And most working, published writers will tell you it’s something you lose a little when you’ve been in the industry for a while.

Usually, it’s my own brain that keeps me from a book.  I’m looking at the stellar reviews on the back of a book thinking, “Oh, come on!  It’s not that good.”  Or I’m reading something fabulous and thinking, “Hey!  Why didn’t I write this book?”  But every so often, there’s something not just good, or even great.  Every so often, there’s something amazing.  And I always feel it in the very first sentence; I get a little tingle of excitement. I know I’m in the presence of a great writer, and I allow myself to disappear into his or her work.  And when I’m done I’m always sad, disappointed that the book is finished and that I won’t ever get to read it again for the first time.  But I always feel refreshed, recharged, like I’ve given my creative mind a little vacation.  I feel like a better writer when I come back to my own work.

These are some of the books that have recharged my writer batteries over the last couple of years, not counting certain classics that I can read again and again. It’s a short list of contemporary writers in no particular order: A Good and Happy Child by Justin Evans and Tethered by Amy McKinnon: Both of these books have the kind of gorgeous prose, rich characterizations and just the hint of the supernatural that make me weak in the knees. Mystic River by Dennis Lehane is this author’s masterwork.  All of his books are great.  But this one is a trip to another universe. Brilliant.  I loved, loved, loved Case Histories by Kate Atkinson.  Her novels are some of the most evocative, beautiful and thrilling on the shelves.

Writers don’t take vacations.  You can’t stop being a writer anymore than you can stop being a mother, or stop being yourself. That’s why the joy of being swept away by a beautiful book is so vital to our emotional and creative health.  Writing a novel is a pure act of giving.  When a book is complete, we often feel drained, bereft.  We need a recharge. To know that my work has done that for someone else means more than I can amply express. And to know that there are books out there just waiting to transport me, to move me, and to fill me up when the well is dry is the very reason I wanted to write in the first place.