 Hello Hello Writers, I'm Kristen Kiefer, author of fantasy fiction and creative writing resources and you are listening to the Well-Sturried podcast where I share insights, encouragement and actionable advice designed to help you craft sensational novels and build your best writing life, always in 30 minutes or less so you can get back to writing of course. Ready for the show? Let's get talking! So hello hello writers and thank you for joining me for another episode of the Well-Sturried podcast. Today I have a bit of a different article to share with you here. This article is more personal and not quite related to writing directly, however I do think that it may interest you and possibly even challenge you as a creative and as a reader in particular. And so today I am sharing with you why I set and then quit a 100 book reading challenge. So earlier this year I shared in a newsletter that I wanted to read 100 books in 2019. So in today's episode I'm going to share with you the three reasons that I set this goal and why now that it's five months later and I'm 35 books in I have decided to quit this goal. And along the way I learned a few powerful truths about life and happiness and where I steep my creative self-worth so I'm going to share with you those in today's episode as well. But before we dive in let's take a quick behind the scenes update at what's going on at Well-Sturried. First up I am coming up on the end of the second draft of Build Your Best Writing Life which is the non-fiction book I've been working on for the vast majority of 2019. I currently have 11 out of 31 chapters I believe left to go plus the introduction that I need to rework. I should be done within the next week or less and then I will be sharing that manuscript with beta readers to get some good feedback. So I'm really excited about that. I would love to put out this book by the end of this summer but I'm not quite set on a publishing date yet because I've never before self-published a book and I've never before gone through the process of working with freelance editors and cover designers and things like that. So the closer we get toward wrapping up this project the more I will be able to share with you about the publishing and when this book will be available. So stay tuned. Another thing behind the scenes here is that I am back on Instagram. I last posted to Instagram in September of 2017. I was really active in the writing community there at the time but I felt like I was spread too thin between all of my social media accounts. I was taking them all really seriously but in a bad way I think trying to use social media specifically to grow my influence and my reach rather than just being social. So at the time I felt like I was spread too thin like I said and I decided that I needed to quit one of my social media accounts in order to do a better job on the others and so I'm not the biggest fan of taking photos so Instagram was my prime choice for the social media channel that needed to go so I quit. But recently I have been really wanting to connect on a more personal and face-to-face level. I write a lot of newsletters. I write a lot of blog posts but you guys don't really get to see me or hear too much about my personal life and my personal creative struggles unless I'm sharing those things in something that I've written and so I decided that the perfect place to get more personal and more face-to-face would be on Instagram being that it is a largely visual medium. So I am back on Instagram now. I've got five or six different new posts up. I've been having a blast. I've also been creating and sharing little short five minute videos on IGTV that have to do with writing or creativity. So far I have two new videos up. The first is on creative resistance, what it is and how you can beat it and while you're probably going about beating it in the wrong way. And then the second video I have up is on three mindset shifts for creative confidence, for building creative confidence to be particular about it. And if you are not on Instagram, have no fear. I am also sharing those videos in our Facebook group at your right dream. So if you aren't involved there, make sure to check it out. This week, I also have two new guest posts to share with you over on the well straight blog. The first is five simple tips for conquering creative burnout, which was written by Jess Costello. And if you are interested in that topic, you can check out her article at well dash straight dot com slash creative burnout. The second article is five essential tips for entering writing contests by Michelle Cornish. And again, if you would like to check that article out, you can find it at well dash straight dot com slash contests. They're both really great articles. I feel so honored to have the opportunity to share them at well straight. And if those are topics that are that at all interest you, if you are struggling with creative burnout or if you are interested in writing contests, I will also leave those links for you in today's episode description. So go ahead and give them a read. If you would like to submit your own guest post to the well story blog, you can check out the guest post submission guidelines at well dash straight dot com slash guest. Do pardon me friends for my slightly croaky voice today. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I don't quite have my full voice today, so I appreciate your patience with this one. Today's episode of the podcast translates the latest article from the well story blog into audio. Titled why I set and quit a 100 book reading challenge. You can find the article that also serves as the episode transcript at well dash straight dot com slash reading challenge. Now let's dive in. If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write Stephen King. I've always been a reader, but in my early adulthood, my reading habit waned. Between demanding coursework and a struggle against depression, I rarely reached for the hobby that had entertained, encouraged and inspired me throughout my youth. This all changed several years after I began writing. I was disappointed in my progress and the quality of my skills when I stumbled upon this quote from Stephen King like a lightning bolt realization struck. How could I write phenomenal novels if I wasn't reading them? In the months to come, I challenged myself to call my mindless television consumption. A habit I'd picked up to distract me from the darkest days of my depression and to replace those hours with reading. In the first year, I read 24 books in the second 35. That number continued to increase until my reading habit plateaued around 80 books a year. And that's no stack to scoff at, certainly. But I've always been one to strive for grander heights, which is why I challenged myself to read 100 books in 2019. Now, five months and 35 books later, I'm calling it quits. Why? Well, that's a complex question to answer and one that's steeped in reflecting upon how I define my self-worth as a creative. But first, why did I set this reading challenge? To read 100 books in a year is an arbitrary challenge. There's nothing special about the number 100 beyond the cultural significance we give it. 100 years in the century, 100 pennies to a dollar, 100% score on your homework. Still, I set out to read 100 books in a year for three specific reasons. Reason number one, to continue culling my television habit. In years gone by, I had a tendency to read voraciously only to quit for weeks on end. Burned out on books, I'd turn to mindless television consumption to fill my empty hours, a habit that frequently disrupted my work as well. To read 100 books in a year, I knew I'd have to fight the urge to call upon Netflix in the first place. Reason number two, to immerse myself more deeply in great writing. There is an immense number of books in this world that I would love to read from novels to nonfiction, memoir and biography, finance, craft, history and pop science. Reading widely is a boon to the writer's craft. And the challenge of reading 100 books in a year would help in that endeavor. Reason number three, to claim the bragging rights. Yes, I would be lying if I said ego didn't come into play with this challenge. Setting a yearly reading goal is common practice in online reading and writing communities. And several of my favorite authors have noted that they read roughly 100 books a year. Knowing this only drove me to want to do the same. And perhaps to impress with my reading count along the way. With these three reasons in mind, I set out to read 100 books in 2019. At first, the challenge went swimmingly. I read nine books in January, seven in February and another nine in March. I was right on track until April hit. Between my birthday weekend and a week-long trip that didn't leave much time for reading, I quote-unquote only managed to read five books that month, a number that set me several books behind in my reading challenge. This reality led to stress in the early weeks of May as I struggled to catch up on my goal. And so came the beginning of the end. The problem with arbitrary self-imposed goals. To read 100 books in a year, I needed to read 8.33 books a month. Reading only five in April meant that I was over three books behind. Catching up didn't demand that I read all three of those books in addition to my monthly count in May. But with family visits and summer weather on the horizon, I knew my reading time would be even more pinched in months to come. I began to reach for shorter and shorter books, though they weren't the ones I most wanted to read. And I finished books I didn't enjoy, simply to avoid quote-unquote wasting the time I'd already spent reading them. In just a few short weeks, reading became a chore. If you aren't a Type A personality, I understand that this entire experience may seem ridiculous or laughable or unreal. Believe me, there are many days when I wish I could embody your easy-going approach to life. But I am who I am, and who I am is competitive and ambitious, often to a fault. When stress weighs too heavily in my life, I shut down. As I became more and more unhappy with my reading life this month, I responded with melancholy and a return to bad habits. I watched endless hours of YouTube, a cycle I found hard to break when it came time to work on whilst to read, an area in which I hadn't been struggling prior to falling behind in my reading challenge. Finally, after a few days spent in general creative crisis, I knew something needed to change. Several things, actually, as my crisis revealed other self-imposed issues in my creative lifestyle. But the obvious first change came in quitting my 100-book reading challenge, a task that required incredible introspection as someone who seeks self-worth in her accomplishments. The realizations that led me to call it quits. Earlier this week, I spent a long day questioning whether I should quit my reading challenge. I wasn't that far behind. I remained quite capable of reaching my goal. And did I really want to waste all the time and effort I put into this challenge these past five months? It didn't take much introspection for me to realize a few key truths. Truth number one, no time spent reading is wasted. There is always something to be gained from reading regardless of whether you enjoy the act. If I quit my 100-book reading challenge, the time I'd already spent reading would be far from a loss. Truth number two, this challenge was problematic from the start. I often mourn writers against defining their self-worth by the outcome they're able to produce on any given day. What difference is there between a scene written in 15 minutes and one written in an hour if both scenes need to get down on paper? Yet here I was chasing an arbitrary goal based on outcome. Is a book read in two days, somehow better than one finished in two weeks if I find both to be enjoyable or insightful? Better to glean much from a single book than to tear through several with little to show for the reading than a higher book count. Truth number three, I needed to break free of the comparison trap. I set a goal of reading 100 books in a year because that number often appeared in the mouths of some of my favorite authors. But every writer's reading life is unique. In chasing this arbitrary reading goal, I threw myself straight into the mouth of the comparison trap. Reading remains vital to a writer's growth and the mastery of their craft. But what a writer gleans from what they read matters far more than the number of books they consume. And something tells me that most authors tallying 100 books a year aren't consuming 1,000 page fantasy novels as I'm often prone to do. Truth number four, it's okay to enjoy yourself for enjoyment's sake. I often read creative and entrepreneurial books that rail against the mindless distraction of television and social media and video games. But what harm is there in relaxing? In consuming in a way that doesn't demand a productive result. Yes, boundaries should be set to avoid using these activities to procrastinate fulfilling work. But I'd much rather find a healthy balance between consumption and creation than guilt myself for watching an hour of the Great British Bake Off or chatting with fellow writers online. With all of this in mind, I'm letting go of arbitrary goals, of the need for strict creative output and consumption, of the hustle culture that so often leads to my unhappiness rather than my growth. I'm loosening the stays on my type A personality and learning to breathe free, a radical endeavor for one who so often steeps her self-worth in her accomplishments. I still intend to read voraciously, have no doubt about it. I'm currently tearing through The Raven Tower by Anne Leckie, not in the pursuit of the final page, but because it's a damn good book. A damn good book that I'm having a damn good time reading. So may it be for my writing life to come and for yours as well, writer. Chase what brings you joy. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the Podcast Writer. I hope you found it helpful to your writing journey. If so, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a new episode and to give the podcast a quick rating and review. Doing so goes a long way toward helping the podcast reach new writers and lets me know that you're enjoying what I'm creating. You can also give me a shout out directly on Twitter at christen underscore keeper. For additional guidance as you work to craft sensational novels and build your best writing life, be sure to head on over to www.well-storied.com where I share blog posts, workbooks, e-courses and other helpful resources for writers. Again, that's W-E-L-L-S-T-O-R-I-E-D dot com. Thank you again for tuning in to today's episode, my friend. Until next time, happy writing.