Reading Quickly
Tag: reading advice
4k today no stress
I know 4000 words are nothing to some people, but it’s a fair amount for me. These past three days now my numbers have all been over 3000 words, and it hasn’t felt particularly demanding.
Today was a day off for me so I obviously had more free time than usual but this technique has worked for me in the past even when I work full time or go to school.
It’s nothing new or groundbreaking, all I’m doing is focusing 100% of my attention on writing for short bursts of time then rewarding myself with a brief break. I’ve discovered one good way to time your breaks is to watch a show on Netflix (preferably one of the sub 30-minute shows).
Rather than trying to present this as polished advice it would probably be more beneficial to just write out my day so you all can see what I did and if it would work for you.
I started my day with a baseline word count to give me a bit of a cushion: 1000 words. From there I rewarded myself with a 22 minute break and watched an episode of Death Note.
I wrote 600 words following that episode and repeated until I reached 3200. I then gave myself a longer break to finish some errands, get out of the house, feel like an actual human and when I returned I knocked out the final 800.
The reason I liked this approach so much is it’s quantity focused not time focused. It doesn’t matter how long or short it takes me to write those 500 words, it’s the goal I set and the goal I have to reach. The break is then time driven because 22 minutes is enough to recharge, get some coffee, and let ideas percolate.
Why I think this idea worked so well is that I never fully exhausted my mind or my imagination. The ideas were still flowing when I took my break so writing didn’t feel like a chore, it was something I was chomping at the bits to get back to.
Anyway, I hope this helped.
Thanks for reading.
-R.K. Gold
Review: Third Life
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If me giving a star rating for my own book bothers people I will clear the stars, but I love writing reviews because it feels like a second author note right there on the book’s goodreads page.
There were no big announcements for this release or anything I usually do in the lead up to a book publication. This is an incredibly short (82 page) novella I wrote towards the end of my semester and wanted to publish. It’s one of those books that just stuck with me for a while; I couldnt shake the idea from my head, so when a friend of mine offered to do a writing sprint, I decided to finally give this plot the focus it deserved.
What makes this book unique for me is it wasn’t born out of a usual plot idea, or the dire need to create a certain character; I wrote it because these questions of free will vs predestination have been playing in my head so I wanted to write about a character who had no say over their life.
I kept it short, even though it probably could’ve been at least another couple hundred pages, because I didn’t want to bore anyone with these questions I just wanted to illustrate them.
If anyone wants to have conversations on these topics feel free to send me a friend request or a message on here, I am always up for a philosophical discussion.
As always, thanks for reading.
-R.K. Gold
Review: The Hundredth Queen
The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Before I get into why this book is only 3 stars I will say some positives. I was always engaged in the storyline; there was never a moment where I thought “I should put this down” or not finish. It was an entertaining and easy to follow plot, and though there was no massive world building the author also never created a confusing environment. Everything that happened had a complete explanation.
If you are worried about spoilers you should stop reading here.
The best part of this book was the villains. The Rajah, the Warlord, the warlord’s daughter and the first wife of Rajah Tarek were the driving force of the entire story. Just about every dynamic moment directly stemmed from them Kalinda was almost never acting on her own, but either under direct order or in direct reaction to something they did. In the end she decided to make her first proactive decision, which showed a good character arc I’m sure we will see for the rest of the series, but that doesn’t stop her presence from being underwhelming at times in the text.
Deven was also a little underwhelming, his only purpose centered around Kalinda, so he lacked a bit of his own identity, one I am sure will grow as the series goes on. His brother though caught my attention and stole every scene he was in. I was not a fan of their instalove either.
Netesa was so meh to me. She was the first sorta minor antagonist we see, but she’s so irrelevant throughout the book that their later friendship just didn’t do anything for me.
Jaya was my least favorite character (that you’re supposed to like). It’s just assumed their best friends on the first page but there is almost no connection between them except what Kalinda says. They behave like two women with a long (and honestly romantic) history, but there were like no flashbacks, and very few anecdotes to build the relationship up so I only knew they were best friends (or soulmates) cause the text said so. As such, her death fell flat with me.
Overall, I will finish this series, I will probably be entertained by this series, but. . . . yeah.
Review: Strange Weather
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I might go closer to 3.5 but I’m gonna round up to four. My favorite story was the first one by a long shot. The Polaroid man was such a cool concept for a villain. I wish I could’ve learned more about his history and about the metal that made his camera, especially at the end when the melted metal spoke. It almost sounded like the voice of Sauron in my head. Like the one ring was melted down and turned into a camera.
The second story was disturbing but was also incredibly well written and politically charged.
The stories in order of favorite to least favorite goes 1,2,4,3. I just couldn’t get into Aloft. It had some vivid imagery and great backstory but I just couldnt get into it. It was the only story that had a moment where I was bored.
Snapshot, Loaded, and Rain were non-stop action and thrills.
Loaded had the best characters of the three. Snapshot was the most original with the most potential and the coolest villain concept.
Rain had its ups and downs but I was never bored.
R.K. Gold 