Staying Motivated

For me one of the best ways to stay motivated when trying to write something -other than being in the thick of a story I'm working on- is to read, and read a lot.

So I've been reading a few books simultaneously for various reasons:

First, I've been reading Á Rebours, mainly because it's been on my list for a long long time and because it's about such an insular persona and really delves into the depths of someone's psyche. Kinda like American Psycho, only not in 1st person and not as violent.

Second, I've been leafing through H.P. Lovecraft's two shorts, The Lurking Fear and Beyond the Wall of Sleep. I chose these because of the tone, and the kind of, not level of, detail Lovecraft uses when describing things.

Third, I've been haphazardly reading Gregory McDonald's Fletch because it's not the most brain-straining novel ever and because it has a good mix of different aspects of written fiction. There's a nice mix-up of dialogue, immediate scenes and narrative summary.

And of course when time permits I flip through things like Self-Editing for Fiction Writers or something like that.