A Stat That Makes Sense
I heard a stat in my pastor's sermon this week that was not a "good news" stat, but one that made a lot of sense to me. I keep hearing at writer's conferences that book sales are increasing. The writer audience applauds, but this stat never rings true for me because people are exhausted. We have so little time.
The stat I heard at church was that although book sales are up, Americans read 20% less than they did 20 years ago. Now I get it. We buy more books, but don't read them. I have so many books that I've never read, but intend to. And I keep buying more. I also borrow from friends and get loans from the library, but never have time to read them all.
Why do I care? I struggle with the decision of what to write. I write just about everything, except poetry and feel I need a writing focus. The big struggle is always "Do I make this story a screenplay or a novel?"
Watching TV and movies is much more passive than reading, so I hate to say it, but as time goes on, we will all watch our entertainment more than read it, especially with the advent of digital technologies. Many of these entertainment products will be local access TV and straight-to-DVD movies. Can't wait to see if I'm right. I won't stop writing novels, but I am structuring them so I can rewrite them easily as screenplays.
I heard a stat in my pastor's sermon this week that was not a "good news" stat, but one that made a lot of sense to me. I keep hearing at writer's conferences that book sales are increasing. The writer audience applauds, but this stat never rings true for me because people are exhausted. We have so little time.
The stat I heard at church was that although book sales are up, Americans read 20% less than they did 20 years ago. Now I get it. We buy more books, but don't read them. I have so many books that I've never read, but intend to. And I keep buying more. I also borrow from friends and get loans from the library, but never have time to read them all.
Why do I care? I struggle with the decision of what to write. I write just about everything, except poetry and feel I need a writing focus. The big struggle is always "Do I make this story a screenplay or a novel?"
Watching TV and movies is much more passive than reading, so I hate to say it, but as time goes on, we will all watch our entertainment more than read it, especially with the advent of digital technologies. Many of these entertainment products will be local access TV and straight-to-DVD movies. Can't wait to see if I'm right. I won't stop writing novels, but I am structuring them so I can rewrite them easily as screenplays.
posted by Cynthia Duck at
9:47 PM
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