Mary E. Gregory's Blog
April 4, 2021
Might be a spoiler
Happy Easter Sunday folks! This is my first blog post and I wanted to take this opportunity to say hello and give you a little background on my book which may help answer some questions you have about some of its characteristics. It may conjure up an, ohhhh, that's why! Or you might not want to know, so then I would say, stop reading now! :)
Why are my chapters so strangely short with no rhyme or reason and then I just drop on you long chapters in Parts 2 and 3 which makes it feel like you'll never get through a chapter and why did I do this to you?!?! I know.
The short answer, I have ADHD and reading long chapters has always been annoying to me because it feels like I'll never get to the next one and then I'm negotiating with the book's pages and wishing I could achieve reading just another page and then suddenly I feel like a thirsty man walking to water and I never quite reach it and I'm parched, mentally, physically, with.every.word.
The second reason, a longer reason, is that I didn't fall in love with reading until I was in my early 20's. I fell in love because of an older man who walked around our grocery store talking to people all the time and he looked and talked like John Wayne and it seemed as though every time I was shopping he was there and he'd stop me to talk to me. I am very tall and so was he, and he found that interesting.
In one of those shopping discussions he shared with me his excitement about an author and a book series he had found. He said he had never been a reader and now he was almost 70 years old and devouring up books by this one author. I shared I wasn't really much of a reader either. I was in college so all my books were business and computer books and I didn't get enthralled with them, but I told him I would buy the book he was reading right away because I'd love to be enthralled with a book.
That day I bought Mary, Mary by James Patterson.
I had found my oasis! I was no longer a thirsty man, I was quenched like never before! Short chapters, brisk writing, enthralling scenes, this was magic, this was perfect for my ADHD brain. I felt like I was achieving something by reading his books. It was exactly the way I would write a book if and when I'd ever write one, I told myself. I then read every book in the Alex Cross series and even my French-speaking mother-in-law bought his books to learn English and she loved them as well.
I realized that the chapter lengths of a book are also part of the book in a way that I had never realized before. I loved how powerful a short chapter could be, a vignette, as it were. I loved that. I realized that my memoir was going to be a journey and just like any journey, it's slow at times, monotonous, uncertain, maybe even lost a little, maybe even a little explorative, but it finds its way. I put myself in the seat of the reader for every chapter and every word in order to feel the way the book felt as it moved through my story.
It was a slow process, I was writing 6-10 pages per week while working full time and often not wanting to write at all when the weekend came because I didn't want to be anywhere near a screen. However, during the times that I did put it down for months, the writer within me kept coming out and then I turned to writing poetry and later co-wrote a T.V. pilot and dove into screenwriting and found I quite loved it!
Then I'd pick my book back up again, bringing with me all that I had learned about writing and about myself and then I'd go back into the seat and start the car up and go on a ride again. The journey to write the book was five years in the making.
It's been a wonderful experience and I have appreciated all of the feedback and kind words and honest critiques of my work. There's not a thing I would change as I love nothing more than honesty.
The journey of writing the book as well as the experience of living through this pandemic and learning about myself and tapping into my resilience has inspired me to write another book. I'm currently writing the rough draft, and I expect to have the 1st draft completed by the end of May. It's called Designing Your Silver Linings Playbook - A Guide to Thriving in Difficult Times. If you'd like to stay up to date on it's progress and receive special updates and freebies, you can sign up on my website - https://maryegregory.com
I hope I haven't spoiled anything for anyone and I'd love to hear your thoughts about the book and chapter lengths or authors you love who have used them this way as well.
Have a wonderful day and stay safe,
Mary E. Gregory
Why are my chapters so strangely short with no rhyme or reason and then I just drop on you long chapters in Parts 2 and 3 which makes it feel like you'll never get through a chapter and why did I do this to you?!?! I know.
The short answer, I have ADHD and reading long chapters has always been annoying to me because it feels like I'll never get to the next one and then I'm negotiating with the book's pages and wishing I could achieve reading just another page and then suddenly I feel like a thirsty man walking to water and I never quite reach it and I'm parched, mentally, physically, with.every.word.
The second reason, a longer reason, is that I didn't fall in love with reading until I was in my early 20's. I fell in love because of an older man who walked around our grocery store talking to people all the time and he looked and talked like John Wayne and it seemed as though every time I was shopping he was there and he'd stop me to talk to me. I am very tall and so was he, and he found that interesting.
In one of those shopping discussions he shared with me his excitement about an author and a book series he had found. He said he had never been a reader and now he was almost 70 years old and devouring up books by this one author. I shared I wasn't really much of a reader either. I was in college so all my books were business and computer books and I didn't get enthralled with them, but I told him I would buy the book he was reading right away because I'd love to be enthralled with a book.
That day I bought Mary, Mary by James Patterson.
I had found my oasis! I was no longer a thirsty man, I was quenched like never before! Short chapters, brisk writing, enthralling scenes, this was magic, this was perfect for my ADHD brain. I felt like I was achieving something by reading his books. It was exactly the way I would write a book if and when I'd ever write one, I told myself. I then read every book in the Alex Cross series and even my French-speaking mother-in-law bought his books to learn English and she loved them as well.
I realized that the chapter lengths of a book are also part of the book in a way that I had never realized before. I loved how powerful a short chapter could be, a vignette, as it were. I loved that. I realized that my memoir was going to be a journey and just like any journey, it's slow at times, monotonous, uncertain, maybe even lost a little, maybe even a little explorative, but it finds its way. I put myself in the seat of the reader for every chapter and every word in order to feel the way the book felt as it moved through my story.
It was a slow process, I was writing 6-10 pages per week while working full time and often not wanting to write at all when the weekend came because I didn't want to be anywhere near a screen. However, during the times that I did put it down for months, the writer within me kept coming out and then I turned to writing poetry and later co-wrote a T.V. pilot and dove into screenwriting and found I quite loved it!
Then I'd pick my book back up again, bringing with me all that I had learned about writing and about myself and then I'd go back into the seat and start the car up and go on a ride again. The journey to write the book was five years in the making.
It's been a wonderful experience and I have appreciated all of the feedback and kind words and honest critiques of my work. There's not a thing I would change as I love nothing more than honesty.
The journey of writing the book as well as the experience of living through this pandemic and learning about myself and tapping into my resilience has inspired me to write another book. I'm currently writing the rough draft, and I expect to have the 1st draft completed by the end of May. It's called Designing Your Silver Linings Playbook - A Guide to Thriving in Difficult Times. If you'd like to stay up to date on it's progress and receive special updates and freebies, you can sign up on my website - https://maryegregory.com
I hope I haven't spoiled anything for anyone and I'd love to hear your thoughts about the book and chapter lengths or authors you love who have used them this way as well.
Have a wonderful day and stay safe,
Mary E. Gregory
