This Afternoon I Learned Something Valuable

As November creeps closer and NaNoWriMo starts to enter my mind, I shift my focus to analyze my writing process as a whole. And I realized my mentality toward it as a whole is crappy. 

Last Monday, I wrote in my planner: consider NaNoWriMo. It was a note to myself to decide if I would participate this year, since of course, I had already considered it before. And for some reason, it took me a long time to reach my conclusion. But upon writing in my handy writing journal this afternoon, I discovered I would never get anything done if I always let my fear of not passing or succeeding get in the way. Which it has been, for years. 

Why am I not out writing, busting my tail and trying my hardest? Two reasons. I'm lazy, that's one. But two, I focus so much on the upkeep of having a perfect track record that I never stop to think about the limits this places on me. 

So of course I will try NaNoWriMo this year. If I only get to plotting a little or even just write 50 words, it would be 50 words more than I would have written otherwise. 

Why did it take me so long to get this through my head? Ah, the clouded mind of a perfectionist. 

The 5-Star System

There are so many reasons rating books is hard.

The comparison exists to make some books stand apart from the rest. I love the idea of having some favorites, some least favorites, and some in between books that leave no significant impression on you.

But what, exactly, are we comparing these books to?

In some ways, the 5-star system is rating books among genres. But because same system is used to rate books in historical fiction and fantasy, the historical fiction that I read would always have less stars. I find this frustrating because I like fantasy infinitely more than historical fiction, but I don't want to grade a good historical fiction down on the fact that it was historical fiction.

The star system is also used to compare books by a singular author. But if there's an author I love who has written books I love, I start running out of stars to differentiate the ways in which I liked the books. Perhaps one's plot was on par, and another had good characters, and yet another had a good message. Nothing is done to contrast the meaning behind the 5 stars I've given each.

Or perhaps the book is just being compared to itself. When rating books, this is the only way I can stand to do it. Does it have a good plot? Writing style? Likable characters? All of these things contribute to whether or not I like something.

But until I can explain my rating in words, the star system seems insufficient in doing what I'm trying to accomplish.

I use the 5-star system because it's universal. Goodreads uses it, and everyone understands the scale of "terrible" to "amazing." And I'm lazy, so I rarely write out my own reviews.

Despite my lack of motivation to write reviews, I still get angry whenever I think of the 5-star system. Maybe I should start rating books based on multiple categories. Maybe I'll come up with my own system sometime.