How to Get the Most Out of GoodReads

I love GoodReads. Not because I'm a writer - but because I'm a reader. Reading was and is my first love. Being caught up in a great story inspired me to dream of writing great stories myself.

Of all the sites out there for readers, nothing rivals GoodReads. However, many people join GoodReads, rate a few books, and forget about it, not understanding that the site is a tool for readers, not just a place to review books. Using GoodReads properly will help you find better books and find more enjoyment in them. It's easier to share what you're reading with friends and get fantastic spot-on book recommendations. It's a playground and a virtual book-loving heaven for bibliophiles!

So how do you use it "properly"?

Top Five Ways to Get the Most Out of GoodReads

1) Rate and Review
Everyone rates and reviews a few books, but what you really want to do is rate (review if you have time) every book you've read. This is important as GoodReads then recommends books based on those ratings. Automatically - just click on "recommendations" and there will be tons of them, all targeted to you. But the only way that GoodReads will yield the kind of results that will help you find the next book you want to read is if you rated enough books in the first place!

2) Giveaways
Under the "Explore" pull down menu is a wealth of GoodReads goodness, but one of the best things, especially for those of us looking for a risk-free way to try out new authors, is GoodReads giveaways! With a simple click,

Mermaid Body Found

Everyone's going ballistic over the body of a mermaid being found. Even the NOAA got involved, issuing a formal statement in an effort to curb the hysteria. News organizations are up in arms wondering why, stating that the show that aired on Sunday on the Discovery Channel titled Mermaids: The Body Found was clearly science fiction.

Okay, media-heads, you want to know WHY people believe this stuff?

No, it's not because we're dumb. Get over yourselves.

No, it's because magic and fantasy and mythology are things that continue to fascinate us, that make us sit up straight and pay attention, even today in a world almost completely explained and dissected by science.  We're fascinated because mystery itself draws us. We're fascinated because a part of us will always be that child trying to stay awake on Christmas Eve and witness Santa's arrival. We're fascinated because wouldn't life itself prove to be the miracle we know in our hearts  it is if creatures like unicorns and mermaids turned out to be real? By finding a mermaid's body, we may all open the door again to the possibilities that swirled around us daily back before the age of science. Anything could be true, even magic.

It's funny that the media is comparing this show and the reaction to it to The Blair Witch Project, because they are extremely similar and the forces at work that made that poorly-filmed amateurish movie a runaway success were the same as what drives this news story. You say "based on real events" and we hear one word: real. You say "witch", we say "really"??? You say "mermaid", we say "where" and "how soon can we book a cruise to go see them"????

It's the reason behind the huge upswing in the fantasy genre in fiction, this

How Do You Get Your Inspiration?

I've recently been asked the following question a number of times: "How do you get your inspiration?"

This is a time-worn question to writers along with the well-meant-but-still-insulting, "Where do you find the time to write?" (Apparently, we writers have just so much time on our hands! It's remarkable! Yet, most novelists have demanding full-time jobs, spouses, children, pets and a wide assortment of time-sucking responsibilities to attend to just like everyone else.)

The first question is not insulting at all. It's flattering. It is the innocent and fascinated question of a person who probably reads quite a lot; who read your novel and wondered, where does she come up with this stuff? Is there an ethereal being, the revered and also feared Muse, at her beck and call? How can I get this Muse to come to my house? Does she like warm cookies and milk?

The train of thought about creativity I just described is common. In fact, it's so common that a film, a late-90s comedy, was built around this premise of the necessity of a muse. It was called, appropriately, The Muse and starred Sharon Stone as the coveted creature living in the lap of luxury thanks to an army of deluded Hollywood screenwriters and directors who vie for her magical abilities. 

 

But the writer who waits for the muse writes sporadically if at all. No, if you want that magic, you're going to have some butt-in-chair time, hands on the keyboard, sans fairy dust. The only way to get inspired is