I discovered something horrible in my graduate-level creative writing and literature classes: I cannot read stream of consciousness stories. My ADD makes it impossible.
Because of my ADD, I have difficulty focusing on one thing for longer than a moment. I've discovered some tricks to get around this and remain a functioning, independent woman. I read a lot and can get through a novel in a matter of days (or within one day, if the book is engrossing enough), but no matter what I read--novels, non-fiction, short stories, poems, articles, whatever--I have found that I will read a few sentences, look away and become distracted by something else, read a few sentences, be distracted again and so on. These distractions can be brief or longer; I could just glance across the room or out the window for no longer than a second, get up to let my cat outside, surf the internet for an hour or do chores around the house, and then I return to the book. I could be in the middle of reading the climax of the book or story when I become distracted and don't return to it until later in the week.
Whenever my eyes glance away briefly and return to the page, I rely on memory and my word search skills to find my place. It helps if the book is more organized than my own mind. If it stays on topic, that focus can help orient me and pull me back into the subject matter.
Stream of consciousness stories aren't focused. The narrator goes on tangents, trails off, has random thoughts in random places, and presents important details in a roundabout fashion. And this drives me mad. When I read a story written only in stream of consciousness point-of-view, I become lost and stay lost. I try to focus and read paragraphs several times, but it doesn't work. I find this horrifying.
I have never had reading comprehension problems, but then again, I don't read stream of consciousness stories often enough. I have encountered books with one stream of consciousness chapter; I had no trouble reading these books. The stream of consciousness chapters revealed no essential details not revealed in other chapters; the chapters were intended as a break from the regular point-of-view of the novel and afforded readers glimpses into the mind of a character. I could handle that, since previous chapters had already established characters, setting, plot and conflict. But when a stream-of-consciousness section contains essential details, when I'm scrounging to figure out the rules of the world in the story and I can't focus and my head is spinning, that's when the format stops being fun.
It's disappointing that I will have to avoid this format in the future. I'm glad it isn't a popular point-of-view in contemporary fiction.
Because of my ADD, I have difficulty focusing on one thing for longer than a moment. I've discovered some tricks to get around this and remain a functioning, independent woman. I read a lot and can get through a novel in a matter of days (or within one day, if the book is engrossing enough), but no matter what I read--novels, non-fiction, short stories, poems, articles, whatever--I have found that I will read a few sentences, look away and become distracted by something else, read a few sentences, be distracted again and so on. These distractions can be brief or longer; I could just glance across the room or out the window for no longer than a second, get up to let my cat outside, surf the internet for an hour or do chores around the house, and then I return to the book. I could be in the middle of reading the climax of the book or story when I become distracted and don't return to it until later in the week.
Whenever my eyes glance away briefly and return to the page, I rely on memory and my word search skills to find my place. It helps if the book is more organized than my own mind. If it stays on topic, that focus can help orient me and pull me back into the subject matter.
Stream of consciousness stories aren't focused. The narrator goes on tangents, trails off, has random thoughts in random places, and presents important details in a roundabout fashion. And this drives me mad. When I read a story written only in stream of consciousness point-of-view, I become lost and stay lost. I try to focus and read paragraphs several times, but it doesn't work. I find this horrifying.
I have never had reading comprehension problems, but then again, I don't read stream of consciousness stories often enough. I have encountered books with one stream of consciousness chapter; I had no trouble reading these books. The stream of consciousness chapters revealed no essential details not revealed in other chapters; the chapters were intended as a break from the regular point-of-view of the novel and afforded readers glimpses into the mind of a character. I could handle that, since previous chapters had already established characters, setting, plot and conflict. But when a stream-of-consciousness section contains essential details, when I'm scrounging to figure out the rules of the world in the story and I can't focus and my head is spinning, that's when the format stops being fun.
It's disappointing that I will have to avoid this format in the future. I'm glad it isn't a popular point-of-view in contemporary fiction.
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