Hey, there! It's Olivia-Savannah here from Olivia's Catastrophe and today I asked you
for reading and writing assumptions about me and I’m going to be answering
all of them. So this is a video that's going to cover reading and writing,
I’m sorry if you're here for one or the other, I hope you don't mind I’ve just mishmashed all
of your assumptions into one. And we are going to get started by answering them.
So the first assumption is: there isn't one genre you dislike. And I think this assumption
is correct, if I did have to say one genre that I’d be happy never reading, that would be true
crime. I struggle with reading true crime. But I also think there are a few true crime books that I
would like to try, and maybe I just haven't been reading the right true crime. So in that case,
there really isn't one genre I dislike. I sometimes say I don't get along with certain
genres – like I say I don't get along with dark romance books. But there'll be also one or two
dark romance books that I like. So, yeah, there isn’t one genre that I completely dislike. You
don't have one favourite standout book and that is definitely correct. I do not have one favourite
standout book. Choosing one is difficult. Even when people say choose five, I’m just like: “Ah! I
need to choose only five! That is- it's too hard. It's too hard to only have one favourite book.”
Another assumption is you have read Shakespeare's entire works – and that is true. I think Shannon
knows this. I have read all of Shakespeare's works and it was one of the best things that I did.
I have a video where I rank all of Shakespeare's plays, not his entire works, but all of his plays.
So if you want to check that video out, I’ll have that linked down below. But that was a lot of good
fun. And, yeah, I love Shakespeare, I’m such a Shakespeare fan girl. You enjoy books about
social issues and portraying different cultures – and that is definitely, definitely true. I have to
say those are some of my favourite books. When you dig into culture, you bridge into identity.
When you dig into social issues, you also tend to bridge into identity. And identity is just one
of the core themes that I love reading about, and studying, and thinking about because it's such an
ambiguous concept – identity, and it means so much to different people. And yet,
people really feel passionate about it and people feel passionate about their cultures as well so
that is definitely something I love to read about. Maybe I should do an identity books recommendation
video at some point but, yeah, I… I love it. The next assumption is that you love Shakespeare.
Why, yes, that is very true. I love Shakespeare, I have many videos about Shakespeare – I should
link some of those down below. You read every day and I think that is true. I think I read in some
way or form every day: whether that's only a few pages, whether that's listening to an audiobook,
whether that is reading something on my ebook. I’m pretty sure I read every day. You have bad
self-control with book buying and I want to say that's not true – but I think some of you guys
will be like: “what you definitely have bad book buying control?” But that is because I
don't actually buy that many books. A lot of my books come from other people's unhauls, which
sometimes I buy but sometimes they just give me, I also get a lot of review copies and I get a lot
of books from free little libraries or such. And when I’m buying, I usually buy with an intention.
The past month or two where I’ve just moved to the UK, I haven't been very good with book
buying and that has been because I’ve just moved to the UK which is an English-speaking country
which means they're English-speaking books. And I get some books from work for free and stuff so
I don't buy that many books, and if I do buy books, I very rarely buy them at full price. So
when I did my bookshop crawl and I was buying full price books… mhmm, I felt it. So I don't actually
buy that many books and I’m going to be going back into my mode of buying control again because I do
want to curb my TBR a little bit so I’m not setting myself in a hard and fast book buying
ban – but I’m going to be buying with intention again because I took a break from that when I
moved but I definitely need to get back on that. So I’d like to say I have good buying control,
I’m very aware of how much I spend on books, I’m very aware of how much I buy, but I’m also more so
aware of how much I acquire through different manners rather than buy and I think I don't have
very good book acquiring control sometimes. But buying control? Yeah, I’m very careful with how I
spend my money. The next assumption is that you've loved reading since you were a child and that is
very true. I’ve been reading since I can possibly remember. A lot of that has to do with having the
best primary school librarian that I could possibly have who I’m still in contact with
even though she is now retired. And also by having a mother who loves reading too and really wanted
us to be readers and while she succeeded because she has four children who are all readers. So
it's definitely parental influence and also a brilliant librarian combined that made me loved
reading when I was younger. And I’ve never had a period in my life where I haven't loved reading
which is nice, you know, it's nice. Maybe there'll be one in the future, who knows?
The next assumption is that you flit between books as the mood takes you and that is very, very true.
If you follow me on Instagram you'll probably see my Instagram stories where I talk about my current
reads and I’m currently reading about anywhere between four to ten books because I just like to
read what I’m in the mood for and my mood changes, not every week, not every day – hour
to hour. Sometimes I just want something that makes me smile if I get to read in that hour,
sometimes I want romance, sometimes I want fantasy. And I just pick up books,
sometimes the mood is even I don't want to be in the beginning of a book I want to be in the middle
or end of a book, or the mood is I want to start something new. And I just go by that mood which
means I just pick up loads and loads of books. I am blessed with not getting confused between
plots and characters and such. When I pick up a book, I’m just immediately thrown in and I just
remember everything that happened in that book and I don't get it confused with others. Each
book is very individual in my mind. But sometimes it does get a bit much where I feel like I haven't
finished a book in forever because I’m reading about 10 at once and I’m in the middle of all of
them. But you can also get some really nice sprees where you just finish a whole lot of books in a
single day. Those seem to be all reading ones, now we've got some writing ones and then we'll
switch back to reading again. So the next one is a writing one: you have a keen eye for details,
you try making things as detailed as possible and as realistic. And I would say this assumption is
right slash wrong because I’m 50/50. it depends what we're talking about: if it talks about
character and if it talks about theme, I have a lot of details. I have a lot of, you know,
fine tuning especially when it comes to describing things. As someone who is naturally a poet and not
a novelist, I really like the details. When it comes to describing physicality, like physicality
in a room, like there's a sofa, there's a pillow over there. I kind of assume that the reader knows
because I’m not someone who's a visual reader. I can't see anything when I read so I don't actually
care for those kind of descriptions – I find them irrelevant because I can't imagine the room
so I don't tend to write them. And other readers need that so I need to have more detail when it
comes to what's immediately around my characters. Another assumption is that I write contemporary
with more focus on friendships and romance. Again, another wrong and right one. I do write
contemporary – I don't only write contemporary, I tend to flip between genres. So at the moment,
I have written one contemporary, one children's fantasy book, a lot of poetry collections,
and also I’m currently writing an Afrofuturist science fiction kind of horror novel. Afrofuturism
tends to blend genres and I’m definitely taking advantage of that fact there too. So,
while I did write a contemporary novel in verse, I think that's the only contemporary thing I’ve
ever written and I don't know if I’ll write more contemporary. I feel like that's a very hard
genre to write well. But you also mentioned with more of a focus on friendships than romance and,
yes, that is correct. I pretty much only write friendships. I do not write romance in books, you
will not get any romance from any books from me. I love reading the romance genre, I cannot write it,
I am not a heavily romantic person. But I value my friends, I consider myself a loyal person,
and therefore there are all the friendships – lots and lots of friendships. I don't write in a linear
way which means you don't write from the beginning of the book to the end of the book – you just
write which scene you want and then you piece it all together. I do. So I have to write
chronologically: I start from beginning, I get to the end, that is the only way I can write.
I cannot just jump around. I just can't do it. I would love to be able to do that,
but I just can't. Fast writer this is very, very true. I average at a thousand words every half an
hour which is fast from what I understand from the people I’ve written with in like writing
sessions and such. It's mostly because I have a very detailed plan, I have everything in my
mind by the time I start writing, so I write. It’s just a matter of how fast can my fingers
type to get those words on the page. You're a planner not a pantser and that is very, very true.
I plan a lot: I have plans of the characters, I have plans of the plot, everything detailed plan.
It does mean that if I change my mind, I have to start the plan all the way from the beginning
which is a bit annoying, but yes definitely go in with a plan. However, yeah, however I
think my children's… erm… my magical children's fiction book didn't have a plan really. It had an
outline, but I did write that one in a very peculiar way which is different circumstances
to everything I’ve ever written since. So that was a bit of a pantser one, but that's the only time
I did that. Otherwise: plan official. Another reading one: I think you could read anywhere,
anytime, that not much could distract you from the point of stopping you from reading – and this is
very, very true. I can read with music, I can read in public, I can just read absolutely anywhere.
Nothing can stop me from focusing on my book unless I… I let it stop me, if that makes sense.
You never dog ear pages – designated bookmarks for every book you read. Very true, I do not
dog ear pages. I don't use bookmarks, but I have collected postcards and I put postcards in books.
Before it used to be business cards because you just get them and sometimes you don't really
know what to do with them, so I’d use them as bookmarks, but now I’ve switched to using
my postcard collection as bookmarks. I do collect bookmarks I just don't want to use them because I
like to keep them pristine, as a collector, rather than as a user of them. For writing assumptions
Hannah gave me a whole load. So the first one is: each project is personal even if it didn't
start out that way. Very, very true. I can trace a personal connection to each and every
book that I’ve written, or thing that I’ve written. Your writing is mood dependent,
you would struggle to write a happy scene when feeling down, etc. I think my writing is a bit
mood dependent, I would say. My poetry is very mood dependent. I would only write sad poetry
when I’m sad and happy poetry when I’m happy – and that's the way it goes. For my novel,
I don't think it's emotionally mood dependent, I just have to be in the mood to write. I can't
write when I’m not in the mood to write. So I can't do the whole thing where you have one day
and one hour and you write 500 words every day, or you write… you know… I don't know,
I can't do that, I just write when I’m in the mood to write. Hannah says nothing beats finding
somewhere new to write, makes it feel more like an adventure. I don't think I’m very… pulled to
certain places for writing. I can write wherever, whenever, kind of also like reading. But I just
tend to like writing in solitude mostly, so I’m not too adventurous with finding writing places.
A nice assumption here is that you write from the heart but in your heart there is a lot of
brilliant quirky stuff. That's so lovely. I do write from my heart, I always try to write from my
heart. And I invest a lot of passion and emotion into my writing projects and maybe there's some
quirky stuff in there. I think only readers will be able to tell that once they've read
something I’ve written, I feel like it's hard for me to judge that. The next one is you write every
single day and are really regimented about it. As I said before, I can't write every single day. I
would love to be someone who could write every single day but I just cannot do it. However,
I did mention that I write very fast so I think it makes up for it. So for example, if someone was
making sure that they wrote 500 or a thousand words every day – I could sit down for three
hours in a writing mood and then just churn out… I don't know how much, three hours would give me six
thousand words, so I’d be caught up if that makes any sense. It balances each other. So when I do
like NaNoWriMo or I give myself a full-on month to do nothing but right in my spare time, or whenever
I feel like it and really focus on writing and I’m really motivated, I can churn out a novel pretty
fast. It's just a matter of giving me that time. I just can't be strict about my writing – it's too
much of a passion, it's too much of something that really comes from the heart, so I can't- I can't
schedule it like that. You write first drafts slowly because you couldn't stand leaving mistakes
or imperfect sentences in it. This is semi-true. I don't write first drafts slowly because I’m a fast
writer, but I also don't like leaving mistakes and imperfections in it. So what I tend to do is I do
a light edit as I write so I’ll probably write 5000 words and then, if I’m in the mood to write,
I’ll extend that – but if I’m in the mood to edit, I’ll edit the first 1000 and I’ll probably leave
about a 5000 word gap. So if I’m 15000 words in and I’ve been in the mood to edit a lot,
I’ll make sure I stop editing at words 10000 so that I don't bridge into my writing space where
things can change a little bit. So I know that people say “don't edit your first draft as you
go along.” Yeah, I definitely do that. I don't do like major edits, but I’m not leaving any typos,
I’m not leaving any sentences that I don't think suit the story or don't describe things in the
definite detailed way I want. I will edit as I write. I write very descriptively, as I said
before, this is kind of a hit or miss – it depends what I’m writing that can be written descriptively
or not. Especially if I’ve got an image like a frozen still in my mind – I will describe that
amazingly. But if it comes to a character's doing something in a room and I don't particularly care
about the room, there will be no description. You seem very organized, oh thank you, so I assume
you're very structured, make a plan and stick to it. I make a plan and I deviate from it a little
bit, but not in a large degree or to large ways. I think sometimes, you know, characters demand that
they have this personality trait and you didn't know it until you got there. But I don't change
things drastically so I definitely do stick to my plan more or less. You spend more time working out
who your characters are than planning the plot. I spend a lot of time planning the plot simply
because I’m not that great at planning the plot whereas my characters tend to come to me fully
formed and all their own – they just spring into existence. So I can just write out that character
profile, I know everything about them, and maybe they'll add elements to their personality as I’m
writing the book. But I don't really need to give it too much time because they are there naturally.
Whereas plot does not come naturally, I always have the theme that I want to push and the
characters I want to have in it – and then I have to figure out a plot that is going to bring across
that theme that has these characters in it, and it's like piecing that triangle together. That's
what the plot is and therefore it takes a lot of time to plan, it takes a lot of detail, I want to
make sure my themes and images are coming through. Again, I think by showing that I have a persona
and images and themes, you can see that, again, I am more naturally a poet than a novelist. And
then my last writing assumption is that you try to write during the day, but you can't help it,
your best breakthroughs are at 2 a.m. on a Monday and that is not the case for me. I write
best early in the morning, I write best during the afternoon, I cannot write at night because
I suffer from insomnia and very bad sleep so at a certain point in the day I just crash.
I’m an early riser so I get so tired, let's say, around 8 p.m. that my brain just- it can't work,
it can't do what it needs to do, and yet I’m also in this weird phase where I can't fall asleep.
So I’m just not really at full brain capacity, but I’m not really able to fall asleep,
and it's absolutely horrible. I wouldn’t say at 8 p.m. I’d say that happens at 10 p.m. and around
8 p.m. I start to feel the effects of having an early morning. But, yeah, early morning I am up,
I am active, I am ready to be productive. I do everything best in the morning. The saddest thing
is that it's not morning forever, so I can't get all my hobbies, you know, achieved and done in the
morning. I do have to live through the afternoon and evening as well so, yeah, but that's the best
time for me to write: morning. Those are all the assumptions, I feel like there were more writing
assumptions than reading assumptions, but that was a lot of fun to react to.
Please let me know in the comments section down below: what are assumptions people make about your
reading or your writing and are they true or not? Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it,
hit that subscribe button if you want to see more, and don't you forget to hit that notification
bell to be updated every time I have a new video. And you know what they say: onwards and upwards.
Excelsior! You don't write linear linear linearly linearly. How do you pronounce that?