Author: darin

Jump up, Bub!

What Has Become of Reading?

darin

Forgive an old curmudgeon for asking, but… 

What has happened to us?

Not to them. To us.

When did reading become something we only do if someone can summarize it in thirty seconds? When did every article need a “Too Long; Didn’t Read” version? When did we decide that scrolling was somehow the intellectual equivalent of reading?

Our primary education began with Fun with Dick and Jane. Our secondary education had us wrestling our way through To Kill a Mockingbird, The Scarlet Letter, and enough Shakespeare to convince us that English wasn’t actually English.

We didn’t enjoy all of it.

But we read it.

Today, children are handed tablets before they can tie their shoes. By kindergarten they’re swiping screens better than they can print their names. By middle school they’re fluent in emojis, GIFs, and acronyms. By graduation they can communicate almost any emotion with a yellow face wearing sunglasses—but ask them to read twelve uninterrupted pages without checking a notification and you’ve proposed an Olympic event.

Long-form journalism has become clickbait. Essays have become listicles. Books become podcasts. Podcasts become sixty-second clips.

Even our conversations have been reduced to abbreviations.

LOL.

OMG.

IDK.

SMH.

We’re communicating more than ever while saying less than ever.

We once learned to diagram sentences. Now we’re lucky if we can finish one.

We used to argue about what the author meant. Now we argue about whether the article was too long.

Somewhere along the way we confused having information at our fingertips with having wisdom in our heads. I don’t think we’ve become less intelligent. I think we’ve become less patient with intelligence.

Now permit one more curmudgeonly observation.

My grandkids read. And this Bubba couldn’t be happier. 

Yes, they have tablets. (Insert appropriately exaggerated eye roll here.) They know how to navigate technology better than I know how to reset the television after I accidentally change the input.

But they also curl up with books. Good books. They disappear into stories. They ask questions. They laugh at characters. They imagine worlds.

And that doesn’t happen by accident.

Their parents—my kids, and yes, this is absolutely a Proud Dad Moment—have made reading part of who they are as a family.

Because here’s what I’ve come to believe: Children don’t become readers because we tell them reading is important. They become readers because they grow up in homes where books are loved.

Maybe the future isn’t determined by artificial intelligence after all. Maybe it’s determined by whether a six-year-old still believes there’s magic hidden between the covers of a book.

I don’t worry nearly as much about whether my grandkids know how to use an iPad. I worry about whether they’ll still know how to lose themselves in a good book.

Judging by the love of books I see in them as children… I think they’re going to be just fine.

Writers Write

The Write Process

darin

People often ask about my writing process.

They want to know where I write, when I write, whether I outline before I begin, what software I use, or how many cups of coffee it takes to finish a chapter.

Those are fair questions. We’ll get to some of them in this series. But before any of that matters, I think there’s a more important question every writer needs to answer:

Who are you writing for?

I’ve found that once you answer that question, the where, when, how, and even the software begin to matter a whole lot less. Let me explain.

I Have Two Writing Offices

One has bookshelves.

The other has baristas.

My favorite place to write is a room in our home. It wasn’t always there. My wife, Shari, and our daughter Emily—with a lot of help from her partner, Lu, my brother-in-law Mike, and my sister Diann—transformed what had once been a closed-in patio into what has become my writing laboratory.

Most days, that’s where books are written. Theology gets wrestled with. Sentences get crossed out. Coffee gets brewed… and reheated.

But a few times every week, I pack up my laptop and drive two minutes down the road to Starbucks.

Not because I love Starbucks coffee. (I don’t.)

And certainly not because I love Starbucks prices. (I really don’t.)

If Panera ever opens within thirty minutes of my house, Starbucks may never see me again. Until then…

The truth is, I don’t go there because it’s quieter than home. I go there because it isn’t.

There’s something about sitting in the middle of ordinary life that reminds me who I’m writing for. Stories don’t begin on my laptop. They begin across the room—in conversations, in laughter, in tired faces, in quiet acts of kindness, and in people simply trying to make it through another Tuesday.

I write for the retired couple who never miss their weekly coffee date.

The college student cramming for tomorrow’s exam.

The exhausted young mom hoping for twenty uninterrupted minutes before heading back into the beautiful chaos of family life.

The DoorDash driver grabbing one more order before lunch.

The business professional whose phone never seems to stop buzzing.

The baristas who somehow remember everyone’s order—and still manage to smile while making it.

They’re the reason I write.

The staff knows me now. They’re mostly young adults just beginning to build their lives. They’ve always been kind and encouraging toward me and my work. In some strange way, I feel like their local writer in residence.

Every book I’ve written has started in my writing room. But every book has been shaped somewhere else.

In coffee shops.

Hospital rooms.

Church foyers.

Restaurant booths.

Long talks with friends.

Conversations with people carrying burdens they never expected to bear.

Because writing, at its best, isn’t just about finding the right words. It’s about paying attention to people. It’s about loving them enough to listen.

The keyboard is simply where the listening becomes words.

Writers Write is a free resource here at DarinMichaelShaw.com for writers of every level and every season. If you love the written word, I hope you’ll stop by often, join the conversation, and tell me a little about your own writing life.

Storysmithing Services is where I come alongside writers who have a story to tell but need help getting it across the finish line. Whether you’re starting with a notebook full of ideas or a completed manuscript that needs shaping, I’d be honored to help you turn your story into a finished book—and into the hands of the people who need to read it.