Ford Madox Ford is credited with this diverting way to determine if he were interested in investing his time in an unread book. He simply turned to page 99 and read it.
By that point, he was past the often over-polished opening, and far enough into the book that the writer should have hit her stride.
What interested me was whether this method could reasonably be applied to the SOL stories most of us check out in a more conventional manner:
Note who the author is. Read the Description. Consider the sexual, or not, components. Determine whether the story is finished.
Then, when the evaluation meets enough of our criteria, most of us click on Chapter 1 and begin slogging through. Or not.
I’m going to experiment by diving into a later Chapter just to see what my level of interest is. (Since I read only my own stories here, I expect to be more than satisfied.)
You’re welcome,
Paige