Image by Adrian van Leen
It seems so obvious that you may well be wondering why I’d bother writing a blog post about it. Really, though, it’s one of the best things you can do to improve your writing. Reading a lot not only broadens your overall experience, but can give you a number of handy hints for your writing career.
This is something I noticed when I started taking my writing seriously. I’ve been a reader all my life, and have rarely been without a book or two on the go. My mother even used to put old magazines in my cot when I was a baby to occupy me when I woke up, giving her fifteen or twenty precious minutes before I called out to her. Reading is a huge part of who I am.
Anyway, once I started thinking about writing, I started to notice things about the books I was reading. Storytelling techniques (both good and bad), use of dialogue, examples of show rather than tell – all of those basic stock things that you have at the back of your mind when you write, were there when I read.
I’m a lot more critical now, I admit that. I have read books by previously adored authors and pulled them apart as I read, thinking of ways the plot could have unfolded more smoothly. I have looked at published books and been astonished at their predictability and the corners they cut in exposition. I have, in short, been critiquing them in my head.
Of course, the opposite has been true as well. There are books I’ve read where I’ve been in awe of the work that went into them. Accurate and detailed research cannot be faked, and as someone who has done that sort of research for a particular niche I appreciate the effort involved. I have been amazed by plot twists and been left hanging after every cliffhanger, dying to know what happens next. As such, I have begun to appreciate the quality of what I’m reading, especially when it’s by an established and successful author, and I’ve learned a bundle from it.
So, read. Read because you enjoy it – because if you don’t enjoy reading, then what are you doing writing in the first place? Read as a reader … but also read as a writer. Think about not only the content of the narrative, but also how it’s been put together. Think about how the sentences and paragraphs flow, and how you might be able to apply the techniques used to your own writing. Think about what you can learn from them. I know I do.
Yes, as writers, we find inspiration and instruction in the books of others so I read often, but it isn’t enough to keep my to-read list at bay. In fact, every day it gets longer.
Oh, I hear you. My to-read list is horrendously long, and it seems like I’m adding to it almost every day. But I am making the effort to get through it, and I’m getting a lot out of every book I read. And don’t you think that’s as it should be?
I find it really strange when people tell me “I don’t have time to read.” I feel like saying, “…then you don’t have time to breathe – get out of my sight!”
I always have a few books on the go at any one time, usually different genres for different moods, but I always have to read before bed. I don’t understand how people can sleep without reading first.
Since I have been actively writing, I’ve had a similar experience to you in finding myself increasingly observant and critical of the books I read. This sort of annoys me. Sometimes I just want to read for the fun of it, rather than lying in bed thinking, “oh WHY would you use that participle there…” but at other times it is great because the books I’m reading often show me how to improve my own writing, whether by showing me how to do it better, or how not to do it!
Great post.
Exactly! While I agree with you in that it would be nice to sometimes read without your inner critic going off, I also think that I’m getting so much more out of what I read now. And yes, definitely, sometimes it’s as much a lesson in what not to do as what should be done.
I stopped reading for a while after my youngest was born, and I think that had a lot to do with how badly my brain was functioning at the time. Coincidentally, this was also the time that I stopped writing. In so many ways the two go hand in hand for me now. Like you I mostly read before bed, but I try to get some done when I have a few spare minutes during the day. I call it a sanity break.
Yes, I’ve found that I’ve become a much more critical reader since taking my writing more seriously. I’ve also found that successful writers break the ‘rules’ surprisingly often, but as a newbie, I’m terrified of doing so.
At risk of stating the obvious, I find reading to be very different to writing. Writing is creative, and I love to create. Reading is passive, and it makes me want to write! I guess that’s good (depending, perhaps, on what I write).
Oh, certainly. Reading and writing are quite different pastimes, but of course that doesn’t mean that they’re separate. I find reading influences my writing, and vice versa. But I’m glad I’m not alone in that my writing has made me read things quite differently. I just chalk it up as learning – what works, what doesn’t, and if you do break the rules (I’ve noticed that in some authors too), then how to best get away with it.
I don’t think a writer as a reader can ever put away their writer part about them away, even when totally absorbed in a book I highlight or record words and phrases I love. Not to copy but to be inspired by them.
What I love the most is reading a best selling authors work and just taking a breath to realize they use the same simple words I do in their writing.
Absolutely. Once you start writing, you can’t divorce that from the reading experience. It’s natural though to be inspired by what you read – we wouldn’t be writers if we weren’t, would we?