Reading shapes writers
By Juliet Marillier | July 2, 2009 |
Recently I received a questionnaire via Facebook: ‘You have been selected to receive this meme because someone thinks you are a literary geek.’ There followed a series of questions about reading experience and preferences. I answered honestly, despite the fact that this revealed to my writer friends the yawning gaps in my reading. I may be a literary geek, but I’m an unbalanced one.
One of the first pieces of advice I give to aspiring writers is that they should read as widely as possible, not just within the genre they love / admire / want to write in. I am often shocked that some people who aspire to be professional writers read so narrowly. For young fantasy writers in particular, their book diet frequently stays within that genre, with perhaps a bit of science fiction or horror for variety. I do my best to explain that a broad reading diet allows writers to pick up a bigger vocabulary, a richer range of styles and structures, and a whole armoury of literary techniques and storytelling tricks. All this is valuable to a person, not as a fantasy writer or a thriller writer or a literary writer, but as a writer. Sure, you will learn something about writing fantasy by reading fantasy, especially if you select with some discrimination. This may enable you to turn out an acceptable, probably rather derivative novel. But you won’t write as interesting, as original, as satisfying a book as you would if your reading diet had been richer.
Many of my best story ideas have been sparked by non-fiction books or by newspaper or periodical articles. I may not aspire to write literary fiction, but I have learned a great deal about technique and breadth of vision from literary writers like David Mitchell (author of the magnificent Cloud Atlas) and master storyteller Jose Saramago. I’ve learned about pacing by reading mysteries and thrillers; I’ve filled a big basket with narrative skills picked up by reading folklore of one kind or another. I’ve learned about precision in writing by reading poetry. In my overall reading diet, I reckon fantasy (the genre in which my work is generally placed) makes up at most 10%.
The literary geek questionnaire reminded me how important early reading habits are in shaping a writer’s approach. A writer’s language, vocabulary and storytelling style are loosely formed from childhood reading, then broaden and deepen with exposure to new and varied reading material as an adult. I was lucky in many ways: as a child I had an excellent public library close to home, I had parents who loved books, and later I was involved with a fantastic local theatre where a repertoire from Aeschylus to Chekhov to Tennessee Williams was available. At my government, all-girls high school, the students put on a fully staged Shakespeare production annually, and in the ‘academic’ stream we studied a Shakespeare play each year, as well as classic English novelists and poets.
In those days (the 1960s) the curriculum for English Literature in New Zealand high schools was firmly based on English material. I don’t remember studying much of our own literature apart from Janet Frame and Katherine Mansfield, and there were no Maori writers in the syllabus. Few American authors featured. I think we still considered ourselves a sort of England-away-from-home (or Scotland, in the case of my home town, Dunedin.) As a result, my knowledge of American literature was limited to childhood classics like Little Women and Huckleberry Finn, and to the aforementioned Tennessee Williams plays. At university I chose Anglo-Saxon and Old English, followed by the Elizabethan and Jacobean period.
Did I take steps to amend this later? Not fully. The Facebook questions revealed an embarrassing gap in my novel reading: I have never read anything by Roth or Updike (I could add a number of other classic American writers.) There are gaps in my acquaintance with Australian fiction, too. If no longer England-obsessed, I’ve remained Eurocentric in my tastes. There are exceptions. One of my reading highlights for this year was The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a novel I’d delayed reading because I thought it would be pretentiously literary. Boy, was I wrong! If you want a masterly lesson in suspenseful storytelling, read this book.
As writers, we continue to read and we continue to learn. Here’s a challenge for the Writer Unboxed community: identify a significant gap in your fiction reading, and the rest of us will recommend a book to fill it. I’m up for suggestions of an American classic. (I have read Moby Dick.)
Photo credit: © Kzlkurt80 | Dreamstime.com
Juliet Marillier has written twenty-four novels for adults and young adults and two collections of short fiction. Her works of historical fantasy have been published around the world and have won numerous awards. Juliet’s most recent series was Warrior Bards, of which the third and final book, A Song of Flight, was published in 2021. Her collection of reimagined fairy tales, Mother Thorn and Other Tales of Courage and Kindness, had its trade release in 2022. Mother Thorn is illustrated by Kathleen Jennings and published by Serenity Press.
Juliet is currently working on a two-book fantasy series. The first book in this duology, The Amber Owl, will be published by New Dawn in February 2025.
When not writing, Juliet looks after a small crew of rescue dogs.
Great post, Juliet.
I like to write science fiction, and read tons of it (maybe 1/3rd of the books I read). However, in my entire life, I don’t think I’ve ever read an adult fantasy novel. Any recommendations for one to start with?
As for American Classic: I loved Ellison’s “Invisible Man”. Also, for something slightly more recent, you have to read Capote’s “In Cold Blood” — quite possibly the best book I’ve ever read. And once you’ve read it, watch the film, “Capote”, which is about how the book was made. Utterly fantastic.
Great post Juliet! I would say my biggest gap would be the very wide historical genre…I tend to shy away from those for some reason or another.
I too have a lot of literary gaps. My boyfriend noticed this and made a new rule: he gets to pick every other book I read.
But seriously, it’s going to be increasingly more difficult (impossible?) to read everything that one wants to read in a lifetime. Here’s to hoping heaven is one giant library!
I loved this post, it’s so right on. Years ago I realised one of the gaps in my reading was British lit, which was simply a result of being intimidated by it. Once I plunged in, I was delighted by what I’d been missing, in one year I read all of Jane Austen and fell in love. Dickens’ Great Expectation became on of my favorite books ever.
Oh, I still have lots of genre gaps, I just wish I was a faster reader!
Thanks for the post, Juliet. Don’t know if you’ve tried Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. It’s well worth the time and a fairly fast read.
Dave, you may want to try George Martin’s A Game of Thrones for adult fantasy. It’s part of a greater series (as yet unfinished), A Song of Ice and Fire. I’d put it in my top 5 adult fantasy. Also, R. Scott Bakker’s Prince of Nothing series is pretty good.
I have a gap in American classic literature as well. As a Canadian, I also read mostly British literature as a child. I also missed reading some of the great Russian classics that everyone else seems to have read.
I highly recommend “Winter Wheat” by Mildred Walker. She is a “forgotten” American writer whose quiet prose packs a powerful punch. Where Hemingway is bombast and operatic, she is elegant and moving.
As a child, I read a lot, including classics (American and British), Little Women, Little Men, Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, C.S. Lewis, etc. I also read classics in school, Dickens and Mark Twain and the like.
But since college, I’ve read almost entirely genre books, romance, mystery, thrillers, fantasy, western, horror, everything. Yet I’ve hardly read any classics, older or modern. Some friends felt the same, so we have started reading a classic a month, alternating older classics with modern ones (post 1950).
In case anyone else wants to try it, our list so far has been:
The Lovely Bones, Count of Monte Cristo, The Time Travelor’s Wife, Dune, The Graveyard Book, and this month Ellison’s The Invisible Man.
It’s been a lot of fun reading the books together, and has helped fill in the reading gap.
I’m making a list of the recommendations – thanks! I may read slowly through all of them, with some fantasy, romance or historical fiction in between. In Cold Blood and The Grapes of Wrath one after the other would definitely make me a little depressed, I feel.
Dave, I’d second Jonathan’s suggestion of George R R Martin’s A Game of Thrones, though you might prefer something that’s more stand-alone. An alternative is The Scar by China Mieville – it sits between science fiction and fantasy, is brilliantly written and highly imaginative.
Jamie, I recommend Restoration by Rose Tremain as an elegantly crafted historical novel. Or anything else by this author.
I suggest either Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace or Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
American novels? I’d second Grapes of Wrath and add East of Eden, On the Road and Catch 22. I haven’t read them for years but I remember enjoying them when I was in my teens.
Historical novels? Don’t miss out on Elizabeth Chadwick. Her book called “The Champion” is just that, and she has written many more. What I like about Chadwick is that her research is meticulous but never in-your-face. She manages to include correct medieval terminology without it ever sounding pretentious or incomprehensible. And she writes great sex scenes, too:-)
Fantasy? I’d second GRRM, of course, and add Joe Abercrobie, Guy Gavriel Kay (especially the books he wrote in the 1990s) and Neil Gaiman as well as Glenda Larke, Karen Miller and Robin Hobb. There are so many good fantasy writers around that it’s just a metter of reading widely and seeing what suits your taste.
And of course, if you like both history and fantasy, our own Juliet Marillier is the tops. Once again, a lot of work goes into the research but it’s just the background for a shelf of absolutely superb stories. There are few good historical fantasy writers around and fewer still can match Marillier, especially when it comes to the Celtic era in British history.
For a few more ideas, have a look at reviews in webzines such as The Specusphere (www.specusphere. com) for which I am reviews editor. We pride ourselves on covering a wide array of recent books in the fields of fantasy, science fiction, horror and even an occasional historical if it’s written by a spec-fic author. There are other zines that cover other genres. Just ask Mr Google.
I really like this post :) It’s refreshing.
A few years back I decided to rearrange my shelves in chronological order. I couldn’t believe the gaps I saw–the titles were arranged by each book’s original date of publication. It was like I’d skipped the 90s and 2000s completely, in terms of fiction.
I should reorganize again and figure out my gaps again.
Dave – I would recommend Scott Lynch’s “The Lies of Locke Lamorra” for a first fantasy book. It has a fantastic tone, full of wit and humor while simultaneously being dark and modern. It’s almost fantasy-lite, without elves or faerie folk, and though it’s billed as the first book in a series it can stand on it’s own just fine.
Juliet (or anyone, really) – I would really appreciate some recommendations for a good NZ novel to read while I’m visiting there in August. Since I’ll be backpacking I’m trying to only take one book for space’s sake, but it’s so hard to narrow it down to just one! I’m definitely checking out Janet Frame and Katherine Mansfield the next time at my local used bookstore for sure.
Katrina, for a NZ novel, you can’t go past The Bone People by Keri Hulme. It’s beautifully written, essentially a New Zealand story, and terribly, terribly sad. Hulme is a Maori author. The Bone People was her first novel and it won the Booker Prize.
Similarly to you, Juliet, my education was largely English and Euro-centric also: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante, Plato, Kant, basically the major players of Western lit were covered. Happily, my program also offered readings from a fair amount of African writers, and the standard Russian offerings (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky). But honestly, my knowledge of authors beyond Europe or America would be next to nothing. I have a large gap in my education when it comes to Asian writers.
Regarding American authors, I could probably come up with a few suggestions. Try Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, it’s an easy read, with a surprisingly modern style, and a very readable heroine. Wharton’s one of the few classic writers that I could take to the beach, if that tells you anything. I would also suggest getting a book of Ernest Hemmingway’s short stories. I thought he was a stronger short story writer than anything else, although that’s not to say he can’t write a good novel. But his writing style is so sparse (and I mean that in a good way), he turned short stories into an art. There’s a famous tale about someone challenging him to write a story in ten words or less. He used only six, and came up with this: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” I love Hemmingway.
I also suggest reading Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, or any of Twain’s essays, simply because his style is so uniquely American Southern. Another southern writer is the often intimidatingly brilliant William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury (title taken from the Shakespearean soliloquy)is one of Faulkner’s most famous works. He’s a true modernist, interested in playing with narrative styles such as stream of consciousness. He won a noble prize, but he writes the type of book people either love or hate.
F. Scott Fitzgerald is a good read if you’re interested in the jazz age, his Great Gatsby is a classic and also hugely readable. And for present day contemporary, there’s Joyce Carol Oates.
I could go on and on about this stuff but thanks for the reflection piece! This certainly got me thinking about writers I’ve intended to read for awhile! I’ve trudged through a lot of pretentious and literary in school but Hemingway, Wharton, Fitzgerald, they’re good bets. Faulkner is heavy, but he’s good if you’re in the mood for a challenge. I’ve never read Mansfield or Frame, and I’ll have to look up that book by Donna Tartt!