The Dangers of a Good Book
By Jael McHenry | April 6, 2015 |
image by photosteve101
Last week, I read a fantastic book. Good news, right? As writers we are all readers first, and there’s an unmatched joy in disappearing into a well-written book, or we wouldn’t be reading in the first place.
However, sometimes, reading a fantastic book pushes me into a downward spiral. I’ll never write that well, I tell myself. I’m not good enough. Whatever I’m working on now is a mess.
(Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t, but when that kind of dark mood descends, there’s no reasoning with me. It isn’t about the truth, anyway.)
To keep that sort of thing from happening, there are writers who forbid themselves from reading at all while they’re writing. Or they have rules around it: nothing in my genre, nothing during the first draft, nothing that has anything in common with what I’m working on. There are others, like me, who focus their reading habits in the other direction: I like to read other books whose topics or time periods overlap with what I’m working on, just to know what else is out there and see how others have tackled some of the same challenges I’m facing in my draft.
It’s up to you, of course. Only you can write your book, and only you can decide what sort of reading helps or hinders you along the way.
What I do want to say, however, is this: don’t be afraid of the amazing book. Don’t expect it, but don’t dodge it. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was the kind of amazing book where, as a reader, I thought I could never write this, but that’s OK. Thank goodness someone did. And The Magicians by Lev Grossman – the amazing book I devoured last week, prompting me to write this column – was a different kind. I’ve been struggling with a draft, and tossed in a scene explaining something, just to have some words on the page. 50 pages into The Magicians, when there hadn’t been a moment of downtime – every scene escalated and twisted and plunged into new territory – I thought There should be no filler. Never any filler. If I want my reader to feel like I’m feeling right now, I need to keep that in mind. I threw out the filler scene and challenged myself to keep raising the stakes.
Yes, great books can be daunting, but they can also be deeply inspiring. I put down my latest read and returned to my own work with a passion I hadn’t felt in months.
Q: do you read while you’re writing? Are you able to put aside your writing self while you read, or not?
Jael McHenry is the debut author of The Kitchen Daughter (Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books, April 12, 2011). Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, and the Graduate Review at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. You can read more about Jael and her book at jaelmchenry.com or follow her on Twitter at @jaelmchenry.
I read while I’m writing, if there is any energy left. There usually isn’t, but then I’ll find myself devouring something because my reading muscles are starving.
If I don’t want to get distracted, I read some Travis McGee – or Dune. Something I know will both pull me in and then leave me alone because I know how it ends. If I like something, I have a tendency to read to the end, and that can use up a couple of days of writing time.
But the more time I spend writing, the harder it is to take off the editing hat and the writing hat (which notices HOW MacDonald and Herbert wrote). Darn it. Especially since I don’t want to write like them, I just want to enjoy them.
My friend who is a lawyer can’t watch Law and Order, and I’m sure doctors roll on the floor laughing if they catch a piece of Gray’s Anatomy on TV.
People who never try to write live in a special universe. Writing is like watching sausage or politics being made: not a good idea.
Except that by the time you realize this, it’s too late.
When I’m writing first drafts, I like to read books whose beautiful language inspires me – but not books so hard to put down that I want to read instead of write! When I’m editing, it doesn’t make a difference. I appreciate your insight that what we’re reading can affect our writing, and that writers need to figure out what works best for them.
Remarkable post, Jael!
Since I have something to read within reach constantly, I do read whilst writing. I’m inspired by both excellent writing and so-so writing in that I want to be excellent and I want to surpass so-so! That being said, when writing, I do tend to gravitate to authors I can depend on to be excellent more often than not.
~
When I’m writing, I tend to be reading for the next book I’ll write. So when I was writing short stories in 2013, I was reading nonfiction on the Civil War, the Civil Rights era, and everything in between those two moments in history, because the next book I planned to write was steeped in that history. When I was writing THAT book, I was rereading all the old classics that we read in high school and college English classes, because my next novel was going to be about those books. Now that I am writing THAT book, I’m reading up on the situation in Europe in the decades leading to WWI, because that’s what I’m going to write next.
In between heavy history, I’ll read fiction, poetry, fun nonfiction, and books on some aspect of writing. I think if I could read full time, I’d never get through all the books I want to read!
That’s a great approach Erin! You’re getting the benefits of reading without messing up your work-in-progress. AND getting a head start on the next story. Love it! :)
I do read as I write. Inside and outside of my genre. And I’ve certainly experienced the despair you describe, as well as the inspiration. Regarding reading inside of genre, there is another emotion I’ve experienced in relation to my work: relief. I’ve felt relieved that readers still seek the kinds of stories I aspire to tell, that they still have the patience for a well done epic. Good observations, Jael. Thanks.
I love hearing other writers weigh in on this. My reading habits change a lot. I jrecently picked up the Hobbit on an impulse. I’ve read it at least 10 times, but it spoke precisely to an issue I’m grappling with in a revision. This has happened before. Last month I read about 5 books in my genre. Two I hated. Three I loved. I learned something from every one. Then there are times I don’t want any input at all. They tend not to last long, though. It’s a bit of a roller coaster, but I’ve learned to trust the intuitions. Thanks, Jael, for starting a fascinating discussion.
I know that feeling! When you read something that’s so good, and you can’t help but think, well damn, I’ll never write anything that good. But like you Jael, I do what I can to turn that into inspiration rather than deceleration.
I suggest Francine Prose’s book, Reading Like a Writer. It really helped me read stuff that’s amazing and be able to understand *why* it’s so good, and what I can learn from it.
(Unfortunately, as Alicia Butcher Ehrhardt points out above, once you become an “editor” instead of just a “reader”, it’s hard to go back!)
That being said, there’s always a book out there that’s popular and selling well, but that has sub-par writing. Those books are great for bouncing back, because you read them and go, well damn, I could have written something better than this. ;)
I don’t get writers who have rules about reading. I write all the time, and I read all the time, and I read whatever I’m in the mood for (in my genre, out of my genre, fiction, nonfiction, novels, short stories, etc). I didn’t become a writer to give up the past time that I love most!
My simple rule is to read only nonfiction when I’m immersed in writing a novel. When I submit the manuscript to my editor, one of my rewards is to OD on genre fiction for a time.
I was reading Kent Haruf’s Plainsong early in the writing of my first novel. The idea was to widen my exposure to western-set literary fiction as I went, but I found my head being infused with his voice. I put the book down before it also flowed into my prose.
So now I stick to non-fiction or fiction from other eras or genres. If I need writing inspiration, I’ll go to poetry, to remind myself to take care of each line… And to keep me from getting sucked into a bigger reading commitment.
I do edge into literary fiction once I have a full draft beneath me, for exactly the reasons above. Set the mark higher. Risk more. Make it better.
Jael-
No art is created in isolation. Influence is unavoidable, even good. The challenge is not to avoid the inspiration of the great work of others, but to use it serve one’s own ends.
Read while writing–? Of course! But why think, “I’ll never write as well as that.” Why not think, “I’ll write better.” After all, no novel is perfect.
I’ve recently been re-reading one of the great Daphne Du Maurier’s good but slightly less often read novels, My Cousin Rachel. Damn it’s good. Du Maurier sure could write. But it’s not perfect. There are slow patches. She fills in days in the life of her characters that do not need to be filled in. At times I’m skimming. And, hey, I know the cure for that.
At the same time, Du Maurier rose to the challenge of creating a femme fatale that we, and her immature young protagonist, would fall in love with. For that I credit the acuity of this female author. She’s got a keen eye for the tricks of slow seduction, and a skillful sense of how to convey the undercurrents of shrewdness and insecurity behind them. Hey, I can learn from that.
No draft is wasted. Neither, to the alert novelist, is any reading experience.
I don’t censor my reading while I’m drafting. I’ll read anything that catches my interest, though my “interests” do tend to drift toward novels that compare to what I’m writing in some way. Either they are set in the same time or place, or have a similar theme, etc. This helps me immerse myself in the world of my novel more fully and I don’t find that I’m drifting into imitation of another’s voice. It’s good to know what is already out there so I can make certain my story is different.
I’m so glad that someone else finally said this! Whenever I read an outstanding book, I spend the next few days in downward spiral of “my writing sucks.” It happens every time I read F. Scott Fitzgerald, so I starting calling it The Fitzgerald a few years ago… Sometimes my boyfriend will bring up the fact that I haven’t written anything for days and I’ll reply, “I have The Fitzgerald.” At least I’m not the only one!
I think we’ve all had your experience, but instead of making it a negative one–thinking we can never do as well–we should attempt to make it inspirational. Reading is the spark to being a writer. None of us would have thought of writing a novel if we hadn’t been set on fire by one that we read–recently, twenty years ago. And reading can continue to spark our creativity and make us work even harder for the perfect blend of inspiration and our own amazing ideas. It might mean hitting delete, but that’s writing.
Jael, I always have one or two books going while I’m writing. When I get to the final revision stage of my WIP, I usually turn to one of my favorite authors in my genre: Anne Tyler, Sue Miller, Alice McDermott , Richard Ford, or Alice Munro. A close observation of their scenes usually shines a light on what I need to do or where my work falls short. I too get discouraged when I read a scene or a novel that takes my breath away. However, we must learn to work with the gifts we possess and to recognize our strengths and weaknesses. To paraphrase a famous saying, You can’t be a second-rate version of someone else. Strive to be a first-rate version of yourself. Thanks for sharing these thoughts.
I have the opposite problem. If I read a great book while I’m working on one of my own, I get really excited to write. I think, “Novels are awesome! The English language is amazing! I’m totally stealing these techniques!” If it’s a really good book, I can’t read more than a chapter or two at a time before I’m so pumped I drop it and run off to work on my WIP.
But if I read a bad book–wafer-thin characters, hole-ridden plot, cliches left and right–I get depressed. I think, “Hold on, people like this stuff? Agents rejected my manuscripts to publish this? Can I not sell my books because publishers want predictable story lines and tired tropes and heroines who bite their lips and blush on every other page?”
Then my opinion of the entire publishing industry sinks, and I question my understanding of what readers want, and I feel like giving up the whole pointless endeavor.
Fortunately, I have a handy list of authors I can rely on to inspire me again after a bad reading experience. Maybe, if reading good books sends you on a downward spiral, you could keep a stash of really terrible books to boost your spirits when you’re losing confidence. ;)
Back in graduate school (for literature), I think I got a very major case of intimidation (or as Lis calls it, The Fitzgerald–love that!). Then again, I was also expending all my writing energy on critical writing, versus fiction. Fortunately, that level of “anxiety of influence” wore off, and now I’m just grateful I read so much and so widely.
Now I do read while writing–since I’m not the speediest with either, it’s necessary, but I also benefit from filling the well. There are times when I avoid books in my genre or with situations too close to the one I’m trying to write, but usually that’s when the story idea is so new and fragile that I’m not sure it will hold. Once it’s got some solidity, then I can take good inspiration from stories that are similar without losing sight of my own story. And I always enjoy reading in other genres, partly for the break and partly because they offer different strategies. While I don’t know if I can ever quite turn off the editor/writer-brain when I read now, I’m often pleased when a story pulls me in enough that it rests here and there.
Reading poetry feeds a different part of my reading and writing brain, and I don’t do that nearly enough these days. Not too helpful for Story, usually, but wonderful for language and imagery.
Great post and discussion!
I can really relate to this. I read a book last year that I now call my favorite book of all time. Since then I’ve been having trouble connecting and/or enjoying any other books. I have read a few but none bowl me over like the favorite did. I also have been writing intensely so for a long time I thought that’s why I wasn’t reading as much — and maybe that’s a part of it. But also, I think I miss that book. In general, I do read while writing, and it inspires me, but right now that’s not the case… really great post!
Hi, Jael:
What Don said, with this caveat: I don’t need to be as good or better than other writers to write what I feel compelled to write, just as I don’t need to be the best looking guy in the room, the smartest, the wealthiest, etc., to marry the woman I love and who loves me. My writing is between me and my writers. I need to write the best I can to reward them for their loyalty. They deserve my very best.
I find it hard to create if I’m overly fearful that I’ll fail. That said, I can’t start a project I don’t believe might be too difficult to pull off. The challenge is part of what drives me to get it down, then get it right. I know the competition is fierce, and if I’m not pushing myself, I’ll be pushed aside.
So I read the people I admire, the people who inspire me. “Writers are readers inspired to emulation.” — Saul Bellow. May that never falter.
I’ve found that reading good books encourages me more than anything. In fact I sometimes find it hard to read because I will like the way a sentence is structured and I will try it out myself. Pop open my computer, study how they did it, and try out a similar comparison or try to use their technique with my own ideas. Then it leads to other things… working on my stories or exploring an idea on paper (I’m a big fan of highlighter use in my bubble maps). I enjoyed K.L Going ‘King of Screw ups’ so much that I stopped fifty times scratching down ideas. Dean Koontz ‘Innocents’ had me trying to come up with contradicting metaphors all night long. ‘Cress’ Marissa Meyer’s third book in her Lunar chronicles, had me wondering if I could try to rewrite a fairy tale or folklore as unconventional as hers. I spent most of the night sketching out an idea for a sane kid growing in an an insane asylum (with the depiction of an Irish folklore I’d heard once as the basic idea for it). The more well written a book is, the harder it is for me not to itch my writer’s hand enough to let me finish the darn thing.
Your post resonated with me. I read when the writing doesn’t make me feel that kind of “I’m a horrible writer” depressed. I don’t want to dwell on that, because it leads to very bad psychological places. But when the writing helps me as a writer, yes, I definitely read on.
I can’t turn off the writer/editor in me, but instead enjoy (or cringe) reading on multiple levels simultaneously.
I’ll read while I write, but it not equal time–writing gets considerably more. Since my writing experience is fairly new, having published only one novel so far, I can’t say too much. I have several more novels started, so it was simply picking the next one to work on. My second book is now finished and being edited again.
Cindy, editor friend, didn’t like the beginning. I scrapped a chapter, wrote a new one, read through making changes for continuity; then decided what I had written was no good and scrapped chapters 3-5. This version is definitely better, but still too long.
While working on one book, I would also work on another one, plus jot down any ideas for others. I expected to jump right into the next book after completing one, but that didn’t happen. I spent more time reading. Several weeks of reading! It’s like my brain needs time to reboot.