To Write Better, Read Better
By Greer Macallister | July 4, 2016 |
All writers are readers first. We learn what books are and what they can do for us by reading them. And we come to love books written by others in a way that makes us long to write books ourselves.
But it’s absolutely crucial that once we become writers, we don’t give up on the reader within.
It’s true that being a writer changes your relationship with books. More than once I’ve been reading a book and found myself so critical as a writer (“why did she make that character do that?”) that I couldn’t enjoy or even experience the book as a reader.
That said, reading made you a writer in the first place, and better reading makes for better writing.
What do I mean by reading better?
Read other writers’ works in progress. Nothing sharpens your skills for editing your own writing like editing someone else’s. You see flaws more easily, you develop a sense of what might be done to correct them, and you’re then more likely to recognize the same issues when they crop up in your own work. It’s also a key way to be part of the writing community — you read and critique for them, they read and critique for you. You’re performing a valuable service, and you’re learning along the way. I can’t emphasize enough how important this is to a writer’s development.
Read your market. My reading interests are all over the map, from women’s fiction to sci-fi to contemporary literary to straight-up category romance, and I know any genre can be done poorly or well. But since I started writing historical fiction, everything has shifted. Right now about 50 percent of my reading is historical fiction, and most of that in 19th- and 20th-century American settings, since that’s what I write. I owe it to myself, my agent, my editor, and my readers to know what else is out there. Reading widely in my genre hones my sense of what my readers are finding elsewhere and what I might be able to offer them that they haven’t seen before. You can’t do that from a list of titles and back cover copy. Read widely and deeply, cover to cover.
Read for pleasure — really. As I said above, I do find myself slipping into editor/writer mode when dissecting certain books, usually blockbuster hits that I’m dying to measure against the hype. But measuring against the hype is a loser’s game. Instead, I make sure that I’m reading at least one book a month for no reason other than it sounds like something I’ll enjoy. And more often than not, I get lost in it. Which helps me on two fronts: it reminds me of the pure joy of reading, and it inspires me to write a book that can have that same effect on a reader.
Q: What do you read for, and how?
[Image: We Like Books, by Jess Ruby at Flickr]
Raised in the Midwest, Greer Macallister earned her MFA in creative writing from American University. Her historical novels have been named Book of the Month, Indie Next, LibraryReads, Target Book Club, and Amazon Best Book of the Month picks and optioned for film and television. Her latest novel, The Thirteenth Husband, is inspired by Aimee Crocker, the Paris Hilton of the Gilded Age. Macallister also writes the ongoing Five Queendoms epic fantasy series as G.R. Macallister. A regular contributor to Writer Unboxed and the Chicago Review of Books, she lives with her family in Boston, MA. www.greermacallister.com
Greer, I agree with you about reading other peoples’ WIP’s. Editing other people’s work helped me to see what was working and not working in my own pages. And yes, I think I fell in love with the idea of writing because of the effect certain books had on me. A well-told story is a magical thing, and who doesn’t want to be a magician? The great ones make it seem easy. Ha!! So now I read to see how the storytellers do it, especially the ones in my genre (or in some cases, like you, to “measure against the hype”) :)
Greer, I agree on all three points. Like Susan, I read to learn how others do certain things well. I also love to read for pleasure, but I find that my critical eye asserts itself anyway!
Thanks for this, Greer. My desire to be a writer came from reading and it is my great pleasure to read many different types of literature, printed magazines and newspapers and online text. Reading stimulates my own ideas. But you are correct that reading others WIP can help you see where you’ve missed a step or need to correct your pace or fill in some gaps in your character’s presentation, plot etc. Happy Writing and Good reading.
I was listening to a book on tape last night (top selling NYT author of medical mysteries), and I couldn’t sleep because of the bad grammar! Very convoluted sentences, and will send back to library. This makes me sad. Those books are expensive (ours is a small library). Top author or not, we deserve better.
I read for all the reasons you’ve mentioned and I also read to be inspired. Reading certain authors makes me want to write. Reading certain authors helps me find the stories that need to be written. And I should add, these authors don’t write in my genre(s).
I read literary bestsellers – to see if I can determine what it is that makes a particular book a bestseller.
More than reading a few of the books, though, I have taken to reading the beginnings of as many as I can, on Amazon.
After I’ve made my own decision about the book (based on the beginning: the degree of info dumping, the quality of the writing, the characterization, the clarity of which characters are going to be important, the voice, and whether I would read further for pleasure), if I’m having a negative reaction, I wander through the negative reviews. To learn.
Many negative reviews are versions of ‘I just don’t like this because the author didn’t do it the way I wanted.’ That’s fair – people have their own opinions.
But there is usually a reviewer or two who puts down, cogently, exactly why he or she was disappointed. If they are negative about a book in the same way I am, it feels like confirmation: there are other people who don’t like what I didn’t like, and try not to do. Maybe some of them will like what I write – which doesn’t do that.
At this stage, I have no idea how to connect with those readers. If I ever figure it out, I may have a ‘tribe.’ But at least I know they exist.
For writers, Amazon is an excellent research resource. Especially for writers who can’t get out much.
I read for pleasure, (primarily classics and quirky or literary current books.) I read for information, (mostly nonfiction in fields I am curious about.) I read in the genre in which I write, (mostly picture books, but all children’s literature gives me pleasure and insight into what is being written/published and what children like to read.) I read for escape, (mysteries, pop literature, a few best-sellers.) If it’s not well-written, I am training myself to get rid of it–get it out of my life and my house. There are too many great books to waste time on bad writing. And books that I love, love, love I read over and over, savoring the story, the writing, and studying why this book, out of so many, grabs me the way it does. A great example is Gary Schmidt’s Okay for Now. I’ve read it 3 times in print and listened to the audio version. It has a fabulous voice, the characters really grow and change in a believable and organic way, I love the story (even if the plot is a tiny bit contrived), and I learned all kinds of things, like how to look at Audubon prints in a new and deeper way, from the reading.
Great points. Stephen King says the most important thing you can do to improve your writing is – Write a lot. Read a lot.
I agree with all your points. I’ve learnt so much about my writing by critiquing the work of other writers. And I enjoy it. I also enjoy turning ‘off’ my inner critique/editor as much as possible when I read so that I can escape more fully into the world of the story, rather than seeing the words on the page.
I have read your wonderful article and all the comments. They are great. But the question is how does one learn to handle a critique in positive, insightful ways. I do not have a good critical eye…with the exception of grammar and sentence structure at which I excel.
The truth is that generally I like everything. In class (writing) situations when asked to critique another’s work, if the grammar is good, all I can think of is to say how much I like the work….because I do. Is there a book on constructive criticism. I would like to be more helpful to my writing buddies…many of whom are in the same boat.
Thanks for any feedback. smj
Shelley,
If you contact me via my website (bmorrison.com), I will send you the critique sheet I use in my classes. You might find it helpful.
Barbara
I also agree with all three points, and I read for many of the reasons others already mentioned.
In addition to reading others’ WIP, I volunteered to be a judge this past autumn. Some books were from small presses, while others were self-published. They were all a part of a sub-genre within a smaller niche.
I learned a lot from that experience. Until serving as a judge, I thought my current WIP was nearly ready for submission. Certainly, it’s about where some of the entries I read were, but that’s not the first impression I want to make on editors or readers. Seeing what other writers think is “polished work” helped me recalibrate my own standards for what I want my level of professionalism to be.
You’re so right, Greer. Abandoning writer/editor mode isn’t the easiest of tasks. I find it more manageable if I read the classics. There’s nothing to critique. The works have been around for decades or centuries, so I can enjoy the head-hopping and omniscient-narrator approach. It was acceptable to write that way back then.
Regarding critiquing and receiving critiques: spot on. I’ve learned more since I joined Scibophile than I ever did from courses or books.