Can Writers Still Be Readers?
By Greer Macallister | June 7, 2021 |
All writers begin as readers, right? We fell in love with other people’s stories—where they could take us, what they could do—and then, one day, decided to make a story ourselves. The love of words begins young in some of us, takes longer for others, but has stayed lifelong for nearly every writer I know.
Yet becoming a writer changes our relationship with reading. In my case, since I’m a novelist, it has changed my relationship with novels. I read as much as I ever did, plus some more—reading upcoming novels for potential blurbs, reading other work in my genre, reading my friends’ books, reading for research, reading books to review, and of course, when there’s time, reading for pure pleasure.
But unfortunately, as its position at the end of that list shows, reading for pleasure sometimes has to wait until the other reading is done. The thing we do just for fun becomes something else entirely. That’s one reason I asked the question in the headline—can writers still be readers? Can we still fling ourselves into books, get swept away by them? Can we still disappear entirely into a story someone else has created?
In my case, I find it a challenge. Especially if a book is very successful, I keep slipping out of the story to analyze it from the outside. For example, I read Gone Girl about a year after it came out, and I couldn’t experience the characters as people at all. I wasn’t thinking about why Amy did or said something, but why Gillian Flynn chose to have Amy do or say that thing, which is a very different angle and therefore a very different reading experience. My writer brain was there the entire time, like a lens imposed between me and the writing that I couldn’t set aside.
On one hand, it’s important to read like a writer. When we read thoughtfully, we learn just as much from reading other people’s work as we do from writing our own. But on the other hand, if we’re reading with our writer brains, we’re losing that swept-away feeling, that joy. I will say that if I’m enjoying a book, I still read with that what-happens-next urgency. I’ve still wept over characters’ fates. I’ve still stayed up late at night turning pages, even if a small part of me is holding back, whispering, Ooh, I see what you did there, author. Nice job.
Q: What say you? Do you always read as a writer now, or are you able to approach books purely as a reader?
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
You hit on something that is problematical for writers. I try to read a book as a reader and I end up thinking about the choices the writer has made as I am reading. It makes it more challenging to just immerse one’s self in the story. I also try to figure out where the story is going and how I believe, as a writer, the author will resolve the main character’s goals and challenges .I do the same thing with movies. With several books that I really liked, I went back and read them a second time with my writer hat on. That was illuminating because I knew the resolution of the story and I could focus on how the writer got there. Thanks for this thought-provoking post.
I have written about this very question myself, because it’s one I ponder a lot … Back when I was a clinical social worker/researcher, I dd a study of therapists who returned to “the other chair” when they felt they needed a bit of therapy themselves, and how hard it was to let go of their “therapist minds” and surrender to the client role. So it’s a really interesting question of how to toggle opposite or complementary roles …
The sister question now, for me, is: Can I write like a reader? Keep the reader in front of me, and what her experience might be, rather than what I am doing, as the writer?
I do love thinking about theses things (and not just about tension, stakes, etc., not all the time anyway) so thank you for this stimulating post!
This was validating. Even though I’m a nonfiction writer, I read fiction slowly, trying to absorb story and style at the same time. The people in my book club inhale books like M&Ms; whereas I savor them like a good Merlot. Sometimes it’s frustrating since there’s only so much reading time in a day, and I wish I could read faster.
I confess. I almost always read like a writer. It improves my writing! But there are occasions when I’m swept away by the language or plot!
Most of the time, I have difficulty not reading as a writer. I just finished The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It’s the first novel in ages that I got swept up in. While there were many glorious turns of phrase I noted as a writer, for the most part, I was a reader only. I read it exceptionally slowly (for me) because a voice in my head kept saying, “This story will hurt you” and I didn’t want to reach a sad ending. Near the end, when the story structure is revealed, I did view that with a writer’s lens.
I just went through exactly the same thing with Addie, though I listened to the audio version. It was so “out there” compared to my own writing that I didn’t try to keep track of construction etc—until the ending of course.
I find if I read outside my own genre, it’s easier to get lost in the story. But I also prefer reading books I wish I’d written. :)
Greer, thanks for this post.
Greer, I’ve been observing the changes in the way I read and yes, it’s a rare book that I simply get swept up in. Same with movies too. The writer in me is often analyzing how something was done. I mark passages in books, write in its margins, copy sentences in my quote notebook. When I fall in love with a book, I will read it again and again. I used to always finish a book, even if I didn’t care for it much, but now, I only read what’s compelling. Life is too short to read stuff that doesn’t resonate.
Some great points there. If I’m reading some well-told story by a great writer I find myself only occasionally pulled away to admire a phrase, description, word choice or character development. Even when I try to analyze it and learn from it, I forget that and read like a reader swept away by the story. On the other hand, if the story pulls me away and I find myself analyzing it too often, it means I’m finding issues like pedestrian description, bland characters and the like. The best books are the ones that make me forget I’m an author too, and only when I finish it do I realize just how fine the work really is.
Yes!
The first step is to set the writer aside and read it for enjoyment.
Then go back and read it to see how the writer did something. Key is to NOT critique, but ask what the writer did right that you can try out.
This post was timely for me. Thank you. The oversimplified answer is that I read as a writer. More accurate is that a good book will sweep both my reader and writer selves away. I’ll read with a divided brain, a strange experience that I no longer question.
Reading with my divided brain, though, requires an excellent book. If the story is deeply flawed, writer brain will take over and become a shark on a blood trail. I’m more likely these days to not finish a book. I will confess to just finishing a novel that was so awful that reader brain was sick. Writer brain, though, was fascinated at having discovered a Master Class in bad writing. I finished it, but will never read another book by the author again (and will never divulge the person’s name).
Greer, I often divide the bread loaf of my mind into the analyzing writer and the happy reader, which can make for odd “Great sentence!” and emotional tingles for a character in nearly the same thought. Does make for odd reading.
I’ve just started “Shuggie Bain” and I’m already fearful (and caught up in) of the harshness of the main character’s life, while also noting the skillful use of dialogue. I hope I’m not slicing my bread too thin to find both approaches useful, and even comfortable.
Over at The Passive Voice blog we have a rule/guideline: if the title to a post is a question, the answer is NO.
Unfortunately, I do extremely little novel reading because my very damaged brain can either read or write (it seems to use the same mental facilities and energy), and I’m writing.
It isn’t even cross-contamination, or trying to maintain a consistent voice throughout a long trilogy.
It is simply that I have a tiny amount of energy, and reading a book uses that energy from several days – and sucks it right out of the writing potential.
Add to that a good new book (or even an old favorite), and it stops me in my tracks.
Reading is THAT powerful.
I can’t turn off my inner writer when I read, for pleasure or otherwise. I don’t have a problem with that. It sharpens my appreciation for a story well told and helps me pick up on subtle shades of bias in fiction and nonfiction both. (I even mentally edit the copy of TV anchors and reporters on the news. Some of those folks could really use an editor.)
After learning the craft and techniques of writing, there were years that I couldn’t enjoy a book at all. Nowadays I edit as well. Errors are like neon signs blinking at me. It took a long time, bit I have learned to simply set aside author me and read for pleasure, but I still sometimes catch myself and have to stop editing in my head. Let it go! Let it go!
I am intrigued how this is a question of reading for pleasure or reading to analyze the work, has any one considered how reading might influence their writing? Style, theme, voice and all those parts of the creative effort.
I was raised with an artist who adamantly would not study his peers or contemporaries. Influence may be more subconscious than we understand.
I find I read with a more critical ear now that I write. It has hampered my enjoyment of reading some.