The Reading-Writing Connection: How Mixing It Up Can Supercharge Your Work
By Kim Bullock | March 25, 2024 |
Set my daughters loose in a bookstore and it’s guaranteed they will make a game of pointing out novels they are certain I’ve either read or will buy.
“The covers are all the same,” my younger daughter points out. “A woman in period dress with her back turned.”
“Bonus points if there’s a war motif in the background,” my older daughter adds.
They aren’t wrong, though there is some variation. The woman might be shown with a child, other women or, occasionally, with a man. Sometimes only part of the woman shows—there are an alarming number of headless or semi-headless women on book covers. The style of dress changes, and so does the war. After reading several WWII era books, I like to mix it up and throw in one from WWI or, if I’m feeling spicy, one from the Civil War or Vietnam.
This reading rut began when my preference for “triumph of the human spirit” stories collided with an explosion of war novels suddenly appearing on bookshop shelves. Since my WIP at the time took place partly during WWI, I convinced myself that bingeing such novels counted as work time. I needed comp books, after all. I needed to analyze how other authors built their worlds, how they made the past feel not only real but relevant to the present, how they worked in historical detail without the dreaded info-dump. I also needed to watch for places where my mind started to wander and puzzle out why so I could avoid repeating such mistakes in my own manuscript.
Reading slowly became more chore than pleasure. Go figure.
My yearly book logs have steadily grown shorter over the last decade. I was down to nine books read for all of 2023. The problem, I had to admit to myself, was self-inflicted. I only read what I should read, and with purpose—an authorly version of a high school English class. No wonder I picked up my “assigned” books with reluctance rather than anticipation, soldiering on and finishing most of them, though it might take me a month to muddle through. No wonder I found myself re-reading the same paragraphs over and over while my brain simultaneously made a grocery list and debated whether moving my leg out from under a sleeping dog would make me a horrible human.
With rare exceptions, even stories that checked off all the boxes for what I’d once considered to be a fabulous read fell flat. I didn’t blame the authors for this, and I certainly left no lukewarm reviews because I suspected the problem stemmed from me. Maybe I’d simply read too many similar stories. Maybe I found the parallels between, say, a novel set in 1930s Germany and the reality of life in the United States in 2024 too unsettling to adequately lose myself in that world. Maybe I was too beaten down by the news, the election, and the endless medical drama my family faces to have the emotional bandwidth to connect to characters I might have loved in simpler times.
This ennui has transferred over into my writing as well. I have two WIPs (one historical, one contemporary) and, even though I love both stories, it’s become too easy to put off writing for another day.
“You should read what I’m reading,” my younger daughter said. “Switch it up a bit.”
Her books of choice are the ones currently popular on BookTok–dark fantasy/romantacy stories featuring kickass young women and sexy fae males who may or may not have wings. The Throne of Glass series (her favorite) is 7,000 pages long. More pages than I had read last year. Sarah J. Maas must be doing something right, though, to have an entire display table to herself in our local Barnes and Noble. She had also singlehandedly turned my non-reader into a voracious one overnight, so that meant I owed her the moon.
I could give her a hundred-page trial at least.
“Start with the ACOTAR series as a warm-up.” My daughter hesitated slightly before handing me book one. “Remember that I’m eighteen, okay?”
Less than 24 hours later I reached for book two. That one took me three days because it was longer. I’ve since finished that series and Throne of Glass, which taught me a lot about pacing, unreliable narrators, and the fine art of withholding information from the reader until the moment it has the most impact.
Is it high literature? No. Do I care? Also no.
I’m reading again.
I’ve regained the ability to escape this world and fully immerse myself in another for hours on end.
I’ve also been waking earlier, working longer, stealing moments throughout my day to open my laptop and tell my own stories again.
Do you read widely or stick mostly to one genre? Have you experienced a reading rut? How did you break it? How has your ability to focus on reading impacted your ability to focus on writing? Bonus points: tell me books you would consider to be escapism at its best.
Kim (she/her) has an M.A. in English from Iowa State University. She writes mainly historical fiction, though has also contributed non-fiction articles to historical and Arts and Crafts publications in both the United States and Canada. She has just finished The Oak Lovers, a novel based on the rather colorful life of her great-grandfather, landscape painter Carl Ahrens.
[coffee]
Hey Kim — Well, since your daughters also got me to read SJM, I have to admit that I’d never read her, either. And she’s one of the biggest sellers in my genre! Yes, I know it’s geared to a younger audience, with a pretty clear gender target reader, too. But you’re so right–the pacing alone is worth the study. I’m very glad they prodded me to give the books a go. Also, thanks to you for The Alice Network–I also needed to step outside my own genre to rekindle my reading. So glad to hear that it’s gotten you excited about writing again. Thank you!
Hi Vaughn – I am floored by how fast I got through the Throne of Glass series. That’s what Ashlyn was reading when we were staying with you last summer and you probably noticed how glued her eyes were to that Kindle screen. It has been a long time since I’ve been able to fully immerse myself in another world and forget this one exists for a bit. I do my best writing in that state as well, as I’m sure you do, too.
This will surprise some but it was my high school son who introduced me to the Throne of Glass series. I think this was not long after he’d finished the boy-marketed Skullduggery Pleasant and Ranger’s Apprentice series. The pacing and adventure that Sarah Maas packed into that series is a real definition of epic.
TOG was definitely marketed more for girls but there is plenty of action/violence to keep guys interested, too!
Hi Kim, and thanks for a post that supports a theory of mine. The increased number of people writing coming-of-age/YA stories can at least in part be explained by the number of mothers sharing books with their daughters. It makes good sense for reading moms to have books in common with their girls. It also helps to explain why half the readership for YA stories is made up of adults. I wonder, though, whether the same applies to moms and their sons reading books written for male children. And books written for other young readers.
As for my own reading habits, I don’t read much genre fiction. I “read” genre movies and TV shows. I developed as a reader in the fifties and sixties, and realism remains my preferred perspective. To be honest, though, I wrote mysteries for over a decade. They were realistic, but observed certain requirements of the genre. Lately, I’ve chosen to give up murder and mayhem. I’m now trying to develop a story that doesn’t depend on such elements to hold the reader’s interest.
Thanks again for your post. It made me think.
I love having overlapping reading habits with my girls now! I already overlapped a lot on music – my ‘top artist’ on Spotify last year is the same one my youngest had.
No murder and mayhem in my current WIPs, though I definitely learned something through switching up what I read.
Wow, coincidence? I just finished Book Three of SJM’s Crescent City series, 800 plus pages that moved with a propulsive speed. Fun, sexy, and very instructive. Before that, I read Bernard Cornwell’s last Kingdom series. My genre reading has a lot to do with searching for good comps, but otherwise I’m open to anything that can teach me how to hold a reader in thrall. Ultimate escape? At the risk of sounding boring, I return over and over to LOTR. I’m actually looking for property near the Shire if you know a good realtor…
That’s so funny! Crescent City is another series I plan to read. I’m reading Fourth Wing right now, partly because the main character in it is kickass, yet suffers from the same connective tissue disorder my oldest daughter has. The condition isn’t named in the book, but the author has it and she is on record saying that she wrote Violet with that in mind.
I read whatever catches my interest at the moment. My last books were the MIstborn series by Brandon Sanderson. But I’d also read a James Patterson book a Deaver thriller, a romance, a dragon shifter reverse harem, and a historical. So I’m all over the place. My last major tome was by Paolini, “To Sleep in a Sea of Stars.” a wonderful saga.
And my writing is just like my reading–whatever hits my fancy for that period of time. And mixing up genres is a ton of fun.
Because I’m not concerned with traditional publishing, I don’t worry so much about comps. I do find a few similar to my book, but I’m not worried about it. I don’t aspire to being #1 on the best selling lists. I’d rather write what I want and enjoy the journey. And that I do. And many of my readers seem to enjoy the mish-mash of genres. So yeah, mix it up, try new things, and enjoy reading.
That freedom sounds fantastic, Barbara. Much as I’m enjoying reading fantasy at the moment, I can’t imagine writing it. Who knows, maybe I’ll change my mind some day.
I’m definitely going to make a point of getting out of my comfort zone more, reading wise. It has helped so much!
Hi Kim, as a writer and a reader, I often help my fellow writers out. Thus, I just read and reviewed Erin Bartels latest novel, The Lady with the Dark Hair. She has scenes where her MC visits Gibraltar, and since my husband and I once roamed the ROCK, it was amazing to see how RIGHT Erin wrote those scenes. I also read book reviews in the NYT and of course follow what everyone is reading and writing on WU. I always have a book ready to go…eager to read Anna Quindlen’s AFTER ANNIE, though the reviews have been mixed. My daughter is now suggesting titles for me, which is absolutely fine…I raised readers! Thanks for your post.
My youngest daughter was a non-reader for the first seventeen years of her life, with the exception of a few short bursts. Now she reads several hours a day and puts me to shame with the mount of pages she goes through. She has good taste in books. And music. We share the same “top artist” on Spotify.
LOL, what a joy young adult children can be ~ my two certainly are. I’m going to have to read Sarah Maas’ stories.
I bounce around in my genres. I’ve just started In Another Life by Julie Christine Johnson and want to savor it, much like Abraham Verghese’s and Kate Morton’s stories. Yet in others, I fly through them because they pull me along such as Okorafor’s Binti series, Yardley’s Role Playing, and Waxman’s I Was Told it Would Get Easier.
I highly recommend SJM for the total escapism. There’s a reason she’s so popular. I also love that her female protagonists are so incredibly strong – this was especially the case with Throne of Glass.
Kim, how wonderful that you are again able to immerse yourself into a story. I love that it was your daughter who enabled it. Our entire family is bookish and it’s been such a joy to share stories and now that they’re grown and on their own, they’re often the ones recommending new titles to me, and when we visit, there are book exchanges. I read a lot of children’s books because I write for kids, but also because I truly enjoy them. The one I enjoyed most recently was Eoin’s Colfer’s WISH LIST. I also read a lot of nonfiction and my favorite was Oswald Chambers’ IF YOU WILL ASK. It’s one that I’ll return to again and again.
Now that they are both adults, the stories they recommend are more “adult”, too. ACOTAR is definitely not for kids. Lots of, um, spice. Throne of Glass started as fairly young adult, but moved more mature as the books progressed.
Thank you, Kim, and thanks to the rest of you for reminding me that reading should be fun. Not only am I struggling to write, I’m reading almost no fiction. I think, “I can’t afford to waste all that time when I’m ignoring all the other things I’m supposed to do….” What a load of crap. I spend three hours a day online. I’m going out to my bookstore today and starting Throne of Glass.
Michael – Throne of Glass is a big commitment in time, but so, so good. The first book is the most “young adult” but it definitely gets more mature as the books progress. Lots of action, lots of plot twists, and one hell of a kick-ass young protagonist. So many unforgettable characters in those pages.
My reading and writing have been flat for a while too. I recently picked up a historical non-fiction title, which is a category I enjoy but haven’t read in a while. And, I blasted through it far faster than I have the latest doorstopper by one of my favorite writers. Even though that doorstopper is a well-paced book I’d usually love.
After finishing that book, I found myself reviewing a project I haven’t looked at in a while because I had some new ideas about where it could go.
As writers, we need to feed the well from a wide range of sources so our creative brains can come up with those unique-to-us connections that fuel what we put on the page. It’s a lesson I’ve learned a lot, but it’s also one I forget.
I think we all forget it, Ruth. If we have limited time to read, it is easy to caught in this cycle of only reading what we “should.” I know I did. After reading Throne of Glass, I read one of the “shoulds” and liked it far more than I probably would have if I hadn’t had the break.
Hi, I’m all over when it comes to reading. Current TBR: the latest Murderbot, Flowers of Evil, a sci-fi retelling of Antigone, a Laurie King mystery (in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Bee Keepers Apprentice), If I stay with one genre too long, I burn out on it. My guilty pleasure–trashy urban fantasy. They’re cotton candy for the mind.
Seriously, whatever the literary merits of the series novels are, if they get kids reading, those authors are heroes.
Considering SJM has an entire table to herself at Barnes and Noble, I’d say it’s a sure thing that she’s gotten teens and adults reading. Many of her books are 600+ pages, too. So relieved my youngest turned into a reader – school English classes all made her hate reading. I have a graduate degree in English and I would have hated reading if I’d been forced to learn the way my kids did. It’s all teach to the test and no room for actual critical thinking skills.