Category: Reader

If you want to write, you must also read. That’s as close to a truism as anything that deals with writing. Think about it: The great writers can even get away with not following the first rule of grammar: Every sentence must contain a noun and a verb.

I have gone as far as to make the analogy, writing is like tennis; if you want to get better, then play with people who are better than you. That’s why I read books I don’t even like by people like Ernest Hemingway. He’s a master, but his books are too stark for me. Even J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy barely held my interest. Also, I just finished reading Elizabeth Strout’s The Burgess Boys. If this book had been written by anyone besides Ms. Strout (I loved Olive Kitteridge!), I wouldn’t have finished it; I might not even have picked it up. The second half was far more interesting than the first half, but I almost didn’t get there.

I love plot. Sure, characters are important, but introspective characters alone bore me to bedlam. So, here’s the rub. If a person wants to elevate her writing toward levels approaching Pulitzer Prize winning authors, does she have to give up mysteries and thrillers that specialize in plot? Must she read books that bore her? And, what about reading books that are so good (David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, or Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife) they make the writer feel like an illiterate fool? Should a writer give those up lest she gets too discouraged?

I suppose there’s no steadfast writing rule for this quandary either (see Paragraph One). What might hold true for one writer, wouldn’t necessarily hold true for all. Have you ever stopped to consider that each of us is made up of all that we have consumed? You are what you read. I wish I could see David Mitchell’s list of favorite books, nay, his ENTIRE reading list. For even the books he didn’t like as well must have influenced him in some regard. Right?

Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood, for example, are highly acclaimed writers, but now that I think about it, I don’t aspire to be their literary heir (forgive the self-agrandizing possibility that that might ever happen). For now, I’m going with Tom Perrotta’s philosophy. He has said (although I can’t find the exact quote) that while writing a novel, he likes to read mysteries and thrillers to reinforce the idea that all books, even literary fiction, need to be more and more exciting as they progress.

One female, literary great I can relate to is Joan Didion (especially in relation to this blog post). She once said, “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking … ” I now know that I will continue to read the best writers—occasionally—so I know what they’re doing, but I will never give up mysteries and thrillers because I love a riveting plot.

How about you, fellow writers? What books do you like to read, in general or while writing? Are there any great books you intentionally avoid? And if so, why?

I love your comments, so chime in if you have a minute!

Escapism. Experience. Fascination. Fun. Knowledge. Nuance. The reasons to read are vast and varied. Fiction. Nonfiction. Biography. Humor. So many choices!

I’ve been a reader as long as I can remember, but until I began writing, I read mostly novels, and I mostly read for fun. I’m sure every book I’ve ever read has influenced me in the same way that every person I’ve met has influenced me. By which I mean some have influenced me greatly; others I have no recollection of whatsoever. According to the information in Joshua Foer’s recent book, Moonwalking With Einstein, everything we’ve ever heard, seen, or done is stored in our brain somewhere; remembering it is another story.

Now I read for multiple reasons: enjoyment, sure; knowledge, of course; but also to learn to be a better writer. Reading is as essential to good writing as eating is to being a good cook. Few would argue that to be good at anything, one has to learn and practice. But not just any learning or any practicing. The better the teacher, the better the practice, the better the ability. Why else do students fight to get into the best colleges and willing incur massive debt? Why else would I read The Great Gatsby three times; Atlas Shrugged, The Thorn Birds, Lolita, and Cloud Atlas twice each? Because they are fantastic books that brought out enormous envy in me as a writer. I want those writers and their books to teach me how to be a better writer.

“Read! Read! Read! And then read some more. When you find something that thrills you, take it apart paragraph by paragraph, line by line, word by word, to see what made it so wonderful. Then use those tricks the next time you write.” – Stephen King

I’m guessing this theory dates back to a casual chat between the likes of Plato and Aristotle while they were soaking in the Roman baths and discussing my good pal, Socrates. Socrates did not write philosophical texts (according to Wikipedia; I wasn’t alive back then to know for sure), but Plato wrote about him so that Aristotle (and the rest of us) could read about him and learn from him.

Thank you, Plato. That was a fine idea you had.

I consider myself a fast learner, but because writing is so important to me, reading has become a different matter. The first time I read a book, I read it for the story, the experience. Those that really, truly move me, I read twice so I can dissect them the way Stephen King suggests. Whether it’s for sentence structure or to learn how a writer relays emotion deep enough to make a grown man cry, I still have so much to learn.

Or in the words of Socrates: I know that I know nothing.

Except … If there’s something to be gained from a book, I know I’ll read it twice.

How about you? What are the books that you’ve read more than once at the expense of every other book on your TBR list? Any specific reason?

 

“You can always take notes, Houellebecq had told him when talking about his career as a novelist, and try to string together sentences; but to launch yourself into the writing of a novel you have to wait for all of that to become compact and irrefutable. You have to wait for the appearance of an authentic core of necessity. You never decide to write a novel, he had added; a book, according to him, was like a block of concrete that had decided to set, and the author’s freedom to act was limited to the fact of being there, and of waiting in frightening inaction for the process to start by itself.”

– from THE MAP AND THE TERRITORY

I am in complete agreement with this.

 

Ask any writer what books on writing they would recommend to others and you’re bound to get Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.

Fair enough, those are both great books. But, hello? They are not the best books for craft.

Over the past five years, I’ve been teaching myself how to write. I call it a self-inflicted MFA. I’ve written nearly every day (just like King and Lamott told me to) for one to eight hours a day, plus I’ve read a few hundred books, many of them on the skill of writing well. It’s definitely harder than it looks.

One thing that seems obvious in our bottom-line, cash-is-king world, is that the story trumps the skills. If someone has a killer $tory, a publisher will buy it, and so will the public. We all know who I’m talking about (ahem, Stephenie Meyer and E.L. James). (And yes, I know, they’re laughing at my list on the way to their Swiss Chalets.)

For those of us who want to be proud of our writing, who truly care about lyrical phrases and sympathetic characters, here is my list of recommended books on writing. (I have no reason to endorse these books other than I found them to be the most helpful. I am not getting paid for recommending them.)

1. The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White: This is not just an old reference book. If a person wants to begin writing, or is trying to figure out why their writing is getting rejected, this is the book to read first. These are the basic rules of the craft.

2. Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks: This book might be a bit controversial; it’s certainly arguable. Ok, here’s my argument: This book teaches the structure of a novel. If a writer considers herself to be an “organic writer,” and likes to let the words flow, let the story tell itself thru her fingertips, she ain’t gonna like this book. I still say read it, and keep Brooks’s ideas in the back of your head as you formulate your book as a whole. Brooks delineates the nine milestones every successful novel must have, just as Blake Snyder did in Save the Cat, a similar book for writing screenplays. Unfortunately, Larry Brooks seems overly defensive about his theory/opinions which nearly undercuts his idea… but I still think the structure of a novel is vital.

3. How Fiction Works, by James Wood: You’re going to have to have your thinking cap on for this deceivingly simple little book. This is possibly the most dense, erudite, non-fiction book I’ve ever read, but it was well worth the effort. The book covers 123 separate instructions. Buy the book, and even if it takes years to get through it all, read Numbers 7 – 16 on Free Indirect Style, and Number 119 on Hypotyposis (yeah, now you get the part about your thinking cap.) Buy the book.

4. Hooked, by Les Edgerton: Ok, so if you are a writer, or you want to write, you probably have a rough draft of a novel, or maybe short story by now. If, after you’ve read the first three books on this list, you’re still not sure your book’s going to sing, read this one. Every writer loves her characters, cares deeply about them—otherwise how could she spend months if not years telling their story. But how does a writer make an agent care? An agent will never read more than one (maybe five) pages of a submission if he/she doesn’t love your characters immediately. Edgerton tells you how to hook the reader on page one, and two, and three… You get the picture, now buy the book.

5. Self-editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King: True story here: I bought this book several years ago, thumbed through it, then placed in on my shelves in perfect alphabetical order among my writing reference books. Recently, I attended the Jackson Hole Writers’ Conference in order to further hone my craft. It cost me nearly $2500, but it was a wonderful, valuable experience. And the most valuable thing I learned? Read this book, the one I’ve had on my shelf for years. (Doh!) This book finally explained how to separate third person POV from omniscient POV, something I’d been screwing up all these years. And that’s just for starters.

Now, anyone who knows anything about the publishing industry will tell you that it’s all a big crapshoot. An MFA grad from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop might never publish a book as successful as The Help. Heck, I doubt Stephenie Meyer has read any of the books on my list, yet her story idea was a goldmine.

So what’s the real secret? No one really knows, unless… Wait, maybe this list of books is the secret, and no one has ever written it before because they’re trying to cut down on the competition! Oops.

Have you read any of these books? Do you agree, disagree? What books would you add to the list? Maybe there’s one more book on writing out there that I should read.

A P.S.  from Yours Truly: When I originally posted this post, a lovely reader named Cynthia Robertson (see below) suggested Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer. I have since read that book and I would definitely include it in my list of Best Books on Writing. I don’t want to eliminate any of the above, so I now have six books in my top five! I can do that because it’s my blog. Read it and I think you’ll agree! Thanks, Cynthia!