Being a Better Writer: Good Writers Read, Bad Writers Don't · 6:19pm Aug 7th, 2013
My last post on this topic was such a hit and so well received, I figured I'd do another, especially since one of the comments on the "The Art of Misdirection" touched on this.
Oft-times with new writers, you'll here a phrase along the lines of "Oh I don't read anything else, I want to make sure my stuff is 100% original." Well, here is the unfortunate truth that those individuals are going to have to face: there is only one kind of writer who doesn't read, and that's a bad writer.
The truth of the matter is, if you want to be a writer, then you are going to have to be a reader. There's no way around this. There is no author out there who can't, on the drop of a hat, list off his favorite and most influential writers when asked. You want to be a writer? Then become a reader. Dig into a few mountains of books. Because if you don't, odds are you'll never make it.
Why? The same reason that you can't be a film director or a producer without ever seeing a moving picture. Ever seen some of the first movies ever made? Sure, they're charming for various reasons, but at the same time they're incredibly primitive works, created by people who were experiencing the medium for the first time. And the ones we see today are the ones that were successes.
Writing is much the same way. If you want to write a good story, you need to know what a good story is. You need to understand plot, pacing, character development, foreshadowing, misdirection, and a whole host of other things. Even more daunting, you need to understand that there are perhaps dozens of methods of performing each one of these specific portions of a story. Authors will mix and match specific styles of each of these core values to create a story and a style that is fairly unique. This is why someone like Brandon Sanderson reads differently than RA Salvatore or JRR Tolkien, even though each of those authors writes fantasy. Each of them is a top tier writers, each boasting New York Times Bestsellers and millions upon millions of copies sold, but each reads completely differently despite the fact that they are all the same genre.
If you don't read, or read maybe one or two books a year, then you're never going to pick up on all these factors. If you want to be a writer, immerse yourself in your local library. Check out legions of books and get to reading. Otherwise, you're not going to be a writer. At least, you won't be a good one. Read books by different authors, ask yourself how and why they make you care about a character. When you finish a book, just don't put it down. Think about your favorite moments and then ask yourself why those moments were your favorite. Then ask yourself what the author did to make those moments your favorite.
The same can apply to bad books as well. We all know they exist. But don't just drop them. Brandon Sanderson pointed out that he made it a point to read a few bad books per year, even if they were awful. Why? Because just like we learn what to do from good authors, you can learn what not to do from a bad one. Just as you read a good book and think "what makes this scene or character work," we can do the same with a bad book, except asking ourselves "what makes this so bad?"
Only by reading others works and discovering what makes them tick and what you enjoy about them will you yourself create your own unique identity as a writer. You cannot create a garden from nothing. If you simply clear some ground and throw some random seeds that you picked up off the street in there, you're going to get a tangled mess of weeds. If you won't read and insist on writing, then you will find yourself falling into every pitfall, every trap, with no way to write yourself out of them except by dumb luck. And if you have enough of that to be a success, you should be at Vegas, not writing.
You want to be a writer? Start reading. Find authors you enjoy and look for works that are similar. Step outside of your comfort zone from time to time and try something new. Be able to explain why you feel that JK Rowling's more vague action scenes are far below the blow-by-blow action of Salvatore, or vice-versa. Once you understand these differences, you'll be able to learn from their success and their mistakes to create your own brand of writing, your own form of magic. Maybe you'll be an epic-length writer who focuses heavily on character thought and drama (*cough Eddings *cough*), but with the foreshadowing of Gaiman and the misdirection of Zahn. Or maybe you'll be a novella length writer who uses the intensity of Preston and Childs with the action of Salvatore or Tolkien. But in the end, while those will be your inspirations, the result will be your style alone.
So, you want to be a writer? Then get out there and read. Analyze them. Dissect them. Enjoy them. Don't be afraid to dislike them. But whatever you do, keep reading. Old, new, and everything in between.
Only then will you understand where you are, what you need to do, and how you can make yourself truly original.
A comment.
Because this post deserves one.
Good post.