Reading for Writers

Writers all start off as readers. The way written words transform into a story that seems visual as we read, that shows us that we aren’t alone in our thoughts, that makes us react both physically and emotionally, draws us into the writing life. But as writers, we hear conflicting advice regarding the very medium we seek to master.

Read every day vs. Don’t read while you’re writing

The thought process behind “read every day” is that reading as a writer teaches new technique and exercises your metaphorical writing muscles. When consciously deconstructing a sentence, a situation, a scene, it’s more likely we’ll experience an aha moment that clues us into the mechanics of how to write a similar situation into our own work. For example, deconstructing a scene in which a writer has deftly handled a large group of people all talking together can help you write that party scene you’ve been writing around rather than plunging directly while editing.

“Don’t read while you’re writing” chiefly refers to fiction writers not reading novels or short stories in the same vein as their own story over the weeks or months they’re writing it. The most basic reasoning behind this advice is that reading similar work may delay the development of, or foul up, our own voice. It’s true that styles of writing and voice can be infectious and that this often happens unconsciously. However, simply being aware of this possibility can negate it.

Pay attention to your voice during the editing process and modify any voice or style that stands out as unlike the rest. Voice changes over time and on long-term projects regardless of whether or not we read, so this is always something we should be aware of anyway.

Reading, even within our genre while actively writing our own stories, has benefits galore, from allowing us our favorite mental escape to reinforcing common syntax and punctuation to demonstrating how, or how not to, get to our ending.

Immerse yourself in your genre vs. Read widely

These pieces of advice are meant for both fiction and non-fiction writers. We tend to take such advice as forever advice, but these well-intentioned phrases should be taken as short-term advice. If you happen to be a long-term reader of cozy mysteries, you probably understand its conventions well. If you plan to write a cozy and have never read one or have only a casual acquaintance with the genre, then immerse yourself for a few months. Read widely within the genre, meaning different authors and settings and time periods. Find out what interests you. Deconstruct their common elements.

Once you’re familiar with your intended project’s conventions, read widely across all genres. If you’re a romance writer, read an occasional mystery or space opera to broaden your horizons. But you only like romance? Concentrate on finding a story in another genre with characters that engage you from the first few pages and you’ll find the story more interesting. Reading outside our favored genres gives us game. We gain new skills we didn’t know we were lacking, such as descriptions in settings, a new perspective on our characters, or a twist in how the antagonist enters the story. It keeps our work from becoming hackneyed and ourselves from phoning it in because we are so stuck to our favorite conventions and style of writing.

Deconstruct every story vs. Read for pleasure

The advice to “Deconstruct, deconstruct, deconstruct” can take all the pleasure out of reading. But we’re writers, right? When we’re reading, we’re working. Sure, if it’s during working hours, deconstruct away. If we need to deconstruct a memoir to see how it’s built, we deconstruct the memoir. But if it becomes work every time we pick up a book, what will most of us do? Avoid picking up the book. And then we’ll need a different escape. Most likely TV, since we’re all story addicts at heart.

And then what?

Our writing suffers because we aren’t exercising our writing muscles, either consciously or unconsciously. And writing is unique as a story-telling form. We can’t practice it by learning, consciously or unconsciously, how a TV or movie or stage play or vocal story is told. Those are their own forms, each different from the rest. We can learn valuable techniques stolen from those forms, but we can’t absorb writing rules and conventions and flow from them like we can from reading.

The solution? Turn off your inner editor and read for pleasure. The easiest way to do this is to be clear about our working hours. Set a daily work schedule. On any given day, have a book on hand as your working read to deconstruct or learn from and one as your pleasure read.

Every writer goes through that initial phase that might last weeks or months when we can’t help but see every adverb, every awkward sentence construction, every glitch in continuity, every copy-edit. But if we read regularly that hyper-vigilance eases over time and reading becomes something we can lose ourselves in once more. We learn to turn our inner editor on and off as needed.

My advice?

Read widely every day, deconstruct as needed, and always have a story on hand to lose yourself in for a mental break from the real world. To become a better writer, embrace the very pleasure that motivated you in the first place.