By Susan Reichert, Editor-in-Chief for Southern
Writers Magazine
“Read, read, read.
Read everything - trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just
like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read!
You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw
it out of the window.” William Faulkner
I ran across the above
quote not long ago and it struck me how many times I have heard, “I don’t like
to read.”
Yet that person is
trying to write a short story/book. I am not sure why or how they think this
business is done, but if they don’t like to read, chances are they may tire and
give up on writing. The two basically go hand in hand.
To me, only a reader
can understand the depths a writer goes to create a new world with different
characters walking around, living day to day lives in this imaginary creation.
Jeff Goins, https://goinswriter.com/good-writers-read/ who is an author, blogger and speaker
said, “Writers
need to read. A lot. Magazines. Books. Periodicals. And so
on. They need to grasp the art of language, to appreciate the finer
points of words. As they read, they should jot down ideas and capture thoughts
as they come.”
When we read a book, it is like being in a one-on-one
relationship with the author who is showing you how they write, their style,
character development, scenes, plots, and dialogue.
You will see things pop up that make an impression on
you. Ask yourself, why did that make an impression? Jot it down. I agree with
Jeff, write down the ideas and thoughts as they come to you and think about it
when you have completed the book. What did you like about it? What didn’t you
like?
Seeing how other authors write is like getting a free
class in writing. Pay attention. Nothing is more motivating to me. There are
even some books I read I think to myself, I could have written that.
One thing I notice as a
reader, my vocabulary jumps higher, words fall out of my mouth and onto the
pages faster.
When was the last time
you read a book and found yourself intrigued? Learning? Story ideas popping?
As writers, we can
enlarge our worlds by reading so we can aspire to greater written works.
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