When Reading Is Work
I write mysteries and thrillers specifically for that group of people who enjoy a good book. My books aren’t for the self-help crowd or folks researching their term papers. People read my books for fun.
I’m also one of those people who loves to read just for fun. But now an officer of Intrigue Publishing, it is now often work when I read books in my genres. I have to get serious about deciding if a particular manuscript will be fun for others to read – fun enough to be worth parting with fifteen or so of their hard earned dollars.
But what about you? As a writer, sometimes your pleasure reading needs to be work. When you’re just a reader you can sit back and enjoy. But sometimes when you’re holding a good novel you need to read like a writer. When you’re enjoying a top-notch novelist – Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Jeffrey Deaver – you have an opportunity to study the masters. Painters examine the brush strokes and techniques of other artists. Writers should do the same.
When you find yourself in love with a character and feel you know him as well as your real life friends, look back and figure out what the author did to make you feel that way. When the pace or the suspense makes your heart race, examine the techniques the writer used to get you there. If you slap your forehead when the killer is revealed, trace the clues back to see how the writer fooled you.
Look at the mechanics too. How long are those chapters? How much of the text is dialog, as opposed to prose? How much description does he use? What is it about that dialog that makes it ring true?
If you get to the end of a book and think, “Man, I wish I had written that,” it’s probably because the plot unfolded just the way you think a plot should. If that’s true, why not go through the whole book again and outline it? Break the story down to its skeleton, and note the order of the significant events and how information is played out.
If you work on your writing while you’re reading, your work will improve, and you may find you enjoy your reading even more.
I’m also one of those people who loves to read just for fun. But now an officer of Intrigue Publishing, it is now often work when I read books in my genres. I have to get serious about deciding if a particular manuscript will be fun for others to read – fun enough to be worth parting with fifteen or so of their hard earned dollars.
But what about you? As a writer, sometimes your pleasure reading needs to be work. When you’re just a reader you can sit back and enjoy. But sometimes when you’re holding a good novel you need to read like a writer. When you’re enjoying a top-notch novelist – Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, Jeffrey Deaver – you have an opportunity to study the masters. Painters examine the brush strokes and techniques of other artists. Writers should do the same.
When you find yourself in love with a character and feel you know him as well as your real life friends, look back and figure out what the author did to make you feel that way. When the pace or the suspense makes your heart race, examine the techniques the writer used to get you there. If you slap your forehead when the killer is revealed, trace the clues back to see how the writer fooled you.
Look at the mechanics too. How long are those chapters? How much of the text is dialog, as opposed to prose? How much description does he use? What is it about that dialog that makes it ring true?
If you get to the end of a book and think, “Man, I wish I had written that,” it’s probably because the plot unfolded just the way you think a plot should. If that’s true, why not go through the whole book again and outline it? Break the story down to its skeleton, and note the order of the significant events and how information is played out.
If you work on your writing while you’re reading, your work will improve, and you may find you enjoy your reading even more.
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