It’s a phrase I’ve heard again and again, and honestly I went through a spell where I didn’t think it was true. Don’t get me wrong – I love to read. Summer vacations when I was in school were spent in the library and checking out 5-10 books a week. I don’t know if I ever got through 10 of them in a week, but I certainly tried.
But as I got older, it became harder for me to find things to read that I liked. I’m not anti-formula, not too much anyway, but I am huge on character driven stories. I want to feel something about and for the main characters within moments of picking up the book – first two or three pages. I don’t have to like them, but they do have to elicit a noticable response of some kind.
It got hard to find stories like that, so I stopped reading for a while. I still have trouble finding novels I like, but I’ve since discovred an entire wonderful world of short stories – both published and not. This has led me to disect the simple, three-word saying we all spout off without thought.
It’s not that good writers read, it’s much more than that. Good writers understand what they’re reading. They disect and they analyze. It’s a matter of being able to look at your favorite book and say what you do like and what you don’t like, and why.
But I think it goes deeper than that, even. It’s not just about reading books. It’s about reading reviews – ever sift through the book or movie reviews on amazon.com? Or in newspapers, or in blogs? And of course, with reading needs to come understanding. If the person didn’t like the book, are you able to determine why? Can you tell why they did?
Which takes me back to the conclusion I’ve reached, after thinking about how to summarize this: Good writers read. Published authors understand what they’ve read. Okay, it’s not super catchy yet. I might have the copy people here work something up for me with more mass-market appeal.
It conveys the point, though, right? What it all comes down to. Are you writing for yourself, or are you writing for another market? Most of us – both. Me, for instance – the first draft is almost always because I love an idea and I want to see it on paper. Revisions are about making it so other people want to see it on paper, too. Understanding what that means and takes is what places the published in the 1%.
Yeah, that’s a huge oversimplification. There are all sorts of other factors as well – but it works like this: I can take my chances and hope that luck tosses me an opportunity, or I can work to place myself in as many positions as possible to find that opporutity.
Understanding what I read – everything I read – is a key element in me making sure that I’m not just banking on luck.
I think another aspect of “Good writers read” is that when you spend a little time every day reading, it helps fire up the writing. I’ve sometimes felt too busy or too tired to make time to read and so didn’t. But recently, I started taking my eReader with me everywhere and using the snippets of time (waiting for kids coming out of school, doctor’s waiting rooms, between appointments, while kids play at the park, etc.) reading. Every time I read a little, of ANYTHING, I feel the urge to go home and write!
But I love reading for the learning and growing experience it offers. I also love watching movies and TV series for the same reason. You learn a great deal about how to write compelling characters and plot by reading, and watching, and listening.
Good writers absorb what they read.