Reading for Writing

[Monazwx]

Why does one have to Read.....in order to write a story.
I think......creativity is higher when you're not ripping off every writer you've ever read.
~ From someone on the GB~

My question is, when writing, do you sometimes incorporate thoughts from others to make for a better story? Is this good? Is it not good? Is there bias by reading the work of others and drawing from it? Does it make your own work counterintuitive?

(If this has been discussed before, then I apologize in advance).

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The idea behind reading to write is not that you steal or borrow ideas, it's that you learn what's worked, how good authors handle certain problems in writing, how they say things, how they make their characters come alive, what makes their stuff good.

It's conceivable that someone could possibly emerge as an entirely self-made, idiosyncratic talent, but I don't know of a single case of a writer worth reading who hasn't himself read his ass off.

Besides, most people who love to write love to read as well.

---dr.M.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Reading is the only means of apprenticeship for the writer. All crafts require some sort of apprenticeship in order to learn the ways, mores, and methods of creating whatever it is you're doing. A carpenter apprentices to other carpenters so he can learn how best to join wood together. A writer apprentices other writers so he can learn how best to join words together. The carpenter doesn't build the same house as his master and the writer doesn't build the same story as his master.

Killswitch is an idiot, but not as big an idiot as DeSade/Scott X. Have you seen the latest debacle, Mona? Oh my effin' gawd.

 

[Monazwx]

I agree with you both, which is why I was surprised when I read the quote in a thread a while back; but it has been lingering on my mind for quite some time and I wondered what others thought of it.

More posts please.
(and thanks Dr. M and KM)

What debacle?

Edit - "Master of Literature" was hilarious!

 

[gauchecritic]

Why does one have to Read.....in order to write a story.
I think......creativity is higher when you're not ripping off every writer you've ever read.
~ From someone on the GB~

I'd say it's probably impossible to create without a basis from which to work.

Being able to speak the language doesn't make a writer, being able to tell stories doesn't.

Ripping off writers isn't the same as being influenced by style or even mechanics.

I'd go so far as to say if you've never read then you wouldn't be able to sit and write.

Gauche

 

[Alex De Kok]

I can't imagine not reading. I could live without cinema and TV quite happily, even Literotica at a push, but not books. I love reading, always have since I was a child. It was reading that got me started writing erotica, as I read some dire examples and reasoned that I could do at least as well. I usually have two or three books on the go at the same time. At the moment - 'Isle of Dogs', by Patricia Cornwell, 'Heavy Time' by C J Cherryh, and 'Self-Editing for Fiction Writers', by Browne and King.

Browne and King have an interesting point to make about Cherryh's 'Chanur' series - which I have not as yet read although I have read quite a few of her books - in that despite writing about a complex set of inter-relating alien cultures she offers not a single word of exposition, leaving her readers to find their own way. Would that some of the Lit authors could do as much! I do not exclude myself from that statement, unfortunately.

As ever, Gauche makes a good point in that someone who does not read wouldn't be likely to really know what or how to write.
Alex

 

[KillerMuffin]

The Chanur series sits at the very top of my all-time fave books. I've read my way through three copies of Chanur's Homecoming. The latest addendum, Chanur's Legacy was about the Cherryh average, but the first four are the pinnacle! I love those books!

I wish I wrote them.



I have three writing maxims that I faithfully follow:

Show, don't tell.
Imply, don't explain.
Read, read, read!


Mona: you should check out his "Which is Most Annoying" thread.

 

[Guest]

Mona (always loved that name),

I do not see how anyone can be a fundamentally good writer without being a fundamentally good reader. I can usually tell whether an author knows how to read, and more often than not what they read, or rather what caliber of reading.

On Lit., however, being well read is not necessary w/re. to 'stories' that only mean to arouse (the majority I believe), but the better writers are obviously well read.

I think too many people presume that simply writing what they say or think makes for a good story. The only analogy I have is "reality" TV. I don't watch it, I prefer real life. But for reading I certainly want more than "real" life, and the writing of that takes skill, imagination, love of language and artistry.

regards, Perdita

 

[Alex De Kok]

KM, have you read Cherryh's 'Foreigner' series? I have the first five, waiting for 'Explorer' to come out in Paperback. It looks like I have to make the effort and get the 'Chanur' series . . .

Alex

PS: Apologies, Mona, but thread hijacking usually happens about the fifth or sixth post, particularly if the primary point has been answered.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Mona is an old GB hand where threads are hijacked almost immediately. I don't think even talk of garderobes and sheep could surprise her. She's good people.



I have, but it's been a while. I just eased my way through Hammerfall recently and wasn't seriously impressed with it. It spent too much time doing unimportant things.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

I read constantly. It would not surprise me to have a reader tell me I write just like so and so or that the story sounds like it was stolen from this author or that. All of my work is a reflection of what I have read in my life. The ideas are mine and the stories are mine, but like a painter's influence can be seen in his colors and lines also a writer's influences may be seen in their words, structure and style.

-Colly

 

[oggbashan]

If you don't read, how can you tell good writing from bad?

How can you write well if you haven't got the work of others to encourage you?

You should develop your own style but assuming that creation doesn't require effort, practice and b***** hard work is self defeating. Any artist needs to develop their talent or is that too hard for modern kids?

We wouldn't expect a fighter pilot to be able to fly in combat without training. Why do people think any other activity is best performed in ignorance?

I'll stop this rant before I turn into a GB regular.

Og

 

[pop_54]

Ok

Ok there was this sheep sitting innocently under the waste outlet of a local Garderobe..............................Sorry muffie couldn't resist it.

Hi mona:

I used to read a lot when I had time, but to be honest I haven't been able to settle with a good book for years without losing interest due to work load or kids demanding a lift somewhere or home from somewhere.

But the apprecticeship was there, I read many very good books when I was younger, we had a huge collection of classics at home. I remember the way things were written and the way certain authors prefer to describe or detail certain things. As the lad gauche said, if you didn't read you could never write.

I have read a lot of kids books over recent years of course while trying to help educate my tribe reading aloud to them when they were younger, teaching them the basics. (Probably why that was the only subject I was qualified in for NaNo, parody).

pops......... Now where's that sheep gone.

 

[oggbashan]

Declares interest...

I do sell secondhand books.

It makes me happy when someone asks for and I can supply a book they love and have lost.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked for Urn Burial and Religio Medici by Sir Thomas Browne. I was able to sell the customer the same edition that he had lost.

My biggest sellers after recreational fiction are maritime and sociology. I sell more books on philosophy than on art. Why? I don't know.

After nearly 10 years selling books I still can't tell what a customer will ask for. If I had to guess, I would have thought the customer for Sir Thomas Browne would have wanted Stephen King.

Trollope and Thackeray have been popular in the last few days. So has Dickens.

Most sales for any author in last ten days: Tove Jannson Moominland followed by Enid Blyton Famous Five and Ruth Rendell.

Og

 

[Quasimodem]

A writer's training is not only obtained through reading, but through reading ANALYTICALLY.

Which is one reason why so many writers reread.

First time for sheer enjoyment, next to examine exactly how those effects, which moved one, were accomplished.

I don't think anybody has mentioned that previously. At least I don't remember READING it.

Do as I say, not as I do.

 

[pop_54]

Hmmmm

A writer's training is not only obtained through reading, but through reading ANALYTICALLY.

Which is one reason why so many writers reread.

First time for sheer enjoyment, next to examine exactly how those effects, which moved one, were accomplished.

I don't think anybody has mentioned that previously. At least I don't remember READING it.

Do as I say, not as I do.

I read most things twice, once quickly to see if I'm going to be interested, second time to soak it in. I even do this with the newspaper in case I miss a vital point first time round, or alternatively because I can't believe the crap I'm reading.

Hey Oggie, perhaps you could sell a parody of EB's FF & SS then, he says hopefully.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

...not as big an idiot as DeSade/Scott X...

Good God. That fuckwhit is still around?