A little over a year ago, I attended
a panel on writing, and one of the panelists (herself a published and
successful author) warned that learning to write would for a while kill your
joy of reading. She warned that revisiting some of your old favorites while
wearing your writer's hat may mean that those books are no longer favorites. I
was confused by this. I was teaching myself how to write long form fiction
because I loved reading long form fiction. I wasn't at the point where I was
reading everything I picked up with a critical eye for that author's craft.
Now, a year later, I am starting
that part of my development. But for me, it hasn't been much about being aware
of these things for the first time. Instead, I find myself hyper aware of
things I was already aware of. "Ah, this author has a problem with
effectively building a scene," or "this author has a problem with
characterizations." I was aware of these things before, but now I have
names to put to them, and I understand better how these
weaknesses can affect the entire work. In turn, I can take that understanding
and apply it to my own work. Right now I feel like I need to work on
characterization and descriptions, and so my focus in reading is going to be on
those things and not on things like theme and pacing.
The key to my entering this phase
was twofold. First, I started picking up books because other authors had said
that this author did something extremely well. For example, in panel after
panel focusing on dialogue I've heard two names come up again and again. First
was Elmer Leonard, who writes primarily adventure suspense and mystery. While I
didn't find Leonard's dialogue to be to my taste (I tend to lean towards
characters that are a bit chattier than his), I did find that he is especially
skilled in inserting dialogue into text without having a high number of obvious
tags. Learning to do this transformed scenes I'd already written from choppy
and awkward to smooth, tight, and effective. The second name was Jos Whedon,
of Buffy and Firefly fame. While you can't really analyze
Whedon's work on the page, pay attention to how his characters talk and how
much Whedon tells you about them just in dialogue. No character will talk like
any other character, particularly in Firefly. Even without tags, you
know who’s talking. The dialogue is exceptionally tight and effective. The last
time I watched Serenity I was blown away by the subtext contained in the
dialogue. Learning that level of craft will take me quite a lot of time, but it
will be worth the effort when I get there.
Second, I started writing book
reviews again. When I first started this blog in 2010, I was looking to 'build
a platform' like so many agents and editors advise. If someone is already
reading my work, and I can market professional publications to those people,
then I'm more likely to get a professional publication. Now I'm actually using
this blog and my work at the Ranting Dragon to further my craft, which is a
huge difference. Now I'm talking much more knowledgeably about what an author
did well or poorly, why did I like something and why didn't I like something.
When I was reading a book in order to review it, I was paying closer attention
to the details of craft than when I was just reading for fun.
So far I’d say I've been lucky. I
haven't picked up any old loves and gone "This is trash! Why did I like
this?! What was I thinking?!" But at the same time, I'm finding it harder
to find new loves. The bar for loving an author is so much higher than it was
in the past. It's no longer just about giving me a few hours of entertainment,
now it has to be highly crafted fun.
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