Productive reading

Would it be too far off the mark to try to substitute "books on tape" for reading?

Some people listen them on the treadmill or steps at the gym, and my wife and I used to play them on long trips.

Would that stimulate interest in literature?

Edit: @cogito, you are on my ignore list.

 

It's about more than stimulating an interest in literature.

A writer needs to know what works and what doesn't. Literature is an art that has developed over centuries, and trying to independently develop it in a vacuum is a fool's errand.

Certainly, audio books can convey some of what a writer needs to know, but punctuation, capitalization, and usage present subtleties not revealed through listening alone. How could you expect to know that expressions like "a moot point" and "strait jacket" are correct, and not "a mute point" and "straight jacket?" Or that you build a "web site" rather than a "web sight?"

Too much of successful writing requires an attention to details too easily overlooked in an audio medium. It's difficult enough for writers who do read extensively.

 

Attempting to engage in any medium without exposing yourself to the works of others makes you vulnerable to the same faults as Amanda McKittrick Ros: A woman who exemplifies self-centred ignorance in an author.

Try googling "worst novelist in history" and see for yourself.

Now, with regards to the efficacy of a writer reading: Why are you writing?

Your success as a writer depends on your objectives and the degree to which you accomplish those objectives depends on your abilities in the relevant fields. Writing for yourself is dead easy: You just write. That's it. Writing for others? Well, you need to consider others' needs, don't you? That's what other authors attempt to do, at any rate.

Take a look at the books you've actually read without effort. What do they have in common? Not all books are alike and while it limits your scope, you don't have to read every book of every genre. Books - like film, music and everything else - can be and are tailored to their target audience.

If you want to write fast-paced action books with aliens and guns, take a leaf out of Matt Reilly's library.
An intelligent woman with a modern mindset stuck in backwards times? Jane Austen.
Self-aware, tongue-in-cheek comedy? Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

There's no point in you writing in a style that you don't enjoy reading, mostly because your readership will be able to tell within less than a page that your heart isn't in it. Books are to the writer as a whetstone is to a blade: You severely limit your own effectiveness by ignoring the past successes and failures of those who have come before and it is dead obvious - dead obvious - when a writer is clumsily aping the most obvious of staples in a given genre. I wouldn't dream of writing a CSI novel without first understanding how crime scene investigations actually work and how they are publicly perceived based on currently existing examples. I would be destined to fail at writing a wild western if I wasn't aware of exactly what it was that constituted a good tale in the wild west. And I certainly wouldn't style myself as a fantasy author without the slightest awareness of the fantastical.

On the other hand, if you're not interested in "good" writing (an elusive concept at best), don't bother yourself with the research and whatnot. If audience engagement isn't important to you, then the tools with which it is achieved are worthless and it's perfectly possible to trip into financial success despite appalling writing standards.

Amanda stands as a testament to that.

 

What is your goal in writing? If you want to write as a hobby, rather than a career goal, then write all you wish. If you want to take a shot at becoming a published writer you are going to need to follow the advice others have posted here. Try exploring a genre you're interested in. Look for indie publishers online rather than just picking up what books you see in your local bookstore.

As someone who does write for the screen (not a professional - although I'm currently working on several productions for a commercial company), I would not recommend simply treating it as an "alternative" to writing a novel. When writing for the screen you are still in the position of needing to provide descriptions of directions, settings, characters, dialogue, etc. You still need to write powerfully enough to convey what you see in your mind to the production crew. You also need to be aware of the same character/storytelling techniques and pitfalls that a novelist is expected to know. I find reading fiction just as beneficial to my screen work as my novel writing.

Keep in mind that screenwriting is also very technical - it's not just about telling the story. You need to be able to understand and use: the industry format for screenwriting; shot types and what they are used to convey; the industry jargon; anchorage; etc. Plus there are other things to consider once you move outside of just physically writing the piece - but this isn't the place to go into them. PM me if you want more information.

 

I'm not. But it's still an important thing to be keep in mind while writing - imagining how it could look / be interpreted.

By directions I meant action - not actual directions to be taken in production.

 

would you tell me that my dream of being a writer is basically dead?

...not your dream, but probably your chances of making it come true...

i've often heard... to be a great writer you have to love reading.

...to be even just an ok writer, you have to at least do a lot of reading...

and i like the IDEA of novels, but in my lifetime there have only been like a handful of books that i read that really held my attention. otherwise, if it's a book i have to read for school it's like a pain the whole time to finish it. or if it's a book i randomly buy and it doesn't grab the first few chapters i'm done.

does that REALLY cancel me out of being a writer?

...possibly of being a novelist, since if you don't read the well-written ones constantly, you won't know how to put one together... that's not the only kind of writer, though, y'know...

i get why people say you have to love reading in order to be a good writer, but ... i guess i don't know what i'm asking anymore. it just kinda bummed me out because it would make sense that none of my writing has taken off or done anything because i'm probably no good at it because i don't read enough.

...yup!... sure makes sense to me...

um... this went from a post to a venting session. but i'm curious to know what you guys think about this idea that to be a great writer you have to love reading?

...that it's true...

(and ... if i do love movies, than i should be set as a screenwriter? right?)

...not necessarily, because to be a good/marketable screenwriter you first must be a good writer, period!... an otherwise poor writer hasn't much [if any] chance to be a successful screenwriter... fyi, i've been mentoring aspiring screenwriters, novelists, and all other kinds of writers for years and know whereof i speak...

 

I see where you coming from. I think you don't have to read to have great ideas, but the real advantage of reading is that it helps you to understand the structure of writing a novel. It shows you how others have mastered the craft and how punctuation and grammar work best. Plus pacing and even inspiration. To be far i never read much growing up but due to other sources and thankfully being blessed with an imagination I had ideas and I wanted to write. However I found it a struggle to make it coherent, so I read, and found I didn't mind it so much, further on i found I was reading at least one book a month. You have to ask if you cant read your way through a book then will you have the stamina to write one?

 

Then read actively. Evaluate the quality of the writing as you read it. Think of ways to make it better, and think of other ways the story could flow.

Let your reading inspire you and stimulate ideas. Play with those ideas to the breaking point.

Reading is passive? That's a choice!

 

I don't like reading much either. Although I've graduated high school and am well through a local community college. Which is a fairly common MINIMUM for the modern American. So it's not like I haven't read out the wazoo. I've read. Sometimes I even like reading. Sometimes I hate it. I am sort of a rebel as a writer who doesn't LOVE reading. I don't love reading. I love stories. It matters less to me how I get the story and more how good it is. So yeah, sure. Listen to books on audiobooks. It's definitely necessary to read to go through life. But I hardly think that you have to be some super bookworm to be a good writer. I don't see why it's either that or you're so unread that you don't know basic word meanings in the English language.

 

Maybe you want to do a different kind of writing, screenplays perhaps.

 

Random thoughts:

- Don't expect to enjoy what you're assigned to read for school. I love to read, and always have. As a kid I used to get five or six books from the library every week, read them within two or three days, and spend the rest of the week re-reading those books and the fairly sparse collection of books that we had in the house.

Despite loving reading this much, I can't think of even one school-assigned book that I enjoyed. Not one. Maybe it's the book, maybe it's the school context, maybe it's the over-analysis, maybe it's all three. But don't judge your feelings about reading by how you feel about the books assigned at school.

- Don't expect to like a substantial percentage of the novels that you try. I can easily browse through ten, twenty, thirty or more before I find one worth reading. Of the ones that I actually read, perhaps one in four is good enough to drive me to find the rest of the books written by that author. Doing that with _purchased_ books is expensive, so I'd suggest browsing at the library. If you really dislike the library or it has a lousy selection, then find a used bookstore and browse through the cheap paperbacks.

- Try branching out in the books that you try. If you're always trying the same genres, because you think that you "should" like those things, or because your friends do, try something completely different. Don't make any effort whatsoever to read what you "should" read--find out what you enjoy reading, and read that.

- What are the books that held your attention? Maybe people can offer some suggestions, given that information about your reading tastes.

 

I think I can say with 99.9999. . .% accuracy, if you really, truly, don't like reading, you will never be a successful author. And then the question arises: Why would you want to? I am reminded of a line I heard many years ago. "Some people like to build bridges. Others like to be known as builders of bridges." That is, some people just like the IDEA of something. They want the glory and accolades and reputation that goes with it, but they don't really want to go through the process of actually DOING it, whereas others just can't help it. They have to do it. And, in writing, as with bridge building, there is no substitute for the 'boots on the ground', in the trenches, getting 'dirty' effort involved in producing a worthwhile product. If you don't know and understand the processes involved in creating a good piece of fiction, or non-fiction, or poetry, or screenplay, whatever your choice, then you will never be able to create it yourself. You must do 'the research'. In sales it's called knowing your market. In theater it's called knowing your audience.

Think of a would-be professional choreographer. Doesn't know how to dance. Doesn't like to dance. But there is just something about being a choreographer that really appeals to them. I'm guessing almost the entirety of the population would say he needs to look more realistically at his goals and, perhaps, re-target his dreams. I'd also guess that 100% of the dance world would say, "You want to work in theater? you want to be involved in dance?", then hand him a broom and tell him to start sweeping the theater floor because that's about as close as they could see him getting.

And, as far as Books-on-Audio, there are so many factors involved the partnership between the concept and the written word. It goes far beyond the difference between a strait jacket and a straight jacket. How you join words on a page will affect the way those words are received by the reader. How they interpret the meanings and nuances of those particular combinations of words. On the other hand, in audio books, which I do love, the "reader" receives someone else's interpretation of those words. You are, by the basic medium, limiting the "reader's" experience. As a pleasure, audio books are wonderful. I have a friend who owns several restaurant franchise stores. This keeps her on the road a lot. She always has an audio book with her, plugs it in when she's driving from one location to another. But that, as I noted, is for pleasure. She is not an author, she is a businesswoman. She does not need to study the written word or analyze why this works or that doesn't. If, on the other hand, those written words are the stock in trade of your life's work, you need to know them intimately and not from a distance and not through the filter of someone else's interpretation.

Writing is much more than just putting words on paper and, if you do not fully understand the intricacies of that process, if you have no interest in the research process, then you are cheating your potential readers as well as yourself.

 

Reading of course is a must to be a writer, but not necessarily novels only. You need to hone your language skills as a writer since you will have to express complex ideas and language skills can be developed from every source by reading other materials even by reading essays, short stories, poems. I improve my language skills even through magazines, newspapers. Even watching televisions I can make my language skills incisively better.

In fact if you write novels or any piece of literature unaffectedly it becomes a good piece, and original since it ill not mimic any others. Most books are born of some old books or old thoughts and if one can write books that gives the reader a different taste it is worthy of the project of writing.

 

to be a good screenwriter, one first needs to be a good writer, period...

 

"school books are boring" "reading is passive"
Wow, I'm sorry for some of you lot--and please, please don't think I'm being patonising. The classic books we read at school e.g. Lord Jim and Tess of the Durbervilles were the most exciting, interesting, thought provoking novels ever--and that's including the way they were written. We had great teachers bringing out the excitement and helping us understand them, though, and I guess not everyone is so lucky.

As for the "passive" comment--well, I became, and still become, so immersed in these stories it's like I'm living inside the covers. I won't say it's like watching a film, because I find many films more superficial than novels and enjoy films more for the art direction and costumes more often than not.

 

I remember at school doing stuff like Macbeth, Frankenstein and Beat poetry - people like Alan Ginsburg - and if they are boring then I would love to know what fun is.

Yeah, they are not going out to a night club and getting drunk 'fun' but I don't like doing that all the time. The combined hangovers are not worth it.

 

I've been told recently by a well-meaning, parade-soaking family member that I don't read much, tut tut, and that it's essential for writing. Like the ones who posted before me, she knows a lot more than I do about the publishing industry and I know that I would be an idiot not to follow her advice.

Personally, I didn't see a link between reading and writing but, let's face facts, you can't properly know a language without absorbing it. Be it spoken or written word. I'm not English, it's my second language but it is the language my heart speaks. I learned it by myself as a child by watching TV, movies and, of course, by reading. Actually, I can see how reading helped my English spelling immensely. I don't read any books in my mother tongue and it definitely shows when I have to write it.

Like other people said, find a genre or author that you enjoy and read. I love the Wooster books by P.G. Wodehouse and I've been rereading them over the years. Some genres just bore me to tears. But I know now to persevere and find the books that won't.

On a side-note, I've noticed the word "straightjacket" in the thread as an example of wrong spelling. I am not one to argue about that but I've recently looked up the word because I usually look up the spelling of words I'm not sure of. Various online dictionaries told me it's a variant of "straitjacket" so, needless to say, I'm confused now. But it's alright, I'll use "straitjacket" from now on.

 

So you don't get jazzed reading other people's work, but when you read your own work you do get jazzed? Or does your work bore you also? I can't wrap my head around the disconnect that is being made here between not reading and writing (presuming writing well). I'm trying to get it, but I don't.

I can spill a bunch of words on a page, but it only becomes GOOD writing when there is some emotion and feeling that comes back to me from it. A point of reference for me that can only come from the many worlds and characters I've experienced through other authors. To each his own. But damn, if I didn't know what it was like to have a book or story make me crack up, cry, get angry or thrilled I wouldn't know where to even start to try and make someone feel that way through my own writing.

 

You read beat poetry in school? Lucky. I've been listening to a lot of beat poets lately.

 

Yeah. Part of our homework one week was drawing pictures based on parts of 'Howl'. Kerouac was my favorite at the time though.

 

what is "Purple Prose"?

... i guess there's no delete eh?
that purple prose question was to one of the users on the first page. and i thought the quick reply option would show that persons username but i guess not.

ANYWAY i thank you all for your advice.
it definitely left me feeling less discouraged. because when i find a good book that's up my alley, i love it. but i'm in school now and forced to read stuff that doesn't interest me at all.
and to answer some of the questions that i remember at this moment (i haven't read page 2). i'm going to be 33 in like two weeks. i want to be a writer because for as long as i remember i'd create characters in my head and thought of myself as a real weirdo but than finally said "hey, if i write i can take these characters from out of my head and on to a page". like i said before there have been some books i love so it's not like i just detest the idea of reading. and... well i guess that's it.

Thanks for the replies!