Productive reading

Don't let the mandatory school reading get you down. Most of it would never be able to be published today anyway. Read what you want to write. And read as much as you need to.

 

Lunatia, as with too many things in the English language, when people misuse something often enough, it becomes an accepted form. Language is a living thing and, like other living things, it changes constantly. That is the nature of 'things'. If it was not constantly changing, it would grow stagnant and wither.

 

No, it isn't. Watching a movie is a passive activity. A movie presents you with everything: script, image, sound, music, the whole smash. Literature gives you nothing but words on the page, and your imagination has to create all the rest of it. Reading is a highly creative activity that engages your mind in ways other forms of entertainment do not.

 

Maybe, you're some kind of selfish writer?=) Who loves to show his/her talent, but not to look at others? I'm joking, of course. You have no consentration right now. later, I believe you'll be more focused and able to read.

 

Exactly. The first time I really sat down and wrote an entire story was after I watched Starship Troopers and thought "Damn even I could have wrote a better story than this!" Unfortunately I've lost the savings but looking back at it, it had no style because I was one who didn't like reading.

So when I decided to get back into things, it took me several writer's block before I realised I exactly needed to read a few books by different authors, and was only yhen I realised what I had been missing out on, and how much I looked forward to learning.

 

But I guess my point was that there's a lot of baggage which comes with each type of writing which can be a barrier to a writer, and the skills are focused very differently.

 

Of course, but my point still stands. There's a big difference between movies, in which you are presented with not only the story, but all the visuals and all the sound, and literature, in which you are only presented with the story in the form of words on the page. With literature, you must create all the visuals and sound in your own imagination. Watching a movie is a much more passive act than reading a novel.

 

Reading and writing do go hand in hand. I myself love to write, but I also love to read, getting through at least one 400 page plus novel every 5 days.

However, it doesn't mean that you have to like everything you read, or that you have to specifically read books. I do think that to become a decent writer, you must read as it helps hone your craft. But, that reading could be plays, scripts, comics, magazines, pulp novels and not the books that are considered classics.

My advice is to try and read something everyday, whether that is a chapter of a book or a news excerpt from your local paper. It will all help, oh and write, always write.

 

If you actually want to read but don't like books, you can try e-books or audiobooks and see if they pique your interest. Due to my workload i currently don't have the time to read as many books as i would like, so what i do is buy audiobooks and listen during bus or train rides and whenever i have some free time. You can also read short stories that don't last long enough to make you tired (ok, there are some ridiculously stupid ones but still). If you don't like reading in general, by extension you won't like your work either and any work produced by someone without passion is bound to be a waste of time for the most part.

 

I think the fact that a movie is over in 3 hours, and a good book takes days or even weeks to absorb, supports your point. Most movies don't demand concentration in the way that books do, they don't tax the brain. As you say, everything is done for you.

 

Writing and reading go together and indeed one has to read mountains of books. Do not cry over the fact that you did not read enough ini your school days and so I did not and yet I dream of being a popular writer despite the fact that i will have to go a long way to realize the dream.

If you were a poor reader and until now you have confined yourself to reading only text hooks do not cry over this since there are cases of later bloomers who were so dull and in their precarious states.

Now you have lots of opportunities since you have lots of opportunities.

 

if it's not too late to start writing, it's surely not too late to start reading, is it?

 

I never really bought into this notion. Even as hyperbole. Always struck me as a mindless stereotype of writers. Again, doesn't mean one buys into the false dichotomy of being completely illiterate because you never read or treating reading like it's air and you can't live unless you are reading at every given opportunity. IMO, it's not all or nothing.

 

i wouldn't say 'mountains of books'... but i do say to learn how to be a good writer one must read 'constantly'...

 

Try to read screenplays of movies you like, it works for me

 

that won't help you become a good writer of anything but screenplays... to become a good writer of anything, you must be a constant reader of the best examples of that medium/genre...

 

Read when you find something you want to read. Write when you have something you want (or need) to write.

I think, to be a good writer, you have to learn to develop your own approach to becoming a good writer without trying to follow what works for somebody else. Everyone's going to have their own ideas and absolutes. Everyone has their own takes and you can never please more than a small handful of any of them at one time. To be a good writer, you have to balance the desire to learn with the confidence to know what works for you and what doesn't, regardless of what anybody says.

 

Don't give up

I might be wrong, but it sounds like you're still in school- sometimes our take on literature in school can be a pretty narrow one... and keep in mind I am an English teacher!

Don't condemn reading to the trash can just yet, particularly if most of the reading you've done has been:

- chosen for you by someone else
- dissected into a million pieces by virtue of the fact that a curriculum needed to be covered

I wholeheartedly agree with the other posters who have suggested that perhaps you are yet to find your "spot" in the library!

And remember that it takes a different mind to write for different genres. If you've typecasted yourself as a novelist, you might be limiting your potential. If new ideas, people, phenomenon, pain, fragility of the human spirit, love, family, history, etc, etc, etc, interest you, you can no doubt canvass many of those spheres in non-fiction?

Hope this helps,

Meredith

 

In my opinion, reading is a lot of imagination. I'm not sure what it is about it that you don't really like (the stories, the characters, etc...) as I've always loved reading as an escape. If you don't like reading because you find it difficult to relate to a character, you may do great writing up one for yourself. If you don't like reading because written word doesn't evoke anything in you, you will find it very hard to write for others - as far as fiction goes. Reading has helped my vocabulary, which in turn has helped me express a much wider range of thoughts and feelings. If you hate reading stories, but like the technical aspects of writing, there's always the newspaper, or instruction guides or things of that nature.

 

In other words, I hate reading your drivel so please read mine. Is that so selfish? Arrogant? Pompous? Foolish?

Why don't you list what you've read because I suspect you don't even want to try.

List the authors you hate.

I have one - Thomas Hardy

 

I haven't read the entire thread, so I don't know if this has been mentioned, but you don't necessarily have to read a lot.
I think a lot of people have this horrible misconception that, in order to be a good writer, you need to consume as many books as possible, speed read your way through hundreds of novels. No. Lots of people do that and are nevertheless crummy writers. Here is the secret to being a good writer: be observant. Be endlessly fascinated by language. You don't need to actively go out and read a novel every day; writing is everywhere: notice the billboard advertisements; notice grammar inconsistencies in speech; notice emerging neologisms; notice unintended rhythmical patterns in news broadcasts; notice the literary conventions of online journalism.

Writing is everywhere... especially in our modern age. We are constantly reading. Be inspired by everything you read, and don't see the written word as a means to an end. Read slowly, analytically. If you don't like novels, don't read novels. I'm being controversial: you can write a novel without reading a novel. Read the Wikipedia entry on the novel form, as a genre. Then trap your experiences into language that you are familiar with.. perhaps you have read poetry, or online journalism, or you are inspired by the dialogue and plots of films. Trap your new subjective experiences in language that is inspired by these artistic/communicative mediums that you are familiar with. And then squish it into a novel form. And voila: the content of the novel will be crisp and new. Your novel truly will be novel.

And okay, what people are saying is true. It does help to read. But there are so many things that can be read, so many communicative mediums to draw inspiration from. You don't need to read novels to be a writer. Don't lose hope. Write.

 

Maybe you have a love of stories and have a short attention span. I have a short attention span too and it used to be hard for me to read a lot. If that's the case my advice to overcome it is make reading a daily thing. I started by reading 10 pages a day, after 6 months I read 20 pages a day, 6 months again I was on 30 pages. Now it's 6 months later again and I read 30 pages of a novel and one short story every day. My poor attention span has been cured haha. Now I love to read, I love stories. I couldn't imagine my life without reading now.

If 10 pages is too much to hold you attention then try 5 pages. You get the idea.