Ever been reading a book, and then as you write, that particular author's writing style kind of seeps into your stuff? I keep catching myself writing all flashbacky like in the book I'm reading now...
It happens to all of us. It's why reading is so good for your writing, you can pick up a wide variety of techniques, which increases your own repertoire.
I'm not trying to sound like I'm the god of writing, but I don't have this happen to me. I've trained myself not to sound like other authors. I think it also helps that I've developed my own concrete style of writing. Although yes, you should read more than you write. You need to read a wide variety of things to be able to write to your fullest.
I actually talked about this with my husband yesterday. I said to him that I would like to write one of my scenes like Terry Pratchett would write it, just to see how it would sound. He said that many writers actually do that. They write scenes with the voices of their favourite authors, just to see how it sounds. I wouldn't use that in the actual book, but I would like to do that with a couple of scenes just to play with the ideas. I think you could do it on purpose sometimes. Then you'll learn to know the difference between your own voice and the voice of others. Well, that's my way of seeing this anyway.
Every writer should develop his or her own style. But that does not mean you should never try out a technique you've admired in another writer's work. Quite the opposite! That is all part of developing your style and improving your "voice". Even though you pick up a technique from another writer, you are still blending it intoi your own unique style, which will include, consciously or unconsciously, components from all the writers whose work catches your attention in a positive way. If you're not learning and growing, you're stagnating.
I might mimic themes and subjects, but not writing styles. I'm too fixated on my own style to borrow someone else's! In high school/college, though, I did briefly borrow a sort of narration device from a Stephen King book--namely, I'd have little incomplete bits of character thought cut into the narration I'm thinking I'm thinking just like that. This didn't last terribly long, and it was mainly in one story where such a technique worked, though I'm not sure if I'd call this mimicking a style so much as a technique. What you mentioned, a "flashbacky" thing, sounds more like a technique than a style, too, since lots of writers (myself included) utilize flashbacks. Unless the flashback scene is a staple of that particular writer's work, then it might be considered part of their style. When I think "style" I think of more subtle things like word preference and choice, how sentences are constructed, description, the writer's personal use of symbolism, etc. My writing is highly influenced by what I read, yes, since I read about what I'm interested in, which is also what I write about--but as for style, no, as far as I'm aware it doesn't happen with me. This might be partly because I read mostly nonfiction, and write fantasy. And like I said, I prefer my own style so much that I wouldn't really want to take someone else's. *shrug*
To be honest, I don't know how you can say you love you write, if you don't love reading also. Books are a medium for telling a story, and you can't tell a story if you don't love story telling. Thus, In my opinion, if you don't love story telling (and you don't love reading) and thus then you must ask, do you really love writing? I find myself have taken elements from: Poe, Lovecraft, King, Pynchon and Tom Clancy as a way of improving my own writing style. I'm not saying you should read the same writers as I, I'm saying it's essential to read, not only to improve your own writing. It is either a conscious thing or a subconscious thing, which ever it is, you should be glad it is happening.
I read nearly everything I can get my hands on...except when I'm writing. It completely screws up my head. I can't write for days afterworlds. This is actually a problem for me, because when a favorite author of mine releases a book, while I'm working on my own book...I'm just SOL.
In a word: yes. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. The key is to know you're going to be mimicking Orson Scott Card's style for a few days and therefore steering away from, say, that hot gay sex scene. And write some soul-searching metaphysical debate instead. When I forget to coach myself like that, I can find weird things showing up. Like once I started referring to characters as if they were looking back on the story, from a first-person narrative where the main character keeps looking back on her life. Only my story was third person and told as it happens--I didn't even know if all of the characters mentioned would survive to remember!
I kind of see reading as a parallel to life experience, in the way my personality is a result (ish) of all my life experiences, so my writing style is a result (ish) of my reading experiences, as well as my socialisation, of course. A quote (can't remember from who) that always sticks with me is..."Good writing in, good writing out." I like it when I 'realise' I've been influenced by another writer. I don't blanche, or run away from it, but try to figure out why I like it so much, and how best I can learn from it. Just like life, I suppose.
Not sure if this belongs in general discussion or writing, but I'll post it here anyway. I was wondering if anyone has any advice on how to improve reading speed? My speed averages out between 250wps and 280wps according to tests I've done. Considering how often I read, I find this pretty slow. Any tips on how to get those pupils sprinting?
henry, i think you're getting something wrong/mixed up there... no human can read that fast, as has been noted above... forget about silly online tests and just have a clock hand next time you read a book... check the time and page number when you start... stop reading when an hour has passed... then you'll know how many pages per hour you read... fyi, i'm a fairly fast reader, though not what is called a 'speed-reader' and i read at a pretty steady 50 pph, when not distracted...
I read leisurly. I know I can read fast, but I usually don't. I like to take time, absorb the information, and paint vivid imagery in my head.
Sorry, I meant per minute not second. Whoops. :redface: Thanks, will do this. I remember doing this before and getting something like 40 pph (page per hour?)
I can totally understand where your coming from though. Like my sister reads books a day. Like 3 decent sized books , she can burn through. Granted it's not the most challenging material, romance novels anyone. It still would be cool to be able to do it.
I find the more quickly you comprehend the material (as noted above; Carthonn's sister can go through several books per day, but easy romance novels are different than a classic, for example) the faster you will be able to read. That said, I also dont think there's a good way to improve your speed other than just reading-reading-reading. If you read slowly, you read slowly. Is it a problem? I prefer to read slowly --or at least reread, so it takes up just as much time as reading slowly. You absorb more information and catch things you might not have by speed reading.
Depends on what I'm reading. If it's something light and breezy, a hundred pages an hour. If it's something more worthwhile and challenging, about half of that. That said, if it's something I'm very interested in I'll read it much faster than otherwise- Camus' The Plague isn't an easy read and it took me about three hours.
When I was attending Texas A&M a decade ago I attended this seminar on how to increase one's reading speed. There were basically a couple habits most readers have that if you broke would allow you to double or more your reading speed. It worked for me at the time. First, you must stop sub-vocalizing. Even if you don't move your lips when you read most people still pronounce out the words to some extent in their head. If you can break this habit you will see an increase. If you watch closely the eyes of someone reading will often see the eyes bouncing back and forth on the same line of text, sometimes rereading the same words more than once. The ideal is to allow your eyes to move from one end to the other in one, smooth, swift slide. Now, to practice these things what they made us do was read text faster than we could actually comprehend it. The idea was if you kept pushing yourself faster than you were comfortable with, once you slowed down back to a point you had full comprehension you would automatically be reading faster. It actually worked. If I remember correctly they even had us do the exercises with the book turned upside down so we could focus solely on the eye movements and not get slowed down with comprehension. I am sure there are sites out there that will describe it much better than I. But a decade later am I still reading as fast as I learned to do at that seminar? Well, it depends. If I kept doing those exercises on a regular basis my NATURAL reading speed would likely be much faster than it is. But frankly doing those exercises isn't my idea of fun. When I need to I am still able to "speed read" by making a conscious effort to stop sub-vocalizing and moving my eyes across the page swiftly and smoothly. It is a handy tool to have when reading for school or work. But when reading for leisure I don't bother with it.
I've heard people say stop vocalising the words you read, but words are meant to be spoken! You SHOULD read aloud as often as you can, or at least sound the words or vocalise or whatever you wanna call it. The rhythm, balance, speed, flow, all of these things can only be appreciated if you consider the way words sounddddd or are spokennnnn so I see no reasn to sacrifice this understandingfor the sake of a little extra speed. Besides, if you enjoy reading, and are reading a good book, why make it end faster than you need to?
I agree arron89, which is why I would never use those techniques when reading for pleasure. It does subtract from the enjoyment. Sort of like watching a good movie on double speed.
I agree arron89, which is why I would never use those techniques when reading for pleasure. It does subtract from the enjoyment. Sort of like watching a good movie on double speed. I read about 150-200 pages per hour, without any 'techniques'. It's just the speed I read at, I simply can't not.
I've really never understood the whole speed reading thing. I mean... why? To what end? At what point was it announced that the whole shebang was to be a race? I never attempted any of this stuff while I was at university and I graduated on schedule, and the need to read large amounts at university is the only reason I can really see for doing these excersises. Personally, I get miffed when people read my stuff and I realize that they are skim reading. I read every word of what I am reading; every article, every conjunction. Don't mean to poo-poo the subject, but I just don' get it.
