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This week: Top Five Reasons to Read Edited by: Satuawany  
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Actually, it's two Top Five lists, one for reading within the fantasy genre, and one for reading everything else. Today, I share with you my reasoning, but I'd love to hear about yours.
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All novels are sequels; influence is bliss.
~Michael Chabon
Unless you are brand spankin' new to the writing scene, you've heard that a writer has to read. You might not hear a lot beyond that because what reading brings to a writer can be (can be) difficult to define. The benefits can also be different for each writer.
Here, I squinted my eyes and clenched my teeth to try to put into words a little of my own experience, a little of what I've heard from popular sources, and a little of what I've heard from peers. Taking my impressions of all of that, here are my Top Five Reasons for reading within and outside of the fantasy genre. These are specific to reading as a writer. Reading as a recreational reader barely differs to an outside observer, but the reasoning behind the reading does.
Top Five Reasons for a fantasy writer to read fantasy:
1.) To understand what's been done to death (so you won't do it) and in what ways it's been done to death (in case you want to give it a new spin.)
2.) To see how it's done. And how it shouldn't be done. To find your own opinion of these things.
3.) To figure out the reoccurring phenomena that make you love the genre. This can renew your faith in it, and remind you of what you wanted to always have in your stories. This can be a great boost for your writing.
4.) To take a break from writing without leaving the experience of fantasy storytelling. Let someone else take the reins, so you can enjoy a story in the genre you love without your nose to the grindstone.
5.) To find your stories' place(s) in the Great Fantasy Over-Novel. You get to reading enough fantasy and it all starts to look like a part of the same, great web. The most memorable stories have little splashes of homage and unintentional small parallels that, even though they might be approached in vastly different ways, give a sense of interconnectedness. How do your stories fit into that? Not that you should force homage and such parallels into your own writing, but that getting a sense of the Great Fantasy Over-Novel affects you in subtle ways that make your writing "fit in." Conversely, if the last thing you want to do is "fit in," then you need to know just what you're trying not to "fit in" with.
Top Five Reasons for a fantasy writer to read outside the fantasy genre:
1.) A wider berth of ideas. Maybe in the reading of a medical mystery novel, there will be some angle to a disease that gives you an idea for a disease in your fantasy world. It could be the perfect plot twist you were looking for.
2.) To study ways to enrich your own subplots. If you have a dash of romance in your story, reading in the genre that's devoted to that can help you see what really works. It can also show you what doesn't work, and what's been done so often that no one cares anymore. The same goes for horror, suspense, and just about any other genre you can come up with.
3.) To take a break. Sometimes the best thing to do is take a break. If you've hit a rough patch, put down the fantasy and pick up something completely different. It can help your mind relax a bit, and even lead to one of these others Top Five things.
4.) To learn how to broaden your audience. When you find aspects you enjoy in other genres, they will influence you. Incorporating aspects of other genre writing into your fantasy writer can entice readers of that other genre over to your writing.
5.) To find your stories' place(s) in the Great Over-Novel. This can get even more interesting than the Great Fantasy Over-Novel, in that it encompasses all genres. It's amazing to see the same concepts tackled in fantasy, horror, and historical fiction. Now, you'll really get a sense of how to fit in---or how to break away from that.
And don't skimp out on "bad" books. They can teach you just as much as the good ones can. (I seem to agree with Stephen King on this one.) You might even be surprised at how often you do things you hate. I've caught plenty of these things in my own writing---and I learned to see them by reading bad books.
On the flip side, the good things in bad books really stand out, which makes them easier to study.
What'd I miss? I would love to hear your ideas---as writers---about reading.
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There are some great contests going on for speculative fiction writers. After taking a look at a lot of them, these are my favorites:
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#1273950 by Not Available. |
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#1767321 by Not Available. |
And here're some more items I pick:
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#1083083 by Not Available. |
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Feedback from my previous newsletter, "Smart-Mouthed Characters" :
Joto-Kai writes:
Other than myself, I haven't done a smart alec in years! For me, jokes and snarky comments are the ideal way to defuse things- to attack and assert without escalating aggression. To say "I'm dangerous- but you can laugh instead of fighting back." Myself, at work- the most fictional of all my characters.
Ha-haa! I love your way of looking at it.
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Fantasy: September 19, 2012 Issue [#5267]
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