I’ll admit that “reading as a writer” isn’t one of my favorite things to do. Since my reading time is as limited as it is, I prefer to read for pure enjoyment, rather than analysis. But I think that with a little practice, learning how to take in a writer’s style and studying what they’re doing with words can become natural enough that it doesn’t interrupt reading for fun.
The other difficulty is figuring out who exactly “the greats” are. This can be simple if you’re writing certain genres (like science fiction), but some, such as short story writing, are more saturated. For this I recommend The Best American Series. (Unfortunately, I don’t know if there are any international equivalents of this series.) The series is a set of anthologies that combine the “best of” a certain genre in a particular year; for instance, “The Best American Short Stories” or what I’ve been reading lately, “The Best American Travel Writing.”
Not only is it enjoyable to read some of the best writing of the year, it’s a good way to get a feel for a genre and its conventions. After I decided to write “The Traveling Fantasist” blog series, I decided I needed to actually read some travel writing – not only do I want my writing to be good, I want it to be easily recognizable as travel writing, and that means learning exactly what travel writing is.
The other great thing about these is that you don’t need the most recent version, which means you don’t have to worry about paying full price if you don’t want to. I picked up my 2009 copy on a “free books” table on campus, and you can also find these pretty easily in used book stores.
So my challenge to you today is to read! Read something new, something you want to write – just read and try to take in the author’s style.
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