 |
| IWSG |
"I don't know, what day is it?"
"Why, it IWSG time!"
Yes, it's that time of the month (Good gravy, not that!) where all writers of all stripes bloviate/pontificate about all things writing relate.
Since originality has gone the way of common sense (see any guv'ment agency that you deal with in any way, shape or form), we shall use the alternate question, which is:
It's been said that the benefits of becoming a writer who does not read is that all your ideas are new and original. Everything you do is an extension of yourself, instead of a mixture of you and another author. On the other hand, how can you expect other people to want your writing, if you don't enjoy reading? What are your thoughts?
Up until last summer, when I discovered podcasts, I was a voracious reader. Both non-fiction and fiction, I read all kinds. Whatever piqued my curiosity, both good and bad. When I decided to get serious about my writing about ten years ago, I started reading with a more critical eye.
I focused on what I liked and what I didn't like about a particular book (intense dislike of anything that smacks of an MFA infected book), and I tried to work those attributes into my writing.
One thing I didn't work into my writing, were any writer's influences. I really didn't focus on one particular writer when I was reading, so no one particular writer influenced my writing. I simply used multiple sources as example when I would write a given story.
The one thing I definitely learned from listening to well over 630 hours worth of podcasts, was to make sure that everything that I wrote was somewhat pithy, concise and to the point. You really have to make your point/tell your story interestingly enough to have repeat customers when you have between 20 and 45 minutes of content to work with on a weekly basis.
I still try to read at least a book a month (about the only thing my current attention span can handle these days) and pull out what I can from that and still absorb what I can while listening to podcasts.
After all, isn't the basic idea of reading/listening is to absorb what you can, when you can, in order to write the best that you can?
{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved
I'm sure podcasts would teach you to be more direct. Not a lot of room for extra junk.
ReplyDeleteThat is for sure. I listen to all different kinds of genres, and the one thing they have in common is no extra junk.
DeleteI'm probably a non-critical reader, meaning I find an author and read them until no more books are available. You have a great point about reading to study technique. I am probably just too lazy to attack it that way, but things I like, I hope I've added to my own writing.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate enough in my blogging life to have a few writers as regular readers. This afforded me the luxury of casually picking their brains for writing tips. I've also read some of their stuff to get an idea on what to do in order o construct a good story.
Delete