The Craft of Writing

Reading Fiction to Improve Writing Skills

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Reading Fiction to Improve Writing Skills

Writers are often encouraged by their teachers, professors, and other authors to read voraciously in order to improve upon their personal writing capabilities. However, a planned approach to your reading regimen is essential to maximizing the benefits of your work and research. Because we tend to put into our own writing what we have derived from the works of others, what we read is as significant as how much we read. As you make your selections, consider the following guidelines on properly reading fiction to improve writing skills.

• Start with the classics. Much of modern literature is influenced by pieces that have stood the test of time. In fact, reviewers often compare best-selling books to classic novels in order to illustrate their weight and quality. Begin building your foundation with works from authors who have touched not only their own generations, but many more throughout history.
  
• Begin perusing the New York Times Best Sellers List, along with other weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly best selling novels lists. This step is meant to guide you toward understanding what pieces resonate with today’s discerning readers.
  
• Differentiate between quality and popularity. This step is perhaps one of the most important learning experiences for new writers searching for literature that will enhance their own. Literature that sells well is a result of not only what is printed on its pages, but also of cover design, marketing, the author’s own promotional efforts, and the proper connections. As such, many excellent pieces go unnoticed by the mainstream but are esteemed by scholars and contest judges. Be sure to do a bit of research on a book’s history of awards and professional recognition, rather than relying on sales records alone.
  
• Set a reading schedule. When reading to improve writing skills, it may be a good idea to set weekly goals. Otherwise, your work may turn into leisure reading, which tends to take a back seat to other priorities.
  
• Analyze each piece. Compare the works of the authors you read to your own. Take note of how they develop characters and plots, what makes them different, and what techniques they use to cause an emotional reaction within their readers. While note-taking during reading sessions is not always necessary, you might wish to write down your overall analysis at the completion of each novel.
  
• Look for areas of improvement in everything you read. Keep in mind that novelists are human, and as such they can (and do) have errors and shortcomings in their works. This is true regardless of the prestige associated with an author, although you may have to look a bit harder for failures in more established authors’ works than in others. As you read, take a mental note of how you might have improved the novel and why. This step is essential to learning how to read critically, a skill that serious novelists must accomplish.
  

Keep in mind that the more you read, the more examples you’ll have to fall back on and compare/contrast your own methods with. You’ll learn what has failed in the past, and what has been received well. As your list of completed novels grows, so will your understanding of what truly represents excellent, thorough, and thought-provoking literature.