Read Like A Writer

There are two ways to learn how to write fiction: by reading it and by writing it. Yes, you can learn lots about writing stories in workshops, in writing classes and writing groups, at writers' conferences. You can learn technique and process by reading the dozens of books like this one on fiction writing and by reading articles in writers' magazines. But the best teachers of fiction are the great works of fiction themselves. You can learn more about the structure of a short story by reading Anton Chekhov's 'Heartache' than you can in a semester of Creative Writing 101. If you read like a writer, that is, which means you have to read everything twice, at least. When you read a story or novel the first time, just let it happen. Enjoy the journey. When you've finished, you know where the story took you, and now you can go back and reread, and this time notice how the writer reached that destination. Notice the choices he made at each chapter, each sentence, each word. (Every word is a choice.) You see now how the transitions work, how a character gets across a room. All this time you're learning. You loved the central character in the story, and now you can see how the writer presented the character and rendered her worthy of your love and attention. The first reading is creative—you collaborate with the writer in making the story. The second reading is critical.


John Dufresne, from his book, The Lie That Tells A Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction

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Saturday, March 4, 2023

Read, Read, Read, Verything by William Faulkner | Writing Quote 

 

Writing Quote
 

Purpose of a Writer by Albert Camus

 

 Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window.

 --William Faulkner

 

Abouts the Author 


William Cuthbert Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of his life. Wikipedia

 
Notable works: The Sound and the Fury; As I Lay Dying; Light in August; Absalom, A...
Notable awards: Nobel Prize in Literature (1949); Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1955, 19...
Born: William Cuthbert Falkner; September 25, 1897; New Albany, Mississippi, U.S
Died: July 6, 1962 (aged 64); Byhalia, Mississippi, U.S
Short stories: A Rose for Emily, Barn Burning, Dry September, and more
Plays: Requiem for a Nun

 

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