How to learn from the books you read

I always take the first read as just a reader - get caught up in the story, forget about the craft. I'll learn some things by the end, but mostly I'll know what the book did well and what it didn't. Then I can go back through and reread it with an eye to how it accomplished what it did and why other aspects fell flat.

ZerosJourney said:

Then I can go back through and reread it with an eye to how it accomplished what it did and why other aspects fell flat.

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Absolutely agree. I've also sat down and written my own version of a synopsis for novels I've read, noting character changes and plot points, etc., chapter by chapter, so I can see the book's actual gears. That was a handy trick...

Good idea. I might have to try that with the book I'm currently reading.

Sometimes when I'm struggling with a part of my novel, I go to my favorites in that genre and read what the pros did. Then I drop the book like it's on fire because otherwise I'll be reading the book over again instead of working on the problem in my novel...

I would like to think reading a book is akin to batting practice. Each swing doesn't improve performance, but collectively it makes you a better hitter. Like batting practice, analysing the a book in gross detail dulls the senses.

Reading a book, specifically a published one, is surveying an approved grammatical masterpiece. Okay, maybe not a masterpiece, but a something that is of good enough quality to emulate.

At least I would hope.

i think one of the best ways to learn is by reading. for my part, when i read, i don't think to myself, 'how is the author using this or that to construct a beautiful sentence etc.' I think about the character - how clear their motive was to me, what their journey was, why i believed in it, why i was willing to suspend my belief. how the story's end was justified... all of these things come to mind naturally when reading, and the more i read, the more complex my questions become.

I try to read things as just another reader first. What I need to find out about a certain book at a first read is fairly simple: does it work, or does it not work?

Then I put on my writer glasses and try to find out why this worked for me, and why that spoiled the fun. Big picture first, picking apart the details, later.

I think it depends on what you're trying to learn. I'm a voracious reader, so, after reading literally thousands of books, I think I've gotten a lot of general information about pacing, story telling, character creation, etc. Just by reading and reading.

Now that I'm trying to write an epic fantasy, I've reread a few of my favorites picking them apart in terms of my current concerns. So, for example, I'm struggling with plot and pace. So I just reread the first book of the Ryria Revelations jotting down notes about chapter length, topics, feel, character development, etc. It was VERY helpful

I recommend you invest in (or rent) the book How to Read Novels Like a Professor as well as How to Read Literature Like a Professor. These two books will help you develop mental tools that will allow you to still enjoy good stories, but also analyze them as well. Personally, after I read these two books, my ability to pick out the parts of a book I wanted to learn became easier. It especially became easier to look objectively at characters, themes, etc.

Those books taught me that you can read as a reader, writer, or professor. The three modes are very different. Some of them are more conducive to learning than others. Professor mode is the best, but you will have to switch to writer mode again to analyze what you've learned because professors' main concerns with a story are different from writers'.

I think it comes from practice. You learn how to enjoy the story while at the same time you're alert for something potentially useful for yourself. And then sometimes you say hell with it. You forget about reading as a writer or professor so you can enjoy some time as a reader. We all do it. It's fine. You'll internalize more than you think.

Try writing down what you've learned after reading a book. Don't just ask yourself aloud. Write it. You are asking your writerly side to talk to you, after all. How do you expect it to tell you what it learned if you don't give it some pen and paper, or a blinking cursor?

First, I study books I've already read. It's easier to pull myself out of the book and go back when I know what's coming.

Next, I focus on one scene. I might copy or print pages so I can highlight specifics that I want to study without going past the end of the scene, or put in a book mark to tell me where to stop reading.

The third main thing I do to learn is to find really bad writing and edit it. Free indie books are a great place to look, because there are many of authors putting out completely unedited and unrefined work, or work that might be close but isn't quite ready. (Which isn't meant as a slam on indie. I've also found some very good books this way. Books put through publishers won't go unedited unless the author has reached cult-leader status.) Doing my own edits on others' books forces me to focus on the nuts and bolts of why a passage or plotline doesn't work for me, which in turn gives me more insight when I go back to my own work.

A lot of the stuff you learn is subconscious. It happens as you get swept away by the story.

For me, like a lot of others, first read is to enjoy the book, pure and simple. Subsequent reads are still enjoyable, but I'm paying more attention now. I'm looking at language, at structure. If I find something I find they do particularly well, I copy it out by hand or on the PC. That way, I can see exactly what's done.

Osmosis.

I try to focus on one aspect I'm interested in or know I need to improve: how often certain words get used versus others, how certain kinds of scenes are written or paced. I'll read the book normally, but when what I'm looking for pops up, I can bring myself out of the book enough to make a mental note of what I found. Definitely don't do that with books you haven't read before, though. First read as reader.

The way I learned to really analyse properly was to ruin my life and my vocabulary with TV Tropes (not really; I'm one of those oddballs for whom analysis is half the fun). I read through tropes for my favourite books, TV shows and movies, and then, as I read new books, picked out the obvious tropes as I went.

Also, a good period of reflection at the end is good - on the way to school/work/whatever, have a think back on it. You'll pick up more in retrospect, especially the clues that you really should have noticed for the Twist Ending but didn't because the author was clever.

That idea of LoireyLinger's is going to be very helpful to me. I get urged to buy books by local authors (some of whom are my friends), so I go ahead and shell out good money--and when I get home and discover how poorly written these books are, I hate myself. Now, I'm going to view these purchases as an opportunity to study the craft via editing. Money well spent!

Anninyn said:

A lot of the stuff you learn is subconscious. It happens as you get swept away by the story.

For me, like a lot of others, first read is to enjoy the book, pure and simple. Subsequent reads are still enjoyable, but I'm paying more attention now. I'm looking at language, at structure. If I find something I find they do particularly well, I copy it out by hand or on the PC. That way, I can see exactly what's done.

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All of this.

It can be really helpful to mark which passages you felt worked particularly well, or not, and go back after and dissect them. Or keep them on hand to go back to later. Like if I'm feeling particularly weak in one area or another, I find it helpful to go read an author who is strong in that area and try to get idea for how to improve my own work.

You can also outline the plot to see the movement of the plot and character arcs through the book.

I've never tried any of this stuff, but I also don't write much like my favorite authors. Which I don't take to be a sign of disaster, I'm just doing my own thing. I've never really felt any pressure to emulate the writers that I enjoy, just to work on my own craft.

It's not about emulation. It's about learning, and using skills that others have mastered in your own way.

No-one expects to learn how to be a plumber without studying with another plumber; art students copy the work of masters before going on to develop their own style.

It's easier to notice, identify and develop your craft when you have tools learned from the others who have gone before you.

I agree with the posters who read first and dissect later and I really like furiousferret's comp to batting practice. For me, a lot of it comes down to, "What part of my own writing do I want to improve?" From there I can go to authors who execute that aspect particularly well. I love F. Scott Fitzgerald, but he wouldn't be my first choice if I'm looking to sharpen dialogue in a scene.

The other thing I want to say is that the more I write and the more I read, the more I pick up on the intricacies of craft even when I'm going through a first read. I stopped myself the other day while reading Elmore Leonard because he had chosen a clever POV for a particular scene. The scene was a meeting between two people. Leonard chose to tell it from the POV of a third character doing surveillance from a car down the block. The result was: 1.) I knew the meeting took place but none of the details, 2.) the third character was introduced and developed through their own assumptions about the meeting, 3.) this allowed the writer to manipulate plot twists based on these assumptions later in the book.

I agree it's not about emulating; it's about learning how to use tools effectively. A lot of the writers/books I've studied aren't ones I love but ones that I felt were really strong in a certain area.

(However, there are writing books and courses where you are encouraged to emulate authors for certain writing exercises.)

This is a great post about learning from reading: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/02/19/how-to-read-like-a-writer/ (Actually the whole blog is pretty freaking helpful.)

It is about emulation. It's about pure, flat out imitation, in fact. You read books. You write similar books. All that really changes is adding yourself, your experience, to the mix.

Reading for pleasure is great, but it's important to slow yourself down and study a successful section carefully.

What I did was retype whole chapters, usually the first one. Don't worry too much about typos; the important thing is to understand the flow of the sentences, the variety within paragraphs, the way it feels.

Afterwards, look over what you typed so you can compare it to your own work. How much page-space was spent on description? How much on action? How long did it take for the protagonist and antagonist to meet? Or, how long did it take for the protagonist to recognize their life was about to get interesting? What was the balance between dialog and narrative? How much page-space was spent describing feelings?

The answers will be different depending on the author and on the genre: each has its own norms and preferences.

Another useful exercise is to read a book with a yellow legal pad beside you. Every five pages (keep your bookmark with you), stop and write a line about what happened. Was it a lot? A little?

Every writer needs to learn to recognize what works from what doesn't, and we usually do it by feel. Retyping a chapter or three will help you develop that feel.

Good luck.

While simply reading a wide variety of books - as a reader - is tremendously useful, another thing I've found is to retype portions of a book I really loved. Something about putting the words down one by one on a blank screen, I notice things I would have missed just be rereading those same spots, or even by studying them. By typing, I pick up on punctuation usage (oh, the elipses really helped evoke uncertainty there), the balance of dialogue versus character description, the changes in sentence structure, the effectiveness of a sentence fragment or a new paragraph, word choice, etc.

Ben Franklin, who had very little formal education, used that method to become a very effective writer - writing by hand, of course.

ETA: I didn't see the person above me wrote essentially the same thing! Well, take mine as a ditto!

Anninyn said:

No-one expects to learn how to be a plumber without studying with another plumber; art students copy the work of masters before going on to develop their own style.

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I actually have *ideas* about the future of plumbing. I want to take it in a weird new direction.