How do you study books that you like to improve your writing?

Catcher said:

What books do you recommend for learning from reading.

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The books that you love & that you wish your could write like.

Here's a method suggested some time ago by another member here:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=263288

Number of words per paragraph isn't something I would look too much into, unless you've got some real monsters that you need to break up. But study the pacing of sections you like, what keeps them moving and what details the author puts the most emphasis on. This will change from story to story and author to author, but knowing why something works is important. Seeing a master do it well can set you on the right track.

If you want to learn from novels and other fiction, read what you want to write. Walk into Barnes and Noble and ask for an author in X_section (romance, sci-fi, thriller, etc), that's been published in the last year. Could be a new writer, could be a veteran on their 20th book. See what is selling. Right. Now.

You can also look at older works in your genre, but keep their dated-ness in the back of your mind. For example, a new writer busting out of the gate in fantasy is not going to write like Tolkien.

For me, I remember hearing the Joe Abercrombie wrote awesome action/fight scenes, so I picked up a book and honed in on how he did it. How much does he describe? What does the language look like? How does he pace a scene? What's at stake inside the character's mind? (And this led me to buying more of his books, because I really enjoyed them.)

I read a steampunk book the other day and was noticing some truly amazing description. Not pages and pages, but one sentence here and one sentence there that does the work in a small space: efficiently, vividly, and eloquently. I highlighted some on my Kindle to reference later.

You can either pick a craft element like setting, action, pacing, dialogue, etc. Or, you can just read and see what is stands out.

Just my method. You and others may have/find different ways.

Catcher said:

Do you count how many words per paragraph? Do you write out a sentence or three and try it out in the same style? Do you see how many words he or she used to make a point?


What is your process for learning from reading. What books do you recommend for learning from reading.

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I've never done any of those things, because paragraph length, how many words needed to make a point, and style aren't really things I'm worried about, except in a very general sense (I might notice the difference between two authors in this respect, but it's more of a passing thing). The thing I probably pay the most attention to is how different writers describe emotions and the sensations (or actions) associated with them, and how they establish the pov and voices of their characters. I often find I get repetitive when I describe facial expressions, body language and feelings. There's only so many times someone's heart can pound and his gut can clench before it gets old, and nearly every facial expression seems to come down to a mention of eyebrows, so I like to get ideas about how to describe these things from published writers I enjoy reading.

Another thing I sometimes look for is scene and pov changes, and when and how writers cue the passage of time between scenes or chapters in novels. Fight scenes are another thing I sometimes examine.

Basically, I'll read a book and focus on a certain aspect of it and see how it's achieved. An example would be I read about twenty of the 'scariest' horror novels looking at how they develop a sense of fear.

I learned this:

-They make you care about the characters. I found by reading those books that I only got scared when I was scared for the character. That required me to care about the character.
-I noticed a technique that made me the most afraid in several different books. The author would hide the source of the horror. The monster should be like an iceberg, an obscured but apparent mass beneath the surface where you only see little peeks.

Just read and analyze what works for you. Read carefully and conscientiously from a writer's state of mind.

I tend to read articles on how to improve my writing (e.g. Writers Digest has a lot of great information on improving your writing voice).

When I read though, I read for the pure enjoyment of it. Although the style of the book I am reading at the time, can tend to seep into my writing.

I usually read it once for enjoyment and then start taking notes about the things I really liked about it. After that, I go back to the sections I liked and try to pick apart why I liked these parts so much--how they were written, what led up to them/the clues the author laid out, and what the author did differently to make them engaging.

Roxxsmom said:

I often find I get repetitive when I describe facial expressions, body language and feelings. There's only so many times someone's heart can pound and his gut can clench before it gets old, and nearly every facial expression seems to come down to a mention of eyebrows, so I like to get ideas about how to describe these things from published writers I enjoy reading.

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I am completely with you on this, this is my next study subject. I write very much like an actor, as if I am the characters in my story. So I do all the facial expressions, body gestures and all that, but I still cannot get them right on paper, a) because I then focus on them all and find it hard to select the most evident one, and b) the way I do it tends to feel too forced somehow, especially as I am trying to use these to replace dialogue tags... Maybe not the best way forward!

I think this could be a very helpful thread!

Also, when I read a new book, nowadays, I try to pay attention to the style. The thing is, I am reading three books at the moment. Two have gone by the way side, and the other, The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom, is gripping me like crazy, so much so that the writing disappears as I am sucked into the story, and in my mind, that is how reading should feel. Maybe I will have the courage to go back at the end and try to study how/ what/ why? but I may well get drawn in all over again, just the way it happens when I try to study Barbara Kingsolver's style, they are that good!

After I finish a book, I write down the three act structure of it. I recently finished Lolita, and wrote down the three act structure as best as I can recall.

It would look like this:

Act I
- Exposition: Characters and Setting- Point of no Return 1: The plot point where the character cannot return to the old ways or normalcy (Humbert Humbert wants Lo, Dolly, Dolores, Lolita!)

Act II
- Conflicts: briefly state the on-going conflicts of the main character, summarized as (Man vs Man, Man vs Himself, Man vs Society, Man vs Nature).- Point of no Return 2: An event that forces the main character in facing and/or resolving the growing conflicts

Act III
- Resolutions: events that resolve the conflicts in Act II- Climax: the grandest resolution of one main conflict
- Ending: the state of things after all conflicts have been resolved

(I was about to write down the Three Act structure for Lolita, but then I don't want to spoil it.)

Writing it down gives you a snapshot of how story unfolded in your perspective.

I tend to study the storytelling styles of various authors. For example, I love Terry Brooks. My goal is to write like him. He writes Fantasy.

But I also read Louis L'Amour, who wrote westerns, and I love his method of first person storytelling. I also like Tolkien, Sarah Douglas, Katherine Kerr and others.

I'm trying to study light-hearts fantasy authors. Piers Anthony and J. K. Rowling for example.

Katherine_James said:

I tend to read articles on how to improve my writing (e.g. Writers Digest has a lot of great information on improving your writing voice).

When I read though, I read for the pure enjoyment of it. Although the style of the book I am reading at the time, can tend to seep into my writing.

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This happened to me when I was reading Lolita. My mind would automatically begin to talk like Humbert Humbert, being playful with everything I do.


Burrito, joy of my stomache, fire of my mouth. My fuel, my subsistence. Bur-ri-to. The tip of my tongue taking a trip of three steps down refried beans and guacamole

I don't do any of this stuff. I just read. Of course I notice the great bits, but I don't take notes on structure or re-read for technique or anything like that.

Maybe I should be, but it seems like it would ruin the story for me then.

Motley said:

I don't do any of this stuff. I just read. Of course I notice the great bits, but I don't take notes on structure or re-read for technique or anything like that.

Maybe I should be, but it seems like it would ruin the story for me then.

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The brain will trick you into thinking something different is wrong. I've learned to push on through and eventually it turns out alright

King God Kong Zilla said:

Basically, I'll read a book and focus on a certain aspect of it and see how it's achieved. An example would be I read about twenty of the 'scariest' horror novels looking at how they develop a sense of fear.

I learned this:

-They make you care about the characters. I found by reading those books that I only got scared when I was scared for the character. That required me to care about the character.
-I noticed a technique that made me the most afraid in several different books. The author would hide the source of the horror. The monster should be like an iceberg, an obscured but apparent mass beneath the surface where you only see little peeks.

Just read and analyze what works for you. Read carefully and conscientiously from a writer's state of mind.

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Ditto for me on this one. I feel like I've mentioned King for the thousandth time, but you learn so much from his work. He knows how to make you pay attention and I'm always ah-ha-ing at his little hints. He also does cool things like break narrative structures, split scenes for different POVs, warp forward and backward in time, tell you the horribleness that's coming ahead of time so you keep reading to see how it plays out. I've learned so much reading him, perhaps more combined than everything so far.

The only thing I don't care for is how much he goes into mundane backstory and I tend to skip those parts but it's also a way of learning how to really draw out suspense, make your readers impatient for something, anything to happen. I probably won't do that since books nowadays don't do it either and as a beginner writer I probably couldn't get away with it.

TopHat said:

Burrito, joy of my stomache, fire of my mouth. My fuel, my subsistence. Bur-ri-to. The tip of my tongue taking a trip of three steps down refried beans and guacamole

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hahaha
rep for you!

AndreaGS said:

I usually read it once for enjoyment and then start taking notes about the things I really liked about it. After that, I go back to the sections I liked and try to pick apart why I liked these parts so much--how they were written, what led up to them/the clues the author laid out, and what the author did differently to make them engaging.

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Same here. I have pad of sticky notes at my side, and use these as page markers, so I know where to go back to in order to study a paragraph I really liked. But I enjoy the book first, before I start the process of studying it.

I focus on punctuation, which is my weakest area. I study where the commas are placed, when passive voice is used, semi-colons, colons ect...

Nina Kaytel said:

I focus on punctuation, which is my weakest area. I study where the commas are placed, when passive voice is used, semi-colons, colons ect...

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You know, I wasn't doing that before, but I think I will now. It may help me during the final draft phase.

Nina Kaytel said:

I focus on punctuation, which is my weakest area. I study where the commas are placed, when passive voice is used, semi-colons, colons ect...

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Really? I can't imagine putting that much thought into punctuation; I just do it by "ear". Sometimes I give myself pause to debate whether or not two sentences are closely enough related to justify a semicolon as opposed to a comma, but that's about it.

TopHat said:

This happened to me when I was reading Lolita. My mind would automatically begin to talk like Humbert Humbert, being playful with everything I do.


Burrito, joy of my stomache, fire of my mouth. My fuel, my subsistence. Bur-ri-to. The tip of my tongue taking a trip of three steps down refried beans and guacamole

Click to expand...

I think with really great books/books with a strong sense of style like Lolita, you subconsciously absorb a lot of useful stuff.

I find writing exercises help; straight after reading the novel, I write something- a stream of consciousness. The inspiration and excitement of reading that novel means that I may unlock stuff that I'd never even thought of before.

Alternatively if you have a problem with sentencce construction, taking a line or passage and analysing it may help.

I do analyse bits of books - but rarely ones I am reading for the first time.

I tend to pick a couple of paragraphs, re-type them and then work through them on several levels, writing notes in the sentence - usually in italics in brackets.

Firstly how they work for me as a reader
Then how it was done.

So - did I get vivid pictures in my head, what were the pictures, what emotions were evoked, what was added to the plot, how does the character come across. Then look at how the words were used to achieve the effect.

As others have said - chose from the genre in which you are writing. I also mix veterans and just published.

It occurs to me that I have analysed paragraphs that work for me, that I really like, but I have never done it for ones that that I dislike. Something I should look at in future.

When I first started writing, I didn't worry about run-on sentences or length or anything like that--mainly because I didn't know what I was doing.

It was only when I started working with Patty, my editor for Twisted and Lindsay Versus the Marauders, did she really ask me to pay attention to sentence length. I had--and still have--a tendency to be rather long-winded in sentences (and I guess when I speak as well) and this works against me. Punctuation and syntax are other things I've worked on, mainly by looking at various novels and seeing how they structured certain sentences.

OTOH, action scenes are something I've never really had a problem with, but I've struggled with descriptions and facial gestures. As someone before said, you can only do so many facial gesture descriptions before you start thinking of Meryl Streep on uppers.

However, I've never really looked at those How-To-Write books before. I developed my own style by trial and error and I'll continue to look for ways to improve.

When you've read a passage that you thought very effective, go back and read it again and analyze the approach, what they did and how they did it.