do you read other novels while you are writing your own?

rowriter · Jul 21, 2005

I've heard different opinions on this and wonder how people around here work.

The argument is that if you're reading someone else's work, the influence will show in your own writing. I have noticed this before in my own writing, but I don't know whether I think it's good or bad. As a beginning novelist, I suppose emulation is part of the learning, but are experienced novelists able to keep that influence out of their work if they are reading someone else's novel?

I've read that many people get inspired by picking up a book and reading a few lines/chapter, and I've found that works for me sometimes too. I guess in my mind, it seems impossible that you could not read any novels during the first and however many successive drafts you produce.

So whaddya think?

Richard White · Jul 21, 2005

Yes I do.

Before I could finish the Star Trek story I am about to turn into the editor, I had to read the 58 novellas that had already been written up to this point. That's the only way to get the characterization right.

Also, if a friend of mine has recently released a new book, I try to read a little of it either before or after BIC time. Others wait, and then I have a little reading orgy before starting a new project. If I could take an e-book reader into work, I'd probably get a lot more reading in during my lunch time, but that's a no-go.

I will admit, my reading has slowed down a lot since I started writing seriously, but that's because I'm spending more time reading reference material for background info or else simply writing. Reading other people's stuff comes later (although I did read 3 novels at SDCC and am finishing Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop here soon.)

stace001 · Jul 21, 2005

I'm never without a book to read. Since i started writing seriously, it hasn't changed. I find i learn quite a bit from established authors and their writing. Not necessarily picking up on their writing style, but just learning to show rather than tell, to make the reader feel the point i'm trying to put across, rather than just putting it across.

I think if you have already established your own style, reading someone else's novel isn't going to change that.

Coco82 · Jul 21, 2005

Defiintely. I'm reading Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury Now and I've been reading other stuff all summer. I think you may not emulate it, but it inspires you.

Birol · Jul 21, 2005

Of course I do. Though I may try to avoid reading or writing anything similar to what I am writing. Like someone else mentioned, I have found my reading has slowed down since I started writing more seriously.

gp101 · Jul 22, 2005

Hell yes.

I like to read a few different genres. But when I get the initial kernal of a new idea I want to work on, I start reading more novels similar to the idea I'm mulling over. Mostly this is to ingrain on the brain how these authors handled the topic, the genre, the voice I'm after. A lot of times I actually outline the book I think is most similar to my subject matter or genre (the one I wished I had written), and make note of how the author kept my interest, developed plot and charcter, and how s/he varied the rhythm and dialogue. Sounds like a lot of work but it really isn't.

During the writing of my project, I read considerably less, and usually in a different genre just for a diversion.

After I've finished my first draft, I look over the problems I have with my manuscript. Usually the first chapter is the biggest problem and I'll re-read the first chapters to the books I read leading up to my project and compare what they did to what I didn't do and make corrections accordingly.

Usually some particular author's voice is mimiced heavily in the first draft of my novel. But by the third or fourth revision, my own voice overtakes it.

zornhau · Jul 22, 2005

Yes. However, if I'm stuck or mulling, I read non fiction or Medieval Literature. Also, if I'm "In the Flow", then I don't want to engage with anything long or complex, so I stick to old pulp such as Edgar Rice Burroughs.

azbikergirl · Jul 22, 2005

Currently, I'm reading a medieval-type fantasy (Game of Thrones), and writing a SF novel set in the future USA. Often I read fiction similar to my current project because it'll help me "be" in the story more, but I haven't noticed a direct influence of the novel being read on my writing style or stories. I like having at least one fiction (and one to three non-fiction) books bookmarked at any given time. NF books I'm reading now: Writing the Breakout Novel (Donald Maas), Beginnings, Middles & Ends (Nancy Kress), and Logical Chess: Move by Move (Irving Chernev). Oh, and one about the Rodeo-Chedeski fires in Arizona in 2002, but it's slow-going (read: not a very well-written or engaging self-published book by a friend of a friend).

icerose · Jul 22, 2005

Unfortuantely I can't. Haven't been able to read more than 2 or 3 books in the last 5 years. (I did review about 30 other PA author novels...that was interesting.)

But for the most part I either have time to write, or I have a little time to read. I can't do both with two young kids so I choose to write.

Sara

scfirenice · Jul 22, 2005

absolutely! It helps break things up a bit. I don't read near as fast as I once did with everything else going on but it is a nice way to relax.

l.stormgaye · Jul 22, 2005

I do my damnest to read good books that are in the genre in which I'm writing.

aadams73 · Jul 22, 2005

I love books completely and thoroughly. I have books all over the house, so something great to read is never far from my hand. I only write until 3 in the afternoon, so any time after that is free for reading. I also take books to the salon when I get my highlights touched up (like yesterday) and when I get my oil changed (like today). I find there is no negative impact on my own writing--if anything it pushes me to writer better, and enourages me to keep going.

Currently, I am reading "The Historian". It's such a beautiful book that it deserves to be bound in leather, not paper.

Julie Worth · Jul 22, 2005

When I started a couple of years ago I tried this, but now I have difficulty reading anyone’s work, because I see the gears turning on the page. I see the mechanism, so it’s hard to get lost in the words like I used to. It’s ironic. I’m writing the kind of novels I like to read, but I can no longer read the kind of novels I like to write.

AprilBoo · Jul 22, 2005

aadams73 said:
Currently, I am reading "The Historian". It's such a beautiful book that it deserves to be bound in leather, not paper.

I got that book for my birthday, but I haven't started it yet because it is a HUGE commitment - it falls into the category of books I call "Lethal If Thrown." I'm glad to hear a high opinion of it.

victoriastrauss · Jul 22, 2005

Absolutely. Reading fiction is one of the greatest pleasures of my life, and I couldn't be without it. Plus, reading is one of the best ways--aside from actually writing--to improve and hone your craft. If you're a fiction writer and you don't read novels, you're really handicapping yourself.

I get ideas all the time from other people's novels--just as I do from the news, from dreams, from random thoughts--but I don't worry about influence. By the time an idea has made its way through my brain into fictional form, it doesn't resemble the source.

- Victoria

Jamesaritchie · Jul 22, 2005

Reading

What's wrong with being influenced by the books you're reading? In my opinion, that's a very good thing, not a bad one.

And if you don't read while you're writing, when are you going to read? If you want to write good novels, then reading good novels is mandatory. Reading is at least as important as writing.

I write five hurs per day, six days per week, fortty-eight weeks per year. And the four weeks I don't write I'm studying writing. If I didn't read novels while writing one, I'd never have a chance to read novels at all.

If you don't read while writing, then either you aren't going to be writing enough, or you aren't going to be reading enough. Either is bad.

aadams73 · Jul 22, 2005

AprilBoo said:
I got that book for my birthday, but I haven't started it yet because it is a HUGE commitment - it falls into the category of books I call "Lethal If Thrown." I'm glad to hear a high opinion of it.

Pick it up and read a few pages. It's not one the requires you to read it all at once. I've been reading a passage here and there all week and I'm looking forward to this weekend when I can curl up and read further. The way Ms. Kostova weaves her words--and her world--is truly an art.

maestrowork · Jul 22, 2005

I read when I have time or feel inclined, whether I'm working on my WIP or not. I read for entertainment and to get informed. When I'm writing, I also tend to read the books that are in the same vein of what I'm writing (mainstream, literary, etc.) I may read something else if a book strikes my fancy (satire, sci-fi, thriller, etc.) The thing is, if my brain is occupied with my WIP, I find it hard to detach from that and enjoy something totally irrelevant or different (such as a mystery novel).

I'm a slow writer. I've been working on my current WIP for over a year now. During this time, I've read quite a number of fiction, and tons of non-fiction. I think reading feeds the writing mind...

Nicholas S.H.J.M Woodhouse · Jul 22, 2005

I most certainly do read books whilst I write. I try to read a wide and diverse range at the same time, so that I can further understand different techniques and improve my work. Its like a footballer trying to learn how to play with both his feet, rather than just relying on his right and being almost laughingly predictable (sorry, just come back from a game).

Nique

rowriter · Jul 22, 2005

thanks for all the great responses!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the input!! I really appreciate everyone's responses.

For me, I don't think I've found quite what my writing voice/style is, so that's where the 'negative' influence might come in - especially this being my first *committed* attempt at completed novel. But I guess it can't really be negative if I'm thinking "Okay, look I'm trying to write like Lewis Sinclair"..I mean, at least I recognize it, lol. And it was only really obvious once, after I had read a couple hundred pages of Main Street and got a little immersed in his world. Let's just hope when I'm done with the first draft and start rewriting, those couple of pages aren't the only good ones, ha!

Nicholas S.H.J.M Woodhouse · Jul 22, 2005

You could always try reading very different writers at the same time. For example, last year I was reading Egger's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and I noticed a 'light and informal vein' pop out of my work. So I started reading some crime fiction by Paul Auster which raised my 'dark and intertextual' vein. It helps you become more rounded. Give it a go.
Go on, go on, go on.

hpoppink · Jul 22, 2005

This has definitely been the case with my WIP. I have about five novels that I'm reading right now, each very different in genre, voice, and depth; and depending on what I have just been reading, my writing style changes just a bit in that direction.

I figure I'll smooth out the details in the second draft; for now, I'm indebted to those books because they have kept me coming back to the keyboard to add to my story. If not for reading so much, I doubt I would be writing so much.

Let yourself be inspired, through reading, to write; work out any negative results later.

sassandgroove · Jul 22, 2005

How can you NOT read?!?

Okay, when I was in jr. high (6th grade) I read 1-35 of Sweet Valley High, in order. In 7th grade i read up to 40 but ahd moved on to other things. I wrote a short story for a school project, and realized when I read it through that is was a SVH story, only with different names, and the main character was more like a younger sister to a high schooler. My point is, yeah, I regurgitated what I had read. But I don't think that is bad. I learned a lot from writing that story, and was even given an award for it.

I have read such a wide variety of books since then that my writing is rich (if I do say so myself :Thumbs:

, and is taking on its own voice. I believe reading is the best way to learn to write, tied of course with actually writing.

The only thing I have noticed lately is that after I read Bridget Jones' Diary, some of my jounal entries have "Ate all the cookies. Bah!" or "Excercised today, very good." (Leaving off the I in both those sentences.) BUt since it is my own jounal, I find it more amusing than alarming.

Lenora Rose · Jul 22, 2005

I think the fear of having others' influence creep into your work is seriously overrated.

One draft may end up a pastiche or an imitation of somethng you've read, but by the time you've gone through rough draft, edit, new draft, re-edit, beta-readers, rewrite...(Repeat steps as personally inclined), any particular and odd bits that manage to last through all of that are likely to be a part of your own developing voice. (If you have one voice. I've met people, writers and singers both, with several.)

Also, don't be afraid to borrow bits of "style" from other writers anyway. Even if it's recognized, if it's done sincerely and suits the story you're telling, it's more likely to be considered tribute than bad imitation. (It's when you borrow storyline or plot, or structure or characters, or all of the above, that you get in trouble, more than style).

Also, a novel draft will take me several months to work on.

A book will take me a week or two to read, if I'm going about it piecemeal around work and writing and social stuff -- or one day if I have real leisure time. I also frequently end up with two or three books ongoing, depending on where I am. These days, the chance of a book's style influencing more than one scene is pretty remote. Other peoples' books have inspired me, but not in the fashion you're afraid of.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 22, 2005

Books

I'll read dozens of books by dozens of writers over the course of writing a novel. And even if I didn't, there are many things worse than having your style influenced by a good writer.

The problem I see is how can anyone stand to go very long without reading a book? If I had to give up reading or give up writing, I'd give up writing in a heartbeat. Reading is the lifeblood of writing, and possibly of life. From my experience, writers who don't read regularly may as well forget about writing, as well. It probably isn't going to work.

do you read other novels while you are writing your own?

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