Reading through a writer's eyes

Yes, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to turn off my inner editor while I'm reading. As I'm going along I almost always find myself thinking things like, "Too many adverbs," or, "This dialogue could use some tightening," or, "The pacing in this scene is off." I think it's because I spend so much time picking my own writing apart in my attempts to make it as good as possible that no writing piece I come across any longer is exempt from my nitpicking.

Yup. It doesn't always happen, or with everything I read. God, no. Just when the book is really asking
for it. But if the story is gripping enough, I do keep reading and try my best to ignore whatever's bothering me.

I love, love, love to read.

Writing hasn't diminished my love of reading, but it has changed the way I read, especially in my own genre. I'm not looking at (or for) errors, but I do get caught up on devices: what is this foreshadowing? why has the author written it like that? why did they use that word?

And because my genre is literary fiction, which can often be quite conceptual, I sometimes spend a whole book trying to figure out what the author has done, and miss the point all together.

But no, it hasn't made me love reading any less. I love it more.

ScottMc said:

Has anyone else found this, as they made the transition from being a reader to becoming a writer?

Click to expand...

Oh yeah. A hazard of the trade, unfortunately.

ScottMc said:

Has anyone else found this, as they made the transition from being a reader to becoming a writer?

Click to expand...

Read more and different-to-you authors! Yes, some of the magical glow fades from our favorites as we recognize the error of their ways. Yet they are still published and 'accepted' and writing styles still continue to change. That you can 'see' the info-dump or recognize the back story is a credit to what you have learned not to do... but where are the things you've learned to do?

When you read more and different authors, you will find more things to inspire you - more things you want to try to do!

My major change in going from a reader to a writer is the number of notes and bookmarks that litter all my new books. Each marks a passage as examples of what I want to achieve. Whether it's a fantastic sentence or a complex weaving of themes... I note the positive, the fabulous, the wow... and then I work to write like that!

You old favorites may again be favorites -don't forget that they inspired you to get to here- so they did something correct. It will probably be after you've made this passage through the search for wrong, and begin your search for right that your old favorites will take on a better light. =)

Hang in there, you're half-way home!

I still love my old favourites as much as I ever did.

However, I'm a much, much pickier reader these days. I used to be able to read and enjoy most books but now I find I have to choose really carefully because I read quite critically and will find it a real challenge to finish a book if I find a lot of flaws.

Then again, the same thing has happened with films and TV for me, so maybe part of it is just growing up and refining my tastes.

Indeed. I have 18 stories and novels published and each time I create the last page I feel so mentally drained I can't get into someone else's imaginary world. Or could be, I've become so addicted to my own make believe world I'd rather live in mine vs another author's. Not sure the reason but I don't enjoy reading like I used to.

I still enjoy reading, but now a I read with a red pencil in my hand. My books are all work-books now.

It helps me to learn—and it's fun. Plus, when published authors head-hop and do other things I'm learning not to do, it encourages me. If they got published, so can I. My first short story has made it past the query and a synopsis, they asked for a full. Holding my breath.

Hmm, I don't seem to have this problem. Now, I can rip a book or a stage play or movie to shreds over plot development, characterization, POV, and the like, but I've always enjoyed reading. I've been a writer for a long time though. A long time. I was a kid when I started writing novels.

I was just thinking about this today, and I have to say it's not a problem for me. I do notice little flaws in someone else's writing, and sometimes there are things I would do different, but in all I seem to have the nice ability to switch off tech brain and just enjoy the act of reading.

I don't know if my critical reading is as meddlesome as yours seems to be. The more serious I've become with writing, the more likely I am to read a book and pick up on backstory or info-dump or scene meant to show the hero in a good light. But it tends not to diminish my enjoyment of the story--whether it's fanfiction or novel. I recently re-read Gone With the Wind and I enjoyed it more this time because I'm writing historical fiction and as I was reading, I was taking note of the ways Margaret Mitchell wove in the Civil War history. The last time I read Gone With the Wind, I was in high school and though I was writing, I wasn't particularly serious about it.

I know what you mean, though in some ways it's been a blessing. I'm able to see now where an author has stumbled in their work and, perhaps more useful, I've been able to see some of the mechanics behind truly amazing writing.

Even though I read with a writer's eye, I can force myself to ignore writing inadequacies if I find the story engaging enough. Some things like headhopping really bother me, though. I have to force myself to ignore it.

Just out of curiosity, can you pinpoint what about Williams's writing didn't work for you? I've enjoyed everything I've written by him, though he can be a bit wordy at times.

I write, edit, and have a touch of linguistic eyes, but I love reading. I can swtich off when reading for pleasure, and it mainly comes from knowing that there's nothing I can do to alter works that are published, so I enjoy (or not, lol, depending on the novel).

It's a little strange, though. I was a huge Herbert fan too (Spear, Rats, Domain, Moon, Magic Cottage), but I had to switch genres to start enjoying reading again. I haven't picked up a horror novel in years.

I've always been a picky reader, sensitive to sloppy characterization and ill-conceived plots. I remember a series of popular child-detective novels that was all the rage at my school - the author was very successful with other series as well, did a lot of tie-in-merchandising, hosted a kids-show on TV. Of course I read that stuff too, because at time I read basically everything I could get my hands on. Also, my classmates asked for those books for their birthdays, and I never gave away books I had not read myself. And at that age already, I got all hipster about it and started to loath these novels - not just the characters, or certain plot developments, but the general way they were written (basically Dan Brown for the middle-grade set). At age 10, I could have given you an hour-long lecture why they were inferior to other novels in the same genre - how contrived the plots were, how cartoonish the characters, how quickly the author had run out of ideas, how derivative each further installment of the series of a preceeding one; how you could see the calculation behind every line, how there was no urgency behind it, no heart in it, no deeper truths, everyting designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator - assembly line writing.

Still, even then, I could also see the general appeal. So the plots are contrived, but there's something marginally clever about it, at least the first couple of times. The author sold big collections of short stories together with some sort of decoding device, where the heroes would investigate some mystery and readers were supposed to work out how the heroes came to the correct conclusion in the end - the resolution would be provided in some encoded way at the end of the story. I made some effort to work out how these stories were generally constructed and then I wrote one myself. I even got it published in a youth magazine distributed at our school which had a page for reader contributions (so, okay, that bar was not that high to clear, but still). So there's never been any published writing so bad that I couldn't learn something from it.

(Eg. I had to give up pretty early on Twilight and 50 Shades of Grey, for sanity preserving reasons, but I'm sure I could learn something from that too, if I could only stomach spending so much time with such loathsome characters without the consolations of beautiful prose. But see, that thing that I said about "lacking urgency" before? I think those books have it; there's some genuine longing at the core; even if I personally might be of the opinion that all of it is horribly misguided).

I can't really remember ever reading something without switching to critic-mode occasionally, but that's okay, because I generally feel that critic-mode tends to add to my enjoyment of literature. It sometimes even allows me to get something out of stuff I wouldn't get anything out of otherwise, because it just doesn't resonate with me on any level. But "not resonating with me" doesn't necessarily mean that it's badly done; it might only mean that I lack the necessary experience or context to make sense of it (for now; it can be a question of timing; some books need you to be in the exact right frame of mind, at a certain stage of your life).

Of course, for me "critic-mode" doesn't necessarily mean getting hung-up on technicalities. When it comes to art, you can do everything, if you do it well, and whether it's done well always depends on context.

For what it's worth, all the books I loved as a child, still hold up to my standards when I reread them as an adult. I'm often even more impressed now, seeing how much they often accomplished on very few pages - really good children's literature can be extremly elegant in its economy.

gothicangel said:

You should try reading through an English graduate's eyes some time.

Click to expand...

Gawd, it must be awful!

Elaine Margarett said:

Gawd, it must be awful!

Click to expand...

I know that's a joke, but seriously: If you have a degree in English and you really don't feel it enhances your reading experience, that's just too sad to contemplate, because Lord knows, it doesn't do anything else.

I feel like there was a thread like this not too long ago in another subforum. Roundtable maybe? Found it very interesting both times.

I've never found that being a writer (casually), being an editor (professionally) or being an English major (indebtedly) worsened my reading experiences. Stories that no longer hold up often fail more because I've changed and grown as a person than because of my awareness of various rules.

If anything, all of those things have made reading a bad book a better experience, as I can articulate now why something doesn't work, apply those lessons as I write and evaluate the technical and enjoyment aspects of a story separately.

sohalt said:

I know that's a joke, but seriously: If you have a degree in English and you really don't feel it enhances your reading experience, that's just too sad to contemplate, because Lord knows, it doesn't do anything else.

Click to expand...

No, no! I meant it. I have such a discerning/critical eye regarding plot and characterization that I find it hard to read. I'm gramatically challenged and I always wince when I put stuff out knowing there are those who must feel like I'm poking them in the eye... Sorry.

No! I think if I ever lost my love for reading I'd slash my wrists.

The day I discovered I loved to read recreationally is the same day that I felt the desire to write. For me, reading inspires my writing. The wonder and joyous discovery I get from reading fuels my desire to create the same marvelous feelings in my own writing.

Writing and reading are happily intertwined, each taking from and giving back to the other.