You may think that you don’t have enough time for leisure reading with all the writing you’re doing as well as having a day job and keeping up with a home. However, the best writers are also readers.
In pursuit of lofty goals, I was into nonfiction books on varied topics, having not picked up a sci-fi/fantasy for a few years. As a coauthor to a YA modern fantasy series, I thought the guides and books would share the magical secret of how to be a better storyteller and successful writer. Those kinds of nonfiction were only a small part of the equation. The major part is to tell a great story. To do that was to understand story by reading and analyzing them. Now, I read for 30 minutes or so before going to bed and have become a student of other writers. While I enjoy some of their works, I mostly examine how they construct a good story, or a not so good story, and what elements they used or didn’t use.
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“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.” – William Faulkner
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What have you read lately in your favorite genre?
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