Most writers love to read and would admit that they become better writers the more they read. Nonetheless, many of us still have a junior high attitude towards reading for the express purpose of learning our craft, as if learning and understanding actually take the fun out of reading. We encourage you to drop this mindset, as does writer Corrine Kumar in a post on the SFWA blog.
“We grow as writers by reading, but we often read passively—leaving the understanding of stories to our subconscious,” Kumar says. “Passive growth is important, but active reading can raise our storytelling to new heights.” To engage her active reading senses, Kumar writes reviews of each novel she reads. While the reviews are subjective, it’s the process of active reviewing that helps her get the most from a book.
Kumar starts her reviews of the aspects of the novel she found either good or bad. For the positive aspects, she spends time considering how the choices worked and how she can apply them in her own writing. For the negative elements, she determines why they didn’t work for her and brainstorms how she’d fix them.
Finally, she lists everything that worked well within the novel, but that she would have executed differently. She then spends time considering why the author made that choice, how she would have done it differently, and what the author gained by the choice.
“Aside from the act of writing itself, reading has the potential to be our greatest teacher,” Kumar says. “Read as a writer and take advantage of everything books (and their authors) have to show you.”
