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To become a better writer, read as much as you can

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Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#141

Post by lanfeust6 »

chmike wrote: post #87
vintagedave wrote: post #63

> Why be a writer if you don’t love reading? Why devote your intellectual and emotional energy to creating a book, when it’s a form you’re not invested in? Why write, when you aren’t steeped in wonder of storytelling? This is the key point, I think. I've seen the same as the author: people who want to be writers but rarely read books. And I don't get it. I recently finished a novel (now shopping around for agents, wh…

> I don't get it Is it hard to understand that for some people it may be difficult to read ? It might be due to motivation issues, thrust issues, or concentration issues. While at the same time they may have a rich inner imagination or thinking that they would like to share. My impression is that humanity might miss valuable insight by rejecting whatever is not "well written" whatever the reason might be. You may fee…

Having "difficulty, lack of motivation and concentration" for reading, but not for writing, doesn't make sense to me. It's far more arduous, and in the first place you have to re-read what you wrote unless you're throwing a stream of consciousness straight into the void/dumpster.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#142

Post by wyclif »

antonvs wrote: post #100
Guestmodinfo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please please suggest me some books where language and style of speaking sentences takes the crown rather than the story being the selling point. I'm tired of hearing about the usual greats and also booker prize ones because they have good characters and good story content or shocking emotionally but are quite bland on the language front because they assume their readers have grade 5 level capacity so the sentences a…

It’s hard to know what anyone considers the “usual greats”. Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature, but she doesn’t seem to make it into the “average” person’s greats list, possibly because her use of language is very much not grade 5. Try The Golden Notebook , The Summer Before the Dark , The Grass Is Singing , The Good Terrorist , The Fifth Child , or the series that starts with Shikasta . E.L. Doctorow i…

The Name of the Rose by Eco is essential. Don't be fooled if you've only seen the movie, which was not good. The book itself is phenomenal.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#143

Post by wyclif »

zabzonk wrote: post #138
Guestmodinfo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please please suggest me some books where language and style of speaking sentences takes the crown rather than the story being the selling point. I'm tired of hearing about the usual greats and also booker prize ones because they have good characters and good story content or shocking emotionally but are quite bland on the language front because they assume their readers have grade 5 level capacity so the sentences a…

> language and style of speaking sentences Nabokov? His protagonists have very special styles of speaking. I'd recommend "Pale Fire" (which is also very funny and has an interesting hypertext-like structure) as a starter.

Nabokov is even more impressive once you realise that English wasn't even his first language!

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#144

Post by lanfeust6 »

"Write as much as you can" is a more crucial piece. Reading is of course important for forming taste.

Anecdotally there are musicians who in interviews report saying they "don't listen to much (other people's) music anymore". Well, that always shows. They get self-referential and repetitive.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#145

Post by wyclif »

vintagedave wrote: post #63

> Why be a writer if you don’t love reading? Why devote your intellectual and emotional energy to creating a book, when it’s a form you’re not invested in? Why write, when you aren’t steeped in wonder of storytelling? This is the key point, I think. I've seen the same as the author: people who want to be writers but rarely read books. And I don't get it. I recently finished a novel (now shopping around for agents, wh…

I was quite fortunate to have an AP English teacher my senior year of high school that understood this advice, and expounded on it often. I recall that he boiled it down to one simple line:

Garbage in, garbage out.

What he meant by that was that it's not enough to simply read. You have to read high quality literature if you want to become a writer. You can't expect to read nothing but news, comic books, National Lampoon, MAD magazine (and in our era, blogs) and become a good writer. It just doesn't work that way. It's like trying to get physically healthy by eating junk food.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#147

Post by egypturnash »

whatever1 wrote: post #53
Freak_NL wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I don't have time to read Keats. T.R. Napper explicitly states that you do in his piece: > But I am saying this: go look at your phone, and tell me what your average screen time is per day. Two hours? Five? Seven? If so – shut up: you’ve time to read. It doesn't have to be Keats. Start by building the habit (read in bed before sleeping!) and just read whatever you enjoy. If Keats seems like a hurdle, just pick…

Typically screen time is very scattered through the day. You cannot read a book in 30” increments.

Try it. Leave your phone at home. Carry a paperback book. Whenever you have time to kill and look for your phone, take out the book. See what happens. You may be surprised.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#148

Post by stingraycharles »

vintagedave wrote: post #63

> Why be a writer if you don’t love reading? Why devote your intellectual and emotional energy to creating a book, when it’s a form you’re not invested in? Why write, when you aren’t steeped in wonder of storytelling? This is the key point, I think. I've seen the same as the author: people who want to be writers but rarely read books. And I don't get it. I recently finished a novel (now shopping around for agents, wh…

I agree with what you’re saying, but the original statement was “why be a writer when you don’t love reading?”, to which I can give many arguments.

But if it’s specifically about fiction novels, then sure, I agree.

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#149

Post by harperlee »

elif wrote: post #146

Funny how this advice is totally innocuous and accepted universally, but the idea that LLMs are trained on the exact same material causes half of us to scream about art theft and plagiarism and a legal right to royalties.

“Quantity has a quality in itself”. How many books can you read in your life, and how faithfully can you transcribe them, vs. just retaining a fraction of them? What about LLMs?

Re: To become a better writer, read as much as you can

#150

Post by stingraycharles »

antirez wrote: post #140

This is simply not true, even if it is commonly repeated among the folks that usually don't really write. Like how reading every source code that comes handy will not turn yourself into a great programmer, to be a good writer you need to: 1. Read selected books, and re-read good books more often then reading new stuff, to understand why they are good. 2. Read, from time to time, some bad book, and understand why it i…

Not sure why you’re downvoted this much, as it’s a reasonable point of view.

Reading as much as you can will not make you a better writer if you just read the same material and/or low quality material.

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