Tuesday 25 February 2014

Reading tricks!

As the saying goes 'to be a good writer, one should be a good reader'. This thing made me really interested, since before I had motivated myself to become a writer; I was and has always been a bookworm.


But I found out, that reading like a human and reading like a writer is two separate things. 
First of all, to read like a writer;
what I do is keep a paper and pen with me. In front of the page, create a heading named "things I don't like about this novel" and in halfway through write another heading "things I don't like about this novel." And in the back of the page, the heading is "notes".


But to do it, you must keep your conscious. The writer you're reading is trying to bring the character to life in yourself. Making you feel being in the characters mind. Instead of just getting drift by it (to simplify, he is doing an awesome thing) you should study how is s/he doing it? Pay attention to those parts. And take some notes there. They turn out to me extremely helpful.

Don't just read what you like. But those works too, which you don't like. (not that I force you to read erotica) It just mean that read different genres. Not only the one you like or the one you are writing.

Analyse the sentence structures, plot holes. How the characters are interacting with each other. How well is the setting described. Assume what was going on behind the scenes when it was being created.

Think about how much research the writer had to do to write this book.

And how the feelings of characters being conveyed.

And I will say it again, write it all down. 

Now you would say; if I keep dissecting the book, how will I have the joy of reading? 

The answer is pretty simple. The books you like; like the ones of Dan Brown or John Grisham. :P Which you have to read breathlessly. Read them as you do once, then reread it for the sake of research. 

And for those which you don't like, think of them as grammar lessons. You don't like them but they are crucial parts of the learning. So read them for the sake of learning how to avoid those mistakes which the writer make to hate me this work soo much.

And now the hardest thing; write at least ten good points of the book you hate and is a torture in itself to read. (I am going through it myself; reading Patricia Cornwell's ; Predator :( )

There aren't any points you say? I won't buy it, if I can find some in Predator. That means every book has some. Stop whining now, get to work. In fact I order you to start from those. :P



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