Author Musing: Reading to Become a Better Writer

Hello everyone!

To be quite candid, the past few months have been quite difficult to finish the second draft of book 3 for The Legend of Nariko series. I suspect part of the reason for this is that I was trying to force the words to come out onto the page without being able to think about it cohesively. While writing out the draft and then subsequently reviewing it, I realized what I had written didn’t necessarily flow well. The core of what needed to happen and the character development required for the story to progress was there but how that happened didn’t match the quality I wanted. The events that led to those moments weren’t necessarily appropriate to how I wanted the story to unfold.

Discovery writing is necessary for naturally developed character driven storylines, but sometimes the hand of the author is required for certain events to make sense lest the writer’s mind run wild. Part of the issue with this method of storytelling is that stream-of-consciousness writing can lack important details if not carefully considered while writing. I know for myself that when I write this way, I end up with characters acting too similar when they have their own distinct personalities, strengths and weaknesses. It led to moments that felt incorrect with regards to the whole story and the characters with how they’ve developed so far.

But how does a writer create a cohesive narrative that feels right and flows naturally from plot point to plot point? It was something I struggled with for the past few months as what I had written didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel like how I wanted to tell this story nor did it feel right with what was already established and what was to come. It felt more like I was just trying to get it done as opposed to writing it correctly. But I realized, when I started reading to get back into writing reviews again, that simply writing is not enough to get better at writing stories. Reading stories that are in the genre you are writing is core to improving.

I realized this as I was reading the next book for review that the “how to” write a story started to become clearer in my mind. It was a sort of epiphany as I was reading where I started to realize that reading books to become a better writer is akin to looking at references to improve as an artist, something I also have experience with. Sometimes when writing, you might encounter something that you’re not familiar with or not quite sure how to describe. Even more difficult is that the interweaving of emotions and actions within the story can often be quite difficult and reading how more experienced authors are able to tell a compelling story can provide that insight. That’s not to say that a writer should copy how another writer tells their story, but rather similar to how an artist looks at a picture to understand the shape and the angle they’re trying to recreate. In that sense, reading more books helps writers to create better conflicts, romances, fight scenes, reunions and really anything by seeing how other writers create those feelings with the words they choose.

Realizing that I may have hindered my ability to write my own stories by taking a break from this blog, but I hope recognizing this helps me get back on track while also helping any other writers struggling as well. I remember it was a phrase I had heard a long time ago that stuck with me for years. That to become a better writer, you have to read more. But that can be incredibly hard nowadays as reading feels like it takes a long time and there’s so few hours in the day to do it. But as a writer, it’s important to make time to read other books to learn from them. This applies to most creative endeavours as we learn from those who’ve already mastered the craft we’re trying to achieve. It’s similar to how artists not only refer to tutorials but also study artwork that they admire and want to learn from, writers can learn not only from literary theory videos and articles, but also by reading books that you enjoy.  

– Raphael