I mean published works. I find it extremely hard to read anything on the same subject that I'm writing about and won't talk to anyone about those works if I can help it. I won't even go see the new movie that's out because I don't want to use it as research.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
Yep. Reading a good book can teach me to do better. Then again, so can a bad one. I don't think isolation is the answer.
Posted by Fahrion Kryptov (Member # 1544) on :
It really depends on how you absorb the books. Personally, I'm of the opinion that nothing that is ever written is ever completely original, so we might as well make our writing as well rounded as possible. If you read lots of sources, then the amount that any one source affects your writing decreases, and they can help give you another angle at the topic.
I have no problem reading the genre I write.
Posted by Susannaj4 (Member # 3189) on :
I research, but not for the sake of reading.
Posted by luapc (Member # 2878) on :
It is my opinion, and that of many succesful authors, that you should read regular books or listen to audio books at least some each day. I personally prefer audio books since I have a half hour drive to and from work every weekday. This works well for me since I can accomplish something during what would normally be a down-time. It can also be done at other times just for relaxation.
Whatever you do, it is good to see how other authors do things with their writing, but I will warn you. You may find it hard to simply enjoy any book once you start looking at it as a fellow author. You may find you analyze more than enjoy, but if you want to become a successful author, I think you must read your fellow authors works. If you can't read other things and still write, you may find writing tougher.
[This message has been edited by luapc (edited January 30, 2006).]
Posted by HSO (Member # 2056) on :
Read lots. As much as you can. Fiction. Non-Fic. Whatever. Every day. In every spare moment, if you can. Never stop reading.
Some might argue that a writer should read for more time than he spends writing [plug in your own formula here]. I don't know if that's true for everyone, but it seems to me that the more one reads, the more one knows....
Posted by Susannaj4 (Member # 3189) on :
I wonder what Survivor has to say?
Posted by autumnmuse (Member # 2136) on :
I never stop reading. I have noticed that the time I spend writing fills a lot of the need I have for stories, but I still can't stay away from books for long. And I like to read the type of stuff I want to write; for one thing I don't have to re-invent the wheel, for another I know what to stay away from because it's been done and I wouldn't have a fresh way to re-do it. Everything's been done, really, but by reading same genre as I write, I feel I can control what I'm re-writing, and make it my own.
Posted by rcorporon (Member # 2879) on :
I guess I'm the opposite of the majority here. Now that I've buckled down and am seriously writing everyday, I have had to stop reading fantasy (for the first time in about 10 years).
I was reading George RR Martin while trying to write, and I noticed that, even though I wasn't trying to do so, my writing started to resemble Martin's too closely for my liking.
So, I've switched to reading biology and history (my two great loves) and its solved the problem.
Posted by Susannaj4 (Member # 3189) on :
Does reading Junie B. Jones count? You guys are making me feel bad. I don't do it for the enjoyment anymore, that's all. I don't want to write vampire romance(I can write better sex in my sleep and have), I don't want to rewrite and Anne Rice, but I do read with my kindergartener. He reads to me actually and he loves Junie B. Jones. I want to come up with things on my own. But Iguess its just a fear, like the one I had before joining this group.
Posted by NMgal (Member # 2769) on :
I think you'll find that whatever you're reading at the time WILL influence you a bit. However, once you've put your story away and return to it, you'll be able to recongnize that and then edit accordingly. Of course, maybe reading some of the greats while writing will rub off on you. I wish! I hope!
Now that I think about it, maybe I should put Tolkien's work under my pillow at night while I sleep and hope to absorb his talent. I tried that with my chemistry books in the hope I would understand. Didn't work so well. I still came out with brown and boiling over when I was supposed to get clear and blueish.
Posted by x__sockeh__x (Member # 3069) on :
I read while I'm writing a story...then again, I've always been someone who reads 2-3 books at a time...that may have something to do with it. ^^;;
Posted by RedSakana (Member # 3127) on :
If I couldn't write while reading other books, then I'd never write! Lately I've been reading short stories, since that's what I'm trying to write at the moment--I like to see what's worked for other people.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
I guess, the choice for me is how to divide free time. Lately in the evenings I've been reading when I could be writing. If I do one, I'll sacrifice the other.
Writing for me is an extension of my interesting in reading, in particular SF&F. If I attempted to write but didn't read, I'd feel a bit hypocritical. Well I do, just not about that...
[This message has been edited by ChrisOwens (edited January 30, 2006).]
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Oh, yeah, all the time. I usually do my writing at the computer (occasionally reverting to a typewriter). I usually have a few books and magazines lying around and I'll read through them while waiting for the next flash of inspiration.
Right now, let me see...I've got Jack Williamson's "Seventy Five"..."Python by the Pythons"...current (recent) issues of "Weird Tales" and "Heavy Metal"...the last three issues of "Apex Digest"...Tom Shippey's "The Road to Middle Earth"...Michael Coney's "Cat Karina"...Frederik Pohl's "The Way the Future Was" and "The Early Pohl"...Keith Laumer's "Bolo"..."Windows XP for Dummies"..."Webster's Dictionary"...there are others, but these are on top.
Usually these books get here at my computer because I wanted to look something up...they stay there out of inertia and I'll pick them out and read them while the process of thinking is going on.
(Also, I'll read while online, while waiting for a site to download. There's less time for that since I moved on up to a new computer last year...before that, it could be five or ten minutes of reading time.)
((Also also, this practice of making use of downtime extends to my bedside and bathroom. I've got piles of books there, too.))
Posted by Silver3 (Member # 2174) on :
I'm writing all the time. Well, not actually typing, but devising plots, storing ideas. About once or twice a month I take a week to write a short.
Under those conditions, if I stopped reading while writing, I'd almost never read. And I need to read. Anything. As long as it's not total rubbish.
What I have right now: 1633 (Flint and Weber), but I'm going to hand it back to the library. The history stinks; nobody is going to make me believe a small coal-mining town has the means to equip a 17th-century army with modern bullets and rifles. King Hereafter, Dorothy Dunnett. A delight. I'm slowing down to enjoy it better. Some Ellery Queen mysteries. Left Hand of Darkness, Le Guin.
Holding for later: the whole Niccolo Rising series.
Posted by Ronni (Member # 3200) on :
I couldn't stop reading even if I wanted to. It's so inspiring to me.
Posted by Valtam2 (Member # 3174) on :
I don't think that any reading can really hurt you. Unless you're one of those people who has those fits of dispair where you think you suck horribly and should never pick up a pen again. Of course, I do that and I still keep reading.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Okay...I'm going to assume that y'all aren't talking about reading other books while you're actually writing, because even I find that difficult, and I find it impossible to make clean, literate output while reading something other than what I'm writing. For example:
quote:I can' write while I'm reading, but I don't know that It makes any sense, and I have a lot of typoes.
I mean, at the very least I can't think deeply about what I'm trying to say, nor can I see what I'm actually producing.
It's a bit like multi-player Halo, there are a lot of times you just have to look at your own dang screen.
Probably everyone has their own comfort zone with how closely they can intermingle the writing experience with the reading experience.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
No, for me, it's definitely reading while I'm writing. Or possibly browsing through the written word while I'm also writing. There's also music and TV (the TV is playing in the other room as I write this---an episode of "Hey Arnold!" to be specific), to distract one's thoughts...if "distraction" is what's happening, and the thought process is not going on underneath the surface activity.
I read an account of Lennon and McCartney, working on "With a Little Help From My Friends," stuck on one line, while someone watched them write. They'd leaf through magazines, burst into other songs (including some of their own, not yet recorded), but over and over again return to the line they were ostensibly working on, and eventually coming up with something. I suppose my working method is like that.
Posted by Susannaj4 (Member # 3189) on :
I tried last night to buy another book to read. I had gone to Super Target to get those things that cost me an arm and a legs at the grocery store, not to mention a kidney or two. I had done my shopping, had coffee in hand and I was browsing the book section for something to read. Nothing sparked my interest. It isn't because I think I'm better. It's because I have so much respect for those authors and myself that I couldn't put myself through the agony of knowing that my stuff isn't like theirs. One of these days in the near distant future, I will see my book on the shelf with theirs. Then I might give theirs a chance. If I'm not writing another. Incidentally, I did come home with a couple of word searches.
[This message has been edited by Susannaj4 (edited February 01, 2006).]
Posted by Paul-girtbooks (Member # 2799) on :
I believe it was George R. R. Martin who said that writers write the kind of books they can't find in the bookstore.