Reading For Writers

By Maggie King

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Some writers disagree with Mr. King’s reading advice. They fear that by reading they’ll be influenced by other author’s voices, thus compromising their writing.  Mr. King has this to say about that choice:

“You may find yourself adopting a style you find particularly exciting, and there’s nothing wrong with that. When I read Ray Bradbury as a kid, I wrote like Ray Bradbury — everything green and wondrous and seen through a lens smeared with the grease of nostalgia. When I read James M. Cain, everything I wrote came out clipped and stripped and hardboiled. When I read Lovecraft, my prose became luxurious and Byzantine.”

Whether you agree or disagree with this renowned author’s view, you can’t deny his success.

Stephen King has more advice on the subject of reading in this article from VPM. His bottom line: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

Joyce Carol Oates, another prolific and respected writer, also encourages writers to read. I took a Masterclass course she taught and will never forget her suggesting that we read Ulysses! “If you read Ulysses by James Joyce, for example, chances are your vocabulary will improve (or, if nothing else, you’ll want your vocabulary to improve). Your work won’t necessarily come out sounding like his, but your process will be informed and elevated by him.”

More than once, I tried reading Ulysses and never made it past the first chapter. Ulysses was penned in the stream of consciousness style, a technique used to look inside a character’s mind and examine their every thought, action, and motivation. Other authors who used this style are Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, and Toni Morrison. It is not a style that appeals to me, but I did enjoy Mrs. Dalloway. Perhaps I found the thoughts and actions Virginia Woolf gave her main character especially interesting.

But Ms. Oates is focused on James Joyce’s vocabulary, not his writing style. I didn’t get far enough in Ulysses to enhance my vocabulary. And she only offers this author as an example. She suggests studying the ways many writers compose their sentences, how they structure their stories, and how they handle dialogue.

As for James Joyce, I suggest reading The Dubliners, a fine collection of his short stories. They are not written in the stream of consciousness style. I took this on my trip to Ireland many years ago.

Masterclass offers courses on a variety of subjects. For writers, I highly recommend Joyce Carol Oates’s class on short story writing (I think her course works for novels as well). Here’s the link.

Many, if not most, writers read widely. Over the years, I’ve read classics, short stories, literary fiction, non-fiction, plays, bios, romance, and, of course, crime fiction. What I read is high-brow, low-brow, and everything between. Recent favorites are Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller, Miss Marple, The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie, and Betty Hechtman’s series of crochet mysteries.

Writers, do you read widely? What are you reading now? What are your thoughts on the stream of consciousness style?