The LadyKillers

Reading While Writing

Not sure I understand the topic. I'm pretty sure nobody literally reads while writing--your eyes and your brain would get all tangled up. I can barely write while I write!

(Oops! I tried to find a picture of a dizzy, mixed up dame, but ended up on a site for "animal-themed strip tease." I hope someone calls the ASPCA!)

I will confess, I have read instead of writing. I've probably done everything short of curing the common cold instead of writing. But reading is my favorite--because if I'm reading a mystery, about halfway through it, if it's good, my writer's brain starts taking notes:

• See how Hammett just complicated the plot by bringing it back to an existing element in Red Harvest, an element hiding in plain sight? Brilliant!
• Notice how Sophie Littlefield built a scene from one character to an out-of-control party so quickly? How it symbolizes the the chemical chaos of menopause--leaves her feeling helpless, yet she is anything but? Talk about echoing the theme in the superstructure--whew!
• Wow, how does Lehane keep me caring about the protagonist so much? How does he get that delicious scent of believability, hone in on our human vulnerabilites, and then haul off and hit someone with a bowling ball, and we believe it? He's got character mojo, man.
• That Juliet Blackwell can make me see San Francisco in all her color and texture with a simple phrase like "saltillo tile." How does she create the sense of warmth and humanity, even among ghosts?
• How does Camille Minichino make miniature-making so fascinating? How does she communicate the threat of death without showing much violence on the page?

When the note-taking gets too intense, I stop reading to go write, unable to stand keeping away from the page any longer.

It would be impossible to copy any of these writers, their voices are clear and strong and unique. Though I do fear accidentally stealing a setup, or a great line or some minor element, there's just no way I could steal a whole scene from any of them. By the third draft, if would end up my scene...

The last time an author's vavavoom made me read so quickly that I couldn't stop to think, it was Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He was so young when he wrote the quite believable characters from childhood to old age, it made me feel like a world-class slacker.

Oops, I've wandered a bit off track here. I guess I'm just taking the long way to say, since I'm always reading and always writing, how could I avoid doing them both?

What do you read to inspire you?

Reading while Writing; Writing while Reading

"Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms."

—Angela Carter

Reading While Writing By Michael A. Black

It’s interesting that this week’s topic, Reading While Writing, comes at a time when I’m heavily involved in doing both. I’m currently working furiously on a new writing project involving a novel featuring an established action hero that was conceived and popularized by another writer. Thus, I’m reading other books in the series so that I can emulate them. I’m also involved in revising a thriller manuscript that I completed last month. I’m rereading it now, after a brief “cooling off” period and doing a revision.

Some people will advise you not to read while you’re writing, but for me reading is one of the great pleasures in life so it’s hard to forsake it. Time permitting, I read every day. Those who advise against this say there’s a danger in reading another author, especially if his style and subject matter are similar to what you’re writing at the time. I can see merit in this. There’s always a danger in unconsciously imitating the writer you’re reading, but I think this has to do with how far developed your own writing style has become. Certainly, the danger exists and you have to be careful.

Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but plagiarism can get you into trouble. The great John D. MacDonald sued another writer whose book, MacDonald claimed, lifted scenes directly from his Travis McGee novel, The Empty Copper Sea. The other writer, who shall remain nameless, openly expressed his admiration for MacDonald but denied any plagiaristic intent. The lawsuit was ultimately decided in MacDonald’s favor and the other writer faded into a shameful obscurity. I can’t comment on the validity of MacDonald’s claim, since I never read the novel by the other writer, but I can understand that writer’s desire to write like John D. MacDonald. Who among us hasn’t at one time or another sought to emulate one of the masters?

Indeed, many art schools will have their students learn to paint by copying the works of the great masters. A copy, however, by its very nature, does not have that same stamp of uniqueness that the original work exhibits. The same can be said for writing. One of the techniques that writer James Jones purportedly used in his creative writing classes was to have his students retype the first few pages of a published novel that was similar to their own proposal. Then, after a few pages he’d tell them to switch to their own story. How does this differ from the aforementioned dispute involving John D. MacDonald? I’d say they’re probably kissing cousins.

Finishing the uncompleted work of another author is a long-held tradition in literature as well. At least four different writers attempted endings for Charles Dickens unfinished mystery, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, after Dicken’s death in 1870. And more recently Robert B. Parker completed Raymond Chandler’s last Marlowe novel, Poodle Springs, in great hardboiled fashion in 1989. Joe R. Lansdale also wrote the fabulous ending chapters to an unfinished Tarzan novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan’s Lost Adventure, 1995). I’m sure these accomplished writers had to do quite a bit of reading of the preceding author’s work so they could get it right.

The same goes for me now with the established action hero’s novel that I’m writing. Although I can’t at this point mention who it is, I can tell you that there have been quite a few other books in this series written by several authors. Writing to capture another’s style and voice can be an interesting challenge, and reading that author to get a feel for the way he used words, to capture the cadence and rhythm of his prose can only be accomplished by reading while writing.

So, in the final analysis, I’d say reading and writing go hand-in-hand. Both are great sources of pleasure for me, so why sacrifice one when you’re doing the other?

NEWS and Reading while Writing

News Flashes!

• Penny Warner will be speaking at the Danville Women's Club in Danville, California, on Thursday, January 19, at 11:30 am.
• Camille Minichino will be at the San Leandro Library, Friday, January 20, at 6 pm: book talk, prizes, and refreshments included.

Multitasking R Us

Come join the LadyKillers this coming week, when the topic is "Reading while Writing." Some do, some don't, and some simultaneously read, write, run after children, wash the dishes, balance the budget, and more...!