Reading Like A Writer

Reading Like A Writer takes you through the various elements of world-famous literature and shows you how, by paying close attention to how great authors employ them, you can not only get a lot more from your reading, but also learn to be a better writer yourself.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, there are around 170,000 words, currently used in the English language. Google says it’s over a million. It of course depends on what counts as a word and what is commonly used (as opposed to just being mentioned a few times in a narrow context).

Regardless, choosing words is hard, and it’s what authors spend most, if not all of their time on. Therefore, you can bet there’s a reason behind every single one they chose.

Take the first sentence of The Alchemist, for example:

Coelho didn’t say “There was a boy named Santiago.” or “Santiago was a boy.” He said “The boy’s name…”, which instantly tells you something about the perspective of the book and narrator: she’s someone with a lot of information to share, but is in a position somewhat distant to the book’s events. Using “The” also indicates that Santiago will be a piece in a big puzzle, more likely to be reacting to what’s going to happen, as opposed to proactively doing things on his own accord.

A great exercise is to try and think of synonyms the author could’ve used, for example why someone would say treasure instead of gold, creature instead of bird or hasten instead of rush.

This will help you understand the point the writer is trying to make and get in his head as to why he made the word choices he did.

If you’re Sherlock Holmes, trying to unravel the mystery of three novels by three authors, which sound awkwardly familiar, and are the cause of a copyright lawsuit, here’s where you should start looking at: paragraphs. Why paragraphs? In a paragraph, all the emphasis lies on the first and last few words. Therefore, every paragraph instantly tells you what the author thinks is important. It’s like listening to someone talk and paying attention to which words they pronounce more clearly, slowly, and maybe even repeat for emphasis. The best way to catch these accents of importance and reflect on them is to think of paragraphs as literary breathing guides. When you start a new one, you slowly breathe in and then gradually exhale as you read on and on, before coming to a full exhale upon the last word. Breathing in sync with paragraphs will give your reading a nice rhythm, and also show you what makes a good paragraph: too many one-liners and you’ll feel hectic…