[header_box_1 title=”the yeah write 2012 summer writer’s series, part 5″]
Week Five: becoming a more critical reader
This week’s prompts are at the very end of this post. Today’s contributing editor is Flood G who tweets as @floodg and displays her collection of photos here on yeah write and on Flickr. If you have any questions or need any clarification on today’s topic or prompts, please feel free to begin a discussion in comments.
If you’re here just to hang out, the yeah write #68 hangout grid will open on Tuesday.
[/header_box_1]
“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
We’re all critics when consuming media. We know what we like and dislike, even if we may not be able to articulate why.
When you hit the “post” button, you’re essentially sending your baby out into the world to fend for itself.
No matter how much blood, sweat and tears you pour into your writing, you’re at the mercy of your audience’s frame of reference and life experience. Sometimes, writers can keep too much of the process inside their heads when they should more seriously consider the reader’s perspective. The final product is for the reader, after all.
This week, we’ll discuss the three main types of readers. Here’s brief run-down of each:
The Leisure Reader
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. – Samuel Johnson
Reading, even for pleasure, requires some time and effort. Readers want value for that investment and to come away with an engaging reflection of some aspect of the human condition.
Readers don’t want to notice that you spent an hour searching for another way to say the word “said.” Reading for enjoyment means the focus has to be on the story as a whole rather than its parts. Impressive vocabulary or pretentious phrasing shouldn’t overwhelm the plot or the audience. The writing should be inviting and the story should flow earnestly. Less sizzle, more steak. Give the people something to chew on long after they’ve closed the window.
Join Deborah from ManhattaMamma on Thursday for a discussion about reading for pleasure.
The Writer
Writers read for downtime, sure, but also for inspiration. They look for most things readers look for, but might be more attuned to finer word craft and phrasing without being obvious, clever use of dialogue, and proper wrap-up of the plot. Advice for writers to read, often and anything, is so overused, it’s often ignored. Part of writer’s block comes from forgetting to read. When lost in the lonely wilderness of how and what to write, it can feel as though nothing has ever been written before. Being inspired by new ways to use language or resurrecting old ways can be enough to get fingers flying across the keyboard.
“If you are going to learn from other writers, don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll get so filled with despair and the fear that you’ll never be able to do anywhere near as well as they did that you’ll stop writing. I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too. It’s very encouraging. “Hey, I can do so much better than this.” Read the greatest stuff but read the stuff that isn’t so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging.” (Edward Albee, quoted by Jon Winokur in Advice to Writers, 1999)
Tomorrow, Erica M. will dive deeper into how writers read.
The Reviewer
With the exception of blog challenges, you might not care about critics’ or reviewers’ opinion of your writing. However, if you hope to see your work in an online magazine, picked up by HuffPost, or published by print media , you want to write with critics in mind. More than that, you want ‘net cred for being a solid writer because the web is full of amateur critics who think the world is dying for their opinion.
Reviews begin by summarizing the main idea of a story, so you better have one! I had a short stint as Canadian Crime Fiction Critic and nothing sent me to drink faster than trying to write a review for a novel with no plot. Save a critic’s liver by being able to explain what your story is about in one or two sentences. This rule stands, no matter if you’re writing a personal narrative or fictional story. Passages are quoted, and this is where your word gems get a spotlight. The review also examines the author’s motivation the writing and why people should or shouldn’t read it.
Who wouldn’t want to read you, though? You’re awesome.
Join Kristin W. on Wednesday for more about the function of critics and how they read your work.
[line_divider_thick]
Voting on the grid is back
Those of you who’ve been faithfully participating in the summer writer’s series will be way ahead of those submitting blindly to the challenge grid once it opens during yeah write #71. Woo-hoo.
Each week, fewer and fewer submissions are getting published to the grid on the first attempt. Take your time writing, make clear the point of your story/personal essay/fiction/creative non-fiction—avoid hiding it behind cloudy innuendo, then ease into a relevant conclusion without just tacking one on. There’s no such thing as rushing to the grid anymore. You have time to perfect before submitting. Raise your hand in comments if you’ve read this.
We’re back on the challenge grid schedule of the grid opening on Tuesday, closing on Wednesday at 9 pm (or at 50 blogs, whichever happens first) and the voting starting immediately and ending at 9 pm US eastern time. The winners’ post will publish on Friday.
yeah write #68 badges
[image width=”225″ height=”225″ align=”left” lightbox=”true” caption=”You can grab this one. Click to embiggen. Then right-click and select save this image.” title=””]https://yeahwrite.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/yw_wwb_bww.png [/image]
[bullet_list]
- Click in the upper right corner of this page on the plus symbol and the hidden widget containing the button badge codes will drop
- Copy the code of your favorite badge, then paste that code into the HTML view of the post you’re planning to submit to the grid
- If you’re having problems accessing those, feel free to grab the one in this post. Your backlink will be yeahwrite.me/68-open-summer or yeahwrite.me/68-open-hangout
[/bullet_list]
[header_box_1 title=”yeah write #68 writing prompts”]
all your story are belong to you
[check_list]
- Read the summer FAQ page for other details: the grid is being moderated and if you’re missing an element outlined in the summer FAQ, your post will not be published on the grid
- Let the prompt lead you, but do not include the prompt in any way in your post, not at the beginning as an intro, not at the end as a footnote. If you reference the prompt in your post, your post will not be published on the grid
- Remember: no more than 500 words. If your post exceeds 500 words, yup, you guessed it—no publish for you
- If the prompt takes you from thunderstorms to watching TV at your grandma’s house to how much you love Pat Sajak to the oldest person you’ve ever kissed, we want that story the furthest away in your imagination from the original prompt. Let your imagination loose
- Keep your writing style! Do you tell stories with humor? Prose? Verse? Photos? Illustrations? Keep doing that. We’ll read Shakespearean drama on our own time
- Cut away at everything unnecessary to your story
- Don’t forget to badge your post
- The grid now opens on Tuesdays
[/check_list]
[divider_header_h3] This week’s prompts [courtesy of Tom Slatin] [/divider_header_h3]
[arrow_list]
- Well, who says you can’t judge a book by its cover?
- Describe a time you felt alone.
- List your bad habits and/or addictions and how you have tried to rid yourself of them.
[/arrow_list]
[/header_box_1]
Yeah write #68 summer writer’s series grid opens Tuesday…
Raising my hand over here!
I’m excited for this week although I still have no idea how I will top last week which was my personal best.
Maybe the kids will find themselves in bed early tonight so I can concentrate on something other than screaming poop machines.
Unless of course everyone would just like to hear a story about that?
Haha.
Thanks again for the great post Flood!
Maybe thinking of it as your personal best isn’t the best way to go. How about your new personal standard? Good luck with them poopy kids!
Raising my hand and waiving it around because I’m a nerd like that. I think it’s interesting what you said about reading crap from time to time. I’m a real book snob so often when I sit down at the computer, I type away only to read it over when I’m finished and hit “trash” in frustration because I’m so unsatisfied with what I wrote. I’m sure it’s because I’m spoiled by reading authors who are immensely talented and nothing I write will ever seem worthy if I hold myself to that unrealistic standard. I will never be John Irving and not just because I have no interest in wrestling and mommy-issues and Maine, but that shouldn’t necessarily compel me to trash the story I wrote about my kids. If I find it interesting, perhaps one other person will…somewhere. Maybe.
And the John Irving bears. My God, the bears.
I’m in the middle of writing something that I’m sure will end up trashed instead of published. It’s going around!
<— hand raised. 🙂
Exciting things this week! Can't wait to dig in.
Right?
I really like this week’s theme, so important to remember people reading when you write. I am a reading lover first and foremost, yet don’t always examine what makes me love reading certain styles, authors etc. I am about to look at that a whole lot closer and can bet that it will be something I look at in more detail when I write.
Thank you! Studying a scene from a favourite book or story, to find why it works so well, is a valuable exercise. Not for mimicry, but for use of language, word economy, style, plot – all that stuff that goes into a good story.
Hand raised. Thank you for reminding me to read, for pleasure, for inspiration, for something besides work. I am often so inundated with legal verbiage that by the time I carve out an evening to write, I have nothing to say. I will occasionally start with my visual element first to allow the verbal part of my brain to reboot, but on nights when I have literally and literarily nothing, I am going to try reading something different from my usual.
You too? Another lawyer? I didn’t realize. We are everywhere!!!
Technically a law student, but I’m interning this summer, so it is like being a lawyer, but without the pay. We are everywhere, though, I guess because we are all unemployed?
Magazines, books, anthologies – anything will do. And don’t feel you have to finish what you’re reading, either. The minute you have an idea or are inspired by something you’ve read, get to it!
Ah. Permission to walk away without regret. I needed that. When I know I don’t have to finish a book, I’m much more likely to enjoy it.
Hand raised. What a great post and some great points. Yes you are writing for a reader but if I always wrote for someone else I think my work would suffer. I need to write for myself too, finding a balance I think is what it’s about, but it’s also the hardest to achieve.
I suppose I write for myself first and then edit for the reader. I’m not sure if this is the right way to go about it but it’s the only way I know thus far. This series has truly helped me in that regard. Editting has always been the hardest thing for me to do but as this series has gone it has become easier and easier.
Thanks to all the judges for making this series come together. And thanks Flood for another great addition to the Summer Writer’s Series.
Yes, staying true to you is imperative.
All the rules go out the window if we’re writing stuff no one will ever see. For any audience, though, you want a palatable delivery. That’s why finding your authentic voice is so important. Write what you feel needs to be written, as Deborah mentions below, but in a way that makes readers feel they are be rewarded for giving you their time. It really is a give and take interaction.
I love this post — I am finding it difficult sometimes to address all three audiences with every post. I feel like I get 2/3 with most posts, but not always the same 2/3. That is part of the reason I’m here, though — to work on these skills and challenge my abilities. Thank you!
Thank you! It’s a balance, it’s true.
Thank you for the reminder to keep the audience in mind. Writing may be a solitary craft but we need always to remember that our words are directed outwards. And yet, we can’t write to make someone else happy or because we think so-and-so wants to hear such-and-such (paid endorsements aside)…we have to write what we want to say, what we think needs to be said. Conundrums abound.
You’re right!
It takes courage to write from the heart and the gut. “Reader-friendly” doesn’t always mean people will agree with the content. Good writing can invite a reader to reconsider their view on something, though.
Raising my hand, Erica. Now back to Flood: “When lost in the lonely wilderness of how and what to write, it can feel as though nothing has ever been written before.”
Beautiful. And it can also feel as though everything has been written before.
Good point. I feel like that with photos sometimes, too. Like every good idea has been done. And that’s true, there’s nothing new under the sun. Your perspective and delivery are what’s unique, what drives the audience to stay with you.
Oooooooh, what an exciting week this is going to be! Flood, I loved your post. As a new blogger, you described exactly what it feels like to me to send my posts out into the world each week. I feel like a new mama sending her baby off to kindergarten and I have to will myself not to call the teacher ever 15 minutes to check in on her. The fact that my human baby starts kindergarten next month and I am only slightly hysterical about it should be viewed as entirely coincidental.
A mobile statcounter app for kids sounds like a great idea. Checking stats every fifteen minutes from the comfort of your living room.
Not to jump in here, but I would pay a lot of money for that. You’re a genius.
You are just too cute Melisa! What a big deal, my heart swells at even the thought and I still have a few more years…