Writer's dilemma #5: Reading as a writer
On the importance of doing both
I have always been a reader. I remember gobbling up books by Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, Meg Cabot (in that order) when I was younger. This is when I first discovered my tendency to reach for myself, to reach for new worlds, in quiet places. Reading is what made me feel like writing was even possible.
In the words of Joyce Carol Oates, “reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.” Experiencing this shape-shifting as a reader nurtured my desire to enter stories that I created myself; and to welcome others into them as well. I explained this in another piece I wrote linked here: “writing then becomes an exercise in honouring yourself as a reader, which in most cases, is the identity that came first.”
Many other writers are readers too. As Robert Louis Stevenson said, “I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” Writers obviously enjoy stories, and should therefore enjoy reading, but it is more fundamental than that. According to Stephen King, “if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” He goes further by saying that, “if you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” Steven Spielberg seems to agree, and he tells us that “only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers.” I would agree too. There are moments when my reading has taken a back seat, or slowed down in pace, but I have always been aware of the importance of reading, and tried to encourage myself to read more, even by setting challenges on goodreads, or trying to join a book club. It can be hard sometimes, feeling like I’m reading to a schedule, but it’s a lovely experience to discuss a book with people, and to understand what each person enjoyed (or not) about it.
Reading good novels is a great training ground for writing well. According to Haruki Murakami, “ to write a novel, you must first understand at a physical level how one is put together”. Stephen King also explains that “good writing… teaches the learning writer about style, graceful narration, plot development, the creation of believable characters, and truth-telling.” Before I understood what it meant to read like a writer, I would rush through novels I enjoyed, barely stopping to reflect on what made them so good. Now, I have a pencil every time I read a book, and I scribble notes in the margin on what the writer did— for example, an interesting opening, strong metaphor, natural dialogue etc, as though I was in a literature class (you might not want to borrow my books!)
Reading good writing could also be a stressful experience for a writer, however. It can be daunting and scary to read great literature and ask ourselves how we measure up. A. Igoni Barrett expressed this beautifully: “anything was easier than writing. And for anyone who has read enough to understand how bad their writing is, nothing is harder than writing. Except not writing.” I have definitely experienced this feeling. At the end of 2018, I started working on my first novel, and I decided to stop reading other books during this period so that I could focus on my own words. For nine months, I didn’t read, and then I finished. My first foray out of my bubble was to attend the 2019 “Africa Writes” at the British Library, where there was a re-enactment of Chigozie Obioma’s “The Fishermen”, followed by him reading from his new book at the time, “An Orchestra of Minorities”. I don’t remember much from this day, but I do remember how physically sick, how sad and scared, I felt, after having experienced all this greatness, and realising that what I had written was trash. And it was — because it was the first draft. In the words of Ernest Hemingway, “the first draft of anything is shit”. Confronting Obioma’s greatness was disheartening in that moment, but it gave me the “ginger” I needed to start the next draft of my work, and to pay more attention to what direction I wanted it to take. As Stephen King says, these feelings “of despair and good old-fashioned jealousy” …“can also serve as a spur, goading the writer to work harder and aim higher.”
However, as writers, we must also read books that make us uncomfortable, either because they are bad, or are outside our preferred genre. William Faulkner tells us to “read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.” Stephen King says that “every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones”. When I start reading a book and I know I don’t like it, I stop and just can’t continue. There are so many books in the world and so little time. Sometimes, I can’t even put this response into words, but I feel it on an intuitive level. However, I need to challenge myself to keep reading, and to be able to consider what it is about the book that I don’t like, and what I therefore need to learn from. I also read a lot in my comfort zone, which, for the most part, is contemporary African literature. However, reading across genres is meant to nourish perspective and writing style. For example, I may not plan to write in the thriller genre, but it might help to learn how these writers build suspense, keep the pace, and even misdirect readers.
Another aspect of reading as a writer is reading while actively writing. As I referenced earlier, when I was working on my first novel, I stopped myself from reading anything for that period of time. Different authors think about this differently. During Chimamanda’s book launch for “Dream Count” in London, she mentioned that when she was working on it, she could not read fiction and she read poetry instead. Colson Whitehead, on the other hand, tries to read books that are similar in form to whatever he's writing at the time. So, for example, when writing the compact narrative of "The Nickel Boys," he read several novellas. Similarly, Pamela Erens, a novelist, stated that “I read compulsively while writing fiction . . . I really need to be fed by other waters.” My view has changed as I’ve evolved, and it’s now similar to what Stuart Nadler, another novelist, does. He says he will “try to avoid anything that might feel too similar to what I’m writing about”. From now on, I will take the opportunity to read other genres when I’m actively writing. Otherwise, as I learned from my previous experience, it is a long time to go without being “fed by other waters”.
In the end, reading ultimately is sustenance for the writer. And so, we must try to stay full on words, and hope that this ampleness reveals itself when we write.
Prompt:
What book/ writer has had the greatest impact on your journey so far? Write about it and share it with me (by sending it on instagram, or replying by email if you’re a subscriber) in the next week, and it will go up on the Instagram page.