Being a writer’s a rewarding thing. It’s always thrilling to finally put the ideas and stories floating around in your mind down to paper. There are lots of rewards, but there are also a lot of negatives to go along with those rewards.<\/p>\n
One of those is the effect being a writer has on reading and the way I approach a novel. I remember, back in highschool (that’s my disclaimer so I don’t get mocked…) I was watching an episode of Dawson’s Creek<\/strong> and Dawson, a film nut, was whining becuase he was getting so involved in cinema, and the way it’s crafted, that he was no longer able to enjoy<\/em> movies as a viewer. He spent more time picking them apart, marvelling or critiquing the technique of the filmmaker, and less time being a fan of the medium and getting lost in the movie.<\/p>\n In a lot of ways I know how Dawson felt. As a writer I often find myself watching the the way the author crafts the story, rather than getting involved with the characters\/plot. Of course, there is no better way to learn the craft (besides practice, I suppose) than watching and interpreting the masters at work. I learn a lot about the craft by taking in what my favourite authors do – what works in certain situation, how they handle paticularily hard parts of a novel, etc… – but also what they don’t<\/em> do. On top of this, there’s also the fact that I’ve also recently begun reviewing novels and that’s had an obvious (but unfortunate) impact on the way I approach reading. It’s hard not to think of a potential review as I’m reading a novel and, in many ways, I think it’s necessary to considering the review as I’m reading the novel. It’s all fine and dandy to convey to my readers how I felt after<\/em> I finish a novel, but I think it’s also important for them (and myself) to be aware of how I felt while<\/em> I read the novel. To this end I generally take notes as I read – most of the time mentally – and gander at them once I’m finished the novel. Sometimes I throw some of the ideas\/preconceptions away, but most of the time they allow me to better recollect how my opinion shifted throughout the reading.<\/p>\n Has reading been ruined for me, like cinema was for Dawson? Of course not. I’m as big a reader as I’ve ever been and, though I may not have the time for it like I did in highschool, because of these other facets feel that, though I may not always realize it, I also enjoy<\/em> reading more than I ever have. Being an aspiring writer, well versed in understanding how much skill is actually involved in writing a novel, I think I’m better able to appreciate what goes into a novel and how best to learn from it.<\/p>\n Certainly a good novel should inspire me to write, that’s a given, but a truly great<\/em> novel should leave me feeling as though I’ve become a better writer (however slight the improvement) without even having touched the page with my pen. Those novels, however, are few and far between, as, perhaps, they should be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being a writer’s a rewarding thing. It’s always thrilling to finally put the ideas and stories floating around in your mind down to paper. There are lots of rewards, but there are also a lot of negatives to go along with those rewards. One of those is the effect being a writer has on reading… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\nI know a novel’s good, however, when this cumpulsion doesn’t overwhelm my experience. When I lose myself in the story, the characters and the setting; giving little regard to the craft and simply losing myself in the words. Afterwards I’ll reflect on how damn good the novel was, and take a look at why<\/em> it was so powerful and effective, but the learning process is all done subconciously as I read, a much more preferable way of reading than the constant analyzation that should be reserved for high-level college papers. This most recently happened with Joe Haldeman’s The Forever War<\/strong>; William Mandella (the protagonist) and the world into which he was thrust was so compelling and well written that I simply forgot to approach it as anything other than a compelling story.<\/p>\n