Learn How to Read Like a Writer

What makes reading like a writer different from reading as just a reader? It mostly comes down to wow versus how. As a reader we’re interested in enjoying ourselves and simply saying wow at the end of a book or during the best scenes. A writer, however, will ask: how did they accomplish that wow?

Even analytical readers are looking at something different. When we think about an analytical reader they may touch on some of the same things as a writer but they’re focused on experience where writers are focused on craft. They both may pick up on motif and metaphor and pacing, but a reader is interested in how it makes them feel and a writer is interested in how the author accomplished it. This is the difference between literary analysis and craft analysis.

So, how do we read like writers?

Read for Pleasure, Then Analyze

Well first, don’t stop reading for pleasure!

You still want to look for the wow so you can analyze the how. Some may tell you to analyze only the greats and the bestsellers and the trending novels, but I say analyze the books you love and the books that do what you want to do.

If your novel has a passionate love plotline, read romance and novels with strong romantic plot lines. If your story is filled with high octane combat, read fast-paced novels filled with action.

You don’t have to stick to your genre either, because you can analyze individual scenes without taking into account the whole book. In fact reading a variety of high tension books in different genres will provide a wider view of how to build tension (as well as showing you what remains the same across genres.)

Reading for pleasure becomes the gathering stage of research. This is how you decide what books you should next read like a writer. It won’t be nearly as helpful to pick a random book off the shelf to analyze. Books you know help guide what you can learn from them rather than going in with no plan and becoming overwhelmed by all the details.

Which brings me to…

Have a Plan Going In

I’ve said it a million times as a tip for editing, and what is editing but analyzing your own work? Define a focus before beginning. (Or maybe a few if it makes sense for you, your craft , and the novel you are reading.)

Ask yourself what it is that you loved about this novel, what you’d like to learn from it.

Was it that:

• The characters felt real and relatable

• The twist at the end has great pay off

• The description of place transported you

• The prose flowed beautifully

• You felt strong emotions of fear, sadness, joy

• It never droned on, you always felt like something was happening

Or

• What did I hate about this novel? Analyze that too as a way to avoid it in your own writing.

It could be anything really. Simply something that you want to learn to emulate in your own writing. 

Another piece of the plan might be to decide on particular scenes. Some scenes will do a better job at different things; it’s not very helpful to analyze for action packed, smooth flowing combat in a scene where everyone is sitting down to dinner. That scene would likely be better for analyzing great dialogue (assuming the dialogue in it is great). If you know the book well enough, or have scenes in mind, make a plan of what pages to read. Otherwise, decide to skip anything that doesn’t fulfill your current purpose.

If you can’t think of something specific you want to work on right now, consider the following (either in a random passage or the novel overall):

• Why is that grammar rule broken there? What effect does it have on the prose? The reader?

• Analyze the sentence structure and length and ask what it does to the reading experience. Compare it to another passage.

• How would I describe the voice of this book? This character?

• Were there any parts that lagged? Was this purposeful? If not, how do I avoid it?

• Analyze chapter or scene purpose. Is it here to characterize, reveal backstory, create atmosphere, or is it simply action moving the story forward?

In addition to analyzing, you might consider copy work. I have yet to try this myself but have heard its horn tooted many times. The basic idea is copying, word for word, a passage from a novel. The idea is that your brain will pick up on the nuances of the original author’s craft. It’s really the only way writers can practice in the same way an athlete might, by copying their coaches and mentors.

Executing Your Plan

This is the tricky part to provide advice for because different techniques will work for different people. How you take your notes is up to you. Stickies in the book, a notebook alongside it, notes in the margins, a computer document… whatever is comfortable and will be easiest to reference later. You can quote the book as examples or just take notes about what you observe.

You want to read through the novel (or certain passages) and take notes on what makes the writing so good at the thing you’re looking at. But what exactly are you looking for? Things like word choice and sentence structure at the low level and things like how information is revealed, literary devices, and the purpose of each scene. Asking “why” a lot is the best way to figure out how to do it yourself.

You might consider pretending you’re editing this novel. A good editor notes things they like and think could change. This could be a very helpful exercise in reading like a writer. You may not find very many things you would change but literally no story is perfect because the choices made are so subjective.

Some examples of what I might look for while observing certain things:

Pacing

Sentence structure and length would be my biggest focus.

I might colour code based on length or simple/compound/complex/compound-complex

On a larger scale I might pay attention to how often clues/information are dropped and how big or shocking they are. How much time passes in the novel and how far apart they are in the prose. How does all of this affect the pacing of the story and what does it mean for the reader's experience?

Dialogue

Structure and word choice would be my biggest focus.

Looking at how often dialogue tags are used versus action tags. When there are many speakers, how does that change from when there are only two? How distinct is each speaker is in structure and word choice? 

Eliciting Emotion

I would focus most on word choice, but sentence structure would come in too.

Emotion is all about vibe (think imagery, word choice, metaphor.) If I’m looking at emotion overall, I would be comparing scenes that elicit different emotions and looking at sentence length, imagery, and word choice. If I’m focusing on a single emotion I would analyze many scenes (and stories) and see what imagery and word choice crops up over and over again.

Using Your Notes

Now it’s time to take your notes and put them to good use! Using what you’ve observed, do some practice runs. You can always apply them right to your WIP, but I think it’s good to sometimes write just for the purpose of building craft. It might even turn into something you can use! 

If you were looking at a certain type of scene, write three scenes from different possible stories. 

If you were looking at something a little broader, consider applying it to a short story or just a longer vignette of a possible story.

Your job isn’t done yet, next you need to analyze what you’ve written and compare it to your notes and the novel(s) you’ve analyzed. It’s likely not perfect as these are first drafts! Try editing them to fit closer to your observations. Most of writing isn’t writing, so your first draft not hitting those observation notes is totally fine! But the more you write with those thoughts in mind the more natural it will become and the more you’ll learn about how to do it well.

Reading Like A Writer, Final Thoughts

To begin reading like a writer, you must first read for pleasure (or like a reader if you will). This will help you determine which novels you wish to learn from. Think about the things you loved and hated about what you’ve read and then figure out why, observe how the author accomplished (or didn't) that effect on you as a reader. Switching your brain from reader to writer is a simple switch between wow and how.

To get the most out of each reading session, I suggest focusing on a single aspect of the work. Figure out how the author wrote such realistic dialogue, or such nail biting tension, or such spine tingling fear. Find the passages that are most exemplary and analyze those, especially if you feel you don’t have the time to analyze the whole novel or the whole novel doesn’t suit your focus.

Take notes in whatever way makes the best sense, in the margins or in a notebook, quoting pieces or just observing, it’s whatever you think will be best for you when you go to reference them again.

And when you do reference them again, you may jump right into your WIP, but maybe doing a little exercise writing would be more helpful. Try writing a few scenes with the same purpose and compare them, then edit them to be more aligned with your notes, and finally return to the original works and compare your writing to theirs. How does it hold up?

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Jerrica is a writer and editor who inspires up-and-coming writers to create compelling fiction and creative nonfiction works while providing them with the confidence to do it themselves or ask for a helping hand when they need it. She enjoys speculative fiction, horror and gut-wrenching emotion with a side of food & drink and the cozier things in life.