How Reading Can Improve Your Writing with 6 Actionable Tips

March 14, 2017March 14, 2017| LynnLynn| 0 Comments|

 

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” —Stephen King

 

I believe three things make you a better writer.

Learning the craft of writing.

Practice, practice, practice.

Reading books by other authors.

 

I can help you to learn the craft of writing. The practice, well, that’s on you. So today,  let’s address the third item on the list, reading. Let’s first look at why reading can make you a better writer.

A good writer should read for pleasure but to also learn the craft of writing. When we read the books by other authors, styles, voices and other genres, we expand our knowledge.  Most importantly, it presents us with writing that’s better than our own, and through osmosis, as well as applying the techniques it helps us to improve our own writing. Reading can help you to expand your vocabulary and to craft better sentences. It helps you to understand language better. Quite simply reading helps you to learn from the best and gain new knowledge.

Reading can help you to understand how others think and process information.  This is an important skill to learn if you wish to express yourself through the written word to others. When you analyze what you read and share it with others, you learn to understand a book and in turn convey that understanding to others.

Reading reveals the secrets of a writer’s job in practice. And finally, you will find reading will offer inspiration.

 

6 Tips for Improving Your Reading Skills

 

  1. Establish some good reading habits.

    Dedicate a set amount of time each day for reading. I like a minimum of 60 minutes. Somedays, I will read more. But no less than 60 minutes every day. Carry your book with you to maximize your time. Consider making a book list and plan your reading for the year. I choose a minimum of 24 books each year. That’s 2 books a month. My goal is to improve on this each year. Choose your books wisely, plan your books, read from a variety of books from classics to trash to contemporary literature. Read outside your genre. Join a book club – it forces you to read books outside of your genre, to read with a deadline and to read with a critical eye.

 

  1.  Take notes.

Break down the stories you read. Analyze character, plot and theme. Highlight passages, make notes of words or passages that stand out for you and the effects they create. Make notes throughout the reading process. I love Kindle for this reason. I can highlight passages and make notes right in the Kindle. After finishing the book write a one-page Keep a binder with your one-page summaries of each book you have read.Write reviews, Amazon, Goodreads, or consider a book review on your blog. It helps you to analyze the book and think about the story with a more critical eye.

 

  1. Consider creating a reading journal. 

A reading journal combines the skills of reading and writing. You record your impressions and ideas about a book you’ve read in your journal.  A reading journal will help you record the not only the feelings it created within you as you journeyed with the characters but the writing lessons you learned. It is worth taking a few minutes after each book to record your thoughts in a reading journal. All these things can help you become a better, offer inspiration and build your confidence.

 

  1. Try the techniques you’ve learned in your writing.

Experiment with what you discovered, and then give the techniques you’ve discovered a twist to make them your own.

 

  1. Don’t read more than two books at a time

I recommend limiting the number of books that you read at once. If you do read two books at a time, read from two different genres, for example, read a fiction and nonfiction.

 

  1. Enjoy your reading.

Don’t waste your time reading books you are not enjoying. Life is too short to read a book you dislike. But before you put it down learn from it. Identify why you are struggling. Write down your analysis of why the book is not landing for you before you move on. We can learn from the bad books as well as the good ones.

 

To learn more about how to read to write, I recommend. How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. For more books visit our Writers’ Resource Page.  (affiliate links) 

 

Related Post

How Scrivener Can Help You Complete ‘The Challenge’How Scrivener Can Help You Complete ‘The Challenge’

January 15, 2018January 15, 2018| LynnLynn| 0 Comment| 11:41 pm
If you haven’t heard of Scrivener before or maybe you have, but you’re not sure how it works or what all the fuss is about, then I would like to take this opportunity to give you a brief explanation. Scrivener is a writing management software program that has amazing capabilities. It’s a fantastic app for writing long text such as family history stories but offers you many features that make it much more effective and efficient then let’s say Word.

Scrivener is built on four core ideas.

  1. Write your story in sections as small or as large as you like and easily rearrange them.
  2. Add synopses to sections, so that it is easy to work with an overview of your manuscript.
  3. View research and other parts of your writing side-by-side with your writing.
  4. Export your work using different formatting for different requirements.

 

 

Of course, this is stating the program very simply. While I’m confident, you can see how this program can benefit you in writing your family history stories. Let’s take it one step further and get a little more specific with a few tips on how it can help you in our upcoming Challenge.

Set Your Targets.

You can set a goal of how many words you want to write each day. Scrivener will keep track of your targets for you. Knowing you’ve met your target for today will make it that much easier to write tomorrow. You’ll find Targets under ‘Project’ the menu.

Incorporating Your Storyboard into Scrivener.

In our Challenge Prep Course, you learned how to create a storyboard, a story plan so that you know exactly what you are going to write each day during these four weeks. Create your storyboard in the Research section of your Draft. This will allow you to reference the storyboard as you go but will also enable you to have the freedom of keeping the storyboard as a separate entity from your draft.

Jump Between Sections.

It’s so easy in Scrivener to jump around and write different chapters or scenes as you see fit. You don’t have to write in chronological order. If you followed our Challenge Prep Course and created a storyboard then you can pull anyone of your scene cards and write.

Create Some Target Points.

If you don’t have a storyboard ready you can still create an outline to help guide you.
In the Draft folder in Outliner mode, create some blank documents with titles and short synopses for each of the critical scenes you identified for your storyline. This will help to tell you where you are going. Not as detailed as a storyboard but it can still be very helpful in keeping you focused. However, you can work towards filling in the spaces in between. They’ll sit in the binder and make sure you know where you’re going. If your story changes direction, you can change them or delete them as needed. Having a destination can help you to keep moving forward even if you decide to change course later.

Import Your Inspiration.

In Scrivener, you can split the editor, so that half of your screen is your story and the other half allows you to view your research. This can also be a great help when you are in need of inspiration. For example, when it comes to describing the setting of your story, take some time to search the Internet for some setting pictures of the location of your story. Upload them to your research files and then when it’s time to write that setting you’ll have inspiration at your fingertips.

Make a Research List in Document Notes.

This is probably one of my favourite tips. When you are writing the last thing you want to do is stop writing and get pulled on the Internet doing research. Keep your writing and research times separately. I like to use Project Notes to keep me on track. In the Inspector, under Project Notes, I create a new note that I’ll title Research List. As I’m writing and I come across something that I need a little more information on, rather than leaving my writing, I will make a small note in my manuscript where I want the information and then add the item to my Research List. When I’m not writing and I have some time, I can pull up my research list do some research.

Scrivener Special

This year during the Family History Writing Challenge, I am going to offer some small tips in our Daily Dose emails on using Scrivener and helping you to improve your use and knowledge of Scrivener. If you’ve been sitting on the fence about using Scrivener then this is the year you may want to give it a try.

 A Discount From Scrivener

Scrivener has been kind enough to create a coupon code that will give you a 20% discount on the purchase of a standard licence for either Scrivener for macOS or Scrivener for Windows. For your discount use coupon code: FAMILYHISTORY
If you don’t yet own Scrivener, you can download the 30-day free trial. Click Here.

 A Discount From Us

In addition to your Scrivener discount, we are offering a 30% discount off our eBook Scrivener for The Family Historian. It regularly sells for $9.99 we are offering it for $6.99. This price is in effect for the next 72 hours.

Extended to Monday Jan 22, 2018.

Use coupon code: challenge2018
If you’re still not sure about Scrivener, check out our Scrivener Video Page where you’ll find videos that will give you a look inside Scrivener.
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