#reading like a writer
The different types of reading:
Reading like a reader: You’re letting the story take you a sweep you away without worrying much about anything. You might have opinions–likes and dislikes. But for the most part, you’re just seeing where the story takes you.
Reading like a writer: You’re gutting each sentence, picking it apart and studying it. You look at what the writer does wrong and what they’ve done right and use both to help you improve. You’re actively trying to find flaws and strengths to avoid or borrow in your own writing.
When to read like a reader:
- When you want to relax and enjoy a story.
- When you’re reading with intent to give feedback to other readers. This means reviews for sites like Goodreads or Amazon.
When to read like a writer:
- When you’re looking to up your writing skills.
- When you’re beta reading, critiquing, or giving feedback to the writer directly.
A lot of writers find it nearly impossible to read like a reader anymore, which isn’t a bad thing. You can still 100% relax into a story and enjoy it once you’ve built up that reading like a writer muscle. It does take more work than just reading, so if you’re just starting out you may find it hard at first.
If you do read like a writer, you can of course still review a novel. However, you can’t expect all your critiques to fit into a review. Reading like a writer is very tailored frame of opinion in most cases, as it partly relates to your own writing style. A review is not the place to compare your writings. It’s a place for other readers to find out if they should give this book a chance. Complimenting/complaining about sentence structure is nitpicky and going to go over most readers heads–just say it wasn’t/was well written.
Like most things, reading like a writer vs reader is a wide spectrum. Plenty of readers that are not in fact writers read like a writer–especially voracious readers because they have a whole career of reading behind them. They’ve learned how to weed out bad books.
Throughout the course of a book you can do both in varying degrees, but at times it can be good to consciously flex those muscles. Strain and relax them. Become a better writer without even writing ❤
