What does it mean to read like a writer?
Over at the latest Glimmer Train bulletin, Anthony DeCasper offers a few tips about seeing and reading the world in terms of narrative design. He says:
Narrative design is the art of perception. By unpacking narrative design through reading, and rereading, we reveal not only an author’s way of seeing and thinking about the world but how the author collects their perceptions into an immersive story.
He goes on to argue that reading is writing if done with authorial intention. Read the entire essay.
Also this month at Glimmer Train:
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
[…] Learn what it means to see and read the world in terms of narrative design. […]
We can speak in terms of narrative design, or we can call it structure; it is less important. But it is always good to emphasise the value of active, creative reading – or reading as a writer.
A naïve reader can allow him/herself to be absorbed by a story. An aspiring writer must put some mental effort in reading. To read like a writer means to be awake in order to pay attention to every detail.
Socrates had a point, long time ago, “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have laboured hard for.”