Editor’s note:
Welcome to Fresh Ink Chronicles. The first three newsletters of the year will be dedicated toward helping you plan and begin your next writing project.
This is is the third and final installment of a three part series called Fresh Ink Chronicles: Crafting Your Creative Journey in 2024. This first one can be found here. The second installment can be found here.
There are so many writing tenants out there; so much advice that just floats in the ether. There are rules and suggestions on when to write, what to write with, and even what to write about. But the one that is consistant and true and everyone should committ to memory is …
To write you must read.
This, yes, is a basic rule. It’s a basic piece of advice. However, among the Hemingway quotes (did he actually say edit sober?) and the morning rituals, and even the writing diet of sweets and coffee, this is the truest thing and the best advice I can give. (Also, write ugly. That’s another post for another day.)
Read. Read everything. Read it all. Good and bad and indifferent.
But I must admit, outside of the idea of reading everything there’s not much after. And I know you have questions. Read what? How do I balance that with writing? What am I reading for?
The short answer to this is —it depends. The long answer — depends on what kind of writer you are/want to be and what you are working on.
Books as Playlist
The best way to do this I have found is to read books like a playlist. Whether you use Spotify, Apple Music, or are still burning CDs, there are collections of songs that you have for special occassions. Have a dinner party you are planning? That’s it’s own playlist. A roadtrip? The best songs go on a list that is EXACTLY the length of the drive. Need something to get you going on a Monday morning? The Monday morning jams on that playlist will get you to work relatively on time.
Books are similar. You put together a playlist of books based on what you are writing, interested in, etc.
My most recent example is actually a non-writing related one. While I was healing from an emotional break last year, I gravitated to books that would help me heal. There was a combination of narrative non-fiction books, essay collections, books about different healing conceptions, and self-improvement books. By the end of the year, I learned so much and had grown in my healing.
For my poetry collection, there were several books I looked at for several reasons and not all were poetry books. I focused on the theme of my collection so I read memoirs on mental health, I read poetry books about identity, and even some craft books on writing. The collection was stronger for it.
The idea here is that your writing is part of a “conversation” with what is already out there. It’s not about the research of the time, which can happen (how is Jericho Brown doing that duplex thing again?) but it’s also to see how the topic/idea/theme is being approached, how it shows up in the world, and what you are adding to that discussion. Your work is essentially responding and extending on what has already been said. You are bringing your own take on it.
There’s a couple of ways to book playlist together. My favorite is good ole Google. Websites like Electric Lit or Lithub usually have lists of books on different topics. That is where you can begin. I like using the Libby app from my library see what else is out there. It also gives me a way to checkout the book if I don’t want to (re: afford to because I have too many books) buy it.
Reading as Your Writing
One of the cool ways my writing friend, Isla McKetta, uses her writing reading is to incorporate it as she is writing. Her writing schedule was writing in the morning before work, reading some pages of a book to work and then on the way back (she used public transportation), and then edit what she wrote earlier in the day after dinner.
I so admired this schedule as a way of keeping focused on the writing. She was in grad school when she did this schedule (we were in the same program) so I know she was writing high literary work, the work where diction and images and are crafted into high art. The idea — read good writing and writing technique and somehow, through osmosis, your writing gets better. It sounds nutty but it works.
My schedule was different. I would do all my reading and writing at the end of the day. I’d come home eat, spend time with friends, and then around 9 or 10 p.m I’d start my work with some reading and then writing until 2 p.m.
Regardless of the structure, the important thing is that the reading is elevated to the writing, meaning that you read as you write. That also means if you don’t read one day, you also don’t write and vise versa. Both the reading and the writing move together. For some this will work as it becomes a ritual. For others this will be fustrating. Yes, this technique isn’t for everyone BUT if you know you are going to focus on writing for a couple of months on a project, this works well.
One thing to keep in mind here is that you are working on a writing project (that book or essay or poem or short story) that means there’s an ending to the project. That’s what I like about this technique, it’s focus concentration for a certain period of time before you go into edit/revising.
Reading to Edit/Revise
Let’s say you’re done with your writing project and it’s time to revise. Congratulations, now comes the hard part and what some may say is the real work. Revising!
I wrote about revision back when I wrote on Medium so I won’t give you all the details here. One thing I do every time is to read craft books and books about style while I’m revising. So during revision, I’m re-reading On Writing Well and Stephen King’s On Writing. I’m also browsing through grammar books as well. In fact, there’s a stack of books I return to when it’s revision/editing time.
All of this, for some strange reason, activates the analytical part of my brain, the part that can detach enough from the writing to start molding it into something great. My brain knows that it’s time to switch to something else and to be more of a carpenter with the writing.
When to read?
This maybe the most difficult question to answer.
It’s easy to not write for awhile, focus on reading and then go back to writing when you’re ready. Or you can read right before bed. Or you can read and annotate. Or you can keep a reading journal.
What I’m saying is that this question is up to you. The answer will vary from writer to writer. Just like writing there is not a one size fits all type of thing.
The point isn’t when to do the thing that will make you a better writer, it’s actually doing the action to be the writer you want to be.
For me, I’m at the point that those 30 minutes to and from work are precious. No one is asking me for a favorite. I can’t grade papers as I drive. And, if I am lucky, I will get not phone calls during my commute. So audiobooks are the way to go. With an audiobook, I can do my reading or research on a project and I can be a writer before I get to be an employee.
Though I prefer reading it the “old fashioned” way since I’d like to see how sentences are structured and how craft happens on the page, that hour is one of the few pockets of time I can concentrate on my writing. In a way, my writing sessions begin early and end late.
(I’ve also used the voice memo feature to dictate lines and ideas for stories but that’s another post or another day.)
And there you go! The final installment of the Fresh Ink Chronicles! I liked putting this series together. Let me know if there is anything else you want me to explore and I’ll put another series together!
—Icess