Reading. You can never get enough of it.

 

Earlier this year, I conducted a writing biography workshop for the ACT Writers Centre. Funnily enough, with (at the time) four biographical works published and one in production, I had a lot to say, especially about how to go about writing a biography. But even before picking up pen (or placing fingers on keyboard) I urged the participants to do their ground work; to prepare themselves thoroughly for the massive task of undertaking—and completing—a book length project. And so, a key section of the workshop was ‘What you need to consider before sitting down to write a biography’.

One of my suggestions—well, to tell the truth, it was not a suggestion, it was virtually a demand as it is so fundamental to good writing practice—was that every would-be writer has to read. And this applies to every writer, not just biographers. As I explained at the time, if you haven’t yet hit on your style, the way you want to tell your story, you need to acquaint yourself with how other writers have done it. What sort of biographies are out there, for example (that, after all was the topic of my workshop). What is selling. What sits on the remainder table. Read broadly, I stressed. Not just about your subject but about their time so you can get a sense of how they fitted in. Delve into biographies of other men or women whose lives your subject might have intersected; the story of someone brought up in the same area, for instance, at the same time. Devour biographies outside your area of interest to see how they are written and what works and what doesn’t. Lose yourself in novels of all persuasions so you can get an idea of good writing, what works, how to pace, develop the narrative arc. Crime and thriller fiction are very good for narrative arc and pace, by the way.

 

Don’t just take my word for it about the importance of reading, I told them. Hannah Kent, author of the mind-blowingly good, and award-winning novel Burial Rites, has five rules of writing and Read is top of the list.

‘To be a good writer’, she says, ‘first and foremost, be a good reader. How else will you learn what to do?’ She advises to ‘Read as much as possible, as often as possible, and if you read something you like, or something that makes you laugh, or something that moves you in a strange, ineffable way, ask why. Re-read it. Read it aloud. Pay attention to the use of words, and the narrative voice, and the comic timing. If you don't understand words, splurge on a really great dictionary and look those words up. The more words you know, the greater your control over language. Read everything. How else will you work out what is good and what is bad?’ Kent may be talking from the experience of a fiction writer, but it is sound advice for non-fiction authors as well. Her rules are at http://hannahkentauthor.com/news/2014/7/7/my-ewf-five-rules-for-writing  

I have spent a life time reading and perhaps that is why I was able to write my first book without benefit of courses, workshops, manuscript assessment, or freelance editing prior to submission, and was able to land a contract on my first pitch to a publisher.

 In my less confident moments, I consider I was just lucky. But then I remember what my first publisher told me when he first read my pitched pages and then promoted them to his commissioning meeting. It might not be PC but I treasure the words. ‘The chick can write.’ And the only reason I can write, I believe, is because I read. I read non-stop. And will never cease reading.

At any given time I have three books on the go: one specifically related to my current project; one other non-fiction book, whether biography or narrative, not necessarily related to my research such as a review book, or a topic I am interested in; and fiction, usually crime but I have been branching out into other fiction more recently. There is much to learn from other writers. Read and you will discover it for yourself. Your own writing will improve. Guaranteed.