What should you read while writing?
The pros and cons of reading fiction.
I’ve just been listening to an excellent podcast with Kate Mosse who writes brilliant historical fiction set in France (such as Labyrinth and the Burning Chambers Series) as well as gothic novels which take place in Sussex.
She said she doesn’t read fiction when she is in the middle of writing a novel as she might be too influenced by the other writer’s style. Interesting.
I guess it’s a very personal choice. At the moment I’m creating the first draft of a novel set in Jersey in the Channel Islands. I have decided to read other novels set on the island, partly so I can avoid the same topics and events as other writers who have gone before me, but also to see if there are some descriptions that will help me visualise a place I sadly can’t visit. I am very careful about plagiarism but sometimes another writer’s depiction of a scene can inspire my own. I also want to immerse myself in the locality so just reading fiction set there helps me to inhabit the world I am trying to create. I am reading a lot of non fiction too to help me with my historical research.
That all works for me. But I suppose there are reasons why we shouldn’t read fiction when we are writing it and I have listed a few here.
1. If your own writing style is still evolving and you don’t want to be influenced by another’s.
2. If you think you can ‘borrow’ another writer’s plot idea. I think generic plot strands are fine – eg boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again or similar, but anything really specific should be off limits.
3. If you intend to copy another’s description, or characterisation, although I think it’s fine to use other writers to learn about the craft, then adapt their approach for our own uses.
4. If reading a writer you admire undermines your confidence in your own abilities. It’s so easy to give up and it’s important we value our own voices and believe in our own ideas.
So there we go. Of course, my claim it is useful for me to read fiction has nothing to do with the fact I have just downloaded a delicious new book on my kindle (Deborah Carr’s ‘Mrs Boots’ since you ask) and that sun is shining and the garden beckoning ….