In many interviews with our favourite authors we hear that if we want to wrote, we have to read. It's written in many books about writing and you'd probably find it on blogs. But how does it actually help? Because it does, doesn't it?
July 31 2019. That is when I published the prologue of my story on Wattpad. Now it’s May 2020 and I deleted all its chapters. Everything except the prologue. I don’t regret the decision. I may not have most of the chapters safe, after I deleted them - only some ideas in my notebook, but I don’t think I need them. I have everything I need to write Bloody Rose, this time, hopefully, it will be satisfying.
After a long time struggling with my story I gave up. And then, not a long time ago, I finally had an idea. I knew how to fix the story. I finally came up with a plot that would let me write more and more, with details that might make this whole thing work. I didn’t hesitate when I was deleting what I wrote previously (maybe a little bit). I had a whole new plan for Bloody Rose.
When I deleted all this work I thought that, out of it all, only prologue was actually good. So I left it. But recently… my whole plan just got crushed, as if it was built of thin sticks and matches.
And what crushed it was Digital Fortress.
In many interviews with famous authors you hear that if you want to write, you have to read. I always agreed with that seeing that when you read you develop a new writing style. You can see how different authors write differently and you try those styles out, searching for the one that suits you. But what I didn’t know was, I’ve never really learned from this. Until… well about that later.
Usually when I read I just got consumed by the story and I finished it quickly. I never really paid attention to the style or anything like that. The story was the most important.
Of course, after reading those books I gained some knowledge - not only about how to tell a story so it is interesting, but also about things from the story itself. I was better at describing battles or simple fights, I knew more about the worlds of the stories. And that way I was able to create my worlds better - things like the politics of my world, but also things like poisons. Many books helped me out that way.
But the first time the book helped me out with my style, at least the first time I really noticed it, was quite recently.
I decided to try out a whole new gender - thrillers. I took from my shelf three thriller books I had - two of which I borrowed.
Those two borrowed books were written by a famous writer Dan Brown. After reading the descriptions, I decided to read Digital Fortress. And after no more than 50 pages, I was completely sure what I had to do.
I don’t know why I figured out how to write my story not while reading any of those fantasy books I have on my shelfs, but while reading my first thriller. Maybe it’s the gender that made it easier for me to understand how to write better. Maybe it’s just the genius way Dan Brown writes. But I didn’t need to read the whole book to already know how to write memories of the characters without writing “flashback:” (something that many Wattpad writers do), or what my prologue should look like.
I had my whole plan for my story already in my head. I wrote my new prologue not because the one from before was bad, but because I focused on the wrong character! And while Dan Brown left us more questions than answers with his prologue, I wrote it so it introduced the main event of my book. And it might leave some questions as well, it might not.
But after reading Dan Brown’s book I saw everything more clear. I sat down, wrote this prologue, and, in my notebook, I figured everything out. The protagonist’s history, the protagonist’s nemesis, a little bit of the antagonist. And though I have so much work to do, I know how to do it.
So yes, if you want to write, you have to read. You might not only learn little things from them, things that later will be useful, but also, when you find the write book, you’ll see from a whole new perspective, what to do so your story is better. And that way, someday, you’ll get it all right!
Don’t stop reading, no matter how much work you have, no matter how busy you are. Just find at least half an hour in your day and dedicate it for reading.
And write your story.
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