Generally, there are two things that writers recommend to those who are starting: more writing and more reading. The first one is obvious, practice makes perfect. However writing in our bubble, in a vacuum, in the radio’s silence, won’t do us much good. Reading exposes us to other styles, other voices, other forms and genres of writing. Importantly: it exposes us to bad writing, which helps us identify when things just aren’t working and it also brings us closer to writing that’s better than our own and help us know, comprehend and improve.

Reading everything (the good, the regular, the commercial and the bad) inspires us. Sometimes I’d find myself thinking, “This author started from a very good idea and wasted it, I would have said…” and that’s inspiration, enthusiasm. Reading nourishes that arsenal of resources that writers have developed over the years to solve specific situations. While it’s true that we can learn many tricks from writing guides, there’s nothing better than the reader independently discovering how a writer creates a scene, uses a wonderful metaphor or simile, and guides the reader into powerful imagery.

Since we learn to read at a very early age, it’s easy to think it’s a limited skill that once we identify the system – letters, words, phrases – there’s nothing else. Maybe we don’t think it’s necessary to develop the reading skill or that we don’t need to exercise our reading muscles to strengthen and mold them.

Knowing how to read and not reading books is like buying a formidable pair of skis, learning how to use them and not skiing. It’s like keeping the tennis racket in the closet, leaving the guitar hanging on the wall. If we had a telescope that would show us the entire universe it would be difficult to find a reason for not looking through it. That is exactly what reading is.

Far from the conventional advice, I think that today there are ways to read that change the way we enjoy reading and, perhaps, makes us better writers:

Skip sections
I’m one of those people who feel bad if they think they are missing anything (there’s even a psychological pathology identified for the extreme cases).  When it comes to writing, until some time ago I felt like that.

I’ve realized recently that there is a kind of personal freedom; a liberating attitude to break that need to religiously read each paragraph. Sometimes, it’s okay to skip parts. Not randomly, but those sections that are not relevant to you that deal with a subject that’s not of your interest or that you identify beforehand as being secondary to the main plot, to the storyline.

For the texts we read on the internet, it has become our default way of reading, we quickly skim the paragraph to see if it’s relevant and if not we jump to the next one. When we stumble with something difficult to understand, we return to the text searching for those keywords to complete the information, read the phrase and move on.

In addition, in long online reads: in the case of doubt, jump to the end. If it’s worthy of understanding how the author got there, read it all. If not, congratulations: you just avoided wasting time.

Change habits and routines
It’s easy and convenient not to leave the comfort zone we’ve created around us and that also applies to our reading habits. Once we choose a genre, an author or topic, it’s easy to keep reading those same things.

Expand your horizon: read new and different things

If you’re stuck in a reading routine, try breaking the cycle by changing of genre or style. Ask your friends or ask for advice in a good library. The internet is a huge advantage for this since there’s a big amount of authors who publish the first pages of their works and it’s an excellent (and free) way of seeing if that read can hook us before we actually buy the book. Visiting your local library could also help us broaden our picture, even if it seems like something of the past century. 

Have you ever wondered why characters are necessary in a narrative work?

If so (and if you are curious), in this brief article we will tell you why they are so important and why it is necessary to work on them so much.

Your characters carry the weight of the story

This is perhaps the most basic reason why. Without characters, there is no one to perform the actions you want to tell. It is as simple as that. Because of this, anything they decide to do while under the reader’s scrutiny must be something that helps bringing the plot together somehow.

It the actions they perform do not have consequences or do not help moving the story forward, it is possible that your readers will feel cheated. Yes, it might be very interesting to see how they relax at the beach or how they deal with cleaning their house but if you show only mundane things and nothing out of the ordinary happens in the narration I will probably get bored and stop reading; maybe I will finish reading but I will not remember anything two months from now.

It is essential to know the tone of your work and what you are trying to say; it is important for you to know your characters. Only then will you be able to write a coherent and entertaining story. Look at it this way: if your leading character is a good guy, incapable of any wrongdoing and he ends up killing somebody by accident, something inside him will change for sure. And I, of course, will be intrigued, crying for him and desperately wanting to know what happens next in his life (if anything).

When their feelings are exposed, the reader creates links with your characters

Readers want to connect with your characters. Only then will that bond of sympathy that lets the reader live the life of the character be created. Readers want to know when the characters are sad and want to experience that sadness themselves as well; the same is true with happiness, love, loneliness and any other imaginable feeling.

Regardless of the kind of character you have created (open, fearful, emotionally unavailable or whatever) readers want and need to create that connection in some way; it is this connection, this emotional loan, what will make keep them hanging to your story. If they do not care for your main character because they cannot create a connection with him, they will not care if he achieves his goals or not or if he overcomes the conflict he is involved in.

If you focus on creating characters that generate sympathy it will be easier to introduce their journey and help the plot move forward because it will not need to be justified. It is something your character is doing by himself.

Your characters’ motivations are what move the story forward

Have I mentioned that the characters move the story forward? Well, I think I will repeat it and add that your story will go nowhere unless your character has a clear and justifiable motivation.

Perhaps this was discussed before in some other post but the most important thing to know when creating a character is what he wants and what he will do to achieve it. The reasons why he does what he does are the key to discovering what your story is about in the end.

Do everything you can to understand your character and what keeps him going on; if you do, it will be much easier to write a great work that stays in people’s mind for a long time.