Too Many Words About Writing

[onceupon]

I found myself, via Twitter, giving writing advice to someone I admire the other night. It was appropriate, in context. I mean, I wasn't just forcing my writerly opinion on random people or anything. But it, as sometimes happens, made me think about the practical methodology of teaching writing.

About a year ago, I read Francine Prose's Reading

Comments

[firynze]

Sometimes, I worry that I spend too much time editing and fretting and working and not enough time reading, and that this will make me both a poorer editor and a poorer writer.

Because reading IS key to figuring out what works and what doesn't...for you, or for anyone else...

[onceupon]

I make time for it - if I don't, I wind up really unhappy and actively pissy with people.

[firynze]

I've started trying to make time, reading more books and magazines alike. Because the time there where I wasn't reading anything but stuff for work and BusinessWeek? Not pretty.

[elusis]

M - as a fellow compulsive reader of text (yes including cereal boxes), I want to get back to this later. However, a quick question relevant to my task at hand - would you recommend the book you linked to for students who are trying to grasp academic writing? I often tell students that to learn to write more effectively, they should read journal articles and academic texts. However a quick glance at the Amazon description makes it sound like it's more focused on prose and even fiction, so I'm curious what your opinion would be, having read it.

[onceupon]

I think that selections from the text would be highly beneficial. The whole book is quite focused on fiction, though, so reading the whole thing might be overkill and would certainly overwhelm the theory - which is totally sound.

[onceupon]

I think, as he's gotten older - and more practiced - his endings have gotten more painful and nuanced. I kind of like that they reflect the truth - things never work out simply and rarely as you thought you wanted them to.

[oletheros]

i have spent most of the last year reading a massive variety of comics for a very specific reason. well, two reasons - i still can't get away from the fact that i just flat-out love to read. but now i read with purpose.

[onceupon]

Honestly, I think that shows when I reread book 1 versus going through books 4 and 5.

[oletheros]

well, book 1 was the first comic i ever made. i'd be really disappointed if i didn't show any improvement over the course of the series.

[onceupon]

I didn't realize that was the very first! That is kind of awesome.

[onceupon]

It's fascinating how different memoir can be from fiction even when it's written by the same person.