Though literacy is at among its highest rates ever in America, the amount of time spent reading is among the lowest in a century. Television, motion pictures, the Internet, video games and a myriad of other activities all draw people away from books and magazines.
As writers, I suggest we have an obligation to help support our colleagues by reading their works.
Ironically, for most writers, reading other peoples’ works is often what prevents them from writing! There’s a lot of good works out there, and sitting in our easy chairs with the latest science fiction novel reading them keeps many writers from instead sitting before their word processors. Some would-be writers even find themselves intimidated by the quality of their favorite writers and so never put pen to paper. A little self-discipline and self-confidence is all these would-be writers really need.
Some writers, however, just plain don’t read anything – other science fiction, science journals or magazines, newspapers. They’re content to get their dose of science fiction from the Sci-Fi Channel or Netflix. Yet, if you don’t like reading science fiction, how could you possibly enjoy writing it?
You’ll want to read other science to:
n Understand the genre’s conventions -Science fiction works differently than fantasy, horror and mainstream fiction. While all share commonalities, science fiction approaches them in as unique of ways as a mystery or western would. Immersing oneself in the literature helps a writer better grasp those conventions.
n Pick up writing tricks – Good writers know how to avoid writing problems, and as a writer you’ll often read analytically and notice how those problems were handled. This will prove useful when you write your own stories.
n Avoid repeating ideas already used – Science fiction in television and movies almost always steal ideas already explored in novels and short stories. Even groundbreaking television shows such as “Star Trek: The Original Series” borrowed most of its concepts – faster than light travel, ray guns, a federation of planets, a star service, the transporter - from already published works. Drawing your science fiction from Hollywood’s version is using an idea twice-removed from its source.
n Generate ideas for your own stories – Often an unexplored premise or setting in a story can lead to new story ideas. Thanks to its depth, written science fiction offers an ocean’s worth of ideas. So get out there and read!
You Do It
Select a novel of great science fiction at your local library or bookstore and read it. Generate five story ideas from the book. List these story ideas in your project bible or journal.
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
Tags:
generatiung story ideas, getting started, reading
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You’ve written story after story, but none of them ever seem to measure up to your favorite authors’ pieces. Meanwhile, editors keep rejecting the few of your stories that you thought were actually decent. You’re starting to wonder if you have the natural-born talent to be a writer.
Before you start getting hard on yourself, we should explore your underlying assumption: that some people are born with a natural ability to write.
No one really knows if such a talent is “genetic”. There’s no doubt, however, that some people spend their formative years garnering the experiences and mastering the skills that later will make them good storytellers. So, with a qualitative “yes”, there are people with talent.
But they can squander it. Many become journalists, speech writers or college professors who never pen the Great American Novel despite their love of writing and literature. Others find their family’s needs and the daily grind of their jobs leave them too little time to write.
In any case, there are those with “less” talent who work at making themselves writers - and their writing shines brighter than many who are talented. Remember, George Orwell once was viewed as an average kid with no talent; today he is considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century.
So how you do “work” at becoming a “good” writer? Three ways:
n Read - Read a lot. Read the great works and authors of this genre, like Asimov, Bradbury and Heinlein. Read the great works and authors of all time, like Homer, Shakespeare and Hemingway. You can’t be a good writer unless you see how the masters did it.
n Write - Olympic weightlifters trained and practiced every day for years to achieve their success. Likewise, writers have to train and practice to achieve their success. Write every day, even if what you pen isn’t any good. It will get better over time.
n Get feedback - Placing your manuscript in a drawer for no one else to see rarely leads to improvement. Join a writers’ critique group (there are many online), attend writing workshops, hire a manuscript editor (full disclosure here: I offer such a service). See how others react to your work and use their advice to improve.
You Do It
Set a schedule in which you commit yourself to reading, writing and getting feedback on a daily basis. If you have only an hour a day, write for 30 minutes, read a short story or novel for 20 minutes and seek feedback via a writer’s group for the other 10 minutes.
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
Tags:
getting started, reading, writers workshop
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