Reading for Fun and Profit

One of the most important skills a writer can have is reading. That sounds obvious and silly at the same time, but it's the simple truth. You can't write well if you don't know what good writing looks like, and it's not as easy as the school teachers make it seem. Sure, you can look at Shakespeare and be told 'this is great writing,' but let's be honest: If it doesn't speak to you, it's not going to be that great. To you.

Now, I'm not putting down Shakespeare; the man had his finger on the pulse of his culture and time, and there's a reason he's revered as one of the all-time greats. But today's crowd doesn't 'get' Shakespeare, whether it's because of the language barrier (it's English, sort-of), or because it's harder to read a play than to watch it, or because he's one of those old dead white guys that we're now told we should despise solely because they're white. Whatever the reason, Shakespeare isn't the draw he used to be.

So, what is the draw? Shakespeare knew it, as did Homer, as did the Greek playwrights, as did Virgil, as did Dante, as did Galileo. The draw is this: People want to be entertained. Yes, people also want to be informed, but if it's boring, they won't pay attention to the information. So, entertain the reader.

How do you learn how to do that? By reading the masters of entertaining fiction, that's how. If you're into a specific genre, go back and read the masters of that genre. Mysteries? Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Raymond Chandler, Sue Grafton...read how they did it, and learn how they entertained the reader. Science fiction? Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, E.E. 'Doc' Smith, Leigh Brackett, Frank Herbert, David Weber...learn from the entertainment they provided. Fantasy? H. Rider Haggard, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Abraham Merritt, Robert Howard, C.L. Moore, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien... you know the drill. Be entertained, and be enlightened.

Pick a genre, and that genre has its masters, writers who knew that the primary purpose of fiction was to entertain the reader. Sure, they might have messages in their writing, but those messages were delivered with flair, with verve, with fun. And that's why we learned them.

So, if you want to write, read. Read stories that entertain you, and think about why they entertained you in the first place. If you do that, you'll start to emulate what they did right, and you'll do what the reader wants you to do first and foremost.