Writing is a craft that you would keep on going back towards throughout your creation of stories. However, at the same matter, stories — the ones that you read in books, I have used to sideline them.
It’s rather funny, as much as I was once a reader, and the concept of copying from books, although it makes sense, it’s something that I wasn’t 100% into for a while… Maybe for years.
Life’s demands would steer me towards podcasts, scrolling through the internet. Later, I’d return home to write. But I don’t think that you’d get as much of a creativity boost then if you were to open a book and learn its lessons.
What got me into books again?
I found myself at the book store one day. Sometimes, I look for deals. Other times, I look for a good read. I usually look at the covers and the blurbs, prying for how authors do their covers and blurbs. Then, I stumble towards a book, it has a fox and a bunny on the cover. It’s called Wisteria and is the final book of the Bellodonna series.
I will admit, picking the last book as the first one of the series does cause some confusion. You don’t know the history between the characters, and it takes a while to figure out the character’s history with each other, But I did grow to like the characters, had a laugh about some of the scenes and read the whole book in about two to three days.
It’s a record for me to read that much in a few days. And honestly? Reading a book like that made me reflect on my characters positions and roles in the story. Which is an added bonus and didn’t make the story feel as long as I thought.
Getting to the second read, and…
Now this current book I am reading… The idea is interesting, but the pace seems clunky. Scenes would:
- Blend to flashbacks
- Have over expressive thoughts of the characters (which slows the scene down!)
- The way the story mechanics are explained.
I imagined all the ways I could rewrite it at the start. But now when I am getting to the middle, it’s beginning to have stakes that are more appropriately timed. If I wasn’t that interested in the topic, I would imagine putting the book back. But now it seems to be doing better in terms of story experience.
Now where am I getting at?
I know that I can be a bit of a rambler myself. But by reading books again, it really is an experience of itself. In thought, feeling, and the transportation to a new world, where the only clue you would get on where you’re going to is from the blurb of the story. The ideas on how the story is executed, the character’s inner demons and the way the story is set, you get it from the inside of the book, and it takes up majority of the pages of the novel.
I said before, it’s good to get the experience from watching people, seeing how they respond and react. This can help. But also with prose, I am starting to think that maybe there is a chance that writing can help in terms of learning from other authors and trying your best to make your story better and easier to read.
How have I incorporated books in my stories?
Now reading books, I have been trying to think about what I have read, and try to recognise on when my story is going on one of those tangents… But also in a better way, it has made me thought of new ideas and scenes that I can put into my story. Or at least, see it in a different perspective.
In my story, it does make me think of dark powers as not just the sense of death or evil, but also in the sense that even the most natural and misunderstood forces can be gentle and assist others to make them feel better.
Oh, and thinking of another character in a fate sort of role (which I will admit, even though my sort of role is referenced as a different thing, it’s not far off holistically for that character.) And just imagining the ways that it could be portrayed in terms of my story. Or even thinking about fate as a whole of the story.
I find it really fascinating in terms of trying to read whatever you are interested in on paper, and expand your knowledge in terms of other people’s stories to see the story that you can create. So I encourage you to do that. And if you have, please feel free to tell me your experience about it!