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Writer's Read

Wynelda-Ann Shelton

Writer, Writer, What Do You Read?

A question has been plaguing me lately: what do you read when you're gearing up to write? More precisely, what should you read when you're gearing up to write?

I identify myself as a fiction writer. My genre is Fantasy: I love magic.

I've even assigned "fantasy" stereotypes to some of my co-workers. There's an imp, a rogue, and one who pretends to be a troll but really isn't. A dwarf maybe? It'll come to me at the worst possible moment. Probably at 3 A.M.

So what should I read now that I'm getting reading to plunge back into the waters, so to speak? After taking some time off from writing fiction because of my September wedding I can now feel the story bubbling nicely. It's almost ready to be served. I know myself, and my writing, well enough to know that if I let it simmer it will come to a full boil soon. For awhile, at least, the story will seem to write itself. In the meantime, I think. I ponder. I read.

There is a school of thought that you shouldn't read books similar to what you're preparing to write. The possibility of bleed-through, of the book you're reading making itself visible in the fiction that you're writing, scares some writers to death. I know it scares me.

But I don't retreat into "safe" books: other genres, non-fiction, magazine articles. Instead I find myself embracing my genre as well as those "safer" reads. I'm re-reading my personal favorites (Mercedes Lackey, Anne Logston) and experimenting with new tastes as well (Clive Barker, Tanith Lee, Charles de Lint).

But won't they influence my writing? I hope so. I am not a patient reader; if I put a book down before page 25 it is guaranteed that I will not pick it back up again. I love books and magazines that grab me and pull me into their world. In the past two weeks I have read five books by Mercedes Lackey, Onion Girl by Charles de Lint, Mary Englebright's Home Companion magazine (which oddly enough has a couple of things in it on books this month), Victoriana Magazine, Table for Two by Nora Roberts and a few others.

Those are only the titles that I finished. Reading works by those you admire should inspire you. I know it inspires me. My story is almost ready to bubble over.