I’ve been trying lately to pair what I’m reading with what I’m writing. Since I’m revising a novel that is partially narrated through journal entries, I went off in search of books with a similar structure. I started re-reading A Tale for the Time Being, a book I really enjoyed the first time. One of the two narrators is telling her story through a journal, so in some ways it’s very similar to the set-up of my own work. However, while it did give me a few ideas about my manuscript, ultimately, I think I have to find my own structure. It’s a fine line between getting inspired by another’s work and lifting too many ideas from it so that your own becomes derivative.
I took a different tack next, and simply picked a book I knew I would find pleasurable. To unplug my mind a little bit from the world’s daily chaos, I shifted gears and read the second and third books in Jenny Han’s YA series To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. I found it very cozy and sweet, and it was nice to read something that was both compelling and had relatively low stakes. These books were fun, but also helped me to get out of my own head (and okay, also to keep my finger on the pulse of the young adult genre, which is where my own novels fall).
As soon as I finished that series, I got into a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while now: Claire Vaye Watkins’ Gold Fame Citrus. Simply put, she’s one of the best prose stylists in a generation. If you’ve never read her debut book, a short story collection called Battleborn, run, don’t walk, and go pick it up now. I’ll wait. Her writing is gorgeous, lush, and surprising. Listening to her writing (still on my audiobook kick, which is about the only way I can find time to read these days–plus, the medium has grown on me so much!) puts me in the mood to write, and makes me want to choose every word with intentionality. While this book is much darker and more post apocalyptic than a bubbly YA novel, I feel like it’s exactly what I need to be reading right now.
All of this is to say, the more I try to force myself to read or re-read the books I think I “should” be into to help me find my way in my own work, the more I realize the right influences will find their way to me if I let them. This is not an easy lesson for a control freak like me, but I’m growing, I suppose. 😉
Do you pick what you’re reading based on what you’re writing, or is your reading list more organic? Let us know in the comments, or on any of our socials: Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook. We’d love to hear from you!