{"id":26500,"date":"2022-10-15T12:31:26","date_gmt":"2022-10-15T16:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/?p=26500"},"modified":"2022-12-26T03:10:05","modified_gmt":"2022-12-26T07:10:05","slug":"to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read\/","title":{"rendered":"To become a better writer you must read"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Take it apart; put it back together<\/h2>\n<p>In her memoir <em>The Year of Magical Thinking<\/em>, Joan Didion describes a moment with her late husband, the novelist John Gregory Dunne:<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30738\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30738\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"30738\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read.png\" data-orig-size=\"450,300\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reverse-engineer it&lt;\/strong&gt; After reading good writing, you can improve your writing by figuring out how the writer wrote it. &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/asian-man-use-cellphone-283126391&quot; rel=&quot;noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image by leungchopan&lt;\/em&gt;&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read-300x200.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read.png\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read.png\" alt=\"To become a better writer you must read\" title=\"To become a better writer you must read\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30738 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read.png 450w, https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read-300x200.png 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 450px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 450\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"30738\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read.png\" data-orig-size=\"450,300\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reverse-engineer it&lt;\/strong&gt; After reading good writing, you can improve your writing by figuring out how the writer wrote it. &lt;a href=&quot;https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/asian-man-use-cellphone-283126391&quot; rel=&quot;noopener&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image by leungchopan&lt;\/em&gt;&lt;\/a&gt;&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read-300x200.png\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read.png\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read.png\" alt=\"To become a better writer you must read\" title=\"To become a better writer you must read\" width=\"450\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-30738\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read.png 450w, https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/to-become-a-better-writer-you-must-read-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30738\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Reverse-engineer it<\/strong> After reading good writing, you can improve your writing by figuring out how the writer wrote it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/asian-man-use-cellphone-283126391\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Image by leungchopan<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWhen we were living in Brentwood Park we fell into a pattern of stopping work at four in the afternoon and going out to the pool,\u201d she writes. \u201cHe would stand in the water reading (he reread <em>Sophie\u2019s Choice<\/em> several times that summer trying to see how it worked) while I worked in the garden.\u201d<\/p>\n<h5>\u201cAmateurs plagiarize. Real writers steal.\u201d<\/h5>\n<h6>\u2014 T.S. Eliot, 20th-century American poet<\/h6>\n<p>That\u2019s how good writers get better: by studying work they admire until they \u201csee how it works.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Did you ever take your Mom\u2019s toaster apart to figure out how it worked? You can do the same thing with writing.<\/p>\n<p>Choose a piece you love from your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/2022\/10\/how-do-you-read-like-a-writer\/\">clip file of writing samples<\/a>. Then take it apart and put it back together until you understand why you like it and what the writer did to make it that way.<\/p>\n<h3>Find the template.<\/h3>\n<p>In my clip file, I have a short piece about Las Vegas from <em>Time<\/em> magazine. I collected it for a single sentence:<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"standalone\">Lounge music may be to the symphony what Velveeta is to cheese \u2014 but hey! \u2014 it\u2019s all part of what makes Las Vegas great.<\/h5>\n<p>Take it apart. Here\u2019s what I love about that passage:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The two comparisons<\/strong> (Lounge music = symphony; Velveeta = cheese)<\/li>\n<li><strong>The fact that those comparisons are also compared to each other<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The word \u201cVelveeta\u201d<\/strong> (cheesy brand names are always fun)<\/li>\n<li><strong>The full sentence with an exclamation point between dashes<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Put it back together. So now you know what to do: Write a sentence with two comparisons compared to each other, a cheesy brand name and a full sentence with an explanation point between dashes in the middle. The template looks like this:<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"standalone\">Blank may be to blank what (funny brand name) is to blank \u2014 hypershort sentence! \u2014 something.<\/h5>\n<p>When I asked participants in a workshop to model that passage, one came up with:<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"standalone\">Youth hostels may be to the Hyatt what love beads are to diamonds \u2014 but hey! \u2014 it\u2019s all part of what makes your Adventures Ltd. vacation great.<\/h5>\n<h3>Practice X-ray reading.<\/h3>\n<p>The Poynter Institute\u2019s editorial guru Roy Peter Clark calls this approach \u201cX-ray reading.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUsing the method of close reading,\u201d he writes, \u201cI find a passage that intrigues me, put on my X-ray glasses, and peer beneath the surface of the text to view the invisible machinery of language, syntax, rhetoric, and critical thinking that creates the effects I experience as a reader. I then forge what I see into a writing tool.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Steal the techniques (not the words).<\/h3>\n<p>When I was in graduate school, one of my favorite journalism professors, Rick Musser, confessed that he\u2019d always loved the introduction to <em>The Dane Curse<\/em>, a detective novel by Dashiel Hammett:<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"standalone\">It was a diamond all right, shining in the grass, about two dozen feet from the blue brick.<\/h5>\n<p>Someday, he promised, he\u2019d find a way to adapt that image into one of his own pieces. Years later, when I was editing a piece he wrote for a magazine I worked at, I saw that he\u2019d made good on his promise. Here\u2019s his opening paragraph for a piece on a millionaire scrap man of Kansas City:<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"standalone\">Sure enough, those are pennies down there in the muck, their mangled edges glinting in the Blue Valley sun.<\/h5>\n<p>That\u2019s reading like a writer: getting inspiration from the very best writers, then adapting it \u2014 not adopting it, but adapting it \u2014 to your own work.<\/p>\n<p>I know I don\u2019t need to tell you that we\u2019re not talking about plagiarism here. I once outlined this approach to a group of writers in a seminar. At the break, one of the writers pulled me aside and proudly explained how she collects <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> headlines about personal finance then uses them verbatim as headlines for the personal finance articles in her own newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>Eeek! I said. That\u2019s not modeling. That\u2019s plagiarizing.<\/p>\n<p>The key to modeling is to steal the technique, not the words. Adapt \u2014 don\u2019t adopt \u2014 others\u2019 approaches.<\/p>\n<p>Try it yourself. Feel free to borrow and improve on other people\u2019s techniques. It\u2019s a widely practiced form of flattery. Take whatever you can, and keep T.S. Eliot\u2019s advice close to heart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmateurs plagiarize,\u201d he said. \u201cReal writers steal.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Learn more about reading to write.<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Read like a writer; write like a reader<\/strong>. To build your writing skills, read widely \u2014 from Ernest Hemingway to Stephen King. (Even if you\u2019re not writing fiction.) Read voraciously: not just books on writing craft, but creative, writing, short stories and other types of books.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/2022\/10\/how-do-you-read-like-a-writer\/\"><strong>Make time to read<\/strong><\/a>. Read a lot and write a lot. And when reading books, short stories or other brand messages, look for technique, don\u2019t just get swept away in the story. Start a clip file of writing you love, so you can reverse engineer it.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Absorb the prose<\/strong>. Type up passages you love or sleep on them. Call it \u201cmodeling lessons.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Sources: \u201cStop the Music,\u201d <em>Time<\/em>, Aug. 21, 1989<\/p>\n<div id='MC-ST' class='widgets_on_page wop_tiny1  wop_small1  wop_medium1  wop_large1  wop_wide1'>\n\t\t\t<ul><li id=\"custom_html-19\" class=\"widget_text widget widget_custom_html\"><div class=\"textwidget custom-html-widget\"><a title=\"Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/corporate-communications-training\/writing-classes\/business-storytelling-training\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/storytelling-workshop.png\" alt=\"Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop\" title=\"Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop\" width=\"auto\" height=\"auto\" border=\"0\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 250px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 250\/250;float:left; text-align:left; margin: 0 auto; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 1px; margin-bottom: 5px; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 18x; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px; color: #FFFFFF; max-width:100%; max-height:100%;\" class=\"img-max lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/storytelling-workshop.png\" alt=\"Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop\" title=\"Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop\" width=\"auto\" height=\"auto\" border=\"0\" style=\"float:left; text-align:left; margin: 0 auto; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 1px; margin-bottom: 5px; background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 18x; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px; color: #FFFFFF; max-width:100%; max-height:100%;\" class=\"img-max\"><\/noscript><\/a><h3>How can you tell better business stories?<\/h3>\r\n<p>Stories are so effective that Og Mandino, the late author of the bestselling <em>The Greatest Salesman in the World<\/em>, says, \u201cIf you have a point, find a story.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Learn to find, develop and write stories that engage readers\u2019 hearts and minds in our <a title=\"Master the Art of Storytelling - Ann Wylie's creative-content workshop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/corporate-communications-training\/writing-classes\/business-storytelling-training\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Master the Art of Storytelling workshops<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>There, you\u2019ll learn how to find the aha! moment that\u2019s the gateway to every anecdote. How to start an anecdote with a bang \u2014 instead of a whimper. And how to use \u201cthe most powerful form of human communication\u201d to grab attention, boost credibility, make messages more memorable and communicate better.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div class=\"btn btn--depth\" style=\"text-align: center;  margin: 10px 0 20px; width:100%;\"><a id=\"btnTT\" style=\"\" title=\"BOOK NOW\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/corporate-communications-training\/writing-classes\/business-storytelling-training\/\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-width=\"91\">BOOK NOW<\/a>\r\n<!-- [if mso]>\r\n<p style=\"line-height:0;margin:0;\"><v:roundrect xmlns:v=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wyliecomm.com\/corporate-communications-training\/writing-classes\/business-storytelling-training\/\" style=\"width:153px\" arcsize=\"8%\" strokecolor=\"#D96237\" filled=\"t\"><v:fill type=\"gradient\" angle=\"180\" color=\"#f16522\" color2=\"#f16522\"><\/v:fill><v:textbox style=\"mso-fit-shape-to-text:t\" inset=\"0px,11px,0px,11px\"><center 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together<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":30738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[12981,165,12980],"class_list":{"0":"post-26500","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-writing-process-improvement","8":"tag-samples","9":"tag-templates","10":"tag-writer","11":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v23.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>To become a better writer, you must read<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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