One would think I already have reading like a writer down. I was an English Literature major after all. But that was over 20 years ago. After graduation I swore I would never read books to dissect them again.
Yeah. about that.
My dreams of being an Author are forcing my hand. I’ve been eying the DIY MFA site and book for a while, and finally decided to try out the Writer Igniter Reading Challenge. This is a chance to hone that dissection skill with a clear purpose: Finding comps for SOULCHASER.
Why do I need a class if I spent 4 years doing this?
Twenty years of reading purely for pleasure has dulled my skills. I can barely talk to my kids about literature intelligently.Ok, I’m exaggerating.
Reading like a writer is slightly different than what I did in college.
Mostly, I felt like all I did was stroke the professors’ egos by regurgitating what they said via the TA grading my work. Now I’m grown and can think what I want and learn how I wish, with out a 20 page paper supporting everything the Professor says with citations. Who’s bitter? Not me.
I will post my responses like I did with Writer in Motion.
Reading like a writer-Prompt 1:
What book did you choose and why?
I’m searching for comps for my manuscript as I begin querying. I selected the book The Orchid Throne By Jeffe Kennedy. I read another book by her, Pages of the Mind, and enjoyed the details of the world. Although I expect this book to be much more romance heavy than Soulchaser, her world building is really good and I would like two use that as a comparison.
While I considered reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, I decided I wanted to go with something fully second world/high fantasy. Although my strongest ability is in making characters, my world building is pretty strong and I think finding a characterization comp will be a bit harder.
