Targeted Reading for Writers

Conventional wisdom tells us "to become a better writer you must read." Good advice, but meaningless all by itself. How do you know if you are learning anything instead of wasting your time reading when you should be writing? Perhaps the most important question is, why are you reading?

Let's answer the why question first, since this is the most important.

Question: Why?

Answer: You are reading to improve your craft.

The craft of writing is "how well you write." Your writing must convey meaning to the reader. Preferably your meaning. Fortunately for us, the craft of writing can be taught. Something we can learn by reading.

Let's move on to what.

Question: What should you read to improve your craft?

Answer: Books which teach the craft of writing.

Let's modify the conventional wisdom saying into "learn to write better by learning to read better." How do I learn to read better, you ask? To help you with this answer, I have created my own list of Targeted Reading for Writers below.

If you only have time to read one book to improve your writing, then that book is:

-- The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White

Shame on you! If you only have time to read one book to improve your writing, you are in the wrong profession. Hence, these next three books should be added to the first book. These four books should be every writer's essential core reading requirements to learn the craft of writing:

-- Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain

-- The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler

-- Writing the Breakout Novel and Companion Workbook by Donald Maass

The following eight books expand your knowledge, but mostly reinforce what you learn in the four core books:

-- The Art of Dramatic Writing by Egri Lajos

-- The Secrets Of Action Screenwriting by William C. Martell

-- Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee

-- Myth and the Movies: Discovering the Myth Structure of 50 Unforgettable Films by Stuart Voytilla

-- The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

-- Manga Madness by David Okum (pay close attention to the character archetypes section)

-- The Breakout Novelist: Craft and Strategies for Career Fiction Writers by Donald Maass

-- Selling Your Story in 60 Seconds: The Guaranteed Way to Get Your Screenplay or Novel Read by Michael Hauge

One more book should be mentioned here. And it is:

-- Your favorite fiction book in the genre you want to write.

After you have learned the craft of writing, you are prepared to read better to improve your own writing. How do you read better? With a highlighter and pencil in hand. What are you highlighting and annotating? You are deconstructing your favorite book to see how the concepts from the other writing books on this list were implemented in a published book.

Read a book not for the content of the story but for the craft of the writing to create the feedback loop essential to the learning process. Without the feedback loop, you are reading to read and will not gain further insight into why the words on the page are so effective at conveying their meaning to the reader.

The often dispensed advice, "If you want to be a good writer, read a lot" is commonplace but not extremely helpful if that is all you are told. First you must know the why and the what before you can incorporate the ever important feedback loop which helps you learn from your reading.

Three Dimensional Story (and Characters)

All too often we have felt "that character was so one-dimensional" without being able to go into detail as to why.

We just knew.

Well, here's why:

We all carry within us a strong desire to become involved in another person's life, whether it be a real person or a fictional character. When we relate to those around us, we connect at different levels. The same is true when we read a book or watch a movie. We try to make a connection with the characters on the page or on the screen. So it is important as writers to create someone that the audience can connect with.

Dimension One: Physical 

When I order my weekly burger at the local fast food establishment, I relate only physically with the person taking my order. I make no further connection with them and to me they are a one-dimensional character, the fast food employee. We still see a lot of these characters in movies, TV and books. They are the "stereotypes" that writing teachers tell us to avoid. Despite the constant warnings, they are easily identifiable by the audience so the writer too often succumbs to using "characters" in their stories instead of "people".

Dimension Two: Emotional

I relate with my co-workers at a deeper level. Not only do I interact with them physically but I also expand that interaction into the emotional realm. I like them. They go beyond just being my co-workers; they have names and personalities. But when they leave for another job we no longer interact and they are often replaced with new co-workers. The relationship with the co-worker was clearly not one-dimensional, but it still lacked that something extra that made it easy to move on when they left.

Dimension Three: Spiritual

I am not talking religion here. Not only do I relate with my spouse on a physical and emotional level, there is also that "she is my soul mate" thing that pushes our relationship into the spiritual realm. It is here that the deepest connections between people are made. It is at this level that your story needs to operate.

When your "characters" come in contact with one another (Physical), begin to recognize their individuality and like or hate each other (Emotional) and realize they are destined to be connected (Spiritual) they become "people" in the minds of the audience. And the audience can identify and connect with people.

Writing in all three dimensions does not "show" your audience who the characters are, it let's them "know" who the characters are.

And when the audience identifies with your characters, they can easily boo the villain and cheer the hero, because the audience now has a vested interest in the outcome of the situation (the plot).

Here is a quick example:

One dimensional:

A man strides into the fast food joint and points his gun at the employee at the register, "Give me all the money."

Let me ask you the following questions:

• Are you upset that he pulled a gun on the employee?  Why?
• Do you hope he gets the money?  Why?
• Do you care about the outcome?

Three dimensional:

Robert glanced at the tattered picture in his hand. It showed a happier time before the accident that took the life of his mother. Now, four months later, his sister would join her unless she received an experimental surgery that the insurance company was unwilling to pay for. The nickel-plated revolver felt overly heavy in his pocket as he tugged on the door handle to the isolated Burger Hut on the lonely stretch of highway. A quick glance revealed the only customers were a man and his little boy laughing as they shared a basket of curly fries. They would pose no threat. Robert had no idea, as he clicked back the cocking lever with his thumb and pointed his deadly revolver at the woman behind the counter, he was threatening the wife and mother of the only other people in the restaurant. He fixed his stare on the woman's eyes while she fixed her stare on the revolver. "Give me all the money."

Let me ask you the same questions again:

• Are you upset that he pulled a gun on the employee?  Why?
• Do you hope he gets the money?  Why?
• Do you care about the outcome?

I would wager that you had a stronger reaction to the second telling of the story. There were living breathing people behind the cardboard characters of "armed robber" and "cashier". You might also have observed that I incorporated the Character Trinity model I talked about in a previous post. The Hero, Villain and Companion are all connected, even in this tiny snippet of a story.

The Characters

Without conflict there is no story (or plot, I will use these two words interchangeably), only a sequence of events that may or may not be related to one another.

Thus, one of the requirements for a well-told story is conflict. This requirement creates the need to have exactly three distinct story elements.
Two (2) characters fighting over one (1) thing. (2+1=3)

But as my friend Chris White mentions in a post on his blog, for him plot = character. In other words, it is the interaction of characters that define the story.

Two characters fighting over one thing, while potentially riveting in a short story, is quite a challenge to sustain over an entire full-length novel. The story is greatly improved when others get involved in the battle for the unique object that is the ultimate story goal.

As a writer, you must be cautious not to overcrowd the story with too many characters.

How many is too many? That is a hard question to answer. Instead, let me give you the minimum number of characters you need for a fully developed story.

The Hero (Protagonist) – The central character of the story. This is who the story is about.

The Sidekick (Protagonist Supporter) – Brings attributes to the Hero’s side of the story (i.e. comic relief) without altering the Hero’s personality.

The Villain (Antagonist) – Competitor for the object. This is why the story is taking place in the first place. The stronger and more capable the Villain, the better the story.

The Henchman (Antagonist Supporter) – Villain’s version of the Sidekick.

The Companion (Love Interest involved with Protagonist / Antagonist / Both) – Has a connection to both the Hero and the Villain and does not need to be sexual in nature.

The Object – Single (often one-of-a-kind) object that only one person can possess at a time and has the following attributes:

- It will give the Villain the power to get what he/she wants
- It will give the Hero the power to stop the Villain


And there you have it. These six elements give you all you need to create a fully developed story. Use them wisely.

Fanning The Spark

You have an idea for a story, but you don't know what to do with it. Me, I place all my ideas into a Story Nursery and take care of them. Once an idea has fully matured, I pluck it and that is my next book.

How do you nurture that spark of an idea? You need to think about it. Here is the "food" I give to all my ideas in my Story Nursery. If I am unable to make any of the sections in Part One or Part Two makes sense, the idea is still too young to harvest and I wait.


Part One: Determine who the main characters are. These are the people who make the story interesting. Answer the questions to learn about each character as you will use this information for Part Two.

The Hero: Who is the story about? What does the Hero want that s/he does not have or loses early on in the story?

The Villain: While the story is about the Hero stopping the Villain. It is the Villain's actions that cause the story to happen in the first place. So, with that said, who doesn’t want the Hero to get what s/he wants?

The Companion: Who helps the Hero get what s/he wants? What does the Companion do to show the Hero that s/he can get what s/he wants despite the actions of the Villain?


Part Two: Determine the main points of the story. Write the answer to each of the questions below and then put them together into a cohesive telling of the story. Be sure to follow the order below when creating your version of the story. This is your elevator pitch.

1. Who is the Hero and what is s/he doing at the beginning of the story?
2. Who is the Villain and what does s/he do to ruin the Hero’s perfect world?
3. What does the Hero want and what does s/he do to get it?
4. What does the Villain do to make it harder on the Hero to get what s/he wants?
5. Who is the Companion and what does s/he do to show the Hero s/he’s been going after the wrong thing?
6. What does the Hero do differently to finally get what s/he wants?
7. How is the Hero better off than s/he was before?

Setups and Payoffs

I hate it when I am watching a TV show and the main character walks in on someone just as they deliver the punch line to a joke and everyone around them roars with laughter, but neither the main character (nor I) got to hear the setup so “we” have no idea why that punch line is so funny. If you are like me, you spend the rest of the show focusing on what was so funny about that line rather than paying attention to the rest of the show.

I know the writer was using that scene to reveal how accepted that other character is by the group and how disconnected the main character is from the group, but this also illustrates another point.

Clearly the joke is hilarious, as evidenced by the roaring laughter. But without the setup, it doesn't seem that funny.

Without the setup, the payoff is missing something.

Actually, it's missing everything.

The 6^th Sense, starring Bruce Willis, had the biggest setup (the entire movie) which resulted in one of the largest payoffs in cinematic history. Upon subsequent viewings of the movie, we realize that M. Night Shamalan gave us hints along the way. But he presented them in a way that kept us distracted from the truth until the big reveal at the end. If the subconscious hadn't been fed all the little clues throughout the story, the reveal at the end would still have surprised the audience, but not in a good way. And it would have lacked the "knock your breath out" impact that it had.

The same is true for your story. For every amazing reveal or twist that you create, return to earlier points in your story to create the setup that will give that reveal or twist a solid one-two punch. The reader subconsciously picks up on these hints and gains greater satisfaction when you hit them with the payoff.

Without the setup, your payoff is just another coincidence or event in the story that the reader glazes right over never realizing how awesome it really is.