Reading: The Tools to Write, Part Two
By: Pam Parker
Tags: Writing Tips, Writing, Learning, Progress, Reading

Reading: The Tools to Write, Part Two

Photo by Simson Petrol on Unsplash

What One Notebook Rules them All?

Writers read. Writers write. Our worlds overflow with books and notebooks. I’ve kept diaries and journals on and off for most of my life since I was nine years old. Some day, I may get back to them. Or, some day, my sons might hate me and toss them all in recycling. Or both.

None of my notebooks are Commonplace notebooks, which some of you may know about. If the idea is new to you, take a look at What is a Commonplace Book and Why You Need One, by Aly Juma, or, The Lost Art of Commonplacing by Bobby Powers (who recommends using a 3x5 card system), or Shaunta Grimes’s Commonplace Book Project.

The abbreviated idea of the Commonplace notebook is that you create a personal encyclopedia of quotations, ideas, thoughts on subjects that interest you. Those compilations become, for some, an incubator for ideas for new or ongoing projects.

That’s not what I’m trying to do, though, I’m leaning in the direction of a commonplace notebook.

The Notebook that Rules

FAVES — my fave notebook du jour. © Pam Parker 2019

This FAVES notebook is the notebook I’m using to learn from the books I’m reading. Reading: The Tools to Write, Part One, covered intentions and purpose in reading and our responsibilities after completing other authors’ works. The FAVES notebook helps me make better use of my reading — moving from being intellectually engaged and entertained, to a different place, more useful for a writer. (If you haven’t read Reading like a Writer, by Francine Prose, I’d recommend it.)

The categories I’ve used, on those charming tabs all over the place, have been growing, and, may well be refined on FAVES notebook #2, when I get there. It mirrors the Commonplace notebook idea in the sense of categorization and quotations, but, has an important difference. My reading notebook gives me a place to record excellence in writing, craft excellence. Craft categories I’ve been using, with an example or two each, follow.

Cool Verbs

“In the bedroom, Jude was accordioning the closet door…” from A LITTLE LIFE, by Hanya Yanagihara

“Drew origamis himself…” from A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD by Jennifer Egan

Sentences

“Leaves slap my shoulders, and they scratch me dry, leaving thin white lines scrawled on my arms.” from SING, UNBURIED, SING by Jesmyn Ward

“He’d been cultivating numbness all day, hanging onto it like a rope.” THE GREAT BELIEVERS, by Rebecca Makkai

Foreshadowing

“Already, on the ferry, in advance, the image owed something to this moment.” from THE LOVER, by Marguerite Duras

Character Revealing

“Charlie was the hub of a lot of wheels.” from THE GREAT BELIEVERS by Rebecca Makkai

“It helped that his accent contained a top hat and a monocle.” (ibid)

Descriptions

“Epically tall, brutally blond…” from LESS, by Andrew Sean Greer

“…the face of Hill House seemed awake, with a watchfulness from the blank windows and a touch of glee in the eyebrow of a cornice.” from THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, by Shirley Jackson.

Leads

“From where I sit, the story of Arthur Less is not so bad.” from LESS, by Andrew Sean Greer

“I like to think I know what death is.” from SING, UNBURIED, SING, by Jesmyn Ward

Other tabs mark categories relating to topics I explore often in my writing (both fiction and non-fiction) or might like to. Those tabs are: depression, worry, travel, nature writing, family, writing, help/control, spirituality, memory, grief, hope.

How is this notebook helpful?

Fair question, especially when a double spread, in my handwriting, can end up looking like this:

The most recent spread from “Character Revealing” section — by far the longest in my notebook so far.

Alan Heathcock, a great writer and writing instructor, shared this idea at our residency at Sierra Nevada College last summer. He uses a reading notebook to record those things he finds in his reading that intrigue him. It’s unlikely our categories are the same. He uses the reading notebook as a part of his writing warm-up, which is how I use it. Before I begin writing, I turn to the book I was reading the day before and mark down in the notebook any underlined parts I want to record. After doing that, as I’ve given some thought to how other writers find excellence in their stories, I am anchored, inspired, and ready to turn to my own words.

Some day, if I run into a dry spell, or just want a writing prompt, I could open my reading notebook, find a description and riff off it. I could pull out an interesting verb and try to find five more. The possibilities are truly endless.

But for this writer, at this point, it serves me well as a touchpoint, an anchor, or better — a launch pad. An ongoing record of not only what I’m reading, but what I’m discovering about the craft of writing as I read.

Don’t forget Stephen King’s words:

“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the tools to write.”

— Stephen King (On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft)

And, ask yourself, are you getting everything you can from your reading to help improve your writing? If you want reading to truly become part of your tools to write, maybe give a reading notebook a try.