How to Read Like a Writer: 10 Lessons to Elevate Your Reading and Writing Practice

✍ Scribed by Erin M. Pushman

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 217
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The first step to becoming a successful writer is to become a successful reader. Helping you develop your critical skills How to Read Like a Writer is an accessible and effective step-by-step guide to how careful reading can help you improve your craft as a creative writer, whatever genre you are writing in.
Across 10 lessons – each pairing published readings with practical critical and creative exercises – this book helps writers master such key elements of their craft as:
Genre – from fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry to hybrid genres such as graphic narratives and online forms

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prologue: (or Brief Introduction)
Reading Closely and Reading Critically—the Way Writers Do
Lessons in Reading the Way Writers Do
Sample Readings and Questions
Reading to Generate Material
Getting Started: Strategies for Reading the Way Writers Do
Lesson 1 Reading Genre
The Concept of Genre
Reading Inside Genre
Lesson 1 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Genre
Lesson 2 Hybrids and Multi-genre Work
Reading beyond Genre Lines
Naming and Identifying Hybrid/Multi-genre Work
Established Hybrids
Emerging Hybrids: Borrowed Forms (in General) and List Forms (Specifically)
Reading Hybrid and Multi-genre Work: The Big Picture
Lesson 2 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Hybrid/Multi-genre
Lesson 3 Short Forms and Digital Media
Length and Short Forms
Digital Media Platforms for Creative Writing
Lesson 3 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Short-Form Writing and Digital Media
Lesson 4 Plot, Narrative Arc, Conflict, and Central Theme, Concept, Image, Sense, or Emotion
Narrative Forces
Reading for Plot, Narrative Arc, and Conflict
Non-narrative Forces
Reading for Central Theme/Concept and Resonating Image, Sense, or Emotion
Lesson 4 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Plot, Narrative Arc, Conflict, Central Theme, and Resonating Image
Lesson 5 Structure
The Concept of Structure
Structural Mechanics and Devices
Overall Structure: The Order in Which the Writing Appears on the Page
Braided
Additional Considerations for Non-narrative Creative Nonfiction Structures
Additional Considerations for Poetic Structures
Authorial Choices about Structure
Reading for Structure
Transitions
Image and Text
Reading Strategy for Structure
Lesson 5 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Structure
Lesson 6 Character Development
Getting Acquainted: Discovering Depth and Nuance
When the Narrator Is Also a Character
Exploring Character Development in Non-narrative Forms
Reading for Character Development: Further Considerations
Lesson 6 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Character Development
Lesson 7 Point of View
Point of View as a Lens
Narrator/Speaker
First, Second, Third
When the Narrator Is Also the Writer: Special Complexities of POV in Creative Nonfiction
When the Lens Includes Actual Images: POV in Graphic and Photographic Narrative
Lesson 7 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Point of View
Lesson 8 Setting
Place
Environment
Time
Constructing Setting
Setting in Place-Based and Environmental Literature
Setting in Graphic and Photographic Writing
Lesson 8 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Setting
Lesson 9 Scene
What Is Scene?
When Writers Use Scene
Short, Long, and In-between: How Much Page Space Should a Scene Use?
Scenic Rendering without Full Scenes
Scene in Visual Hybrids
Lesson 9 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Scene
Lesson 10 Language
Developing a Literary Ear: Structure, Shape, Length, and Sound
Sensory Language
Breaking the Formal Rules
Minding the Writerly Rules
Working the Language
Lesson 10 Discussion Questions and Writing Prompts
Writing Prompts: Focus on Language
The End (or Afterword)
Readings
Additional Readings
Index