Hope you all had a great weekend. We went to the Hershey Camper Show on Saturday- looking for a new camper to upgrade from the pop-up to. No luck yet, though we were close. Good thing the boy was with us, because seeing him in our front runner, knocked it out of the running. (The beds are too small to fit him- if they only were 4 inches wider!) We learned what won't work, now to find what will.
Speaking of working and not working. I have a question for you all. When you find a story that just sucks you in and puts you in the world and you can't put it down, how do you go back and read it and look for what the author did to make it work so well for you?
I keep trying to do this- to analyze works that grab me and pull me in so I can learn what the author did and try and do it with my own writing, except I get caught up in the story when I try to analyze it.
So, any tips you all have would be greatly welcomed!
I've never had success with that. I just let myself enjoy the book without analyzing it. I remember an editor saying at a conference that you should take the book you love, and read it three times consecutively. That way you can analyze it. Chances are good that by the third time you've read it, you've moved from 'I can't put this down' to 'I know what happens next so I can analyze it.' But you can't do this if you allow for time (and other books in between the readings). Then you'll keep thinking that you can't stop reading because one of your favorite parts is coming up (like I do) and you won't be analyzing it. You'll be reading it like you did the first time.
ReplyDeleteNo, I haven't tried this yet. I forgot about the tip until this post. :D *looks at bookshelf to figure out which book to use*