#Reading advice

[victusinveritas]

[robtopus]

Narrators come in many shapes and sizes, and while I'm not going to overload this post with academic language going back to the 60s, I feel like focusing only on the binary between "3rd person" and "1st person" is almost actively harmful.

When writing, and reading, we can look for/at the following things:

1) How close/far is this narrator (to the action, to the characters, to the setting)?

2) Is the narration static or does it change? It usually does; in what ways does it change? It does not have to be "from 3rd to 1st" person - maybe the narration got closer in some respect; maybe time was sped up and now slows down again; maybe there is a jump from the narrated present to the narrated past which impacts language?

3) When there is a first person, I've noticed a lot of readers and writers tend to jump immediately to someone narrating their own story, which is an edge-/sub-case. There's a lot of ways for the narrator to become a character in their own right even when they're not telling their own story. HPL's narrators, for example, will tell the experiences of others, summarizing reports, re-telling anecdotes and sometimes directly allowing these others to speak while still being reported.

4) Is the narrator reliable? We may think of 3rd person as inherently more reliable, but that is obviously false -- the narrator of a crime novel obviously knows Whodunnit, but they're not telling us. They may even deliberately pull the wool over our eyes in a way that 1st person would be unable to achieve (read John Le Carré, The Spy who came in From the Cold for a masterclass in this).

5) No, the narrator is not the author. So even if the narrator makes grand, sweeping statements ("Each unhappy family is unhappy in their own way"), this is first and foremost telling us ABOUT THE NARRATOR and the story they are about to tell, NOT about what Tolstoy may or may not think about family.

These are just a few quick and easy things to look out for. You don't need a degree for these, or an intimate familiarity with millenia of fiction writing and storytelling, and maybe you're doing some of those already consciously or unconsciously -- and if not, give it a try! As a reader, it's fun; as a writer, it adds depth and complexity without being overly intrusive or even noticeable; and treating your narrator, no matter how omniscient-3rd person they may be, as a character with a voice can help your style, as well. And maybe when you're stuck, try to ask yourself not what you want to tell, but how you want to tell it.

Who knows, maybe that is how you can cut through the Gordian Knot.

[niamhs-reading-adventures]

Looking for advice on audiobooks

What do you do when listening to audiobooks? My main concern that I'm wanting to avoid is getting caught up in the activity and losing track of the story, which is what sometimes happens when I'm listening to a podcast while doing chores.

I have pretty much exclusively read books, either physical or e-books. There's a few books that I want to read that are outside my budget to buy, and only available as audiobooks on library apps or Spotify Premium.

[wanderinginksplot]

Has anyone read the Dark Tower series by Stephen King? I'm listening to the first audiobook and I'm seriously considering stopping at a little less than the halfway point.

I'm not the kind of reader who needs everything to be perfectly unproblematic, especially with older books, but I'm having a hard time getting past King's treatment of female characters. (Potential trigger warning for the bulleted list below.)

Of the three female characters who have been introduced and are shown with any agency, we have:

The teenage farmer's daughter who flirts with the main character by pinching her own nipple and winking at him

The bar owner who gives the protagonist information and asks him to sleep with her in exchange. But she covers her face and cries while she asks, because she knows she's too old to be attractive anymore. (King also makes sure to mention that she's menopausal.)

The large preacher woman the protagonist is only interested in sleeping with because she's a trap from his enemy. The antagonist has already slept with and impregnated her, but that's apparently okay, because the protagonist rapes her with a gun barrel and forces her to miscarry the 'demon'

I wanted to like this series since it's considered some of King's best work, but so far, I just think it's frustrating, awkward, and misogynistic. The story itself is interesting, but I can't justify wading through a river of garbage to reach it.

Has anyone else read this series? Does it get better, or should I just find something else to read?

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

There is YA novel discourse in my timeline. That adults who read them are weird. That other type of books are bad. Both sides exhaust me greatly. Your thoughts?

That it's just the latest new fad of "not real literature" after sci fi, fantasy, genre, children's books, comics, romance, fanfiction. A never ending moving goalpost as one "not real literature" after the other gives way to stories so profound and human they can't help BUT be "literature", and we search for a new victim to try and elevate our own reading habits. The emergence of this flip side where people are TOO defensive of their "not real literature" of the day is unusual, but perhaps not unsurprising given the rise of social media and the cliques it encourages. Both are annoying and reductive.

The answer's the same as always: you know what you want, so read what you want, and don't be an asshole about it. Reading widely is good for developing your personal taste, but that's a suggestion, not a rule. And cheap bullying over reading tastes is the same as cheap bullying anywhere else: it doesn't change the behavior of someone else, it just makes you feel good for being better than they are.

[bettsfic]

Hi betts! Hope you're doing good! Do you have any advice on how to distance yourself from social media? I saw that you've done so with success and the older I get the more I feel a bit trapped by the internet.

social media certainly has benefits: keeping people connected, giving a voice to those who otherwise wouldn't have a platform, and it allows you to meet new people in the context of interest rather than location.

at least, these are the things social media set out to be, and over time those benefits, to me anyway, haven't been able to outweigh the drawbacks: compulsively checking apps, doomscrolling, content appearing by algorithm to attempt to cater to my interests, and just generally a lot of wasted time.

i don't necessarily believe that if you stop using social media, suddenly you'll be able to devote every minute of your day to a higher pursuit. the brain doesn't work like that. it always needs downtime. before phones, we had television. before television, we had radio. lacking glowing screens and people telling us things from far away, i think we'd all spend a lot of time looking at the things humans are built to look at: fire, water, mountains, sky. we'll listen to stories or read them or watch them.

during your mind's downtime, i don't think anything you decide to do is fundamentally better or worse than any other thing. but i do think social media is designed to manipulate our attention toward it during that downtime (and honestly, all other times) and that pisses me off. it also pisses me off that even though we impose cause-and-effect sequences to our interaction with social media, it doesn't often provide us with a narrative the way reading, watching tv, or listening to a podcast would. stories are a psychological necessity; without the mind's ability to perceive sequences of events and connect them, we wouldn't have memories. we would have no concept of time, of thinking into the past or casting our thoughts into the future. social media, in its drive to keep us scrolling, looking at posts with no narrative connection to one another, deprives us of the stories our minds seek during our downtime.

this got super long so i'm putting it under a cut. tl;dr you need to remove social media as a positive stimulus and build immediate positive stimuli into other aspects of your life. in other words, social media feels good immediately but neutral or bad over time; most other things like reading feel bad or neutral initially but good over time. so you have to find ways to make the latter feel good with the immediacy of the former.

i don't mean to be "old man shakes fist at cloud" about this. i'm a millennial. from facebook's widespread release through the beginning of the pandemic, i raced to every new social media platform. i was an early myspace adopter. my high school graduating class was the very first year people outside of college could use facebook, and so we're the first cohort to have all befriended each other before graduation and never lost touch, completely removing the appeal of a reunion. i joined twitter in 2008 but never used it, and i joined tumblr in 2012 and never stopped using it.

i remember the day i got a smartphone. i was a few years behind everyone else. it was 2010 and i'd just gotten my first office job and i was desperate to be able to look at social media, scroll through stuff or read something, when i was bored. it was an iPhone 4. and as soon as i got it out of the box, i sat and played on it for 10 straight hours.

for those of you who are too young to remember a time before smartphones, i can't emphasize enough how much they changed things. in my life, i went from waking up and eating breakfast and reading for a little bit, to waking up and eating breakfast and getting on my computer to look at facebook and read my daily webcomics, to waking up and reaching over to my nightstand and looking at my phone.

and i don't know, i just decided i didn't want that anymore. last fall i was at this artist residency with no cell service and barely any wifi. and one day the wifi went out. i had a visceral negative reaction to that, which made me step back and go, oh wow, i am way too tethered to the internet. that day, wandering around the property with nothing to do, i got this intense urge to read an old paperback novel. you know, the mass market paperbacks with the pulpy yellow paper and the misaligned typeface. and so i found a very old copy of fellowship of the ring, cracked it open, and read it all day.

the thing about getting away from social media is that it's slow. i don't think you can really go cold turkey. when i got home from the residency, i went on a long hiatus and had all these strict rules for myself about when i was allowed to look at my phone and when i wasn't, but that didn't really work for me. but i did delete all the social media apps from my phone, and on my computer i logged out of all of them and deleted my saved passwords, so if i wanted to check them, i had to go to that extra step of logging in and even typing in my password. and that doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're checking social media out of habit, muscle memory, something to attend to that might give you a brief blip of dopamine, having to type your password is just one step too far. the brief pleasure i would get from checking my notifications was less than the hassle of logging in.

and that's what it all comes down to: feeling good. in the moment, it feels good to check a social media app, to see that somebody has interacted with your content or maybe with you directly. it's that tiny subconscious exclamation point, the feeling we get when somebody politely smiles or waves at us, when a dog comes up to us wagging his tail, when a well-meaning stranger compliments your outfit. that's the social part of social media. but that's also the part that keeps us cycling through our apps out of habit and boredom.

so you have to take away that stimulus from yourself, and you have to create positive stimuli elsewhere. to take away the positive stimulus of social media, you have to stop posting content on it. content is the mind killer. when you tweet something, your impulse might be to check that someone has interacted with it. but if you step away from the great conversation of social media, nobody speaks back to you, and you develop more patience for the longer-term good feelings of reading a book.

of course, that's complicated. i guess the first step that i did a long time ago was losing interest in traffic and developing the internal validation skills that make interaction on social media a bonus, not a need. before that, though, i had a drive to be seen and listened to. i think i just grew out of that. regardless of the existence of the internet, all people throughout history have spent their lives developing their relationship with themselves, learning who they are and coming to accept it. i'm not sure there's a way to rush that inner journey along.

creating positive stimuli is a matter of adopting a kind of little-treat attitude toward things. you have to really pay attention to yourself. the day i picked up the fellowship of the ring, i remembered that paper is important to me. vitally important. i like to write on it. i like to read from it. and it's kind of weird to say "paper is my special interest," but it is. all tools of writing interest me. so acknowledging that, accepting it and choosing to accommodate it, was my first small goal of building immediate positive stimuli.

some of the connection we have to social media (and phones in general) is the physical habit that develops from it. when smokers quit smoking, their hands feel empty. they're used to having something between their fingers, and so they replace that with something like a pen or a straw.

for me, i replaced the physical habit of phone-checking with paper-holding, either in the form of a book, or a notebook and pen. i set about finding my perfect notebook: the one that feels best to hold, the one i'm eager to fill, the one whose paper is quality enough that i love to write on it. the one i found and that kind of changed my life was a Rhodia A4 spiral bound. i take it everywhere with me. in fact i went to the doctor earlier this week and because i was holding my notebook, it didn't even occur to me to look at my phone while i was waiting for the doctor to see me, even though it was in my pocket (and i did download tumblr again, and instagram to support my sister, who is kind of a local influencer). the positive stimulus of looking at it had become less than the positive stimulus of holding my notebook. the potential to easily write something or doodle felt better than the distraction of social media.

did my doctor probably think it was weird that i was taking notes? maybe. did i look weird sitting in the theater before seeing oppenheimer, brainstorming barbie fic ideas? definitely. but i just don't care anymore. sometimes making healthy choices for yourself in a world built to manipulate your attention makes you look weird.

my advice is to spend a week without social media apps on your phone, logged out of them on your computer, and pay very close attention to the things that make you happiest. find ways to interact with those things continuously, and see what happens.

[writingquestionsanswered]

how to get into reading more? I find it very it hard to get into reading and whenever I try to read books I could never get past chapter one.

Tips for Getting Into Reading More

Reading is a habit, just like exercising or brushing your teeth. The more consistently you do it, the easier it is to do. Reading is also a skill, meaning that doing it consistently makes you better at it. Whether that's reading a print book and training your eyes and brain to read better and faster, or reading an audiobook and training your ears and brain to listen and comprehend better. Try reading a book or audiobook every day for at least ten minutes, and after a while you'll find it's a habit and you're craving more.

Here are some other things you can do during that initial few weeks to help yourself along...

1 - Read Fan-Fiction - Go to AO3 or FF.net and look for fan-fiction of your favorite shows, movies, books, games, etc. AO3 also has podfic available to listen to. Fan-fiction is a fun and easy way to get back into a reading habit since it's easy access (your brain is already familiar with the world and you already love it) and it's free.

2 - Read Short Stories - Short stories are a great way to build a reading habit. You can find free short stories online via a Google search. Wattpad has a short story section and many libraries also offer them in their online catalogs. Or, you can by short story collections by author or anthology. You can also find audiobooks of short stories and recordings.

3 - Read Graphic Novels or Comic Books - Graphic novels and comic books can be another great way to get back into reading. The visual component can help draw you into the story, but the text makes sure you're honing your reading skills. Many graphic novels have audiobook adaptations.

4 - Read Bite-Sized Serial Fiction - Sites like Kindle Vella and Radish offer "bite-sized" serialized fiction which allows you to get absorbed in a story a little at a time. Bite-sized and serialized fiction works great if you're trying to build a reading habit by reading for 10 to 20 minutes a day. You can also find serialized audiobooks.

5 - Read Books That Were Adapted Into Movies or Shows - If you watch TV and movies, there are probably several that were adapted from books. YA books that were adapted into movies and shows (Twilight, Love Simon, The Vampire Diaries, The Hunger Games, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, The Sun is Also a Star, The Hate U Give, Dumplin', and The Princess Diaries--just to name a few) are especially good for getting back into reading because the content and story presentation is accessible and the lengths are usually manageable. But really, any TV show or movie you loved that was based on a book would be a great place to start. Most books that were popular enough to be adapted into a show or movie will also have an audiobook.

5 - Try Audiobooks - If you don't read audiobooks already, they can be a great way to get back into reading. Even if you're not training your eyes to read print, you're still training your brain to engage with a story which is just as important. If you're able to read print books, you might even try reading book one of a series on audiobook, then switch to reading the print version of book two.

6 - Reread Old Favorites - If there are any books you've read before and loved, try reading them again. Sometimes, revisiting old favorites can help us get back into reading because we already know we love the story, and familiar stories can be more accessible to our eyes and brains. Many older books and even classics have audiobook versions.

7 - Read Children's Fiction - Picture books, chapter books, Middle Grade, and YA books can be a great way to get back into the habit of reading. You might even try rebuilding your reading habit/skills from the ground up, starting with picture books, moving onto chapter books, then heading into Middle Grade and finally YA. Children's fiction tends to range from shortest to longest, with picture books being the shortest and YA fiction being the longest, but YA fiction still tends to be shorter than most adult fiction. Children's fiction is also written to be accessible to younger age ranges, which doesn't mean it's not complex or can't be enjoyed by adults, but many readers to find most Middle Grade and YA books to be easier to read than say A Game of Thrones or Outlander. Everyone is different, though, and every book is different. So it really just depends on the book and the reader.

8 - Try Reading Out Loud - If you're able to read print books/stories, some people find it's easier to read out loud. You can even read to your pet, pretend you're reading to a class, or pretend you're the author doing a reading at a book signing. It sounds silly, but sometimes this performative aspect can make it a little more accessible and easier to do.

9 - Audiobook Alternative to #8 - Something similar you can do with an audiobook is listen to a few minutes, pause it, and then talk out loud about what just happened as though you were discussing it with a class or book club. This can help you get (and stay) engaged with the story.

10 - Keep It Fun and Stress Free - The most important thing of all is to keep it fun and stress free. Try not to give yourself a hard time if you drop the ball. Do your best and give yourself grace if you struggle. Putting pressure on yourself or creating unreasonable goals only makes it stressful which makes your brain want to avoid it. Set up or find a cozy reading space if you can. Put on some light music and grab yourself a cup of coffee, tea, or your favorite beverage. Sit outside if the weather is nice. Walking or doing chores is great if you're reading an audiobook. You can also try reading when you're waiting for things. Try instituting a reward system, like eating a special treat whenever you finish a book/story, chapter, or you've read for your ten daily minutes.

Happy reading!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

LEARN MORE about WQA

SEE MY ask policies

VISIT MY Master List of Top Posts

COFFEE & COMMISSIONS ko-fi.com/wqa

[laurellerual]

Hi my fellow Gendrya enjoyer! I need some reading advice. It seems that "No Featherbed For Me" is one of the most famous and recommended fanfiction of this ship, but I've never read it. I have to say that the tags scare me a little.

[ghostwithwings]

Would you advice me some novel on Norse mythology? Cannot find one if not the Gospel of Loki and something about Angrboda.

[inconvenienttrekkie04]

Im trying to read spocks world by diane duane but she switched points of view to kirk and i got upset because i assumed the books was from vulcan perspectives only. I love the writing but I dont wanna read about kirk. So far my solution is to simply skip his parts but im not sure if my missing any vital storytelling. What should I do?

No offense to Kirk but I bought the book to trad about Spock and Vulcan. Not Kirk.

Am I being too silly?

[swirlies-stock]

Annotation

Just asking for some tips, how would you guys annotate in a high school junior level? This is from someone who usually gets bored from reading and only gets interested when something fun happens in the process.

[dominiquewritesthings]

How to Support your Fellow Authors WITHOUT Using Passes

1. Interact with their posts - Interacting with posts on Instagram can massively help authors with their engagement. Good engagement means that they can have a bigger audience which could translate to more readers. You can like their posts, comment, save, and share! I like to congratulate authors on their milestones, even if I haven't read their stories. That way, they'll get more people to see their posts and you'll always see their posts. 

2. Repost their posts - If your audience isn't following them you're automatically introducing them to their content. 

3. Tell people about their story - Lots of times people are looking for a story with certain criteria. If their story fits that, recommend it! You never know, it could be their next favorite story. 

4. Recommend their story for a shelf list - Sure, shelves are difficult to get on, but I would NOT have gotten onto the April 2020 Hidden Gems shelf list if so many people didn't recommend me for other shelves like the one for black authors, romance stories, and more! 

[abitofafreudmoment]

hi Discworld question from.a friend

"Do you know what disc world books are exciting and worldbuildy but also my annoying brain won't refuse to read?"

specifically looking for Discworld with fun elements, worldbuilding, but not a super convoluted plot

That's a great question

uhhh

Honestly it's tough to say. All the plots are about the same (Although the ones centering on DEATH are generally on the more complex end, and the Night Watch plothook makes about zero sense unless you read Thief of Time) and worldbuilding-wise they're all rather solid (however, I'd avoid the more standalone-y ones because they have less of an impact on the other ones - Pyramids, Monstrous Regiment, etc) I would say go for the mid-series ones like Thud! or Lords and Ladies and as for the fun elements. . . They all have their moments, it's hard to say which one's the funniest or even begin to rank them. They're all quite witty. Actually now that I think about it I'd say Thud!. (although to be blunt, none of the plots are really that simple and Thud!'s no exception. It's not hard to follow tho)

Hope this helps your friend,

Happy to provide more details (Rambling is fun)

[princessbubblegumandjustice]

You want to start/enjoy reading again? Here are a few tips from someone who used to read every single day, stopped, and now at age 27 is on track to read 50 books in 2023.

1. Read what you enjoy.

Do not get hung up on reading the “right thing.” Read what you enjoy. Whatever it is. I read a lot of memoirs. It took me a while to accept it, but no I probably won’t ever be into high fantasy or sci-fi like many of the people I know are. That’s okay!

2. Read what you can.

Reading isn’t a race. You don’t need to read a book a week like I am. If you find reading difficult, part of it is because reading demands total engagement and attention while you do it. It is not a passive activity. If you want to be a daily reader or read 50+ pages in a sitting, you will be. But it probably won’t happen overnight, even with a book you love.

3. Read short books.

It’s totally fine to read short books. Short books are still awesome and contain complete stories. Longer isn’t better and short books can help you get into the habit of reading by boosting your confidence and lowering your time commitment.

4. Get books in whatever way is accessible to you.

Buy new, buy used, rent from the library, swap books with friends, read physical copies, read digital copies, buy from a brick-and-mortar store, buy from an online retailer.. however you can get a book—get it.

5. Don’t look at page numbers or the time.

Don’t look at the page numbers and don’t look at a clock, just read until you want to stop. If you need to cut off your time for some reason, set an alarm. Whatever you read is what you read! If you know you’ll be tempted to peek, use a bookmark to cover numbers when you flip the page.

6. Set a timer and read whatever you can.

Opposite to the previous advice, but hey, both of these techniques have worked for me and I hope at least one works for you! If you only have a sliver of time in the day, set an alarm and read for that allotted amount of time.

7. Read “just another 10 pages.”

If you really want to push yourself, read “just another 10 pages” until you can’t anymore. Sometimes I don’t, sometimes I only do the 10, but other times I’ve done it 6+ times in a row. It’s a worthy endeavor. Think of it as a challenge, and don’t beat yourself up if you can’t do it!

Bonus: Read other things!

Most people have more trouble with books because they’re block of text with little to know pictures. But you don’t have to read books, read comics, manga, trades, research articles, and magazines. Even though my advice is through the lens of book reading, reading is reading! If you’re not ready for books or have no interest in books, you don’t need to read them.

[chordsykat]

I don't have alot of time but I would like to read your comic at a place where the second one would make sense if that makes any sense at all?

Please don't read Dethkomic from the middle and work your way outwards in all directions. Dethkomic is not a pizza. Despite my best attempts at making it a pizza, I mean...

Uh... Anyway! =D

I recently re-read it from start to finish as part of the proofing process on the second, and I can't say it took me more than an hour, OP. Don't be afraid of it. You can fly through 100 pages of comic faster than 100 pages of book. Especially the way I write, which is also not like a pizza. I write more like a cucumber.

Long, wet, and full of angst.

(moved from @dethkomic)

[missgetawaycar]

Reading advice (ao3 edition)

I'm deeply in love with this absolutely awesome and well written fanfiction. I've just finished it and- I'm fine. Just fine. *she said sobbing badly*

(Perhaps, when I recover emotionally, I'll write a slighly more detailed review to invite you to read this masterpiece.)

Note: Like always, I apologise if my grammar is incorrect (I hope it is not), but I'm not a native speaker (I mean, this isn't an excuse but I'm still at high school and I'm still learning, so...)