Writing from the Light of Every Book You Ever Read

[Brenda Krupp]

On Saturday I attended Teachers' College Reading and Writing Saturday Reunion. It is a day full of workshops and authors. (Gaetan - I'm taking you with me next year!) The keynote address with given by Richard Peck. The title was "Nobody but a reader ever became a writer". He told us twice that "you write from research and observation". Just wondering...how is your reading informing your writing? What observations could you mold into a written piece?

[Barry Lane]

This is a great discussion topic, Brenda. I don't totally agree with Peck's title. There is an element of writing and storytelling that predates literature and reading, I think. I think is possible to be a great writer who draws from these audible sounds in your head and the need to express. Reading is a confirmation of these voices and full of the craft to help shape them, but I don't think you have to be an avid reader to be a writer, but of course, as my Jewish grandmother would say, " it wouldn't hurt."I just don't like people who aren't readers thinking that they can't write because of that.

Reading also gives us permission to try things. I once wrote a short story about a men who are dreamed up by women, who don't exist in the world but only created in the mind of dreaming women. This is a totally crazy idea and I probably wouldn't have even tried to make it real had I not read some of Woody Allen's early short stories. I think reading is the invitation to the imagination for creation. And that is my summation.

[Gaetan Pappalardo]

I think Fletcher mentions in one of his books that writers are just like everybody else. They see the same things, smell the same smells, hear the same sounds, and feel the same textures. BUT...and it's a big one (but that is)... writers react. They react to the environment around them. Here's an example of a quick encounter that turned into a letter to the editor.

So, I’m exiting my favorite Dunkin Donuts cradling my daily cleansing agent, a honey bran raisin muffin, when a voice pulls me out of my hungry daze. “Hey, that thing good in the snow?” A middle-aged man, puffing on a cigarette, points at my puny VW Golf. (AKA: The Rabbit) His body language couldn’t be more obvious. I know what he expects me to say. Instead, I tell him the truth.
“It glides right over it,” I reply.
The man’s face contorts into a disbelieving grin as smoke emanates from his lips. I smile and jump into my car. In the twenty minutes it takes me to get t work I realize that my quick exchange with the stranger opened my eyes to how most consumers shop for cars. Is that good in the snow? How often does it snow in New Jersey? Maybe twice, and one of the snowfalls is usually gone by noon. Here’s another excuse to buy the wrong vehicle––I need to fit all of my stuff in the car for my annual trip the shore. And another: I bring the kids and their friends to the pool every Friday. That’s why I need third row seating. The pool is important, I know. But what about your money? Or, even better, the Earth?
I think consumers need to reverse their priorities when shopping for a vehicle. Daily routines and trips should trump annual outings. Just think how easy it will be to back out of a parking space in the local Target parking lot without third-row seating. That’s got to be worth something?
After reflecting upon my meeting with the stranger, I should have hung around and told him about my frequent trips to Maine in the winter packed into my tiny car with my wife, my son, and my fifteen pound cat. Plus luggage.
Brothers and sisters, buy a roof rack, not a tank.

[Barry Lane]

Another great quote that connects the two strands in Peck's talk is by Paolo Friere.

"Writers read the world."

[Jason Lilly]

Stephen King also says, "If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write." I'm not sure if I agree with the quote, but I do recognize the importance of reading. To me, reading to a writer is the same as an athlete attending or watching a game of the sport in which he is involved. He's not there to enjoy the game. He's watching the best player on the team, paying attention to his methods and actions. Is watching the game the best way for the player to become a good player himself? No. Only practice can do that. But, attending the game gives him a list of skills and strategies to build on and perfect for that practice in order to become a good player.

Likewise, writing is the best way to become a good writer. The more you do it, the more you improve. But, reading is a good way to watch the best players of the game, pay attention to their methods, and you will have a list of skills and strategies to build on in order to become a good writer.

I'm sorry if I ramble. Good discussion does that to me.

[Megan Murray]

Is it snooty to say that, for certain people, there's just a natural bent toward writing? That's just the way some of us are wired ... period. End of story.

However, having said that, I think that reading is the biggest, greatest influence (besides our environments) on our writing. Not that I copy anything of what I read, but when I am reading, I tend to be influenced by the writing of those that move me ... if that makes sense?

Does reading more improve writing? YES! I can see it in many of my students.

Will it help everyone be good, solid writers? Again, I reference my comment above. I'm certainly NOT wired to be a mathematician. One look at my checkbook will help you determine that! Exposing me to more numbers is just going to make me more comfortable with them, not cause me to be more numerical and linear in my thinking ...

Does any of thise make sense? I've managed to come down with yet another head cold ... the synapses are firing well ... if at all!

[Megan Murray]

OOPS! I meant to say "synapses AREN'T firing very well..." See what I mean!? :)

Megan Murray said:

Is it snooty to say that, for certain people, there's just a natural bent toward writing? That's just the way some of us are wired ... period. End of story.

However, having said that, I think that reading is the biggest, greatest influence (besides our environments) on our writing. Not that I copy anything of what I read, but when I am reading, I tend to be influenced by the writing of those that move me ... if that makes sense?

Does reading more improve writing? YES! I can see it in many of my students.

Will it help everyone be good, solid writers? Again, I reference my comment above. I'm certainly NOT wired to be a mathematician. One look at my checkbook will help you determine that! Exposing me to more numbers is just going to make me more comfortable with them, not cause me to be more numerical and linear in my thinking ...

Does any of thise make sense? I've managed to come down with yet another head cold ... the synapses are firing well ... if at all!

[Vicki Spandel]

I think Peck is right--but maybe not in the way he intended. Writers are readers, all right, but not just readers of books. They read people. They read situations. They read nature--and themselves. I love to read, and will read almost anything you put in front of me, but when it comes to influence, three of the many people who have influenced my writing most are Donald Murray (who really got process--so much he didn't have to think about it when he wrote about it), Anne Lamott (whose comments on perfectionism should be engraved on the walls of every school so people would read them upon entering), and Mary Pipher (a writer I just discovered--not realizing, I admit, how famous and influential she's been for years). Mary Pipher said something that changed forever the way I thought about voice. In Writing to Change the World (a great book) she said that if we wanted to see more voice in students' writing, we should change the questions we asked. We should ask, What makes you laugh, cry, and open your heart? What do you know to be true? What do you consider to be evil? What do you most respect in others? . . . and so on (page 44). This moved me deeply, and I think of it--one way or another--all the time. I'm also influenced by Barry, the only person I know who can write an essay in cartoon form.

[Trisha Baker]

Like many of the others, I agree to a certain extent. Reading helps to shape your world or rather, expand it. I can't possibly do all the things I'd like to because of time and money constraints but I can read about them and at least experience them vicariously through the written words of others. Plus if their words inspire me enough I will actually, eventually, do those things.

Marzono said that the true benefit of an effective SSR program is not that it increases reading comprehension but that it increases prior knowledge.

Personally, I wrote a short story during a writing marathon that was inspired by a bum sleeping in the sun. I also used ideas that I had read from O. Henry and The Glass Castle to help flesh out my character. Did I read these two things in the hopes that someday I would write about a bum? No, but they helped me nevertheless. Plus I am not a method writer so I don't really feel the need to sleep on the streets.