(Image Credit: Selina Swayne)
A particular phrase has crept into quite a few conversations I’ve been in over the past few months. What’s weird to me is that I seem to always be the only one that reacts to it and that has begun to disturb me. The phrase that I’m referring to is, “I haven’t read a fiction book since high school. It’s only business books for me.”
Scary, I know.
What ends up bugging me more than anything else is that I’m usually talking with a blogger when that phrase gets dropped in like a bag of soggy potatoes. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m an avid reader and probably read more than your average person. I always have at least two books going (one business and one fiction) and wouldn’t suggest that for others, but the fact that people who claim to be writers of any kind aren’t reading fiction is unnerving to me.
It also might be hurting their blogs, which I can imagine would be unnerving for them.
Fiction Friction
What does it matter, really? So you don’t have time to spare to sit down with a fiction book and read through it, what’s the big deal? Here’s where I get really nerdy and tell you why reading fiction benefits your life in more areas than just blogging.
- Mr./Mrs. Smarty-Pants – Business books are great, but studies have shown that people that actively read complex fiction stories have higher GPAs, great intelligence and more robust general knowledge than those who don’t read on a regular basis. In general, reading greatly helps your super-smarts (whether it’s fiction or not) as explained in great depth by Anne E. Cunningham in her paper What Reading Does For The Mind. So, if you’re not reading at all, get on it.
- Wordy-Derds – Reading will give you a greater vocabulary to pull from. It’s always nice to use “neat” and “thing” over and over again, but sometimes your writing could use a little spice. Reading fiction books is like having a mental spice rack that you’re constantly adding to.
- What Was I Talking About? – We all want a better memory. By training your mind to keep up with story lines and characters over a period of days, weeks and sometimes months, you will work your memory like a muscle and make it strong and awesome. The more complex the story, the better the workout. Just think of it like curling a 55-pound weight as compared to curling a #2 pencil.
- The Mirror Effect – Reading has an uncanny ability to teach you things about yourself. Everyone thinks they know everything there is to know about themselves, but when you find yourself connecting with characters you didn’t expect or leaning towards certain styles of writing, you might just be a little surprised by what you can uncover.
- Stress-Free – When you encapsulate yourself in a story, studies have shown that your levels of stress drop. By letting your mind wander and explore, you leave the worries of the day behind and lower your heart rate (unless you’re reading Stephen King). Also, when you clear your mind of stressful things, you’re more open to figure out solutions and answers. Ever notice how answers just seem to “come to you” later when you’re not thinking about them?
About The Author
That’s all great, but what does that have to do with your blog? So reading may make you awesome in a lot of ways, but this is a site about blogging tips and you want to know about that, right?
Right.
I want you to pay close attention to what I’m going to type next: You are a storyteller. Did you get that? I’ll repeat it: You are a storyteller.
Whether you write about gardening or marketing or movies or rat traps, you are telling stories and there are a few things about storytelling that reading fiction can teach you like nothing else on earth.
- Character – Everybody likes a hero. Every story has to be centered around a character and most times we are made to love or despise that character. In your writing, make sure there’s some sort of character or Digital Personality that your readers can relate to. Understand how to build and drive that character because at the same time you will be driving your readers. Grab a fiction book and see how the author carries that character through the story and learn the processes necessary to make those actions believable.
- Tone – What do you want your readers to feel when they read your articles? If you’re selling something through your site, you definitely want to pay attention to this aspect of fiction writing. In every purchase decision made, there is an emotional percentage that would probably surprise you. We don’t buy things because “could possible use” them, we buy things because we “need” them. Is your page eclectic in it’s tone, more like a human personality, or are you more of a happy blogger?
- Voice – Most blogs are written in first-person perspective. That doesn’t mean that yours has to, though. Spend some time exploring difference writing perspectives because you might find that third-person is a better fit for your topic. Also, not all writers publish under their actual names. If your purposes would be served better under a pseudonym, then use those tools to your benefit.
- Style – Minimalism, Emotionalism, Modernism, Symbolism, or your own unique combination, there are a lot of styles of writing to choose from, but choose wisely. You might not think it makes a lot of difference, but compare a minimalist writer like Chuck Palahniuk to an emotion writer like F. Scott Fitzgerald and then throw in someone like James Joyce and tell my style doesn’t make a difference. You need to understand how your writing comes across and decide if that’s how you want to be perceived and what steps you can take to change if necessary.
Epilogue
So that’s it. Reading fiction is really important to becoming a better blogger. It’s as simple as that. The issue of time always come up when I consult with someone about this, but think of it this way, if you read just 20 pages a day you can read over 50 different books a year!
You want some suggestions on where to start? Here are the last 5 fiction books I read and thoroughly enjoyed (all links are Amazon affiliate links):
- 1. I Am Not A Serial Killer
by Dan Wells- 2. Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace- 3. Full Dark, No Stars
by Stephen King- 4. The Mayor’s Tongue
by Nathaniel Rich- 5. The Road
by Cormac McCarthyThose are by no means all and I’ll be happy to suggest more, but those are all great examples of everything I mentioned in the post.
If you want to talk more about books and reading feel free to email me at joey [at] joeystrawn [dot] com and we can dig deeper into this idea but until then, get out there and read. I doubt you’ll be disappointed in what happens.
The End.
Joey Strawn is a blogger, husband, entrepreneur, and general purveyor of awesomeness and currently blogs at JoeyStrawn.com. He is president of Empty Jar Marketing in Nashville, Tenn. and works with local and national businesses to increase exposure and brand using digital marketing strategies.
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Very good piece, Joey. I have always enjoyed reading fiction though think that if Gini ever interviews me for a job I won't be reading any of the dark stuff.
I agree that to be good storytellers we need to keep the company of other storytellers because they will keep us up to scratch and very likely will inspire us. Thanks for reminding us in such a thoughtful article.
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