What Does It Mean to Read Like a Writer?

Anthony DeCasper

What does it mean to read like a writer?

Over at the latest Glimmer Train bulletin, Anthony DeCasper offers a few tips about seeing and reading the world in terms of narrative design. He says:

Narrative design is the art of perception. By unpacking narrative design through reading, and rereading, we reveal not only an author’s way of seeing and thinking about the world but how the author collects their perceptions into an immersive story.

He goes on to argue that reading is writing if done with authorial intention. Read the entire essay.

Also this month at Glimmer Train:

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[…] Learn what it means to see and read the world in terms of narrative design.  […]

Valentina Dordevic

We can speak in terms of narrative design, or we can call it structure; it is less important. But it is always good to emphasise the value of active, creative reading – or reading as a writer.

A naïve reader can allow him/herself to be absorbed by a story. An aspiring writer must put some mental effort in reading. To read like a writer means to be awake in order to pay attention to every detail.

Socrates had a point, long time ago, “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have laboured hard for.”