Monday, February 18, 2019

Reading as a Writer: The Great Adventure (part two)

by Jan Drexler



In their classic work, How to Read a Book, Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren spent more than four hundred pages instructing the dedicated student in four levels of reading. The work is comprehensive and fabulous. If you’ve never read this book, I recommend it.

The book also goes far beyond our purposes here, so with apologies to Adler and Van Doren, here is my own “How to Read a Book for Writers.”

In last month’s post, we talked about why we should read and what we should read. You can read that post here.

How we read can be even more important than Why or What we read. We want to learn how to write – how to tell a story other people will want to read – and the way we read can help us do that. According to Adler and Van Doren, there are four levels of reading:

1) Elementary Reading
2) Inspectional Reading
3) Analytical Reading
4) Syntopical Reading

Now let’s apply these levels to the writer. 



Elementary reading is what all of us do when we pick up a book to read for pleasure. We enjoy the story, get lost in the narrative, thrill in the settings, then put the book down with a sigh of pleasure at the end. 

Once you've learned the mechanics of reading, Elementary reading is reading for enjoyment. 😊 

But writers need to read some books for more than pleasure - we need to learn the writing craft from our reading. That's where the next three levels come in.




Inspectional reading is something I started doing when I was a beginning writer. Before I read the book, I would look at the number of pages. How many chapters were there? How many scenes did the author have in each chapter? Were the scenes a standard length, or did they vary? This is the first step in inspectional reading. 

The second step is to read through the book as quickly as you can. But don't be thrown off by this superficial reading! This first read-through acquaints you with the overall story before you begin to dig deeper. 

It’s a way of understanding how the writer structures their novel. All writers have a structure to their novels, and it becomes part of their writing “voice.” 



Analytical reading goes a bit deeper. This is the level of reading where many writers find themselves reading with an “editor’s eye.” Here, the reader is looking for the story “beats,” and learns to recognize the Call to Adventure, the Black Moment, and the Denouement. (There are many names for these major story parts – you might use different ones.) 

This is also the level where the writer/reader looks for other writing techniques such as how dialogue is handled, how to dribble in the backstory, how description adds to (or detracts from) the narrative. This is where the discerning writer/reader looks for examples of that elusive "show, don't tell" secret!

Analytical reading is important because this is how a writer begins to understand how “Story” works.

Story isn’t just an arbitrary formula or structure. Have you ever had the experience of reading a story that left you with a bad taste in your mouth? A book or movie that just “didn’t work?”

A writer needs to understand how to write a narrative that rings true. A book that speaks to your readers’ innate sense of Story. To do that, we need to be able to read analytically so we can see how the Story is played out in each work. The more we read, the more we understand how to do that. 



Syntopical reading is a lot easier than that term makes it sound! Reading syntopically just means that you read many books across the same topic. 

This kind of reading is useful when you want to target a certain publisher. Is writing for Love Inspired your dream? Read Love Inspired books! Get a subscription to their Readers Service so you don't miss a single title (click here if you're interested in subscribing)

Do you have a different dream publisher? Go to their website to see a list of their authors and new releases. Learn what kinds of books they publish and read as many as you can.

I also use syntopical reading when I’m trying to learn how a new genre works. In my inspectional reading, I discovered that each genre has its own style. So when I started writing historical novels, I read several books from that genre. As I read them analytically and compared them, I found that there are certain elements that are included in historical novels. I did the same with Amish novels and romance novels. 

As I branch out in my writing, I continue to read syntopically. When my editor asked if I would be willing to write a contemporary story, I read several contemporary romance books. When the cozy mystery bug bit me, I immersed myself in reading that genre.



None of these levels stand alone. The discerning writer/reader uses all four levels simultaneously. While we read this month's offerings from Love Inspired (syntopically), we're also learning how the books are structured (inspectionally discovering the publisher's guidelines) and how to dribble in our hero's backstory (analytically.) At the same time, we're enjoying a pleasurable read!

And you thought this would be work! Not at all. It's reading with a purpose.

You may find that you've been using these reading levels without even realizing it. Is that the case for you? Or is this concept completely new to you?

And for further discussion, what are you reading right now? Share what you're learning from it!


One commenter will win a copy of my newest release, Convenient Amish Proposal! 
(paper copy US only, e-book outside the US)


When Bethany Zook’s childhood friend returns to Indiana Amish country a widower, with an adorable little girl in tow, she’s willing to aid him in any way. But there’s just one thing Andrew Yoder needs—a mother for little Mari. And he seems convinced Bethany is the answer, just as she’s sure any union between them would be one strictly of convenience…

Andrew thought Bethany had married another. Now, determined to keep Mari despite his mother-in-law’s interference, he offers Bethany marriage in name only. But she’s quickly becoming more than a housekeeper and a mamm. Can he leave the past behind to claim a family of the heart?

You can order your copy here!



And in case you missed it in the Weekend Edition, I'm excited to share my new cover with you!


As the weather grows cold and the nights grow long, the cheer and warmth of the Christmas season is one thing all readers can find comfort in. This collection from bestselling Amish fiction novelists Leslie Gould, Jan Drexler, and Kate Lloyd finds the beating heart at the center of the holiday and offers three novellas that celebrate family, faith, and especially the sights and smells of a bustling holiday kitchen. 

Leslie Gould tells the story of how, in the wake of a heartbreaking loss, a young Amish woman finds unexpected comfort and hope in a yearly baking tradition surrounding the local Lancaster Christmas market. Jan Drexler offers a sweet tale of a shy Amish woman who decides to use her gift for sweets to woo a local Amish boy with her beloved Christmas cookies. And Kate Lloyd offers a heartwarming tale of a woman's unexpected discovery about the truth of her past, and the warm and welcoming Amish family table she finds herself invited to on Christmas.

Releasing September 3rd, and available for pre-order now! Order here!





31 comments:

  1. Good Evening, Seekerville!

    We're having a frosty overnight here in the Black Hills, and Monday's temps are staying in the single digits. So I'm setting out hot chocolate and spiced cider along with the usual coffee and tea, so help yourselves!

    There's also a variety of breakfast casseroles on the buffet.

    No one goes hungry while we're chatting this morning!

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    1. BREAKFAST CASSERIOLE! I'm so there. It's snowing here and I am craving hot hearty food.

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  2. I just enjoyed strawberry coffee with sweet cream creamer. I found this interesting to read. I’m currently reading The Highest Of Hopes by Susan Anne Mason. It shows the repercussions of untruths in a persons life. Have a blessed day.

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    1. Strawberry coffee? That sound interesting!

      And I love Susan Anne Mason's books! Enjoy!

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  3. Jan, what a great post! I think once I began writing, it killed my ability to just enjoy the story (my elementary reading ability). However, after a few years, I was able to get that back. Now I think I'm better at reading in all those ways at the same time. And recently, with my neighborhood book club, I've really enjoyed elementary reading again. I think it's easier to do that because I'm reading different genres.

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    1. I had the same problem for a while, but I finally got over it. I went through a few months of re-reading some of my favorite books, and that helped. How can you not just enjoy the Anne of Green Gables series???

      Your book club sounds like fun!

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  4. Jan, I'm not sure I've ever expended that many brain cells when I read. For me, reading is almost always for pleasure. For escape. That doesn't mean I don't take note of the execution of the writing, but I'm not one to overanalyze.

    Now, if we're talking about my own writing, than you can throw all of what I just said out the window. I'm very good at overanalyzing my own work. Which can be a detriment. There's a difference between knowing something's not working and editing it to death. Sometimes, we just have to trust our gut.

    Oh, could you pass the spiced cider, please? ;)

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    1. Reading for pleasure is the most fun there is, isn't it? And how many writers were drawn to the craft because they enjoyed reading?

      I'm bad about over analyzing my own writing, too. If it wasn't for deadlines, I might not ever send in a book. There's always something to fix!

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  5. Hi Jan - thanks for an interesting post. I suppose it's considered analytical reading but I have a very annoying habit I just can't shake. When I finish reading a book, I usually lay awake at night going over in my head all the reasons why it couldn't or wouldn't happen. I rarely find a book that doesn't have what I consider "That doesn't work because..." moments. While it diminishes my enjoyment of the book somewhat, I think it probably helps me as a writer. Fiction has to be believable, even if real life isn't. I'm sure most readers don't even notice or think about these things. Is it a writer's curse? Oh well, it hasn't stopped me from reading. I'm really looking forward to reading Convenient Amish Proposal - and the Amish Christmas Kitchen cover makes me hungry!

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    1. Hi Cindy!

      I find myself getting very impatient with some books! But I've given myself permission to stop reading if the story isn't working for me.

      On the other hand, it's always worth trying a book. Once in a while you find a new author who is a keeper!

      And you're right about the cover of the novella collection. It makes me hungry, too! But just imagine writing one of the stories! My story centers around cookies, and I was craving cookies the whole time I was writing it!

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  6. A bit of breakfast casserole sounds yummy, Jan! Thanks!

    I enjoyed your post. Too often, I read like an editor, which sometimes spoils my enjoyment of the story. What I like most is when I'm totally captured by a book and forget to analyze the style and process and just bask in the characters and their journey. Those books are few these days, not because there aren't enough good books, but because I've always got my editor's hat on. UGH!

    I'm currently reading my book club selection, Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewel. She's a British author so her style is totally different from anything I would write. Perhaps for that reason, I'm into the story and have put my editorial review aside.

    Syntopical reading was a new-to-me term. Yet an important tool for writers to use.

    Stay warm in your area of the world. We have sunshine and blooming flowers in GA!

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    1. We had gorgeous sunshine today...but no flowers. We won't see those until April at the earliest!

      That's a great suggestion, Debby, to read something that's so different from your own writing that the editor's hat never makes an appearance. I'll have to look up Lisa Jewel's book!

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  7. Great post, Jan. I do find myself analyzing the reading of a book now. I notice how the author has used language and dialogue and how they end chapters. Right now I am reading The Saturday Night Supper Club by Carla Laureano. I am enjoying it.

    Love the cover of your Christmas book, Jan. I just love Christmas books.

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    1. The best books are the ones we can enjoy and learn from!

      And I've been wanting to read one of Carla's books. I'll look up The Saturday Night Supper Club. :-)

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  8. I feel like since going through so many major edits to get published the first two times, I have trouble reading a book entirely for pleasure. I still read for fun, but the inner editor in me is always on. It's sort of frustrating. But it also makes me work harder to make sure those mistakes aren't in my books, if I can help it.

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    1. Those edits can be bears! But you made a good point - the goal is to get to the point where we take care of those major edits before we ever submit the book. So you can look at it this way: your inner editor is giving you practice for doing the final read-through for your own work.

      There will always be mistakes. The goal is to catch as many as we can!

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  9. Jan, this is great. I knew on some level that I was reading differently after I became serious about writing. I just didn't know why.
    Finishing up Debby's "Amish Christmas Secrets" and just finished two secular psychological suspense thrillers. My library book is an "Agatha Raisin." Lot of mystery and suspense this winter, not sure why, these books keep FINDING ME which is okay because it's a genre I want to try someday and I must be absorbing something.
    Got my galleys this past weekend and looking for a time to go through them. Fun. Also working on a Christmas novella and plotting and researching the third book in "Western Dreams." Busy but a good kind of busy. Snow today, so able to get a lot of writing done as I don't drive in snow if I can help it. May be back later, KB

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    1. KB, thanks for mentioning AMISH CHRISTMAS SECRETS. I hope you enjoy the story!

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    2. Keeping busy with multiple projects is the best kind of busy! I'm in the middle of three different projects, too. Juggling them while I've been sick hasn't been easy - -

      Well, okay, it's been impossible. But I hope I'll be able to tackle at least one of my projects tomorrow!

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  10. Syntopical reading---I finally have a term for my binge reading! :)

    I'm currently listening to Post Captain, book two in the Aubry/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, so I'm totally immersing myself in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

    I'm also listening to The Eye of the World, book one in the mammoth Wheel of Time series. Just because.

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    1. We always knew binge reading was a good idea, didn't we?

      And now I know how you have time to write, read, AND sew. Audio books! I do the same!

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  11. Hi Jan:

    I just love "How to Read A Book". It may have changed my life. When I was in the military, stationed in Italy, the Base librarian gave me that book and also a copy of "The Lifetime Reading Plan". They were her private copies and well worn from reading. I think she was passing it forward in today's parlance.

    She said, "First learn how to read so reading will do you maximum good and then read the best books that have ever been written. Start this as soon as possible so you can enjoy the benefits of such learning for the rest of your life. You should spend your time with the best minds."

    I was 19 at the time and I have been guided by those two books ever since. That "How to Read a Book" goes into great detail. I like the part about how to have a conversation with those long dead authors. You're told to challenge authors as you read, even the most famous, and you ask them questions and see if those questions are answered later in the book.

    You don't have to be a passive reader. You can be active as you read and even argue with the author. Then you can read another author who is known to argue with that author and see it your arguments were the same. ("The Lifetime Reading Plan"a helps in this respect.)

    "How to Read a Book" taught me not to take an author's word for anything. Be a skeptic. Have a mind of your own.

    I am sure doing this at such an early age has turned me into a philosopher. Graduate school in philosophy was just an extension of what I'd been doing for years in my reading.

    I love arguing with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Now I was getting good grades and a degree for doing it! (Come to think of it, I argue with Ruth too! Poor Ruth.)

    One thing I found very helpful is learning how to read 'as'. Great books are often said to be 'rich', 'deep', and 'multi-layered'.

    Shakespeare is a great example of this. For example: "Hamlet" can be read as history. It can be read as political science. It can be read as contemporary criticism of the then current English government which as a historical could survive censorship. It can also be read as psychology, in fact, "Hamlet" is used in psychology courses for all its classic personality types.

    Philosophers can read "Hamlet" as an early example of Existentialism and of Moral Relativity in Ethics. ("To be or not to be" and "Why then 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.")


    "Hamlet" can be read on any of these levels or any combination of these levels and often at the same time.

    That's why works like "Hamlet" make such rich reading.

    Romance reading? Well, I love to read Debby as 'a mystery' (Who done it?), as a 'suspense' (Will the hero and heroine survive the next page?), as a romance (is their a strong case for the hero and heroine falling in love?) and as an inspirational (is there a spiritual foundation for inspirational theme or does the hero or heroine just say a few prayers, in italics, just to make it seem like an inspirational?)

    Debby not only develops all four themes with full justice, she even adds at times the Amish and or military theme as well. It is so well done it is scary. No argument just admiration. :)

    Right now I've just read, "Northern Deception", by Laurie Wood, as a great suspense by a new author (with danger on every page), as a way to make maximum use of setting, (snow and cold and polar bears as an always imminent threat to life and limb), and as a way to have a completely developed and wonderful step-by-step falling in love romance. There is even a few prayers before meals and for survival when the bears are near by. Great ending. This does not seem like a debut author. I also love to read romances as the first from a given author. Great fun.

    Thanks for your post. I agree with everything you wrote and then some.

    Vince

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    1. I studied How to Read a Book with my younger boys during their sophomore and junior years in high school. I hope they learned as much from it as I did!

      And yes, it's one of my favorite books. I perused it again to prepare for this blog post, reading the notes I made in the margins as I went. It was a good confirmation of the book's teaching!

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    2. Thank you, dear Vince! I am humbled by your kind words about my stories. Truly touched! You've brought light into a very rainy day in Georgia and joy to my heart. I'm grateful.

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  12. A Funny Story About "How to Read a Book"…perhaps funny.

    I was teaching a class in Communications and recommended "How to Read a Book" to the students. One lady objected to the title.

    "I'm not going to read a book on how to read a book. That's contradictory. If I know how to read a book, I don't need to read it and if I don't know how to read, I won't be able to read that book. The whole thing does not make sense."

    The class was about over and I said something like, "That's an interesting point to think about over the weekend."

    What I was thinking was, "Aristotle would spin in his grave if he knew his logic was being used to seal in ignorance for a lifetime."

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    1. How sad. I remember my younger son giving me that same type of argument before we began studying the book. By the end of the introduction he was eating his words!

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  13. So sorry I've been scarce this afternoon! I was able to get in to see the doctor, so as soon as the meds take effect, I'll catch up on the comments!

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  14. At first your post caught me off guard because I thought, "I'm not smart enough to read this post." Then I realized that your topic was very similar to how I teach writing in my classroom. We read to write.

    The book I'm currently reading is Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear. It's a police procedural based in England and quite difficult for me to get through since so much of the vocabulary is cultural. I've had to look up many pop culture references! Reading this makes me slow down, and I don't always like that.

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed the post, Dianna! One of my goals was to make the information accessible to anyone who was unfamiliar with the concepts. But you use a similar method to teach writing? Great minds think alike!

      And your comment about vocabulary is exactly why I use very few Pennsylvania Dutch words in my Amish books. I try to use ones that are obvious, like "Mamm" and "Datt," so that the reader doesn't have to think twice about what the word means.

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  15. Hi Jan, I've just learned that I fit at least two of the reading levels. I definitely am #1 and #3. I read for pleasure and I have since my first Dick & Jane books. I am also a Syntopical Reader. I enjoy several different genres but I often find myself just reading historical fiction. Then it may be cozy mysteries or Amish fiction or suspense. I also appreciate that you choose to use vocabulary that is easy for us to understand. I look forward to An Amish Christmas Kitchen.
    Blessings!

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  16. Jan, thanks for this installment. :) My husband and I attended a play a couple of weeks ago and I was surprised at how much I could predict - not that it was predictable - but since I've started actively writing, I find myself analyzing storylines and thinking of all the possibilities until I settle on the best one. It was fun attending the play and then hearing my husband gasp at the end when all the loose ends were tied up. I turned and smiled at him, "I saw that coming." LOL

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