Hey everyone! I’m back finally with a few stand-alone posts before the end of the year. I can’t wait to get to this next couple posts. Today’s post is a little break from the usual writing advice but talks about something just as important to writer’s, reading! So, without further ado…
Books I’ve Reread
Today’s post is about some of the books that I’ve reread because I think of them as some of the best books I have ever read because of the writing tools and skills I have learned from them. I feel like this post is appropriate because even though it’s about reading there are a lot of different things you can learn about writing from reading all sorts of different books. As I list each book, I’m going to briefly explain what it is I like about the book and how I have related that item to writing. I’m going to try to include the covers of some of my favorite books so that you might also read them if you like.
The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
The first book I’m listing that I’ve reread is actually a series of 3 books. The first book is titled the Outstretched Shadow and that is the picture below.
I loved the series. I first read it when I was 14 and enjoyed the characters along with the storyline. I have since reread it twice. Once when I was 18 and another time just recently. Although a lot of my favorite parts have changed over the years as I grew older there were certain aspects of this series that I enjoyed no matter how old I was.
I enjoyed the writing style in that it switched between the point of view of the protagonist characters, the antagonist characters, and several interesting side characters. Although this is not a unique writing style (in fact it’s quite common in the high fantasy genre) the way that they combined this style with an interesting and twisting plot is what made it intriguing.
SPOILER AHEAD
Something else I enjoyed about this series was that the characters all seemed like real people and their relationships developed and expressed themselves in the way that normal relationships in real life would have. Kellen’s relationship with Idalia when they meet in the first book is exactly what you’d expect from long lost siblings when one didn’t even realize they had a sibling and the other remembers practically raising you. The relationship between Idalia and Jermaine is exactly what I’d expect between two people with their opposing viewpoints. All of the relationships, platonic, romantic, and familial were illustrated well and all the characters had realistic development. Even Kellen (the main character) developed in a way that made sense. Granted he still had a little bit of that main character power up that tend to happen in stories but even then, his personality evolved in a perfectly natural way following the development of his powers.
All in all, this book taught me a lot about writing in different styles and creating characters that were real. I was taught by a lot of different writing classes in school that a character should take the action that would lead to the most interesting plot twists and story development, but this book taught me that the character should make the choices they would make based off motivation and the story would evolve around those choices not the other way around.
From Far Away by Kyoko Hikawa
From far away is one of my favorite manga of all time. Although difficult to come by hard copies, I have read this series a total of 8 times in the last 5 years am attempting to collect all 14 volumes of the series. The cover of volume 1 is pictured below.
From far away (or Kanata Kara in Japanese) is a manga series first written in 1993 and completed with the 14th volume 10 years later. I discovered the manga by accident because it was a suggested reading based on another manga I had been reading. They were totally different genres and totally different writing styles but were both written in the 1990’s. I absolutely love this manga, not only because the romance was adorable between the two characters, but also because the storyline itself taught a lot of interesting things about writing.
SPOILERS AHEAD
One of my favorite things I learned from this book to help with my writing was about villains. At the beginning of the story the villain appears to be a belief or concept held by the people of the world that Noriko travels to but as the story continues it fluctuates between different characters being the evil in the story. We realize that a specific leader is evil and then different characters unaffiliated with that villain continue to pop up, making it seem like all the villains are unrelated. But as you get into volume 13 and 14 you begin to realize the truth. Although some of the villains in the story aren’t related to each other and a few are, the main villain isn’t actually any of the characters. The villain is straight up evil. The main villain is the ethereal construct of evil. And the heroine is literally the embodiment of light and goodness. Every character in the story carries a little bit of both with them and depending on which is stronger they are either a hero or a villain.
This concept really influenced my writing of characters as a whole. I came to realize through this book that no one (not even the bad guys) is 100% evil. The only evil is evil itself. On the flip side, no one (not even the good guys) are 100% good. This creates an interesting concept of characters who are neither good nor bad but simply humans. This helps me to create a story more relatable for readers and therefore a better story overall.
Maximum Ride Series
I have heard mixed reviews on these books over the years but overall, I love them. The first book in the series was published in 2005 and still isn’t completed with a continuation of the series continuing with a few new characters. I have reread this series a few times and every time I reread the books, I find a new writing skill I can work on improving in my own story. May favorite version of the cover for the first book is below.
Maximum Ride is an interesting series that I have been reading since I was in 5th grade when my 5th grade teacher read the first couple chapters to us as a class. I once attempted to write a Maximum Ride fanfiction (don’t ask about it I deleted all the digital copies and I think I only have a single copy left that I wrote by hand). And even though there were parts in the series I didn’t like and those that I did I still feel like no matter how many times I read it there is always something for me to learn.
One of the first things I learned from reading Maximum Ride was really how to write a book from a single female character’s perspective. Up to the time I read this series for the first time when I was 10 all of the books I’d read where either from third person perspectives or first-person male characters. I had been attempting to write books at his point, but all my first-person characters were female and every time I had a friend, or a teacher read my book they always thought my character was male. It wasn’t until I read Maximum Ride that I realized that first person voice was important in writing. Ever since I was 11, I’ve been striving to develop my own unique voice through writing and because of that I can say that I personally feel like my best writing skill is voice.
I also learned about subplots through reading Maximum Ride. Maximum Ride was really the first series of books I read when I was younger that introduced subplots and also the writing skill of subplots becoming main plots. I’ve found other examples of this skill over the years, but I still don’t feel like I have been able to really develop that skill in my own writing.
I would like to finish this post by saying that these are not the only 3 books or series that I have reread but they are on my top 10 list. Reading is a great way to not only entertain yourself but a good way to learn new writing skills. Plus, if anyone ever wants to interrupt you while you’re reading you can claim your doing research and can’t be bothered. 😊 I hope that this post helped realize the kinds of things you can learn from reading and also suggest 3 new things to add to your list of things to read when you get a chance.
Next week we’ll be having another stand alone post on how music can help you keep your motivation high for writing. I’m excited as we come to the end of the year to have some interesting and fun posts. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, become a blog page member, share, and follow me on social media at the links at the bottom of the page. And remember,
Get Up, Get Writing, and Get Published. See you next week!
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