How does literature help you to be a better writer?
2007-03-19 05:26:39 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Well, for starters, if you don't enjoy reading you have no business writing! Writing is a craft, and part of the craft is understanding how other writers practice it. Reading allows you to see how writers use language to create an effect. It helps you develop an internal mechanism that assists you with those intangibles like pacing, mood, setting, characterisation, etc.
The fact is, there is a difference between knowing how to write properly and knowing how to write well. You can teach someone how to write properly. Spelling, grammar, punctuation---these are all basic mechanics that can be taught. But in order to write WELL, you must first be able to identity how those basic mechanics can be used to bring a story to life. And that is a lesson that can only be learned by reading.
2007-03-19 05:56:10 · answer #1 · answered by bardsandsages 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The study of literature exposes you to good writing through the centuries. You learn how different authors in different time periods dealt with similar themes in their work. You learn what good writing looks and sounds like when it is read aloud. You learn that your take on a subject may already have been written about by someone else, whom you either envy, learn from or improve upon. You also - and this may be the most important reason to study literature - learn historical context and references. Many of our cliches were coined by William Shakespeare...they were new and fresh ways of expressing ideas in the 1600's and we've kept using them until they have become pretty tired now.
2007-03-19 12:39:29 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Like viewing fine art sometimes helps an artist pick up techniques and ideas, I'm sure literature does the same for the writer.
2007-03-19 12:37:21 · answer #3 · answered by loves easy tears 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You'll know things like the different homophones, grammar and spelling. Of course you won't be perfect, Stephen King and Dean Koontz aren't even perfect. I know Koontz goes through each page at least 20 times until he things it's good. Though reading also enhances your other skills and your overall IQ level. Essentially, you will know when something doesn't sound right, just based on reading published authors. Having an editor will, of course, always help the case too, lol.
2007-03-19 12:42:49 · answer #4 · answered by Poet 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You can study good literature and that helps you build your vocabulary and smooth out your prose. Good writers use a unique andpowerful, though not out-of-place, vocabulary, and that helps you gain words that you can incorporate into your own story. It is very useful, and a great way to learn vocabulary because you see it used in context
2007-03-19 12:36:36 · answer #5 · answered by sahire 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Gee....what a ridiculous question.
How would studying old paintings help you become a better painter?
How would studying architecture help you become a better architecht?
How would reading classic poets help you write better poetry?
It's called EDUCATION. Most humans consider it a valuable commodity in this day and age. We began formally educating ourselves about 3000 years ago now.
Catch up
2007-03-19 12:56:27 · answer #6 · answered by snaggle_smurf 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well I would imagine that anythime you read how the greats did it.... Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, Harper Lee, etc.... well when you read them you get a great understanding of literary usages and the way it should be done as compared to todays popular fiction authors....
I reccomend reading "A Moveable Feast" by Hemmingway.... the best book of all time.
2007-03-19 12:36:48 · answer #7 · answered by Johnny Mek 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋