"Read and you will learn to write."

That's the message on a poster I have on the wall of my classroom.

I put it up several years ago when I was teaching underclassmen. I wanted to inspire my freshmen and sophomores to greater literary heights, and so forth and so on. Now, I teach Advanced Placement Literature and Composition, and no one takes that course unless they really love to read, and they're pretty good writers already. But the poster remains, and I've found its message particularly appropriate since I started writing and publishing myself.

I wrote last week that I'd purchased a couple of books from River Bend Books. One, Dominion by Addie Citchens, is set in a small town in Mississippi. The narrative alternates between two voices: the wife of the charismatic pastor of a 1000-member Black church, and the young girl who is in love with their son. It's a technique used frequently; think Jodi Picoult, for example, and how her books jump from one narrator's perspective to another. It works, of course.

I've never used that approach, but I've still learned from it. It requires the author to have fully realized characters who are completely consistent from first to last, who appear to exist outside the mind of the implied author. I often find myself needing to explain what the character is thinking, or why, which breaks the single-voice narration. That's hard enough with one narrator, let alone two or more.

The other book I purchased is God and Sex by Jon Reynolds. I'm only partway through it, so I'll withhold judgement. But the narrator is completely different from those in Dominion. He's a writer, for one thing. And totally self-absorbed. He describes in detail the book he's unsuccessfully writing, from conceiving the theme, doing research, and finally writing it down, one sentence at a time, it seems. I don't write that way; my ideas are usually very specific, and I have a pretty goo idea of where a story's going to go by the time i sit down to type. But I'm intrigued by his description of his own process, crafting sentences and paragraphs like they were details of a sculpture he's only just started.

As I read, I'm always asking myself, "How does the author do that? How does the transition from one point of view to another work?" Then, applying it to my own work, "Would this story work better if it were told in the first person? In the past tense? from multiple viewpoints, or with a single, omniscient narrator who permits us to see the thoughts of all the characters?

In the end, it's the story that needs to be told. One I finished over the summer has one outside narrator, but four distinct points of view. It's called (for now) "Jimmy and Lisa." I promise to let you know when it finds a home.

The main point that I wanted to make, though, is that I read daily for at least an hour. I alternate among short stories and novels, with occasional long pieces of nonfiction. I'm always observing. I believe that the more I read, the more options I have in my story-telling, and the more secure I am in the choices I make.

"Are You Okay?" And Other Stories on Barnes & Noble and Amazon

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