I’ve been reading a lot lately — both fiction and non-fiction. While I consider a pleasure factor, I’m reading to learn. The more I read with the Eye of a Writer, the more I realize I have a lot to learn about storytelling.

Writing, if one is a writer, is simply something one does. Life doesn’t get in the way. I’ve allowed life to get in the way, and I confess I’m likely to continue to allow life to get in the way for at least a little while longer. I will continue to read with the Eye of the Writer. In fact, I will strive to improve Eye of the Writer skills — plot identification, analyzing dialog and description to see how it’s used to advance the story, finding layering and interweaving to see if I can identify how different writers use these techniques to bring richness to the characters and the stories, and examining word choices for effect. I look for allegories within the story as well as themes. And, certainly, I want to understand what makes a story compelling. These are things I believe are missing in my stories, and I’d like to learn how to weave them in — both in the original version and in my revisions.

To accomplish this, I need to re-read some of the books I’ve been reading and specifically analyze them for the things listed above. Once I begin doing this, my TBR pile may not decrease as rapidly. Or maybe it will — as long as I do the analysis separately from reading new material.

It’s still All About the Numbers, but the numbers represent different things. And learning not applied is forgotten, so, yes, I do need to return to writing words as well.