Do YOU Read Like A Writer?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, I think about this EVERY time I read a book.

Do you?

First:

We are so honored to host the amazing Zoje Stage today!  I met her at a convention some years ago when her first book came out-–the super creepy (in an amazing way) BABY TEETH. In real life, Zoje is wonderful and charming and brilliant, and not one bit creepy. But whoa, her books are.

And she continues to have wild success. See below for more about her brand new DEAR HANNA.

And all of us here at Jungle Red, you Reds and readers, have one massive thing in common with Zoje. 

We read.

But HOW do we read?

Zoje has some tantalizing  thoughts.

Reading As a Writer

by Zoje Stage

Recently I was having lunch with a friend and he started telling me, in an animated voice, about a movie he'd watched a few days earlier. As a devotee of DVDs and VHS tapes, he has access to more obscure films than what's available on streaming, and the one that had sparked his interest was made in the 1960s. When he was about two thirds of the way into describing the film's plot, I couldn't help but jump in and tell him the rest of the story.

He knew I hadn't seen the movie. And he stared at me in shock and asked, "How did you know that?"

How did I know that? My friend has a talent for remembering the films he watches in quite a bit of detail (unlike me, who forgets everything I watch or read within forty-eight hours), so that helped me see the story in my head. And then I just knew—because there was only one logical direction for the story to take. Well, one logical direction if I guessed correctly about the film being reminiscent of an old Twilight Zone episode. And I was right.

I found myself explaining, as we finished our lunch, that as a storyteller I seem to intuitively look for a narrative's "direction." For better or worse, it's quite easy for me to spot this in genre stories, where a certain logic prevails for each kind of genre. Much of what I read are thrillers or horror, and though I'm really not an analytical person I do often find myself taking guesses about what will happen next, and even questioning some of the writer's decisions if they strike me as illogical (and no, I swear I'm not related to Mr. Spock).

Is it unfair to scrutinize a book as I read it? I didn't do this before becoming a published author, and now I periodically ask myself: Do I enjoy novels less now, as I'm so much more aware of the storytelling mechanics?

I'm happy to say the answer to that is no, even as I am more conscious of a novel's various elements. It does seem, though, that I've developed something of a "grading system":

1) If I'm too right about the direction of a book's plot—so right that nothing completely unexpected happens—it limits my overall satisfaction with the book, even if I enjoyed its beautiful writing.

2) A very happy scenario is when I correctly guess some aspects of how the novel will unfold, yet experience some surprising turns along the way. This makes me feel like a competent sleuth, while letting me marvel at the author's creative skill.

3) And I have two sub-categories for stories that are so unpredictable that they take their own narrative path:

         a) Let's be real, some of those stories are a mess, bucking conventions that work, or lacking a strong throughline or enough intriguing elements.

         b) Other times this approach can produce work of stunning genius, where everything is a surprise, yet logical within its own world. These are the kinds of stories that can make you gasp—or make you doubt your own authorial abilities (or wonder what sort of drugs the writer is taking). But in their magical unexpectedness, they are a gift.

I read novels that fall into all of these groups, and enjoy many of them. As a reader—with a writer's mind—the only thing that truly disappoints me is improbable (or lazy) setups, as they temper the effectiveness of everything that follows. But there's no question that I root for every book I pick up to be the best thing I've ever read.

HANK: SO agree! I am so hoping that every book is fabulous. And I love guessing SOME of the plot, but not all of it. ANd I am annoyed by out-of-the-blue twists.

How about you, Reds and Readers?  If you write, do you, like Zoje, enjoy novels less now, as  you are so much more aware of the storytelling mechanics? If you read, does understanding story mechanics make you read differently?

 

Zoje Stage’s newest novel, DEAR HANNA is currently number 6 in Horror/Suspense on Amazon!

Her debut novel, Baby Teeth, was a USA Today and international bestseller and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. Her second “mind-bending” (New York Times) novel, Wonderland, was one of Book Riot’s Best Horror Books of 2020. Getaway, a “stunning…third triumph” (Booklist, starred review), was named by LitReactor as one of the Best Books of 2021. Her following “utterly arrowing…masterful” (Criminal Element), is Mothered.

She lives in Pittsburgh with her cats. For more information visit https://zojestage.blogspot.com/.   Amazon, Bookshop,org, Barnes & Noble.

DEAR HANNA

Zoje Stage delivers another knockout with a blood-chilling follow-up to international sensation Baby Teeth, taking readers back into the unsteady world of a young sociopath who’s all grown up.

Hanna is no stranger to dark thoughts: as a young child, she tried to murder her own mother. But that was more than sixteen years ago. And extensive therapy—and writing letters to her younger brother—has since curbed those nasty tendencies.

Now twenty-four, Hanna is living an outwardly normal life of domestic content. Married to real estate agent Jacob, she’s also stepmother to his teenage daughter Joelle. They live in a beautiful home, and Hanna loves her career as a phlebotomist—a job perfectly suited to her occasional need to hurt people.

But when Joelle begins to change in ways that don’t suit Hanna’s purposes, her carefully planned existence threatens to come apart. With life slipping out of her control, Hanna reverts to old habits, determined to manipulate the events and people around her. And the only thing worse than a baby sociopath is a fully grown one.

Amazon, Bookshop,org, Barnes & Noble.