One Writer's Reading

by Helen Jackson

I'm just back from Eastercon, the UK's annual National Science Fiction Convention. It reminded me that there's often no clear line between writer and reader, particularly in speculative fiction. John Scalzi's explanation for this is: "people start writing science fiction ... roughly ten seconds after they set down The Star Beast or Ender’s Game or Snow Crash because they get done with the book and think, holy crap, I want to do that."

What better way to figure out how to start doing that than by reading more books and considering what other writers do?

The second thing I rediscovered at Eastercon: speculative fiction fans are incredibly well read. As a group, we know our stuff. As a writer, I need to remember that readers come to my work familiar with the tropes, precedents and latest developments in the genre.

It's important for me keep up to date. All speculative fiction fans grew up reading the same classic writers (Le Guin and Heinlein were the two I discovered first, gateway drugs into other worlds). But, it's not enough to read the classics and stop there. Society has changed; writing styles have changed; things that were fresh and new half-way through the twentieth century may be tired old clichés now.

My top ways of adding to my "to read" bookshelf are:

* Recommendations. My friends and I swap books incessantly, and I love BookCrossing and Goodreads. I kept a list of suggestions from people I met at Eastercon, including tips from a panel discussing the top books of 2012 chaired by Chris Hill. (See Eastercon newsletter 6 for the panel's recommendations.)

* Proper old-fashioned bookshops. I advise making friends with your local independent bookseller -- I get great personalized recommendations from Mike Calder at Edinburgh's brilliant Transreal Fiction.

* Awards shortlists. Speculative fiction is particularly interesting because some awards are judged by a panel (e.g. the Clarke awards) and some are judged by readers (e.g. the Hugos). The critics and the fans often don't agree.

It's good for me to read what I'm writing -- not just the genre, but the form. My story in Penumbra's May issue is a piece of flash fiction; if I stuck to novels I'd have no grasp of what's possible in a thousand words. Fortunately, speculative flash arrives in my inbox every morning -- free! -- thanks to Daily Science Fiction. For short stories, I read magazines such as Penumbra, Interzone, F&SF and Asimov's, or I read online at Strange Horizons or Clarkesworld.

As a writer, reading is research and inspiration, occasionally a source of extreme envy (some writers are so good it hurts), and -- more than anything -- fun. When I put down a book I've loved I can't help thinking "holy crap, I want to do that."

Helen Jackson likes making stuff up and eating cake. She's lucky enough to live in Edinburgh, her favorite city. Her stories have recently been published in Interzone and Daily Science Fiction, and in the anthology Rocket Science.

Learn more about Helen on her website or find her on Goodreads.