Story Magic

106 - Studying published works

• Golden May

Share episode

Today, Emily & Rachel talk about studying published works. 

What you’ll learn from this episode:

  • why studying published works is our fav trick for leveling up your skills
  • how to study and apply the lessons
  • growing your knowledge while keeping your unique voice

Ready to make readers so in love with your characters they can’t stop biting their nails in anticipation?  Grab The Magic of Character Arcs free email course: https://www.goldenmayediting.com/arcsmagic

Join Tenacious Writing! With the perfect combo of craft, mindset, and community resources, you will build a writing life that feels sustainable, fulfilling, and fun—without any prescriptions or rules. Learn more: https://www.tenaciouswriting.com/

If you enjoyed Story Magic, please rate, review and follow on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to this podcast!

Follow us on social media!

Rachel: https://www.instagram.com/bookcoachrachel/

Emily: https://www.instagram.com/ebgoldenbooks/


Emily:

Hey, writers.

Rachel:

Welcome back to Story Magic, the podcast that will help you write a book you're damn proud of.

Emily:

I'm Emily.

Rachel:

And I'm Rachel.

Emily:

And today we are talking about my secret tool for improving your writing skills. I really don't talk about this enough. I really do. Just. I want to talk about it. So we're talking about studying published works. So I do this a lot in the tenacious writing community. We do study groups every couple of months where we will pick chapters from works in progress and, like, some kind of craft tool like show don't tell or descriptions. And then we'll read with that in mind. And they're super helpful. But I also do it in my own writing a lot, and I've been doing it the last couple of weeks because I'm writing. So I'm writing a new story, and it's. It's a. It's fantasy, but it's. It's more suspenseful than my other books have been. And so I've been reading a lot of actual contemporary suspense. So I've been reading. I've fallen in love with Charlotte McConaughey, who wrote Migrations and Once There Were Wolves and Wild Dark Shore. I love her stuff. And then I also read Broken country by Claire Leslie Hall, I think her name is. And they all have this vibe of, you know, there's a female main men, main protagonist. There's. It's in. Written in first person present. And they start. She starts with, like, this question. Like, there's this question that's raised, you know, who killed the farmer? Or, you know, what happened to her sister or whatever. The question is, you know, why is this woman washing up on shore? And then they use that question to drag this intrigue through scenes that deepen who the character is and, like, why that, like, deepen the intrigue around the question with a lot of character development. So the reason I say that is, like, it's a very specific structural, like, technique that goes beyond scene structure or show don't tell or, you know, how you structure a good opening. It's, like, specific to the kind of vibe and, like, feeling that you want your story to have. And. And it's made me, like, I'm actually sitting down with the chat, like, after I've read the books, like, sitting down with the first five chapters and, like, breaking them down. Like, how many words are they? Like, what information is revealed? And just, like, looking at those very specific details, because that's the vibe that I want to bring to my stories. And, like, that's what I want to deal with, the experience I want to deliver to my reader. And so the reason that I say that is I think that craft can sometimes be, like, way up here with the theory. Right.

Rachel:

Emily has her hands above her head.

Emily:

Above my head. I'm waving my fingers above her head.

Rachel:

They are way up here, Way up here.

Emily:

And. And I feel like that's great. Like, we all need to understand the fundamentals, but, like, the reality is that every genre is different. And, like, every type of story has, like, different reader expectations. And the only way that you can really, really dig into the nitty gritty of, like, the experience that you want to deliver to your reader is not only by reading the books that have that same experience, but, like, breaking down why they work. I just feel like it's like. It's like a magical power and that nobody talks about enough. It's like, yeah, we have to read in our genre. Like, we say that all the time, you know, read in your genre. Read lots of books in your genre. But that's not the same as, like, sitting down with a book and being like, why does this book work? And what can I learn from why it works to apply to, like, what the experience I want my readers to have with my stories. Because sometimes they're going to break the rules.

Rachel:

Yes.

Emily:

And so if you're just, like, obsessed with what the rules of craft are, like, you're not going to see all those nuanced ways that you can use the tools in different ways or break the rules for a specific effect. And the only way to do that is to, like, actually sit down with the books that you want. Not to emulate is probably not the right word. But, like, the books that have the same experience, I wouldn't call these books comp titles. They're all contemporary. They're not fantasy. So this is something different. It's more about, like, the experience I want my readers to have and, like, how that experience is delivered. So, anyway, you're. I rambled enough. What are your thoughts? Do you ever do this?

Rachel:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, when I first started writing Mafia, like, I read a hundred Mafia books, you know, like, that we were very much like, you have to read within your genre. But it's not just that. It's, like, understanding the tropes and, like, understanding how they're used. And are you going to use them the same way? Are you going to turn it on your head? And. And it also is knowing that, like, you're gonna select a trope, perhaps that is probably not going to appeal to everyone, but it's very common in this reader group, you know, And I. I think I did this a lot for spicy scenes, for sex scenes. And I'm also gonna say fan fiction. That's where it's at. I recommend this to my clients all the time. If you want to learn how to write good spicy scenes, go read a bunch of fanfiction and see what's so bad about them. 100%. I want to do an episode on fan fiction. I. I say this with immense bucket loads of love. I love fanfiction. I've written it. I will not tell anybody what it was about, so don't ask me. I'm not going to tell you. You won't know. That's fine. My fan fictions are very well loved. I'll never tell you what they are, but reading a bunch of fan fiction on spicy scenes was able to show me. Like, okay, these are the ones that work. These are the ones that don't. Why? Yeah, why do I hate this one? And why did I love this one? And it was like a very hyper focus, like a very hyper specific study on that thing.

Emily:

I love that.

Rachel:

Yeah, I feel like this is very helpful. Studying topics, studying like a specific character trope. Because I think in Mafia, there's this trope of, like, it's called over the top ott, and it's like a male protagonist who is just absolutely ridiculous, right? Absolutely over the top. In real life, this guy would be hundreds of walking red flags. But like, in books, you eat it up, right? Like, you want that so bad because he's so over the top. And so I. I read a couple books, like, study that trope. And one of the best Mafia books that I ever read is a book called Dom by S.J. tilly. His name's Dominic, so that's why it's shortened to Dom. That guy is the worst, period, but obsessed. He's like, that book is incredible. It is so incredible. Is it incredibly written? I don't know. But the characters in that book hit the tropes, they hit the reader group. They hit everything. So I. I feel like this is a very helpful study, not only for writing the book, but also marketing it.

Emily:

Yeah, that too. That too.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

So, yeah, I love that idea of, like, going. Going to study something specific. I've done that too. I've done that with fight scenes. Like, when I was first learning how to write fight scenes, I was like, what makes a good fight scene? I don't know. I'm so overwhelmed and instead of just banging my head against the wall, I think I. One of my favorite fight scenes ever written is in the Second Way of King's book by Brandon Sanderson. And so I, like, broke. Like, I printed it out, I broke it down. Like, I annotated all over it. And then I remember, for some reason, I have this very specific vision of there's this one scene in the second Poppy War book where someone I won't name stabs someone else. Do you remember what I'm talking about?

Rachel:

No. I read those books.

Emily:

It's a betrayal. It's a betrayal.

Rachel:

Anyway, countless in that book aren't there.

Emily:

It's true. Lots of betrayals. I don't want to, but I remember printing that one out and. And studying it for a specific reason. I think I was trying to figure out, like, how did she deliver such an emotional impact for the scene? So, you know, that can be really helpful in, like, openings. Like, I was just talking to my CP yesterday and she's working on the opening, revising the opening of her. One of her thriller novels. And she read, like, the openings of seven thriller novels and was like, what makes these work? To try to figure out an answer, to move forward. So it's not just at a book level. Like, it can be at a scene level specific, like, first kisses, you know, you can look at some of those to figure out how they work. Fight scenes, arguments, things like that. It's one of the most powerful things, not only because of what, like you said, like, reading scenes for why they work, but also, like, what you don't like about it, what didn't work for you. That tells you a lot about the. The experience you want to deliver in your story. And that means nothing about the other book or its worth or anything like that, but it just gives you information about, like, what. What you want to do. And I feel like that more than any other craft tool is, like, going to give you inspiration, excitement, and things like that. And I think people get worried that they're gonna, you know, it's gonna entice them to copy or that it's plagiarism or, you know, something. And it's not like we always get inspiration. It's just being more intentional about that inspiration you uniquely want to do with your story.

Rachel:

I think. I think it's also easier to avoid that if you're reading a good chunk of authors, right? Like, you're not just being like, oh, I really love S.J. tilly's Dom. I'm going to go write a book. Like S.J. tilly's Dom. Right. No, go, go. Read this author. This author. Why don't we read some queer authors? Why don't we read some bipoc authors? Like, let's get a full understanding of how this works across everybody and use all of those different things to infuse that inspiration. And not just, okay, here's one example that I really liked. Can I do something like that? Not that that's necessarily bad, but I do think the more data you have, the easier it is to feel like you're drawing from multiple sources, not just from one.

Emily:

Yeah, that's a great point. Also with genre, too, right? Like, reading outside. Like, reading in your genre is important, but also reading outside your genre, you know, like, what is it that. I read a lot of contemporary romances. I don't write them, but there's something that I really like about those. Romances are structured in the way that people fall in love and, like, their emotional attraction. And so I look for those types of things to bring into my fantasy romances to make sure that, you know, that emotional intensity that I like is in the pages of my story. And same with, like, I. This book that I'm writing right now is. Is partially a murder mystery. So I went and read, like, several contemporary. Like, you know, your classic murder mystery is to look at, like, how. How do red herrings work and things like that. So you can look outside. If you have, like, subplots and things like that that you want to flesh out, you can go look at the genres that focus on that.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

To bring those tools into your story. Mine's not a murder mystery. You know, a straight murder mystery. It's also not a straight romance. And so I'm just kind of borrowing from those genres. Yeah, yeah.

Rachel:

I think I did this too, when I was writing. I still have, like, that portal fantasy and Musgravener drafts that's, like, ready to be revised whenever I feel like it. But I had. So I'd written two drafts of that portal fantasy, like, all the way through, and the first draft, the Act 1, was, like, all the way off. And I. I couldn't quite, like, figure out what exactly was not working about it, but I knew that it just wasn't. It wasn't hitting right. It, like, wasn't. And I kept, like, trying to change the scenes themselves and, like, tweak them. And then I. That portal fantasy is based on. Inspired by. I guess I could say inspired by a Japanese genre of manga called isekai, which is basically, you die and you're transported into another world. And I went back and I. I read a ton of that manga. So I went back and I read a couple more and was like, oh, the character always dies in the first chapter. And then they get transported to the other world in the first chapter. And I was like, that's. I kept trying to do like, a save the cat setup where, like, the. The portal is the catalyst. It's like, no, no, no. Like, the portal has. Has to be the first scene, like, where the character dies and goes into the other world. Because that's. I mean, that's this. That's everything. Like, that's the setup. And then when they get to the other world, we find the plot problem. Right? Like, the problem is not necessarily that they died, it's that they go into the other world and everyone expects them to be the hero. And they're like, well, I'm not a hero. I'm just a human who reincarnated here. Oh, no. So then, like, you. I had to, like, look at how are these other stories structuring? Because I think I'm missing something.

Emily:

Yeah, that's a great example of how, like, if sometimes if you're too obsessed with the tool, instead of looking at what works across the genre and you know what people are expecting that you can kind of put yourself in that hole, that it doesn't feel right. Yeah, cool.

Rachel:

Fun. Yeah, cool.

Emily:

So if you want to study with us, come join. Tenacious writing. Yeah.

Rachel:

And like, this isn't it. Like, I don't think I've ever annotated a notes the way that you've described. But, like, I think it's just an awareness that. Print it out if that's helpful. But if you're. If that's not going to be helpful for you, just think about it while you're reading. I did a lot of that when we started studying Story point. Like, when we first started working on story point, I was like, what? What is this? What? What? And then I was reading, being like, oh, that's a story point. Like, looking for it. I also remember doing the very. The paying attention to see if I could, like, highlight save the cat beats while I was reading to be like, oh, this is the theme stated. Like, trying to find it on the page. Here's the theme stated. So I would take, like, whatever craft tool we were learning and just read a book being like, is it here? Is it not here? Why? Why not? And it. It then becomes very obvious. It. Like, the more you do it, it starts to become very Obvious where you're like, well, there's the theme stated beat. Cool. Now we're in the debate. We're moving into Act 2. But, like, I think bringing an awareness to your reading and whatever it is that's top of mind, don't go into it being like, I have to study this whole book. Like, pick a thing. Yeah. Read something and, like, think. Think about that thing.

Emily:

Yeah. And for me, it's hard for me to think about that stuff while I'm reading. So I. I kind of have to go back and then look after you read because I just. Yeah. I mean, I don't. I don't have a great memory. Memory. So, like, for me to. To be Reading Act 1 and, like, picking up the clues of what their arc might be, like, I forget those. And so then by the end, I'm like, oh, you know, this is the arc. But I don't know where they started. Like, I don't remember the specifics. And so but once I go back, I can start to see and flip through. I can see all the. All the little clues that are in there. So again, it's whatever your brain wants to do, whatever your process is, however, best you learn and, like, retain information. Like, the key is just to be intentional about the reading. If you're just sinking into the book and enjoying it, you're probably going to subconsciously get some stuff. But, like, what we're saying is, like, read with a little more intention, whatever that looks like for you.

Rachel:

Yeah. Yeah. I just read one last note.

Emily:

I.

Rachel:

When I was reading, we. I read poll position by Rebecca J. Caffrey for a class we're going to teach. And when I was reading it, I just, like, had. I read it on my Kindle. So I just had, like, the notes app on my phone to, like, whenever I thought, whenever I had a thought that was like, oh, I think this is relevant to, you know, the character arcs or this feels important. I would just, like, make a note. And then when I was done reading, I could look back over and be like, oh, okay, this is. This actually made sense. This didn't, you know, And I also did a lot of, like, highlighting in my Kindle too, without even necessarily, like, taking notes, just being like, I think this is a passage that might be important. And then when you get to the end, Kendall saves all your annotations. So then you can look back and be like, oh, wow, that was a theme stated. I was right. Or here is the. I thought this was the midpoint. What. What created the shift? Like, so, like, Emily said, just do whatever's gonna work for you and just bring it that intention to it, because you'll start to notice and pick up things, and the more you do it, the more you'll learn.

Emily:

Yeah. As I've been. I've been doing a similar thing with the Kindle as I've been reading these suspense books. Like, every time something feels like a clue, I highlight it. And then by the. At the end, I can go look at my Kindle notes and. And you can see kind of chronologically how the author has built the red herrings.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

Because you can see where the clues were planted and, like, what they were trying to lead you to believe. And so I find that really helpful when I go back through to be like, ah, okay, this is how she structured the mystery or whatever.

Rachel:

Love that. Cool.

Emily:

So go. Go study your favorite books, guys.

Rachel:

Good luck. Have fun. If you want to build a successful, fulfilling, and sustainable writing life that works for you, you've got to get on our email list.

Emily:

Sign up now to get our free email course, the Magic of Character Arcs. After seven days of email magic, you'll have the power to keep your readers flipping pages all through the night.

Rachel:

Link in the show notes. We'll see you there.

Emily:

Bye.