One of the aspects of being an enthusiast or a professional is, I think, never being “off-duty”. For example, I enjoy playing blues harp, so when I hear a record or, back in the old days, a live band with a harp player, I’d find myself thinking: “I wonder how he achieved that effect.” Sometimes — often, in fact — I’ve found myself experimenting with different keys while playing along to a record until I’ve found the one that was used. (I don’t mean just working out which key the song is in: it’s more complicated than that. It’s a matter of working out which position the harp player was using. You can find out what that means by clicking on this link: Bamboozled by harmonica keys? Harmonica positions explained.)

I find myself doing the same with reading: how does the writer achieve that effect? How did I not see that coming? I wrote about the importance of reading for writers in Good reading for would-be good writers, so I was delighted to come across a series of articles on the Electric Literature website. Called Read like a writer, each article examines a particular aspect or effect found in (some) fiction writing, and illustrates the points by delving into three short stories.

At the time of writing there are four articles in the series. Although I don’t write fiction (apart from my to-do list), I’ve enjoyed the articles immensely, and found them very informative. They have also, perhaps inadvertently, introduced me to writers and stories I hadn’t heard of before.

Here is that link again: Read like a writer.