What Makes a Reader Perceptive?

Even though I’ve dabbled in writing here and there—I’ve submitted a short story to 90&9’s recent short story contest, I’ve contributed articles and blog posts to 90&9, and I update my personal blog regularly—I’ve always considered myself a better reader than a writer. There is a wide gap between being able to identify excellent writing and being able to actually produce it.

Regardless of my writing ability (or lack thereof), I have been praised for being a careful and perceptive reader in a few instances. I thought I’d share a few of the things I consider while reading:

Point of view
For some reason, this is one of the first things I focus on when beginning to read a work. Being aware of POV means being aware of the type of information being given. For example, if the POV is first person, the reader has the privilege of a more intimate guide, but must realize the inherent bias. Occasionally, writers make POV shifts, and noticing them alerts the reader to consider the author’s rationale in doing so.

Motif
I also focus on making mental notes of any repeated images or themes in a work. Even if a work has little to no traditional literary plot structure—a prime example of that would be One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez—being aware of motifs, to me, helps to understand the writer’s purpose. To use the García Márquez example, I noticed while reading One Hundred Years the borrowing of Biblical language and events (some believe it is parodying) as a motif. To me, it indicated an attempt to cast his characters in a universal, if not emblematic light.

Unconventional word usage
Unconventional word usage always pops out at me. For example, writing “The telephone rang,” is mundane. However, writing “The telephone barked,” gives this simple sentence a more complex meaning just by tweaking it using a word that is not ordinarily used to describe a telephone. It stands out, and at the same time, it gives an inanimate object a negatively repetitive, rude, needy, cacophonous connotation. Not a mean feat just by the replacement of one word.

Vagueness
I know this seems weird, but I have noticed that as much as writers thrive by evoking a specific image, they also intentionally gloss things over. I remember this most accurately reading a story by Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko called “Storyteller” whose plot dealt with a girl getting revenge in a seemingly innocent way. Several times the narrator references a “something red” that the protagonist remembers in a flashback concerning her parents. The reader is never enlightened as to what the “something red” is and it’s not essential to the story. But because this image is so vague, it says as much or more with what is not mentioned than with what is. Maybe because the protagonist was so young when the event concerning her parents happened, the “something red” is the only thing she remembers; therefore it is the only thing the reader gets. But it still conveys a powerful feeling—loss.

Are there any specific things you usually notice when reading?

Currently reading: The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood (inspired by Alison’s recent review!)