Why Should You Read a Good Story Multiple Times?

Know the crafts of writing by reading the story again and again

Am I the only one?

One Autumn Night by Maxim Gorky is one of my favorite short stories that I read frequently.

When I first read the story in my university days back in 2012, I loved it instantly. I read it a few times more and translated it into another language (Bengali) within two days. Since then, the story became a good friend of mine as we meet regularly.

It’s a story where a prominent writer recollecting his memory of an unpleasant night in the Russian cold. During an extremely adverse situation, he saved his life with the help of a lady he never met again. The writer tells how that one incident changed him as a man and altered his understanding of women for the rest of his life.

I enjoyed the way Gorky builds the setting from scratch and, most importantly, how he exhibits the transformation of his characters’ minds.

Gorky skillfully explores his characters’ minds grabbing the threads of their thoughts. You will experience the transformation within when the story reaches its end.

A few days ago, I read another marvelous story named Grade My Teacher by Tom Perotta. I read it multiple times to discover the reasons for my liking.

When I fall in love with a story, I ask myself — why did I like it, and how did it get my attention — is it the setting, plot, diction, emotions, or anything else? Sometimes, I find my answers in the second, or third read — sometimes, it takes more time to explore. But in the process, I learn the crafts of good writing.

In the case of Grade My Teacher, in my second read, I discovered how wonderfully the story revealed the mental realm of the two characters as they were suffering from an image (identity) crisis. It depicts the public and private self-images of a high school math teacher uncomfortably collides with a student who has posted negative comments about her on grademyteacher.com, a website to anonymously rate teachers.

What fascinates me is how Perrota deals with the characters’ emotions on the surface level while revealing the deep-rooted problems underneath. Perrota connects them on the common ground to reveal their insecurities.

I’m not the only one. Reading good stories multiple times is crucial for any writer. As I talked to many of my writer friends, they told me the same. They read their favorite stories many a time to understand the crafts of writing and explore the writers’ minds.

Reading the same story multiple times will improve your writings

When you read a story multiple times, you rediscover the things you most likely to overlook in your first-read.

Some of the things I notice while repeating a good story are—

Diction

Diction means the choice of words or phrases in any writings. Reading a good story multiple times helps you to become aware of the word choices the writer made. Thus you learn new words and phrases that may enhance your writing as well.

In One Autumn Night, there are many beautiful phrases like — deserted buildings and warehouses, lamentable fact of your existence, everything around me was bankrupt, a little crumb of praise, horrid autumnal wind, etc.

Sentence structures

Sentences capture emotions. Some prefer to write short-sentences, while others write long sentences with varied structures that may give readers a different experience setting a unique tone. Whatever the case, all good writers have distinct styles.

When you read a story multiple times, you discover the making of sentences and how those are connecting you. Sentences are the message-bearers and emotions-carriers of a story. To understand the writing technique well, you must give attention to the sentences. By doing so, you become conscious about your writing, and eventually, it leads you to write better sentences with suitable structures.

Let’s see a few sentences from One Autumn Night:

Once in the autumn I happened to be in a very unpleasant and inconvenient position. In the town where I had just arrived and where I knew not a soul, I found myself without a farthing in my pocket and without a night’s lodging.

Having sold during the first few days every part of my costume without which it was still possible to go about, I passed from the town into the quarter called “Yste,” where were the steamship wharves — a quarter which during the navigation season fermented with boisterous, laborious life, but now was silent and deserted, for we were in the last days of October.

Dragging my feet along the moist sand, and obstinately scrutinising it with the desire to discover in it any sort of fragment of food, I wandered alone among the deserted buildings and warehouses, and thought how good it would be to get a full meal.

Though the sentences are long, it sets the mood of the story. In this case, short sentences will fail to capture the intensity of the situation.

Plot building techniques

Plot refers to the storyline or the progression of events in a story or drama. Many great stories may have a simple but engaging storyline. The way writers develop plots makes all the difference.

In One Autumn Night, you will see how carefully Maxim Gorky builds the plot revealing one thing at a time — slowly — thoughtfully — to attract and capture the reader’s mind. He tells the story in the first-person narrative, falls his character into an awkward situation, depicts the complexity of it, brings another character into the scene, connects them, arises problems, creates climax, then tackles it wonderfully.

Thus, when you read an excellent story multiple times, you subconsciously learn the plot development techniques.

Setting

The setting is all about time and place as it answers the questions of when and where. It is the context where the story takes place.

When you are repeating a story, you are discovering how to arrange a story in a distinct background, and it’s crucial because depending on the setting — the tone, language, diction may change.

For example, if you plan a story with a medieval setting, you must know that time well, because you need to develop the plot accordingly. Otherwise, the story will lose credibility. Reading good stories multiple times, thus, enhances your ability to write better.

Summary

Read your favorite stories multiple times to discover the gems hidden underneath. Pay attention to the diction, sentence structures, plot, setting, and the sublime message the writer wants to deliver. Enjoy your favorite pieces frequently, and become a more skilled writer in the process.

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