Do you belong to a book club? I briefly belonged to one once. It was during a 10-day Princess cruise to the Panama Canal. I don’t remember the book title now, but Wayne and I both read whatever it was.
All I remember was that it was a mystery set in England about a little boy who’d been kidnapped while on a walk in a park with his mom. He’d only run slightly ahead of her. Was out of sight for only mere minutes, if even that long.
He was eventually found alive, and I believe his teacher ended up being the kidnapper. I also remember it was told from multiple perspectives, including the mom’s and the police. Perhaps the media and the kidnapper’s too but I’m a little fuzzy on that.
It was a decent book. A quick enough read that both Wayne and I could share one book and each finish it in a few days to give the other time to read before the book club discussion.
But I also remember thinking, “What on earth will we discuss about this?”
I always envision book club discussions being in-depth examinations of imagery and symbolism. Or maybe I’m having flashbacks to the parts of AP English I was always weakest in and struggled with. (I was always a straight-A English student, in spite of the fact that the deeper constructs of story building always tripped me up.)
Anyway, I don’t remember if we knew the questions ahead of time or not. Maybe we only found them out when the cruise ship activity person leading the discussion posed them. (The three of us, including Wayne and I, who ended up showing up, that is. They’d lent out 10 books. We’d snagged the last one, which is why we had to share.)
Afterward, I wondered if book club discussion questions could help make me a better writer. Give me a new perspective on the ways readers digest stories. But I never pursued it beyond just a thought. Mostly because I hadn’t been writing much fiction at the time.
However, I’ve recently picked up my pen again, so to speak, and have been wondering about ways to strengthen myself as a storyteller.
One way is by reading more again, which I’m doing thanks to avid reader friends like Pamela K. Kinney and Priscilla Bettis. Each week Pam shares emails about new releases, many of which pique my interest. My “Want to Read” list is now very long.
But Priscilla has also rekindled the reading fire because every quarter she shares one-sentence reviews of everything she’s read in the past three months. All of which is extremely impressive. I don’t read as much in one year as she reads in one quarter! But she’s shared some things that sounded very interesting so on my reading list they’ve gone. (And her summations are a work of art in and of themselves!)
It might’ve even been because of either Pam or Priscilla that I recently read Ruth Rendell’s Dark Corners. (Affiliate link.)
As far as I know, it was the first thing I’ve ever read of hers, but I’m not positive about that. I don’t always remember author names or titles.
It took me a few dozen pages to get into it. I had no idea where it was going, which sort of annoyed me, but in hindsight, I realize that’s also what kept me reading. Where on earth could this possibly end up with characters who didn’t seem to have any reason to come together? But of course they did. (No spoilers here.)
Then at the end, there it was. A handy dandy suggestion of book club discussion questions. Or reading group as they put it.
They were 10 questions total. Ones my English teacher surely would’ve asked us to write essays about if we’d been assigned such a book in class.
Which, I sort of marveled that there were so many symbolism and motivation questions for a book that at first glance seemed nothing more than a mystery novel. But as I read the questions, I realized Ruth Rendell must’ve been brilliant if she constructed her plots with that much thought and care.
Which also caused me some dismay. My brain doesn’t work like that. What hope do I have of ever creating something people could discuss on a deeper level?
Which led to this discussion with myself:
“Is that even what you want? Remember when you first started writing and tried to go the literary short story route?” my subconscious asked.
“Yes,” I replied.
“You weren’t successful with that. Why?”
“Because I’m not smart enough.”
“Well…yes and no. But more to the point, you were trying to be something you’re not. You weren’t being true to you.”
“So book club discussion questions won’t help me?”
“Of course they will! You can always learn from anything. But what’s it going to matter if you learn to weave in more imagery, symbolism and motivation if you don’t write? Maybe worry about doing the deed first, from your heart and interests, rather than comparing yourself to a genius. You’ll for sure continue not writing then!”
Sometimes my subconscious is so smart!
What about you? Do you use book club discussion questions to enhance and strengthen your writing?
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