Masterclass
Reading with a Writer's Eye
Jul 27th, 2026 • 3pm - 4pm EDT
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📚Overview
The best writers have one secret skill: they’re also great readers. If you want to write as well as your favourite authors, you need to approach books the way an aspiring film director watches movies – not just for pleasure, but to understand how they work.
In this masterclass, Noah Charney will teach you how to read with a writer’s eye, and notice the techniques you want to borrow, adapt, or avoid in your own work. Why does a scene pull you in? How is suspense created, character revealed, or emotion earned?
You’ll leave this workshop being able to identify what professional authors are doing on the page, and how to use these techniques to improve your own storytelling.
Schedule
3pm - 4pm EDT
Reading With a Writer's Eye
In this one-hour masterclass, you will learn:
- How to build a personal ‘writer’s toolkit’ based on the books you love
- Why reading analytically improves your own writing skills
- The mistakes authors make that turn a reader off their text
There will also be a live Q&A where you can ask your own questions on how to analyse texts with a critical eye – and exchange recommendations for the best-written books with Noah and fellow writers.
Speakers
Noah Charney
Reedsy Professor of Writing
Dr Noah Charney is the best-selling author of more than 30 of his own books, including a Pulitzer finalist. His latest book is The 12-Hour Author: Everything You Need to Know to Get Published and Become a Successful Writer (Bloomsbury). A professor of art history, he teaches online for the Smithsonian, the National Gallery (UK), and Yale. Noah has ghostwritten and edited books for Reedsy clients, and is Professor of Writing at Reedsy Learning.
