I grew up in Detroit when big-block engines and four-on-the-floor gearboxes dominated the automobile market. One of my uncles worked for General Motors then. One day when I was about 9, he mentioned that his division had taken shipment of a dozen new cars made by competitors. He said he was looking forward to going in to work the next day.
“How come?” I asked.
“We’re going to start tearing them apart.”
I was aghast. “Why?”
He smiled. “To learn.”
From my juvenile perspective, cars were simply magic. You got in, turned the starter, and off you went. How it all worked was invisible. And it occurred to me that I wouldn’t know what made one car better than another.
A writer of fiction is an engineer, designer, and manufacturer, all in one. the best are magicians, too, grabbing readers and drawing us into their characters’ triumphs and tribulations.
It’s easy to take the magic for granted, but we shouldn’t. there’s so much to learn! And reverse engineering is a great way to go about it. the practice is, for us, all about pinpointing what the author is trying to get across, and figuring out how they do it. It’s about how to read for meaning.
Once you’ve taken a look at the examples that follow, you should be able to go forward a more astute reader—and writer.
I’m using widely read works, so I hope spoilers won’t be a problem.
