Annotate the Sh*t Out of Your Books

There’s nothing I love more than completely destroying a book I’m reading by annotating the shit out of it. I’ve been reading Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas, and while I’m not finished with the book, there is a plethora of descriptions and imagery penned by Cañas that is highlight and annotation worthy. Today, I thought I would share some with you.

Powerful Imagery from Vampires of El Norte

“After the events of the last week, she knew she would not be at ease until…she felt certainty about her future as firmly as cold metal in the palm of her hand.”

There is something special in this passage where Cañas takes a concept such as “certainty” and is able to transform it into something tangible like metal that I love. It communicates the severity of the situation the main character is dealing with. Love it.

“The strangers were lean men, road-hardened and parched as strips of beef left out to dry into acecina.”

The imagery is brief yet effective here. Cañas could’ve gone on and on describing these strangers, but in just a few words, she perfectly communicates not only their appearance but also gives readers and idea of their what their lives consist of–lives defined by hard work under the heat of the sun.

“Now, she leaned close enough to him that he could almost taste the bite of woodsmoke in her hair that lingered from a morning helping in the kitchen, how it layered over the soapy, wildflower smell that rose from her sun-warmed dress.”

A piece of advice I’ve heard repeatedly for creating powerful imagery in your writing is to invoke the five senses. And Cañas does so beautifully here. I can smell and taste that woodsmoke, I can see Nena leaning into Nestor, I can feel the warmth between them. Purely amazing.

We All Have Our Bad Days

“No matter how hard or far he rode, she clung to his skin like the smell of sleep.”

When I came across the above line, I thought: Wow, that was…not good. There are two reasons for this: 1) What does sleep even smell like? The comparison makes no sense in my mind. 2) This line is surrounded by other passages that communicate the same thing. It seemed unnecessary, especially since the others were so much better.

“For nine years, she was dead. She was a ghost haunting his nights and his days; her mist thickened and faded with the settling and rising of the sun, but it never left….His soul bore her brand, the wound deep and blackened and scarred over.”

Way better! Beautiful.

I take note of these passages, not to be mean, but to learn from them and to remind myself that these professional writers are humans too. Cañas probably went through two to three drafts of this story, if not more, before it was ready to be published.

Why Annotate?

I will say that when you pick up a book your intention shouldn’t be to annotate it or highlight your favorite passages. You should let the story carry you away. However, you may come across poetry or prose that inexplicably moves you–that for some unknown reason, as a writer, you have to highlight.

I cannot help but highlight passages that move me, that jump out of the page, that I want to remember. Passages that I wish I thought of/wrote myself. Passages that, let’s be honest, I want to steal.

Let’s be clear, I’m not talking about plagiarizing. I’m talking about taking inspiration from those passages, studying them, and seeing why they had that effect on me and how I could bring that into my own writing.