Active Reading

When reading, you can either enjoy the story in a passive way, or be active. In order to be active, you could make notes, Make Marginalia or generally thinking critically about what the language or structure is doing. (5 things to steal is a useful exercise for this.)

Not everything needs to be read in an active way, some things can just be enjoyed. But in order to grow as a writer, it’s important to evaluate other people’s writing. You need to Copy to Understand the Rules.