Good Writers Need To Read

Regular blog contributor Patrick Dilloway runs a blog called Every Other Writer Has A Blog...Why Can't I?  The other day he did a post that is located here.  In the post, Patrick said he had reached a road block of sorts and that he would take a hiatus from his work-in-progress to read some books in the genre in which he is writing.

Now, in the comments, Rusty Webb questioned Patrick's "motivation".  He wanted to know specifically

"I wonder what you think you’ll get from reading a bunch of genre stuff?"

This got me to thinking.  I know that Stephen King says that writers should read a lot.  I'm not going to quote him any further or go back to any of his source material.  The fact is that I think this too even if I had never read Mr. King's words.  Here is why.

Good writers need to read. Great writers need to read a lot and jot down ideas in response to what they read. I do it...I keep a list of words that I see on a notepad.  I think of how certain writers organize chapters from Faulkner's point-of-views to Vonnegut's one-page chapters to George R.R. Martin's cliffhangers.

And just as Mutt indicated in his post that I linked above, as a writer, you’ll find yourself hitting plateaus and roadblocks when you aren’t regularly reading. You’ll find that you actually run out of words, if you’re not regularly being challenged through reading new things. This is an important step to becoming a good writer.  I don't think I'm just spewing B.S. here either.  A car runs on fuel and words are the fuel that writers consume.

I admit...sometimes I may be guilty of over-analyzing things.  But I don't care.  It's just how my brain functions.  And this post is not about "meaning".  Many people read books to finish them. This is not always necessary. Read books or articles just to read them — to glean new ideas, to learn new words, to fall back in love with language.

So yeah, if you find yourself at an impasse with your writing, I think you should take a break.  Read a novel or two and see how that helps you.  As Tyrion Lannister has stated, "A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone, John Snow."  And George is absolutely right on the money.

Please keep in mind that writing is separate from publishing.  I'm not talking about publishing.  I'm sure there are plenty of examples of people who publish and who write and who make money.  But they are most likely terrible writers with a lot of money.  It's true folks :( Not everything that makes money is genius.  You can egg me later please.  So if you want to write well...please read.  It will make your prose better.