Good Morning Amazing People,
Every writer must have a serious relationship with reading. Reading is as important as writing if not more so. It teaches us, through it we learn and grow as writers.
An author, Ian McEwan, talks about his devotion to daily reading. In this video, he talks about his writing process and the things he does during this process including where he writes and how he writes. He includes the time he sets aside every single day to do some reading and he saves this time strictly for reading and nothing else. Just the way that most writers do with their writing time. But it is very important that every writer, every serious writer, also set aside time to read.
Reading if where a writer takes in all that they need to write, to create, and without it there can be no creation. Our knowledge comes from what we see, hear, and do. Reading helps us form ideas, generate ideas of our own, and form and shape our own writing. Without reading there can be no writing.
I will admit that sometimes my relationship with reading is rocky and I sometimes go without reading for weeks because I am busy or I am wanting to focus on my writing, but I have been trying to break that habit. Just because I do not feel like reading or there is nothing I want to read, does not mean I should abstain from it altogether. Sometimes you have to force yourself to read those books that have been collecting dust on your shelf, the ones that you have been unable to bring yourself to read. Being less interested in their content will help you learn more about structure from them and understand why the writer was able to sell the book.
So do yourself a favour and pick that book up, whether you feel the desire to read or not and read the first page, the first chapter, first five chapters. You will learn something. Every writer learns at least one thing from each book they pick up.
Rose Marie