So for the past couple of weeks, I haven’t been as productive at writing as I’d like. I could list off a lot of reasons, some of which would be legitimate, others of which would sound like (and probably be) excuses, but that would get tedious rather quickly, so I’ll spare us both the trouble. Instead, there’s one in particular that I’d like to focus on, and that’s the connection between reading and writing.
They say that if you want to be a writer, you have to write a lot and read a lot. Writing is important for obvious reasons, but reading is also quite important, though we tend to forget that. Reading is how we replenish the story well–it’s how we feed our imaginations, revisit familiar tropes and archetypes, find and spark new story ideas, and generally immerse ourselves in the world of story. For those of us who write fiction for a living, that’s vitally important.
At the beginning of the year, I made a resolution to read at least one book every week. That worked out well until about mid-February, when most resolutions die a horrible, miserable death. This one was no exception. For the past couple of months, I’ve hardly read anything, and I can feel it.
Here’s the thing: if I stop reading for a little while, I can still keep writing just fine. There’s no immediate effect. And if I don’t read anything for a long time, I can still push myself and get stuff done–it just takes more effort, and feels a lot more like work. Because of that delay, it’s hard to tell if there’s really a causal link between how much I read and how easy it is to write.
I definitely believe in that connection, though. I can feel it. And after going for so long without reading, I’ve found that my writing doesn’t come as easily as it used to. It feels more like a chore than something that I look forward to each day. I find myself getting distracted more easily, or procrastinating longer, or just flat out avoiding the work altogether. What’s more, when I do write, it doesn’t feel as satisfying. It feels like I’m doing just enough to get by, rather than putting out my best work.
And that’s the danger–that not only the quantity, but the quality of your work will suffer for not reading. It’s a trap that I don’t want to fall into, so I’ve decided to reverse it by picking up my to-read list and working my way through it. I started with a couple of David Gemmell novels, and they were both so good I finished them in just a matter of days. Boy, was it great to rediscover just how awesome a good book can be! It’s reading stuff like that that made me want to be a writer in the first place.
I don’t know if it’s limited just to reading books and novels. I know that I’ve found all sorts of excellent story material in movies, TV shows, animes, and other forms of storytelling media. Those probably have a positive effect as well. If you’re a creator, though, it’s probably more important to immerse yourself in the medium in which you do your creating. For writers, that means reading. Movies and TV shows can be great, but I doubt that they work as substitutes.
What do you guys think? Have you noticed a connection between what you read and how you write? I’m still trying to tease out the exact nature of the connection, so I’m definitely interested in hearing some other perspectives on the subject.
And just for fun, here’s a sampling of my current to-read list, in no particular order:
- Gods and Generals by Jeff Shaara
- Caszandra by Andrea K. Host
- A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Existence by David Brin
- Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh
- Sackett’s Land by Louis L’Amour
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- The Sekhmet Bed by L.M. Ironside
- Bloodstone by David Gemmell
Time to start reading!
