The Connection Between Reading And Writing

For many people reading is a mere pastime but for some people it can be their favorite thing in the world to do. I am definitely one of those people. I love to read and write and I think that not only is it a great way to spend your time but it’s also a great way to learn about the world around you. Reading is also especially important for anyone who wants to broaden their horizons or work as a writer some day. So many writers are constantly asking the question of how they can either become a writer or become a better writer and the answer is always the same. There are two components that play an equally important role - first, you must write as much as you can, and second you must read as much as you can. It should come as no surprise to any proficient author that reading is a core principle in the efforts that are required to become a good writer. Reading a lot will give you a greater command of your language, an ability to absorb the best methods of other writers, and a highly improved vocabulary. There is of course more to being a good writer than just simply reading but as a basic starting point you can’t beat simply writing and reading a whole bunch. That alone can do wonders for you in the way of improving your writing. It can teach you about different ways of writing things, how to further your story, about characters and dialogue, and most importantly it can give you an overall sense of how a book should flow and move and fit together.

Writing and reading are two peas in a pod and it’s absolutely essential that you learn to love to read if you want to be a writer - in fact it should be a natural part of your personality to love reading, otherwise writing is going to be a very downtrodden profession for you - if you choose to pursue it. Sometimes however it can seem like reading can affect your writing and then it may become a matter of what to read as no author is alike and they all have different preferences, strengths and weaknesses that need to be improved or adjusted and selecting literature that focuses on the strengthening of certain areas can be an indispensable tool to an author. It can be difficult to know what to read though with such a wide selection of material available for consumption.

The best way to begin is usually to start with what you enjoy the very most.Writers almost always write within the genre that they enjoy the very most so if you’re looking to learn the techniques and skills of those in your field you’ll want to begin by reading as much of their work as you can. With this in mind its never a bad idea to read from other sources as well as it can help you inject some freshness and ingenuity into your work that may not have been present otherwise because of all the similar work you were reading. Reading books from other genres can force you to step outside your bound and can help you mix and match techniques that work for you as well as force you to look at things with a new perspective and a new sense of creativity.

It’s also a really good idea to read as much classic literature as you can as this is a completely indispensable education for the budding author. There’s a reason the classics are still around decades after they were written - they’re that good. Read the classics and try to learn the methods that so many writers of times past relied on to tell great stories, teach others, share their views of the world, and otherwise express themselves with the written word. There is absolutely no substitute for having a thorough background that includes much of the greatest literature of all time. It’s also advisable that new writers make a point of reading the advice of writers who have gone before them and become successful at their chosen vocation. This kind of advice is so valuable and cannot be followed closely enough. Many successful authors have written books or small articles on how to become successful as a writer and it’s very wise to pay attention to these writings as they reveal a great deal about each writer and their processes, many of which can be repeated or duplicated so that younger writers can achieve similar effects in their writing and attempts at getting published. Often times these books are filled with ideas on everything from story ideas to plot to rounding out characters as well as helpful tips on things like dialogue, formatting, getting published, finding an agent, and even the overall lifestyle of a writer as well as the unique things that work for them. Every writer is different and so different methods will work for different people. Try out the advice of a few different authors that are making a living doing what they love and see if any of them don’t stand out especially well for you.  By exposing yourself to many different methods this way you increase the likelihood that you’ll find something that works well for you and may even make the difference between you being successful or not both as a reader and as a writer.

Much of what it really comes down to is learning to unite both the reader and writer within the story. Books aren’t written just for readers and they certainly aren’t written just for authors - there’s meant to be some sort of communal understanding between the two about the value of what’s been written and how it applies to them and their world even though such conclusions may be completely different from one reader to the next and they may have come from a completely unique place from the author.