How Can You Be A Writer If You Are Not A Reader?

This is a question that is posed in many creative writing courses. The idea that one is such a good writer that their ideas are completely unique and everyone should read their writing because they are great—is a problematic statement. One, how can you know what is good unless you have something to judge it against? Two, how will you know how to write unless you (once again) have something to judge it against? Three, how can you grow as a writer if you don’t even know how writing is progressing? All of these things could be fixed by simply reading.

Don’t be foolish and think that almost every idea out there is new, most are reused, recycled, or borrowed. But the main thing is that you have to be aware that the idea exists and you would only be privy to this knowledge if you read. No matter how original you think you are, there is always somebody out there with a similar idea. Read their work first before you write your own, that way you know what choices they made and what choices you wanted to make. One of the wisest things you can do it to take an idea and barely tweak it, and it becomes your own.

As the years progress, so does the writing. So does the language. So does the audience. Be aware of all these things. If you are not currently reading modern fiction then how are you aware of what is even being published right now? If you don’t know what people want to read or how people are writing or how language is collectively changing, then your work just doesn’t fit. And as unique and original as you may want to be, if your work does not fit the times then it is irrelevant, unmarketable, and useless to publishers.

But where do you start? It’s quite simple. Begin to look for authors that write what you want to write or at least how you want to write, or even better, both. If you can locate an author that writes in your genre then you can see where that specific faucet is going. If you read more than one author from that same genre then maybe you can find what that genre is “missing.” This is where your same idea, with minor tweaking becomes relevant. If everyone is writing about zombies, then write about zombies that are not only blood thirsty killers but actual can talk, communicate, have emotions. In one small instant you have created something relatively “new.” When you find an author that you want to write like, become aware of how they use syntax, use descriptions, develop characters—find specifics that you can associate with this author; find out how they are doing it; and then try to do it yourself.

You have to be a reader to be a writer. It’s just a rule. Remember T.S. Eliot said: “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.” Just change it simply to: immature writers imitate, mature writers steal. Happy Reading and Writing!