William Faulkner once advised, “Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good
and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and
studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
So, can you be a writer if you don’t read? Perhaps you’re thinking, “Of course you
have to read. What kind of question is that?” Or maybe you clicked on this video because
you’re a writer who doesn’t read much, and you’re afraid of having your worst fears
confirmed—or you’re looking to validate the absence of reading in your life.
The short answer is “yes and no.” Writing is a form of self-expression that everyone
should be encouraged to participate in, and for some writers, reading requires a lot of
time and energy, whether it’s brought on by the toll of parenting or mental obstacles
like dyslexia. With those limitations, it can feel like you have to choose between either
writing or reading. Even so, being a writer without being a reader
is like trying to compose a symphony when you don’t listen to much classical music
or opening a restaurant when you don’t know the first thing about business or cooking.
It’s talking without listening, wanting your own voice to be heard without putting
in the work to learn what others have said and done before you.
Many reading advocates will quote Stephen King on this subject, from his memoir and
writing community Bible On Writing: “You have to read widely, constantly refining
(and redefining) your own work as you do so. It’s hard for me to believe that people
who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect
people to like what they have written, but I know it’s true. If I had a nickel for
every person who ever told me he/she wanted to become a writer but ‘didn’t have time
to read,’ I could buy myself a pretty good steak dinner. Can I be blunt on this subject?
If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.
Simple as that.” I agree with the essence of that statement.
After all, “you are what you eat.” But just like eating food in a restaurant doesn't
make you a good cook, reading isn’t the only component of being a good writer. Practice,
imagination, and attention to detail are all qualities that come from writing and living,
not just reading. Still, it’s undeniable that books are an
important part of learning how to write. From reading, you can learn…
The different forms a written story can take, such as how to effectively use third-person
versus first-person point of view, or past versus present verb tense. Many novice writers
start off writing what are really more screenplays than novels, but books are not movies; the
two media have very different conventions. You’ll also uncover…
Literary techniques and style, like how to describe the setting, structure chapters,
control the pacing, and use narrative voice. Reading can teach you how to convey the thoughts
in your head on the page so that someone else can experience the story the way you intended.
And books are the best way to learn… Grammar, particularly how to format dialogue.
This is one of the most frequent grammatical mistakes I see in self-published novels, which
often serves as an immediate warning about the quality of the rest of the book. Reading
will also help you understand… Market trends so that you have a sense of
your intended audience in terms of age group and genre, as well as what ideas might be
overdone. If you read widely, you can be more confident about where your book fits on the
shelf and what publishers and readers are looking for.
However, there’s plenty to learn outside of books, such as…
How to tell an interesting story. I often meet writers who have an intuitive sense of
story structure based on the other story forms they’ve consumed, even if their writing
style isn’t fully formed yet. They’ve learned through osmosis what feels like a
good story that other people would want to hear. Oral storytelling is a valuable skill.
This storytelling sense relates to finding… What story elements appeal to you. Writers
take inspiration from media beyond books, whether that’s art, video games, movies,
TV shows, anime, or music. Maybe you want to recreate a particular film aesthetic in
book form. Or you’d love to replicate a character from one of your favorite shows
and put them in a new setting. The best artists combine elements from different sources to
create a story that feels fresh. Also, there are certain things personal experience can
teach you, including… What makes each and every person complex.
Interacting with other people gives you a level of self-awareness and insight into humanity
that’s vital for storytelling. Relationships in your personal life or at work will allow
you to create more three-dimensional characters. And those real-life relationships and experiences
show you… Where to get raw material for conflicts, settings,
and characters. Life experiences can be far more useful than an infinite library of fiction.
Many authors inject their stories with details from their own lives, which makes the story
feel more authentic. If you spend your whole life reading instead of living, you might
miss out on that raw material. Living out in the world and consuming other
types of content can fuel your writing. Critically watching movies and TV shows is a valid way
of gaining useful storytelling tools. So, you can be a writer even if you don’t read.
But if you want to be a great writer, you need to read at least a few books a year and
really pay attention to the author’s writing craft.
Now, I want to dispel six big myths about reading so that you can approach it with a
healthy mindset. Myth #1: To be a good writer, I have to read
a hundred books per year. Writers often guilt-trip themselves about
not reading enough, as if you need to reach a magic “threshold” to be considered well-read
enough to write. In reality, we should value quality over quantity. It’s not about how
many books you read, but what you read and how you engage with it. The person who reads
five books a year with deliberate attention can probably learn more about writing than
someone who speed-reads a hundred books a year for pleasure.
Philosopher Mortimer J. Adler was right in saying, “In the case of good books, the
point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through
to you.” Everyone has a different amount of time and
energy available to them, and reading isn’t a competition. Read to improve yourself, not
to impress anybody else. Rather than aiming to read a certain number
of books per year, set page count or time-based goals. After all, you might easily read fifty
books a year if you read only novellas, but what about that thousand-page epic that’s
been collecting dust on your shelf? You might never get around to reading those immersive
masterpieces if you don’t reframe your definition of what it means to be a “successful”
reader. Myth #2: I need to learn to speed-read.
The cultural obsession with reading faster honestly does more harm than good. As writers,
I think we gain more from books when we read at a comfortable speed. Reading is like a
muscle that you can train through practice; the more you read, the faster you’ll become
at it in the long run as your language skills improve.
Francine Prose, author of Reading Like a Writer and owner of the perfect writerly surname,
points out that reading slower can give you a greater appreciation for, well, prose:
“With so much reading ahead of you, the temptation might be to speed it up. But in
fact it’s essential to slow down and read every word. Because one important thing that
can be learned by reading slowly is the seemingly obvious but oddly underappreciated fact that
language is the medium we use in much the same way a composer uses notes, the way a
painter uses paint.” So, try not to obsess about reading faster.
Value comprehension over completion. Myth #3: Reading is always easy and fulfilling.
I used to be frustrated by works I deemed too “pretentious” or boring. Or I’d
read books other people raved about, and felt like I was living in an entirely different
reality because I couldn’t see their appeal. I wondered if there was something wrong with
me, if I wasn’t cut out for reading. But then I’d stumble upon a book that would
inspire binge-reading and all-nighters, and I would be reminded of why I love stories
and language and humanity. The books that truly speak to me are rare gems, and that’s
true of most things, from music to movies. It’s normal for reading to be hard. It can
take time to get used to an unusual writing style or an entirely new world. For me, the
first 20% of most novels has a steep learning curve. To climb up that hill, try to read
through the first few chapters in one sitting. It always takes me a long time to get into
a book, but by once I’m near the end, I’m flying through it because I’m more familiar
with the characters and style. I also try to sandwich my “hard” and “easy”
reads. If I choose a dense book one month, the next month I might go for a lighter read
or nonfiction that’s not overly technical. That way, reading stays both challenging and
fun. Myth #4: Reading will influence my writing
too much, and I might accidentally plagiarize from other authors.
No writer can perfectly replicate another writer, so even if you think you’re suddenly
writing like Douglas Adams or Daphne du Maurier, your personal signature will be what comes
through on the page. As you strengthen your writing, you’ll have enough control over
your style to make every sentence feel intentional, so being possessed by the ghost of Charles
Dickens shouldn’t be a major concern when it comes to reading while you’re working
on a writing project. All stories spring from previous stories,
no matter how we consume them. If you don’t read books, that just means all your influences
will come from other narrative forms in your diet. Many writers chase story ideas that
are reincarnations of their childhood influences. Recycling, building upon, and responding to
older ideas is the very essence of art, so embrace your influences, whether they come
from books or elsewhere. Myth #5: I should finish every book I start.
It’s okay to be picky! If you’re truly suffering and it’s taking you a month to
read two pages, put the book down and get a different one. When you’re in a reading
slump, you can try reviewer Hannah Greendale’s “book buffet” approach: read the openings
to a few different novels until one tickles your tastebuds and makes you keep nibbling.
Part of the adventure is finding a book that enriches your life, like discovering a new
favorite song or falling in love with a food you hadn’t heard of before. Branch outside
your usual genres. I don’t expect every book I read to be five out of five stars,
just as I don’t expect to enjoy every movie I watch—but no matter how I feel about a
book, I always try to learn something from it.
Ultimately, though, your hobbies should be a source of comfort and happiness, not guilt
and apathy. Myth #6: I don’t have time to read.
You have to prioritize reading if you really want to read more. If you have a ton of other
hobbies, whether it’s video games or gardening or social media, they will suck up time you
could be using to read. But if you make reading a habit, you will magically find time to read.
Try to read for a total of thirty minutes each day. That’s it. Just half an hour.
You can read while you’re eating or right before bed, with a physical book replacing
the screen time that’s bad for sleep anyway. I listen to audiobooks while getting ready
in the morning and doing chores, so I consume ten minutes of content at a time. (And yes,
audiobooks absolutely count as reading, although you won’t pick up formatting or punctuation.)
When I find myself gravitating toward a time-waster like scrolling through Twitter, I’ve tried
to train myself to open my Kindle app instead. Keep in mind that novels aren’t the only
form of productive reading. There are hundreds of short story magazines, many for free, like
Granta and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. Some literary magazines have podcast versions of their stories,
too, such as The New Yorker Fiction Podcast, a favorite of mine because their guest author
chooses a story to read and discusses it afterward, so you get both the reading experience and
a deeper analysis. For genre fiction, I highly recommend the audio fiction from Escape Artists,
which has fantasy, science fiction, and horror branches.
Taking a few minutes to read an essay or nonfiction article will also enhance your writing skills
and inspire story ideas. I enjoy the Brain Pickings blog, which dissects art, literature,
and philosophy, and always leaves me wanting to create.
Used bookstores and libraries are your best friend when it comes to expanding your reading
options. Project Gutenberg has over 60,000 free ebooks, which includes many public-domain
classics like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. And
if you ask a bookworm friend about their favorite book, they’ll probably shove it into your
hands and beg you to read it. There are no hard-and-fast rules for being
a good reader or a good writer. There is only one guideline: try. Try your best to learn
from others through reading. Find books that spark your desire to read and write without
worrying if it’s enough. You are enough. What has your reading journey been like? Have
you always loved or hated reading? Tell me your story in the comments. Whatever you do,
keep writing.