Many renowned writers have declared the secret of their success to be a love of reading.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin
Reading will help you determine your values in life. Every book will add and deduct from the things you believe, and you will likely read something so profound that you’ll become a different person.
Reading is the best way to learn to write. Reading critically, noticing paragraphs that get the job done, how your favorite writers use verbs, and all the useful techniques. Does a scene catch you? Go back and study it. Find out how it works. There is no superior way to consume stories, in my opinion. Whether it’s books, film, TV, plays, or poetry, it doesn’t matter. You’re imbibing the imagination and creativity of someone passionate enough to write, and the stories are incredible. But variety is so essential. You can come to a rich understanding of character work through a play and explore story structure through how a film is built. Those techniques are universally applicable across storytelling, be it read or performed. But you can only really understand the structure of a beautiful book by reading one—the use of language, the way sentences flow. Most famous writers argue you cannot write without reading. Reading is as crucial to writing as to any other tool.
Author: Greg Twemlow, Editor, Publishers Studio