Should a writer be a reader?
To be a good writer, do you need to be a reader? If so, what should you read? Here's an editor's take.
This question comes up a lot: should a writer read?
In short, yes.
In my opinion it’s the number one thing you can do to improve your craft (yes, even better than writing!). I’ll put a short summary of the points here and a longer explanation below (this post got away from me a little!).
Writing without reading risks creating something readers are tired of; reading gives a peek into the trends to make your work fit into a modern market and exciting to a modern audience.
Novels have a subtlety to them that can only be experienced, not explained. You cannot use this language without understanding it from a reader’s perspective.
Third and final point: if you don’t love reading, why do you want to write?
So, without further ado, let’s jump into it by comparing writing to another creative pursuit: music.
The Long Explanation
A musician who composes and never listens to another song is a musician whose music you likely won’t listen to. But why?
In western music we have the 12-note octave with a scale per note. Each note in a scale can be expressed as a major, minor, or diminished chord. Our ears recognise these patterns well and most people can hear if something isn’t quite right because that’s how music is expressed in our section of the world (look outside of western music and you’ll find some really awesome and exciting expressions of music).
A musician who writes music without this catalogue of ear training from the radio, streaming, movies, “please hold” songs, and everywhere else we hear music may feel more free to express themself because they aren’t bound by the rules of western music, but without that history to work from they’re likely to compose things our ears may consider offensive.
Imagine this musician has never heard a song but does know the western notes. Now it’s very likely they’ll write something that already exists, meaning the audience for their masterpiece is already tired and wants something new.
Our musician is stuck no matter what – create something unlistenable or create something we’re tired of (although maybe passable as a radio track!).
Without a history of hearing music, the musician is lost.
This musician is an author without a library, unaware of the possibilities at their fingertips.
We have hundreds of years of writing and thousands of storytelling; ignoring this history is, to my mind, sad. The thought of stories that don’t build on the ones that came before is sad. Stories, like language and music, evolves and a writer should expect and enjoy that aspect of it.
Without the foundations of fairytales and epics, we’d not have got a story like JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and without that we’d not have got sprawling worlds and stories like George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire or Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere.
The Subtleties
Some friends of mine had a debate a while ago about something they called “writing charisma”. It’s something you’ll find on the pages of a good writer but something most readers won’t be able to, or even try to, quantify.
A writer’s charisma is something that feeds into the experience of reading a book without overwhelming the reader. It’s what makes someone like Stephen King so easy to read (even if the content sometimes makes me want to heave!). It’s an expression of confidence from a writer.
There are other parts of a story that are part of the subtle language an author uses to talk to their readers. Use of pacing, story beats, exposition, and so many other aspects of writing that make up a great book come under this banner.
These are all unlearnable, at least to the extent a “how to” guide will teach you. And even then, this is only theory without practice.
Reading gives an author the language to connect with their readers on a deeper level.
Be a Good Reader
“To be a good writer you need to be a good reader.”
This phrase is used a lot in these debates, but nobody ever explains what a “good reader” is.
A good reader is a critical reader. This is not the same as a reader who tries to find problems with every book (honestly, just put the book down and move on).
Reading critically is still reading for fun. Read everything you can get your hands on – fiction, non-fiction; traditionally published, self-published; good, bad, boring, exciting – and consider the pages.
When something makes you want to put the book down, reread and ask yourself why.
When something makes you smile or cry or give a visceral reaction, read it again and figure out why. What made you react in that way?
Over time you’ll form your own opinions on what makes good prose, pacing, characters, and all the rest of it, which you can then use to influence how you create your novels.
This, in my opinion, is the best way to grow as a writer. Read those pages, hear those voices, and question the decisions that went into making the book in your hands as good or as bad as you think it is.
And Finally
Writing is a passion. It’s an expression of self and the world through words. Experiencing that same passion in other people’s words allows us to open our minds and think beyond ourselves.
There’s a beauty in learning, in being wrong and discovering how another thinks and feels. It’s an intimate connection that goes beyond the simple words on a page and is seldom found in a “write by numbers” approach to storytelling.
If you love writing, if you love giving others a glimpse of your world, why would you not want to get a glimpse of theirs?