Read A Lot

If you want to be a writer you have to do two things.

Read a lot, write a lot.

THAT’S ADVICE FROM STEPHEN KING.

Far be it for me – Gabbie Stroud – to try and come up with something more profound or insightful than this simple piece of top-shelf advice from Stephen King.

If you want to be a writer, published or otherwise, you must write and you must read. The advice “write a lot” seems obvious, doesn’t it? Write is a verb after all – it’s something you do! (For more on this, flick back to this blog.)

But what about Stephen’s first suggestion? Read a lot.

Perhaps the idea of reading seems foreign – perhaps you believe you can write well without reading a thing. 

Well – you’re wrong. 

Writers read. They read to discover more about their own writing. They read to become better writers. They read to hear and feel and experience the rhythms of language. They read to create compost for their own stories. They read to build vocabulary and to stimulate imagination. They read to feel connection and to see poignant ideas and rich emotions expressed in words. They read because they love to write. 

When people tell me they want to write a book, one of the first things I’ll ask is: what are you reading? 

If they tell me they don’t read, it truly takes all my effort not to laugh in their face. 

Wanting to be a writer but not reading yourself is like a chef who refuses to eat.

How can you know good writing if you don’t read?

So, if you want to be a writer and you don’t yet read, step one – actually step zero – is to start reading.

If you are already a reader and you want to become a writer, you should now start reading as though you are an apprentice-writer. Try and become slightly more ‘conscious’ when you’re reading. Become aware of how the text is “working”. How is the author making you feel a particular feeling? Why was that last sentence so powerful? What is it about their word choices that make this book so satisfying? How come you can’t put the book down? And how is author moving characters from room to room and place to place? 

Start to be slightly forensic with your reading. Read with a view to consider how the author’s managing to set the story in time. Or how they’re cultivating a sense of place. If you’re reading something that’s kinda boring, ask yourself why? And if there’s a book you’re not enjoying, interrogate that too. Is the dialogue too clunky or is the plot too unbelievable? Are there too many characters? Too many cliches? Not enough plot twists?  A “bad book” can teach you just as much as a “good book”.

Read as though you’re watching a magician perform a show and you’re a child in the front row trying to see the next trick hidden up their sleeves. 

Of course you should still read for pleasure, with wild abandon and get yourself lost in a book. But every now and then, look up from the page and ask yourself – how did they do that?  Even if you don’t know the answer, the moment of pause will cause your brain to at least consider the power of words and some of the writers’ magic will dust itself over you (this is my theory and I’m sticking to it!).

Read a lot.

This is a habit you should continue for the rest of your writing career.

You cannot become a good writer without reading – one thing informs the other. You don’t have to believe me, but you should believe Stephen King.

Read a lot and write a lot. It’s really as simple as that.

Now off you trot and read a book. If you’re looking for a book, why not start with On Writing by… you guessed it – Stephen King