You’re busy writing, so why should you make time to read?
We all read every day. Our phones. Menus at restaurants. Textbooks, if we’re students. Emails at work. Our own manuscripts. What I’m talking about is novel or book reading, plain and simple, whether it’s in your genre or not.
A lot of writers claim they don’t have time to read “for pleasure.” Even worse, some believe they shouldn’t read when they’re writing a novel because the voice of the writer of whatever they’re reading will seep into their own writing voice. When I was younger, I didn’t read much and attributed it to these reasons. When I look back, I’m pretty sure I could have made the time and that no one’s voice was going to get stuck in my head to any substantial degree (unless I tried really hard to make that happen).
As a matter of fact, if you’re writing a novel, the best thing you can do to stoke the creative flames is to read a really good book. I know, it's like salad or vegetables. We all know they're good for us, but we don't always want to eat them. But we should eat them, just like we should read good books! If you can’t find an interesting, enticing new book to read (and I’m surprised if you can’t), you can always reread an old one. The classics are great for this—they’re so good, they have withstood the test of time.
When you set out to read, you don’t have to make it a goal to conquer fifty pages a day or even twenty-five. You might only read ten—or just a few paragraphs. It really doesn’t matter. The idea is to nourish your creative side with some words that you admire or that make an impression on you. Your brain will take this nourishment and do something good with it.
Do you have to study the book in order for this to work? No, you don’t. But studying a book’s characters, plot, structure, and dialogue is a great way to bump your writing to the next level. And reading nonfiction can provide interesting knowledge and fodder for metaphors that enliven your writing. Either way, you can benefit simply from reading like a non-writer reader.
5 reasons you should take time to read a good book
1. Somehow fine writing gets into your veins and stews for a while and comes out in your own writing in the form of new ideas and sometimes even your own masterful language. I don’t know how or why this happens, but it works for me, and I’ve spoken to many writers who say the same. Think of it as feeding your creativity.
”Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.”—Annie Proulx
2. If you’re an indie author, it’s your job to know what’s happening in your genre. Not only the trends and tropes, but an appropriate page length, the kind of language used, the types of characters that are showing up. You need to be aware not so you can mimic what’s being done, but because you don’t want to replicate what’s done. You need to know where your book stands within the genre—and how to make it fit even if it's a bit different. It’s a good idea to read within your genre as much as possible, but reading outside of the genre will help you come up with fresh ideas.
3. Reading can have the same effect as brainstorming does. One idea leads to another to another to another, and all of a sudden you’ve come up with a genius plot twist or amazing quirk for a character. It’s a kind of magic.
4. If you’re an indie writer, it's important to be a good literary citizen. Part of that means buying and reading books from other indie authors (many are free or 99 cents). Doing so can help you create a community of supporters of your own. As newly published authors, we need to find people who are willing to read our work. For this reason, indie authors sometimes swap a read for a read, but even if you’re not swapping, it’s a good idea to find some other self-published books by authors who are more established than you are. Then send the author a message and/or post about their book on social media, saying what you like about it. If you establish an online relationship, they may just agree to blurb your book down the line or support you in another way.
5. Reading for the pleasure of reading. Remember those long summers when you were a kid and you had time to read every day if you wanted to? You went outside and maybe kicked back on the lawn and entered the world of a book, becoming lost in it. That sounds like fun to me. Maybe we don’t have that kind of free time anymore outside of annual week-long vacations, but we can set aside fifteen minutes or a half an hour for this sort of daily escape. Even a little bit can provide the magic you’re hoping for.
Have you made a reading list for 2022? Each year Goodreads hosts a Reading Challenge in which the GR members set a goal for the number of books they want to read. Last year my goal was twelve and I read twenty-seven. This year, I’m setting my goal at eighteen. Since I’m an editor and I read for work all the time, I don’t like to put too much pressure on myself. But I try to read at least one book a month.
Friend or follow me on Goodreads, and take part in the Reading Challenge!
How many books do you plan to read this year?
Kim Catanzarite is a writer, editor, and instructor for Writer’s Digest University. Her debut, They Will Be Coming for Us, published to strong positive reviews and won an award in the Readers’ Favorites contest. The second installment in the duology, Jovian Son, is available for preorder now and will publish March 2022. Kim is currently reading A Very Nice Girl by Imogen Crimp.
