Writers… Should You be Reading More?

There’s really no doubt reading is an important part of being a writer. Take five minutes to google ‘writer’ and ‘reading’ in almost any combination, and you’ll be inundated with support for that statement. (And our guest writer, Jennifer Worrell, reminded us of it yesterday, too!) So, on the basis of that assessment, the answer is (probably) yes. Of course, our reading metrics vary (My 2018 in Non-fiction is testament to this!), but it seems safe to say: we can always aim for more.

But reading more can be a big ask: between working, families, friends, hobbies–and, of course, writing–there aren’t a lot of free hours in the day. Add in that sometimes it can feel that writing is more work than, say, watching TV, and the molehill becomes that little bit more mountainous.

But WHAT should you be reading?

Bearing in mind that it can be challenging to find the time (or energy) for reading, that beggars the question… to where should we turn our valuable energies? Targeted reading seems the most logical way to get the best bang for our buck. But even reaching that conclusion seems to only lead us to a whole host of new questions.

Do we confine ourselves by genre, or author? What about continent? (It’s worth noting here how much white, male voices dominate the Aus/UK/US publishing industries. Countless people who’ve tried spending some time avoiding white authors talk about the value they’ve discovered in broadening their reading diet… Such as Sunili Govinnage; or Jerome Blanco; or Anna Buckley.) Should we invest our time in the classics, or focus on the plethora of new books released every day?

Or how about going even broader in our categorisation… what about fiction vs nonfiction?

Non-fiction?

Chuck Wendig says (here) you should be reading more non-fiction than fiction. His bookcase is at a 3:1 ratio right now, a skew that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Wendig argues that once you’ve “ideally found your voice and have become confident with your own skill set and no longer need exemplars to lead the way,” nonfiction offers the average writer more than fiction. Why?

Because, according to Wendig, reading non-fiction provides you with “puzzle pieces whereas fiction is giving you the picture another author has already built.” Wendig argues that the world is so full of so many weird, random and downright wonderful things that we can draw on to incorporate in our fiction.

I’ve gotta be honest… when you put it like that, I can kind of see his point. We dwell within galaxies of story ideas and world-fragments, just in our everyday lives. But of course, that doesn’t mean non-fiction is all there is.

Or Fiction?

Certainly, there are a million million beautiful, fantastic, terrifying and enthralling universes waiting for us in fiction novels. And as Daphne notes in her article, ‘why the best readers makes the best writers‘, there’s a lot to be learnt from what other people have done. Language is a strange, wonderfully twisty thing that can be used in infinite combinations to evoke emotion and create places and ideas… Reading fiction allows us to observe how others have succeeded (or failed) in doing just that, and learn from them.

Falling in love with language–especially the amazing ways fiction authors use language to pull their readers into the story–is a key part of writing. How we use language is the gateway to the story; while no amount of skilful language can rescue a story that doesn’t have a point, neither can an incredible story truly shine without the adroit manipulation of the words within and around it. And there is just so much variety out there! No matter what you like: I can guarantee there’s a book for it.

But hey, after all of that, where does that leave us with this whole ‘read more’ thing?

So what’s the ‘Reading Rule of Thumb’, then?

Put simply, the sky is the limit: but a good guideline is to broaden your horizons a little. Never read any classics? Pick up David Copperfield or Anna Karenina and see if you can distil what makes them enduring favourites. Been avoiding non-fiction like the plague? Maybe it’s time to take the leap into the unknown and see what unknown wonders the world holds for you. Not a fan of sci-fi, or maybe hate reading literary fiction? Maybe try them again (search around for a really good one–and ask if you need recommendations!) to see if you can figure out how they work or what you do and don’t like.

And maybe spend some of your Easter long weekend catching up on that reading backlog!

A.

[P.s. If you love today’s feature image, check out Swedish photographer Janko Ferlič on Instagram.]