So, You Wanna Be a Writer? Part Three.

Tip #3: Good Writers are Good Readers

I’ve had many writing teachers over the last few years, though I’ve never met most of them and some of them were dead. Of course, you don’t have to be physically in one’s presence to learn from them. You can learn from someone through the transmission of their ideas and studying their work.

In my last post, I encouraged you to read about writing. In this post, I hope to make a related but different point. In addition to reading about writing, it is necessary to read good writing. Non-fiction, novels, classics, humor—I try to read a little of everything, though I admittedly read mostly non-fiction.

Each time I sit down to read, I become a student of the writer’s work.  Through observation, I was able to tighten my paragraphs, refine my grammar, and assemble more forceful sentences. I learned story from Steinbeck, humor from Grizzard, and prose from Feinberg. Kolbert schooled me in journalism while Noonan taught me a little something about turning a phrase. There were also those writers who bored me to death, lulled me to sleep, or left me confused—perhaps I learned from them most of all.

In many fields, you aren’t able to learn from experts like you are in writing. Imagine you were an engineer. You might be able to see the final blueprints from a colleagues work, but it tells you little about their skills. Writers, however, have the unique privilege of peering over the shoulders of expert authors. Through reading their work, you are able to observe the way they unfold a narrative, develop a character, wrestle with logic, lay out an argument, and draw everything down to a perfectly timed conclusion. 

I suggest reading a broad range of literary genres, but focusing in on the one that you write in. As a religious writer, I read mostly religious literature. In the last six months, I’ve read everything from theology to Christian magazines to religious biographies. But I did not stop there. Because I write often about culture (although every writer should keep current on what’s going on in culture), I also read magazines like The Economist and Newsweek and books about technology, art, and cultural trends. (I also threw a novel in there for good measure.)

Even though good readers are not always good writers, good writers are almost always well read. If you are an aspiring writer who wants to improve your skills and prepare for the writing life, put down your pen and pick up a book.

Recommended Resource: Reading Like A Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose

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