Generally, there are two things that writers recommend to those who are starting: more writing and more reading. The first one is obvious, practice makes perfect. However writing in our bubble, in a vacuum, in the radio’s silence, won’t do us much good. Reading exposes us to other styles, other voices, other forms and genres of writing. Importantly: it exposes us to bad writing, which helps us identify when things just aren’t working and it also brings us closer to writing that’s better than our own and help us know, comprehend and improve.
Reading everything (the good, the regular, the commercial and the bad) inspires us. Sometimes I’d find myself thinking, “This author started from a very good idea and wasted it, I would have said…” and that’s inspiration, enthusiasm. Reading nourishes that arsenal of resources that writers have developed over the years to solve specific situations. While it’s true that we can learn many tricks from writing guides, there’s nothing better than the reader independently discovering how a writer creates a scene, uses a wonderful metaphor or simile, and guides the reader into powerful imagery.
Since we learn to read at a very early age, it’s easy to think it’s a limited skill that once we identify the system – letters, words, phrases – there’s nothing else. Maybe we don’t think it’s necessary to develop the reading skill or that we don’t need to exercise our reading muscles to strengthen and mold them.
Knowing how to read and not reading books is like buying a formidable pair of skis, learning how to use them and not skiing. It’s like keeping the tennis racket in the closet, leaving the guitar hanging on the wall. If we had a telescope that would show us the entire universe it would be difficult to find a reason for not looking through it. That is exactly what reading is.
Far from the conventional advice, I think that today there are ways to read that change the way we enjoy reading and, perhaps, makes us better writers:
Skip sections
I’m one of those people who feel bad if they think they are missing anything (there’s even a psychological pathology identified for the extreme cases). When it comes to writing, until some time ago I felt like that.
I’ve realized recently that there is a kind of personal freedom; a liberating attitude to break that need to religiously read each paragraph. Sometimes, it’s okay to skip parts. Not randomly, but those sections that are not relevant to you that deal with a subject that’s not of your interest or that you identify beforehand as being secondary to the main plot, to the storyline.
For the texts we read on the internet, it has become our default way of reading, we quickly skim the paragraph to see if it’s relevant and if not we jump to the next one. When we stumble with something difficult to understand, we return to the text searching for those keywords to complete the information, read the phrase and move on.
In addition, in long online reads: in the case of doubt, jump to the end. If it’s worthy of understanding how the author got there, read it all. If not, congratulations: you just avoided wasting time.
Change habits and routines
It’s easy and convenient not to leave the comfort zone we’ve created around us and that also applies to our reading habits. Once we choose a genre, an author or topic, it’s easy to keep reading those same things.
Expand your horizon: read new and different things
If you’re stuck in a reading routine, try breaking the cycle by changing of genre or style. Ask your friends or ask for advice in a good library. The internet is a huge advantage for this since there’s a big amount of authors who publish the first pages of their works and it’s an excellent (and free) way of seeing if that read can hook us before we actually buy the book. Visiting your local library could also help us broaden our picture, even if it seems like something of the past century.
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