Friday, October 14, 2016

Writers read

I had a conversation with a writer friend of mine recently that   irked me. He said to me, “I don’t read, I just like to write.” Suffice it to say, it pretty much took the National Guard to   pull my jaw off the floor. I was appall to hear that this. I was even more appalled to learn that this is the way that many writers I know feel. To me, being a writer that says he/she doesn’t read books is like being an executive at Nike who doesn’t wear sneakers and around town barefoot. If you are a writer who does not read, you are willfully participating in the decay of your craft and consenting to thee rise to an uncreative and uniformed society.
This problem is at the root of our mass-produced, highly superficial and woefully unoriginal creative media. It is my belief, that every writer in every genre should be erudite about at least one thing. In-depth knowledge about something influences your writing and makes it stronger, and for fiction writer, gives your stories verisimilitude. That strength only comes from reading. Read something—a book, a work of poetry, a magazine or even a chewing gum wrapper. It will help you go far.