There was an interesting discourse regarding the idea that writers don’t have to read to write books. It goes against one of the early lessons I learned when it came to writing. It seems rather wrong to me the idea of not wanting to learn from those who came before as authors. It’s like writing a test without studying or entering into a tournament without regularly playing the game or sport. I thought about this and realized that the examples that came to mind are examples that have solid and clear-cut results. There is a winner and a loser and it is clear without need for discourse usually. But with artistic pursuits, things aren’t necessarily so black and white so I wanted to really think about why some might feel this way. But ultimately, I do believe reading will only help one improve as a writer.
It goes without saying that reading in this day and age is very difficult. In a society where we’re trained to constantly multi-task so that we’re not wasting any amount of efficiency with the time we have. It’s incredibly difficult to dedicate a portion of the free time we have to something that requires almost near absolute focus. For a lot of people, reading can feel like work. It’s very difficult to sit still and read, using your imagination to visualize the story you’re reading. We’re so used to visual media being the default mode of creative expression now that relying on words feels so difficult without all the visual stimuli to entertain us.
But the benefit of reading for writers is so profound and important that I feel it can’t be ignored. The way I view it is that being a writer who reads is akin to being an artist who studies and learns from other artists. It’s the most succinct example that comes to mind as I’m both a writer and an artist and can feel the similarity between them. Studying how someone who creates and tells the kind of stories you want to write is the best thing you can do for yourself as a writer. It’s basically learning from example of seeing how it’s done but also understanding why it’s so appealing to you as a reader. There’s a saying that writing the kind of book you would read is how you write the best story you can and, if that’s the case, why would you not study the stories you like to read?
Now there’s one area of difference I think is worth pointing out that the media you want to write for matters moreso than just simply reading. If you want to create a comic series, you should read more comics and see if you can find the script for it. If you want to write movie scripts, you should watch movies and read scripts. I learned this recently when I started working on my own manga series and realized just how different it is to writing a book. I am an example of someone whose read a lot of books but haven’t read a lot of comics so when I started writing my own manga, I was shocked how different it flows and is structured to that of a novel. It made me realize that the best way to create art is to immerse oneself in the art form itself. There is an established tried and true way that these art forms are made that people like and there is a reason for this that shouldn’t just be ignored.
Fundamentally though, as a writer who wants to create stories for any medium, reading will always help to improve your understanding of story structure, character development, and how a story flows. Trying to write a story without learning from stories that people love will only hurt your own writing in the end. Reading is also a lot of fun! Using your imagination to visualize a story feels like a lost art but it’s just so much fun to immerse yourself in a story.
I hope this helps as this whole discourse added to the feeling that I need to start reading more again.
– Raphael
Raph's Cozy Musings 