What Have You Been Reading?

Writers' Wednesday!!!

Read.

On one hand, it's kind of weird that people might call themselves a writer when they aren't actually writing.  I guess that "writer" sounds better than "thinker" or "talker."  But, that will be a topic for another day.

On the other hand, it's kind of sad if a writer can't remember the last published thing they read, regardless of his/her daily word count output.

Read.

Reading familiarizes the mind to valuable writing processes such as sentence structure, grammar, spelling, flow, voice, clarity, and much, much more.  Better yet, most of the published material has already been edited to death.  The more you read and the more your mind can start implementing techniques naturally, then the less you'll wind up needing to edit (maybe four drafts instead of fifteen).

Read.

Don't like your writing?  Reading can also help you start finding what you like versus what you don't like.  When you read something that knocks your socks off, put your thinking cap on and figure out why you liked that.  If you just can't seem to get through a work (and everyone you know thinks it's brilliant), try to explain what's bogging you down.  It will help you write the way you love.

Read.

Listening does not count as reading.  I love a good audio book, myself.  Still, you can't expect your brain to arrange words on a page properly if you won't keep reminding it what that's supposed to look like.  You know all that good stuff you watch?  It was written, rewritten, and edited long before you had a chance to watch it.  Especially if you want to write for visual media (movies, television, commercials, vlogs), seek thee out the scripts for that type of media and read it.  Reading can elevate your content from the mindless ramblings plaguing the internet to national ad quality.

Hey!  You've just read this post!  Congratulations!  You're already following the advice.  Keep up the good work.