Reading to Write

There was a time when I read whatever I could get my hands on simply for the sake of reading...to absorb information, expand my body of knowledge, and travel to places that I couldn't otherwise afford to visit physically. At one point, I started keeping a written record of the books I'd read, and sometimes, I averaged between four to five a month, and some months less. This isn't nearly as fast a pace as some are able to maintain; and recently, as my eyesight ages along with the rest of me, it has slowed even more. And after staring at this computer screen almost all day and nearly every day, sometimes I can't even do any reading beyond what I've done here.




When I do read now, though, I find that I am reading as much to improve my writing skills as simply to absorb knowledge. I have also come to the realization that learning how to write through reading happens subliminally. As my mind scans and processes words, sentences and paragraphs, it is also storing them all away for future reference, not from an informational perspective but from a purely  structural viewpoint. I have, in other words (pun intended), learned without even knowing I was HOW to write, how to craft sentences and paragraphs, as well as how to assemble them as so many puzzle pieces into a coherent account, be it fictional or not. All of that stored information is now resurfacing to my consciousness where I can make ready use of it to move ahead with fiction writing. I no longer need to refer back to my mental writing guide files and "search" for how to construct a meaningful sentence or which word to choose to replace one that just doesn't move me.




From that I have deduced that all those years I spent reading were not for naught. For I am reaping their benefits now through my own work. So if I had any advice to give an aspiring writer, it would be to READ, READ, and READ. And when you're ready to put those first few words down, you may be surprised to find that it will be a lot easier than you thought.


https://www.amazon.com/Rachel-Lovejoy/e/B00JJ259DS