Why Great Writers Are Great Readers
“There’s no better teacher for writing than reading… Get a library card. That’s the best investment.” - Alisa Valdes
“Just write every day of your life. Read intensely. Then see what happens. Most of my friends who are put on that diet have very pleasant careers.” - Ray Bradbury
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” - Stephen King
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”—Samuel Johnson
When you start searching for writing advice, you’ll inevitably encounter the ubiquitous maxim that reading makes you a better writer. There’s a certain logic that makes us accept this without asking too many questions - Well, duh! Of course you can’t write well without reading…
And yet, the connection between the two processes is not self-evident. After all, despite all writers being readers, not all readers are good writers. Someone might be an avid reader and yet still struggle to communicate their thoughts on paper in an organized fashion that will make sense to other readers. You can spend your whole life reading and still lack the skills you need to be a powerful writer.
So this month, we’re diving into this intersection between two processes I know and love well: reading and writing. We’ll look at how exactly to leverage your reading like a writer and learn valuable writing lessons from my all-time favorite classic, Jane Eyre.
Today we’re starting with the ultimate question: Why are great writers great readers?
Why Great Writers Are Great Readers
Researcher Nancy Nelson Spivey from Louisiana State University wrote that reading entails constructing meaning by organizing, selecting, and connecting - the exact same three processes we engage in when we write, especially when we use source material, make allusions, or otherwise reference other works (“Transforming Texts,” 1990). Both readers and writers organize information (in reading, the organization is inferred from the text, and in writing the organization is constructed); they select what, to them, are the most relevant or memorable pieces of information (either to recall or to add), and then they connect information with their preexisting knowledge. In fact, the two processes are so intertwined that, Spivey says, “we often cannot say whether a writer performs a certain operation to make meaning of the text that is read or to make meaning for the text that is being written.”
So we know that writing and reading both involve the same processes of organizing, selecting, and connecting. Let’s dive into some of the specific benefits reading has for writers:
Reading gives you exemplars to model yourself after.
Have you ever gone to a painting class (maybe with wine) where everyone paints the same painting? At the beginning of the class, the teacher shows you what you’re going to be painting: a gorgeous masterpiece with vibrant colors. She shows you what the end result will look like so that you are inspired to engage in the process.
In a sense, this is what we’re doing with reading as well. Reading - especially reading in the genre you want to write - helps you start writing with the end result in mind and determine what a successful book of your own might look like. Of course, this analogy only goes so far because a large part of writing is making creative decisions that are unique to your story. But still - having exemplars to look at and inspire you is a vital component of engaging in the hard work of writing. In a chapter entitled “Reading with a Writer’s Eye,” (2011) educator and researcher Ruth Culham writes, “Good writing happens over time, with lots of practice, lots of support, and lots of models.”
“You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” —Annie Proulx
Reading exposes you to literary devices and stylistic choices you can make use of.
Reading also provides you with a menu of literary devices and stylistic choices you can choose from in your own writing. See how in Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte uses metaphor to drive home an important but nuanced point or to make her main character’s emotions known. Witness John Green’s incredible use of internal monologue in Turtles All the Way Down to show the reader what anxiety and mental illness feels like. In Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People, Backman alternates between narrative and interview scripts to reveal surprising plot points.
It works for nonfiction, too. In Daring Greatly, Brené Brown expertly weaves vignettes (short stories) in with expository writing that is meant to instruct the reader. In Conspiracy, a piece of narrative nonfiction, Ryan Holiday fluidly switches between telling the story of this conspiracy and illuminating the anatomy of all conspiracies for the reader.
Reading allows you to see the rules of writing in action.
When we learn to speak as babies, we develop an “ear” for our primary language. Although we might not be able to articulate the rules of our language, we can tell when someone breaks them. Likewise, some level of absorption is happening when we read a lot. Whether we can articulate the rules yet or not, writers who read a lot acquire a level of fluency with grammar, sentence structure, point of view, etc. Moreover, this method of learning the rules within their context is much more effective than being taught the rules separately. For each genre, there are norms and conventions that are endemic to that genre, and you will learn them by reading.
Writers who read learn that two kinds of writers break the rules of writing and genre: those who lack skill, and those with expert skill.
“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” - William Faulkner
Reading helps you learn more words.
The idea of learning vocabulary transports most of us back to elementary school, with spelling tests and flash cards and spelling bees. But good writers are always open to learning more words because words are tools in a writers’ toolbox. More words = more tools you can use at the right moments to get the job done.
“Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” - Stephen King
Reading enables you to edit with fresh eyes.
Just as a painter needs to step back and see the entire painting in order to know what still needs fixing, you will need to step away from your work and come back to it with fresh eyes in order to edit your work. Reading others’ works often will help you keep that end goal in mind and maintain the fresh perspective of a reader.
Reading challenges your thinking.
Nonfiction writers especially should be seeking out books related to their topic. If you’re writing on a common topic, then there might be too many books for you to realistically read before you start writing. Read the most recent and the best known; it’s likely that those will summarize a lot of the work that came before - and you’ll know from those books what other sources you should read if you need to do further research.
If you claim to be an expert on any topic, it is absolutely imperative that you know what else is being said on that topic. You may learn that someone else has already said what you wanted to say, and you might identify some gaps where you can provide totally new information for your reader. It’s likely, too, that other writers will have something to say on your topic that you disagree with. That is good! When you’re writing, you should always consider what opposite viewpoints someone might take when reading your work so that you can address those views explicitly.
There are probably more reasons than these, but you can tell even from this list why reading is an essential skill for writers.
We still haven’t answered the question: How do you leverage your reading to become a better writer? That's the topic of my next post. Stay tuned!
