This is something that, surprising, is met with a lot of apprehension by a lot of prospective authors. Time and again, I have seen people argue that they don’t like to read, they shouldn’t have to read and they absolutely reject reading for bizarre rationalizations that make no sense whatsoever under observation. The simple fact is, if you are not a voracious reader, you will never be a good writer. You learn to write primarily by reading. If you’re not willing to do that, give up now.I was always a voracious reader. As a child, my parents would take my sister and I to the library every week, especially during the summer and I would check out as many books as they would permit me to take home, read every one of them cover-to-cover and return it the next week for another load. No one had to force me to do this and no one does to this day. I read at least a hundred books a year and I’d read more if I could. I love to read.

You need to have the same passion if you hope to get anywhere in the writing world. You might not read as many as I do, but you need to sit down and consume written media because it’s the written media that teaches your brain how to be creative. You will pick up the basics of storytelling and plot development, how to identify good characters that resonate with an audience, where the plot beats naturally fall in a novel and how to keep your readers following along until the very end. Reading good books is absolutely essential to success. Reading bad books teaches you what not to do. There is no way forward if you are not willing to read.

It is sad that there are so many who utterly refuse to avail themselves to this essential training tool. I have had people tell me they refuse to read because they’re afraid they’ll steal other people’s ideas. That’s half the reason you do read! Ideas are a dime a dozen. They don’t mean anything on their own, it’s when you take a little bit of this and a little bit of that and combine them, putting your own personal spin on it, that true genius is born. If you don’t consume creativity, you don’t generate creativity. There are ideas everywhere. Everything you read, everything you watch, everything you see and everything you experience, all of those are ideas ripe for the picking. The second I hear someone say they don’t know what to write, that’s when I know they aren’t paying attention. It’s why I know the next 26 books I’m writing. I am constantly taking notes of all of the things I see that I think might make part of a good story. I have been keeping a file of ideas on the computer for years and it’s thousands of items long. Once or twice a year, I’ll read through it and see how these ideas gel. I’ll walk away with 2-3 new series to add onto my to-do list.

You need to get away from the belief that you’re stealing ideas. You’re not. Ideas are out there and everyone borrows from everyone else. There is no such thing as an original concept. Everything has been done before. You just need to make it your own. Star Wars wasn’t original when George Lucas did it, he borrowed heavily from WWII movies and co-opted the Hero’s Journey which has existed since time immemorial.  Nothing is original. If you think you’re going to write an original novel, get it out of your head right now. You’re not. It just doesn’t happen for anyone.

Reading is as natural and essential for an author as breathing. Every book on writing out there says that reading is not optional and they are all absolutely right. If you think you can make it without reading, you are wrong. I would even argue that if you think you are going to be a good writer by only watching movies and consuming visual media, you are wrong. The written word operates differently in the brain than visual media does. You might get some ideas from movies and TV shows, but you cannot learn how to write that way. It simply cannot be done.

So, my first tip is to get out there and read. I don’t care what format you read in, physical books or e-books, you need to read heavily, both in the genre you write in, probably most especially there, but also in general. You need to know the tropes of your genre and the expectations readers have. Go get a dozen books and start reading right now. Do that for the rest of your life. There are no shortcuts. There is no easy way out. Do it and love it. Otherwise, find some other hobby to take up because you’ll never be good at this one.