"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut. [...] You have to read widely, constantly refining (and redefining) your own work as you do. [...] If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that."
"Consider, for instance, how Margaret Atwood phrased the advice in Second Words (1984): "It is my contention that the process of reading is part of the process of writing, the necessary completion without which writing can hardly be said to exist." Annie Proulx gave the same guidance more succinctly when she noted, "Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.""
Extensive, habitual reading and frequent practice at composing are presented as the foundational requirements for developing skill in expressing ideas. Reading widely supplies raw materials: vocabulary, sentence models, structural patterns, and examples to refine and redefine one’s own work. Beyond secondary benefits such as improved concentration, empathy, and reduced stress, reading functions as an active apprenticeship, offering both high and low models to emulate and interrogate. Deliberate exposure to diverse texts, approached with a craftsman’s attention, enables gradual technical improvement and equips creators with the tools and time management necessary to produce clear, effective prose.
Read at Big Think
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