What do you call a writer who doesn't read?
If you know anything at all about me, you know that I have very little patience for writers who don't read. There's a reason for that—so let's spill the tea.
So what do you call a writer who doesn’t read?
At our house, we call it losing the plot thread.
There’s a reason my website has an entire section called Reading for Writers. When I get a manuscript from a non-reader, the frustration pounding in my skull recalls the exasperation of theoretical physicist Sabine Hossenfelder as she describes out-of-touch scientists. “My clients know so little about current research in physics, they aren’t even aware they’re in a foreign country. They have no clue how far they are from making themselves understood. Their ideas aren’t bad; they are raw versions of ideas that underlie established research programmes. But those who seek my advice lack the mathematical background to build anything interesting on their intuitions.”
Fortunately, studying comp titles, immersing yourself in literature, and keeping up with new releases is as simple as a trip to your local library. Once you begin discovering everything that’s going on in books all around you, you’ll find more and more reasons to keep reading.
If it’s been a while since you turned the page, O Writes-ers, make this the week you begin. Reading is the very first step in practicing The Writes of Fiction.
What do you call a writer who never reads?
Part of being creative and possessing an amazing imagination is by making associations. Place two seemingly non-related objects or ideas together to come up with something even better.
When I get samples that blow me away? The writer is always, always a prolific reader. Conversely, if the story is flat, dull, and the premise done to death? Plot utterly predictable?
Guarantee the writer doesn’t read.
We need connectivity not only to come up with original story ideas, but to also piece the entire work together (and avoid being predictable). This connectivity is what will keep our story’s momentum when so many others stall out and die.—Keep reading What do you call a writer who never reads?
More on the problem with being a writer who doesn’t read: “I try to help them by making connections to existing research,” writes physicist Sabine Hossenfelder. “During our conversations, I point them towards relevant literature and name the important keywords. I give recommendations on what to do next, what they need to learn, or what problem lies in the way. And I make clear that if they want to be taken seriously by physicists, there’s no way around mathematics, lots of mathematics.”
The lesson for writers, of course, is to substitute two words in Hossenfelder's conclusions above: Change "physicists" to "readers" and “mathematics” to “reading.”—Keep reading at The problem with being a novelist who doesn’t read.
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