Reading to Become a Better Writer

Photo by Cookie the Pom on Unsplash

Part of being a writer is reading books. Well, at least for me it is.

Why?

It's good to study books because when you are studying how other authors write, you study:

1. How they make you cry or laugh or feel or care about the character.
2. How they ground you in the story.
3. How they use words, sentence structure, paragraph to shape the story and experience.
4. How they manipulate the heck out of you to make you feel something.

But sometimes, I forget this when I read. I forget to study craft and I get completely carried away with the story. Those are good times, honestly.

Reading to write is such a big deal thing that Maine author Stephen King wrote an entire essay about it. MasterClass has a series on it, and you can find mention of it with a simple blog search.

Today, we’re joining the fun, okay?

Below, we dive deeper. I share some resources, mention a place to submit, and have an exercise about the whole reading to write thing.