Can You Be a Writer if You Don’t Read?

Can you be a writer if you don’t read? No one is stopping you from being a writer if you don’t read; however, if you truly want to be a GREAT writer, reading is a necessity, not an option. Still, there are certain reading myths that should be rewritten to better reflect how much reading writers should do (which is as much as possible, but that metric differs for each person). This is a companion piece to my video “How to Read Like a Writer.”

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Opening Animation by Vitor A. Dupont: https://www.behance.net/vitordupont

Title and End Music: “Clockwork” by Vindsvept -    • Fantasy Music - Vindsvept - Clockwork  

Background Music by Vindsvept:
+ “Keeper of the Forest”
+ “Illuminate”
+ “Light the Bonfire”
+ “The Fae”

SOURCES
Journal article on speed reading: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full...

Hannah Greendale’s “Book Buffet” approach to reading:    • How to Break Out of a Reading Slump  

Opinion piece about audiobooks as a legitimate form of reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/op...

My favorite story on “Granta” – “The Husband Stitch” by Carmen Maria Machado: https://granta.com/the-husband-stitch/

My favorite story on “Beneath Ceaseless Skies” – “Red Bark and Ambergris” by Kate Alice Marshall: http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.co...

My favorite episode of “The New Yorker Fiction" podcast (David Sedaris reads Miranda July): https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fic...

Escape Artists Audio Fiction: https://escapeartists.net

Brain Pickings: https://www.brainpickings.org

Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org

The Answer (0:00)
What You Can Learn from Reading (2:26)
What You Can Learn Outside of Reading (3:32)
Myth #1: To be a good writer, I have to read a hundred books per year. (5:27)
Myth #2: I need to learn to speed-read. (6:40)
Myth #3: Reading is always easy and fulfilling. (7:42)
Myth #4: Reading will influence my writing too much, and I might accidentally plagiarize from other authors. (8:57)
Myth #5: I should finish every book I start. (9:57)
Myth #6: I don’t have time to read. (10:47)
Final Thoughts (12:23)