In many blogs, user profiles and articles I come across there seems to be a patter emerging. People refusing to read and expect to have great ideas and stories. Aspiring writers refusing to read, saying I just don't have the time for that. I am baffled and will respond with "monkey see, monkey do".
The thing is, if you read, and if you read often enough, your analytical skills will slowly develop, which will propel you to ask questions, in return your critical thinking will develop which will create a cycle of deeper analytical skills, keener observation, becoming a better reader of between the lines, catching onto context clues and so and so forth. These things can't be replicated into your writing right away. They take time and they're difficult because they require both analytical skills, critical thinking and the ability to know where and how to place what. These all come through not only writing a lot of bad stories, but also reading incredible amounts of good and bad stories at the same time.
These allows you to focus on the ideas that you already have that will eventually become your stories, or the stories you already have that needs work. What about the ideas for your stories? Where do you get them? Do we see all see a dream where where we write about it. Ironically that has been done plenty of times, though it's not something that is applicable with a hard science. Sure, scenes from dreams make it to a seasoned writer (of course, always altered and edited to serve the purposes of the story). But we don't just wake up with the seed of the story in our minds, ready to be explored. This is why it is difficult to write many good stories that has depth, layers and also many other good aspects. It's not just taking a plane old Jane, giving her an extra ordinary plot that makes a good story.
Reading expands our minds. It nurtures our souls and stretches out our imaginations. Read enough and you can always come with things you would have done differently. Things you can take inspiration from. A good book will name all the feelings that you could not name for yourself. It won't just give you a place to belong and discover who you are. It will also give you information bit by bits and slowly allow you to expand you who are at a person. It will give you new ideas, new frustrations, new questions, new answers, a new perspective int he same story, ability to understand, sympathize and tolerate different kinds of people which will populate your stories as characters. Stories, after all happen to your characters. As an individual we can't live each and single emotion there is available to the humanity. Instead, as writers our keen observations and ability to relate, understand and delve deeper into the minds of the characters through critical thinking and analytical skills that allows us to write our stories, not our personal experience. This is not to say that we cant take and find inspiration from our own lives and experiences. Just, our own experiences don't always end up as an inspiration to our stories. Reading eventually gives you loads of avenues to discuss, think over, question, experiment, seek, understand and a lot of sources to write about.
The moment I finish reading a story, I always have a number of questions that are dependent on the kind of story it was. Those questions pushes me to seek for answers. It makes me think about how it makes me feel inside and my own reactions to it. Thus making me think more, slowly my reactions culminates in a conclusion from my own knowledge and experience, thus ending with an opinion, with propels me to write a blog entry, or an entry in my own thought journal. Sure, it doesn't automatically end in a story. But the entries pile up over time, continually. Over and over again. Eventually, at different times patterns emerge, submerge and become clear, obvious. My mind creates concise things I want to talk about, explore and find the answers to. These propels me to write my stories with a character and a view point, which inevitably changes throughout the process of writing. I discover a new truth for myself.
Reading is essential for any writer and for anyone who wishes to hone their critical thinking and analytical skills.
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