Post by dormouse on May 1, 2019 20:02:22 GMT
I am going to try to manage my time better so that I have more time to read because I do miss it, and I know it can help a lot with writing craft, too.
I have always believed that reading is a vital part of the same coin as writing.
I've read a lot from young. 10+ books a week from 7-y-o. At some point, probably before my teens, I became interested in writing too. While I was still purely a reader I developed my first 'rule' of reading - read anything but give up if it doesn't suit and put it away for another time. Sooner or later the time will be right. Still waiting for the right time for Thomas Hardy (I know I ought to give him another go); loved War and Peace, never got into Anna Karenina; never been a fan of poetry, but Lesley Downer's book got me very interested in Haiku (without changing my behaviour at all; yet).
In my early teens I read SF whenever I could, but was always running out of books (could never take enough from the library) and read anything I could find: other people's books, text books, newspapers, girls magazines, boys magazines, comics, womens magazines, catalogues, cereal packets, ingredient lists; all of them cover to cover. As I read I became more discerning. Nearly all SF had structural weaknesses, character/plot etc, and I was increasingly defensive - surely it was fine for that stuff to be cut down so that the ideas and science could take front stage. I remember reading a book by EE 'Doc' Smith (tbh it was part of a book) and being bewildered and horrified that such poor quality writing was published - and so many books! I started to think it should be better.
My second 'rule' developed, I think, when I had concrete thoughts about becoming a writer. Don't know whether I read something somewhere or made it up myself. I believe that reading everything can only nurture your ability as a writer; especially if it is 'good'. Classics must be in some way good because their high regard has lasted a long time; very popular books of any era must be good because a lot of people liked them (even if they rapidly fell out of fashion); winners of proper prizes were probably good because some relevant people had agreed on it; books from other cultures would be good because they might offer a different perspective. At one point I thought critics' reviews of current literature would be helpful, but quickly understood that they only really liked appearing superior and intellectual and their judgement was abysmal.
So I've deliberately pursued a wide range of books, fact and fiction, since my teens. I find switching styles and genres stimulating. I still believe it helps.
The one odd thing that I have noticed is that some jobs turn my general reading and creative writing off virtually completely (job related reading and writing was always good). Imagining continues fine. Numbers, finance, analysis, decision making, doing things - none of them turn it off but some other things do. Strange. As if those jobs overload the bit of my brain that does the reading and writing. Other people weren't affected in the same way; maybe they had more brain bits that could read and write.