I'm not sure if this question is irrelevant or not, but is it true that writing daily helps you become a better writer?
I think that is true for technical writing, writers who aren't sure about their writing voice, and writers that need help with organization. If someone is a naturally good story teller or 'bullshitter,' I don't think it matters as much.
I think that's true of everything, as long as you are doing it right. Doing something wrong everyday is dertimental.
True. My beliefs don't count. I just put them out there, because, you know, everyone else puts theirs out there without evidence. Carpe diem, caveat emptor.
I'm not a reader. I've never been a reader. I have some books but very few that I've read. I rarely visit book stores and usually when I buy a novel it's for reference on style. I don't like it. I'm too impatient. Books really don't interest me, but writing does. Go figure. It's just something that I stumbled in to and seem to have a knack for. My interest and education is in film production. I'm a movie nut. (Which is one of the reasons I have a movie promo still for my avatar. Bonus points if you can name the movie.) I'm also a big fan of F1, and use that as an example. The engineers who build the cars don't drive them. They are trained up in knowing how the components work to get a result, and get feedback from the drivers. Also the drivers don't build the race cars. Well, not since the 60s. So to me, I'm a book engineer. I know what goes into making them, and know how they work, and can design one to work in a particular way for a particular response, but I don't drive them.
A more accurate analogy would be engineers who've never driven a car. So while they may know how to build the actual car, they know nothing about its ride quality, how it handles, etc.
Not really, because I know HOW to read, just like they know how to drive a car, and I READ every single day. But I don't LIKE to read the pinnacle of the written language, which is the novel. And a race car is so totally different from a street car that it would be the same as comparing a shopping brochure to Shakespeare.
If you don't read novels, how do you know what a novel should be like? To me, what you're saying is the equivalent of a painter who hates looking at paintings or a filmmaker who hates watching films. It doesn't make sense at all. Right, so your analogy is basically saying that writers who write, for example, horror (regular cars) don't necessarily have to read fantasy (race cars). I can sort of agree with that.
I'd say that writing without reading would be more like hosting a fishing show without having done much fishing.
To be honest, without trying to sound like an ass, I really don't give a fuck. It doesn't make complete sense, and that's kind of the point. I totally agree that a film-maker who doesn't like movies is strange, but they do exist. Both famous and not. I'll try and remember a famous example. His name escapes me. Anyway, the reality is simple. I don't like reading and I love the creativity of writing. I hate the work of writing, but what can you do? The desire drives me. If I get published again or not, doesn't matter. If that makes any sense or not, doesn't matter. Books bore me because they don't engage me in the way that writing does. Someone's work is not mine. So even if it makes no practical sense whatsoever, that's still the reality.But it does make sense if you look at it from the 'engineer' perspective. Feedback tells me if it works or not. Perhaps.
And people do. Plenty of hosts on various shows are not 'expert'. They are hosts, trained at camera presentation. They have experts in the wings, so to speak, to advise on the technicalities.
I don't know actually. It depends on what you want to write. It also depends on how you view the relationship between what's already been written (the past) and the now and what is yet to be written. What I mean by that is , are you writing something within an already established tradition, or are you trying to break free from tradition? This is a question that should concern you if you're going to write literary fiction. Because what happened before you matters.
Whether you feel reading improves your mind/outlook/whatever is, of course, up to you. But the one thing reading does is give you an idea of what books 'are.' And there isn't any other way to get that notion. I think if kids are encouraged to read every book they get their hands on from Day One, they will pick up an instinctive feel for what books are like. It's like learning a language. You can learn a language by going to classes, etc, but very few of us become fluent this way. A few do, but very few. The only way to really become fluent is to listen to the language and respond to the language by speaking it yourself. Constantly. I feel it's the same with reading as translated into writing. If you have that written story 'language' in your head, when you go to reproduce those 'sounds,' you will instinctively know what works and what doesn't. You won't need to study and memorise all the rules of grammar and punctuation and spelling because you'll already know them. Something that is wrong will jar you, even if you can't quote the rule about it. I don't mean you don't need to study the craft of writing, or fine-tune your grammatical skills, because you will. We can all benefit from learning more and becoming more aware of what we already know. But a person who reads voraciously has a head-start as a writer. They know what works, and will recognise what doesn't work. I very much doubt you're going to find good writers—either past or present—who avoided reading. And of course there's a corollary—if you can't be bothered reading other people's stuff, why should they be bothered reading yours? If everybody refuses to read, then what's the point of writing at all? Unless it's just to entertain yourself on a rainy day? If you don't like particular authors, fine. Give them a try, and don't read them again if you don't enjoy the experience. But to say, proudly "I never read?" Hmmm. Not sure what that gets you.
Other than reading to know how to properly write, no, you do not need to read actively to write something good. All you need to know are the basics in order to write something worthwhile, but without knowing what is popular out there, you are going to be quite the hit or miss.
This is one of those posts I wish I could like ten times. Thanks, @jannert, for putting this so eloquently!
I said "actively" read. You know, as in picking books up more than once or twice every decade? Most people would have read at least once before they decide that they want to write or like it better than reading.
It's like a guitarist who doesn't like to listen to music. Where does the passion come from exactly? Take it from me, I'm a published, semi-professional writer, reading is the best tool at your disposal if you want to write.
