He writes a lot of books, and by stating that you should read a lot, he means read his books. Which will then in turn more profit for him and less competition, sadly, you learn how to be a better writer by writing, by studying the rules of writing(And then breaking them.) And most importantly by gaining more life experiences. I think the key to being a writer can be sum like this, Work hard, get funding and keep your expenses low.
As a voracious reader I agree whole-heartedly with Mr. King. When I was a tyke my dad read me to sleep every night. Kipling, Steinbeck, Dickens and Poe were particular favorites of his (and mine) so I was exposed to great writing from an early age. Nowadays I typically will be reading two books concurrently. I spend much more time with my nose stuck in a book than I do watching TV or cruising cyberspace. Oh, that I should spend as much time writing as I do reading! I am convinced that if I weren't such a fan of quality writing I wouldn't have started writing myself. As an aside, I must say I have enjoyed quite a few of Mr. King's works. Dolores Claiborne and Rita Hayworth And The Shawshank Redemption, to name but two, are fine books, in my humble opinion.
I sort of disagree. I don't think he cares that people reasons his books at this point. I feel that his advise is real and valid and i think any accomplished writer will tell you that you need to read a lot to improve your writing. Yes you improve your writing by writing however you also need to read so you can study techniques and so forth. Its like a movie director saying they just make movies to improve their directing skills and they never watch movies.
Well, Eliot once said 'Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal', which, I believe, is quite a succinct way to put it. Yes, the most obvious influence one should have is in one's style, but it is also alright to 'steal' or 'borrow' things from other writers - just not to plainly copy the entire thing. You could have a similar story with interesting tweaks and changes - why not? As long as the writing is your original work, and the story isn't the same, it should be valid. Influence is not necessarily a bad thing - on the contrary. Just don't plagiarize.
@aguywhotypes Writers who copy other stories don't copy the parts that they don't like, they copy the parts that they do like. If you find yourself copying too much of any one story, then you are focusing too much on the aspects of that story that you like, and you might want to spend more time focusing on the aspects that you don't like. ( If you can't find anything in the story that you don't like, then you're not trying hard enough ) If you can't mentally separate the parts of the story that you like from the parts of it that you don't, then you won't be tempted to copy the "good" parts anymore because they don't look as good as they used to. If you can mentally separate the parts of the story that you like from the parts of it that you don't, then you're still not "copying" the good parts of the original anymore, you're making them even better than the original
It's ok to think that as long as you never stop learning and critiquing your own writing I'm a little like you - full of confidence in my own writing - even when I was 13 I never questioned that my writing was excellent. (at 13 my writing was crap, but I was 13 and believed it to be excellent ) And to a certain extent, I don't see this as a bad thing. I think as writers we need to believe in ourselves and our ability. As long as you keep reading and keep learning, never dismiss advice/critique without consideration, then you're fine! But keep learning is key. At 30 books, I don't think you can say there's nothing to add to your way of writing just yet
Especially when writing in a language not your own, it's important to find a way to understand the feel of the language, the way that native speakers expect it to be used, etc. Based on your post here, you could use some more development of that understanding, and reading is a good way to make that happen. Your story and characters may be great regardless of what language you're writing, but that's not all there is to writing a story.
Reading motivates me to write. The difficulty is find a good book. I buy a lot, but struggle to read them, even ones by established, praised authors. Currently I'm reading 'ready player one' and it is superb.
Writing draws ideas from the richness of your emotional and everyday life. Reading helps when you want to tell your own story because it gives you perspective.
Conventional wisdom tells us that one and the other are related to one another in a very close way, but in a conference on the subject, they said the brain has two distinct areas for each one of these activites. Its funny because I can write for very long periods of time, but I have a harder time keeping my concentration up while reading. Does anyone else has this problem? There are also those who can read hour upon hours but cant write. I'm not discounting the usefulness of reading to built a lingustic base for writing, just wanted to see if others have the same diference im attention span between one activity and the other.
Same. It depends on the difficulty of what I'm reading. Currently reading Iron Kingdom. For a someone with English as their second language, it's quite the challenge sometimes.
This is one of the reasons why a lot of writers use editors for their works. Writing is fun, but reading is not. Picking up a novel or any book for that matter is challenging for writers. So I can see how some (not all) writers have more fun writing for hours as opposed to reading for hours.
Before writing I was a reader for days, but now I find it harder to concentrate because my own story distracts me. Better minds than mine say one must read in order to write. I would guess most writers do read? I think it definitely built up my linguistic base but then again there is always exceptions to a rule. I have been concerned about this. I am thinking of trying audio-books and painting or walking at the same time. I need to re-frame my intake of prose to suit my new distracted ways. Have you tried audio-books yourself?
When I was writing a lot while growing up, I hardly read. I'd pick up a book every once and a while, but found no interest in reading. Nowadays, I am reading all the time (and getting jealous of all these published writers). I'd tell myself, I can do this. If these folks can write a good book and get it published, I can. In fact, I had read some books that, in my personal opinion, were not very good. Every time I picked up a new book, I'd think to myself, "I could be writing right now. I could be using this time to get where these people are". Not for money, not for fame. But for potential readers. I crave my words being read by someone else. And as I am posting this, I'm still thinking "I can be using this time to write", but at least I made a step in the right direction like getting involved in a writing community. This feels nice.
You are right, getting published most of the times is about finding the right publisher and audience than the quality of the text. Also, I think some people have "seasons" for their writing, so sometimes is about waiting to the right time and eventually, it will come.
I write as often as I can. Sometimes that's every spare moment for a week or more, and I don't get anything else done (that's optional, like reading or watching TV). Then I tend to burn out, or I can keep writing, but everything I put down is garbage. That's when I know I have to read a book. When I find the right one, I can write for another long period before having to read another book. If I'm really lucky, the book will kick start me being able to get down 3-6 pages a day for the first few days (I don't keep track of word count as much). I like reading now, though, so I genuinely enjoy the break. I'm always torn between reading and writing, but since writing takes more effort and I need quiet to really do it well, I do it whenever possible.
Lately I can't read a book either. Something about it just doesn't hold my attention and my eyes glaze over. I love it when I'm reading though, and thinking about how I would write it differently. Actually I used to do that while watching tv, I would find myself unintentionally rewording in my head what was happening on the screen. It was kind of annoying though, as it distracted me from my show, but I kind of wish I could do it again and get back into my groove.
I always know when it's a good book when I start getting distracted by my internal dialogue. If I start having separate conversations with the characters and acting out entire scenes in my head with them I know I'm being entertained. I used to play a lot of pro-poker. I could easily listen to a twelve-hour audio book during a single tournament. Now that I'm writing I keep finding myself focusing on the little mistakes and other aspects of the book instead of just enjoying the story.
Yeah it kinda changes the experience huh. Hasn't happened to me lately, but I'm just getting warmed up after a 3 year sabbatical.
I think when they say reading and writing is related they mean that if you want to be a good writer you have to read a lot of books. I dont think they mean to say you have to read at the same speed and with the same attention as you write. I can write for much longer than I can read because after a while i start to fall asleep especially if reading before bed.
I also find reading to be so passive an activity that I can fade out for significant chunks. My solution at the moment is to listen to audiobooks when exercising, and to read physical books while commuting.
I struggle with both at times. Other times, I can write (or read) for hours on end. I think it has to do with the number of distractions in one's life.
I would happily wake up in the morning, read the entire day and then go to sleep, if I could get away with living like that. On the other hand it has taken me a long time to get as comfortable as I am with writing these days, and I'm still growing.
