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Why You Should Read More to Write Better

Advice from Stephen King and Paul Simon

By Gary McBrinePublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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Why You Should Read More to Write Better
Photo by Attentie Attentie on Unsplash

Writing and playing music have many parallels.

When you learn to play the guitar, what do you learn first?

Do you start composing your own songs and playing complex chord progressions right from the start? Unlikely.

Most people who learn to play the guitar start by playing other people’s songs. Then, when they’ve become comfortable with the instrument, they may or may not decide to create songs of their own.

Why is it helpful to practice someone else’s songs? Because it develops skill. It gives you the tools and musical vocabulary to express something yourself.

The same is true with writing.

Novelist Steven King speaks of the importance of reading and writing:

“The more fiction you read and write, the more you’ll find your paragraphs forming on their own.” — Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft

To become a good writer requires both reading and writing a lot.

It’s the same with music. If you never listen to or learn other people’s songs, it can be very difficult, if not impossible, to learn to write your own songs.

Paul Simon met his musical partner Art Garfunkel when they were children. Their idols were the Everly Brothers, who were known for their beautiful harmonies in songs such as “Wake Up Little Suzie” and “Dream”.

The two boys would imitate the close two-part harmonies of the Everly Brothers until they developed a style of their own. We hear those beautiful harmonies in songs such as “Sounds of Silence” and “Scarborough Fair/Canticle”. What they learned from imitation became their own style.

What you learn from reading can develop into your writing style.

Read read read. Write write write.

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” — Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft

Stephen describes himself as a slow reader, yet he reads seventy or eighty books a year, mostly fiction. Not for research, but because he likes to read.

Do you like to read? If you want to be a good writer, it’s important to take time to read a lot. If one of the most successful writers does it, maybe we should too.

Will reading a lot influence your writing to sound like someone else?

If you’re a new writer, sounding like someone else isn’t all that bad. If they’re a good writer that is.

With time and practice, you will develop your own style. That’s the key.

Even the Beatles honed their craft by playing other people’s songs. As a new band, they played in Hamburg Germany every night for a couple of years. This helped them to develop their skill and unique sound that made them famous.

The words of a writer are like the notes of a musician.

To become skilled at either craft requires you to consume and digest the art of others. Then create your own art.

Stephen King recommends reading and writing four to six hours a day. It’s not that hard if you really love it.

Stephen compares writing to music in this quote from his book. He can have the last word.

“Talent renders the whole idea of rehearsal meaningless; when you find something at which you are talented, you do it (whatever it is) until your fingers bleed or your eyes are ready to fall out of your head. Even when no one is listening (or reading, or watching), every outing is a bravura performance, because you as the creator are happy. Perhaps even ecstatic. That goes for reading and writing as well as for playing a musical instrument, hitting a baseball, or running the four-forty.” — King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft

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About the Creator

Gary McBrine

I'm a writer, a photographer, a musician and an ESL English teacher. I have three decades of sales and management experience and run my own Audio Video home technology business. Check out my other articles: https://medium.com/@garymcbrine

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