Apologies for my absence in general, things have been hectic lately.

I started classes over at Gotham Writers again, which is always a good thing because it gets me writing and it forces me to set aside time for reading, reviewing and studying the craft. The problem is I have two classes this time and the workload is heavier than I was expecting. 

In short, I have one to two free nights per week that I can devote to classwork and enough work to last three or four nights. Mostly, this work involves reading. Reading assigned stories and novels, reading lectures from my noble instructors and reading the work of my peers. 

Stephen King once said something like “if you want to be a writer you need to do two things: read a lot and write a lot.”  Several other great writers have made similar statements about reading. If you’re learning, studying, and attempting to perfect a craft – shouldn’t you observe successful practitioners of the craft?

I think reading is perhaps one of the best things a writer can do, and likewise, I think we should do it in excess. Musicians are almost never people that occasionally listen to music;  they are passionate about all sorts of music and spend great deals of time immersing themselves in the music of others. 

Artists observe, study, gain inspiration from and respect the work of their peers. We as writers should follow suit. Our creative passion is prose, and so we should immerse ourselves in prose. Not just any prose, mind you, but the kind of prose we wish to write ourselves.

I think if you want to be a great short story writer, you should study great short stories. If you want to write a captivating novel, you should study captivating novels. And if you want to write a steamy romance – well then read up on some steamy romance.

It’s not a complicated idea, but the more good stuff we read the better our stuff will become. The more quality writing you take in, the more likely you are to draw from it when composing your own.