# Can people be good writers without reading?



## Alexxx-Returns (Oct 20, 2013)

As misleading as that title probably sounds, what I mean is, do you think it's possible for someone who doesn't read that much fiction to write good works themselves?

A comment in another thread made me think about this. I don't read a lot of fiction myself - or I used to hardly read it, but since discovering fan fiction I've been reading far more. But over time, I managed to write a story significantly over 100k words (although I know quantity means nothing without quality).

But I do read a hell of a lot of textbooks and research articles for my degree, and I feel that over the years, that rigid, scientific writing style that I am so used to reading has leaked into my own writing, so I do reckon that what one reads can really influence how they write.

Do you reckon that a writer can only really be good if they have an extensive reading history behind them, or is this not the most important thing?


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## Schwimmwagen (Oct 20, 2013)

I don't read much fiction anymore, and I instead read shitloads of informative articles and books and the like.

But I'm told that there's that author-like vibe to my emails.

I think it's not the most important thing, but looking at the works of others can still be a huge help.

A lot of good visual artists also happen to really look closely at the works of others, too, sooo


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## Aleu (Oct 20, 2013)

I don't think it's THE most important thing but I do think it's important to read SOMETHING if you want to write. To me, a writer that doesn't like to read just seems like they're setting theirself up for failure.
I know a friend of mine who absolutely refuses to read anything that isn't a Sonic comic and wants to write. His characters, stories, and writing style is absolutely atrocious.


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## Conker (Oct 20, 2013)

"How to write" books are usually worth throwing away since it's not something you can teach, but Stephen King put one out that I found quite helpful, and one of his bigger rules was "READ ALL THE TIME"

You can learn a lot from reading, and honestly, if you want to write fiction, shouldn't you also enjoy it from the other end of the spectrum? 

I've learned so much from reading, more from bad books than good books, and I think it's only helped. Plus, I find reading a good book to be a huge motivator. Nothing like putting down a quality novel and going, "I want to do that too." 

So yeah, I think it's really important.


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## Jabberwocky (Oct 20, 2013)

in my opinion, it is very important to read, but it's not a key thing for writing. reading certainly helps a lot though.


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## Heliophobic (Oct 20, 2013)

I don't write much, and I read even less than that. But when I do write, and I mean like legitimately _write_, I think the result comes out pretty nicely.

Like Batsy said; it's important but not explicitly necessary.


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## Aleu (Oct 20, 2013)

Conker said:


> "How to write" books are usually worth throwing away since it's not something you can teach, but Stephen King put one out that I found quite helpful, and one of his bigger rules was "READ ALL THE TIME"
> 
> You can learn a lot from reading, and honestly, if you want to write fiction, shouldn't you also enjoy it from the other end of the spectrum?
> 
> ...


I didn't even know there were "How to Write" books. I guess there's a "How to" for everything.

I did find one book that talked about proper grammar and Do's and Do Not's but I found it to be garbage. It did have some good points at the beginning then as it progressed, I felt like I was reading a Tumblr rant about sexist and racist terms. Like, stay away from using "mankind" or "Indian" being an improper and offensive term. I'm thinking "This author knows India exists, right?"


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## Conker (Oct 20, 2013)

Aleu said:


> I didn't even know there were "How to Write" books. I guess there's a "How to" for everything.
> 
> I did find one book that talked about proper grammar and Do's and Do Not's but I found it to be garbage. It did have some good points at the beginning then as it progressed, I felt like I was reading a Tumblr rant about sexist and racist terms. Like, stay away from using "mankind" or "Indian" being an improper and offensive term. I'm thinking "This author knows India exists, right?"


Yeah. How to books exist for everything  The Stephen King one was part autobiography and part general tips, but nothing really major. Stuff like "when writing a big project, try to write daily. At least that's what I do" and "I prefer to keep the first draft to myself and let the book breathe when it's done. That's when I share it" but nothing like "AVOID WORDS LIKE X" or "DONT USE X PERSON" 

Was mostly a, "I've published a lot of books, so here's what I do. YMMV" and I really liked the book because it was entertaining and informative. 

Though he was pretty well against adverbs, at least in terms of defining speech. The dialogue itself should be enough.


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## Wither (Oct 20, 2013)

I'm going to say yes. 
But I really mean no.


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## Gnarl (Oct 20, 2013)

It is always possible to write without reading, but wether it is worth reading is sometimes another matter. If one does not know the genre then trying to write in it, well, good luck. there are always those who don't care. I myself can not stand the train of thought works from the early twentieth century as they often make no sense to me. 
When I write it is like watching a story in my head. I will often go back and then read it to see if it makes sense, all the elements hold to time lines, words are spelled correctly, and the grammatical rules are followed, for the most part. Had I not been such and avid reader Through my twenties and thirties and into the forty's I probably would not have so many stories stuck in my head waiting to be written. So yes it is possible but you will get what you put into it.


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## Heliophobic (Oct 20, 2013)

Wither said:


> I'm going to say yes.
> But I really mean no.



Care to elaborate?


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## Wither (Oct 20, 2013)

Heliophobic said:


> Care to elaborate?



Uh. 
No. 
How would you even write without the preconception of written works.


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## Shoiyo (Oct 20, 2013)

I think that reading is a good start to being a better writer, but reading alone won't turn you into a veteran bestseller. First, you have to put away the "I'll curl up and enjoy a good book" mentality and toss it out the window into a screaming bonfire, and adopt a more surgical approach. While reading, you have to be able to dissect what the author is saying, what their style is, how the plot is evolving and so forth. Reading and reading comprehension is one thing, but actually dissecting the work into working parts and observing them in action is quite another.


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## Gnarl (Oct 20, 2013)

Shoiyo said:


> I think that reading is a good start to being a better writer, but reading alone won't turn you into a veteran bestseller. First, you have to put away the "I'll curl up and enjoy a good book" mentality and toss it out the window into a screaming bonfire, and adopt a more surgical approach. While reading, you have to be able to dissect what the author is saying, what their style is, how the plot is evolving and so forth. Reading and reading comprehension is one thing, but actually dissecting the work into working parts and observing them in action is quite another.


Try that with Ewon Colfer, it is fun!


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## Conker (Oct 20, 2013)

Shoiyo said:


> I think that reading is a good start to being a better writer, but reading alone won't turn you into a veteran bestseller. First, you have to put away the "I'll curl up and enjoy a good book" mentality and toss it out the window into a screaming bonfire, and adopt a more surgical approach. While reading, you have to be able to dissect what the author is saying, what their style is, how the plot is evolving and so forth. Reading and reading comprehension is one thing, but actually dissecting the work into working parts and observing them in action is quite another.


Which is why I recommend picking up a book that's kind of shit, since it's really easy to go from "curling up and enjoying" to "holy shit this has problems. Let's see where they begin and why."

But I just have bad friends with bad tastes, which is why I've encountered my fair share of bad novels.


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## Troj (Oct 20, 2013)

I imagine there are exceptions to the rule, but to my mind, writing without reading is akin to shooting blindfolded.

In my experience, people who read crap tend to write crap. Ditto people who don't read at all.

I find that the people who write well tend to be the ones who are willing to read widely and analyze works critically. Reading is how you pick up tricks of the trade, discover new words and turns of phrase, and develop a sense of what does and doesn't work, without having to re-invent the wheel all by yourself.


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## Aggybyte (Oct 20, 2013)

I haven't read much, and I haven't wrote anything that didn't make me want to shoot myself after reading it. So no.


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## Conker (Oct 20, 2013)

The idea that a teller of stories would not also be a lover of stories bothers me on some kind of personal level. I just don't see how the two can compute.


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## Friday (Oct 21, 2013)

It's not only reading, but any form of storytelling. There are prodigies who do not need teaching in any given field, but for 99.99999% of people, you need to learn from other people's examples.


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## SierraCanine (Oct 21, 2013)

If your concerned about your writing style ask people to comment and review your story. I hardly ever read fiction, but that doesn't mean I can't write it. I come to the authors arena with a background in RP'ing.  I set up a general plot, and play all the characters myself... what happens happens, and my readers seem to enjoy it.  If you feel up to it you should look at books you like and try to figure out why you like them. Is it the plot, how they tell the story, the character development..? Find out what intrigues you and work on that.  Remember as an author your writing primarily for yourself, not for others.  If they happen to like our stories then good for them, it doesn't mean your doing something right or wrong.... just that someone, somewhere, likes it.  And for me.... that one person... is why I continue to write........


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## Alexxx-Returns (Oct 21, 2013)

SierraCanine said:


> If your concerned about your writing style ask people to comment and review your story.



Not concerned, just curious as to what others thought about this idea.


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## SierraCanine (Oct 21, 2013)

AlexxxLupo said:


> Not concerned, just curious as to what others thought about this idea.



Okay. I would have to say yes.... you can be a good writer without reading much fiction.  It's the readers who decide if it's a good work, not the author.... and everyone's opinion is different.


......I don't know if that made any sense... -_-


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## M. LeRenard (Oct 22, 2013)

Honestly, the only way I can conceive of someone becoming a 'good' writer (with all the subjectivity of the word intact) without having read much is if they independently evolve some kind of bizarro new style that happens to catch someone's fancy.  Like, I read an article somewhere the other day about untrained artists down in Louisiana or something, and how some rich fellow from probably NYC wants to distribute their work, put it in galleries and such, because he/she thinks it's on par or better than what's being produced by professional artists with education and training.  And you look at the works in question, which are kind of interesting but obviously made in someone's spare time from whatever materials happened to be lying around that day, and they look sort of cool and interesting but are obviously not the result of too much skill or technique.  So I could see a writer equivalent to that occurring.

But just like with art, if you would rather your works be accessible and pleasant to a wider audience, you really need some training.  And reading other works is the most integral part to that training, once you learn what the basics are and how to thus analyze the quality of said works from a more objective point of view.  And really, when it comes to writing, making your works accessible and pleasant almost seems to be more important than with art, because reading a story or a novel is a much bigger time investment than staring at a piece of art.  I don't want to spend 5 hours reading something that makes me cringe every two seconds.


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## academy (Oct 24, 2013)

In short, you can't.

There's a few reasons why. The simplest of which is that you have to know what you're talking about. Writing from experience can only carry you so far, and what happens when you run out of experience? Where will you turn, especially if you have some overriding factor that ties you to a single place and set of experiences. We can't all be Hemingway. Most of us are probably more like Ben Fountain. Fountain never served in Iraq, but his novel _Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk_ is a masterful look at the realities of America through the eyes of a returning soldier. How could he do it, and allow it to ring true despite a lack of experience? Research.

You've also got to read to get a handle on genre. As a writing teacher, one thing that we're taught to do in the classroom is to break down genres with students so they recognize the forms that are expected of them. As a writer, you should be doing the same thing. If you want to write a novel, a play, a short story, how do you know what you're writing unless you examine the other existing examples of the genre?

And from there, as fiction/literary writers, there's a further responsibility. As much as I loathe T.S. Eliot as a critic, if you're wondering whether you should be a reader as a writer, you need to read his essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent." As writers, we owe a debt to those who came before us, and we're leaving a legacy to those who came after us. In this sense, writing in a vacuum is unadvisable, if not impossible.


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## SkyeLansing (Oct 31, 2013)

Reading is important and will make you a better writer, but not for the reasons a lot of people assume. I'm fairly certain that you could improve in the same ways without being well read, but it would almost certainly take more effort.

The reason reading is so important is that everyone has these blind spots in their own ability to write - places where their writing is deficient but they do not know how to improve (or do not realize they are bad). Keep in mind this doesn't have to make the story bad, but will nearly always make things not as good as they could be. For instance perhaps an author writes really cheesy romance, but if the story he is telling is more about investigating a murder than the romance between the two detectives the story as a whole doesn't really suffer too much... but those cheesy romance portions will definitely stick out as places where things took a turn for the groan worthy.

Reading allows you to look at how other authors handle things and gives you ideas by picking apart their style. You'll get better not only by seeing what they did well but by finding spots where you think things could have been made better. In addition over time you'll probably find that there are certain aspects of their style that you've internalized and made your own (often the best parts). By contrast if you don't read much the only way to get better is trail and error which does work (and sometimes is the only real solution) but is both much slower and significantly more frustrating.

There are other reasons to be well read as well: reading all sorts of genre and non-fictional topics significantly expands your writer's tool box. The more things you know about the more you are able to pull them into your story and the more confidently you are able to write about them. For instance if you were going to write a story about traveling in space I would strongly recommend that you read everything you can about both the Russian and American space programs during the space race and the lessons they learned. Even if you end up veering away from hard science fiction this information will inform your writing and give you ideas for potential problems that could happen which will lend an air of authenticity to anything you present to your audience.

In short is reading required to write? No. Is it required to be a good writer? Possibly not, but considering that writing requires a love of language and how it is used it would be very particular to find someone serious about writing who truly dislikes reading things done by others since that suggests not a love of language but a more egocentric motivation that in my experience makes for a very poor writer.


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## Art Vulpine (Oct 31, 2013)

I would say that yes, you need to read in order to write well. You don't have to be an avid reader but enough to understand how others write and the genre you wish to write in. Basically you're doing your research as part of being a writer. Want to write horror, fantasy, scifi, or other types? Read how others have done so, especially those that are successful. I'm not saying copy them but to learn why they are good or bad. To not read is like handing someone a hammer and asking them to build a house when they have no experience. Reading is not required to write, but as mentioned before, if you don't like reading, how are you expected to write well?


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## RedSavage (Oct 31, 2013)

I'm gonna give you a straight up answer from my experience: No. 

Here's why: _You forget how words read._ I suffered this problem after finishing my first book (yay). I'd been reading steadily till about halfway through when life got crazy, and mental energy and time got split between writing and work and school--but not reading. I'd been wrapped up in that style of narration so long that when it was finished and I tried to start something new (ie: different) I would only get a few paragraphs in before I'd be back changing things because my mind would read it in one way--and then another. I couldn't solidify my writing voice to even carry whatever story I had. You know, inflection of the narrator voice, so to speak. 

Plus I kept thinking, am I being overly descriptive? Not enough? Is my dialogue awkward? How's my formatting? Am I using too many "said"s when I could just lay down the dialogue? How what when--

And then I go and pic up a few books. The Gunslinger. John Dies at the End. Fear and Loathing. I'm reminded of how to read--and how to write to be read. I get a better idea of what I can get away with and what won't work.


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## VengeanceZ (Nov 22, 2013)

I've actually only read 3 fantasy fiction books in my life time(Old Kingdom Series: Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen), the others were mandatory(school & college) I've been told I have a very good grasp of telling an actual story in it's own right, the setting, the feel, the suspense and finally the urge to read on, turn the page over and see what happens next. This of course has mostly come from my Brother reading some of my work. He feels as if I have natural born talent and that I come up with the most wild plot lines, characters and settings. So in a way I believe you can write as long as you've studied and passed English class/lessons up to a desirable level that allows you to take advantage of a vast amount of vocabulary. Of course as any writer, your writing style and knowledge comes from experience, just like anything really.


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## GatodeCafe (Nov 23, 2013)

IMHO, art rarely acts in isolation. The idea of a writer being skilled without reading is like the idea of a guitarist not listening to music. When we expose ourselves to other works, we have moments of introspection to better understand what it is we want to create. IMHO collaborative projects like TVTropes are some of the most useful resources for narrative art in general, purely because it allows the writer to explore the elements of a story in a unified, repeatable way. 

Especially in genre fiction, it's hard for me to imagine someone being a good writer who lacks the passion to explore the works of his or her direct peers.


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## Gnarl (Nov 23, 2013)

Much of what is being said here is just trying to be polite but basically the answer to the question is no! Not if you really want to write a good or even fair book. 
I have proof of that. In 1989 I published my first book as a part of my Bachelors degree. I put in on a shelf. over the next 15 years I read probably a thousand or more books for fun and several hundred for research or my masters degrees. In 2004 I picked up that first book and tried to read it. Within the first 4 pages I was so embarrassed that I had ever let anyone read that piece of junk. Now I still don't think of myself as a wonderful writer but my recent books are selling so that must mean someone likes them. I admit though I spent over a year reading and rereading them then tried to get my family (I failed) to read them before I published. 
Good luck and hope this was worth something.


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