As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve always been a big reader. It was probably my first love. Writing never really appealed to me in a serious way until several years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always had a natural inclination for the written word, but I never chased it down the way I do now. I noticed that I get into ruts where I am feverishly reading non-stop and doing no writing whatsoever, and then the opposite will happen where I am writing at an unstopable rate and reading takes a backseat. I can’t help but realize, however, that no matter which way my pendulum swings, I find myself needing to find a balance between the two in order to do any quality writing. I could probably find some scientific study that supports the premise that regular reading is vital for successful writing, but I’m comfortable making the self-assured generalization that it is true. I also know that teachers often make it a point to assign extra reading to elementary age students to improve their writing skills (one of the few things I recall from an education course I took). I know that whenever I need a dose of inspiration, or my writing is so dull that I need to take a new angle or find a new voice for my piece, the solution is to pick up a book and dive in. It hardly matters what the book is about, as long as it gets my mind “in the zone”.

While reading can help dig me out the ditch known as writer’s block, it also helps to broaden my scope of potential writing topics. I try to read one newspaper a day to keep up with the state of the world, and I am also reading one book at any given time. I find that when you surround yourself with words of all kinds, it makes your own mind more pliable and creative.