Here’s The One Thing That Will Make You Write More

And it’s not even that much of a secret…

For a long time, I would have the follow stress-inducing word scribbled on my daily to do: ‘write.’

What a perfectly ambiguous word. Funny how 99% of the time, the day passed without that one word comprised of a mere three consonants and two vowels went unchecked.

Looking back, I now understand why. I now finally have an understanding as to why I wasn’t writing. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have found the cure to writer’s block and how to overcome lack of inspiration and crippling creator doubt and everything else that comes with the aspiration to write.

You see, the days that W-R-I-T-E went unchecked were also the days R-E-A-D went unchecked.

“If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time or tools to write. Simple as that.” — Stephen King

Now, when I say ‘reading’ I don’t just mean books. Yes, books are important and I will get to that later. However, I started posting on Medium and taking it seriously when I started using the platform more and more as a place to read. Biding time during boring work meetings had me scrolling through the platform. Reading through articles made me want to write articles of my own. Not even just because I wanted to share my own experiences, my own tips and advice about things… but I just wanted to be a part of this community. The more I read, the more I felt this urge that I just had to write.

And in the two months since I’ve started reading on Medium, I’ve written more than in the past two years. No exaggeration.

However those two ‘dry years’ were also due to the fact that my relationship with reading as gone up and down. Studying a literature degree had left me with burn out as I wouldn’t have any time to read for pleasure. Furthermore, I had no idea as to what reading for pleasure meant anymore. For a long time, I would only buy Classics (i.e Austen, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Bronte and Hardy). The reason for this was because I wanted to read the books that always came up in conversation… even though I was having no conversations about them.

Dark academic aesthetic aside, I was, once again, wanting — and failing — to tick items off a list. Except that this list was in my head and it was to gain a sense of elitist respect that only existed in my brain. Having a love for reading wasn’t enough — to make it in the literature circles, I would have to read boring books that I didn’t care about. And were not at all the reason I chose to pursue literature in the first place.

So for a few years, I didn’t really read. Unsurprisingly, those few years had me producing next to nothing writing wise. It has only been this year that I’ve allowed myself to ignore my Completed Works of Jane Austen of Completed Anthology of Edgar Allen Poe and read contemporary fiction. Or even non-fiction. And would you know? I’m smashing out books by the week.

In the first half of 2021, I read only nine books.

In the past month, I’ve read eight.

Let that be testament to how important reading is to the work of a writer. Many people often say — me being the first of them — that they can’t write because they don’t feel like they’ve lived enough. That’s fair. However, how many libraries have we walked into that has that cheesy ‘…’ quote. In a time where the world is still somewhat shut up, the most living we can get is in between some pages.

That aside, the best writing course you can ever take, the best burst of inspiration you’ll ever get, the best anything a writer may need is in the written lines composed of a few many vowels and consonants.

Go read a book.

Only after the writer lets literature shape her can she perhaps shape literature. — Annie Dilliard