The advice of Ernest Hemingway for Mice, one who dreams on becoming a writer goes like this:

Mice: What books should a writer have to read?

Hemingway: He should have read everything so that he knows what he has to beat.

Hemingway then went on to list a long range of books that must be compulsorily read by Mice before penning down one for himself. According to Hemingway, the only people a writer must aim to compete are “the dead that he knows are good”.

Stephen King famously said that:

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time to write. Simple as that”.

To write well, one must read well. In fact, many prominent writers spent more time feeding “on” books than feeding “with” books. The Portuguese Nobel prize winner Jose Saramago when asked about his daily writing routine stated that “he writes two pages everyday”. “And then I read and read and read.”

The Source Of Creativity For Writer

Reading is central to all aspects of a writer. It is not just about what a writer pens down. Rather, reading influences how and why a writer writes. It is the source of creativity and inspiration. It takes the role of a parent who nurtures a child by providing them with ideas, vocabulary and styles. The late Foster Wallace said, “The way I am as a writer comes very much out of what I want as a reader”.

A reader reads not just the words in a book, but he or she deeply reads the genius behind it. The influence of an author over a writer cannot be expressed enough. Every writer adopts a part of the style of vocabulary of their favourite writers. Books and authors are the teachers that guide writers throughout their journey with the pen. They provide templates, teach about character development and story-narration, inspire our tone and pitch, enhance our vocabulary and so much more. Haruki Murasaki advices aspiring novelists to read. He said:

“I think the first task for the aspiring novelist is to read tons of novels. Sorry to start with such a commonplace observation, but no training is more crucial. To write a novel, you must first understand at a physical level how one is put together. Introduce yourself to lots of great writing. To lots of mediocre writing too. This is your most important task.”

Being Flawless With The Pen

It is not possible to write flawlessly without being a reader. Reading helps one to weave out his or her writing and craft the mechanics of writing precisely. It exposes one to the possibilities of language. Stephen King stressed on this point once:

”The real importance of reading is that it creates an ease and intimacy with the process of writing. One comes to the country of the writer with one’s papers and identification pretty much in order. Constant reading will pull you into a place where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness. It also offers you a constantly growing knowledge of what has been done and what hasn’t, what is tried and what is fresh, what works and what just lies there dying on the page. The more you read, the less apt you are to make a fool of yourself with your pen or word processor”.

My writing journey began six years back as a blogger of football (something I discontinued after two years). Throughout those years, my vocabulary, tone and styles were heavily influenced by various football websites which I consumed. Even today, every author I have come across has left his or her mark in my style of writing. Without reading, this article itself wouldn’t have been possible.

So, for all aspiring writers out there. The first command is : Read!!!