The importance of reading

One thing most people who write will tell you is that to be an effective writer you have to read a lot, and that is one piece of advice I can agree with. Reading is not just a way to expand your vocabulary, which is always important, but it is a good way to expand your creative wings; what I mean with this is that by reading you get to see what other authors create, and that allows you to consider the many possibilities and variations of a theme that can exist. This in turn helps you to stop limiting yourself when you write your own stories.

And besides, reading is an enjoyable activity all on its own, you don't need to go out of your way to read something, you can either pick up a book or just read something online, it is literally one of the most accessible activities in the developed world, there is really no reason not to spend a few minutes reading everyday, and there's no shortage of things to read, from trash to masterpieces, you can read everything and learn something new from it: you can learn what to do and what not to do in your own writing, and that is but one of the many advantages of reading.

So next time you're considering reading something, maybe give a chance to a book, a story or a poem that you've avoided before, you never know what you'll get from it, but I'm sure it'll be, at the very least, a new experience.