Does Reading Make You A Better Writer Or Vice Versa? Yes.
By now I don’t think it is any secret; growing up, I read a lot of books, I’m not shy about it; I’ve mentioned it briefly in an article or two here or there. I believe that all children should be free to read as much and as often as they want, reading whatever they want. I think that is how you learn, grow, and stay creative and curious, and I assume most people would agree.
But today I’m going to talk about something I don’t often talk about: As a child, I was painfully shy. I mean painfully shy, to the point I would almost always be too afraid to ask my teacher a question I had during a test, so I would write my thoughts on the test in the margins if I couldn’t decide on an answer. That painful shyness coupled with the dozens of books I read growing up, I believe, both, made me a better reader and writer. I credit that to my position today, but is there proof?
The answer is yes. Think about it. What inspires writers to be writers after all? They read stories! Although I was surprised to find that I did not find actual numbers to support this, just more real life examples. So, let’s get started:
Reading a lot and absorbing what you read will hopefully not only inspire you as a writer but will give you a good sense of how to write by reading books of all types and lengths, you learn about plots, themes, characters, settings, etc. I know I’ve highlighted this series a handful of times but, character development is such a huge part of writing a story — the Harry Potter series is a good example of character development.
A good piece of advice I found from Goins, Writer is that “reading is not about finishing.” Basically, many people start reading books to finish them — but Goins, Writer says that that is not something you need to do, you can find many pieces of good writing that will inspire you to write or give you more ideas.
Just like there are many different types of styles of pieces to read, magazines, news articles, novels, biographies, etc. Every writer has their own style of writing. I think that people develop their own writing voice based on the kinds of things they read. For example: JK Roweling’s Harry Potter (surprise, surprise) is, in my opinion, a strong writer with strong characters. This was my all time favorite series growing up, and (it turns out that I gravitate towards many strong characters) I think that’s where my “strong” writing voice comes from. Your voice will change depending on the piece you’re writing — a piece for a class vs. a piece for your blog will be very different. I would also like to mention here that although everyone follows basic grammar rules for the most part when they write, writers develop their own styles when it comes to this as well. (My downfall will probably always be commons and semi-colons, I either use them too much or not at all.)
Encourage means of reading and writing that work for you. I know many readers and writers alike who don’t give themselves enough credit for the work that they do, or allow themselves the pleasure of reading something they like because they use technology to do so, and they’ve begun to think that that’s wrong and they should use pen and paper instead. Everyone has their own style, whatever inspires you most I think is best for you.
All in all, I think that reading inspires you to be a better writer and writing inspires you to read things that will inspire you even more. To tie this in with our mission here at Educasic which is to empower children of all ages to learn to read and read well so that they can grow up to be writers and readers alike…
Again, I think it’s important to allow your children to read what they want to read, as often as they want to read, and for as long as they want to read. You can read with them!
There are some other fun things to do too, for example.
- Encourage them to keep a journal - you might even write one with them.
- Write and illustrate stories with them. Writing prompts could be helpful for this; ask them to write a story about your family.
- Write and leave notes for your children around the house.
- Ask them to write / read lists, grocery lists, Christmas lists, chores list, etc.
- Encourage writing to learn. When I was learning to spell, my mom would make me write all my words five times, and then quiz me, if I got a word wrong, I would have to write it ten times. I would be quizzed on my whole list again, if I still got a word wrong, I would have to write it ten times and the process would repeat up until I got it right and took my test.
- Here are some more links to help you: Top Ten Ways To Make Reading Fun, Top Ten Books For The Whole Family, Reading Is The Key To Success, The Truth About Reading In America, and lately, How To Harbor Creativity In Children.
So, does reading make you a better writer?
Or, does writing make you a better reader?
It’s up to you to decide.
Download Sights to help make reading and writing easier and thus more fun by helping kids learn their sight words today!
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