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Think Reading Can’t Make You a Better Writer? Think Again
How to read your way to better writing
In our social media and AI-driven writing environment, it often seems the focus on improving our writing is on how to do more of it, faster. Sure, if our writing gets better, that would be a nice side effect, but that’s not really the goal. Is it?
Thinking like that is what has led to a glut of uninteresting, low-quality writing, particularly on the Internet — where experts say a “shocking amount” of content is now generated and translated by AI.
It’s time to take a page out of tech’s playbook — or at least Apple’s playbook, as described by Steve Jobs — and “think different.”
Maybe it’s time to improve our writing by reading more writing done by other people.
Do not proceed directly to “how to” writing manuals
Writers are pressed for time like everyone else. Often, when we decide we want to improve our writing, we head right for the shelf of writing manuals, like Stephen King’s omnipresent On Writing.
Resist the urge!
Likewise, stop reading articles on how to sell your writing or make more money through it. There’s a time and place for those articles, but they may distract…
