Reading your way to better writing
Reading consistently is one of the best ways to improve your writing. It increases your vocabulary but also familiarises you with different sentence structures, constructions of grammar, new phrases, and means of expression. Through exposure, you soak in the tools for good writing whenever you pick up a book.
“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.”
However! Reading is easier said than done, especially when you have a smartphone that lives to munch on your attention and you pay for five different streaming services. Lots of people want to read but can't, for reasons that feel faintly ridiculous when you're experiencing them - can't sit still, can't get into books, can't concentrate. I myself barely read a book between the age of 23 and 28 and felt so embarrassed about it that I would avoid bookstores, even though they smell great, for fear the clerks would somehow sense I was defective.
So what qualifies me to be up on my little soapbox, declaring that y'all should pick up a book? Only that I found a way back to reading and it's been incredibly beneficial to both my writing and my Sundays. Honestly, there's nothing better than spending Sunday afternoon reading on the couch. If you're struggling with reading, here's a map for getting back to it.
No limits
For a long time, I put a lot of stupid rules around reading. Rules like: I should only read classic or edgy literature. Non-fiction books are more worthy than fiction. I couldn’t give up on a book if I’d started it. I had to buy the book to support the author. Eventually, my self-imposed rules made me feel so guilty and weird I stopped reading altogether.
The rules have to go. For your first year of reading recovery (and hopefully thereafter), there should be no rules about what you read and no limitations. Read what makes you happy and what makes you want to read. Reread books you loved the first time. Or focus on sexy romance novels that consume you, young adult fantasy books from your teenage library, horror or thrillers that keep you turning the page. There should be no resistance, no difficulty when it comes to picking up these books - they're your training wheel books and the point is to ease you back in, help you connect, and build your confidence.
Be consistent
I used to go to a yoga class once a week. I thought that was pretty good, considering it was on a Saturday morning at 9 am. The instructor was a rambler, she would talk constantly throughout every session, saying whatever pseudo-medicinal nonsense popped into her head like "Rolling around on your back massages your organs!" or "Being upside down is excellent for the brain, it infuses our thoughts with oxygen". One day the yoga instructor actually said something profound (I was so shocked by this I nearly let out all my farts). She said, “Practicing yoga once a week won’t improve your flexibility. Flexibility is something you need to practice every day”.
This is true of yoga, which I almost immediately quit, and even more true of reading. Reading is a muscle, a practice, that has to be worked at. You need to build stamina. I feel like we get confused about this because we can read. We can do it. So why can't we do it? But just because you can run, doesn't mean you can run a marathon. Or in my case, a 5k. Or anything.
The only thing for it is this: put your phone away before bed, on airplane mode if you need, and force yourself to read for 10 minutes every night. The first few weeks will suck. You'll forget, you'll get distracted, and you'll feel your eyes closing against your will. But eventually, it'll click into place and you'll look forward to picking up your book.
That's it. That's all you need. You can do other things like invest in an e-reader, keep a list of the books you've read, or join a book club. But these are all supplementary to the mainstays of no limits, be consistent.
Ironically, TL;DR? Reading is good for writing. If you struggle with reading, ease yourself into it by removing all limitations on your book choices and forcing yourself to read a little every day.