In circles of aspiring authors, a strange and controversial attitude has begun to take root: the idea that reading is optional. It is a standpoint that often springs from enthusiasm. A desire to tell a story raw, free from the rules of old or dead writers.
This is wrong. It overlooks a fundamental truth of the craft. Reading is not just about gathering inspiration or expanding vocabulary; it is the primary way a writer develops the taste required to realize when their own work doesn’t measure up.
To write without reading is like playing an instrument without an ear for music. When you read diligently and widely, you learn to hear your own mistakes like musicians hear false notes in a performance. Crucially, you learn to hear it even if the general audience does not.
Without this internal calibration, a writer can happily churn out unrefined prose, blissfully unaware of the dissonance. Good writers hear the false notes because they have spent years reading the masters.
Call it building the ear, or adjusting the internal compass. It doesn’t matter, but the more you read and understand, the better wired your brain is to write.
Let’s look at the counter arguments:
1. Reading is Labor. I’m here to write and inspire, not work.
2. I should write what I like.
The Argument for Literacy as Labor
Play or duty? For the hobby reader, reading is a sanctuary—a way to unwind. For the serious writer, however, it is part of the job.
A job, yes, but that doesn’t mean reading should be a joyless slog. Consider it active consumption. Do you think anyone could gain the title and appreciation as a master chef without tasting the world’s cuisines and innovating from there? No-one’s getting accolades for mud cakes. And few get accolades for over-producing. Even the most genius master chef wants the diner to enjoy the meal.
And just like that, a writer cannot cannot master structure, tempo, or tone without dissecting the works of others. Some argue that too much focus on reading steals time from the actual writing, but the two are inextricably linked. They are the same.
Reading provides the benchmarks for quality. Your personal development is measured against these standards; when you finally reach them, that is where true confidence is born.
Sounds easy and straightforward?
It is not. Failing to read is not just an condemnation of your inherent laziness. In today’s world, our brains are wired to chew through 15 second videos and reject long-form videos. That’s why blog posts are short, and people skim text in TikTok videos. Reading is a rebellious act again biological distraction. Even reading this post is work. It’s a real and painful ordeal for a human to fight against the tyranny of cognitive decline.
Every author had it easier before the advent of smart phones. My advice is to detox and rebel.
The Argument for writing for known genres and following traditional beats
The debate over reading often flows into questions of genre. Some say: write the story you want to tell and worry about which box it fits into later. In this view, genres are simply glorified marketing tools—labels used to help booksellers know which shelf to use.
Yes, there is freedom in this approach. Write the chocolate-covered onion. Start with an adventure that becomes a thriller that becomes hard sci-fi. But remember that readers enter a story with deep expectations. If you market a book as a romance but omit a happy ending, or write a sci-fi novel that ignores the logic of its own world, you haven’t just broken the rules—you have likely alienated your audience.
Is this the same as putting creativity in chains? No it’s about understanding the reader. You don’t have to stay within the lines, but you have to know them before you decide to cross them.
And when you cross them, is this a sign of an author who doesn’t care about the reader? Is it narcissistic to ignore the rules of the genre? Consider jazz, where they often do long and alien tangents, but ultimately, the masters invariably returns to the beat. They take the listener on a strange voyage before taking them home.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants and Finding the Balance
There is a certain hubris in the thought that one can sit before a blank sheet and create something entirely new, untouched by the thousands of years of craft that preceded it. Every great artist is built upon what came before them.
But realize that the goal is not necessarily to read 50 books a year or to spend every lunch break picking Hemingway apart. The goal is to maintain the ear, to align the compass. Whether you read slowly or skim, engaging with the written word will sharpen your instincts.
If you find yourself writing a story and something feels wrong, it is your background as a reader that will tell you why. It will remind you that a scene is dragging on, that a character’s voice has become flat, or that a metaphor is a cliché.
There is a worry here that shouldn’t be understated. Do you risk losing your own voice by immersing yourself in the world of the old masters? How can I talk in my own voice when my internal library is drowning it out?
The struggle for originality is real. Even the old masters had to contend with it. The danger is reading old works becomes a crutch and what you’re writing is inherently derivative, and thus weaker.
This is a way you have to find out on your own, but I don’t see a path to originality springing forth from ignorance. Ultimately, writing is a form of expression that springs from reasoning and argumentation. It is more than art; it is a way of hacking the consciousness of another human being. When you write, you are not simply placing words on a page; you are issuing commands to a reader’s neurobiology, forcing their heart to race or their skin to crawl. To do that effectively, you must understand the source of human emotion.
You have to know how that consciousness has been reached before. You must study the hacks of the masters—not to copy them, but to understand the architecture of the mind you are attempting to enter. Without this, your writing is just noise.
Read to learn the rules, read to see how they are broken, and read so that when you finally grab the pen, you aren’t just talking to a blank page—you are launching a sophisticated operation to bridge the gap between two souls.
You are contributing to a long, beautiful, and ongoing conversation.
The only one that truly matters.
And now—now you’re ready to write.
Couldn't agree more! Reading is the fuel for every great writer. You can't master the craft without absorbing the greats first."
This kind of blew my mind, and I whole heartedly agree. Imagine sending your manuscript out with the subject heading, Reading Is Optional