If you’re not reading, you’re not growing as a writer.
I’ve spent the last couple months of the new year immersed in reading and have already finished 19 books. I can honestly say I feel like each book taught me something about writing technique, what works, what doesn’t, new vocabulary, etc.
If you want a lesson in how to describe scenery and use vivid language that will have your readers enraptured, look no farther than Dean Koontz or Diane Setterfield.
If you want to learn what works best in a world-building book with multiple characters and storylines, Sarah J. Maas will give you a run for your money.
Or if you’re a mystery, suspense or thriller writer, I’d suggest reading The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen or Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter.
Whatever your genre expertise, there’s an author out there who’s mastered it and can teach you a thing or two. Read to enjoy, but also, read to learn and grow as a writer. Don’t waste your time.
Good post for me right now. I’m not sure if you caught my latest blog entry on my “writing” but another wall hit me in the face. Seems my stories are/were riddled with run on sentences, but my alpha reader never told me that until two weeks ago. I’ve taken time to design a drill around a new elf hunter I’ve created to remedy that. Also will be reading ebooks.