When we are engrossed in writng our stories it is easy to forget to read those of others. Why should this matter? I hear you say. Well, the answer is simple.
There is a strong link between what we write and what we like to read. Indeed, what you have read in the past has shaped your ideas as a writer whether you realise it or not. Carry on reading in your favourite genre(s) - these stories are your friends, so why would you abandon them? Read them for the latest trends, techniques, popular areas, upcoming writers, how the established ones adapt etc., and which publishers are doing what.
The subject areas that interest me the most are horror (which is why I carry on reading Stephen King, Graham Masterton, James Herbert etc)and history, so I also devour CJ Sansom, Bernard Cornwell, Stewart Binns etc. I would love to write a historical novel, and still might, but the research is huge and detailed, so be warned on this. It is better to stick to what we can make up!
But, with all this writing, and reading other people's stories, we are forgetting something. We need to read non-fiction, too - something that informs our writing. It is important to occasionally live with your head in an encyclopaedia, a learned text (as I did once with a book called Death in England), or in the ether by surfing Wikipedia (find an interesting article and follow the links).
So don't forget to be a reader. We should all be readers. Only some of us are writers.
Jack Orchison, 11 January, 2014.
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