Why You Need to Read the Masters

Will you let your writing be junk?

• Learn by doing.
• Learn by reading.
• Learn by studying.

But why do you have to do all this in order to write?
You could just go out and write, but the writing will be junk.

No one who writes can say they do it because they are a natural writer.
There is no such creature.

Develop understanding

To call it, a different way, when you read the great writers, you will begin to understand what makes them tick. You will understand the times or the era in which they wrote. The writing they did in the grammatical style they preferred is a big part of how they portrayed the words that are put to paper, and how the reader picks up the story and imagines it.

If you read Steinbeck or Hemingway, you will experience a great story and some of the very best writing ever put to paper. If you truly READ and analyze any of the great authors, or your favorite writers, of whatever genre you prefer, using both sides of your mind, the creative as well as the analytical sides, your brain will kick in and only then you will begin to see and fully understand how and why they became great.

Don't talk to yourself in your writing

Nigel Hamilton, a famous British Historian, and Biographer stated once, in regards to writing: “If your reading audience doesn’t understand what you’re saying, then you are talking to yourself .”

It’s true! If you take each story that has ever grabbed your imagination or evoked emotions in you and that story has been able to conjure up visions and places and things without any difficulty then that writer has successfully accomplished the goal of constructing a great piece of writing.

I have had many students say to me: "I don’t like to read because it will corrupt my writing style."

You cannot even know what a writing style is until you have read some of the very best.

If your reading audience doesn’t understand what you’re saying, then you are talking to yourself .” ~Nigel Hamilton

Learn from the Best

Reading, either as enjoyment or a study tool, is never a waste of time, especially for writers. And if you think you do not need to read, you will always be an amateur. In the ever-growing category of the Wannabe Writer, it is the "Could Have Beens," or “If I Only Hads,” that seem to be the believers in the misconceptions that reading corrupts writing style or influences storylines. Not only will you be ignorant about the craft of writing, you will also NOT be published to any noted degree.

To read is to grasp hold of the greatest of words placed to paper. To read is to journey through time's ever-changing world.

So as a writer, to gain style, and be able to place your kind of panache into every piece you write, remember it has nothing to do with what type of machine you use, or what type of paper whiteness you prefer, it has to do with learning from the masters.

Read their works. Read the works of those who have influenced your mind in a positive way. Read everything! Read things you would not normally read.

The skill and craft of writing are an ever-changing, ever-evolving process, but the way we learn as writers is and has been the same for centuries. When you read you will gain your style. The more you increase the amount you read, the more you will gain in the writing craft.

 I tell my students
“There is elegance in the eloquence!”

You will never know and understand style until you have experienced it from reading the best.

© T E Watson