Can reading books improve my writing?
As a writer and a blogger, it is really important for me to improve my writing in a way that attracts my visitors and convey my thoughts to them. After research and research about the subject of writing even from English teachers, I reached a point where everything messed up. Lessons of grammar, literature, and storytelling have all came to me like a flood and destroyed everything of the little bit I know. Then I decided to search myself for what I am actually seeking for. And here I reached an answer.
Yes, reading books improves our writing skills. From the years of experience, there is one thing that no one will ever tell you is how to read and what type of books to read. You might be facing such a problem. The most important for any writer is to read the writings of others, their storytelling, their rhymes. If you are a reader you may have noticed that the great writer’s conversation uses less of grammar, phrasal verbs, and full sentences.
The real writers give more importance to their storyline than to the language. The reason I am able to write so much is because I have gone through the same difficulties, and now being a writer I am practicing on things that really matter.
I have been reading books that improve my writing and provide a strong catch of words and rhyme in my story.
So let’s not waste any more time and give a kick start to the next level of writing.
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Here I have discussed the best books to read to improve writing and even if you are a beginner you won’t miss out on these really exciting artforms that I can say.
1. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Lamott begins by introducing her love for books. Gradually in the early age of reading, she realized her ability to write engaging and funning stories. What she teaches through this book is quite amazing that it’s ok to write shitt drafts. No writer has made it in one go. She urges to give writers themselves short, discrete assignments instead of long, complicated ones.
This point made me believe in myself as a writer, and when I compare my previous blogs I feel like oh! what a crap! What am I writing?
This book is really good to read if you are possessing a writing career. How to keep the storytelling live in your every writing till the end?
Your writing improved when you write about yourself and still it is not noticeable. This is what a true writer teaches and Lamott describes.
2. On writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
Our writing becomes real when we began to add our own imagination and sense of humor to it. No vocabulary, verbs, grammar can create interest unless you don’t have your own voice to describe it. This is what writing the book by American thriller writer Stephen King is about. He uses stories of his wild childhood to describe his development as a writer.
You will get to learn to bring your imagination into reality through your story to your readers. Horror writing is something we categorize as difficult writing and maintaining that plot is a skill of great writers. This book is surely a great way to improve writing and catch on with the theme of writing.
3. 100 ways to improve your writing by Gary Provost
Writing improves when you write more and more. Like a sculpture carve a marble to give it the shape the same way your writing has something extra you need to get polished to extract that shape.
This book is all with tips and tactics to write something wonderful. Good writing moves you with its flow, capture through the words as the sentences pass by.
Master the ‘music’ in writing and understand the importance of short and long sentences. You will get to learn a lot from how to accomplish the heights of shortness and speed of longer in your own writing by reading this book.
4. You are a Writer by Jeff Goins
Great writers thought of themselves as great. The one thing that can destroy a beautiful piece to pen on a blank page is self-doubt. There are many stories of yours that are more interesting and revealing but only a few have made it live for lives.
When you feel doubting your writing or couldn’t find the inspiration for the new story, Goins’ book is the best read at that time. A short 130 pages book is the real inspiration for a writer. Less is really more in this book. A point-to-point information with no extras that could only help writers in their writing.
Writing is merely not writing forsake, it’s an art and a study too. To learn what ‘good’ writing is and what it takes to build a platform pick up this book and start writing your own story.
5. Writing down the Bones: Freeing the writer within by Natalie Goldberg
“Keep your hand moving.”
The writer does a great job of pushing readers and writers to their ongoing projects. Her approach is simple and powerful that if you want to write something good just connect yourself with it.
The more we involve the better we learn. She encourages readers to believe in their imagination and trust the faith in themselves to create it. One of the lines from her book:
Making a list is good. It makes you start noticing material for writing in your daily life, and your writing comes out of a relationship with your life and its texture.
Start by making lists of your work. Writing is done with focus or not at all. Try to get out of your comfort zone and find the focus and love for yourself and writing.
These five books on writing are recommended to me by some of the favorites, I have started my career as a writer with the first one and still, the four are pending on my to-do-list.
Read also: Put an End to Rehashing, Second-guessing and Catastrophic Predictions
Along with reading your routine of living and lifestyle affects a lot on your writing skills. Books can bring structure and insights, provide the knowledge but applying these practices is way too far. So here I have listed some of the tips as a writer you can follow:
1. Start by asking yourself questions.
What do I need to write?
Is my research enough to get me to that point?
What I am writing is clear?
If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you didn’t understand it yourself.
What type am I writing: informational or creational? A great difference between the two.
2. Reading others writing. Greater writers are great readers.
3. Before penning, create a map of the directions to the flow in writing. This one is very important and very few people have mastered it. I am still practicing….
4. Create from observation. When the imagination stops creating, take time to observe the surroundings and how a simple living can create so many meanings. Write the reality!!
5. Reading poetry. This one is my favorite, poetry, and literature just open my mind to write something innovative. As a writer when it comes to writing about feelings, you have to feel it from inside. Reading poetry breaks out all the hidden emotions and you can picture out it in a more efficient way.
6. Practice, practice, and practice. You cannot escape from this. Old sayings still hold value. The more you practice the more you learn.
Keep reading, keep writing, keep believing!! Because a writer’s learning is never complete.
Hope this article helped you find out some of the best books for improving your writing skills.
