philosophical reflections on reading fiction for fiction writers

[marycatelli]

Ran across a comment recently wherein someone said that he stuck to read SF because that was what he was writing.

This is imprudent.

All right, he added it was for market research, but even for that it's imprudent.  There's too much of a gap between when you read and when you might conceivably get published.

But reading is good for other reasons.  It helps you absorb tricks of the trade and the like.  And reading outside your genre is particularly important because such works have the tricks and the twists and the things that are not familiar within your genre.  Cross-pollinating is healthy.  It also helps prepare you for plots and characters unusual in your genre by increasing the variety of models you can draw on.

Comments

[marycatelli]

It does derive from the principle that you should read what you write, and should probably write whatever you read and enjoy the most.

I suspect the pioneers read a lot of folks. Many sources contribute.