Analyzing Me and Writing (2) - How Reading Inspires Writing

Two posts ago, I listed four quotes that completely apply to me in terms of writing. Simply listing them here on the blog apparently wasn't enough for my feverish little brain, though. I kept thinking about them for days and nights and those life-preventing times called the working hours. So finally, I wrote my thoughts down, because that always helps me muddle through things.

Here are my thoughts on quote number two:

Reading usually precedes writing and the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.

Susan Sontag

It's true. I get inspired to write by reading other people's writing. If I'm really enjoying a story, the urge to write something of my own itches in my fingertips. Solutions to problems in a story I'm working on spring to mind as if they've always been there and only needed to be unlocked. By reading.

Yet this all happens on an unconscious level, because I'm completely immersed in the world and characters I'm reading about. I'm not consciously trying to work out my own story-problems, or fervently trying to come up with new ideas. They just suddenly pop into mind, nudged to the forefront by something in the book I'm reading. Sometimes I get all excited about the idea, but if the book is that good I keep reading and later have to dig deep in my memory to find that idea again.

Not all of them are useful, but even the useless ones often bump me onto the right path. Some of them are downright crazy, and these are my favorites because they tend to be different and fresh, even if they aren't always useful, either.

So, the bottom line for me is: Reading stories opens and unlocks your mind to the infinite possibilities in storytelling and I believe that's why it inspires people to write something of their own.