Weekend Writing Discussion: What You Read Before You Write

There will be two posts today. There is this one (which...hopefully this helps us get the whole "Weekend Writing Discussion" idea going), and there is this one, which should be pretty awesome: Thoughts On How To Have Fun With Time Travel.

This weekend's Writing Discussion: What do you read before you write?

Of course, this does not have to be strictly confined to "what you read before you write," but can instead encompass the general idea of what we read that impacts the way we write.

I ask this because I have found that there are a number of writers I cannot read at any time proximal to my writing time. Writers like Bret Easton Ellis or Jack Kerouac or Dave Eggers - brilliant (or, in the case of Eggers, borderline-brilliant) writers whose styles are significantly different from my style. When I read writers like this, my immediate inclination (following the reaction of "Geesh, I wish I could write like them") is to try to write like them.

Now, the reaction is not "I wish I could write as well as them." That's the reaction I feel when I read someone like Steinbeck or Hemingway, and this is a great reaction to have - when you find someone to whom you have a similar style, and you read them and it drives you to write as well as them. It's these writers who write in a style completely different from your own...and who are so good at it that you want to write just like that! These are the ones I have to avoid when I'm working on a project.

How about you? Who do you like to read when you're working on a project? Who do you have to avoid?

Thoughts thoughts thoughts!

(P.S.1. Be sure to share this with others, so we can get this discussion going.)
(P.S.2. Be sure to check out today's other post, as it will likely provide you with entertainment.)



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