Recently I was discussing the writing process at a small conference in Reno, Nevada. One of the people I was talking to was saying she had trouble figuring out if her idea was her own or if it had been done before. I asked her if she reads within the genre she writes in and her answer was very interesting. “No, I’m afraid it will implant ideas in my head that aren’t really mine and I won’t know it.”
Logical in some ways, I suppose.
Still, this made me curious and begs the question:
Do you read within your genre? Do you think it helps you or does it harm you at all? Do you worry that you will inadvertently take someone’s idea and run away with it? If you don’t read other people’s work how do you know what is already being done?
“
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.
” — Dr. Seuss
Filed under: Uncategorized, Writing/author advice Tagged: authors, craft of writing, question of the week, reading what you write, Writers
