John Miedema

I Read, Therefore I Write

27 October 2009 3 Comments

This entry is part 16 of 45 in the series I, Reader

Reading Causes Writing, Pt. 1

I read …

I am first a reader, then a writer. The reading’s the thing, the writing a byproduct.

When I read slowly, deliberately, actively, I can only read a few pages at a time. A book may take a month to read. I write notes to capture what I have read, to keep my train of thought.

I read and read and read, but what am I to do with all that reading. The ideas I am discovering race round in my head. To still them, I write about them. A book review or a short essay.

It does not matter whether or not I am published in the traditional sense. Blogging is a fine method of publication. It does not matter that most of my posts are TLDR.

Francine Prose has a book called, Reading Like a Writer. She teaches people to read closely for pleasure, deconstructing a sentence in the way a writer would. Perhaps I should write a book called, Writing Like a Reader. It could instruct the reader on writing to release the brain from a book, give it closure, and bless the reader as he or she moves on to the next.

The reading’s the thing, but reading insists I write.

… therefore I write.

Welcome to theme 4, Reading Causes Writing, in I, Reader. Now things are heating up.

Series Navigation«The Trajectory of Reading: Creative ContributionWhat Readers Write May Not Be Literature, But It Might Become So»