Why I Always Read Before I Write

“Fill your ears with the music of good sentences” — Dani Shapiro

If writers need to warm up just like athletes, reading before you write is a bit like changing into your workout gear.

When I sit down to write without having read anything, I end up depending too much on myself. I don’t just write shitty first sentences. I write shitty paragraphs, pages, and drafts, and eventually feel like I want to throw my MacBook against the wall. But I resist doing so because then I wouldn’t be able to write tomorrow and that would piss me off even more. When you read before you write it gives you an opportunity to steal like an artist.

When you read before you write, you feed your subconscious.

  • On the days I find myself writing about writing in some irreverent way it’s because I’ve started the day reading Anne Lamott’s book Bird by Bird.
  • On the days I manage to write something lyrical, poetic, and almost musical it’s because I started by reading Dani Shapiro’s book Still Writing.
  • And on the days where my writing doesn’t seem to connect one bit, and my sentences might appear as if I’m showing early signs of Alzheimers it’s because I’ve spent all day checking email and reading people’s status updates.

Some guidelines:

Blog Posts/Online Articles Don’t Count: The one exception I might add to this is essays on the New Yorker because they’re long form and require you sustain attention for an extended period of time. But when it comes to our consumption of digital media, we don’t really read. We scan. And that defeats the whole purpose of reading before you write.

Read Physical Books: When you read a physical book it forces you to slow down. It gives you time to process what you’ve just read. Your attention doesn’t wander from one digital novelty to the next.

Read a Variety of Books: My morning reading routine has consisted of business books, essay collections, illustrated books, and everything else in between. Here are just a few that I find have been helpful.

Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield

Ignore Everybody by Hugh Macleod

Things a Little Birdy Told Me by Biz Stone

Read the same book every morning: This goes counter to the point above. But sometimes I’ll read the same book for a few days in a row. I find this is best with shorter books like The War of Art, Neil Gaiman’s Make Good Art, and others. What these books do is light a creative fire under your ass. They’re like rocket fuel for creative output.

Taking Notes:

Write down your response or reaction to what you’ve read. Your responses don’t have to be lengthy paragraphs or even sentences. They can just be half-baked thoughts.

Here’s a simple example. When I came up with the idea for this post, I knew I had a lengthy day of making revisions to my manuscript ahead of me. So I started the morning by reading Bird by Bird and I came across this sentence by Anne Lamott.

But this just a fantasy of the uninitiated.

I thought to myself “fantasies of the uninitiated” sounds like a perfect chapter title or essays idea. And I noted it down in my journaling software as something to write about.

This is how most of my ideas for blog posts, articles, and books start. Below is a screenshot from Macjournal, the writing software I use.

For many of these I start with nothing more than a headline. If you find yourself staring at the blank page with no idea how to start, read before you write.

I’m the host and founder of The Unmistakable Creative Podcast. Every Sunday we share the most unmistakable parts of the internet that we have discovered in The Sunday Quiver. Receive our next issue by signing up here