How Does Reading Influence Your Writing?

Certainly, I do think reading influences your writing very effectively in a variety of ways. So how does reading influence your writing in real? Well. Reading influences your writing style, first of all, and you will find new ideas every time you read a book or content, philosophical point of view from other great thinkers and writers who are significantly influential can change your writing style indeed.

The more you read, the more you will discover yourself and take your knowledge to a pure form through verification. And this is how reading a book brings about an important change in the way you write, which is reflected in your writing. The scope of your knowledge will enrich and your writing approach will broaden remarkably and improve which is very important to be a famous writer in the long run. In fact, great writers read a lot because they discover themselves through reading by acquiring knowledge and present their thoughts to better readers.

The Ways on How Does Reading Influence Your Writing

Reading influences your writing in many ways. Here are some specific points that are visible to everyone that reading affects your writing tremendously. Reading not only influences your writing the way you think, the way you act but also can change the style of your writing if you follow an influential writer like philosopher Edward Craig and read his great books, for example, (1) The Mind of God and the Works of Man (1987), (2) Knowledge and the State of Nature (1990), (3) Hume on Religion (1997), etc.

In each book, the author expresses his own thoughts, knowledge, philosophy and impresses the reader through deep and insightful realism and scholarship. Below are some of the things that will affect your writing if you read on a regular basis.

1. Reading Influence Writing Style

The style of writing of one writer is completely different from the style of writing of another writer. There are fundamental differences in thinking, word choice, expression, and approach, etc. This happens due to very natural reasons. Because every human being is unique in the world, it is natural that one human being will be different from another human being. So this is the very simple fact that the writing styles will be different from one another.

You also have your own style of writing that is absolutely different from others. But the question is, will there be any change in your own style when you read another author’s writing regularly? I think it will come and it will make a positive impact on the way you write. We always want to improve ourselves by changing the style of another writer if we see it is different from mine and that is more attractive for readers. Then I would consciously want to make some changes in my writing style.

2. Finding New Ideas for Writing

Every moment when you are reading, you are gaining new knowledge, new things are being added to your database. In fact, before writing about any subject, we gain knowledge by reading various books related to it. In addition, the author publishes the results of his new research knowledge through a book by which we gain knowledge on a completely new subject. Gaining this knowledge I get clear ideas on my writing from various sources which reflect in my writing.

You may know about Marxism but when you read American Marxism by Mark R. Levin then you will get entirely new ideas about something through this book, for example, Racism, Genderism, Marxism. If you are a fan of Marxism and read and write about Marxism, the new things you find in this book will reflect your writing. Or you write about anything else, such as nonfiction or fiction, when you read a book about that, the new information and ideas you gain from that book can have an impact on your writing.

3. Philosophical Point of View

Reading can influence your ideological points of view remarkably. For example, Karl Marx was influenced by the philosophy of Idealism of Hegel. Now the question is how Karl Marx was influenced by Hagel’s Idealism? He must have read Hegel’s idealism, and as a result of this reading, his thoughts were greatly influenced and his writings became influenced by Hegel’s Idealism in some contexts.

When you write a book, your philosophical points of view expose in that book, and if I read your book and think positively about the philosophical point of view of that book, then I will be impressed with your philosophical point of view.

Thus I am thinking about the philosophical point of view you have through reading your writing and the point of philosophical view that attracts me I am accepting and subconsciously there is a change in myself. The reason why writers have followers and readers is because of their philosophical point of view. When I like an author’s philosophical position I follow him and look forward to reading his other writings when he publishes a new book.

4. Deep Understanding of Language

It is a simple fact that when we read content or a book, we decode the in-depth meaning of all the words and sentences in that book and as a reader try to fully understand the message that the author gives in that particular book. Suppose I do practice English literature, write in English and read English language books. In that case, when I read a book, I will analyze the linguistic aspects of that book and the grammatical aspects of course. There is no point in reading a book if we do not understand its meaning exactly. I always have a dictionary in front of me so that if I find a word that I don’t know the meaning of, I can know it immediately.

As a result, my knowledge of language understanding is getting richer and whenever I am going to write something, it reflects in my writing. I think that happens to everyone who reads and writes. So if you read a book, it is not difficult to say that the linguistic knowledge you are acquiring from the book will affect your writing.

5. Getting Critical Thinking

Critical thinking we express in our writings and by reading we develop our sense of critical thinking in a number of ways. When you are reading something you are thinking deeply about it and when you know an event or context, you are calculating the possible causes and consequences of that event. There are various questions in your mind as to why the context happened and what would be the consequences. As a result, your perspective is thinking differently might be. You will research the context, analyze, try to determine the material cause.

In this way, you are doing new critical thinking which you will find reflected in your own writing. Critical thinking is not about exposing things in a complex way, but about how to express things in an easy-to-understand way so that the reader can easily understand them. As a writer, you also want the reader will capture the meaning of your book properly so that the message you want to give they understand accordingly.

6. Changes in Approach

By reading we can learn about new approaches in writing. Each writer applies his or her own approach to convey their own thinking and ideas to audiences. Reading a book means learning about a new point of view. In this way, the more books you read, the more approaches you will know. When you get these approaches, you will think again about your approach and in some cases, you may change your point of view in your writing in order to upgrade your standard.

American Marxism by Mark R. Levin has a different approach than A Promised Land by Barack Obama. The fact is that I think about the approach that would be perfect for my audiences and the way how can I reach more of my readers.

The approach is crucial for being a successful writer because if you don’t get acceptance from your desired reader then what does writing mean? By reading you are getting aware of the approach of other writers and you make changes in your approach if it seems essential for you.

The Bottom Line

Here I have shared with you my own real experience of how reading influences your writing in terms of different contexts. I can’t say for sure that everything will influence you, but I can say that reading will affect your writing in a number of different ways. One of the biggest reasons is that we follow others to improve ourselves by learning new things and for other reasons. If another writer’s style of writing influences the way I think about it, the impression that it will have on my writing is the reality.

It is normal for each writer to follow his or her favorite author and move on with his or her own style of writing. One of the reasons why the author you follow can also have an impact on your writing when it comes to publishing your thoughts, knowledge, and research is that people instinctively learn by imitating others in their own style.


Does Reading Make you a Better Writer?

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