I would love to hear reader’s and writer’s views on this. My take has always been yes, the more I read the better I develop my writing skills. That is not to say I have any interest in plagiarising other people’s work. I believe to become good at anything, you have to study. As an artist I study other artists, it doesn’t mean I want to plagiarise them either, it is more seeing how they do something in order to do what I do better. I think it is the same with writing. You read others in order to hone your talent, you see how others use words, see the structure and it opens your mind to the possibilities for your own stories.
I remember an incident about 3 years ago. I had just taken over at BVS and I was still finding my way around. I was approached by a writer. She asked me to read her story. I did and it was not good and I explained why I thought it was not really working. During a few weeks of trying to help the writer, I asked do you read a lot of romance stories. The writer went ballistic accusing me of insulting her. She felt affronted at the mear suggestion that she should read romance stories, she told me in no uncertain terms, that she wrote them she had no need to read them.
I would never work with an author in an unstructured way like that again, it was a good lesson for me. I was trying to help but it was clear the writer and I were on very different pages. It was also clear to me that you need to read and understand the genre you are writing in.
I would be happy to hear your thoughts, reflections, and stories. Or any views you might like to share. Here, the blog, Facebook or Twitter.