Read To Write Right: Tip #17

If you don't have time to read, you don't have time to write. This is a time-honored piece of advice from several authors, and I, in particular, find it holds true, even in other mediums. If you spend too much time with your work, and only your work, you will suffer creative burnout. Maybe you're concerned that if you read someone's else's work, you might be too affected by their ideas. Maybe you think everyone else is an inferior author and there's no point. Maybe you just don't like reading. If the latter case, then what the hay are you being a writer for? For everything else, find the time. Maybe it's in-between writing books, maybe it's in between writing chapters, but it's always good to keep yourself apprised of what's going on in the field that you're writing for.

Christa Scheck, Studio Artist, Illustrator and Japanese Translator