Reading, Writing, and a Good Cause from James W. Ziskin

Do you set aside time for reading, or is it a haphazard affair? Do you think reading helps your writing?

Of course reading helps my writing. I believe all authors came to writing from a love of reading. Why else would we sit alone—or maybe tussling with a cat hellbent on appropriating our keyboard—for months on end fretting over the perfect words, the cleverest plot twists, and the best fleshed-out characters? Reading is to writing what alcohol is to an alcoholic. You really can’t have one withou...