Reading and Writing - How does it work for you?

[J.D.]

A conversation in another group brought this question up: can you read other books while you are writing your own?

If so, do you read "cross-genre" or "within genre"?

What are the worst (or best) things about reading other writers when you are working on your own books?

[Anna]

I absolutely still read other books. I can't miss a day of reading...lol

I read all genres, depending on my mood. The worst/best thing about is I get new ideas for others I would like to write...but also some ideas to incorporate into mine, but at a different angle than I am reading.

[J.D.]

I find it really hard to read other books when I am in full-out writing mode, partly because I can't really get into someone elses's world when my head is full of the one I am working in. I end up writing and reading in alternating spurts. I agree that reading often triggers new ideas for projects, but for me it happens particularly when I run across something I don't like.

[Jennifer]

When I'm seriously working on a project and the creativity is flowing, I don't normally read other books. However, I've felt a lull in writing before, and when that happens, I will read. I don't read cross-genre books though. I find that it confuses the writing vibe I have going, and it can actually pull me out of the head space that I need to be in when writing.

[Anne]

I've always been someone who reads and writes. In a way it helps show me what I would like to do, and perhaps more importantly, what I do NOT want to do.

[Sherri]

I'm doing that right now. It helps me to have a "break" from writing my own novel by reading something in a completly different genre. I'm writing a mystery novel and reading a sci-fi novel now.

[Charles]

I suppose that reading while writing sort of depends on how your brain is wired -- I do it, but my wife frequently comments on my ability to read a paragraph, and them come back to it much later. I do think that not reading and writing together is potentially dangerous -- it risks solipsism and and alienation from the history of the discipline. On the other hand, there is Bloom's "anxiety of influence" to contend with...

[Chris]

I will read books while I'm in the process of writing one (which is almost always). However, I won't read until I'm done writing for the day. I won't, for example, read over my lunch break if I'm planning to do more writing in the afternoon.

I may read in a similar genre but not quite the same, and I usually look for easy, comfortable reads, since I'm putting so much emotional energy into writing. So since I'm mainly writing romantic suspense right now (asKris Bock), I might read a fun contemporary romance that offers relaxation but won't "get in the way" of my own voice and plotting.

[Peg]

I don't read a lot of fiction these days and when I do, I tend to set aside a day off to read a novel. Sort of a mini vacation. On a workday, however, I read things I can read in small bites without immersing myself in them -- magazines or a chapter of non-fiction, maybe. I can't not read, but reading in the genre I'm writing feels as if it would tend to muddy my focus.

[J.D.]

I'm really enjoying seeing all the different perspectives here.

I definitely think that brain wiring and personality has a lot to do with whether or not reading and writing somewhat simultaneously works for you.