Do authors really need to read to be any good?
I've always been a writer. I remember being four or five years old and stringing together a few letters to create words to create a poem. It must have been a formative moment in my life because I remember the poem. I grew up eventually--not all the way--but I wanted to share my words. When I finally had the courage to make my writing public, one single post about my glad tidings brought on an onslaught of advice. There were a few words from friends embarking on the author journey, but most of it was from readers who were eager to tell me what not to do. One of them said something that has been reiterated SOOOO often that it really used to annoy me. This advice was "If you want to be a good author, you need to read." Seven times out of ten, this is said with a patronizing lilt and glasses pushed up the nose. I thought I was going to fail. I am a pretty fast reader, but I don't like reading generally. In High School, I read all the classics so I could hold conv