It's very tempting to read when you write. It provides motivation, a sounding board, a distraction for those who like to procrastinate (something Oscar-winning screenwriter Aaron Sorkin calls 'thinking'). It also feels like a reassuring proof that stories do find an audience, that they do reach readers. That they matter.
It's dangerous to read when you write. Very often, another writer's style will creep into your own, invading your words with their signature quips and tags. It's a natural thing to let that happen. It can even be a crutch. However, I advise against it, however comfortable it might seem.
Writing is an intense affair, at least in my case. I try to write as quickly as possible, ideally at the same speed as the average person reads so that I can have a sense of how the story will flow from their point of view. It's challenging, to say the least, but I find that I'm more of a sprinter when it comes to words on the page. If I read at the same time, my mind blends everything into one single thread that I find hard to unravel. That means the book I'm reading becomes the book I'm writing. It's not plagiarism but it definitely borders on the incestuous.
Reading in the same genre as the one you're writing in can be a double edged sword. It can guide you a little in terms of atmosphere and pace. It can serve as a reference or as inspiration, sparking the right idea at the right time. However, it can also exert undue influence on your story direction and on your narrative choices. You might accelerate a chapter that you had intended to be simmering and contemplative, just because you read a faster sequence in the other book. You might be tempted to replicate something your read just because it's easy. Don't.
And ideally, don't read when you write.
The only way I found to read without impeding on my writing is to either read in a different language, or in a completely different genre, ideally non-fiction. This approach lets you separate your work clearly from that of the author you're reading. It also lets you have that little reading reward after a day of hard writing, without getting in the way of your own words.
I'm reading READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest Cline right now, and I'm doing that while I'm still writing my own sci-fi novel BLUE GENE. It's messing with my head, mainly due to Cline's incredible sense of depth and detail, something I tend to let go in favour of pace and dialogue. I just have to accept that I'm writing a different way. It's hard to keep faith though, and I just pray and hope that the story I'm telling stands up to scrutiny.
Only time will tell.
I'm just going to read a few pages now. Just a few. Then I'll write a few of my own.
Just a few.
