The writer’s diet (you are what you read)
There’s a well-known dieting expression that says, “You are what you eat”. Well, the same can be said for writing, except in this case, it’s more like “You are what you read.”
I’ll warn you now, I’m going to use a lot of fitness analogies in this post. I promise, it’s not me trying to encourage you to get on a health kick - it’s just that, surprisingly, there are a lot of helpful parallels to how personal trainers approach working with their clients, and how you can become a better writer.
When you hire a personal trainer, they don’t just work with you on an exercise plan. They’ll also advise you on how to structure your diet to help you get the results you want. A calorie deficit encourages weight loss, a surplus for gain. Macro splits that boost energy and increase muscle - it’s a science, and one that shows that results don’t happen in isolation.
When we think about writing and learning to hone our craft as writers, we can apply that same principle. Writing alone will not get you to the final destination. You won’t reach your full potential. Just like a good fitness plan, you need to support your writing with a good diet and good nutrition. And that, my friend, is where reading comes into the equation.
Creativity is a muscle
I often talk about creativity in anatomical terms. Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t a part of you. Your creativity is a muscle, and just like any other muscle in the body, the more you exercise it and look after it, the more it will grow and define itself.
Unlike physical muscles in the body, however, your creativity isn’t capped in its potential. There aren’t any genetic factors that define its shape or physiological factors that impede its growth. Creativity is the one muscle that you can keep growing infinitely, and that you can choose how to define its shape.
So, like a PT will tell you to lift weights 2 - 3 times a week at the gym, before we go any further, I’d like you to start thinking about how you can work out your creativity 2 - 3 times a week. It doesn’t have to be a lengthy session. Just ten minutes of writing is enough. You don’t have to work towards anything in particular - you can start without a goal. Just find a prompt and start writing whatever comes to your mind. Flexing your creativity isn’t about the output; it’s about the act of engaging and the workout it gives your imagination.
What to put on your plate
“Abs are made in the kitchen”. We’ve all heard that cliché at some point, right? Well, by that logic, I guess we can also say that writers are made in the library.
At uni, every new creative writing module started with an assessment called Reading As A Writer. I hated it. I didn’t understand the point of spending half a semester studying someone else's work so intensely and not writing anything original for myself - I’d signed up to do a creative writing degree, hello! But the point was that through taking the time to widen our reading and study the works of other writers, we were learning how to write for ourselves.
Now, I’m not saying you have to read like an academic or write an essay after every book you finish. You can read for fun at your own pace. Just like the act of writing helps to exercise your creative muscle, the act of reading will help to expand your abilities as a writer. It happens by osmosis.
The sentence structures, scene setting, characters, voices, the rhythm of writing, and the turns of phrase. You’re absorbing it all while you read, and whether you realise it or not, when you come to write, it influences how you approach your own words. You register the things you like (and the things you don’t), and at first you might mimic them, but mimickery soon becomes exploration, and over time you start to develop your own styles influenced by the best of what you’ve read and expanded by exercising your creativity.
What you should be reading
I had a meeting with one of my content writing clients last week, and we were discussing ideas for their next batch of blogs. I asked them to send me some ideas, and they asked where they'd get those ideas.
I was a little confused and replied to them, "From what you're reading. Just send me any links to articles you come across that you find interesting, or share some LinkedIn content with me that caught your eye. That sort of thing."
Their response: "I guess I need to read more." It hadn't occurred to me that they wouldn't be reading around their work and their areas of interest. But they weren't, and it wasn't until I said this that they realised they should be. Even though they weren't doing the writing, reading should have been the source of inspiration.
When you’re thinking about what you should be reading, think about what you’d like to be writing. Whatever you want to write, read more of.
Want to write fantasy? Read fantasy. Want to write for the stage? Read scripts. Want to write newsletters or blogs for your business? Subscribe to them, follow the people doing it well, and read their work - not as competition, but as inspiration. Notice how it moves, pay attention to what you respond to and why, and let that slowly inform your own sense of what good writing looks and feels like.
Don’t stay in your lane
There’s a caveat to that advice on what to read. Don't only read within your lane.
Some of the most interesting writing borrows from the most unexpected places. A novelist who reads a lot of journalism, a copywriter who reads poetry. Reading widely exposes you to different voices, structures and ways of thinking that you wouldn't encounter if you stayed in one place, and all of it feeds back into your own work in ways you won't always be able to trace.
That cross-pollination of writing is where the true originality comes from. It’s the Hyrox playbook for the writing world (we hadn’t had a fitness analogy in a while). Play around with it, have fun, and explore who you are as a writer. Not all of it will work, but you’ll learn from that too. Remember - the creative muscle has an uncapped potential, so enjoy the ride.
Go, pick up a book
If you've got this far and you're nodding along, then I have a question for you. When was the last time you sat down to read?
I asked myself this question the other day, and I realised it had been a while, and I could tell it was having an impact on my writing. I was plateauing and becoming less imaginative. So I dedicated time to reading over the weekend, and I’m going to make my best effort to keep setting time aside each day, even if just 15 minutes to read a poem or a couple of pages.
If you can't remember the last time you sat down and read something, then it’s time to start. Whatever you’ve got on your agenda today, set aside 15 minutes and read something new. Give your writing the nutrition it needs.
