These days, it seems that everyone thinks themselves a writer, that it's only a matter of living and putting pen to paper. It isn't. While there is something to be said for experience and inspiration, and the tenuous, inextricable relationship between the two, there is also the matter of ability. All the talent in the world means nothing without technique and the only way to learn to write is, simply, to read.
No matter the natural aptitude, we must begin by basking in that which has come before, to learn what works and, as important, what doesn't. To figure out what in the ephemeral world of words calls to us and what shies away. No musician ever picks up an instrument and plays a sonata, never having heard a note. No athlete can throw, having never seen a game. As such, if you've ever used the phrase, "I'm not a reader," it is, like as not, you are not, regardless of what you think, much of a writer.
As well, if you avoid ever pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone, literarily-speaking, you'll never grow. I love a well-written mystery or a compelling fantasy, but if it were all I ever read, I wouldn't be able to follow the muse down many a path toward which I'm drawn. So read, read, read, all you can, as often as you can, else, please, write only for yourself.
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