By Willa Yonkman
In his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King simplifies his philosophy down to one line: “‘Read a lot, write a lot,’” which he says is “the great commandment.”
Almost any writer, from an amateur with a journal to a professional author, will tell you that reading as much as you can will make you a better writer. The late British writing professor and educationist Myra Barrs wrote in her 2001 book The Reader in the Writer that “… the direct teaching of written language features is no substitute for extensive experience of written language,” finding in her research that young students who were made to read more in school performed better in writing tests and exercises.
By that logic, exposure to great writing will help you on your way to becoming a great writer. Below are several reasons for why and how reading is essential to writing well.
Reading Increases Your Vocabulary
Reading widely will naturally increase your vocabulary, purely through experience. Having a larger vocabulary means you, as a writer, have a deeper well to draw from. More words at your disposal means more tools to express yourself; more colors to your artist’s palette, so to speak. This is a benefit to reading that comes fairly passively; while you might find yourself looking up a word the first time around, the ones that pique your interest will stick on their own.
Reading from different genres and different centuries is a surefire way to learn new words, as well as discovering new and different ways to structure sentences and tell stories. This is a good reason to read the classics and an equally good reason to branch out and pick up something you normally wouldn’t, whether it is a periodical like The New Yorker, a book of essays, or nonfiction if you are habitually a fiction reader or genre fiction you would normally avoid. William Faulkner is quoted as saying you should “Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it.” Even if you end up hating what you read, there is value in exposing yourself to something new.
Reading Helps You Develop Your Taste and Find Your Voice
Reading allows you to develop your unique taste and point of view, which will eventually become evident in your writing. Reading will give you writing role models, what E.B. White called his “stable of giants,” who you hope to sound like in your work. Finding your “stable of giants” helps you to hone in on the sound of your unique literary voice by identifying what you admire about your heroes’ writing.
Having writing to aspire to is motivation to put words on the page, and gives you a more critical eye while revising and editing your work.
The value in reading something you love is self-evident, but reading something you hate is just as important in developing your taste.
If you find yourself reading a book or an author you hate, ask yourself why it isn’t working. Is it the prose style? Are the characters flat or underdeveloped? Is it boring? Is it too flowery or verbose?
Identifying what you don’t like in writing will help you develop your own style. In this way, you give yourself the tools to write what you wish to see in the world. To quote Toni Morrison, “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
Reading Can Help You Get Published
In his Substack newsletter “The Querent,” author Alexander Chee recounts being in a writing class in the 1980s taught by Annie Dillard, who aimed to help her students get published by teaching them out of the Best American anthologies. Dillard’s advice was to not only read the anthologized pieces carefully, but to note where they were first published, and pay attention to these magazines and the type of work they typically run. By familiarizing yourself with prestigious literary magazines and what they are looking for, you can increase your chances of getting published by finding the right home for your work.
On a practical note, subscriptions to these magazines can be costly, but there are ways around it. Some public libraries and universities offer access to the app Flipster, which contains digital copies of all the latest popular magazines, including literary ones such as The Sun and the New York Review of Books.
Reading Gives You New Ways to Engage With the World… And On The Page
In our current age, where short-form video rules and the rise of AI-generated content threatens what was already a tenuous relationship between truth and misinformation online, the incentive to read books should be greater than ever. Reading doesn’t only make you a better writer, it makes you a better person.
Reading books–long-form, well-researched, nuanced, and approved by an editorial team–helps combat the loss of attention span and black-and-white thinking which is becoming more common these days. Cognitive research studies suggest that reading fiction makes people more empathetic and improves social skills.
Gaining these real-life benefits from reading will translate into your writing. Becoming a more intelligent, empathetic, and sensitive person will show up in your work, and allow you to deepen your relationship to your subjects. Becoming a better reader means becoming a better person means becoming a better writer.
To return to King’s On Writing, King writes “Constant reading will pull you into a place […] where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness.”
To me, the word that stands out in this quotation is the word constant.
In my own writing journey, I strive to make my reading habits constant. Rather than picking up my phone the moment I open my eyes, I’m attempting to pick up a book. Instead of scrolling while eating, I’m trying to read newspaper articles or a short essay. In all, there is nothing to be lost and everything to be gained – in terms of both writing and life – by dedicating yourself to the act of reading.
Willa Yonkman is a recent Eugene transplant from the Northeast, getting her feet wet (literally!) in the Eugene writing community. For more of her writing, visit willasworld.substack.com.
Upcoming classes you might enjoy
Nap-a-thon: a fundraiser for people who are tired. Which, statistically, is everyone.
Nap Ambassador sign ups close Sept 30.
Napping and fundraising happens Oct 1-31.
Come share a meal with other writers and talk shop—craft, process, money, motivation, publishing, rejection, weird writing habits, and whatever’s currently living rent-free in your brain.
Friday, Sept 18 | Noon–1:30 pm
Ages 18+
Get your novel out of your head and onto the page in this 6-month novel-writing cohort with Daryll Lynne Evans.
Begins October 5 | Ages 18+
A 12-week, 6-session critique class for writers ready to move their work forward—with kind, constructive feedback and a welcoming crew of fellow creatives.
Every other Tuesday. Fall Memoir/Creative Nonfiction cohort starts Oct 6, 2026 | Age 16+
A 4-week writing accountability and co-working group to help you make real, steady progress on your writing.
Wednesdays 3-4:30 pm | In person or online | Next cohort starts Oct 7, facilitated by Daryll Lynne Evans | Age 16+
Share your words in sweet community at our monthly open mic emceed by spoken word poet Jorah LaFleur.
Second Thursdays, September through June | Age 14+