“Read what you like to write” by Sundari Venkatraman

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4. Read what you like to write

There’s story-telling verbally and there’s writing. Though both may appear to be the same, they are not completely synonymous. You can be an excellent story-teller when you listen to stories. This could be at your grandmother’s knee or even on YouTube nowadays. This could really open up your imagination and make a grand story-teller out of you. Story-telling is more focussed towards creating scenes while you talk.

But does that help you become a writer?

To an extent, yes! Since this can help open up your imagination. But to actually paint pictures in words on the pages of a book, you need to read. I know a few people who have planned their writing careers without reading a single book, or maybe after reading sporadically; a book or two in a year. 

Writing is a play of words. For this, you need to find out the many ways words can be played with. How better than to read? Read voraciously, ideally, anything that you can lay your hands on. There was a time when my sister and I used to fight over the piece of paper in which peanuts came wrapped in, to be the first one to read the print. If you don’t enjoy reading everything in front of you, at least read the books of some favourite authors. 

Okay, you need to read quite a bit to get a list of favourites in the first place. But I am sure you see what I mean. Reading helps to open up your minds, gets you more creative and hones your language. 

After reading a lot of books, you begin to understand which genre truly excites you. Then, you can turn your attention to reading that kind of books. This will go a long way in helping you decide how and what you want to write. 

I like romances. Not just romances, I love those that have “Happily Ever After” endings. Nowadays, I read those the most and I write HEA Romances. But well, I had to read (I still do actually) a lot of books from different genres before I realised what I wanted to do. 

Over and above all that, so much of reading has made my imagination abundant and helps me create my stories and characters. 

Sundari Venkatraman is an indie author of 15 titles—13 romance novels & two short story collections, all on Top 100 Bestsellers on Amazon. 

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