This very interesting question was posed on Reddit: Can you be a good writer if you’re not reading?
My vote is—no; you can’t unless you have superpowers. Yes, it’s difficult to juggle a writing schedule and manage time to read, but it’s certainly doable. I would say it’s essential.
One brilliant answer to this question was this:
“I think part of what explains your bafflement it is that the resistance to reading more/constantly/as a life-long requirement comes up against two big psychological bugaboos:
- Reading puts it right in front of you just how long that path is, and that even if you have confidence and willfulness, people get very uncomfortable being aware just how much great writing already exists, and always will, and therefore, there will always be somebody better at it than you. Conclusion: if you don’t read then you won’t have to face the truth that the odds are not in your favor.
- The more you read the better you get at analysis and critique, which leads to expanding awareness about structure, and how much structure exists in subtext. This freaks people out. There is more craft to writing than we want to admit, and once you face up to that, you have to go through a difficult process of learning how to separate your ego from the work itself.”
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DEE HARPER LEWIS 