Writing makes you read with a deeper appreciation.
See, after trying to write something most days, I have begun to look at what I read in a different way.
Sure I am more critical at times.
But I am also more humbled, for I know how hard it is.
The most common things I tell/ask myself?
- How did the author put these two ideas together in such a unique way?
- I wish I had said that.
- Oh wow – that’s a beautiful sentence.
- Oh wow – this is bad.
“Becoming a writer can also profoundly change your life as a reader. One reads with a deeper appreciation and concentration, knowing now how hard writing is, especially how hard it is to make it look effortless. You begin to read with a writer’s eyes. You focus in a new way. You study how someone portrays his or her version of things in a way that is new and bold and original. You notice how a writer paints in a mesmerizing character or era for you, without your having the sense of being given a whole lot of information, and when you realize how artfully this has happened, you may actually put the book down for a moment and savor it, just taste it.”
–Anne Lamott, Bird By Bird
