read

Writers drink bigelow vanilla-chai black tea, use a no. 2 pencil, keep record of earth-shattering vss's (very short sentences), and are obsessed with good grammar and latin roots. Or I imagine as much.

These are vain without one thing to make a writer a writer: reading (with just this piece you have become a writer).

 If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

Stephen King

Commonly misconstrued is the idea that great writers are wholly original. Jeff Goins writes, "the most creative minds in the world aren't especially creative; they're just better at rearranging." Adaptation is the great coalescent.

Every great writer was inspired by a writer whom we should label "greater". That's how math works. Take part from one and you are left with less than one.

In actuality, the great, inspired writers take from their favorites and build something even more true to themselves and original. We are even more than the sum total of the blessings we've received in our lives; writer's influence included.

So, we read.

We read because, in the words of Ram Dass, "when all is said and done, we're all just walking each other home."