Our reading affects our writing.

Our reading affects our writing. Don’t you agree?

I personally believe that this is a fact. Every person has his likes and dislikes and I guess that we all read different kinds of books and not just one. After all it helps us create a general opinion. What happens though when we write at the same time?

I can’t speak from everyone (of course!) but I think in one way or another, what we read affects our writing. I am not saying that we copy another author but even the slightest detail or idea we have may be triggered of something we read. Or the way we write may have been affected.

Me for example, I wrote my first novel while I was reading Game of Thrones. DAZED is a mystery/adventure and it takes place in Boston. It has absolutely nothing to do with George R. R. Martin’s masterpiece, but due to that I wrote it on the third person. It was something that happened unconsciously but I was reading in the third person and so I was thinking in the third person and I ended up writing in the third person too.

I don’t know, it may be different for you out there, or you think that I was affected too much, but how a good book can’t affect you? Isn’t that its purpose after all? And I say again that I don’t mean to copy it! Personally I am glad when I finish a book and I have beautiful feelings and ideas which can make me create something good and give me the sparkle I need to keep going.

What about you? Have you ever had a similar reaction to a book?