Comments on: How Are Reading and Writing Related? Quote of the Day #27 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/how-are-reading-and-writing-related-quote-of-the-day-27/ Janice Harayda Reviews Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry for Adults and Children Mon, 10 Jun 2013 02:28:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/how-are-reading-and-writing-related-quote-of-the-day-27/#comment-7109 Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:03:40 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/how-are-reading-and-writing-related-quote-of-the-day-27/#comment-7109 Hi, Michael,
Absolutely to hone your craft as a writer, you have to write. And although I’m not sure how Malcolm Gladwell got that 10,000 figure, I’d say that my experience supports it: I probably did spend tens of thousands of hours writing before I got an article published in a national magazine.

Thanks so much for your comment, and good luck with your book.
Jan

]]> By: Michael Pokocky http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/how-are-reading-and-writing-related-quote-of-the-day-27/#comment-7108 Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:34:28 +0000 http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/how-are-reading-and-writing-related-quote-of-the-day-27/#comment-7108 I don’t think reading and writing are reciprocal for me although my opinion is based on my own personal experience. I believe that to hone your craft for writing requires that you write and if you can’t then you haven’t developed the habit of writing all the time. Malcolm Gladwell points out in his new book OUTLIERS his idea that to be really good at what you do you have to have put in 10,000 hours of practice. Mine was keeping a journal for 30 years. At some point along my life curve I got introduced to reading, which I hated in high school and when I began I read like a maniac. I loved reading these books, but in no way was it associated with writing then or today. In fact finding out that books were so enjoyable to me the idea eventually occurred to me that I was or must be a writer because I write too.

Then once I believed I could be a writer a book came to me and a first draft was written in 6 weeks. A second book came to me right after and it was done in 8 weeks. I now have 10 books which were written between the period 1999-2001 and all unpublished. And that’s alright because I love to write period.

But I have not read much these last few years and I was feeling very sad that I was not published. So I went after that and now have a book on the presidents desk of a prestigious publishing house in New York. No agent.

But at the end of the day I realized that a writer wants to be read. So in this post reading to me is a way of saying thank you to writers who have written a great book and inspired me to become a write too. Now I read and write, but I still rear away from using reading to help my writing. I don’t know why. But this is the way it is for me and the way I see it.

Kindest,
Michael
ps. I really enjoyed finding you today and love the way you encourage people who write to write. You seem so sincere and that I find admirable.

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