Reading to Avoid Writing

When I was doing my PhD the one piece of advice I kept hearing was-“don’t keep reading to avoid writing.” It’s some solid advice to be sure because honestly you will never get to the end of reading, you will get close, but just as you are finishing your chapter a great new essay collection is published and you think, okay just a few more articles. I feel this is a common thing that happens when one is writing up and it’s especially true of those who would define themselves as perfectionists. 

Though my doctoral degree has been done for a while now I still find myself falling into that reading to avoid writing trap. This weekend I read two books. They were both great books and I don’t regret reading them for a second, but I also should have been working on an article.

My reading to avoid writing is motivated by a different thing than perfectionism. I believe I am reading to try to get myself in the mood for writing. I know many “write that article now” advice books say there is not such thing as being in the “mood” to write- you just have to write, and every day- I think it’s exceedingly more difficult to write if your mind just doesn’t seem to be in the space that it needs to be to address the topic you are writing about.

Physical health also has a lot to do with it as well. This winter has taken something out of me with much more cold and snow than we normally get this time of year.  It becomes more difficult to find it in you to translate that remaining energy to words on a page when you have been shovelling for a half hour or commuting through ice.

Reading is an important part of the writing process, and books become the source of insight and creative concepts- the trick is to try to make sure it doesn’t become the only thing you do instead of writing. And that, I’m still working on at the moment.