When Writers Stop Reading

...and my 20-years-long TBR pile

Aug 22, 2024

“Are you reading for fun?”

This is one of the questions I often ask in coaching sessions with writers who are blocked or edging on burnout. Are you still reading? Not just for market research. Not just for research on your current story. Not just to offer blurbs/cover quotes to other writers. But reading for enjoyment, because you love it, because being a reader is what made you want to be a writer.

Why do I ask this? Because I’ve found that when writers really get going with their careers, reading for enjoyment is one of the vital activities that falls off the wagon early.

Reading for fun suddenly seems frivolous. I can’t spend time reading when I need to be writing! Or writers fear they're going to somehow lift other people’s stories without realizing it. (Despite the fact that we probably wouldn’t have had stories to write in the first place if we hadn’t been reading all our lives, absorbing story.)

Optimization culture

Our reading lives become the victim of the speed-and-optimization-at-all-costs culture. Write more, write faster, get rid of all activities that aren’t writing. We begin to think that reading is something that’s “nice but not necessary.” We’re real writers now. We have a job to do. No time for hobby reading.

Until we hit a wall in our story or story ideas stop coming altogether or we burn out.

This is especially true for certain personality types. I’m a Gallup-Certifed CliftonStrengths coach, so I see this most intensely affecting writers with Strengths like Learner and Input (my top 2, by the way). But I think it applies to all writers. If we don’t replenish our mental tanks with fresh words and stories, we drain ourselves writing our own books and then there’s nothing left. We feel uninspired or we start writing stories we’ve already told and repeating ourselves (not in a “hey, I like writing this trope kind” of way but in a “wait, didn’t I have a scene just like this two books ago?” way.)

Reading is part of the job. I’ve heard that Stephen King reads 3 hours a day, and he’s still producing stories after many decades, so maybe that’s his secret. Regardless, I feel it’s a vital aspect of the care and feeding of a writer. You can only kick that “I’ll read later” can so far down the road before it will trip you up.

Confession: I’ve tripped and faceplanted.

Forgetting to take my own advice

I’ve mentioned I’ve been in a reading slump for fiction, but I didn’t realize how bad that slump had gotten until I looked at the numbers so far this year.

I’ve read 34 books this year (which is already on the slower side for me), but only 8 have been fiction. EIGHT. That’s a ludicrous number for me.

So when I found myself stressing out the other day about my ongoing lack of story ideas post-burnout, it hit me in the face. I haven’t been taking my own advice. I know the importance of reading. I damn near preach about it. But here I am, letting my fiction-reading slip away from me.

I still buy books all the time. I visit my library regularly. I listen to bookish podcasts every week. I subscribe to multiple bookish newsletters. I still live a very book-focused life.

So, how did this happen?

I have a few theories. One is that post-burnout life is weird and things take time to come back. Another is that I put together a non-fiction book proposal this year and read a lot of non-fiction for research. Also, my reading taste has been shifting so it’s a little harder to choose which books will work for me. (I’ve DNFed nine novels this year.)

But more than anything, I think it’s me falling into that optimization trap that I mentioned earlier—even when I think I’ve learned that lesson, there it is again. Taking time to read feels frivolous and like I could be doing something more productive. (This is my Achiever strength being Achiever-y.) Also, reading takes focus and if I let myself get caught in the whirlwind of work, I can’t slow down and focus on sinking into a story.

So, I’m sharing this because even when I’m coaching others on the importance of this, I let reading fall off the wagon for myself. It’s such a sneaky, sneaky slide. You don’t notice until the consequences start cropping up.

Therefore, here I am, recommitting to a reading life. Maybe you want to join me?

My 20-Year TBR

I looked at my TBR list on Goodreads (which mostly contains books I own and a few library holds). It’s 1300 books long. If I kept my normal reading pace of 50-70 books a year, my current TBR would take me 20 years to get through. Twenty years, y’all. And that’s if I never bought another book again (not gonna happen.)

I could let it make me sad that there are all these unread, ignored books on my shelves, but I’m choosing to see it as an exciting world of stories awaiting me. I basically have my own personal bookstore. Now, I plan to use it.

I’m committing to reading at least one hour of fiction a day at least five days a week. I’m going to try to focus on books I already own or what’s at my library. And I’m reading for pure reader joy. If a book doesn’t capture me, I’ll move on to the next. I need to find Reader Me again so that the story-creating part of Writer Me can reactivate.

We’ll see how it goes. I’m excited to get started!

In other news…

The beautiful paperback edition of my book The One You Can’t Forget came out this week. If you like emotional, romantic, enemies-to-lovers stories, check it out!

Alright, that’s all I have for you today.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you read as a writer or if you’ve struggled with keeping a reading life once your writing life got busy. Have you found a good rhythm in your reading life?