Welcome, October! My favorite month, full of golden sunshine, brilliant leaves crunching underfoot, and crisp, cool weather. (Now watch, it’ll start raining as the gods smack me down for my optimism.)

I also love Halloween, the least stressful of the winter/fall holidays. No one expects you to cook anything or spend money on gifts. Just slap up some tacky decorations, stock up on candy, and you’re good to go. In fact, Halloween in the U.S. oozes tackiness. We roll around in it like dogs in stinky dead things. Can’t wait to drape my porch in fake cobwebs and goggle-eyed spiders. What’s your favorite Halloween decoration? Do you favor gore or cute/funny?

Image by Pixabay.

This blog hop at the Insecure Writers Support Group is co-hosted by  Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Mary Aalgaard, Madeline Mora-Summonte, and Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor! Thanks to them, and to Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh for this opportunity to kvetch, commiserate, and prop each other up. May their trick or treat bags be stuffed with their favorite sweet treats.

This month’s question: It’s been said that the benefits of becoming a writer who does not read is that all your ideas are new and original. Everything you do is an extension of yourself, instead of a mixture of you and another author. On the other hand, how can you expect other people to want your writing, if you don’t enjoy reading? What are your thoughts?

Image by Robin Higgins from Pixabay.

Are you freakin’ nuts? It is impossible to be a good writer if you don’t enjoy reading. The very idea is preposterous poppycock, bombastic balderdash, ridiculous rubbish, and mush-brained madness!

Yes, there are other ways to present a story. You could create a film, though someone’s going to have to write a script. You could sit around a campfire and spin an oral yarn—an excellent choice for this spooky season. You could make sock puppets and act it out. But if you don’t love to read, if you don’t have time to read, if you don’t soak up the best in your chosen genre until you perspire concentrated story goodness, your writing will lack the skill and flair necessary to deliver a bookalicious reading experience.

As for originality, I think Mark Twain said it well:

“There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.”

Give me and my writing buddies the same prompt, and you will not get the same story. Even if we’ve all just finished reading the same book. Our respective experiences and voices create different tales, even if the framework is the same.

Reading the best authors in my genre is the most important part of my education as a writer. I hope you agree.