Become a Better Writer: Read

Connecting and Communicating With Your Audience, Part 5

When you read you become a better writer. But what does reading and writing have to do with connecting and communicating with your audience, you ask? When you read you gain knowledge and find inspiration. It doesn't matter what genre you read: memoirs, science fiction, business, or self-help books. When you connect with the stories you're reading you'll discover there are many positive outcomes:

• Your vocabulary increases

• Your grammar improves

• You begin recognizing the difference between poor and quality writing

When you have a diverse vocabulary, your story is more interesting because you aren't using the same words over and over. When you read, you start recognizing poor grammar; whether it's a book, an email, a PDF, or a website. Grammar is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the set of rules that explain how words are used in a language," and "speech or writing judged by how well it follows the rules of grammar." There are several grammar rules (which is an entire blog in and of itself) but the basic rules relate to the sentence structure and the different parts of speech.

Here's an amazing statistic: People/students who read for just 20 minutes a day end up reading 1,800,000 new words a year. Who doesn't have 20 minutes a day to read? Imagine how many new words you'll have in your toolbox if you read for 20 minutes each day. An online article in Lifehack discusses 10 Benefits of Reading: Why You Should Read Every Day.

In his book, On Writing Well, William Zinsser said:

Are You Ready to Read More and Become a Better Writer to Communicate and Connect with Your Audience?

The more you read you'll start recognizing the correlation between reading and becoming a better writer for your audience. You'll also notice an increase in your confidence. Reading helps you connect with your audience because when you read books in the genre you want to write about, you'll better understand what types of questions they're looking to have answered. You'll discover the style of writing you prefer, which relates to your audience who discover and like the way you write so they become followers. Remember, I mentioned in Part 1 of this series to always write in your style and your voice no matter what topic you're discussing. Then your audience knows it's you writing and telling the story. Be consistent with who you are as a writer/person.

In Part 5 of my series today, I mentioned how reading more increases your vocabulary, improves your grammar, and you start to recognize the different between poor and quality writing. Reading different genres so you learn what writing style you prefer and where you audience hangs out, helps you connect with your people. Feel free to read a brief wrap up in a previous blog on how to create a CLEAR message for your audience and discover your raving fans! As always, we're here for questions or suggestions to help you on your journey to publication; whatever it means for you.