Read-Write Connection
Do you have to be a reader to be a good writer? I consider myself a decent writer yet I didn't grow up reading books, not like my friend Ginny who actually had a library room in her house with floor-to-ceiling books on all four walls. The only two books I remember reading by choice before adulthood were Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume around 6th grade and Amityville Horror by Jay Anson in 7th grade. Both left me deep in consternation which, I guess, took years to get over.
Though I love to read now, did I miss out on something by not being an early reader? Maybe not. My high school English teacher, apparently impressed by something I had written, assumed I must be an avid reader in order to throw down words like I did. She seemed astonished that I wasn't. My family and I just listened to Eragon by Christopher Paolini on a car trip to and from Washington, D.C. Paolini started writing Eragon at age fifteen and at nineteen started the next volume, Eldest, in his brilliant Inheritance trilogy. How much reading could he have done to prepare him to write so masterfully by age fifteen? How did he develop such a grasp of the language so young? No doubt he is a genius. So are writers born or made? If you ask me, it depends on the individual.
My mom loved to create things with words. She'd spend hours on the living room floor, magazines strewn around, cutting out words and pasting them onto colored construction paper to make homemade greeting cards for friends and family. Mom also wrote plays and won grants with the power of her pen. She frequently corrected my grammar, reminded me not to end a sentence with a prepostion, and taught me neat little educational rhymes like, "'i' before 'e', except after 'c'". I may not have owned a vast array of tomes like Ginny, but I learned early that the written word is capable of making people feel, think, act, and believe in themselves.
Though I love to read now, did I miss out on something by not being an early reader? Maybe not. My high school English teacher, apparently impressed by something I had written, assumed I must be an avid reader in order to throw down words like I did. She seemed astonished that I wasn't. My family and I just listened to Eragon by Christopher Paolini on a car trip to and from Washington, D.C. Paolini started writing Eragon at age fifteen and at nineteen started the next volume, Eldest, in his brilliant Inheritance trilogy. How much reading could he have done to prepare him to write so masterfully by age fifteen? How did he develop such a grasp of the language so young? No doubt he is a genius. So are writers born or made? If you ask me, it depends on the individual.
My mom loved to create things with words. She'd spend hours on the living room floor, magazines strewn around, cutting out words and pasting them onto colored construction paper to make homemade greeting cards for friends and family. Mom also wrote plays and won grants with the power of her pen. She frequently corrected my grammar, reminded me not to end a sentence with a prepostion, and taught me neat little educational rhymes like, "'i' before 'e', except after 'c'". I may not have owned a vast array of tomes like Ginny, but I learned early that the written word is capable of making people feel, think, act, and believe in themselves.
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