I find reading other people’s writing helps me deal with the great excess of extraneous crap that invariably builds up in my head in the months following the writing of my own.

When I’m the one doing the reading I am free to sit back and assimilate the content, allowing it to wash over me, while observing/admiring the writing styles of others…

You see, rather than sending my imagination on these voyages across fantastic worlds and into the deepest, darkest, most debauched, debased and depraved corners of my latent mind, then having it come back to me offering up a plethora of strange and interesting ideas that at any other time would seem outlandish or bizarre and perhaps even have me questioning my own hold on sanity, I allow someone else to do the voyaging while I simply become the voyeur.

…That said I’ve been doing a lot of reading of late: many titles, numerous authors; multiple signatures. No, authors of the books I read haven’t actually signed the books, it’s more that each different writer I encounter provides me with a new and interesting writing style – as if they’ve signed the book with their very own specialised technique.

From first through to third person narrative; from past to current or even projected tense (for the record, first person current tense – which I am currently reading – pisses me off no end), I am finding that by reading titles from these comparatively obscure authors, my mind is very much being opened up to possibilities.

I came across one particular novel the other day which I felt could well have been written by me ten years ago – until they started a paragraph with the word ‘and’ and I knew it hadn’t. I’ve encountered a number of others which I honestly cannot believe were ever published at all, which makes me think; makes me wonder: had I been born an American citizen amid a population of around 150 million thus with countless viable demographics, would I be a bestseller by now?

It’s been said: Not all readers are necessarily writers, but all writers are definitely readers.

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by I Reed

Photography by U Reed