This post is a follow up to Blogging Makes Me Feel Like A Worse Writer . It is a sort of counter-balance to the feelings I had in that one.
I read a lot. Reading is fun. I go to the library often. I read things from internet magazines and small presses. All together, I like to read a wide variety of writing from a wide variety of sources.
Reading like this is good for your writing abilities. First there’s the obvious benefit of seeing what other people are doing and how. It’s inspiration and example.
But there’s another aspect that’s encouraging for my own writing. And that is seeing that there is a lot of published writing out there that is frankly not that good. The bar for quality is not actually very high. To phrase it more generously, the more I read the more I see that makes me think I could do as well or better.
It’s a good reminder that writing is hard for me, yes, but it’s also hard for everyone else.