What is reader's block?

Read your way back into writing.

Reading as a practice for writers

When I meet someone new, I want to know what they’re reading. The first time I head to their house, I pour over their bookshelves. I can’t vacation with a friend who doesn’t read. I don’t really know if I can have a friend who doesn’t read, because I’m pretty sure every friend I follow up with is a big-time book fan.

As a whole, we are knee deep in at least three books each at a time. I average four at any given moment. Right now, I am savoring Jennifer Givhan’s Salt Bones, audio-devouring Nicole Lesperance’s A Spell to Wake the Dead, moving deliberately through Toni Bernhard’s How to Be Sick, and nodding off with the final book of R.F. Kuang’s Poppy Wars trilogy. (About this last: It’s exciting. Maybe don’t choose it for bedtime reading.) “Avid” is a good description for me as a reader, but this isn’t always the case.

Overcoming reader’s block

Have you ever heard of reader’s block? I’m not making it up. Reading has an ebb and a flow for most of us. We go through seasons of readership. Some of those seasons can last years without the intentional ingestion of a text. Just as with writer’s block, there is a feeling of frustration, disinterest and restraint. Picking up a book feels overwhelming. Why not watch a show? Why not see the movie?

But just as with writer’s block, you can’t avoid your way out of the practice of not reading. You have to read your way back in.

Why would you, though? Well, since this is a space for writers, let’s look at what reading does for us as members of this elite group:

Reading ignites the imagination. We become more creative the more we experience creativity. This includes the worlds and words of other writers.

Reading grows compassion. We can find community between the covers of a book. We can find ourselves by taking in the stories, fact or fiction, of others who have shared in our experiences or emotions.

Reading is instructive. Looking at the way another writers assembles their prose is an opportunity. It leads to experimentation and ideas. This is why reading was (and is) banned.

Reading exercises a privilege. Not everyone is allowed or able to read. Book banning and burning is still an active practice. This means you get to exercise your privilege to support other writers. Guess what? That’s pretty radical.

Reading creates an escape. When we’re stuck in our stories, we have the option of visiting someone else’s. Again, reading offers new or different perspective, and this can relieve tension or unlock invention.

A writing—and reading—exercise

Blocked and not sure how to get started? Find a space with books. Pick one up and flip to a random page. Consider the first words that stand out to you when you scan the text. Repeat until something strikes a nerve. This is great to do in a library or bookstore, where you can take something new home. Even better while at a friend’s. A loaned book is a physical connection and a future conversation.

As a writing prompt, make a list of the last five books you read. Add notes under each title sharing what you liked about each. What do you want to experience again? What kind of work do you want more of? Which writer was your favorite? Use your notes to look up similar titles and authors.

Shawna Ayoub is an essayist, fiction writer, poet, and instructor with an MFA in Creative Writing from Indiana University. Some of her work has been published in The Manifest-Station, Role Reboot, [wherever], The Huffington Post, The Oxford Review and Exit 7. Her writing explores the intersections of race, place, and survivorship. She writes with honesty about her own experience in order to transform pain. She teaches the Center for Creative Writing’s founding course, Writing the Wave, as well as Writing Your Web Presence and Writing through Trauma to Truth, and she is available for generative writing sessions and private writing guidance.

If you haven’t already, subscribe to get reviews, author Q&As, craft talks, writing advice, personal essays, tarot readings for writers, and more every Wednesday, plus a motivational quote by a literary great every Monday and a new writing prompt in your inbox every Friday. Come write with us.