Writing Skills and Reading

¶ … dedication before being able to be successful in it. I challenged myself to take up writing seriously when I started reading different kinds of books, particularly series of books from my favorite authors. Aside from books, I started reading the newspapers and magazines everyday. As I took up this new hobby, I was able to get new ideas and words seem to 'pile up' in my head, allowing me to easily (and appropriately) assign words for a particular thought in my head.

Indeed, reading is the first step to successful writing. This is because through reading, one is acquainted with different patterns of thoughts and ideas, and from that range of patterns of thought, I am able to discern which among them will be appropriate for me to use. Thus, I began to become fully interested in writing, allowing myself to express my thoughts in what I hoped to be the same manner my favorite authors expressed theirs. Now, after taking reading seriously, I am taking up writing seriously, too.

However, I do not want to take up writing as a tedious task; rather, I want to write simply because I want to. I do not want to treat writing as an activity that I should accomplish. That's why to improve my writing skills, I took up journal writing, aside from reading everyday. Through my journal writing, I was able to express myself in the writing style that I want, the one which best expresses my ideas and thoughts.

I need not write in my journal everyday, but only when inspiration drives.