MEL DONALSON: One of the things to keep in mind is that as a writer, as a person, living on the planet, that you want to not just live and exist as a kind of sponge that takes in everything. But you want to also contribute part of your responsibility to your family, to your community, to your city, whatever it might be.
So basically reading benefits in so many ways. It gives you information, of course. But it also shows you how other people are using the language and the ways in which that language which is used in that magazine or that newspaper article or that book, how does it work.
Does it work well for you as a reader? If so, how is it being executed upon the page? Are there things there that you can perhaps utilize in your own writing to make your writing more engaging or more effective?
So the whole idea of becoming a learned person on so many different levels comes through reading. And it's a privilege to be able to read and to have that kind of access to information. And so as you grow in reading, whether it's your vocabulary or your appreciation of how people use language, you also become much more of a resource person yourself. Because now, you have something to contribute to the conversation, in regards to certain issues, certain developments in society, certain challenges in society.
So reading is essential to being an effective writer. And you can't have one, I don't think, without the other. It certainly will make you a better person, and as I said, allow you to contribute in additional ways through your writing.