Being A Writer And A Reader
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I'm A Writer And A Reader At The Same Time

It's possible to love the written word in more than one way.

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I'm A Writer And A Reader At The Same Time
Sarah Hackworth

I've been a reader since before I knew how to spell. My poor parents had to read so many books to me in those years before I learned words for myself. Then I started devouring books as fast as I could on my own. Teachers used to take books away from me as a kid to make me "interact" with the other kids.

Almost as long as I've been a reader, I've been a writer. I started writing my own stories in elementary school. To date, I have two completely written novel manuscripts that I'm working on editing. I've written here on Odyssey for about a year. I'm blogging. I'm majoring in English with a minor in creative writing.

It's safe to say that the written word is a huge part of who I am.

I identify as both a writer and a reader, but rarely ever at the same time. I go through periods where I'll write three to five pages a day, and I go through periods where I'm lucky if I write a paragraph over the course of three days. I go through periods where I'll only read what I need to for coursework, and I go through periods where I'm reading four or five books at a time. Like any other person who loves multiple things, I drift in and out of phases centered around one of those things. What sticks out, though, is the way that my passions connect and intersect.

When I'm in a reading phase, I joke that I'm researching, but it's actually not completely a joke. By reading, I'm not only finding different ways to look at my major but finding different ways to look at my writing as a craft. I've learned through writing and through my classes to analyze a story to see what it does well and what it does not. I've taken to studying the books that I read for pleasure, noting what they do and don't do well.

Through seeing what is and isn't done well, I can learn from authors that do certain things, say dialogue, better than I do, and work on honing that certain part of my craft. I'll gather books that have good dialogue and look them over, seeing what each does well and figuring out how I could do that.

I said earlier that I started blogging. That's true, and the blog, called Sarah Loves Books, is all about books. I review them. I'm planning to do book tags and the kind of stuff that BookTubers do. I'm taking books that I love (or love to hate, it's rare but it does happen) and writing about them in ways that people inside and outside of the English major can understand and maybe even agree with.

There is no problem with identifying as more than one-er. What really makes it worth it, though, is learning how to integrate these things that you're passionate about to better your understanding of them.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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