READ! Read for all you're worth.

Read.

It is just one simple word; it is also an extremely succinct piece of advice. All writers will eventually come across other writers who will offer advice. Murdering darlings or perhaps cutting the first paragraph come up quite often, but nothing else comes up as often as read. You know what though? It's good advice.

It's difficult to do of course. Myself, I'd all but stopped reading except for necessary research and the same scripts that I was learning and reading for the eightieth time. That was until Puck of Pool's Hill. One night I found myself with no phone signal, no internet, no TV and a book that I'd brought with me in a hilarious impulse of optimism. That night I waded through thirty chapters of The Long Earth (Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter). For the first time in a long time I was reading for leisure. I'd forgotten why it was so important to read for leisure.

As a writer, what we read stirs our imaginations and ignites our passions. Reading what we find interesting opens our minds and will often provide the push to begin writing something we care about. In a recent blog post a fellow LJMU creative writing student explains that he enjoyed the research for the Fantastic Worlds module. I'm fairly sure that all of us who took that course have similar experiences. When we write about what we really have an passion for or that which challenges us, we tap into something. Even academic writing can become enjoyable. No, I'm being serious. Research makes writing easier, but if it's a topic we have passion for or interest in, the writing is enjoyable.

Quite frankly, the form that the reading takes doesn't matter. You can be reading paperback, eBook, blogs, news websites or comic books. If you make the reading stimulating you give yourself a better chance at being inspired. Just read. If you don't, or just don't make the time? Well, you may find yourself sitting alone attempting to write, but procrastinating by writing a blog that maybe fifty people are reading.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to read The Long War.