Could you give up one or the other? Can you ever be a good writer but not read?

‘Would you rather give up writing for the rest of your life but have all the time you wanted for reading… or give up reading for the rest of your life but have all the time you want for writing?’

This is the question Rachelle Gardner asks in a recent post. http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/

To me reading and writing go together, no doubt. I cannot see myself giving one up for the other. I’m an avid reader, always has been. I was the child coming home weighed down by my findings at whichever library we lived near at the time. I learned foreign languages through my need to read. I’d pick up whatever I could lay my hands on to satisfy this need.

My children are the same. I read to them the moment I was born. I got funny looks at a time when it was not yet trendy. The result is a house full of books, our cars too. The smallest of journeys is spent with a nose in a book. They read at the table while eating if we let them. My children are bilingual as a result, my daughter has better spelling than French children her age and even older ones. OK, OK, stop bragging, I hear you.

And writing? At school, I hated the constraints imposed by teachers. Write like this, don’t deviate. I went to schools where teachers did not encourage creativity. I was the child who would write and rewrite…changing details until the very last minute.

Then I went to university. I had fantastic teachers there, ones who recognised and encouraged creativity. Life has its ups and downs, some of them delaying me for a while, but deep down I never stopped. The stories are in my head. I used to think I was slightly mad, or worse. Was I normal? What is normal anyway?

These stories have to come out eventually. I still read as I write. I feel torn at times, wanting to finish a book but characters calling me to get on with the story I’m writing. Lucky for me I’m a fast reader and a furious writer. Once the story starts forming in my head, I’m compelled to write it, so hard to stop. So I do amidst the chaos in my life, little blonde heads demanding attention…