How Reading Helps with Writing and 5 Bite-Sized Creepy Short Stories to Get Started
“Just practice!”
Once upon a time, I struggled with elementary school math. I couldn’t grasp the concept of negative numbers. How could anything less than zero exist? My mind was blown. According to my cousin, who was trying to do my parents a favour by helping me with math, I just needed to practice.
Great advice.
After a lot of trial-and-error, I eventually caught on and grew to love math. It took months of torturing, I mean teaching myself to understand the concepts, but that’s a story for another time.
Today is all about reading to improve writing skills.
Yes, consistent practice leads to improvement, so what my cousin told me was partially true, but there’s more to it than just writing and writing until you one day wake up as the next Virginia Woolf.
What we read influences what we think and what we learn, and thus how we behave. Reading makes us better writers: fiction or essays. Reading allows us to gain knowledge and learn new ways of seeing the world around us. Reading enhances our vocabulary by exposing us to unique words and phrases. Reading shows us how to put together all the grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation lessons we have learned in a cohesive and meaningful way.
Since it’s October, here’s a list of a few spooky and mystical short stories for high school students who want to get into the Halloween mood:
- The Veldt by Ray Bradbury
- The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Mortal Immortal by Mary Shelley
- Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
- The Red Room by H.G. Wells
But there’s a trick to it. Being able to read a string of text is just the start. To get the most benefit out of every short story, paragraph, or article, we need to think about what we’re reading, consider how it applies to us, and analyze its significance.
Here are some questions to consider while reading:
- What words or phrases does the author use to convey their meaning and why do you think they use these?
- Does this relate to me? How?
- What message is the author trying to tell us?
- Can I compare this to any other texts I have read in the past?
- What genre is this?
- What kind of language and style does the author use? Is it successful?
Give it a try! Read more, think about what you’re reading, and see how your writing improves.