By Elaine Baldwin| @elainehbaldwin

#2 Every Writer Must Have a Well!

In other words every writer must have more words than they will ever use in print stored in their brain. This might seem like a “Dah” statement, but I’ve met individuals who say they want to write, but when asked what they read their answers are limited to the genre in which they write.

I believe this kind of one dimensional reading habits results in one dimensional writing.

The best of the best writers; the ones we want to emulate, are ravenous readers. If they aren’t writing, they are reading…everything.

For the Christian writer, their number one book resource is the Bible which helps them keep the main thing, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the main thing. Writers like…

Francine Rivers http://francinerivers.com/blog/problem-womens-magazines

Bodie and Brock Thoene  http://www.thoenebooks.com/blog.asp?post=0&per=Jul2012&id=670

Mike Duran  http://mikeduran.com/2012/07/woody-allen-the-honest-atheist/

Morgan L. Busse   www.morganlbusse.com

…to name just a few, keep their Christian worldview as the foundation for their writing. And while they are all committed to their genre, their reading material takes a wider sweep including non-fiction.

I am convinced the broader our circle of reading material, the deeper our well of words which leads to more relevant writing.

That doesn’t mean we have to read what we don’t like or is offensive. I only suggest we poke our heads out of the wells of our chosen genre once in a while. This stretches our intellectual and emotional muscles and that’s a good for us and for our readers.