Read What You Love
If you’re a writer, I’m assuming you’re also a reader. While there are multitudes of readers who aren’t writers, I can’t imagine there are writers who aren’t readers. This means you can lean into your reader-self as part of your writing. Reading is essential to good writing (even if it’s reading bad writing—at least you’ll know what to avoid!).
What to read? Whatever interests you. Seriously. If it’s beach-read romances, or heavy philosophical tomes, so be it. Popular advice is to read in your genre, which you’re most likely doing anyway—if you like it enough to write it, you probably love it enough to read it. But even if you haven’t read widely in your genre, that’s okay, too. (Remember there are no “rules” for writing. The only rule is to find what works for you.) Too often we’re inundated with “shoulds” about how to prepare for our own writing, but there is no one right answer, so if you want to read sci-fi but write historical fiction, go for it. Simply reading stories—any stories—will help. Study them for characterization, theme, plot, setting, or any other elements you’re most curious to improve.
Which means that when you settle in with a good book, you’re actively working on your craft. Isn’t this writing life great? 😊