You Can't Write Because You Can't Read

I received my first AI allegation.

I was actually accused of using AI to write my articles on Substack under one of my recent posts on how I ran some Substack articles through AI detectors. I think it's quite ironic how I was accused of the exact same thing I was fighting against. That aside, this isn't the point of this article.

You see, writing is an art. An art I once believed is only bestowed upon the chosen ones right from the moment they take their very first breaths. I thought writing is something that requires exceptional talent—you're either born with the gift of writing or you aren't.

Unlike the lot of people I've interacted with on Substack, I never fell in love with the art of reading or writing. I hated reading—fiction, nonfiction, all of the above. I didn't just hate it, I dreaded it. I remember the first time my dad assigned a book to my brother and myself; I was only nine or ten years old at the time. He gave me three days to finish reading the book and present a detailed summary afterwards. You're probably thinking that was the moment of my literary awakening, the moment I finally fell in love with reading. If you thought that, then unfortunately, you're sorely mistaken.

I'd walk around the house with my storybook in hand, I'd lay on my bed with my storybook, I'd sit in the living room with my storybook—not because I was reading it, but because I needed to maintain a front. I only pretended to read every time my dad made a presence. After my three-day window elapsed, what did I do? I copied off the summary written behind the book, briefly skimmed a few pages and did what I know how to do best—I winged it.

Unfortunately, my dad clocked my shit almost immediately. This time around, he gave me 32 hours to finish reading the book. I read it and I didn't magically fall in love with reading, but I didn't hate it either. The book—Moremi the Courageous Queen—impacted my life and completely altered my perception of what a woman was supposed to be; I'd like to say it even inspired my feminism at a very young age.

Reading wasn't a "love at first sight" thing for me; it was more of a slow-burn kind of love. The more books I read, the more I felt the urge to read every book I could lay my hands on (all age appropriate, obviously).

At the ripe age of 12, I finally mustered up the courage—like Moremi—to write my very first book. I didn't make it past five chapters before I'd completely abandoned the project for some unpeculiar reason, so I stuck to songwriting. Unfortunately, my older siblings found 13-year-old me's hidden diary of all the songs I had written one thursday afternoon. Deep down, I know they didn't mean all the things they said—the snickers, the not-so-subtle jabs, the heavy tears I tried desperately to conceal.

Something in me shifted that day as I swore to never write again—until I broke that promise late last year, when I joined Substack. I didn't write at first; I wanted to, but I didn't think I would ever possess the creativity of a literary artist. I'd always coined myself to be a reader and I was content with it.

If you genuinely like my writing—that means a lot to me. If you hate it, please go easy on me; I'm still a newcomer to the craft. I only started writing a few months ago.

As a wannabe writer, I know what it feels like being trapped in the confines of writer's block. Or trying and failing to abscond the bane of mediocre prose and clumsy syntaxes. But oftentimes, these problems a writer faces isn't due to ineptness of the craft, but more of a consumption problem. You fall short of words, or your cogitations appear shallow and incoherent, because you haven't consumed enough good (and bad) writing to distinguish a structurally adept composition from a critically lacking one.

Most people are discouraged from writing for the same reason I was; they think writing is all about output—having a vast range of vocabulary, or how fast you can drop articles every Eke-market day.

But in reality, writing is a translation of our thoughts. For me, writing is simply thinking out loud, but instead of a three-hour internal monologue I'd probably forget in the next second, I put my thoughts on paper—or in this case, my notes app. Writing translates your internal voice to text. If your internal voice is lacking depth, then your writing will lack depth too. But reading is how you stock the library of that voice. Let's say you have a barren land; your ideas and reflections are nothing but seeds in your palm, seeds you want to grow and nurture. Reading is the rain and the compost that facilitates the germination of those seeds.

When faced with the struggle of redundancy in writing—repeating the same tropes over and over again without adding anything new to your original thoughts. In other words: the cliché brain: When you box yourself into one niche, or the only thing you ever actually read are TikTok comments at three in the morning, you'll only be training yourself to write even better TikTok comments. Because originality is the synthesis of two corresponding ideas you've read. Without broad reading, you'll keep recycling the same five tropes every three seasons. As someone who reads A LOT of romance—more than every other genre—I always advise other readers to read voraciously outside their niche. Read poetry—even though you don't understand it—to learn the craft of metaphorical literature. Read history for context. Read poorly written novels to learn what not to do.

Reading is to writing what listening is to speaking. It's like learning a new language; you spend months studying a Spanish dictionary without attaining fluency. Then it finally clicks when you start listening to the lazy 'd' sounds and the swallowed vowels by watching Spanish soap operas. You only learn to write when you learn to listen to the cadence and rhythm of the prose.

When writers are overcome by the block, it's because of architectural disorientation—not knowing what comes after what. Then I think back to a certain quote by Stephen King:

when you're consumed by thoughts, WRITE. When you feel uninspired, READ.

Active reading reveals how authors open chapters, grab you by the tits with a mind-boggling hook that leaves you sitting at the edge of your bed at three in the morning, mapping out all the possible plot twists and arcs.

When I catch myself feeling stuck, I take a moment to recollect my thoughts—by listening to music or reading. And somehow, reading always gives me the inspiration to keep going. Writer's block isn't about lack of talent or skill—it's a lack of input. One thing I've learned from Salem King—the Creator's creator—is to stop thinking of doing and just do it. Don't think about suddenly becoming the next William Shakespeare; just write, no matter how jumbled it appears.

The most learning happens when we fail and try again. So when that comment accused me of using AI to write, I felt a sense of pride but I also felt disrespected. AI writing is vague, redundant and boring, but also structurally sound and grammatically astonishing, which left me reeling with conflicting emotions. Then I thought—maybe they're right. Maybe my 'lesson voice' is too clean, too textbook. Because that's what I've been reading. Clean, textbook Substack essays. I wrote what I consumed. And that, ironically, is the whole point—to produce art you have to consume it.

This is a non-writer's guide to becoming a writer.

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