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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/14192
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/14192
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Not really, no. That would be like trying to learn a foreign language without ever hearing it spoken or seeing it written.

You can certainly write, inasmuch as you can write words down on a page. But that's not "becoming a good writer." if you have no idea what other books look like, then you'll basically be trying to invent the modern novel from scratch.

You won't have any sense of what works and what to avoid; what can be powerful and what's already been done to death; what expectations readers will demand you meet and what surprises will knock their socks off. I should qualify -- it's not that you'll have no sense at all, because you presumably have seen movies and TV and so on. You're not brand new to _stories_. And yet, prose is a very different form, with a different audience, a different language, and different terrain. You will not blunder your way into greatness, or even competence, by sheer serendipity.

Consider: you want to write a book that you, apparently, would rather not read, because it's a book. How likely are you to be pleased with this book, then? How will you be able to tell if you're doing "well" or "not well"? Who, precisely, do you think will be a good audience for your work, and how can you tell if they'll like it without knowing what _else_ they enjoy?

The good news is, reading is not a very onerous hobby to break into. It doesn't take a lot of time or effort, you can start with whatever catches your fancy, you can go at your own pace. Heck, you can read on the bus, or listen to books on tape, and soak fiction up by the liter. (Also, pro tip: if you don't have time to read, then when is it you think you'll have time to write?)

And, you don't necessarily need to have read a ton in order to _start_ becoming a good writer. You've read some Tolkien? _Great_, now you know how those books look; you have a model and something to imitate. Read another fantasy book or two, if that's your style - you'll learn more about fantasy, and you'll also see some differences from Tolkien. Great; you've got a broader range than you did two books ago. Keep reading; keep writing; and keep looking for books that are in the general vicinity of what you're writing - because that's the area that will help you most, and most immediately.

You can't be a good writer without reading at all, but once you are reading, however little, you are advancing in the right direction. You can figure out the pace you want as you go along.

Original score: 15