Window on Writing: Wordless Recreation

Too much reading is very bad indeed.

Yep, you read that right.

That’s what Dorothea Brande said in her classic book, Becoming a Writer.

Say what?

She says writers tend to take too many “busmen’s holidays.” In other words, they tend to spend their “off time” doing writing-related activities (such as reading or talking shop), like a bus driver who takes a bus tour for a vacation.

We tether ourselves to computers and iPhones and iPads on “vacations.”

We’re addicted to multitasking.

We all seem to have a little trouble relaxing or just chilling in a ring of silence.

A certain amount of shop talk is valuable; too much of it is a drain. And too much reading is very bad indeed.

Too much reading? How can that be?

Ms. Brande says all of us, writers or not, are so used to words we can’t escape them.

And she wrote this book in 1934.

If we starve ourselves long enough in a wordless void, we’ll eventually start to talk to ourselves. We’ll start to feed ourselves words.

Test it. Spend some time alone. Resist books, papers, magazines, and the telephone. Turn off the TV. Shut down the computer and all other devices.

When one is “sentenced to silence,” words and ideas clamor for attention.

If you want to stimulate yourself to write, Ms. Brande says, amuse yourself in wordless ways.

And don’t be in a hurry to reengage.

Before long you’ll find that “words have rushed in to fill the wordless vacuum.”

She talked of one friend who used to lie out in the back garden and stare at the sky–until some family member came to join him for a chat.

Sooner or later, he himself would begin to talk about the work he had in mind, and, to his astonishment, he discovered that the urgent desire to write the story disappeared as soon as he had got it thoroughly talked out.

So then he disappeared to a park bench every day and stared at pigeons for two hours.

Taking two full hours every day might be too stressful for most of us, but for a least a little while every day we could pursue wordlessness.

• Watch it snow.
• Listen to a symphony orchestra or sound tracks or “spa” music.
• Take a long walk.
• Just. Sit. Perhaps in the yard.
• Do some kind of needlework or craft.
• Whittle.
• Fish.
• Watch clouds.
• Sort some pictures.
• Pet a pet.
• Take a long bath or shower.
• Swim.
• Watch birds.
• Color a picture.
• Take some pictures.
• Paddle a boat.
• Rock in a chair or seek out a swing.
• Throw pebbles in a lake.
• Plant some flowers, weed, mow the grass.
• Wash windows, fold clothes, scrub floors, or paint walls. (Come do mine. I’ll be quiet.)

Rhythmic activity. Monotonous activity.

She says books, theaters, and “talking pictures” (I suppose that means movies and TV today) should be very rarely indulged in when you have any piece of writing to finish.

. . . it is to be noticed that successful writers, when talking about themselves as writers, say little about curling up in a corner with a good book. Much as they may love reading (and all authors would rather read than eat), they had all learned from long experience that it is the wordless occupation which sets their own minds busily at work.

To put it another way, we need to spend more time pursuing wordlessness so words can pursue us!

Too much reading is very bad indeed.

Note: This post was pulled from the archives and revised.