When I was in my freshman year of high school, I received the most useful and obvious piece of writing advice in my life. And it all started with my borderline homophobic English teacher. (I know homophobic English teacher sounds like an oxymoron, but believe me, they are out there.)

At one point during the school year, my freshman English teacher took it upon herself to invite a self-published author to come and speak to a small group of kids who were interested in writing…it was a very small group of kids. I will never forget my teacher’s explanation as to how she came across this person. She told us she ran into this author at the Edwards 21 movie theater in Boise (a city that was about an hour and some change a way from where our school was) while she was promoting her book dressed as a wizard. (She was a Live Action Role Player or LARPer.)

She never told us exactly how that conversation went down, but just imagine approaching a complete stranger dressed in their LARPer gear and asking them to come to a high school an hour and a half away just to talk to three kids about writing and that person saying yes.

It seems a little sketchy to me, but I digress.

This person talked a little bit about her book–a story about a LARPer getting transported to a fantasy world where she had the same abilities as her LARPing character. She then proceeded to answer some of our questions. At some point, she was asked what advice would she give to aspiring writers. She simply responded with: read what you write.

It seems simple in a “no duh” kind of way, but it’s writing advice that has stuck with me over a decade later.

Whenever I feel like something is missing or off in one of my stories, I turn to a book or a short story in that same genre. Reading another person’s work helps me get a better understanding of my own. It helps me examine my story’s tone, further develop my characters, and explore different writing styles and techniques. I have a habit of highlighting and writing in books (yes, I know; I’m a monster) so that I can refer back to a particular piece of imagery, dialogue, or prose that blew me away.

I think part of the reason that this advice struck a chord with me back then was because I didn’t read much growing up. At the time, I was under the delusion that I could still be a writer without having to read a single book. The truth was, I never came across a story that interested me. That was until I found the Rainbow Boys trilogy by Alex Sanchez–a trilogy about three gay teens coming out in high school.

I had no idea that there was queer literature out there, and as soon as I found it, I devoured it like candy. (Funny thing is, this discovery came from my homophobic English teacher having us do a banned book project.) Those stories and their characters resonated with me. They increased my motivation to write and helped me improve my writing. I can only hope that my writing will do the same for others.

So yeah, that is my writing insight for the day. Read what you write.

Tell me what you have been reading lately that’s inspired you to write. Leave book recommendations down in the comments!