Because without books, I’m nowhere.

Before I had any idea how much fun travel could be, I was going on adventures every day by reading. And no matter how many amazing places I see in the world, there’s nothing like a great book’s ability to take you to somewhere you’ve never been. And for me as a writer, the book is the inspiration and the aspiration, something to look towards.

For a long time (and I’ve covered this before), I used to think that I was never meant to be a writer. Yet I absolutely loved books, and I loved reading. I was that kid who was on a first-name basis with the librarian and got giddy about getting yet another stack of books on weekly trips there. But writing a book seemed impossible.

When I finally got over my dread of writing, I found that books were the best friends of a writer. The many I had read lended me the background I needed to know how plot, dialog, structure, and character development worked. Storytelling is a natural human habit already, and those who read have fine-tuned it more than they realize.

And still, even though my confidence in writing is growing, when I get stuck, I run to books. Reading one great story is all it takes to stoke my love of creating them. If you want to tell stories, let other stories be your guide. If you want to explore the world, start with books.

THIS POST IS PART OF THE A-Z BLOG CHALLENGE, A MONTH OF ALPHABETICAL BLOGGING. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE A-Z CHALLENGE, OR CHECK OUT ALL MY A-Z POSTS.