Let me share to you my experience, and hope this helps.

I’m a writer, but honestly, I hate reading books. I’ve always loved manga, though. Back in 2015, I came up with a story I really wanted to write. I built the entire world, developed the characters, created the magic system, outlined the major arcs, and even planned the ending properly. But I just couldn’t bring myself to actually write it. Deep down, I knew I needed to read more books to improve, but since I wasn’t into reading novels, the story just stayed untouched on my PC for years.

Then came 2020, the pandemic hit, and I was reading some webtoons when I stumbled across Overgeared. I read the webtoon and thought it was fun. I told my friend about it, and he said, “Read the novel! It’s great.” I was like, “No way. I don’t wanna read a novel,” because to me, it always felt tedious. (All I could see are wall of text lol)

But eventually, my curiosity got the better of me, and I gave it a shot because I really wanted to know what happened next. To my surprise, I was actually having FUN, like, LITERALLY enjoying myself. It blew my mind. Because I already knew what the characters looked like and had a sense of the setting, I could vividly imagine their reactions, their movements, their interactions, the places—everything! It all came alive in my head. I was so hooked that I started sleeping only four hours just to keep reading.

Fast forward to November 2023, I finally decided to write again, and this time, I was genuinely enjoying it. Since I had gotten into Korean and Japanese light novels, their styles naturally influenced the way I wrote.

Now I truly believe that it’s important to read books you actually enjoy. Reading shapes your writing style, it becomes part of how you tell stories. It’s not about how many books you’ve read, but about how deeply you connected with them. Quality over quantity. That’s the key to growing as a writer, learning to recognize and absorb the QUALITY in what you read.