… suspect you’re right. Thing is, there’s not that direct correlation when it comes to writing as there is with other professions like being a doctor.
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perhaps sports offer a better analogy--we all know the "wunderkind" stories of the skateboard phenom who, at twelve, picked up his first board and rode down his mother's car with it.....but here's the things:
1. Those stories are few and far between. There is far less "gross natural talent" than there is "aptitude" which, with discipline, can be cultivated into something greater. Life, as you mentioned, is part of that cultivation. So is writing. So is reading. (only bolded because that is the most relevant part for this discussion)
2. Let's take our skateboard wunderkind again....everyone likes those stories, but the "natural talent" folks still almost never are--that kid maybe danced, wakeboarded, was in karate and gymnastics, etc. Again, reading is an important part of training to write--you need stories, sure, but you don't think King actually jaunted, lived through an apocalypse, fought vampires and werewolves, and knew someone with a gypsy curse, do you? And even if he did, or if you make the very reasonable argument that these elements are often just crucibles for King, who likes to write about people more than anything, reading can teach you things about the breadth of material out there, about pacing, what good and bad dialogue look like, etc....things that you can't get as quickly in the vacuum of self-analysis alone.
3. Most of the big players get that way by practice. Sometimes it is oblique, like with the skater above. Often, it isn't, it just gets forgotten. Jordan is considered a wunderkind....except MJ never was. I remember hearing he was lackluster at first in college, but he also WORKED. The day his team was out of the playoffs, he was already practicing for next season. That was who he was...and the same story said he could be a driven, arrogant asshole. But the point was, he wasn't this guy who waltzed in and kicked ass....he put in his time. Lots of it. And again, reading is one of the places you do your time learning what is out there, finding things that work and things that don't. It isn't the only place, no, but I don't think it is at all unreasonable to suggest without it, you must work far harder to get to the top in your other areas--MJ could have only worked on dunking, or free throws, or passing, and omitted whole sections of the game, but you wouldn't call that a prudent approach, I suspect. Reading may not be critical, but it is a major part of the process and by avoiding it you place a far greater premium on the other areas of your study.
you absolutely don't HAVE to read, or ever work on free throws, or train to increase batting proficiency. But it isn't usually a good idea in any highly competitive field to try to compete with gaping deficits. I think that would be what you do by not reading, and you diminish your own odds if you choose not to.