Writing Technique Question

[Miss Modular]

I'm lazy, so it took me awhile to respond.

I find it helpful to read before the process begins. I don't mind being influenced at all, especially if a given work has the esthetic I want to achieve. If anything, I'm afraid of growing too repetitive with my work, so I'm always looking for a new way to phrase this or that. After finishing the (what I call) "primitive" draft of my spec script, I spent 18 months renting movies, reading books, and listing to music that had sort of an absurd, arty esthetic, because that's the esthetic I wanted. I recently finished a film treatment that's generally not completely reflective of those things. Well, there's a little bit of an influence, but not as much as I wanted to be. But at the same time, I'm not disappointed.

I generally tend to avoid reading while writing, but that's because I'm so caught up in writing that I really don't have time to read.