fiction - How important is being well read for a writer

Back in the mists of time, I would put a lot of time into reading, and would read pretty much anything I could lay my hands on.

Then I started writing, and it is very very rare that I read any fiction now.

Yet whenever I look at any forum, writing advice etc, it always suggests that you read lots.

The problem, for me, is that if I read a piece of writing that I particularly like, I will unconsciously allow the style, grammar, flow of that piece to seep into whatever I'm writing.

Being well read makes me more likely to write in facsimiles of other's and I'd rather create my own style

Is this something that other's tend to experience also?

So, how important is being well read, for a writer...

Edit to clarify

In all aspects of life I enjoy figuring problems out, without relying too much on what has gone before. Often I find I have reinvented the wheel, I enjoy exploring the reasoning behind a problem, and the nuances of why it is a problem in the first place.

To my mind, if I am struggling with some mechanism in a story, I could read other authors' work, and use their methods to solve the problem I've got, or I can explore the problem for myself and build my own mechanism to achieve the goal.

I am reasonably content in my approach to my own writing, and can't imagine that changing any time soon, but I saw another question and thought this would make an interesting question for anyone else who might have a similar approach.

Answer

I may have a very unpopular view on the subject but would say that I find myself more able to write in my preferred style by not reading a bunch of other people's work. I'd say that it's more important to be a good researcher, planner, and editor. The most important skills I practice to write at a level that I enjoy are:

1. Self Editing


2. Automatic Writing - this one is hard because it means I have to turn off the internal censor when I write but this is a practice in doing just that. This helps my words flow directly from thought to keyboard though, with little if any intervention.

To me, writing is about doing. The best way to get better is to keep doing it, and then reflect on your work at intervals while you create it, and after you've finished.

EDIT - I can't reasonably answer the part of your question about how important is it to be well read for an author because I'm not a known or paid author. I do write and other people enjoy what I write but I am not an author by vocation. 2nd - I prefer to write instead of read because, and in addition to the reasons stated above, reading takes time, and I don't always like what another author writes. So, I choose to spend the time writing - or researching for writing - instead of reading. -- my thanks to commenters noting that I had not specifically answered OPs question. I hope this does do with satisfaction.

Thanks for asking this question!