I start my day with murder.

You read that correctly.

Oh, not real murder. No, I mean in the literary sense. I love starting my days with John Sandford (and others) mystery novels when I am not reading nonfiction. Investigators chasing down leads. Plot twists. Running around with Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers.

Stories that step into another world.

Sure, my day includes lots and lots of sketching, but I’ve found one of the best ways to access my own thoughts is to first spend time in someone else’s.

Murders and all.

During the school year, Megan and I have this rhythm figured out.

6 am wake-up. Hang with Owen until the bus picks him up. Then we sit in the den with books and read quietly before the day “officially” begins, when Ryan gets downstairs for his day at school. After breakfast with Ryan, that’s when I start my daily quote illustrations.

In this way, reading almost gives me a glide path into my creativity.

Moving from reading to drawing, with some trips to the bus stop in between, helps create a mental space for new ideas to take root.

And I can definitely feel the difference if I skip this routine. Or even if the day starts a little later, the reading gets just a bit less. Things tend to come a little slower. Ideas just a bit more scattered.

It’s not really about the specific books, it’s about accessing creativity and then producing your own.

Creating the right mental space for ideas to hit naturally, instead of having to force them out onto my own page.

From Murder to Sunday Funnies

I truly don’t think reading itself has to be serious or educational.

I stick with mystery novels mostly. John Sandford’s Prey series keeps me turning pages. This guy has about 30 books with the word “prey” in the title, which, in and of itself, is impressive.

But Megan’s an avid reader across everything. Biographies. Fiction like The Treasure Hunters Club. Even the Sunday Funnies that my mom clips out and saves.

The key isn’t “what” we’re reading, but that we’re reading at all.

I’ve been drawing in books too, annotating margins, sketching connections between ideas. Librarians wouldn’t love it (at all) and I’m not trying to improve the book, but because it helps me process what I’m absorbing.

Reading is reading.

The goal is to spark ideas, imagination, and that mental spaciousness where creativity can actually emerge.

You read and imagine what it’s like to be that guy in cowboy boots with a band tee and a shotgun. And then so much of you comes out in the real world when you sit down to create your own work.

What’s Your Glide Path?

I don’t necessarily recommend starting the day with murder mysteries at 6 am. I do have a lot of self-improvement books being read simultaneously at any given time, too.

But maybe there’s something to stepping into someone else’s world before creating your own.

Fifteen minutes with a book. A magazine. Even those comics your mom saves for you. Whatever pulls you out of your own head and into a different space.

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The goal isn’t perfect reading habits.

It’s creating that bridge between consuming someone else’s creativity as a way to unlock something else.

Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens when your mind has space to make connections, to let ideas emerge naturally instead of forcing them.

Reading gives me that space. It’s like priming the pump before drawing from the well.

So what’s one small thing you could read tomorrow morning?

Before you check your phone, before you dive into your work, before the day officially begins?

Begin with something meaningful.

Or heck, let’s just make it easy and start our day with a little murder.

Grateful you are here

Wade

PS - What are you reading these days? I'd love to know.