I was reading some of the responses in this meme and totally halted at one answer.
How can writers not read?!
One of the best ways to improve one's writing is to actually read other people's work. If you want to build a bridge, you don't disregard the breakthroughs by other engineers. If you work for an advertising agency, you don't disregard the effectiveness of other ads. As a graduate student in science, I don't ignore other research in my area even though I spend a lot of my waking hours working on my own project. I read a lot of journal papers to see what's new and to try new techniques. Writing is no different. In order to do well at something, you study other people's successes.
