https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuhari

shu (守) “protect”, “obey”—traditional wisdom—learning fundamentals, techniques, heuristics, proverbs ha (破) “detach”, “digress”—breaking with tradition—detachment from the illusions of self ri (離) “leave”, “separate”—transcendence—there are no techniques or proverbs, all moves are natural, becoming one with spirit alone without clinging to forms; transcending the physical

You cannot write without reading.

It is impossible to write well without first consuming colossal amounts of reading material. The writer must input massive amounts of information and ideas into their brain, then simmer in thought for a great while, before finally being able to form unique ideas of their own on demand.

The challenge of writing is having an idea in the first place. One cannot expect to simply sit down and have the ideas flow without first training the mind.

Playing music is similar.

Having often heard the piece one is attempting to play, a framework of that piece is formed in the mind. This allows the learning of the piece to be much more expedient, and is simply (though not easily at first) a matter of translation of what the brain already knows to the mechanics of producing a like sound. Additionally, if the greater framework of how the notes of the instrument are produced is already in place in the player’s mind, then the player only has to worry about pacing and sequence.

This all fits back to shuhari. Generally, a person picking up a new hobby or skill thinks to immediately be able to attain the ri - that of being able to produce something completely naturally that is of high quality and uniqueness. Obviously this is impossible, and so the person gets frustrated and quits.

Instead, anyone learning anything new must first consume existing works, then attempt to imitate them, until finally reaching the point of mastery.