Because you’re reading this blog post, it’s a given that you delight in writing … but how can you hone the skills needed to be an excellent writer?What separates the good-enough writers from outstanding writers is that the successful ones have the following skills:1. The desire to be an excellent writerWriting is a craft, which means it needs to be nurtured, to expand, to continually be in movement towards excellence. Good writers are ones who respect the gift that God gave them—and work hard at it. Yes, you may have a natural gift for writing a good sentence or two, but it is going to take a lot more than that to get a story, novel, or poem finished.A person who doggedly pursues excellence and growth in the craft will make that life-changing leap from being a person who wants to write a novel to someone who actually writes one.
2. The ability to write on demand
In the excellent handbook, “The War of Art: Break through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles,” author Steven Pressfield defines the difference between the amateur writer and professional one. It’s not about being published or money, even though that is the ultimate outcome. What truly marks the professional writer is his approach to writing. Professionals have a sit-down, let’s-get-to-work attitude.
This ability needs to be developed through practice. For me, it was journalism school and working at The Tennessean newspaper that taught me to write on demand. You can give yourself the same kind of deadlines to write a page or ten. Just set aside time every day to write … and then, when you sit down at your desk at that time, you don’t mess around. You don’t check Twitter, Facebook, etc. or spend the hour looking for the right mood music for your writing. For that allotted time for writing, you write. Writers write.
This habit gets easier with time. I promise.
3. Self-editing skills
Excellent writers don’t fall in love with every sentence they write. They know that as lovely as a sentence might sound on its own, sometimes, it just does not fit the rest of the story or the article. You need to be able to detach yourself emotionally from your writing when you are editing it. As the writer, sure, you can re-read your favorite passages, marvel at your wit, cheer yourself on … that’s perfectly fine (and can help you combat the negative voices in your head). But when the writing is done, you need the ability to separate yourself from your writer role to be the editor now.
Everyone needs an editor. I’m not saying that just because I edit for a living; I also write for a living, so I know what it’s like to be edited by others. And good editors make you a better writer. But it’s also vital that you can go through your own written work and purge it of cruddy sentences, overwrought sentences, and vagueness. If you find it hard to part with a sentence or scene, just copy and paste it into another document. It still exists, so you can visit it, but it won’t ruin the work that you are editing.
Remember what Truman Capote said: “I believe in the scissors more than I do the pencil.” Good writers are those who know to trim their work.
4. Curiosity/willingness to learn
In journalism school, I was taught that journalists don’t need to know everything, but they do know how to get the information and process it correctly. Likewise, good writers are ones who don’t get lazy about the details but actively seek the information from various legit places.
You’ve got to be willing to put in the legwork for any type of writing you do. If you’re writing nonfiction, it’s obvious that you’ll be doing a lot of research (and from myriad original sources). But the same is true for fiction. If you’re going to write about a character who fixes boats, you better learn something mighty quick about boats. If you set your story in a submarine, you should have working knowledge of life on a submarine.
Be willing to grow and learn. If you’re not interested enough to do the research, why would your reader be expected to be interested enough to read?
5. A courageous spirit
Henri Matisse (the painter, not a writer, but his point is still good) said, “Creativity takes courage.” He was spot on.
An excellent writer needs courage because writing requires some degree of introspection. In your spiritual home or in the corridors of your mind, there might be rooms that are locked close due to childhood issues or depression or just because the emotions are too messy and wild to face. To be a fine writer means not being afraid of opening the doors (or at least, look through the peek holes) and write honestly and bravely about people.
Another type of courage is also needed when writing. It’s the courage to keep your fingers flying over the computer keys or scribbling in your notebook despite all the negative voices in your head that say that your story is ridiculous, that no one will read it, that it is dull, that you’re a crummy writer, that your parents or siblings or friends or spouse will be shocked by what you say or elude to. Courage is required to tell these voices to just shut up and go away, and for you to hunker down, say a prayer, and write.
By no means is this a complete list. What abilities or traits would you add to the list? What traits do you have that help you in your writing career, whether you’re just starting out or on the path already?
Verónica Maria Jarski has more than 15 years of writing and editing experience. Her current mission in her day job is to capture the story as a MarketingProfs senior content writer and the editor of the Daily Fix blog. In wee hours of morning, she works on her personal writing projects. Her “Celebrating Blessed Miguel Pro: Games, Crafts & Activities” book is published by Behold Publications. Plus, her articles, poems, and stories have appeared in major newspapers, educational presses, and university publications. Check out her personal blog at Station 6.
This is a very helpful article especially for someone like me who wants to learn how to write well. Thank you. 🙂
Idealista: Welcome to the wild, weird, and wonderful world of blogging. (And to Catholicism, as well! I've a soft spot for converts as my husband is one, and I'm a revert.)
As far as inspiration for blogging, I think that prayer and one's own reading is a great starting point … but I also am encouraged often by the ideas at http://www.copyblogger.com. It's geared towards marketers and writing, but the writing posts are just spot on. At my work, I recently attended a seminar about producing content for one's blog … I drew a little infographic for it if you're interested in the ideas for finding stuff to write about: http://goo.gl/wra1e.
I'm not quite clear on your question on "it going cold." Do you mean painting now? Or … ?
Turning one's art into a profession can be tricky business, I think. What helps is to differentiate between the two. For example, at work, I write about subjects completely different from my midnight scribbles for my novel. The work I produce is still very important to me in my job, but it's a different type of writing and therefore, provides a different type of emotion within me.
I'm not sure if I answered your question correctly. If you want to clarify it, I'll be happy to address it here again. 🙂
p.s. Also, keep in mind that a conversion really does shake up one's life in every aspect, including the expression in one's art. It's only been five years, so there might be much to mull over and think about still in regards to how art fits in your life, what you long to achieve in it, etc. Be patient with yourself. 🙂
Magi: Thank you very much. And best to you as you set up your blog! 🙂
sainttheodora: Well-said! Your mentor was spot on. And, yes, it takes courage to write in general … and then even more so to write from the Catholic mindset. Thanks for commenting!
I converted 5 years ago, and I wrote a book in the process. I must admit that I did it completely out of inspiration. Three weeks ago I started a blog and I still need inspiration to write my posts. (I'm writing a post about this problem right now and I'll publish it on Friday).On the one hand it's scary, because every time feels like the last time (will I ever find inspiration again?). On the other hand it's thrilling and makes me feel close to God. Your approach to writing reminds me of my approach to painting (I've always worked as a painter and restorer), as I will explain on my next post. I struggled to master the technique, including the technique to imagine new subjects to paint, and I succeded. But now I feel kind of cold about the entire process. It's not speaking to my soul anymore. Does it have to be that way when you turn your art into a profession? Or it's just because I started writing after my conversion and I don't have the same passion for anything I did before? However, for me, writing probes much deeper into your "I" than painting.
Antonella Garofalo
What a great article and I am blessed to have found this site today. Look forward to sharing with this community.
Magi
It is interesting that you list courage as a necessary writing skill, Veronica. One of my mentors recently wished for me to have courage, and I’ve given that some consideration lately. In fact I wrote a blog entry on it as well.
You have a very good point about the need for courage in writing, especially as Catholic writers. It is more than having the courage to simply send out our work with the risk of it being rejected. We probably could do better financially if we wrote popular topics or angled them to mainstream readers. But we are different. We are Catholic and look at life through the lens of faith. It takes courage to write with this conviction of faith.
Karina: You're welcome! 😀 I used to be one of the "I'll wait for inspiration" type of writers, but that idea was destroyed in my first year of journalism school years ago.
I like how Steven Pressfield said it in his book: "The professional dedicates himself to mastering technique not because he believes technique is a substitute for inspiration but because he wants to be in possession of the full arsenal of skills when inspiration does come. The professional is sly. He knows that by toiling beside the front door of technique, he leaves room for genius to enter by the back." ("The War of Art," p. 84)
Thank you! I've been telling folks #2 for years! hate the whole, "The muse hasn't inspired me" stuff people say. Even in fiction, the key to success is butt in chair, hands on keyboard.