What makes a successful writer

7 Surefire Ways to Become a Successful Writer

Whether you’re a blogger, a book author, an editor or an aspiring writer, you’d want your writings to be understood and recognized. It’s not really about the recognition but how much your writing can deliver your intended message and how it really can influence other people.

In this article you’ll discover 7 unquestionable ways on how to become a successful writer. These are the ones that get the best results, so don’t take them lightly.

1. Be willing to evolve

You’re not a model just because a friend took some photos of you on the beach that one time. And you’re not a writer just because you published an eBook, a few articles, or some blog fodder. The flat-out truth is that getting from A to Z in terms of professional writing includes a lot of hard work and personal transformation.

Every book you write is like a journey, whether fiction or not.

Every writing assignment, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, is an opportunity to learn something new.

Every brainstorming session and every headache endured adds to your overall wordsmithing quality.

2. Define successful in your own terms

How do you define a successful writer?

For some people, it means being able to write coherent sentences to get a point across, or perhaps sell a product. For others, it means being able to pay the rent and survive on writing skills alone.

You cannot be successful at anything you do not define. There are many different kinds of writers and many shades of success. Come to terms with what it means to you, and be as specific as a detective novel writer:

3. Write until your imagination bleeds

Basically, in order to be a successful writer, you’re going to have to settle into the idea that a rather hefty word count is required.

How many words do you think most aspiring writers pump out before they reach success?

If writing itself is laborious to you, something you must force or strong-arm yourself through, you may want to choose something else. How often does a successful swimmer swim, or drummer drum?

4. When you’re not writing, read successful writers

Writing is the yin and reading is the yang. Or perhaps it’s the other way around. You get the idea.

You can’t have one without the other. And in order to have balance, both must be equally present.

For every sentence that you write, you should be reading one. Continuously expose your mind to the writing that you consider to be worthy of success. Find “successful” writers to follow and model in your niche. Speaking of which…

5. Personalized replication

You’ve got to have a writing model. It’s as important as defining success.

Regardless of your niche or writing style, pick a master from within that category and attempt to recreate one single page of their best work.

If you’re into blogging, go find one of the best blogs of all-time and then re-purpose it. Go buy a big circulation print magazine and re-purpose the articles in your own way and words.

Every success coach worth their salt will tell you that you can study and then replicate what the masters are doing. Just make sure that when you do, you personalize it so that it’s original content.

6. Have a second or third pair of eyes

Every successful writer out there has a proofreader or editor in their lives. It’s important because writers write. Proofreaders proof. Editors edit. That’s how it goes.

We may be great when it comes to proofreading other people’s writing, but not our own.

Writers can bring a piece only so far and then it should be handed off to another pair of eyes that can see it from an outside perspective.

7. Establish an online presence

These days, being a successful writer involves an online presence in one way or another. No matter what kind of writer you are, set up a website and publish content for the online realm to consume.

If making money as a writer is important, then be sure to set up a “freelance writer” profile. There are countless people online willing to pay you to do the research and typing for them.

Furthermore, building communities of readers in the online world is incredibly wise.

Summing it up

So, let’s recap the 7 ways to be a successful writer:

Of course, you will experience some challenges on the road to success, but they are just a stepping stone to your writing success!

What makes a good writer?

Good writing evokes emotion. Good writing connects things. Good writing tells a story that the reader can relate to. Too often, writers only judge themselves against other writers. Those with better vocabularies and slicker prose seem, by all technical accounts, to be the best of the group. It’s enough to think that good writing, and becoming a good writer, requires formal education.

This is wrong.

Good writers don’t necessarily quote Shakespeare, nor do they use four- and five-syllable words. They don’t try to impress their readers with slick verses that rhyme and flow effortlessly from beginning to end. Good writers, like any good communicator, worry about one thing and one thing only: connecting their audience to the story.

Write to be understood
Good writers construct their writing in a way that’s understood by their target audience. Big words, little words, made up words and even text speak are all up for grabs. While smooth prose is certainly fun to read, it’s not always necessary to be understood.

Write in your own voice
My #1 rule is to write like Aaron Sorkin would have you talk (American President, The West Wing, Sports Night, Social Network and Studio 60). Sorkin’s style is short, sharp bursts that serve to move everything along, without the small talk that clouds understanding. Write like Sorkin would write a story based on your life.

Embrace flaws and weaknesses
The biggest difference between an okay writer and a good one usually isn’t talent, but rather an understanding of just what they can’t do. If you sound like a bumbling idiot when using big words, you probably want to put the thesaurus down the next time you write a post. If your vocabulary is limited, who cares? Just write as who you are.

Write like you stole something
Far too many blogs are safe. They talk about boring, everyday situations that in no way stand out.

Stop doing that.

Tell a story that may not have happened to someone else. Tell a story that you’ve been holding back for fear of embarrassment. Share a success that you’re not totally sure you’ve earned. Either way, stop judging writing as it’s being written. That’s what editing is for. If you need help getting started, here’s an informative post on how to start a blog.

Eliminate obstacles
Tons of Pagely customers use the service not because it’s inexpensive, looks great or has great customer service, but rather because it gets rid of previous writing obstacles like how exactly to publish online, design a blog or trudge through the tedious process that too often accompanies online services that don’t offer automatic WordPress hosting.

Now, arrange your desk, clear your mind and get to writing. Any tips that you’ve found that makes writing easier?

What makes a good writer?

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15 October 2018

What makes a good writer? We’ve put together a checklist of skills that all contribute to being a good writer – how many of them do you possess?

Narrative skills

Telling a story

The best writers have the ability to create a story that people want to read – it’s that simple. Whether you’re writing about cars or politicians or life-changing moments or an imaginary forest filled with dancing foxes, if you can tell your story in a way that makes your reader want to fall into the world you’ve created and find out what happens next, you’re doing something very, very right.

Believing in the story you are telling

If you aren’t convinced by your characters and the story you’re telling, why should anyone else be? The best writing is writing that rings true. That doesn’t mean it has to be based in actual fact, but that it has to carry a sense of conviction. If you’re merely going through the motions, and not fully invested in your story, how can you expect it to have an emotional resonance for the reader?

Making a connection with readers

Remembering the reader is a key skill for writers. If you can reach out to a reader, fire their imagination and make them feel that they are emotionally invested in the story you are telling – that they want to know what happens – you have achieved the storyteller’s biggest ambition: to write something that becomes a part of their readers’ lives.

Entertaining their readers

Good writers always remember that readers could be doing a million other things with their precious time than reading your writing. They could be watching movies, or spending time with their families, or cooking, or socialising, or playing sport, or sleeping. Instead, they have chosen to spend their precious time in a world you have created, in the hope that your words will take them out of their everyday lives. They want to be beguiled and entertained, and we should never forget this, and work hard at satisfying our readers.

Making people see things a new way

Really good writing, like all good art, makes people see the world in a slightly different way – the way the writer has conveyed it in their work. The ability to make your readers look at something and understand it from a new perspective is why writing can be one of the most powerful ways of increasing human understanding.

Having a unique voice

The writers that stand out don’t write like other writers. They write like themselves. Think of your favourite writers. Stephen King doesn’t write like anybody else, he writes like Stephen King. Think of some of the writers you’ve read about in Writing Magazine. Sebastian Faulks writes like Sebastian Faulks. Kei Miller writes like Kei Miller. Dorothy Koomson writes like Dorothy Koomson. Nikesh Shukla writes like Nikesh Shukla. The best writers aren’t pale imitations of successful writers, they are writers who write in their own voice.

Being imaginative

Who wants to read a boring writer? Memorable writers have the ability to create an imaginative landscape that readers want to explore and people it with characters that their readers will want to spend time with. And remember that the finest writers use language in an imaginative way, so that readers can find unexpected pleasures in the way words are put together and used.

Taking risks

Great writers understand that readers want to come along for the ride. And if you get your readers on side, there is nowhere they won’t travel with you. So give them an exciting journey! Put yourself in their place – would you rather have a safe, boring, plodding ride/read, or one that took you to places you didn’t know existed?

QUICK LINK Do you want to know the seven secrets of a successful writer? You can find them here

Technical skills

Involving the reader

Remembering your reader is vital. Unless you are writing purely for yourself, successful writers are always aware that what they are writing will be read by a reader, and that reader needs to be able to follow your narrative, believe in your characters and invest in the story you are unfolding for them.

Being good with words

Words are a writer’s basic tools, and writers need to be highly proficient in their use. Would you trust a mechanic who didn’t know how to use a spanner? Then why would you trust a writer who couldn’t construct a decent sentence? Good writers not only have a natural facility with words, but they should enjoy using them and take pleasure in the language they use to communicate their ideas.

Using the right words

Skilled writers use the appropriate language for what they are writing. They do not use big words just to show off that they know what they mean. The best writers use clear, concise language that gets their message across, and they never sound as if they had eaten the dictionary and spat out its most indigestible adjectives.

Finding your voice

Good writers write in their own style, and finding it is one of the aims of all writers. You may have to experiment with different styles to find what your writing voice really is, but it’s time well spent when you realise that now you are writing in your own unique voice – one that readers will recognise as being yours.

Plotting

Proficient writers understand that whatever it is they’re writing, it needs to have a strong storyline and a trajectory that gets its reader from the beginning to the end. Think of your writing in terms of what happens when, and to who, and it’s worth spending time working out what your main plot incidents are and the order in which you need to put them to make your plot as satisfying as possible for your reader.

Structuring and pacing

Good writing needs bones, ie structure. This involves the writer in creating tension, contrast, light and shade. It needs its writer to know where to place dramatic incidents, and when not to reveal too much too soon. Its writer needs to know when to reveal things to the reader, how to sow the seeds of a twist ending, how to use foreshadowing. A good writer will vary their pace and make sure that even their sentences are not always the same length or the same structure.

Dialogue

One way you can always spot an accomplished author is that the dialogue their characters use rings true. They don’t use dialogue as an info-dump (‘But Sir Charles, the reason Lady LeStrange acts the way she does is because she was dropped on her head when she was a baby’) but as a way of revealing their characters – because good writers understand that readers will be more likely to be invested in their writing if they are involved with their characters.

The ability to write good beginnings. And endings. And middles.

Paying attention to every aspect of their manuscript is what skilful writers do automatically. Of course they need to write a good opening, in order to hook their reader. The middle needs to be a satisfying narrative so the reader doesn’t lose interest. The ending needs to be an effective resolution so the reader feels their reading time is an investment that has paid off. Basically, a good writer takes care of everything.

Grammar and spelling

Writers want their readers to concentrate on their writing, not look for mistakes in it, or stop mid-way through a paragraph to try to make sense of the grammar. Grammar and spelling are invisible in good writing, meaning that the reader doesn’t notice them – readers only notice things like that when they are used wrongly, which makes them stick out.

Understanding the market

Astute writers understand their readers, which on a broader level means understanding the market and its conventions. If you are writing cosy crime, you will do well to understand the genre and its readers and platforms, and the same goes for YA, literary fiction, experimental poetry or long-form journalism. Doing this helps good writing to find the readers it has been written for.

QUICK LINK For more on writing technique, read Richard Skinner’s advice on how to write a novel

Personal skills

Persistence

No-one ever said this writing game was easy, and successful writers are often the ones who didn’t give up at the first hurdle. Or the second, or the third. Good writers are the ones who keep on going even when its tough. It may be a writing cliché that the difference between an unpublished writer and a published one is persistence, but it’s true.

Commitment

Writing is like any other skill: it takes practice. The best writers are committed to their writing. They put the hours in. They make time for it. They work at honing their writing so that it’s the best it can be. They show it the love and care it deserves. Good writers realise that just as in any successful relationship, their writing will respond well to being nurtured.

Resilience

Every writer’s work gets rejected at some point, and there may be times when even the most brilliant writer in the world feels like throwing the towel in. This is where believing in your work comes in. Writers who do that are committed to writing the best piece of work they can. Sometimes other people may not agree, and they may be the editors, agents and publishers who turn your work down. Good writers understand that you learn what you can from the down times, and keep going.

QUICK LINK Need some more top tips? How about 18 ways to be a better writer?

Essential skills

Love of reading

Good writers read. They read a lot. They read voraciously, and they read indiscriminately. They read books they know they will love, and they read books they might hate. They learn something from all of them, and they know that all that reading will make them into a better writer.

Love of writing

How often have you met a really good writer who tells you they hate writing? If you don’t enjoy writing, how do you expect to be any good at it? Good writers love writing. Writing may be hard sometimes, and there is always something new to learn, but good writers should always be able to get back to the joy and pleasure that writing offers them.

QUICK LINK Why not get your creative mojo going and start writing for fun with these quick creative writing exercises

Things involving no skill at all

Talent

So you were born with an imagination, a way with words and the ability to tell a story. That’s fantastic, and something to be proud of. But so were lots of other writers – pretty much all of them, in fact. With all that in place, you’re potentially a good writer, and now you need to put the work in and produce some top-notch writing so all that talent doesn’t go to waste.

You can’t bank on winning the lottery, and neither can you bank on your brilliant idea turning into a bestseller or getting the film rights sold. Good writers tend to believe that you make a lot of your own luck, by writing the best you can and remembering that writing is a reward in itself. And we wish you all the luck in the world – happy writing.

QUICK LINK Read this inspiring account of how one writer made her own luck by signing up for a Writing Magazine Creative Writing Course

So why not start ticking off your checklist of skills today by trying a copy of Writing Magazine and enjoy free delivery? It’s packed full of writing inspiration, useful tips, competitions to win cash prizes and opportunities to get published.

What makes a writer successful?

Editor’s Note: This is an occasional column where selected readers questions on writing will be addressed, so any question can be sent to the Literature Page Editor at dsliteditor@gmail.com

That is a really interesting question, and before answering it, there is another question that needs to be considered: whose idea of success are we talking about? Because the truth is, that could be the determining factor in providing an answer to the question being posed. For example, if a publisher is asked this, the definition of success is likely to be almost entirely financially-based, depending upon book sales and the amount of money earned from a publication. And that does of course make sense, because publishing is a business.

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By contrast, if a reader is asked this same question the answer is more likely to be related to the content and impact of the book. So a reader may choose to focus on the effect the book has had on their thinking, or what kind of change it has brought about in the reader’s own life. To give an example, the book To Kill a Mockingbird was one that I read as a teenager, and the issues of poverty, injustice and the racial attitudes that it portrayed had a huge influence in terms of shaping my own perspectives on these issues.

Another book, which also influenced me greatly, but for the opposite reason, was an all-but-forgotten tale titled Kathryn Brings Them Home. This story is set in South Africa, and describes the adventures of a plucky British girl who goes there to fetch her dead sister’s children home, and in the process discovers a fascinating, far away country. At age 12, I loved the book, and confidently told my mother, «I’m going to visit South Africa as soon as I grow up.»

I should add that in my view, fiction does not need to be based on actual events, but authenticity in terms of storytelling is a crucial element of what takes a story from being a good one to being a great one.

Returning to the question of a writer’s success, there are of course readers who choose to buy a book simply because it’s popular. They want to be up to date with the next big thing, whether it’s a bestseller or a fashion trend. I suspect that these are some of the people who helped to make the atrociously written Fifty Shades of Grey such an enormous success. The fact that the book was breaking records for its phenomenal sales became in part a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So much so, that I actually had the experience of a German friend’s mother mentioning to me that she had just purchased this novel, and asking me what I thought of it. I said (truthfully) that I had not read it, but I could not imagine how this gracious woman would feel about having mentioned the book to me once she found out what its subject matter consisted of. As it happened, my friend’s mother had bought it simply because the sales staff at the bookstore told her that it was the next «must buy» book. She has never brought it up with me since.

Now, coming to the question of what the response might be if this question of success were to be posed to a writer, the truth is that even here, the answer might well vary depending on which writer you ask. There are many authors who are quite forthright about their ambition to make money, and some will admit to it being the main motive behind their writing. This is true of many writers who publish commercial fiction, and some who write genre fiction as well. A well known writer of literary fiction, my friend Prajwal Parajuly, once quite frankly told an audience at a literary fest where we were both on stage, that if his work had not brought financial rewards with it, he would have stopped writing. As it turned out, he is a gifted writer and something of a publishing phenomenon, so he really is one of the privileged few who have it all!

While most of us need to earn a living, I do think that many writers do not see making money as their primary aim. In any case, earning an income from almost any day job is an easier prospect than making money from writing! For some writers, it is a question of feeling that they have a story to tell, something that they urgently need to share with the wider world. For others, writing satisfies something deep inside them, and the work itself is a source of pleasure. For most, the process is therapeutic. So while is no doubt that money comes in very useful, as the wise author Jane Smiley once put it, «I believe that you either love the work or the rewards. Life is a lot easier if you love the work.»

Farah Ghuznavi is a writer, translator and development worker.

What Makes a Good Writer? You Must Become Remarkable

What makes a good writer? A great writer is remarkable. How do you become remarkable?

Let’s take a lesson from the worlds most popular T.V. service.

Choosing a new show on Netflix is a serious life decision. There’s so much commitment involved in starting a brand new series. I’ve never randomly stumbled across a show and started watching it.

I always choose a new show based on recommendations. That’s why I’m always late on trends. I didn’t start watching Game of Thrones until everybody was watching Game of Thrones.

Word of mouth is still king. To be successful, you have to be worth talking about. You have to be visible.

You have to be remarkable. So what makes a good writer? How do you get people to notice you?

Lots of writers are hitting publish in 2018, but a few dominate all the attention. Why? Because there’s just something about them that’s unique. Their voice and style are impossible to replicate. They’re prolific and seem to pop up on your feed everywhere…all the time.

Is this something you can achieve?

I mean, the market is saturated, right? What can a little ol’ aspiring writer do to stand out from the noise?

There’s no exact recipe for being remarkable – else everyone would know it and use it. But you can learn the ingredients to what makes a good writer and use them to reach the top of the field.

Why I Love Saturated Markets With Too Many Players In Them

I’ve been writing on Medium for a while — perhaps the number one platform for writers today — and I’ve seen something interesting happen over time.

Lots of writers come clamoring to the site for views. They come in waves. With each wave, there are a few who stand out quite a bit. They stick. Then, everyone else quits until a new crop of writers come in.

And those new crops of writers make the remarkable ones stand out even more.

If you’re complaining about too many cooks in the kitchen, your recipe isn’t right yet. Competition does dilute success in the short term, but in the long-term, it creates winners.

If you’d just work on your craft and wait for everyone else to quit, you’d end up with a solid following at worst and become a household name at best.

In a saturated market of unremarkable writers, the dedicated and patient ones stick out like a sore thumb.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t wish failure on anyone — quite the opposite actually — but my observations tell me most people won’t follow through. This is why I created a coaching program in the first place. Not because I’m that great or have information others don’t, but I know how to execute and stay accountable.

That’s 90 percent of the battle.

If you’re new to the game right now. Don’t let your eyes get bigger than your stomach. That’s how you flame out.

Take the cliche advice to write the next post. Why? Because you’re only one blog post away.

You’re Only One Blog Post Away From Changing Your Career

In the span of a few days, Zdravko Cvijetic — a productivity blogger — went from unknown to viral sensation.

His post — 13 Things You Must Give Up to Become Successful — is the #1 blog post in the history of Medium.

That single post earned him 100,000+ subscribers and gave him a launch pad for his productivity business.

It’d be easy to cast it off as luck, but when he spells out his strategy, you’ll realize there were strategies and intentions behind his success.

What’s the lesson here?

You can’t guarantee your next post will be a hit, but you can put the elements of a successful post into each one you write:

Study these techniques and use them the next time you sit down to write. Be intentional about it. Unremarkable writers “just let it flow” and you can tell. Remarkable ones have a game plan.

What Makes a Good Writer? Being Remarkable

To be remarkable means “to be worth remarking about.” People have to share your work with other people for it to be successful.

How do you make your work remarkable? By doing what others won’t.

If you come across the typical blog posts, it’ll read something like this “5 tips for success.” It will contain 5 homogeneous list items you’ve seen ten times before and you’ll likely click to the next post seconds after reading a few sentences.

How can you be different? Go deep when others go shallow. When they write 500-word pieces, write 5,000-word pieces.

My most successful blog posts are all 3,000+ words long. They meticulously break down the step by step process to perform tasks like writing a book, building a writing habit, and finding fans for your work.

Writing that post almost broke my spirit. The editor bordered on being a tyrant, but it was worth it.

That post helped me connect with major influencers in the industry, generate clients, and add a bunch of new fans.

Would you put 8 months of work in for one piece of content?

That’s the type of mental space you need to be in to become a stand out.

Maybe you’re not at the place where you can be in depth yet, but you can begin to adopt these simple practices to help you become more remarkable.

The Career Altering Power of Deliberate Practice

Most writers don’t build their careers on accident.

Sure, there are a few who strike gold, have a post go viral, and land a book deal in one fell swoop, but most of us get here through something called deliberate practice.

Deliberate practice goes a step above just practicing your skill. You do it intentionally — often with a tutor or mentor — and focus on getting better each time in a way that’s much more intentional than randomly practicing now and then.

The year I spent working with an editor at a media site gave me the confidence I needed to do everything I’m doing now.

If you can’t find or afford a teacher, make sure you are focusing on improving your craft and not writing just to write.

Is it worth it to you? The pain, practice, and sacrifice it takes to become a master writer?

If so, deliberate practice is for you.

What’s the difference between deliberate practice and regular practice? Deliberate practice comes with a sense of serious concentration.

When you revise your work, you stress over every line and detail. You focus on the message you’re trying to get across and whether it’s coming across the right way. You go back through your writing and analyze each line to make sure it needs to be there.

As Stephen King says, “Kill your darlings.”

It’s hard to muster up the energy and conviction to complete the first draft, let alone remove a quarter of it and re-write it, but that’s what makes a good writer.

If you visit websites like Medium, you’ll find poorly constructed posts that appear to be first drafts. This is how you get lost in the abyss.

Being deliberate gives you an edge over the competition by giving serious thoughts to all elements of your writing.

So we talked about what makes a good writer, but what makes a great writer? To be great, you must change your relationship with the negative emotions that inevitably come with being a writer.

Fall in Love With Frustration

Ugh. Don’t you hate the feeling of disliking your writing while you write?

You can feel it. Each sentence you type feels like rubbish. Each keystroke makes you want to stop. You already know the end result won’t be what you had in mind.

In your mind, you’re a creative genius. When you’re not writing the ideas bounce between your neurons seamlessly, but the minute it’s time to sit down and put those words on the page, those magnificent sentences disappear.

What do you do with the uneasiness of crafting words people may or may not like?

Learn how to fall in love with frustration.

The stoic philosophers having a saying — amor fati — it means to love what happens to you no matter what. With writing, you have to learn to love the frustration, because the frustration makes you good.

The frustration weeds out the pretenders. It’s the litmus test you must pass to have a writing career of consequence.

I’m not the type who believes you have to toil away in obscurity for years before you find success, far from it. But you do have to pay the price in blood, sweat, and keystrokes.

You need creative callouses. Just like scraping your hand on a metal bar and skin getting tougher, you’ll end up with more mental bumps and bruises than you can count, but you will get to a point where you know you’ll never quit.

That’s where you enter remarkable territory — because you have certainty.

Become Certain of Your Ultimate Destination

You can tell when a writer is uncertain.

The words are controlling them when it should be the other way around.

After you move through the frustration of practicing a lot, you’ll get that point where you’re not necessarily sure everything you touch will turn to gold, but you know your long-term view is bright.

You don’t have doubts about whether or not you can write. You just know it and feel it. Other people feel it too.

You find yourself in a flow state. You’re making the keyboard bend to your will.

Odds are you’re not certain yet.

That’s okay. I know exactly where you’re at right now.

But if you keep practicing, you’ll adopt all the qualities of a good writer from creating compelling headlines and intros to talking to the reader like a friend to having conviction behind the things you assert.

In reality, being remarkable has much less to do with style and much more to do with attitude.

When you turn pro, stop playing small, and label yourself a professional before you achieve success, you put yourself in a position to be one of those unique writers with all of the standard characteristics of a good writer plus your own unique twist in style.

Counterintuitively, all great writers are the same in that they just practice and hustle longer than everyone else.

In a world where most quit, that’s the most remarkable trait you can have.