How to Write a Novel

Chapter Twenty-Two - 3 Things you need to be a Successful Writer

I'll get straight to the point, the number one thing you need to be a good writer is discipline. Writing is hard work and it is not always easy to find motivation to do it. You need to have the mental fortitude to endure long hours at your desk and fleshing out ideas.

The next thing you need to be a good writer, which ties into the first one is practice. Even if you have natural talent for writing, have a solid command of language, and know all the rules of grammar, it still may not matter unless you actually write a lot. To get to a level where someone will actually want to read your stuff takes years of practice, spending hours a day honing your craft.

The problem that I find with a lot of writers is that they skip this step. They think their level of writing is sufficient to publish. And they're not lying, they actually think that their writing is good when it really isn't. The reason for this is because it is incredibly difficult to be objective about one's own work.

I remember writing essays in college and I would put hours and hours into polishing the text until I thought it represented my very best stuff... at the time it was the best I could do. I later look back on those essays and cringe, because they are so bad. Even stuff I have written a couple years ago pales in comparison to where I am at today. So if this is true for me, it is most likely true for you too. If you want to be a good writer, you must constantly be working on your craft.

Finally, and perhaps the most important thing you need to be a good writer is creativity. You may have talent, you have discipline and a hard work ethics, you may even be a really great writer, but unless you are a creative person, the type of person that can come up with interesting and original ideas, no one will care. To be a good fiction writer, you have to entertain. That is the sole purpose of having your stuff read by others, you need to entertain them. If your ideas are lacklustre, if you characters are cliché and unoriginal, if your plots are predictable, then nothing else matters, you have failed as a fiction writer.

If you possess any two of the three things, you will probably not be a good fiction writer.

Discipline and creativity will not produce good work if you don't practice.

Practice and discipline will not produce good work if you are not creative.

And if you are creative and you have practiced, but don't have the discipline, nothing will ever get done.

You really have to be all three.