{"id":156,"date":"2021-01-23T22:48:45","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T03:48:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/?p=156"},"modified":"2025-10-04T08:28:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T14:28:29","slug":"the-7-essential-qualities-of-a-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/2021\/01\/23\/the-7-essential-qualities-of-a-writer\/","title":{"rendered":"The 7 Essential Qualities of a Writer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Someone asked me once what qualities were necessary to \u201cdo\u201d English (i.e. in the writing sense).\u00a0 After thinking a bit, I came up with this list of seven traits.\u00a0 It\u2019s not meant to be the final answer – if you google \u201cnecessary qualities of a writer,\u201d you\u2019ll notice that everyone has their own list – but since this is kind of an important question for us writers, I thought I\u2019d share what my personal take is with y\u2019all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Go to The 7 Essential Qualities of a Writer<\/a> to keep reading!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Trait #1:<\/strong> A basic amount of ability and interest.  This is probably obvious, but if you despise writing… remind me again why you want to do this for anything outside of necessary schoolwork?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trait #2:<\/strong> Patience.\u00a0 You can\u2019t write a novel overnight, so you have to be willing to spend a year or more working away at it, depending on your specific writing process.\u00a0 Also, you\u2019re not likely to get traditionally published overnight (if that\u2019s what you\u2019re aiming for).\u00a0 It can take up to two years to get published, so don\u2019t expect to find an agent, land a publishing contract, go through the process of creating the absolute final product, and actually see your work on the bookstore shelves in a single month.\u00a0 It just takes time, even if things are steadily moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trait #3:<\/strong> Discipline.  Going off of #2 somewhat, if your project takes two years to finish, you have to be able to stick with it through writer\u2019s block or lack of motivation or discouragement, whether or not you have patience.  Even if you don\u2019t have a long project, working on your writing consistently is a valuable habit.  Or you may have deadlines, and sometimes you have to be able to get words on the page even if you just don\u2019t feel like it.  Especially if you feel like you \u201cstill have time\u201d; last-minute panic may be a great motivator, but it doesn\u2019t always produce the best writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trait #4:<\/strong> Leniency with yourself.  Discipline is good, but like many things, it is a continuum.  Don\u2019t be so zealous and rigid that you burn yourself out on writing for six months, fall prey to crippling perfectionism, or damage your physical or mental health.  If your goal is to be a writer long-term, then burning out now isn\u2019t a good strategy, no matter how productive you are leading up to that point.  As Brett Harris, a mentor for many young writers, says: \u201cWriting is a marathon, not a sprint.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trait #5:<\/strong> Basic social skills.  Writing as a whole isn\u2019t just hiding in your office and filling page after page with words and cool characters.  You also need to have a platform, communicate with other professionals such as your agent or editor, and market your published works.  That is to say, you can\u2019t avoid interacting with people if you want to get a book published\u2013even if you\u2019re an introvert who can avoid it in other areas of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trait #6: <\/strong>Thick skin.  Getting critique is a fantastic way to improve your writing – I can\u2019t recall ever getting feedback that wasn\u2019t at least a tiny bit helpful – but that includes both positive and negative feedback.  Few people\u2019s (if anyone\u2019s) writing is perfect on the first draft, and if you can handle having problems pointed out to you without being offended or getting too discouraged, your writing will be so much the better for it.  Also, if you\u2019re looking to be traditionally published, you\u2019ll almost certainly receive rejections along the way.  If you have a high-quality piece of writing, it would be a waste to let a handful of rejections make you give up entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trait #7:<\/strong> Humility.  You\u2019ve probably heard this elsewhere, but it\u2019s important: it\u2019s hard to improve as a writer if you can\u2019t learn from mistakes or negative feedback.  Most people don\u2019t enjoy working with those who don\u2019t listen to anything they say, so humility is important in good professional relationships as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t worry if you\u2019re lacking some of these\u2013I have little discipline when I don\u2019t have a pending deadline and could be playing my favorite game Minetest instead, and I get a tad nervous about sharing my writing sometimes.\u00a0 No one is born perfect, and you certainly don\u2019t have to have all these traits to start off with.\u00a0 However, it helps to be aware of them, and work on developing them over time.\u00a0 Just like you can develop discipline consistency-wise by writing every day even for a tiny bit at first, you can improve in the other areas too.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what are your thoughts?\u00a0 Agree\/disagree?\u00a0 Think something needs to be removed or added?<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someone asked me once what qualities were necessary to \u201cdo\u201d English (i.e. in the writing sense).\u00a0 After thinking a bit, I came up with this list of seven traits.\u00a0 It\u2019s not meant to be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writingforlife.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}