You have been wondering whether the art of writing is the ‘it’ for you. In other words, are you a writer? Do you have it in you? Do you have what it takes to succeed if you ventured into it?
The ultimate question to ask yourself is this: What are the signs that show that you are an excellent writer? What do you look for? The answer obviously starts from within. You need to have the personality or ability that enables writers to come up with ideas – and keeps them working on their ideas till conclusion.
In a writer’s resume, there are 7 characteristics or traits you want to look out for in determining if you will make an excellent writer.
1. Love for the Written Word
You are a voracious writer in one or more areas. Indeed, sometimes, it may seem like a drag to type out that term paper or to write that school assignment about the idiosyncrasies of bees while producing honey (I don’t know what that means, I just made it up). However, if you are that kind of person that an idea, once it hits you, is something you would love to sit and write about, then maybe you have a writing gene in you.
2. Love for Reading
You are a voracious reader. This is a trait that is typical to most writers. They love to read other peoples works in the same or a greater way that they love to write works. Reading is an avenue that could actually build up your writing skills. It is a necessity for the next point that makes up an excellent writer, which w will talk about below.
3. Love for Research
An excellent writer will always be a researcher at heart. You want to discover new things that will make your writing even more palatable. For instance, if you are writing a thriller novel based in Beijing, you want to conduct some research on the city, on landmarks and interesting things to do there and so on. You will then incorporate these research points into your book. It is the ultimate way of helping your reader visualize the things you are writing about, because you are bringing it to them in as real of a form as can be made possible through your writing.
4. Resilient Personality
A writer with excellence is able to build an idea and stick with it even if such ideas are considered ‘ridiculous’ or disdained by most. A writer is resilient on the things they believe they should write, and the reason why they are writing it. therefore, an excellent writer is simply not writing for the sake of it – They have a goal to accomplish with the works that they write, and this gives them the resilience to keep at it because they are on a mission, be it to help someone, or make something known.
5. Ability to Walk Away from Ideas
On the other side of the coin, an excellent writer is able to walk away from ideas, the same way they are able to stick to ideas to the bitter end. They explore different writing options and are able to discard those options that, through their research (see point #3), they find that it is not worth their time, or maybe not a topic that is at a stage to be written at that particular time.
6. Motivated to Sit and Focus for Hours
As a writer who works in excellence, you will find yourself in one spot for extended periods of time, sometimes hours, obviously. You will need to have focus for long stretches of your day for the purpose of being able to hone down on an idea and up it down in writing. Someone who cannot remain in one spot for long periods would probably not make a writer with ‘gazelle-like’ focus.
7. Open to New Ideas
Finally, an excellent writer is ever evolving with new ideas. This means they must be open to new ways of writing, thinking, creating. Without this ability to shed the old and embrace the new, they can become better at finding out their own developing uniqueness, or their readers’ evolving needs.
With these 7 points, I urge you to quiz yourself by asking whether you have some or all these traits. if you don’t have a check-mark next to each one of them, never fear! You are still on a journey of discovery and building something excellent. It does not happen all at once.
If there are additional traits you have discovered and think it should be added to the Excellent Writers’ List, drop a comment below and let me know what you think!