How to become a good writer: 10 guidelines

Welcome, my dear reader, to this useful website – Motivational tips!

Many people admire the profession of a writer: you create your own world and your name is published on the books which are bought by other people.

Moreover, if your book is interesting, you can become famous and make a lot of money!

However, keep in mind that huge fees are more typical for foreign writers, because writers in our country rarely count only on their royalties; they work part-time as editors, teachers, proofreaders or publishers.

Nevertheless, young talented people often pester their elder colleagues with a question: “How to become a better writer?”

First of all, I’d like to warn you that if you want to become very rich, you’d rather choose a sphere of business or finance.

Besides, don’t forget to subscribe to my informative articles emailing!

Stop degrading; it’s about time to nourish your brain with exclusively useful material!

Literary art is more a vocation than a profession. Moreover, as any other occupation, it also requires a constant improvement of one’s skills and devoting a lot of time and effort.

So, haven’t you changed your mind yet?

If your answer is negative, then maybe you have a chance of becoming the next Taras Shevchenko or Lev Tolstoy!

How to become a good writer: mini-survey

If you try to ask ten different people in the street what is necessary for becoming a good writer, you are more likely to hear the following: “Literary talent!”

And if your next question is: “What do you mean by literary talent?”, most people will enumerate the following abilities:

• To express your thoughts in coherent and grammatically correct way;
• To write interesting and captivating works;
• To create a book which people would like to re-read for many more times;
• To write breathtakingly about dull things, etc.

How to become a good leader?

I agree that a good writer really has to have these skills.

Though literary talent is an inborn gift, it is not enough for making a contribution into literature.

How did I become a good writer?

“There is no rule of how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and blasting it out with charges. The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it”.
Ernest Hemingway.

Let me reveal my little secret to you: as a child, I wrote poems and even attended the literary society where I was taught how to become a good writer.

Obviously, some of these poems turned out to be an odd set of letters, but there were also poems which received the approval of the members of the Ukrainian Writer’s Union, who were conducting our classes.

During high school and first years of college I worked extremely hard and wrote many poems. I’m still saving a couple of notebooks filled with poems. The last years of studies were very intensive, so there was no time left for writing. My last poem was written few years ago.

Now look: as it comes out, I’ve always had a bit of literary talent (which has been confirmed even by the experienced poets), but for some reason I haven’t become a writer. Honestly saying, I’ve never even thought of it.

If you want to reach the literary Olympus, apart from literary talent you’ll need the following:

• Tremendous ability to work hard: between the ideas in your head and the book under the nice cover there should be actually many hours of difficult routine work.
• Literacy: not a single proofreader will be able to correct the opus with a huge amount of mistakes.
• Perseverance: if you want to publish at least one book in your life, you’ll have to spend many hours at the computer without being distracted on social networks.
• Constant self-education: many writers keep diaries where they note maxims, interesting figures of speech, episodes from everyday life which they have observed somewhere, etc. They do it because they hope that all these things may be useful for their work some day.
  Besides, keep in mind that you’ll have to read a lot all the time!
• Life experience: a situation when a 16-year-old girl who has created a real masterpiece is rather an exception than a rule.
  Your book should be filled with your knowledge and impressions, but where would you get them in young age?

Guidelines from a professional how to become a good writer

You don’t have to be ashamed of trying to adopt the experience of your elder colleagues.

Some time ago I’ve been talking to the famous Ukrainian writer, a winner of Shevchenko Prize, and he told me how to become a better writer and shared with me his principles of literary work.

1. Pay attention to everything that is going on around.
   For example, when you go to the market, your task is not only to buy groceries but to look for new plots as well.

2. Watch other people constantly.
   The work can be called successful when a reader believes in the credibility of characters.

   For example, you shouldn’t invent how your teacher would react next, you should know exactly what could he/she do in such situation.

3. Concentrate on details.

   For example, when you describe the peculiarities of some profession, you have to get to know everything about it yourself or you can even consult the professionals.

   If you write a book about programming, don’t make any mistakes, because when a professional programmer reads it and sees stupid mistakes about his/her profession, he/she won’t even finish reading.

4. Write briefly but to the point.

   Nowadays there is a tendency of writing huge paragraphs consisting of only one sentence without any punctuation.

   However, I can assure you that it won’t be long-lasting and soon can become old-fashioned.

   The reader has to understand your point, but don’t write in much primitive way.

5. Get ready for refusals.

   Even if you consider your work to be a real masterpiece, be ready that publishers can have a different opinion on this matter.

6. Work as if you’re writing for the last time in your life.

   Such attitude, as: “Oh, come on, this is just a short story for some magazine” will not do you any good.

   A true writer has put a lot of effort even into writing a small quatrain for a greeting card.

7. Keep in mind that being a writer is not an entertainment; it’s a difficult profession that requires at least 5 hours of work per day.

   If you don’t come up with the text itself, just read something, and it may help you in finding new plot for your book.

   How to find yourself?

8. Your every piece of work has to teach something useful, but don’t use the mentor tone.

   You have to be a sensitive, witty and unobtrusive teacher, but don’t be too straight and strict.

9. The outset and the ending of the book are its most important parts.

   The reader estimates the first pages of the book, and if he/she doesn’t like them, he/she isn’t even going to read further and finish the book.

   Moreover, the unsuccessful ending will irritate the reader, and he/she will decide not to buy this author’s books anymore.

10. Don’t hunt for the literary awards.

    Work for the reader, and then your prizes and awards will find you!

    Besides, even if you don’t get your award, it’s more important if your book is liked and valued by the whole generation of readers instead of creating a book which will not be finished even by the members of prize-awarding committee.

However, what is the more important thing: think hard before you choose this uneasy profession of a writer. As you know, literature is merciless towards idlers!