Amateur writers are an odd bunch. Just listen to them sometime and you’ll see how true that is. Mostly, they don’t understand what it takes to be a writer and a lot of them have some very bizarre ideas about what writing is like.
Therefore, I want to provide what I think are ten characteristics of successful writers, things that you really need to have on your side before you get into this, otherwise you’re just courting disaster. So let’s get started, in no particular order, because none of these are pick-and-choose.
I watch a fair number of YouTube movie reviewers and this seems to be an issue with a lot of them. They will watch a movie and then review the movie they wished they’d seen, not the movie they actually sat through. They had expectations that we not what the director intended. Then they complain that the product wasn’t up to what they wished for. That’s not how this works, sorry. So today, I’m going to talk about that, along with look at the latest place I’ve seen this happen, Willy’s Wonderland.
Finally, we come to the last part of the advice I give to new writers and this too is one that gets generally ignored to their own detriment.
It you talk to a lot of authors, you’ll know that the biggest problem most have is right at the end of the book. More specifically, at least in my experience, is just before the end of the second act. It’s where a lot of people get into trouble.
This is a question that comes up a lot in writing circles so I thought I’d answer it.
Part two of my advice should be obvious, but you can’t really be a writer unless you write. Yet this seems to be a major problem for a lot of amateur writers and they can’t seem to just sit down and do what they claim they want to do.
This is something that, surprising, is met with a lot of apprehension by a lot of prospective authors. Time and again, I have seen people argue that they don’t like to read, they shouldn’t have to read and they absolutely reject reading for bizarre rationalizations that make no sense whatsoever under observation. The simple fact is, if you are not a voracious reader, you will never be a good writer. You learn to write primarily by reading. If you’re not willing to do that, give up now.