What are the qualities that are possessed by good writers? What about excellent writers? I was listening to a podcast earlier today and the guest was asked about what it takes to be successful in his field. He responded that one needs to be good at what they do and then he went on to generalize that idea to other professions, including writing, art, finances, etc. He, at one point stated, and I’m paraphrasing, that if you want to sell a million books you need to be a great writer but then rephrased his statement and said, well you need to be a pretty good writer and now I’ve been thinking about this all day.
For a long time I’ve wanted to write. Not just blog posts and social networking posts but something substantial. I’d love to write a novel, maybe something in the Sci-Fi / Fantasy realm. I’m a huge fan of Game of Thrones, I grew up reading Dragonlance (Weis and Hickman all the way!) and have found a recent interest in novels taking place in space. I like to think I’m well read and I like to believe that I can write well. So, what is holding me back, you may ask. For me, the biggest obstacle seems to be world creation. It feels like such a daunting task to create a world, or worlds, that make sense. Do you create the characters before the world or the world before the characters? How about plot? Should I have the plot before anything else? Isn’t the plot sometimes character dependent? Can it be world dependent?
I have so much respect for those who can sit and put pen to paper and write. I am awestruck by those who have the determination to put in 8 hour days writing and creating. I’m sure they all have a process that they’ve fine tuned over the years but it seems like finding that process is a job in and of itself. If you are a writer feel free to leave a comment and tell me about your process. I’d love to see what others do and learn from those who are doing it.
The Science Of Behavior 