Do you want to be a writer? Do you dream of being a novelist? If so, what’s stopping you?
If you want to be a successful writer, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself. That’s what we’re going to explore in this post. But you need to be 100% honest with yourself when answering them.
It isn’t easy to write novels, especially that first one. But it is possible. You just have to ask yourself a few important questions.
Do you really want to be a writer?
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If anything other than an immediate yes popped into your head, you need to seriously reevaluate things. Being a writer is hard work and you have to really want it.
There are lots of reasons why people wish to become professional writers. Some are good, like a burning desire to craft and share page-turning stories. Other reasons aren’t so great, like maybe wanting to rub a successful writing career in your twelfth-grade English teacher’s smug face.
There are plenty of awesome things about being a professional writer: here are 10 of them. You need to figure out where your desire to become a writer is coming from. And then you need to decide if it’s worth all the hard work it’s going to take.
For every J.K. Rowling, E.L. James, and George R.R. Martin, there are thousands of writers who never sell more than a few copies of their work. Most successful authors don’t write a bestseller their first time out. Odds are, neither will you.
That means if you want to be a successful writer, you need to keep writing. And if you are going to keep writing, you need to really want it. Writing a novel isn’t easy and it (usually) takes months and months of hard work.
Everyone thinks they can write a book. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard say, “I could write a book about my life.” But how many people have actually written an entire book? Very few. Why? Because it takes time, patience, persistence, and vision.
The truth is that most people couldn’t write a book about their life even if they wanted to. They lack the focus and dedication it takes to write a book. And that’s assuming their life is interesting enough to write about in the first place.
So, you have to ask yourself, “Do I really want to be a writer? Do I want this badly enough that I’m willing to sit down and write every day (or most days)? Do I have the drive, the patience, and the vision to be a successful writer?”
If you answered yes to these questions and you’re being honest with yourself, then you’re already in better shape than most aspiring writers. But there’s more to being a successful writer than just writing, unfortunately.
Are you willing to accept criticism about your writing?
This is another reason why a lot of aspiring novelists never get anywhere with their writing. Most people have trouble listening to criticism. And writers in general tend to be even more sensitive than the average person.
If you want to be a writer, you need to be able to take criticism: constructive and otherwise. First of all, not everyone is going to like your work. No matter how much blood, sweat, and tears you put into your writing, someone is going to think it sucks. You need to accept this.
Secondly, you need to be able to accept criticism to grow as a writer. Writing is a skill and is developed by learning over time. You need be able to listen to what others have to say about your writing so you can improve it.
Writing is a creative endeavor. It’s an art form. And artists are generally a sensitive bunch. It’s not easy listening to someone critique something you’ve been working on for months. But it’s a necessary part of the process.
A lot of writers are also highly introverted, like myself. This brings us to the next thing an aspiring writer needs to ask him/herself.
Are you willing to relentlessly promote your own work?
This one is tough for a lot of aspiring writers and it’s been the hardest part for me. I’ve never been good at promoting myself. I’ve always prided myself on being a humble guy but, in the writing world, humility will get you nowhere.
Even if you plan on going the traditional publishing route, you still need to promote yourself. A lot of aspiring writers think that publishing companies do all the promotion. This simply isn’t true. They might do some promotion, but they’ll expect you to do most of it yourself.
If you’re planning on being a self-published author, then promoting yourself is even more important. You need to be okay with putting yourself out there. It’s something I’m still learning to do, but I’m getting better at it all the time.
If it was up to me, I’d just write. But unfortunately, to get anywhere in the writing world, you need to also promote your work. If you can’t get excited about sharing your writing with others, how can you expect them to get excited about reading it?
The greatest novel ever written is probably sitting in a desk drawer somewhere because the author’s too afraid to put it out into the world and promote it. But promotion is just as important as the writing itself. The importance of publishing and promoting is so high that takes up two of the 5 Secrets All Successful Writer’s Know.
Are you willing to fail to succeed?
“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
Failure is a necessary part of success. It’s part of the process. You need to be willing to fail now so that you can succeed in the future.
Of course, nobody wants to fail. But you need to accept failure as a necessary part of the whole process. Not everything you write is going to be good. You will make mistakes. But what all successful people have in common is that they learn from those mistakes and get back on the horse.
Are you willing to take risks? Are you willing to put yourself out there and risk looking stupid? Because if you want to be successful, you need to be okay with that possibility.
As long as you learn from your mistakes and keep going, failure isn’t a bad thing. It’s only bad it you let it force you into giving up.
The road to success is almost always paved with failures. F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example, received 122 rejection letters before getting his first story published. As long as you keep moving forward and improving, failures are not a bad things. Speaking of improvement, here are 10 Books Every Writer Should Read that will help you to take your writing and marketing to the next level.
Conclusion
If you answered yes to all the above questions, you’re miles ahead of most other aspiring writers. However if you answered no, you may want to reconsider whether or not being a writer is something you really want to pursue.
Now, the last thing I want to do is discourage anyone from chasing their dream. But being a writer is hard work and it’s important to have a realistic idea of what it really takes to be successful. Unrealistic expectations rarely lead to anything good – usually just failure, heartbreak, and defeat.
These are just some of the questions that all aspiring writers need to ask themselves, but I’m sure there are more. To those of you who are out there pursuing your writing dream, what did I miss? What are some other important questions that all writers need to ask themselves? Please leave your answers in the comments section at the bottom.
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