7 Habits of Successful Writers

I want to become a successful writer. And by success, I mean I want to be published by a reputable publisher. (Yes, I know there are other measures of success, but this one is mine.)

But I am my own worst enemy. I procrastinate. I criticise my efforts. I denigrate my meagre achievements. I work endlessly on the same paragraph, again and again and again. I abandon work. Sometimes I wake up and decide I’m being completely delusional and I must give it all up immediately and do something else instead. Does this sound familiar to you?

This morning I read an interesting post by Randy Ingermanson on habits and how to form good habits as a writer. Randy is “the Snowflake guy” and has an excellent E-zine for fiction writers. If you want to read his original post, you can read his March 4th edition for yourself.

This led me to thinking of what habits to adopt and, as usual, I turned to other writers for advice. There is a lot of advice out there. Tons. Now some people talk about the habit of “confidence” and others talk about “writing from the heart”. All very admirable. But vague. How exactly do you develop the habit of confidence? How do you write from the heart?

The Merriam Webster dictionary gives the following definition:-

Habit: a usual way of behaving : something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way.

This is more helpful. Habits have to be regular and they have to be repeated. And, I suspect, it easier to adopt a new habit if you keep it really simple.

So, here is my take on it.

The 7 Habits of Successful Writers

1. Write every day: even if it’s just a piece of nonsense about the dream you had last night. Just write.
2. Read widely: not just your usual or favourite authors. Pick random books. Explore a new genre.
3. Be endlessly curious about people and their lives. The key phrases are “I wonder why” and “what if”.
4. Re-edit ruthlessly. Then re-edit some more.
5. Seek out beta readers and consider their suggestions for improvement.
6. Finish the story / novel / piece of non-fiction / blog post. Keep going until you can write [THE END]
7. Submit. A friend once said, “I wish I could win a competition and have a story published.” I asked how many competitions they had entered. “None.” Huh? You can’t be published if you never submit.

What other people say:

Kristi Holl: 7 Habits of a Highly Successful Writer
Henri Junttila: 7 Habits of Highly Prolific Writers.
Daphne Gray-Grant: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Writers.
Ali Luke: 7 Habits of Serious Writers.
Leo Babauta: 7 Writing Habits of Amazing Writers.

Author: Ruth Livingstone

Walker, writer, photographer, blogger, doctor, woman, etc. View all posts by Ruth Livingstone