A Few Words to Those Aspiring to be Quality Writers

Firstly, if you're writing because you wanna be the next millionaire writer, the next J.K. Rowling, stop right now, put the pen down and walk away. Your chances of getting that kind of success are far worse than your chances of hitting the lotto, and even if you do manage it, you will hate the craft as something you have to do in order to keep the cash going. Creativity demands doing new things and taking new approaches to keep yourself sharp and growing, while making something people wanna buy demands some consistency and sticking to one way of doing things so they know they aren't wasting their money; trying to pair the two will drive you nutters, so save yourself the trouble, and don't. If you're gonna write, you gotta put the passion first, and make sure that you have something besides your creative works keeping the bills paid. Using your creativity as the only way to pay the bills often leads to the brokest possible way of life one can have while still somehow keeping everything in financial order; if your passion isn't strong enough, it WILL burn you out, and you will hate the craft for what it's put you through day in and day out.

Secondly, before you think the first thing you write is The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread™, realize that writing is a lot of mining for diamonds. When you first write, you think the first diamonds you turn up are the most beautiful thing in the world, no matter what anyone else thinks. The more you write and improve at your craft, the more you'll realize how flawed those first diamonds really were, sometimes embarrassing so, and it's because you got through those first diamonds that you were able to dig deeper(and trust me, if you plan to write well, you will be doing some DEEP digging). At times, you may even find you hit tough to crack walls with what you think you can write or turn up flawed diamond after flawed diamond trying to get back to where you were. In those times, I think the best thing you can do for yourself is to step away and go live some life. Talk to new people, see new places, watch new programming, enrich yourself with new content and knowledge. Writing, for many, means drawing from the things, people and events they know-in other words, writing from their life experiences, and to be able to draw from life experiences, you need some life experiences to draw from. You can't do that by blocking out everything but writing(that is, unless you happen to be drawing from the life experiences of the people you hear about)

Thirdly, and most important of all, get rid of the echo chambers and listen to people who offer genuine constructive criticism of your works. People who only tell you that your work is good or great, while good boosters of ego, are of absolutely no use to you, and will leave you in the same you were as a writer when you first started, if they're the only voices you let yourself hear. To improve at your craft, you need people there to help you see where you can be better, people who are willing to stand in your face and calmly tell you why your work isn't the best it can be. Some will be more cutting than others, but heeding those who want to help you get better will help you get better, something sure to come through in your future works, if you take their words to heart. The thicker your skin grows, the better the guidance you get will be-although the process of growing that skin will be quite painful and humbling. It will be worth it, though, more so when the craft comes more naturally to you and you outline, rough draft and final draft pieces like you were born to do it.