As easy as it seems, a writer is someone who writes. A writer uses written words in different writing styles, genres, and techniques to communicate ideas, inspire feelings and emotions, or entertain (Wikipedia). Sure, virtually everyone writes and people are becoming more specialized writers by the day. So there is more to just writing. There must be a reason you write, what it is you write, how you write, and to whom you write. You may write because that is your happiest moment and that makes you fulfilled. It may be to share some sort of your experiences or ideas. You may aspire to join the League of Authors as a lifetime achievement. You may write as a profession or to earn a living. All this may also shape what you write and to whom. Whatever the case, what any writer craves is to be successful. Being successful entails, among others, that you are a published writer in any of the media or an author, your book or novel is on the best sellers' list, and that your work has a good readership or that you earn (well) from your writing. At least, if you can reach a number of a specific audience to achieve up to 40% of the purpose for which you write, you are sure successful. Writing is not as easy as doodling on paper or punching away on the keyboard; it involves your whole mental powerhouse, skill, and experience. There are so many things to consider on becoming a writer and also being successful. You could begin by asking yourself at least some of the questions:
> Why are you writing? (Purpose/Goal)
> What are you to share with your readers? (Message/Information)
> What subject matter are you good at or will be good at writing? (Specialization)
> What do you know about what you want to write? (Experience/Knowledge)
> Who are your readers? (Readers/Audience)
> By what means/mode do you communicate your message to the readers? (Language, written, graphic, spoken, formal, informal, etc.)
> What can make your writing unique, to affect your readers' sensibility? (Creativity/Style)
> How do you reach your readers with your writing? (Print/Online)
> What kind, amount, or level of responses do you expect from the audience? (Feedback)
Once you pen down your responses, they will serve as a guide to your career as a writer. Two things stand out though; your experiences/knowledge and your ability to communicate those experiences/knowledge. In other words, what you know to write about and how well you can communicate those experiences/knowledge are directly under your control and would define your being a good writer.
Now, before you choose to become a writer, there are many types of writers. We may broadly classify writers into two: the amateur writers who write for pleasure as a hobby or pastime and the professional writers who take writing as a career. Writing, by some, is seen as a private affair during leisure. But no, you can take writing as a full-time profession. Of course, some writers are full-time professionals in other fields but write in their spare time and have become renowned writers. Some writers make a fortune writing full-time or as freelancers employed or hired by business firms.
In today's digital world, you can hardly mention a company that does not need the service of a good writer. Writing services, for both digital and non-digital marketing, are becoming indispensable in the success of everyday products and services. This is apart from its essential needs in educational services, print, digital publications, and general communications. Here are some writers to know about:
1. Ghostwriter - this is usually a paid writer who writes for another person who receives the credit of authorship. Ghostwriters are often hired for creative, research, or technical writing.
2. Copywriter - this is a person who writes persuasive text for advertising products and services for marketing online or in print. The text, called copy or sales copy, is meant to provide consumers and clients with compelling information about a product or service to create awareness and increase sales.
3. Content writer - this is a person who specializes in writing web-related content for specific websites and blogs. Every website or blog has a niche. A content writer who specializes in that niche is responsible for writing web content, such as website pages and blog posts, including social media posts, newsletters, etc. for that website or blog for marketing purposes.
4. Freelance writer - this is a general term for all writers who are self-employed and sell their writing services to different organizations or clients, for money. Freelance writers often work on gigs across a variety of genres for various companies, news outlets, or clients and are often well-paid as professionals in the field. There are many freelance writing websites, such as Upwork Inc., Fiverr, Textbroker International, and WriterAcess, to get freelance writing jobs.
5. Research/Report/Journalistic/Technical writers - these are professional groups of writers who are variously specialized in their fields in providing squarely informative, instructional, explanatory, and factual documents. Writings of this nature are non-fictional. They include press releases, news and business reports, business proposals, white papers, project reports and research findings, product descriptions, and specifications, among others. These writers include researchers/scholars, journalists, reporters, essayists, editors, copywriters, etc.
6. Columnist - this is a writer who expresses his or her opinion or views on current issues or trends in a newspaper or other periodicals on a regular basis. Columnists often have reserved spaces in newspapers or magazines called columns where they express their opinions or views on current affairs or technical matters.
7. Creative/Literary writers - a creative writer is a person who employs imagination and personal style to create creative or literary content valued for its aesthetics. Creative writing presents the personal views and feelings of the writer, unlike journalistic, technical or academic writings which present facts. However, some creative writings present facts as against fiction. Creative writers produce creative content such as literary works (novels, short stories, plays, and poems), scripts, essays, articles, speeches, and songs, which are published as books, in newspapers, magazines, websites, and blogs, and produced in radios or presented in gatherings. Creative content is entertaining apart from other functions they can be meant to perform. Creativity is essential to literary works of fiction and even non-fiction. Creative and literary writers include novelists, poets, playwrights, screenwriters, lyricists, essayists, literary critics, and biographers, among others.
Creativity
You may consider creativity as a secret ingredient of all successful writing. On a personal note, 95% of your success depends on your creativity, and 5% on luck. While of the 95% of your creativity, 5% can only be inborn, 90% is your hard work and experience. You must have heard people ask whether you are born creative or not. That, of course, is mere superstition. Many renowned writers you know today have faced lots of criticism and have their works rejected by publishing houses. Many have had to go and rework their writings or work up skills and experience for years. Many only get published when they have passed their prime of age or posthumously. Many never had the opportunities that abound today. Creativity is a skill that you can develop through hard work, time, and experience.
Creativity is not inborn or a gift given to you on a platter of gold. Creative writing is not just about what you have to say, but how you say it. You should learn and practice the skill of being creative by also broadening your experience of life, specialty, and knowledge of the language. Here are some hints on how to become creative and what can inspire your creativity in writing.
How to be Creative
Interact with nature - be observant and interact more with nature. Spend time in the natural environment. As you do, observe the nature and traits of both living and non-living organisms in your environment. You can compare and contrast these things with human nature and experience. Your consciousness of the natural environment can stimulate your sense of creativity.
Be curious and questioning - perhaps, you can allude this to in the Bible which says ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find. Curiosity and questions open you up to more ideas; you could discover something extraordinary out of the ordinary. You could bequeath yourself with every small detail and hidden fact that enriches your creativity.
Learn to daydream - creativity can be inspired by fanciful thoughts. Learn to muse about or imagine things that are not there. But while you fantasize, do not always lose touch with reality. Attempt to strike a balance and connect between reality and fantasy.
Explore the unconscious and subconscious mind - creativity also takes place in the subconscious and unconscious mind. Not to explore only what you are conscious of, creativity also comes out of all the things you are not aware of. Explore and express aspects of your unconscious and subconscious mind in your thought processes. There are things you see but have not noticed, things you experience, feel, or hear but cannot remember or grasp, and so on. Dig deeper than your consciousness to explore signs, sleep, dreams, visions, wanderings, and intuition, in connection with reality.
Reflect and Meditate – Most of our experiences in life are stored in the subconscious which we are not conscious of while we are busy. Certain things around us can trigger our responses. We can explore some of them through reflections and meditations. These two powerful acts can lead us to a wide range of past, forgotten, and unconscious experiences and explore a wide range of related knowledge required for a task.
Use analogy - always attempt to explain your ideas, particularly abstract ideas, in terms of concrete images. Looking for resemblance and connections between two persons, objects, and situations is a creative way to bring home your point.
Think outside of the box - think outside of your daily routine of life and thoughts and ways of dealing with issues that always produce the same or no result. Your life is a bore. But you can look at it and do things in a different way outside its routine. Think of something unique.
Take a little trip - or tour once in a while to explore your world - this could take you out of your mind-numbing world. Travelling to especially new and unusual places brings a lot of exciting experiences. Take a trip or tour once, or when you do, do not just enjoy the ride or feeling; observe, take down, and share your experiences and expectations. You would find how that has broadened your mind and altered your perception of life.
Learn a new language - learning a new language helps to enrich your creativity. The language which is associated with cultural experiences can broaden your perspective and vocabulary. Appropriate code-mixing and switching between two languages are themselves creative.
Play games and be unique with small tasks at home - video and other games that require critical thinking like puzzles, draft, chess, and other mind-boggling games can increase fluid-intelligence and boost creativity. You can stimulate your creativity with some of your hobbies and routines even at home. Doing your normal tasks differently at least once, like gardening, cooking, and setting up the lunch table, can open the way to creative insights.
Exercise and listen to music - these two may not be related but they are essential to positioning and setting your body and mind to creativity. A sick body follows with a depressed mind. Exercise, especially cardiovascular exercises, keeps you smart and active required for creativity. Good music and rhythm have the effect of therapy and inspire the mind to creative thoughts.
Keep a journal, diary, or memoir - taking account of some special events or experiences daily, the exciting things you see or have heard, and how you feel about them; the unusual idea that just pops up in your head can help to make you creative. Creativity also entails paying attention to details and building on them. Reflecting on memories and events can spur your creativity.
Visit art galleries, and attend literary or social events - these are not mind-numbing activities. You can inspire your creativity by visiting art galleries or exhibitions. You can attend creative or some social events. There are lots of things you see and hear, and people you interact with that can inspire your creativity.
Read and write - read lots of good creative works. They can serve as prompts for your creativity. Make a collection of creative works of an author or authors. Study not just what an author is saying, but how he or she is saying it. Also, you should not forget to start and keep writing. The best time is now. Write short drafts for preview to determine the level of your progress in writing creatively. Write more drafts and give them to good critics. Creativity consists of a way of expressing your thoughts and feelings extensively and vividly by manipulating language.
On becoming a writer, 10 things to consider
1. Master the language - You must first master yourself with the use of the language. This is a basic requirement for any writer to be. How you write depends on your mastery of the language you want to use to communicate. This is necessary not just to articulate your thoughts, but also to impress readers through your style of expression. It is not a fact that to have mastery of a language is to go for a language course or advanced study. This is good, though. You can learn informally how well to use language. Reading is one of the most important of them. Conversing with family and friends every day and observing their responses can help to improve your language. Oftentimes, how we speak is how we write. You can check out this 10 tools to improve your English writing skills.
2. Be a voracious reader - do you know a good reader also makes a good writer? You learn to write by reading. Good writers spend their free time reading. Not just books, as a writer to be, read more creative and (or) inspiring books. Imagine you have something to tell but lack the words to tell it. Reading helps you expand your stock of vocabulary that builds you as a writer. Moreover, you can learn from the styles of other writers.
Reading helps you to reflect and while concentrating on what you read, review and make connections with the physical environment. It stimulates your mind to become a critical thinker and problem solver.
3. Build your Imagination - even technical writing needs imagination. This is your powerhouse that converts your thoughts through your choice of words into concrete experiences. Similarly, be creative and inventive. To be imaginative, inquisitive, and questioning. Look for answers, clues, links, or connections from your environment to express your thoughts. Look beyond the perceptions of your immediate environment.
4. Scribble your thoughts on paper, flow with them, and critique - You should start your apprenticeship by learning to organize your thoughts in writing (handwritten or typed). Write a paragraph, a page, graduating to essays of anything that you fancy. Do not begin with extensive research. This could make writing herculean. First, let your thoughts flow with your writing. You can later verify, edit, and review. Read to yourself and give it to a classmate, friend, colleague, teacher, or critic, for appraisal.
5. Decide what kind of writer and writing best suits you and build on it - though, you may begin your writing from anything that catches your fancy, your writings should develop into a niche that defines what kind of writer you are. You may write best in two or three genres, but it is not the best idea to be "jack-of-all-writings," so to speak. Many writers, though, begin with musing and delving into various genres before they discover their niche to become very successful. It is right to make an early discovery and what kind of writer you wish to become. Decide on what kind of writing best suits you and consider if you are going to write for the pleasure of it, to earn a living, to become a renowned author, and so on. Then work towards your goal as a would-be writer.
6. Be persistent with writing - Rome is not built in a day, so they say. If so, you must learn to accept your flaws, put them right, and be persistent in writing. There are a lot of things that may pose challenges and discourage you. Distraction is one of them. But you must learn to overcome them with self-inspiration and zest for becoming a writer. Let the thought of writing always excite you. Practice makes perfect. You do not necessarily need to write every single day. Set a periodic but regular interval to write. This is how to become a good writer. Always look for ways of improving your writing and never say no. Writing should be what you do with ease and enjoy doing.
7. Capture your immediate readers - those you can reach the moment when you write are your immediate audience. They can be instrumental to the progress you make in your writing when they read and comment on your writing. When you make a draft of your thoughts, for instance, you can make it a blog post or post it on your Facebook wall and require followers and friends to comment or air their views. You can take a metric of how many people reacted and what their reactions are. This can help you with how good a writer you are becoming.
8. Eat right and exercise - these may sound out of place. But do you know certain foods and workouts are good for you as a writer? A good diet makes a good writer because you are what you eat. Sure, they do not make you a prolific writer overnight but are meant to boost your mental power. Certain foods containing high monounsaturated fats can boost your brain. They include fish like salmon, seaweed, avocado, chocolate, nuts, coffee, vitamins E and K, as well as green tea. Daily exercises, including cardiovascular exercise, keep your mind sharp and focused. Exercise works up blood and oxygen to your brain. Remember, a healthy mind and an active body can influence your thoughts and actions as a writer.
9. Connect with other writers and writer's groups or communities - you may probably have one or two writers that you fancy and read their works more often. You may not just enjoy their works but study their styles of expression. Normally, writers serve as inspirations to other writers. Connect with other writers. You can group writers according to their niche and follow them up. Many writers can be easily reached to reply to your questions and even for a chat. Also, there are several writers' groups and communities out there, particularly on social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) and on several websites (writerscafe.org, poetrysoup.com, critiqueMatch.com, scribophile.com, etc.). You can join them and seek their advice or get hints from posts about writing.
10. Explore various writing tools and resources online - there are various writing apps and tools that can aid your writing ranging from the word to grammar checker, and plagiarism tools. You have Microsoft Word, Google Docs, StayFocussed, Wordstream Free Keyword Tool, Grammarly, Plagiarism Checker, and many more. These apps and tools help you to write anytime anywhere, help you write faster, check writing errors, make suggestions, and organize your writing. There are lots of blogs and websites with how-to-write that also offer training for and assistance to writers. Ask Google about writers' online training and see the results. Having an online dictionary, as handy as your phone, is always a good idea. Lastly, you can start your blog. You can just begin woolgathering for your blog post until you discover your niche.
