How to improve your writing with 5 positive characteristics and habits
Hi and welcome to Forever Young Autobiographies – Ask Nicola.
I get many questions about writing life stories for family and friends.
And in this series I aim to highlight some of the queries I receive and give you a glimpse into how I help writers like yourself.
Today’s Ask Nicola answers the following question:
Help, I’m not a natural-born writer! What are some positive traits and qualities of a good writer that I can learn from?
Hi there, this is a super question!
We all start somewhere with our writing and continue to learn the more we write.
Great writers are all different but I think they do share some common habits.
Understanding these characteristics and traits helps us cultivate them in ourselves and our writing.
Here are five qualities of a good writer that immediately come to mind.
1. Qualities of a good writer: Curious
The qualities of a good writer must include being curious.
I see this time and again as a print editor working on daily newspapers.
But it is just as important if you are writing an autobiography, memoir, biography or another life-story project.
If you are curious you will research, investigate, question and think about different points of view for your writing.
That is to say you go beyond surface facts and details to find out the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of a story.
This makes for a broader more superior book in the end.
Related article – Story detail: Identifying key details in a story to make your autobiography shine
Related article – Understanding your why to write a powerful autobiography
2. Always open to ideas
Great writers are always open to new ideas and inspiration.
For example, as an autobiography or memoir writer memories will pop into your head at anytime.
The more you think and write about different times the more memories are flushed to the surface.
Memories breed memories!
Many writers keep notebooks scattered around the house, car or in their handbag to jot down writing ideas, memories, life lessons and more as they arise in the moment.
Often it are these unsought ideas that are the best.
Related article – Lessons learnt: Writing memoirs full of your best life lessons
3. Disciplined
Just like any project you have to put in the work.
If writing is not something you have done a lot of it can feel unnatural and difficult to begin.
But as with learning any new skill, the more you turn up and try, the easier it becomes.
Even for professional writers some days are harder than others.
You need to be disciplined to keep sitting down regularly to write your stories.
Writing a few sentences is better than writing nothing.
It is the cumulative effect of regular, disciplined writing that creates a book to cherish and share.
Related article – Writing time: How to schedule time for writing
4. Embrace grace
This might seem a bit airy-fairy but sometimes you need to go with the flow of your writing.
Great writers know not to fight their writing and show themselves grace.
Often you will sit down with clear thoughts about how you want to write and tell a story.
But when you start putting words onto the page the story takes over and it ends up being a different version of what you set out to write.
Good writers are OK with this!
This does not mean your story is ‘bad’ or you have ‘failed’.
Sometimes your subconscious is at work and has other ideas about what is written!
Writing is just one step in the book process.
Things can be reworked, polished and edited later.
Everything can be changed so don’t fight and edit those words if they want to appear on the page.
Great writers are not too precious about their writing.
Top qualities of a good writer must include being able to embrace grace.
Related article –Writing motivation: How to finish writing a book about your life
Related article – Good writing: Top tips on how to become a better writer (plus writing prompts free training)
5. Brave
Writing can be extremely frightening to some people.
You can want to write but be stopped by fear of exposing your thoughts, beliefs, actions, etc.
Even if you have enormous talent fear can cut you down.
Great writers know fear is part of the writing process.
But they also know that the best writing is authentic and truthful.
You must be fearful to write bravely.
Related article –Tell the truth: The surefire way to out skeletons in the family closet
Related article – Three amazing ways to write your first draft quickly and stress free
Final say: Qualities of a good writer
Great writers are ordinary people like us.
They had a story to share and pushed through negative thoughts and barriers to put pen to paper time and again.
This takes skill and habits like: curiosity, open-mindedness, discipline, grace and bravery.
What qualities of a good writer will you cultivate today?
Happy writing!
Free gift!
Get free sections of the Your Family Stories System. Sign up here or fill in the form below. The Your Family Stories System shows you step by step how to interview a love one about their life and record their stories. Find out more here.
Your say
Which writing trait listed above resonates most with you? What other qualities of a good writer do you think we need? Send me an email or leave a reply in the comments section at the end of this article.
Get in touch
Have you hit a roadblock planning, writing or finishing your autobiography? Let me know here so I can help!
Don’t miss an article
Sign up to get instant notifications when new material is published.
This article first appeared on the website Forever Young Autobiographies.com.
