Writing is a fun-filled activity. At the same time you need patience and discipline to continue your writing. If you love anything that is imaginative or if you feel happy to write and if you enjoy carving imaginary characters or intriguing plots, then perhaps you will be an excellent author. Enid Bagnold, British author and playwright, said, “Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower out of life, even if it’s a cactus.”
1. You have a fertile imagination
“If you see the magic in a fairy tale, you can face the future,” says Danielle Steel, the well-known American novelist. If your mindset is similar and you’re an outside of the box type of thinker, you have the basis to be an excellent author. You will be able to churn out imaginative stories that will transport your readers to unseen and beautiful lands, where they will find solace. You can try your hand at writing stories for children. Though adult fiction also requires imagination, writing imaginative stories for children is in itself a fruitful activity; you will feel more contented.
2. You love to tell stories
Our life is filled with all kind of stories, tragic ones, happy ones, suspense-filled ones, etc. If you love to narrate stories or write stories, then you will make an excellent author. “You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone’s soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.” ― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus. If you can use your life’s experiences as a catalyst for your stories, then you will be able to write some great tales or even a novel. By writing such stories, you make your life a story and live through it!
3. You have a flair for description
“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the readers,” writes Stephen King, American author. If you have a passion for descriptive writing without giving away all details, then you have all chances of becoming an excellent author. The crucial part is to make your readers visualize what you want them to experience. You should be able to write in such a way that your readers become part of your writing process and contribute to the reading experience. To facilitate this, you should describe with clarity and use simple vocabulary.
4. You can make people feel livelier
Writing is all about influencing people in such a way that they feel positive and livelier. When you write, you share moments and nuances of life that normal people would have missed in their daily routines. Your writing provides readers a glimpse of all good things that can happen or would have happened, thus enabling people to live more enriching lives.
5. You have a passion for writing
You will become an excellent author if you write for the pure joy it brings to you. In the words of Stephen King, “I’ve written because it fulfilled me. Maybe it paid off the mortgage on the house and got the kids through college, but those things were on the side–I did it for the buzz. I did it for the pure joy of the thing. And if you can do it for joy, you can do it forever.” Writing does bring in money. But if you feel excited and ready to write in the morning, that keeps your life going as a writer. All other frills of writing are happy bonuses!
Editor’s Note: This article was first published in December 2014.
I’m Smitha Abraham. I love traveling in my flights of imagination and use these flights to craft short stories and poetry. I am a budding writer from India. My passions are reading, creative writing, listening to music, learning new languages, meeting new people, getting acquainted with different cultures and traveling. Authors like Isabel Allende, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, genres like magic realism, historical romance, and writing styles that are imaginative and flow effortlessly fascinate me. I love to unwind with a book curled up on a sofa or by gazing at the stars by the sea shore. I am a nature lover and spending time admiring the sunset and sunrise is relaxing for me.