Writer traits support every writer known. Without them very little if anything would be written. The most basic writer’s trait is that you write. If you want to be a better writer you write then re-write. If you want to go further to professional then you add in a professional mind set.
There are literally hundreds of traits for each phase along the path that writers travel in life. My experience is different from others but from where I stand now after having written and not written over the years these are the traits that come most to mind for every writer to at least consider adding if not growing in his skill base.
Kaizen
The Japanese have an excellent word for a process that Ford came up with over a century ago. Kaizen is the process of constantly improving what you are doing for the better. We are not talking change for its own sake, rather the work to make things and processes better. No system or method is perfect. Writers have to work to find the things that can be improved to make things work better.
Writers have many things to work on beyond the work itself. They also work to improve their own inner character traits to support and grow their practice, develop their thinking skills, become more resilient and adaptable, improve the systems by which they get things done, increase their contacts in the writing sphere, etc.. There is a lot of work that goes into being a writer, not all of it is just a simple scribble on a page. Taking the time to think about what you need to improve and what to do about it is a great trait for a writer.
Patience
We all get caught up with a lack of patience from time to time. No one likes becoming patient. We just like the advantages when we are. Writers’ labor in a craft that takes time for everything, including down time between drafts just to get the head cleared around things. Being patient is a key writer’s trait for coming back to a project or given point when you have given it the time for things to line up. Patience is the best friend you will have while you slog it through.
Long Haul Perspective
Looking down the road is one thing, but actually accepting it and the daily grind to get there is another. This is likely the one thing that kills so many writers time and again. We just cannot accept the realities of the road ahead. All writers want our work done and a nice paycheck. It is hard to accept that we are going to actually have to walk every step of the process to get there. Changing that mental reference changes the entire game.
When we understand the game is going to be long, we can do things other than try to sprint through things or just walk away. We can sit down and work out a plan and strategy for actually getting there. Our work becomes more focused. We become more resilient when we hit bumps, our current limits, time constraints and painful evaluations along the way. We learn new skills like how to break our projects down into planning, research, writing, editing, re-writing, and publishing or delivery phases. Accepting the full scale of the work, much of it far from the glory we have in our minds and much more painful, is a powerful comfort when the winter winds blow and your life everywhere goes off into the deep.
Only one shot
There is a constant I have seen in several of the disciplines I have learned from over the years. Be it water color painting, sword drawing, riflery or writing the key is always to let your focus go to just one point then keep it there till the work is done and let it go to move to the next. No thoughts of the future. No worries of the past. Just stay in this instant and do the work.
This is not to say you should keep pounding away on a project that is stumping you or is in need of a break to let things settle. There are times and jobs where the mission of the day is to just slog one boot in front of the other till the journey is done. You will need to break from them. That’s why so many writers have multiple projects going at any given time. From Isaac Asimov to Steven Pressfield, I have seen the successful writers recommend that when you are stumped with a given project, move to another project till the mist clears and you can hit it again.
Time–it’s important
You will not live forever. You are going to die. For the writer, or anyone else who wants to achieve something, there is no clearer message that your time is valuable. The thing is most people treat time as the least important thing on their list. The writer cannot think this way. You will not get back one second that you spend…ever. You have no idea how many you have left either. A writer must use their time wisely or find themselves at some point looking their body of work lacking to their own wishes.
The best treatment I have found for this lies in two facts. One is a commitment to write daily. The second is locked writing office hours. I have found that having a morning that includes a solid writing practice for my novels has provided the anchor I needed to keep me on the path and expand that path to include time for more professional work in other fields like blogging and copy writing. You do not have to write books. You can blog or provide blog content or any other kind of writing you wish. The key here is to anchor yourself and your time with a set schedule for your writing whatever that is.
Gotta be stubborn
The one luxury you can ill afford as a writer is to quit. You just cannot do that. No quit in you. That means getting back up every time you fall. When you start to grind down you turn ornery. You slog. Steven Pressfield says it best, “Stay stubborn.”
Be Hungry
Les Brown is famous for saying that “You gotta be hungry.” He’s right. Nothing replaces the fuel of being hungry when working to your goals. Hunger is great. It narrows your focus and clears the excesses from your mind. Hunger even lights the path you need to travel today. Things become very simple when you let your hunger do its thing.
Every trait in this list can be learned, practiced and grown over time. The first step is to choose to work on them and commit to the process, then start working through the hard questions like: How do I do that? Then answer it. If you can’t think of how you can do it now, research it. That’s what Google and the library are for. You will find some answers easy and others hard. Some you will love others you will hate. Deal with them as they come and most importantly, write.
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