Starting your journey as a fiction writer is no easy feat. Every writer must possess certain strengths in order to navigate the inevitable challenges that come with the job. This blog post will explore the five key strengths I believe a beginner writer needs if they want to become an author.
Certain strengths may be innate to you, and others may need to be developed, but I believe you are capable of them all, and that they will make your writing life powerful 🙂
So, here are the five key components I believe every fiction writer needs:
- Commitment
- Open to Inspiration
- Bravery
- Vulnerability
- Love
1. Commitment
To get anywhere in writing, it takes commitment. I learned this the hard way when writing my first novel rough draft. Writing never happens on its own. To be a fiction writer, you must commit to writing.
That means committing time out of your day to write. It means deciding to write even when you don’t feel like it. It means that when you fall off the writing wagon you get back on.
Commitment is a necessary trait a writer must have, and thankfully it is something that can be practiced and be made a habit.
2. Open to Inspiration
To stay inspired, a writer should keep their eyes and ears open for new stories everywhere. Whether from mountains against the horizon, people entering and exiting a grocery store, or from an image on Pinterest, there are stories waiting to be told.
Writers must stretch themselves. Their job is to try new techniques, discover new characters, and create new lands. If we close ourselves off to anything new, then our inspiration will dry up and we’ll suffer writer’s block.
Keeping the lines to inspiration open is essential.
3. Bravery
Writing is scary, I will not sugar coat it. Letting someone else see the weird things imagine is both exciting but terrifying. As a fiction writer, not only will you need to share the stories dear to your heart with your family, friends, and the world, but you will need to talk with fans, writers, and mentors
For an often shy introvert like myself, that is hard.
But it has to be done. Making connections with other writers and potential followers is imperative. The challenging steps to get your name and work out there need to be taken. Writers have to be brave.
4. Vulnerability
Perhaps one of the scariest of them all, a writer needs to be vulnerable. A writer needs to open themselves up and leave everything on the page for the reader to see.
To write is cutting yourself open and letting all the emotions, the pain, struggles, and the joy drip onto the page. It is revealing the darkest parts of yourself that you rarely, if ever, reveal.
Vulnerability is where power comes into your stories. You achieve it by opening yourself up so that others can see their pain and faults in your story. When readers can relate to your characters—the characters inspired by your strengths, weaknesses, and failures—they fall in love.
To be vulnerable is to take what is burning inside of you and using it despite the fear of doing so.
5. Love
It is incredibly hard to write when you are not in love with writing. When burnout comes into your life, you must focus on recuperating so that a lack of love does not take permanent residence.
You need to keep a fire of love under you to fuel your writing. It is important to always be in love with it, because writing is a hard business.
If the love does go—and it probably will at some point in your career—then you will need to search for it. Search for inspiration to bring back the energy to write and new stories to write about.
Without love, your reader will not feel moved by your words. Returning to the reasons of why you love writing is essential to maintaining a happy and healthy writing life.
Be a Powerful Fiction Writer
These five things aren’t all you need to be a fiction writer (you need to know how to write too), but they are essential if we want to write in a way that moves readers.
I challenge you to evaluate your strength in these five components, and then start thinking of how you can improve in these areas.
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S.J. Siedenburg is a thriller & fantasy novelist, an editor, and a bibliophile with a passion for stories and helping writers finish their novels. She’s the author of the guidebooks Character Presentation, Before the First Draft, and the How to Write a Novel online course. Six of her short stories have been published through writing contests. Sarah lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” —John 1:5
4 thoughts on “5 Character Strengths Every Fiction Writer Needs to Practice”
Good then i cant be a writer as i always knew.
Other people dont inspire me, i refuse to be vulnerable and hate everything i write.
Hi Maik! It’s actually quite normal to hate everything you write, especially when you are still trying to find your unique writing voice. If writing is your dream, don’t give up!
Okay I tell you about me. This tell-tale heart had been scrunched, pinched squeezed, and it angst for nourishment. I’m not burned out, more like the snake is finally unwrapping its ickiness off of me and I’m hungry and tired. But I write, although so much is so off and wrong and where did that come from. Now I’m looking for my niche, a job, a writing mentor, and plenty more.
Louise, I’m praying for the best for you! This has been a rough time for so many people, and I can’t even imagine what your experience might have been, but I’m so glad you are fighting to write. For me, when times get tough, it’s even more important to write to bring some calm to the craziness and struggles of life. Keep writing!