Blogger: Mary Keeley
If you have followed our blog for long, you’ve read our posts on the usual must-do’s to progress in your goal of publication: learning craft and practicing it, beginning to grow your reader following as you write your first draft, joining a challenging critique group, and so on. But today I’m going to focus on the intangible traits of the writer on track to a successful writing career. The must-be’s.
It starts with a love for books and the influence they can have in people’s lives. Entertainment. Encouragement. How-To. Inspiration. Education. Reflection. This writer knows what he or she wants to accomplish. For Christians it also means God-honoring books.
Here are five traits of a writer who is on track for success:
Passion, not hobby. Passion is the engine that drives a writer to learn, practice, research, and grow in craft every day. Writing is a vocation, not a pastime. Passion makes its presence known to an agent in a 15-minute pitch meeting where the writer’s eyes light up talking about her book. Passion for a particular topic or people group or a passion for writing stories compels the writer to write, and it is communicated through perfectly chosen words on the pages of the writer’s work.
Teachable, flexible spirit. Combined with a passion for writing, this writer is eager to learn and to put what he has learned into practice. He is willing to start over on a revision if his critique group, potential agent and, finally, editor advises. Because his eye is on the long-term goal.
Enthusiastic, resilient. The writer on track for success may get discouraged by repeated rejections, but she doesn’t stay down long. Her passion and teachable spirit combine to make her eager to learn from those losses, and soon she bounces back with enthusiasm to become a better writer because her eye is on the goal. That’s resilience.
Proactive savvy. The writer has taken the initiative to understand the current industry and has read other books in his genre to become familiar with the competition in order to approach the topic from a different angle or use a fresh hook for the story. In other words, to make the book marketable. This is communicated in what the writer includes in his compelling book proposal. The writer on track for success also has spent time analyzing the qualities that comprise his unique brand as an author, and he has additional book ideas that fit his brand.
Team player. The writer shows willingness to cooperate, first with a potential agent. Agents aren’t likely to take on a writer who is resistant to suggestions or who thinks guidelines are meant to be ignored, because they know the writer will burn bridges quickly at a publishing house. It isn’t worth a publisher’s staff time to work with such an author.
Which traits do you recognize in yourself? Which traits do you need to develop further? Can you think of additional traits a writer needs for a trajectory to success?
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Good list – I think I hit all the points (I’ve been successful in fields in which similar qualities are needed), but it’s more something for my agent, if I’m ever represented, and my fellow writers to evaluate.
* One thing I would add is a high Camel Quotient. You simply got to be able to travel a long way between “waterholes” that offer praise and encouragement. Not by using self-congratulation that builds one’s ego up as a small and mean false god, but by being willing to set baseline standards for one’s own performance, and sticking to them.
* When I was a child I knew a nun who was quite energetic, and we called her Our Lady of Perpetual Motion. A writer must have something of this; it’s being a self-starter, and more. It involves the ability to walk away from a compelling episode of Downton Abbey (or, in my case, Jackass) at the behest of a muse that does not keep office hours, and whose gifts of intuitive grace are perishable.
“Whose gifts of intuitive grace are perishable.” What a beautiful phrase. Much better than the “use it or lose it” I’ve been thinking all along.
Thanks, Shirlee!
Andrew, you never cease to amuse me …. Camel quotient?? That is so clever. Just hope I don’t end up as ugly or bad breathed as one – ever been breathed on by a sighing camel … its Arabia’s secret weapon of mass destruction.
Ah, yes, camel breath, the pause refinishes…it can be used to strip paint.
Ah, I meant the pause THAT refinishes!
I will say this one thing though Andrew, to Rachelle’s last post – beware of the things that can drain our creative energy. I foresee deadlines and other disciplines of writing posing some traps that we must learn to manage. Avoiding negative or egotistic people also helps. Knowing our own limitations and how to stay within ourselves, managing our boundaries, etc., helps more. Following God helps most. He also likes desert places and leads us to green pastures.
Peter, you’re absolutely right. When I was working on my doctoral thesis, I was working against a hard deadline…and eventually just had to wrap it up, with all of the data, but some of the commentary left unwritten (though it did get written and published later in journals). It killed the fun and creativity of the thing.
* As to people…yes, but it’s important to remember that some of their negativity may be misplaced love and concern, that they don’t WANT us to be pounding our heads against what seems to be an indestructible wall. They want to protect us from pain and rejection, but as writers, we’re sort of past help…una salus victus nullam sperare.
* Not sure about limitations…Richard Bach wrote “Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours”. Like all aphorisms, it’s true up only up to a point, but it is true…to that point.
* And yes, following God is that essential quality that brings our work into focus, and helps us to realize that the effort we put in here is never wasted, even if it only helps us define our lives in His context. WE are as important to Him as our hoped-for seven figure readership.
LOL! I love “our Lady of Perpetual Motion.” I’ve known some people like that!
I MARRIED someone like that!
Thanks Mary.
You’re welcome, Terrance.
Thank you, Mary, for this instructive list.
There is a line between passionate and crazed. I try to stay on the constructive side of the line, but coworkers who watch me carefully craft every email might not agree. But I’m the one they call when they can’t find the right words.
Touché, Shirlee. Your coworkers are blessed by your passion to craft carefully.
It struck me earlier that our God is also essentially a publisher, who inspires His own to write. However, since the dawn of history He always discerned between Cains who brought their own sweat capital and presumption, and Abels who stewarded what was entrusted into their hands. Writing is, to my mind, stewardship first. Now if that sounds like I am name dropping on God, no, the principle applies to any ministry and to work, business, family and so on. If we presume to own a thing and then mark that territory as ours, we will quickly stumble and find, as Cain did, a divine rejection letter and a caution to learn what does work i.e. humility, grace, care, stewardship, sacrifice and a servant heart. If we do get it right, then ironically it really might not matter, for God is quite content to use our hearts as a manuscript, a letter read and known by all, by which I mean that the journey may have a nobler outcome. That said, in ministry as in writing, the test for me is always that it defines the person, their energy, their passion, their center and their ability to keep going regardless. If those qualities aren’t there, at best you are pursuing a job, not a calling.
True, Peter. Humility, grace, care stewardship, willingness to sacrifice, and a servant heart (to serve God and readers) should be added to the list.
Patience. If ‘it’ is not happening right now doesn’t mean that finding representation/getting published/etc. won’t happen eventually. If you truly want to be a successful writer, from all I’ve read, it appears you must be patient. Granted, it should be a productive patience. Keep reading, learning, writing along the way.
Of the traits listed, proactive savvy is what I need to work on the most. I’ve got passion aplenty, and a teachable spirit, but I do need to develop my brand more.
Thanks, Mary!
Nick Vuicick cited the many, many calls he made to be accepted as a speaker. In the process he refined his style and learnt what worked. Like Edison, each failure eliminated another thing that didn’t work until all that remained, did. Rejection must be seen as continuum, a learning curve, not an event of finality.
“Like Edison, each failure eliminated another thing that didn’t work until all that remained, did. Rejection must be seen as continuum, a learning curve, not an event of finality.” Exactly, Peter. This is a resilient outlook.
Melinda, the best way to grow proactive savvy is to continue learning about the industry on blogs like ours and other agency and publisher blogs. You’ll gain intuition that will help you to know where, when, and how to take initiative and how to respond to the way the wheels turn in the industry.
Thank you, Mary!
Many thanks, Mary!
I would add persistence, though it shows up in every paragraph and comment. My first published article was rejected twice. I felt discouragement creeping up, but my passion for the story won the race. I woke in the middle of the night with this thought: omit everything in the article that is Christmas related. So I did and resubmitted. With just that simple change, the article could fit into more categories. The magazine editor called me to congratulate me on my persistence, telling me the month my article would be used. She has lovingly teased me about it since, but I’ve been riding the Disney-sized writing roller coaster ever since. 🙂
(Disney-sized: not too high or too quick, but so enjoyable … the roller coaster you want to stay on, ride over and over again)
Definitely persistence, Shelli. Persistence is a byproduct of passion and resilience.
There’s another quality that I think may help; it’s been ghosting around the edges of my mind since I read this, but I can’t describe it except in personal terms, and I’m not eager to do that, for fear that it might be seen as delusion or, worse, a sort of negative self-aggrandizement. Nonetheless, it may help, and my discomfort – or embarrassment – cannot be allowed to stand in the way. For want of a better name, I’ll call it LIVE AS IF.
* The last report I got from my doctor was an exercise in YGBSM, it was so bad. English isn’t his first language, and for “Prognosis”, he put DEAD instead of DEATH, which was kind of funny, at least to a writer (and maybe I can use that…).
* Nonetheless, it was unsettling, and those who are physically around me sometimes take it to heart…I’m kind of like a house guest who should be thinking about packing, now…I mean, why start anything new? Or, worse, SURE, go ahead (you need something to keep your mind occupied).
* But I don’t accept this. I will live as if my horizons are not yet limited, and as if my abilities are unimpaired. I will plan for a tomorrow I may never see, because I believe that throwing my heart into that tomorrow is, in the most basic and bloody truth, the only way I’m going to get there.
* YGBSM? Ya Gotta Be S****** ‘ Me!
As I write this I am on eyeball level with the keyboard and every time I raise my head I pass out, so pursuant to the above, LIVE AS IF, a corollary –
* OR DIE TRYING
They’ve been telling you that you are dead ever since I’ve known you … and you are still drawing breath. I praise God for that! As Beth Moore says, “As long as you draw breath, you have a testimony” … and as you impact those keyboard keys, your testimony continuously impacts me greatly.
Shelli, thank you…it does confound the guys in the white coats that I’m still moving, but you don’t know how many times I’ve wanted to quit…nit for negative feedback, or failure, but because it just hurts too much to type, and it’s too wearying to think.
* But that would really be wrong…for me, and how far I’ve come, and a slap in the face to those who have offered help and encouragement.
* So maybe one more essential quality for success is this -GRATITUDE
Andrew, your attitude is an inspiration of resilience and passion.
Mary, thank you. The surprising this is that the harder things get, the better I want to be – the best version of myself possible. And passion? I write for love and marriage; I believe in its sacramental nature, and power, and the further I fall, the higher I can see.
A wise surgeon once told me that the best patients are those who want to live but aren’t afraid to die. He would count you among the very best.
Thanks, Shirlee. Works for long riflemen, too.
Andrew, I’m newer around here at Books and Such, but I’ve read back over several of your comments and your blog. My prayers are with you and your family. Your attitude is EVERYTHING. 🙂 Thanks for being a shining light.
Teresa, thank you so much. Your kind words, and your prayers mean the world to me.
This is so interesting, Mary. I am wondering if this is common for all writers. But when I started out I could not say these things about myself. I wanted to succeed, but wasn’t really passionate to work and fail and work and fail. That came after the failing. . . I had to stop and look at my goal and decide if it was worth the heartache. And then slowly as I pressed forward, these other qualities began to grow. Is this just how a writer grows over time? Interesting, but I have seen all of these bud and slowly begin to blossom as I trudge along writing and writing and writing.
Kristen, I appreciate the honesty of your response. Keep up the great work. You are an inspiration to us.
Kristen, I know someone whose eyes were on the goal to be an author since her grade school Young Authors competitions, and she reached her goal in her early thirties. But I think your journey is common for many writers. God plants the seed, gifts you with ability, and as you take forward steps, he blesses you with these blossoming traits. The fact that you can see them growing over time is cause for celebration and thanks to him. Enjoy your journey!
One trait I need to concentrate on honing is prayer. I am very driven, very passionate, and often I reply/write/act before I take time to think through my words and my thoughts. This also translates into my writing. Those moments I jump in with both feet and charge forward in writing my novels are also the moments that should be bathed in prayer so the Lord’s purpose may be seen in it and that He may be glorified. Otherwise, for me personally, it can become a selfish endeavor and it’s only when I hit a wall I realize, “oh shucks, the Lord!” and it’s a sad reminder that I once again charged ahead without prayer.
Ohhhh, Jaime! Preach it, sister!!
Jaime, thanks for stating the case well. The trait of a prayerful approach must be added to the list. Too often we–especially Type-A personalities–forge ahead on our own to our own disadvantage.
Crazy.
Yup. I went there.
(Get it?)
I can be sitting in church, perusing a thrift store, doing housework, whatever, and be pondering the velocity that a leather whip needs to have in order to cut into a man’s back and expose bone. Oh, and the sound it makes when it does.
I mean, COME ON, that is NOT normal!!!
*
I do see those five traits in myself, which is a good thing. Not all to the same degree though. I think my most formidable trait is the passion I have for the stories that I’ve written, and the ones laying in wait for their turn on the page.
I’m both dreading, and looking forward to, pitching to editors at ACFW.
Maybe the “looking forward to” part is where the “crazy” kicks in.
I must admit you came to mind when I read Mary’s description of passion. 🙂
What are you dreading about pitching at ACFW? Granted, I haven’t been to that conference so I’m unfamiliar with the possible intensity.
Like Jenni, I don’t know what you’re dreading, but I know what you SHOULD be dreading – getting caught in the middle of a bidding war between snarling packs of avaricious and atavistic acquisitions editors. It would make “I Am Legend” and “World War Z” look like the Brady Bunch.
Great list, Mary! I completely agree with Jaime about prayer as a necessary component to success. A right relationship with God endows us with those traits you listed.
Amen, Meghan.
I find that my passion wanes when the stress of life reaches a fever pitch. Right about now I’m floundering emotionally (just being honest). Wish I could funnel the turmoil into my story, yet it’s been very difficult.
Have any of you experienced this?
I sure have, though more through abrupt changes in my physical capabilities. It can make it hard to write fiction, because the symptom stuff seems so real, and the novel so ephemeral and misty.
* What I have taken to doing is incorporating it into my blog, where both the description of what’s happened and my readers’ responses to it combine to give the ‘event’ meaning, and then I can write about it from a clear-eyed standpoint hopefully devoid of either despair or posturing.
* I thereby found that the important thing is to write through and about the turmoil, to give it perspective, and to give ME understanding of just how I am dealing with it…and perhaps why.
* That happened last week, actually. Things changed for the worse, and I’m trying to adjust to a new normal which really sucks…but the pain brought a sort of epiphany. Here’s the link to the specific post in case anyone’s interested –
http://blessed-are-the-pure-of-heart.blogspot.com/2015/06/your-dying-spouse-17-new-world-five.html
I appreciate this, Andrew.
“It can make it hard to write fiction, because the (emotional) symptom stuff seems so real, and the novel so ephemeral and misty.” Spot on. You put into eloquent words what so many of us cannot.
Writing through and about the turmoil is done in my journal since it’s too personal to share on a public forum. I did read the blog post you shared. You’re candid and deep. It’s apparent that lives are being touched because of Christ in you.
This. “There can be changes in attitude that make the process seem more like a beginning than an end.”
Jenni, you know there is nothing new under the sun … we all experience that. That roller coaster of emotion. What goes up must come down. What goes down must come up. Right?! 🙂
Jenni, this is where a balance between real life stresses and forward writing progress requires resilience. You can rest in the knowledge that God knows what is on your plate and will grow resilience in you as you trust in him. Thanks for sharing.
Another great post, Mary! I think I’m doing pretty well on these points. In fact, I feel I’ve crested the hill on several just within the last 6 months. When I wrote my first draft of my first novel during 2013’s NaNoWriMo, it was on a whim. I’d had the urge to write for as long as I can remember, and even earned two degrees in English. But for reasons only God knows, I was pulled into another career. Now, with this manuscript in hand, I feel there’s something special. The passion has grown and I hope it’s in His plans to allow me to share it with others. The other points you mention, then, have begun to naturally fall in to place as the passion has grown. You do what’s tried and true to give the m-script the best shot at being seen.
Congratulations, Teresa. I sense your enthusiasm in your words. Enjoy your journey with these traits that are falling into place.
Passion! I have oodles of passion. 🙂 Last fall I taught a writing class with Melissa Tagg and we took turns discussing various elements to a good story. For an example, I used the first scene of a story I wrote, and I became so passionate telling them about the scene, I forgot I was teaching! For a few minutes I talked on and on about my story, until I noticed half a dozen sets of eyes staring at me. 🙂 We laughed and I apologized for straying off topic, then I seamlessly wove it back to what I was supposed to be teaching. Sometimes passion takes over and I get swept away. 🙂 I actually love to pitch to editors at conferences, because I get a chance to talk about something I’m so passionate about. I feel like I do well with all the other traits you mentioned. If I struggle with anything, it’s that I get too caught up in my writing to the detriment of other responsibilities in my life. It’s definitely a balancing act.
Now that’s passion at work! Agents and editors love to see it in a writer they meet with at conferences. And those in the class you were teaching witnessed a trait they need to have themselves. And yes, you certainly do well on the other traits as well, Gabrielle.
Finding time to read, write, and work is a challenge. I’ve learned to download audio books to my phone. It’s rare for me to leave home without my phone, so I always have a book with me. Sometimes I like the peace and quiet, but most days I enjoy listening to good books.