You must reckon with your own character. Writing requires curiosity. Are you curious enough? Writing requires risk-taking. Are you willing to risk? Writing requires energy. Can you marshal and unleash your energy? Writing requires patience. Have you cultivated that quality? Turn yourself into the author you need to be!
Each of us embodies distinctive moral and mental qualities—that is, “character.” We must reckon with these qualities within ourselves when we write, and this sort of reckoning requires profound and candid inner reflection—no matter what we write about.
Four characteristics are essential for being creative: curiosity, risk-taking, energy, and patience.
Curiosity can drive us toward and carry us through an idea, a topic, or a theme. We might take a risk in the way that we develop or represent that idea. And finally, we must have the energy to bring it forth and the patience to see it through.
Piqued curiosity gives us material. A snippet of conversation we overhear might inspire dialogue for a novel. We may learn a new scientific fact that can be woven into a short story. When we sit to write, curiosity keeps us interested and causes us to dig deep to do our best work. Not only do we work to inspire curiosity in readers, but we also explore the depths of our minds.
Curiosity can be stimulated by asking “what-if” questions. These questions can be about topics or unique and unconventional scenarios we want to explore: What if polar bears held secret society meetings about how to stop global warming? Or they might be structural: I wonder what would happen if I created a book that defied the laws of sentence formation and never used a period?
Creative curiosity such as this leads to taking risks that could change the future of literature. So what is your level of curiosity? And how far you are willing to travel down a rabbit hole to investigate topics, storylines, or writing techniques that no one before you may ever have explored in quite the way that you can?
What type of energy do you invest in your creative work? Are you the sort of writer who has a persistent, even energy that allows you to put out a steady stream of work even when life gets in the way? Or do you produce in fits and starts when you receive explosive, unanticipated inspiration? The publishing process also requires great energy, whether you self-publish or pursue traditional publishing. Consider what habits, routines, or practices you might employ to increase both your physical and your mental energies and use them to your best advantage.
And finally, what is your patience level? Writing and publishing take a huge amount of patience. Don’t commit yourself to a series of writings if you know you are easily bored writing on the same topic for long. Remember, too, that the draft is just that; both self-editing and edits by others are required to make your work stand out, and those phases take time and patience. If you intend to publish traditionally, finding an agent and publisher will require endurance (that is, both energy and patience), and then you will have to wait out the internal processes of the publishing house. If you do not have the patience for that, consider self-publishing or else find ways to manage your impatience.
When you take an honest inventory of your character in these four areas, you can make the best decisions and most appropriate choices, and perform in a way that supports your writing dreams.
This writing tip is inspired The 97 Best Creativity Tips Ever! by Dr. Eric Maisel (2011), and is used with his permission.
Co-authors:
Bonnie Snow was an intern at Around the Writer’s Table, working toward a graduate certificate in publishing and editing, during her senior year at Florida State University. She is inspired by the editing field’s penchant for helping others see their dreams realized.
Gina Hogan Edwards is an Editor and Creativity Coach, and the founder of Around the Writer’s Table. She supports aspiring and experienced authors who want a writing life on their own terms, whether their words are put on the page for self-fulfillment or to share with readers.
Gina Edwards is a retreat leader, a certified creativity coach, and a book editor. She is also a writer, so she’s intimately familiar with the challenges and elation that come with being one.
She supports all writers—published and aspiring—who want to write as an act of courageous and necessary self-expression.
Walking the writer’s path hand-in-hand with her clients and students, she helps them establish a writing practice and define a creative life on their own terms.
Another good reminder. Thanks.
And cultivate whatever habit seems to work best. If you are an early morning person be consistent about getting up and writing. Writing has a lot in common with building a wall. You add one row of bricks, then another. Writing accrues, day after day after day. Habit will carry you farther than inspiration, which is just the spark plug that gets you started.