Thursday, March 29, 2012

What a writer needs to complete a story (from one learning as she goes)



  • Practice
  • A good vocabulary
  • Time
  • Ideas
  • Ability to spot mistakes
  • Eye for detail
  • Patience
  • Ability to consider being alone for long periods of time as pleasant
  • Data entry skills
  • Editing skills
  • Ability to cope with repetition
  • Ability to set your own hours
  • Ability to set your own details
  • Contacts within the publishing world
  • Knowledge of reader demands and expectations
  • Knowledge of publisher demands and expectations
  • Imagination
  • Obsession
  • Excess mental energy (whatever shape it takes)
  • Someone to help remind you of things like eating, cleaning, chores, paying bills, shopping etc. when you forget or get too engrossed in writing to tear yourself away
  • Financial support if you don't have a job or savings and want to write more often than on trains or at night
  • A comfortable spot to call your own (room or no, window or no)
  • Personal knowledge on how to get started putting down complicated ideas
  • An initial blast of energy
  • An ability to keep reworking the same project over and over
  • Ability to put on a personable front for meetings and public occasions
  • Ability to use social media properly
  • No fear of the phone
  • Ability to research
  • To keep track of industry trends
  • Ability to view your work objectively and realistically
  • Ability to avoid procrastinating
  • Love of lists
  • Ability to find silence or background noise whenever needed
  • Ability to set aside your love of other people's stories long term to work on your own
Otherwise:
  • A laptop or computer
  • Tonnes of paper
  • Pencils and pens
  • Erasers
  • Your mind (for the most part)
  • More time than you'll believe

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