Three Things ALL Super Successful Writers Do
(What the pros taught me)
When I’m inspired by a good story I try to look under the hood to study and learn how it was done. I want to learn the tricks of the trade and successful habits from the kind of people I want to be like when I grow up. I don’t necessarily agree with everything these people say, do, or believe but I respect the measure of success they have attained. They have proven themselves consistently over the years and are worth emulating.
I’ve learned from Neil Gaiman, Dan Brown, Margaret Atwood, R.L. Stine, Judy Blume, David Mamet, David Baldacci, James Patterson, Aaron Sorkin, Shonda Rhimes, Ted Dekker, Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio (among others).
Most all of these names are easily recognized. If there’s names on here you don’t know you’ve almost certainly come across their work without realizing it. Keep reading to see how I was able to pull wisdom from such an eclectic group.
KEY NUMBER ONE: You’ve got to write for yourself.
Write from the heart. Write the things that you find most entertaining and trust that if you like it others will, too. In other words, write what you want to read. Don’t get caught up in what’s popular. Don’t say, “YA seems to be selling like crazy, I guess I’ll write a young adult novel”. If you love young adult novels, if they inspire you and that’s who you are, then write young adult novels. But don’t write YA because that’s what you think will sell.
Every single one of the people on the list above all said you must write to and from who you are, you’ve got to write what inspires you. Trust that there’s others out there who share your vision, who share your passion, who share your sense of humor, who share the things that make you tick. There’s others like you out there. The obstacles to publishing and getting our stories in front of the world have long fallen away.
Now it’s about finding like minded people, finding our niche, and writing with that audience in mind.
If you write for yourself, if you trust your instincts, then you’re going to know who you’re writing for and more easily connect with those people.
The other thing about writing for yourself that’s especially true for an Inspired Writer (for more on what I mean by this go here) is we tap into the Holy Spirit when we write. We’re tapping into Christ in us, the hope of glory! A central definition of inspiration is revelation. So an Inspired Writer is someone who’s tapping into the Truth within. Truth is a Person. We carry the divine spark inside us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
As an inspired writer, if you’re writing for yourself, you’re also tapping into that spark that is inside of you, you’re tapping into the thing that makes you uniquely you, but is also the image of God.
Whenever you are willing to let that out, to be authentically you, you’re going to tap into who you are created to be. When we write from that solid identity our writing is going to connect, it’s going to click. Our stories will speak to the heart of our readers.
I really like how Ted Dekker puts this. He talks about the unfair advantage we can have as writers. It’s applying the transformational journey not only to your characters but for us as the writer, too. When you outline the plot of your story also ask what burning question is in my heart? What is the thing I’m wrestling with God over? What’s the question burns in me like one of David’s laments from the Psalms? Make your characters wrestle with that same question. As your characters are transformed in the story you will be transformed, too. Dekker calls it being the hero of your own story. That’s truly writing for yourself.
KEY NUMBER TWO: Write everyday.
Every one of these hyper-successful people say make writing a part of everyday. Put it on the calendar. Just do it. Show up. It doesn’t matter if you feel like it. It doesn’t matter if you’re feeling inspired. Show up to do the work every day, day in day out.
For my life and my schedule this is way easier said than done. Our house comes to life around 6:30a or 7a. We have seven children. Our youngest is three. Our oldest is nearly seventeen. I’m up at five o’clock in the morning for any precious time to be alone to write or to get alone with God. I don’t always get in writing time. That’s OK. I know there’s another shot at it tomorrow. I take all the time I can get now to build the habit, to make it a lifestyle.
All the pros on my list say you set a goal, set a time, and do your best to stick to it.
R.L. Stine says his goal is 2,000 words a day. He gets his 2,000 and then stops and moves on with his day. James Patterson gets up in the morning, drinks his coffee, reads the paper, then writes for an hour or two. Then it’s out for a round of golf, some lunch, and back to writing again. That’s not my story. Not yet. The key takeaway is you write every day. One of the things it teaches you is that writer’s block is a myth. All of these pros said there is no such thing as writer’s block. Building a daily habit of writing lowers the stakes.
Writing everyday is giving yourself permission to suck today and try again tomorrow.
And the next day. And the next day. So it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to hinge everything on getting it right this time because you’re going to give it another shot the next time.
Another benefit of writing everyday is learning creative persistence. Dan Brown talks about hiding in the laundry room of his in-law’s house in his early days. That was the only place where he could write. Shonda Rhimes says she puts her headphones on and the whole world is gone. It doesn’t matter where she is. If she’s at her desk, she’s writing. If she’s riding on the train, she’s writing.
One other benefit of setting goals and writing everyday is we get better at pulling our story ideas from everyday life. If like Dan Brown or Shonda Rhimes, we write wherever and whenever in order to keep our promise to ourselves to write then we open possiblities to see and hear slices of life. Knowing that my next writing time is around the corner keeps those potential story snippets fresh.
David Mamet said he would mix things up occasionally by going away for a week or so. Judy Blume would work this way sometimes, too. Overall they agreed with the other experts on my list.
Success stems from being consistent, setting a schedule, getting out there and showing up to work day in and day out and just doing the job.
KEY NUMBER THREE: Remember it’s worth it.
If you can get down those first two, if you can write for yourself and if you can schedule every day, then the third key each of these hyper-successful people have talked about is they’ve learned that it’s worth it. It goes beyond the financial rewards or the accolades and awards.
It’s worth it because you learn to overcome the lies of self-doubt.
David Mamet talks about it, Aaron Sorkin talks about it. These are hugely successful people and they still talk about overcoming that doubt that this is going to be good. In fact, they each talk about how important it was to practice at improving at the writing habit before getting discovered, before success. You have more freedom to fail. Aaron Sorkin recently rewrote To Kill A Mockingbird for Broadway. The pressure on him is different now than when he was writing story ideas on napkins as a bartender.
It’s worth it because writing for yourself and writing everyday is an inoculation against rejection.
Margaret Atwood, Dan Brown, Ted Dekker, Shonda Rhimes and the others on the list each talk about their early work being rejected. It was their fourth novel or third spec screenplay or pilot before things finally clicked, before people would look at what they had to say. Margaret Atwood tells the story of a publisher finally showing interest and asking what else she had written? She told him it was sitting in a box on his office floor. When you are writing for yourself and being transformed in the process you write from a place of confidence. That confidence comes from more than practice. We’re not doing this alone. God’s statement that He is for us and not against us ring true for Inspired Writers.
It’s worth it because the work of writing, of being creative, is one of the most pure ways to co-labor with the original CREATOR!
There you have it. Three major keys super successful professionals all do. How did I learn this? No, I’m not having dinner parties with these people. I don’t have their cell phone numbers. Not yet. My primary source was MasterClass online. You’ve probably seen the commercials on YouTube. “Hi, I’m Neil Gaiman and this is my MasterClass.” My investment in these courses has been completely worth it. I have gained an immense amount of wisdom and knowledge sitting at these people’s feet, so to speak. I highly recommend it and, shameless plug, HERE’s a referral link. You of course don’t have to use my link, they’re easy to find but I can’t recommend it enough.
There’s other resources I want to suggest. Ted Dekker is not on MasterClass. Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio aren’t on there. Their training and resources are out there and can be found. In future posts I’ll write more about what folks like these have taught me (or shoot me a note if you can’t wait for my summaries). The Inspired Writer is someone who’s not only inspired vertically (on Earth as it is in Heaven) but is also someone who wants to share what they have learned along the way. I’m here to say you can do this, too.
It’s never been a greater time to believe that we can do this work. Story is powerful. We each have a unique people to connect with. Our stories will inspire them to be transformed just like we have been transformed. Our stories will inspire them to connect with the heart of God.
You can find me on the socials at fb.me/authorjiglover, twitter.com/jiglover, and instagram.com/jiglover. I’m also vlogging my journey to becoming an Inspired Writer here. Subscribe. Follow me. My writing can be found here.
