3 answers
Diamond
Student
New Orleans, Louisiana
2
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What skills and strengths do you have to require that'll make you successful in the career of writing?
#writer #ideas #information
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3 answers
Sean O'Donnell
Senior Writer | Manager at PwC
7
Answers
Updated
Sean’s Answer
Anthony's answer of resilience is spot on. You need to have thick skin, especially if you're writing for someone else. Criticism is hard to take, but when you keep in mind that they're not criticising you personally, it's easier to take the feedback (even when it's not presented constructively). And at the end of the day, unless you're writing for a publication or somewhere where you'll get a byline, you're writing something that will get attributed to someone else. So even though it's your craft or pride that gets hurt, it's their actual reputation, etc. on the line.
Two of the most important strengths (that go hand in hand) are listening and curiosity. When you're writing, you're usually doing so because someone else (with the ideas, etc.) can't effectively enough communicate what they want to say. So it's critical that you hear what people tell you they want the writing to say, but even more so to be able to "hear between the lines." Your curiosity will lend itself to that ability and help you make sure you ask the right questions to help get at what your speaker wants to say (and, more important, what your audience needs to hear).
Two of the most important strengths (that go hand in hand) are listening and curiosity. When you're writing, you're usually doing so because someone else (with the ideas, etc.) can't effectively enough communicate what they want to say. So it's critical that you hear what people tell you they want the writing to say, but even more so to be able to "hear between the lines." Your curiosity will lend itself to that ability and help you make sure you ask the right questions to help get at what your speaker wants to say (and, more important, what your audience needs to hear).
Anthony Moat
SAP Global Services Sales
17
Answers
Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
Updated
Anthony’s Answer
Hi Diamond,
I currently work as a writer for a political candidate, a corporation, and I previously wrote for a newspaper. There are many skills and strengths required to be successful as a writer. The first is dedication. Writing is hard work, good writing is even harder. Like any other skill, practice hours are important. Writing is especially difficult in that sense as it takes a lot of mental energy to constantly be creating, but you have to do it.
I think one of the essential traits necessary for all good writers is the ability to think clearly. Have a real clarity of your point of view, without that, writing well is extremely difficult. Depending on the kinds of writing you want to do and have a career doing, the advice would be slightly different. If you want to get into communications a background in organizational behavior and marketing/advertising would be good complimentary areas of study. For fiction writing, you could pair with American literature, humanities, or creative writing. For non-fiction, could take classes on journalism, history, law, or philosophy.
Other good traits for success in a writing career is resilience. You will have editors change your work or be harshly critical, you will have to take the feedback and keep going. You can't take every piece of writing personally or you can find yourself easily discouraged.
Feel free to ask a follow-up here as I'm not quite sure I fully answered your question, but I hope this was helpful.
Best,
Anthony
I currently work as a writer for a political candidate, a corporation, and I previously wrote for a newspaper. There are many skills and strengths required to be successful as a writer. The first is dedication. Writing is hard work, good writing is even harder. Like any other skill, practice hours are important. Writing is especially difficult in that sense as it takes a lot of mental energy to constantly be creating, but you have to do it.
I think one of the essential traits necessary for all good writers is the ability to think clearly. Have a real clarity of your point of view, without that, writing well is extremely difficult. Depending on the kinds of writing you want to do and have a career doing, the advice would be slightly different. If you want to get into communications a background in organizational behavior and marketing/advertising would be good complimentary areas of study. For fiction writing, you could pair with American literature, humanities, or creative writing. For non-fiction, could take classes on journalism, history, law, or philosophy.
Other good traits for success in a writing career is resilience. You will have editors change your work or be harshly critical, you will have to take the feedback and keep going. You can't take every piece of writing personally or you can find yourself easily discouraged.
Feel free to ask a follow-up here as I'm not quite sure I fully answered your question, but I hope this was helpful.
Best,
Anthony
Stephanie Carmichael
UX Content Strategist II
4
Answers
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Updated
Stephanie’s Answer
Anthony's and Sean's answers are on the mark! Some other thoughts:
1) Ask lots of questions! This is how you achieve clarity, and clarity (as Anthony noted) is critical to good writing. Don't rely on your assumptions. Dig in as much as possible. What would your reader want to know? What are you saying that's different or useful? Questions will help you get there. :)
2) Take a grammar class if you can! The fundamentals are super important.
3) Know that first drafts can and will be messy. Good writing is revising, and revising is more than cleaning up sentences. It's big-picture editing for organization, flow, and meaning. Is what you're saying concrete and specific, or are you abstracting too much? Do you wander in getting to your point? Cut the throat-clearing. Are you being descriptive or generalizing?
4) Think about the field you want to break into. Each type of writing has its own skill set, and you might be more adept at one versus another. This took me awhile to learn! For example, UX writing is my bread and butter. I like being straightforward, honest, and conversational in my language. I like thinking about a user's experience and helping them along. Both UX writing and journalism are about being concise and asking a lot of questions. Something like marketing copywriting has different goals, for example. It's more persuasive and appeals more to the emotions of a persona.
1) Ask lots of questions! This is how you achieve clarity, and clarity (as Anthony noted) is critical to good writing. Don't rely on your assumptions. Dig in as much as possible. What would your reader want to know? What are you saying that's different or useful? Questions will help you get there. :)
2) Take a grammar class if you can! The fundamentals are super important.
3) Know that first drafts can and will be messy. Good writing is revising, and revising is more than cleaning up sentences. It's big-picture editing for organization, flow, and meaning. Is what you're saying concrete and specific, or are you abstracting too much? Do you wander in getting to your point? Cut the throat-clearing. Are you being descriptive or generalizing?
4) Think about the field you want to break into. Each type of writing has its own skill set, and you might be more adept at one versus another. This took me awhile to learn! For example, UX writing is my bread and butter. I like being straightforward, honest, and conversational in my language. I like thinking about a user's experience and helping them along. Both UX writing and journalism are about being concise and asking a lot of questions. Something like marketing copywriting has different goals, for example. It's more persuasive and appeals more to the emotions of a persona.