Secrets of Successful Writers

The word talent offers new writers the luxury of dismissing author's success as luck, or fortune. It removes the responsibility for becoming a famous author from the writer, and alludes that destiny is responsible for fame.

Avid Readers Make the Best Writers

Successful people share similar habits. They are organized. They sharpen their social skills. They study their craft until they learn to use it like a weapon.

Is there a way to improve your writing quickly, without taking another course, or reading a two-hundred page book on passive voice? The answer is yes.

Most famous fiction authors start as avid readers and gravitate toward writing. Many new writers start the same way, but once converted, they stopped reading. In fact, many struggling writers claim they no longer have time to read. They are too busy writing. This sad fact keeps them from writing marketable fiction.

1) Picking Fiction Novels to Study

Famous authors study their own genre, but they read everything, especially bestsellers. Pick your reading material carefully. New writers need to read bestsellers, the books that rise above the rest. Do not look for authors, but look for books that have smooth, easy to read aloud, prose, and are well structured. It is also important to read books that do not sell well. Learn the difference between a well-written novel, a novel that is poorly written, and books that sell because the author is famous.

Picking books because a certain author wrote it can be detrimental to a writing career. Many famous authors are forgiven for mistakes that new authors would never be allowed to make. Nora Robert's head hopping is a good example, so is the difference between the grammar and style in Julie Garwood's old books compared to her new.

Tip:A writer should never steal ideas. What they are looking for is a blueprint. A raw sense of grammar and style, character growth, conflict resolution, and structure that is repeated in every new release.

Reading turns writers into storytellers.

2) Never Stop Studying Fiction

Authors tend to pick up pieces of advice instead of studying the Craft of Writing. This method of learning takes too long to build a solid understanding of writing. Instead, writers should schedule a little time each week to read a book, or spend an hour on the web learning.

Avoid genre organizations that have a narrow view. If they help you get published in the first couple of years, good. If not, then leave them behind and study the Craft of Writing. If you are a die-hard fan of the romance genre, or an association, then make sure their theories are not the only ones you study.

In fact, if a writer studies and writes two books that are not published, then it might be time to check another genre. Many writers remain unpublished for years; only to find out they were writing a romantic-suspense instead of a cozy mystery, or a romance story instead of a thriller.

3)Write

A writer must write everyday. If this is not possible, then set aside at least two times every week to write. This writing time must be divided into storytelling and creative writing.

Storytelling is the time to let your muse take over and run wild with your imagination. Let the words spill on the paper, and clean them up later. Plug away at your current work-in-progress or start something new.

Creative writing is the time to work on your thought patterns, grammar, sentence structure, creativity, structure, and other aspects of the craft of writing. This is the time to do exercises that stimulate your creativity, and focuses on different elements of fiction.

4) Learn the Different Voices and Styles of Fiction Grammar