Larani LA Algara

Hi!! I'M LARANI!!! 
               
Are writers born or made? I firmly believe that anyone can write (whether they should is an entirely different matter of course). I have been writing now for over twenty-five years and in that time have met countless writers. The vast majority of them treated writing like a job and approached it in that fashion, not waiting for the muse to move them, but moving, shoving, pushing and dragging the muse into submission.

Many of those writers displayed remarkably similar characteristics and attitudes towards their work and, out of that, I have drawn up the ten characteristics I think you’ll need if you want to become a writer.

You must read and not just in the fields that interest you – writers pull from an astonishing variety of sources for their work. If you do not read, you will never become a writer.  Let me just repeat that: if you do not read, you will not – indeed, you cannot – become a writer.

It sort of goes without saying, but an imagination is critical. Feed your imagination with books, movies, images, people, places. If you have no raw material, you’ve nothing to create with.

Be critical of your own work. Do not think that everything you write is golden. The images you see in your head may never match what you finally put down on paper … but you keep trying.

Some writers still work with a pencil and paper; however, the vast majority type on a keyboard. And those who have taken a proper typing class are better equipped to get the words down on paper at blinding speed. Hunting and pecking to complete your 100,000 novel is going to be tough going.

Be under no illusions: this is a tough job. No one is forcing you to do this, you’re doing it because you love it, because you have to, because it is part of you. You must be passionate about the work.