by Anasofia Aceves

Created on: April 06, 2010   Last Updated: April 07, 2010

Many people believe that being a writer requires a pen, paper, computer and your imagination (probably on an empty room on a cottage on a mountain with a bottle of wine and some chesses for snacks), but those people aren’t writers or don’t think they can be, because to them the mind of a writer is something out of the ordinary.

In part they are right, not everyone can sing like Mariah Carey, act like Meryl Streep, paint like Picasso or write like Chares Dickens, but the difference between the artist and those who are not an artist simply is fact that they practice; if you don’t screw up enough lines you will never become an actress like Streep, if you don’t take singing lessons you can never sing like Carey and if you don’t writer enough bad novels, stories or articles you will never become a great writer.

Discipline is the number one quality that a good writer must have, talent is just part of what makes a good writer, but it’s definitely not the end of it all.

If you have talent as a writer most likely you have written a short story at school or local contest that got you some attention, but now that you have the readers attention, what are you going to do?, if you want to be a writer as a profession, discipline is what’s going to get you there.

Let’s use the example above, let’s say you did get some sort of recognition for your natural abilities to write and you have decided that this is your path, now here comes the work:

1.-You will need discipline to pick a new goal, writing classes (yes even natural talent needs some sort of structure and a writing class can give you that) or new project.

2.- You will need discipline to stick to your goal, lets say you want to attend classes or write a new short story or even a novel, or start working as a freelance writer, you will need to select specific times out of your busy schedule ( your regular job, kids, social gatherings, other clubs you belong to, tv time, dinner time, etc.) to make time for writing, even when you have nothing to write about. The only way to get better is to keep writing, so making sure that you have specific times assign for writing will help you reach your goals.

3.- You will need discipline to do the research. Not every assignment can be about something you know well, if so, you will be limited to write only about your experiences and your own point of view, which will not resonate will every reader. If your new project entails writing about fish and you hate the ocean and can’t swim, how will you be able to do the assignment? research is what’s going to save your writing and now more than ever you will need discipline to find out everything you need to know about fish and their environment, even researching fisherman, and other writing about fish including fairy tales or national geographic investigations.

4.- You will need discipline to edit your work. If the length of your previous works were those of a short story and now you are done writing your first novel, you will use discipline to read your novel and do the proper adjustments to it, to make it better, this is a long process that needs to be met with fresh eyes.

Writing is a magical process that allows the writer to take the reader to a new world, one that maybe even the writer has never visited before and even though talent will start you on that journey it will be the discipline to create believable characters and situations that will let the reader to never look back during the trip down your writing.

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