Grüezi,
essay writers. Over the weekend, Writer Abroad taught a course at the Zurich
Writers Workshop called Miniature Memoir: How to Write and Publish Personal Essays.
Here are
eight things you need to become a successful writer:
One
Excellent
command of language
This is
obvious, but if you can’t write a sentence and don't care to revise it between 4-104 times, you need not apply to be an essay
writer.
Two
Discipline
Do you sit
your butt in a chair almost every day and write? There’s no lightning bolt, so
if you wait for it, you’ll be one of those writers who always dreams of being a
writer but never becomes one. Treat writing like a job and it will become one.
Treat writing like a hobby and it will remain a hobby.
Three
Desire
You must
want to write more than anything. Why? Because almost anything else is easier,
even bioengineering. A book (or sadly, even an essay) can take years to write. If you can do something
else, do it. If you can’t, congrats, you’re a writer. Now sit in the chair and
believe in yourself (see number four). If you don’t have discipline, all the
desire in the world doesn’t matter.
Four
Strong ego
When do others believe in you? More often than not, after you first believed in yourself. Don’t be afraid to call yourself a
writer—as long as you’re writing almost daily and you consider it your job—even
if you’ve yet to be paid for your work. Believe and it will happen. Wait for others to approve you and it won't.
Five
Resiliency
Sorry, but
rejection is a part of the writing life. If you’re not being rejected, you’re
not putting your writing out there enough. And you must not only deal with
rejection gracefully, you must bounce back from it. Often rejection isn’t
personal, so move on fast. Rejected? Send the piece to someone else. Do it. Now.
Six
Courage
Any kind of
writing takes a lot of courage—but personal essay writing and memoir probably
takes the most. Because you can’t hide behind the façade of another character
when the main character is you. The more personal your writing is and the more
you’re scared to tell a certain story, the better it probably is. Good luck
with that.
Seven
Separation
from the page
You must be
able to separate writing about your life from your actual life. This is very
important when it comes to personal essays. Remember: when you put yourself on
a page, it’s a portrayal of yourself. It is NOT you.
Eight
An ability
that allows you to never read the comments
Do not
click. Do not feel compelled to click. You should not care what JohnBoy123
thought about your piece. Be able to talk to the world at the same time you
ignore it. Then you’ll have the courage it takes to put the next piece out
there because you won’t still be questioning the comment from HeyImABitchYo
about the latest piece you wrote.