What makes for a good writer? Experience, education, luck, what? Maybe all, but the major ingredient is personality. Simply, a writer's personality has everything to do with who they are. Experience, luck, and all kinds of other "success formula" put out in well meaning articles and "how to" writing advice notions may play some part, but nothing overshadows the personality factor. I think probably for my part, no collective group of dedicated human beings need encouragement more that those of us who put words on paper. For most of us, we have it in our souls and for years, we've been fed the well meaning same tired formulas: the idea that if you do certain things or follow particular paths, we will eventually hit it and be successful. And, for most of us, success equals being published.
It is not that various meaningful writing philosophies don't contribute to success, but the well meaning advice almost never takes into account the individual personality. Here's a good example from a recent "come on" advertisement that seemingly came from Writer's Digest but makes my point:
THE SUCCESSFUL HABITS OF SUCCESSFUL WRITERS Be inspired. You are in charge of your own success, be proactive, release yourself from the fear of rejection, be excited.
See what I mean. Even if this is helpful, doesn't mean that all of us are onto it and why: Different Personalities.
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I have been writing all my life. I love to write about writing and constantly am discovering stuff on which I want to comment. After I began the blog, I decided that I wanted to use it to edit my next book, a family memoir. Originally, I was going to revise a previously written book, The Personality Factor, based on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator which could be incredibly helpful to writers. I am going to get back to it.
