How many of you have a stack of writing books, half-read or untouched? Got any more stashed away anywhere? How often do you go through the lists of writing skills books on Amazon, looking for that one book that will change your life? You click on “Inside the Book”, see what the contents are, read the free previews, all the time searching, looking for a magic formula. You know the one you are looking for; the formula that will remove all self-doubt that you are perhaps not as good as you think you are.

Books are wonderful things; they can teach us so much. They can take us to a new world. Take us out of our ordinary lives and into one filled with magic and wonder. The trick is in finding the right books, the powerful tomes that are written by the trusted masters. And so we keep looking.

Every now and again, you come across a real gem, a book that strikes right at the heart of your biggest issues at the time. That book changes your writing, it changes you and it changes your life. You see, becoming a true master at anything, not just writing, requires that you continue to learn, continue to practice and continue to hone and upgrade your skills. Before you can even think about finding that one book that will change everything, there are three disciplines that you, as a writer, must develop.

Honesty

And I mean brutal honesty, raw honesty that will allow you to see your work objectively. You must learn to accept that not everything you write will be worth publishing. You must learn to accept that first drafts are just that and that many more must come before the final draft is ready. You must be able to analyze every word you write with objectivity, dispassionately and unemotionally – this is one of the single most valuable skills you will ever have. Not only will it make your writing stronger, it will teach you to handle bad criticism thrown your way by an editor.

Learn to Appreciate Linguistics

You must develop an eye and an ear for how the language flows. All good writing follows a rhythm; read a book that truly resonates with you and you will understand what that means. Study books written by your favorite author, study the way they balance illusion with metaphor and surprise; aim to inject it into your own writing. If you can’t appreciate the sheer poetry of a best-selling writer then you can’t learn to cultivate the same in your own writing.

Be Curious

Insatiably so! Lap up everything that can possibly teach you how to improve your own writing. Learn everything you can about how to deal with constructive criticism, how to sit with your writing and edit until it is perfect.

Writing is solitary and learning to improve can be like punishment with no guidance and no reassurance. We can learn from books and we can learn from others, but success is down to you and you alone.

Next, we look at writer development.