8 Traits That Indicate Aptitude for Writing. A fun quiz for writers
Typing isn’t the same as writing
Some days, ideas erupt from my head like errant children bursting from the school bus on a day trip to the zoo.
So disorderly, you can barely keep track of them all.
Michael, where are you. I hear you. Get over here. Chris, Mandy, you too. I have cookies!
The problem with ideas is they pay no mind at all and can’t be chastised into some semblance of cooperation or tempted with cookies like errant children.
Some writers think ideas make the writer.
Entrepreneurs often think the same, pleading for an NDA before they share their best ideas lest someone steal that idea and I laugh.
No, no. Ideas only whisper of a creative mind still rebellious enough to have resisted the slow suffocation of divergent thinking that we call school.
It’s not the ideas.
It’s what you do with the ideas that matter.
Are you a real writer?
There’s been a glut of “real” writer posts in my feed lately, as though judgement is on a fresh roll, or perhaps the feed is just drunk.
So many of those “real writer” laments are filled with nonsense and silliness, like saying if you aren’t posting daily you’re not a real writer. Is that not the dumbest thing you’ve ever read?
My sister does not stand on a stage and sing daily, yet she’s no less a singer.
First time I got paid to be in a print magazine was 20 years ago and I don’t publish every day. Frequency is no measure of anything, save perhaps click metrics on the title. Click bait works precisely because it pushes buttons.
It got me thinking about what does make a someone a “real” writer. Or at least indicate an aptitude for it.
I mean, there’s some truth to the “real” writer concept. Typing and writing aren’t the same anymore than hearing and listening are the same.
So I found a new rabbit hole and dived in to see what those who ought to know say about being a real writer.
How do you know if you’ve the aptitude to be a real writer? 9 ways, apparently. At least that I could find.
1. Is writing difficult for you?
Ironic that a lot of the people who talk about “real” writers find it so easy to write. Often they’re not so much writing as talking with a keyboard.
William Zinsser, who wrote the hands down best book about writing said if writing seems hard, that’s because it is hard. There’s much to think about. Like, did you say that in the clearest way you can? Do you have excess words in there that cloud the concept you’re trying to get across.
If you just open the page and vomit something on the screen and hit publish, odds are you’re not really “writing” so much as talking in print. And there’s nothing wrong with that, if it’s what you like to do.
But once you start examining your own work for clarity and fluff and reading it aloud to see where the reader will stumble — that’s the mark of a writer.
“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” ― Thomas Mann
2. Do you read?
Here’s a little secret. There’s two ways to learn to write. One is through education, which is very hit and miss. If you have a teacher like William Zinsser or Gary Provost, you’re off to a good start.
Thing about teachers is that they are not all equal at the job any more than all artists or musicians or doctors, for that matter. I once ran across a teacher who instructed students not to use metaphor and had a deep love of cliche.
The other way to learn good writing is to read. There’s an old saying that we are what we eat. It’s not just the physical body. Reading is to the mind what eating good food is to the body. You read, you absorb and it feeds you.
If you read (anything) simply for pleasure, and you also like to write, you have more writing aptitude than the people finger wagging about frequency.
“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time or the tools to write. Simple as that.” ― Stephen King
3. Do you get a little crazy if you stop writing?
Some people talk about “wanting to” write. Others write simply because they must. They can’t “not” write.
Many well known and famous writers have commented on that compulsion to write. William Carlos Williams said all writing is a disease. You can’t stop it.
George Orwell felt driven by a demon he couldn’t understand or resist.
Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. — George Orwell
F. Scott Fitzgerald said writers don’t write because they want to say something. They write because there is something that must be said.
But perhaps Kafka said it best when he described non-writing writers as monsters courting insanity.
I can relate. If I don’t write for a while because life has other demands of me, I feel myself descending into the pit. Writing is the way to crawl out of it. If that sounds familiar, check the imaginary checkbox.
“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.” — Franz Kafka
4. Do you see story ideas everywhere?
Do you see ideas everywhere and save ideas everywhere? Do you have a notebook or five filled with things you must (must!) write about? Maybe you save them in your phone, or carry a tiny notebook with you everywhere.
Let me tell you a secret. Most people don’t see ideas anywhere. They are little but one way conduits, consuming, consuming. Receiving input that will be replaced by other input and summarily forgotten. Blind to story ideas.
Writers see story ideas all around. A raised voice. A bird on the fence. The man with the parrot under the bridge. Memories, too. We remember and suddenly there’s a story that needs to be told.
“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” — Orson Scott
5. Are you willing to work at it?
We love stories about prodigies, don’t we? The child who sits at the piano and plays classical music without ever learning to read music. The old woman who retires from farming and magically paints like a master.
In reality, the prodigy is as rare as the proverbial needle in a haystack. For the rest of us, expertise is the result of hard work. Talent is but an indicator of aptitude, but the real measure is in the work we do to improve.
Are you willing to work at it? Willing to learn which mistakes you are making and work at breaking your bad habits? If you work at your craft, and strive to learn how to improve, that’s a sure sign writing calls your name.
Because those folks that talk with a keyboard? They don’t. They are the people who complain about writing advice and prefer to think all we need to is type exactly how we speak.
“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” — Steven King
6. Are you persistent?
Nothing in life goes smoothly, best I can tell. Everything has rough spots, from work to relationships to hobbies. You’re doing well, everything is smooth sailing and then the winds of change blow in choppy waters.
The key is, do you keep coming back to it. I don’t care how long you struggle for. It doesn’t matter how long you stop for, whether it’s a one week hiatus, or days, months, years. Do you come back to it. Do you persist?
Because listen, it is the things that we keep coming back to like a little Jack Russell digging at a bone that matter. That which persists speaks volumes. If you have always written, and probably always will write, you are a writer.
It’s not about skill level, and don’t ever let anyone tell you that. It’s simply about knowing what calls you and will not stop whispering your name.
“You don’t start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it’s good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That’s why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.” ― Octavia E. Butler
7. Do you get lost in writing?
According to Gallup, almost 90% of people hate their jobs. For 20 years, they’ve polled millions of employees from nearly 200 countries about their level of job satisfaction.
Know how they define job satisfaction? By emotional connection. Year after year, most people feel “emotionally disconnected” from their work.
The opposite also holds true. We seldom hate that which feels emotionally rewarding. Is that writing, for you?
Is writing a chore you do with hopes of sufficient pay at the end of the labor, or do you get lost in words and story and have no idea where the hours went?
Often, when we shut out the critics and finger-waggers and advice givers, we already know, in our gut, what is right for us. Knowing isn’t the problem. Hearing that little voice that knows is the real struggle.
“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” — Gloria Steinem
8. Do you question your writing skill?
Do you question whether you have what it takes? Wonder if you’re good enough? Fear maybe you aren’t? I promise you, that’s the surest sign you have the aptitude. I’ll let Pressfield’s words stand on their own here.
“If you find yourself asking yourself “am I really a writer?” “am I really an artist?” chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.” — Steven Pressfield, the War of Art
Also?
Let me remind you that the Dunning-Kruger Effect has two parts.
The research paper that introduced Dunning Kruger to the world was called Unskilled and Unaware of it. The first part of the study talks about how often unskilled people are unaware that they lack skill.
That’s the part everyone is familiar with. But there’s a second part, and it talks about what happens among people who do have skill and aptitude.
Here’s what happens. Those who do bring skill or aptitude to the table have more doubts than those who possess neither.
There’s a reason for that and it’s this; when you dive in and learn, you see how much there is to be learned. That very awareness of the depth of knowledge is what makes people will skill and aptitude doubt themselves.
As he often does, Bukowski nailed it.
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence. — Charles Bukowski