80% of Your Writing Success Could Rest on These 5 Golden Keys

Stop wasting time on the other 20%

As sure as a fully-loaded vessel crawls across the Panama Canal, success crosses many a writer’s minds now and again.

I don’t know what counts as writing success to you, but I’ll take a punt. You probably want to write a book that makes strong waves online and gets tidal waves of orders crushing in. Like most writers, you’ll love to taste the nectar from your prose petals.

You want many fans to share your articles like kids would pass candy around on the school playground. You want your readers to tell you how the tips in your post lit a bright light in their minds and sparked a seismic shift in their lives.

Don’t we all secretly dream of that? At least I do. That’s the kind of success I hope to enjoy, and I know what will get me there.

How about you, dear reader? Take a moment to write down what writing success means in your book. Only you can do that, or at least you’re the best person.

Having defined success in your own words, let’s talk about some factors you can bank on to keep your boat afloat on your voyage to the banks of writing success.

A tough-as-nails mindset

The first ingredient has to be your mindset, right? Do you believe you can become as successful as you dream? Are you convinced you can vault past the challenges and reach those dizzying writing heights?

Can you see your work inspiring people to change? Do you see your readers sending you emails, thanking you for how your book has changed their lives? Do you believe you can educate, entertain, inform, or motivate your readers?

Good news flash: Like a 15-year-old shepherd would herd his sheep along the lush green countryside of rural West Africa, you can corral your thoughts into the right place. That’s the first obstacle you should aim to overcome.

The internet is bursting at the seams with mindset training courses, and you’re a Google search away from finding one that can help you in that regard.

Will the leopardess within you rise and leap over the mindset hurdle?

An irresistible content

Why did you shell out for that book that kept tugging at you? Probably because it promised to help you solve a problem with which you were wrestling.

It could have offered to teach you how to get your finances back on the fast track to freedom or show you how the author overcame Everest-high odds and built a multi-million-dollar business out of ashes.

The bottom line is it met a need.

Go and do likewise with your next blog post, your next book.

How to produce it

You likely know something only a few others know. Your experiences, your passions, your life, contain tons of resources you can mine and refine for readers. Share the glistening bits of your story with your readers for a start.

Along the way, start spoiling the world with the sweet savor of your knowledge and watch readers make a beeline to you, like ants to a drop of honey.

The evergreen growth process

Even some of the most successful writers remind us of how they keep striving to get better. Need I say anymore? You can’t get any worse than you were last year. But you can become way better. You have to.

Start with the headline, then to the intro, then to the flow of the prose. Head on over to the paragraphs that shape the body and the conclusion at the tail end. What have I left out? A whole lot more.

But I hope you catch the drift. Yes, your readers want to sweat and burn calories, just not while reading your work.

Don’t believe that? Here are two words to remind you; bounce rate. Oh, make it three; high bounce rate. That is the only test you don’t want to score high marks on as a writer. Not for love nor money.

How to grow

You can morph into a better version of your writing self if you want to. Hundreds of trees have paid the price for great writing books across the world, but the silver lining is some of these books are worth every trembling leaf. Look them up at your nearest bookseller or online.

Platforms like Coursera and Edx are well-stocked on writing courses. Here is a comprehensive list of writing courses to help you set sail once you’ve dipped your feet in the writing waters. Let nothing dam the free flow of writing knowledge to your desk.

A well-woven network

Far be it for me to attempt to break new ground on common knowledge by preaching a sermon on networking to the writer’s choir.

All I will do is remind you that the internet has ploughed the field and fertilized it for fruitful networking. Every day is planting season, so start drilling holes and dropping those seeds in. Nurture them, water them, and watch the blades of leaf split the ground open.

How to weave one

While social media is an excellent networking bright light, it is not the brightest bulb in the chandelier that adorns writers’ rooms. What is it, then?

The next article you read (and enjoy), ask the writer how they came by that topic. Email the author of the last book you read and tell her what you learned from her book. Get in touch with readers who reach out to you for similar purposes.

Spread your net wide over the sea of writers. Like fish, some might slip through, and that’s alright. But trust that your hook will attract a few, and they could be your safety net when the water levels recede.

Mountain-moving patience

So you have just sown those seeds, watered them, and tendered tenderly to the seedlings that sprang up. Now, they are growing into cash crops. How long till you make some cash out of the crops?

That’s hard to tell. You might get a lucky break and enjoy some quick success, or it could take you some more seasons.

Only time will tell. But you can’t offend Father time by grumbling into his ears. You can’t go down and dig up those seeds because you can’t see any fruits. Worse, don’t go and burn the farm out of frustration. With time, you’ll reap a bountiful harvest.

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” Leo Tolstoy.

Takeaways

In summary, you control most of your success as a writer. Yes, a whole lot of it depends on you.

First, only you get to define what writing success means to you. Then you create the kind of content that will drive you there. You learn the rules and master them. You now put on a breathtaking show, a near-flawless performance. You network with others and wait patiently for full time.

All that is hard work, yes. But we all have to do it.

That might probably exceed 80% on our subjective scale, but there you go. The other 20%? Well, that’s what you can’t control. Algorithms, SEO, other writers, new reader trends, the global financial market, COVID-19, etc., feature prominently on this list.

I say to leave those as is and get working at your big 80.