Editor’s Picks— Top 10: Why New Writers Fail To Create High-Quality Work

Let’s have a look at our top 10 stories today

Do you know the three mistakes every new writer makes?

First, they let a single failure define their ability. I still do that. New writers are on a quest to prove that they are not good writers.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter failed 12 times when she sent the manuscript to different publishers. Later she earned more than a billion dollars writing his novel series.

James Patterson has sold more than 375 million mystery and thriller novels. In his commencement speech at the University of Florida, he explained how rejection is a part of success:

“When I was 25, I wrote my first novel, a mystery called ‘The Thomas Berryman Number.’It was turned down by 31 publishers. It then won an Edgar Award as the ‘best first mystery novel of the year.” ~ James Patterson

Instead of fearing rejection, you should, as a new writer, seek rejection to become a better writer.

Second, most of the newbies want instant success. Not knowing the nonlinear nature of the writing process, they put too much burden on themselves. The stress quashes their creativity.

Hurried writing fails to grab attention. With little creative juice, the new writer produces a writing piece that only says one thing, “I was written by a new writer who was in a hurry to hit publish.”

Not many people like the quickies.

Find a calm voice. Third, they don’t try to learn from great writers. Read more writing guides. Let the masters of the past inspire you. Read Ernest Hemingway, E.B. White, William Zinsser, William Strunk, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Ann Lammot, Julia Cameron, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Steven Pinker. On Medium, you can read Seth Godin, Ryan Holiday, Jeff Goins, Darius Foroux, and Susan Orlean. If you like condensed summaries — 2 minute reads — then read my writing tips in the Top 10 series.

When you read the greats, do not compare your first drafts with their painstakingly finished masterpieces.

The new writers should remember these three things — 1) don’t fear rejection, 2) don’t hurry to hit publish, and 3) learn to find your voice.

You can copy your favorite writer’s style. Try to match his or her depth of message and shortness of sentences. See how boldly they express their ideas. See how they finish paragraphs and start new ones. Be the child who has a limitless curiosity to find out more.

When you start with a unique insight, support it with other work, and do your best to create a masterpiece, your job is over. If the publisher rejects your piece, you either need to learn more or submit it elsewhere.

If you are confident about the basics, you can improve the quality of your writing. Once people start appreciating your work, you’d feel more confident about making mistakes and learning from them.

When you are willing to make what seems like your biggest mistake, you are ready to create a masterpiece.

Here is a list of our top 10 stories today — by writers who can handle stress better than others:

10. How Emerson’s Secret of Life Will Make You a Brave Person

I wrote this piece. It is a 2-minute read but took 3 hours to ‘write+edit’. It got curated. I am tempted to put it at number 1. But I won’t. If you like it, just leave a comment saying it deserved to be in the top 10.

What do you want from life? That depends on who you are. But for the most part, it depends on understanding what life needs from you to go on.

Life is a force of nature. It goes against the general order of the day: the disorder increases in the world as time passes. When life starts — and continues — with full force, it acts against the increasing disorder rule.

9. That was the Last Photo I Took Before Everything Changed

Juliano Righetto says, “We are nearsighted because we are brief.” He is an actor, screenwriter, author, Top Writer 2019 and 2020 on Quora in Portuguese with more than 18 million views.

He is a fine writer. His writing style is elegant, charming, and honest. Do check his other work.

This photo was taken on my wife’s birthday last year, in January 2020. Shortly after her, my life was never the same.

I am an actor and writer. I never had a job without an expiration date. I am always hired on the job, which means staying on the job for a few years and then a few months off until the next job starts.

8. Mamba Mentality for Writers

Talya Adams is a writer, Youtuber, photographer, and wanderer.

She is a superb writer. Her writing style is simple, direct, easy to read, and very engaging. Do check her other work.

“The mindset isn’t about seeking a result — it’s more about the process of getting to that result. It’s about the journey and the approach. It’s a way of life.” — Kobe Bryant, The Mamba Mentality.

I read Kobe Bryant’s “The Mamba Mentality” this past March when the world was shutting down, and I found myself on a flight to Florida to visit my parents. Bad timing for the trip, no doubt, but it was the perfect time to read this book.

7. 4 Unexpected Features of Emotionally Intelligent People

Alberto Romero is half engineer and half neuroscientist with a deep interest in the humanities.

He is a good writer. His writing style is simple, honest, easy to read, and thought-provoking. Do check his other work.

There are a lot of good articles out there about the features of emotionally intelligent people, but most of them focus on the same good, desirable qualities. Here I’ll talk about 4 unexpected features of the emotionally intelligent that are also good to have.

So without further ado, let’s get into it!

6. 7 Key Elements of Effective Communication

Matthew Royse is a writer, marketer, knowledge enthusiast, voracious reader, and a corporate man by day and entrepreneur by night.

He is a fine writer. His writing style is informative, honest, and easy to read. Don’t forget to check his other work.

The game of telephone is familiar to many of us because it has been around for years. There are some most important life lessons we can learn from this game that we learned early in life.

The game of telephone is still popular because it can be played at any age in any situation: school, parties, or family fun night. It shows how many nuances there are to communication, and little misconceptions can make a big difference. The game is fun for us because it helps us generate laughs and teaches an important lesson we forget.

5. How To Not Let Other People’s Productivity Intimidate You

Anjali Samaraweera is sort of a geek and very much a dreamer.

She is a good writer. Her writing style is simple, direct, honest, and easy to read. Don’t miss this one.

As a slow thinker battling depression, I have always struggled to maintain an appropriate level of productivity in my life. My one-hour writing sessions end up with not even 500 words written down on paper. My day is filled with tasks I hope would take one hour but end up taking few hours off my time. On top of that, my brain needs more off-hours than the appropriate numbers suggested by productivity gurus to allow my mind the breathing space so as to not get overwhelmed by work.

4. How Long Should You Wait for Somebody to Love You?

Emily Wilcox says, “I imagine in a parallel universe I might be a caricaturist or a botanist or somewhere asleep on the moon — but here, I am a writer.”

And she is an excellent writer. Her writing style is honest, intense, and very engaging. Don’t miss this one and check her other work.

Pining after a person is, well, much like I imagine swallowing a whole pine cone would be: bloody painful.

It’s debilitating and paralysing and sure, there are cute and hopeful moments sprinkled in between, but the majority are insufferable. I hate it. And yet? It seems to be my biggest hobby.

Want to know the saddest thing I’ve written in my journal?

3. 9 Powerful Lessons I Learned When I Tweet My Articles on Twitter

Tom Handy is an investor writing his thoughts online. He has 7 million views on Quora.

He is an outstanding writer. His style is informative, easy to read, and very engaging. Do check his other work.

As a writer, you should use Twitter to market your work, get reads, followers, and build relationships. I am not an expert marketer but I share my articles hundreds of times a month on Twitter.

I joined Twitter in October 2009. At first, I had no idea what I was doing. All I saw were random messages from people. Twitter is hard to see what everyone is tweeting since there are thousands of tweets every second.

2. A Colorless White World

Holly Kellums is an author, social media influencer, recovery coach, and a human potential activist.

She is an excellent writer. Her writing style is honest, direct, and very engaging. She is a wonderful human being. Follow her, read her, and wait for her next piece.

Writing this title, ‘A Colorless White World’, I get a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. With a title like this, I may generate immediate disgust by some readers. A colorless world doesn’t sound good. And as a white person, I cannot talk about anything societal in my world that is ‘not good’ because of my ‘white privilege’.

1. The Petrified World Of Love

At number one, with her fiction piece, it is Lanu Pitan. She is an avid reader. She is a lover of Nature as Nature is the language of God. Trust your intuition. It is always right.

She is an excellent writer. Her writing style is frank, full of suspense, and very engaging. Do check her other work.

It will be another Valentine soon, and Charlotte is more scared than ever. She is going to spend the day alone. Her past relationships have all ended in disasters, and she is even more afraid of getting into another one. Yet she is a person who desires love (don’t we all?), she is a passionate and wild lover. She doesn’t believe in living a single life. Celibacy and aloneness scared the hell out of her.

This post is part of the Top 10 Series — you can meet 500+ top writers with these links:

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Final Thoughts

If your story was selected in the Top 10, please share another one of your stories with a brief introduction and a short convincing review — in the comments. (Please write the review in the third person and start it with your name.)

I must have missed something today. I cannot read every story on Illumination and Illumination-Curated. I try — and fail daily — to read all of the masterpieces.

I am inviting you to join our private Facebook group for Illumination writers. Also please follow my publication — positive minds.

If you find any mistake, typo, or other error, please leave a private note for correction. Thanks.

To be included as a top 10 writer, read these curation guidelines carefully.

You can read my curated stories here.