Certain qualities differentiate amateur writers from professional ones. For example, amateurs sometimes have little regard for criticism. They’re happy with the way their work is, not with the way it could be. Professionals are different. They’re in pursuit of what’s better, and “better” often necessitates criticism’s thrashing.
Work Hard
So let me tell you something, if you want to be taken seriously you need to get up and make it happen, because you can’t do nothing if you don’t make a move. There’s work to do…Work. Oh, you gotta work. — The Washington Projects
Write Right Enters the Battle Room
Change the Stakes
Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You’re looking at this backward. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience.
— Acts 21:13, The Message
Have Fun
To be a writer and an artist is to be given a gift and a responsibility. I am to care for the gifts and talents I have been given. At the same time, I should have fun with them.
How to be a Better Writer: Keep a Commonplace Book
Douglas Wilson, in Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life, recommends keeping a commonplace book. I agree. It’s important to have a place to store favorite words, lines, and passages.
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