Writers are, more often than not, inspired by the work of others. It sounds cliche but it touches on a fundamental truth: the people you admire play a significant role in shaping your writing.
Having a positive role model to look up to is a comfort. As you experience struggles, doubts, and failures, they act as guides to your writing journey.
Writing Role Models
As a new writer, you often mimic your favorite writer’s style, voice, and storytelling techniques. And that’s fine! It’s part of the process of discovering your own approach to the craft.
A writing role model is someone whose work deeply resonates with you, whether they’re an author, content creator, journalist, or even a poet. These are the people whose works you return to time and again, finding new meaning and inspiration with every read.
They provide a blueprint for how to approach different genres, writing challenges, and difficult topics. By studying them, you begin to build your own foundation.
Most importantly, they motivate you to keep writing, even when the process feels impossible. Many writers give up before they even get going. Your role models remind you of just how magical writing can be.
What You Learn from Them
Learning from your writing role models isn’t just about reading their works. It also involves studying, analyzing, and understanding what makes them resonate with you.
Here are a few things you could learn from them:
1. Good writing habits
One reason many writers give up is that they fail to establish good writing habits that keep them consistent and productive. People who’ve built sustainable writing careers understand the importance of making a commitment to write and sticking with it.
Whether it’s following a certain schedule or supplementing it with other activities, you can learn a lot from emulating the processes of how they stay committed.
Of course, many such habits are personalized to each writer and may seem weird at first. Don’t knock them before you try them. You’ll develop your own weird writing habits in time.
2. Storytelling techniques
Excellent writers have mastered techniques to deliver their stories in the best way possible. They have strong attention to detail, understand the importance of structure and flow, and are open to experimentation.
These techniques range from the technical to the more abstract. One might involve the consistent use of literary devices while another entails varying sentence length.
It can be hard to spot these things as the best writers blend them into the background of their works. You might even have to do multiple reads to figure out just why certain passages catch your attention or evoke emotion.
3. Sustainable creativity
A mistake that many writers make is to write only when they’re feeling creative. While that has led to excellent writing, it’s not sustainable, especially if you plan on building a writing career.
If you only write when you’re inspired, it’ll take you a long time to hone your craft and produce quality work. This is why successful writers have found ways to sustain their creativity rather than relying on short bursts of it.
Some writers use writing exercises to get them into a creative mood. Others deliberately constrain their writing to challenge themselves. You can follow their example until you find your own way to be consistently creative.
4. Language mastery
Language is the medium for how you deliver your stories to your audience. It stands to reason that you’ll need to be proficient in its use.
The proper use of words, grammar, syntax, and other technical details greatly affects how your writing is interpreted. While errors don’t necessarily mean bad writing, your audience can tolerate only a certain level of them before being put off. If they can’t parse your meaning, they won’t enjoy your work and probably drop it.
Mastering language also means knowing when to ignore its rules. Writers are famous for this. However, you’ll need to know these rules well enough to purposefully bend or break them in a way that enhances your writing.
5. Self-improvement
Writers are always pushing against the boundaries of writing in an attempt to improve. This means finding ways to experiment, learning to deal with failure, and accepting criticism and feedback.
These are all valuable elements for self-improvement. However, not all people are ready to reflect on their weaknesses and experiences. It takes time and self-awareness to accept your shortcomings as a writer.
This is where your role model comes in. They’ve done this dance a thousand times and can provide clues to how you can grow personally and professionally.
Discovering Your Role Models
The key to discovering your writing role models is to read, read, and read! Have you ever read someone’s work and thought, “I want to write something like that”? That’s probably an indicator that you’ve found someone you’d love to learn from.
Pay attention to the writers whose approach, subject matter, and interests align with yours. Find the reason why their work resonates with you.
Read voraciously and widely. Explore different genres, literary styles, and time periods. By diversifying the writers you encounter, you’ll be able to develop a more nuanced understanding of the craft.
But keep in mind that you are your own writer, not a copycat. Your role models lay the foundation and it’s up to you to build upon it using your unique perspective, experiences, and creativity.
Who are your writing role models? Share them below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- Bad Writing: How to Spot It and Correct It
- Constrained Writing: Definition, Examples, and Benefits
- How to Start Writing: 10 Tips to Help You Seize the Day
- Why Is Writing So Hard? 7 Common Obstacles (and What to Do About Them)
Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
