This will probably be among the few times I’d try to post anything motivational but oh well, the randomness that is me, remembers things at random. Anyways, to become one thing, you need to be a lot of things first. This was something a friend’s mom used to tell us when we hung out at her place and she would catch us drawing or doing exchange prompts for fun. She would always check out the things we did often too and told us what we could improve on, it was nice.
At those times, we never really understood what that meant but as I grew older I understood her. Like with the idea that to be a good writer, you need to be a good reader, observer, thinker, speaker and judge of text. Same with being a good artist. I came to understand that to achieve one thing, a web of other disciplines needs to be understood too. You can never know only one thing. There should never be such a thing as a master of one thing. It was always a better thought to be a jack of all trade, a master of none. At least that’s what I was taught.
On my experience with writing, either as a content and research writer from before or as a free writer now, reading will and always be the biggest discipline you should really come to master. And it’s not just being able to read but to understand the meaning and gravity behind each sentence and even word. As well as the aspect of being able to judge the texts you read. You will never figure out how to judge those unless you don’t read enough so read! Read! Read!
There’s also with the idea of being a good speaker. Good writers are often seen as good speakers because they can get into the minds or capture the attention of their readers. You definitely don’t need to be a psychologist to do this; but you do need to be a good observer of people that came before you and of your audience. I’m not telling you to copy them but learn from them and incorporate what them to your own style.
In the end, all the things you did for the sake of writing will eventually help you create your own style, your own voice and a very solid opinion and that, I think, is what really attracts people towards writings, stories and poems. Because people can see that you can justify what you’re writing and not just make empty claims you can't justify. There’s nothing more attractive than passion, am I right?
a determined educated mind is a very powerful thing, don't waste it embrace it.