Thursday 13 September 2012

What Makes A Good Writer?



This website offers another opportunity for people to make a bit of money doing some writing.

This time I had to squeeze into 120 words 'what makes a good writer?'

I was gently told I had not been immediately successful but my attempt would be kept on record for future reference. Nevertheless I thought I would share what I managed to come up with in that short space...

What makes a good writer can be considered both objectively and subjectively. Objectively a good writer is simply anyone with excellent spelling and grammar; subjectively this question is more difficult to answer.

Today a good writer is someone who can successfully compete for a reader’s interest against the different media that are only a mouse click away.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a video worth? These media provide so much information in such a small space that they easily capture the ever-shortening attention span of today’s mouse-clickers.

A good writer is someone who is able to avert a reader’s eyes from these flashing lights. Someone who can construct an argument or tell a story in a way that holds the readers attention.  A good writer is someone who can force a reader into taking their time, into becoming engrossed, to really think about something.

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