The Excellent Writer

By Irene S. Roth

There isn’t a lot written about how to become an excellent writer. This is because excellence is a topic that a lot of writers shy away from. They feel that becoming excellent is not something they can aspire to. This may be because many writers don’t feel that they could measure up against the best writers. Some writers believe that they must receive Newberry medals and other international rewards before they can feel excellent in their writing careers. No wonder so many writers don’t feel that they can be their best!

However, to embark on the path towards excellence, you don’t need to receive this kind of outside recognition. There are other ways to embark on the path to excellence, ones that are within your control through the intentional and habitual choices that you make. In other words, there is a way of understanding excellence that it is conducive to improving from the inside by small increments as opposed to achieving excellence through public recognition which comes to but a few lucky writers.

Therefore, I believe it is necessary to create a new paradigm of excellence for writers through which the writer is in the driver’s seat and can achieve excellence from the inside-out, one small intellectual step at a time. This new paradigm is based on the inner arena of excellence. I shall explain it in more detail in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Irene S. Roth
• Release date: Nov 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215054994

Irene S. Roth

Irene S. Roth, MA is an academic and freelance writer. She writes academically, for teens and tweens and adults. When she isn't writing, she is teaching. She is also pursuing a Master's of Social Work Degree.

Book preview

There isn’t a lot written about how to become an excellent writer. This is because excellence is a topic that a lot of writers shy away from. They feel that becoming excellent is not something they can aspire to. This may be because many writers don’t feel that they could measure up against the best writers. Some writers believe that they must receive Newberry medals and other international rewards before they can feel excellent in their writing careers. No wonder so many writers don’t feel that they can be their best!

However, to embark on the path towards excellence, you don’t need to receive this kind of outside recognition. There are other ways to embark on the path to excellence, ones that are within your control through the intentional and habitual choices that you make. In other words, there is a way of understanding excellence that it is conducive to improving from the inside by small increments as opposed to achieving excellence through public recognition which comes to but a few lucky writers.

Therefore, I believe there are two arenas of excellence for writers: the inner and outer arena. I will examine each of the arenas of excellence below.

From the outer arena, excellence can only be achieved by writing a good quality work that when completed is recognized and measured by committees and agencies. So, outer excellence is achieved ONLY if others approve your work and assess it to be of superior quality.

This kind of assessment is usually made by a small panel of individuals who believe (in their professional opinions) that your manuscript is of superior quality when compared to other manuscripts. So, this view is subjective and highly dependent on a small group of individuals making the assessment. The writer has completely no control over how these individuals will judge their work. This is why the outer arena of excellence is much more problematic for writers.

One of the main reasons the outer arena makes writers weaker and less prone to becoming excellent is because the process of being judged excellent is out of their control. It is basically controlled by a group of individuals who don’t know the writer and who can only assess the quality of their work and determine how it fares when compared to other writers in similar genres.

Can this be a complete and personally progressive measure of excellence? I believe this is one way for writers to become sensitive and lack self-confidence because there is only miniscule potential in this arena for achieving long-term excellence.

Therefore, I believe it is necessary to create a new paradigm of excellence for writers through which the writer is in the driver’s seat and can achieve excellence from the inside-out, one small intellectual step at a time. This new paradigm is based on the inner arena of excellence. I shall explain it in more detail below.

The Inner Realm of Excellence

In this inner realm, the writer is in control of how to embark on the path of excellence. For this path to excellence to make us stronger, it should build inner strength and resilience. But what is more, it will also help the writer become more self-assured and able to handle the ups and downs of being a writer.

One of the main reasons why the outer paradigm of excellence seems wrong-headed to achieve long-term excellence is because excellence seems to be a gateway that a writer can only walk through by persistence. But how can it merely be a gateway or a passage that is achieved if the acceptance and assessment of one’s writing is done from an arena that is out of the writer’s control and reach?

I believe that the outer paradigm of excellence for writers reinforces an image of excellence that is masqueraded by uncertainty and unpredictability. Excellence cannot thrive in this kind of environment. Instead, excellence is something that develops from the inside over time by developing certain mindsets and mental capacities. So, it is important for the writer to practise the inner paradigm of excellence to become her best.

Therefore, in this e-book, I will offer several habits to help you develop this new paradigm of excellence. I will outline thirty habits of excellence that, if practised consistently,