What Makes a Writer? How Do Early Influences Shape, and Working Habits Develop, Those Who Write?

Abstract

This paper, the first of several, reports on a research survey of more than 900 authors to investigate the early influences on writers and their current practices, motivations and benefits, and the barriers they face. It demonstrates that writers of all ages and health profiles derive immense satisfaction from their craft despite often despite often having to employ elaborate time-management strategies to make space for their writing. A particular feature of the survey was the outstanding quality and quantity of the answers to the open-ended questions; these provide great insight into the author voice. The survey, which aimed to fill a research gap into writer motivation and which is thought to be one of the largest of its kind could be of interest to writers themselves, the creative economy, the education sector, the health sector and to those connected with the happiness agenda.

Learning From a Return to School

“…Perhaps they could remember a time in middle school when they won the class poetry contest, or a time when they spent days writing a story only to receive a D with red ink splattered all over the words. Early writing experiences often shape a student's confidence or lack of confidence in their writing (Baverstock & Steinitz, 2019), and sharing a moment from their distant past is usually easy for students. This low stake assignment was the first step in building trust.…”