What is a writers most important characteristic

[Bashiku]

Well as I said in title, I want to see what is for you the writers most important ability, characteristic and so on...
For me, well I mostly like descriptive writers that know how to keep a reader occupied with story, while a hidden plot is going on in background, and when it develops it surprises you, cause you didn't knew it would happen, but you were implied on that.

 

[blackmagicjack1]

A writer should love to write, everything else is gravy.

 

[MistressValerie1]

I feel that a basic knowledge of grammar and style is paramount. I don't even bother to read stories which are typed as a single, giant paragraph or which lack capitalisation or punctuation. After that, cleverness and good descriptions are important to me.

 

[Duke Diablo]

Most important thing in a writer is a respect for his characters. He must respect each and every one of his creations, even if he/she dislikes that character.
Also, everything what Bashiku said counts as equally important🙂 It's kind of hard to respect a character you didn't even describe properly... makes them look a lot like cannon fodder.

 

[Bashiku]

Tahira method eh Duke... 😀 Missy Val of course grammar and style are essential, well not really essential, but they are bones of the good writer. Without them there is no flesh, aka story. Blackmagicjack I agree with you on writers will to write, but if he doesn't like to write he shouldn't have started in the first place. And yes everything else is gravy 😀

 

[Duke Diablo]

Tahira method eh Duke... 😀

I KNEW you were going to say that... and I really wonder why I didn't mention it in the first post, with a disclaimer😀
I liked Tahira as a character, and I had respect for her. She was herself, to the end, I fleshed her out as much as I could, and she was in no way just a cannon fodder to me. The fact that she died doesn't mean I didn't like her character... there was no way to save her without some 'divine intervention'... and besides, her death has a purpose, though it is not yet revealed in Enterion.
Respecting a character doesn't mean not killing him/her. It means fleshing them out, treating them equally, trying to explain everyone's point of view, and not killing them out of whim (trust me, I didn't kill any of my characters without a purpose).

 

[Bashiku]

Still that was cruel fleshing out... in literal sense 😀
Well I understand you fleshed her out, but her death was really heartbreaking... for those who don't know what I am talking about go read Duke's Enterion. Great artist, but even greater tormentor... 😀

 

[Journia]

Patience. That is the ultimate characteristic that evry writer must have. Without patience, the story may be begun, but never finished, like so many stories I write. In that same tangent, one could say, the greatest quality would be the ability to not procrastinate on a story and follow it through to the end. If either one of these qualities are not used, the story wouldn't even be there for the reader to read in the first place.

 

[Bashiku]

Speaking of which Journia what happened with that war games serial you were doing?
I quite enjoyed it until you stopped writing 🙁

 

[Journia]

Patience Bashiku...I am fighting the monster of Procrastination...😀

 

[Bashiku]

Well tell me where this Pocrastination lives and I will take care of it 😀

 

[Cbarton]

Being true to your characters and not insulting the intelligence of the readers. If you fail on these, they don;t come back. If the integrity of the story is violated, then you lose the reader there and in the future.