Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission at no cost to you if you make a purchase through a link below.
You probably already have the right skills to be an author in 2025. With the rise of AI, original, human-made stories are more important now than ever before!
You may just need an extra push to get started. Here are five ways to know if you should be an author. By the end of this blog post, you’ll better understand if this career is for you.
Reason #1: You enjoy reading other authors.
Let’s begin to see if being an author is for you. The first reason is that you enjoy reading.
Yes, it is as simple as that. If you spend your free time reading various forms of literature, whether fiction or non-fiction, writing is the next step. Reading and writing are connected; they go hand-in-hand.
By enjoying reading, you already have the skills to recognize a story’s format and what makes excellent writing appealing to a reader.
You enjoy the soft, stimulating experience of picturing worlds and characters you haven’t met. You already have the patience that it takes to sit with words, which correlates perfectly to the other side of the picture: writing.
Reading Benefits Everyone
We all should be big readers. Research has shown that reading can promote lifelong health.
Professor Asa Olsen from Gustavus Adolphus College wrote in 2019,
“There is plenty of research on how reading can help us reduce stress, anxiety and blood pressure, and how reading can aid us in sleep readiness and prevent cognitive decline.” (…) “It can be a way to learn and to understand or process our emotions. Reading stories can help us find or explore purpose, hope and vocation, as can telling our own stories.”
Ph.D. Psychologist Aditi Subramaniam reported that
-
- Reading fiction activates the same brain regions as real social experiences.
-
- Stories help build empathy and improve emotional and social intelligence.
-
- Storytelling has been crucial to human cooperation and cultural survival.
-
- Fiction fosters imagination, resilience, and a deeper understanding of others.
Reading fiction or nonfiction is important because it helps build empathy as you immerse yourself in someone else’s story and see the world from new perspectives. Imagine a more empathetic world, where others are kind to those who live differently. That world can be actualized if everyone puts in more effort to pick up a book.
If you enjoy reading but think you are too busy or impatient to get through a full novel, don’t worry! There are many tips and tricks to incorporate reading into your day.
One way is to carry a physical book with you wherever you go and whenever you find yourself about to pick up your phone while waiting, pick up your book instead.
Recommendations:
If carrying around a book is simply unreasonable, I recommend trying a Kindle! I, too, can forget to pack a book with me, or find I am reading a novel that is simply too heavy to lug around.
I highly recommend this option because it saves you money in the long run, if you love collecting books, it’s more transportable, and extremely easy to use. I also love how long the battery lasts, the adjustable brightness, and that I can bring multiple stories with me at a time!
If you have more time in the day for listening, for example, you commonly are driving for long periods of time, going on walks, or simply are accustomed to having headphones in, why not listen to a story instead? Check out Audible for audiobooks.
Audio books have been around for years, helping many get through stories when they don’t have the time or don’t get fulfillment from sitting down with a physical book. Plus, you get to hear different voices, accents, sound effects, and even music.
I would spend hours in the summer listening to a book while crafting, coloring, doing chores, or going on walks. I got through countless novels this way and even re-read some of my favorite stories with professional voice actors keeping me entertained the entire time. I recommend using Audible for your next story.
Not only can you have the same benefits of carrying around a Kindle, which allows you to bring multiple stories with you at a time, but you can also hear a story dramatized in an auditory, theatrical way!
Reason #2: You enjoy your alone time.
Reason two involves solitude.
For starters, you not only make time out of your day to sit with yourself, but you also enjoy it. Being a writer means time spent alone. Ultimately, creative pursuits are most commonly a result of an individual taking a break from socializing, sitting with their thoughts, and allowing their creativity to emerge and become actualized.
If you commonly go out of your way to have alone time and find yourself ready to create, writing is for you.
Reason #3: People have complimented your writing.
The third reason relates to your writing being peer reviewed.
In summary, if you have taken a writing class of any format, written a story or poem, and have received compliments about your writing, then being a writer may be the career for you. Therefore, if your peers or teachers tell you they enjoyed your writing, saw potential in your creativity, or encouraged you to continue, you have the skills to be a writer.
Sometimes we doubt our abilities because we are our own worst critics. However, your value in this area cannot be ignored if others are going out of their way to help you recognize your talent.
Reason #4: You find yourself imagining things differently.
Moving things along, let’s discuss imagination.
Obviously, writers are constantly in their heads. They daydream, reimagine, and visualize not what is but what could be. If you find yourself spaced out thinking about a world that doesn’t exist on this earth, characters you wish were real, or ideas for stories that you just can’t get out of your head, don’t quiet those thoughts!
Let’s take a brief break to talk about purpose.
Importance of Authors
Writers have always been able to show readers the potential of what could be. They are necessary to demonstrate issues that should be challenged. Writers help expose the ridiculousness of the modern world and help readers think about what should be changed.
Without stories, adults couldn’t feel nostalgia. Children couldn’t strengthen their imagination. Sad souls couldn’t see clarity or what makes life worth living. Jovial spirits couldn’t embrace their wimsy.
Humans are storytelling animals! Everything you see online, your interactions with others, even daily entertainment, is all a form of a story.
Recommendations:
I recommend you read The Storytelling Animal to understand fully how we, as a species, have needed stories to survive.
American author Jonathan Gottschall says in his 2012 novel The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human,
“Stories help us navigate life’s complex social problems. Storytelling has evolved to ensure our survival.”
It just takes one story to address distress, praise the amazing aspects of what makes life incredible, or change someone’s opinion.
Writers are necessary for humanity. You could be the change you want to see in the world, one word at a time.
Reason #5: You can sit with the discomfort.
“I’m not a good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter,” -American Author, James Michener.
The fifth way to see if you should be an author is related to discipline.
A professor once told me that a writer’s strength isn’t in the writing- it’s in the rewriting. If you find yourself sitting with what you’ve written and not only enjoy rereading your own words, but also what you want to change, you’ve got what it takes for this career.
Writing down a story is just the beginning. If you truly think being a writer is for you, you have to sit with the discomfort of the first draft. Hardly ever do you keep the original story exactly as you wrote it; you can’t, because you see the potential down the road for what the story could be.
If you read through your story and grasp what alterations you think would improve the story, you can write stories. The start feels daunting, and the first draft feels off. That’s normal!
Ever heard of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut?
I would recommend you read Slaughterhouse-Five if you like war-set, fantastical stories inspired by mental trauma.
You may have even read this classic for school or a book club at some point in your life. This story has reached critically acclaimed levels of distinction for Vonnegut and is now well-known and globally praised. Can you guess how many times he rewrote the story?
About 23 years’ worth of revisions!
Now, you don’t need to follow his example and spend two decades on your work before you call it worthy of publication. However, imagine if Vonnegut had decided to stop at his first draft. Would the story even be published? Would it be as well-known as it is today? The answer is most definitely no.
Vonnegut is just an example of sitting with the discomfort. Not only allowing yourself to feel your discomfort, but also reveling in it. Fully immerse yourself in the story and become eager to create something worthy of an audience’s attention.
If reading your work gets you excited, and editing it and seeing how far your first draft takes you is even more fulfilling, then becoming an author is most certainly for you. What are you waiting for? Get going!
Summary and Conclusion
Now let’s wrap things up.
In summary, the world is constantly changing. Being creative is something that comes naturally to every individual, but it’s up to you to strengthen that skill. With the rise of AI, human-made content is more important now than ever.
Qualifications to be an Author:
-
- So if you enjoy reading in your spare time, why not switch over and create for yourself?
-
- If you take time out of your day specifically to be alone, and then find the need to express yourself creatively, why not try writing?
-
- You have already written stories of any form in the past and had others tell you your work impacted or impressed them; don’t you want to reach a larger audience with those skills?
-
- Each day leads you to daydreaming or visualizing stories. Why keep those worlds in your head when they could be in front of you, on paper or on a screen, to last forever?
-
- And finally, if you have the patience to sit with the discomfort of the early stages of a story and not only see the potential at the finish line, but have the willpower to get yourself there, the answer is clear: you are a writer in the making.
So why let that energy and potential stay stagnant? Your journey can start today! Write the world you wish to remember!