Roald Dahl's 7 tips for becoming an author

Last night I was reading The Dahlmanac: A year with Roald Dahl, it is a month to month book of facts and information about Roald Dahl, a British novelist, short story author and screenwriter. You may be familiar with many of his stories which has been made into films like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , James and the Giant Peach, my personal favourite Matilda , The BFG, The Witches which become classics in their own time.

As I read through the book I came across Roald Dahl's 7 tips for becoming an author. I realized that some of it was quite appropriate for bloggers so I thought I will share it with you.

Roald Dahl's 7 tips for becoming an author:

1. You should have a lively imagination.

2. You should be able to write well. You should be able to make a scene come alive in the reader's mind. Not everybody has this ability. It is a gift and you either have it or you don't.

3. You must have stamina. In other words, you must be able to stick to what you are doing and never give up for hour after hour, day after day, week after week and month after month.

4. You must be a perfectionist. That means you must never be satisfied with what you have written until you have written it again and again, making it as good as you possibly can.

5. You must have strong self-discipline. You are working alone. No one is employing you. No one is around to give you the sack if you don't turn up for work, or to tick you off if you start slacking.

6. It helps a lot if you have a keen sense of humour.

7. You must have a degree of humility. The writer who thinks that his work is marvellous is heading for trouble.

Well, that's a lot of work. . . let's see. . . I have lot of imagination but the problem is putting my thoughts in words, sometimes I could not find the right word to use to say something.

I can truly say that I have strong self- discipline, but my biggest challenge is time. Though, I am blogging as a hobby I would like to pursue it a little farther. I have only been in the blogging world for a few months I found out that it is full of opportunities but you must learn the art of blogging. Nothing comes easy, so I have to armed myself with a lot of spare time, practice, tips, techniques and some help from the expert. As Roald Dahl said don't forget to have a degree of humility.