Signs You're Not Ready to be a Professional Writer

Here are a handful of examples that show you either aren't a writer, or that your current manuscript will be going nowhere. Some are actual examples from people I've helped out, others are from my own learning, and some are, hopefully, common sense. Don't fret though! This isn't written so much to poke fun at people (except maybe myself), rather it's a list that you want to use to evaluate and see if there's a mindset you need to change if you want to continue writing.


1. You fantasize more about writing than you actually write.

2. You don't even have a name for it yet.

3. You slam something out and then immediately ask someone to read it.




"Who is she insult Untitled. the epic I wrote in only two hours?

4. You have picked out the actors who will play the main roles of the movie adaptation.

5. You think it will be the next X (X being whatever is a best-seller. Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games.)

6. You refuse to make any edits. This book is your baby!

7. You refuse to change any characters. They are your children!

8. You spend more time watching your Sim write a novel than you do actually writing a novel.

She wrote a bestseller!...but you still have only 5 pages on your own work. 

9. Writing feels too much like homework, and you never do your homework.

10. You will only accept your single short story to be published by an actual publisher, in hardback, no exceptions.

11. When someone critiques your story, you are crushed when they point out something wrong with it.

12. u r a bad speler

13. u hav bad gramer 2

14. You write in a genre because it's currently popular.

15. You write because you want to make gobs of money.

16. Once you finished writing, you're done, no changes needed at all.

17. You assume an editor will just fix everything.

18. You don't read.