10 Success Writing Tips from J.K. Rowling

Improve your writing skills with advice from the very best.

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J.K. Rowling built an empire from the boy with a scar on his forehead. She constructed an empire from her fingertips through hard work.

Here are her top 10 success writing tips to share that helped her on the way to stardom.

• Failure is your friend. It helps you discover who you really are. Through our failures we gain strength. We pick ourselves up from our failures, try again, and are resolve and passions are fortified.
• Take action. Don’t let your ideas sit in your head. Write one page a day. Over a year you will have a book.
• Expect criticism: J.K. Rowling says that when criticism gets you down you should watch a funny cat video. You can’t please everyone.
• Remember your humble beginnings: This will keep you focused and authentic. You will realize how far you have come.
• Believe in yourself: You have to dare to believe in your own talent. If you don’t, find someone who does.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

You will be scared. There will be fear. As writers we are exposing the vulnerable parts of ourselves. Use that fear to do you best work. Rowling identified her greatest fear as the fear of failure. She goes on to recount that seven years after her university graduation she was, by any objective measure a failure. She found herself divorced, unemployed, a single parent and quite poor. In other words, her greatest fear had become a reality.

• Life is more than a checklist of achievements: Think of a time when you where happiest in your life. If you could turn back time, where would you be.
• Never give up: We never know where this journey will lead. J.K. Rowling says that we can only do what we were born to do. We should hang on and enjoy the ride.
• Your dreams can come true: She says it only takes one single “yes” to launch a writing career. It took her more than two years and a dozen rejections before she sold her famous Harry Potter books.

Imagine Better: We have the power to do that. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.

Happy writing.