Six Traits of Successful Authors: Cultivating Good Habits with Literary Mentorship

When we talk about an author’s success, the temptation is to focus on the outcomes—bestselling books, literary awards, enduring cultural influence—rather than the habits, mindsets, and creative attributes that allow such work to come into being in the first place. If we look closely, across centuries, genres, and styles, certain traits tend to emerge. These qualities, while they may be partially innate, can be sharpened and sustained under the guidance of a creative writing mentor. Mentorship provides the perspective and discipline needed to cultivate the habits that lead to lasting change.

One of the most visible attributes of successful authors is persistence. Many of the writers whose names we now revere faced rejection, commercial failure, or outright dismissal early in their careers. J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter manuscript was rejected by a dozen publishers before finding a home; Stephen King famously threw the draft of Carrie in the trash, only to have his wife fish it out and encourage him to keep going. Persistence is the ability to re-engage with the work after setbacks, and to revise and reshape without succumbing to discouragement. A mentor can help sustain this kind of persistence by reframing rejection as a normal part of the creative process and by offering constructive feedback that keeps the writer’s energy moving forward rather than collapsing inward. A mentor’s belief in the work steadies the writer during those inevitable periods of rejection and uncertainty.

Closely related to persistence is the capacity for disciplined work. While popular imagination sometimes envisions the novelist as a creature of sudden inspiration, the reality is that most successful authors write with a rigorous, daily practice. Anthony Trollope, who produced forty-seven novels, was known to write for three hours each morning before heading to his job at the post office. Haruki Murakami keeps to a precise routine, rising early to write for several hours, then running or swimming before returning to his desk. Such discipline allows a writer to move through the long, often meandering process of drafting and revising, transforming raw material into finished work. A mentor can be instrumental here, helping the writer set realistic goals, create deadlines, and hold themselves accountable. The mentor is a motivating presence that keeps the momentum alive when the initial excitement of a project begins to fade.

Another hallmark of successful authors is an openness to revision—an ability to see the work not as a fixed expression of self, but as a malleable object that can and should be improved. James Joyce is said to have spent an entire day writing two sentences, only to spend the next day revising them. F. Scott Fitzgerald extensively reworked The Great Gatsby, shifting its structure and approaching its themes in new ways. The willingness to dismantle and rebuild one’s own work requires humility and a certain detachment from ego, as well as a clear-eyed understanding of what serves the story best. Here, mentorship plays a particularly vital role: a skilled mentor can help the writer identify what is essential and what is expendable, offering an outside perspective that reveals blind spots. Over time, the writer learns to internalize this editorial eye, developing the capacity to critique their own work with increasing accuracy and generosity.

A less obvious but equally important attribute is curiosity—the hunger to observe, question, and explore. Charles Dickens wandered the streets of London at night, soaking in the details of its neighborhoods, overhearing conversations, and storing away the raw material that would become the lifeblood of his fiction. Joan Didion’s essays are rooted in a fierce attentiveness to the texture of American life, from politics to pop culture to the shifting mood of a California street. Writers who cultivate curiosity keep their work alive by continually engaging with the world and with their own evolving questions. Mentorship can support this habit by directing a writer’s curiosity toward productive exploration—encouraging them to read more widely, experiment with narrative structures, and take creative risks that feel outside their comfort zone.

Empathy also emerges again and again as a trait of successful authors. Writers need to be able to inhabit another’s feelings fully enough that they become textured and specific on the page. Toni Morrison’s novels breathe with the complex interior lives of characters whose histories and struggles might otherwise be flattened or erased. George Eliot’s Middlemarch is celebrated for the generosity with which it renders even its most flawed characters. For a writer, empathy expands the range of what is possible—it allows for characters who are fully realized beings with their own contradictions. A mentor can nurture empathy by challenging the writer to go deeper into character psychology, to look beyond stereotypes, and to remain attentive to the subtleties of human behavior that make fiction feel alive.

Finally, successful authors tend to be adaptable. The literary landscape changes constantly—genres rise and fall in popularity, publishing models shift, reader expectations evolve. Margaret Atwood has moved fluidly between poetry, short fiction, dystopian novels, and serialized online storytelling. Kazuo Ishiguro’s work spans from historical fiction to speculative narratives, each informed by his distinctive style but unbound by a single category. Adaptability ensures that a writer’s creative voice can continue to find expression even as external circumstances change. A mentor encourages the writer to experiment without losing sight of their core strengths, and provides strategies for navigating the shifting realities of the publishing world.

When we gather these attributes—persistence, discipline, openness to revision, curiosity, empathy, adaptability—we notive an interwoven set of habits and mindsets. Some may be stronger in one writer than another; each can be cultivated over time. The creative writing mentor’s role is to help the writer recognize and strengthen these capacities in ways that align with their voice and ambitions. Mentorship can be especially transformative because it combines technical guidance with emotional support, creating a space where the writer can take creative risks without fear of judgment.

For emerging authors, this relationship can be the difference between drifting away from a promising project and seeing it through to completion. The most successful authors are those who combine talent with the willingness to grow, adapt, and endure. These attributes may begin as faint inclinations, but through practice, experience, and thoughtful guidance, they become the enduring strengths that sustain a writer across the arc of a career.