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Writing is not an easy task. For most, it would mean staring at a blank page. Overcome with a myriad of ideas but not knowing what to put down. Or perhaps not a word in mind.
With the right skills, however, you are sure to keep them ideas flowing and getting onto paper.
What are soft skills?
Soft skills, as opposed to hard skills, are non-technical abilities. These are the characteristics that define you as a person; they define your personality and how you interact with others.
Soft skills include, among others, problem-solving, time management, flexibility, communication, and collaboration.
Unfortunately, soft skills are harder to assess, define, and quantify. As a result, most people find it difficult to develop soft skills.
Difficult, however, does not mean impossible.
Importance of soft skills
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, soft skills define you. So it is important to cultivate your soft skills to better present and market yourself. Not just at work, but also in your personal life.
Although your technical skills are on target, you need soft skills for business continuity, upscale, and value-added service.
Developing soft skills allows you to work more efficiently, achieve your goals, please your customers, and even have a positive influence on others.
Furthermore, the soft skills you learn can also help you in your personal life. It allows you to form new relationships, strengthen existing ones, and improve your mental health.
What are soft skills in writing
There are no right or wrong soft skills. But you do need different soft skills depending on what you are writing. Nevertheless, the basic soft skills you need for writing are the following.
Curiosity
An inquisitive mind trumps the complacent. Curiosity, in addition to strengthening your mental muscles, sharpens your mind’s eye to new ideas. Ideas that you need for your writing.
More importantly, curiosity can lead you away from the basic and conventional thought process and toward an innovative way of presenting a fact, theory, or story.
So, never lose your curiosity if you want to keep writing and improve. Take it from Albert Einstein himself.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. Never lose a holy curiosity. … Don’t stop to marvel.
– Albert Einstein
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand what others are feeling. This is a valuable skill to have in your personal life. Even more so, in your writing career.
The ability to empathize with others, show concern, and be compassionate is essential in our daily lives. It enables us to get along better, work more efficiently, and thrive as a community.
And when it comes to writing, you can use empathy to properly convey the emotions in a situation or event. Or describe something that will elicit feelings from your readers.
“I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.”
– Walt Whitman
Communication skills
Communication skills- written and verbal- are essential for general comprehension. It is concerned with how a message is sent—clearly and concisely—and understood.
In writing, it is critical to use the correct words and phrases for a comprehensive message. Especially since nonverbal cues such as tone, facial expression, and body language are not present.
Listening is another important aspect of communication. This is also essential for writers because it is a great way to gather information and ideas. When you listen carefully, you can gain valuable information and insights.
So, to reiterate, effective communication requires a clear message and proper comprehension. There is no communication without these. George Bernard Shaw put it this way:
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
– George Bernard Shaw
Persuasiveness
The next soft skill a writer should develop is persuasiveness. This is the ability to convince people to see things your way. This is undoubtedly an important sales skill but is equally handy when it comes to writing.
Why? Because it enables you to express your main point, provide facts and research-based argument and support.
Establishing and improving this skill will give you more authority as a writer and of course, a flourishing career.
“There’s magic, positive magic, in such phrases as: “I may be wrong. I frequently am. Let’s examine the facts.”
– Dale Carnegie
Confidence
Confidence is the belief in one’s own abilities. It is a personal matter. Nobody can give it to you; you must build it for yourself.
And when it comes to writing, you have to let your self-confidence shine through. You have to because your readers will base your trustworthiness and expertise on what you write.
Therefore, you must hone the skill of selecting the appropriate words to convey your authority. And show your readers that you know what you’re talking about.
Here’s a good quote on confidence for you:
“Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.”
– Norman Vincent Peale
Organization
It pays to be organized. It saves you time while increasing your efficiency and productivity.
A filing system, a worksheet to track your projects, or a journal for your notes are some tools you can use for organization.
You could argue that writing is a creative process and has no room for structure. However, organization may benefit your writing more than clutter and chaos.
A well-organized workspace allows you to write more clearly. Your readers will understand your point better if it is presented in a well-organized manner. And will be more effective in the long run.
Furthermore, if you have an organized and streamlined process for research, writing, publishing, and marketing, you will be able to write more productively.
Benjamin Franklin certainly knows what he was talking about when he said this:
“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned.”
– Benjamin Franklin
Time management
Starting a career in writing as a freelancer and as a one-person shop is a difficult endeavor. Because you will handle every aspect of the business yourself, from research, writing, and marketing.
But having time management skills will enable you to produce more while staying focused. Here are some tips from freelance writers for the steps you can take to stay productive.
- Turn off distraction- as an example, your laptop should have only one or two tabs open. One for your draft writing and one for additional research or fact-checking.
- Use a timer- set it for 30 minutes or an hour, you do you. But while on the timer, all you need to do is write. When it sets off, you can take a few minutes for water or bathroom breaks. Rinse. Repeat.
- Set goals for yourself- set a monthly, weekly, or daily goal for your writing. Be realistic and make sure that you meet them.
- Reward yourself- make the reward satisfying enough so that you continue with your goal setting and scale your writing career.
- Schedule your day- schedule your writing when you are most energetic such as early in the morning. Or when things are quiet and conducive for writing. This way you get into your ‘flow’.
Creativity
This skill is usually associated with imagination, art, and creation. But creativity is the ability to veer away from normal thought patterns and see ideas, solutions, or opportunities for improvement.
Thus it is an extremely beneficial skill for your career, writing or otherwise.
And, regardless of your writing background or the types of writing you do, you can always benefit from improved creativity.
Here are some exercises you can do to build your soft skill in creativity:
- Expose yourself to various ideas- challenge yourself to learn more about things you don’t particularly care about. It just might open your mind to other thought ideas.
- Writing challenge- design a creative writing challenge for yourself. For example, pick a random word from the dictionary and write something about it. What are your thoughts and feelings about the word, does it resonate with you? Etc.
- Freewriting- is a process where you set yourself a time to write whatever comes to mind. No structure, no need to check for spelling or grammar. You just pour your thoughts on paper, or on the computer screen.
Make some of these activities a regular part of your routine. You’ll soon develop your creativity as second nature.
Patience
Patience according to the dictionary is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.
Confession time: patience is something I need to work on. It can get tough waiting for your blog site to pick up. Even if you know what you’re getting into. That it takes time for a new blog to get traction in search engines, impatience still tends to get the best of you.
Getting back to the subject, patience is another important soft skill that writers should have. Because it allows you to sit back and think things through. Instead of getting frustrated with things that you think should be moving along.
Additionally, patience keeps you level-headed and more focused on your long-term goals. So, whenever you’re getting impatient, remember the words of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau:
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
– Jean-Jacques Rousseau
How to develop soft skills as a habit
Now that you have your list of soft skills to develop for use in your writing career, it’s time to develop them. I don’t mean all of them at once. Hey, I ain’t setting you up for failure. We’ll take it slow.
Here’s how you can develop a soft skill effectively over time.
Start small
The exact number of days it takes time to form a habit varies. But according to experts, a new habit takes anywhere from 18 days to 254 days. The number of days it takes for the habit to stick largely depends on what you are trying to build.
That being said, it pays to start small in your quest for soft skills acquisition.
By going small, you have two things going for you. One is that you will encounter less resistance in your habit change. Making it a little less difficult for you to transition, for example, from being a clutter bug to an organized person.
And two, successfully establishing a soft skill into a habit will give you momentum to continue developing other skills.
Be consistent
Repeating an action consistently over time will turn it into a habit. So, be consistent in doing the skill until such time that it becomes routine to you.
For example, taking a few minutes each day after work to place your writing tools- laptop, pens, journals, and so on- in their proper place helps build your organizing skills. With repetition, you will be able to make it into a habit in no time.
Reward yourself
Rewarding yourself will reinforce the habit. So make sure to set up a good reward system for yourself. It doesn’t have to be grand. A small gesture such as patting yourself on the back for doing the habit will do.
The idea for the reward is to give you a positive feeling each time you do the habit so that you will want to do it repeatedly.
Summary
To summarize, soft skills, as opposed to hard skills, are non-technical abilities that include problem-solving, time management, flexibility, communication, and collaboration among others.
Soft skills are important because of the following reasons:
- Allows you to market and present yourself better,
- Helps with business continuity, upscale, and value-added service,
- Allows you to work more efficiently,
- Achieve your goals,
- Please your customers, and
- Have a positive influence on others.
With these benefits, here are the 9 soft skills in writing that you need to develop:
- Curiosity
- Empathy
- Communication skills
- Persuasiveness
- Confidence
- Organization
- Time management
- Creativity
- Patience
Finally, you can develop soft skills into a habit by starting small, being consistent, and rewarding yourself each time you do the habit.
Please share your thoughts or ideas about 9 Powerful Soft Skills You Need In Writing in the comments below. If you liked this article, you might be interested in these articles about effective habits for a happy life, change, and starting over:
Top 10 Reasons Why Change Is Difficult
How To Start Over Even When You Feel Old
9 Effective Habits For A Happy Life
29 Quotes To Make Change A Little Easier
43 Quotes To Inspire You To Start Over Today
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