The Most Important Attribute a Writer Must Have to Write Well.

​If I were to ask you what makes a great writer in any genre and medium, you might answer that a mastery of language, grammar and punctuation is most important. 
 
Or you may say that developing a unique writing style or voice is key. Or better yet, being able to write in many voices.  You might tell me that an extensive vocabulary is vital, or perhaps editing skills. 
 
You might believe that developing a writing discipline or that research and organizational skills or even a thick skin are the most critical elements that make up a great writer.
 
While all of these skills and attributes are important to writing well, there is one that rules them all.  If you lack this one trait, mastery of all of these others will indeed make you a good writer, but not a great writer. 
 
The attribute I’m talking about is empathy. Without empathy, writing in any genre—from a sales brochure to the great American novel—will likely fall short of true greatness. 
 
Writers must have the ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes, to completely understand what another person is experiencing and do so from that person’s frame of reference.  
 
A great writer must be able to wear another person’s shoes and make them fit as well as their own. 
 
It’s easy to see how empathy plays a role when writing a novel, a stage or screenplay, a short story or poem, and even when writing non-fiction, such as a biography. Creating believable, multi-faceted characters, musical dialogue, powerful scenes and settings becomes easier and more authentic if you can see them through another’s eyes, senses and frames of reference. 
 
But empathy matters greatly when writing sales or promotional copy, too. Empathy enables the copy writer to see the benefits of a product or service through the eyes of the customer. 
 
Doing so enables the writer to not only reach a customer’s intellect and get inside their head, but to also touch their heart, move their soul and persuade them to act.
 
Empathy can even help a writer imagine what a product feels, even if that product can’t actually feel anything. In the example I’m about to share, empathy allowed me to go even one step further, to imagine the feelings of the object that the product I was selling impacts. Namely, a golf ball. 
 
I asked myself, what would a golf ball be feeling if it was about to be hit by a club that could launch it further than any other?
 
I wrote this ad for Tour Edge from the ball’s perspective…

While scientists have discovered that empathy is partly genetically determined, which means that some of us have more of it than others, I do believe empathy can also be cultivated and mindfully practiced. 
 
The more you exercise your empathic muscles, the stronger they will become. And as your empathy grows, so will your writing.  
 
Remember, be the ball!
 
When Richard isn’t making golf balls tremble in their tees (usually because they have no idea where they will land), you can find him writing digital and print fundraising and marketing campaigns for his clients.