What makes a good author of fiction books? Is it the ability to be 'artful' with words?

[Variant7]

Is that it? I've often thought about being a writer of some sort. I was pondering what makes an author a success.

Is it mainly the ability to string words together in a way that sounds really nice and good? All the while, being able to come up with a good compelling story, and being able to describe things well? Is that considered the 'craft' of writing?

I noticed there's two main types of writing styles - one is that you just basically write your words as your own thinking. Like putting your thoughts down verbatim. This type of writing is often very easy to read and follow, and seems more suited for non-fiction books.
The other way of writing I found is how you make the words sound poetic as they're read. It seems this style is not written by simply writing down your thoughts verbatim, but rather focusing on the reader and thinking how the words and passages will sound while being read - it seemingly takes more creativity and skill with words to write in this way, and is more like an art form.

So, in order to be a successful fiction author, do you need more of the second way of creative writing that I described above?


Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Eric]

A good author tells a story the way it needs to be told.

Look at all the classics out there. They are immensely diverse in their writing styles. Let's take Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cites, Great Expectations, and many others are full of great figurative language, and words that flow off the page.
Now look at J.D. Salinger. His book The Catcher In The Rye is choppy, profane, and grammatically incorrect everywhere you look. In no way is it poetic.

Both these men have written "classics." They both told great stories in great ways - The way they need to be told.
In a way, Yes, you would need to go by the second way you listed. But there is no single way to do it. It just depends.