The Myth of Innate Writing Talent: Why Anyone Can Learn to Write
I firmly believe that writing, like any craft or art, can be taught. If I had not thought this, I would never have devoted decades of my life to teaching at universities, speaking events, and creating the Killer Nashville International Writers Conference [ https://www.killernashville.com/ ]. I have seen writers with any modicum of talent and desire grow through instruction. I take umbrage with those dark writers and teachers who offer discouraging words to beginning writers about the bleakness of the business. I have seen these prophets of doom and gloom proven false hundreds of times over. Who has enrolled in a biochemistry class only to be told that biochemistry cannot be taught? Who has ever enrolled in an art class only to be told, welcome, you will never be able to draw unless you are already born with the talent? But with this same audacity, writers are told they must have some magical innate and probably already developed talent if they ever want to make a go of this profession. I say this is elitism and silliness.
I think one needs to be a reader before becoming a writer. One does need to know what words, sentences, parts of sentences, and paragraphs all look like and mean. Without that base, there is nothing to build on. With that, however, there is everything to build on. Often, those with the most trepidation stand to be the best writers. The dabbler worries about getting published; the real writer is concerned about writing something of merit. The world tends to acknowledge the ambition of the dabbler at the risk of not encouraging something profound in the worrier. I’ll side with the worrier. I find the worriers to be the best students, the ones with the most potential for teaching, and the ones – sadly – most likely to give up. The dabbler, it seems, will quickly let you know that they already know how to write; they just need you to help them find an agent.
Writing is tricky because we are each sensitive, and the product is not the same as giving someone a hamburger in a sack. Instead, what we offer seems, in some ways, to be a piece of ourselves. That makes it personal. So, let’s look at the single myth that stands to impede and discourage the unexplored but gifted writer. Writing is difficult no matter what the level of the author. When they start a new manuscript, professionals have the advantage of knowing that what they want to do can be done, but they still must find what they need to do. Professionals, in this respect, are no different from the nascent writer. Yet the professional will push forward; the beginning writer, especially the conscientious future writer, is tempted to give up, dismissing himself as having no talent because words, characters, and plot do not pour out easily.
The moral of all this is simple. No one should dismiss themselves as having no talent. If writing is a calling, full-time or part-time, then that call must be answered, and ironically, those with the most trepidation may be the best candidates for the brilliance yet to come.
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