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Are good writers made or born?

By Elizabeth Vaughan | August 20, 2008

A common lament I hear when working with people on their writing is “I’m just not a writer,” or “I’ve never been any good at writing.” For some, this belief came from someone telling them that they don’t write well, such as a teacher or a supervisor. Others simply assume they are “bad writers” because writing feels so difficult.

In truth, writing is hard work for everyone. If someone gets up every morning and goes for a run, we call that person a runner. We don’t add the additional requirement that they not break a sweat. While it’s true that writing, like running, comes more naturally to some people than to others, it’s also true that we don’t all have to write the Great American Novel any more than all runners have to compete in Olympic track and field. Most of us don’t need to create works of great literature on a daily basis — we need to get our ideas across in words that are clear, efficient, and correct. I believe that anyone can learn to write this way, not just that rare beast, more often cited than seen, the “born writer.”

Don’t believe me? Consider what the following writers have had to say about their craft:

  • “I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” ~James Michener
  • “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • “The time to begin writing an article is when you have finished it to your satisfaction. By that time you begin to clearly and logically perceive what it is you really want to say.” ~Mark Twain
  • “The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend.” ~Isaac Bashevis Singer
  • “Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.” ~Gene Fowler
  • “Every writer I know has trouble writing.” ~Joseph Heller
  • “I do not like to write – I like to have written.” ~Gloria Steinem
  • “Sleep on your writing; take a walk over it; scrutinize it of a morning; review it of an afternoon; digest it after a meal; let it sleep in your drawer a twelvemonth; never venture a whisper about it to your friend, if he be an author especially.” ~A. Bronson Alcott
  • “A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” ~Thomas Mann, Essays of Three Decades, 1947
  • “True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance,
    As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance.”
    ~Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism

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