Average Writers vs. Good or Great Writers
Ask Which do we Aspire to be?
To be a writer, you can’t go wrong, when you have academic knowledge and world experience. Right? A lot of us don’t have that luxury. Some of us might have one, or the other, and some may not have any at all. But I don’t think it really matters, because there are other factors to consider.
Many famous writers have forged successful careers without having a degree specific to writing. They draw upon the experiences from the fields they are familiar with to write about.
The key is in the development of writing skills, whether through self-directed learning, workshops, or mentorship, and the ability to interest readers with compelling narratives.
Many Famous Writers had Little to no Formal Education:
Charles Dickens dropped out of school at 15 and he was self taught. He wrote “Oliver Twist”, “Great Expectations”, “A Tale of Two Cities”, “A Christmas Carol” and many others.
Mark Twain dropped out of school at age 12 when his father died. He wrote “Huckleberry Finn”, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, and many more.
Augusten Burroughs, Author of “Running with Scissors” had only an elementary school education.
Ray Bradbury dropped out of high school to pursue writing and published his first short story at 19. He is known for “Fahrenheit 451”, “The Martian Chronicles”, “The Veldt” and many others.
Doris Lessing left school at age 13 and left home at 15. She self-educated through reading. Known for “The Golden Notebook” and many others.
Jack London, American novelist, left college after 1 year. Known for over 50 books, among them, “White Fang”, and “The Call of the Wild”.
What Separates a Good Writer from an Average Writer?
Discipline: Make time to write every day and organize thoughts.
Clarity: They avoid run-on sentences, and grammatical errors.
Creativity: Use new ideas or present old things in new ways.
Attention to detail: Formatting, readability, and structural details.
Connect the dots: Their writing flows one paragraph to the next.
Wide vocabulary: Use words with specific meanings -no confusion.
Persistence: Keep going even with disappointment or rejection.
Risk: Challenge themselves to write outside their comfort zone.
Self-Edit: Pay attention to detail by self-editing --more than once.
Understand target audience: They understand who they write for.
Each of us has the ability to say whatever we would like to say, on any subject we know something about. We’re only limited by what makes us unique and different.
Substack has topics on every interest we can think of — even some we haven’t heard of. We are only limited by what we do or don’t allow ourselves to learn through continued reading.
A Few Writing Prompts:
What are your hobbies? Why do you love them?
Do you make things? Do you have photos of what you create?
What do you think about when you’re by yourself?
What makes you different? How are you the same?
What special talent, or talents, do you have?
Do you love poetry, or short stories? Do you write them?
What teacher was your favorite? What made them special?
What do you study, if you’re still in school?
What work do you do? Is it what you want to do forever?
What do you love to do, when you have free time to yourself?
What kind of family do you have? Are you an only child?
What are your best friends like and what makes a best friend?
What is something that’s so hysterical you can’t NOT laugh?
What was the last thing that made you cry?
Academic knowledge and world experience are not deal breakers for writing. If they were, a lot of us wouldn’t be here. We need to write about what we know and continue to learn about by self-teaching what we don’t know.
We’re only limited by what makes us unique and different. Since there’s no one else anywhere like us, maybe we should write about the many things that make us different ...
Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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That's an excellent observation, Bob. That's a very interesting story about the Monk, too. Thank you for sharing.
If “academic knowledge and world experience . . . (were) dealbreakers for writing . . . a lot of us wouldn’t be here.” I did a whole dissertation (only took me eleven years) on a topic I dreamed up myself—the “self-guided writing process” of women with “a history of mother-daughter conflict.” We/they did it first for our/their own purposes, sometimes simply to survive the weight of the world. It was not a system that was taught to us/them or prescribed. I learned more about writing and language by growing up around my parents than I ever did in school. God I sound pompous, don’t I? No, just really grateful I had them. They weren’t perfect, but they were there for me as much as they could be. Life was hard for my mom with a later in life Downs Syndrome child and struggling with bouts of severe depression.