Psst...

I came across this question in a blog (the blogger, in this case, remaining anonymous but I'm too verbose to have enough room to leave this in said blogger's comments): If someone is a terrible writer and/or story teller, but it is something he or she enjoys, should he or she stop writing?

The answer would be a loud and emphatic NO. Of course not. This would be a good time to dispel myth #1: there is no such thing as a born writer. Trust me on this one. Even the best writers out there have stories hidden in the back of their closets that they pray will never see the light of day.

But I also think, while there is no such thing as a "born writer," I also think that one can improve. After all, if one thinks hirself to be a "terrible" writer, one can only get better from there, right? Good writing is a combination of experience, practice and desire. Good writing is being able to examine a story from all angles and not being afraid to start all over again when something fails. Good writing means sticking to it even when it's hard. Good writing means that you don't give up even when everyone around you thinks you ought to.

Back when I was running The Write Connection, I kept receiving emails from people asking for advice on how to become a writer. There's no easy way to do it - it takes practice. Lots of it. Some stories work, others don't. You just keep going. Save all of the older work, even the ones that don't work - you can always salvage it for use at another time. And the hardest thing to do is to acknowledge when, as a writer, you've failed.

A good writer needs to be open to constructive criticism. This isn't to be confused with liking constructive criticism. I doubt there's a single writer who enjoys being told when her story didn't work for reason A or reason B. After all, as writers, we invest so much in our work - to be told that we haven't done the job right in the first place can be heartbreaking, not to mention, fall into a depression regarding one's skills in the first place.

Taking constructive crit doesn't get better over time; it's a fact of life. If you want to be a good writer, somehow you have to develop that tough skin and be able to take the comments that point out more than spelling and grammatical errors. It means you have to be willing to defend what you've written (if you so choose). It's a crucial step in getting from "terrible" to not terrible.

In the end, it really depends on how much writing means to you as a writer and how much effort you want to expend. For some of us, it's not a hobby; it's something that's absolutely necessary and we will work at it until we get it right. For other people, that's not the mindset - spellcheck and grammar check is absolutely necessary. And still for another segment of the population, spellcheck and grammar check are completely optional.

If you're writing for public consumption, be aware that if the writer doesn't care about what she is doing, then the reader won't either.

Give it time, give it practice, give it a little bit of heart, and I think you'll find yourself plenty pleased with the result.