Depends on what your definition of writer is. In this tweeting age I think being a writer is a bit like being a walker. It's something the average Joe is expected to be able to do quite well. And while most people never become serious walkers, they become pretty adept at it all the same.
I agree that it depends. Remember that it takes a violinist at least ten years of hard work to become any good. That doesn't mean a Heifetz, just a reasonably competent musician. But I tend to believe that competence is within the reach of most people if they are determined enough - and that competence shouldn't be underestimated.
Mere competence is underrated, and I agree that practice is essential as in every art. Also, writers need to be readers, avid readers. I still like the definition given to me by a writer friend, that a writer is someone whose first response to life is to write about it. That tends to sort out the serious from the dilettantes, although at the same time I'm the first to agree that "professionals" have no inherent superiority over "amateurs." Often quite the reverse.
No. Hardly anyone is.
ReplyDeleteDepends on what your definition of writer is. In this tweeting age I think being a writer is a bit like being a walker. It's something the average Joe is expected to be able to do quite well. And while most people never become serious walkers, they become pretty adept at it all the same.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it depends. Remember that it takes a violinist at least ten years of hard work to become any good. That doesn't mean a Heifetz, just a reasonably competent musician. But I tend to believe that competence is within the reach of most people if they are determined enough - and that competence shouldn't be underestimated.
ReplyDeleteMere competence is underrated, and I agree that practice is essential as in every art. Also, writers need to be readers, avid readers. I still like the definition given to me by a writer friend, that a writer is someone whose first response to life is to write about it. That tends to sort out the serious from the dilettantes, although at the same time I'm the first to agree that "professionals" have no inherent superiority over "amateurs." Often quite the reverse.
ReplyDeleteThomas Mann makes an interesting point in his novella Tristan: "A writer is someone to whom writing comes harder than to anybody else."
ReplyDelete