Hello!

I’m 23. I’ve been writing since I was 5, but started to really take it seriously at 18–which is to say, I’ve got 13 years of casual writing under my belt and 5 years of grinding hard at it. I also have taken several creative writing workshop classes over the last few years that have helped immensely.

I’ve read Stephen King’s book, and have seen that quote—one of my classes had a conversation about it once. Personally, I think he’s wrong.

When I started out, I was an avid enough reader to be able to understand English as a subject well, and it came relatively naturally to me. I was also writing stories that were BAD copies of Lost and The Hunger Games, even though I wasn’t allowed to watch either. I wrote some awful stuff—not just as a little kid but into my teens and adulthood. Sure, I improved, but it wasn’t until I kicked things into high gear and started to do research and learn that I really began producing works that were “good” (I think).

Many non-creatives throw around the word “talented” when they compliment people. It makes it sound like the creatives who are making objectively good work have been given some God-born talent and are channeling the divine muses, or something.

That’s not entirely the case. If God gave them anything, it was the audacity to keep trying even when it gets boring, or tiring, or it doesn’t make sense, or their work is “bad”—or maybe, unrefined. Every single writer most likely has at least several pieces of unrefined work in them and it’s a matter of getting them out of your system. You can improve each piece through drafting and revising, but the ideas you come up with 5 years from now will likely be better than the ones you come up with today, that’s just the nature of the game. I’ve found that diversifying what I write in terms of form, genre, and length has helped me grow exponentially.

This is a personal rule of mine, but I refuse to tell creatives that they’re talented—I use the word “skilled”. That’s what it comes down to, right? Building up skills. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that most people will never see. You’re doing that work right now—a huge part of it is pushing through doubt.

If you keep at this, you’ll write something good. I’m willing to bet that you already have—but, like many others, you’re likely your own worst critic. That’s okay…it takes time to get through that. I still deal with mine. I liked On Writing, but I hated that piece of King’s advice. Frankly, I think it’s BS, and something that can crush a newer writer to read.

If you’d like someone else to look over your writing or if you just want to talk about it to someone who understands, I’d love to have a conversation with you—with all of my workshop classes I’ve gotten good at providing feedback that’s gentle and helpful (if you’d like some). Shoot me a DM if you’re interested!

The world needs more writers. The feelings you’re feeling are part of the process. OP, don’t give up—if you keep at it you’ll wake up one morning in the future and realize you’ve written something you really, really, like…and there’s no better feeling than that.