Can Anyone Be a Writer? An Answer From History

Can anyone be a writer? What are the qualifications needed, the required attributes, and talent demanded of a person considering a career in the field of fiction writing? Asking these questions can leave us with a sense of overwhelming weight and impossibility on our shoulders. 

Writing OUR STORIES is a beautiful work.

However, a writing life is a challenge, and being self-employed takes diligence, organization, and self-motivation. Can someone who struggles with all the above be a writer? What if we don’t have or don’t want to get an English degree? Could that destroy our chances for success?

Like a book blurb for a good story—because I am going to tell a story—I don’t want to give you any spoilers. I will say, though, that this story will entail an inciting incident, victories, and failures. It is the true transformational story of yours truly into a writer.

I’ll be getting into the nitty gritty truth of the topic because I want you to conclude yourself if anyone can be a writer. This story is just one amid a raging ocean bursting with true stories of writers becoming writers, but I believe it’s one that will help you claim the title of writer.

Once Upon a Time…

I was retying my skate laces in the ice rink’s player box as the cold emanating from the sheet of ice below made my skin red. I stared down ice toward the gargantuan clock on the wall, and imagined myself landing my jumps, winning figure skating competitions, and being showered with praise.

Figure skating was my escape and my stamp of approval, and I was determined that morning to become a strong athlete. Writing the stories of my imagination was a nice hobby, but the rink was where I belonged. The biting air filling my nose and lungs exhilarated me. 

Jump a few months forward from that day, and I had been sent off the ice by my coach for a muscle injury.

Skip forward a few doctor appointments, a few months of physical therapy, and several months of pain waiting for the muscle strains to heal, and I now sat in the white office of a hip specialist.

While being told the details of my future hip surgeries, I struggled to hold my emotions inside—this wasn’t how my athletic dream was supposed to go.

Still, I held onto the hope in 18 months I’d be up to full strength on the ice. Writing was still a hobby, a distant career thought I kept silent. 

A few months after my first surgery, I came to realize my body may never work like it used to. It dawned on me no amount of wishing, or doing everything right could guarantee a good outcome. In fact, with all the emotional pain the injuries had caused, skating had turned more into a painful reminder of my inabilities than an exhilarating escape. 

I was ready to explore the interest I had buried since I was 6 years old—fiction writing.

Becoming a Writer

Deciding to focus on writing wasn’t my first choice, but I wish I could say it was. If it wasn’t for the hip surgeries I don’t know if I would have decided to become a writer.

Approaching my second surgery, I planned my writing strategies and decided writing was going to be my #1 focus. I had never given myself an opportunity like this before, and it was exciting. Like skating, it was another escape from the parts of my life I didn’t want to think about. 

After a month and a half of diligence, I finished my half-written rough draft of The New Dawn (working title). Once I finished the draft, I knew fiction writing was what I wanted to do for a living. I had little idea of how that would be done, but I was 100% sure I wanted to focus on this craft I loved.

It was at this time I also realized how bad of a writer I was. Sure, I could imagine, but how could I convey those images to a reader? How did plots work and characters come to life? What amount of description was too much? 

I decided to learn writing through blogposts and courses purchased online, but did I need an English degree? 

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College Degree—Necessary?

I began searching online for opinions on whether a degree was necessary or recommended. Some writers swore a degree was necessary, and other writers said it didn’t matter. The contradicting opinions made my quandary worse.

How many qualifications to write is necessary? I didn’t have many, and I didn’t want to go to college, because it was an intimidating environment I felt inadequate to conquer. I wanted to move forward in my life instead of spending years in another program.

Eventually, I decided to go it on my own, but either decision would have been right. A degree doesn’t make you a writer. Writing makes you a writer.

When I have trouble making a decision, I ask myself how I would think of someone else in my position. Would I think a determined person wasn’t a writer for not having an English or Creative Writing degree? No. I’d believe they would do great things with or without a degree.

If writing was meant for me—which I believe it was—than it would happen. I began a blog, started my next draft, and was excited for the future. 

Failing to Write: Still a Writer?

I told you I was going to get into the nitty-gritty, real, honest truth of whether anyone can be a writer, so I won’t sugar coat this next part, although I don’t remember much anyway. 

 Two enemies flanked my fortress, charged together into battle, and broke through my gates. There names: Anxiety and Depression. 

As these enemies came upon me, I failed at writing. I didn’t write everyday, I didn’t move forward, I spent more time watching TV shows than reading, imagining, and writing my stories combined. At times, I didn’t even care about writing anymore. All I wanted was for everything to stop hurting.

Mental illness is a daily battle, and I wanted writing to be the thing to hold it all together. To live the romantic relationship between writer and craft through difficulty. I wanted to be the artist whose struggles just made her write more and write better. 

But writing turned into another thing I was guilt-ridden for not doing. I was failing to be the writer I professed to be, ashamed that my passion to write wasn’t strong enough to keep my fire lit. What was wrong with me?

Was I still a writer?

This is the point my memory fails me in retelling this story, because the consequence of surviving day by day in a fog is not remembering much.

However, I remember going to see a professional on mental illness for a few months, and she helped me realize that I was okay, even if I struggled. In time I got back into writing more.

I began honing my blog, educating myself on writing, and started reading books again. I even finished my novel’s second draft. But it was still a struggle and my productivity was as volatile as a storm at sea.  

Could I be a writer in this state? 

What it Takes to Be a Writer

This is the question we return to. Can people who struggle with writing be writers? Do we have what it takes? 

Now that you know my gritty tale, I’ll tell you my answer. To be a writer doesn’t mean you don’t struggle to write. It doesn’t mean words will flow and you’ll overflow with excitement at all times. You should overflow with excitement and passion, but sometimes life and events impede this part.

And it isn’t great, but it doesn’t mean you aren’t a writer. It means you struggle and are broken—you’re human. It doesn’t mean you have lost the desire to write. As long as you’re willing to keep fighting against whatever is in your way, you are writer material.

Even when I couldn’t bring myself to write, I wanted to write, and that is the sign of a writer—wanting to write even when it’s hard.

I believe, despite my shortcomings, I am a writer.

Perhaps you believe I don’t have what it takes. Your opinion is yours to have, but I will say I have been writing 2,000 word blogposts, writing on my novel’s third draft, and have had some relatively good feedback on my improved writing over the years.

Writing is a gift from God I believe I’m meant to do, and as long as that is true, I will continue to consider myself a writer.

Can Anyone Be a Writer?

If you are meant to be a writer, you will be. How do you know if you are meant to be a writer? 

If you can’t shake off the need to write, then you are a writer. I buried writing for years and followed an athletic detour, and then found it again.   

Through my detour, I could never shake off writing completely. It was always waiting in the back of my mind. When I was failing to be a writer years later, I couldn’t shake off the want to write, even when I couldn’t bring myself to type. 

Struggling to write doesn’t mean you aren’t a good writer. You know you are a real writer when you write even when you don’t want to. You’re a writer if you keep trying when it feels overwhelming.

Writers want to write even when they can’t find words.

Your Opinion

To find my opinion, though, is not the goal of this post. What is your opinion? From all you have read, what do you believe enables someone to be a writer? 

From my story and those alike and dislike mine, what credits/discredits a person’s ability to write? 

Do you write me off as not being a writer? Do you write yourself off? 

You have taken the energy to click and read this blogpost, so what does that say about your desire and commitment? It says you want to be a writer, that it is something on your mind, and a thought which will never go away. 

Maybe you have been pushing aside the desire to write your stories for years. Why do you think the desire will go away now? You know it won’t, so don’t ignore it any longer.

Decide + Embrace

Are you ready to take on the title of writer?

Write your stories as if no one is looking over your shoulder. Commit to trying when productivity is a struggle and words hide. Let yourself take this opportunity to write, and see where it goes.

You know my opinion is that you can be a writer struggling or not, with a degree or without. But your opinion is what will determine your next course of action. Do you believe you can be a writer? 

Will you decide to embrace your stories and the learning + work it takes to write, or will you continue to ignore the thoughts in your head? This is your decision to determine the life you’ll pursue. 

Will You Be a Writer? 

My call to you is make your decision. I hope you choose to write, but the decision can only be made by you. You need to write because it is something YOU want to do—something you believe God gifted you with a desire to pursue.

I don’t care if you struggle with writing, don’t know any big words, or consider classic literature hard to follow. It’s your perseverance through those struggles that determines your qualification to be a writer. No writer began writing flawless prose overnight. Every writer—even Stephen King—is still a student of the craft. 

Anyone can be a writer if they have a love for writing they can’t escape. Stories are just that powerful, and your stories should be put on paper and shared. 

Will you be a writer?