by Omar Persaud

Created on: May 19, 2008

Writers are born today and not made. If a tree falls down in the middle of the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Of course it does, but does anyone care? Heck no! Anyone in this world who can pick up a pen or type two words on a word processing machine is a writer. Anyone who can draw a picture is a writer (I'm a special education teacher, and some of my early childcare students love to interpret picture books; they do tell stories). Some of the most famous writings in the history of man were drawn by authors no one has seen or heard from (Egyptian hieroglyphics or ancient cave art). There have been people in this world that could not see, speak nor hear but they have written something. However, does that make them great? Now this is a different question.

But what does make a writer great? His or her readers of course. Because how many times have you picked up a best selling novel and thought that it was the biggest piece of crap that you ever read (well maybe the first two chapters cause you couldn't finish it). Public opinion dictates who is great and who is just a bug on a windshield in this business. If no one ever picked up a Mark Twain book, then he would be just like all the trillions of other no bodies who have tried to get their works published. Think about this, J. K. Rowlings, of Harry Potter fame was turned down by many established publishing houses before anyone took a chance on her. I'm sure there are many more aspiring authors out there with wonderful stories that we may never hear from because they do not have the resources to get their work published. There are many authors who are not critically acclaimed or valued by avid readers who do have the resources to market their stories who do sell thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of books (see celebrity autobiographies).

Everyone has their own opinion on what makes something great and what does not. It all depends on their perspective and experiences and how a story or article inspires them or affects their lives. If they like something and you do not, it doesn't necessarily make them right or wrong. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Sometimes people just like to piggy back on top of another's opinion, and there is nothing wrong with that either. However, to be thought of as great, or to be remembered in history as a great writer one does have to have certain elements: a story that will be liked by many, a publisher willing to take a chance on them, great marketing, and the most important piece luck.

Because after all anyone can write. Especially in this Internet and technology based age. How else can one explain how anyone would let me publish an article? I just hope there are enough people around to hear my tree fall, to whiteness that I actually made a sound. Maybe the sound might be pleasant enough that more people might want to hear it.

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