by John Traveler

Created on: April 12, 2010   Last Updated: April 14, 2010

The notion that being a writer is somehow a gift divinely bestowed upon the accomplished wordsmith is a gross misnomer. The fact is, being a writer is a profession, which like any other requires years of instruction and practice. Traditionally, fundamental writing skills are developed as a curricular element of  primary education, then finely honed in secondary and post-secondary learning environments. But for the professional writer, the education process never ends; there is always something new to be learned, some nuance of the literary art form to be mastered.  

There are, of course, many fields and genres of written expression, and each has its own requirements. Journalistic trades require a writer to be as concise as possible and use vernacular most common readers can comprehend. The novelist needs to be able to use words to paint pictures in the mind of the reader to actually bring he or she into the story, certainly a task requiring skillful finesse. The non-fiction writer must intensely focus on research and getting the facts right. But research is important to the creative fictional writer as well, if they want to bring authenticity and believability to their work product.

One thing you will hear most English teachers tell their students early on, is that the first step to becoming a good writer is to first become a good reader. Reading, in addition to expanding the writers knowledge and frame of reference, exposes the would-be writer to vernacular beyond the conversational lexicon, and a spectrum of writing styles. Today, particularly with respect to the Internet, untrained, untutored and unaccomplished writers are obvious. They may use spelling and grammar checking software to mask inconsistencies with respect to technical elements, even more advanced writers use these tools, but when it comes to sentence structure, word usage, thoughtful expression and contextual fluidity, novice writers demonstrate a lack of the skill and polish, expected from and exhibited by most who in professional terms refers to themselves as a “writer.”

As already suggested here, writing is an art form, and to be specific it is a performing art, because it involves and audience, the reader. As with any performing art, feedback is an essential tool the writer uses to develop and hone their skills. Is the intended message being conveyed and understood? Is the reader, inspired by the writers words and style of phraseology, enlisted to read on? Is the material

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