Do I Need To Be Gifted To Write Great Stories?

Stories – the power of talent and knowledge combined!
So, you might have some questions for me now. Let me guess what a few might be. If you have any others please don’t hesitate to email me. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll tell you and try to find someone who does.
Stories and their writing: Do they come from your genetics or is it learned?
Stories and writing are in lots of ways similar to any other craft or profession. I am a Prison Chaplain, one of about 7 in my denomination. If other denominations are counted there are probably 30+. If other areas are considered (Hospitals, Aged Care, Youth Detention Centres etc.) there would be over 100, probably a lot more, just in my geographic area alone.
I know some Chaplains who I aspire to and some that…quite frankly…need to be in some other line of work. Is Chaplaincy (working with often quite distressed and troubled people) a gift or a learned set of skills?
I believe it is both. Neither one is enough on its own. We as Chaplains must never stop learning. The day we do I certainly believe will be the day we start spiralling down to mediocrity and failure to serve our communities.
What’s this got to do with writing stories? Well, I’m sure you have heard of writers who have ‘just been in the right place at the right time’ mostly by sheer luck. Despite this rarity, I believe success in writing stories (just like my profession in the previous paragraph), comes from gifting and learning.
By far, success comes more often from aptitude and talent, along with concentrated effort, resourcefulness and darn dogged determination!
Writing stories is not easy! Please get this into your head now. Writing your masterpiece of stories can be easier said than done. It can be a lonely and unfulfilling experience.
However, it can also be the most energizing of all activities and bring much personal and professional satisfaction. Personal attributes like stickability, positive criticism acceptance and the vital concept of learning from failures can only enhance success and self-fulfilment. Looking to other writers you admire can’t hurt either.
The famous American author Katherine Anne Porter made the firm statement ‘most people won’t accept that writing is a craft. You have to take your apprenticeship in it like anything else’. Alexander Pope (early 1700’s) said similar with his flowery quote earlier on:
“True ease in Writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance”
W. Gifford (1756-1826) also said writers have ‘the insatiate itch of scribbling’. J. R. R. Tolkien called his constant refinements to his draughts ‘niggling’ the text.
What I believe the writers here are saying is that writing not only involves talent, but hard work through the learning of skills and method. In fact, I know from experience the truth (in regard to writing stories) of the age old statement ‘10% inspiration, 90% perspiration’.
A word of warning: We don’t live in a perfect world where all hard work is always rewarded proportionately and on time.
Doing all the right things and having great aptitude cannot always guarantee success. I’m sure you know that all too painfully by just being alive.
However, what great inspirational and compelling stories are within you simply because of your experience and life so far in an ‘unfair and bias’ world? Turn this negative into a positive. Dig deep within and inspire people with your stories, even if it’s only your friends and family.
Let me end by giving you something to do. Just quickly jot down a few points about life’s unfairness to you and some of the feelings you experienced then. What experiences are you feeling now as you think back? Write them down for only you to see. File them away into an ideas folder for future reference.
Now…go write!