How do I know if I should be a writer?

Question

I have been writing on and off, without really paying attention to it, almost impulsively, since I was sixteen. It's been mostly therapeutic, for me. I found recently that putting dreams to paper helps flesh them out and give them life. The themes in the dreams are recurring, and have roots, I think, in childhood trauma. The writing helps me parse through the concepts that otherwise lay strewed in my psyche and emotions without my conscious awareness and understanding.

My question is this: how do you know if you should pursue writing?

I have absolutely no ability to tell stories in person. I want to say ten different things at once. I lose track of where my narratives are going. That said, I do write frequently and impulsively. I do think in bizarre characters and hold dialogues by myself between them. I do think in narratives and themes...

Does this mean anything?

Can someone with an inability to tell stories ever become a good writer? What does having a compulsion to write without an ability to tell stories leave for the writer to work with, and for the reader to enjoy?

How do I know if I should be a writer? Should this just remain a private, therapeutic hobby?

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 13 '18 at 17:53

(Nearly) Everyone needs to be a writer

Research mathematicians write papers. Corporate workers draft emails and reports. Software engineers write documentation. Basically any educated worker needs to be able to write clearly and proficiently. Very few people write as well as they should, regardless of their occupation.

Obviously, you were talking about something else.

The world has a glut of writers

There are professional fields which have trouble finding enough people interested in the work to get all the work done. Database Admins are in short supply, I hear. On the other hand, there are already more books than anyone can read, and more people who want to write new books than the market could possibly bear. Writing for other's entertainment is more like professional sports than like being a classroom teacher - 20,000,000 people can read the same Harry Potter book, just like 20,000,000 people can watch the same World Series.

Only a few can be the stars. Very few people will ever make a living either writing novels or playing baseball. The brutal truth is that the world doesn't need you to write (said the bitter unpublished novelist).

If writing is good for you, then write

I have been writing on and off, without really paying attention to it, almost impulsively, since I was sixteen. It's been mostly therapeutic, for me.

The single most important thing to get better at writing is writing. And if you are already writing - you're ahead of many of the people who imagine they are writers.

In my own bitterness, I would discourage others from dreaming big. But you don't have to have unrealistic dreams to work at writing and become better at it. (Those epic poems I'm writing on the train ride to work will likely never get published, but I keep writing them...)

Don't quit your day job, though. Even if you could afford to, well... I've always seemed to be a better writer when I had things to do and problems to solve that were unrelated to just working out the next plot twist. If you want to write, let your other life be your fuel.

Still, don't quit your day job.

score 7 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:43

One advantage of actually writing is you can edit, revise, add and delete to the story. You don't have to have a whole story in your head, or a plot, to start writing a story and finish it.

Read this answer of mine, to a different question The Psychology of Starting a Piece of Writing. I am a discovery writer, that begins stories without a plot and without all the characters, and that answer describes how to begin such a story.

You may be a discovery writer, too: The notion of coming up with some character and having a conversation with it: That can be part of a character driven story. Even if the conversation never makes it into the final work, developing a strong and unique character in your mind is the first step in beginning a novel, you have a protagonist, or an antagonist that needs a protagonist to stop his evil plans.

The Primary Distinction of a Writer.

Stephen King was once asked in a live interview, "What advice do you have for people that would like to write?"

His answer: "Write!" However, he went on to say (and I paraphrase) that most people that ask him that question don't really want to write, they want to have written, so they are getting paid royalty checks, and making movie deals, and being on TV (he waves at the camera) and getting interviewed. But to be a writer, you have to really love to write, and would like to write all day, and you are willing to give up your mornings or evenings and use your entertainment time to write because for you writing is entertainment. So his advice is, if you love writing, then write, and write, and try and try again, until you are good enough to get published. Then keep writing and getting published, not for the money and fame, but because writing is fun.

score 2 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 17 '20 at 09:43

Try

Q How do you know if you have what it takes to be { name of profession }?

A You do an internship and find out if you like it.

So write a novel.

Decide

After you wrote your first novel, decide whether you want to do that for a living.

Keep at it

If you want to write for a living, keep at it.

Most aspiring writers never get published because they eventually give up. Most writers who keep writing one unpublished novel after another, eventually get published.