Today, I have been reading “Plot and Structure” by J.S.Bell again. In introduction, the author says that he had wasted decades of his time not writing because since childhood he had been told that to be a writer one must be born with it (the gift of writing). He had also been told that writing couldn’t be taught. J.S.Bell writes,”I started to believe it. I figured I didn’t have it and never would. So I did other stuff. Like go to law school. Like join a law firm. Like give up my dream. But the itch to write would not go away. At age thirty-four, I read an interview with a lawyer who’d had a novel published. And what he said hit me in my lengthy briefs. He said he’d had an accident and was almost killed. In the hospital, given a second chance at life, he decided the one thing he wanted was to be a writer. And he would write and write, even if he never got published because that was what he wanted. Well, I wanted it, too.”

Al this sounds sadly familiar to me, and I am sure there are thousands of other people around the world facing the same fact: they never tried writing because they did not believe in themselves, and because everybody around kept convincing them that writing is a wrong way to choose. As well as music, and arts, and any other “impractical” occupations, by the way.

Still, those who are strong enough to overcome their shyness and finally do start writing, as well as those who are quite experienced – all need to learn. My strong belief is that one CAN learn how to write, moreover, it is as complicated as every other intellectual occupation, so it MUST be learned. It is never late to learn and there is never enough of learning. To me, a picture like the one below, is not an evidence of a writer’s failure. It is the evidence of a learning process, which is awesome.