Write with passion

"If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write." — W. Somerset Maugham

Take a look at the writing section at your library or bookstore, or on Amazon or other online sellers. There is a veritable treasure trove of manuals on how to write fiction: outline or don't outline, start with characters or with setting, write in first person, second or third, or some bizarre combination of all three. And don't even get me started on point of view!

The same applies to non-fiction writing, from how to develop magazine articles to how to write PR or advertising copy. As someone who owns more than her fair share of writing books and who also teaches writing classes, I don't deny that we can always improve our craft, find new and better ways to express our thoughts, or figure out what isn't working and then fix it. 

But what no book or teacher can do is make you feel passionate about writing. No one can instill in you the desire to write, make you want to face that blank page or screen and fill it up with letters, give you that golden glow when you have written something that came alive with each consonant and vowel. 

You can know all the rules and still write something that is dead on the page. You can have a PhD in writing and still not be able to connect with your reader. English can be your first language and yet, you still can't communicate. 

Look, everyone has some writing area that needs development. For me, it's setting. For you, it might be dialogue. That's okay. You can fix that. You can learn how to get better. Those technical deficiencies are no reason to stop writing, or even to never start. 

If you  have a love for the written word, if you have ideas and concepts that are bursting to get out of your head or heart, if you have a passion to use language in a way that builds bridges between people, opens doors in their minds, unlocks emotions in their hearts, that's all that matters. 

Passion can't be taught. It must be there, from the beginning, like a spring waiting to be tapped.