Do some writers just “have it”?

It’s not about what you have, it’s about what you give.

A few years ago, I wrote that writing is thinking. You are better off writing to think, not trying to think before you write.

“But some people are just better at it,” Ant K writes in a comment (which Karolis recently agreed with). He compared his work with another author he held in high esteem. “He has it. I don’t.”

While there are different people with different talents when it comes to writing, it just doesn’t really matter.

Or, rather, it matters as much as you think it matters.

I used to think I didn’t have interesting life experiences to write about. While my grandparents and parents had all of the adventures (including immigrating from Hong Kong to Canada), I grew up in the suburbs in Canada. There were literally hundreds of thousands of kids who did the same thing. What could I possibly have to write about that people would consider interesting?

While an occasional English teacher would praise my skills, I had slightly above average writing skills at best. Certainly not comparable to the authors I held in high esteem, or anything that I thought would be worth pitching a traditional media publication.

These beliefs didn’t make me feel better, and it didn’t encourage me to write. After a long time — too long — I chose to see the world differently. You could say all of Creative Doing was me working through…