What makes someone a gifted writer?

[Anonymous No.2118516]

The other day my English professor emailed me, asking if we could have a personal conference about the work I had just turned in; I figured this was bad (aren't all teacher conferences?), and that I might have finally crossed the line by turning in something that was too inappropriate.
I get to his office, he sits me down and offers coffee, which i willingly accept; it's always nice to have something to tinker and fidget with when you're getting bitched at. But to my surprise there is no complaining; instead he starts rambling about good writing and styles and whatnot. This is when he drops the bomb: saying that he loves my work and that I should minor [or major] in English or Creative Writing. I give him a pretty blank stare for a minute; i was trying to make my eyes portray that rainbow colored 'wut' from the stoner comics. It obviously doesn't work because once again he starts to rant about weird things: he would love to work with me; some people are just born gifted writers; and that my talent should be put to work. This all made me pretty uncomfortable and I decided it was time to leave. I made up a quick lie about a government class I'm not taking, and told him I would give it some consideration.

This is where I'm going to do my consideration.

I'm pretty sure that I suck at every part of the English language (grammar, flow, structure, spelling, punctuation... the list goes on). The only thing i can do supposedly well is write fiction, and even at that, all i do is get stoned and write about slightly altered past experiences.

So what characteristics make someone a naturally gifted writer?

[Anonymous No.2118531]

Interesting. I'm not sure what makes someone naturally gifted. An ear for language perhaps? Being able to find the right cadence for a sentence is pretty important. That says fuck all about content of course.

Post a sample of your writing anyway. You just made yourself sound like the messiah and now I need to red your work.

[Anonymous No.2118539]

>>2118516
You sure he doesn't want to fuck you?

[Anonymous No.2118545]

I don't even want to post my shit; I don't think any of it is even worthy of sharing. I spend no time on this crap at all.
Literally all I do is smoke some good buds, sit in front of my computer, and write some shit that entertains me until i reach the page requirement. If I'm bored and have nothing else to do i might give it a quick once-over before I print it.

None of it is edited to the point where i would be happy to share it with anyone.

[Anonymous No.2118544]

>>2118531
Agreed. Transcripts or GTFO.

[Anonymous No.2118551]

Well you clearly read the section in the Big Book of Punctuation about comma splicing.

Bullshit detector is recording record highs on this one.

[Anonymous No.2118553]

>>2118539
This is what I'm thinking. It has to be something like that because I am pretty sure I just write a bunch of random crap and stupid stories. Every time i write fiction my only goal is to push the boundaries of what is considered 'school appropriate'.

[Anonymous No.2118554]

>>2118545

Yet you hand it as your work in university. If it's entertaining, entertain us and post it. If you tell me you didn't expect to get asked this a million times you're either lying or very foolish. You could have left out that entire story and just asked what makes a naturally gifted writer.

Now post a story.

[Anonymous No.2118571]

Post a story OP, you're anonymous for fuck's sake. What's the worst that can happen, a bunch of pretentious teens and failed writers don't like it?

[Anonymous No.2118573]

Come on OP. No one's gonna judge you.


Openly.

[Anonymous No.2118577]

>>2118539
This is honestly what I'm thinking. OP, if you won't post your work, at least post a picture of yourself so we can better evaluate the situation.

[Anonymous No.2118585]

>>2118551
Naw man, this actually happened, that's why I'm so confused. I told you I suck at all that shit.

He said i needed guidance or some shit, but he see a lot of potential. It was pretty surreal; it reminded me of some shit out of Starwars: ya know.. when Qui-Gon-Jim finds little Anakin Skywalker. That's why i got so uncomfortable and decided i needed to leave

[Anonymous No.2118592]

I'm not going to post any thing Ive written, so get over it. Now enough about me, your all bouncing around the actual question:
>what characteristics make someone a naturally gifted writer?

[Anonymous No.2118598]

>>2118554
It's a freshmen English class: ENG 105. I couldn't give two fucks about what i turn in to that professor. Clearly getting high, not giving a fuck, and writing bullshit is working out well, so why change my ways?

[Anonymous No.2118599]

HEY EVERYBODY....OP'S A BIG PHONY

[Anonymous No.2118604]

Like this isn't the wet dream of every hack that posts on /lit/.
Obvious troll is cliched, trite and derivative

[Anonymous No.2118605]

Maybe he just found your writing entertaining. It's true that you may have terrible grammar, flow, structure, spelling and punctuation, but professors read technically awful things all the time, so they can see the merit behind all the technical mistakes - hence why he suggested you major or minor in English.

Don't do that, by the way. Not as bad as Women's Lit or Art History, but it's a pretty shit-tier major.

If you're majoring in Women's Lit, Art History or something else equally useless, by all means, take English instead.

[Anonymous No.2118606]

You can't open a thread like that and not post a story. You're a fucking idiot. Fuck this thread.

[Anonymous No.2118615]

post a sample or get the fuck out forever

[Anonymous No.2118638]

How am i a phony? i don't even know why i would lie about this.

For the record this is like the third time i have ever been to this board, i mostly hang around 420chan. To be honest i already hate this board, I feel like i have to watch my grammar and spelling very closely otherwise you guys will hammer me for it. sucks man, bad vibes.

I came to this board because I'm pretty sure its full of English majors. For someone to chose a major as stupid as English, i figured you have all had something like this happen to you. Obviously i was wrong.

[Anonymous No.2118654]

Using this doll, can you show me where the professor touched you?

[Anonymous No.2118671]

1. become an alcoholic
2. buy a type writer
3. smoke cigarettes
4. buy a fedora.

Boom, you are now a freelance writer.

[VelvetCrow !0kY4lKysPM No.2118674]

>>2118654

[Anonymous No.2118677]

My English professor told me my writing was penetrating. I though about telling him about the wet dreams I have involving his wife

When I asked him what he ment he said that the language I used conveyed a deep emotion connection.

Not OP, but this little conferance creeped me the fuck out.

[Anonymous No.2118681]

We do weekly free writes in this class, every Friday we have to have two pages typed, printed, and ready to be turned in. These stories can be about whatever we want, he just wants to get us writing. We get one extra credit point for every page above the required length, so this week (maybe tonight) I am going to smoke a metric fuck-ton of marijuana, and write a story about all this shit. Its going to be like a satire of the beginning of Good Will Hunting, except with an English major at a state university. The writer will quickly realize how irreverent writing little stories is, and finish his degree in Smoking Pot and Not Giving A Fuck.

[Anonymous No.2118687]

>>2118677
see, at least someone sees where I'm coming from. its fucking weird isn't it?

[Anonymous No.2118697]

Well OP that sounds a little weird to me too.

But maybe he is just a sad old man who wanted to be a writer himself, but didn't make it and now is stuck in a school with a shitload of pretentious and stupid kids and maybe he thought your writing was acutally good, compared to the rest of the class and therefore he wanted to give you an advice and try doing what he wanted to do, but couldn't.

Or maybe he is just a creepy old man with a love for boys / young man, who knows.

[Anonymous No.2118698]

>>2118687
Not really.

Just smile and raise your glass when someone says cheers.

[Anonymous No.2118700]

>>2118697
>But maybe he is just a sad old man who wanted to be a writer himself, but didn't make it and now is stuck in a school with a shitload of pretentious and stupid kids and maybe he thought your writing was acutally good, compared to the rest of the class and therefore he wanted to give you an advice and try doing what he wanted to do, but couldn't.

probably.

[Anonymous No.2118706]

I handed in a "kitchen sink" draft that I pulled together fragments of a novel for and handed it in as a short story. The prof loves it and wants to see all my future drafts because he thinks it'll be competitive for the campus mag (which is kind of a big deal here but it doesn't pay and has a minuscule readership so if it's really as good as he's saying I'll probably send it elsewhere.)

I was shocked, I thought the ending I made up for it was awful, but now I'm motivated to fix it up and make it the best it can be. It was off-putting at first, since usually you expect profs to be... you know, more critical than laudatory. the first story I handed him he crossed out everything but a paragraph and told me to focus on that scene.

[Anonymous No.2118713]

If i was a truly gifted writer, i would totally minor in creative writing. I do enjoy writing little stories, and if i am as good as this old man says than i should ace all these classes. Thing is, I have never been told i was even remotely good at writing from anyone else.

Well I did get a short story published in my high school literary magazine about a depressed volcano, but it only got accepted because the teacher in charge of the magazine had never read a story told from the perspective of a volcano.

[Anonymous No.2118725]

>>2118516
does op actually want to make something of his life?

[Anonymous No.2118733]

>Thing is, I have never been told i was even remotely good at writing from anyone else.

If only there were some place you could post your writing and have people critique it or something.

[Anonymous No.2118735]

hey OP, are you sure you didn't just get really high and wach this movie instead?

yeah, i am new here

[Anonymous No.2118755]

>>2118735
yeh im sure. what is that?

[Anonymous No.2118759]

YO DUDE YOU ARE THE MOTHERFUCKING CHOSEN ONE I CAN TELL FROM THIS THREAD PLEASE LISTEN TO YOUR PROFESSOR, WE NEED YOU TO SAVE ENGLISH LITERATURE, FOR REAL, BRO

[Anonymous No.2118783]

In my mind, they way OP is trying so hard to get attention sure doesn't give me the impression of a gifted writer. This humble, self-doubting act is pretty insincere.

OP aside. I think the core of a "gifted" writer isn't technical skill, but a mentality of keen observation and reflection. A writer's creativity comes from personal

[Anonymous No.2118876]

Before I say anything else, let me soothe the collective ego of /lit/ and say that I don't consider myself a better writer than anyone else here.

OP, people have been calling me a fucking wordsmith since something like fifth grade. I think I know why, and it's not because I'm necessarily gifted.

I think it's because, like you(?), I don't really pay attention to the conventions of language that they taught us in grammar school. What I mean by this, is that back in fourth grade when they were teaching us to write an essay the same way we make a hamburger (OKAY CLASS, THE INTRODUCTION PARAGRAPH IS LIKE THE TOP BUN, etc.) I just sort of mostly disregarded that shit.

I don't really know how grammar works on the scientific level that it seems like /lit/ or an english professor might. I don't know what a participle is, or how to use an adverb correctly. But at the same time, I never had a problem with those "pick out the incorrect sentence" tests we used to have to take either.

I can just sort of look at a sentence, and I just know whether or not there's something wrong with it. Even if it's not mechanically incorrect, I can usually rewrite it or change it slightly to give it a better impact or more gravitas. I'm just good at conveying the point that the reader needs to get.

I think the reason people believe I'm talented or gifted or whatever is because, not really knowing the rules, I just disregard them and write what feels good. Teachers especially, I assume, find this refreshing, because it's not the same rehashed, formulaic shit they normally have to read over and over all day.

Or maybe I'm just pretentious and full of shit.

I hope that helps! Don't get molested.

[Anonymous No.2118884]

>>2118876
why did I type gravitas?

I meant gravity.

[Anonymous No.2118887]

>>2118876
>or how to use an adverb correctly

nigga you don't even know what an adverb is

I...

wut

[Anonymous No.2118893]

>>2118887
Fucking words, man. How do they work?

[Anonymous No.2118902]

>>2118887
what the fuck is an adverb

[Anonymous No.2118915]

>>2118516
ITT: Try to impress readers by making it seem that you have some (humble) 'natural' gift for writing

[Anonymous No.2118930]

>>2118876
>I can just sort of look at a sentence, and I just know whether or not there's something wrong with it.

Yep, this is true. If English teachers actually knew anything about linguistics they'd know that teaching students word classes and other nonsense is an absolute waste of time and maybe I would have learned something useful in high school instead.

[Anonymous No.2118950]

>>2118876

nobody cares post some writing

[Anonymous No.2118995]

The delusion in this thread makes me feel better about myself.

Get yourself a punctuation and style guide OP. I'll quote a passage from mine:

"But remember this: theory is very useful, both for the check and brake it applies and also for the suggestions it offers; nevertheless, the only way in which you learn to write is - to write... write as much as you can on all sorts of subjects. Revise what you write; revise it carefully, but do not pace the floor in an agonized search for the right word, for... you may lose the inspiration and probably lose the thread of your discourse."

"Having written and having perhaps been severely criticized for your composition, your style, you should take advantage of the surcease from your work to examine carefully your writing and to look again at Fowler and Hulbert and Wood [British English writers of style guides]."

tl;dr: "I do not mean that writers should think everything they write to be God-given and heaven-sent. It isn't."

Eric Partridge, 'Usage and Abusage'.

Fucking seriously - you mightn't think things like punctuation, style, grammar and whatever 'pedantry hurr durr' advice established, intelligent and scholarly men come up with, but you're wrong. I'm not right; I know I'm not right. I am, however, quoting a person who is, and a person who knows his faults.