Here is an interesting question that came in the other day. “How can I tell if I can be a writer?” Have your sent an email, and the person who got it wants to know more? Have you ever told an event in your life and other person wants to know more? I could go on giving more examples, but I think you understand what I’m getting at. You told someone either in writing, an email, or in person, and they were so interested in what you were telling them that they wanted to know more. If that’s happened to you, you have the skills to be a storyteller, a writer.
The very first novels were called epistolary. Epistolary is just a fancy word meaning written in letter form. I guess you could stretch that meaning today to include emails. Have you ever read a blog about a person’s life? You are so intrigued you continue to read the blog. That could also be considered epistolary.
Going back even further in time, you had the bards who traveled from town to town telling tales. Some of those were undoubtedly fiction. After all, the bards had to keep their audiences entertained and probably ran out of “stock tales” every bard knew. How about going back further? What of the famous Greek stories written in poetic form, the Iliad and Odyssey.
People love stories. There have always been people willing to tell them stories. I think both of those things are built into our DNA. Are you a storyteller, a writer, a poet, or a playwright? If you responded “yes” to either of my first two questions, you have the makings of becoming a writer.
