I’ll spare you any suspense.

Yes, anyone can write a book.

I hang out with many STEM professionals because rock climbing attracts awesome physics-loving people. As a creative, I often feel a bit out of place, but that’s wonderful! Befriending people who think differently than me has been so vital to my personal growth.

So, when I talk about my writing, more than a few of my STEM friends have said, “Oh, I could never do that. I don’t have the mind for that kind of thing.”

If this was only one person saying that, I’d think maybe they might have low self-esteem or simply no interest in writing. But I have heard the same thing from dozens of people throughout my life – typically those in engineering, computer science, and other number-centric fields.

One friend even jokingly told me that if I became an engineer, they’d commit to writing a book. Why are you threatening me?!

But I’m curious where this rigid mindset comes from – and how we can fix it. I believe everyone has a story or two in them, and all those stories can become wonderful books with hard work.

People erroneously believe that raw talent, not passion and hard work, makes a good writer.

And I can understand where this mindset comes from because it often goes all the way back to childhood. We started transforming into our current selves decades ago, so it really can feel like we were destined for a certain hobby or profession.

For example, take my brother and I. My brother played video games all throughout his childhood, particularly things like Pokemon, Halo, and Test Drive. I loved to do Analog Twitch Streams by watching him play (while bullying him about it, of course). Now, he is in his mid 30s and still plays video games a few times a week.

On the other hand, I liked to read. I would disappear into books for hours, even eating my lunch in the school library or hiding under the covers with a flashlight. Soon enough, I was making up little songs, writing poems, and imagining new stories for the characters I read. I wrote my first (extremely bad) book at age 12.

My brother and I are of course different people, but we had mostly the same upbringing because we’re pretty close in age. If he had joined me in reading and writing, then he would be a better writer than me. Similarly, I could be the world’s best gamer if I had decided to pick up a controller.

But these experiences, in and of themselves, did not make me a writer. I liked it, so I kept applying myself. I got an English degree, tutored other writers, and wrote over a million words of fanfic before turning my attention to original fiction.

Early exposure did shape my career path and developed the strong communication skills I needed to write well. But that’s just the impetus – it’s not the actual cause of my success.

The applied effort, training, and passion for words is what made me a good writer. Not natural talent.

Now, do writers have a unique neurology? Yes, they do. Some people are just wired for certain professions. But we often ignore the fact that every single thing we do, every single day, influences our brains.

My brain is laser-focused on writing because I made it that way over decades; I actively sought improvement and developed a strong command over the written word. If I had chosen something else, like visual art or even cooking, I would be more talented at those things.

And here’s the thing – I still could choose those things. I wouldn’t be as gifted as someone who has been working at it for decades, but I could become an adequate painter if I really wanted to apply myself.

But I don’t want to, so I don’t. Doesn’t interest me. And that’s perfectly okay.

Removing this mindset of “I am not naturally good at something so I can’t do it” can be extremely helpful, though. If you do have a desire to write a book, please stop thinking you can’t just because you haven’t done it yet.

That would be like when the New York Times said it was impossible to create a flying machine …. mere weeks before the Wright Brothers flew their first plane.

Creativity can be taught.

There is still this mindset that someone is naturally creative and that if you don’t have this special quality provided to you at birth, then you suck and will fail forever.

I hate this mentality so much that I designed my magic system, High Poetry, to refute it. People can be born with High Poetry, but they can also obtain it through years of study. Just like writing.

It’s almost like I’m so obsessed with writing that I’m writing about writing even when I’m writing about something else. Definitely not intentional.

But anyway, you’re probably way more creative than you realize. There are millions of forms of creativity beyond writing, painting, moviemaking, and so on. Some of many non-written forms of creavitity I can think of include:

• Identifying the optimal way to organize a schedule
• Arranging physical items to reduce wasted space
• Finding the correct solution to an interpersonal conflict
• Restructuring a process to remove inefficiencies
• Implementing a project by employing new resources
• Finding new ways to motivate employees, children, pets, or partners
• Recycling old resources to create new ones
• Retrofitting items to suit a different purpose

Rock climbing, my favorite hobby, also requires a lot of creativity! You have to use your own body awareness and physical attributes to work your way through a set route. Everyone does the “beta” differently due to their own strengths, height, favorite techniques, etc. We don’t tend to think of this as creative, but it is.

Still, creativity is easier for some people than others; my bipolar brain is primed for novel thought because my neurons link things that they probably shouldn’t. But everyone has it in some form. And if you have a baseline functionality, then you can improve upon it.

To boost creativity, you must make connections between facts and ideas, then learn how to manipulate them into new forms. This sounds easy on the surface, but it can be rather difficult, especially if you are prone to rigid thinking.

Don’t get discouraged, though. There are thousands of ways to advance your writing, from brain training apps to freewriting and courses. In fact, a lot of local libraries have free classes, book clubs, and other activities that can help you.

If you really struggle with this, then you might benefit from professional support in building your creativity, such as taking a community college class. I am a huge fan of community college for affordable, structured learning. Still, you can also do it all on your lonesome.

Many people have trauma or resentment about writing due to poor experiences in school.

Another thing that often causes people to lock up when they think about writing a book is how they were treated when they were younger. If their writing wasn’t perfect, they were slammed by their teachers and maybe even ridiculed by other students.

Again, those neural connections go deep and can have a huge impact. I understand this completely because I had the opposite problem.

I have dyscalculia, which is basically Dyslexia But Math. I failed multiple math classes during my time in school, and this has made me fearful of almost anything to do with numbers.

Even when I can mentally calculate a sum, I use a calculator anyway because I remember crying outside of the classroom as my teacher told me I had an F in math. I’m forcing myself to improve my mental math skills by using the Impulse app, though I still grit my teeth every time that a math game comes up for the daily lesson.

Unfortunately, a lot of people have had that same experience but in writing and composition. Someone told them that they are stupid, and they received no evidence to the contrary because they didn’t try again.

And it is totally reasonable to be scared. I would never say you’re a dumb baby for feeling that way. We don’t do bullying around here.

Rejection hurts a lot, especially when you’re a child. But, hey … are you still in third grade? Is a teacher going to mock your writing and take away your recess time?

Absolutely not. There are no consequences for writing a shitty book now. You’re not going to publish it immediately, so who cares if it’s bad? You’re just having fun. You’re relaxing and playing in a world you created. If that sounds enjoyable, then you already have a writer’s heart, and you can nourish those neural connections.

People assume that you can’t be a writer if you’re not publisher-ready right this minute.

I harp on the fact that you need to write at least a million words before you are publisher ready, but the general public doesn’t know that. Some people genuinely believe, with all their hearts, that most writers’ first project was published.

The publishing industry does not help this; they crow about young debut authors and encourage writers to say the very first book they queried was accepted by the very first agent they contacted. This is more to provide an aura of excellence around that author than to clearly demonstrate what goes into making a good writer.

In fact, writers who take a long time to publish are often looked at badly, like they didn’t succeed the very first time so they are failures. Which is wrong.

Writing, like any other profession, takes a lot of practice before you are ready to do something great. More than many other fields, I would say.

One can learn to be a competent lawyer in maybe four years, but writing takes decades of sustained, self-directed effort to learn. We’re not memorizing a bunch of laws and applying argument patterns; there’s so much more that goes into making a good story, and it can’t be done by rote or precedent.

Every story is a blank page that can go anywhere, unlike a court case that has predetermined outcomes. Less structure requires more willpower, and such persistence can take just as long to develop.

So your first million words will be unpublishable at first. This is an involiable fact.

You may believe they are publishable, but give it a few more thousand practice words and you’ll see you were very wrong. Only when you put some space between you and the project will you see if you’re truly satisfied with it.

And this is okay. No writing is wasted – ever. Either you learned through practicing, or you can recyle that content for something else later. I have over 500 poems that I have started reworking, many of which have now been folden into the Eirenic Verses. I am glad I had those things to play with, even though they’d never have been published in their current form.

One more secret: people assume that publishing is the end goal of every writer. That’s not true. There are millions of very skilled fanfic writers who have no intention of monetizing their passion. Often, these are highly motivated professionals who are quite successful in their day jobs, so they don’t care that they’re not making anything from their work.

That is fantastic. I admire them so much because they are putting themselves out there with no expectation of reward other than a kudos. God’s bravest warriors.

Writing is a lifestyle and activity, not necessarily a vocation. Yes, some people monetize, as I have, but many others don’t. We wouldn’t judge someone who likes to bake cookies but has no intention of opening a bakery, and we shouldn’t do that with writers either.

Writing has wonderful benefits for everyone, even if they don’t want to become published authors.

You might wonder why I’m encouraging non-authors to write. Aren’t I diluting the market for myself?

Not really. I know most people who write a story won’t publish it.

If they do publish, they might be in a completely different subgenre than me, so they’re not my competition. And even if they are in my subgenre, my work is different because I have a unique voice and have been doing this for much longer.

And if they are better than me? Now I’m inspired to improve myself.

But regardless of that, people should write for themselves foremost – for the joy of it. Writing is an innate human skill and shouldn’t be gatekept by anyone, just like other forms of creativity.

Modern society has forced everyone into specialized boxes. If you’re a scientist or artist or business leader, then that’s just what you are, and anything else about you is inconsequential to that status. Over time, this starts to segregate everyone into their predetermined roles and lend those roles an air of inevitability.

But anyone can write. Anyone can dance, or make art, or cook, or sing, or design dresses, or anything else they want to do. These are part of what make humanity so great, and we should all get to share in the joy. I like to dance around my room or sing little songs to my dog; that’s just me being a person, no different than a bird chirping because it’s happy.

I don’t gatekeep because there is nothing to gatekeep. There is no sorcery around making a good book. Those who pretend otherwise are doing both themselves and others a disservice.

If you can think in words, you can write in words. Yes, there is a lot more that goes into making something that other people will want to read. That comes with time, just like any other skill.

And you don’t need to do anything with what you write if you don’t want to. You can keep it as a fun hobby, a way to blow off steam. Write some fanfic about your favorite media franchises, or make a challenge to write one poem a day.

But please, I never want to hear you say “I can’t write.”

You can write a book. I promise.

Maybe that work won’t be publishable, and maybe no one else will see it, but you’ll be able to bask in the fact that you did it, even if only once.

No matter where your skillset lies, I believe you can have fun with writing. And I want you to! Continue practicing and learning, even if there’s no material reward. The real joy comes from being proud of what you have achieved.