Are you a writer and don't even know it?

I've been sitting on this post for a while now.  I'm not sure what has held me back from sharing my ideas, but it's been there, keeping me from publishing this.

I've shared a little bit about how I wrote my first book, but what I want to focus on today is the misconception I had that every writer knows from birth that that's what they will become.  I certainly didn't, and I've come across others lately with a similar experience.

Writing, to me, was the thing other people did.  Amazing people who could spin a captivating tale using skills I knew nothing about.  I HATED English in high school.  I hated diagrams and the confusing rules that still to this day confuse me, yet I did not know at that time what could be done with WORDS.

I'd read the words of others; marveled at worlds so foreign my head would spin from the visuals.  I had no idea I could do that too, until a few years ago.

Since I began my writing journey, I've read several books about writing, plotting, style, and so forth.  All of them have been helpful to an extent, but NONE of them will help me write the words it takes to create a world.  None of them can instill the creative spark it takes to go on instinct and let story flow.

I am not an organized person, so the idea of plotting is overwhelming to me.  I've tried to plot, but I've found in the three books I've written for publication that I prefer to 'pants' a novel.  For those of you unfamiliar with that term, it means you let the story come how it will.  Author Larry Brooks wrote a great book about writing called Story Engineering.

http://www.amazon.com/Story-Engineering-Larry-Brooks/dp/1582979987/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1339686192&sr=1-1

I tried to plot my second novel because of reading this book, but that is not why I really love it.  It's because he showed me what should go where in a successful novel.  His method's may not completely work for me, but I think I have become a better writer by understanding the points he makes in his book.

So my question to you is:  How do you know you are not a writer if you have never tried to write?

My first words were horrible, but along the way, something inside me clicked and I was able to use words to describe the story streaming through my head.

Stories are amazing things that can help us understand things we might not ever experience ourselves.  I'm grateful for my friend who told me to write my story myself.  I didn't think I was capable, but three books later, I've discovered just how wrong I was.  I've never been more happy to be wrong in my life.

The more I read, the more my mind conjures stories of my own.  If you question what has been done in a book and think it would have been better a different way, you might be a writer and not even know it.

Happy reading and hugs to you all.

Christie