How far will talent take you?

Every writer hopes for talent, but what is talent, exactly?

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary offers several definitions:

• a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude.
• general intelligence or mental power: ability
• the natural endowments of a person

Talent gives people an edge or a head start. With talent, you can learn faster and perform better. Success isn’t guaranteed, but it’s within reach.

In writing, we see a variety of talents. Some authors are natural storytellers. Others have a way with words. Some are fast learners who quickly pick up new writing skills without a lot of effort. Some are simply good at organizing and communicating their thoughts, ideas, or knowledge in writing.

However, I’ve never encountered a writer who was born with the ability to whip out a brilliant piece of writing without years of learning, practice, or dedication.

Some aspects of writing simply must be learned.

Learning to Write

We’re not born knowing letters or language. We must be taught. It might come easier to the lucky ones, but that doesn’t mean they glanced at a book and gained some magical ability to write brilliantly. We all have to learn and practice, no matter how much talent was bestowed upon us.

And luck is a factor too. The most genius writer on the planet will never write a book if they don’t have the opportunity to learn how to read and write. I’ve sometimes wondered how many illiterate Mark Twains or Maya Angelous might be living in our world. Can you imagine the great literature we’re missing out on? That’s why education is so important.

Talent doesn’t give writers every advantage they need in order to write well. One child might struggle with reading comprehension but easily put their thoughts and ideas into prose. Another might inhale books with ease from a young age but find organizing their thoughts on paper challenging. Some other kid might have a knack for storytelling but struggle with spelling. It’s nice to have an edge, but since writing requires a vast set of skills, talent is unlikely to give you a complete edge.

Luckily, if there’s a weak spot in our abilities, we can study and practice to sharpen our skills. If your dialogue is boring, you can study compelling dialogue, practice writing better dialogue, and improve your dialogue writing. Same with fight scenes or love scenes, poems, or essays. We should all leverage and exploit our writing strengths, and we should always be strengthening our weaknesses.

Discipline

Talent doesn’t give you a work ethic. You could be the most talented writer in the history of the world, but it won’t matter if you can’t force yourself to sit down and do your work. Books don’t write themselves. And it’s not like there’s a boss hovering over your shoulder, demanding to see the latest chapter of your first manuscript. You can build a support system that will hold you accountable, but ultimately you — and only you — must produce the work.

I have worked with a lot of authors over the years. Sometimes I read a rough draft and think, hm, there’s something here — something compelling — something special. But if the author isn’t willing to dig the diamond out of the coal and do the hard work of accepting criticism and revising, it really doesn’t matter.

Event the most talented authors don’t produce first drafts that are ready to go to publication. We all have to revise, multiple times. I have seen authors — talented authors — get so frustrated with the revision process or so enchanted with some other, newer idea for a project, that they simply walk away. They never finish anything. Many of them eventually give up on writing altogether. They lack a willingness to push through the tedious tasks, and they refuse to cultivate the discipline necessary to complete publishable works.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the decades, it’s that talent is certainly alluring, but discipline is a far better indicator of success.

Success Without Talent

Plenty of things can hold talented writers back from success:

• Some people only write when they feel like it.
• Some can’t accept criticism or stick it out through revisions and tedious or unpleasant phases of a project.
• Some refuse to learn new skills and practice the craft.
• Some give up too easily or drop projects to chase after newer ideas that seem more exciting.
• Some lack discipline, which encompasses just about everything else on this list.

Notice a theme? Discipline, not talent, is a more reliable path to success.

With a willingness to learn and some discipline, average writers can produce more writing and better work than their more talented counterparts. In fact sometimes an average writer can surpass a talented writer’s skill level.

Talent is just another word for something that comes easily. And it’s useless if you’re not willing to work hard, because there’s no talent that will carry you all the way to the finish line. If you truly want to succeed as a writer, don’t worry about talent. Get determined to be a writer. Be willing to learn and practice the craft. And most importantly, develop discipline.

What aspects of writing come naturally to you? Which aspects do you struggle with? How do you strengthen your weaknesses? What steps do you take to stay disciplined and get your work done?

A few good writing tips to keep you on your toes.

Have you ever gotten stuck in a writing project, and just when your frustration reached its peak, you heard some bit of sage advice that helped you see how to move forward?

There aren’t many writing problems that a few good writing tips can’t solve. Whether you need to develop your voice or use fewer clichés, quick tips can contain exactly the wisdom you need.

I keep a file of quotes by authors so I can refer to their expertise when I need it. I also have several books, notebooks, and other documents filled with writing tips and techniques, and I like to review these every so often to see what I need to bring into my own work. In many cases, these tips are just quick reminders of all the lessons I’ve learned before.

A Collection of Good Writing Tips

As we develop our writing skills, we learn tons of concepts. From grammar rules to storytelling techniques, literary devices to poetry forms, there is so much to learn that one can become overwhelmed. A good list of writing tips summarizes complex lessons into digestible pieces of advice that keep you on your toes lest you forget or neglect the guidelines for good writing.

Here are some of my favorite tips and reminders:

• Find your best writing tools and spaces. Are you more creative when you wield a pen? Do you get more writing done at your computer? Does your imagination run wild at night or do you get your best work done in the morning? Would you rather curl up on the couch with your project or sit at a desk?
• Hold yourself accountable. When was the last time you actually wrote anything? Do you track your progress and productivity (I recommend a word-count tracker)? Do days go by before you realize you haven’t written a word or do months go by? Find a system to keep yourself writing regularly.
• Embrace and develop your voice, the unique way you string words and sentences together.
• Are you a writer or a storyteller? Writers know how to use their most important tools (grammar and language). Storytellers spin tales. You can be one or the other, or you can be both.
• Follow your heart. Don’t write for the market or for your friends and family. Figure out what ignites your passion, and then figure out how to translate that into a story, poem, or essay.
• Set some goals. In a decade or two, you can pack boxes with notebooks and journals that you’ve completed or cram your hard drive with documents, but to what purpose? What do you want to accomplish with your writing?
• Seek out your heroes. Which poems and stories move you? Which writers do you admire or want to emulate? They are your mentors.
• Read like a fiend.
• Mix and mingle with other writers. They are your best support system.
• Make writing a priority. If you didn’t write anything today, review the day and figure out what you could have skipped in order to make time for writing.
• Mix your media. Good stories and poems are hiding everywhere. Writers often look to other writers for inspiration, but you can glean inspiration from musicians, filmmakers, painters, and other artists too. The internet is jam-packed with sources of inspiration!
• Stop trying to be original and just be yourself.
• Critique other writers’ work, but don’t judge other writers. Embrace critiques and reviews when someone takes the time to offer thoughtful feedback on your writing.
• Support the literary community. What kind of writer doesn’t buy books, leave positive reviews of stories they love, or share and promote their fellow writers’ best work?
• Put it out there. Many writers struggle just to put their words in front of an audience. Start by sharing with trusted friends. Then take a workshop. Join a writers’ group. Start submitting your work to literary journals. Finally, give the world your book.
• Read what you want to write. If you want to write with great skill, then read writers who are skilled. Read in the genres and forms that you aspire to.
• But read beyond your genre and past your skill level. Don’t limit yourself.
• Be an active user of the dictionary and thesaurus. Become a fact checker. Use research and trusted resources to make sure your work is credible and accurate.
• Get to know your audience. There’s a difference between writing for the market and identifying your audience and writing for them.

Do little bits of writerly advice ever help you over a hurdle? Do you have any good writing tips to share? Are you stuck in your own writing slump? What has pulled you out of a slump in the past? Share your writing tips and experiences by leaving a comment.

The Chicago Manual of Style

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The Chicago Manual of Style is the most widely used resource for American English style, grammar, and punctuation. If you’re working on any kind of writing project and need a solid reference that provides answers for how to consistently apply style and grammar, then this is the book for you.

Often called Chicago or CMOS, the text was originally published in 1906 with just 200 pages under the lengthy, albeit descriptive title: Manual of Style: Being a compilation of the typographical rules in force at the University of Chicago Press, to which are appended specimens of type in use. Yes, that’s a mighty long title.

In 2024, the eighteenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style was published with 1,192 pages. It is available in hardcover, and there’s also a handy online edition to which you can subscribe, for a fee.

Chicago is so widely used because it can be applied to almost any type of writing. It’s extremely flexible and offers writers options for various formats. Many smaller, niche-oriented style guides are based on the guidelines set forth in Chicago, making it the foundation for most writing styles and grammar usages found throughout America.

What is a Style Guide?

There is a significant difference between a style guide and a grammar guide. A grammar guide will address the formal rules of language, rules that are applicable across any style, form, or format.

A style guide addresses all the gaps in grammar, and there are many. It also provides a set of guidelines that writers can use to format their work, often with an emphasis on citations. Adhering to these guidelines keeps your writing clear and consistent. If you’ve ever read a document or book that sometimes wrote out numbers (one, two, three) and other times used numerals (1, 2, 3) or used the serial comma in some sentences but not in others, you know how confusing and inconsistent written works can be when writers and editors don’t use a style guide.

Finally, many style guides incorporate the rules of grammar, so they address a wider range of questions and writing issues. Chicago is one such style guide. If you’re looking for a general-purpose writing resource that you can turn to for style and grammar, you’ve just found the holy grail.

Eighteenth Edition

The latest edition of Chicago gives greater consideration to diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Previously focused on nonfiction, this edition includes fiction and other creative forms and genres, addressing elements such as dialogue. Attention is given to the needs of self-published authors as well. Sections on citations have been reorganized and mathematics editing has been integrated more appropriately for general use. Chicago routinely updates for the ongoing development of technology, and this edition is no exception; it covers AI and open-access publishing models. The manual also incorporates changes that better reflect real-world usage.

More Writing Resources

If you’re not ready for a style and grammar guide that has over 1,000 pages, then you might be more comfortable starting out with something slimmer, like Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style (4th Edition). If you’re writing for a particular publication, then you should check with the editor or manager to see if there is an established style guide that you should use. When no other style guide is specified, Chicago is the one to use, and it’s worth the investment.

For more recommendations, visit the writing resources section of Writing Forward, and keep writing!

Poetry prompts celebrating the fall season.

It seems like summer always passes too quickly and winter lasts too long. Maybe that’s why fall is a favorite season for so many people. It seems to hang around just long enough. It’s not too hot, not too cold — a mild, colorful, and comfortable season.

Every fall, my creativity goes into overdrive, and I doubt this year will be any different. I’m not sure what it is about all the rusty and golden hues that fills me with inspiration, but I’m always grateful when the leaves start to turn because I know my imagination is about get fired up.

It’s the perfect time of year to write a little poetry. The seasons have been inspiring poets for millennia, and it’s up to us modern-day writers to keep the tradition alive. The poetry prompts below are a great way to get started.

Poetry Prompts

Poetry prompts are simple. Below, you’ll find three lists of words. Your task is to compose a poem using all of the words from one of the lists. You can also get creative and use any of the following alternatives:

• Mix and match random words from the three lists. Try to use 5-10 words to prompt your poem.
• Write three poems, each based on one of the lists.
• Write a single poem using all of the words from all of the lists.

Once you’re done writing your poem, set it aside and let it sit overnight. Come back to it the next day and spend some time polishing it. You can add words, remove words, put it into form, or take it out of form. Focus especially on deleting extraneous words and phrases. Try to keep the poem as tight and concise as possible. Also, make an effort to infuse the poem with vivid imagery, which is the key to writing great poetry.

Discover and Share

Once you’ve finished using these prompts to write a poem (or several poems), come back and tell us what you discovered or learned through the process. Did you write a poem about autumn or did some other topic emerge? Did you come up with any compelling images for your piece? How did revising your poem improve it? Leave a comment to share your experience. And keep writing!

An exercise to help you manage your fiction writing ideas.

Today’s storytelling exercise is an excerpt from my book, Story Drills: Fiction Writing Exercises, which helps beginning to intermediate storytellers develop skills in the craft of fiction writing. This exercise is designed to help you manage your writing ideas (or lack thereof). It’s called “Managing Our Ideas.” Enjoy!

All the storytelling skills in the world are useless if you don’t start with good ideas. Most writers suffer from too many ideas. They give up in the middle of a project to start a different project when they get a tempting new idea. But other writers struggle to find ideas that they want to explore. They think their ideas are boring or unoriginal, or maybe not strong enough to keep their interest for the full duration of a book-length project.

Generating ideas, choosing the best ideas, and seeing ideas through to completion are important skills for a writer to develop.

Most ideas that seem fresh are just old ideas with a new twist. It’s almost impossible to find a story that doesn’t include various elements from stories that came before. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to be original, but if it’s preventing you from creating stories, perhaps you’re being too hard on yourself and your ideas.

Before diving into a long-term project, make sure you’ve explored all your options and chosen an idea that you can see through to completion. Before committing to a project, spend some time with its concept and premise. A short story isn’t a major commitment, so jump in. But if you plan to write a novel, which could take a year or more, ask yourself whether it’s really an idea to which you want to make a long-term commitment.

Study:

You’ve probably already acquired some story ideas. Maybe they’re stuffed in a shoe box, scattered around your office on sticky notes, or stored on your computer or mobile device. Gather up all your ideas and review them.

Practice:

Create a system to manage your story ideas. You could create a folder on your computer that contains one document for each story idea. Maybe you’ll use index cards and file them in a box. You could use sticky notes and attach them to pages in a binder, which would allow you to sort, organize, and prioritize. Come up with a system that allows you to quickly and easily store and review the ideas you’ve had, but also one with space that allows you to further develop your ideas.

Questions:

Why do some writers want their work to be totally original? Why are new ideas so alluring that they entice us away from projects we thought we were committed to? What can we do to make sure we finish projects we’ve started? Why is it helpful to keep track of our ideas?

Tips for writing description in fiction.

Today’s post includes excerpts from What’s the Story? Building Blocks for Fiction Writing, chapter eight: “Description and Exposition.” Enjoy!

Without description, readers wouldn’t be able to visualize what’s happening in a story. We need to see the setting and the characters. Because there are no visuals in prose, writers must use words to describe a story’s visual elements in a way that helps readers see the story playing out in their minds.

Prior to film and photography, prose was packed with lengthy and detailed description. If a story was set on a tropical island, the narrative needed to describe it in great detail, because most readers had no idea what a tropical island looked like. Nowadays, most people have some idea of what a tropical island looks like, thanks to films and photos, and many people have traveled to a tropical island, thanks to advances in transportation. This lessens the need for elaborate descriptions. Modern writers can therefore write simpler and more concise descriptions, which allows them to place greater emphasis on action and dialogue. This is a good thing, because action and dialogue are where a story really happens.

Description is most essential when we’re describing characters, locations, and objects that readers have never seen or experienced. These can be some of the trickiest types of descriptions to craft. In a science-fiction story, it can be challenging to describe an alien to an audience that has never seen such a creature. We can use points of reference: maybe the alien is humanoid in shape, maybe it has some features that we can compare to plants and animals on Earth. But tying it all together in a tidy description that truly matches what the author is imagining might be a formidable task.

Let’s consider a description of a room:

There is a bookshelf in one corner and a chair in the opposite corner. There’s a couch and a coffee table in the center of the room. A piano sits in front of a large picture window. The walls are wood paneled and covered with paintings.

This description may give you a sense of the room, but it’s boring. Readers are likely to drift off if a description continues like this for too long.

What’s wrong with this description? Almost every sentence begins with “There is” or some variation of it, and most of the verbs are various forms of to be. Although it’s useful to draft descriptions in this manner, these sentences need to be reworked so that they hold the reader’s attention:

A massive oak desk sat below a large picture window, beside a shelf overflowing with books. Hardcovers, paperbacks, and binders were piled on the tiled floor in messy stacks.

Note the use of active verbs, such as overflowing, and descriptive adjectives, like messy. Good narrative description makes the setting more vivid by using language that engages the reader.

Effective description is often achieved not by inserting long and specific descriptions but by making thoughtful decisions about what to include and what to leave out. When a narrative brings readers into a room, it doesn’t need to cite every object in the room and explain in minute detail how the room is laid out. The goal is to give readers a sense of the room. That is best achieved by providing readers just enough description that they can see key details and trusting that their imaginations will fill in the rest.

Description also determines how immersed readers get in the story. We could describe the sand on a beach as white and sprawling in every direction as far as the eye could see. But if the character is walking on the sand, the reader will become more immersed when the sand is hot, grainy, and gritty against the character’s feet. When description is visceral—when we can feel it—it comes alive.

Description can be used to engage readers’ five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. Average descriptions focus on sight, explaining what something looks like. But descriptions that include the other senses will arouse the readers’ senses. This is why dining scenes work remarkably well in prose. We can use description to set a scene in which characters are cooking a meal: the warmth from the oven; bright, fresh vegetables steaming on the stove; the sound of a sizzling skillet; the smell of spiced chicken frying; the sound of an ice-cold bottle of beer cracking open. The readers’ mouths will water as the characters enjoy their spicy, zesty fajitas.

The most important descriptions are those that are essential to the story. Have you ever read a story that offered detailed descriptions of mundane items and locations and then skimmed over the descriptive details of story elements that really mattered? This causes readers to struggle to imagine the story. For example, if a character has been in a terrible accident and is getting bandages removed for the first time, there should be some description of the wounds or scars as opposed to a description of the hospital room. This helps the readers focus on the character (and therefore the story) as opposed to a generic room. By adding description that references the smell of antiseptic and the slick, cold texture of the doctor’s latex gloves, the scene becomes sensory and visceral.

Want to learn more about writing description in fiction? Pick up a copy of What’s the Story? Building Blocks for Fiction Writing.

Try something new with these poetry writing ideas and activities.

A poem can come out of nowhere and land on the page, fully formed, in just a few minutes. A poem can also be the result of hours (or weeks) of laboring over line breaks, word choices, images, and rhythm.

Poems are funny little things, appearing out of nowhere and disappearing for no apparent reason. Poets have to be diligent: be prepared when a poem arrives, and if the poem doesn’t arrive, go out and chase it down.

There are many ways to write a poem, and not all of them involve sitting at a desk staring at a glaring screen or curled up in a chair with a pen and a notebook. Instead of waiting for poems to fall out of the sky, try some of these poetry writing ideas and activities.

Poetry Writing Ideas & Activities

Below are some poetry writing ideas mixed with activities to get poetry flowing.

1. Take a poetry walk. Grab a recorder or a notebook and then set out on foot. You can use a timer and stop every five minutes to jot down a line, or take a break whenever you see something interesting or inspiring and note it. When you get home, work it all into a poem.
2. Take a snapshot. Write a descriptive poem, choosing a simple subject or scene. The idea is to write a poem that feels like a picture.
3. Cut and paste. Grab some old magazines, pamphlets, and junk mail and cut out the most interesting words and phrases, and then tape or paste them together to make a poem.
4. Get personal. Your deepest secrets, innermost desires, regrets, dreams, and fantasies are all excellent sources of inspiration.
5. Write a response poem. Choose a poem that you admire or that confounds you — perhaps one that disturbs you or contains some idea that you disagree with. Write a poem in response to it.
6. State your positions. Write a political poem, a philosophical poem, or explore your ideals through image-rich language.
7. Translate a poem into modern language. Many modern readers don’t care to read poetry that was written hundreds of years ago because the language has changed so much since then. So take one of those poems and update it into a more contemporary vernacular.
8. Explore your beliefs. What do you value? Which morals do you hold dear? Share your beliefs and express your spirituality through a poem.
9. Write to music. You can use a song with or without lyrics: give it words or give it new words!
10. Pay tribute. Write an ode to someone you admire, respect, or love. For a more interesting twist and a challenge, write a tribute poem to someone you’re not that crazy about.
11. Go big. Get large sheets of paper or use chalk on the driveway and draft a poem in huge, sweeping letters.
12. Get in form. Many of today’s poets don’t experiment in form. Surprisingly, it tends to open rather than stifle creativity. It’s definitely worth a try.
13. Make temporary art. Chalk and whiteboards are great for temporary poems. The idea is to create something, and then let it go. You can also write on paper and burn it, shred it, or black it out.
14. Use doodles. Get a blank piece of paper and allow yourself to doodle on it as you write a poem. See if your doodles give your poem a new angle, either by influencing the content or by giving you interesting or fresh ideas.
15. Get in shape. Choose a shape in silhouette form, and then fill the shape with words to build a poem into the shape: hearts, animals, people, and symbols (anything recognizable in outline form) work well.

What do you do when your poetry isn’t flowing? Do you have any poetry writing ideas or activities to share? If so, leave a comment, and keep writing.

Punctuation marks: the ellipses…

You see it everywhere, but most people don’t know what it’s called or how to use it properly.

In fact, it’s often referred to as “dot, dot, dot” even though it does have a name. This punctuation mark is the ellipsis.

It is a series or row of three periods, which is usually used to indicate an omission. It may also be used to indicate faltering or interrupted speech or a pause.

Punctuation Marks 

Some punctuation marks are clear-cut while others cause a lot of confusion. Most of us mastered periods and question marks back in elementary school. Commas, semicolons, and ellipses aren’t as easy to master. As a result, many punctuation marks are frequently misused.

The ellipsis is one such punctuation mark. Most people don’t know the name of this punctuation mark, and those who do often confuse the singular and plural (just as many people confuse singular datum and plural data).

Luckily, the ellipsis isn’t nearly as confusing as the comma. It’s relatively easy to learn how to use it correctly and how to refer to it properly.

Ellipsis

According to The Chicago Manual of Style:

An ellipsis — the omission of a word, phrase, line, paragraph, or more from a quoted passage — is indicated by ellipsis points (or dots)… Ellipsis points are three spaced periods ( . . . ), sometimes preceded or followed by other punctuation.

Singular and Plural

The word ellipsis is not plural. In other words, it refers to the three points, together, as a single unit, which is often colloquially referred to as dots or periods. Here is an ellipsis:

. . .

The plural of ellipsis is ellipses. This would indicate more than one set of three dots:

. . .    . . .    . . .

This punctuation mark may also be called a suspension point, points of ellipsis, or periods of ellipsis. But to keep things simple, let’s just stick with the word ellipsis.

Omissions

The ellipsis is primarily used to indicate an omission. It can be an intentional omission, such as when you’re using a quotation but want to skip over a portion of it. Consider the following quote from Stephen King:

Fiction writers, present company included, don’t understand very much about what they do — not why it works when it’s good, not why it doesn’t when it’s bad.

If space is tight, you might want to omit part of the quotation, but you still need to indicate a missing piece of text. You would use an ellipsis:

Fiction writers . . . don’t understand very much about what they do — not why it works when it’s good, not why it doesn’t when it’s bad.

Faltering or Interrupted Speech

The ellipsis may also be used to represent faltering or interrupted speech:

“Well, I . . . uh . . . don’t know,” she said.

Pauses

We can also use an ellipsis to indicate a pause or unfinished thought. At the end of a sentence, an ellipsis represents trailing off into silence.

Using an ellipsis to represent a pause can get a writer into trouble. We tend to pause a lot in speech. Pauses give us a moment to collect our thoughts or add emphasis to what we’re saying. But in writing, a page peppered with ellipses wreaks havoc on the eyes.

The same applies to unfinished thoughts. A lazy writer might use ellipses to indicate, “and so on” or “et cetera.” In text messaging and social media, many people use ellipses where they believe the reader will implicitly understand what would be stated next. In professional-grade writing, we finish our thoughts, so ellipses used for this purpose should be rare.

However, when we are writing dialogue, an ellipsis can come in handy, especially if we want to show a character’s speech trailing off. Keep in mind, though, that ellipses, like exclamation points, should be used with caution and only when truly needed for emphasis. As a general rule, don’t use it unless you must.

Notation and Formatting

You’ll see ellipses formatted in two ways, either three points without spacing (…) or three points with spacing ( . . . ). In some cases, four points are used, but this is rare and not covered in this article.

In the U.S., an ellipsis is generally formatted with spacing between each ellipsis point: ( . . . ) per the most common style standards.

The Chicago Manual of Style warns against using ellipsis at the beginning or ending of any quotations. However, some writers will place ellipses at the beginning or endings of quotations to indicate preceding or following text that has been omitted. This ensures that readers are aware of omissions and prevents using quotations out of context.

Using Punctuation Marks Like the Ellipsis

If you want to ensure you’re using grammar and punctuation marks correctly and consistently in your writing, pick up a grammar manual or style guide. You’ll find that the more you write, the more frequently you come across grammar and formatting situations that are unclear. Grammar and style resources will be a great help.

What is the role of creative writing in art and commerce?

What is art?

People have been trying to answer that question for centuries, but we still don’t have a definitive answer. We know art is borne of creativity. It’s meant to impact whoever is experiencing it. And it comes from a place within the artist that we don’t truly understand.

Art remains a mystery, both in its definition and its origin. Why is art a cornerstone of every culture on Earth? Why are some people drawn to making art while others prefer to sit in the audience? Why do people need art, whether it’s music, films, paintings, sculptures, dance, or literature?

The Commercialization of Art

We all know what commercialism is. It’s the intent to make money, preferably lots of it. Traditionally, art was safe from commercialism. Big business just wasn’t interested, and artists could freely create. The market was open and it decided who succeeded and who didn’t. Fine art rose to the top.

But once the money makers filled up all the shelves in the grocery markets and lined all the racks in the department stores, they turned to art, and they commercialized it.

Screenplays were streamlined into formulas. Big publishing houses tried to figure out which books would turn the fastest and easiest profits. Clear Channel bought up all the radio stations and started using bottom lines and internal agendas to decide which songs the public would listen to.

And artists took jobs at advertising agencies. Filmmakers created 30-second mini-movies called commercials. Songwriters penned jingles. Writers crafted slogans. And illustrators developed logos.

In a world driven by commerce, art became a commodity. Some artists cried out in protest, claiming that commercialized art was dumbing down the masses. The purpose of commercial art is not to get people to think or feel. It doesn’t care if it changes the world or makes a profound statement about humanity or nature. All it wants to do is get people to buy.

Fine Art vs. Commercial Art

Everything we humans create has some basic purpose. Commercial art exists to make money. Its motivation is revenue. Fine art exists because people need to articulate their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Its motivation is expression.

While the definitions of commercial and fine art are pretty clear, the lines between them are actually so blurry, it can be difficult to tell the difference. If you and I worked our way through the Times bestseller list in an attempt to classify each book as either commercial or artistic, I bet we’d disagree a few times.

Can we define that gray area that connects yet separates fine and commercial art? Can we then apply it to our own creative writing?

Art and Commerce in Creative Writing

Sometimes I talk to writers who have wild ideas about the stories they want to tell. Their imaginations are bustling with characters, scenes, and themes that are inspired, unique, and original. But they’ll say, “Nah, it’ll never sell.” On the other hand, I regularly get emails from aspiring writers who tell me, “I think my story idea will be a bestseller.”

Whether or not the book will sell appears to be a more significant consideration than whether it’s a good story — or whether it’s any good as a piece of art.

Is one better than the other?

You have to answer that question for yourself. Personally, I love all types of art. I think sometimes the big money makers were genuinely inspired by something other than money. And occasionally, the art that was supposed to make a mint barely turns a dime. The world keeps on spinning.

What Drives Your Writing: Art or Commerce?

Some creators are vying for commercial success; they want to be stars, or maybe they just want to eke out a living with their art. Others want to express their visions; they want to share some piece of themselves with the world. All over the planet, they are making their art.

I wonder how many artists have contemplated their motivations. I wonder if you have. Do you give much thought to whether your work will make you rich someday? Do you continue to create because you simply have to? Or are you somewhere in the middle, hoping to be able to find a way for your creative writing to pay the bills while sticking to your vision?

I don’t particularly care whether a piece of art was motivated by love or money. My music, book, and film collections are a healthy mix of big hits and underground or counterculture favorites. When I’m in the audience, it’s not about what motivated the artist. It’s about how the art affects me.

But when I’m sitting at my desk writing a poem or drafting a story, I care very much about the artist’s motivation.

So, what motivates you?

Make good grammar part of your lifestyle.

I recently started relearning how to play the guitar after a rather long hiatus. It’s not like I ever learned how to play it properly in the first place — so I’m still a beginner. And at times, I find it frustrating. I just want to pick the thing up and rip out a song, but I’m constantly tripping over my own fingers, and let’s not even talk about the pain that comes from pressing your fingertips against thick metal strings, repeatedly and for extended periods of time.

Writing’s not so different from playing the guitar. Sometimes we get hung up on the technicalities of the language, and the creative flow is hindered. It’s not easy to rip out a short story when you’re worrying about whether you can end a sentence with a preposition or whether your terminal punctuation marks go inside or outside of the quotation marks. These kinds of setbacks can be painful.

Learning the rules is a drag when you want to fly, but to master any craft, it’s essential to build a solid foundation. Learn the basics; memorize and practice them until they become second nature, and then you can really take off.

Grammar Helps You Write Better

You don’t have to learn grammar in order to write — just like you don’t have to learn how to read music to play the guitar — but it sure helps if you want to make music instead of a bunch of noise. Your poem might be captivating, your short story compelling, and your essay might be a veritable masterpiece…when read aloud. But if in writing, the grammar is shoddy, you’re going to have a hard time getting published or finding readers.

Even with years of practice and learning, questions about grammar continue to arise. I’ve seen college professors (who taught English) wonder about the rules of good grammar or turn to a handy reference book to look something up.

That’s why I believe that good grammar is a commitment, and for writers, it’s a lifelong commitment. It’s not what makes a writer, but lack of good grammar can definitely break a writer.

The Grammar Lifestyle

I’ve always been interested in grammar and writing well. But since I launched this blog back in 2007, I’ve become increasingly dedicated to understanding grammar. Oh, I break the rules from time to time, but I try to know which rules I’m breaking and why.

Today I thought I’d share some tips for making good grammar part of your daily life. These tips are taken from my own experience, habits, and practices. All of them have helped me expand my grammar skills and become a better writer.

1. Stop being lazy: When you’re not sure if you’ve written a sentence correctly, take a couple of minutes to look it up instead of rewriting it or hoping for the best.
2. Invest in writing tools and resources: These include reference books that deal with grammar and style. My personal favorite is The Chicago Manual of Style (aff link).
3. Make it a chore: Some chores you do every day, while others can be tackled weekly or monthly. Set a schedule for regular grammar lessons and stick to it. They don’t have to be long. You can learn something valuable in five short minutes!
4. Talk about it: Turn your grammar questions into conversations. Ask others how they use language. Oddly, I find that even non-writers are interested in basic grammar questions. And if you can’t find anyone who wants to discuss good grammar, take your conversation online. Remember you should always use a credible resource, but discussing grammar-related issues can be a good way to learn the nuances, intricacies, and to gain broader understanding.
5. Put it to practice: Every time you learn something new, incorporate it into your writing until it becomes second nature.

Good Grammar for Writers

Writing isn’t really about grammar; it’s about communication. A writer’s job is to share ideas, inform, and entertain. Yet grammar is essential to clear writing. If you write without understanding grammar, it’s like playing a game without learning the rules. You’ll be all over the place, your performance will be a big mess, and you won’t have a very good shot at winning.

So make grammar part of your daily life. Get it into your routine and embrace it as part of the work you have to do in order to write well.