What makes a Writer

 * What makes a Writer *

The words do not make the writer
Nor a character affable
A writer Is not the result of binding
All life's experience into a tome
Is not the long late nights
The trips to locations find
Is not every wry or silly crack
Is not monsters in the dark
Nor a publishing agent dear
None of these make a writer
Though all of them might help

Writers are not born
Nor manufactured in a workshop
Cannot absorb the skill by osmosis
From books sitting in a library
The finest pen not needed to write
Best paper or computer not assist
To make a writer true
Though all of them might help

Is not the story gaily told
Planned out on cards or toilet roll
Is not the support from others
Those who praise you eagerly
And their criticisms withhold
Is not the other ones
Who every word or phrase denounce
Surviving them does not a writer make
Though all of them might help

The writer to be made
A writer to be claimed
Is to write the words
From one beyond the twenty thousand
To complete a story ample
Which someone would read
Is to believe the book so written
Is worthy of their time
This is what makes a writer
Though all the rest might help.

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Or words to that effect by John Connolly.