Lambson

Rhiannon Lambson

Professor Bernice Olivas

English 1010 Sec 407

8 December 2019

Signature Assignment: The Myths of Writing Essay

Born vs Made

Writing Prompt: Choose a "Myth of Writing and write a 3-5page essay discussing your

experience with the myth. Explain to the reader how this myth has shaped your worldview on

writing. This is an academic personal essay so you will need to use 3-5 outside sources in the

essay. You can use anything we read in class in this paper.

 Lambson

Born vs Made

I have always believed that writing was something that came naturally to people and I am

not one of those people. I thought that writing was something that people were born with or not.

In school teachers would say that it was okay if writing didn't come naturally it just meant you

should be better at other things. I have always been a great reader, but I have never been good at

spelling, grammar, or the creative aspect of writing. I have always mentally shut down when it

came to writing and I believed that to be because I was bad at reading. I also thought because I

didn’t have a writing voice come easily it meant I wasn’t meant to write. Recently I have learned

there are myths in writing. The biggest myth being that writers are made not born.

In reading Cathryn Manduca’s article “Writers Are Made Not Born” she tells about how

when she first started writing she “thought that writing was the task of putting words on paper,”

she later learned that the “real work was figuring out what to say”. ​I could not help but relate and

understand where she was coming from. ​Once in school, I was asked to write a research paper in

my history class. It seemed easy enough. Do the research and then write about what you learned.

Except, when all the research was done and I tried to write the paper I couldn’t find the words to

write. I kept coming to my teacher and she would say, “You have the material some people just

aren’t great at writing. They’re better at other things like math.” Manduca tells her readers how

she starts her papers by breaking them down into segments of 200 to 500 words just to get words

on the page. I have now started to incorporate this into my own writing.
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At the time what my teacher said to me about not being great at writing made sense to

me. If I want to be creative I struggle and it takes a lot of time. When I have to write a paper I

shut down mentally before the process starts because I know it will be hard for me to find any

words worth writing. But with math and science I understand and I pick it up quickly. They have

definitive rules and formulas that make up your mind for you. It has a structure that I can

understand and lets me enjoy. So being told that writing isn't for everyone made complete sense

to me. Then I read Joanna Penn’s article “Are Writers Born Or Made?” and she speaks about

how in life some people may “be born with a predisposition to excel in language and writing. But

even with that predisposition, it still must be developed. If it is not, then little comes of it.” This

helped me to realize that even though I struggle with writing I have never tried to develop it. I

write when I am told, but never frequently enough to learn to excel and learn the definitive rules

and formulas to writing, like I have with math.

Once I came to college and had to continuously write papers for classes that didn't seem

like they needed a paper to be written in I realized I would never escape from writing. I write

emails at work and I write papers for school and it never stops. As time goes on I realize that

when I try to talk in my writing I’m better at it and forcing myself to be creative doesn’t work. I

just need to be myself and find a way to put that into writing. Not be someone smarter or more

professional. I learned from Cora Daniels in her article, ​“Writers: Born Vs. Made”​ that this is me

finding my writing voice and that it is never too late to nurture my writing voice. She tells her

readers to not see writing as a gift because gifts can be taken away, but taking the time to

develop good writing is something that cannot be taken away because has been learned and

cultivated.
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I have come to know and believe that writers are not born, but they are made. I think you

trick your brain into thinking whatever it wants to. If you tell yourself you can't write or you're

not creative it really limits you into what you think you can do. In order to end this cycle of

thinking I have learned that writing, like any other talent, takes time and patience to develop.

Some people might be predispositioned into being better, but the talent still has to be developed.

A lot or revision and rewriting goes into being a good rewriter and getting encouragement. I will

have to work for it by continuously practicing my craft and learning to find my voice. Anyone

can be a good writer, but not all people choose to be and I am choosing to learn.
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Works Cited

Penn, Joanna. “Are Writers Born Or Made?” ​The Creative Penn,​ 9 Aug. 2013,
https://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/08/09/are-writers-born-or-made/​.

Manduca, Cathryn A. “Writers Are Made Not Born.” ​Earth and Mind​, 1 Feb. 2010,
https://serc.carleton.edu/earthandmind/posts/born.html​.

Scanlan, Chip. “Are Good Writers Born or Made?” ​Poynter​, 27 Mar. 2003,
https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2003/are-good-writers-born-or-made/.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/-writers-born-vs-made_b_5380977

Daniels, Cora. “Writers: Born Vs. Made.” ​HUFFPOSTS,​ 23 May 2014,

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/-writers-born-vs-made_b_5380977​.