Writing is a skill, not a talent. You can develop it like any other skill, and you don't need to take any courses (though I'm not saying that courses don't help). I wrote about this in more detail link, but my take on it is that you must do a lot of 4 things in order to become a good writer:
Write - practice makes perfect. My recommendation is to not start on your dream novel until you've written several stories and are comfortable with how the most recent ones are. If you're stuck for ideas, you can refer to any of the Fanpop Writer's Group sessions in this club's forum; they all have prompts to spark the creative juices.
Read - read novels and short stories, sure, but also read other kinds of books to see how they're written differently. Read some books about writing, too. I'm going through a book called Fiction Writer's Workshop now, which is interesting.
Talk about writing - hang out with friends or family members who are either interested in writing or interested in the things that you want to do, and talk to those people about writing. Start more conversations here in the Writing club. Find out what people like to see in writing, what kind of writing and which writers get respect, as well as talking about how others handled problems with their own writing.
Analyze writing - When you read, you can (usually) easily feel whether you like or dislike what you've read. But analysis comes in thinking about what you (dis)liked about the writing. It also provides feedback to other writers and tells them that you are open to feedback, too. Go back and analyze some of your favorite books: what worked so well in those? Take notes, and then read over them when you start to write a new piece.
Write - practice makes perfect. My recommendation is to not start on your dream novel until you've written several stories and are comfortable with how the most recent ones are. If you're stuck for ideas, you can refer to any of the Fanpop Writer's Group sessions in this club's forum; they all have prompts to spark the creative juices.
Read - read novels and short stories, sure, but also read other kinds of books to see how they're written differently. Read some books about writing, too. I'm going through a book called Fiction Writer's Workshop now, which is interesting.
Talk about writing - hang out with friends or family members who are either interested in writing or interested in the things that you want to do, and talk to those people about writing. Start more conversations here in the Writing club. Find out what people like to see in writing, what kind of writing and which writers get respect, as well as talking about how others handled problems with their own writing.
Analyze writing - When you read, you can (usually) easily feel whether you like or dislike what you've read. But analysis comes in thinking about what you (dis)liked about the writing. It also provides feedback to other writers and tells them that you are open to feedback, too. Go back and analyze some of your favorite books: what worked so well in those? Take notes, and then read over them when you start to write a new piece.
