It depends on what a society values. Not everyone has the ability to master Algebra either, yet we expect all students to do so. I wish someone had just let me take a year of Novel Writing in high school instead of making me repeat Algebra three times. I’m a third generation writer. My grandfather and my father both wrote novels, never published. Those novels weren’t that good, and didn’t deserve to be published, but if they had been able to spend as much time on learning to write as they did on the jobs they took to feed their family, I suspect they would have become much, much better.

Everyone should write a novel and a memoir. At least once.

As a writer, I’m glad they don’t. I have enough friggin’ competition already. And I understand why agents don’t want to encourage more wannabes to submit than already do.

But if one values good literature in and of itself, I think everyone who possibly can or wants to should indeed write. Because I don’t think you find gold by discouraging dross. On the contrary, the more people who try to write, work at it, slave away at it, strive to bring their prose to professional standards, the more gems WILL unexpectedly emerge from the miner’s pan.

Yes, I’ve read slush, so painful, so trite, oy, and I understand the urge to say, “Do yourself a favor. Study accounting.”

But I’ve also read stories that touched me deeply, even though the grammar seemed to be borrowed from another language. I used to work in a shelter for homeless teens, and some of those kids wrote things that made me weep. Those stories would never be accepted by any publishing house. There might have been sixty pages in a row lacking capitalization, apostrophes or periods. Does that mean those stories didn’t speak to the human condition?

I often wonder how many stories we never see because they are lost through the filters of convention and profitability.

I’m not condemning agents and publishers for doing their job as gatekeepers against the tide of trash. I understand the need for that. But I think there’s a good reason for the caution to never assume you have the right to tell someone, “You can’t make art.” Art belongs to the soul.

Now, to tell someone, “You can’t make MONEY making art.” Well. That’s another story. All the idiots who think they are entitled to be rich and famous from knocking off a novel or two…. Let’s just be glad that writing isn’t real estate.

Everyone should write a novel and a memoir. At least once.

As a writer, I’m glad they don’t. I have enough friggin’ competition already. And I understand why agents don’t want to encourage more wannabes to submit than already do.

But if one values good literature in and of itself, I think everyone who possibly can or wants to should indeed write. Because I don’t think you find gold by discouraging dross. On the contrary, the more people who try to write, work at it, slave away at it, strive to bring their prose to professional standards, the more gems WILL unexpectedly emerge from the miner’s pan.

Yes, I’ve read slush, so painful, so trite, oy, and I understand the urge to say, “Do yourself a favor. Study accounting.”

But I’ve also read stories that touched me deeply, even though the grammar seemed to be borrowed from another language. I used to work in a shelter for homeless teens, and some of those kids wrote things that made me weep. Those stories would never be accepted by any publishing house. There might have been sixty pages in a row lacking capitalization, apostrophes or periods. Does that mean those stories didn’t speak to the human condition?

I often wonder how many stories we never see because they are lost through the filters of convention and profitability.

I’m not condemning agents and publishers for doing their job as gatekeepers against the tide of trash. I understand the need for that. But I think there’s a good reason for the caution to never assume you have the right to tell someone, “You can’t make art.” Art belongs to the soul.

Now, to tell someone, “You can’t make MONEY making art.” Well. That’s another story. All the idiots who think they are entitled to be rich and famous from knocking off a novel or two…. I do wish they would do the world a favor and go back to some harmless get-rich-quick profession like real estate or oil drilling.