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Hi Frank,

I'm not going to disagree with Woody, I'm just going to add that most people "have it," that just about everybody does have a book
(or two, or two hundred) in them. It's just that relatively few people are willing to get a degree in fiction writing from the school of hard knocks. The dream is that someone can just sit down and right a story or a novel and their first work will sell; never mind how long it takes for doctors and lawyers to complete an internship and be ready to practice their craft. So Joe writes a story and sends it to a magazine and gets a form rejection, and he tells himself that editors don't even read unagented stories, and publication is some kind of weird crap shoot unless you're an industry insider. It's easier to blame the system than to accept that writing has a steep learning curve that's a lot steeper if you're not receiving quality feedback on what you write.

This is what places like Razor's Edge are all about, providing constructive criticism and a nurturing environment. If you're name isn't Robert A. Heinlein, you're going to get rejections (and if it is Robert A. Heinlein, you're dead). Anybody can write a crappy story. Not many have the masochistic urge to learn how to make it less crappy, and how to make the next story better than the one before.

Barry Longyear has a "writing course" called The Write Stuff at http://www.sff.net/people/bblongyear/WriteStuff.html

It might be of help to anyone wondering how to find and write their own stories.

Welcome to REW!