Do you have to be a good person to be a good writer?

Answer 1

Nope. Being "good at" writing generally is about a) having that grasp of grammar, syntax, spelling and methods on a technical level, and b) having a unique experience or perspective to *write about*.

And while *anyone* can have (a) above, those techincal skills, which are trainable, in a lot of situations, having (b), that life experience to write from, almost implicitly means that you aren't going to be an *ordinary* person, or someone that a Fox News Person (tm) would judge as "morally Lawful Good". Is this such a bad thing?

It can be if you are like Hunter S. Thompson, Edgar Allan Poe (distant great-grand uncle of mine, father's side, really!), or Robert E. Howard (creator of _Conan the Barbarian_), in that eventually, your own personal demons *will* overwhelm and try to kill off your work ethic entirely, *if* they don't kill YOU off first.

But, that is a given for almost *any* original art form. Very *very* few people are nice-in-real-life and able to crank out quality fiction from seriously imaginative and unusual real-life experience, it just doesn't come out as real (unless said author lives in a day an age where certain viewpoints aren't tolerated, and where certain stories are *marginalized* until they are told brilliantly...Louisa May Alcott, author of _Little Women_ and other books, is a prime example of this one).

And let's not kid ourselves here, all writers would be better served by *NOT* including the concept of "truthiness" in their vocabularies. It isn't about writing a *lie* that seems true, it is about making *art* of your truth. The former is plagiarism and outright lying....the latter is actual *writing*, mind you. Moral of the story: write from what you know....anything you attempt otherwise will eventually suck as your imagination will eventually *fail* to compensate. Trust me, I've been there, done that, and *worn out* that t-shirt.

Answer 2

HECK NO!!! Do you want to be a good writer? You only need a few of things: (1) A vivid imagination, (2) The ability to organize your thoughts into coherent sentences and paragraphs, and (3) Something that YOU are interested in to write about. You don't have to possess any type of morality, integrity, kindness, or anything like that to be a good writer, but those traits are not bad things to have. If you're interested in becoming a writer, see if you can take a creative writing course. That'll give you the basics.

Answer 3

Not at all. Writing, particularly fiction and poetry, typically involves adopting a number of artificial (and by that I mean artful more than anything else) personae. A good person can create horrible characters, and a horrible person can also imagine how good characters might think or act. It all depends on the writer's familiarity with human nature--not necessarily the person she is, but the people she knows.

Answer 4

No. The most interesting books are usually filled with not so nice stuff and if it is true that you should write what you know then what does that say about the writers?

Answer 5

definitely not

some of the best writers I know aren't good people

Answer 6

I'm considered a jerk by alot of people but I'm actually, well, my strong suit is writing, I plan to be an author out of college to so no. But I'm actually not a bad person when people are nice to me so... I really don't know but I'd still say no.

Answer 7

No, generally a grasp of whatever language you are writing in and knowledge of what you're writing about is sufficient to write a decent paper.

Answer 8

No.

Lot's of really not very nice people write excellent works.

Hemingway comes to mind.

Answer 9

Not necessarily, but sometimes your attitude comes through in your writing.

Answer 10

I guess it depends on what you're writing, I can't imagine a serial killer writing children's books.