AaronTurpen.com

Recently, someone asked me what makes a good writer (besides the ability to articulate in print).  I thought about that.  Although several things went through my mind as to what it could be that really makes for a great writer, one thing stuck out.  It’s something that an author told me when I asked the same basic question, years ago.

I was in a shopping mall in Orem, Utah and saw one of the bookstores there was having a book signing.  One of my favorite authors at the time, Orson Scott Card, was autographing his latest novel.  I quickly got in line.  I didn’t have any money and couldn’t buy a book, so I dug through my coat to find anything I could have him autograph.  The paperback in my pocket was one of the trilogy from Douglas Adams’ Hitchiker’s Guide series, if I recall.

Card was nice about it and obviously understood that I didn’t have the cash to buy his latest hardcover.  I fumbled through the cliche “I’m a huge fan” garbage and felt compelled to ask “what makes a great sci-fi writer?”  He looked at me for a brief moment, probably used to that general question, and said “Life experience.”

I’ve thought about that ever since.  Another of my favorite authors, Isaac Asimov, said much the same thing, though he used the context of academic experience (self-learning) as his answer.  Several others have agreed.  As a non-fiction writer, I would agree.  Life experience, to include self-education (on top of formal education, if you wish) is the real key to good writing.

That has made me reflect on my own life and experiences.  I’ve had many academic loves in my life, from astronomy to horticulture to mysticism and more.  As a neighbor once said of me, introducing me to another neighbor at a BBQ, I’ve “never met anything with words I wouldn’t read.”

Beyond that, though, I reflect on the other aspects of my life.  Like most people, I’ve loved and lost, had high points and low valleys, and been places and seen things.  Everyone’s journey through life is a little different.  I’ve had many jobs, but writing is the only consistent career I’ve ever enjoyed.

My jobs have been as varied as my academic interests.  I’ve worked as a grocery store clerk, as a telemarketer, a data entry person, a “mechanic” at a junk yard, as kitchen help in a large cafeteria, a carpenter, a salesman, a warehouse worker, forklift operator, an acetylene generator operator, a truck driver, and others.  I’ve been active and inactive in politics – I’ve even run for office – and I’ve done freelance Web development, been an entrepreneur, done seminar tours, and have become a friend, husband, and father.

I’ve spent time with people from many backgrounds, many places, and with many philosophies.  I’ve traveled the country, coast to coast, and been in places high and low.  I’ve talked to people, closely, from every conceivable ethnicity and from most of the world’s cultures.

In short, in less than 40 years of life, I’ve had many, many experiences with a wide variety of results.  No doubt you have too.

My suggestion to any writer, whether established or new, is to sit back and reflect and think about all of the things you’ve experienced in life – whether you’ve lived 20 years or 100.  No matter who you are, how old you are, or where you come from: you have unique and life-building experience.

Realizing that and utilizing it in your work is what makes a great writer, I think.