about writing,

what, exactly, makes one a good writer? some talents are obviously unique to some people and can hardly be developed enough in those who dont have it, however much they try. take art and drawing for example. after two years of patient training and prodding and encouraging and teaching and reprimanding and anything else u can think of, some people in class just never got to be good at art. as soon we got to S.3, it was the first subject most people dropped. only a handful of interested class-mates were grateful enough for the exposure to take up the subject. art isn't like;-sports. i mean, if u have the build and the agility and watever else is needed, u could be trained to do various kinds of sports. who could discern if u were either talented or just trained that well? then there are some talents like (public) speaking. some people stammer or have the lisp, and still get the crowds' attention. in this case, it could be what they say that makes even the impatient people call them good speakers. then some people never really say anything useful or funny or nice or relevant, and yet when they're done, people will talking about how useful or funny or nice or relevant their speeches were. such people have a gift for gab that captures the listeners' attention, even if all the person was talking about was, well, gab. and this is where writing comes in.

is it the style? the proper grammar and punctuation? or the story? if i had something nice to write about, wouldnt i be called a good writer even there were just a few grammatical errors? would it be fair to call me a good writer if i had the commas and fullstops in the right places but still bored you to death? if ernest bazanye did political articles, would his fans still consider him a good writer? (sorry baz, but you're the only professional writer i know of who blogs, you're example is relevant to my fellow bloggers). and thinking of art, if i went to writing school (or whichever place that teaches people to be good writers), would it be a gurantee that i'd come out with a perfect blend of all the above? or can that only happen for people who've got 'it' in them;- u know, the innate linguistic intelligence (or something like that)?

to cut the long questioning short, what does one have to do, how does one have to write, what does one have to write about, to be called a good writer? let's not go to the why, it will bring up an argument of interest Vs ability.

i hope this pot is short enough.