Granted that any literate person can write, it takes great talent to deliver great writing. Many people assume they can pen a great story, attributing such untested skill to other areas of their linguistic competence. They claim that they speak, listen, and read well. What they don’t understand is that speaking, listening, reading, and writing are separate skills in the areas of language competence. What reinforces the persistent belief of these people that they can write a book is overbearing confidence that borders on condescension. If you find yourself saying the things below, you may want to reevaluate yourself.

1) “I can write a book in less than a week.”

Sure, many creative writing courses and workshops online offer you just that. There are writers who also claim that they can finish a book in three or five days. Of course, there are many prolific writers who can write fast, but apart from their ability to produce books quickly, these professional writers understand what they are doing. The question is can you write that fast without compromising quality? Why would people read your book? Understand that there are other factors you need to consider before writing a book. What does it benefit you to write fast if nobody will read it?

3) “I can write erotica and make lots of money.”

Then go ahead and write one. You’re probably among those people who have read erotica and thought, “This is easy. I’ll just throw in a lot of sex scenes per page and it’s instant money.” Any erotica author will tell you that this genre is among the most challenging type of story to write. It’s not all about sex; it’s about connection. Try writing one and see. You can probably write a 5,000 to an 8,000-word story in a few hours. The question is will anyone read it? A common mistake among amateur and novice writers is that they jump into a popular genre thinking that it will similarly draw them into moneymaking success. You need to look at the bigger picture to see that many books don’t sell as well. You hear success stories from a few only because the media loves covering success stories. Writers write because they love the art and the craft. Money is only secondary.

3) “So many trashy books are getting published, so I should write one too.”

The word “trashy” can be subjective. What may be a trashy read to you may be worth gold to another. Many people bashed the Twilight Series claiming that it was trashy. Yet author Stephenie Meyer continues to laugh on her way to the bank. The same can be said of Fifty Shades of Grey. Publishing is a business, and publishing houses would gladly dish out an investment in a book that they believe has a built-in audience. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they will publish all the trashy manuscripts and self-published titles out there.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the books I mentioned are downright trashy. Again, it boils down to subjectivity. You cannot expect the market to yield to your preconceived notions and personal taste. Of course, everyone will agree that there are tons of bad books out there. These books are poorly written and are riddled with grammatical errors. I once read a self-published book for review that was full of run-on sentences and inconsistent capitalizations. I had to stop reading and declined to give it a review.

All things being fair, the world of publishing seems to have a built-in filter system that weed out bad books. These bad books do not create lasting impressions and they sink in obscurity.

4) “I can write a better story than this.”

Of course, you can. But talk is cheap and people are tired of hearing other people’s self-aggrandizement. If you can write something better, then start writing.