The Myth of the Gifted Writer, and What Sylvester Stallone Shows Us About Being a Storyteller

The last person I expected to teach me something about the craft of writing was Sylvester Stallone. Like most people, I knew him from his iconic movie roles, Rocky and Rambo. What I didn’t know was before he became a star, he was a young man obsessed with learning the craft of writing and storytelling.

In his memoir, The Steps, Stallone outlines a master class in something we don’t talk enough about: writing as a learned skill, instead of some ethereal magic that comes to you.

We’re surrounded by romanticized portrayals of brilliant writers in movies and television. A writer sits at a desk and begins typing furiously, and from deep inside them a mysterious talent comes out that helps them make something breathtakingly beautiful.

I used to believe this. When I first began writing, I assumed that successful authors had something I didn’t. They had a natural ability to put words together and create compelling characters and scenes. I thought that if you had this talent, you sat down and wrote, and somehow the brilliance magically emerged.

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