[CharlieDontSurf]

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If your a good screenwriter or television writer..guess what your a good writer.

If your a good short story writer..guess what...your a good writer.

Insert journalist, novelist, etc.

you don't have to be good at every single form of writing in the universe to be considered a good writer.

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You're missing the point.

Being good at a writing job doesn't make one a good writer.

It may seem counterintuitive but it couldn't be more plain and true.

Being a good writer is about writing well and ultimately storytelling in an intelligent/original/novel/clever/funny/... way.

However there are writing jobs which don't reward these things, in fact they reward the opposite, because they don't want something smart/challenging/different, they want facile/familiar/accessible. Being good at these jobs, even though they are the jobs of a writer, does not make you a good writer.

Now, you are correct in saying a writer may be brought down by his job. There may be fantastic writers doing good work spewing out sitcom scripts involving a woman giving birth in an elevator; given the opportunity they may thrive and really tell great stories.

But this bring us back to the noveless novelist; and so we must conclude that a writer must be judged but what he writes, if only because it's all we have to go on, rather than what he would be capable of writing under different circumstances.

Therefore, judging them based on what they write, because the vast majority of tv is vapid, soulless trite, we have no choice to say that the vast majority of tv writers are bad writers (notwithstanding that they have a difficult job that requires a specific skillset, and some may be capable of genius if afforded the opportunity).

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"Being a good writer is about writing well and ultimately storytelling in an intelligent/original/novel/clever/funny/... way."

The majority of TV writers do this every week.