text: are you an excellent story-writer? if you are, is it because of personal experience or conversations or writing techniques that helped you accomplish this? it is all three, but people write best about what they know.  people write about their personal experiences.  the writing techniques can be learned, but i do believe that the ability to write in a way that interests others is a gift.  a good writer can tell a story about the simplest event and have it be interesting to the readers.  a good writer is talking to each reader personally.    good writers are constantly listening and watching.  they have the ability to take what they hear and see and assimilate it and store it away for future use.  and most of all, good writers are always writing.  here at yahoo answers is one of the places i get practice right now.  i write here everyday.  feel free to have a look at some of my other answers - not all of them are examples of good writing as they are often written quickly and without deep thought.  however, i do write about what i know.  good writers want to share what they know and are pleased when people read it.  i hope my thoughts are of help.