what is writing, why do we do it, and what makes us good at it?

So I just started thinking about this. I don't really know how it came into my head, but I started thinking about what writing actually is (by the way, this isn't really an English class blog, despite the fact that it is about English). Writing, I decided, I think, is just a means of communicating thoughts and feelings that we want other people to share (for the most part, obviously journals and the such are not necessarily meant for others eyes). Writing, in its most basic form, is the communication of ideas, the process of making you see what I mean.

So, then, what makes some people better at writing than others? It is certainly not intelligence. Some of my friends are extraordinarily smart, could tell me things about math that I don't even know exist, yet I know that I could write something more coherent while I was asleep than they ever could. I don't even think that it is the way that certain people think. Some people say "Oh, well right brain v. left brain." I'm not sure if that argument holds water, if only for this question: what makes writing good?

Is Fitzgerald's Gatsby a better piece of writing than Darwin's Origin of the Species? Not necessarily (even though I think that Fitzgerald's is far better, I'm trying to be objective). Sometimes I think that what makes people better at writing than others is the ability to love what they are writing about. That sounds simple enough, but think about it. Sometimes, when one sits down to write a boring paper about the impact of the fourth line of the third scene of the fifth act of MacBeth, the paper turns out to be terrible. Or, when one sits down to write a narrative about the modern dancing, aka "grinding," it could also be terrible. Even when somebody sits down to write about how a certain flower was this color because of the color, height, and type of the flowers that came before it, it could be lousy.

At the same time, however, the phenomenal thing about writing is, that all three of those could be equally great. This goes back to loving what you write. Personally, anything that I think to write on my own, or anything that is of a creative nature is just going to be better than anything else that I write. It's because I know what I want to say, and I know that in general my reader will be of typical mind, and I know how to express my thoughts in words that will make my reader follow me. In the same way, Darwin knows what excites him about evolution, and, I'm sure, to somebody who loves science, Darwin's love and expertise comes across clearly.

I guess what I am trying to get across is that writing is a great thing, something that I love. I can also admit, however, that there have been times where I have snubbed other pieces because I disapproved. I realized today that just because a piece of writing was about something I didn't love, wasn't the one thing that I craved to learn more about, doesn't mean that to somebody who does crave the knowledge in that subject, that that particular piece of writing could be an amazing read.