Will my son's future be ruined if he hates to write?

I have a typical 7 year old boy.  He hates to write.  It takes too long.  And spelling all those words gets exhausting after five minutes.  And there is a cramp in his hand...and what what he supposed to do, again?  He can tell me a story non-stop for fifteen minutes.  He can create videos with a beginning and an end.  He knows grammar because he reads well, speaks well, and  can do the computer games that ask click and point questions about writing.  And while typing on the computer is a little better, it still requires time, it still requires spelling, and the questions still remains after all that concentration (along with thoughts of what he really wants to be doing), what was he supposed to be doing?

Sometimes, I have to stop and ask myself, is it really the end of the world if he does not become a good writer?  And I realize it is not.  Sometimes he does choose to write, and when he does, he is motivated to do it and spell correctly.  And I take advantage of those opportunities to encourage him and remind him of the benefits of knowing how to write.  There will come a day when he will need to write, and his maturity will carry him through.  The skills are there.  They just don't get practiced a lot.  He has legible print.  He is careful to do his letters correctly.  He even tries to do grammar correctly when it applies.

 

Sometimes I get lucky and find a gem that gets my son 

excited about reading, writing and most importantly creating.

The most encouraging thing I have discovered since I first began exploring unschooling is the number of kids who never read or write until they are 10 or 11, and guess what?  They are ready for it, so they excel and quickly catch up to and even surpass their peers.  (Their desire to learn has not yet been squelched by the demands of the school system.)  The thing that helped them the most is conversing (either verbally or through text or online games) with others and hearing others read well written material to them (or sometimes less well written materials like video game dialogues, etc).  The groundwork was being laid.  It just couldn't be seen and quantified or standardize.

 I have faith that one day my son will find a voice in writing.  With his creative nature, he is almost destined to.  Who knows, maybe he will learn to use a software program like Dragon Naturally Speaking and speak all his words as they appear in front of him on the screen.  His daddy uses it, and it is a lifesaver for the amount of work he has to do for his PhD.  So, even if he never becomes great at writing, he can still become a great writer.  I don't believe forcing him to sit down and write all the time will encourage him to want to write.  It didn't work before.  It only caused great conflict.  I now choose to have a more peaceful home and offer other ways for him to express and show his creativity until he is truly ready to put pen to paper.  In the meantime, simply by exposure, the groundwork is being laid.

When was the last time you were motivated to write something that mattered to you?  Did you make sure it was well-written?  I know I have done that many times over in my life.  I have confidence my son will too.