How did Shakespeare become such a great writer?

So one thing to keep in mind is that Shakespeare was not particularly prolific in comparison to those around him. 38 plays over 20 years isn't that many for what others were churning out, but he had a theatre to run and lines to learn, and a family in the country, so he didn't have as much time to just write. read more

All literary answers aside, Shakespeare became a good writer because he was an actor. He knew with tacit, embodied knowledge what moved an audience. He had to act in the plays he wrote and would have ‘workshopped’ them collaboratively with his company of actors. read more

It was a period of great resurgence for the arts (the Renaissance), the Queen of England was committed to patronage of the arts (and Shakespeare's troupe, in particular), and Shakespeare was a writer with something to say about things people were interested in hearing. read more

It's always entertaining to believe in conspiracies, and there has been a great deal written about the people who are supposed to have written the plays rather than Shakespeare: Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford is a popular candidate these days, but Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe have also been suggested (too bad that two of them died before many of the plays were written). read more