I recently read an interview with a published author who said that a person is either born with talent or they’re not–that you can’t teach good writing. I practically decided never to read anything by this person ever again. Who do you know who sits there are says, “Oh, I’m a writer because I was born with talent!” Who does that? Most writers I know wonder or worry if they have even the slightest crumb of talent. Who’s to say? And talent isn’t where it’s at anyway. Drive is what you need. Read The Midnight Disease by Alice Flaherty if you want to know why a person (you?) writes. Maybe some of us are born with chemical imbalances or flawed brains or whatever, but talent? Who the hell knows? I’d stop writing right now if I thought I had to have talent to do it. I couldn’t see talent in myself if it leapt out of body and hit me over the head with a bright red flag. But drive? Oh, I got that in spades.

Born with it indeed. I was born with blue eyes, but if I never open them, who will care?