@Richard S. Thank you. I believe writing is a learned skill. Storytelling is a verbal skill, and not all storytellers are writers. But then again, not all writers are storytellers either.

@ B. Durant – Thanks for your comment. Stephen King also refers to writing as a gift, not something he was born knowing how to do. He’s one of those that has mastered the art of storytelling AND writing. In his book “On Writing”, his best advice (to me) was to write, write, write and cut, cut, cut. Many prominent authors have said that good writing is in the editing and revising.

Almost anyone can write a ton of words and call it a story, but the art is in knowing what to cut out.

I’d like to thank everyone for their comments. This is a topic that can be debated forever, and we each have our own opinion. There are many talents that people are indeed born with (music) but others have to have a certain skill set to be mastered. I’ve covered this further on my own blog, as I mentioned above. If you have time, please stop by and read that post as well.

Thanks again,
Patti

I wasn’t born a writer. Or, at least, I wasn’t born knowing I was a writer. When I was thirteen my English teacher assigned us to write a short story. I was the only kid who enjoyed that assignment and handed in something really long. After that I knew I wanted to be a writer.

I must admit, I don’t have any problems marking up my books! They typically have highlighter all over them the first day, and sometimes notes in the margins. I don’t do this with novels, but if it’s a non-fiction book and it doesn’t have any highlighted sections, that means I either haven’t read it yet or it didn’t give me any useful tidbits.

Now, the technical details such as where to put a comma or how to set the flash can be learned. However, I believe there are talents that we are indeed born with.

On the flip side, I can’t math my way out of a wet paper bag.

You mentioned Hemingway and most authors follow a similar philosophy. Stephen King has said something to the effect of if you don’t get rid of at least 10% of your first draft you have problems. Clive Barker said that between 20 to 25% of the first draft makes the final cut of his books.

The blogger has no need to convince people to pay $25+ for what we write. Maybe that’s the difference. When I write a blog I know people will read it and even if I don’t put forth my best effort for a few posts no one will care too much. But if I charged money to read my blog it would be a whole different story.