I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight my guest post at the FWG blog today (http://furrywritersguild.com/2015/04/20/guest-post-getting-more/) and try to start a conversation on the topic I raise there.
How have you made your writing work harder for you?
Sorry if this is off topic, but I was most intrigued by your second line:
There are aspects that cannot be taught; you either have it or you don’t.I'm interested to know what aspects you and others feel those are?
Certainly not an exhaustive list, but I think that certain people are born with, say, an innate sense for the rhythms of language or with a natural sense of plot elements.
The closest analogy, I think, is people who have perfect pitch in music. Not everyone has that gift, and it definitely gives you certain advantages. But it’s up to you what you do with it.
I wonder how much of that actually comes from reading widely? We’re not consciously learning when we read, so the results can look like a natural skill.
Reading good stuff is certainly a way to help one become a better writer. All I meant by the second line of my blog post was to suggest that talent is nothing without hard work. The idea of the post is to suggest ways to make your hard work work harder for you…