What makes a writer? Is it something inborn? Is it, like other creative abilities, something that has to exist first and foremost in one’s genes before it is actualized?

A writer once said that a writer is, by his definition, one who puts in a full day at his typewriter (This was well before the advent of desktop computing).

Does the ability to write come easy to some people?

Or is it a skill that has to be learned the hard way; with much patience, willingness to bend ones mind around the imperatives of vocabulary, structure, and meaning…and then find a way to integrate all these facets into something that has both style and substance?

Regarding vocabulary, Mark Twain once said that the right word is the right word. The well known French phrase “le mot juste” (le-the, mot-word, juste-right) suggests one school of good writing; one that depends basically on vocabulary. In the English language, in particular, this can be challenging. The word count in English is astronomical, and choosing the exact right word may require an inordinate amount of time and energy.