Writing is work, and there’s not reason to expect it to be otherwise. Have a growth mindset: think effort, rather than talent. All talent can do is help the effort pay off. Talent can also , I think, be learned: it’s a side-product of effort. Even if you want to give talent some ur-role, pride of origin, it’s merely a starter, like a sourdough starter. To make bread you need the rest of the ingredients, fours, etc., but also time and effort. To turn any inspiration into something people outside your family will want to read, you hone it–and yourself–with the powerful shaping tool of hard work. (How many more metaphors can I squeeze into this paragraph?) The great, democratizing fact of effort is that it is freely available to any and all–and it makes the difference.

A Practical Alphabet for Writers: Find all the letters so far at https://bookwritingworld.com/blogs/