are writers born or made?

I’m in Toronto right now, and my mother and I just watched a really interesting show on Bravo—it’s called Writers’ Confessions, and it featured a diverse group of authors talking about what it means to be a writer.  One question asked was whether an author is born or made…I found myself agreeing with a number of folks who expressed the idea that some writers have an innate gift, and some writers don’t, but work really hard at their craft; incredibly talented artists sometimes lack the discipline and stamina it takes to finish a novel…some find that isolation is necessary, others depend on a circle of “boisterous” friends to lure them outside of their imaginary world…some find that teaching inspires them to write, others worry that their creative energy is drained by their students…ultimately, each writer produces a different kind of book, and we need ALL of those stories to exist.  I did a phone-in interview with Cyrus Webb this evening; he had a great panel on “The Business of Books,” and I “met” a fellow AmazonEncore author, Christopher Herz.  There were publishers on the panel, and book reviewers, too.  I’m not sure who said it, but I absolutely agree that there’s no single path to becoming an author.  And that’s why the traditional publishing industry doesn’t “get” the changes currently underway—they’re rigidly holding onto their model, which simply doesn’t work efficiently enough for me. 

I love that my mother and my aunt picked me up at the airport, and as soon as we reached my aunt’s place, we started talking about books; I come from a family of readers—SERIOUS readers.  And some writers, too.  We’re a family of preachers and teachers and nurses—ministry is in our blood.  Tomorrow I go downtown to the hospital to discover what else might be in our blood that causes this strange movement disorder to set in over time.  A minister losing his voice is rather catastrophic.  If I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t teach—not like I’m used to teaching, anyway.  Mind you, I do love silence—when it’s my choice.  So long as I can always write…