Dear Geist,

I’ve always been told that writing is a gift. You have it or you don't, and real writers just get on with the writing and don't pollute their vision with other people's ideas. But you're always telling writers to hang out with other writers, go to readings, read this book or that website about writing. Writers can't have it both ways.

—Rudy T, Winnipeg MB

Dear Rudy,

In our experience, many writers do have it both ways, and they flourish. As in any line of work, writers and other artists learn from their friends, colleagues, children, people in other disciplines, long-ago role models and everyone else. They study the work of other artists and sometimes copy it to see how it was done, and they read biographies of other artists to see how they found the spirit to continue. Some artists do this during fallow periods, some do it continuously.

Of course each writer has a unique way of going about this perpetual education and inspiration. We gather you're a writer who must limit external stimulus while you're actually writing. And writing is work—as the writer Mary Heaton Vorse told Sinclair Lewis in 1911, “the art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.” But writing is also a centuries-old activity with a rich culture that you're part of, and vice versa. We've observed that writers who read widely and constantly in many genres, and who read writing tips, screeds, reviews, interviews, etc., and who attend readings and other literary gatherings, and who talk with writers, artists and everyone else about writing and publishing and art—these are the writers who find fresh inspiration, who steadily get better at what they do and who gain confidence as they go. For more, see our posts Start to commence, Good and great, Magic writing and Hard art.

—The Editors