What Is Talent?

THE VOICE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT, anonymous commenter "Harland" at my DemiPuppets blog, has a very different idea of what talent is than I do.

When I ran the ULA I looked at writers as a scout would view athletes. I looked for natural writing talent-- writing energy, a unique view of the world, and the spark of life. A james Nowlan has these qualities in spades. One can always clean up his typos! What's key are the other qualities a writer like that brings to the table.

Well-trained workshop writers are merely well-trained. They know all the rules, like automaton basketball players, but there's no excitement to their game.

I continue to believe that my way is the way to beat the mainstream.