I say you learn to write in the second grade and after that it's all editing.

Actually when I was a junior in high school, the English/math/PE teacher asked me to write a musical and eventhough I had never been to the theater or seen a musical, I did it. The musical was a hit so I did it again the next year and I have been doing it every chance I get since. All that simply because a teacher believed I could.

I never considered myself a writer until the late seventies when I sent an article to MS Magazine and they published it. I bought an electric typewriter with the money and decided to become a writer. Sometimes I wonder if I took that first publication too seriously.
smile